The Blessing Of Unity

Mike Atkinson tells the story of a man, who was stranded on a deserted island in the Pacific for years. One day a boat came sailing into view. The man frantically waved and got the skipper's attention. The boat landed on the beach, and the skipper got out to greet the stranded man.

After a while the rescuing sailor asked the castaway, “What are those three huts you've built?”

The stranded man replied, “That first hut is my house.”

“What's that next hut?” asked the sailor.

“I built that for my church.”

“What about the third hut?”

“Oh,” the castaway answered solemnly, “that's where I used to go to church” (Mikey's Funnies, 8-20-02; www.PreachingToday.com).

I guess he couldn’t stand himself, so he started another church. It seems that wherever you go (even on a deserted island), believers separate themselves from one another, which the world sees and laughs.

If another church is preaching the gospel, we must come together for the sake of the gospel. We may have different preferences. We may be from different denominations or nationalities, but we serve the same Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus prayed for the unity of the church (John 17:20-21), and what we’re doing this morning is part of the answer to His prayer. We’re two churches from different denominations and nationalities, expressing the unity we have in Christ. It is a beautiful thing! May the community of Lyons see it and come to believe in Jesus, as a result.

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 133, Psalm 133, where the Bible describes the benefit of God’s people dwelling in unity with each other.

Psalm 133:title A song of ascents. Of David.

This title sets the context for the entire psalm. First, there is the liturgical context – i.e., the context of the Psalm in Israel’s worship. It is called “a song of ascents,” because it was one of the songs the people of Israel sang when they ASCENDED the hill to Jerusalem. Three (3) times a year, all Israel gathered together on Mount Zion, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to worship the Lord as an entire nation (Exodus 23:14-17). And as they were walking up that mountain, they often sang songs together – these “songs of ascents.” They start at Psalm 120 and go right through to Psalm 134. Psalm 133 is one of these “songs of ascents,” sung as the people of God came together to worship. Even today, God still calls His people to...

COME TOGETHER FOR WORSHIP.

Come together to celebrate His goodness. Come together to praise the Lord.

Israel came together in the Spring (March-April) at Passover to celebrate their redemption – God delivering them from the Egyptians. Then Israel came together in the Summer (May-June) at Pentecost to celebrate God’s provision at harvest time. And Israel came together in the Fall (September-October) at the Feast of Tabernacles to celebrate God’s protection during their wilderness wanderings. Three times a year, all Israel came together to celebrate their redemption, God’s provision and God’s protection.

We too can come together for the same reasons. We can come together to praise God for our redemption, because He saved us from our sins (Romans 5:8-9). We can come together to praise God for His provision, because “He supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). And we can come together to praise God for His protection, because He protects us from the Evil One (John 17:15).

So come together to worship the Lord. Come together to celebrate His goodness.

The late columnist Mike Royko once wrote about a conversation he had with Slats Grobnik, a man who sold Christmas trees in Chicago. Slats remembered one couple on the hunt for a Christmas tree. The guy was skinny with a big Adam's apple and small chin, and she was kind of pretty. But both wore clothes from the bottom of the bin of the Salvation Army store.

After finding only trees that were too expensive, they found a Scotch pine that was okay on one side, but pretty bare on the other. Then they picked up another tree that was not much better – full on one side, scraggly on the other. She whispered something, and he asked if $3 would be okay. Slats figured both trees would not be sold, so he agreed.

A few days later Slats was walking down the street and saw a beautiful tree in the couple's apartment. It was thick and well rounded. He knocked on their door and they told him how they worked the two trees close together where the branches were thin. Then they tied the trunks together. The branches overlapped and formed a tree so thick you couldn't see the wire. Slats described it as “a tiny forest of its own.”