Sermon Tone Analysis

Our House will look like Heaven

Ephesians 2:11-22

“Church Rules”

Our House will prioritize Unity

Our House will look like Heaven

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VBS video -7I Am really really excited about our new sermon series that we will begin today.

I feel it is very important to talk about what the non essentials are for us as a church every now and then.

It is good if you are new to FBA to know a little bit more about who we are and what makes us us.

When our kids were little we had “HOUSE RULES” if you will.

Anyone else.

Yea when they were little it was like no jumping on the furniture/ quite biting your brother (don’t want to call any names our for that one Kelsey).

THEN as they got older it was be home by curfew / no lying (man this was a big one at our house.

Not that my kids lied it was just one that I couldn’t take.

I am like if you tell me the truth I promise we will get through it.

So house rules change with the seasons.

This season that FBA WE are in right now is an exciting one.

The building is about to go up (speaking of that Bro Ken Birdsong next week is going to update us where we are.

I now you see some movement over there so keep looking / keep watching a building will be up soon.

God is good) so this season is one that we are going to have to be intentional about reminding ourselves of these rules.

TODAY’s RULE IS :OUR HOUSE WILL PRIORITIZE UNTIYTalk about unity.

This is one of those subjects that when you hear it you really don’t think that it is that important but it is tremendously important to a churches impact on reaching the community for Christ.

If you study the book of ACTS you’ll find the first church that is birthed.

The Holy spirit falls upon believers and many were saved and added to their number daily.

tells us about the 1st church in Jerusalem.

The first church said that they all gathered together and had everything in common.

What was that everything?

LIFE.

They were unified in and through their relationship with each other BECAUSE of their relationship with Christ Jesus.

It is our desire here at FBA that we be UNIFIED body of believers.

Please understand this morning that all churches have conflict.

Great churches follow a biblical model for handling it.

In Acts chapter 6 there was a complaint/ conflict/ a dispute that arose within this New Testament church.

(did not take long did it?)

The Hellenistic Jewish woman and the Amaric Jewish women.

The Hellenistic Jewish women felt as if they were being overlook in their daily distribution of food.

(They thought it may have been on purpose) This is the first sense of DISUNITY in the church.

Out of this GREAT CHURCH because they handle the conflict biblically we see through Simon Peter that the first deacon body was elected.

Here is something that I want you to think about.

Acts chapter 5 right before Acts chapter 6 the first disagreement that we just talked about, Acts chapter 5 we see the disciples preaching the Gospel and while they were doing so they were arrested.

While they were in prison through a miracle they were release from prison through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit of God, and as soon as they are released they go out into the temple guard and began to preach the Gospel again.

When the prison guard comes by and realizes that these men have escaped they began to freak out (Greek word) and all of the others tell them you do not have to go very far to find them they are right outside in the temple court preaching the gospel the same thing the were doing when they were arrested.

So the prison guards run out to arrest these men again however when they arrive (all of this in chapter 5, good stuff) they don’t arrest them violently because they are afraid/ intimidated by the New Testament church.

The church was unified/ one accord.

Now Acts chapter 6 we see the first disunity the first bickering then (here is the point ) further along in we see the 1st martyr in the church by the name of Steven.

Where was the church when Steven was being martyred?

You with me.

Some of you are saying now Pastor Brian that is a little bit of a stretch, maybe it is.

Look at the facts.

Church unified in chapter 5 Peter and John being arrested but they are not stoned because the church is right there and unified and powerful then in Stephen is stoned as a martyr because the church is now divided.

Here is what I believe about the church.

I believe that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ because that is what the word of God says.

I BELIEVE THE CHURCH UNITED IS THE HOPE OF THIS WORLD.

But I believe the church a church that is divided in disunity is a church that will see the enemy continue to take ground and while we (church) have been bickering and fight over the last several decades: the is no longer prayer in school / abortion is provided on demand in our country while we in the church have been arguing of the finer points of theology/ praise and worship songs verses hymns/ Sunday school verses life groups/ certain parts of theology that really don’t make a difference in eternity.

While we have been divided we have lost ground in our culture and I believe that it is time for the church to unite under a common Savior named Jesus Christ and let’s do this thing the right way the way that our God intended us to do it the Gods word says that The Gates of hell shall not prevail against His bride.

Unity is the desire of the Savior.

Because Unity is the desire of our savior it is the dread of Satan.

I think about this as a father I love it when my KIDS get along.

It doesn’t happen a whole lot but when it does it is a sweet sweet thing in our house.

When they are loving each other there is UNITY.

That is the love of the Father for us His childrenLet’s take a moment to define unity.

There are literally hundreds of definition to define unity but for today we will use this one.

UNITY is a diverse people (different ages, different genders, different skin color, different parts of the country that we are from) that are indivisible in our pursuit for the Glory of God.

That is what a church ought to be.

A diverse group of people coming together indivisible meaning not able to divide in our pursuit of our Glory to God in our generation.

Church that is unity.

Listen to what Paul says in 0 I appeal to you, brothers,[a] 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.

You may ask is FBA a church that is united.

I would say one of the reasons that our Heavenly Father has blessed his church called FBA in the last 10 years is because we have been a people united to share Christ name and make His name known.

Now do we have little skirmishes every now and then that pop up yes, pockets of disunity yes sometimes.

Let me just say this why we are here on this point: if you stay here for any length of time I promise you are probably going to disagree with me or someone around you.

We are human beings.

But I will say this here; we want to disagree the right way.

speaks clearly to how?

We don’t talk about people here at FBA we talk to them.

Does that make sense?

How do we do that?

I don’t know of any other way than the word of God so here we go.STAND READ PRAYHow WILL WE BE A CHURCH THAT WILL PRIORITIZE UNITY?

One truth we need to understand this morning is that you cannot create unity.

That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

I cannot create unity as I cannot make grass grow in my yard.

It is a supernatural work that seed has to burst to make the grass grow.

Now a few things need to happen to help it, water, nutrients, grass is for sure not going to grow.

So all we can do is protect unity when the Holy Spirit has gone before us in people’s lives.

So again we cannot create all we can do is protect and this passage is going to help us understand this truth.

passageV1 Paul says he is a prisoner of the Lord.

Paul is not using a metaphor here he is literally in prison writing this letter to the church of Ephesus from a Roman prison.

Nero was the leader at this time and he was an incredibly evil man who hated Christians.

This is how committed Paul is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

V1 Paul writes “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

now part of that calling that we have to Jesus Christ is that we would die to our needs and come alive to what Jesus Christ would have us to do in our generation.

The other calling that we have is to live in a body.

Part of this series is to recap the vision and mission of the local OUR church.

God has created you and I not to live in isolation but to live in a body among other believers.

LISTEN this is hard.

Because they think differently/ they act differently, and if we are not careful than disunity may begin to take place.

“I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

and then Paul list three virtues.

If you want to have unity in your marriage/ in your workplace/ in your home/ or in any kind of relationship with your friends/ if you are going to have unity inside the church it will be these three virtues that have to be present every time.

In fact I would go as far as to say if there is a relational problem in any arena of our life we could look back and see that somebody has violated one of these virtues.

It will destroy relationships/ it will destroy churches.