When division enters in, or schism enters in, it's because we're not caring for one another. In other words, when somebody's divisive, it's not a quantum leap in logic, they're being selfishly motivated. They're not a team player. Well, I'm not sure about that. You know what they call division in the military?
They call it treason because it messes up the vision of what the military unit is trying to accomplish. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. When it comes to the body of Christ, Satan delights in division, while God delights in Christian unity. Find out how we can stay united today as Pastor David continues in his teaching from 1 Corinthians chapter 12. But before we join David, have you ever considered the Bible as a whole? It's more than just a history book, a book of poetry, or a series of stories to share in Sunday school class. The Bible is one book with one central message.
You heard me right. There is one main message in the Bible, and David McGee is ready to share that life-changing message with you in his latest DVD entitled One Book, One Message. Join David as he takes you from Genesis to Revelation and unlocks the most profound truth of all the scripture. You'll never look at the Bible the same way again. The DVD One Book, One Message is our gift to you when you call to support Cross the Bridge today.
You can call 877-458-5508 or go online to crossthebridge.com. Now here's David McGee with today's teaching. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. The title of today's message is dismembered body found. Dismembered body found.
Thought that might get your attention. This chapter is talking about the body, the body of Christ. And Paul is using this picture of the church at Corinth being the body of Christ. We're going to pick it up with verse 21 says, and I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. No, much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty.
But our presentable parts have no need, but God composed the body having given great honor to that part, which lacks it. You're gifted. You're gifted.
You're unique. I think one of the problems, if we see somebody that we think, oh, that's good. They do this or they do that. Oh, I want to be like them. God doesn't need another them.
He needs a you. Because if you become somebody else, then the world doesn't have a you. And how strange that in the body of Christ, so many of us are trying to be somebody else that we're not. Life lesson here is God chose you to be you. You are gifted in some way to fit in and be a blessing to others. God chose you to be you. You are gifted in some way to fit in and be a blessing to others.
It's strange. We come to the conclusion that we're unique. And then when we discover that, there's a fear. What I mean is you go, wow, I'm different. And then it's like, I'm different.
Yes, you are. And sometimes we think, well, I can't let anybody know. The secret's out. You're unique.
Praise God. You would not believe. We talked about writing a book. While we were moving into this building, so many times the right person with the right skill would walk in at the right moment to complete a task over and over and over. Now, how did that work?
Because each person was different. Let me tell you a little story. When I came back to the Lord, I left secular music.
I was a rock musician by trade. And I left it. I mean, left it. I mean, on the flight home, I said, God, there's two things.
I love you. Coming back to you, there's two things I am never going to do again. Never going to do again. I'm never going to travel for a living and I will never play music publicly ever again. I'm done. Don't use the word never when you're talking to God, okay? Because at that point in time, God looked at me and thought, oh, you know what? He doesn't want to do this music thing.
I can use him. Amen. So then I was in a church and it was a good church, you know, in some ways, but there really wasn't necessarily a place for a rock guitar player. You know, I tried. But then the way I started playing music again as an elder came and he said, hey, I hear you're a musician. I say, you used to be. He said, well, I go into the rest of the time and I do studies in there.
I need somebody to go in there and do worship courses and stuff. Will you go with me? I said, yeah, I'll go. That wasn't a big concert or signing an album deal or anything like that. Now I got to tell you something that's interesting. I'd been on the scene for, I don't know, two or three years.
I hadn't played my instruments at all. That day I told him yes, I would go to the rest home. Within a week, I had three different offers from secular bands, good offers. And I was like, man, this is weird. It was almost like, spiritually speaking, I'd stepped down and said, God, I'm going to use my gifts to serve you. And the devil's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I've been using those.
I would like to keep using those here. I didn't take the bait. And so even now, our worship here is, I understand it's somewhat unique.
I think that's part of its power. But it's a style of worship that not every church in this area is doing. And I know some, and let me, I appreciate you folks who you kind of put up with the music to get to the teaching and man, I understand.
But what you also need to understand, if you're one of those, you need to understand that some people call and some people come because they're drawn by the music. As a matter of fact, I was prayerfully considering not being in a worship team here anymore. And I was in a leadership meeting.
I said, I didn't ask. And I made the statement, say, you know, nobody's going to get saved because I play guitar. And somebody said, you might be surprised. That's a uniqueness. You've got a uniqueness. God wants to use your uniqueness. And the whole time you're going, well, I need to be like this. Now don't listen to that story and go, oh, I got to play guitar.
No, that's the exact opposite of the point. You're already gifted to do something. God wants to use that gifting for the kingdom. Verse 25 says that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
Give you another version. 1 Corinthians 23 says, we have special care to dress up some parts of our bodies. We are modest about our personal parts, but we don't have to be modest about other parts. God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly and each part caring about the others. This verse 25 in the living Bible says this makes for happiness among the parts so that the parts have the same care for each other that they do for themselves.
So let's understand this thing of the, it talks about the body. Now it's talking about division or schism. Unity is a common vision, purpose, and goal. And we talk about cross the bridge. We have a common purpose and goal.
What is that? To reach and teach, to reach people that don't know Jesus, introduce them to Jesus as their savior and teach them how to follow him. It's as simple as that. And division is anything that takes away from that. Division is anything that takes away from the vision, if you will, or from the unity. New Living translation, this verse says this makes for harmony among the members so that all the members care for each other. Now this is interesting because this verse brings the parallel that when division enters in or schism enters in, it's because we're not caring for one another. In other words, when somebody's divisive, it's not a quantum leap in logic. They're being selfishly motivated. They're not a team player. They're being divisive. And maybe you're sitting there go, wait, no, I just, I'm trying to express my opinion. No, there's some things you just need to keep your mouth shut on.
Well, I'm not sure about that. You know what they call division in the military? Call it treason.
Why? Because it messes up the vision of what the military unit is trying to accomplish. Obviously there's all sorts of spiritual analogies in this Bible about how we're soldiers of Christ, but understand this, and here's a life lesson. Satan delights in division. God delights in Christian unity. Satan delights in division. God delights in Christian unity.
Who do you want to delight with your words and actions? I think some people, the way I got that and the devil's like, yeah, you go, buddy. And all when they're being divisive and they think they're being spiritually and they're being really deceived, ah, the enemy just cackles. I don't want to please the enemy by being divisive. I want to please God with unity. And keep in mind, gang, if you're sitting here going, well, well, okay, so this helps out, I guess in the church, we need to have unity.
No, no. If some of you can get this that don't have it, some of you don't understand, you're like, oh, he's talking about division again. He just doesn't want anybody to say anything bad about this church or this ministry. That's part of it, but it's much more than that because see, if you're bringing division in this house, you know what I already know about you? There's division all over your life.
You just happen to be bringing it here at that time. So why should you walk in unity? Why should you figure out how to walk in unity? So you can have unity in your workplace, in your family, and your home. Because if you can figure out how to walk in unity here, that carries over to your workplace, it carries over to your home, carries over to your family, carries over to every part of your life. But if you don't have it figured out, if you can't walk in unity here, you know what? Your whole life is probably messed up. And for some of you, maybe learning not to say what you think every time you think it is something really important for you to learn. Because causing division in the family, in the home, in the workplace, in the church, it's a selfish thing to do.
It's disruptive. You're listening to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. We'll return to the teaching in just a moment. But first, we have a brand new DVD that we would love to send to you. It's called One Book, One Message. In this powerful DVD, David sweeps through the entire Bible to help you understand the main message of all of scripture. Once you grasp this amazing truth, you will never look at the Bible the same way again. One Book, One Message is our gift to you today when you call with a gift of any amount to cross the bridge.
Your gift helps keep us on the air, encouraging you and others. So call today. The number is 877-458-5508.
That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossthebridge.com. Friend, do you have a heart for the lost? I invite you to send us the first names of your lost loved ones, and we will have hundreds of people praying for them. Just go to crossthebridge.com and click on the prayer button. And you'll enter their name. And if you put your name and email address in there, I'll send you free resources to equip you to pray and teach you how to reach your lost loved ones. Please, don't wait.
This is so important. So please, again, go to crossthebridge.com and click on the prayer button and send us the first names of lost loved ones. We'll send you some free information, and together we can partner to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world.
The whole book for the whole world. Now let's return to our study. Because let's remember that being a mature Christian is not how religious you sound. It's not if you can speak in the King James English. Your spiritual Christian maturity is measured by what? Love God, love people, treat others the way you want to be treated.
That should sound familiar. Jesus said it. As a matter of fact, Jesus said the whole book, all the laws and the prophets are in this. Love God, love people. And then later on he says, yep, and treat other people the way you want to be treated. If you're doing that, you're probably spiritually mature.
If you're not, it doesn't matter what excuse you're using. First Peter 2 13, it says, for the Lord's sake, respect all human authority. This is the way the body has to function. It respects its authority. The brain is the leader. In a church or a business or a school or in government, there's certain leaders, delegated authority.
It's interesting. First Peter 5 verse 5 says, likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Your attention, please. You got to see the connection here.
Peter says you need to submit. And then he says, because the devil is walking around seeing who he can devour. Meaning that if you don't let people, somebody, some group be your spiritual leader, you're placing yourself in danger. I shared before I was watching an animal show and there was these zebras and this lion was watching the herd of zebra. He didn't run into the herd of zebras. He just sat there watching, waiting. And pretty soon one of the zebras, I don't know, because maybe another zebra looked at it funny or, you know, it didn't like another zebra the way it was colored or something.
Or maybe the grass just looked a little greener somewhere else. Stepped away from the group and when it did, bam, lion was all over it. Doesn't say the devil's, he's going around devouring everybody. Pay attention, it's the seeking whom he may devour.
Some of you, what you do, what you say, you put yourself in a place where the enemy can mess with you. And when you look at this and you talk about division, you talk about spiritual, what about the kingdom of Israel? The tribes were divided. What happened when the tribes were divided?
Well, it was easy to see. They were divided, then they were attacked, and then they were conquered. Division comes in, people get hurt, they get messed up. I'm not talking just you submitting to me as pastor, there's a mutual submission, Ephesians 5 21 says, and further submit one to another out of reverence for Christ. If you can't do it for somebody else, if you can't do it for me or for the, do it for Jesus.
Submit one to another. 1 Peter 2 17 says, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Ephesians 4 3 says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. That's an interesting verse, you know what I'm saying? It says, keep the unity. You know what that lets us know? We've already been given unity.
All we got to do is keep it, but some of us give it away. Mark 3 24 says, if a kingdom is divided against itself, the kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, the house cannot stand. Now Jesus was talking about two things.
He was talking about when they were accusing him of casting out demons through demons, but he was also really speaking also of Israel about being divided. The Bible warns that people who have divided loyalty are unstable in all they do. That's what the Bible says. James chapter one, verse five. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you.
He will not rebuke you for asking, but when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world and they are unstable in everything they do.
Certainly you don't want those verses to describe you. You don't want divided loyalty between God and the world. You don't want divided loyalty with your friends. You want to develop relationships where there's no divided loyalty, where there's a commitment.
Why? Divisive people are spiritually immature and unstable. That's why the Bible says don't hang out with them. First Corinthians 15 says do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Titus three says if people are causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with them. It doesn't say Facebook them, email them, call them. Nothing.
Nothing. For people like that have turned away from the truth and their own sins condemn. Romans 16, 17, now urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine of what you've learned and avoid them. This is the third time Paul spoke about divisions just in the book of Corinthians.
It's 2,000 years ago. What were they dealing? Dealing with division. In case you're, if you're new here or visiting, you go, wow, they really got divisive stuff going on. No, we don't. We've got a lot of unity in this church, especially for a large church.
But there's always, it's always going to be an issue. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, 10 says, now 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, that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. 1 Corinthians 3, three says, for you are still carnal for where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 1 Corinthians 11, 18, for first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.
And in part, I believe it. Division. In Jude 19, it says, these people are ones who are creating divisions among you.
They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God's spirit in them. Division in this book is bad. And you don't want to have divided loiters. You don't want to have divided heart. You've got to, you've got to die to that and commit yourself, commit yourself to God. And if God should lead you, commit yourself to this group of people.
Because division, you know, when something is torn, it's not as good as it was. I was praying for divisive people one night. And what the Lord spoke to my spirit brought tears to my eyes.
He said, David, you know what? It's like the soldiers who were at the foot of the cross, gambling to divide my robe. They're so close to the cross, but so far from the blood. I don't want that to ever describe me.
I don't want to describe you. Jesus in that moment looked down and said, Father, forgive them. I don't know what they're doing. But the flip side of this unity, gang, when we're unified, I think of what we've accomplished in unity. Do you realize that from the time we got our permits and stuff, I think it was like 75 days.
We moved in 75 days after we got permits in this place. Why? Unity.
The whole thing of being on over 400 radio and televisions. How do we do that? Unity. We took care of so many families. We took care of so many families. We took care of so many families through benevolence.
How do we do that? Unity. Wow, God bless his unity. Genesis 11, six is look, he said, the people are united and they all speak the same language.
After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them. He was talking about the tower, tower of Babel. But there's a truth there that when people are in unity, they built the tabernacle. When people are in unity, they built the temple. When people are in unity, they built the ark.
And it's always good to remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic. Anybody that says, God, I'm here, use me. God say, yep, I'll use you. Well, God, I got to do this and do that. No, no, no. Going to use you just the way you are.
Oh God, but I got to change. Nope, nope. But God, I really need to be healed of this.
Nope, nope. See, what's going to happen is you step out to serve and make a difference in somebody. That's where your healing is. And some of you are waiting on your healing to get involved when your healing is going to come, when you get involved. Because here in this place, people are joining together and we're changing the world and it's changing lives.
And I'm inviting you in on this adventure. God wants your life to make a difference. You know, last week I talked about this change your day, change your life, change your life, change the world, change the world, or leave no trace you were ever here.
Some of you just need to step out of your regular circle and say, I want to change my life. And understand this all starts with you recognizing your need for Jesus, that you're not okay. Don't come. Don't try to pretend you're okay. We all know you're not okay.
Cause we're not okay. If you've got hurtful stuff in your past, it's okay. God wants to touch you. It's okay. If you've got problems now, God wants to help you.
It's okay. If you've messed up horrendously in the past, God wants to forgive you right now. He's waiting on you.
When he died, he took your sins upon him so that you could be forgiven. And so that is broken and perhaps as selfish and as messed up as you are, God wants you to join with a body and help change the world. Because in doing that, it will change your life, your home, your workplace, and your eternity. This is your moment right now. Come with all your broken hearts, your messed up life right now.
But friend, don't let this opportunity pass you by. Come on right now in Jesus name. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?
You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.
Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus name.
Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him.
And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. If you've been encouraged by this ministry, contact us today. Your prayers and financial support help keep us on the air encouraging you and others. Call today and we'll send you a copy of Pastor David's brand new DVD entitled One Book, One Message.
You'll be blessed by this overview of the Bible, and it will forever change how you read the Scriptures. To get your copy, call 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508. Or visit us online at crossthebridge.com. While there, make sure to sign up for the free email devotionally. Also, if you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 9 and 1130 Eastern. Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There you can watch Pastor David teach from his home church, The Bridge, in Kernersville, North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening. We hope you'll join us next time as we continue to cross the bridge.
