What Unifies Us? Series

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

- Speak on the goodness of our being together this morning

- This series called “We Are Better Together”

o Intentional in pointing our minds to unity as a church family and as part of the churches of Christ.

“SERBIAN-CROATIAN CONFLICTS”

In 1991, the first of many conflicts began in the old greater Yugoslavia. From 1991-2001, there were several wars within a war over the struggle for independence. A few of the smaller countries in Yugoslavia wanted nothing to do with the communism of old. While at the same time these countries were vying for independence, the Serbians led by President Slobodan Milosevic wanted to replace communism with Serbian nationalism and regain the borders of Yugoslavia. He stoked a lot of the ethnic tension and helped fund the varying armies fighting against each other, hoping they would wipe each other out so he could go and pick up the pieces of what was left.

These wars were Europe’s deadliest conflicts since World War II and marked by ethnic war crimes and genocide. Over 4 ½ million people were displaced and 140,000 killed. Many of the leaders involved were indicted and sentenced to war crimes, ethnic cleansing, rape, and murder. It took 24 years for the International Criminal Tribunal to try all of the cases. Some of these including Milosevic died before being sentenced.

These wars have since still created tension between the different ethnic groups that live in that region of Eastern Europe. My friend was here this week sharing some of his work with Eastern European Missions and told several stories of people receiving Bible and learning about Jesus for the first time. They are amazing stories of faith.

One he tells, is about 2 missionaries to different countries in that region: Serbia and Croatia. One day these 2 men were sitting in a café and talking and laughing. Another man comes in and hears some of what they are talking about and walks up to them and asks them who they are and where they are from.

The first missionary says, “I am from Serbia,” in a boisterous way. This large man was clearly a Serbian. The second missionary says, “And I am from Croatia.”

This caused the 3rd man alarm and he backed away from the table a bit knowing the strife between the two races. He asks, “How is it that you two can be at the same table and not want to kill each other?” The missionary to Croatia says to the man, “Do you see that chair? Jesus is with us.”

The powerful testimony of how Christians can be unified by something greater than any past conflict, any past pain, the differences that seem insurmountable. By the love of someone greater: Jesus. That is what I want us to think about when it comes to unity.

As we wrap up our series on unity, let’s recap our past lessons.

We began by looking to the early church in Acts 2 and how the first century church had everything in common…

We then spoke about the disciples going out in pairs to teach the good news to everyone they encountered and how we have one another’s backs to encourage and help when times are tough…

And when we encounter tough times between each other, we learned about why we should reconcile with each other…

And we had to ask the hard questions about who it is we actually follow. If we follow our own way then it will be difficult. If we follow Christ, then we can be united with one another…

Last week, we discussed how Communion—the Lord’s Supper is our proclamation to the world about Jesus and how we unite behind this message to show our commitment to each other.

This morning, we conclude our series with this question? What unifies us?

We want unity. Many times, our wants and desires and our emotions can guide us to the wrong ways to go about having unity. We think unity comes when we all have the exact same conclusions about everything in our theology, doctrine, teaching, and practice. But for Paul, our practices were just a part of this and in some cases, the Jews and Gentiles didn’t do things the same way and they were imposing their opinions on each other. When writing to the church in Ephesus, Paul refines the faith back into the main things we need to be united under. Let’s read this passage together as we conclude our series this morning.

EPHESIANS 4:1-6

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.