Being A Bridge Builder: Why the Church Needs Unity

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hey everybody welcome to pre-service live a part of our church online experience my name is dustin leed i am the digital ministry pastor here at worship center and joining me is our assistant worship director my awesome wife kristen lead good morning worship center how's everybody doing how are you doing i'm doing well how are you you got a real busy morning you're doing a lot of stuff yes but i'm happy to do it i'm excited we're going to have a great gathering this morning yes it's going to be awesome i'm grateful you're here on pre-service live grateful for all of you watching also so let us know in the comments right now where you're watching from where are you watching from in the world where are you watching from in america where are you watching from in our stay here pennsylvania what part of your house yeah what part of your house well maybe not what part send us a selfie yeah let's do that i love a good selfie yeah so for all of you on facebook all of you on our church online experience and youtube we want to hear from you i don't know that you can upload a selfie in the comments but still it'll be fine we gotta fix that or yeah you can take a picture of us if you're in the auditorium and then like post it somewhere who knows but let's have some fun this morning for sure this morning pastor chris lotsball is going to be talking about unity and what it means to be a bridge builder i think i heard a hand clap uh it's going to be yeah yeah give it up for chris it's going to be a great morning for sure with a timely message um so hey as a reminder make sure that you share this post uh we say it like every weekend you never know how god could use your share but it's actually true it's really true when you use content to proclaim the good news of jesus things happen people need to see it people need to hear it especially in this time jesus brings hope so that's what this is all about all right uh before we jump into it i'm gonna jump to the comments susan sanders newton good morning worship center good morning susan all right we've got an announcement this morning so gary thomas and deborah fellata gary's the author of sacred marriage and deborah felleda is the author of true love dates um they're going to be here for an in-person conference it's a married sex conference right here at worship center for married couples of course so you and your spouse can come you can hear teachings from gary you can hear teachings from uh deborah meaningful sessions about physical intimacy taking ownership uh in love life some things like that you also have a chance to participate in live q a um it's a really cool thing that we're doing here at worship center yeah for sure um there's been a lot of teachings um specifically by churches that just don't line up biblically about physical intimacy so we're really excited for this they're not afraid of the hard questions or the awkward topics so we really want to encourage you young and old and in between come on out married couples yep yep cost registrations 25 per person or forty dollars per couple um if you want more information it's all available on our website and you can register at worship center dot org slash marriage conference uh so make sure that you check that out if you're interested um for some reason i didn't jot down the date here in my notes but it's i'm gonna click the link so this is like live happening right now so here we go married sex conference is happening in pa on saturday october 23rd yes october 23rd is when you can come out here sign up register in advance for that conference all right let's go back to comments for a second before we jump in this morning chelsea snater says hey dustin and kristen what's up chelsea steve says good morning wc family good morning worship center happy fall from susan young how about that yes i'm excited give it up in the comments if you're a fan of fall because i know i am me too pumpkin spice lattes oh here we go pumpkin spice stood for poster p pre-service wait do you like pumpkin spice i don't but i like chai you do okay well yes i'm excited for fall i was sick of sweating and fall means football no [Laughter] yes football dustin loves football go eagles yeah that's right go birds all right glenn glenn kaufman we're going to talk about football yes okay right glenn coughlin says see you both at 11 a.m all right live on our live experience right now ellie says a sunny sunday good morning to everybody yes it's beautiful outside hannah happy sunday debbie good morning worship center recently moved from lancaster to reading pa awesome we're kind of like right in the middle so so yeah that's a we we know about redding um all right here we go so again chris is talking about unity talking about what it means to be a bridge builder so um in our experience there's nothing quite like a fair season that brings unity to people brings the whole town together it brings the whole town together how about that so if you're not familiar with like what what's a fair i would say it's kind of like a local carnival right yeah carnival you eat a lot of food you spend a lot of money on rides on rides that you're not quite sure if they're safe or not but our our question for this morning is we had a lot of different ways to go here with unity around fair season but we're going to ask you what's your favorite fair food jump in those comments let us know right now hey fried oreos fried oreos fried oreos how comes every time we're on here we talk about food well i wonder why this guy food brings people together fried oreos what's your favorite fair food um so there's a stand i think it's called like tom's vegetables it's fried vegetables those things are really good i love fried veggies dip them in ranch regular veggies are okay too yeah no they're good too but yeah fried veggies but i saw fried like pb and j yeah they have cheese steak yup yup so let us know it doesn't even have to be crazy i know there's some like traditional fair foods out there that people like but do you even like the fair you know some people don't that's true impossible but we love it especially me and my son judah yeah judo wanted our son who just turned five wanted to go on all the rides so yes that was a big win for fair season for the lead family um i think robin's here i saw her earlier she says fall rocks everyone yes we love fall susan i'm watching from work in indianapolis that's awesome thank you so much for joining us every week that's awesome matthew albert says good morning oh here we go deborah seiss deborah site's dad and i are sitting on the sofa watching how about that thanks mom that's awesome all right trevor i love fall all the exclamation points everyone loves fall karen good morning everyone watching again from ephrata hospital sitting on my mom's bedsides prayers for her appreciated karen thanks so much we like to have fun here but really that's what it's all about so i'm going to pray for your mom right now jesus we thank you um for healing power that you provide and right now we just pray for karen mellinger's mom we're grateful that she can be with her in this time when she's in the hospital but uh your word says by your stripes we are healed so we claim that victory in the name of jesus and we just declare healing comfort and thank you for the promise of the holy spirit that's with us in those moments in jesus name amen amen amen so let us know favorite fair food um let's see funnel ellie says funnel cake isn't that everyone's favorite that is that's kind of true that is a classic i don't know if that ellie i'm not sure if that beats my fried oranges what about a funnel cake with fried oreos now we're talking all right let's jump into this so like i said chris is going to be talking about unity talking about bridge building unity that's a hot topic i think that you've got something on your heart to share about unity so we want to hear from you watching want to hear from you kristin what does unity in the church mean to you what's unity hey well i'll tell you what unity doesn't mean unity doesn't mean that we all agree with each other hey you want to know a secret dustin and i don't agree all the time that's true but we are unified as a couple and as one like we are unified because we build our house and our life on the foundation of jesus and that is what unifies the body of christ jesus he brings us all together and i think we can all agree that the number one not even the number one the mission of the church is to glorify jesus and to share his gospel so we might disagree on other things but we never want to allow the enemy to get us so fighting that we forget about the hurting person sitting next to us or we forget about the great commission which is to go out and to preach jesus to lift up jesus that's why we love worshiping together as as a body all together because it unifies us it unifies cultures it unifies races it unifies you know people with different opinions jesus he brings us all together yeah i love that i love how when we talk like spiritual we talk about what it means to do blank what it means to do x y or z it's always about jesus oh yeah it's he is the good news he is the gospel and he he unifies us more than any anyone anything that is the rock we stand on yeah it's really true if you look at the way that jesus lived his life he was always going into moments where he brought hope and encouragement and looked out on behalf of the people to bring them to him to know that the father the love that the father has is available for them and what is there that's more unifying yeah and jesus wasn't going around trying to get everyone to agree with one another he was going around preaching the kingdom and and telling us to repent look at our own hearts repent and seek him and do his will so i'm really excited for this message i think it's timely and it's needed and it's gonna be challenging and grow us and that jesus is gonna gonna minister to our hearts this morning yeah that's that's so good um unity in the church i think is you think of like one house many rooms like those rooms are not going to look the same every year there's a lot of different parts that make up the body and the same way i think that's why it's important that unity exists within the church because it's it's one body one house working together to fulfill a mission and i think that that's why unity in the church is really really important and sometimes i think it's why it's missed because i think sometimes it's easy to think this body part is more important than this body part or this this room is more important than that room and i think if you miss it that it's about jesus it's easy to go down that path yeah we all need each other yeah that's good good job i love that answer thank you pastor dustin all right we're going to jump over to the comments again here we go pamela rice good morning beautiful couple certainly couldn't be talking about me but i appreciate it i mean who do you think's prettier just kidding here we go i love fall because it means hunting season oh yes yes dustin's got about i love that yeah let's pray that dustin gets a deer this year yeah how about that let's do it all right susan says i'm sorry i do not like fall susan that is okay guess what there's a lot of people that are unified by jesus yeah there's a lot of people that like summer winter spring that's totally okay don't worry we still want you to tune in every week laurie says good morning everyone have a wonderful day uh tony says good morning i wish i was there i have a problem with my truck no sorry tony yeah absolutely we're gonna pray for that let's let's pray that tony's uh truck gets fixed that transportation jesus name comes to tony all right some fair food trevor says heroes is i think that's like the right way that you say it but i always say don't ask gyro i we'll find out in the comments later susan says she might not like fall but she says i do love fried veggies also all right robin says unity is honoring each other no matter what our difference is we love that um chris is going to talk about what it looks like to be a bridge builder also but we're running out of time here um in like 10 seconds anything you want to say about bridge building no but yeah just do it well bridges get to where we need to go so let's build them wow that's good that's a good word guys keep the comments coming it's been an awesome morning we're responding to you in those comments so thanks again for joining us thank you for joining us on free service live yep enjoy the service this morning [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good morning worship center it is so good to be together this morning let's worship jesus together [Music] come on let's put our hands together [Music] fall down on your knees [Music] let us [Music] we're here to worship jesus this morning [Music] of the savior's robe as he walks into the room where people pray when we hear praises hey [Music] jesus [Music] sing awake my soul [Music] sing awake [Music] sing his praise sing it loud sing his praises [Music] there is a sound [Music] it's time to is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] and when he moves make no mistake the powers of hell began to shake [Music] is oh [Music] [Music] let us [Music] [Music] my soul oh come on let's sing that again we're here to meet with you guys [Music] sing us praise come on can we do that this morning and sing out the prey [Music] i am holding on to faith [Music] cause i know you'll make way and i don't always understand and i don't always get to see it but i will believe it yes i will believe it cause you make [Music] oh i will speak to my fear yes i will preach to my daughter that you were faithful that you'll be faithful now [Music] oh i am standing on your word i'm calling heaven down to earth what we're doing right now and you will fight my enemies and this will end in victory and i [Music] [Music] of praise to shake praising wars oh i will speak to my fear i will preach to my god that you were faithful then you'll be faithful now oh you were faithful then can't you be safe and i know that i know you never [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh god i know that i know [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] and you you [Music] it's your birthday [Music] you'll be [Music] faithful now [Music] you're the god who never fails oh cause you make a mountains move you make times for and you use praise to shake praising wolves oh i will speak to my fear i will preach to my doubt that you were faithful then [Music] and you use songs of praise to [Music] that you were faithful then you'll be faithful now hallelujah [Music] come on can we just recall the faithfulness of jesus in fact i look around the room and i see stories of people where god has been faithful to carry you and to carry you and to carry you and to carry you [Music] and i believe right now the lord is reminding you that you are not alone and he is in the fire with you and god he is faithful from generation to generation to generation he is faithful come on can we lift up praise to our god thank you god even in our childhood you are faithful to our families you are faithful you keep your promises you keep your promises you are faithful in every storm and every high and every love we've tasted and seen god oh let your presence invade this place [Music] and all my life you have been faithful [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on worship center let's sing that again [Music] with every breath that i of the goodness of god [Music] oh your mercy never failed me and all my days i've been held in your hands from the moment that i wake up until i lay my head yes i will shake of the goodness surprising all my [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] of the goodness [Music] nights you are close like noah i've known you you're my father [Music] is [Music] with every breath that i am [Music] [Music] every oh that i am [Music] is [Music] [Music] is is [Music] your goodness is [Music] and all my life you have [Music] with every breath let's sing that one more time all my life [Music] and all my life you have been so [Music] good [Music] oh come on can we give jesus the praise hallelujah jesus we love you jesus you're worthy jesus hallelujah there's a sweet presence in here amen god is faithful and what a gift it is to celebrate together as a church the faithfulness of god and how good and how wonderful jesus is and if you're here or watching online and you're like i don't know if he's good we pray we've been praying for you that you would taste and see that jesus is good and never once has he left you never once has he forsaken you and he wants to meet with all of us this morning let's pray jesus we love you jesus you are wonderful jesus above all else be glorified and be lifted high and god we make ourselves completely available to hear from you to hear from you you have our full attention this morning and may you have your way in jesus name we all say amen amen well right now yeah come on let's clap you can clap all right right now you can be seated and we are going to welcome new members so take a look [Music] yes welcome welcome welcome good morning everyone we are celebrating the people who most recently took our count me in class count me in as a three-week class and in that class you are invited to learn more about worship center and what we believe who we are it's a super great place to meet awesome people and you can discover your next steps at the end of those three weeks some people say yes count me in this is the place that i'm going to call my church home this is the place where i want to belong and grow and serve and some people say count me interested i love this place but i'm not quite ready to become a member and that's okay if that sounds like something you might be interested in i invite you to join one of the upcoming count me in classes and here is a secret we are about to have an online count me in class now it's a secret between all of us and all of us so tell whoever you want but i'm so excited about that that any person no matter where you live can be part of the worship center family that's awesome we're talking about new members but we're going to take a moment and we're going to celebrate one of our founding members i'm going to ask ruth hurst if she would come to the stage ruth and her husband mel were part of i think it's three might have been four couples who got together about 44 years ago and said what if what if we started a church where we could worship god freely where we could pursue god his holy spirit what he has for us and ruth has faithfully been part of that church for 44 years yeah let's have a hand for ruth now ruth has her husband passed away a few years ago and ruth is i'm sorry three years ago um and ruth has decided that she is gonna move to texas to be with her kids and her grandkids um and what's what's going to happen with ruth's faithfulness in texas i don't know but it is such an encouragement to me to think someone chose to invest here for 44 years and we thank you ruth that's amazing yeah yeah let's thank her i'm gonna invite you to stand if you're able and if you want to you can just reach out a hand toward ruth just in solidarity and say we are praying for you and your next steps so god is okay if i put me all right god we thank you so much for ruth for mel for their dedication to you to their dedication to this body god we ask that you go with ruth we know that you're before her that you're behind her that you're around her we know that she walks in your blessing do we know that she walks in your favor god we ask that this transition would be smooth that she would have a sweet sweet time with family god we ask that you would continue just like all these songs we've been singing to be faithful to ruth we know you will we thank you so much in jesus name amen thank you ruth guys 44 years have a seat yeah it's amazing [Applause] we're gonna take a few minutes and give of our ties and our offerings you can see how on the screens and i wanted to take a minute to to think we're going to sing a song in a minute and the song is called house of miracles and there's hold on i just you know too many things there's this phrase or chorus verse i don't know words in the song and it says this come alive in the name of jesus come alive in the name of jesus this is a house of miracles we bring everything to the feet of jesus everything in the name of jesus this is a house in miracles and it got me thinking it got me thinking about bringing everything to jesus and what does that mean and how do i even know if i'm doing it and is that even possible well the apostle paul actually spoke about this i'm going to read from a paraphrase of romans and i love this idea of how we experience our life with god this is what it says oh my bible's upside down this is what it says so here's what i want you to do god helping you take your everyday ordinary life your actual life with god you're sleeping eating going to work walking around life now here's the paraphrase of heather of the paraphrase of paul that means your dreams your ambitions your goals for you for your kids for your grandkids your money your lack of money your health your lack of health whatever your life is right now that is what we are bringing to god and then here's the miracle you place it before god as an offering he takes our actual regular life and we give it to him as an offering embracing what god does for you is the best thing you can do for him don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking instead fix your attention on god you'll be changed from the inside out that's a miracle this is what it says right before that have you ever come into on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of god this deep deep wisdom is way over our heads we'll never figure it out there's a version that says who cannot know the mind of the lord or offer him any wisdom is there anything around who can explain god anyone smart enough to tell him what to do anyone who has done him such a huge favor that god has to ask his advice no but still he invites us in to life with him everything comes from him everything happens through him everything ends up in him always glory always praise yes yes yes god we thank you so much for this miracle of a life with you that you take what we have what we offer whoever grand or non-grand that seems and you you accept it as an offering god we ask that you would accept this praise that we give we ask that you would accept these lives that we give to you as our offering god we love you so much we're so thankful that we get to be part of life with you that we're not alone that you are with us we love you amen [Music] feel free to stand with us as we continue to worship [Music] holy spirit [Music] this is a house of worship this is a place of praise where every demon travels where we proclaim your name [Music] this is the house of heaven our hearts are full of faith you have a full attention [Music] you have the finals so come alive in the name of jesus come along in the name of jesus this is and we bring everything to the feet of jesus everything in the name of jesus this is [Music] there's resurrection power your blood runs through our veins your kingdom triumphs over even the [Music] in the coldest of jesus come along in the name of jesus this [Music] of is everything in the name of jesus this [Music] come a is in the name of jesus this [Music] is everything in the name of jesus this is a house a miracle and i still believe you're moving i still believe you speak god i believe you're working hard things for good so i fix my eyes on head oh god i receive your vision god i [Music] god [Music] god in the name of jesus come alive in the name of jesus this is a house of miracles so we bring everything to the feet of jesus everything in the name of jesus and i still believe your food i still believe you speak god i believe you were things [Music] god [Music] [Music] in the is of jesus come alive in the name of jesus this is [Music] everything in the name of jesus this is a house a miracle [Music] amen isn't it good to be in the house of the lord today the house of miracles big ones and small ones and you know there's actually houses of miracles all across this county that are meeting together today that where the name of jesus is being proclaimed that also is a house of miracle can we just take a moment and pray for the other churches and the other bodies joining together to worship jesus to experience him and to hear from him today can you join with me in praying for them lord we thank you that we are so blessed to live in an area where so many are worshiping you god whether there's different styles or or even slightly different teachings lord we pray god that everywhere that lifts up the name of jesus that everywhere that is proclaiming you and your word lord i pray a blessing on that house of miracle we pray that people would experience you they would be encouraged and challenged by your word lord and it would change their lives so god we lift up all the other churches around this county that are meeting today we pray a blessing on them in jesus name everyone said amen amen you can be seated well if you're a little bit like me does anyone feel like we're living in a time that there's a lot of division everywhere you look it seems like there's division there's obviously political division i mean politically we are probably more divided than any time since the civil war in our nation and the extremes on both the right and the left are getting even more extreme we've got cultural divisions social issues that divide us and of course even racial division and then we've got this little conversation that involves the topic of covet that brings a few areas for potential division perhaps uh as we're singing about the god of miracles today perhaps one of the miracles we're singing about is that god can do something about this division god can do big miracles but even sometimes bringing people of diverse opinions together might be one of the greatest miracles that we see today you know this uh summer there was a number of our global partners and short-term partners that came home from working overseas and they came back here to lancaster county and they spent a few weeks with friends and family in their churches and i would just repeatedly have the same thing happen where with a number of these people after they were here for a couple weeks they would come up to me and they would say chris what is going on they would explain how they just keep finding themselves in complicated conversations they keep finding themselves engaging in topics that they had no idea were off limits that you don't want to talk about those in group settings anymore and they just looked at me with this look at bewilderment and said what is happening because they had been living overseas and they had experienced different cultures when they came back here they had this culture shock in their home country because so many things have changed and you know for those global partners as they work in their fields many times places that are not friendly to the gospel they expect opposition they expect different opinions from those who don't follow jesus that's that's normal we should expect that but the thing that just blew them away and they didn't know what to do with is when they found that kind of opposition and that kind of division happening in their families happening among the friend groups and even happening within the body of christ we know that we're going to have different opinions from those who don't follow jesus but when we have division among those of us that follow jesus it can be really painful it can be really difficult i want to talk to you today about two women and these are two women who were a part of the church of philippi they were co-workers with paul and when paul planted the church in philippi they were likely leaders in that church and as paul after he plants this church goes on to continue to disciple the church of philippi he writes a letter to the philippians and in this letter he specifically addresses these two women towards the end of this letter he talks to two women who are inside this church who were having a division problem and so i want to pick it up and look at our main text this morning in philippians chapter four starting in verse two it says i plead with yodia and i plead with syntiki we've been talking about names for children recently if you have any uh girls coming these could be some some wonderful names for you i plead with uoria that's actually hard to say many times i plead with eurya and i plead with syntiki to be of the same mind in the lord yes and i ask you my true companion help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel now this verse is from the niv the nlt encourages these two ladies to settle their disagreement so here's two ladies and they were obviously having a conflict they were having a disagreement and paul calls them out publicly now these two ladies they would have been a part of this church and the church would have heard this letter from paul likely sitting in a in a situation like you're sitting in where someone would have read this letter imagine yourself being these two ladies and they get to the end of this letter and their names are mentioned they might want to crawl under their chairs paul also asked for others to help in this he said he doesn't want them just to face this division alone and these were not immature ladies it would be so easy to look at these women as if they were just gossips or busybodies they were leaders they were co-workers in this church and paul felt like their division their disunity was so important that he actually called it out by name now we're going to come back to these two women in a moment but i want to talk for uh a little bit just about the opposite of division i want to talk a little bit about what unity is and that when we look at the bible when we look at this idea of unity what are we talking about that is paul is encouraging these two ladies to to resolve their differences and to come together in unity the actual phrase that's used in the greek is that these two women are to seek for sameness to seek for sameness now some of you out there might be thinking i could i could get interested in sameness i mean if everybody just thought like i do the world would be a better place right if we all had sameness that would be awesome but that's not the picture of unity that we see in scripture scripture is never everyone thinking exactly the same in fact every illustration of unity that we have in scripture unity always is connected to diversity it's always connected that way it's not conformity but it's unity within diversity think back into even how things started that when god created adam and eve he united them in their value that they were both created in the image of god but they were unique they were different in their sex in their biology male and female when abraham was called to become the father of many nations it wasn't just one ethnic group the jewish people that he was going to be the father of he was going to be the father of all nations and those all nations led to multiple languages all throughout scripture when unity is talked about it is in the context of difference it's in the context of diversity in fact probably the greatest example that's used over and over again in scripture for unity is the illustration of the body that there's one body with many members many parts and those many members in many parts have many different opinions many different giftings many different personality types but they are called to be one in the midst of that diversity so when paul wants these ladies to seek for sameness it's not just that they all think alike because what a boring world it would be if everybody thought just like us we would have no need for each other we would have no need for the church we would be perfect there would be no iron sharpening iron if we didn't have some of these different opinions so the context of unity in scripture is always within this idea of diversity so what the sameness what does sameness look like when we are all so different and paul urging that this sameness would come through the resolution of a conflict he's urging them to be of the same mind and the same heart by resolving their differences you know unity doesn't necessarily precede conflicts it usually comes on the other side of a conflict it usually comes after a conflict is walked out i've led many uh teams in my ministry career sent out a lot of different groups and one thing that happens when you send out groups all over the world is that at some point in that preparation someone in that team gets the idea that we need to pray for unity we need to pray for us to be together and you know back in the old days we would sing kumbaya and we would do all that kind of stuff bind us together oh lord but i started to realize that when somebody starts praying for unity in a team that is a really dangerous prayer because we have this idea that unity means there will be no conflict we'll just all get along but that's actually conformity that's actually something that's not healthy true unity is not the absence of conflict but it's the resolution of it and that when those teams are praying for unity i just sometimes i shake my head and i go oh you don't know what you're asking for you are asking for conflict so that you can walk through it so that you can resolve it i think unity it comes on the foundation that we understand each other that we listen to each other that we get to know someone and then we actually walk through our differences there's a passage of scripture that we love to quote when it comes to unity when it comes to agreement and we love especially the first part of this passage that is the power of unity it's in matthew chapter 18 starting in verse 19 matthew 18 says again truly i tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for it will be done for them by my father in heaven amen we like this when we agree when we agree in prayer we we get what we're asking for it goes on to say that where two or three gather in my name there am i with them and there is power and agreement prayer there's certainly it's important to agree together but the question that i wonder when i see this passage is what were they gathered for why were two and three even together in the first place i would actually say i don't think it was for a prayer but there was actually something that preceded this that drew people in to this gathering and if we go a couple verses earlier in matthew 18 back up to verse 15 we're going to see why they were gathered verse 15 of matthew 18 says if your brother or sister sins go and point out their faults just between the two of you if they listen to you you have won them over but if they will not listen take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses the actual event for these people to gather that eventually led to their agreement in prayer was actually based in a conflict it was based in resolving conflict where these people came together to resolve that we love the first part of that verse don't we if two or three gather in prayer we see answers but many times we avoid the other part of that verse like the plague do you think it's possible that maybe sometimes we don't see answers to prayer because we're not having the hard conversations that bring them do you think it's possible that we're not seeking that understanding and that forgiveness and that reconciliation that actually leads to that unity in prayer these things go hand in hand because unity is not the absence of conflict it's the resolution of it let's go back to our ladies our ladies that paul addresses in the book of philippians and i want to see a couple principles that paul uses in philippians and in some of the other writings of scripture to bring them to this place of sameness and the first principle that i want to point out that he uses is he uses a focus on the essentials it's obvious that these ladies have a conflict that they have a division and paul is going to address things that they already agree on things that unify them they were united in the essentials of the gospel message they were co-workers with paul they were laboring together to see this church planted so they had the gospel in common and paul appeals to their being co-workers with him he reminds them that you are on the same team this is a strategy that paul has used other places he's used this strategy in the book of romans the book of romans was actually a book written to settle a racial problem because in the church of rome they had the racial division of the jews and the gentiles not getting along not getting along is actually kind of mild actually hating each other within the same church it's pretty hard to be a unified church when you hate half the people there the jews and the gentiles had such different culture they had such different views they had different political ideas the jews and the gentiles hated each other so much that they make the republicans and the democrats look like best friends i mean this was a rough church and paul doesn't go in and he doesn't point out different issues and say well jews you're right on this and on this one gentiles he doesn't do any of that what he actually does is he brings unity through the gospel message that he begins the journey to uh through the book of romans to the church of rome and he talks to them the fact that they are all sinners jews and gentiles are both sinners he talks to them that they're all saved the same ways through jesus and that they all live and grow in the same way through a reliance on the holy spirit to transform them more into the image of christ paul uses the gospel essentials to fight racism to fight this unity and i think he's also appealing to those gospel essentials with the two ladies in philippians have we ever thought about trying to list points of agreement with those that we would consider enemies are those that we think we have very different opinions there's not a lot of agreement happening anymore in fact it's kind of a lost art politically if if there's an issue presented whatever group presents it the other group as opposed to it no matter what the issue is there is no well we agree on this and we don't agree on that it's just all or nothing we've lost the art of being able to see what we agree with and i would say we lost the art of progress how about in the church we have more reason than anyone to have unity because we have the gospel to unify ourselves we have different opinions we have different ideas but what if we were focused more on what we agree on and the gospel that we agree on what if we were focused more on that than politics or cultural issues or social issues what if we got along based on those things you know the enemy has used those other things to divide us especially over the last 18 months but we as a church have more reason to be together than anyone because we agree on the gospel this is one of the things that paul used to bring these ladies back together second thing i see in this passage as he addresses these ladies is i see that unity is evangelistic unity is evangelistic paul is planting a church and these ladies were a part of this church probably the leadership of the church he had a mission he had unreached people in the area of philippi that needed to hear the gospel this wasn't just something that could be like well they agree to disagree or we'll just let them they just don't like each other paul said your division is actually impacting the fruit of our mission if you are divided it's going to affect what we're trying to do for the kingdom of god here because unity is evangelistic and division is the opposite if as a body of christ we portray a divided front it doesn't welcome people it doesn't encourage people jesus actually spoke about this jesus knew that unity as believers was so important to the mission that as he was preparing to die as he was preparing to go to the cross some of his last words to the disciples are all about unity that in john chapter 17 when jesus is praying for his disciples mind you his disciples were a very diverse lot very different political ideas social ideas economic statuses very diverse group of people lots of strong personalities that would go different ways among his disciples he knows it's important for them to get along so this is his prayer in john chapter 17. jesus says i do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word this is not just for the disciples but for the multiplication of the gospel i pray that they may be be one just as you father are in me and i in you that they may also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me why was this so important why did these disciples have to get along why did they have to unify around the essentials in spite of their differences he says it right there at the end of the verse so that the world may know there's something big at stake here and this is why paul is willing to call out two ladies in the philippian church publicly because they have a mission that is bigger than their division that is bigger than maybe a little bit of embarrassment that they would have had for being called out the world needs to know jesus repeats this two verses later in verse 23 it says i in them and you and me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you have sent me and that you love them even as you have loved me jesus thought it was so important for his disciples to be unified in spite of their differences that this was some of the last things that he spoke to them do you know friends that unbelievers they watch how we treat each other they watch they see how we treat other believers that have different opinions they see how we treat those that are not yet followers of jesus that don't share our opinions and i wonder are we attracting people to the kingdom or sometimes do our words and our actions repel people this is sobering because there's a lot at stake so that the world may know unfortunately we all have seen things over the last many weeks and months that have been more repellent than attractive and it's obvious of course people who are not followers of jesus are not going to share our opinions we should not be surprised by that they don't follow jesus why would they share some of the truth that we believe but how we interact with them and then how we act with those that already are believers it makes a difference you know john tyson pastor in new york city recently said that if we can be faithful as the body of christ during this season of division and the season of opposition if we can be faithful when people who are out pursuing their self pursuing their best life when that ultimately leads to its natural end of disappointment of discouragement of not being satisfied when they finally get to that place they will be able and they might be able to turn to the church to turn to hear the truth but will we have put out the welcome mat or will we have boarded up the doors and windows by our words and actions we can't expect unbelievers to live like believers but we as believers have to be able to share the truth and stand for the truth in a way that doesn't repel people from the gospel i'm not talking about sacrificing the truth don't write me any emails about that we need to stand for the truth but we have to do it in the right way because we can have the right truth but the wrong love and we can actually repel people from the gospel john tyson also said it this way i love the way he says it he says the gospel disrupts but it does not disrespect we can hold to a truth that is different but we can do it in a way that is honoring and respectful the people that we disagree with there is never an excuse to dehumanize them there is never an excuse to treat people like garbage that's just simply not appropriate we can disagree with dignity we can disagree with respect because our unity as the church and the way we treat those who don't follow jesus yet it provides an opportunity in the future for evangelism if we do it right it's really quiet in here [Applause] third thing i see in this passage as paul's talking to these two ladies is that unity takes work it's hard work you know our natural position is that we will drift into division ever since sin entered the world adam and eve that were together in the image of god that were together in value as soon as sin entered the world they began drifting towards division isolation blame shame accusation all those things became the natural place of sinful people and we will naturally drift towards division unless we work at it paul knew that there was no reason for these two ladies to come back together unless they were willing to do the hard work of unity unity or as paul would say sameness it's counter-cultural it's counter-human nature it's so much easier just to disagree it's so much easier to talk about people we don't like than to find things that we have in common earlier in this book paul gives a passage that is a great encouragement to unity one that uh we need to probably read every day philippians chapter two verses two through four encourages the same church that yodi and sintiki were a part of to live this way paul says then make my joy complete by being like-minded having the same love being in one in spirit and of one mind do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but rather in humility value others above yourselves there's so much in these verses so much to draw us together rather than to divide us we probably should tattoo these verses on our eyelids because we're going to need to hear them each and every day unity is really really hard work but the gospel is hard work the gospel goes against our our sinful nature the gospel goes against our culture so this is a part of the gospel message another thing though because it's hard work that it encourages us to do is that it encourages us to give one another grace when we do disagree that the same grace we would want others to show us when we have a different opinion we need to be willing to show it to someone else because it's the hard work of being united and of also showing grace to one another the fourth thing that we see from this passage as paul's encouraging these two ladies is that he's encouraging them that someone needs to take the first step someone needs to take the first step so paul's already called out these ladies publicly there's some built-in accountability in that he's asked the other leaders in the church to help but at some point whether it was eudia or whether it was synteky one of them is gonna have to take the first step and it's so easy when there's conflict when there's division just to get into this place of saying well they can come and talk to me if they want to you know i'm here they know where to find me they know how to get a hold of me they can come that's not doing the hard work of unity because somebody has to take the first step i can't tell you how many times i hear somebody say well they can come and find me who is going to take that first step would it be yuria would it be sintaki one of them had to do it now in order to get ready to speak a message like this i had to look at my own heart and i have to say it wasn't overly enjoyable you know i have to think about how many people am i tempted to write off because we have a difference of opinion or do i kind of uh put up barriers or even avoid them just to not have some of these conversations i don't want to have who am i not walking in unity with and i had to look at that and as a result of getting ready for this i had to go and there was a couple people i had to apologize to there were some people i had to ask forgiveness of and sometimes i even just had to take that small little step of saying hey are we okay is everything all right are we still good are we in this together and i think that's the kind of thing we have to be willing to do in this age of division are we willing to take that first step for me i know that i am going to get opposition from those who don't follow jesus i know that some of the things that i believe are offensive to those who don't follow jesus i expect that when sinners sin it's not surprising when they have different opinions of course they do because jesus gives us some of our opinions we can accept that but when it happens within the body of christ it's so much more painful friendly fire within the body of christ it hurts and there's been times over the last 18 months that i have had to do the hard work of forgiving and i wish i could say it was like that sometimes it took time sometimes it took conversations sometimes it took again and again and again but we have to be in unity as the body of christ because if we're not the enemy is going to win i imagine yodi and sintaki would have definitely been waiting for someone to take that first step so i have to ask myself will i take the first step when i find myself in those kind of situations as i was preparing for this message i was reminded of a movie that's quite old now saving private ryan you might remember this movie that it was set during the invasion of normandy in world war ii and there was a group of soldiers that were tasked to go out and find a missing soldier so they went out and they began looking for him and when they found this missing soldier he was actually guarding a bridge that was under attack from the enemy he was just there by himself trying to keep this bridge from falling because in warfare one of the strategies in warfare is that if you can destroy bridges it breaks down transportation it breaks down infrastructure it isolates it separates and this was a strategy that the germans used in world war ii to separate the opposing side and this soldier was fighting to make sure this bridge remained intact and i wonder if sometimes we need to be like these soldiers that we need to fight to make sure that bridges remain rather than get destroyed you know none of us goes out and intends to destroy bridges but i wonder how many times in our families in our friends circles our workplaces or even in our church the body of christ do we need to ask ourselves a question am i a bridge builder or am i a bridge bomber we can do this very well as the church we're skilled at this all throughout her church history we separated ourselves and divided ourselves theologically culturally and politically we blow up bridges over the gray areas of scripture that scripture just doesn't clearly talk about and when we do that when we destroy bridges we create islands of isolation we break off that necessary chain and we separate ourselves from anyone who thinks slightly differently do we ever seek unity through social issues or cultural issues or even political party membership more than we seek unity through the commands of christ this is a big issue in our day and we as the church have to be committed to unity so in this season i wonder are we as committed to building bridges as paul was even if it means taking some difficult steps in a season of political and cultural division let me ask us this are we bridge bombers or are we bridge builders let me make it personal am i a bridge bomber or am i a bridge builder it's a question that we all need to ask would you stand with me this morning you know in a message like this when we talk about disunity sometimes names might come to mind or faces or situations might come into our minds that we think about and i want to encourage us that we take a moment today just to ask god to speak is there a relationship is there a name or a face or a conversation that we've had that we need to do the hard work of choosing unity over division so i just wanted to take a moment in silence can we just take a moment in silence and ask the holy spirit to give us a name a face a situation that we can take a step and actively fight against division and promote unity especially in the body of christ let's just be silent before the lord today and see who he might bring to our minds so god we want to take that name that face that situation that conversation and we want to cry out to you to give us strength to give us courage to give us the the power to take the first step to go and maybe apologize or ask forgiveness or at the very least to ask are we okay may we be so committed to unity in the body of christ that we would be like paul that we would be willing to take that first and difficult step of moving towards unity and then we take a stand against the cultural pools that are driving us apart god would you help us as a body of christ to come together in greater degrees of unity in the coming days and weeks and months but we need your power to do that in our own strength we will drift towards division but we need your power to help us to take that first step come holy spirit give us boldness give us courage to walk in a way that is so different than everything we see around us jesus name amen now sometimes when those situations come you might think i need a little bit more support than just a group prayer and i do want to let you know that after the service we will have a prayer team down front that if any one of you just wants to bring that situation to god and have others stand with you we will have people willing to do that and if you're watching online uh if you also want some help there is a and to feel like you're connected to someone there is a number that you can text on your screen and someone will be there to give you just that extra support and prayer that you're looking for in this time as well perhaps today as we've talked about being a follower of jesus maybe you realize i don't i don't know if i'm a follower of jesus or maybe even some of you because of issues of disunity or issues of different opinions have known about christ early in your life and you've you've kind of walked away because some of the pain and the division maybe you've walked away because of some of the disunity you've seen i want to invite you to come back i want to invite you to come back to jesus today if you're here on site i welcome you to go to the connections rooms to the east and to the west as you exit here and if you're online you can also text that number on your screen and someone will be there to talk with you about coming back to jesus whether it's the first time or whether it's after a season of being away church we want to be together in a world of disunity and sometimes that takes hard work sometimes it takes looking in the mirror and seeing things that we don't like but i think that this is what we need to do in this season and as a way of closing today i actually want us to pray a prayer this is a prayer of unity and the way that i want us to do this is i want us to actively agree and when you hear something you like in church you are allowed to talk you are allowed to agree and even sometimes when you say amen amen actually means yes let it be it means i agree if you say yes lord that's a statement of agreement so i want to give you permission to talk this morning that i'm going to read a prayer of unity i'm going to read a prayer of agreement and however you feel led to respond whether that's saying amen whether it's raising your hands but just let's join together in praying the words of this prayer as an act as a physical sign of agreement this morning okay you'll see the prayer on the screen as well jesus the great physician i want to intercede on behalf of the church you know our imperfections our flaws and our problems help us to unite under your banner and to put aside our squabbles remind us that we are to have the same mind as that of christ and to seek the interests of others rather than our own the church is to be one body with many parts help us to unite around the sameness of the gospel and may our unity draw many to know you in jesus name everyone said amen amen reminder if you do want some prayer today there will be people here or you can text online but church let's go out and let's be bridge builders let's not succumb to the culture of bombing bridges but let's be different and let's start within the believers let's start in the church amen let's be bridge builders [Music] thank you so much for joining us as a church our desire is for you to follow jesus and find your purpose in him one thing we do is create resources each week to help you grow in your faith so please make sure you're connecting with us on social media by following at worship center pa we are also here and available to pray with you if you have any prayer needs we're just one message away you can message us on social media or you can text prayer to 717-366-7226 to receive prayer from our team thanks again for joining us and don't forget to stay connected with us online throughout the week [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Worship Center

Views: 268

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: the church, church, unity, Philippians, Paul, diversity

Id: wxss5EaID0M

Length: 92min 25sec (5545 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021