"Worship that Unites" from 6/22/08

(This is a sermon wrap up from "Worship that Unites" (Eph. 4:1-6) that was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church on June 22nd, 2008. To hear the message, go to the message page of our Church Website)

"Synergy" is a term often used in corporations to explain a phenomenon in which, as is explained on Wikipedia , "two or more discrete influences or agents acting together create an effect greater than that predicted by knowing only the separate effects of the individual agents." It's when the sum of two parts equals MORE than the sums of the parts individually. 2 + 2 = 6. It happens when team members draw off of each other's energies and passions and work so well together that amazing things happen.

It's a concept that I've been familiar with for some time. I teach it in project management courses and read it about in a number of sources. However, I only recently came to realize it was first coined by the Apostle Paul under the influence of the Holy Spirit (see the link above to the wikipedia article)! Yeah..."synergy" is God's word! How cool! And what was the Apostle describing with the word? The Church! Here's the idea....when God's people work together with a similar goal (His glory) and a similar task (making disciples) and they do it in a way God can bless, amazing things can happen! Think about that concept when you read this verse:

Eph. 3:20-21
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Amazing, mind-blowing things can be accomplished with godly synergy!

No wonder, then, the enemy of God is constantly attacking the synergy of the church! One of his oldest schemes is to divide God's people (read 1 Cor. 11 for more some examples). When we are bickering and fighting and refusing to work together, we experience antagonism, the opposite of synergy. We actually do terrific damage to God's name instead of accomplishing great things FOR His name.

And if there was ever a topic the church has been divided on it is music and worship. No matter where you land on the conservative to progressive scale, there is no denying that fighting over the issue has been horrific. Church history is pregnant with examples.

At Cornerstone, I'm realizing there is a quickly widening rift between our people over this very topic. That's why I felt it so important to preach a series entitled "Worship Acceptable to God." THE great tool that will unite us is proper biblical doctrine. It's my prayer that an exegetical and in-depth Bible study will heal the rift and bring us all under a banner of unity. On Sunday, we studied Eph. 4:1-6 to kick off our study and my prayer is that you were encouraged and challenged to have a worship that unites!

Diving a little deeper than I had time to on Sunday, I want to talk just for a moment about verses 11-16.
Eph. 4:11-16
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Here's the summary and the point, in my opinion.
My job as the pastor of Cornerstone is to equip the church to do the ministry so we are all built up. Our goal is Christ-likeness and we acheive that by learning proper biblical doctrine (orthodoxy) and then putting it into practice (orthopraxy). We do this in love with our focus on Christ. And this verse teaches a concept the world denies. We are often told that doctrine divides, but here we are told doctrine UNITES! When we have proper biblical teaching, we are brought together...and when each part does it share, the body will GROW. Numerically? Perhaps. But certainly spiritually. And it's all done in love!

So do you see the picture? Each part, working together in love for Christ-likeness and for His glory! That's biblical synergy! That's the reason the term was coined by GOD in the first place and it's the perfect example.

Now, to get there, we need to be sure we are practicing verses 1-6.
Eph. 4:2-3
2with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace

Grow Group Questions:
1. What is your favorite style of music, personally?
2. If you could have any kind of worship at Cornerstone, what would it look like?
3. In what other ways we are a diverse group of people? In what ways are we united?
4. Has there been times when you have NOT acted with lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering, etc. towards someone at church?
5. How can we be sure we don't do this in the future?
6. If you don't agree with all the musical selections at Cornerstone, how will you handle it?
7. Are you really and truly open to what the Bible says about worship? What if it's different from what you currently believe?