Unified in Christ

Good morning, this morning I would like to preach on the unity of the Church. We as the Church must be unified. This morning, I would like to ask everyone to turn with me to the book of Philippians chapter 2. In all of chapter 2, Paul talks about how we can take steps to be unified in Christ. The Christian walk isn’t always an easy one and we must be willing to fight together. United we stand, apart we fall. This morning, I would like to ask everyone to stand as we do our very best to reverence the reading of God’s word.

Read Philippians 2:1-4 and Pray

Verse 1. Paul starts off by telling us to have consolation in Christ. In this verse and the context that Paul is writing consolation means, encouragement, comfort, solace, exhortation, and strengthening. This is where unity must start, we must encourage one another in Christ because he is the source our comfort, solace, exhortation, and strength. Without Christ we have none of these things. Comfort of love. There is a comfort that comes for the love of Christ. This love that Christ has shown to us should stir us to keep the unity as the Church. Look around the world it's a cold and loveless place that is against unity. We are to love one another in the same agape love that Christ had for us, it’s a selfless and sacrificial love. If we would allow the love of Christ to flow through us, and we would allow ourselves to just let go of everything else, imagine the unity that could be had. There would be no bitterness, anger, or strife, the words Church hurt would not exist anymore. We as humans cannot resolve any conflict within the Church on our own, this takes fellowship with the Spirit. We can look at Peter and John, they had a natural clash between their personalities. Peter was a doer, and John was a dreamer. A lot of time in Church we will have a difference of opinions, this doesn’t mean that it should automatically lead to a conflict. We need to find a common ground and work together; and the Holy Spirit will provide this. At the end of verse 1, we see Paul talking about the Bowels and mercies, these two words can be translated to Affection and Compassion. To have unity within the Church we must have affection and compassion towards each other.

Verse 2. Paul talks about fulfilling his Joy in Christ how do we do this? We do this with unity within the Church. A body of believers will usually have joy in Christ, but our joy can be fulfilled only if there is unity among us. Joy within the church can be disturbed when there is criticism, dissatisfaction, grumbling, murmuring, opposition and other forms of negativities. We must come to Church with a heart set on worship, planning, organizing, programs, building, ministering, and having a joyful heart for Christ. How do we achieve this goal? By being likeminded, having the same love, be of one accord, and being of one mind. We must look to Christ for all these things, this cannot be achieved on our own. We must stop majoring in the miners if we ever expect unity to happen. We need to focus our eyes on Christ and spread the gospel. If we are the body of the Church, then why do the arms and legs not work together under the authority of the headship of Christ. This is a problem in a lot of Churches today, we as Christians want changes within our Churches but we do not want to work together to achieve that goal. Unity starts with us being willing to come together under the headship and authority of Jesus Christ.

Verse 3. We must let nothing be done in strife or vainglory. Strife will pull everyone down, and vainglory will lift oneself up higher than everyone else. We must live our lives in Spirit of lowliness and humility. Paul isn’t saying that we are to consider ourselves more or less gifted than others or more or less capable than others. This is a false humility that will depreciate the acknowledgment of one’s gifts. Pretending that we do not have abilities give to us by God isn’t a sign of humility, but hypocrisy. We must never esteem ourselves better than anyone else in the Church. Humility is the opposite of conceit or selfish ambitions. We must be humble enough to pray for the advancements of others. We need to be a people that have the affections of God’s people in mind. If we can do this, we will never come across as bossy, pushy, but quiet, godly, an unassuming people who are always seeking the best for our fellow Christians. We must be a Church full of people like Barnabas.

Verse 4. If we only seek our own goals and advancements, that is a worldly view. We must pray for the advancements of others, not only in there lives outside of Church, but we need to pray for their spiritual advancement. We need to pray for a growth in their gifts from God. If we listen to what Paul is telling us, we will have a larger view of life. If we just view ourselves as the most important thing in life, we tend to be narrow, selfish. If we seek unity, and we seek to promote the interests and well-being of everyone in the Church. That will lead us to a better Church life a more unified Church. This will reset the fire for soul winning, Church growth, mission work, ministry work, and will lead us to a closer Church fellowship. Let’s do all of this for the glory of God.

Closing

This morning, the Lord has led me to preach on being unified in Christ. The only way we can change the world around us is to be a unified front under the headship of Jesus Christ. We must be willing to let go and let God take control. If anyone would know what’s best the Church of the Living God in my mind that would be God. If there is anyone that’s here this morning that isn’t saved, I’d like to ask you to raise your hand. I just want to pray for you, I’d never embarrass anyone, I’ll just pray for you. If anyone would be honest to say preacher, I need to be more open to unity. I want to work for the kingdo