Being One in Spirit
June 24, 2001
What would most people say if you asked them, “what’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the word Christian or church?”
- What do you think most people would say?
- Loving, Caring, Serving the Community, Welcoming, Generous, Authentic, Unified
- Or do you think the words “legalistic”, “judgmental”, “Intolerant”, “mean” appear?
- Rather than being known for our love, we have b/c known for positions on moral and ethical issues… for being out of touch, “holier-than-thou”, for being right-wing Republican extremists.
The sad truth is that in many cases, the world is right. As a church as believers, we certainly don’t seem to have mastered the fine art of “loving” very well.
- Consistent stream of people struggling with relationships
- Rather than being outward and sacrificial, we’ve b/c much like the world… preoccupied with ourselves, looking out for number one.
- Of course, its not just us… its our culture who touts virtues, which go against the grain of how we were created… as social beings.
- We see commercials of the “rugged individualist”… that mountaineer climbing up to the top of the mountain with his dog and box of Grapenuts… looking so free. But does rugged individualism free us as people or cause isolation?
- One person was boasting about how, via the Internet, you can carry on a conversation with someone 2000 miles away.
o Why would you want to do this? Isn’t it better to go out for a cup of coffee with your friend? What happened to healthy relationships?
o Do these chat rooms free us as people or cause even a great disconnect with the world around us?
Again, it’s not just us… but our culture… even the very structure of our communities: Urban Architect wrote an article on modern communities
- Do you think most new homes are being created with people in mind… with the aim of building nice communities where people can interact and live comfortably?
- No! New communities are being built with your car’s comfort in mind, not yours.
- Have you noticed that very few homes are built with front porches… and if they were built with front porches, no one hardly ever sits out on them?
- But how many homes have big decks in the fenced in back yard!
- You can have someone approach his house after work and click the garage opener… drive into the garage, get out, enter the house thru the garage, and close the garage door without the slightest possibility of connecting to a neighbor.
- What happened to Andy playing his guitar on the front porch with Barney harmonizing and Aunt Bee knitting?
- All these thing have contributed to the heightened sense of loneliness and disconnectedness people feel today as compared with even a decade ago.
Yet, in spite of our culture, the church is called to be different…
- we’re called to be a community where people can be real with one another
- where people can share their hearts without fear of being judged or labeled unspiritual.
- We’re called to be a community where together relationships are characterized by love, honesty, and respect… stirring one another on as friends toward deeper intimacy with Jesus.
I believe this was Paul’s vision for Christian community as well.
- In Philippians 2:1-4 Paul shares with the church at Philippi his heart for how the members of their fellowship can relate with one another like this..
- Actually, we know that one of the issues Paul was addressing in this letter was the apparent problem brewing between several believers in the church in Philippi, Euodia and Syntyche.
- He basically tells them, “listen, as believers, you have everything you need in order to live joyfully… in terms of your life, relationship with God, and with one another.
- Then he focuses on several of these things, knowing that if the reality of these things would truly touch their hearts, their relationships at work, at home, or in their fellowships, would completely change. He says…
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
The first thing that stands out from these passages are the “if any” statements:
- It’s Paul’s way of telling them, “hey, look, you’ve got all the ingredients for joy… I just want you to recognize them and let them touch you.”
- So, what are these things which we’ve we got?
1. If there is any encouragement from being united in Christ
- We have the encouragement, the assurance that God’s not only forgiven us of our sin but has also adopted as His children.
- Eph says, “In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ.”
- “Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” Col 1:21-22
- We all stood alienated and hostile toward God in mind and deeds, but, as Ephesians 2:4-5 says, “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”
- This reality won’t only change our relationship with God but with one another.
2. Paul then says, “If there is any comfort from His love”
- Jer says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love and I have drawn you in loving kindness”
- Unlike any other relationship, God knows the very worst about us… he knows things about you that you don’t even know about yourself… but He still loves you and has drawn you to Himself through Jesus.
- In other words, b/c of how much He loves you, there’s nothing that God is going to find out about you tomorrow that will make Him change His mind or think that He made a mistake.
- The reality of God’s stubborn love… the kind of love that continues on and on in spite of ourselves… should be a tremendous comfort to us.
- If you know Jesus, then you need to know that God accepts you fully in Christ
- That right now, He has a picture of you in His wallet and is showing you off each and every day.
3. If there is any fellowship with the Spirit
- Through the never ending fellowship of the Spirit we are reminded of His love, guiding us when the way is unclear, strengthening us to overcome all obstacles, and encouraging us when life gets tough.
- Ps 139:7-10 says, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee you’re your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
- The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is certain cause for joy… knowing His promise, according to Hebrews 13:5, that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
4. If there is any tenderness and compassion
- God not only expresses Himself through His love and presence but through his tenderness and compassion.
- 2 Cor 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles.”
- How often do we read about Jesus being filled with compassion?
- How often do we see the tenderness of God expressed through His grace, mercy, and forgiveness in our lives?
- God tenderness and compassion toward us, when fully grasp will change the way we relate to others.
Yet, with all these ingredients for joy, why aren’t we experiencing more of it?
- there are a number of reasons, but one important reason it that while we have the ingredients for joy, we wont fully experience that joy fully until we begin to look beyond ourselves to those around us.
- In all the things God has given us, if we’re not expressing these things outwardly to one another, then our joy will come short of God’s best.
- Everything, which he expresses to us, He wants us to express to one another. God gives us grace… give it away. He gives us mercy, love, forgiveness…
What God really wants is for us to move beyond ourselves so that, as a community, we are functioning interdependently. We’ll define that in just a little bit. But for now, listen to what Paul writes next:
- then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
- What attitude does Paul want us to have? To be like-minded, same love, one in spirit and purpose.
- There is supposed to be a connectedness among believers that holds us together like cement.
We should operate like the giant Sequoias of California.
- huge redwoods that tower 100s of feet into the sky.
- The Sequoia tree has roots just barely below the surface of the ground
- Without roots deep in the earth, how can these trees survive the strong winds?
- They grow only in groves and their roots intertwine under the surface of the earth.
- So when the strong winds come, they hold each other up.
- Now That’s INTERDEPENDENCE!
God created us to function, especially in the church, in interdependence.
- It’s the way nature works… where all the plants and animals in an ecosystem depend on one another for survival.
- Yet we often operate in just the opposite mode.
- We all tend to operate either in dependence, independence, or, at times, codependence
- To achieve interdependence, however, we must intentionally move from looking inward to looking outward.
Dependence may sound healthy at first… you’re certainly looking outward!
- you began life in this phase… a parent was your source of food, clean diapers, a bath, protection. You’re focus was that person.
- Sarah would definitely have been classified as dependent on her mommy. There was a period where if Joyce left the room for a few moments she’d start crying b/c like other babies, she hadn’t yet learned that when mommy leaves, she really is coming back!
- The good news is that kids generally grow out of this phase… but some people don’t. They go through life dependent on other people.
o Parent can get dependent on a child for happiness
o A teenager can get dependent on a boyfriend or girlfriend in order to be happy
- Although dependence is focused on another it is really a form of selfishness. You focus on the other to meet your needs. When they don’t our world can seemingly collapse.
Independence: Whereas my dependence is focused on you, my independence is focused on me.
- It’s the attitude of “I don’t need you”. We sing with Frank Sinatra… I did it my way!
- Most of us go thru our teens intent on escaping our dependence on our parents. Set on conquering the world on our own.
- Then, when we’re twenty-five we move back in with them!
Co-dependence is basically when a person becomes dependent on another person’s dependencies.
- This is usually b/c of deep issues of shame, rejection, and self-worth… things, which God so passionately desires to heal.
- Their own need makes them attracted to the needs of another since fulfilling that person’s needs gives them a measure of worth.
- The reality, though, is that the codependent person can’t really love their neighbor like themselves, since they lack any real love for themselves whatsoever.
- If you struggle with codependency, then know that God passionately desire’s to lavish His love on your… to heal any brokenness… and restore joy into your lives.
Where God wants us to be, however, is in a place of INTERDEPENDENCE
- Dependent people need others to get what they want.
- Independent people can get what they want through their own effort
- Interdependence recognizes that we need one another.
- Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve the greatest success. (Steve Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Successful People)
As a church we will experience a far higher level of joy and satisfaction in our relationship with God, one another, and our ministry, when we are living in interdependence.
- CONSIDER THIS BISQUIT!
o Flour, baking soda, salt… taken separately it tastes terrible
- Already I see such positive things happening here… in that no single person is responsible for what is happening. Already, we are functioning as a team, as the body of Christ.
- That gives me such joy… to be part of something far bigger than myself.
- But remember, Paul was writing to a healthy, vibrant church in Philippi…
o Even a godly church like that can drift away from interdependency.
o When that happens effectiveness flies out the window and joy is depleted.
Then Paul tells them to have the “same love”, to be “united in spirit”
- How do we get that “same love” and “united spirit”?
- Not going to come thru a church meeting: “Starting tomorrow we will be nice.”
- As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 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. Eph 4:1-3 NOTICE: It is the unity OF the Spirit.
o True spiritual unity can only come as our each, as individuals, come to that place of walking in intimacy with the Father.
o Unity is something that happens from within… it’s a work of the Spirit resulting from our abiding in Him.
o Not to be confused with “uniformity”, which is something that comes from without as a result of legalistic rules.
In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her first if he didn’t.
- “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus
- “These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they are nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.”
- “Which channel do you want?” asks Linus.
- Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you get organized like that?”
God wants us to come together as a community. Paul understands that conflicts will appear. What he is yearning for is that we as believers resolve these conflicts in light of who we are as followers of Jesus… those who know…
- the encouragement we all have as God’s children
- the comfort we all share from His love
- and the tenderness and compassion He has and continues to lavish on us
Paul then says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which is also in Christ Jesus”.
- Jesus is our ultimate example of humility, love, compassion, tenderness, grace.
- But He is not only our example in these things, but He is our power to do these things.
o We can’t walk in unity apart from Christ
o I know that when I am failing at relating in a godly way to those around me it is nearly always b/c my intimacy with Jesus was diminished.
My prayer is that if someone would be asked, “what pops into your head when you hear the name Bob, Cindy, Craig, or the Vineyard?” the answer would be loving, genuine, generous, kind.
- That we would look just a little more like our Jesus to the world who needs us so much.
- We’ve gotten it in our minds that people around Morris County don’t have any use for God b/c of their wealth. Fact is, they are on anti-depressives, filling up counseling offices, facing terminal illnesses like everyone else.
o Lets not blame them any more.
o From poorest to the wealthiest, let’s be a place a community that looks like Jesus.
- To be that community, that safe-haven, God has called us to be.
AMEN.
