A Matter Of Heart And Mind Series

A MATTER OF HEART AND MIND:

Living the Unity We Have Been Given

I Peter 3.8

S: Attitude

C: Unity

Th: Living the Unity We Have Been Given

Pr: WE LIVE OUT ONENESS BY POSSESSING GOOD ATTITUDES.

?: What? What are the attitudes we should possess?

KW: Approaches

TS: We will find in our study of I Peter 3.8 five approaches we must take in order to achieve oneness.

Type: Propositional

The ____ approach is…

I. HARMONY

II. EMPATHY

III. AFFECTION

IV. SENSITIVITY

V. HUMILITY

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Don’t be careless with relationships

• Value unity and work at it

Version: ESV

RMBC 28 January 07 AM

INTRODUCTION:

I don’t know about you, but sometimes optimists drive me crazy…

ILL Optimism (H)

Did you hear about the optimist that fell out of the skyscraper?

Someone yelled out the 50th floor window, "HOW IS IT GOING?"

The man yelled back, "SO FAR, SO GOOD!"

That’s a little much, don’t you think?

ILL Attitude (H)

You may heard that the all-star Cal Ripken, Jr. was just recently elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It is a much deserved honor. He was a truly great player with a great attitude who holds the record for most consecutive games played – 2,632.

Even as a Little Leaguer, Cal Ripken, Jr., displayed an unruffled at¬titude. In his first year, he was pitching and had just hit four consecutive batters. The coach hurried to the mound to try to calm Cal, but he left the mound laughing. He walked over Cal’s mom and ex¬plained that Cal had said, “They don’t get out of the way very fast do they?”

Well…

What is your attitude when things are not going right?

Sometimes it is hard to keep you head thinking straight when things are going wrong.

And it seems Murphy’s law, “If something can go wrong, it will” is occurring over and over again.

Maybe you can relate to some other Murphy’s law similarities…

ILL Pessimism (H)

• A slice of buttered bread, when dropped, will always land butter-side down.

• If you put two electrical cords together, or even if it’s a single cord, a hopeless tangle will result.

• A broken appliance demonstrated for the repairman will work perfectly.

• The day you forget your umbrella, it pours.

• The check-out line next to the one you are in will always be much quicker.

• Your printer will always jam the night before something important is due.

• Murphy’s Corollary of the Power of Negative Thinking: "An optimist is never pleasantly surprised."

• Murphy’s Philosophy: "Smile...tomorrow will be worse."

TRANSITION:

Today, we come to our last study based on the theme, “Living the Unity We Have Been Given.”

In other words…

1. Oneness is achieved when we live the unity we have been given.

We have been noting for the past weeks the truth that the church has been given unity.

Randall has been given unity.

It is not something we created.

It is, instead, a gift that we either apply or we don’t.

We either choose to preserve unity or we do not.

Three weeks ago, we noted that…

2. Our unity begins with our doctrine.

Doctrine is a good word, meaning “teaching.”

And we described how our oneness is based on standing firm regarding what is taught, the truth, about Jesus.

In other words, what we believe, our doctrine, serves as a basis for our meeting together.

It unites us.

Two weeks ago, we studied the fact that…

3. Our unity is only effective when faith, hope and love are observed.

You see, we can believe the right things, and still get it wrong.

We described how our oneness is based on fulfilling our purpose, and more specifically, living it out according to the vital characteristics of faith, hope and love.

We discussed that what we believe is validated by being a church that is living by faith, known by love, and a voice of hope.

Last week, we talked about the importance of worship that is characterized by spirit and truth.

And we noted that…

4. Our unity is blessed when we recognize our gatherings are for an audience of One.

As I have mentioned previously, even though the architecture of our room makes it look that those on the stage are the performers and those in the seats are the audience, there is in reality only an “audience of one.”

It is God who is the audience, and all that we do, whether in our seats or here on the platform, it is to be done in such a way that pleases God, or else we fail in our worship.

That being said, when we plan the worship services, our ultimate goal is not to make you feel good.