I invite you to turn with me to this morning's text found in the first letter of

Paul to the Corinthians.

Chapter 1 verses 10 through 17.

I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that all of you agree and that there be no ascensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren.

What I mean is that each one of you says I belong to

Paul or I belong to Apollis or I belong to Cepis or I belong to Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I'm thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that you were baptized

in my name.

I did not baptize also the household of Stephanus.

Beyond that I did not know whether I baptized anyone else.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel,

and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

May I insert a parenthesis before I begin the message I neglected again to say that after this service we have a reception for visitors who can spare an extra five minutes

before you leave, you go through those double doors and you turn left into the overflow room.

We'd love to be able to meet you personally and shake your hand.

And as long as I'm sticking in parentheses here,

you know, this is a pretty full service and a lot of people don't like to sit close to each other.

We have room in the other two services at 945 and 815, so if any of you is open to new

habits of church attendance, why don't you consider switching over to an earlier time, close parenthesis.

I've heard the saying, I suppose for 25 years,

in fact I heard it first in high school I remember.

...