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From Far to Near
22 Plays1 month ago
Eph. 2:11-22
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of Broadcasting
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Speaker
Each of you here this morning is a broadcaster for the CCBN, the Cameron Christian Broadcast Network.
00:00:14
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Did you know that? And as you're going about your business and your day-to-day activities and the interactions that you have, you are broadcasting a message. Hopefully it's a Christian message.
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But the bigger question is is, it a message of Christian unity? Does the community know you as a Christian broadcaster or an FBC broadcaster?
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You see, it matters.
Questioning Christian Unity
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One highlights the unity that all believers share in Christ, where we're Christ followers first and where members second. The other highlights the disunity that we often see in our communities.
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I simply Googled how many churches are in this area.
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There's us. There's Grace. There's First United Methodist. There's Cameron United Pentecostal. North Orchard Street Church of Christ, First Presbyterian, First Assembly of God, Cameron Grove Baptist, Progressive Missionary Baptist, St. Cyril Methodist Church, Cameron Church of Christ, Lights Chapel Baptist, Trinity Baptist, Marlow Baptist, the Lutheran Church, the Episcopal Church, St. Monica's Catholic Church, Bat Town Baptist, First Christian, Primera Iglesia Bautista, True Love Baptist, and Little River Baptist.
00:01:47
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Now does that sound like Christian unity to you?
Reflecting on Church Abundance and Perception
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You know, when I first came here two years ago, we had a concert we held held out here. Rhett Walker, many of you remember that concert.
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I said something unbeknownst to myself, because often I have to rein in what I say, but I said in front of a mixed crowd, newly to Cameron, I said, there are too many churches in this area.
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It's funny what people remember. They don't remember that we got the church bells ringing and everybody can hear them downtown. But they remember that I said there are too many churches in Cameron. Friends, I'm here to tell you two years later, there's too many churches in Cameron.
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What message does this display to our unbelieving friends here in Cameron?
Sermon Focus Overview
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Imagine if you will for just a second you're an unbeliever and you're considering Christianity.
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Do you think if you Google churches in this area, it would speak a message of unity or disunity?
00:02:55
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How we demonstrate our Christian unity matters. That's what we're going look at today. You'll see if you grabbed your outline when you came in. We're going to first look at the past status of unbelievers, the present station of believers, the future structure of believers, and then we're going to ask ourselves how we can demonstrate Christian unity right here in Cameron, in our community.
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This is
Review of Past Discussions on Belief and Salvation
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where we're going today. I invite you, if you have your Bibles, open up to Ephesians chapter 2. If you were faithful in your attendance, you'll know last week when you were here, we talked about the unbelievers. We said that they were controlled by evil powers, that they were controlled by the world, they were controlled by their own worldly appetites, and thus they were deserving of God's wrath or his anger.
00:03:41
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But we said God in his mercy and love saved them by grace through faith. That was the message. And out of that grace so salvation that we received, we responded with good works.
The Importance of Church Unity
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That was what we talked about last week.
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Today's message, it's kind of a continuation. it's It's a little bit at the very beginning, kind of a recap, if you will, of the unbelievers and their beliefs. former station or their former situation.
00:04:11
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But then it's going to jump right into the the meat, if you will. And I know it's foreign meat on a Sunday when we're serving salads. But the meat of the sermon today, you'll see from your outline, i provided you a structure.
00:04:26
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the the The Word of God is written in such a way that it's telling you right at the middle of that structure what the point is. And it's it's the unity of the church. It is the one body that you'll see right there at the center of that structure.
00:04:39
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let's Let's read here Ephesians chapter 2. These last 11 verses, 11 through 22. New Living Translation, verse 11 says... Don't forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders.
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You were called uncircumcised heathens by the Jews who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ.
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You were excluded from the citizenship among the people of Israel. And you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.
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But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
Inclusivity Through Christ's Sacrifice
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For Christ himself has brought peace to us.
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He united Jews and Gentiles and won people. When in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations.
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He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross.
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And the hostility toward each other was put to death. Verse 17 says, He brought this good news of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him. and peace to the Jews who were near.
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Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done. So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You're citizens along with all of God's holy people.
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You are members of God's family. Together we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
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Through him, you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. The Apostle Paul starts here simply in these first couple of verses, verse 11 and 12, talking about the Gentiles.
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that's That's you and I, by the way. We're the non-Jewish people. So anytime you read Gentiles, you think of yourself. He's saying, you Gentiles, I'm going to talk to you about your former plight or your past status. He says, therefore, and you know and anytime we get to the word therefore, we always ask ourselves, what is therefore therefore?
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right it's It's pointing us back. He's saying, therefore, because of God's gracious act of salvation, remember. Remember that you were formerly in the flesh.
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But verse 13 says, now you're in Christ. Two two different statuses. He's telling the Gentiles who have been saved, look back at your past. Because at one time you were without Christ.
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You were excluded from the citizenship of Israel. Meaning you were excluded from outside of the church family. You were excluded from this community of God. You were formerly an outsider.
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what like so live And You can feel like an outsider.
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It's easy to feel like an outsider. These Gentiles were indeed outsiders. They're estranged from God. They're living outside of the covenants of promise.
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And even worse, look at verse 12. At the end of verse 12, it gives two dire descriptors of these Gentiles, these unbelievers. They had no hope and they were godless.
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They were without hope and without God. And friends, I just put a note to myself. This is who's living in your community. It is a people who are hopeless and without God.
00:08:48
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The hope is what was set forth in Christ and our future hope is that one day he will return and fix everything. remember we talked about that a couple weeks ago. One day Christ will return and he'll fix all the brokenness. That's our hope.
00:09:01
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That's the hope we have as believers. But my friends, the unbelievers don't have that hope because they are far from God. But he says here, even though you were once far off...
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Verse 13 says, but. Right, this big contrast. Remember last week we talked about the the famous buts in the Bible. If I could only write a new book, that would be not well received.
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The big buts of the Bible.
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Even though you were formerly far off, that you were Christless, you were stateless, you were hopeless, you were without God, but. But now, in Christ Christ.
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You who are far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The shed blood of Christ on the cross, the substitutionary atonement for your sin and for my sin, the payment that was made that you and I couldn't pay for ourselves, that's what makes it possible for those who were once far off to now be brought near.
00:10:03
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Verse 19 says, You are no longer foreigners. You are no longer strangers. But now you are co-citizens or fellow citizens with God's people. You're part of the family. You're part of the household.
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You're included. Doesn't matter what church you go Doesn't matter what Baptist church you go to. Doesn't matter the color of your skin or the color of your eyes.
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If you have straight hair or curly hair.
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Genetics doesn't matter.
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All who were once far off have been brought near. through Christ's blood. What does that mean to you and I today? Well, I simply put this. The Hispanic woman at the Primera Iglesia Bautista Church right down the road, who was once lost and without hope and without Christ and without God, who was saved by the blood of Christ on the cross, she is now in the exact same family that you are.
00:11:03
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The black gentleman who attends True Love Baptist Church right down the road, who was once lost, once without Christ, once without hope, once without God, who was saved by Christ's blood that was shed on the cross is in the exact same family that that Hispanic woman is in the same family that you were in.
00:11:19
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It doesn't matter the color of your skin, the color of your eyes, whether you're male or female or whatever denomination you think you belong to. The current station of all believers is that we were brought near by the blood of Christ.
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We're now into this one family, this one family of God, all united, all unified.
00:11:44
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What does that mean to you and I today? going to pause. By the way, I'm going to do a little bit of application as we go today. I'm not going to wait until the end. What does that mean for you and I today that we're all in Christ when we say that word?
00:11:55
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Well, I'm a Christian and I'm here living in Cameron.
00:12:00
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Well, that means that doesn't matter if you're black or white, Hispanic or Asian. doesn't matter if you go to true love or you go to First Methodist. Well, maybe not First Methodist. I'm just joking, Methodist.
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Calm down. We're all...
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brought far and now near in Christ. We're all one family. Why is that important? Well, I think sometimes the community can look at us and go, man, they're all divvied up.
00:12:28
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They can't even figure out among themselves. There's eight Baptist church right here in Cameron. What's wrong with the Baptists? Can't they all get together on the same page? Well, that Baptist church, they clap and they got a drummer and they raise their hands. We can't be associated with them.
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And we laugh.
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But does the community see us like that? Or do they go, man, you guys are a bunch of disunified people. You can't even figure it out yourselves. Something to think about. He says right here with me, look, verse 14 and
Core Doctrines vs. Superficial Differences
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15.
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He says, for Christ himself has brought peace to us. He's united the Jew and the Gentile into one new person through his work on the cross.
00:13:17
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He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He didn't come to nullify or abolish the law. He came to fulfill it. He's the only one who lived a sinless, perfect life.
00:13:29
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He's the perfect, sinless sacrifice. It's the only way that he could forgive your sin and my sin. And he did that, and when he paid that price that you and I could never pay, it says we're now all part of the same family.
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We're unified into one new person. He's made peace between the Gentile and the Jew in creating himself one new person. Repeat after me, one new person. Say it again, one new person.
00:13:58
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Not, I'm going to take these Gentiles and merge them with the Jews. And we're going to call it Christianity. That's not what Paul's saying. He's saying, you used to be a Gentile and you guys used to be Jews.
00:14:10
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Now we're coming together and there's this new thing, this new entity. And that new entity is the church. It is this one new body.
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It's not Judaism 2.0. It's Christianity 1.0. it's christianity one point um We all look different on the outside, but it says in Christ we're all one.
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We're this new entity, this brand new people, unified and united in Christ. He goes on in verses 16 and 18, and he says in 16, that we're one body.
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Repeat after me, one body. So not only we one new person, we're also what? One body. body. One body. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by the means of his death on the cross.
00:15:00
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And he's provided us peace. Peace and unity, by the way, in the Bible often tied together. These two words. Where you see peace, you often see unity. Where you see unity, you often see peace. He's saying you who were once separated from God are now reconciled. This means you were made right with God.
00:15:17
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And because we're now this one new entity, this one church, says now we have access directly to him.
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Now, verse 18, now all of us, if you're somebody who underlines in your Bible, you might want to underline that. All of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because what Christ has done.
00:15:39
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All of us have access to the Father. All of us share in the benefits because we're all part of the same family. But what we like to do, church families, is we like to say, you know what, they're they're different than us. Those Baptists down the road, they're they're different than us.
00:16:00
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And I'm going to tread real lightly here because I think there are some... doctrinal differences that that we need to adhere to. There are some things that are core essential doctrine. it's It's stuff that we're going to talk about at the beginning of September on Wednesday nights, by the way. That was a shameless plug for Wednesday nights.
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You'll want to come to that class to find out what are the essential truths of the gospel message. What we believe as Christians. And those are non-negotiable.
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So if you're somebody who says, I don't believe Jesus is really God, well then that's an essential truth you have to hold. And in that way I will say, yeah, we we can't be part of whatever church you're part of.
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But if you believe in the essentials that we believe in and you simply say, I want to wear blue jeans and a t-shirt, and somehow we say, that's not right, or we don't want you part of our congregation, then And I know I've said this before, you can look around, and I'm looking at each one of you.
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And I'm doing it in a loving way. Boy, y'all look alike. And you know what I mean. Most of y'all look alike in here. Is that the purpose?
00:17:13
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Is that what Paul's telling us here today? He's saying we're all one new person. We're one new body. We're all reconciled with Christ, regardless of our skin and color, regardless of our ethnic background, regardless of your genetics, regardless of whether you were sprinkled or submerged during baptism.
Future Structure of a Unified Church
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And all the Baptists say, heresy. I'm going to tell you, friends, there are some good God-fearing believers, I believe, that were sprinkled as kids that we're going to see in heaven one day.
00:17:46
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He says, not only is that your present station of believers, that you're now near and close and united with God, it says, the future for us, the future structure, he continues in verse 20, he says, you're going to be fitted together. He uses this architectural language or this household, divine household language. He said, this one body, this new person, together as this one house built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and the cornerstone is Christ himself.
00:18:17
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foundation of the Christian church built upon the teachings of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. We're one unified church. That's what makes us unified is that we're unified in Christ resting upon the very foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
00:18:36
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And I just put a note to myself, why is this important today? Well,
00:18:43
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And I do think this one thing I'm going to point out, and i thought I kind of teeter back and forth, do I even mention it? I think it's important to mention just because this is something I think outside of Christianity. So I want to be real clear, real quick. If you hear somebody today and they refer to somebody here in this century as an apostle, hey, this is my friend Apostle John or Apostle Frank.
00:19:04
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I want to let you know that the apostleship is ended when the last apostle passed away. There are no more apostles. And how do I know this? Well, Paul tells us right here.
00:19:16
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He says the very church, this one new entity, is built on the what? This word, foundation of the apostles. The very foundation of your house is what? It's poured once.
00:19:33
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It's a one-time event. You pour a foundation once. The apostles were a one-time institution that were for the church. When the last apostle died, there's no more apostles. So I tell you that if you're out and about and you happen to go to another church and they say, this is Apostle Frank, I'd like to introduce you, run.
00:19:55
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Paul lands on something super important here. He says Christ Jesus is the cornerstone, the most important stone in this foundation, the one stone that holds it all together, the one thing that holds the entire structure tightly.
00:20:11
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is Christ Jesus himself. But he goes on, he says, however, you and I, we have a part in this, 21 and 22. So we are individual pieces, united in this structure. I like the the the original language here is tightly fitted.
00:20:27
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It's like a puzzle piece. You and I are uniquely designed. We're diverse. We look different. We sound different. Some of us say y'all. Some of us don't know what that means. feel sorry for those people.
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But we're so different. But we all fit together tightly, joined carefully in in this new structure, in the church.
00:20:56
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And how are we to function as this new body? Well, tells us. He says, you are being made. It is this ongoing work of Christ in your life. What I often do, friends, when when Kim and I would look at other churches and what do they believe, I go right to their doctrinal statement. What are those people believing?
00:21:14
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Are they practicing that? Are they living that out? Because while we may disagree on some minor things, that's okay. I can still fellowship with the true love Baptist folks because doctrinally they believe what we believe.
00:21:28
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They may sing with a lot more emotion. They may preach for hours on end. Ronnie and I know that. We sat through a ah funeral service that those guys ran one day.
00:21:38
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Boy, they can sing.
00:21:43
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the The preacher, by the way, came in a full suit with the neck thing, with the white, i don't even know what that's called. But 10 minutes in, he had pulled the white thing out. 15 minutes in, he had unbuckled his wrist.
00:21:56
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Then the jacket came off. By the end he was drenched. He was preaching so long with so much passion he was dripping wet. and Ronnie looked at me and he said, why are you never like that up there on the pulpit?
00:22:10
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I said, we're all learning.
00:22:13
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We joke about that, but friends, you and i we have a lot more in common than we do, than we like to agree with a lot of these folks.
00:22:24
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This ongoing process of sanctification, you and I being made more like Christ, it's what's happening in that church. It's what's happening in the Methodist church. It's what's happening here.
Demonstrating Unity in Community
00:22:36
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How do we apply this today? This is where I want to land just a couple couple of minutes here. How do we apply today's message? If indeed we're all united in Christ, if we are this one new church, if it doesn't matter what you look like or how you dress, but simply that you are a Christ follower and you're broadcasting for Christ today,
00:22:55
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How do we demonstrate this type of unity in our church? Well, I wanted to put as the first point, shut down 90% of the churches here in Cameron, but I don't think I can get away with that.
00:23:08
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I think what we need to remember is our common identity. This is the very first thing. As I as i prayed about this this week, I thought, how do we demonstrate to a lost community, and how do I know they're lost? Because they're not here at this church. They're not here at a lot of churches.
00:23:25
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They're all out there on the football field on Friday night. So I know they're here. They're just not in church. We're working on that. But as you and I are out in the community and we run into somebody from another church, may I suggest you simply remember your common identity in Christ.
00:23:43
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That person is a brother and sister in Christ.
00:23:47
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Emphasize the unity that we have. Don't worry about the differences.
00:23:55
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Because we're united in faith in Jesus, and they are as well, maybe we promote an understanding of humility amongst each other. Hey, I don't know a whole lot about the Methodist Church. Why don't you tell me about something you guys do?
00:24:11
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Let me tell you about why we believe in believer's baptism and why that's so important.
00:24:17
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Instead of saying, we're right and you're wrong, God prefers a suit, over blue jeans and a t-shirt. That's divisive by the way.
00:24:30
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I put remember our common identity, emphasize our unity, promote humility, and practice love and acceptance. This is the idea friends, and as you and I get out in the community, imagine if you're an unbeliever and they saw the Methodist preacher and they saw me together and we're in I don't know where we would be here in Cameron.
00:24:52
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Maybe Los Camales or something like that. And we're having an unpleasant argument about something theological. Imagine how that would look to the unbeliever. and Look at those two guys. They can't even get it straight.
00:25:06
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Okay, maybe that's not very applicable to you. I'm not the pastor of the church. Well, guess what? As you go out in your groups and you're out living your life and you run into other believers, you'd be surprised at how we interact with people.
00:25:19
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Other people are watching you. Well, I don't want to go to those people's church. They're holy rollers. It's all about the Holy Spirit with them. They're dancing up and down the aisles. Oh, that's so foreign to me.
00:25:32
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Just comments like that. Other people are listening all the time. Does that speak unity or does that speak disunity?
00:25:40
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All right, second, celebrate your differences. Celebrate your differences. Paul uses this metaphor, and we often see throughout the Bible, this metaphor of the church as the human body.
00:25:53
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The arm is no better than the ear, and the ear is no better than the nose. They're all unique and they're all different, but they all serve a different function, but they're all part of this same body.
00:26:04
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And the reason he tells us that is he says, we all are or different. God made us different. We all look different. We all have different strengths. We all have different weaknesses. Doesn't mean we're all the same. Unity doesn't mean we're all the same.
00:26:18
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Doesn't mean we all have to look alike or sound alike to still be unified. The person who sits in front of you may be a great teacher. The person behind you may be an amazing encourager.
00:26:30
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The worship leader across the street at the black church might be a fantastic singer. Embrace those differences because we're all worshiping the same Jesus Christ.
00:26:45
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Why? Because we're all one body. We're all in the same family. We may look different, we're all in the same family. Now I just put a note to myself, imagine if when you went to the church, everybody looked the same.
00:26:58
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How dull would that be?
00:27:02
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Third, partner and serve alongside our community. This is actually, I put a positive, an encouragement for you guys. Because here's what I see. We host events like the Rhett Walker concert, and we have people come from all over.
00:27:16
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We had March for Jesus that that we all joined in. There was, i don't know, 10 or 12 of us there. Put on these shirts, marched around in the heat two or three blocks down here in Cameron. And there were people that were out on their porches and they were waving to us and we were waving to them. All different Christians from all different churches promoting this unified march for Jesus.
00:27:36
Speaker
The ladies, y'all participate in the United Women's Ministry. Another example of being out in the mission field with other like-minded Christians, not saying, oh, well you're a Baptist or you're a Catholic or you're whatever. It's this commonality to serve alongside your fellow brother and sister.
00:27:55
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Because the community is watching, y'all. When they come out, they're not like, yay, look, First Baptist Church came out and helped me. They're saying, wow, those Christ followers came out and helped me.
00:28:06
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The unbelieving lost who are far from God could really care less what church you go to they really They really could care less. What they want to know is, are you willing to step up and help?
00:28:18
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And love them in a special way that only you can do as a Christ follower, not a First Baptist member.
00:28:28
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As you step out this week into the community, may you broadcast a message of unity in all people's sake.