Unity with One Another

Transcript

Rob McFarlane: 0:59

The title of my sermon is Unity with One Another. Let's read Romans chapter 15, verse 5 and 6 from the English Standard Version of the Bible. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see from these verses that God wants us to live in harmony or unity with one another, and when we do this with one voice, living together in unity, we will bring glory to God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And today we're going to spend our time in Ephesians chapter 4. We'll see three Gs about unity. So number one, unity is something we have already got, and we must maintain it. Let's read Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1 to verse 6. I'm starting halfway through verse 1. It says, walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Did you see in verse 3 where Paul encourages us to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit? Unity is not something that we're called to create, but it's something we're called to preserve. It's something that we should celebrate and recognize that we already have. For example, when you own a vehicle, you need to maintain it. And every so long you need to do an MOT. You need to check whether it's up to the standard for it to continue on the road. And once in a while, it's a good idea for us to do a personal MOT. Ask ourselves: are we maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace? Are we walking in unity with one another? So, number one, we've seen that unity is something that we have got and we must maintain it. Secondly, I want you to see in Ephesians chapter 4 that unity is something that we must grow into and we must attain it. Let's read Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 to 13, and then verse 15 and 16. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And then down to verse 15 and 16. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. I want you to notice that we see in verse 13 that we will attain the unity of the faith. God wants us to walk in unity, to all play our part. And I believe that unity comes by focusing on Jesus, by growing in our relationship with Him, by being equipped through teaching and training and discipleship to be all that God has called us to be and to each play our part. And then we will grow into the unity of the faith. Now, the unity of the faith does not mean we agree on everything, but it does mean we agree on the essentials, the most important things, so that we can grow together and follow Jesus Christ together. My third and final point is that unity is something that we must guard. So today we've seen unity is something that we've got, that we grow in, and now something that we must guard. Let's read four verses out of Ephesians chapter four. They are verse 25, verse 27, verse 30, and verse 32. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Verse 27, and give no opportunity to the devil. And verse 30, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And then verse 32, be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. I believe that we need to recognize that we are one body, and we should speak the truth to our neighbor. We are members of one body. That we shouldn't give the enemy, the devil, or an opportunity to bring division among us. And when we are not walking in unity, but are walking in division, it's clear in the Bible that we are grieving the Holy Spirit. And in a very real sense, the blessing that God wants in our lives is held back, it's stemmed. And if we want a flow of God's blessing in our lives, in our church family, we need to walk in unity. And the way that we maintain this unity, the way that we guard this unity is by being kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving, as God in Christ forgave you. I encourage you today, let's walk in unity in our church family. Let's live ready to forgive. Is there someone you need to forgive and walk in unity with in your life? Let's make a decision today to choose to forgive, to choose to be a blessing and find a way that we can let things drop and move on to unity together. So today we've seen that God is glorified when we walk in unity with one another. And God's calling us to do that. We've also seen that it's something that we already have. Unity is something we already have. We have got unity because we are made to drink of one spirit. We have one God, one Father of us all. We've all been saved because of Jesus. We're all part of the family of God. Secondly, we've seen that unity is something we should grow in, and thirdly, something that we should guard. Let's pray. And as we do, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Ask him to show you what adjustments he wants you to make in your life as a result of what you've heard in today's sermon. Father God, thank you. Thank you for the unity of the Spirit that we already have. Thank you, Lord, that it's something that we need to maintain. And help us to maintain that. Just as we maintain a vehicle, help us to every so long do checks on our hearts and on our minds, on our words and on our actions to make sure that we are walking in unity. We want to grow in unity of the faith. And thank you, Lord, for those you've placed in our lives to equip us. And thank you for the gifts that you've entrusted to us to serve others so that we can build one another up in love. And Lord, I ask that you'd help us to guard the unity that we have in our local churches. Thank you that we can guard the unity we have in our marriages and in our families so that your blessing may begin to flow. Thank you, Lord, that you said that there's blessing when brothers dwell together in unity. And help us to walk in that unity today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.