Disunity

1 Corinthians 1: 10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

I have said that „If we do not move forward with God, then we will die“Let me explain this statement to you. Am I saying if we don’t take this building then we will die? I don’t think so, but I do know this. When faced with something so big, something that will cost us substance of spirit, soul and body, many things will be revealed.

The most important thing that is revealed is not how much money, prayer, energy, faith, etc is there, but something much more important. How much unity and disunity is there.

Disunity leads to the death of God’s plans as it pertains to us, because we take ourselves out of the plan by not entering in, by running away, by being distracted from the real issue. “God’s will”

When you look at the story in the Old Testament about the Israelites going into the Promised Land, the real problem was not fear, power, leadership or any of those things.

The real problem was the disunity that they brought from Egypt. It surfaced at every difficult situation along the way. Statements like “Let’s choose another leader and return to Egypt” or “Who made you leader”, and even “it was better the way that it was before, it is better to suffer in Egypt than to die in this desert.”

This kind of disunity is what stops the people of God from going forward and eventually leads to a slow death. Their energy drains out, internal bleeding begins, no strength to move forward.

They had three kinds of Disunity.

Disunity with God.

God said vs. what the people said

Disunity with the leaders that God put in.

They only relay what God said and go where he leads.
No faith in this fact is disunity (funny that we can believe that God speaks to us, but not our leaders)

Disunity with one another.

When must have everything fit our agenda, life style, our plans, our timetables, etc… then disunity is pre-programmed.
Neither, God or anyone else’s plans will fit with yours.

Why have votes? To decide whether we take the building? Not really, but to reveal the unity or disunity. This is the Doctor diagnosing the problem.

What does disunity sound like? You being to hear people talk about problems, so many problems,never really attempting to work together and solve anything, blaming, complaining, comparing, and many of these things are disguised in the name of prayer. But when you ask for names, actual problems, all you get is smiling faces, not even an acknowledgement that there is a problem. These are some of the signs internal bleeding and eventually death.

“I almost died a few years ago, did you know that? “Internal bleeding”.

Something got inside of me and was eating me. I began to bleed and got weaker and weaker. It continued to live inside of me for years, until I was so weak and lost so much blood that I almost died. The answer, was the same for my body as it is for the Body of Christ.

Stop the bacteria on the inside; You have to stop the foreign creature from destroying you internally. Antibiotics are a radical attack against the alien inside. Send out the army against the attacker.

Reduce the acid; The acid of your stomach is amazingly strong. Only in your stomach is the lining just right to contain this strong acid. If a part of the lining is destroyed the acid begins to eat your stomach. You begin to digest yourself. If acid comes up your throat you can feel the burning immediately. The acid that was created to digest other substances and bring nourishment to the body has to be contained again to no longer eat us.

Take acid reducing pills
Had to Change my diet (smaller portions, more often, the right foods)

Philippians 4: 2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Rejoice, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things

Get healed; Philippians 2: 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped
did not consider equality with My home group leader something to be grasped
did not consider equality with Pastor something to be grasped
did not consider equality with Anyone something to be grasped

Are we grasping for God’s position? If we are calling the shot, if we are the ones that determine our own destinies, then yes we are grasping for equality with God (like Adam in the Garden, Sin)

Consider others (not only God) better than yourselves, Each of you should look not only to your own interests, (are the interests of others important to us?) but also to the interests of others.…but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!