Sermon Tone Analysis
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ATTENTION
I spent a couple of my childhood years in Columbia, N.C.
If you’ve ever been to Nags Head, down 64 east, you know where it is, although if you blink, you might just miss it.
It is or at least it used to be, one of the most isolated towns in the state.
It will come as no surprise, then, that back in the middle ‘60's we used to be on a “party line.”
We lived sort of out in the country and they didn’t have private telephone lines for everyone but we, and several other folks who lived down our country road, were on the same telephone line.
I know, some of you are out there going, “What!
That’s unbelievable.
How could you tell whom the phone was for when it rang?”
Well, each person on the line had their own certain “ring.”
Your’s might be three short rings, while your neighbor’s might be 2 long ones.
Of course, hearing your neighbor’s ring might actually attract you to pick up the phone.
You see, if you wanted to know your neighbor’s business, you just picked up the phone, and eavesdropped on their conversation.
When you wanted to make a phone call, you had to pick up the receiver and make sure that no one was already on the line.
I’m sure I’m not the only oldtimer in here.
How many of you remember “party lines?”
As you can imagine, this led to many hilarious incidents.
People who liked to listen in would often give themselves a way, and, let’s be honest: Party lines had a way of bringing out the “nosy” in all of us.
Ruth Irwin, who grew up in Mississippi, was on her party line one day describing what had happened in a ballgame when a male voice suddenly cut in on the conversation and said: “No, you got it all wrong.
That’s not what happened!”
Another woman told the story of attending a 4-H meeting at the home of another family on the same party line.
Now she suspected that someone in that family had been listening in on her conversations, but she had no proof.
While the meeting was going on, however, the phone rang her family’s ring.
When it did one of the neighbor’s boys jumped up and headed for the phone to answer.
In midstride, he froze, realizing he had just given himself away.
The look on his face was priceless!
He’d been caught!
I guess we were all glad when party lines were replaced by private ones.
Now we can have our conversations without telling the neighborhood, but there is one party-line, you might say, that still exists.
It’s the church.
We’ve all received the same call of God to love him, serve each other, and reach the world.
We’re all interconnected, interdependent, and expected to pull together to serve His Kingdom.
We’re not to be islands to ourselves; we’re not in silos.
We’re expected to work together.
We’re on a party line, you might say.
We are expected to blend ourselves together to to serve God faithfully.
But in the process of this blending, sometimes problems arise.
BACKGROUND
That’s what had happened in Corinth.
This busy church took their gifts and their calling seriously, so seriously, in fact, that they were willing to run over one another in order to exercise them.
This 16 chapter epistle, tied with Romans as the longest in the New Testament, begins with an appeal to unity and spends much of its time dealing with the issue.
The cause of their disharmony had much to with how they exercised their gifts and their calling.
They were gifted and they knew it.
What they didn’t know, however, was how to blend their gifts in the body to achieve the purpose God had for them.
That’s why Paul writes in 1 Cor 12:27:
Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
29 Are all apostles?
Are all prophets?
Are all teachers?
Are all workers of miracles?
30 Do all have gifts of healings?
Do all speak with tongues?
Do all interpret?
31 But earnestly desire the best gifts.
And yet I show you a more excellent way
Paul tells these Corinthians that it is not enough to know their gift or even use their gift; they must blend their gifts and callings with the gifts and callings of others.
You might say, “Well, so what?
What does that have to do with me?”
Well, plenty!
NEED
In the first place, you may be here this morning and you are new.
You’ve either just come to Christ or you’ve not been here in this congregation long and you are wondering how you fit in to the picture, how Christ may want to use you here.
You’re just not sure.
I think God may want to speak to you today.
Or you may be here today old and uninvolved.
Now when I say, “old” I’m not talking about your physical age, I’m talking about the fact that you’ve been in this church for years, but you have never really connected with some ministry that God has for you here.
Yet, you know that sitting and soaking isn’t God’s will for you.
You know He’s got more for you that that.
Listen to His voice this morning.
Or you may be here and you’re involved, but unbalanced.
You’re doing ministry, maybe even a lot of ministry here, but you really don’t like it.
Or maybe you do like it, but you’re doing it for the wrong reason.
To this point, your ministry has been all about you and the importance or satisfaction it brings to you.
You may be doing ministry but its been for the wrong reason.
God may want to do some work in your heart today.
I believe that learning to blend our calling and our gifting with the call and gifts of others is what being a part of a growing body is all about.
Despite the dismal failures of other churches, or the past inadequacies here, I am absolutely convinced that this giant “party line” we call Peace Church can work together to achieve God’s purpose!
The how is right here in this passage.
We can work together when we
DIV 1: UNDERSTAND THE BALANCE.
EXPLANATION
V. 27 clearly states that balance.
It says “Now you are the body of Christ . .
.”
That speaks to our family side.
That’s our “all in this together” side.
We are a body.
We are a family and as a family, we must work together.
But it doesn’t stop there, it goes on to say, “Now we are the body of Christ, and (watch!)
Members individually.
That’s the balance!
WE are unified as a body, but we are diversified as individual members.
We are one as a family, but we all have different gifts and callings that we bring to the table.
We are to follow one mission, but we are to follow that mission using the different skills and talents that God has given us.
We are to blend ourselves together to achieve God’s purpose for His church here in Wilson.
APPLICATION
What exactly does that mean?
What does it look like to blend ourselves together as the body of Christ?
Well, in the first place, it means that if we are to be healthy as the body, we must diverge.
To be healthy we must diverge.
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