DEVOTION: (Note: I don't know what happened yesterday… I guess I didn't have enough coffee, but I used the wrong reading yesterday. Here's the reading I should've used yesterday.)
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 English Standard Version (ESV)
Divisions in the Church
3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
I love this passage as a pastor, because it shows the fickleness of human beings and how easily we can get sidetracked. Paul didn't care whether the people were on his "side" or Apollos's side, or that they followed any particular person as long as they heard the good news and believed in Christ as Savior and Lord.
We are such competitive, selfish, children sometimes. Hear me clearly and fully! St. John's Lutheran Church in Warrenton, Missouri is not in competition with any other Christian church! As long as the church teaches the Trinity and that Jesus is Lord and Savior of all through His death and resurrection, it is a Christian church!
Other Christian churches may disagree with our teachings about such things as the authority of Scripture, the Sacraments, and many other things, but we are not in competition with them. Therefore, we should not be trying to steal members from one church to make them members of ours. We should not be putting down another church to prop up ours.
And let it also be known that I, as a pastor, just want you to be in worship so that you can hear the good news of Jesus and His salvation and so that you can receive His gifts of body and blood. It is never about me!! Don't make it about me. Don't come to St. john's because of me, and please don't leave St. John's because of me. I'm only a man. Jesus is Lord and God! Come because of Him!
Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving me grace, and for the confidence I have in what I believe. Grant my fellow Christians in other denominations that same peace that can only come from knowing you as Lord and Savior. Amen.
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CALENDAR
Thurs- Lutheranism 101 6:30pm
Sat- Worship 5pm
Sun- Worship 8:30 and 11; Sunday school and Adult Bible class 9:45; Elders meeting noon
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WORSHIP WORKERS FOR THIS COMING WEEKEND:
Acolyte- 8:30- Nova Luebke 11- Kalene Masters
Ushers- Larry Schulze, Scott Schulze, Gary Scott, Dave Winter
Altar- Set up- Don Hance; Clean up- Joann Hachtel
Elders- Sat- Randy Fischer; 8:30- Jason Cluver; 11- Jim Rahn
Greeters- 8:30- Paul and Cindy Klover; 11- Dan and Lisa Rausch
Lay Readers- Sat- Sandra Perricone; 8:30- Steve McDowell; 11- Jim Rahn
Piano- Kathy Barrow