Unity at Any Cost

Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with 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.

Romans 12:18 ESV

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

Introduction

Today were going to talk for a few minuites about one of the most important topics in the church..

An its not money..

Its not attendance…

Its not even serving..

Its a topic that invovles our relationship with one another..

and the way we interact..

Unity

And asside from salvation..

one of the most important things we can works towards is unity..

Being of one mind, one heart, and one spirit..

Scripture

And the bible teaches us, especially through the apostle paul..

That we are to strive for unity at any cost..

becuase its that important..

division

Additionally, Jesus warbs us in matthew twelve about the dangers of division.. the opposite of unity.

We we states that a kingdom divided against itself will fall..

Unity is extremely important to our accomplishment of our god given purpose..

both individually and corperatly..

Context

The apostle paul writes over and over again to the churches under his care about the topic of unity..

I just read from three different letters to three different churches..

and in each of pauls letters to almost every church he writes..

He includes the topic..

Thats how vital the apostle knew unity to be..

The passage I want us to focus on today though is the epheisians passage..

Chapter 4:1-6

Where paul gives us a paradigm if you will for how we walk inj unity..

Unity must be the way we walk

Paul begins in verse 1 and says..

Ephesians 4:1 ESV

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

Everyone say walk..

We have talked about that word walk before..

Paul it not talking about taking a stoll.

but when the aposlte paul tells us to walk he is telling us

this is the way you should live your life..

Walking.. is action..

It is doing..

Paul is saying in the way you act..

in the way you talk..

in the descisions you make..

Do it in a manner that is worthy of the calling you have been called..

Called

What calling is he talking about?

he is talking about our calling to follow Jesus..

Our salvation..

Just like when Jesus called the disicples to come and follow him..

And they left everything and began to WALK a new way..

WALK the way Jesus did in everything he did..

Peter tells us this in:

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We have been called out of darkness..

We have been called to follow Jesus..

And we excepted that called, we repented of our sins..

and we were saved..

So paul now tells us..

SINCE CHRIST CALLED YOU..

SINCE YOU ARE WALKING IN THAT CALLING..

WALK WORTHY OF IT..

WALK IN A WAY THAT PROVES YOU ARE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST..

IN A WAY THAT GLORIFIES GOD..

ACT

2 John 6 ESV

And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

When we come to christ..

We are expected to walk and act like christ..

not our old self..

We must walk out the new life..

WE MUST TAKE ACTION

be intentionall about what we doo..

And paul tells us that one of those intentional things we must do..

Its work to live in unity with one another..

What is Unity?

So what is unity?

Unity is the state of being united or joined as a whole..

In mathmatics..

Unity is the number one..

So when we talk about being unified..

we are talking about being one..

Acts 2:1 (KJV)

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

They were one..

In one mind.

When we talk about being unified..

Diversity

we are not talking about doing away with the things that make us diverse..

God is a god of diversity..

There will be many different kings of people in heaven..

will all kinds of personalities, races, and cultures..

UNITY

what we are talking about is coming together as one body..

One group..

One unit..

Paul talks about this in 1 corinthians

1 Corinthians 12:12 ESV

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

Unity is not the doing away with of variation amoung us..

but it is the coming together to create one body centered around a central thing..

So what is that thing?

What are we to be unified around?

What are we to be unified around?

and the question Rather is who..

The bible tell us the center of our unity..

what brings us together as one..

and binds us together as a body..

and the center is christ..

Look what paul writes in verse 4-6

Ephesians 4:4–6 ESV

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.

Our unity does not center around a pastor..

its doesnt center around a denomonation..

It doesnt center around Freedom Church..

Our unity centers around Jesus christ..

and his purpose, his will, his direction, his guidance..

It centers around the oneness of God..

Look what pauls writes in:

1 Corinthians 3:11 ESV

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

and in galatians 3:28

Galatians 3:28 ESV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Christ is the one who brings us together..

The one we are unified by is christ..

Not ourselves..

its his church..

his body..

not ours..

Act like him..

But if the body is his..

then gues what?

in order to be unified..

we have to make sure the things we do..

the things we say..

the way we act..

is his as well..

because if its not..

Then we begin to cause division..

We either act as christ did..

and do what christ wants..

and operate in his purpose and will..

or we cause division..

so how do we create unity?

How do we create unity?

Paul tells us this as well in this passage..

Verse 2-3

Ephesians 4:2–3 ESV

with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Paul tells us we have to humble ourselves to one another..

And ill be honest..

Humility..

is the key to unity..

Both before God and each other..

humility

what is humility?

humility is a modest or low veiw of ones importance..

humility is not low self esteem..

Its not thinking less of yourselve..

Rather, like walking, humility is an action..

It is the lowering of yourself in importance..

Of our thoughts, opinions, stature, importance..

Jesus talked about humility often..

Because the pharisees had a big issue with it..

they refused to be humble..

Jesus taught that the first will be last and the last will be first..

He taught if you went to a baquet and sit at the worst spot at the table not the best..

that the head would be the tail and the tail the head..

Jesus even tols the disicples that he came to humble himself to mankind..

HUMILITY IS THE CHOICE TO BE LEAST IMPORTANT BEFORE OTHERs..

Important for unity

when it comes to christ..

We have to humble ourselves to god..

to his will..

his plan..

his purpose..

Just like John the baptist said..

we must decrease and he must increase..

We have to be willing to pur asside our wants, desires, and opinions to embrace Gods..

and as we corperately do that we come together around christ..

Others

but we must do this with each other as well..

Humble ourselves to one another..

Giveing prefence as paul wrote..

to one another..

Striving for peace and unity at all cost..

sometimes that simly means being quite

prevent fights instead of causing them..

we get all out of wack over silly things..

and because of it it brings division

why?

because we think our oppinions are the most important..

our way of doing things is the most important..

we are right!

and instead of helping..

we cause division..

We have to be willing to humble ourselves to one another..

God gave us a great biblical example of this..

God has demonstrated perfect unity for us in the scripture.

We find a beautiful picture of unity in the action and workings of the trinity

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

The trinity

The father, son, and holy spirit work together in perfect unison..

to accomplish the will of the God head..

In the cross event alone we see

the father willed it,

the accomplished it

and the spirit applies it..

In creation we see

the father spoke..

the spirit created..

and the son was the conduit…

The father son and holy spirit are and example for us to follow..

no one greater.. no one lesser..

but all in one mind and one accord centered around the will of god..

each one bending and bowing to what is needed to accomplish the will of God..

We must be willing to be humble..

and learn to give and let be more than stir the pot..

Sin and Selfishness are the enemies of unity

Sin and the selfesh hearts are the seeds of division..

look at what happened in the garden or eden..

The garden event

man walked in oneness and unity in the garden until sin entered..

then division between god and man came..

why?

because the selfesh heart wanted to be like god..

sin was born and division began..

Selfeshness leads to sin..

and

Sin causes disision..

Isaiah 59:1–2 ESV

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

We have to put out selfish heart in check..

and give preference to god and one another..

Why is unity important?

I already told you Jesus spoke of the downfall of kingdoms..

the opposite of unity is disvision..

and if we refuse to walk in unity we cause just that..

look what Jesus says..

Matthew 12:25 ESV

Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

we must be unitied at all cost..

we must humble ourselves to god and each other..

Our purpose depends on it..

If not, we will not accomplish what God has for us as a body or an individual..

Join hands with the person next to you..

lets pray for unity.