In 1858, then Senator Abraham Lincoln speaking of America said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Of course, Abraham Lincoln didn’t come up with that himself. He was quoting the Bible. Jesus said in Matthew 12:25, “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.”

You see, church: in order for the church to thrive, we must be united. If we are not united, we cannot stand.

We’re continuing our series called, “How Does the Church Thrive?” Today’s sermon is, “The Church Thrives by Focusing on Unity.”

Churches lose their focus when they are not united. Churches lose their witness when they are not united. Churches lose their effectiveness when they are not united. Some churches will even shut their doors when they are not united.

So, we need to be afraid of losing our unity as a church. We need to consider disunity the enemy of the church.

So, let us embrace three characteristics that will help us be a united church.

Before we do, let’s go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to speak to us.

(prayer)

Ok, let us consider these three characteristics that we can strive towards to develop unity.

First, . . .

I. We are united through holiness.

Holiness makes us more like God and being more like God makes us more united.

A lack of holiness hurts the unity of the church. Sin will lead to disunity. Evil will lead to disunity. Being less like God will make us less united.

When the people of God are holy, we will be united.

Listen to what Peter said about this in 1 Peter 2:9-11 – 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises, of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

Church, we are to be a holy people. We were once not God’s people but now we are God’s people. We belong to Him! So, we are to abstain from sinful desires and we are to pursue holiness.

Paul speaks to this as well in Titus 2:14. Paul says, “He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.”

Jesus gave His life for us to redeem (or buy us back) from lawlessness and sin. In doing so, He cleansed us and made us a people for Himself.

Did you catch that? We are not merely individuals, we are a people, united in holiness for Jesus!

Listen, Christian: you are to be holy because Jesus gave His life to clean you up and bring you into a united people who are collectively seeking to be like Him!

Did you know that one of the ways we are united is by calling each other to holiness? We do this when we help each other see when we are in sin, call each other to repentance, and turn from our sin and turn to Jesus.

Listen to what Paul says about this reality in Galatians 6:1 – “Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.”

If we love each other, if we are a united people under Jesus, we are to gently call each other to turn from wrongdoing.

We don’t do this with an arrogant spirit or a “holier than thou” spirit. Rather, we do so with a gentle spirit.

Also, while we call others to repentance, we’re supposed to keep one eye on ourselves so that we don’t sin as well.

What a beautiful thing this is: individuals who compose the church of Jesus, the people of God, who are watching each other’s backs when it comes to turning away from sin and turning to holiness.

This pursuit of holiness is God’s design for the church and is God’s design for unity in the church.

F