Introduction

Good morning church. It is great to have you with us today as we continue in our teaching series, One. Through this series, we're looking at what it means to become a community of one… a community united around Jesus. As a brief recap:

WEEK 1: You are a masterpiece. Act like it. If we're going to be a community of one, we need to recognize what we are and we need to treat others as the masterpieces they are. And the good news is that the world is drawn to that kind of love in action.

WEEK 2: When we are all together, different; we are greater than the sum of our parts. We all have different gifts, abilities, talents, interests, passions. And they can all be used to reflect Jesus back to the world around us. When we come together as a community, each doing our 'part' we become greater than the sum of those parts. We become an unstoppable force in our world.

This week, I want to look at the biggest roadblock to seeing the community of one become a reality. Go ahead and open your Bible to Ephesians 4:1.

This week, I want to look at the biggest roadblock to seeing the community of one become a reality.

Main Teaching

Have you ever had your favorite band break up? It's discouraging and disappointing isn’t it? Now, some of those bands got back together and made music again. But it's rarely as good, right?

Or much worse… and far more serious than your favorite band breaking up, you've seen relationships come apart in your life. We've all seen it. And we hate it when things we've grown to love or things we depend on… things we thought would last forever… fall apart.

And often, when we're in the middle of it, we feel like those institutions or those relationships come crashing down suddenly. It seems like, out of the blue, the relationship just crumbled and fell apart and we can't figure out why.

But those seismic events that rip apart your favorite band or relationship…those seismic events that leave an indelible mark on our lives and - in many cases - leave us with painful scars… those events are rarely sudden.

Almost always, there have been fault lines below the surface for some time. Fault lines happen because we are broken and imperfect people who do life with other broken and imperfect people. Yes, even in the church.

In fact, these fault lines are the single biggest reason most churches (small 'c') and the Church (big 'C') in North America are failing to have the impact we are called to have. These fault lines are the single biggest reason the Church in America fails to live as a community of one.

One of the reasons the Church in America appears to be defeated is because we are divided. Or, to put it another way. A divided church is a defeated church.

This means we must be very intentional about preventing future and healing current fault lines in our churches. We must be intentional about healing and preventing future fault lines from forming.

But I've got good news. The Apostle Paul addresses this very thing in his letter to the community of Jesus followers in the city of Ephesus.

Ephesians is a letter to a Jesus community made up of both Jews and Gentiles. These two groups were natural enemies and Jews looked down on Gentiles.

On the other hand, the Gentiles felt the Jews were uneducated backwater hicks with no sophistication.

Amazingly, through Christ, these two groups have come together as followers of Jesus in one community. Much of the letter to this community of Jesus followers is aimed at telling the Jews that Jesus called the Gentiles to be a part of the family of God. And telling the Gentiles that they have been adopted into that family. Paul also spends a good part of this letter telling both of them that being a part of this family means you can't live like you did before. He is saying, if you are going to be a follower of Jesus, you must come together as a community of one.

And then he says: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium