The Sum of our parts
Ephesians 4:2-16
1 John 4:7-9
Did you know that people live longer together than they do living apart? And married people live longer than people who just live together.
“Marriage brings in positive social behavior. Choosing to share your life with someone forever brings about tolerance, acceptance and security.” “People who have never married may never ‘grow up’, resulting in a more immature and turbulent lifestyle and a shortened lifespan.” Source: DR. ANTWALA ROBINSON – GRADUATE ALABAMA UNIVERSITY AUTHOR OF TOTAL WELL BEING.
HTTP://WWW.THEWELLNESSAGENT.COM/LETS-STAY-TOGETHER-SO-WE-CAN-LIVE-LONGER/
And married men live longer than single men. Now long life is not always tied to a happy life men you have to make that part work as well. Happy wife, happy life is what I have been told. In this case it would seem that science backs this up. God in His wisdom created us to be together. “It was not good for man to be alone” Genesis 2:18 King James Version (KJV)
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
God fashioned for man a partner that was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh the Bible tells us.
Genesis 2:23
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
God decided we should not be alone. Not that everyone has to be married but we function better together than we do apart. God gave us families as the first community. These families are the building block of society. They became, clans, and tribes, and nations until the whole world was covered with communities. For many thousands of years we did not do so well. We fought with each other we wared with each other and it seemed this human community was one that would self-destruct if left to itself.
This is where God stepped in personally by sending His Son - Jesus to re-make our communities along God’s intended design. This new community would be built upon God’s love, His eternal power and glory. It would be a community of believers. People from every tribe and tongue who looked to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It would be a community of sinners turned Saints through the repentance of their sins and the regeneration of their minds, bodies and souls through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It would be called a Church. Ecclesia the called out ones. Jesus would call out to men, women and children by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit of God. This Holy Spirit which once lived behind the vale in the Temple would now live in the soul of the believer. This Holy Spirit would cause the sinner to change from the inside out. A new heart, a new mind and a new spirit would be evident in each believer.
This new spirit would be the magnet that would draw them together into a new family – the family of God. Jews and Gentiles, men and women, boys and girls would become God’s chosen filled with the love of Christ. This love would move in them and motivate them to love as Jesus loved. Reaching out to the sinner, the despised, the destitute, the broken, the sick, the poor, the hungry, and the lost. This new community was now alive with the Spirit of Christ and would forever change the world. Their love was so infectious some thought it a disease.
Everyone here today is a part of that community if you know Jesus as your Savior.
Now to the scriptures:
Ephesians 4:2-7
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Some of you may be asking at this point “where is this church that I might be a part of it?” It is you and you are it but you may have forgotten how it is to function. It runs on love. Not programs, not committees, not boards, not by the will of men but on love. Not just any kind of love but on the love of God. Look with me to:
1 John 4:7-9 King James Version (KJV)
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Saints we who are the church need to live through Jesus and we can only do that when we live life with a Jesus kind of love.
Ephesians 4:11-16
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
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 fullness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Sadly we are not one body even here today. There are some who have chosen to stay away from us (the church). We must welcome them back, ask them to forgive us for failing to love them as fully as Christ loves them. Some have witnessed our hypocrisy and our witness has caused some to stay away. We must repent and change our hearts so that they reflect the heart of Jesus.
Let us reach out again to those to whom our Lord and Savior calls to Himself. To the broken, the sick of mind, body and soul, the lost, the hurting, let us reach out to those who are missing from this sacred assembly here today. Until they become one with us we will be incomplete as a church we will fall short of the full measure of blessing that Jesus desires us to know and reflect.
Let us purpose our hearts to reach the hearts of those who remain distant to us and let us be the ones to close the gap. Let the love of Jesus fill that space so that there is no space between us as brothers and sisters in Christ and then the church – the body of believers will be whole again.
1 John 4:11-21
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
Let us love our brothers and sisters in Christ with the love of God and let us see our family the family of God grow because of His love. Amen.
