Exodus 14:14 NIV – “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
We Live in Dangerous Times for the Church
“Now, at ninety-one years old, I believe the storm clouds are darker than they have ever been.” – Billy Graham
“The American Church is on the precipice of a spiritual recession.
Our overall membership is shrinking.
Young Christians are fleeing.
…donations are drying up.
Political fervor is dividing us.
….the once friendly host culture of the United States is quickly turning hostile and antagonistic.” – John Dickerson
“God will prevail, but the oak of the United States evangelical Christianity as we know it may not. She would not be the first mighty oak of Christianity to fall. She is quietly dying internally.” – John Dickerson
21st century church is a divided church.
Ephesians 3:20-21 CSB – Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
United By Humility (Unity begins with humility)
John 17:20-21 CSB – “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.
Unity is Jesus’ priority b/c Division destroys our ability to share Jesus with lost people
Ephesians 4:3 – making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
What Divides us: Pride
James 4:1-3 CSB – What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?
2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
The Key to Unity: Humility
“What is wrong with the world today? I am.” – G.K. Chesterton.
Matthew 7:1, 3-5 CSB – “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged…Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye?5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.
James 4:6, 10 CSB – But [God] gives greater grace. Therefore he says:
God resists the proud
but gives grace to the humble.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
“Only humility leads to unity. And unity to peace.” – Mother Teresa
One Quick Application: Unity begins… Humble Surrender to the Authority of God’s Word
John 17:17 CSB – Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” – A.W. Tozer
Ephesians 4:14-15 CSB – “infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”
‘It may not be pleasant but I will say it. It may not be prudent, but I will say it. It may not be pleasing but I will say it. What God says to me is what i am going to say.” – Adrian Rogers
He made five points.
(1) It is better to be divided by truth than united in error
(2) It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals than falsehood that comforts and then kills.
(3) It is better to be hated for telling the truth than liked for telling a lie.
(4) It is better to stand alone w. truth than wrong with a multitude.
(5) It is better to ultimately succeed with truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie.”
THE TRUTH IS:
- God created the world, and we are ultimately accountable to Him. Psalm 23:1—the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
- Every person is made in God’s image; carries God’s value. Every life is to be honored with dignity and compassion from conception to natural death.
- Marriage between a man and a woman. Marriage is defines by God. Marriage matters b/c it is God’s metaphor for our relationship with Him.
- Sexual intimacy is a sacred gift from God… designed for marriage. Sex outside marriage defies God and damages people.
- Spiritual warfare is real. Satan is the ultimate source of evil in the world and prowls around seeking to lie, kill and destroy.
- Humanity has inherited a fallen nature from Adam. As a result, our nature tends toward rebellion, independence from God. People are lost in sin without Jesus.
- Jesus Christ is God, the Son of God. Pre-existent before time. Creator of the all that has been made. The way, the truth, and the life, Jesus provides the only way to salvation.
- The Bible is the inspired Word of God. Through the Bible God reveals His nature, His love, and His will for us. The Bible is absolutely trustworthy in all it intends to stay. It defines what it means to love.
- We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus as the King who died, was buried and defeated death through His bodily resurrection.
- We enter the kingdom of God by surrendering to Jesus as King, repenting of sin, being baptized, and obeying Him in everything.
- The Holy Spirit lives within every believer. The Holy Spirit guides and empowers us to follow God’s will, to go and make disciples, to overcome temptation, so we can obey everything Jesus commanded.
- The church is the body of Christ—God’s family– on earth. Jesus is the head of the church. The church is the unique, divine community of people “called out” from the world to experience God’s presence and power, so the world will know that there is no other God like the God of the Bible.
- Jesus Christ will one day return to earth to judge. The surrendered to Jesus as King will be welcomed into His kingdom in heaven. Those who rejected Him as King will get what they asked for—eternal separation from His dominion in hell.
- The primary purpose of life is love God with all of our hearts, soul, mind and strength. We exist to know & follow God as our Good Shepherd, surrendering to Jesus as King in all things. This is not only the primary purpose of life; this is what it means to live consistently with Reality.
Matthew 10:34 CSB – Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword….and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
Be Still… In His Purpose
John 17:21 CSB – May they all be one, as you, ….so that the world may believe you sent Me.
Matthew 28:19-20 CSB – Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
John 17:21 CSB – May they all be one, as you, ….so that the world may believe you sent Me.
Acts 2:46-47 CSB – Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts,47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 CSB – For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments….
Be Still: Unity is Jesus Agenda
Let’s Begin by Acknowledging that Unity is Our Priority b/c Unity was Jesus’ Priority first
Let’s Acknowledge: We Need Each Other
John 17:20-23 CSB – “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.”
Psalm 127:1 CSB – Unless the LORD builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain; unless the LORD watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain.
Colossians 3:1-2 CSB – if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
2 Corinthians 4:18 CSB – we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
The UPPER STORY UNITES: The Upper Story Tells us the Truth about what divides us.
The UPPER STORY Tells us what Divides us: Personal Pride
James 4:1 CSB – What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?
This life’s dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye. – William Blake
What Unites US? We are united in All are Proud.
What unites us: our pride! Our need for a Savior!
What Unites Us? The POWER of Jesus
Unity will only come by the POWER of God!
Psalm 127:1-2 NIV – Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Ephesians 2:11-14 CSB – Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” …. 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
Action: Essential Commitments To Unity
John 12:32 NIV – “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
John 17:17 NIV – Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
1 Corinthians 3:11 NIV – For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:18-20 NIV – The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The ONLY POWERFUL Foundation for UNITY is “sanctify them by the Truth.”
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area – crime, education, housing, race relations – the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation.
The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.” – Thomas Sowell
“Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
“‘How many anvils have you had,’ said I,
‘To wear and batter all these hammers so?’
‘Just one,’ said he, and then with twinkling eye,
‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’
“And so, I thought, the Anvil of God’s Word
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.” – Jonathan Haight (The Righteous Mind) and Alan Jacobs
Jesus Unites Us—We Just need to Work with Him
Upper Story: What Unites Us—Hear God’s Voice and Follow
Ephesians 3:20 NIV – [God] is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
John 10:27 NIV – My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
John 17:17, 21 NIV Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me.
Our Foundation for Unity: God’s Word
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” – George Santayana
“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.” – Spurgeon
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” – C.S. Lewis
1 Corinthians 3:9 ESV – For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 CSB – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house.
At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Exodus 14:14 NIV – “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Matthew 11:28 NIV – “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
John 14:1 NIV – “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
