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Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Unity, Unity, and if you would, keep your finger in Ephesians chapter 4 and flip back to Psalm 133. Psalm 133, we want to have unity in our church, unity in our family, unity at work. You know, even unity as a nation would be a blessing, right? Unity in general is a good thing, but what is it going to take for us to have unity, or how do we have the right kind of unity? I've identified seven components in Ephesians chapter 4 that tell us how we can have unity in our church, and obviously this carries over into other parts of our lives, but first of all I want to show you this in Psalm 133 verse 1. The Bible reads, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of Herman, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. So it's good and pleasant to have unity, but the thing I really want to point out here in this short little Psalm is that it says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, to dwell together in unity. The first thing I want to point out as you flip back over to Ephesians chapter 4 is that in order to have unity we have to dwell together. What does that mean? There has to be location. There has to be the same geography. There has to be the same physical location. It's impossible for me to have unity with people that are on the other side of the world or on the other side of the country. You're not going to have unity when there's a great geographical gulf between you, and this is part of what's wrong with the universal church doctrine. There's a doctrine out there that says that there's a universal church made up of all believers and that we need to have unity within that universal church. Well here's the problem with that is that the word church itself means congregation. That's what it means, and you can even just tell this with your King James Bible itself because Old Testament verses that use the word congregation, when they're quoted into the New Testament it swaps out the word church for congregation. So in Psalm 22 it says in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto thee, and then Hebrew 2 quotes that as in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. So church means congregation. What does it mean to congregate? Congregate means to come together and assemble. You've probably heard your whole life people talk about how the church is a called-out assembly or that that's what it literally means. Church is congregation. Church is assembly. Am I assembled with all believers in the entire planet? Will I ever be assembled with all believers on the planet? Absolutely not, and that's why the Bible scores of times uses this term churches, churches. If there's just one universal church made up of all believers, then why would you have churches? Because you have the church at Ephesus, the church at Smyrna, the church at Pergamos. These are physical locations. You know, in order to have unity you've got to actually congregate. You've actually got to assemble together, and how beautiful and how pleasant and how good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's asking too much to ask for unity with everybody on the planet or or every Baptist or every saved Christian or people all over the world. That's not going to happen, but what we do want to have is unity in our personal church, in our family, in our business. There's got to be a location. There's got to be geography. There's got to be some dwelling together in order to have unity, but number two, in order to have unity it's going to take humility. Now let's start out at the beginning there of Ephesians chapter 4, beginning verse number 1. It says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So what's it going to take to have unity? Well the first thing we see in Ephesians chapter 4 is that it's going to take humility, because in order for us to endeavor for unity he starts out by saying, with all lowliness and meekness. So in order to have unity we got to start out by having lowliness and meekness. What is, not loneliness, lowliness. What is lowliness? It means having a view of yourself that's not too high, esteeming others better than yourself. Being lowly is seeing yourself as lower, more humble, not exalting yourself or lifting yourself up above others, but actually being willing to submit to the wishes of other people. Being humble is what it takes to be a team player, right? If the church is going to have unity, the church functions as a team and you've got to learn to be a team player. What does it mean to be a team player? Well when I think of being a team player, I think of not always getting my way or doing everything exactly the way I want to do it, but understanding the needs and the desires of the group. That's what it means to be a team player. Not just my way or the highway on everything, but doing things that other people want to do. You know, for example, you know, everybody, this is a silly illustration, but you know, everybody wants to go to a certain restaurant. I want to go to a different restaurant. It's not like, okay, we're all going to go where I want to go. You know, being a team player is saying, hey, if everybody wants to go there, I can do it. I can go along with that. Sure, no problem. You know, submitting to other people's wishes, letting things go when they're not exactly your way. You've got to learn how to get along in a group and be a team player by being humble. And that means not only going with what other people want sometimes, but also realizing that your way is not necessarily always the best or the right way anyway. Not just assuming that you know everything the best, you're the best at everything. No, no, being a team player realizes that, hey, other people want to do things differently and maybe they have a point. And so you go along to get along. You're humble. You don't think that you know everything and that you're better than everyone else and that everything's got to be your way all the time. You be a team player and you go with the flow by being lowly and meek. And then the next thing he brings up in verse 2 is long suffering. He says, with long suffering forbearing one another in love. Now what do those two things mean? Long suffering. What that means is putting up with people for a long time, right? Long suffering means patience with other people, putting up with their faults, and that's pretty much the same thing that forbearing means. You know, because you love people, you put up with some things about them that aren't perfect. You forbear them. You also suffer long with them and you don't just have the opposite of this would be like a short fuse where as soon as somebody does something you don't like, boom, you jump down their throat. You're not long suffering. You just, you don't suffer them at all. You just jump on them and shut them down. Let things go, right? And so in order to have unity, there's gonna have to be some humility that says, hey, everything doesn't have to be my way. I'm a team player. I want to go with the flow. I'm thinking about the group. I'm not just thinking about myself. And then secondly, patience with other people. Long suffering with other people. You know, if you can't handle someone saying the wrong thing to you, doing the wrong thing to you, you know, you're never gonna be able to function as part of a group or part of a team. And this goes for a family. This goes for business. This goes for church. I mean, imagine at your business if you just jump down everybody's throat when they make a mistake. That's not gonna work. It's gonna ruin the atmosphere of your job. What about at home? You know, our family sees us at our best and at our worst. They see us day in and day out. They know what we're like and we're probably gonna make more mistakes at home than we make outside the home because at home we kind of let our hair down. We relax and we're gonna say things that are wrong. We're gonna do things that are wrong. We're gonna make mistakes and we need to be patient with one another. I need to be patient with my wife. She needs to be patient with me and not expecting other people to be perfect. We need to be long suffering and let things go. The next thing is in verse three. It says, Endeavoring to keep the unity. So the third thing that we need from Ephesians chapter 4 is that we need effort. It's gonna take, this doesn't happen by accident. You don't just show up at a job or show up at church or just start a family and everything just, everything's just like a well-oiled machine and everybody's unified. Everybody wants the same thing. Everybody's going the same direction. No, this takes a lot of work. You know, and people who get married, they realize this right away that just because two people are in love doesn't mean that there's going to be just instant unity when they start living together and day in, day out, having that family together. It's gonna take some effort to have unity. So, you know, if you got married and you're having problems finding unity, well join the club. So did everybody else, but there are two kinds of people in this world. There are people who figure it out. There are people who have the humility and the patience to figure it out and put forth the effort to figure it out. And then there are the people who just throw in the towel and just walk away. And you know what? A lot of those people that throw in the towel and walk away, they're gonna find that when they go to the next marriage, they're gonna have the same problems over there that they had the first time around because it's called life. You know, you ever see people post things sometimes on Facebook or something about wives and husbands and just think, wow, that's exactly like my marriage. Like the reason that those memes are so funny is because everybody's dealing with it. Everybody's got the same situations, you know. You know, you know what I'm talking about. Just kind of stereotypical jokes like there'll be the joke something like, you know, hey, you know, your husband say he's gonna fix it. There's no need to keep bugging about it every six months and keep reminding him, you know. Or like, you know, the the jokes about like, you know, women not being able to decide where they want to go out to eat or what they want to eat or something. They want you to suggest it but then they veto what you keep suggesting. They want, they want to hear their opinion coming out of your mouth, you know. You know, it's kind of these little stereotypical jokes and things. The reason that they're funny is because of the fact that everybody can relate because men are a certain way and women are a certain way and they're not the same. There's gonna be a clash. There's gonna be friction but there are people who endeavor to keep unity in their home and they have a harmonious happy home and then there are other people, they don't have the humility. So it's like, nuts to her! Nuts to him! You know, well, okay, that's not gonna get you very far, is it? Or they don't have the patience. You know, one little thing isn't right. One little mistake and they blow their top. No, you better learn to overlook transgressions. If you want to have unity in your marriage, if you want to have unity in your family, you got to let things go and not fight every battle and jump on every error and mistake. It's too much. There will be continual fight in your home and nobody wants that or at least you shouldn't want that. If you want that, you're a sick individual. So number one, humility. Number two, patience. But number three, it's gonna take effort. You're gonna have to endeavor to keep the unity and guess what? It doesn't just take effort at home, it takes effort at church. You know, go to church with a desire to get along with other people. Go on a soul winning trip with a desire to get along with other people, with a desire to have unity and you will have unity. But if you don't care, if you don't try, if there's no effort put forth, well there's going to be a clash. That's just the way life is. But the next thing we see is that not only is it going to take humility, patience, and effort, but also in order to have unity you have to have something in common, don't you? How can I have unity with people with whom I have nothing in common? That's the whole point of unity is that you have something that unifies you, that brings you together. So look what the Bible says in verse three. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body, one spirit, even as you're called and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. This is what we have in common. So he starts out by saying in verse three, endeavor to keep the unity. What is that unity in the local church going to be based on? In the local church that unity is based on the fact that our church consists of one body. Now what does that mean, one body? Well it's explained further, you don't have to turn there, but in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13, and sometimes people will misapply this verse to try to teach a universal church, which again defies the very definition of what the word church even means, but it says in 1st Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, but let's finish the verse shall we, whether we be Jew or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. Here's what the Bible is saying. It's saying that all of us in the local church, red, yellow, black and white, have all been baptized into one body, okay. We don't have a separate church for white people and a separate church for black people like they've done in the South in the past, which is absurd and unbiblical and wicked, okay. The Bible teaches that we all are baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles, okay, and the Bible also teaches that God's house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. So it should not be nationality specific like the Chinese church over here, the white church over here, the black church over here. No, no, it should be a place where all nationalities, all ethnicities, we're all unified around Christ and we're all baptized into the same body. It's not a different church for different ethnicities, and this is why the the whole Messianic Judaism movement is so ridiculous, because what are they trying to do? They're trying to have a separate church for Jews, and the Bible says that no, we're baptized into the same body whether we be Jew or Gentile. So there should not be this Messianic Jew church down the street and that, I got a church for Messianic Jews, Baptist. Go to the Baptist Church, and by the way, they'll actually teach you the right doctrine unlike the screwed up teachings of the Messianic Jewish Church, but that's another sermon that shall be preached at another time. But even just the idea of having a separate church for converted Jews is completely unbiblical, because there should be one body of Christ, one church for both, because God's house is a house of prayer for all nations. He says whether we be bond or free, so there you shouldn't have a separate slave church, you know, if obviously we don't have slavery in the United States, but we did in the past, and other nations in this world still have slavery to this day. You shouldn't have a slave church over here and a free man church over here. No, everybody should go to the same church, amen? You know, it should be based on doctrine, not based on demographics. So no matter what color you are, no matter your financial standing, whether you're a citizen, hey, I don't care if you're here illegally, amen? You know, just, it's, do you believe in Christ? That's the unity that we have here, okay? So there's one body, that's what we have in common, we're all part of the same church, we're all part of the same body here. There's one spirit, okay? Well, you know, the same Holy Spirit that's dwelling in me is the same Holy Spirit that's living inside of you. Isn't that something important that we have in common? We've got the same spirit, and he says, even as you're called in one hope of your calling, you know, we have one hope, hope of heaven, the hope of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. One Lord, right? We've all got the same Lord. The same Lord I worship is the same Lord that you worship. One faith, right? We believe in Jesus. We believe that he died and was buried and rose again. One baptism, right? That means we don't say, well, you know, we baptize you according to what you believe. You can either be sprinkled, poured, or dunked. There's one, you know, there's one baptism. It's being dunked underwater after you're saved. That's the one baptism, buried with him by baptism. Jesus, when he was baptized, they went down, both of them, into the water, okay? Jesus came up out of the water, and that's a whole other sermon. But there's one baptism. Also, when we say one baptism, we want to understand that's baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Ghost, not a Jesus-only baptism. Now, I have no problem with being baptized in the name of Jesus, but I do have a problem with being baptized in the name of Jesus only, okay? Because the Bible teaches that we should be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son. What's the name of the Son? So, look, everybody I've ever baptized, I baptized in the name of Jesus, amen? I've never baptized anyone without baptizing them in the name of Jesus because I baptized them in the name of the Father, which is not Jesus, in the name of the Son, which is Jesus, and the name of the Holy Spirit, which is not Jesus. But Jesus is included there under the Son. So, one baptism, my friend, unifies us, which is baptism by immersion, not the sprinkling of a baby, but baptism by immersion after you're saved in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We cannot have unity with people who reject the Trinity. It's the wrong baptism. You know, this Jesus-only baptism, the Tyler Baker style baptism, is garbage. It's wicked, and it's a salvation issue when you're denying the Trinity, by the way. And so, we see here that there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who's above all and through all and in you all. We've all got the same God. We've all got the same Father, the same Lord, the same faith, which I think here specifically is referring to the faith in regard to salvation, you know, meaning that we're saved. We have that faith in Christ that saves us. We've got one church for everybody, so we're not, you know, broken down based on bond or free, Jew or Gentile, but we're all together. I mean, we could build some unity on that. I mean, there's a lot there, isn't there? You and I have a lot in common. You say, Pastor Anderson, you and I have nothing in common. You know, you're from California. You're one of these young, you know, guys. I'm old or you're an old guy and I'm young, you know, depending on which way you look at me, right, because I'm kind of in the middle. You know, you're much older. You're much younger. You're from California. You stupid American or, you know, whatever, you know, you think about my background where you feel like we don't have anything in common or we grew up differently, but let me tell you something. We have a lot in common because we've got the same salvation, the same baptism, the same God, the same Bible, the same Holy Spirit, same church, and that is a lot because those are the things that matter the most to me. Yeah, you know, I mean, think about it. When you're in high school, you kind of broke down along lines of what kind of music do you listen to or what is your hobby or your appearance or whatever, but you know what? Those things don't really matter to me anymore at this age. Now at this age, what matters to me is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. That's what matters to me right now, and so we have a lot in common. Even if your background's totally different, you're from a totally different part of the country, we could still have unity because there's a list here of the things that we have. That's the context of this passage, by the way. It's always great to use scriptures in context. He says, keep the unity, and then he explains where the unity is gonna come from. You know, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. This is a recipe for unity. So what's it gonna take to have unity? Well, it's gonna take humility, it's gonna take patience, it's gonna take effort, but it's gonna take having something in common. You can't ask me to have unity with people who have a different baptism, different salvation, different view on who God is, or a different God altogether, a different hope, go to another church. And look, obviously it's it's not to say that I have to have strife or friction with those people, but it's just the recipe for unity is that we're here in the church and we have some beliefs in common. Now we don't have to believe the same on everything, and my sermon tonight is gonna balance out this morning's sermon, because I'm preaching a sermon tonight that's gonna kind of give the other side of the coin of this, and I, you know, I'd encourage you to be there for that, but we see that we have to have something in common. You don't have to be clones of one another, but we need to have something in common that binds us together in unity, the essentials of the faith. Let's keep reading and see what else we're gonna need. It says in verse 8, Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, now that he ascended, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended, Jesus, is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith. So notice you have unity in verse number three, and then you have unity in verse 13. So what that tells me is we're still talking about unity. You know, if unity is introduced in verse three, and it's again in verse 13, those are like bookends showing us, hey, this is a unity thing. We're talking about unity. So one of the things that we need to have unity is we need leadership in order to have unity, because remember these leaders that are listed, he explains these leadership positions of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. What are those leaders going to do for us? They're going to perfect the Saints, they're going to be assisting with the work of the ministry, they're going to edify the body of Christ, but is the sentence over at the end of verse 12? No, it says till we all come in the unity. So the leadership should be trying to help us achieve unity. According to verses 11 and verse 13, these leaders exist to bring us to a place of unity, right? It's leadership that helps create unity in a group. Now, how is this going to work in other areas of life? Well, stop and think about it. How can we have unity in the family if we don't have a clear leader? If there's no clear leader in the family, if the husband is pulling the family in one direction, if the wife is pulling the family in the other direction, the kids are going off in their own direction, that's where unity falls apart because you've got everybody doing their own thing and nobody's in charge. There's no leader, nobody's setting the tone, okay? Somebody has to lead in order to have unity. And by the way, this isn't something where we decide who the better leader is, you know. Is the woman a better leader or is the husband a better leader? Let me explain something to you. Even if it's just the wife, we're theoretically a better leader, we're going to put the man in charge. You say, well, why? You know, just because he's a man? Yes! That's exactly right. Well, just because biologically he's male? Yes! Yes! Well, does that make sense? Yes! Folks, the Bible says the husband's the head of the wife. The Bible says the husband's the head of the wife. The Bible says that the wives be subject under their own husbands and everything. The Bible says, teach the younger woman to obey their husbands. Okay, that's what the Bible says. So we don't have to flip a coin to figure out who the leader, you know, you know, my wife, she's a strong leader and I'm a strong leader, let's flip a coin. Nope. If we flip a coin, it's going to be because I have some dummy coin that's heads on both sides or something and say, all right, yeah, heads on the leader, let's flip this thing. Because let me tell you something, God has already decided who the head is. It's the husband. In order to have unity in the home, you can't have the wife wanting to lead. If the wife wants to take charge and lead and take over, that's going to destroy unity in the home. In order to have unity, the wife needs to get behind the husband's leadership and follow his lead, get on his program. Okay, you say, well, I got a better program. Okay, but you know what? The best program is God's program. And you know what? I guarantee you that there are women out there who are much smarter than their husbands. I'm sure it's out there. I'm sure there are women out there that are better leaders than their husbands. You know, these alpha females out there and their husband's kind of a beta male or whatever. But you know what? I would never put the wife in charge. I'd rather put the gamma male in charge because that's what God said to do. We do it God's way. God's the boss. God's in charge. Well, we know better. And by the way, let me say this. I'll bet you there are a lot of women who think they're smarter than their husband and aren't. And there are probably a lot of women who think that they're a better leader and they aren't. But even if they were, they still need to follow their husband. I mean, think about it. What if I were an expert electrician, right? Expert electrician, been doing it for many, many years, and I get hired at a new company and it's my first day on the job and I'm sent as a helper. And the guy who's training me only has three, four years experience. And he's my boss now. Should I just be like, shut up and get out of the way. Let me show you how to do electrical work. I've been doing this for 20 years. No. If I'm smart, what am I going to do? I'm going to do what I'm told. I'm going to say, yes, sir. I'm going to obey. I'm going to get on his program. And I'm going to do the best I can under his guidance, under his tutelage. And it's going to be easy for me because I have so much experience, right? I'm going to do great. I'm going to be the best helper he's ever had. He's going to love it. But you know why he's going to love it? Because I'm not going to be a know-it-all. I'm not going to try to usurp his authority. I'm not going to try to make him feel stupid or show him that I'm better than him. I'm just going to show him, hey, I can be a great helper for you. And he's going to come back to the office and say, hey, be sure to send me. That guy is a helper again. He was super helpful. Everything I told him to do, he did it how I told him to do it. He got it done no problem. He was fast. He was effective. He did great. And that's how you're going to advance, my friend. Or you can be a prideful, arrogant, know-it-all who just shows up, eh, I'm not going to listen to some young pup. You know, I'm 40 years old. I'm not going to let some 25-year-old tell me how to do plumbing. Yes, you are. If you're smart, you will. I mean, think about it, my friend. When I started pastoring, I was 24 years old. I was 24 years old. So do you think I've had some church members older than me over the years? Most of my church members are older than me. Most of my church members throughout the history of my ministry have been older than me. I'm getting to the point now where I have a lot that are younger than me, but when I started out, man, everybody was older than me. You know, I've got 30, 40, 50, 60 year olds coming to the church, and I'm their pastor, and I'm 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. Should those people have come in and said, hey, let me tell you how to do your job. Let me run the church. Let me lead. And it's like, well, no, I'm the pastor. Does everybody understand? So being the leader is not about being the smartest or the best. It's just that you're the leader. Does everybody understand that? The leader's not always going to be the smartest or the best or the most effective, but it's the God-ordained leader. Okay, when you go to your job, the leader's the leader. You're not the leader. Unless you are the leader, then you're the leader. Okay? So in order to have unity, we must have leadership. And again, are leaders automatically better than their followers? Absolutely not. I don't believe that I'm better than you spiritually, but I'm in the position of leadership. You know, I'm biblically qualified. I have the experience. I'm doing my job. This is who the pastor of the church is. It doesn't mean that I'm better spiritually. You know, some of you might be in line ahead of me at the judgment seat of Christ getting more rewards than I do. And I'll be ready to cheer you on and congratulate you on getting more rewards than me, because maybe you're a better Christian than I am. Maybe you're more spiritual than I am. That's okay. We all have a different function. We all have different roles. It's not like, well, you know, whoever is the top dog becomes the pastor. I mean, what if I were not biblically qualified, but I'm the top dog? I mean, what if I'm on my third wife, but I'm the best soul winner? I know the most about the Bible. It's like, well, no. It's not gonna work, is it? Well, here's the thing. Maybe your manager at work isn't the best at the job, but he's the manager. Treat him like the manager. Keep unity by following leadership. You know, whether you think your husband is the greatest leader or the smartest guy in the world, hey, it doesn't matter. You married him. If you married a dummy, that's your problem. Figure it out. And don't think that in your heart. Get that thought out of your heart, okay? Quit calling him that. But, you know, when you get married as a wife, you know, you better realize that you're marrying your leader. That's the guy that you're gonna be following. So think about that before you get married. Who do you want to follow? What kind of person do you want leading? So it's not about being better. It's about being the leader. We need leadership in order to have unity. If you got three different leaders all going three different directions, you're not gonna have unity, right? I mean, what if my staff didn't follow my leadership and were kind of just on their own program and they have goals that are completely different than my goals and beliefs that are completely different? Would we have unity in the church? No. We'd have a, we'd have a Segura faction. We'd have a Corbin-Wrestle faction. We'd have a Raymond Cooper faction, right? We'd have different people following these different leaders. But here's the thing, my staff and I, we have the same vision. We want the same thing. We're going in the same direction and that's why the church has unity because the leadership has unity amongst themselves and then the church members are on board with the leadership. That's how you have a unified church, okay? You've got to have a leader. You're not just gonna magically have unity with no one in charge. Just 20 people get together and they're just magically unified. No, somebody has to step in and lead. You know, even, even a jury, you know, everybody's voice in a jury is equal. All of their votes are equal. Sometimes it's unanimous to convict, right? Sometimes everyone has to vote to convict or sometimes, you know, it's, it has to be 9 out of 12 to convict, whatever, depending on the law, depending on the place. But every juror's vote counts the same. But yet you still have what? Every time you have a jury, what do you have? You have a foreman. Somebody leads to help unify the jury, to help create that unity, to get that unanimous guilty verdict or that unanimous not guilty verdict. You need leadership. What else do we need? Let's keep going. It says in verse 14 that we henceforth be no more children. Tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ. So what are we gonna need to have unity? We're gonna need the truth. We've got to speak the truth in love, right? Till we all come, verse 13, to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Theoretically, if we all have the same Holy Spirit living inside of us and the Bible that's on the pulpit right now is the same as everybody else's Bible, my final authority is the same as your final authority, same Bible, same Holy Spirit, then the more knowledge we have the more unity we're gonna have. Am I right? Because what if what if none of us knew the Bible very well and none of us really knows the Bible that well and we all just kind of have our own ideas about things but we don't really know what the Bible says, you know, what are the chances that our opinions are gonna line up? You know, our opinions are gonna be a lot different on things but if we both have the Bible as our final authority and we both read the Bible a lot then we're gonna be gaining more and more truth, right? And as we gain more and more truth, right, we're getting closer together, we're getting more unified, we're gonna start believing more the same thing. I guarantee you that if I were to sit down with someone in this church who's been here for many years and read the Bible cover to cover many times and we let's say we were to take some kind of a quiz together asking us our opinion about, you know, social issues, political issues, religious issues, family issues, you know, we'd probably put a lot of the same answers, you know, because we've both studied the Bible, we're both bowing to this as our final authority, so we're probably gonna have the same views on abortion, we're gonna have the same views on queers, we're gonna have the same views on work and marriage and child ring. There are gonna be some differences but in general we're gonna believe. Now what if we took two people who have never read the Bible to cover to cover, they're brand new Christians, they don't really know a lot about Christianity, you know, theirs aren't gonna line up as well. Everybody see what I'm saying? So knowledge should bring unity in the local church, right? The more people are being taught doctrine. That's why if you go to a church where there's not a lot of doctrine being taught, where it's just a lot of kind of fluff from the pulpit and just kind of self-help stuff but not a lot of biblical doctrine, if you go to a church like that, here's what you'll find. Everybody in the church believes something different about salvation, everybody in the church believes something different about you name it. And I've gone to churches where you talk to 10 different people about whether you can lose your salvation, five of them will tell you you can lose it and five of them tell you you cannot lose it. I've been to a Baptist church like that. And you go to the pastor, oh you can't, well of course you can't lose it, the pastor says. But then in the pew you got five people who say you can lose it, five who say you can't. What do you think's going on there? You know, one thing that's going on is that nothing's being taught. Doctrine's not being taught, the gospel's not even being taught because that's a salvation issue right there. But other, what if I went to a church and the pastor's King James, he's preaching the King James Bible, but then I go around the pew and there's an ESV over here, there's a New King James over here, there's an NIV over here, what would that tell you about that church? Lack of unity, but what's, why? They're not being taught about why they're King James. Like the pastor's using the King James but he never explains why. Because if you were getting up and teaching and explaining why, then people wouldn't be having all different versions. And that's why my dad told me, he said, you know, that's what you should watch for when you visit a new church. He told me this when I was a kid. He said, you know, you got to watch out because even if the pastor's preaching a King James, look around at what the members are carrying. You know, my dad, when he would go to a church for the first time, he'd be looking at what Bibles people have. And if he sees a bunch of NIVs and New King James, you know, there's a problem. And, and, you know, one time he went to a church and, and, and he even told me a story like this. I don't remember the details, but something along the lines of he went to a church and he said, so are you guys King James only? Oh yeah. He said, what's this? You know, and it was actually a pew Bible. So this wasn't even a person had just brought this, but rather it was like in the back of every pew there's like a hymnal and a New King James. So my dad's like, well, what's this? Oh, well, you know, I've only been pastoring for a year and, you know, we've got to, it's like, well, wait a minute. You're an independent fundamental Baptist. You've been pastoring for a year. Shouldn't that be one of your first priorities to fix that? I mean, that should be a big priority to fix that. I mean, how, how hard is it just to buy new pew Bibles, right? What are you using the offerings for, if not that? I mean, that's the best thing you could be using the offerings for, right? Make sure you got the correct Bibles available. You know, we've got all the King James Bibles lined up on the back shelter. You say, I don't have a Bible. Grab one, take it home. Those are free. Give them to people that you know that don't have a Bible, okay? So the, the point is, you know, if, if I went to a church and the people don't know what they believe, don't know why they believe it, okay, that lack of knowledge is going to create a lack of unity because they're all going to believe different things. They're going to have different philosophies, different ideologies. You know, the more we know, the more the pastor's actually teaching us the Bible, he's helping us to come into unity because we're all learning why we believe what we believe and so forth. And also, here's another way that it can create unity is when the pastor gets up and feeds the people with knowledge. Number one, people that are ignorant are going to learn the knowledge and then get on board with the program are going to have unity. And then it's also going to weed out the people who don't want to get on board with the truth. I mean, if I get up and explain and preach why we're King James, the people that are not King James are going to leave. And you know what happens when people who are wrong on doctrine leave? Unity increases. That's right. That's an increase in unity. So, you know, oh, everybody who didn't believe in the Trinity left. Great. Now we have unity. See what I'm saying? We don't want to have people here that have dramatically different doctrine. And again, I'm not saying we're all clones. I'm talking about major key doctrines of the faith. You know, we all have different views here on lots of other issues. I guarantee I could list 20 issues right now where there'd be a diversity of views and that's okay because they're just little minor issues. They're secondary or tertiary things. But when it comes to, like, the virgin birth of Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ, salvation by faith, do you really want our church to have members who don't believe in those things? You want to have membership in this church that does not believe in the virgin birth? Absolutely not. Because that is not unity. Because unity means we have the truth. Unity. I don't want to unite at the expense of the truth. Like, well, let's just put aside these biblical truths and have unity. You know, let's bring in the tongue talkers and the non-tongue talkers, the Trinitarians and the Unitarians. Let's bring in the lose your salvation. You know, it's of unity. No, that's, we have the truth. Unity on the truth, not based on knowledge, based on knowing the Bible, based on the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth. That's where unity comes from. So that brings us to the last thing that we need. It says in verse 16, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every heart, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. The last thing you need is love. You need love in order to have unity. So, number one, you need humility. You got to be humble. Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Realize that sometimes other people's ideas are better. Your way is not always necessarily the best way. And even if your way is the best way, sometimes you do things for the sake of the team. And you go with what the team wants because you're a team player. Number two, patience. You know, not just blowing up at every mistake, but letting things go, realizing that nobody's perfect, yourself included. Number three, it's going to take effort on your part. Number four, you got to have something in common that unifies you. Number five, you need leadership. And again, you can apply all these to the family. You can apply them to your job. At work, you need a leader at work. I mean, what if just 20 electricians show up at the shop and there's no leader? That's not going to be a unified company. Okay. You got to have the truth, right? You know, when it comes to unity in the church, you know, you got to have the truth. You got to have the right doctrine. Obviously, that one doesn't necessarily apply at your job because obviously, you know, they're not really dealing in truth claims about scripture and the word of God and doctrine over there. It's more just like, you know, here install this device or whatever and you just do it. It's not necessarily a moral issue about how it's done unless, you know, obviously there is dishonesty and so forth. That's another sermon. And then love, you know, and by the way, I do think that this aspect of love, this isn't just the local church. I think that you should love the people that you work with as well and love your job and love your company. Amen. There's too many people who are bitter toward their employer. Get a different job. That's right. You need to love your employer. You should love the people that you work with and obviously they're going to be reprobates and stuff. Okay, but that's a small minority. I'm saying the people that you work with that are not reprobates, which is 90 some percent. You know, hey, love the people you work with even if they're not saved. Right? Love your boss. Love the company. You know, if you think that the grocery store you work at is the worst grocery store in the valley, you shouldn't be working there if that's how you feel unless you're there trying to make it better and fix it. But don't you, that's a bad attitude. You know, have you ever had people tell you that they would never use the company that they work for? You know, whenever I hear that, it makes me sick to hear somebody say like, oh man, I would never, I'd never shop here. Oh man, I'd never hire us to do it, you know. That's wicked. That's just bad. I mean, it's like, what in the world? You're, you know, you're working against your company by talking smack about your company. You know, if you don't believe in the company, then you need to work for someone that you can at least on some level love and believe in. And I'm not saying that you just, you know, tears come to your eyes when you think about, you know, working at Basha or something. You know, I'm not saying that you necessarily are going to love them the way you love Christ or the way you love your wife or the way you love your kids or something. That's not what I'm saying. But you know what? You should at least have a little bit of a spirit, a little bit of a company spirit that, that wants your company to win and succeed and do well because that's your company, you know. And if everybody's bitter and has a bad attitude toward the company, you're not going to have unity on the job unless there's a little bit of company spirit, a little bit of camaraderie. That's why companies will even sometimes spend money to put on a company party or a company picnic or a company trip. You know what they call that? A team building activity. And by the way, our church, sometimes we have activities that have nothing to do with missions or soul winning. Sometimes we just have an activity where we just get together and have a church picnic or we just get together and do some recreation or whatever. And you say, well, what a waste of time. We need to be doing something spiritual. But we're team building. We're building camaraderie. We're building relationships, team building, okay. In the home, in the family, we've got to have leadership, right? The, the, the husband needs to be the head of the home. If there's no husband, if it's a single mom, then yeah, she has to be the leader. She has to be the leader. But somebody's got to lead any kind of a home, okay, any kind of a family. You've got to have love in the family. You know, if I don't love my wife and my wife doesn't love me and I don't love my kids and my kids don't love me, you know what? Is there going to be a, a, a unified home there? Absolutely not. There's got to be love. Love, husbands love your wives, right? That the wives should love their husbands, should love their children. This is what the Bible teaches. There's got to be love in all areas of life in order to have unity. Now I'm out of time, so I'm just going to very quickly touch on some things that, that I have here that I don't have time to, to develop. A couple of final thoughts, okay. Unity with everyone is not taught in Scripture because we don't have something in common with everyone. And most importantly, what we saw over in Psalms, we're not even geographically or spatially with everyone. So how can I be unified with some guy in Timbuktu? It doesn't matter how much we have in common. There's not really unity there because different language, different culture, different geography, you know, there's just, those are separators, okay. Unity with everyone's not taught in Scripture. It's not even desirable to have unity with everyone because the Bible says have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. So he says don't have fellowship with these people. He tells us be not equally yoked together with unbelievers. So we don't want to be unified with people that aren't saved in a spiritual way. You know, we might work at their job or something, but we don't want to be yoked up with them spiritually. We don't want to marry an unbeliever, amen? But the Bible even teaches that we don't even want to be unified with everyone who's saved. Even everyone who's saved is not necessarily someone we want to unite with because the Bible says now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us. So the Bible tells in 2 Thessalonians 3 to separate from brothers if they're walking disorderly, if they're not following the Bible. So the Bible's not saying have unity with everyone on the planet. He's not saying be unified with every Baptist. Well, what if they're, you say, well, but they're saved. Well, what if they're walking disorderly? You know, we don't necessarily want to be unified with every single person on the planet. But we do want to be unified in our local church. We do want to be unified with our family. We do want to be unified at our place of business. You know, it'd be nice to be unified in our neighborhood. Now, obviously, in our neighborhood, you know, we're not all the same religion. It's not the same kind of unity in the church. Just like at our job, it's not the same kind of unity at the church. But you know what? There should still be some unity that says, hey, let's all kind of take pride in our neighborhood here and not trash it. Or hey, let's look out for one another and help each other out, not be a pain in each other's posteriors. Okay, unity is a blessing. We want to be unified with the people that are part of our lives. Not trying to be united with the whole planet, but I am trying to be united within my family, within my church, within my place of business, etc. Unity is a blessing. Jesus said this, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. Can our church succeed if we're divided against ourselves? No. Can a company succeed that's divided against itself? No. Can a family succeed that's a house divided? No. It's going to be brought to desolation. It can't stand. We need unity if we want to succeed in these areas of our life. And it's a fool's errand to try to have unity with the whole planet, but try to have unity in your own life, in your own sphere, in your own places where you are a part of some kind of a team or a group. Strive for unity. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, that our church does have such great unity and over the years our church has been very unified, Lord. I pray that you would please just help us to continue to endeavor for that spirit of unity. And, Lord, help everyone who's here to remember the importance of being humble and being patient and going with the flow. And, Lord, help us to continue to learn and grow and get more knowledge and have greater and greater unity in our church, Lord. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.