The Prayer of Unity

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to each of you. On behalf of myself and the entire leadership team at Living Faith Church, welcome to the first Sunday of 2025! Now, today we are going to be starting a new teaching series on prayer. And this is intentional because we are actually starting 21 days of fasting and prayer. Now I know that that each year when we announce 21 days of fasting and prayer there are a few who think, how am I going to pray every day for 21 days in a row. And that is a fair question. They average person only prays one time a week. But I believe that Living Faith Church is not an average church, and I believe that you can do this!

714 Prayer Updates

Earlier in 2024 I shared with you my passion for personal prayer teams. And if you were not around when I shared that, a personal prayer team is a team of 3-5 people that are praying for you on a weekly basis, or on an on-demand basis. This is what James was speaking of when he wrote in James 5:16

James 5:16 (NASB95)

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

I want to ask you a question.

What would that last meeting have been like if you had five people backing you up in prayer?

What could have changed during that little argument between you and your spouse if you had a team of people on standby waiting for you to text “pray now”?

What kind of peace would you experience if, before your next doctors appointment you could shoot a quick text, “going into the doctor, please pray”?

I think you need a prayer team! And that is why, we are refocusing our 714 prayer efforts and moving that online prayer platform into the Groups platform. If you are not in a group, I am telling you right now, this is the time to get in a group, sign up today! The foundation of these groups is relationship, and the power of these groups is the prayer that happens all around your life because of them.

Message Intro

Now, During these next 21 days, we are seeking the face of God, we are praying for breakthrough, healing, restoration of marriages. And during this season I want us to look at 4 mighty prayers that God loves to answer. How many of you know, there are prayers God can’t answer? Prayers of impure motives, prayers of doubt, prayers of unconfessed sins, prayers against Gods nature and will. But there are also prayers that are so rooted in Gods Word and will that He will not refuse to answer.

Next week we are going to look at the Prayer of a Clean Heart, a prayer some are afraid to pray. Then in week three we will look at the Prayer of Increase, a prayer that some are to shy to pray. In week four we will wrap this series up with the Prayer of Forgiveness, a prayer that some of us are too proud to pray. Today, I want us to look at a very powerful prayer, one that I think our church would be impacted mightily by. It’s a prayer that many don’t pray because we are too preoccupied. This is a selfless prayer, and I am calling this, The Prayer of Unity.

Jesus in John 17 not long long before He was betrayed by Judas prayed the prayer of unity over His disciples, and by relation, over the entire church.

John 17:20–22 (NASB95)

20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;

When I was young kid, around 10 years old, I was a part of a gang. I know I don’t look like I cold be a part of a gang, but believe it or not, we were bad to the bone. Now, some of you are looking at me like you don’t believe me, it’s OK, I’m used to it, my sister didn’t believe me either. When she heard about our gang, she thought we were cute, and colored us a little sign for our club house, I mean layer, with these cute little red, blue and green coloring crayons. Now, we did have this one girl in our gang. I kind of liked her, but my pal, he wasn’t too sure about having a girl in our gang. She came one day into our layer, and she had all kinds of ideas on carpet, decorations and paint and stuff. And we were just not all about that stuff. But, I wanted her to be a part, ‘cause I kinda liked her. But this buddy of mine was not going to change his mind. I started to realize that it was going to either be her, or him. And the problem was, without my pal, this was not a gang… it was more like a relationship. And, I thought being a gang was cool. So, we ousted the girl. And for a the next few days, things just were not right. As a matter of a fact, he was so convinced that she had infested our layer with her girl cooties that he tore the layer down and tried to rebuild it. But nothing was working right. By the end of the week, things were in such disarray. We were fighting, our club house/layer was in shambles, and we were just discouraged. It got so bad that we actually decided, we might need the girl back. Now, I share this story with you because this story represents many of us and the way that we pray. Far too often we pray these prayers of division, prayer of isolation.

Lord make them to see how wrong they are

Lord change their heart

Lord fix their attitude so that we can get along like we used to

But unknowingly, in the process of praying “Lord Fix Them”, we are tearing down our own temple, prayer by prayer - asking God to fix someone else, when - we are the ones needing repair. The more we cry, Lord fix them, the more hard our heart becomes, and the more distant we grow from, often, the people we love the most.

Most people never pray the prayer of unity because they are too busy praying these prayer of entitlement.

Psalm 133 is a powerful prayer by King David, a man who understood well the consequences of disunity and the favor that comes with unity. Read this with me.

Psalm 133:1–3 (NASB95)

1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!

2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron’s beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes.

3 It is like the dew of Hermon Coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forever.

He uses a few illustrations to reveal to us the blessing of unity.

Unity Is Radiant

Psalm 133:2 (NASB95)

2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron’s beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes.

This was a mixture of olive oil, myrrh, cinnamon, cane, and cassia. Exodus 30 tells us that this was used to anoint the levitical leaders for the work of ministry. It was used to consecrate, it was medicinal, and it smelled amazing- and the fragrant was long lasting. Honestly, even without a priestly garment, the fragrance alone would inform anyone nearby that this is a person set a part for the holy work of the Lord. And the Psalmist says, this is how unity is. Unity is radiant! People all around you can smell unity in your home, unity in your work place, unity in your church.

It’s amazing how our our sense of smell works. A little over a year ago Stella started smelling something in our home. It smelled like bad food. We cleaned the garbage disposal, took out the trash, washed the trash can, cleaned the refrigerator. We tried it all and the smell was still there. Finally we asked google why our house smelled like bad food. That lead us to calling 811, only to find out, we actually had gas leak!

Some of your homes, some of your workplaces, some of your teams you are leading - they have a smell. It’s not the smell of unity. It’s a bad smell, and it too is radiant. Everyone around you smells it. It’s smells like anger, greed, lust, bitterness and pride. The funny things is, you smell it too- but you’ve misdiagnosed your problem. You’ve tried getting a new job, you’ve tried moving into a new home, you’ve tried buying a new car; you’ve tried fixing your spouse, some have even tried getting a new spouse! But what you need to do make a call out to heaven and pray - A Payer Of Unity. The issue at hand is not your spouse, it’s not your job, it’s not your financial condition, it is the lack of unity. You are selfish, proud, and entitled and the Lord says to you today-

I’m not answering the prayer “Lord fix them”

I”m not answering the prayer “Lord make them leave”

I’m not answering the prayer “Lord help them see how right I am”

The prayer the Lord will answer, is the prayer He has already prayed for you -

John 17:21 (NASB95)

21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

There are times when it is actually more important to be in unity than it is to be right. I’m not talking about compromising Scripture, or synchronizing the Gospel with some other form of religion. I’m talking about laying down your right to be right and and asking yourself one really big question. Is it worth being right, if in the process of proving myself I loose the relationship entirely. Paul implored the church of Ephesus:

Ephesians 4:

Ephesians 4:2–3 (NASB95)

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,

3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace

Unity Is Refreshing

See, the other thing the David learned through his years of leading the nation of Israel was that unity refreshes people.

Psalm 133:3 (NASB95)

3 It is like the dew of Hermon Coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forever.

This dew that King David speaks of would fall upon the leaves and ground and provide refreshment to these trees and bare ground that would during the hot days become dry and parched. And if you are living in disunity right now, you know exactly what dry and parched feels like. You’ve gone through a season of fighting, of proving yourself, of laying in bed at night thinking angry thought, and waking up with heartburn from last nights feud. And the truth is, right now, if the verdict proved you right, it would only be like starting a forest fire. What you need is not to be proven right- you need to pray the prayer of unity. Not Lord Make Me Right, but Lord Make Us One!

The prayer of unity is healing, the prayer of unity is refreshing, the prayer of unity softens your heart and makes new life grow, where before things died.

Let me tell you, when you pray the prayer of unity, you will begin to see things differently. You see things differently because you make yourself available to receive from God what He has in store for you. Remember, He has already prayed this prayer over your life- and this is why this prayer is so powerful!

What if you could see things differently?

What if, being right didn’t matter as much as it did yesterday?

What if humility opened the windows of heaven from God to move on your behalf?

This is a reality, because when we are in Christ, we should have the mind of Christ. Paul reminded us of this in 1 Corinthians 1.

1 Corinthians 1:10 (NASB95)

10 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.

Response To Unity

The prayer of unity is a prayer that God loves to answer! And I believe that there are some of us in this room today, you’ve been praying the wrong prayer. The prayer of entitlement, the prayer of pride, selfishness and retaliation. But today, I would like to lead you in the first prayer of unity. With every eye closed, if you know you need to pray this prayer- and you are willing to pray it with me, raise your hand in agreement.

Lord, I begin by praying the prayer of Colossians 3:14 over my friends right now- that you would bind us together in perfect harmony. I pray that you would bind their marriages together in harmony, bind their parenting relationships together in harmony, their employment relationships together in harmony. Lord, we give you permission to tear down pride, to dismantle the idol of selfishness. Lord, we pray give us a humble heart of love. Father, we pray that you would begin with us. All those prayers that we have prayed asking you to fix the other person, today we are asking you to work in us. As you prayed, make us one with you Lord! And may the oil of unity flow from heaven onto us making us radiant with your presence. Amen.

Salvation Response

Maybe you are here today and you’re not fighting with your spouse, or with your boss, or kids. But you have been fighting with God. Maybe you are in a battle with God as to who is going to be right or wrong. I’ve been there before myself. But, we must remember that God is our creator. And as much as we want to be in control of our own life, He is God and we are not. And I’m going to go out on a limb today and guess that, if you are here, sitting in this service today, and you are not a follower of Christ, it is because there is a thought in your mind that He just might be right. The Bible, in the book of Romans tells us this little truth about our life.

“23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. “ Romans 6:23 - (ESV)

We know that sin leads to death – you’ve felt the sting, and pain of sin. The good news is this, the Bible tells us that because of Jesus, this gift of forgiveness , and free life, it’s a free git! I want to pray with you right now to receive this gift. If you would say, I want God’s forgiveness, I want to accept this gift of life, I want Jesus to live in my heart, raise your hand so I know who I am praying for.

“Heavenly Father, I trust You to save me through Your Son, Jesus.  Forgive me for all of my sins.  Make me brand new.  Because You died for me, I want to live for You.  Fill me with Your Spirit, so I could follow You.  Jesus, You’re now my Lord and the Savior of my life.  Take my life.  It is Yours.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.”