The patience and encouragement received from the Scriptures have their ultimate source in God, for the Scriptures are his. Paul asks God to give the believers an attitude of harmony—Jews and Gentiles, weak and strong—as they seek to follow Christ. This prayer is strikingly similar to the one Jesus prayed with his disciples at the end of his final meal with them (John 17:22-23). Harmony is not an optional behavior for believers. They must have the attitude of Christ Jesus toward one another. Doing so would allow all believers to join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God. This should be the ultimate purpose of each believer and of the entire church.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
God blesses a unified church. Many church have tremendous potential but they never achieve what God wants them to achieve because the members spend all their time fighting each other. All of the energy is focused inward with one group fighting another group.
The Bible teaches that the church is a family. Many people who come into our church come out of really poor family relationships so they don’t know what a family should act like. We should not be surprised that, as the world gets sicker, there are more sick people coming into the church. So we have to teach them how to relate as a family. They don’t know how to relate as a family.
I want us to look at How to Protect Your Church and we’re going to talk about unity. You men are part the ministry core. If you join COV, you take a vow to protect the unity of the church. As a leader, as a minister, as a key lay minister of the church it’s your job to protect the church.
Unity is a key theme. The Bible talks more about unity of the church than it does about either heaven or hell. It’s that important. Churches are made up of people. And there are no perfect people. So people get into conflict with each other. We need to learn how to deal with it.
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNITY IN THE CHURCH
#1. Jesus prayed for it. Jesus prayed for the unity of the church. John 17 He said, ”I pray that they will be one.” The world will be won when the church is one. When you find a church, where the people in the church really love each other, you’ll have to lock the doors to keep people out. They are looking for a place where there can be love, and warmth and acceptance and healing. Jesus prayed for the unity of the church.
Since the church is a fellowship, if you destroy the unity and harmony of the church, you destroy the church. The church is a fellowship. If you destroy the fellowship there is no church.
#2. We are commanded to make unity the top priority. Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bonds of peace.” That means, as a key leader in our church, one of your primary jobs in addition to the ministry that you have is to promote unity in the church. We are to make every effort to keep that. “Let us concentrate on the things that make for harmony and the growth of our fellowship together.”
There are a number of verses that talk about unity in the church. It’s a major theme of the scriptures.
#3. Any attitude that causes disunity is sin. Any attitude that causes disunity in the church is wrong. It’s flat out wrong! It doesn’t matter whether the issue is right or not. If it’s causing disunity it’s wrong.
#4. Unity is a witness to the world. John 13:34-35 “Jesus said, `By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, that you love one another.’” When a church loves each other there is unity and there is harmony. Visitors walk into the service and say, “There’s something going on here.” There’s an electricity in the air and they don’t know what it is, but it’s the same kind of thing you felt a few minutes ago when we were harmonizing accapela on those songs. There is power in unity. Harmony is an expression of unity.
People come into a church and say, “Something is happening and I don’t know what it is, but I know something’s different.” It is an intimacy that comes when people from absolutely different backgrounds have something in common and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re all from different backgrounds. We’re as different as night and day. You don’t have to have uniformity to have unity. God does not insist that we all become cookie cutters like we’re all stamped out of the same mold. What draws us together is not our common background or our common intelligence or common economic status, race, or whatever. What draws us together is we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts. That’s what produces unity and is a witness to the world.
#5. God blesses the unified church. In Acts 2:46-47 “They had all things in common… they were all of one heart… one accord… And so the Lord added daily to the church.” When God wants to put a bunch of new Christians in a church, a bunch of new baby Christians, He looks around for the warmest incubator He can find. Ten times in the first five chapters of Acts it says, “They were of one accord... one heart… they ate together… one purpose… one mind… one soul… one spirit…” Ten times it talks about unity in the first five chapters of Acts.
When a church develops the unity of the book of Acts along with it comes the power of the church of Acts, the growth of the church of Acts. You cannot stop a unified church. Snowflakes are frail but if enough of them stick together they can stop traffic. Individually, I can’t do a lot for the Lord. Individually you can’t do a lot for the Lord. But together we can make an impact on this valley.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!
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