Walking Together

or highlighting the theme of the message today. This unity is a block on the name of Christ in any church or community. Unity in a church is a priceless gift of God, a priceless possession for a church to have unity. And that is the subject of Ephesians chapter four. So let's open our Bibles, Ephesians chapter four this morning where actually we begin this morning a transition in this book. We begin a transition to a whole new section of the book. We're transitioning from doctrine to duty. And that's true of many of Paul's epistles, Romans, Galatians, Colossians being other examples of this same thing where Paul devotes the first part of the book to doctrinal issues and explaining what the Bible teaches about something and then takes the second half of the book to really apply it to how we should live. So we're transitioning today from doctrine to duty from creed to conduct, from riches to responsibility. And probably the best way to say it in Ephesians is we're transitioning from wealth to walk. The wealth that we have in Christ, Paul has described in the first three chapters. Matchless wealth that we possess in Christ, the riches of our position in our great salvation in Christ. We have all that in Christ. What a tremendous privilege we have, but in the second half of the book, he's talking about our walk, how to put into practice that position in Christ, how to really live out our faith, how to make it real in the way we live day to day, our daily conduct. That's the subject of the three chapters we're going to look at now. And he begins that, introduces it in verse one. So let's take a look at verse one, introduce the whole concept, and then we'll get into the nuts and bolts of what it means to have unity in the church. Verse one, Paul says, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Now the fact that he mentions he's a prisoner is not to gain sympathy. I think in line with what he's about ready to say, what he's going to say is this. I'm going to urge you. I'm going to really talk to you very strongly about living a lifestyle that reflects what you are in Christ. I want you to know you can do that no matter where you are, no matter what kind of circumstances you are. I'm a prisoner, but I'm a prisoner of the Lord. I can live out my Christian faith in this Roman prison. And so I think that's the reason he says, as a prisoner of the Lord, then he says, I urge you. That's a very strong word. It denotes strong feeling, strong desire. Paul does not say, I request that you think about this. I suggest you consider this. This is take it or leave it. No, he doesn't say that. He says, I'm urging you with everything in me to take this seriously. And he says, what I'm urging you to do is to walk or to live. The word walk in some of your translations, translated to live in the NIV, it's often used in the New Testament of our daily conduct, of day to day living. And so when he says, I'm going to talk to you about your walk or your lifestyle. That's really the word. It's not just occasionally give some attention to this. It's your daily conduct, your daily lifestyle. I want you to live or walk, devote your daily lifestyle. What does he say? To live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Worth is an interesting word. It's the Greek word oxyos. It's the word which means to balance two sides of something. It's been a long, long time since I had high school math. I can hardly remember being in high school. But if I remember correctly, an axiom has to do with two things that are done to both sides of an equation. You do the same thing to both sides to make sure you can cancel out something or add something and make sure it works out right. You do the same thing to both sides. The idea of an axiom, oxyos, the Greek word here, worthy means to balance two sides of something. And so the thought here is this. I want your lifestyle to balance out your belief. I want your lifestyle to be just what you say you believe. In other words, don't say one thing, live something else. I've taught you now, Paul says, in the first three chapters, what position you have in Christ now want you to live that out. Want you to balance out what you believe by the way you live. So live a life worthy of the calling you've received. That's the calling to salvation. That's again referring back to what he's just said in the first three chapters. The salvation, our great salvation, our position in Christ, our riches, our wealth in him. Now live that out. Balance out what you believe with what you live. So that's the introduction to this whole second section of the book. And what he's going to do is he's going to give us a whole list of topics that describe what our lifestyle should be. In verses one through sixteen, he's going to say, I'm urging you to live in unity. Chapter four, verses seventeen to thirty two, I urge you to live in holiness. Five, one and two, I urge you to live in love. Five, three to fourteen, I urge you to live in light. Five, fifteen to seventeen, I urge you to live in wisdom. Five, eighteen to twenty one, I urge you to live in power. Five, twenty two to six, nine, I urge you to live in harmony. And six, ten to twenty four, I urge you to live in victory. So those are the topics he's going to introduce to us that really flesh out, that really make apparent to us the way we ought to live. What it means to be what we say we believe, but he begins with unity. Live in unity, he says, in the first sixteen verses, we're only going to look at the first six of those verses today. This is such an important topic. We're going to take a couple of weeks on it, because the Bible has a lot to say here about what it means to live in unity, beginning with the attitudes that lead to unity. And quite frankly, that's where I want to spend most of our time this morning, is on the attitudes that lead to unity. Notice Paul gives us in verse two four attitudes that will lead the church to unity. Verse two, he says, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. The first attitude that describes how we should live and that leads to unity is humility. Now the word that Paul used was an interesting word, it's actually a word he made up. There was no Greek word for what concept Paul was wanting to stress. It's a compound word, he took two Greek words, which basically means to think, and then the second word means loley. The idea was unknown in the Roman and Greek mindset. They had no concept of this idea of humility. They didn't even have a word for it. So Paul took two words and said, what I'm talking about is the concept of thinking loley. It's the idea of not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, but being willing to honor others instead. That's the idea in humility. Again, I want to say the Greeks and the Romans had no idea what this was about. They had no concept of humility. They didn't even have a word for it, because in the culture that Paul was writing in, you know what was valued, pride, self-promotion, self-recognition, self-made person, that's what was valued in the culture of Paul's day. And I would suggest it's no different today. That's what people value today too. Humility is a lost concept in our culture of today. Few years ago, the Wall Street Journal had an article, an interesting article on the movie industry, and the inside negotiations that take place to try to satisfy all the stars in a particular movie. Did you know there are negotiations between lawyers that take months to decide whose name will appear first in the credits, which movie star will get the top line. In one movie, for instance, they actually put out two whole ad campaigns. And in one campaign, one of the actors' names was first, the other one was second, two superstars. In the other campaign, the other one was first, and the other one was second. And the legal agreement was they would run both ad campaigns equally. 50%, they would run one, 50%, they would run the other. And even in the pictures, they would put one first and one, one second, in the other. There was another movie that came out where the negotiations resulted in the two main actors being on the same line in the credits. And that's another way they do it. But when that happens, the one on the left usually is considered the top actor. And so they put the one on the left over here, the one on the right, they raised a half line higher. I mean, it was amazing to see how in-depth legal negotiations go on just to stroke the egos of these superstars. And that's just a little insight into our culture today. People do not live humbly. They live for themselves. They live with pride, not humility. Now, do you know what humility means in the context of the local church and unity? What Paul is talking about here in the context of unity means this. Humility means that we must renounce self-centeredness. That's what it means. In order to have unity in the church, we must renounce self-centeredness. The church is not about me. It's not about my preferences. It is not about my wants. It is not about my recognition. It is not about my having authority. It is not about me being honored. It's not about me at all. And it's not about you at all. The church is not about me. It's not about self. It's about God. And it's about what God wants. And who he is, worship is about focusing on him. Not focusing on whether or not it was a him or a praise song that expressed the worship, but the focus is on him. It's not about me. It's not about my style, my preference. It's about him. And the focus in the church has to be on God and on His purposes for us, not us. Whenever we begin focused on ourselves, our preferences, our wants, our likes, our dislikes, we become self-centered, we become proud, and we have forsaken humility. Humility means to renounce self-centeredness. It's not about me. It's about the whole body of Christ and how we reflect the glory of God and honor God. That's what it's about. Back in the 1970s, most well-known football coach in America was Don Schule. Many of you will recognize that name. The legendary coach of the Miami D'Auffins, the last undefeated team to go through a regular season undefeated. I think it was the 72 D'Auffins. One the Super Bowl that year, one some Super Bowls through the 70s. Don Schule was a legendary coach. His face was probably the most recognized sports figure in America in the 70s. So one year he decided to go on vacation with his wife to a small little main village up in the state of Maine where they would not be recognized. Nobody would know who they were. Nothing kind of rainy, messy night. They decided to go to a movie and they walked in the theater. As soon as they walked in the theater and started down the aisle, the whole place applauded. There were only a few people in there, but they applauded. Don Schule looked over to his wife and said, I guess there's no place we can go without people recognizing who I am. They sat down and there was a guy close to where they were sitting and Schule reached over and shook his hand and said, I'm really surprised you recognized me. I looked at him with a blank look on his face and said, am I supposed to recognize you? He said, we're just glad you got here. The manager had said he wasn't going to show the movie if he didn't have 10 people. What a lesson in humility. He told that story on himself. We need some lessons in humility like that because it's not about me. It's not about you. It's not about my wants, likes, dislikes, preferences. It's about who God is and how we best honor him and serve him and do what he wants us to do to reach people. That is what church is about. That's what creates unity is when we are willing to be humble and lay aside self-centeredness. Peter Marshall who used to pass the Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC back in the mid-1900s and was the chaplain of the Senate for several years really summarized humility, I think best when he said, Lord, if we are wrong, make us willing to change. If we are right, make us easy to live with. That's humility. The willingness to renounce self-centeredness. But that's not all. Paul says, if you're going to have unity, be completely humble, but then he says, and be gentle. Be gentle. Now the word could be translated meek or meekness. Gentleness or meekness is the idea here. If you were to look up that word, especially meekness in the dictionary and, by the way, the Greek words translated both ways in the New Testament, give or take one or the other. Generous or meekness. If you were to look that up in the dictionary, you would find a definition like this, timid or deficient, encourage or spirit. And that is not at all what the Bible word means. Not at all what the Bible word means. It has nothing to do with being timid and deficient, encourage or spirit. It's far from the biblical meaning. The biblical meaning of the word does indicate that we should be mild-mannered and self-controlled. But the word in New Testament times, to be mild-mannered and self-controlled, the word was used of the taming of wild animals. It was used of the taming of wild horses or lions. So you've got a wild animal that has all this power and strength just waiting to burst out, but it has been tamed. It's been domesticated. It's been brought under control. So it, it, probably the best description of this word, it can mean strength under control. Gentleness or meekness is Jesus Christ at His arrest. You remember the story? I think one of the best biblical examples of this concept. 600 Roman soldiers walk into the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus with His 12 disciples, 11 disciples. By now walks out to meet them and says, who is it you want? And they say Jesus. And He says, I am. And with those words that uttered the very person of God, 600 Roman soldiers, fell backward to the ground. The might and authority and power of God Himself in Jesus Christ demonstrated itself there that night in the Garden, no Roman soldier, no number of Roman soldiers would be able to stand up to one word from the lips of Jesus Christ. But then they ask again, once they get themselves up to their feet, they ask, Jesus asks, who is it you want? They say Jesus. And about that time Peter whips out his sword and starts whacking away. Jesus says, Peter, put up your sword. Must I not drink the cup? The Father has given me to drink. In other words, it was very clear. There was infinite divine power on display there that night. But it was harnessed and under control so that He would accomplish the Father's will. He did not abuse or use that power in a selfish way. It was power under control. That's meekness. That's gentleness. And you know what it means in the church? In the context of the church and unity, gentleness or meekness means that we must renounce harshness. We must renounce harshness. Some of us are so brittle and forceful and threatening and pushy. We must renounce that to have unity. If we're going to be gentle, meek, the Bible says, renounce that. You know, sometimes we can be right, but we can be repulsively right. The Bible wants us to be meekly and gently right. gentleness means that we're sensitive to the way others feel about what we're saying. We're not trying to railroad over top of them. We're not trying to push something over. We are seeking to be sensitive to the feelings and responses of others we care about them. There's no desire to harm other people. We value them. And so we're not just harsh and critical and pushing stuff, our own agenda. That should be true of every relationship, by the way. Should start in the home. And then it should be reflected in the church and where we work with others, relationships with others. Gentleness. Meekness. Ken Metama is a Christian musician who has written a lot of music through the years and I was in the forefront of Christian music now. He used to be, I heard him do a concert one time at Bluefield College. He's blind. He's been blind since birth. But his parents never treated his blindness as a disability. They taught him how to ride a bike. They taught him how to water ski. They taught him all kinds of stuff that usually blind people don't do. One day when Ken Metaba was in college, he was walking across the campus and he accidentally bumped into another blind student. And the other blind student just yelled out, what's wrong with you? Can't you tell I'm blind? And Metama rather than yelling back and even rather than saying anything about his own blindness, simply said, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you. Now that is meekness. That's gentleness. That's taking a situation where you could have really made that other person feel bad. You could have put them in their place and you didn't do it. That's gentleness, meekness. And that's necessary for church unity. The third quality attitude that's necessary for unity in verse two is patience. He says be patient. Be patient. The Greek word again actually literally means long tempered. Long tempered. And the idea is this that you can endure annoyances and difficulties without getting upset. You can endure annoyances from other people, difficulties in situations and like without getting all bit out of shape about it, you're patient. By the way, the next time and don't we have trouble with patience, oh my are we impatient? The next time you become impatient over something that's happening, not according to your timetable, the next time that happens, I want you to remember a guy by the name of Walter Shane. Walter Shane lives on St. Paul Island in the Bearing Straits off the coast of Alaska. And when the Shane family wants pizza, they pick up the phone and they order just like we do. They're fast food. And it gets there in three days. That is if the weather is okay and the plane doesn't get delayed from Anchorage, illusion airlines flies it down to him, he has to pay the cost of the pizza, $23 in shipping and he's got his fast food in three days. But Paul is not talking about patience with situations or circumstances or issues here. He's talking about patience with people. In the context, talking about being in the body of Christ, having unity, he's talking about patience with people and how impatient we can get with one another. We don't believe that, just watch yourself driving home today. In that where impatience probably surfaces the most, we read about one lady who pulled up to a traffic signal, stopped and her car just died. It would not start, she couldn't get it started. Sure enough, when the light turned green, the guy behind her is just blowing the horn incessantly. So she calmly got out of her car, walked back to him, said, I've got a suggestion for you. My car will not start. Why don't you go up and try to start my car? And I'll get in your car and lay on the horn. Wouldn't you like to do that sometime, God blowing behind you? Impatience. We are so impatient. Now, in the church, when it comes to unity, impatience or patience means that we must renounce the tyranny of our agenda. Must renounce the tyranny of our agenda. You see, we all have a sense of timing about what should happen and when it should happen, and when that timing does not agree with somebody else's timing of what should happen and when it should happen, those two views collide, and that's when we have trouble being patient. That's when we become impatient. We want our own way. We want it right now. We don't want anything or anyone to stand in the way of us getting what we want right now in our time when it's convenient for me. When I can, when I want, when I impatience, you know, sometimes we need to give others time. We need to give other people time to grow, to develop, to learn, to fail, and to grow and learn from that. That's a difficult process sometimes. Even it really is, but we need to give time, we need to be patient with one another. If we're going to have unity, we've got to have patience. But notice there's a fourth quality, says, an attitude that's necessary for unity. Notice what it says there at the end of verse two, bearing with one another in love. Baring with one another. I'm going to call this loving tolerance. The word bearing with, that's kind of a smooth translation. The most literal translation of this Greek word would be putting up with one another in love. That's really the idea. Putting up with one another in love. And you know there's a lot, if you're in a group of people, this size or larger or even smaller than this, there's a lot of putting up in love that has to go on for the unity. To put up with someone else in love, and the word love is agape, the deepest kind of love in the Bible, the kind of love that says, I will sacrifice my agenda for what's best for you. That's the only kind of love that will enable us to tolerate one another. Put up with one another sometimes. You know what this means in the church as far as unity is concerned? Loving tolerance means this. We must renounce our rights. We must renounce our rights. Most often, me insisting on my rights, my way, it'd be done my way, be done in my time and so forth. That is an unloving intolerance of other people. And it basically is another form of self-centeredness. Put up with one another Paul says, we need to recognize that all of us sometimes are a pain to other people, we're a burden to other people. So we need to tolerate others when they are a pain or a burden to us at times. And I'm talking about this kind of thing. And I'm talking about things that we need to put up with choices, inconveniences, things that are not to our liking, things that are not our preference. We have to tolerate those kinds of things, those kinds of activities on the part of others. In love, wanting what's best for the whole and not just what's best for me. You know that happens in a family. There's a lot of putting up with that has to be done in love. Our two older daughters, back when they were teenagers, that was in the day when the hairstyle for girls was real poofy. You know that stuck out everywhere, looked like they'd been putting in a dryer and tumbled for about 30 minutes and then you let them out. And the hair was just going everywhere. It was awful. I hated it. I actually hated it. It was the most terrible hairstyle I can ever remember that young ladies liked. I put up with it. Thankfully I learned after a few attempts to get them to do the will of God about their hair. It just, you know, it didn't work. And I realized that I just needed to tolerate. You know what the worst part of that was? In order to, you know, they flipped their hair out and it was all over the place. But you had to use about a whole can of hair spray every day to get the stuff to stay that way. So our house was like a fog trying to get through the house. That was the worst part of the whole deal. But you know what? They look back on those pictures now and say, oh, how could I ever worn my hair like that? It was awful. It was just a phase. It was a stage. It was a passing fad. You know, I know some parents that make a big deal over stuff like that. Clothing options, hairstyles. If it's not im modest, let it go. They'll look back 10 years from now. So I can't believe I've worn that. I've looked that way. And you know, I've known some people that ruin their whole relationship over two inches of hair on their boy. Why make that an issue? You know, we have to have some loving tolerance in the home. We also have to have some loving tolerance in the church for choices, for things that may not be my preference, may not really suit me exactly. But I lovingly tolerate that. I put up with it for the good of the whole and so that we can hopefully reach more people for Christ. I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about, talking about music styles, talking about service schedules, talking about ministries that may not be your preference of ministries or where they meet or how they function, may not be to your liking. But there's some things we have to tolerate lovingly. And by the way, that goes two ways. Let me go back to music style. That goes two ways. It means that those of you in this service, most of whom would prefer the contemporary Christian music style, when you come on Wednesday night, you're willing to say, you know, I love those old hymns too. They're a little slower, maybe than what I'd prefer. But they have some great stuff in them and I love those too. And I'll sing the hymns to, it goes both ways, friends. It's not enough just to say, well, as we saw in the drama so well, it's not enough just to say, well, those old folks, quit singing those stale hymns. No, no, it's not an either or it's both end. In the church, we have to have loving tolerance of things that may not be our particular preference in order for there to be unity. That's what Paul says. Bear with one another, put up with one another in love. But I want you to see just quickly the effort required for unity. In verse three, after dealing with these attitudes, he talks about the effort that's required. And by the way, there is effort required for unity. It is hard work because we are so different. Look around, we are so different. Even physically we are different. Some of us are tall, some of us are short. Some of us are thin, some of us are round. Some of us are muscular, some of us are normal. We're different, aren't we? And emotionally, emotionally, we're different. Some of us here this morning are very nervous. Some of us are very calm. Some are very analytical and logical. Some are very emotion-driven in decisions. Some are obsessive, compulsive, and some are sane. We are different, aren't we? In the way we react to different things. Now you add to that difference, you add all those differences, differences in spiritual background where we come from and what we're used to spiritually, and differences in personal preferences and convictions. You can see why Paul says, you've got to work at this. This doesn't come naturally. So look at what he says in verse 3. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Make every effort. That's the intensity of the effort. Make every effort. The word literally needs to make haste to give zealous attention to this. That's the intensity of this effort that is going to take to have unity. Want you to see the goal of this effort. The goal of this effort is the unity of the Spirit. You see that? Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. This is a spiritual unity that is ours because we all have the Holy Spirit. This is not an organizational unity. He's not saying go out and try to get all the denominations together and make them forget their distinctives. That's just probably not going to happen. I think there is a spiritual unity that ought to supersede denominational distinctions. But I also believe that's probably not likely to happen until Jesus comes back and sets everything straight. So what he's talking about here is focus on the spiritual unity. The unity that we have in Christ, if we are in Christ, regardless of what denominations we may call ourselves, or other distinctions we may have, focus on that spiritual unity. That is the goal of the effort. Notice the focus of the effort is the bond of peace. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Literally the bond which creates peace. The focus of this effort working at unity should be to understand there is a bond that we have that creates peace. That bond is the bond we have in Christ. If we are all in Christ, that ought to create peace. And that is the focus of this effort toward unity. Focus on the fact that we are in Christ, not that I am 80 and you are 20, or not that I have been here 40 years, you have only been here too. Not that I am in this class or you are in that class. Not that I like contemporary Christian music, I like the hymns. No, that is not the focus. The focus is we are in Christ and we have a bond in Christ that produces peace. And if we focus on Christ, then we have peace. If we focus on Christ, there is no room for division, no room for strife, no room for factions, no room for rivalries, no room for hard feelings because we are in Christ. That is the focus of this effort. That is the effort required for unity. But I want you to see too, the basis for unity. The basis for unity is in verses 4 through 6. Paul gives us seven elements that form the basis of our unity. Interestingly enough, they are doctrinal but they focus on major doctrines, not minor doctrinal differences, major doctrines. They are relational. They have to do with all being in the body of Christ. But they also revolve around the three persons of the Trinity. Would you look at this just very quickly in verse 4, we have unity in the spirit. Three things are mentioned. There is one body that is talking about the universal church. There is only one body, the universal church. By universal church, I mean everybody who has been saved and placed in the body of Christ from the day of Pentecost up till right now. That is the body. Now there are local bodies that reflect that universal body. The body Paul is talking about here is the universal body. We all are in one body. We are all in the same body. He says there is one body and one spirit. We all have the same Holy Spirit. He has regenerated us. He has given us new life. He has placed us into the body of Christ. He indwells us. He has sealed us, making us God's possession. And all of us have experienced that same thing if we are in Christ. So there is only one spirit. We all have the same spirit. Many says there is one hope because of the Holy Spirit saving us, regenerating us, sealing us, placing us in the body of Christ. There is one hope in verse 4, just as you were called, the one hope when you were called. The hope is the future, hope of heaven. So the unity in the spirit has to do with we are in one body. We all have the same Holy Spirit who has given us the same hope of eternal life in Christ. That unity in the spirit. But there is also unity in Christ in verse 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. There is one Lord. That is Jesus Christ, obviously referring to him. He is all of our Lord. If we know him as our Savior, he is our Lord which, by the way, means that he is the one who will judge us. Paul uses that very thought in Romans 14. He says, all these things you may differ on and disagree on. Remember, you have one master and two your master, you answer, and that is Jesus Christ. Ultimately, we don't answer one another about personal convictions and preferences. We answer to Christ. So remember, we got one Lord and then one faith, that is not faith in Christ for salvation. That is what the Bible calls the faith, the faith, once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 3, it is the body of doctrine, the basic doctrines that make up the Christian faith. There is one God existing in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Trinity. Jesus Christ is God's Son. In human flesh came to die for our sins. Salvation is found only in Christ. No other way, salvation is only by faith in Him, not through our works. Those basic kind of doctrines are the faith without which we would not have the Christian faith. We all believe those same doctrines, those basic doctrines. If not, you are not in the Christian faith. But if you are, we have unity around those doctrines. The faith. And then one baptism in the context because he is talking about the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit. So I think he is talking about spirit baptism which places us into the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit at the moment you are saved places you into the body of Christ. It is not something you feel or experience or know is happening. It is just something that the Holy Spirit does. And the Bible talks about that in 1 Corinthians 12-13. It says, for we were all baptized by one spirit into one body. Notice one spirit, one body, two things he has already emphasized here in Ephesians 4. So spirit baptism puts by one spirit into one body. And that is where there were Jews or Greeks, whatever background we have, we are all given to one spirit to drink. So we have got one Lord, one faith, one baptism. That is unity in Christ. It is in 5 and 6, or 6, it is unity in the Father. Unity in God. Notice what he says in verse 6, one God and Father of all who is overall and through all and in all. If you know Jesus Christ, you are in the same family I am in, same family every other believer is in. We have one Father, same Father. And he is the God of the Bible, the God who is described here as a sovereign God. He is overall. He is a powerful God, he is working through all and he is the ever-present God, he is in all, particularly all of us who know him. That is the God who is our Father, one Father. Now what I want you to see is this, these seven things form the basis of our unity. That is what our unity is built around and built on. These truths and these realities. There is no mention here of the number of services the church has or when they will meet or what style they use in worship. There is no mention here in Ephesians 4 of ministry, specific ministries that you may feel passionate about or not feel passionate about. There is no mention here of how rooms in a church building are used. Those are not the things that matter when it comes to unity. Unity is based on these basic doctrinal realities and reality that we are in the same family. We can have unity regardless of age. It doesn't matter whether it is old person or young person. There should be unity because that is not the issue. That is not what unity comes from. Is whether or not we are in the same age group. We should have unity whether or not we are in the same political party. That makes no difference whether you are a Democrat, Republican, independent or if there is some other, you know, whatever it is. That makes no difference as far as church unity is concerned because that is not what our unity is based on here. No mention of that here. We can have this unity in spite or regardless of which translation you may prefer. That doesn't matter. If you prefer the NIV, King James, New American Standard, whatever it may be as long as it's a good solid translation, that doesn't matter. That's not what our unity is based on. This is unity regardless of personality type, regardless of schooling options that your family prefers, whether it's public school, Christian school, home school, that's not the issue when it comes to unity. We should have unity beyond all those differences. Those things don't make any difference at all when it comes to unity. It doesn't matter how long you've been a member here. Doesn't matter how you dress, where you live, what kind of vehicle you drive. None of those things are the basis for our unity. Our unity is found in these basic spiritual realities. And by the way, the same thing is true from church to church. There may be churches that may disagree with us on some of those very issues I've talked about, like translation or style of worship or things like that. We shouldn't be critical of them. As long as they have the same kind of doctrinal beliefs we do on those basics, we should love and honor them and pray for God's blessing upon them. I don't care what the denomination is. That's not the issue. We shouldn't be critical of other churches. There are some churches. Even if they don't like us, okay? We should still love and honor and respect them. Because unity is not based on seeing everything the same, on all these minor issues. Some churches may be a little more conservative than we are in some of those issues. We should love them, respect them, honor them, hope God blesses them. Some churches may be a little less conservative than we would be on some of those issues. We should love them, honor them, hope God blesses them as long as they're doctrinally sound in the basic doctrines. See, that's where our unity is. So you see, in order to have unity, what Paul is saying is, let the other issues go. Let him go. Our unity is based on those seven basic doctrinal realities. Let the other things go. We may disagree. We may have to tolerate some things lovingly. But our unity is based on those seven things. Let the other stuff go. And keep working at it, Paul says, keep working at it in a spirit of humility. Tolerant love, patience, gentleness, keep working at it. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the unity that we can have in Christ. Thank you for the unity. We have experienced in this church for years and years. We are grateful for that, Father. And we pray that it will never cease and that it will grow even stronger. Pray, Father, that it will not let any minor issues divide us or call strife. Pray that we will be unified and work, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.