Unity In Christ

And, why are we ONE BODY? Because that’s how God wants it.

Paul says: Ephesians 4:2-6 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

There is ONE body and ONE Spirit— just as you were called to ONE hope when you were called—ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism; ONE God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

If you and I are going to belong to God we have to be one body.

And if we’re going to be that one body for Him, this church has got to belong to God.

ILLUS: Years ago I was driving a bunch of kids home after youth group. Most of these kids don’t go to church anywhere, so they don’t understand a lot. One of the kids asked me: “Do you own the church?”

To which I replied: “No, I don’t own the church building. It belongs to God.”

Now, how many of you agree with that statement?

Do you mean to tell me that this new Sanctuary belongs to God?

Do you mean to tell me that pulpit belongs to God?

Do you mean to tell me that this padded chair belongs to God?

But what if I donated money to buy this chair. It’s MY chair isn't it?

What if I put my name on the bottom to declare this chair was MINE!? Doesn't it belong to me?

Can’t I say to God (speaking to God) “This is MY chair and I’m going to sit in it. I don’t want to share it with anybody… and you can’t make me. BECAUSE IT IS MY CHAIR!”

(Pause)

That doesn't sound like a real smart thing to say to God, does it?

None of us here thinks so either. That’s why we’re having this UNITY service this morning - to declare to everybody that this building is to be used for God.

That means that as long as God sees fit to let us worship together here, we WILL be one church - Anglo AND Hispanic.

(PAUSE)

On my computer I have a “search function”.

I can type a word into a “search box” and my computer will search all of my files to find every file that has that word. So I typed in the word “unity” because I wanted to see if I had any illustrations with the word “unity” in it.

And I discovered something intriguing because my search function not only found illustrations with the word “unity” in them, but it also found WORDS that had “unity” as part of those words.

The word “unity” shows up as part of 3 other common words:

1. Comm-unity

2. Imm-unity

3. Opport-unity

And I thought… that’s interesting. But I wonder if that’s just an oddity of the English language. So, I texted Jose and asked if that was also common in Spanish. And it was.

The Spanish word for unity is “unidad” and it shows up in:

1. Com-unidad

2. Imm-unidad

3. Oport-unidad

And I thought – that’s cool!

In fact, more than that… that will preach!

When we are one body in Christ… we have community because we COMMUNE with each other.