Working Together

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

Jesus tells John not to forbid the man who is ministering in Jesus' name.

So Jesus and his teachings are the standard. No doubt about it. Jesus, the personal work of Christ, the teachings of the scripture are the standard.

So, again, if a Baptist church, Presbyterian church, independent, non -denominational church, if a church is upholding the standard, preaching the true

Christ and the true gospel, we can, and I think we should, be willing to work together with them.

Just a few examples. Say, well, you're saying this. Are you actually willing to do it, or have you done it?

I would never preach anything that I wasn't actually willing to do myself. So a few examples.

We have a pastor's fellowship, and there's pastors from all these different groups that I mentioned. And we actually get along really well, and I think that's great.

I've organized, what, six or seven gospel billboards that have been put up in the Greenfield area.

You know, there's a few of those. There were Baptist pastors, Baptist churches that donated, independent churches that donated, a few

Presbyterian churches donated, one charismatic church donated. To get all these different groups together on anything, it's a massive challenge.

But you know what? We've been able to do it at times. So I say to that, maybe you don't agree with that.

I guess that's up to you. But I praise God for that. There's a local

Christian radio station that brings together all these different denominations.

And what is it doing? Bringing the light of Jesus to the Pioneer Valley. Again, Baptist, Presbyterian.

Now, you're noticing that there's some groups I'm not mentioning. Like, I'm not mentioning the Mormons, okay?

Not mentioning the Mormons. I'm not mentioning Roman Catholics, although I think there probably are some people that are within the

Roman Catholic Church that do love the Lord. I don't know why they're there. I have to believe God, the

Holy Spirit, will draw them out. But that would be hard to work together with them.

And if you don't know why, Google Protestant Reformation and see what the issues were.

Another example. There's a radio station we are on in Worcester, the

Worcester -Boston area, WV &E. They have all different types of churches on that radio station.

Our Sunday afternoon program was actually on in between John MacArthur, who's a dispensational

Baptist, and R .C. Sproul, who is a Reformed Presbyterian, and we were right in the middle. Now, of course,

I felt totally unworthy of being in the middle of those two men. But those two, and I bring it up for this reason, those two men probably are my biggest influences of pastors that I look up to and respect.

Those two men were so different. Again, dispensational Baptist, Reformed Presbyterian, and yet they were the best of friends.

And they worked together for the furtherance of the gospel. They set that example, and I believe we should learn from it.

Again, we will be far more effective if we work together rather than fighting each other.

So it's one of my prayers that believers would come together more often, not just on radio stations and projects like that, but it really is my prayer that churches would come together, maybe even have joint services, have joint events.

Every church, it seems like, is sort of like an island unto themselves. You ever notice this? Maybe it's

New England. I don't know. But every church is like an island unto itself, it seems. So you think about it, we're going to be spending eternity with one another.

Might as well get used to fellowshipping down here while we have the freedom to do it, because if you haven't noticed, this freedom to assemble openly and to preach,

I can get up here behind this microphone and pretty much say whatever I want.

It might get censored on YouTube or Facebook, that's true, but we still have the freedom to say and to gather and to do it openly.

Let's take advantage of that. So this is my prayer. I hope it'll be your prayer that all the evangelical churches,

Bible -believing churches, will get closer together and not further apart.

We don't want to be arguing about which church is the best, right? Hey, our church is better than their church.

If you do that, you're acting in a carnal manner. Let's turn to another passage, 1

Corinthians 1, we'll close here. But this is my prayer that local churches would come together more, that true

Christians in all different denominations, it's not about yoking up together, but just working with one another and not being like the 12 apostles who are arguing about who's the best, who's going to be the greatest.

That's a bad testimony, that's a bad witness. Or being like John and finding this guy who, hey, that guy's ministering, we don't know him.

Let's work against him because we don't know who he is. Wrong, bad idea. All right, so you're turning 1

Corinthians 1. This section of 1 Corinthians is titled, Sectarianism is

Carnal. Sectarianism is carnal. What does it mean to be carnal? Well, it means you are of the flesh or you are operating based on the flesh.

This is not what God wants. God wants his people not to be carnal. He wants us to be what?

Spiritual, right? That's the opposite of being carnal, to be spiritual. That it's not about us and what we want.

It's or what you feel like it's about what God wants, what pleases him. And part of that is our words and our actions.

We should be exalting who? Christ. We should be exalting Christ and not ourselves.

So just as with Luke, that's one extreme. He sees somebody he doesn't know and he wants to shut them down here in Corinth.

They were looking at men and they wanted to exalt. So in Luke, shut this guy down in 1

Corinthians. They're exalting men and it caused great division.

Look at 1 Corinthians 1, 10 through 13. Paul writes, now

I 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, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.

Now I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul. I am of Apollos.

I am of Cephas. That's Peter. Or I, I am of Christ. Well, is

Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

It's really easy to read this passage. I am of Paul. I am of Apollos.

And then immediately allow your mind to drift to those denominations that are named after men.

That's oftentimes what people think of, you know, the Lutherans, the Amish, the

Mennonites, the Wesleyans, or even the Calvinists and the Armenians, right?

I, but I, so that guy, he's, he's a Calvinist. This guy, he's a Lutheran.

Well, I am just a Christian. And you sort of feel proud that I don't have this label.

I am just a Christian. Yeah. Well, Paul is saying the ones who are saying I am of Christ, he's lumping them as being just as divisive as the rest of the people.

How can that be? Do you realize that someone who is a Lutheran or someone who is a

Calvinist, they're not actually, that doesn't mean they're following Luther and Calvin over Jesus.

That's, I mean, it could mean that it probably does mean that in certain cases, but that's, that's not actually what they're saying.

The apostle Paul said in the same epistle, you know what Paul said? He said, follow me as I follow

Christ. Some people have the idea that I don't follow any men. I will not follow any man.

I just follow Jesus. And they think that is a spiritual attitude.

Again, what did Paul say? Follow me as I follow Christ. So just a few basics on how you might apply this.

If somebody is part of a denomination that's named after a man. Okay. It's true.

It's unfortunate that the denomination is named after a man. I'll say that. But don't, don't look down upon them because they're part of a different denomination.

There's a lot of godly Lutherans out there. You might not know any, but there are, there's a lot of godly

Baptists. They say, well, that's named after John the Baptist. You realize they say that, a lot of them.

There's a lot of godly Mennonites. I mean, there's a lot of godly people in all these different areas.

Church members, you should be able to get behind certain leaders. I agree with that.

But there's, whether it's a local pastor, whether it's a pastor who's well -known, everyone looks up to somebody, don't they?

You look up to somebody. You might say, well, not me. I only follow Christ. This is sort of the hyper spiritual attitude where there's, there's no man on earth that is worthy for me to follow him.

That's a carnal attitude because it was Jesus Christ himself who ordained pastors in the local church.

Jesus is the one who gave the church the gift of pastors and teachers. And if you can't get behind me, if you can't follow me, find a church where you can get behind the pastor of that church.

But we should all follow someone. Again, Paul says, follow me as I follow

Christ. I only follow Jesus. I am of Christ. He is of Paul. He is of Apollos.

He is a Peter, but not me. I only follow Christ. No, you're just too proud to get behind anyone to follow anyone.

So my point is, this cuts both ways. You know, you can exalt certain people.

You can exalt no one. You can look to certain people, not look to anyone. You can try to shut people down.

You can have no separation. You know, the devil is able to work in any one of these different scenarios.

Even the term Christian. Isn't it strange the things we divide on? This is why, and I'm almost done, but this is why denominations exist because people divide over the stupidest things.

Even that term Christian. You know, there's some people that won't use the term Christian. If you want to use another term, go ahead.

There's some people that instead they call themselves a Christ follower. I'm not a Christian. I'm a

Christ follower. What's the difference? It's the same thing. Now, it's that their grandmother used the term

Christian, and we're the young, hip generation. We use Christ follower. And I know that people that are hip don't actually use the term hip.

But even little things like that can create division.

We can take pride in our labels. We can take pride in not having any label.

This is just human nature. Sex and denominations and division can start over any little thing.

And I don't want to be fighting about dumb stuff like that. If we love the same Lord, we can unite over the gospel and the

Christian ethic. I want to work with those people. I want to have fellowship with those people. Now, at the same time, if somebody is starting to support or if a church is starting to support

Drag Queen Story Hour, I'll separate from them so fast they'll make your head spin.

But in conclusion, whatever church it is, whatever label someone uses, while there is a godly form of division, separation, the more time goes on.

We need to realize this. The more time goes on, we need to work together. We need to work together.

We're going to disagree on some things, and that's okay. If we have the true gospel, the personal work of Christ, have a godly standard of living, hey,

I want to work with that person. I want to work with that church. I want to support them. I don't want to be like John and say,

Lord, I forbade them. Lord, they don't have the right to preach in your name.

Only I do. Only our group does. Only our church or denomination. What did Jesus say?

If they're not against us, what are they? They're on our side.

Let's close in prayer. And Lord, how thankful we are for you and your goodness towards us.

We are thankful for your church. And Lord, I pray that you would give us discernment in these areas.

Help us to know when to unite and when to separate. And Lord, if there's anyone listening who has never come to that place where they recognize that before you they are a sinner,

I pray that your Holy Spirit would convict them, and I pray that they would bow their hearts door and pray that prayer and say,

Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin and rose again the third day.

And Lord, I pray that you would continue to save souls, empower your church for the work of ministry.

I pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornetchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.