Core Principles – Protect the Unity of my Church
- Today, we'll read many Scriptures, as we want them to speak for themselves. You'll have all those Scriptures in your minds and then we'll walk through some practical things from those Scriptures. Since we have no desire to make a new list of rules, I've changed the word Responsibilities (which may sound legalistic) to "Core principles", because we want these things to really become core principles within ourselves.
- We spoke about being 'in fellowship with one another', then the 'Ministry of Attendance', then 'the passion to study God's Word', and today about 'the core principles of Unity'. Unity - not as a quality, but as an action. So we need to know what this is. We start with the 'Lord's High Priestly Prayer' (the real "Lord's Prayer". Jesus is praying to the Father, as a parent giving instructions to a child who is leaving the house. We begin to see a theme of Oneness - Unity. Now Psalm 133 - I love this passage, which speaks out about the oil that was poured out at the anointing of Aaron as High Priest. It's interesting to note that when Olive Oil falls upon your clothing, the aroma doesn't go away easily. The point being that the oil represents the fullness of the anointing, which is the blessing God had given His people through the anointing of the prophets and priests.
- The unity of the people brings God's blessing, releasing His promises upon the people. The unity of God's people make us barren people become fertile ground. As we take the responsibility of coming together as God's people, to turn to God's Word together to learn who He is, today we take the responsibility to protect the unity of the Church. Coming to Church means coming to the 'Safe Place'. Where, we may have enough conflict with the outside world, with neighbours, other family members, and workplace, the society in general, so the last place I want to find conflict is the Church. We need to become the safest place possible for others in the Church, since we reflect Christ and He is our safe place. Unity protects relationships and nurtures people. How often we get told to just 'Grow Up'. People grow up best by being nurtured. Unity creates attraction for other people by reflecting the nature of Christ. It makes people want to come to Church to get away from the conflict they have outside. The Church grows best when we feel the love of the people. Unity releases an anointing for moves of God. As on the day of Pentecost, where people were in one place doing one thing - praying in one Spirit.
- Unity is NOT the absence of adversity or disagreement, but is the attitude to overcome them. Unity is not Unanimity. It is also NOT theological agreement in all things - obviously not on salvation doctrines, these we agree on. It is also not unity of action. One example is the consumption of wine. Some drink, others don't. To protect unity means that one will give up something for something else when the time is needed.
- Unity is all the above things by working through them with perseverance, meaning that we try continuously. It should never be easy to break relationship, because people are too precious to God and to you too. Unity means submitting to one another. Submit to those who have been placed over you so that they may serve you with joy. And finally, Unity is finding identity in the One who binds us. We are all on a journey to look like Jesus, Each one's journey may be different. Our identity is not in our nation, our race or ethnicity, male or female, slave or free, but that we are Christians, imitators of Christ. We are on a journey to One and we need to protect the unity of the Church.