Strength in Number: God Requires Unity
Notes
Transcript
Strength in Numbers: God Requires Unity
As we are stewarding this year and shifting out of old mindsets and ascending to greater levels of maturity we need to understand that one of the greatest strengths of stewardship is UNITY, genuine and authentic UNITY. God requires Unity in order for us to steward well there has to be someone there or a group of people involved with our stewardship process. Stewardship requires UNITY.
Unity: the quality or state of not being multiple: ONENESS. It is also defined a condition of HARMONY. Finally continuity without deviation or change.
It is a word that is often used for gatherings that a group of people are advocating for a just cause in the sight of those group of people.
There are various times that you can recall throughout time for social groups. Now don’t kill me but you have groups like the KKK and BLM and the LGBTQ+ community all three groups establish a unified front regarding their stance on matters that they believe and feel are what matter most to them, and how others should back their causes.
But then you have the Christian community and how we can be scattered concerning anything from politics to race matters, from social matters to denominational indoctrination beliefs? Today I am here to appeal to you GOD REQUIRES UNITY in HIS KINGDOM!
God NEVER intended for us to be divided at all. In fact God didn’t want us divided from Him and that is why He sent His son, Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross. Our unified belief should be GOD and God alone, that He sent His son to die for the sake of all, and that through Jesus Christ death it would unify us back to Him once again.
But we have allowed man to give their stances and persuading people into believing one thing or another. This is why according to 2 Tim 2:14-19 it explicitly instructs us to study to show ourselves approved to God, to shun ignorant teachers of the Word because it will spread the ignorance of those teachers all the more. Causing there to be a perversion of His Word to cover the nations and making it highly difficult to draw people back to Him genuinely.
14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
This is why it is critical that once you give your life to Christ find a church that just teaches THE BIBLE not their indoctrinational beliefs that coast away from His truth.
Here are scriptures that solidify the foundation of what we will be talking about today:
1 How wonderful, how beautiful,
when brothers and sisters get along!
2 It’s like costly anointing oil
flowing down head and beard,
Flowing down Aaron’s beard,
flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.
3 It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon
flowing down the slopes of Zion.
Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing,
ordains eternal life.
Acts 2:1-3 …. Pentecost
Acts 2:1–3 (MSG)
1 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. 3 Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks,
God shows up and He makes Himself comfortable when we gather intentionally for worship whenever we gather. This is not a special nature of God it is His principle. Where there are two or three there I am also…. It truly is that simple. You want God at your services? Show up intentionally for Him.
Acts 4:31–32 after Pentecost
Acts 4:31–32 (MSG)
31 While they were praying, the place where they were meeting trembled and shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak God’s Word with fearless confidence.
32 The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything.
In Unity there is no LACK!
That means if your pastor calls a fast, fast, if they are praying, pray, if they are reading something, read it with them pray that God would give you clarity for understanding because the Lord says if ANY MANY ASK FOR WISDOM I will give to them LIBERALLY!!! If another partner asks you to for the same request. We will do it READILY!!!
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Philippians 1:27 and 2:2, focus of Christ in verse 5
Philippians 1:27 (MSG)
27 Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news,
Philippians 2:1–5 (NLT)
1 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Our ATTITUDE determines our level of UNITY to the things of God!
Phil. 2:12-14 you can’t help others if you are not working on yourself. People can get lost in benevolent servanthood to not work on themselves and that is poor accountability and stewardship. God is not going to fix the areas that He has given us the authority to bring order to. (Every weight and sin you lay it aside).
Striving to be our best self according to the Word determines how well we are in Unity with others.
TIME IN THE WORD brings UNITY.
Philippians 2:12–14 (MSG)
12 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. 13 That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed!
Integrity with His Word establishes Unity through your conduct in the earth.
Ephesians 2:1-10 listen we get caught up in the works piece sometimes as if the work is not needed to be put in, and that is lie from the pit of hell. Satan comes to bring complacency with this text, why, because it can give you the belief that there is no work needed on our part because grace is going to cover you in your sin and disobedience of the word where we MUST WALK OUT (do the work) our own SALVATION with what fear (the fear of God not judgment, but because we know that behavior contrary to a life in Christ would look like). For example can you tell yourself to lose weight and it just fall off? Or can you encourage somebody else to lose weight, and it will cause you to lose weight? No? So why do we do so much for others that we wouldn’t and don’t even do for ourselves?
Practicality and transparency creates unity.
You doing something so amazing for somebody and you turning around looking for God to do for you is poor stewardship. If you have something leftover after you handled your business, great, if not then try to help others where you are.
Ephesians 2:1–10 (MSG)
1 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. 2 You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. 3 We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. 4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, 5 he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! 6 Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. 8 Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! 9 We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! 10 No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
Which brings me to…. this scripture…
Ephesians 5:28 talking about unity…. Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies…. Looks at myself…. Now I can’t encourage my wife to be healthy if I’m looking this big. That’s the wrong kind of unity. My job is to lead her to a healthy and Godly lifestyle.
Ephesians 5:28 (ESV)
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
So here we have unity with unhealthy habits. I get it life can sometimes get the best of me but I had no business letting myself go, yes I’m happy, but I also need to be healthy. Unity requires being healthy in the body of Christ.
Healthy:
language
living
behaviors
activities
These are things that are established in UNITY
When we express unhealthy habits and behaviors we will always find ourselves outside of unity. Being overweight is a component that leads people that are obese to depression and anxiety. It is a proven fact according to the National Council on Aging (NCOA) adults with excess weight have a 55% chance of developing depression and anxiety over their lifetime compared to others that don’t struggle with obesity.
So we should never allow ourselves to not help us before helping others. Especially when it comes to actually living in a healthy state of being. Scripture Matt 7:1-5. Allow those who can assist you with self accountability in the areas that you have not developed discipline in. You will know them by their works (fruit).
Matthew 7:1–5 (MSG)
1 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. 2 That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. 3 It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. 4 Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? 5 It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
Unity is also knowing where you are so that others can see where you are and help you become better. Remember a chain is only as starting as its weakest link. So when we as a church aren’t doing this we are not showing unity as a reflection of His Body.
Another form of unity is sharing the Word of God like this message if every Christian friend on my friend’s list shared this post it would spread the Unity of God’s Word. The reality is this, this is not a word that they like or even you, so you won’t share it. Do you see how we are no different from the world? Somebody needs to hear this message. There is somebody who has felt rejected by a church, but they are listening to this message and seeing that church is a place to connect to and that there are people who desire to see me in a better place there.
Watcher I am talking to you God REQUIRES UNITY if you didn’t feel like that there was an atmosphere where they were happy that you were there take it to the pastor. Yes, take it straight to them, this lets them know that they are not a reflection of God’s word of this component. We are to: Extend, Empower, Expand! God’s churches are to be models of UNITY not DIVISION.
Why is it that we are more comfortable with tearing down than building up? Constructively tearing down is one thing, but when is there ever a time….?
God desires for us to be Unified.
As we are being unified with the Father through reading His Word and studying, we are becoming better for the world at large not just the church, but to become change agents in the earth.
God Requires Unity