Reach City Church Sunday Service | 04/12/2026

And so in order to walk in the unity that we have in the spirit, we must walk according to the spirit so that our character doesn't destroy what the spirit unites. Right? Why? Because when we walk in the flesh, it's destructive. The issue of unity in the church and maturity in the church will always hinge greatly on our ability to die to our flesh and walk in the spirit. A person not knowing their gifts is less harmful to the body than a gifted person operating from bad character. The issue of the church is not don't bunch of people don't know their gift. The issue of the church is people got gifts and function in bad character with them. [00:59:40] (36 seconds)  #SpiritOverFlesh

Just because you sit under truth, you can still be immature in a divided church. It's not because Paul was wrong. It's for two reasons. First, knowledge can't do what a lack of surrender and death won't allow. Don't matter how much you know, you gonna have to die to self and surrender to the holy spirit. And where you are refusing to die and surrender, no amount of knowledge will produce maturity in you. Knowledge is only as powerful as surrender. [00:50:14] (33 seconds)  #SurrenderOverKnowledge

But they were all given so that we will have unity, maturity so that we can be victorious. That means if the all the gifts functioning properly causes us to be victorious and all the gifts are spread about by many different people, that means the body of Christ is a refuge against the attack of the enemy. Yes. We are our protection. Yes. We we can pray all day. I get it, and we should. God is a refuge. He is a strong tower. He is a fortified wall, and so are you. [01:23:24] (28 seconds)  #GiftsBuildRefuge

Notice every joint doing its part and working proper. The reason you can have gifted people in unhealthy or dying churches is partly due to the fact that people aren't supplying what their joint has and or they're not walking properly in their gift. If we are assigned a joint, then to be healthy, we gotta supply that joint. Meaning, we gotta be more than consumers. We gotta be producers in our local churches. Are you gifted and neglecting functioning in the gift in your local church? If you are, you aren't supplying your joint. [01:02:01] (30 seconds)  #SupplyYourJoint

So understanding the unity of the faith is critical because a house divided against itself cannot stand, and so we can't walk victoriously victoriously if if we we are are walking walking divided divided in what the faith is. So Paul corrects their teaching because before you're gonna have unity here's the thing. You won't have unity of faith without proper teaching. Proper teaching is supposed to lead to proper behavior when followed. This is why you still need teachers. I don't need a teacher. I got the holy spirit. And that's why ain't no unity of faith because everybody different spirit telling them different stuff. Right? [00:44:31] (34 seconds)  #TeachForUnity

But when doctrinal differences occur, we don't destroy unity, but we set aside to obey collectively what god said. When conflicts and offense happen, we handle it in the spirit so that our flesh doesn't devour each other. I'll say it again. Gifts can't do what character won't allow because character is the relational core of unity. You'll hear more about that in weeks to come. So you can have a gift to church that lacks unity, not because gifts can't support unity, but because character is hindering proper use. But let me also add this, The we also gotta have the proper functioning of the gifts. Right? [01:00:42] (38 seconds)  #CharacterAboveGifts

Leaders and gifts can't force a person to surrender, but they can admonish a person to do it. Crawford Larissa, he said, I told my kids, I can't make you follow the lord, but you're gonna be an informed sinner. I'm gonna tell you the truth. So you can do what you wanna do, but you're gonna be informed that you're doing the wrong thing. Right? But, again, knowledge is only as powerful as surrender allows it to be, but the where there is surrender, gifts will aid maturity. [00:53:33] (32 seconds)  #AdmonishNotForce

So it's not just rid myself of every obstacle that may lead me to fall with my body. It's every obstacle that might lead me to fall with my mind and my thoughts. It's something that I'm always having to pray to the lord. Okay, god. Examine my heart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yep. That's the worst prayer to pray, but it's the greatest prayer. It's a hurtful prayer. Get ready. [00:55:51] (22 seconds)  #ExamineMyHeart