Sermon - Unity in Faith, Spirit and Love
Ashtead Churches Together Unity Service Talk 2005
by Rev'd Don Attenborough
I want to speak briefly as I believe it is more important for us to make a fresh declaration of faith, and covenant together before God to strive for greater unity. I will therefore simply emphasis three things: Unity in Faith � Unity in Spirit � Unity in Love.
It is important in these days, when we are surrounded on all sides by reminders of the fragile nature of life as seen in the recent tsunami in
I was told a story by one of my church members last week that reminds us, in a humorous way, of the necessity of deepening our walk with each other in the Christian faith.
It is the story of Catholic priest, an Anglican vicar and a Baptist minister going on a fishing trip. Each had the responsibility of providing the food at different points throughout the day. The arrived very early in the morning and sailed out some distance from the shore. By breakfast time they were feeling very hungry and the Catholic priest said he would go and get some food. He stepped over the side of the boat and walking on the water he set of to get the food. At lunchtime, feeling hungry again, the Anglican clergyman offered to get the food. He jumped over the side of the boat and walking on the water, set of to fetch the meal. By the time the Baptist minister was feeling a bit concerned as his turn to fetch the food was coming next. Teatime came and taking courage in both hands the Baptist minister offered to get the food. He jumped over the side of the boat and sank beneath the water! �O dear� said the Anglican vicar to the priest �Do you think we should have told him about the stepping stones?� The catholic priest replied, �What stepping stones!�
We need to deepen our walk together in the faith and better our friendships and relationships!
Unity of Faith.
The church is diverse, it is fragmented; it has many denominations and countless different views on a vast amount of issues and sadly on the very basics of our faith. I do not believe that we will ever reach full agreement this side of our Lord�s return, but that should not stop us talking together and attempting to reach agreement! Purity of belief and life style will bring greater reward from God in terms of his blessing on us. When the Lord Jesus returns we will all discover where we got it wrong!
Unity of faith is what we strive for and it brings about greater and more effective works for God�s kingdom. Through Ashtead�s ACT, �Ashtead Churches Together� we have achieved unity of purpose because of the one common faith we share in Christ. This has brought about many good things in the past as the churches have worked hard together and we owe a dept of thanks to all who have worked in the past, and are working today, on the committee of ACT. The recent development of �Ashtead Good Neighbours� is an excellent example of our unity, but we must push on in our endeavours together for the
The future is uncertain for our nation as it turns away from the true God and Christ our Lord. Other faiths are growing strong in numbers, the occultic practices are coming out into the open more, paganism is on the rise and secularism is not dead yet. Our merciful God has not forgotten this land, and what he has to do to turn it around will affect us as well, we need to be strong and united in faith for the days that lie ahead. Under communist rule in
Secondly, I want to say a few words about Unity in the Spirit.
There needs to be growth in our oneness and determination to reach the unsaved because time is running out! Our God is a missionary God, he came out of love for our world in the form of his Son that none should be lost. His Spirit even now is knocking on the lives of thousands, that they might see God shining in the face of Christ and repent and turn from their sin to the living God who loves them! We need to have greater unity of purpose in the Spirit to reach the darkest corners of our community with the love of God, meeting spiritual and physical needs.
Our united corporate spirit of prayerfulness must increase. There is greater power released when we come together to pray. It sounds almost blasphemous to say it, but as one great old saint of God once said, �If the Spirit of God does not move me, I move the Spirit�. What he had come to realise was that prayer is our most powerful and vital tool in stirring the heart of God into action. Our prayers go up to God like sweet smelling incense. In the heavenly scene in Revelation 8, the four living creatures and the twenty four-elders fell down before the Lamb, they held in their hands gold bowls filled with incense, which were the prayers of God�s people. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective, the Bible says, how greater and more powerful when there is corporate prayer and unity of spirit, heart and purpose? The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that when Jesus prayed, his requests were sent up to God with loud cries and tears!
This kind of unity in the Spirit, driving us to our knees in prayer, accompanied by tears, will move the heart of God for our land and its lost, and it is urgently needed in our day! We cannot expect God�s greater blessing on our life together as believers in Ashtead, unless we move forward in greater unity of spirit and in greater prayerfulness.
Lastly let me say a few words about Unity of love.
Above all else we must love one another. Love covers all things. Love means friendships stay together in the midst of disagreement. The essential nature of God is love. If Christ is in us, God�s love is in us, and it should be flowing out of us. We should be different to the unsaved, marked out by supernatural God love driving our lives, dominating every decision we make, a powerful love, which goes beyond the natural ability to love in every God created soul! Those who looked in at the early church said, �How these people love one another�, and they said it in amazement!
It is said of John the apostle that towards the end of his life he was carried in a chair to the church and was often asked to say a few words. He would always say the same thing, �Love one another!� which frustrated some who complained that he was always saying the same thing. He would remark that they had not yet learnt the lesson and he would repeat again, �Love one another!� The evil around us will try even harder to divide us as this age is drawing to a close and Christ�s return draws near! We need to be on our guard!
We can work together within the confines of what we do agree upon, and this we are doing, but unity in love means we can work together even when we do not agree! Unity in love means we do not think we are better than anyone else individually and as churches. Unity in love means we care for each other and love one another, for love is of God and God is love! Love always thinks the best and I was reminded of this in a prayer that was sent to me by email today from a friend.
�Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the lady who cut us up in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next year.
Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking man, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.
Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savouring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.
Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.�
From our reading in Colossians we read of our unity in Christ and in Acts chapter 4 we read of the power produced by unity and love in the early church and we are challenged by it! Luke records: - 31 �After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. 32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.�
I am encouraged by our unity since coming to Ashtead, but we must not be complacent, it can be improved upon. We must strive for greater unity in belief, unity in Spirit and prayerfulness and unity in love, that the power of God may be released in increasing measure as we serve him together in our community.
Let us stand together and make our united declaration of faith and a fresh agreement to strive for greater unity in the service our Saviour.
Jan.05
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