The Church of Eleven22 - S02E24 - Live in Harmony with One Another

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

If the Church comes together as one, rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the world would take notice. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. – Romans 12:16 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. – 1 Peter 3:8

Welcome to Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin. The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we're praying this message helps you deepen your relationship with him. Now let's dive in. Hey, church family. Welcome back to Deepa Deva Week 24 this past weekend. We discussed what is known as the High Priestley Prayer. It's a really special place in scripture where Jesus not only prays,

for the disciples that he's with right there, but he also prays for us. He prays for, in his words, those who will believe. And one of the number of things he prayed for for the disciples in the first century and also those of us who are disciples now is he prays for oneness. He doesn't use the word unity. I mean, same thing, I guess, but he prays for oneness. And he's the level of oneness that he is praying for between you and I,

is as close as or as one as Jesus is with the Father, which is a supernatural kind of oneness. And he said that there's a result to that kind of oneness, when believers who one day will put their faith in Jesus, that the result of the oneness of those believers from all over the world, different languages, different cultures, different colors, different ethnicities, different likes, different political persuasions,

that when the church comes together as one, he says that the world may believe that he is who he says he is, that the oneness of believers matter. Now, we live in a world, especially in the last two years. This seems to be more divided than ever, politically, racially, scientifically.

I mean, you just pick the thing, man. I think these things are killing us because all we do every day is create these echo chambers where we wake up and we only tune in to newscast or podcast or YouTube channels that say what we already agree with because it makes us feel better about what we believe. And I'm telling you, church, we were created for this moment. That if we would step up and be unified with one another, if we would be one as Jesus prayed in John chapter 17, it would change everything about everything about everything,

that if we were one with one another, everybody that claims Christ is their Lord and believes in the authority of the Word of God, if we did not let race and politics and anything, whatever it is, divide us, but we were unified at the cross of Jesus Christ, the world would take notice, because it would be supernatural.

This is why I bring this up, because our one another is from Romans chapter 12, verse 16, and we've gone to Romans chapter 12 a bunch because there's a bunch of one another's in Romans chapter 12 but Paul says this live in harmony with one another so I've done this once before but we're going to do it again I just want to look through Romans chapter 12 picking it up in verse 9 to get the context of where this phrase to live in harmony with one another comes from

this should be reviewed for you hopefully it is Romans chapter 1 through 8 is all about the gospel Paul lays out the problem He talks about it from the cosmos that we are sinners. He talks about it at the heart level, for we have all sin to fall short at the glory of God. He lays out the solution that God demonstrated his love for us and this, while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. He talks about the infection of sin through our common father Adam.

He talks about the cure for that sin when Jesus came for whoever would believe. Then he goes personal on it in chapter 7, what's wrong with me? what a wretched man I am, who would save a wretch like me? Then the answer is, praise God for Jesus, because he will save. Then you get to the greatest chapter in the whole Bible, chapter 8, and he starts with, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And he just rolls out the power of the gospel. And by the time you get to the end of chapter 8, he says,

what could separate us from the love of God? Neither height, nor death, nor things to come, nor things in the past, nor angels or demons or anything. There's nothing, nothing, nothing could separate us from the love of God. Christ Jesus. Amen, glory to God. Then chapter 9, 10, and 11 talk about Israel's role in salvation. And he talks about that being the children of Abraham, the children of faith, not just some genetic group of people. He's not talking about genealogies. He's talking about people like Abraham who have put their faith in God. So he talks about the role of the nation of Israel in God's redemptive plan

for the whole world. And then when you get to chapter 12, from chapter 12 to the end of the letter to the church in Rome, he's talking about how then ought we live out this gospel. If you really do believe that we are justified, not by our own works, but by this alien righteousness whose name is Jesus, if you really believe that we are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, through grace alone, then what does it look like in the way that we live? And so in Romans chapter 12 verse 9, he said, let love be genuine. This is what is. What is looks like for us to be Christians. Let love be genuine. Abhorred. That means hate what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. That was one of our first one another's.

Outdo one another in showing honor. We just did that one a few weeks ago. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. In other words, don't get lazy with your affection and your faith towards the Lord. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. That was last week. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. And hospitality, we covered this months ago. Hospitality doesn't mean like you put doilies under your plates when you invite your neighbors over. Hospitality means love for the outsider. And then he says, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

This is what the body of Christ is supposed to look like. So regardless of why this person is weeping, if a part of the body hurts, we hurt with them. When they rejoice, we rejoice. When they weep, weep. And by the way, that comes right on the heels of how to treat people that persecute you. And a part of the way you do this is you rejoice when they rejoice, and you weep when they weep.

And then here's our one another. live in harmony with one another. Now, I'm going to be honest. I probably should have had Olson on here to help me out with this. I don't know a whole lot about music except what I like and what I don't like. But I know what a harmony is and I know what a harmony sounds like. A harmony, very simply, is two notes that are different that come together to complement one another, not compete with one another.

And when those two notes, come together to compliment one another, they sound better than one note alone. That if these two notes had, if they had a conscience, if they had a mind, if they had understanding of what was happening, then they would understand that the song that they are a part of is more important than the note that they are. What does this mean for you and me? This means that we begin to understand that what I'm a part of is greater than the part I play, and that Jesus is what is ultimate.

And maybe the reason he said live in harmony with one another is he's not calling you to not be you. And it's easy to live at peace with people that think like you do and do what you want them to do. That's it. That's easy to sing the same note. But what do you do when you have two different notes? Well, what Jesus, what God is saying here through the Apostle Paul,

in Romans, he's saying when those two things that are different come together in a complimentary way than what they produced together is better than what any one of them on their own could produce. And again, these are two different notes, not the same notes. And then you say, well, how in the world, Paul, how in the world are we going to live in harmony with one another? Have you seen the one another's we live with these days? Do you watch the news? I disagree with them politically. I disagree with them philosophically. I disagree with them about what we should do about racial tensions. I disagree with what we should do about COVID-19 and vaccines. I disagree about who should be president. I disagree about how we should raise kids. I

disagree about what college football team is the best and what music we should listen to. I disagree about everything. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool. Put all that aside. And you come up under the song that we're singing and not the note that you bring and live at harmony. Like different people coming together for one point in purpose. That's what we've been called to do. And that point and purpose is the name and the renown of Jesus Christ. Well, how in the world, Paul? How can we pull this off?

And he goes, well, here's step one. Don't be haughty. You see, because to be haughty means that you're arrogant. You think you're awesome. And it's impossible to look down your nose at other people and simultaneously fix your eyes on Jesus. That as we fix our eyes on Jesus, we'll never look down at anybody else.

The more we fix our eyes on Jesus, we will be able to understand the difference between our own personal preferences and God's precepts. So he says, don't be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

And then he does give this caveat, if possible, so far as it depends on you, you live peaceably with all. In other words, sometimes it is not always possible to live peaceably with all. Here's what I think, part of what he's saying, if you were in an abusive situation, that is not a harmonious kind of relationship. You get out, you come call your church, we'll call the police with you, we will get you help. But if it is possible, because it's just a difference of opinion or a difference of philosophy,

but you're rooted in the authority of Scripture under the blood of Jesus, knowing that the Father loves you and we have the Spirit in us. Then, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. In other words, yes, we should fight for justice, but ultimately justice will roll down when Jesus comes back. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink.

For by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with guilt. It seems to me that what this world wants to do is to overcome the church by evil. And the evil that the world wants to overcome us by is division. To divide over things that are not central to the good. good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the gospel is simply this. We don't need to add anything to the gospel. The gospel is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in accordance with the scripture. And that is what we hold firm to. That is what we live in harmony with. And anybody that

lives in harmony with that, we live in harmony with them. And even people that disagree with us, and especially those that want to throw rocks at us and hate us and say mean things to us, then we do not try to meet their evil with evil, but we respond to their evil with good, and we say, why in the world would we do that? Because that's what Christ did for us when in our sin we rejected him, and at the cross he accepted us.

That's the kind of harmony that we're talking about. May we all tune the instruments of our life to the tuning fork of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if we're all tuned to the good news of the gospel, and the gospel needs no moment, modifier. It's just the gospel. The plain old gospel right here in the Bible, the life, death, the resurrection of Jesus that forgives sins, that reconciles us unto the Father, then that changes everything. Because when we are tuned in, when the instruments of our life are tuned in to the

tuning fork of the good news of the gospel of Jesus, then we can live in harmony with the brothers and sisters in Christ for sure. And then we can also treat our enemies and adversaries the way God treated us with love and grace. And if we do that, if we do that, then Jesus' prayer in John 17 would be answered that as we were one and we loved one another and we even loved our enemies, that the whole world would know

that he is the Savior and we are his followers. Let's pray. Your Father in heaven, Lord, I pray against the enemy in his evil schemes, the schemes that come through YouTube channels and podcasts and network television that just create echo chambers that just feed the flesh that we have. And Lord, I pray, Spirit of God, that we would be above the fray. Lord, I pray that we, for sure, would fight for justice that we would love the widow and the oppressed and the orphan. God, we would stand up for those that don't have a voice for themselves, absolutely. But that would only be as a

result of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray, by the power of the Spirit, Holy Spirit right now, would you convict us of anyone that we are not living in harmony with, any part of the family that we are not living in harmony with? And God, just as you reconciled a traitor's race unto yourself, may you reconcile us one to another. And Lord, I pray that as this world that is watching sees this kind of unity around the cross, that they would know, that they would know that you are who you say you are and that we are your followers. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for joining us for Deepen with Pastor Jobi Martin.

If you're looking for additional resources to help you further deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ, visit co-e-22.com slash resources. We're praying this message you heard today helps you experience God in a unique and fresh way. And as always, be free.