Untitled Sermon

United

HELLO!

HOW ARE WE DOING!!

If you have your Bibles we are going to be in Philippines 4 tonight.

Option 1

Fables are fictional stories used to teach a specific moral or lesson. One of the most famous collections of these fables is called Aesop’s Fables.

Though the stories were made up and usually used animals as main characters, we still have a lot to learn from them.

For example:

A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell.

Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them.

At last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field.

Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four.

The lion in the fable knew that as long as the four oxen stayed together he didn’t stand a chance against them.

However, the minute the four oxen decided to split up, their power through numbers disappeared.

The lion resumed his attack and triumphed.

Similarly, the Bible tells us that we have an adversary in Satan who prowls about like a lion seeking someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8).

We talked about this at Surge-

Satan loves to attack the body of Christ—the church—because he knows that if he can get us isolated, he can take us down by making us unproductive in the kingdom of God.

God has commissioned the church to take the message of the gospel to the nations. His plan is to use us as part of the local church to build the kingdom.

When we are united through the cross, we stand as an undeniable force for the gospel.

God’s heart for us is to be a unified, powerful front against the schemes of the evil one.

Not only is unity a critical line of defense, it is also crucial to our task of carrying the gospel to the nations.

• What are some common causes of division within churches today?How might we begin to address those divisions?

Tonight we are going to be talking about Unity, joy and peace--

The word unity pops up in discussions about all kinds of groups of people—families, friends, churches, the government, races and ethnicities, and the list goes on.

Where there are people in this sin-filled world, there will always be a little disunity.

But believers should be different.

As Joni Eareckson Tada explained it, “Believers are never told to become one—we’re already one and are expected to act like it.”

We are already one in Christ—and we are not “in Christ” because of anything we have done (so there should be no competition between believers), but because of what He has done for us all.

• What are somethings we should remember as we work toward unity in the church?

When we think of joy we think:

Happy, and wild flowers, and rainbow and gummy bears-

But if you recall over the summer we talked a bit about joy:

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

We talked about love and then joy and so on and so forth.

Love was really easy to talk on- for the most part we know what love is.But I tell you what I had the hardest time with Joy.

And I really have no idea why.I am over all a pretty positive person, I tend to look at everything with optimism and a smile.But this idea of joy dumbfounded me.

I mean think about the last time you said you were joyful?or the last time you heard someone say they are joyful.

Is never pretty accurate?

Which then caused me to look deeper into this emotion that is Joy.

What is Joy, how do we show joy, if this is a fruit of the spirit then why are we not talking about joy more?

Why?

Because I think how we define joy reveals how we view God.

And the passage we are going to look at today not only talks about Joy which is a command given by Paul, but it also talks about unity, which I think this season has been one of the most divisive times in our churches, and peace which we do not fully understand.

Before we dive into the text let chat about what is happening at the moment.Paul is writing in response to a letter that was written to him.

As many of letters were written in response to churches that had questions or they wanted clarity.

Unfortunately we do not have these letters.

We have to go off of what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write back.

Paul tells of his current status which, he is in jail.

He is telling the church here that the gospel cannot be locked up!

And the book of Philippians is amazing!

if you have not read it- you should!

Here is our text tonight!

Philippians 4:2–7 ESV

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I feel like often we know Philippians 4:4- 7 but i found the pervious verses very interesting as Paul is addresses unity with one another.

And is unity hard stuff.

Unity with people is difficult.

Unity with difficult people is a new challenge by itself.

This idea of unity that Paul is talking about is very relevant to us today, why?

We are living in one of the most divisive times in history.

The election, mail in voting, Black Lives Matter, Mask or no mask, the school debate, Liberty University, my Ala Mater, where I am currently seeking my Masters from, came under heavy fire this week— not only is our world living in divisive times, so is our churches.

It is not surprising, but that doesn’t make it okay.

While all of this is going on, here is what I have seen.

I have seen believers turn on each other.

I have seen believers not trust each other.

I have seen those who call on the Lord causing division in our churches today.

And for many of us we are watching this unfold and we stay muted on the subject.

Or we send this: PICTURE (JIF of Michael Jackson eating popcorn)

— because we want to watch the blow up or at least read the comments right.

As believers we are called to something higher.

As believers who have the holy spirit living inside of us, we are designed to be different.

And when we— who have the holy spirit living in us— act just as ordinary as John Smith down the street who has never been to church in his life— SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE.

We are not made to be like everyone else or act like everyone else.

Our Spirit filled lives should not resemble that of people who do not have the spirit.

So how do we live lives that are extraordinary and are centered on the Gospel?

For starters we must Seek Unity.

SEEK UNITY

Philippians 4:2–3 ESV

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Paul was written to about these two woman in the church at Philippi.

Think about that for a moment.

Paul was writing to the church in Philippi because of disunity of two women.

Something happened that we do not know about.

BUT this disagreement or disunity was causing a huge stir in the church and it was causing the church a ton of grief.

And Paul is urging/ pleading with them each individually to come to agreement in the Lord.

It is clear that Paul knows them and he is pleading with them to come to unity with each other in the name of the Lord.

Paul says that he labored with them.

Paul labored with them for the sake of the gospel.

And if you have ever been on a missions trip— there is nothing like linking arms with other believers and sharing the Gospel with those who desperately need it.

Paul is encouraging them to seek reconciliation with each other.

If this does not work what do we do?

We blast them on social media thats right.

NO!

You grab someone else to help— could be a pastor or a mutator.

This is not the first time Paul mentions Unity.

This whole concept of Unity is all over Philippians.

He spoke about this earlier in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2:1–5 ESV

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

APPLICATION

Here is the big take away here, it is that there was a rift in the church, Paul was aware of this- and he was writing to encourage them to seek unity with one another.

Because here is the deal while you may have conflict with someone here at church it would be nice to believe that the church will not know about it or that is doesn’t affect the church.

But It does.

Your conflict affects the church as a whole.

These two women were causing disunity in the church on such a large scale that the church of Philippi wrote to Paul asking what do we do?

Have you ever lived in a place of tension with one another?

I want to be clear that unity allows you to have your own opinion— but it is agreeing to be in the Lord together even if you have a different opinion.

Maybe right now the Holy Spirit has stirred inside of you to seek unity with someone that you do not see eye to eye with and there is a rift right now.

Maybe you want to seek unity but the other person is not.

Paul often spoke about unity in the body of believers.

This is no different— so who do you need to go and make things right with.

write their name in your Bible, your app notes, or even in your digital bible.

Here is the challenge part: call them this week.

And seek unity.

2 Corinthians 13:11 ESV

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

In this season of heart ache and trouble and uncertainty, seek unity with one another.

It is easy to spread disunity, but seek unity with one another.

Point number two: as we continue to ask how do we live extraordinary lives that is gospel centered?

We seek Joy.

SEEK JOY