UNITY OF THE SPIRIT 3-26-17 VIDEO SPOKEN WORD UNITY 2
UNITY- It is not just a general spirit of friendliness, nor is it a common goal or aim, or what we say or we agree upon. It is based on the fact that we are a new creation. Our bond of unity is because we are new beings in Christ. Unity has diversity. Like the Godhead.
Gal 3:28 In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. MSG
Gal 6:15 For neither is circumcision [now] of any importance, nor uncircumcision, but [only] a new creation [the result of a new birth and a new nature in Christ Jesus, the Messiah]. AMP
2 Cor 5:17 Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! MSG
Eph 4:1 I THEREFORE, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God's service,
2 Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another.
3 Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace.
4 [There is] one body and one Spirit just as there is also one hope [that belongs] to the calling you received
5 [There is] one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of [us] all, Who is above all [Sovereign over all], pervading all and [living] in [us] all. AMP
GET ALONG
1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all [of you] should be of one and the same mind (united in spirit), sympathizing [with one another], loving [each other] as brethren [of one household], compassionate and courteous (tenderhearted and humble).
9 Never return evil for evil or insult for insult (scolding, tongue-lashing, berating), but on the contrary blessing [praying for their welfare, happiness, and protection, and truly pitying and loving them]. For know that to this you have been called, that you may yourselves inherit a blessing [from God that you may obtain a blessing as heirs, bringing welfare and happiness and protection]. AMP
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1 Peter 3:8 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble.
9 That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing. MSG
Phil 2:2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends.
3 Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead.
4 Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself.
BODY
Rom 12:4 For as in one physical body we have many parts (organs, members) and all of these parts do not have the same function or use,
5 So we, numerous as we are, are one body in Christ (the Messiah) and individually we are parts one of another [mutually dependent on one another]. AMP
1 Cor 12:12 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts limbs, organs, cells but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ.
13 By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain his Spirit where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
14 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together.
15 If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so?
16 If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body?
17 If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell?
18 As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
19 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster.
20 What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. MSG
1 Cor 12:27 You are Christ's body that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. MSG
Ps 133:1 BEHOLD, HOW good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious ointment poured on the head, that ran down on the beard, even the beard of Aaron [the first high priest], that came down upon the collar and skirts of his garments [consecrating the whole body].
3 It is like the dew of [lofty] Mount Hermon and the dew that comes on the hills of Zion; for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, even life forevermore [upon the high and the lowly]. AMP
KNIT
Judg 20:11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
Col 2:2 I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God's great mystery. MSG
Eph 4:12 His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body (the church),
13 [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him. AMP
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Eph 4:11 filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher
12 to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church,
13 until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. MSG
PRAYER-HARMONY
2 Cor 13:11 And that's about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. MSG
Rom 15:5 May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all.
6 Then we'll be a choir not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!
7 So reach out and welcome one another to God's glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! MSG
Matt 18:19 Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven.
2 Cor 1:11 While you also cooperate by your prayers for us [helping and laboring together with us]. Thus [the lips of] many persons [turned toward God will eventually] give thanks on our behalf for the grace (the blessing of deliverance) granted us at the request of the many who have prayed. AMP
Rom 15:30 I appeal to you [I entreat you], brethren, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love [given by] the Spirit, to unite with me in earnest wrestling in prayer to God in my behalf. AMP
1 Cor 1:10 I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.
11 I bring this up because some from Chloe's family brought a most disturbing report to my attention that you're fighting among yourselves!
12 I'll tell you exactly what I was told: You're all picking sides, going around saying, "I'm on Paul's side," or "I'm for Apollos," or "Peter is my man," or "I'm in the Messiah group." MSG
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1 Cor 1:17 God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center Christ on the Cross be trivialized into mere words. MSG
2 Cor 8:12 Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can't. The heart regulates the hands.
13 This isn't so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you're shoulder to shoulder with them all the way,
14 your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even.
15 As it is written, Nothing left over to the one with the most, Nothing lacking to the one with the least. MSG
John 17:11 For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world; They'll continue in the world While I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
That you conferred as a gift through me, So they can be one heart and mind
12 As we are one heart and mind. As long as I was with them, I guarded them
In the pursuit of the life you gave through me; I even posted a night watch.
And not one of them got away, Except for the rebel bent on destruction (the exception that proved the rule of Scripture). MSG
John 17:21 The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
22 The same glory you gave me, I gave them, So they'll be as unified and together as we are AMP
John 15:5 "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. MSG
COMMUNION Eph 4:16 He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. MSG
Col 2:18 Don't tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They're a lot of hot air, that's all they are.
19 They're completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us. MSG
1 Cor 5:7 So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast.
8 So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread simple, genuine, unpretentious. MSG
1 Cor 10:16 When we drink the cup of blessing, aren't we taking into ourselves the blood, the very life, of Christ? And isn't it the same with the loaf of bread we break and eat? Don't we take into ourselves the body, the very life, of Christ?
17 Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes one-ness Christ doesn't become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don't reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is. MSG
COMMUNION