Imagine: "Together"

Here are the notes from yesterday's message at New Life Community Church.  This was the fourth and last message in the series IMAGINE.  It is entitled "Together".  If you would like to listen to this message, you may do so by going to our website at www.newlifesite.com.  God bless.

Imagine, Part 4                                                                                  Sunday, January 27, 2013

 “Together”

With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.  Romans 12:1-2 (Phillips)

Summary of series leading to conclusion

INSPIRATION

REVELATION

INNOVATION

Now TOGETHER

There is a much-used, perhaps over-used word SYNERGY. 

Synergy means: Synergy is the working together of two things to produce a result greater than the sum of their individual effects.

⁷ You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.  ⁸ Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.  ⁹ ‘For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.  Leviticus 26:7-9 (NKJV)

Someone said of Creativity:

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks,
breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.

1.     Creation comes out of FELLOWSHIP

           

Example: Genesis 1

            Example:  Male and Female

¹ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it;” Genesis 1:27-28 (NKJV)

This has happened in human history and it happens spiritually.  When people come together, tremendous power and creativity is generated.

From church history:

The Holy Club of Oxford (1729)

John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Benjamin Ingham, etc.

The Haystack Revival of 1806.

5 young men took shelter under a haystack during a thunderstorm.  There they committed their lives to missions to Asia.

From secular history:

1.      One of the most famous was Florence, Italy 1440 – 1490.  Michelangelo, da Vinci, Botticelli, etc.

2.      Ancient Athens 440-380 B.C.  Plato, Socrates, Herodotus, Euripides, Sophocles, etc.

3.      London.  1570 – 1640.  Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon, John Donne, William Shakespeare.

4.      Washington D.C./Philadelphia 1750-1800

5.      Silicon Valley 1980 – 2000

What does it take to do something great?  “No man is an island.” – John Donne

2.     Different is GOOD

⁴ For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. Romans 12:4-6 (NIV)

Illustration:  FDR’s personal doctor

Dr. Ross McIntyre was the personal physician of FDR.  There is a theory that persists until today that Dr. McIntyre was limited by the fact that he didn’t treat anyone else but the President.  Dr. McIntyre was by training and ear, nose, and throat dr.  Because of the limitations of his training and the limitations of his experience, he was unable to fully diagnose the ailments of FDR.  The President died because he did not have a wide enough sphere of involvement with the medical profession.

Similarly, we need each other.  If we are too isolated or limited in our training or experience, we can miss what needs to happen.

Illustration:  Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s work features a vocabulary that is unparalleled in literature.  His plays use more than 25,000 different words.  His closest rival in terms of variety was John Milton, who used less than half that.

CONCEPT:  CROSS-POLLINATION.

3.     Revelation is CONTAGIOUS

²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. ³⁰ But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; I Corinthians 14:29-31 (NASB)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)