Our-Core / Week 1

Our CORE: Better Together

Romans 12:3-6 April 24, 2022

I. Announcement

A. Update on mortgage and Easter offering:

1. Mortgage

a) Christmas 2020 – just 16 months ago, our mortgage was $780,000

b) Christmas 2021 - $358,000

c) End of April – $112,000 that is a $246,000 reduction in 4 months:

2. Easter offering

a) As of today - seed gift of $30,000 plus $56,000 in offering we have

$86,000 in hand

b) There is still a need of $99,000 to complete both projects of the parking

lot and the auditorium lights.

3. My hope by the end of the year is that the mortgage, parking lot and the

auditorium lights will all be completed and paid for!

a) Ongoing funds to continue to give

b) Write either mortgage, parking lot or lights

4. We can begin the work right away because the company doing the lighting

has the time to do it now and is going to allow us to begin the work right

away and we can just pay them as the money comes in.

a) What a gift, but we do not want to abuse their grace to us.

b) So pray and give as God blesses you!

5. When I think of what has happened in these two offerings I cannot help but

feel like Paul did in 2 Corinthians 9:12-15 when speaking about their giving.

Read

B. Pray for offering

II. Introduction:

A. One thing that has always amazed me is that fact that God can be so creative with

so little.

1. The best example of this that I know of is the fact that we all are made up of

the same basic stuff – take a head for instance – we all have two eyes and

two ears, one nose and one mouth and different amounts of hair and some

skin.

a) Look around, we all look so different yet we are all made up of the same

six basic elements.

b) God has nuanced each of these elements and how they interface with

each other to make us all unique!

2. You can say the same about our personalities up as well – we are all unique

in the way that God has nuanced our affections, emotions, intellect, desires,

dreams, etc. - no two personalities are the same.

B. The same is true with churches!

1. We are all basically made up of the same stuff: the Bible, worship,

fellowship, communion, prayer, a mission, vision, values, strategy, goals, and

theology!

2. But just like every person is unique so each church is unique and different

from others by the way the things that make up church are nuanced within

each church!

3. In my way of thinking, when it comes to Bible believing, Jesus trusting

churches it is not a matter of one being better than the other but rather an

issue of each being gloriously different for God’s unique purposes for that

unique church in that location at that time!

C. So today starts a six week series where we can better understand just who MVC

is, how we are unique from other churches that are like us and what is at our core

that makes us who we are!

1. Thus we are calling this series “our core”

1. “Our” because it is both personal and plural. This is not about an individual

as to who they are but who we are as a church, the people of MVC what

makes us unique as MVC

2. “Core” because that talks about the core, the heart, the foundation or the

central part of who we are.

a) Just like the core muscles in our body control and stabilize our bodies so

the other parts of it can do what they need to do so the core of MVC

controls and stabilizes who we are in everything else we do!

D. In this series I am going to just introduce us to our mission and values.

1. Power points that overview each point.

a) Mission

b) Values

• Today I want to start with …

II. Together strong – together is our vehicle

A. Power point of this value

1. A vehicle is simply the means by which you get from one place to another.

a) Each person is equally valued and each person is equally needed at MVC

to get us to be a church where people are following Jesus and impacting

others!

2. We see three areas in particular where our community together impacts us:

a) Discipleship – reaching others for Christ and becoming more Christ-like

ourselves!

b) Carrying one another’s burdens

c) Spurring each other onto our next steps in growth

B. Now we just got done with a series called “revitalized” and one of the key themes

of that series was “together.” So we already have spent ten weeks speaking about

the importance of togetherness if MVC is going to be a vital church in this area

and if we will be the kind of church that revitalizes people’s lives!

C. So today I want address one key question: “Why do I not desire or feel the need

to connect with others or the corporate body in a significant way?

1. I believe the answer to this question is addressed in Romans 12.

2. It is a passage I know well because God personally confronted me with this

passage many years ago when I felt like I did not need others in the body!

D. Turn to Romans 12:3-6

1. Structure

a) V 3- an attitude

b) V4-6 - a fact about the church of Jesus Christ.

2. Read verses 3-6.

3. The point of v 4-6 it is that we are not just like a body but we really are a

body - a spiritual body made up of many members where each one has

different gifts and different functions.

E. Now in light of this context v3 answers our question “Why do I not desire or why

do I not feel a need for the rest of the body”

1. Remember that v3 is an attitude that talks about the way we think about

ourselves!

2. So as I read note that v4 explains why we should not think this way about

ourselves,

3. Read v3-4

4. Simply we are not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, in a

prideful or puffed up or self-important way, - do not think that you are better

than others but rather we are to think of ourselves with in a sound, sensible

level headed way.

5. Why v3c – because God has allotted to each individual member of the body

of Christ a measure of faith!

a) In other words everyone has something to contribute to the church!

b) We all have different gifts and functions within the church and like a

body that means we are truly interdependent upon each other for the

health of ourselves and the church.

c) So we desperately need one another just as much as the human body

needs every one of its different members!

B. Bottom line - “pride has blinded them to their need for others and they do not feel

the need or desire for others in the body of Christ.

II. Concluding application

A. The real test of this is not how well you know these verses but how deeply you

are actually connecting with others in the body of Christ for living life and doing

our mission together for the glory of God.

B. I told you God confronted me with this truth a number of years ago while I was in

seminary. I was sitting in the bleachers by a swimming pool at about 5 am in

Dallas, Texas as I had driven a young man to swim practice for his swim team.

1. I sat in the bleachers as I was reading Romans 12:3-6

2. It was like the Holy Spirit held up this verse like a mirror that revealed my

thinking “I really do not need other believers … I am walking with Jesus and

reading His Word and I am doing just fine – me and Jesus, Jesus only Jesus is

enough!

3. At the same time it is like God shone a light into my thinking where I all of a

sudden realized all the people that God had used in my life to get me to

where I was that day.

4. Until that moment I did not realize how foolishly arrogant and ignorant I was

about the role that other people have played in my life.

a) People who have prayed for me

b) Teachers at Moody who had shaped my thinking up to that time

c) People who gave us large financial gifts to help us go to seminary and

free me up to spend most of my time studying rather than trying to just

pay the bills.

d) People further down the road who had invested their time in discipling,

coaching or counseling me.

e) Friends who loved me, encouraged me, bore burdens with me, warned

me and even at times rebuked me!

f) Pastors at MVC, Bill Johnson and Clem Bilhorn, who had invested in,

taught and modeled for me a life of grace and truth!

g) And yes, my wife who in hundreds of practical ways day in and day out

ministered to me both with grace and truth.

C. Could it be that pride and arrogance and ignorance is holding you back from

being all God has created you to be and MVC from being all God has called us to

be because you are living the me life rather than the we life!

D. Take a moment to consider who are some of the people who have gotten you to

where you are today? I will guarantee you that each of us have scores upon

scores of them.

1. Right now come up with 3 – 5 specific names along with how they

specifically have impacted you!

2. Commit yourself to contact them this week and just say thanks.

3. As you do this you not only will encourage them but you will also break the

hold of pride in your life and build in the humility of acknowledging the role

of others in your life!