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December 1, 2024 Sunday Morning
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3)
God built everything for unity. Unity is God’s will because God is one. He is the perfect plurality in unity. Within the essence of the one God there are three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man was made to live in unity with God and with each other, another plurality in unity: Adam and Eve, “one flesh.”
Unity is heaven. When Lucifer rebelled against God he was cast out of heaven. When Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” He was telling us to pray for unity. Lucifer landed on earth and the first thing he did was bring disunity between God and man, and the husband and wife. Adam and Eve accused each other for their sin, and so began the first domestic dispute. Sin destroys unity. They’ve been going on ever since. One of their two kids killed the other one: Cain killed Abel. It was a religious hate crime which has spawned religious hatred ever since. Behold the Crusades, the Middle East, and church fights!
Unity in the church is heaven on earth. It’s the way God designed us. He gave it to us by Jesus’ death on the cross and by giving us His Spirit. Now it is our job to endeavor to keep it.
God loves diversity, but He hates disunity in that diversity. He can’t even make two snowflakes or two fingerprints alike. We are all different in so many ways: color, height, tastes. The list goes on. We are not all going to agree on everything – even in church. That’s why our text says endeavoring to keep the unity. Look at the unity in Eph. 4:1-6, then the diversity that follows that passage. This is the genius of Christ’s unified church – we can be different without being divided. We can even have different beliefs and still have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Differences don’t divide, the flesh divides (Gal.5:19-21).
One of the mantras of our church is: In Essentials we have Unity, in Non-Essentials we have Liberty, in All Things we have Love. It doesn’t really matter what you believe the Bible teaches about healing or prosperity or the millennial kingdom, or many things, which are helpful for your Christian life, but not essential to have fellowship in order to carry out the Mission Christ has given us as individuals and a church.
Stay Connected with Grace Church!
Dive deeper into sermon notes and see how Christ is moving in our community by visiting our website: https://sites.google.com/view/gracehouseclinton/sermons
If you feel led to support our ministry, you can give securely here: https://give.tithe.ly/?formId=674824c2-5d42-11ee-90fc-1260ab546d11
Thank you for being part of our ministry! #GraceChurch #FaithInAction #terrysimpson #terry #simpson #clintonar #sermons #pastor #ministry #discipleship
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By Terry Simpson
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December 1, 2024 Sunday Morning
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3)
God built everything for unity. Unity is God’s will because God is one. He is the perfect plurality in unity. Within the essence of the one God there are three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man was made to live in unity with God and with each other, another plurality in unity: Adam and Eve, “one flesh.”
Unity is heaven. When Lucifer rebelled against God he was cast out of heaven. When Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” He was telling us to pray for unity. Lucifer landed on earth and the first thing he did was bring disunity between God and man, and the husband and wife. Adam and Eve accused each other for their sin, and so began the first domestic dispute. Sin destroys unity. They’ve been going on ever since. One of their two kids killed the other one: Cain killed Abel. It was a religious hate crime which has spawned religious hatred ever since. Behold the Crusades, the Middle East, and church fights!
Unity in the church is heaven on earth. It’s the way God designed us. He gave it to us by Jesus’ death on the cross and by giving us His Spirit. Now it is our job to endeavor to keep it.
God loves diversity, but He hates disunity in that diversity. He can’t even make two snowflakes or two fingerprints alike. We are all different in so many ways: color, height, tastes. The list goes on. We are not all going to agree on everything – even in church. That’s why our text says endeavoring to keep the unity. Look at the unity in Eph. 4:1-6, then the diversity that follows that passage. This is the genius of Christ’s unified church – we can be different without being divided. We can even have different beliefs and still have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Differences don’t divide, the flesh divides (Gal.5:19-21).
One of the mantras of our church is: In Essentials we have Unity, in Non-Essentials we have Liberty, in All Things we have Love. It doesn’t really matter what you believe the Bible teaches about healing or prosperity or the millennial kingdom, or many things, which are helpful for your Christian life, but not essential to have fellowship in order to carry out the Mission Christ has given us as individuals and a church.
Stay Connected with Grace Church!
Dive deeper into sermon notes and see how Christ is moving in our community by visiting our website: https://sites.google.com/view/gracehouseclinton/sermons
If you feel led to support our ministry, you can give securely here: https://give.tithe.ly/?formId=674824c2-5d42-11ee-90fc-1260ab546d11
Thank you for being part of our ministry! #GraceChurch #FaithInAction #terrysimpson #terry #simpson #clintonar #sermons #pastor #ministry #discipleship