Maintanence

Common English Bible Chapter 4

4 Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. 2 Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, 3 and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. 4 You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.

Introduction- Three Gifts

A mini-van

My grandfather’s Bible

Sidney Valentine

Unity is a gift

Our unity comes from God

Verse 5-6 give the game away.

We are united by one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.

We don’t have to will unity out of the ground, we already have it!

Unity is not the same thing as conformity.

Unity- Three Responses

The mini-van response- Disunity for the sake of disunity

The Bible Response- Do not rock the boat under any circumstances

The guitar response- Use it, but take care of it.

Use it to live a life worthy of our calling

Hey, there’s a lot of verbs in this passage, huh?

This isn’t the only gift this works for, is it?

Physical and material gifts

The people in our congregations

Our very salvation

What if?

…we were a Presbytery that worked to eliminate poverty in this county?

…we were a Presbytery made up of churches where everyone was welcome?

…we were a Presbytery that disagreed on big things, but did so in unity and love?

Our unity is a gift. Let’s use it.