Life Together | Unity's Witness

Welcome to the First Preds Sermon Podcast, where each week we dive into scripture, wrestle with truth, and discover how faith intersects our lives.

God's word meets us where we are, challenging, shaping, and calling us into something greater.

No matter where you are on your journey, you belong here.

And we're praying that this sermon might help you take a next step in faith towards Jesus.

Hey, let's dive into today's message together.

Today we're gonna read out of the book of Romans, chapter 15, 1 through 7.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Each of us should please our neighbors for their good to build them up.

For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we may have hope.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Accept one another, then just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Good to be with you to worship together in Romans 15 today to give this time to the Lord.

It's kind of like uh kind of normally Sunday this morning.

There's nothing really special big going on, but next week is a bigger deal, and today is just we give this time to the Lord to worship Him.

And as we gather in the presence of the Lord, as we gather under His Word, He shapes and guides and changes us.

Worship is transforming of our lives.

So it's good to be with you to give God glory today.

We are in Romans 15.

We've heard the word read.

Let's pray that we can receive this and hear it from Jesus.

Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you that you meet us, you teach us, you guide us.

We pray that your Holy Spirit would open our hearts and our minds.

That we can not just study words on a page, we can hear your voice, Lord.

And know leaving here that we have heard from you.

We've heard from Jesus, we've heard from the Lord.

And that we love and trust you more deeply.

In Jesus' name we pray.

The church said, Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Unity's witness.

Well, when I was when my son Jack was seven years old, um, I got appointed uh assistant coach of his upward basketball team.

This was to no one's credit because I had never played basketball, didn't know anything about the sport, but here I was the coach and I was guiding them along.

The lead coach of the team, the head coach of the team, was actually an older guy that you would classify as grumpy.

Okay.

And there was a kid on the team named named Magnus, his name was Magnus.

And this older guy, this older head coach, he could not wrap his head around that name.

He just couldn't get it.

And so he kept calling him Mangus.

Mangus.

The whole season he called him Mangus.

I don't know anybody who's named Mangus.

I don't know too many guys that are named Magnus, but but Magnus was uh, he was, as a boy's do, he would like grab the ball.

You know how boys do, they they're gonna grab the ball.

And so a lot of times Magnus was out there taking the ball away from one of his own teammates.

And so what I remember about this season, well never forget, is the coach waving his cane in the air, yelling, Mangus, Mangus, same team, same team.

We didn't win a lot.

Jesus knows your name.

He knows your name.

Jesus is not grumpy.

But I think Jesus a lot of times is pretty often trying to shout to us churches and Christians same team.

Same team.

We're in Romans 15 in a series called Life Together.

Today we want to talk about unity's witness.

Unity's witness.

What happens when the church is one?

In the 1990s, Colorado Springs, if you've been around a little bit, you know this.

The churches in Colorado Springs in the 1990s did not have that great of a reputation, ours included.

Why?

Well, there was kind of a blowback happening.

The Christian desire, the virtuous Christian desire to see the nation apply godly values to our common life was producing a backlash.

Focus on your own family, the bumper sticker read.

Anyone remember that bumper sticker?

Yeah, you remember that.

Remember what that?

There's this pushback, this backlash.

And so when I came back in 2016, it was largely the same.

Like people, if you if you were in the church, you appreciated the church.

If you're a Christian, you appreciated Christians.

If you were outside of the church, you're not a Christian, you don't like the church, you don't understand what these churches are trying to do.

You don't have good feelings about the Christians in your town.

You've got this sort of pushback feeling.

But the same thing was happening in 2016 when I came to be lead pastor.

But there was a movement beginning for unity.

Pastor in our church, a pastor of discipleship named Katie Fowler, the Lord put it on her heart.

We want to get our people out to the streets to serve our city in love.

And she gathered up with uh a friend, Pastor Ben Anderson of Solid Rock Church, and said, What could we do together?

They prayed and they dreamed and they dreamed up a day called City Serve, City Serve Day.

What if we could have a day where the Christians got out of the churches and they went to serve the city in love with no strings attached?

By the time I arrived in 2016, it was more than just a few churches involved.

There was a dozen churches involved.

And so we had a big dinner, and uh we invited the mayor, John Southers, and all these pastors and Christian leaders went to this dinner, and we asked John Southers, the mayor of Colorado Springs, we said, How can we pray for you?

And we said, How can we help?

What do you wish the churches would do to help Colorado Springs?

Mayor Southers welled up with tears in his eyes.

And he he got up to the microphone and his voice was kind of kind of breaking, and he said, You know what?

I have heard a lot of things from the Christian leaders in this city.

I have never heard until tonight.

How can we help?

We prayed for him, we blessed him, and then we gathered up for citywide worship in the sanctuary.

We gathered up, dozens of churches all came together to worship.

And as pastors, we we lined the communion table and we gave communion together as one big, big sea church.

And the next day, that Saturday, 1,500, over 1,500 Christians poured out into Colorado Springs to love this city.

One guy came up to me at one of these project sites and he said, Were you one of those pastors behind the table up at the worship service?

I said, Yeah, yeah, I was.

He said, To see you pastors serving communion together.

I thought you guys were competitors, he said.

But we're one church, aren't we?

It renewed my faith, he said.

It restored my faith.

Unity has a witness.

Christian unity bears witness.

It it shows something to the world.

There's a power in Christian unity.

And Jesus knew that unity had a witness and had a power.

He prayed for us in John 17.

He prayed for us, Lord, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may what?

Believe, so that the world may believe.

May they have as my as the body of Christ, may they have the unity that we have, Father, that I'm in you, you're in me, may they also be in us and in one another, so that the world can see something, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

So the world can see who Jesus is.

Unity has a witness.

Citizer grew and merged into Cause I Love You.

And actually, this Friday night, we're hosting worship again, citywide worship, and we're having all the churches gather.

We're gonna have communion together at 6 30 on Friday night, 10 years, exactly 10 years later.

Unity's witness.

Same team.

Should we eat the meat?

Do you know that's the question that we're asking?

Do you remember that that's the question that we're asking?

We've been asking this question for weeks.

It's a big part of Romans.

Like, do we eat the meat?

I don't know.

Do you eat the meat?

Do you eat the meat?

I don't know.

Should I eat the meat?

Should she eat the meat?

Do we eat the meat?

That's the presenting question.

But you know what the real question is?

Can we be one?

Can the church hang together?

In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things, charity.

Has anybody ever heard that phrase before?

This is called the Christian watchword of peacemaking.

In essentials, unity.

That means if it's essential, we gotta have one mind about it.

In non-essentials, liberty.

That means I'm gonna give you room.

You might think about it differently than me.

And in all things, charity.

Now that doesn't just mean let me give you some extra spare change.

It's not that kind of charity.

It means love.

Love's gotta be over all things.

In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty in all things, charity.

You know what that means, church?

That means you gotta know what matters and what doesn't.

Know what matters and what doesn't.

And then when you think you've got it, check again.

And then when you think you've got it, open the Bible and check again.

Right?

And know what matters.

And know what doesn't.

And hang together.

Can we be one?

Meat.

Should we eat the meat?

Let's see.

Verse one.

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

All right.

Who's strong?

The ones who eat the meat, sacrificed to idols, or the ones who don't eat the meat, sacrifice to idols.

Who's strong?

How many of you think it's the ones who eat the meat?

How many of you think it's the ones who don't eat the meat?

You see, that's like it's a challenge here.

It's like, what are you talking about?

Um Paul says the strong are the people who eat the meat.

We the strong, he includes himself in that category, we eat this meat that's been sacrificed to idols.

Those are the that's the strong.

That's the strong.

You might, if you were here last week and heard me talk about what all this is, sacrificing these animals to these false gods, these demons, you might think the strong are the people who resist doing that.

Like if you can resist doing what everybody else is doing, that's strength, isn't it?

And Paul says, no, the strong is those who eat the meat.

Why?

Because theologically, there's nothing wrong with eating the meat.

The truth is there is no God behind that statue.

The truth is there is no God who can hurt you for not doing what they want or participating in these ridiculous uh sacrifices.

And so theologically, the truth is you can eat the meat to the glory of God.

And so the strong eat the meat.

Why?

Because there's strength in letting the truth shape your behavior.

There's strength in letting the truth change what you do, change what you choose, change your habits.

That's strength.

But don't step on the weak, Jesus.

Because unity is also a value.

The strong should take care of the others.

Jesus wants us living you first lives in a me first world.

You first lives in a me first world.

Look at verse 2.

Each of us should please our neighbors for their good to build them up.

Each of us should love and serve one another.

Can we build a community of faith big enough, large enough, wide enough for all the different places where people are in their development of discipleship?

Can we build a community of faith where the strong can help the weak, where the weak can hold on to the strong, where people believe different things and they're growing in their faith.

They want to be stronger in their faith, they want to apply the truth to more of their lives, but maybe they're not there yet.

Can we have a community of faith that is big enough to hold on to each other until the Lord grows us all up in mature Christian faith?

Can we hold on to one another?

If you're gonna do that, you've got to look to the needs of the others more than your own needs.

You've got to look to the needs of the others more than your own preferences.

You can't just ask, what am I allowed to do?

You can't just be pridefully right about the things about which you're pridefully right.

You have to ask, how can I take care of you?

What can I give?

How can I serve?

I want to live a you first life in a me first world.

Because the unity of the body bears witness to Christ.

Why would you set aside your own needs and preferences?

Because that's what Christ did.

Look at verse 3.

For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

Paul quotes Psalm 69 here.

He says, You know what?

You can give away your preferences, you can take on uh harm for the sake of another, you can you can love and serve and sacrifice for those around you, because Jesus did that, and he quotes Psalm 69.

The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

What's Psalm 69?

It's a Psalm about the Messiah and how when the Messiah comes, when the Messiah has arrived, the Messiah will be so united with God the Father that when people are hurling insults at God the Father, the Messiah is going to be so close, so tied with God, that those insults are gonna land on him.

Those insults are gonna hit the Messiah because he's so united, so tied to God.

The insults that were meant for you are going to land on me.

That's Paul chose this to say, look, this is Jesus.

This is Jesus.

So closely united is Jesus with the Father that if you fired off arrows at the Father, you'd hit Jesus.

If you fired insults at the Father, you'd hit Jesus.

Jesus would take the insults.

If you're throwing eggs at the Father, Jesus would have would have the eggs on him.

So tight, so near.

Jesus suffered the disobedient world's hatred of God.

He was not to serve himself when he came to save us.

Mark said it this way, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

How can I be like that?

How can we be like that?

One to another.

Verse four, church.

It's kind of an aside, it's kind of a parenthesis, but it's one of the most significant statements about the Bible that we have.

So we have to take this rabbit trail down verse four.

Are you ready?

Verse four, for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope.

What's Paul doing?

He's saying, look, I just quoted Psalm 69.

Here's why.

I quoted Psalm 69 about Jesus to encourage us.

I quoted Psalm 69 about Jesus to encourage us.

And what's he saying?

He's saying that everything that was written in the scriptures was written for us.

I want you to understand what this means.

What he's saying is the word of God, well, he's saying, first of all, the Old Testament points to Jesus.

He's saying that.

And he's saying the word of God, the scriptures, they were written for us.

And he's talking to the Roman church in the first century.

Now, if these scriptures, if I can quote Psalms about Jesus for us, well then that means that God can speak through his word, not just through the Romans of the first century, God can speak to his word to who?

Us.

You and me.

Take this verse for what it says.

The scriptures were written for us.

They're written for you.

The word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is universal and timeless, and God can speak through his word.

He uses this word to address us, to encourage us, to carry us along no matter where we are in history.

This Bible, this book is not like other books.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit.

This is God's word.

Amen.

You ever had a scripture grab you?

Maybe one that you even read before?

You've read it a hundred times.

Suddenly it jumps off the page, like a hand comes out of your Bible.

Like grabs you by the neck, you know?

You ever had that experience?

Maybe not the hand, but have you?

You ever felt the word of God impacting your life in a fresh way?

This book is not like other books.

This is God's word.

And he speaks through it.

Back to the game.

Back to the big theme.

One team, same team, life together, unity is witness, you first lives and a me first world.

Verse 5.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had.

So that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Does that sound familiar?

As I read that, any familiarity there?

It's okay if not.

If it did, if it did sound familiar, it's because this is very much like a very famous passage of Scripture in Philippians 2.

Where Paul was writing to the Philippian church, and that reads like this.

He says, Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Make my joy complete, being like-minded.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others in your relationship with one another.

Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

The mind of Christ.

How can we have that?

In Philippians, it goes on to explain have the mind of Christ, who though he had every right to reign in heaven, Son of God, to reign forever, Jesus Christ have the same mindset as him, who did what?

Did he stay in heaven?

No, he came down from heaven and took on flesh.

He humbly gave himself away, even to the point of dying for us on the cross.

Have the same mind.

Try to have that same mindset of Jesus toward one another.

Jesus who drew us so near to his side.

And to do that for what reason?

Look back at our passage, Romans 15, verse 6.

Romans 15:6

So that, so that with one mind and one voice.

You may do what, church?

You may glorify God.

You may glorify God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That means you become a choir.

You become an orchestra.

You become a vehicle of unified praise with one voice, one song to glorify God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You can be one.

You know, we've got a at this church, we've got a pretty amazing choir.

Do you know that?

If you haven't checked out what they do sometimes, we've got a pretty amazing choir.

I was hanging out with them earlier today.

That was a little joke, yeah.

As I often do.

But, you know, um, it's pretty amazing a choir.

It's hard to be, it's hard to have a choir like that.

You know why?

Because you know what it takes?

It takes giving yourself away.

It takes saying, I'm not gonna be an individual, I'm not gonna have personal interests, I'm actually gonna, I'm actually gonna give myself away to a larger uh mission and vision.

We've got a great praise team.

It takes giving yourself away.

Saying, well, I don't, you know, I'd rather come and sing this song, or I'd rather come and do this, you know, play this instrument.

So we're gonna do it together to the glory of God.

I went to the choir this morning and I I couldn't believe it.

They all they all picked blue robes today.

Some of you know the inside joke, right?

It was like, wow, you guys, that's amazing.

No, why do they put on the robe?

You put on the same color robe so that you kind of dissolve yourself, you know, and you become part of something bigger, part of something unified, one voice.

The church can be like that, but it takes humble submission.

Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator, he said, he said, um, many wish for peace and talk loudly for it, who do not follow the things that make for peace.

Meekness, humility, self-denial, and love.

Make for peace.

Romans 15 says, Church, you can be like a choir, you can be one voice, an orchestra of praise, but how are you gonna do that?

You've got to take on the mind of Christ, who did not look to his own interests, but looked to the interests of others, who sacrificed himself for the benefit of others, who gave himself away.

The more you have the mind of Christ, the more Christ is the fullness of our vision, the more Christ takes up the entire viewfinder, the more united we will be, the more Christ, the closer we are to Jesus, the less we give ourselves to trivial discord.

You really feel this when you get out of the U.S.

and you visit Christians in other countries and other places of the world where they're under pressure.

You really feel this unity.

You know, our partners in Mongolia, in Ulam Bakhtar, they run uh they run ministries, they run Young Life, um, they run Campus Crusade, they run military ministry, teachers ministry, marital ministry, all these different, all under one under one office.

Same team.

You go over to visit our partners in Heliopolis and in Cairo, Egypt, the Christians in Egypt, they're the minority.

And there's three branches of the Christianity in Egypt.

There's the Roman Catholic, and there's the Coptic, which is the biggest branch in Egypt, and there's the evangelical, which is us, the Presbyterians.

And they got a lot of differences.

I mean, if they you ask them, you know, you've got any differences.

Yeah, they've got some quibbles, they've got some quarrels, right?

Like, please don't uh worship Mary as if Mary were a god.

Don't do that.

Please don't uh worship saints, and please don't be so superstitious about mass and and uh and accept a priest uh to be necessary to take away your sins when you've got Christ, the mediator of all, as your as your priest.

Please don't do that.

I mean, there's there's quibbles, right?

Between these branches in Egypt.

But when a Christian is attacked by ISIS, when the Muslim Brotherhood threatens to take over the government, what happens?

What happens then?

We're one.

We're Christian.

This is my brother, my sister.

An insult to her is an insult to me, harm to her is harm to me.

We're one body, united, united, same team.

Let's read this verse then, verse seven.

Could you read this aloud with me?

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Accept one another.

I gotta tell you, that word accept is a little light for what the scripture's conveying.

Accept sounds like tolerate, doesn't it?

Like walk into church kind of like uh tolerate.

No, it's bigger than that.

The the picture within this word is take in.

Take in alongside.

Bring in to your side, under your arm, like arm in arm, side by side.

We walk together.

I hold on to you, you hold on to me.

That's what this is, except draw near, draw one another in one body, one voice, one witness, one faith, one Lord.

Draw one another into your side as Christ drew you into his side, as Christ drew you near, draw one another near into the side, into your side, into your heart, as Christ drew you so near.

When you were still sinners, Christ drew you near to him.

So near that the harm that was coming to you fell upon him.

So near did Christ draw us in that the punishment for sin that was meant for us, rightfully ours, fell on him.

So near did Christ draw us in that sin's sickness became his death.

He died for us.

So near did he draw us in that when his side was pierced with the spear, the blood of Christ was shed, that you and I can be forgiven and redeemed.

So near did Christ draw us in and have the same mindset as Christ.

Draw one another in so that we bring praise to God.

The closer we get to Jesus, the more we belong to Him, the closer we are to one another.

Some friends I know ran the Pikes Peak Marathon last weekend.

Anybody run the Pikes Peak Marathon?

Some people are just different, you know.

Just different.

There's different people, you know.

I'd rather eat a donut.

They would rather, you know, get up and run 26 miles up a 14,000 foot peak and for six hours.

Some people are just a little different.

But you know, Pike's Peak, when it's when it's out there, it's only like that big, right?

It's not that big, right?

But you get closer to it, what happens?

You get and then you get a little closer.

And as you get closer to it, as you draw nearer to it, what happens?

It fills up the entire view.

It fills up all you can see.

You can't see around it, you can't see anything but it.

Pike's Peak is it as you draw near to it.

And others who are headed there, they've come from all around.

And as they're headed toward it, and they draw nearer to it, as it fills up the whole viewfinder, what they're closer to one another.

Jesus Christ fills up the whole view.

He fills up the whole view.

The closer, the nearer you draw to him, the closer you are, the more he fills up all that you can see, and the closer we are to one another in unity of faith, one team, same team, unity's witness to the glory of God.

Amen.

Draw near to Jesus.

Hold on to one another.

We can live this verse out.

A lot of times I preach and I kind of come to the end and I'm like, hey, listen, folks, that's the gospel, you go deal with it, you know.

That's the truth, you go figure it out.

Well, we can do something about this.

We can live this verse out.

This Friday night, First Pres is hosting citywide worship once again.

We're hosting.

We've got about a dozen pastors.

We're all gonna stand up and we're gonna just we're gonna distribute communion together.

One church, one big sea church in Colorado Springs.

You want to live out unity's witness?

You want to bear witness to this city that the church is one, that Christ is enough to bring us together.

And come out Friday night, change your plans, drive down, walk through the doors of the sanctuary, and join in unified worship with your sisters and brothers.

We're not competitors.

Oh my goodness.

We're one body, one body of Christ, one big sea church.

Come and bend the knee and let Jesus fill up the whole vision, the whole viewfinder.

Come and bend the knee before Jesus on Friday night at 6.30, and then Saturday morning, get up and go and bend the knee to love and serve your neighbor with no strings attached.

Serve your neighbor for their good.

What do you think God can do with that?

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you for the power of unity.

Thank you for bringing us together in amazing and miraculous ways.

Help us to hold on to one another, to guard unity's witness, that the world might know that you were sent to be our Savior.

Because, Lord, we're not ignorant of the devil's wiles.

We know what the devil wants to do.

The devil is a divider.

The devil would like to shred the body of Christ in front of the lost, that they would never find their way home.

Lord, we're not ignorant of the devil's schemes.

We're not ignorant of the world's ways, the world that profits, by pitting us against one another in division.

Lord, hold us together by your power.

Fill up our whole view, our whole vision.

Jesus, bind your church together, same team.

Lord, hold on to us.

We love you, Jesus.

We love you more than anything.

We want the world to know that you have come to seek and to save.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Hearing God's word is just the beginning.

What connected with you?

What challenged you today?

Maybe it's surrendering something, stepping into community, or simply trusting Him more deeply.

Whatever it is, don't leave it for later.

Act on it today.

We're praying that this message moves you closer to Jesus.

And we'd love to walk with you in that journey and answer any questions you've got.

Connect with us by visiting firstpress.org.

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Check in next week and we'll continue to grow in our faith together.

See you next time.