Unity at the Lord's Table: Making Disciples Together

Aug 30, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Dissolving Silos, Forging Chains of Unity

The Corinthian church fractured into competing factions, prioritizing personal agendas over communal worship. Their "Lord’s Supper" became a humiliating spectacle where the wealthy feasted while the poor went hungry. Like silos hoarding resources, their divisions weakened the body. True unity comes when ministries interlock like chain links, sharing time, space, and purpose. Cooperation replaces competition, creating strength through shared mission. Synergy happens when "my ministry" becomes "our discipleship." [54:40]

But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. (1 Corinthians 11:17-21, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you seen ministry silos create competition rather than cooperation? What tangible step could you take this week to help "forge a chain link" between generations or ministries?

Day 2: The Table Where "Me" Becomes "We"

Communion tables designed for unity had become platforms for selfishness in Corinth. Members rushed to grab their portion, blind to others’ needs. The bread and cup lose meaning when consumed with a "me-first" mentality. Christ’s body broken for all demands we make room for every nation, generation, and economic background. At this table, personal preferences die so collective mission thrives. Your seat isn’t a privilege to claim but a stewardship to share. [01:04:07]

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:17, ESV)

Reflection: When have you approached church participation like a consumer rather than a steward? How might receiving communion this week reshape your view of "my place" at the table?

Day 3: From Study to Workman: Discipleship in Action

Knowledge without service creates theological spectators. Paul rebuked the Corinthians for treating faith as a theoretical debate rather than a workshop. Discipleship isn’t about accumulating information but deploying transformation. Like a construction crew collaborating on a project, we’re called to be "workmen" building God’s kingdom. Serving isn’t optional retirement planning—it’s the daily labor of every Christ-follower. [01:00:19]

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV)

Reflection: What knowledge have you been hoarding rather than putting to work? Who needs you to trade commentary for coaching this week?

Day 4: No Gold Watches in God’s Kingdom

The church suffers when seasoned saints view ministry as a temporary duty rather than a lifelong calling. Retiring from active service contradicts the Great Commission’s urgency. Older believers hold irreplaceable tools—hard-won wisdom, spiritual resilience, and battle-tested faith. Their role isn’t to guard legacy programs but to equip next-generation workers. There are no benchwarmers at the Lord’s table, only active participants. [01:01:33]

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women. (Titus 2:2-4, ESV)

Reflection: What ministry passion have you shelved due to life transitions? How could your current season equip someone half your age to serve more effectively?

Day 5: When Walls Can’t Hold the Harvest

Physical buildings and weekly schedules strain under the weight of spiritual growth. Corinth’s factions emerged from scarcity mentality—fighting over limited resources. But multiplying disciples requires faith to see beyond walls. Like farmers trusting fallow fields to yield new crops, we must plant ministries in uncharted areas. True unity doesn’t demand everyone fit in our building—it sends workers into ripe harvests. [01:07:14]

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38, ESV)

Reflection: What ministry opportunity have you avoided because it didn’t fit existing structures? How could partnering with another group expand your view of God’s harvest fields?

Sermon Summary

Paul’s rebuke in 1 Corinthians 11 puts a hard question before the church: does gathering together make the body better or worse? The Corinthian table had become a place where people grabbed what they wanted, neglected those with less, and turned the Lord’s Supper into something that was no longer the Lord’s Supper. Division, schism, factions, and humiliation had replaced the love feast. The table that should have displayed Christ had become a picture of people protecting their own slice of the pie.

Dublin Baptist Church faces a different situation, but the same warning matters. Ministry silos can create competition over rooms, calendar space, money, and opportunities. A ministry can begin to operate as though its needs come first and everyone else can have whatever is left over. That kind of thinking says, “Don’t mess with my service,” and it misses the point of the table. Ministries are not here so people can get what they want. Ministries are here to serve the mission.

The mission is clear: make disciples of every generation and every nation. Jesus promised to build His church, and He commanded His people to go and make disciples. Unity grows when every ministry brings what it has to the table and asks how it can help others make disciples. Cooperation replaces competition. Shared events, connected people, and ministries working arm in arm create a synergy that no silo can produce.

Discipleship also requires more than filling a head with knowledge. Paul calls believers to become workmen who rightly divide the truth. A disciple does not merely sit and receive; a disciple serves. Age, past service, and physical limitations may change the place of service, but they do not create retirement from ministry. Wisdom, experience, encouragement, coaching, prayer, and partnership remain needed gifts in the body.

The Lord’s table makes room for everyone who knows Christ as Savior and Lord. Rich and poor, young and old, people from every nation, and people with every kind of past come by the same way: through the body and blood of Jesus. The bread remembers His perfect life, His body given in the place of sinners, and His willingness to bear affliction. The cup remembers His shed blood, the cup of redemption, and the new covenant that brings broken people near to God.

Christ’s death is what unifies the church. The table says there is no room for “me” because the body and blood belong to the Savior. Christ calls His people to leave gatherings better, not worse, and to become a body that serves, makes disciples, multiplies, and shares the hope of reconciliation with the world.

Key Takeaways

1. The table rejects self-centered ministry. The Lord’s Supper cannot be separated from how believers treat one another. Corinth turned a meal of remembrance into a display of selfishness because some people took first and others were left with nothing. Christ’s table confronts every instinct to protect personal preference, personal space, or personal ministry. [56:06]
2. The mission matters more than ministries. Ministries are good gifts, but they become unhealthy when they exist mainly to preserve themselves. Every program, budget request, room, event, and volunteer role must serve the larger call to make disciples. Unity becomes real when each part asks, “How can this help others follow Jesus?” [58:54]
3. Disciples are called to be workmen. Knowledge matters, but knowledge that never becomes service is incomplete discipleship. Paul’s image of a workman means that truth is meant to shape hands, habits, and sacrifice. Years of experience do not end a believer’s usefulness; they can become a source of strength for younger disciples. [60:19]
4. Christ makes room at the table. The table does not belong to the impressive, the wealthy, the experienced, or the well-connected. Christ’s body and blood bring sinners into one family and give each believer a place among fellow laborers. The same grace that welcomes people to the table also sends them into the work of discipleship. [63:50]
5. Christ’s sacrifice creates true unity. The bread remembers the perfect life Christ lived, and the cup remembers the death He died. His affliction and shed blood accomplish what no ministry strategy can accomplish: reconciliation with God and a shared identity for His people. Unity begins not with agreement about preferences, but with worship of the Savior who gave Himself.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[47:57] - Preparing for the Lord’s Supper
[49:14] - Paul’s Rebuke to Corinth
[51:20] - Division at the Love Feast
[53:01] - Better or Worse When Gathering
[54:06] - Breaking Down Ministry Silos
[55:50] - Communion and Unity
[57:18] - The Mission to Make Disciples
[59:36] - Disciples Serve as Workmen
[62:35] - A Place for Everyone at the Table
[65:06] - Obedience and a Unified Church
[67:14] - Multiplying Through Disciple Making
[75:09] - The Bread of Affliction
[76:46] - The Cup of Redemption

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 11:17-22
“But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.” [49:14]

2 Timothy 2:15
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” [01:00:19]

Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [58:03]

Observation questions

What specific behaviors at the Corinthian meal showed that believers were thinking about themselves rather than the whole church? [51:20]
According to Paul, what made the Corinthians’ gathering “for the worse” rather than “for the better”?
What kinds of ministry resources can become points of competition when ministries function separately from one another? [54:22]
In 2 Timothy 2:15, what picture does the word “worker” add to the call to rightly handle God’s truth? [01:00:05]

Interpretation questions

Why does Paul treat the humiliation of those who have little as a serious problem in the Lord’s Supper, rather than merely a problem with poor manners?
How can a ministry’s desire for more room, calendar time, money, or volunteers become similar to the Corinthians going ahead with their own meal? [56:53]
Matthew 28 calls the church to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey Jesus. How does that mission give different ministries a shared purpose? [58:31]
What does it mean for an older or physically limited believer to remain a “worker” in Christ’s church, even if that person cannot serve in the same way as before? [01:01:33]

Application questions

When you gather with the church—whether for worship, a class, a ministry meeting, or fellowship—what helps others leave encouraged and built up? Is there any attitude or habit that could cause others to leave feeling overlooked? [01:06:15]
Are you ever tempted to protect “your” preferences, schedule, space, ministry, or style of worship? What would it look like to place the mission of making disciples ahead of that preference? [56:44]
What gifts, relationships, experience, or resources has God given you that could strengthen another ministry or help someone else grow as a disciple? [58:43]
Where are you presently serving Christ’s body? If you are not serving in a clear way, what is one realistic next step you could take to find a place to serve?
If your season of life has changed what you can do physically, how could you still invest in others through prayer, encouragement, mentoring, hospitality, or sharing wisdom? [01:01:39]
The Lord’s Table reminds believers that all come the same way—through the body and blood of Jesus. Is there anyone in the church whom you have treated as less important, less needed, or outside your circle? What step could you take toward them in humility and love? [01:04:07]
Christ’s death is the deepest source of unity in the church. How does remembering His sacrifice change the way you respond when disagreements or competition arise among believers? [01:08:45]

Sermon Clips

29s

#CommunionNotSelf

“Let me tell you how good I am. Let me tell you how smart I am or or what I gave or what I there's no me at this table because that is not your body. That is not your blood. That is the savior who gave his body and blood so that we could sit around this table. That's what unifies us.”

48s

#CupOfRedemption

“The cup represents how he died. The bread represents how he lived. The cup represents how he died. There is a represent his blood. While the bread was the bread of affliction, the cup was the cup of redemption. We're only redeemed through the shed blood of Christ. And he said, this is a new covenant, a new way for us to relate to God. Because of what he did, because of how he died. We can approach the throne of grace. We can have a relationship with the God of the universe. This is what we have and this is the hope we want to share with the world. That they can be reconciled to God.”

49s

#MissionOverMinistry

“Instead of all of us coming and saying, well, I'm gonna create my agenda, and I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do, and you're gonna give me the support. And then the rest of you can do whatever you want with what's left over if we all gathered around the table together and said, we are all here to make disciples of every generation and every nation. That starts from MDO and preschool and moves all the way up through to our senior adults and what they do. How do we all cooperate to make that happen? Here's what I can bring to the table. Here's people that we can connect with. What if we shared events? What if we did things together? And then there's a synergy that develops, but the focus and the unity always comes back to this. It's not about the ministry, it's about the mission.”

35s

#AllBelongAtTheTable

“And then we all come here the same way. Rich, poor, different nations, different ages. Whatever we may have as far as our past, it doesn't matter. All that matters is, has g do you know Jesus as your savior and lord? Do you know what this body and this cup mean? Do you understand he died for your sin? And when you say I know that, then you are my brother and sister, a co laborer in this thing we call church. Pull up a chair. You belong at the table.”

42s

#UnifiedByHisSacrifice

“So we're gonna celebrate the Lord's supper together. If you know Jesus as your savior and Lord, if you have this bit of bread and this cup and you know what that means, you're invited to join in this supper. But we come here together in unity. We come here together to say this is what unifies us. We serve because we love him. We serve because we obey him. But it's his death. It's the price he paid for our sin that unifies us.”

40s

#SacrificeAndRighteousness

“Father God, we thank you for the life of Jesus. How God became flesh and dwelt among us and was perfect in every way, fulfilling all that the prophecies required. And doing it all sinlessly. That he could be our sacrifice, that he could die in our place because of the perfect life that he lived. So we thank you that he took on our affliction, that we might have your righteousness.”

37s

#DiscipleMakingTogether

“We are here to make disciples of every generation and nation, and that's what we wanna align around. And then it's how can I help you do that? What do I have that could help you do that? Who do I know? And what do we we cooperate. There's not competition. There's cooperation. And in that moment, there will be such a synergy. We will be better, not worse. When we gather, Christ is honored, not humiliated. That's who we are. That's what we have to be about.”

42s

#PullUpAChair

“That at this table, here's what we want. Everybody who gathers around the Lord's supper table is a disciple who's following Jesus, trying to make disciples. Somewhere we're serving. If if I say, hey, would you serve in a certain area? Please don't tell me. I've already done my time. Please don't tell me. I'm just here to sit and be served. You can tell me this. God has called me to serve here, not there. I have to say no there so I can say yes here. There's a place there's a place for you.”

38s

#HeBuildsHisChurch

“Jesus said, I will build my church. And I just gotta believe when our hearts are aligned and there's a disciple making process, He's gonna open up the door for church planting in various areas, and we're gonna start to send people out. And ministries are gonna go forth and multiply. And they're gonna reach places we've never been, and come alongside people, and love them and nurture them and help them grow as disciples. And we're gonna watch God open up doors in ways we've never seen.”

32s

#LeaveBetterThanYouCame

“When we gather together, we need to leave here better, not worse. We need to come here ask the church that loves and encourages one another and builds them up in Christ. We need to come here in a spirit of unity, saying it's not about what my ministry is. It's about people meeting and following Jesus. And I'm learning how to do that. And I wanna pour in other people and help them learn how to do that.”

65s

#BreakDownTheSilos

“What we have to figure out how to do is dissolve all these silos and not get rid of ministry, but connect ministries like links in a chain to be stronger together. You see, if we function as silos, there's a inherent competition that emerges. If we function as silos, then some ministries say, well, why do they get that? And we don't get that. They would they would the the number one problem we have right now at Dublin Baptist Church is in terms of a calendar and a building. have so many ministries functioning, and it is a wonderful exciting thing. Our greatest struggle is finding times and places for ministries to do what they they feel called to do. But if we operate as silos, we compete for that. But if we synthesize and we come together and we unify for that, suddenly everything will transform and change.”

36s

#ServeIsDiscipleship

“Right now, about 45% of Dublin Baptist Church serves in ministries. Now what they tell us is the benchmark is 50. If you get 50% of your church serving, they consider that a great mark. You're in good shape. That's a good healthy church. So we're not far off the mark, really. But there's no reason that a 100% of us couldn't be serving. Because if you're a disciple, it's not about what you know. It's about what you do. Everybody needs a place to serve.”

37s

#ServeAndMultiply

“It's about taking all our ministries and saying, they're not here so I have what I want. They're here as a place to serve because that's part of discipleship. They're here to reach people so they can follow Christ and know him. They're here to work arm in arm with other ministries. Together, we reach more people. And we see how God multiplies and grows. Honestly, if we make more disciples, this building is limited. We've about reached its threshold.”

36s

#EveryoneHasASeat

“So let's talk about that. The place at the table. First of all, there's a place for everyone. There has to be. Every generation and every nation. These next steps of ministry are gonna start to incorporate all ages from preschool onward. How do we disciple them? What does that look like? And how do we do that together as a as a family? And and suddenly, we're gonna have a place where everyone belongs and everyone has a seat. When we come to this Lord's Supper table, nobody comes here and says, let me tell you what I did.”

34s

#AlignForDiscipleship

“which tells me God is up to something. He is orchestrating something for Dublin Baptist Church that gives us the opportunity to make disciples in such a unified way. We are we are committed to this. Jesus said, I will build my church. But he told us to go make disciples of every nation. And that's what we have to do. And we have to align our ministries with the focus of we are here to make disciples.”

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