Unity and Maturity in Diversity | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your tea.

I'm going to be teaching from Ephesians, for I've been

bringing the different plans through the teachings of Ephesians, but

I won't be able to do all as i'm chapter

four right now. Actually i'm at chapter five really in

some of the other plants, I'm going to just talk

about chapter four today because it's the part that I

want to emphasize on, especially as I feel it's needed

more so as you have just came from a journey

of coming together and putting your hands to the plow

and build, just taking this place and then turning it around.

It's a really really powerful thing that has happened, and

it could not have happened just through Pastor Stevens individual efforts.

It could not have happened if it was just the

local SBOS or the local pastor's office individual effort. It's

a collective effort of the entire church coming together. And

so unity and maturity is the team in which I

want to be sharing from. And I'm going to be

teaching from Ephicient chapter four. So if you have your

scriptures with you. You have your Bible with you. You

can turn to Ephicient chapter four, and we're going to

be going through verses one to sixteen today. I'm going

to break it down. I hope that this will continue

to build us up and remind us of who we

are and what we are to do a man. Okay,

reading from the NLT, I'm going to read verses one

to I think about twelve first, and then break it

down and then continue on the remaining verses. And he

says this, and remember, this is Paul writing to the

church in Ephasus, a church in which he was quite

pleased with. Okay, because if you read the content of

his letter to the church in Ephasus, he wasn't quite

unhappy with what they were doing. If you read the

content of the letter to the church in Corinthians, you'll

notice that the church was well, the people were a

little bit naughty in Corinthians, and that's why it was

quite strong. The letter was worded addressing different kinds of issues.

But the church in Ephasus was a church that Paul

was in a way quite pleased with. But yet he

took it upon himself to continue to guide them, to

teach them to instruct them. And so you'll see and

if you do a study of efficiency. The first three

chapters is doctrinal. That means it's teaching on what the

belief system is, is teaching them on doctrines, is teaching

them on creeds, on what we are guided by principles.

And then the next four chapters, the next three chapters

is basically the active butt of the letter. So it's

not just giving you believes, it's also telling you how

to behave It's not just giving you a bunch of creeds,

which is your apostles, creed, creed. It's also telling you

how you should conduct yourself. It's not so much just

giving you a bunch of doctrines, but it's also telling

you what you should do. Very important when you read

the scriptures that you see then and then you take

it on because the scriptures is alive, is active, and

so this is what I hope will continue to encourage us.

And we have arrived at word chapter four and verses

one to thirteen reads as such, and I'm going to

read it very quickly from the NLT. It says this

therefore I and of course I being Paul, a prisoner

for serving the Lord begged you to lead a life

worthy of your calling. 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

faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep

yourself 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. However, he has given each one

of us a special gift thrue 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, the other gives

Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,

and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip

God's people to do his work and build up the church,

the body of Christ. Amen the Lord bless the reading

of his words. Basically, think like this, the church is

so diverse, yet it's called to be united. Okay, And

Paul of all people had the authority actually to talk

about the churches unity and maturity. That is what this

whole portion of scripture is about. The next part of

it is talking about maturity. But unity and maturity is

something that's very very important in a church. And Paul

having been through it all, it's been through so much

just to pioneer and plan church as I believe that

he is in the best position to be able to advise,

admonage and courage instruct the church on how it should

be done. And he is telling believers what kind of

churches we should be building. Again, as you embank on

this whole faith project on building a structure, it is

not so much the physical structure that you should be

emphasizing on. Yes, it is work and there is results

to be seen, but more importantly is the content. What's

in it? How are we building the church? Because the

church again is made up of people, so that all

may know is the team for our church this year.

What must they know and see in church? Is the

question that you have to ask, as the Lord has

brought you through this journey and now you are where

you are at right now, because it can just be

another project. We can go through life doing one project

after another project. But it's more than that. And so

I want to bring us through some of these thoughts

so that we can come to this place of understanding

of why, what the purpose of the churches, and how

we should behave as the church. Amen, So we should

build the church because this is indeed the calling of

every Christian, every believer. We are called to actually be

a part of a church. No, if anyone tells you

that the church is not important, it's just a group

of people, I'm telling you these scriptures will clearly tell

you how important the church is, and how important the

church remains united, and how important the church continues to

grow from strength to strength. That's why maturity is something

that's very important. It's not something that is talked about often.

But don't you find it strange that we don't talk

about growth and maturity in the church when that is

exactly what we go through in life, and so we

must remember this. The church it's not just an organization.

It's actually an organism, it's a life because God's spirit

is part of this church, part of every church, and

so very important for us to have organic thoughts, not

just organized thoughts. A lot of times when we talk

about the church, we want it to be organized. No,

why not like that? Why you're now so many information? Better?

Why you never tell me earlier? Yes, I think it

helps being organized. I'm not saying that organizationally things should

be hazard. No, it can help, but please always bean

mind the church is more is first and foremost alive,

which means that it's organic. And so the first question

that I always get asked today sometimes when it comes

to a church or churches, because there's so many congregations,

so many denominations, and so people sometimes well ask me,

do I believe in unity within such a diverse group

of people or groups of people? You know, and people

ask me, you know, this whole idea of church unity

is in existence today. You know, some people have this,

uh thinking that church unity is like humpty dumpty, it's

fell off the wall and it's broken, and it's fragmented,

and that's why everywhere you go many I think there

are thousands and thousands of denominations, and even within a

church sometimes there can be so much disunity within the

just so some people that are it's like humpty dumpty

church unity where eas others will say, well, as long

as we are all one in Christ Jesus, unity is

already there is never lost in the first place. So

there are two types of views. I believe both are

right to a certain extent. I believe the practice of

unity is not very evident yet amongst all of us,

not very evident, but it's there, it's getting there. The

principle of unity has always remained the same, its innate

inborn within us believers. Because we represent God and we

represent His word here on earth. The principles have not

change the practice of it. I believe there is a

lot more that we can work towards and we can

work at and so see from a different way. That's

why I started off by telling you there is the belief,

and there is the behavior. There is the doctrine, and

there is the doing. The truth has not changed. It

still is the same. When we are here on earth,

we can very often lose the practice of unity, but

the principle never changes. It's the same. And so you

see what Paul is essentially doing in the start of

the scripture is he is prescribing the ingredients needed to

practice unity. And this is something I want to encourage

all of us because it is so needed. You realize

that no point you build a nice space, but there

is no unison, there's no unity within the church. And

so Paul says this, no, Come, let me give you

some ingredients on what is needed for you to practice unity.

And he says, the first ingredient is this. You need

to do this. You need to have this. If not,

you are at risk of losing unity altogether. So the

first thing is this. Humility is the first ingredient. And

this what does humility means? I believe it's just simply

seeing yourself as God sees you. Is when you see

yourself as God sees you, you can be nothing but humble.

Imagine this. This is God Almighty, the creator of the

heavens and the earth, the God who is sovereign and supreme,

the God who reigns forevermore. And yet he looks at

Earth's creation and he has given us so much greatness,

so much goodness. Why would a great, big God treat

us in such an amazing way? Baffles me? Really, why

would a great big God treat a mere creation in

such a manner? Baffles me. But if you see yourself

as God sees you, you can be nothing but humble.

That is my belief, and indeed that it's something that

we need to constantly remind ourselves. We've got to see

ourselves as how God sees us, and humble people always

bring about with them unity as opposed to the proud

and the arrogant. So whenever we think we are good,

people have to see us differently. No, remember, remind yourself.

Humility means seeing myself as how God sees me, and

then your perspective changes. So that's the first ingredient. The

second thing is this, it's called meekness all in the nalty,

it's called gentleness. It's not to be the mere. You know,

sometimes we think, you know, meekness is just being the mere. No,

it means a person must not be concerned about their

own reputation, not be concerned about their own rights, not

be concerned about their own revenge. You know, sometimes a

person whom you can do anything to and they stay

the same. They don't take offense. I ever met someone

like that, someone who does taught take offense. Because this

is the reality of it. Any fellowship can be broken

when a single party takes offense. That is the reality

of life. I know it's not easy, but again it's

an ingredient for us to practice. You see, you need

meekness because a gentle person is the one who is

never offended. And so this is the next ingredient that

Paul is actually telling and teaching us. We need this

to practice unity, meekness or gentleness. The third one is

this patience. Patience no time and time again as I

lead different people. No, it's not easy when it comes

to people. Being patient is one of the hardest things.

You know. It's actually translated from the Greek and you

trans into English. The best translation is long tempered. Being

long tempered, we don't have that word anymore, doesn't exist

in the English language. The opposite still exists. Short tempered

is still in our vocabulary, but long tempered is almost

gone today. But that is essentially what it means. It's

needed to maintain the bond of peace. Someone who is patient,

someone who's able to just take it in. Very very important.

And the fourth and final ingredient is one that the

NKGV translates as four barrens, but I like how the

NLT puts it. The NLT just translates it simply as

making allowance for each other's fault. Again, bear in mind

this four ingredients for barns, making allowance for each other's

for being long tempered, gentle, being gentle, humility, and being humble. Well,

if these four ingredients, if we have it, we can

have peace that will hold the church together. And no

matter how diverse the church is, unity will not just

be maintained. I believe it can thrive. See, we can

lose unity if we don't practice it. So it's very

important that we remain pragmatic as a church. That means

you need to practice it. Practice eventually makes perfect and

when you have different That's why I love the beauty

of projects in church sometimes because it causes you to

practice unity amongst one another. You need to learn how

to coordinate, you need to learn how to communicate, you

need to learn how to work together. But it's not

just one on one. It's not just like a marriage.

Nor even in a marriage just one individual, learning to

dance with another individual can sometimes be so challenging. What more,

in a setting like a church, where there are many

different individuals coming together. That is why it is even

more important for us to be reminded of what is

needed for us. And these are the ingredients that are

needed is needed. We need this. The four ingredients make unity,

and unity is always rooted and grounded in the kind

of unity that God has. And that is why Paul

goes on to exhort us to make every effort to

keep ourselves united in the spirit, bringing yourselves within the

bond of peace. And then he says, for there is

one body and one spirit, just as you have been

called to one glorious hope for the future. And then

he goes on to say, there is one Lord, one faith,

one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who

is over all in all and living true all. You see,

the unity that we see is actually rooted in God's unity.

And God's unity is the trinity three persons in perfect harmony.

You don't hear the father and son disagreeing with one another.

You don't see Jesus bickering with the Father. Neither do

you see Jesus bickering with the Holy Spirit. Nor the

Holy Spirit didn't say, why am I the one that

has to be left to inhabit these people and dwell

in their lives? Nor why can't I be in the

heavenly is? Nor why leave me behind? Jesus told God

the Father, God, Father, Father, Aba, why did you send

me to this god forsaken place? Even you didn't want

to come here? No, but I was given a mandate

to come here to go through. You don't see that happening.

You don't see Father's son, Holy Spirit disagreeing with one another.

In fact, Jesus's prayer has always been that they be

one as we are one. You see unity springs from

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

you start competing with one another, then you will never

achieve unity. That's the reality of it. Is about being

together rather than being alone. You know, to geton this

and not alone. Noess, And if we are all going

to live together in heaven, we might as well learn

to live together here first on earth. That is the

reality of it. Because really I can I can be

next to a Methodist brother or a Baptist's sister, or

you know we have all these titles and these different denominations,

the meaning we breathe our last and we wake up,

we'll all be in heaven as believers of Lord Jesus Christ. Amen,

you think we're gonna wake up? A Methodist you're here, Hey,

Baptists you're here. Oh hey, Evangelical you're here. Oh. No,

when we breathe our last, we will all be united

in heaven. Why don't we learn how to live together

here on earth? First? Amen? Do you know God's idea

of unity is not uniformity. A lot of times you're

just thinking uniformity, that's limited. I'm not saying uniformity doesn't

encourage and doesn't help unity. It does. But the reality is,

no two people are the same. No two blades of

grass is the same, No two leaves share the same design,

shares the same pattern. And do you know why I, personally,

I'm always marveled when I walk into a garden. I

tell people this because I have a mom who loves

who has green fingers. I have got absolutely no fingers

when it comes to planting, but my mom loves planting,

and her garden is a myriad of colors. You know.

It's every plant is different, every grass is different, every

it's all sorts of colors, all coming together, but they're

all growing together. And isn't that the beauty of God's garden,

the beauty of God's creation? You know, when I look

at the garden, it's the same thing as when I'm

looking at the congregation here right now, it's the same thing.

I see people from all walks of life, from all

different kinds of backgrounds, from all different nations, of all

different colors, and yet we are all one. Amen. And

so we need to realize this. There is and there

will always be variety. Can there be unity within the variety?

The answer is yes. Scripture actually tells us it's a yes.

You see, let's try to illustrate unity in a diverse church.

You know, sometimes we insist when we come to church. Okay,

the leaders are the true ministers and the congregation members

are the spectators. Ever thought like that before? The truth

is all members are actually called leaders as well, because

every believer is called to make disciples. Everyone is not

just something given to us as Steven or Man or

girl or Abeying or Sam. No, it's a mandate given

to each and every one of us here, and so

there is actually no spectators in the church. All of

us are together to make disciples. That is the true

biblical perspective of who the church is. And it was

always meant to be a shared ministry or a shared

service between all believers. Yes, I mean, like I said,

organizationally we have to have leaders, et cetera, et cetera.

But ultimately, if you think about it, everyone is called

because you realize the gifts later when I talk about it,

it's not given to select few people. It's actually given

to all. And that's why it can be clearly seen.

When Jesus ascended to heaven, what he did was he

pought out gifts on people, his people, and that was

the only way in which Jesus could continue working here

on earth because he knew he the rightful place is

by the right side of the Father in heaven, and

so he knew if I were to go, what needs

to happen, Well, people need to continue the ministry and

the work of Christ Jesus here on earth. And so

Jesus in him was all the gifts. You think about it, prophet,

that's what they call him. Prophet, priests, and king. He's

all basically a prophet, evangelist, an apostle, a pastor, a teacher.

Jesus had all the gifts in him, dwell in him,

and he wanted earth now together do what he could

do alone previously. That was the function, and that was

the purpose of why he says I have to go,

but when I go, I will leave with you the

Holy Spirit. It's very powerful. It works together, The Trinity

works hand in hand with church unity. And so the

gifts themselves were so varied, right, It's not just one

particular gift. Not everyone is apostle, not everyone's evangelists, not

everyone is a prophet, not everyone's a pastor, not everyone's

a teacher. But all these gifts are to accomplish something.

And so we are all gifted with certain roles and

responsibility which we must fulfill to the best that we can.

So each unique person with special gifts from God to

fulfill specific functions as we are called by God. Amen.

Does that make sense? And what are these gifts hoping

to accomplish? Well? Scripture tells us first and foremost is

for the equipping of the saints. That means it's personal

resources you need to lead another person to Christ. When

you come together and when you exercise that gift, that

is what you are doing. You're equipping people to pioneer,

You're equipping people to prophesy, You're equipping people to be evangelists,

You're keeping people to teach to pastor churches. That is

essentially what we are doing, equipment of the Saints. And

then it goes on to talk about services, and we're

not just talking about a service, a church service on

a weekends only. We are talking about how to serve

and minister to one another Mondays to Sundays, every day

of the week. And then it goes on to talk

about building. The purpose of the gifts is for building,

and suddenmes we think, oh, is there a physical structure.

Do we need a physical plan? Do we need a

physical building for it to make sense? No, it's not

really a physical structure, but it's about building people, andedifying

and building a person from inside out. And so the

church we are actually an amazing example of what organic

growth can really look like because in us there is

infinite variety, with all the parts doing different things, yet

we are coordinated. That is what makes the church special

and so we are one body. We can act perfectly

well as one body, even though every one of us

is doing a different thing from one another. You see,

he made the Church, and he wants to give different

functions two different people so that they may all work

together in harmony. Amen, if Jesus is going to do

anything in this world, he has got to have a

body to do it. The will of God cannot come

to pass in this world without a body. We are

the body because we are the Church, and we need

the Holy Spirit in the church because I believe a

body that does not have breath is dead. Do you agree, right?

And so Jesus said to his disciples that he had

to live so that the Spirit could come. And the

Holy Spirit chooses to inhabit our bodies because the Holy

Spirit has got no body of its own. Technically, think

about it, is spirit, right? And so whom does the

Holy Spirit inhabit? Inhabits the Church, that is the body

of believers, to feel us to become his temple. And

so now you see how amazing and how magnificent the

Father is directing the Son and Spirit in such perfect harmony.

And the result is the Church of God becoming his

Kingdom here on earth today. That is why I continue

to stand firm on the belief that the principle of

unity is still alive. It is we know it because

it stems from the Trinity. Amen. And we are the Church,

We are the Ecclsia, we are the call out people.

Ecclesia is the greektom for the Church, and so in

Hebrew it just says we are the coming together. And

so the Church is a living body. And I want

us to always remember this. Think of the Church not

just merely as an organization, but is an organism. It

is living, and all living organism must therefore grow. That

is why maturity goes hand in hand with unity, because

you can talk about everything under the sun, but if

everything under the sun doesn't grow, then essentially is not alive.

But that is what is needed. And so verse thirteen

goes on, and I'm going to read from verse thirteen

until the end of verse sixteen. 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 wind

of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people

try to trick us with lines 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 head 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. Does that give you a clear picture?

God wants his church to grow up. I don't think

there's any parent here. You want your baby to remain

a baby. Okay, maybe Gola sometimes really because they are cute.

If they can remain baby forever, they will forever be cute.

But the reality is, if they are twenty one and

they are still like a baby, you probably want them

out of the house. If they are thirty and they

are still not grown and not matured, something is fundamentally

not right right, And so parents want to see their

children grow up. We don't want them to remain the

same size. I think we'll be worried if they remain

the same size. But you don't want to see the

Church grow. Do we a lot of times? No, we

want to remain the same. You know, everything must meet

my needs. I know we've got to grow and we

got to mature together because God wants all of us.

Ask Christians to keep maturing. He doesn't want us to

remain childish in our ways. Don't be childish Christians. Yes,

there is a point of being childlike because at the

end of the day, we are all children of God.

Don't matter how old you are, we are all children

of God, and we must continue to have that childlike faith.

But childishness is not something that the Lord wants us

to remain. There is a point in which when we

are new and we are new to the faith, yes

we are developing or in a stage of growing, but

we must thereafter continue to grow up. And what is

it that we are measured against? How do we know

that the church is mature? You are grown up and

you have reached the stature of Jesus Christ. That is

the measurement that the scripture is actually highlighting. When you

have God to be as big as Christ is how

he has lived his life. It's not so much physically,

it's basically how Christ is spiritually that is our benchmark.

That is the test, because maturity is measured against the

person of Jesus Christ. And so we must always remember

that Jesus came to this earth to produce little Christ.

Christians are known as little Christ and so he wanted

to raise a whole race of believers who were mature

and be more like him. A mature Christian is therefore

one who knows his faith and hangs on to his faith.

These two things are very important, and that's why he says,

I don't want you to be children tossed to and

fro with every little wind of doctrine brown here and

there by men who can manipulate the word of God.

That's why it's still important for us to know what

our belief is. Still important for us to know what

the doctrine is. It's still important for us to know

what the creeds are because if it's not, if we

don't have that knowledge, then we'll be like reads are eed.

That is what Simon Peter's name actually means. Simon means read.

In Basa, we call it la lang. It's like a

tall grass that goes, that sways left and right, left

and right. We are not called to remain like that

left and right. You know, Simon was known as Reed

because you saw how he lived his life. He can

sway you no one, meaning he's like, I'm all for

you Jesus, No, I'll die for you. And then the

next minute he's denying Christ. But it eventually change from

Simon to Peter, and Peter means Rock. That's the difference,

and that is what we need to mature into. Its

very important. We got to stop tossing around in uncertainty

with our faith, believe and carry on believing. Very important.

A mature Christian says that I know what the faith is.

You can't fool me, and I believe the Gospel is

the truth. That means no circumstance, no false teacher, no

want to be profit is able to say us from

what we believe in. But you need to believe, you

need to know and you see, maturity comes from truth.

The end goal of maturity is to live like Christ. Right,

that's the end goal of maturity. But the means towards

maturity is actually knowing the truth about Christ. How do

you know the truth about Christ? You need to go

back to his word. And it's not enough if I'm

the only one who is teaching you his word, because

I could be telling you a lie when all of

you actually have the scriptures with you today. That is

why it is so important that. If it's anything university

life taught me, it taught me about constantly being a student,

constantly being a learner. That is what I learned from university.

I can tell you that everything that I learned I

forgot ready. Six years of law I studied, I've thrown

it all the way. I can't remember a single thing,

but I still remember how to search for answers. I

still remember how important it is for me to continuously

be learning. And that is something that we need to apply.

Whatever you are learning right now in university applied to life.

Because God's words is continuous learning. We need to keep

going back to it. It's very important. The means towards

maturity is knowing the truth about Christ, and that is

so important. And a mature Christian is therefore someone who

is able to speak the truth in love. That is

what a mature Christian is because where there is unity

and maturity, you must now be able to speak the

truth in love. Very important. Why do I say that, Well,

if it's just the truth, and there is no love

in the truth. It's very hard. You know. I can

take the word, and I can take the scriptures, and

I can take the law. I can take the entire

legal system and just slam it down into your life.

It's hard. Truth is hard. Truth without love is hard.

But if it's just all love, and sometimes we like

that as humans, gimme, gimme love. I just want love,

no truth. Love without truth is too soft. So what

we need is actually truth with love. You see, Jesus

was a man of truth. But he always spoke the

truth even though it hurts, because he spoke it in

love that people can accept his teaching. See, even though

he was so upset when he went to the temple

and he actually took out the whip and whipping them,

he turned tables. You know, he says, you're turning this

place into a den of thieves. But you know he

did it in love. And you see, love is actually

the joint that keeps the head and the body operating

together in a coordinated way. Imagine this, Who is the

heat of the church. Jesus Christ is the head of

the church. Who is the body? We are the body?

Love is needed to keep all this coordinated, because without joints,

there will be no movement. And love feels the move

of the Body of Christ, unanimously, always in agreement, even

in differences, even in thy That is how the church

should operate, and that is how it should function, with

Christ as the heat and we Love as the guiding,

the one that brings about that movement. And it's so important.

It's so you know, child psychologists actually say, and they

say this, if a family, it's so important for father

and mother to love each other to as compared to

just you loving the child. Because it says that when

children see father and mother loving one another, it gives

them security. Instead of father and mother always not seeing

eye to eye, but loving the child, a child who

sees father and mother constantly arguing will usually feel insecure

and frightened. And it is the same way. I want

to say this because we need to realize that as

the church, we are like parents to those who are

not believers. Yet think about it, No, if the world

outside sees the church and we are constantly not united,

we are constantly bickering, we are constantly fighting with one another.

What makes you think they want to be a part

of the church. That's the reality of it. And that's

why it's so important for Christians in the local church

to love each other rather than for us to just

go out and love the entire community. Because you can

go out and love the entire community, but wein us

there is no loss. Something is still fundamentally not right.

So outsiders must be able to come in. People who

we are inviting must be able to come to church

and say, wow, if this is how Christians love eash other,

I think they are halfway at least they're on the

way to salvation, rather than right from the outside They're like, hell, no,

I'm going to be a part of this right. And

that is why Jesus prayed that prayer in John chapter seventeen,

verses twenty to twenty three, and I'm going to read

it very quickly. He says this. I am praying not

only for these disciples, but also for all who will

ever believe in Me through their message. I pray that

they will all be one just as you and I

are one, as you are in me, Father, and I

am in you, And may they be in earth so

that the world will believe You sent me. I have

given them the glory you gave me, so they may

be one as we are one. I am in them

and you are in me. And then remember this, may

they experience such perfect unity that the world will know

that you sent me and that you love them as

much as you love me. This has always been Jesus's concern.

He was concerned for the believers throughout the ages, and

it's not He wasn't concerned on whether they will be

safe or not. He was concerned whether they will be

united or not. What is this unity that our Lord

prayed for so earnestly. Here he's not praying for uniformity.

He's not praying for all of us to look the same.

There's no point for us. Yeah, I mean, like I said,

uniformity helps. That's why companies sometimes have got uniforms. That's

why when we go to school sometimes we wear uniforms.

It helps. It helps to promote some form of unity.

That's why as leaders, we are all dressed up in

a uniform way. But it's not just uniformity. It goes

beyond that. It is not uniformity but unanimity. You see,

unanimity unanimous comes when you are able to make choices

and decisions together. That is the difference. When people different,

people of different values, different walks of life come together,

their hearts, their minds, their wills start to act together

in decision making. That is unanimity. That's why sometimes when

you have all these boxing matches and et cetera, et cetera,

it says by unanimous decision, that means they're all together

in the decision making. That is the kind of unity

that the scriptures tell us we should have, because that

is the kind of unity that will bring about harmony

when what one of them says, the other will say

the same as well. You know, I try very hard

when I lead meetings in church to always remind each

other that ultimately, when we make a choice, when we

make a decision, we make a unanimous decision, even though

how we came about that decision is. The truth is,

if they are ten flers in a meeting room, trust me,

if you are lucky, well not lucky, well, if it's

a good day, you get maybe no sorry, maybe half

five will decide this way. The other five will decide

the other way. And then all you need to do

is choose between two decisions. If not, you will have

ten different ways on how to do things and then

how eventually a final decision still needs to be made.

Right And so what I always tell the people that

I lead is we will still have to come to

a decision. And when we come to that decision, it

is our decision whether or not at the deliberating point

you agree with it, because some will definitely disagree, but

eventually all agree that one decision needs to be made

and that is our decision. That means, even if the

decision doesn't go how we expect it to be, no

one will turn around and say that I told you so.

I told you should have decided my way instead of

going down your way, because the good way and the

right way of doing it is well, we all made

the decision together. Now we can all learn from the

decision together. Unanimity is something that is not easily achieved,

but it's what we need to strive for. And that

is why Jesus drew parallel to whatever he says is

also what his father is saying. You know, Jesus could

have questioned the Father, why why do I have to

be the one that comes to this world? But eventually

he says, Lord, not my will, but yours be done.

It's crazy you think about it, because he could wait.

He got the shorter end of the stick right, Not

like God the Father. God weeped, God ridiculed, God sped

at No, it was Jesus. But yet he said, not

my will, but yours be done. Was Jesus's prayer ever answered.

But Steve, when you can come up, I'm almost done.

Our believers unified today. It's food for thought. I believe

the principle of unity has never changed. It remains the

same yesterday, today, and forevermore. And I pray that us,

as believers, we will continue to practice unity because I

believe where there is a group of Christians in which

Jesus's glory is shown, there is unity. I believe that

where there is a group of Christians who deny the

evil One and commit their lives to God's service, there

is unity. I believe where there is a group of

Christians who accept the word of God as truth, there

is where you will find believers who are thinking, feeling,

and acting alike, united and maturing in the Lord. That

is where unity and maturity will be evident. So let's

always know the principle of unity, and then ever cease

practicing unity in our lives. With the ingredients that Paul

has given to us, humility, meekness, patience forbearans, then we

will be a church that is growing and maturing into

the likeness of Christ Jesus, and so to summon all up. Actually,

Paul encourages the church, says, you must maintain, you must

keep the unity of the spirit until we reach the

unity of the faith. If you study efficients chapter four

you will see that. First he starts off by saying

that let's be united in spirit. First. The truth is,

there are a lot of things that doctrinally the Church

has not always agreed on, but that is not the

basis of unity. The basis of unity is actually unity

in spirit. That is why that word that is used

is coinonia. Coinonia means fellowship, fellowship in spirit. It's the

same word used to describe Siamese twins. Actually, when you

are in fellowship, when you are in closeness in spirit,

we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, maybe

we been came from a background where you baptize infants.

I don't know. Maybe someone has got a different belief system.

You know, we can argue about doctrinal differences, but I

pray first and foremost we come together, and the basis

of unity is the fact that we share one spirit.

And then slowly, slowly, we work until one day I

believe we will all reach a unity of the faith. Amen.

So we start with fellowship of the Spirit, and then

on that foundation we build a mature understanding of what

the scripture is, so that at the end of the

day we will all grow glorify King Jesus. Amen.

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hit for you. God bless