12+1 Core Values: Unity Guarded | Pr Stephen Kong

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your team.

We are now on the chelf plus one called Value.

So if you should have this book by now, if not,

if you have worked in just this morning, you would

have received a photocopy of today's part okay, or today's

series okay.

And today we're gonna talk on unity Guarded.

Somebody say unity garded, all right, and so actually it

ties in back to last week's point, which is ownership promoting.

Actually you will find that there is some form of

overlap okay, because unity has a lot to do with

the community. Okay, And I come and I'll come to that,

all right, and so bury me and uh and and

and follow me even as we bring us through this

teaching today. And so today I'm gonna cover on these

two parts okay, which is these two wards Unity guarded okay.

Number one, we're gonna talk about what you need is

and you know and how powerful unity is you know,

or the benefits of it okay. And then after the

second part, I will talk about how you and I

can guard the unity, or I should say the importance

of guarding the unity that we have especially in the church. Okay,

not just not just only in the church, but especially

in the church, because right now we are in the church,

the House of God. Okay, But before I move on,

I got a cute and funny video to show you.

I grew up somehow watching this video and I and

the moment I was preparing this message, I remember this video.

Okay.

It talks about how together as a group, united together,

we can go very far or we'll be stronger, you know.

So I just watch this one and a half minute clip,

cute and funny, is a child friendly, don't worry, and

then I'll come back.

Okay.

It's smarted the traveling groups. It's smarted the traveling groups.

Hm hm.

H m hm hm hm.

Alright, okay, so there's just a funny video which I remembered,

you know, when I was growing up.

Uh.

And you know, as you can see, as a as

a big group, they can go very far or you know,

they can they can prevail in any child or challenge

that their face. And so as you can see, right,

the size of the end is so small compared to

the size of the what is it elephant now and eater? Okay,

I thought the elephant. Okay, so thanks for correcting me,

h and Eater. You know, I don't know how many

how many times bigger the size is, but yet, uh

you know, with small ends working to they can overcome

their challenge, so on and so forth. So you know,

this video very reminds us of how powerful and how

beneficial unity is, you know. And so then let me

just give us an English definition of this word unity.

Okay.

And in the Cambridge Dictionary, this word unity basically just

means the state of being joined together or in agreement. Okay,

somebody say agreement in agreement. Okay, So it's a state

of being joined together or in agreement.

So that is what unity really is. Now.

Unity didn't say the dictionary didn't say that they are

the unity means that they're the same. Noah didn't say, uh,

so we can be different but yet be in agreement.

You see what I'm getting at. Okay, we can be

different yet be in agreement. It didn't say that they

must all be the same. No, that's not what it means.

Okay. So the point number one in your book says

unity is powerful.

Now, unity is so important and so powerful to God

that Jesus even spent an entire chapter in John chapter

seventeen praying about this topic called unity.

Okay, if you read.

It, you will know and I read some verses to

you at a moment, and it's probably the longest recorded

prayer of Jesus in the Bible at the guard of

Gassemone before he went to the cross, and his topic

of prayer or his agenda or prayer was on the

topic of unity. His main prayer was that the disciples

will be one, okay, and he did not only stop

the disciples. He also prayed that those who will come

after they means the believers wh will come in the

future may also be one. And if you read the

entire chapter, you will find that this word one or

n e one appeared many times in his prayer. And

that is how important and how powerful unity really is.

You know that Jesus prays so much about it, Okay,

So let me show you the scripture first. Is that Okay,

let's look at a scripture first. It's okay, you can

turn your bibles to John chapter seventeen. Okay, it's the

entire chapter of John chapter seventeen. But I'm just gonna

pick up some of the verses. Okay, John chapter seventeen,

verse nine to eleven. And I should have a slide

for that, okay. John Chapter seventeen, verse nine says, And

this is Jesus praying.

Okay, He says, I pray for them, for dicipers.

I do not pray for the world, but for those

whom you have given me, for they are yours and

all are mine. Are yours, and yours are mine. And

I'm glorified in them verse eleven. Now I'm no longer

in the world, but these are in the world. If

you think the disciples, okay, And I come to you,

Holy Father, keep through your word to give you your

name those whom you have given me, that.

They may be one as we are.

So you can see in my bible right and there

so you can see the capital no capital letter we're

fraying to me Jesus, and capital letter we w we

you know, we're praying to God, the Father's Son, the

Holy Spirit, which are one, you know. And let's too

get a few more verses below, verse twenty the verse

twenty three.

And he did stop there, you know.

He continues to pray for all the believers, okay. In

verse twenty he prays, I do not pray for these alone,

not just the disciples are, but also for those who

will believe, who will believe in the future in me

through their word, that they may be one. Come on,

that they may be one, as you, Father are in me,

and I in you. That they also may be one

in us, that the world may believe that you sent me,

and the glowing which you have given me, I have

given them, that they may be one, just as we

are one. Oh, can you see this? I can keep

going on verse twenty three, I in them and you

in me, that they may be made perfect in one,

and that the world may know that you have sent

me and have loved them as you have loved me.

So we can see very clearly that Jesus prayed so

many times that we may be one, just as him, Father,

and the Holy Spirit are one. And if you really carefully, actually,

it's very interesting that he talks about his relationship with

him and the Father. He's talking about you and me

and I in you, and then he goes he goes

on extends it to the believers. He says it me

and them. He's talking with us and the believers. He

extends it to us, and so really it's not hard

to see why God is so interested or so, you know,

find the importance in unity or in that oneness, because

truly the God Hate is one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

all in perfect communion. Though they can be different, but

they are one, They are always in agreement. So I

should say this oneness is in the very nature of God.

Oneness is in the very nature of God. And so

if any of us, you know, struggle to on the

thought that God is one, let me share you with

this thought. You know, that's a saying.

Right.

If God is love and God is the same yesterday,

today and forever.

More, follow me. I'm gonna say it again.

If God is love and He's the same yesterday, today

and forever more, who was he loving before he created man?

You got that? That means God was already loving the Father,

the Son. The Son loved the Father the Son of

the Holy Spirit, vice versa, and so on and so forth,

before even the foundations of the earth, before it was

even created. So God is three in one, three persons

in one being. That's why when you see the creation

of the of the world, you will see that. You know,

God said, let us create man in our image. There

was more than one person there. Jesus was there, you know,

the Holy Spirit was there, holding over the I shouldn't

say the earth. It wasn't the earth yet, I don't

know what you call it. Okay, over the voyd, Yes,

over the void, thanks Joe. Yeah, so yes. And so

God was one a man, He's one one. This is

a very nature of God. In fact, salvation in yourself,

I'm gonna go for the salvation in itself is the

product of that oneness.

You know why, because God's love.

God loved men so much even though we had sin,

we have been separated from God. He sent Jesus to

come to earth to save us, to die on the

cross to save us of our sins.

And today we have the.

Holy Spirit still here with us, working in our lives

so that we can continue to work out our salvation

with fear and trembling, and so that we can continue

to be.

Close to the Lord.

So salvation in itself is the product of oneness, whereby

the three persons working together to rescue what was lost,

the love of the Father, the sacrifice and the obedience

of the Sun on the cross, the work of the

Holy Spirit in you and me today. Even the Salvation

story in itself is the product of the oneness of God.

And so unity is not a preference, Brothers and sisters,

like church, unity or oneness is not a preference. It

is in the very nature of God. And hence you

and I as a church, we need this unity. The Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit are never I use

the word never disunited.

Never.

When you get to heaven one day, you will not

find them arguing, not like us here in our board meetings,

in our group assignments, in your work, in your meetings,

your client.

We argue, it's normal. It happens. When you get to heaven.

You won't find a Father's signed the Holy Spirit in

disagreement or disunited.

You won't. They will not be war in heaven between them.

They will not be. You don't worry.

So unity is powerful. With unity, it can it is

so strong that it can withstand anything. Just how you

start on the video, just now you know there's a

power of unity. And so as a church, right we

ought to have things in common. You know, that's a

saying that in church, if you don't have things in common,

we won't go far. We wouldn't go far if we

don't have things in common. That is why it's called

a community. If you look at the word community, and

again I'm going back to the to the previous chapter,

which is ownership promoting. If you look at the word community, right,

there are two words in it. It's actually common.

Unity. That's what a community is.

And I put some photos there, your your photos common unity,

which forms the word community if we put them together.

And the Greek word which you heard, which you heard

last week already is corinonia, which just basically means fellowship.

And it's powerful because we have things in common, you know.

And it's called a community, not a crowd. You know

you heard last week or so you were a crowd.

You go to a concert, you know, you don't really

know the person next to you. Just go have fun.

You may be cheering for the same thing, you know,

out of the top of the lungs. And after you

go back home and you don't know, you don't know

the name of the person next to you. Okay, But

in community, we know each other, you know. I pray

and I hope that you can at least name fifty

percent or a ripper in this church, or at least

eighty percent, even better one hundred percent. You know, that

means that we know each other. The reason why didn't

say a hundred percent is because we always had new

people coming, so it takes a while. Because if you

know everybody one hundred percent every week, that means there's

no new people. So that's why the numbers shouldn't be

one hundred percent, because they always new people coming right by.

Pretty you will know you'll know one another.

You know.

Sometimes it takes effort to go up to somebody shake

their hand. Sometimes it can be a bit. I can

be a bit like, you know, I'm not sure that

I met them yet not because the reality is that

sometimes when a new person walks into our church. Uh,

you guys are doing so well, you call them, you

shake their hand, you say hi to them.

I don't get a chance to say hi to them.

It happens. But it's a good it's a good problem,

you know. Yeah, Because it's a community, you have to

know each other. It's a community, not a crowd. And

we are called what we are called for is to

get on us to be a body, a body of Christ,

the church that God has established is our responsibility. Come on,

I used to word our it's not just one individual.

It's not just the past, it's not just the elders,

it's not just the leaders. You know, if it was

just past the canna preaching, you'll be watching a video today.

But the Lord led him and told him that he

ought to invest in the next generation, and so he

had to. He had to entrust the pupid to many

other leaders, including myself, and we take it fear and fumbling,

you know. And now I think in XKL alone, in

Cologne pot alone, I think we have about thirty to

fifty speakers.

You know.

He had to entrust young people to be able to

take the stage, to take the puppet, because a church

should never be built on just one man. But if

they're one man, you think can only be Jesus, not

any of our pastors or elders. You and I, all

of us is our responsibility. We have a part to play.

So it goes back to the ownership from more thing,

whereby everyone has the part to play. Everyone a partner

and not members. Come on, cause, did you get that?

Partners and not members? And so you will find that

for any organization, any family, any church, any team that

has unity in them, they will go very very far,

and nothing can stop them, you know, as long as

they stay united. And so division, the opposite of unity

is division. Division is the greatest enemy against us, because

he knows that when the high, when the house is

divided even four, you know, when when a family is

divided even forore, when not stand, you know, just that,

just how the Bible actually says in Mark chapter three,

verse twenty five. And if a house is divided against itself,

that house cannot stand. And if you read that portion

or the context, you will know that they're talking about,

you know, the people are accusing Jesus that he is

using you know, he has Satan, you know, and they are,

you know, casting on their own demons. And he said,

no way, how can a house cast out? How can

the same Satan cast out their own demons? Why would

they do that? They wouldn't go against themselves, right, because

a house divided in yourself cannot stand. And so I

want to say to us, division is the greatest enemy

against us.

And it's still happening.

And that is why it's even more important that you

and I talk about unity in our church today. And

again I'm not just talking about church. I'm talking about

your families. I'm talking about your marriage, I'm talking about

your company, I'm talking about your workplace. I'm talking about

unity among your friends, your sports, grew up, your organization, anything.

Because where there is unity, we can go very far.

And I know that's an English thing. United we stand

divided before there's the reality of life. And so let's

look at what the body of Christ looks like in

First Corinthian chapter twelve, verse chelf. Okay, so let's altern

our bibles because I don't have the slight for this

is a very long.

Reference.

So let's auturn our bibles to First Corinthian chapter twelve. Okay,

First Covinian Chapter twelve, verse twenty Chelve to twenty seven.

Okay, I'll give you a while.

Don't worry. Let's strip those pages. Okay, are you there? Okay?

On my bible is page ten ten. Okay, one thy

ten on my bible. All right, here we go. Chapter twelve,

verse Chelve says, for us, the body is one and

has many members. But all the members of that one body,

being many, are one body. So also is Christ, for

by one one spirit, we were all baptized into one body,

where the juice or greigs, where the slaves are free

and have all been made to drink into one spirit.

For in fact, the body is not one member, but many.

If the food should say, because I am not a hand,

I am not of the body, is it therefore not.

Of the body.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not the eye,

I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of

the body. If the whole body well an eye, where

would be the hearing, If the whole body were hearing,

where it would be the smelling? But now God has

set the members, each one of them in the body,

just as he pleased. And if they were all one member,

where would the body be? But now, indeed there are

many members yet one body. And the eye cannot say

to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor

again the hair it to defeat, I have no need

of you.

No much.

Rather, those members of the body which seem to be

weaker are necesssury. And those members of the body which

we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow

greater honor. And our unpresentable parts have greater modesty. But

our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body,

having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,

that there should be no sichism in the body, but

that the members should have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it,

or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice

in it. Now you are the Body of Christ and

members individually.

Amen.

The Lord bless the reading of his word. And so

we are all one body, although we are members individually.

Of course, let me say that we call our people

as partners.

But the Bible uses on members, and I'll use that

for now, members individually. But yet we are all one

body in Christ, and so we need each other. Now,

when you hear me say we need each other, I

really believe it, because if all of us decided to

come late to church this morning, we probably won't have worship,

We probably won't have the projector on. We have no sound,

you know. So we need each other, Yes, because we

work with need each other. You know, we are one

body with many parts, many members, working together to make

what church looks like today, and so we need each other.

Don't say it to another person. I don't need the hosts.

Listen.

I don't really believe that one dream team dream things

what we call our ministries here. I don't really believe

that one is more important than the other. I believe

they're all necessary for church, because if you don't have

a host downstairs to welcome you, you may come to

church angry or said, you know, but at least someone

smile at you, shook your hand downstairs, you know. So

don't be afraid. No, you know, don't don't walk the

one big round to avoid the host. Some of you

are laughing. Maybe you've done it.

I don't know.

I've done it before when I was going out, or

you walk faster, you know, give us a chance, give

us a chance to welcome, welcome you with a smile,

with a handy shake, say hi, you know, don't be

a stranger, shake the hand, give them a face balm,

you know, so that when you come to church you

have you at least start off joy joyful, you know,

and and then you're come into worship and from worship

after we have espresso, which is with self hospitality.

You know.

There is the sound team, there is the x TV

helps with our you know, our projection. We have a

put program coordinators to make sure that we're on time,

and we don't end our service three hours late, you know,

because you may not come in the next week. So

you see, all of us are working together. That's called unity,

and we make the dream work. That's why I called

dream teams. We make the dream work. Amen. They may

be unity in diversity again, and come back to the

same point. We may be different, we may be diverse,

but yet we can be united and because of the differences,

they can be challenges in unity. Okay, which brings us

to our next point. We need to guard unity. The

point say is God unity and unity will guard you

because you can never bring a family down there as united.

You can never bring a church down as united. But

if they are divided and they're disunited, they're in disagreement,

they're in doubts, you can bring them down and even

a church can go down in that way. So we've

got to be very careful. So we need to guard

unity God unity. The challenge is that in church, in Christians,

we're very different. When I say different in a sense,

not in a good way, but we're different in the

sense whereby we love to hear rumors. It's gonna get

quiet now because we love to hear rumors Rumors are tasty.

You know, when we hear rumor about this elder or

this past us somewhere, the first thing that ever come

from our mouth is tell me more, why not? Do'tate

your hands. But that's what we will say somehow, one

way or another. In church, were like that, you know,

because rumors are very it's very steet was to hear.

It's very excited. You know, it goes deeper. You know,

we don't like other people talking about us, but we

like to talk about other people. There's a reality.

Ouch.

I want to say to us, ladies and gentlemen, our

calling is to protect one another first, Protect one another first,

and then we deal with a rumor later. And then

it's a practice that you and I need ought to

have in the church. Protect your pastors, protect your leaders,

your elders first, you know, to be very.

Honest with you in church.

Even in that church, there can be rumors going around,

you know, and of course our pastor or our leaders

will say, hang on, wait first, let me check with

them first.

There's always two sides to a coin hold that thought.

You know, protect the person first, protect the church first,

guard that you need to first, and then we deal

with a rumor because oftentimes we like to add thought,

what was the saying ed.

Onto the wood?

Is it? Yeah?

Onto the wood?

Right? And to make it worse, we can see a

person in the Bible, King David. Even King David refuse

to touch Saul or King Saul, because he said he

was he was the Lord's anointed. You know, he had

rumors about him and whatever it is he was, he

was his own enemy. But yet King Gavid refuse to

touch him until God would have removed the tone from him.

Then only you know, he would allow it to to

to run his course. But he would refuse, given many

many times, to take the life of his enemy, King Saul.

He refused.

He had a different spirit, and he despite being the

enemy David, King David still protected Saul in that sense,

refuse to give his life or refuse to take his.

Life because he was the Lord's anointed.

So today we live in the generation that is quick,

you know, quick to separate, quick to offense, quick to withdraw,

quick to speak against our own people. And so that

makes our guarding of our unity even more important today

and even even more necessary.

Today.

I want to say to us, the very investment that

you make in guarding unity.

Well one day come back and God you what do

I mean by that?

You see, when we got unity, right, we don't really

see the fruit of it today we won't. You don't

really rip the fruit of you know, and then you

feel like I don't know why am I doing it?

You know? Why? Is unity? Necessarily?

The reason why I say the investment you make will

come back to you is that it's only at moments

right than when we fall in moments that when we

fail in moments that we need grace, that is when

the community will turn around and we'll then God you

in return. What I mean by that is that they

will give you the benefit of doubt to wait first,

let's find out what really happened. Check first, you know.

So it's in those half moments that really unity will

come back and guard us in return. And I'll share

you a quick story in a while. And so unity

will stand by you. You know, it will protect you

when you need it most. You know, probably the same

to your marriage to your family. Guard your marriage and

your marriage to God. You guard your family, protect the

unity of a family, and it will protect you in return.

You were so what you read one day it happens

in every organization.

You know.

I give you a same example.

Let's say you have a very very good boss, and

I pray that you can have good bosses. Okay, and

today I have a good boss. I work with a

very good boss, and I speak good things about them.

And so what I mean by that is that sometimes

I have colleagues who will come to me and complain.

Okay, and you will happen.

You will experience this in your workplace whereby your boss

has been very kind to you, very gracious to you,

And sometimes there can be rumors that your boss is

not very kind to someone else, you know, and your

cliques will come and spread rumor. You know that your

boss did this. He's an evil person. He's dead. And

in those moments, because you know your boss has been

good to you and we have guarded unity in the company.

In my example, I will tell you this this clague

of mind, Well, is it just one time? Because if

it's just one time that your boss was unkind to you,

that does not mean that he's evil his entire life. Right,

he had been kind to you ten times, but one time,

just that one time, we need one time, we need

he let out his anger. You know, maybe a very

very bad day. His wife diding cook for his pictures

for him, and he came to work and he got

angry and he lashed it out on you.

So I would say.

A friend of brother, he could just be the one time,

and that's what I mean. But when you got unity,

unity will guard you in return. You know it would

come back to you at the tough first time and

somebody else will speak up on your behalf even though

you didn't even know it, because that's what unity would

do to us. And you will only rip the fruit

of it during the tough time and you may never

even know it happened. So the story is that extra

should we in the past, some of you who have

been long enough, and actually you know that we had

a building, or we wanted to buy a building and

to build a building, and it was very expensive if

he was in the millions, and cut a long story shot,

we lost the building.

We paired a deposit and.

This uh businessman or the owner decided to withdraw from

it and never founded a single sin.

So the cut a long story shot. We lost a

lot of money.

And during that time, any church went to a crisis

like that would have split, would have people who left

the church. But there was a brother I think it's

his name is called doctor. I think Pasca was sharing

the story that this brother of ours, not from our church,

from a different church, and people were telling him this story.

You know, they were spreading rumors. Oh hey, you know

this thing happened. No, and if people said, tell me more,

tell me more. You know, oh they church lost money

or they lost building, or tell me more. Right, they

say that. And so they told this this person and

this brother, which is a close brother to our pastor

and our church, say it cannot be. It can't be,

you know, because if they really did lose something that badly,

the church would have split. People would have left, you know.

And he said it cannot be that that it would

have ended the way. But he said, if you look

at the extrage at the time, not one person left

at the time because of the incident.

Not one.

And this bird actually defended our church on our behalf,

actually told pass the Canada the story after that. He

didn't even know he was after that. And so he

said to this to his members, no, give them a

benefit of the doubt.

We don't know what actually happened. God was full in control.

And yet today, as we look back, we truly believed

God was fully in control because not only did the

church did not split. Actually, during the time, our pastor

was really really down. I think he even considered to

resign at one point, but the Lord encourage him. Not

only did the church did not split, our church actually

grew during that time.

He grew and God was with us.

It was a lesson that God had to teach us

and to bring us to to shot their journey. And

the church was united more than ever before. So it

was during that time that we knew that we did

something right. We guarded and protected the unity of the

church because we stood the test of time during the

toughest time. So it is in your most challenging times

that you will see and rip the benefit of unity.

So we need to guard it more than ever before. Amen,

don't let the enemy attack us and robbers from the

from the joy of the Lord, from the salvation, from

the joy of our salvation, and serving the Lord. Because

the enemy comes to robbers and to divide us, the

work will come from within. Did you get that the

work of the enemy will come? It was so lies, doubts, fear,

discord from within, from within the church, and I will

let you know. You know, to get betrayal and hurt

from within the church is the It is the hardest,

It is the toughest.

You know. It's because it's family, yes, right, because it's family.

You know, because if someone else from the outside offenders,

we could understand, you know, you could say the same

pay that Jesus said, forgive them for they do not

know what they are doing.

But I can't say they in church because they know

what they're doing.

And so when the attack or the division comes from

the inside, it is the worst. So I want to

say to words extras right now, it's going to be strong.

Please don't ever talk down or talk bad on our

church or especially another church.

Please don't ever.

I remember very clearly there was a time and season

whereby there was this particular church in Singapore that was

going to a tough time and there were rumors going

around and many people and actions were talking about it.

And I still remember passing Kenno staying on the stage

and say to the people, please don't ever get into

conversations or rumors or discussions like that, because he's so

he said this, you know, we need to have the

fear of the Lord and his stay most very simple.

He said this, He says, how do you know for

sure that they were wrong? Asked a service question? Now

what if? Just what if they were right? That one

question alone, I should give you the fear of the

Lord because we don't know. You know, who are we?

Who are we as man as mere human to judge?

God is the ultimate judge. And so as a church,

not just as ex church, but as a body of

Christ in.

The Kingdom of God.

Please ask church, never never talk down or get involved

with this kind of gossip or bad talk about other church,

other churches or even our oe church, because we never

know and we just really don't understand. Before the Lord

one day and he asked us, what did you do?

You know?

We are accoufortable for our action, and so we must

guard the unity of our church, beginning with our church

and God, the unity of the faith of fellow believers,

fellow churches in the Kingdom of God. Somebody say, amen,

come on more than ever before this generation. We need

to guard this unity.

So what is the sorry? Okay?

So in unity there's always challenges, right, because there are differences,

and so during the interview fast the manage is our curriculum,

writer ask us a cannady's question, how do you tell

a part the difference? So how do you tell apart

between differences and division?

Okay?

Because in a church, in a family, in an organization

and a company, there are always differences, right, There are differences.

There are differences in a character. There are differences in

our shapes and sizes, our style, our you know, financial backing,

you know different background, you name it differences.

Nobody starts starts off on the same foot.

Thing.

Everybody is different, right, So how do we tell apart

between differences and division? And there is a very distinct

difference between them. Okay, So we can all be different.

We can have different background, different style, different personality. Some

of you are much more excited than us, some of

you are much more louder passion than us. But despite

the differences, we can still be in agreement. We can

still be in agreement. We can still be in submission, submissive.

There can still be love, there can still be forgiveness.

Come on, they still can be unity in the differences.

Division is different, divisions were like all of this, divisions

will totally will totally be divided. Despite the differences, we

can have submission. You see the issue of submission. Never

really advise us until you have a disagreement.

Did you get that If you fully agree.

With the vision of the church, and if you fully

agree with your boss, fully agree with your with your mom,

your dad, you don't need submission think about it.

Because you agree, you do what they say.

Submission is mostly necessary when you don't agree. And in leadership,

we have a lot of submission. Just to share with you,

we do. We have to otherwise leaders will do whatever

they want to, but we cannot. We have submittered. You're

submitter to our upper leadership, and our entire leadership is

submittered to God.

We are accountable to God.

So you can argue all you want in a meeting,

you know, just to share your funny story. I'm running

a business right now with my with my siblings, and

it's not easy to run business with siblings. So in

the bord of directors that you have three brothers, me

and my other to my brothers, my twin and my

oldest brother.

They're all engineers, two civil.

Engineers, one mechanical engineer, and we are all good in

our own areas.

We have our meeting is rowdy.

It is, It really is, because we are all different

in our own ways, different in our character, different in

the things that we're passionate about, different in our experty

and our specialties. But one thing for sure, the more

we leave the meeting, we can argue all we want

in the meeting. When when we leave it, leave the meeting,

we are in agreement. We are in agreement. And likewise

in whatever we go to here in church. Sometimes we

also have church meetings, we have discussions. Sometimes they can

be disagreement, there can be different opinions, but yet we

can still be in agreement. A man, we can still

be one. So let's not be divided. Let's not have

division and church. Yes, there will be differences, but we

can still be united. I very very believe and find

that it's very exciting to have different people in church

because if everybody was just like me, I think we'll

be very boring. But if everybody was just like Shiquina,

you'll be very loud. Just kidding, skiing talk to Shiquina.

You know, so a.

Ballance is good, which you think so you know, uh,

you know, a mixture of flavor and it's very exciting

because we all get to complement one another in our

differences and we can have unity in diversity.

Okay, I'm coming to my last time.

I'm gonna close very soon, but I'm going to give

us five practical steps, very very quickly. Five practical steps

to God unity. Number one, talk to people, not about people.

What I mean by that is, if you have an issue,

come on, if you have an issue with somebody, talk

to them. Talk to the person, not talk about the person.

That's a difference. This is not rocket scienza.

Okay.

It's actually a golden rule that you can find in

the Bible. I think it's found in Luke chapter six verst.

That you want do unto others what you want others to.

Do unto you.

Actually, that rule, that golden rule that we practice in

corpet is actually in the Bible. They're talking on the Bible, okay,

Luke six thirty one. And I think Matthew was one

more reference to that. So what I mean by that is,

don't be so quick to judge, don't be so quick

to get into gossips and rumors. There's always two sides

to a coin, you know, And in church we over

then say give people a chance, give people the benefit

of the doubt. So don't be a person who's played rumors.

Don't be a soulo of this God, because I found that,

you know, being a solo of this God is actually

abomination to God. Is found in problems of the sixth

verse sixteen to nineteen. I don't think so I have

a slide. You don't have a slight regent on this

six sixteen? I think I didn't. Okay, can you show

it off Prows six sixteen to nineteen. Thank you agent

on the spot. I actually I forgot to put this

in the slide, but let me just show it to you.

Are I want to say to us, please don't be

a soul of this God because it's an abomination to

the Lord. Proble six sixteen or nineteen says these six

things the Lord hates, Yes, seven iron abomination to him.

And I'm gonna tell you the seven to one later

about look a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devices wicked, plans feed that are swift

in running to evil. Number six, a false witnesses who

speaks lies, and the seventh which is an abomination, and

one who sows this God among presren so ladies and gentlemen,

but the sisters in Christ. Let's not be this person

who sows this God among veterans. That's the first practicus.

That very very practical. How we can guard our unity

in church. Okay, Number two, I'm going, I'm moving. Number two,

stand up for your leadership and the church. Guard your leaders.

Don't be so quick to shoot our generals, our own soldiers,

our own captains in church, our pastors and elders, because

when you guard your leaders it is to your advantage.

Stand up and protect your own fellow brothers and sisters

as well. You know, be a brother's keeper. You know,

if you find that they said something wrong or they

did something wrong and you needed to speak to them,

then speak to them in private, not in front of

a crowd. You think the Bible talks about that. There's

wisdom in that. Speak to them in private, and wisdom

is always Wisdom is not about knowing what to says,

knowing how and when to say. So have the wisdom

of God, you know, stand up for a leadership.

For the church.

Number three, be quick to forgive and give grace to others.

Remember there were all humans, you know, we make mistakes,

sometimes knowingly and many times unknowingly. You know, maybe we

forgot your birthday, Maybe we forgot to wish you happy

wedding anniversary. You know, because there's a lot in church,

it's really a lot of people, you know, we have

take effort. So I have this practice that I save

birthdays of partners in my in my calendar, in my

in my in my contexts, and appears on my calendar.

But sometimes I must confess I only look at the calendar.

I realize yesterday or so in so birthday, and you

know it's maybe too late. I try to reach them related,

but sometimes not the same, you know what I mean,

Yeah and so and so. As the church grows, I

sometimes I cannot keep up with adding the birth days

in my calendar, and I forget.

It happens, you know, because it's growing.

Actually have some birthdays of partners ten years ago in

church because I didn't delay them. But sometimes I can't

keep up adding more. You know, it's it's it's a lot.

So forgive us, you know, give grace to one another.

Sometimes due to some circumstances, we couldn't be at at

your wedding. I couldn't be at your at your birthday.

It couldn't be at your you name it. You know,

we have our short falls, but that's why in leadership

we have our extension of our leaders, of other partners

who will come and be with you. You know, because

we as humans well fall, we will fail, we have limitations.

We also have our lives, and we also have challenges.

So give grace to one another. Don't harbor unforgiveness or

hatred because really it's like poison eating from the inside,

and unforgiveness, you will notice in scripture, will really rob

you from God's blessing. In fact, it's worse than that.

God will not forgive us if you don't forgive another brother,

So it's not just blessing, but it's also forgiveness from him.

Number four, Focus on things that unite us more than

the difference is so key, right, So we say this

all the time. You know, don't don't keep comparing ourselves

in another church down the street, because maybe the other

church has more.

Than us, or maybe they have less than us.

You know, some churches have very big, big hall, you know,

big big sound system, big stage. You know, don't keep

comparing to another church. Every church is different. They have

a different calling for us. Our church, we are called

to the young, so we really really invest our time

in a young and if you're not so young here,

then help us and join us to invest in a

young you know, partner with us. We are very big admissions,

so a lot of our budget and spending goes into missions.

And now you know why. So focus on things that

unite us more than the difference. Don't just complain about

issues in church, but step up and be the answer

to the problem. Come on, church, be the answer to

the problem. Number five Bar with one another.

Okay.

Number four if you need a scripture is Philippines two,

verse one to four. I won't go to wait, there's

no time Philippines two, verse one to four. Number five,

Bear with one another. Put the insurest of others above ourselves.

You know, be patient, be loving, be kind, be merciful.

Most importantly, love one another, because love covers a multitude

of sin. Amen. Love binds us together. And when we love,

we become the disciples of Christ. The Bible says that

you know that they would everyone, everyone would know that

we are His disciples, and we love one another. So

love one another, and God the unity, because when we

love one another, there's no room for discod there's no

room for division Ephesians four, verse one to six.

I'm just gonna read it to you.

Therefore, the prison of the Lord, we see you the

walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,

with all loneliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with

one another in love and direvring to keep the unity

of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is

one body and one spirit, just as you were called

in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,

one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above.

All and true all, and in you all. Amen.

So there's five practical steps for us to guard our

unity in church. And I pray that this particular step

is something that you can take home today and practice

it and do it, you know, and show grace to

one another. And so not only as I close, not

only is unity powerful, and not only we need to

guard it, but did you know that unity also comes

with a blessing. And here's how our close It comes

with the blessing, Because the Bible actually tells us that

where there is unity, God commands a blessing. And you

hear us say that that phrase so often, right, but

you don't know where it's found from in the Bible. Actually,

that phrase, the sentence is not said that way.

Okay.

He's found in Psalm chapter hundred thirty three. Okay, and

I'm going to read it to you. I think that

is there. Behold how good and how pleasant it is

for brethren to draw together in unity. How good and

how pleasant it is. It's like the pressure is all

upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard

of Aaron, running down the age of his garments. It

is like a dealer Hermone descending upon the mountains of Zion.

For there the Lord commanded the blessing life forevermore Amen.

And so that's why you hear see it all the time.

Where there is unity, God commands a blessing. This is

where the scripture was taken from a reference p. One

hundred and thirty three. So even as I close, but

as and sisters in Christ ex church, come on, maybe

be a church that is united. Not only a church

that is united, but we you and I You need

to continually guard the unity of the church. Don't just

take this home to yourself and say, yes, I need

to guard that unity of the church.

I want to take it further.

Take it to your marketplace, take it to your school,

take it to your your families, take it to your marriage,

take it to your organization, take it to your sports team,

whatever it is. I like it that in the world

you need it. There's there's this street. Let us, you

and I. So it's about us. It's we, not so

much about me or you, but it's us.

It's we.

It's our together as a family, together as a church.

Maybe continue to be united as act church and maybe

come to the God that unity of the church, and

maybe will see God's blessing for the church today and

whatever more?

Amen, how do you account?

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

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this week is going to be a good week. I

hit for you. God bless