What We Have In Common 10-30-2022

Thank you for inviting me to share Gods Word. I am blessed and honored to be here.

Let me introduce myself. I am Gerald “G” Waldron. I am an ordained minister, ordained by Rushing Wind Ministries. I became born again in the summer of 1980 and rededicated in the spring of 2011. I’m a member of the Long Island NY chapter of Bikers for Christ. My road name is Pastor G.

Let’s come together in prayer…

The Body of Christ is massive, about 2 billion strong world wide. Yet, as a large family, we have some of the same dysfunctional tendencies. Do you think we, as a body of Christ are very well united? We’ll ask this again later. The title of this message is “What We Have in Common.” Let’s get into it.

As Christians, we are so different. We have different callings, different giftings, different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different looks. We’re at different economic levels, different spiritual maturity levels, in different ministries, have different clothes, and even like different foods and beverages. So, collectively, we’re different right? (This one you can answer out loud, it’s interactive time). LOL. It appears that we are different. So, what could all of us Christians have in common? I have a list of 6 things (there’s lots more) if anyone wants to take notes (I, personally, like to write things down as I hear them when I am being fed Gods Word).

First and foremost:

1) We, Christians, are all born again. Matthew 3:5-7 says “Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.” How do we become born again? Romans 10:9 says “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; “

Do you remember when you repeated the prayer of salvation? What a moment that was for each of us. Different experiences when we did this but yielding the same in all of us. Some felt freer, some felt more loved, some were able to break the chains. Think about your “born again” moment. It is something that you should never forget. It helps you keep the fire in you belly for doing Gods work, amen?

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2) We, born again Christians, are all a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5: 17 says “therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” A new creation. What does that mean specifically. Well, our old self with our old habits, are dead. That is your first born being. Then you become born again, accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. As you get closer to Jesus, repenting through your journey, maturing along the way, your old self gets repressed. You may say to yourself that you still slip or drift so you must not have become born again. You can rededicate to Jesus. To be accurate, this change cannot happen without the help of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We do not have the power to change ourselves because we don’t have it in us to change. that power to turn around, to become righteous. But as Christ is in us, we can change. “We can do all things with through Him, Christ in us”, as said in Philippians 4:13.

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3) We, Christians, are all in the Body of Christ. What does this mean? Let’s break it down word by word. What does the body of anything? It is the physical structure of a thing, a person, or an animal, including the bones, flesh, and organs. It’s the inner and outer workings of a complete thing.

Next…who is Christ? Jesus Christ, The Messiah, the Savior. He is the son of God; the one who died for all of our sin…forever. He becomes our Lord and Savior when we accept Him as such. He becomes our master. What do we do for masters? Be obedient, even imitate them. How? By abiding in him. Abide means accept or act in accordance with.

John 15: 9-10…”Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

It’s kind of funny that when folks are asked, they might say, “well, it’s all of us and we are in Christ.” True statement but it does go deeper. Not only are we in Jesus Christ…He is in us. WHAT? I’m possessed? YES and NO, you are a possession, and you are adopted.

So, what is the Body of Christ? In Romans 12:4-5, Paul says…”For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

Do think you need someone to tell what to do. Do you need a master? Well, ask yourself this question…how’s your life going? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could give your burdens to someone to lighten your load. If, when, you accept Jesus as you Savoir, you can give them to Him. Maybe we need someone to take over to steer our lives and to guide us.

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4) We are all reconciled. All of us in the Body of Christ are reconciled. We’ve heard that before. What does it mean? It means to change from enmity (deep rooted hatred) to friendship. Strong words…YES!!! God hates prideful, selfish, loathsome, lazy, people. That’s who we were before accepting Christ as our Savior. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Paul says…” Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Jesus is righteous, we are not, even from birth. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”, as Paul said in verse 21. Jesus died for us…all of us…and took all of our sin.

All we have to do now is to believe in Him. Why believe in Him? What has Jesus done for me? Well, for starters, He died for you. And when you accept Him as your Lord and Savior, you will have everlasting life. Who else has died for you? Think about that for a few seconds (the list should be very short). Who else has given his life to save you in any way? Don’t feel bad. It’s a large thing to ask of anyone, let alone have it done for all of us over 2000 years ago. There is no greater thing to do than to lay down one’s life for another.

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5) We are children of God. We are the beloved. In John 1:12-13, Jesus says…”But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

We have an amazing daddy. We are all of different mothers, but have the same Father…AMEN? And what a family. If we all ate dinner together on Christmas, we would need a table the size of Canada…LOL.

And…being a child of God has many pluses.

A. We learn how we are loved and how to love.

B. We are taken care of.

C. We have the Bible, our instruction manual to help us get through our lives. D. We have a teacher…the Holy Spirit.

E. We don’t have to worry, get stressed, or anxious because we have the blessed assurance that we are taken care of and loved.

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6) We have issues and trials. Children of God have issues. Some are visible to everyone who sees you. They can be physical issues, financial issues, emotional or mental issues. As Christians, that is not an excuse to not be loving. Tell the truth...if you are asked, if you can handle things better as a child of God than those who are not Gods children? Yes, because you have the understanding that you are not alone. You can surrender to the Lordship of Jesus and trust Him to guide you through the Holy Spirit. You give Jesus your burdens and He helps you handle them. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says... “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” AMEN!!!

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There is a song that is sung by Chris Tomlin, called “Our God is Greater.” In it is the chorus…

Our God is greater, our God is stronger,

God You are higher than any other.

Our God is Healer, awesome in power,

Our God, Our God.

IIn John 16:33, Jesus says “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Trials, tribulations, issues, situations…stuff happens. But, as Jesus said, “He has overcome the world.” There’s another scripture, in Romans 8:31, Paul says “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? That is also in the Song.

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Stuff will happen. When things happen, first pray, then reach out to someone to pray for you and with you.

Now…there is one more thing that we all have in common…believer and non-believer. God loves us and does not want us to perish. He wants only the best for all of us. He wants us to be joyful, at peace, always hopeful, and feeling love that we cannot explain or believe.

In John 3:16-17, Jesus says “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.“ This is the new King James Translation. I prefer this because it says that we have everlasting like.

A couple of things about these 2 verses. The word “SO” translates to more than you can imagine. God is amazing, always blessing, always loving, and never changing. Do you have anyone in your life that is consistent? Think about that for a second. Who do you know that is always consistent yet full of surprises? We all have a few but, God goes over the top for His children. Not all are His children but we all can be, as I explained earlier.

How are we saved? By becoming born again. By accepting Jesus as your lord and Savior. By realizing that you cannot do this life that you are in without him. By realizing that you cannot find hope, joy, peace, and true love.

So, with these and many more things that we, the Body of Christ, have in common, why do we not act as one Body? We have the same head of our church…Jesus. It is what God desires. In 1 Corinthians 1:10, it says “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

Psalm 133:1 says Behold, “how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!”

God wants us to be together as well as work together. As He created our bodies and the many parts in it work together, our Heavenly father wants us to work together with the same kind of unity. We must lose the small things that we hold between us. We must look at each other with love, with joy, with grace and mercy, with hope to help, and to admonish or correct. Now when I say to correct, I mean admonish with love. Correct lovingly, of course. That doesn’t mean that you say what’s on your mind and not think about how it sounds because you have to say it bluntly. In Matthew 18:15 Jesus says... “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.” In Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus says...“Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”

There is no place that says that we do not love as Jesus love us!!! We always do things lovingly. Sometimes we get sterner in our profession, but always done in love. It sounds odd to criticize lovingly but it can be done if you love the person you are critiquing. The next time you criticize someone, take it slow, and do it lovingly. Many of us fall short when we do this as the moment is heated but that brings up another scripture in James 1:19, James, Jesus’s brother says…”This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;”. That’s definitely a topic for another day. But this helps when we practice it. When we do things as others that are not lovers and believers of Jesus Christ, we show that nothing is different in becoming a child of God. We are not better than those who have not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but we have found a better way to live this life. A life that brings peace, hope, joy, and last but not at all the least…love.

So, to conclude, is the Body of Christ well united? Think about it. As you do, think about all the things we have in common beyond what was mentioned in this message. We have a living God that loves us more than we deserve being loved. We gotta get along better. We need to leave the offering at the altar and settle things with our brothers and sisters. We need to own our mistakes to grow and mature in Christ. And, we need to love our family of Christ lovers. We don’t do these things very well, but we must try to. Be encouraged when you know that we all can get better at being united. The world needs to see hope somewhere. It’s not in the news; it’s not on the radio; it’s not in movies, it’s not in many religions. Peace is attained when you can trust and release your burdens, break you chains, the chains that bind you to temptations that you cannot control. But, with Jesus, you can overcome them.

I want to ask you to think about your life. Is everything going well? Do you know how your tomorrow is going to be? How do you feel? How are you taking care of yourself? Do you plan things or do you just go moment to moment? I don't want to tell you how to live your life, but I will suggest that you try to find hope, love, and peace. When your look for those, you can only find them in Jesus Christ.

Have you accepted Jesus as your lord and Savior? If you haven’t, I strongly suggest that you do. You will feel unimaginable and immeasurable love and hope…a hope that the world cannot give you. Please, let me pray this for you. Repeat after me if you feel it's time to accept or rededicate, to Jesus as your Savior…

{Prayer of Salvation}

If you repeated after me, you’ve accepted Jesus as your Savior and lord. congratulations and welcome to the family. Now, go find a bible teaching church and learn about Jesus. If you cannot find one, direct message me in this event page and I’ll help you find one wherever you are.

May you all feel the blessings of God going forward.

Let’s pray...