Endeavoring To Keep The Unity

The Psalmist must have also felt this way, because he said in Psalm 133:1, “How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”

But if it is true that a church full of people who love the Lord and each other is the nearest thing to heaven on this earth, it must also be true that, “The nearest thing to Hell is a church full of people who do not love the Lord nor do they love each other.”

Unity is a very important part of our life. It is important-

• In the Home

• In the Work place

• In the church

But even though unity is important in our life, it seems to be something missing in many areas of our life. Instead of seeing UNITY today, it seems in many areas of our life we see a lot of DISUNITY.

WHY DO WE HAVE DISUNITY? It is because of a number of reasons.

(1) SOMETIMES IT IS A CULTURE DIFFERENCE

Many times we who live in the South see things differently from those who live in the North.

Illus: In a small southern town, there was a "Nativity Scene" and it was obvious that great skill and talent had gone into creating it. A Yankee, who had never been to the South, examined it closely and he noticed the three wise men were wearing firemen's helmets.

Totally unable to come up with a reason or explanation, he left. But he stopped at a 7-11 at the edge of town, and he asked the lady behind the counter about the helmets.

She exploded into a rage, yelling at him, "You dumb Yankees, if you read your Bible you would know why the wise men are wearing the helmets!”

He assured her that he did, but simply couldn't recall anything about firemen in the Bible. She got her Bible from behind the counter and ruffled through some pages, and finally jabbed her finger at a passage. Sticking it in his face, she said, "See, it says right here, 'The three wise man came from afar’!"

We have a lot of disunity because of cultural differences.

Illus: Every now and then we see the bumper stickers that read, “We don’t care how you did things up North!

But then there are other kinds of differences, such as the-

(2) GENDER DIFFERENCE

I believe the fact that God made men and women so different proves God has a sense of humor. Men are always trying to figure out women, and women are always trying to figure out men.

Illus: A man was walking along a beach when he stumbled across an old lamp. He picked it up and rubbed it, and out popped a genie. The genie said: "OK, you only have one wish."

The man sat and thought about it for a while and said, "I've always wanted to go to Hawaii but I'm too scared to fly, and I get very seasick. Could you build me a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over there?"

The genie laughed and replied, "That's impossible.”

• “Think of the logistics of that. How would the supports ever reach the bottom of the Pacific?”

• “Think of how much concrete.... how much steel !!!!”

“No, think of another wish."

The man agreed and tried to think of a really good wish. He said, "All my life I have been trying to figure out women.”

• “I want to know what they are thinking when they give me the silent treatment.”

• “I want to know why they cry when they can not have it their way.”

“I wish you would explain women to me!”

The genie replied: "You want that bridge two lanes or four?"

But another kind of difference we have today is the-

(3) COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCE

Sometimes we use the same words but they have different meanings to different people. This is particularly true when it comes to women and men. A woman’s vocabulary is different than a man’s vocabulary. I pulled some stuff out of my domestic counseling folder, and thought this might be of some help to some of you fellows in understanding women. For example:

• THE WORD “FINE” - This is the word that women use at the end of an argument when things are not fine. She closes the conversation with “Fine!” But that is not what she means.

• THE WORDS “FIVE MINUTES” - To a woman, this means a half hour. But it is equivalent to the five minutes that your football game is going to last before you take out the trash, so she feels that it's an even trade.

• THE WORD “NOTHING” - This means something, and you should be on your toes. "Nothing" is usually used to describe the feeling a woman has of wanting to turn you inside out, upside down, and backwards. "Nothing" usually signifies an argument that will last "Five Minutes", and will end with the word "Fine".