Unity and Maturity in Diversity | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

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Let me teach today from Efficients. I'm continuing with my

preaching matrix, which I've preached from Ephicients Chapter one, Chapter two,

Chapter three, and today we are at chapter four. I'm

going to be reading verses one to sixteen. But it's

something that's very close to my heart. What I'm going

to be sharing on and what I believe Paul is

emphasizing on today's two things. First thing is unity, the

second thing is maturity. These are things that continues to

resonate in my spirit because it's something that the church

needs to continue to do. We need to be united

and we need to keep maturing. Because you've got to

remember this. The church is not a stack NATed objet.

It's not an organization which is hot and stro The

church is essentially an organism that continues to grow, and

we are an organism that needs to mature and not

remain in one place, not growing in our faith. Okay,

so let's read what Paul has to say. I hope

to draw out some truths and encourage all of you

because we are all a part of this. This is

the body of believers, and I love it when I

see across the board just a variety of different ones

here representing God's body. Okay, so this is the apostle

Paul writing to the church in Ephasus, and his starts

off this portion by saying, Therefore, I a prisoner for

serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy

of your calling, for you have been called by God.

Always be humble and gentle.

Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's

fault because of your love. Make every effort to keep

yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

For there is one body and one spirit, just as

you have been called to, one glorious hope for the future.

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God

and Father of all, who is over.

All, in all and living through all. Amen.

However, he has given each one of us a special gift,

true the generosity of Christ. That is why the scriptures

say when He ascended to the heights, he led a

crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people. Notice

that it says he ascended. This clearly means that Christ

also descended to our lowly world. And the same one

who descended is the one who ascended higher than all

the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe

with himself. Now, these are the gifts Christ Christ gave

to the Church. The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and

the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is two equip God's

people to do his work and build up the Church,

the body of Christ. This will continue until we all

come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of

God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord,

measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We

won't be tossed and blown about by every win of

new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try

to trick us with lies so clever they sound like

the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love,

growing in every way more and more like Christ, who

is the heat of his body the Church.

He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.

As each part does its own special work, it helps

the other parts grow, so that the whole body is

healthy and growing and full of love. The Lord bless

the reading of his word. You see, Paul has the

authority to talk about church unity and maturity because he

suffered for Christ. He had been through all that you

can imagine jazz to start and build churches. So Paul

really was someone who went through it all just to

plant churches. And now what he's doing is he wants

to tell believers what kind of churches we should be building,

what kind of people we should be discipling and seeing

them mature? How is it going to happen? You see

that all may know is the team for the church

this year. What must they know about and see in

the church is the question that we have to ask

ourselves because we are given that mandate to tell the

world about Jesus, to tell the world about who he is.

You can't just introduce the head of the church and

not introduce the body, because we are the.

Body, and so this is what is needed.

See, we should build the church because this is indeed

the calling of every Christian believer, and we are all

involved in ensuring that the church remains united and growing

strong immaturity.

Each new day.

This is our role, this is our responsibility. When Paul

talks about building churches as our calling, you see he's

emphasizing more on the character, and he's not talking about

it from a career perspective. Sometimes we always link calling

as a career. Okay, what is your calling or is

the career? What do you do for your career? No,

he's talking about the character behind it. He's not concerned

with what you do. He's concerned about how you do it. Okay,

not so much what you do, how you do it.

And so the first question is how should we build

a church that is characterized by unity within such a

diverse congregation, because, let's face it, we are all different.

That is the reality of it.

Looks the same here except I mentioned this morning Ellen

and maybe Lavinia and Felicia in the a am so

it is because they have twins.

All we have Sun and Mey and twins as well.

But the reality is even their thumb prints are different.

There are a lot of differences and uniqueness within them.

So the thing that we get asked a lot of

times is this is the idea of church unity in

existence today?

Ever asked yourself that question? Church unity?

Wow? Some say the church is like Humpty dumpty, it's

fallen and it's in different separate fragmented pieces.

It's not what it used to be anymore.

And because they look around like, oh, so many denominations

is so fragmented. Some would say that we are all

one in Christ Jesus, and that unity is already there

and that it was never lost in the first place

to begin with.

Which is true. Well, I believe both are right.

I believe the practice of unity may not always be

very evident today.

That is the reality of it.

But the principle of unity will never be lost because

it is in those who are chosen by God to

represent him. All of us understand, when we worship the

One True and Living God, we are united in faith.

Amen.

So the practice of it we can definitely improve. The

principle behind it has never changed since the beginning, and

so when we are here on earth, we can very

often lose the practice of unity, but the principle must

remain regardless of what we do. You see what Paul

is essentially doing is this. He is prescribing now the

ingredients needed.

To practice unity.

That is what the first few verses of the scripture

is saying, here are some ingredients for you to remain united.

If we lose any of these ingredients we can lose unity.

What are the ingredients for us to practice unity? Well,

the first ingredient is this. It's called humility. Humility. I

know it's a big strong word. Sometimes we're like, wow, humility, humble,

What does it really mean? Well, it means to actually

see yourself as God sees you. It is when you

see yourself as God sees you, you can be nothing

else but humble. How can the Great God, the creator

of the heavens and the earth, look at Earth's lowly creatures?

Creation created beings with so much adoration. Ever wondered how

how is that even possible?

God?

I'm not even worthy. But yet God looks at us,

his creation, and he says that we are good. He

created us good. And if God can see us for

who he created us to be, really, I think that

can only put us in a humble state. Sometimes we

can't even look at ourselves and say that we are good.

A lot of times we are looking at ourselves and

we are like, oh, there's so much flaws. But imagine

if God can look at you and say that you

are good, and you are good.

That is what humility really is.

A humble person is one that will always bring about

unity wherever he or she goes, because the opposite of

a humble person is someone who is arrogant, someone who

is proud, and so humility is the first ingredient that

is needed to practice unity. If not, it will essentially

destroy unity.

Number one.

The second thing is this, It's called meekness. Okay, to

be mean is not not to be the mer or

sometimes we equate meekness as someone who is the meal

oh so gentle. Yeah, it just means a person must

not be concerned about their own reputation, not concern about

their own rights, not concern about their own revenge. A

person whom you can do anything to them and they

still stay the same. They don't take offense. Basically is

the person who will turn to the other chick to

let you smack that person. That is essentially someone who

is meek. I know these are not ingredients which are

easy to practice, but is needed. Meekness is actually needed

because any fellowship can easily be broken when a single

party takes offense.

And isn't that how problems arise?

Isn't that how relationships are broken when someone takes offense?

It could just be a simple thing, say a simple

thing done. Something say and done inadvertently, something said and

done with no intentions. It could be an accident even

but we can so easily take offense, and so meekness

is the second ingredient that is needed for us to

practice unity. The third thing is this, It's called patience. Patience.

You see, the word literally translates long tempered no longer

in the English vocabulary today, but we kept the opposite

of it.

We capt short tempered.

Someone who is short tempered is someone who is, yeah,

basically very impatient. Patience is someone who is long tempered,

is someone who we really need around to make sure

that the bond of peace is maintained. I know it's

not easy, but have you met someone who is patient?

I'm sure once in a while you'll meet someone who

is really patient and you realize that that's a person

who can really tie people together. My mom is a

very patient lady. Really really, I.

I wish I got a little bit more.

Of a patient sometimes, but she was someone who could

tolerate even the worst characters.

Uh.

And I'm grateful because really, I think my family would

have been pretty messed up a mom wasn't as patient

as she is. That's the reality of it, and it's

really needed. Sometimes in the Malaysian context, we always say

that someone who can don everything so patients. The fourth

and final ingredients is one that I think the NKGV

defines as four barons, but I like how NLT defines it.

It says making allowance for each other's faults. Four barons

simply just means making allowance for each other's fault.

These are the four.

Ingredients needed to practice unity. We need to have humility, meekness,

paations for barns. If you have this four ingredients, we

can have peace that holds the church together. In fact,

I can say this confidently, if you have these four ingredients,

you can have peace that holds any relationship.

In fact, that's the reality of it.

No matter how diverse the church is, unity will not

just be maintained. It can strive with this four ingredients present.

And we can lose unity if we don't practice it.

And that's why I'm urging each and every one of us.

We've got to practice unity. It is something that is

lacking in today's world, is something that is lacking in

today's churches, but it's still something that is needed because

those are the principles that have not changed since forever

and ever immen. So these four ingredients make unity, and

unity is always rooted and grounded in the kind of

unity God has.

You see all this that Paul is talking about.

It's not something that he he just plucked out from

his imagination or just simply say or say whatever that

comes to his mind. No, Paul actually exhausts us to

make every effort to keep ourselves united in the spirit.

Binding yourselves together with peace, united in the Spirit. It's

very important for us to have that bond, to be

united in the Spirit, in the one body, one Spirit,

one glorious hope for the future. That is why when

we can all safely say that we put our hope

and our trust in Christ Jesus.

All of us have that form of unity.

One Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father

of all, who is over all in all and living

through all. You see these three persons, the God here,

the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

They live in perfect harmony.

You don't hear the Father and Son disagreeing, or the

Son and the Spirit falling out with one another or

taking offense with each other. You don't see that in scripture.

In fact, you don't see them fighting. You don't see

them squabbling, You don't see them questioning each other. Why

did you send me to earth? Why do I have

to suffer? Why can't you be the one that take

the place? Why do I have to be the one

that stay with these people? Why can't you be the

one that You don't hear the Holy Spirit talking to

Jesus like that. You don't hear Jesus talking to the

Father like that? Right, because they are in agreement. They

are imperfect how many. That is why when Jesus pray

that prayer for church unity, he says, pray that they

be one as we are one, and unity therefore springs

from the Trinity. It is about cooperation rather than competition.

It is about togetherness rather than loneliness. But you see

what is it that we face in today's churches. Sometimes

we compete with one another. Sometimes we're trying to outdo

one another. That's not what unity is about. Sometimes we

feel that, oh, why am I all alone? You're not alone.

You're always together and we are always cooperating. That is

how the church must continue to practice unity. It is

so important when you are together it does not just

add to one another. It actually multiplied each other's effectiveness

in fulfilling our responsibilities towards God and one another. Together

we can go further. That is the truth of it.

You try going it alone, It's impossible. If I try

going it alone and started all those outreaches that many

years ago, it would have fallen flat.

I would have failed.

Really if it wasn't for the fact that the church

came alongside everyone putting their hands to the plow. I'm

only one person. How can I even split myself into

different places? It's impossible. But when the church came together,

we became more effective. We went out further, We reached

out to more people. And that is the reality of it.

You know, doesn't matter sometimes, No we look at churches

around everyone got different denomination. Or you are the Baptist,

you're a Methodist. It doesn't matter. You know, when I die,

and if I die next to a Methodist past, we'll

both wake up the next day and we will be like,

you are just so and so in the Kingdom of Heaven. Right,

We're not going to go around here. You're a Methodist

and you made it. Hey, you are You are a

Presbyterian and you made it, you're a Baptist, And no,

there's not going to be such distinctions. Ultimately, we are

all God's Duran Amen. And you know God's idea of

unity is not uniformity. It's not just looking the same

and being labeled the same. Because the reality is no

two people are the same. The reality is no two

blades of grass it's the same. No two leaves are

the same. In fact, no two snowflakes are the same.

God is creative enough to create us unique. And do

you know why I always marvel with gardens. You walk

into a garden and you can see a variety and

a myriad of plants, colors, et cetera. You know, you

can be a garden full of different flowers, all colors

which are clashing. I don't know, all primary colors which

are clashing in one another. But yet you marvel at

the variety because it is something that is so beautiful.

That is how God created us as well. Look around

your surroundings and realize that. You know, sometimes when I

look at the church, I'm looking at the garden. I'm

looking at God's garden. Every flower, every plant in rows,

but everyone different from the other, and yet there is

a variety and a unity that exists together. Do we

realize that in nature we can almost put anything together

and it looks beautiful. Why can't it be the same

for the church? We can put all sorts of people

from all different walks of life. And you see, there

are some who are young, there are some who are

much older. There are some from different rays, some from

different social standings.

Yet we are all unique in God.

And so Paul actually tries to illustrate this even further

when he actually says this, No, he's emphasizing that even

in church, there shouldn't be clear boundaries between a leader

and a non leader.

There shouldn't be.

I mean, why should I be the one that represents

the whole church? Not the church is represented by each

every one of you.

No, we have sometimes.

Insisted that leaders are the true ministers, and the congregation

is a spectator. I know it looks exactly like that

right now. You all are all spectators just watching me.

But the truth is all members are called to a

leadership position because every believer is called to make disciples.

It is not just my responsibilities.

All of us together, so all of us have a

leadership calling in our lives. There is no difference between

what is called the lady and the lay and also

the religious part of it. Sometimes we always like to

separate or this person is working outside, or this person

is working full time in church ministry, there is no difference.

We are all ministers of Christ Jesus, imen. And that

is the true perspective that it was always meant to

be a shared ministry between all believers, all of us

shared together. I mean, I can't play the keyboards like

Genet plays the keyboards.

She's ministering two different ones.

All of you all when you come out and you

pray for when you turn to your right and when

you turn to your life, you are essentially ministering to

each other.

All of your are leading each other in prayer. Imen.

And so we all have a part to play. That

is something that we must clearly see that is happening

in the church. And you know, when Jesus ascended to heaven,

this is what the scripture says.

He what did he do?

It says that he poured out his gifts on people

and there was only one way he could continue working

here on earth. That is the reality. He had to

go but yet how can his presence remain here on earth?

And the only way for him to continue is when

Jesus realizing that all the gifts were in me, The

fullness of the God here, the fullness of God, the Father, God,

the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit was in Jesus

when he was walking this earth.

He wanted us to do together.

What he could only do alone when he was walking

on his Jesus was everything. He was profered, he was pastor,

he was teacher, he was evangelists. Every gift that you

can think of, Jesus had it within him. But he

is now saying that what I could one person, as

one person do, now I'm giving it to each and

every one of you the body, so that you can

now do different things for each other. Isn't that amazing?

The gifts vary, right, I mentioned the five to four

ministry that we all know of. Apostles, profits, evangelists, pastest, teachers.

All these gifts are to accomplish something, and so we

are all gifted with certain roles and responsibilities here in church.

No one can say that I got no gift, I

can't do anything. I'm a believer by God did not

give me anything.

No, if you.

Believe in Jesus, if you put your faith in him,

I believe that He has placed upon your life a

special gifting. Yes, some may have more than Yeah, there's

just like the parable of the talent. Some may have five,

some may have two, some may have one. Is not

how many you have. It's what you do with the

gifts that matters most. Is the most important thing that

we need to realize. We need to realize we have

these gift things, each unique person with special gifts from

God to fulfill specific functions as we are called. That

is what the scripture says. And what are these gives for? No,

you always ask yourself, No, the Church, Yeah, we have

gift things.

What is the gift for?

Well, the gift is for first and foremost, to equip

the saints, to equip the believers. That means that the

personal resources you need to lead each other to Christ.

That is the first gift that we have to teach.

Others, to equip others so that they can be evangelists.

That's the first thing, equip the saints.

The second thing, it says service, and it's not just

talking about worship service on the weekends. It's talking about

serving one another throughout the whole week. Why are you

gifted gifts so that you can equip others and so

that you can serve others. And then finally, the third

thing is building, And it's not talking about this physical building.

It's not talking about this structure. It's essentially talking about

building people. We are gifted with gifts not just to

run service in the physical church once a week. We

are gifted with gifts so that we can bring everyone together,

serve one another, and build them up so that they

can go out and do so much more for God.

Amen.

We the church are an amazing example of what is

called organic growth. And sometimes we like to organize the church.

A lot of times people always tell me, get it organized,

get it organized. Yes, I believe some level of organizational

structure in the church helps with management, helps with managing things.

But the truth is the church is not an organization.

It is actually an organism, and it's an organism with

infinite variety.

It's unending. I can tell you, I can't.

Tell who is the next person who's going to be

walking through the doors of this church. I can't tell

you what kind of person is. All I know is

that person is going to be unique, and that person

is going to be special in God's sign, that person

is going to come with a specific gifting amen.

That is the truth of it.

And so the Church is organic, and we are all

doing different things, different people doing different things, yet we

are coordinated. Ever, wonder how that happens. We are one body.

We can act perfectly well as one body, even though

every one of us is doing different things from one another.

This is who we are as a church. This is

act church, all of.

You, all different, different but yet one variety, but yet

working together in harmony. And so he made the church

that way, and he continues to remind to practice the

unity that is needed. If Jesus is going to do

anything in this world, he has have to have a

body to do it.

That is the reality of it.

The will of God cannot come to pass in this world.

Without a body. We are the body. We are the Church,

and each and everyone of earth.

Whether we are leaders or whether we are congregation members,

doesn't matter. We all represent an important part of the

Body of Christ. And the body always needs the Holy Spirit.

Because remember this, the body needs breath. A body without

breath is barely alife and we know that breath is

another word for the Holy Spirit, the rule Ah the

breath of God. And Jesus said to his disciples he

had to live so that the Spirit could come. In

a way, the Holy Spirit came into the world to

capture the bride for Christ. Who is that bride? We

are the bride. It is the Church of Jesus Christ

that is the bride of Christ. All this are scriptural.

And when we do that, when the Holy Spirit does that,

the Holy Spirit chooses to inhabit who use inhabit our bodies.

That's why our body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And then you can see how magnificent Father is directing

the Son is also directing the Spirit, and there is

such a perfect harmony that is working. That's why I

always tell people when you read the scriptures, it makes sense.

And the result is the Church of God becoming His

Kingdom here on earth today. That's when I pray the prayer,

Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done on earth as

it is in heaven. I believe his kingdom. It's a

really we are part of His kingdom. Are we kingdom

people or not? It's the big question that we have

to ask ourselves, do we believe that we are kingdom people?

And so the principle of unity is very much alive today.

But we must practice the unity in our lives so

that we can continue to be the church which is effective. Again,

what is the church is also called the ecclusia call

out people, people who are coming together. The church is

a living body. Don't just think of it as an

organism an organization. Think of it as an organism. We

are all alive, amen, and it is living and he

must continue to grow in maturity. Nothing that is living

doesn't grow and doesn't mature.

Okay, I always use this example.

Some people always ask me why do I need to

be a disciple that matures eventually?

And I'm like, I can't. I mean, I have a daughter.

My daughter is here if she is now, she's twelve

and cute, and she can stay with me for as long,

not forever, but she can stay until she is old

enough to go out and work. I mean, if you

have your kid and your kid is with you when

they're still very old, something is not right right. I mean,

it's a normal, normal progression in life that we eventually

grow mature where we are able to start on our own,

start our own families.

That's the reality of it.

And so anything living must grow and must mature. It

must not remain stunted. And there is what God wanted

for the church. He wanted the church to grow. God

doesn't want a family of babies. I know it's cute.

Babies are cute when they are babies, but if they

remain baby forever, I don't think it will continue being cute.

That's the reality of it. So we all want to

see the babies grow up. Of course, some parents who

got teenagers, they're like, maybe not. But the truth is

we all want to see our kids grow up. I know.

I know sometimes as a parent.

You know, when our child was little, they look at

the parents or my parents are infallible, can't do no

wrong when they go to school. Oh my teacher is infallible.

My teachers are awesome, they can't do wrong. But when

they become teenagers, I am infallible. I can't do wrong. Basically,

that's how it progresses, right with most of us.

But the truth is, we all grow and we all mature.

It is needed, and God wants all of us to

grow up. He wants a mature church not a church

full of babies, a church that is childish. He wants

a church to grow up. How do we know that

the church is mature? Well, you have grown up when

you have reached the stature of Jesus Christ. That is

what the scripture says. That's what all is actually saying,

that when you have got to that level where you

can look at yourself. Not physically, okay, Jesus wasn't a

very big person or so, but spiritually that is the

ultimate test.

Of course, someone always look at it.

Wha If our maturity is measured against Christ, that would

be something that's impossible. I will never be as matured

as Christ is matured. But yet, remember this, Jesus came

to this earth to produce little Christ. That is what

Christians are called. The word Christian just simply means little Christ.

He came knowing that what he wanted to do was

to produce more of Him in his followers. He wanted

to raise believers who would mature and be more like him.

Do you think Jesus started off with something that was impossible?

No, I don't think so. I believe it's possible.

It's not an impossible task to be measured against Christ.

We are all working progress.

We are all still growing, we are all still developing,

we are all still maturing. But the scripture says that

one day, one day, when we have lived our lives

well enough, and God has accomplished and finished his work,

we will be like him perfect.

That's the day when we all end up in heaven. Amen.

And so a mature Christian is therefore one who knows

his faith and hangs on to his faith. That's why it,

Paul says, I don't want you to be children tossed

to and fro with every little wind of doctrine blown

here and there by men who can manipulate the word

of God. So we must stop being tossed around by

always being uncertain about our faith. We need to study,

We need to go deeper in God's work we can.

We have to believe and carry on believing. It is

so important, and you cannot just believe based on a

one of experience. A lot of times we our faith

and our understanding of the faith is all. It felt

so good when I came for a camp or the

message that one pastor or one preacher spoke. I really

stirred my emotions and I responded, based on the stirring

of emotions. It cannot just be based on that. If

you want to carry on believing, you need to know

who you are believing in. And that means that together,

we've got to continue to study God's what. We've got

to continue to know him. How do you get to

know him by reading His word? By developing and growing

in our faith. That is what allows a Christian to mature.

You see, we have to come to this place where

you can say, I know what the faith is. No

one can fool me. I believe the Gospel is the truth.

No one's going to shift me around. Maturity comes from

the truth. The end goal of maturity is to live

like Christ. But the means towards mature is knowing the

truth about Christ. That is something that we need to realize.

One day.

I pray to God that all of us will be

able to just go to any church and we hear

the truth. I pray and believe that one day that

will happen. The unity of the faith will take place.

Having said that, remember this, it is not just the

unity of the faith of the truth. There is also

this portion that Paul reminds us, you got to speak

the truth in love.

What do you think?

He says, that speak the truth in love, because where

there is unity and maturity, we must now be able

to speak the truth. If we are united, we are matured.

The truth we keep to ourselves. There is no point

but the truth we must always share. But truth without

love is very hard. Love without truth is too soft.

We can't go around just preaching love. We have to

go preaching the truth a lot of times. We always

as Christians, we always tell God is love, love, love.

But our understanding and idea of love is not what

the scripture paints it. It's a very different kind of understanding.

It's an emotional love. But love in essence is something

that is. You can be defined, you can define it.

So just not love.

What priscillis is, she says, the heart of missions is

love in action. Love is not something that is who

just gives you goose bumps and makes you feel warm.

It's beyond that. It's important. Truth without love becomes very hard.

Love without truth becomes true solved. And so Jesus was

a man of truth, and he always spoke the truth

even though it hurts, but he spoke it with and

in love. You can see when he went to the

temple and he was upset, and he turned the tables.

And he brought out the whips. Even though he was hard,

he did it in love.

And love is the join that keeps the head and

the body operating together in a coordinated way. You see,

Without joins, we can't have a movement. And love feels

the move of the body of Christ. We are the church.

That's why the church must be filled with love. If

the church is not filled with love, the body becomes

very rigid. That means we go around preaching basically hell

and brimstone. Only you know, it's like you better believe

in Jesus not you're gonna burn in hell. I mean,

you can go down that path, right, you can just

that it is the truth. It is the truth. But

how you do it? We must always be feeled by love.

Love is the join that keeps the body moving. You see,

a lot of psychologists have found that in a family,

it is more important for father and mother to love

each other than for either to just love their children.

Think about it, I'm not sure if you understand that.

You see, when parents love one another, it gives the

children a sense of security a child who sees father

and mother arguing all the time usually feels alone, insecure, frightened,

and they will grow up with him or her staying

with that throughout their lives. So in the same way,

I want to say this, it is more important for

the world outside that Christians in the local church love

each other than it is for us to just love

people outside. We have to start from within. Don't misunderstand

what I'm trying to say. Just give it a thought.

You can go out and you can try to win

people for Christ. You can preach until your face turns blue.

But if you introduce them to a church, and then

in the church are Christians who don't love each other,

everything that you have done outside becomes undone and it

will be very, very difficult. And so if someone from

the outside comes in and sees the church, Wow, look

at how these Christians love one another. Trust me, you

are already halfway there to sharing the truth to them.

You have opened up something that is beyond what they

can see, and you have shown them that God is

love in your relationships with each other. That is why

it's important that love is the very thing that fuels

the body of Christ.

Whatever we do.

We do it because of love, and that becomes the

joint that moves us.

I'm going to invite the band.

I'm almost done. I pray just as Jesus prayed, that

we can be one, just as Jesus and the Father

are one. He also prays that the church will experience

such perfect unity that the world will know that you

send me and that you love them as much as

you love me. We have a role to play as

the church. We're not here just on a Sunday having fellowship.

It starts with that. Unity, starts with a unity in

the spirit that means fellowship, and that is the Greek

word coinonia. Coinnonia means fellowship. It starts like that. It

starts when we are all united in spirit. And coinnonia

actually is another term that sometimes they use to describe

Siamese twins join together. We do things together as a church.

We start off with that. A lot of times you

always think that as a church we have to start

off immediately agreeing on every single doctrine. We start off

agreeing that we worship the one True and Living God,

the Holy Spirit, and then we work towards being united

in our knowledge and understanding that is what the scriptures

here actually says. If you go back to efficient chapter four,

you will realize the first part says this, make every

effort to keep yourself united in the spirit, binding yourselves

together with peace. That is somewhere in verse three or

verse four, and then eventually it goes towards the end

where it eventually says this, this will continue until we

all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge

of God's Son. You understand what that means. A lot

of times the church is not united because we are

not united in our knowledge and understanding. But I say

this to all of us, Let's be united that first

in spirit and use that as the basis to keep learning,

keep understanding God's worth, and I believe the truth will

satis free. Eventually we will all one day come to

this place where we are united even in knowledge and understanding.

That is where we are working towards.

That's why it says that when we measure ourselves in

terms of our maturity, we are measuring it against.

The stature of Christ Jesus. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as Church Org. We

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this week is going to be a good week. I

hit for you. God bless