Walk, Work, Witness Together: Unity in the Church

Now the word meekness has gotten a a bad rap over the years. People think that if you're meek, you're weak. It's just the opposite. Meekness is a restraint of power. It's having the power to do something, but in humility, taking a step back. It's strength under control. You know that one of the best ways to end an argument? Well, you have to realize you don't have to have the last word. Husbands, wives, children, you don't have to have the last word. It's it's okay. You don't always have to talk. [00:49:18] (36 seconds)  #MeeknessIsStrength

Church is not something to to trifle with. Jesus Christ died. His blood is the seed of the church. We are here because we have our faith in Jesus because of what he did for us. We are here because we are gospel driven and and gospel focused. And we can't let anything drive a wedge in that because remember who I told you the wedge driver is? It's Satan. See, when we talk about unity, we're not talking about uniformity. We don't all have to be the same. We don't all have to look the same to think the same, but we we do have to agree on certain things in scripture. [00:53:16] (39 seconds)  #GospelUnites

So Paul tells us this, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now the Greek word for eager is a fascinating word. It's one of the most intense words in the New Testament. It means emphatic or to spare no effort. If we were using a sports analogy, we'd say give it a 110%. That's not possible. You can't. You can't give more than a 100%, but it shows the the emphatic nature of that. Go all out. Do every single thing that you can. Stay on fire and put out any fire that might destroy the unity of the church. [00:51:30] (35 seconds)  #FightForUnity

There is nothing and this is my opinion, but I believe it very strongly. There's nothing that is more harmful to the cause of Christ, to the witness of the gospel, and to the influence of the church than a divided church. And that is what Satan wants. Satan loves it when churches split. That that schism that occurs in churches. He enjoys that greatly. But, thankfully, the apostle Paul gives us three things that we can do so that we can keep it all together. The first thing, we need to walk together. [00:42:55] (33 seconds)  #UnitedWitness

And that's because he understood that everything rises and falls on unity. We have to stick together as a family of god. And one reason that I'm concerned about a lack of unity is because the devil comes to church every Sunday. Satan does not miss a church service. He doesn't. He knows the Bible better than we do. He's he's been in the presence of God, and he loves to divide. See, the the word for for devil is diabolos. It's where we get the word diabolic, and it means to split. [00:38:47] (39 seconds)  #StandAgainstDivision

We are one body playing under the authority of one head, Jesus Christ. We're playing under the the banner of one kingdom, and that is the kingdom of God. And if we will always remember that, nothing will ever divide us, and God will keep us together forever. [01:07:44] (17 seconds)  #OneBodyOneHead

See, we have deacons in our church, and the deacons are to maintain unity. They're they're to be used for for church reconciliation, for confrontations, for things like that. But every Christian has the responsibility to protect the church. Remember, the church is the bride of Christ. And when people go rampages talking about the church, you're talking about the bride of Jesus. I've said many times, you may not like me, you can bad mouth me, but if you say something about my wife, you're gonna get a visit. And we will sit down, we'll talk about it, But you can't ignore it. [00:52:05] (42 seconds)  #ProtectTheChurch

Now this may surprise you, but Paul gives the very first secret to unity. He says, the way that we keep it all together corporately is that we have it all together individually. Okay? He says, I therefore there's another I therefore, which means you hearken back to what he's just told you. A prisoner for the lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Paul uses that word walk seven times in Ephesians, and it might surprise you, but that is the number one exercise among Americans that people walk. [00:43:28] (36 seconds)  #UnityStartsWithYou