The Essence of Unity

It's Saturday morning, I'm enjoying a good cup of coffee, we're expecting 2 or 3 snow flurries today, and I'm preparing for my message tomorrow at The Sanctuary. I love it! Tomorrow I will be sharing on "The Essence of Unity".

Unity is incredibly powerful. God uses unity among followers of Christ to perform His will in the earth. Unity does not take place when everyone agrees on everything. Unity is produced when everyone focuses on ONE thing. A good example of unity from the Old Testament is the incident of the tower of Babel. This was a unique occurrence. At this point in history all the people on the earth spoke the same language. This helped! The people of Babel decided they wanted to build a tower that reached into the heavens in order to make a name for themselves. There were many people who more than likely disagreed on many things. But they ALL agreed on ONE thing...to make a name for themselves by building a tower out of bricks that reached into the heavens. Listen to what God says about the situation in Gen 11:6, "The Lord said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them." Even though it was not God's will for these people to accomplish this project He recognized the power of unity among them. Again they ALL were focused on ONE thing. God had to confuse their language (Babel) in order to stop the project. The reason God disapproved of the project was because it was preventing the people from spreading out and populating the earth, which was His plan. The tower of Babel incident, as negative as it was, turned out to be a positive thing because it produced the many different nations of the world. But this incident is a very good example of how powerful unity is among a group of people.

Unity among Christ-followers is not when everyone agrees on everything. That is uniformity. In other words when everyone has to dress alike, act alike, speak alike, look alike this is uniformity, NOT unity. In an effort to produce unity, many denominations have created uniformity. On the other hand unity is when EVERYONE focuses on ONE THING. In this case of Christ-followers it is CHRIST!

Unity is produced among believers when we focus primarily on Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the only way, life, and truth. The Bible says we are all baptized into one body (church universal) by One Spirit. What is the opposite of unity? Disunity. Disunity occurs when believers focus on personal preferences and personal agendas over Christ. The truth is we're all different. We all have different preferences and agendas. But they all must take a much lower priority than that of Jesus in our lives and in our churches. We find many things we disagree on. But if we can all make Jesus the extreme priority over EVERYTHING in our lives, we all are focusing on the ONE thing that really matters! That's where the power of unity kicks in.

In the New Testament a group of Christ-followers were meeting for several days for the purpose of prayer. In prayer it is impossible not to focus on the One who really matters and makes the difference. The Book says they were all in "one mind" meaning their focus was on Christ..not even their own needs. The result was that the Holy Spirit was poured out and the church was instituted. That's the same church you and I are a part of. Again, that's the power of unity. Let me encourage you to focus on the ONE thing that really matters...your relationship with Jesus. Seek Him for His heart. He will begin to reveal the personal things you've prioritized over Christ. When you find His heart, you are connected in a more relevant way to anyone else on the planet that also has found His heart!

And finally Jesus said, If two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven." Unity is very powerful between as few as only two people. But I really think Jesus was using only two as a powerful example to illustrate the multiplied power of the church in unity. What do you think?

The Power of a Grateful Heart

Well since it's the Thanksgiving holiday I thought I'd pen a few words about...well...Thanksgiving. I like to call it a grateful heart or simply...gratefulness. Isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? It didn't start as a national holiday back when the first settlers started the concept. Actually after that first brutal winter and growing season, it was a celebration of life and harvest. The first settlers (the ones who were still breathing) gathered to commemorate God's protection and sustenance. The gratefulness was genuine. I mean think about it. Many of your family and friends died throughout that first year. Through the difficulty, death, and destitution...a group had survived and now wanted to give God all the thanks. Making it through hard times and difficulty produces a truly grateful heart.

Understand that a grateful heart is very powerful. It is a force that motivates a person to endure the most difficult of circumstances. A grateful heart can recall God's past faithfulness and envision His future faithfulness. The result is a steadfastness in the present that has a supernatural origin. No one looks forward to tough times. But it's the tough times that toughen us up! Connie and I understand tough times and I'm sure you do too. Tough times come in different shapes and sizes for different people but the result (should we choose it) is the same...a grateful heart. I'll admit, tough times can also produce numerous opportunities to complain and maybe even murmur (I'm sure you don't though.) But a truly grateful heart acknowledges that God is fully in control. We don't always understand the circumstances...but we can understand God does and has all the answers. This simply means that we can thank Him in the hard times as well as the easy times.

A grateful heart makes one sensitive to the needs of others. I don't mean this to sound bad, but there is always someone whose situation is worse than ours! What a great time to thank God for His faithfulness to us, and offer ourselves to Him to be an instrument to help others. A grateful heart. It's very powerful. A grateful heart endures circumstances because its eyes are not on the circumstances but on God.

Finally, I'm reminded of how Judah was completely surround by its enemies in II Chronicles Chapter 20. Jehoshaphat was a godly king and gathered the whole nation for prayer. If God doesn't intervene...the whole nation will be wiped out. In this prayer meeting Jehoshaphat leads the prayer and begins to thank God for all He has done and all He has promised for Israel. Then He says, "We are powerless against this great multitude, nor do we know what to do. Nevertheless...our eyes are on You." God moved in behalf of the nation of Judah and routed its enemies. It took three days for Judah's people to collect all the spoils of the battle. A grateful heart is powerful. I encourage you in these hard times...remember His faithfulness, thank Him for His future faithfulness, and thank Him for all you have today. It really will make a difference. It's the power of a grateful heart. It's powerful!

Entrances & Exits or is it Exits & Entrances

I once heard the late Dr. Edwin Louis Cole say that life is a collection of entrances and exits. That really impacted me. He went on to say that life was like a collection of doors. When you go through a door you leave one room and enter another. Or you simply exit one realm and enter another. I think that's very interesting. Ecclesiastes 3: 1 says there is an appointed time for everything. Some versions use the word "season". There is an appointed season for everything under the sun. There are entrances and exists at God's appointed time.

Our lives consist of successive entrances and exits. In order for you to get to work you must exit your home, enter your car, exit your car, and enter your workplace! Wow! Pretty deep huh? In order for you to exit your bedroom, you just may have to enter a hall or some other room in your home! Again, life is a succession of entrances and exits. Why is life like that? It is because we live and operate (for now) in a realm that is governed by time and seasons. The sun rises and the sun sets (while the earth rotates). Seasons come and seasons go (because the earth revolves around the sun). It is the very nature of changing seasons that keeps us moving forward toward our destiny. Here's a simple example. In order for your destiny to be fulfilled you must get from point A to point Z. You'll never get there unless you get to point B first. You'll never completely get to point Z by settling in at point M. With God in control, you must go through every point between A and Z until you arrive at Point Z. Each point is a season in your life. The transition from point to point is simply a series of entrances and exits. But each point and each door is necessary! Each season of change in your life prepares you for an eternity with God in a realm that is no longer governed by time!

If you are leaving a season of your life and you don't know why, it is because it is necessary. If you were comfortable in your current season and everything changed, it is because it was necessary. It is because you are moving forward toward completion of your destiny! God never intended for things to stay the same way every day of your life. I am convinced that many Christ-followers endanger the fulfillment of their awesome destiny because they cannot recognize seasons of change. They don't see the door of opportunity that takes them out of one realm, and launches them into the next God-ordained realm! Don't change just because you think you have to. Simply look for the doors God will place before you. True change never takes place unless you go through the door. Let God open the door for you, but you must see it and go through it. He won't push you though. And remember, there is a season for everything! (See Ecclesiastes Chapter 3).

Majoring On The Minors

Perspective. What does it mean? The dictionary says perspective is: A mental view or prospect; it is the faculty of seeing all the relevant data in a meaningful relationship. Perspective is what you see, the way you see it, and how you respond to it. A key word in the definition above is "relevant". Proper perspective is the faculty of being able to identify what is really relevant to the relationship or circumstances. Perspective comes in two forms: proper and improper. A proper perspective sees the truly relevant data and keys on it. Decisions made from a proper perspective essentially are based on truth. Truth meaning - the way things really are or the way things really happen or simply, the true facts. Proper perspective allows one to major on the majors and minor on the minors. Less time and energy are expended responding to data that is not true. On the other hand an improper perspective is just the opposite. An improper perspective lacks the vision to see the truly relevant data. Decisions made from an improper perspective are based on falsehood and improper data. The data gained is gained from a lack of ability to see the "relevant". An improper perspective causes one to major on the minors and overlook on what is really major. Time, energy, and resources are used up in areas that make no impact or are even destructive.

Too often (much too often) as Christ-followers we operate from an improper perspective. What we see and the way we respond is based on false data because it is simply not relevant to God's will, plan, and purpose. For instance, God says that the relationship between husband and wife should be a reflection of the relationship between Christ and His church. Is that how you marriage is? Jesus said the world will know we are Christians by the love we have for each another. Do you know some Christians that are determined to fight against one another to the death? I can guarantee that the reasons for the fight are totally "irrelevant" to the relationship God wants us to have with one another. Too many times we major on what is really not important. And we vow to fight to the death over things that really have no value to Jesus! What does the world think about this? How do non-believers respond to this? I'm just asking.

What is the answer? The answer is Jesus. At the time of this posting I am teaching a series entitled "The Jesus Man". It is about how Jesus was God and Jesus was man when He came to the earth. The text of the series is based on Philippians Chapter 2, verses 5 - 11. This passage describes the attitude (mental view or perspective) of Jesus. The attitude reveals the heart. The key to our salvation is the fact that Jesus, as God the Son laid aside all His privileges and became one of us. In other words, Jesus saw the relevance of humility and laying aside what was truly important to Him in order to be The Way for you and me. Paul said in Philippians Chapter 2, "Have the same attitude that was in Christ in yourselves." There it is. That's the key. We must all learn that nothing can be so important to us that we hold on to it - even while Christ's church is becoming separated. We must remember, everything we are willing to lay down (as important as it seems to us) will result in unity in God's church. That's the perspective that was in Christ. Are you majoring on something that is truly a minor? Is what you are holding on to going to make a difference say in 20 years? Is your "major" so major that it tears down, divides, and separates? If we could see it all through the proper perspective, which is Christ's attitude, we would see what is really major. Then we would stop majoring on the minors. Think about it. Pray about it.

The Power of Unity

The Bible teaches that the most powerful human force is unity. Generally stated unity is agreement between 2 or more folks on a common vision or goal. In Genesis chapter 11 we find the account of the tower of Babel. In this situation a large group of people agreed to build a tower to reach to heaven. The purpose was to "make a name for ourselves". God looked down from heaven and saw what was going on. He came down and confused their language so that they could not effectively communicate. As a result of the confusion the plan to build the tower was aborted. God's reason for confusing their language was to cause the people to scatter out and populate the earth. His goal for man at that time was to "be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth". The tower of Babel is a very good example of how unity among people can be a very powerful force.

In Psalm 133: 1, the psalmist David writes, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!" Unity is a very powerful force. And when you add to it the present of God...nothing is impossible! The kind of unity David speaks of is the unity between brothers. In a New Testament sense it is the unity between followers of Jesus Christ. David also writes in Psalm 133 that in unity God commands His blessing!

God is the one who gives vision. I'm talking about the ability to dream, plan and execute God's purposes for His church in the earth. But in order for any vision from God to be executed by His church there must be unity. Unity does not mean looking, thinking, dressing, or acting the same. Unity is the force that brings together the diversity which makes up the His church in the earth. Unity harnesses diversity. Diversity represents all the different gifts of each member of the church. Unity brings it all together to effectively work toward a common goal set by God.

The greatest enemy of unity is division (disunity). Jesus said in Mark 3: 25, "A house divided cannot stand." That's a very powerful statement that Christ-followers seem to ignore. A house divided will not stand. A church divided won't make it. A marriage divided will not stand. A business relationship divided...won't stand. Paul tells us that we should not be unaware of the schemes of the enemy. The enemy's greatest scheme is the deception of disunity. If he can get people to disagree on the principles of God, it is the same as getting them to ignore the principles of God. And if he can get God's people to disagree on God's vision, it's the same as getting them to be blinded to His vision.

My heart stays pierced these days at the disunity in the church of Jesus. My prayer is that we wake up to the truth of what is really happening. If we could see the effects of disunity through God's eyes, as well as through the eyes of the unbeliever, I'm sure we would be more diligent to preserve the unity of the Holy Spirit among us. Every second, believers remain divided is a second lost to express God's heart in the world.

I would like to invite you to join me in recommitting to unity among believers. It is not easy to promote unity. A consistent prayer life is not easy...but we all know that it is necessary, and God blesses it! In the same way unity is not easy to maintain but God blesses it! (Psa. 133) The result of disunity is loss. However the result of unity is gain. Help me stop the loss and to enable the gain!

Are You A Producer?

Are you a producer? No, I'm not talking about a movie, TV, or music producer...even though they are producers: movies, TV shows, and music. But I mean are you producing? Producing what? That depends on what you do or perhaps what you are called to do. Many folks spend years doing things they don't really like doing for the sake of making a living. And yes, making a living is a good thing, especially these days. (Don't quit your day job yet.) But I think we all struggle at different times in our lives just living a status quo, "just getting by" kind of a life-style. Sometimes we spend too much time spinning our wheels. Question: Are you truly fulfilled in what you do? If not, chances are you could probably be a better producer if you did something else. (Something you loved to do.)

I was out walking earlier this week and I feel God really, really impressed something on my heart. I'm no young whipper snapper any more (not over the hill either), and with each passing day I see more clearly the need to seriously make an impact through this precious life (only one) we are given here on the planet. What God impressed upon my heart was the realistic number of years I have left on this earth to be productive for Him. All the days, months, and years that have passed brought great opportunities, but every single one of those opportunities (taken advantage of or not) are gone for good along with the days, months, and years. That may sound some what depressing, but it is true. However, there is good news too. The years ahead that God gives me can be the most productive of my life! Looking ahead to all the marvelous opportunities He will offer, along with the experiences of the past, and with God's leading...the future is pretty bright! Now to me...that is good news.

Perhaps you are spinning your wheels. Perhaps it seems as if you're just not really producing...at least to your fullest potential. God may be presenting you an opportunity to evaluate your life. This is an opportunity you may not want to miss. Many times we overlook these opportunities because we're so ingrained in our routines (even when we hate them) or we've worked so long in a certain career field that money and getting by take precedence over being productive for Him. How many years do you have left? Truthfully that is a question none of us can answer because He is in total control of that. We simply trust Him for the next breath, and then the next, and then the next..... When I was a teenager I was convinced I was invincible. All the things I knew I needed to do could be postponed...at least for now. Why? Because I had the rest of my life. When I was a young man, just starting a career I felt I had forever to be a producer. I even thought that the years I "skated" I could eventually make up because I had so much time. Now that I am in my upper, middle age years (tell me there is such a thing), I look at life much differently. And of course, as a follower of Christ, my heart is to diligently serve Him. I truly, truly (verily in King Jimmy) want my life to be productive...and only for Him.

Finally, the Book says that if we're serious, He will redeem the time. I believe that includes the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years that we have left. Let me encourage you, no matter what your age, ask God to make each day productive for you. But be warned, He will probably require you to change in some area, and in some way. Ask Him to give you extreme opportunities to make Him known by serving others. Ask Him to show you the things that are important, not simply urgent...and then do them. Look at today as another gift packed full of opportunities to be a producer...for Him!

Win a Free Sacred Roads DVD Kit!

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