Living Word Interdenominational Church
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Living Word Interdenominational Church
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The Oneness of All Believers (Sermon Notes) Today as we celebrate our one year anniversary I want to take the time to give God all the Glory and the Honor as only because of him and him alone do we live and move and have our being! He alone is worthy of all the Glory and Honor and Praise. We can only do what we can because we are limited by our flesh, our skills and intellect. I am convinced that I am very limited in all of the above! Ok maybe I am like most of us that excels in the flesh unfortunately! I want to talk to you today about something very dear to my heart. The oneness that all believers should enjoy and be a part of. We called this church an interdenominational church for a reason. It was not because it is a extraordinary large word that nobody seems to understand. But because we felt from the beginning that Living Word must set the example of crossing over all denominational barriers and cultural barriers that keep the Body of Christ from being united. Too often believers are separated by minor differences in doctrine. Even if they are in the same denomination! But we are going to look at scripture today where the great Apostle Paul shows us those places that all Christians must agree to attain true unity. When believers have this unity petty differences in doctrine should never be allowed to dissolve this unity. Ephesians 4:1 (Main) Read verse 1-3 Notice how Paul opens up. As a prisoner for the Lord then… Paul is stating very dramatically as I am a prisoner to God, Bound to do his will and his alone! Listen to me because I Paul Know How? Why? Because I am a bond slave to Jesus! A love slave to him and because of this I know what I am about to tell you is true. Be completely Humble Gentle Patient Bearing with one another in love! Read v4-6 Now there are 7 one’s in these two verses I could reasonable ascertain that we have a focus here!
You see Believers are and should be one in the following: 1. v4 Body – All Believers in Christ belong to one body, not denomination, not tradition not culture. One body and that is the Body of Christ that which makes up his bride. We are all united under one head Jesus the Christ. Every believer has God given talents and we may judge them as small or large God does not. But it is your ability that God chooses to use for the advancement of the Kingdom! You may be a foot or hand or nose or ear but we all need one another. 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 (Green) Each one of us is important and make a dramatic difference in the Body of Christ! In this Body! Called Living Word Church! If you do not know your function then you need to find it! God has a plan and purpose for your Life! Get excited about that and find out what that plan is! You know for the human body all parts are different but all are needed. Who here would like to walk on their hands because they have no feet? Hands are not created to walk on are they? It is possible but is it as efficient? We as Christians have been deceived by our enemy the devil in one of two ways: Either we are too proud of ourselves Or we feel we have no part in the body! Instead of comparing ourselves to others we should our different or similar gifts together to advance the Kingdom of God! Here at Living Word Church we want to “Empower the Believer thru God’s Word” Empower the believer thru Gods word to do what? Be exactly and completely what God has called them to be Understand this The church is filled with people with a variety of backgrounds and a multitude of gifts and abilities it is easy to see the differences and allow this to divide the Body. Instead lets go back to Ephesians 4 and see what we should concentrate on instead! V4 – one body we are talking about that One Spirit – Capitalized so the greek here is talking about the Holy Spirit. So what is it that the HS does. Everything, It initiates the birth of a church in the first place! It abides in the midst of believers where just two or more are gathered in his name. That is God’s promise! It empowers us to do his works and even greater because Jesus or advocate sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven on our behalf! The HS embraces us when we are lonely or tired and burdened, He calls us to the Father when we need forgiveness We cannot do anything without the HS Amen? V4 – One hope – The glorious future that he has called us to1 The new Jerusalem in Revelation Ch 21 V5 – one Lord – Jesus Christ It is in him and him alone that we trust and put all of our trust in! He alone: lived a sinless life, took the scourging suffered the cross resurrected on the 3rd day is the way to access heaven he alone v5 – One faith Because he alone did all these things we have faith in him and him alone that he has our futures and eternity in his hands! My faith is in Jesus Christ and him alone, nobody else no: denomination Person Works Actions Nothing that I can ever do JUST BELIEVE and have FAITH There is one faith that works and that is having faith in Jesus Christ the son of God! V5 – one baptism Water baptism is a sign of entry into the church. There is no inherent power in the actual water dunking but what it represents is simply this: I am not ashamed to publically acknowledge that I believe and now belong to Jesus Christ and have converted to be one of his disciples. I have died and am buried and will one day rise with him in Jesus name amen! Finally v6 – One God – There is one God which is Jehovah God our Father in heaven that keeps us unto himself for an eternity! There is no other God before him is Almighty and above all. He is good and gracious and worthy not only of our praise and worship but of our lives. We have to have an understanding of him that supercedes our own desire to live. An understanding that this life is fleeting in the light of eternity and nothing that we can ever obtain or hope to obtain can compare with an eternity with him. It is beyond our comprehension what he intends for us when we get there but we must be faithful. Faithful that we serve him and him alone. Listen beloved, It is these things that we should unite together with. Body – which we are all a part of Spirit – abides in each one of us Hope – Glorious Future Lord – To whom we all wish to serve Faith – In the Lord Jesus Baptism – Our public statement of belonging to him God – Who made a way when there was no way! Unity does not just happen, we have to work on it! Have you learned to appreciate people who are different from you? Can you see their gifts and how those gifts will benefit the body of Christ and his kingdom? No one is ever going to be Perfect here on earth; Yeah that means even you! So we must accept and love and embrace all Christians despite of their faults. What did Ephesians 4:2 state? We should be completely Gentle and patient and humble That means even to those that you do not necessarily like or get along with. To build unity is one of the HS most important roles And though he leads us we have to be willing to be led and do our part to keep the peace and get something done. Have you ever been part of an argument and found out in the middle of the argument, yup I am wrong! But instead of stopping the argument and apologizing you just continued in it! That is what we do to the HS of an Almighty God everytime we choose not to be led by him. Boy do we rely on his grace or what? Listen our oneness in Christ does not destroy our individuality! The HS has given each believer gifts to build up the body of Christ and to Advance the Kingdom of God! Once we figure out our part in his kingdom it is crucial that we use them for HIS Glory! Are you spiritually mature, exercising the gifts that God has given you? If you know what your gifts are do you look for opportunities to serve and use them? You need to use what God has given you to strengthen and serve the church in advancement of his kingdom! Remember “Your kingdom come Thy will be done! On earth as it is in heaven” God has given his church, God has given you and me a tremendous responsibility! To make disciples of every nation Mat 28:18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. This involves: Preaching, teaching, healing, nuturing,giving, administering, building and many many other tasks and responsibilities. If we had to fulfill Matthew 28:18-20 as individuals we might as well give up without trying. If Irene and I believed that we would always have to do everything on our own and God would never send the partners we need. Why keep trying and fighting such an impossible battle. It would be impossible! But God calls us as members of his body…as Partners In the ministry Some of us can do one or two tasks while some can do the other tasks. Together we can obey and serve God more fully than we ever could alone! It is human tendency to over estimate what we can do by ourselves and underestimate what a group can do. But God has delivered me from that tendency! I know my limitations that is why Living Word Church will have the 5-fold ministry represented in the Pastoral Staff. And I cannot wait for us to grow because I see the nuclear type explosion impact we are going to have on this city called San Antonio and then unto the world! I know that is not the example we see today BUT As the Body of Christ UNITED We can accomplish more together that we could even dream possible working by ourselves. Working together the church can express the fullness of Christ! That is why my vision goes larger than just church growth here we must partner with other churches big or small no matter impacting this world for Jesus Christ! We already do this when we feed the homeless of San Antonio together with four other ministries by ourselves we could not accomplish this but together we easily achieve it. Well imagine other churches partnering with us to go witness on the streets of San Antonio! WOW What is your gifting? Are you using them? Want an opportunity to us them? Then you are in the right place right here at Living Word Church Pray
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Last modified: 06/13/05 |
