EASTPORT BAPTIST CHURCH                                   AND PRESCHOOL

"LOVING GOD BY LOVING HIS PEOPLE"                 

Unity in the Church

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-13

There is this joke about blonds, and I’m going to change it around so it may be more acceptably told in a Godly setting.

 This blind man comes into a drug store and sits at the counter and orders a sarsaparilla. 

The man sits and drinks his drink for a while and then says to the counter person…Do you want to hear a Blond joke?

There is a lady next to him speaks up and says the following.

Sir I understand your situation of being blind, so before you tell the joke I would like you to understand the situation here at the drug store counter.

There is a blonde lady behind the counter that served you and she weights about 200 lbs.

There is a blond lady next to you who has a black belt in kung fu.

Then there is a lady beside her who is a police officer and is carrying a gun.

Beside me is another Blond lady who is a navy seal and I want you to know that I am an Olympic weight lifter that is also a blond.

Now with all that said do you still want to tell a blond joke?

The man sat there for a minute…drank a little more of his sarsaparilla, slammed the drink on the counter and said….

No I guess not…he paused…and then said…Not if I have to explain it 5 times.

There are two points to this joke for us in this church today

The first point and my main point, which we will talk about the most  is unity.

In any situation, with any group of like minded people, either:

J     a group of democrats

J     a group of republicans

J     a group of Presbyterians

J     a group of Baptist

J     or even a group of blonds

There has to be a basic:

1.      Set of agreements

2.      set of rules

3.      set of regulations

That all of those in that group or organization agree on.

If that is not the case then there is a splintering or breaking up of the group or organization.

That is why for the past year we have seen republicans argue over MaCain or Hucklebee or the Democrats argue over Hillary or Nobama. 

And when all are in agreement then the groups have an oneness in:

J     Spirit

J     In heart

J     In purpose

Let’s look at Unity in Gods word.

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-13

Eph 4:1 ¶ I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Eph 4:2 ¶ With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Eph 4:3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Eph 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Eph 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Eph 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Eph 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Eph 4:9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
Eph 4:10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Eph 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
 

As a church and a church is nothing more than a fellowship of people who believe in a particular idol or deity, we here at Eastport have chosen to be called Christians.

Acts 11:26  And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

We are called Christians, because we believe we have been bought with a price. And that price was the son of God, Jesus Christ who died on a cross for our sins.

He took our place so we could have a relationship with the one true God, who created the heavens and earth and we will spend eternity with Him, if we accept what Jesus has done for us. 

With that look again at the first verse of Eph. 4.

Eph 4:1 ¶ I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

Question…what makes us as Christians unified?

Answer:

• We have surrendered our hearts to Jesus Christ.

J     He is our savior and our Lord.

J     Therefore we have given Him our lives, ourselves, to do with as He…pleases …not us.

J     And if we have made Jesus the Lord of our lives, then we are:

o       His prisoners

o       His servants

o       His Slaves

It’s says that we must, he beseeches, he prays, he begs, he implores that we walk Worthy of the vocation which we are called to.

You say wait a minute…

If I am a slave or a prisoner then how can I be called and what is the vocation.

Romans 8:28 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

We are called to His purpose and beg’s us again to walk worthy of what we are called to do.

And then Paul tells us how to walk.

Eph 4:2 ¶ With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

If we look at those qualities which with us may take years of experience to ever get there, we see Jesus.

Oh how this is a picture of our Lord and Savior.

Lowly

Meek

Longsuffering

Walking in love.

I know today if this was not a picture of Jesus I would not be standing here preaching about what He has done for me.

Now saying that is how he wants us to walk…look at verse three.

Eph 4:3 Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This is the purpose for walking in

• Lowliness
• Meekness
• Longsuffering
• Forbearing

Forbearing means all those things that most of us are not. 

1. Patient
2. forgiving
3. tolerant
4. lenient
5. merciful

Paul is saying that we must work on all these to be like Jesus and when we do then we walk in the unity of the Spirit of God and then there will be a bond, a binding, a joining of peace.

Now brothers and sisters let me say…if we never have unity in Christ, then we will never have unity or peace in:

In our hearts

In our homes

Or in our church.

• In ourselves we have to unify with Christ to have peace in our hearts.
• In our homes we have to have we have to have unity to have peace,
  • With our spouses
  • With our children
  • And if we don’t have unity in our homes we have what…chaos!  
• In our church if we don’t have unity we have what…
  • We have an ineffective church
  • We have a dead church
  • We have a split church
  • We have no purpose
  • No reason to be here
  • We have NO Love

Look at the next four verses.

Eph 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Eph 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Eph 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Here Paul is telling us the reasons that we are to be unified.

We are one faith, one lord, one baptism.

Here he says also that we all have been given grace according t the measure of the gift of Christ…..

And what is that gift…His death upon the cross for all of us….

So there is no reason for us to be separate, on place ourselves above another, or even say we are better than another or even better off because it’s all by the grace of God that we have been blessed…

It’s because of Gods grace and what is grace…it’s getting what we don’t deserve, that we have what we have…..

Folks the old saying is that we are all equal at the foot of the cross and that is so true….

The cross is the throne of our Lord…it was there he pronounce his mercy on our souls…it was there we received our mercy…which is not getting what we deserve.

We are all sinners

We are all beggars

We all deserve the death of the unrighteous and our mission is to walk in love and in peace so we can help other beggars share that bread of life, which we receive and don’t deserve.

Folks when we talk and judge others then we are presuming that we know the mind of Christ and that we have been gifted the great gift of condemning another child of God.

If they lie to us

If they cheat us

If they steal from us

If they curse us

If they kill us

But if in the church we talk about someone then we are assuming the position of Jesus Christ in Judging our brethren and if we are wrong then we are stirring up discontentment of the fellowship.

Proverbs 6:16-19  These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Proverbs 6:16-19  These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Folks what I am trying to tell you and don’t let me have to say it 5 times.

God has a job for Eastport. God has a job for all His churches.

1. We as a church have to be about the fathers business.
2. We as a family have to be about the fathers business
3. We as an individual have to be about the fathers business

And unless we join together in unity there will never be peace.

Unless we join together in unity there will never be purpose.

And unless we join together and every person here, has a specific task or job to do then we will never see this church grow to its full potential.

Skip Eph 4: 8-10
Eph 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Eph 4:9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
Eph 4:10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

What is our potential? What is our purpose? Look at the next three verses.

Eph 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of

Each of us here a have job to do….we work together in unity to fulfill God’s purpose in the fellowship.

When one does not do what he or she is to do then others have to take that place.

When we do more than what God intends then our original purpose is slowed down, stopped, or not done to the greatest ability therefore we are giving God our second or third best instead of our best.

Then there is disunity

There is anger

There is overworked

There is discouragement

Which brings me up to my second point of the joke….

When a new person comes in to our church they are blind as to …well everything that God wants them to be.

They don’t understand when they tell a joke or say something out of line or stupid that it causes:

• aged believers
• more traveled believers
• more mature believers

• to twinge in fear of a lighting strike
• or get mad because we don’t understand why they don’t understand

Then we have to go back to the first part of these verses and look at out the veteran is supposed to be.

Now that blind person that comes in could be:

Lost

Or they have a different view

They may have a different idea on how things are supposed to be run.

Instead of getting mad and if we do then we need to look and see if we are equal at the foot of the cross and see if God has given us permission to speak for Him or Judge for Him.

We all have a part to do.

God is asking today…

Are you willing to do yours?

Are you willing to give him your best?

Are you even willing?