YP Talk—Michael Hapanowicz
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All right, well, uh, good evening everyone and thank you for being here. Umm, I've been told that I have 20 minutes to speak and I will try and honor that time frame. I feel that I might have ended up with more content than will properly fit in 20 minutes. So we're not gonna start off with him and then maybe if we have time at the end, uh, we'll go through that. I just wanted to make a comment before we really start in earnest.
In considering what I was going to talk to you today, there were a number of passages that came to mind as I started going through the subject.
Uh, that I have been requested to speak about and it became pretty clear that could do one of two things. I could either stick to a specific single passage and expository more fully, or I could go through a whirlwind tour of a number of passages and then just as we go through those different passages, maybe point out little things.
Draw your attention to to certain items.
So that you at a future time could go back and reflect and meditate on those different versus more fully. And it's that latter approach that I've decided to take. Uh, recognizing realistically, probably no more than 10 to 20% of the people in this room will walk out of the store and ever follow up on the notes they've written to meditate on those verses specifically from this talk more fully. So my challenge to you tonight is will you be among the.
10 to 20% who will consider this topic in these verses more fully following this meeting, and maybe there'll be some opportunities at this camp for that to happen. Let's open in prayer. God and Father, we just thank you for this opportunity to be here. We come before you to express our dependence. We seek your faith and just pray for your guidance in what is said, Lord, that it might touch our hearts, uh, that it would affect our feet, that it would work out on our actions so that you would be honored and glorified.
We ask this in Jesus name.
Amen. I wanna take you back a few years ago. This would be about five years ago to the soft my sophomore year in college and it's finals week. I'm standing outside of my sociology classroom to take the final exam of the semester. 30 minutes away from taking that final exam in an hour and a half away from walking out of that room and leaving behind on the desk of pile of papers.
In my assessment isn't worth anything more.
Than the wood pulp and ink that it's written on this to give you a sense of my thought on the subject of sociology. Umm, it was I had a little bit a little bit of a feeling about how could God possibly bring anything good out of this class. You know what, not 5 feet away from me was a young, tall dark.
Nerdy looking anti Umm. What was the contrarian? No, it's class contrarian. That's the word I was looking for.
And, you know, he had disagreed with the professor throughout the course, not because he really had a different opinion from the liberal ideology, mostly just because he likes to argue. And I don't know how the conversation got started. I'm not exactly sure why the conversation got started. I think I had a Bible that I was reading, which was the case. It's pretty rare for me to have done that publicly in college. But we ended up with a discussion. It really was honestly, discussion was not a debate. We had a discussion about the word of God. He.
Whether it was true, whether it could be trusted or whether it had been corrupted. And of course, I was supporting, uh, that the scripture was in fact the word of God that had been accurately delivered to us, uh, and that we could trust and rely on it. And for a 25 minutes or so, we went back and forth and, umm, I did feel that, you know, I don't think I was changing his mind because that the responses I was able to give, uh, both in internal evidence and external evidence.
Was a solid support.
For the reliability of scripture. But with about 5 minutes to go until the exam, he brought up a challenge to me and it was something along these lines. He said if the Bible is really the word of God, how come Christians have such divergent opinions on what it means, especially since you believe that you have the Holy Spirit teach you what it means and if God is really at work in.
How come there are so many opposing denominations? And, you know, I had to think about that. I gave a response. There's always a response to give, but I felt like the response was fairly hollow. It didn't ring true because it was a very fair critique. It was a fair challenge. Turn with me to John chapter 17. Some of you will. I think all the young people here will recognize this verse, as you might have struggled through writing it earlier. We're gonna start with John 17 and verse 19.
00:05:07
And for their sake I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one without Father, Art, and me, and I and me, that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them.
But they may be one, even as we are one, I and them, and Thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. I just want to reiterate the question that he had.
If the Bible is the word of God, how come Christians have so many different and such divergent opinions about it? If God is really at work in this world, why are there so many opposing?
Denominations. Read verse 21 again.
But they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that thou has sent me. Verse 23 that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. The theme for our camp here this year is unity in the Church. And I would suggest for you from the verses that we have here, there's a brother here in our assembly. He has an expression. He'll ask.
Is this important? Of course, you know, in the context of when he's asking the question, everyone will respond, of course it's important and he'll go, no, it's very important. And this subject to the question of unity is very important for us as believers because it's tied to not only our testimony in the world, more specifically, it's tied to the testimony of Christ. Here it says as the world may believe that thou hast sent me. If you go through the Gospels, you'll find repeatedly.
Jesus does miracles, uh, and his teachings are the demonstrations of his deity that he has truly been sent from God, that he is the son of God. But what he says here in this verse for us is that it's the unity, the oneness that is to be in the body of the church that he leaves behind. That is the testimony to the world that Jesus Christ.
Was sent from God. It was that oneness that was an an enduring presence in the world.
That testified to Jesus Christ was. And so you and I, we Live Today in a time in the history of the church where the public testimony is splintered and we all have to admit, we all have to own that we are part of that failed testimony. And so the question that you and I have to ask is where do we go from here? Are we going to be contributors?
To unity in the church? Or are we going to be contributors to that divided testimony ultimately?
This comes down to the glory of Jesus Christ. Let's turn to so, uh, what we have here in John chapter 17 is what I would call the call to unity. Let's turn to 1St Corinthians chapter one.
And you know, we're gonna go through a number of different passages again. Uh, we'll have to move through them pretty quickly. But just one of the things you might wanna pay attention for as we read through these packages is notice how many times, whether it's Paul or we'll mostly be looking at, but other writers as well, how often they mention having the same mind or being of one mind. So let's read here in first Corinthians chapter one, verse 10, it says, now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the House of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you say it. I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I have Christ.
As Christ divided, was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius. Plus they should say that I had baptized in my own name. Uh, as I'm sure you're well aware of, there are a number of problems that were going on in the assembly at Corinth, but this was one of them. And it was really the first problem in this is epistle that Paul addresses. And that's the problem that there was divisions among them.
00:10:09
There's umm, a couple of things I'll point out to you. Notice in the end of verse 10 it says that they be of the same.
Judgment.
We're gonna look at some other passages later where the divisions in the assembly are caused from interpersonal conflict in Corinth. It seems from some of the things that are mentioned here that has more to do with perhaps decisions that were being made in the assembly. It says here that they would be at the same judgment. And I know that, umm, for most of you at this age, or maybe even, umm, if you're women, you might feel like you're never really gonna be involved in a brothers meeting where there are decisions being made.
Get an assembly level on what course is gonna be taken. But let me tell you, it can be a big problem when there is division over different ideas of how decisions ought to be made, what decisions need to be made in the assembly. That seems to be the problem here at Corinth. But there's something else here we see, and we noticed it from verses 12 Through UH-15, is that there was a partisanship.
That was developed in Corinth. People were dividing along different factions and they were identifying based on certain persons.
For certain personalities, and it's not too hard to see examples of that today. Umm, a lot of denominations are named after certain individuals, whether it's, uh, Luther or Wesley, umm, identification belongs perhaps different aspects of their teaching here. It has to do with baptism. Who, it seems like who baptized you was an important question for those in Corinth. They were breaking into different groups along who had baptized and it was.
A great problem.
That they were in these different divisions and ultimately what it comes back to is it comes back to Chrysler always comes back to Christ, doesn't it? Because in verse 13 it says is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
You see the problem with partisanship even more than you know, different than sectarianism, partisanship, identifying with certain leaders or certain teachers or certain schools of thought around an individual, is that ultimately.
It undermines the foundation of Christianity as being based on Jesus Christ alone and his work alone. You know, umm, there's another part in the, uh, Bible where it talks about those who forsake Paul. And it's often, uh, we bring up the connection of those who would, uh, maybe not hold to Paul's ministry. And that's a very terrible thing. And it's a very sad thing that that happened. But there is another problem here.
And Paul brings out is those that we're identifying with this ministry in a way that was partisan, even though here it seems where it says and, uh, end of verse 12 and eye of Christ.
There were people who were identifying with Christ. That's a tremendous thing, isn't it? But it seemed that they were doing so in a way that was intended to exclude others. And so Paul says, is Christ divided or is Paul crucified for you? There's no possible, there's no teacher who can replace Christ. And in our identification with Christ, we must not exclude other believers who truly are bought and purchased by his blood. So there is partisanship in Corinth, So.
What I would have here is we had in John we had to call the unity.
In First Corinthians one we have the condemnation of division, and so now we're gonna look at a number of passages As for the cause of dissension, one of them was already mentioned earlier today or yesterday by Mr. Hadley. And so that's actually the First Corinthians chapter 3, verse one. It says, And I, brethren, cannot speak unto you as unto spiritual, but is unto carnal, even as debates in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able.
To ferret neither yet now are you able, For ye are yet carnal, whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, or my margin has factions. Are you not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who's in as Paul, And who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believe? Even as the Lord gave to every man, I have planted in Apollo's water that God gave the increase. Here again we see in this chapter.
Partisanship here, it's maybe not based on baptism. Maybe it's based on, umm, different evangelists. Here we have Paul and Apollos and it brings out one, watered one, gave the increase. Maybe there were certain ones who were identifying more with the work of evangelism, others perhaps identifying with more the work of, umm, mentoring those who are young Christians. Either way, God or Paul says here, who's a Paulus and who's Paul? There's no one. God is the one who does the work. God is the one who gives.
00:15:03
That's actually not, though, the point of why we're here in First Corinthians 3. It has to do with carnality. It was mentioned that wherever you see division, it's because of carnality. And I don't know if that expression makes sense to anyone. Umm, maybe we're more familiar with the biblical term of the flesh. These Christians here in Corinth, they were walking in the flesh. They were fulfilling their own natural desires.
Umm, they were not walking in the spirit.
The Spirit would not have led to these things. And so Paul says it's a hen, it's a hindrance. I can't teach you the things I want to teach you because if you're just taking up with the flesh and you're not taking up with the Spirit. And one of the evidences that that is the case is because of this partisanship, these factions that you've broken into. We see another example of this in James.
So let's just turn there.
He uses a slightly different word and I'm sure there's distinctions of thought, umm, between the two, but it's a similar idea. And maybe in your meditations you can parse out a little bit of the difference. But here in James chapter 4 and verse one, it says from whence comes wars and fighting among you. Can they not Hence, even if you're lust that war in your members.
A lust and have not he killed and desired to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war ye have not because he asked not. He asked and received not.
Because the ask amidst that you may consume it upon your lust here in James, the problem that was causing infighting amongst the, uh, specific assembly here addressed that perhaps among the Christians that are being talked to is what umm, like I said, that seems to be similar to what was brought out in, uh, first Corinthians about carnality. Umm, But no doubt there are distinctions here and they were.
Even praying that their lust would be fulfilled.
It's a, umm, not too long ago we went through this passage in our Sunday school and it's a very sad thing. It's a very serious thing that we would go to God in prayer requesting that our lusts and not his desires be both fulfilled in this world and in this assembly. So that's at a very broad level of high picture of what causes divisions and that's carnality or our flesh and the trying to fulfill the lust of that flesh. I wanna look.
Specific example of this playing out and that's in Philippians chapter 4.
And in Philippians 4.
It says here verse two, I beseech the odious and I beseech Cynthia, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also true yoke, fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life.
Actually, not too long ago I was driving in the car and I happened to be listening on the radio. Someone brought up the verse here and they made a very interesting observation about this word.
Fellow laborers or uh, it's actually, umm, yoke fellow I think is the word I did look up in the strong's, I don't remember. I think it's yoke fellow in verse three. And what they said about that word is in the Roman times in the Colosseum, one of the ways that they would entertain themselves is they would take two prisoners, 2 gladiators, and they would put them out in the arena and they would chain 1 foot of the gladiator to the other foot of the.
Gladiator and then they would give them weapons and they would release animals into the arena. Things like lions or umm, just stick with lions. The two gladiators, their job was not to fight each other. Their job was to work together to fight off and kill the wild beast. Thousand the arena. That's the word. Their yoke fellow. If I treat the also true yoke fellow with those women which labored with me in the gospel, it might be the word fellow. Laborers. I'm sorry.
I don't have that down on have to look it up. Maybe if you have a strong concordance in your own time, you can look up which of those two words it is but one of those words, whether it's your fellow or fellow laborer. It's that idea of being changed to someone as a gladiator to fight off a wild beast. And I just if we go back to verse two, it says I had beseech Yodius and I beseech syndicate that they'd be of the same mind in the Lord. Now we don't know exactly what was the situation between. Apparently this is two women.
It doesn't exactly say, it just says that they be of the same mind. But I want you to consider.
If you were living in the times of the early church and Paul wrote an epistle to your assembly and you've gone through and you've read 3 chapters and now you get to the 4th chapter and all of a sudden your name is being called out. So I'm gonna use my name and Joshua's name. I'm gonna say you're reading through this. Might you know. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown, so stand fast and the Lord, my dearly beloved, I beseech Michael and I beseech Joshua that they be of the same mind in the Lord.
00:20:15
You wouldn't really want to hear that being read in your assembly, would you? Because you just got called out. You got called on the carpet. There was something that was serious that was going on between these two women. So we don't know exactly what it was, but it says via the same mind. And I want to suggest for you this idea. You know, earlier Ted Allen was speaking about spiritual warfare. We had in Ephesians putting on the armor of God and that we fight against principalities and powers in the role of this world. There's that.
That tells us that there is a roaring lion seeking those whom he may, he may devour. And I want you to consider for just a moment in that arena, those two gladiators who are chained together. What are their chances to fight off the lion that is prowling in that arena if they start fighting each other?
If one gladiator starts picking the chain, maybe using their sword to stab the other gladiator, how long are they going to survive against that animal? Not very long at all, are they? IF?
We as fellow Christians are infighting among ourselves. It greatly weakens our ability to fend off tax on the face from the enemy and that in one sense is ultimately what we saw in John 17, wasn't it And so he says, I see yo Jodi of the same mind in the Lord. There's a answer to what was going on here. I believe with these two women and it's in Philippians chapter 2. It says fulfill ye my joy that you be like minded having the same love being of.
Accord of one mind, but nothing be done through stripe or Vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, like each esteem other better than themselves. What's not every man on his own things, that every man also on the things of others. By this mind being you, which was also in Christ Jesus to being in the form of God, fought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.
And was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a Manny, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death. Even suggests of the cross.
Putting others first.
It talks here about having a lowly mind. Ultimately, what's being described here is humility. I just wanted to think for a second about the kind of pettiness that we can have as Christians in the assembly, and I'm gonna go through an example. I'll use Yodius and Syndicate's names. So you don't think that this is referring to any real person because this situation is hypothetical. But let's say Yodius. She goes down to the women's restroom in her assembly, and she noticed that the soap.
Is almost gone and so as is our custom and years of tradition support, it's her job to focus to replace the soap. So she goes to the store and she gets as is her usual custom, the avocado and mango moisturizing soap from Dove. And she comes back and she noticed as she's going to the sink there that someone.
Has replaced the soap already, and the kind of soap they've replaced it with is Cypress and Wormwood scented soap.
And so she's decided, you know, I'm not gonna make a big deal about this. Whatever. So she puts her avocado and mango moisturizing hand lotion under the sink when she uses the Cypress and Wormwood soap. But she finds that the particular lotion happens to strip her hand of the essential oils and makes them crackle. And so she eventually searches out and finds the person who replaces the soap. And she says, you know, I really appreciate it if you would just let me, you know, use this avocado and mango moisturizing soap because I think.
It's really gonna be so much better for all of us. I know it'll be better for my hands. And this other sister says, well, you know, I really don't think it's appropriate for us to use that because avocados and mangoes are not mentioned in Scripture, but Cypress and warmwood are. So you should get that stuff out of here. And so she goes back to her husband. And her husband is like, you know, honey deer, like this is not, this is not a real big issue. We've got moisturizer here at home. Just just let her have her soap. And she says something along the lines of.
Don't call me honey.
This is not fair. This soap isn't right. I it's robbing people of essential oils. And you know, why do I always have to give it to her? Why do I always have to be the one to take the High Road? And you're my husband. Why are you standing up for her? You should be fighting for me. I don't know if this rings true.
For anyone, maybe that's a bizarre example, so let me use a different one.
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This one's maybe a little more personal. I didn't give out a song today in the breaking of bread, so you know, I won't be referring to this day, so I will give that disclaimer. But say you're in the breaking of bread and you give out a song. Umm, it's a nice song. You, you really like this song. It's a common song. We sing it all the time in our assembly. And so of course you don't start tunes. It's not really your Forte. And so someone else starts the tunes.
And there are only a few words into the song when you suddenly realize for some bizarre reason, they have chosen to use an obscure tune that you are not familiar with and you Can't Sing. And so you were really looking forward to enjoying the law, and now you can't even sing it because they've decided to implement diversity and.
You know the remembrance of the Lord here. You are to remember the Lord.
In his depth and you're cranky because you can't belt out your favorite too. You know those problems seem tiny, but they can cause difficulties. They can cause tension in an assembly. And you know when those things are allowed to boil and when we deal with them in passive aggressive ways or aggressive ways, it makes it significantly harder when there are true.
Problems over.
Doctrine or over decisions in assembly to work through those when we have pent up frustration over.
Tunes or Cypress and Wormwood. So, umm, but in those examples, you know, it is it's about carnality, it's about the flesh. And so with the example that Paul calls us to here in Philippians is esteem others better than ourselves. And it sounds easy when you're reading it in Philippians, it sounds hard.
When from the 20th time you have to take the High Road and you have to always be the one who gives in to that other person because you wanna do what's right and you're not gonna make an issue over something that's a little an over penny pen petty to maintain unity in your local assembly. But however hard it is for you and issues big or small, it is certainly not more difficult than it was for the Lord Jesus who didn't think that equality with God was something that he.
Should hold on to, but he made himself a servant, and he became obedient in his obedience to the Father, even to the point of being willing.
To die in whatever little issue it is that you have with your fellow Christian, it's not gonna cause you to have to go through something that's difficult. That's what the Lord Jesus went through. We're gonna, umm, go to one last passage. I'm sorry, I know I've already gone over my time. This is an Ephesians. We'll just go through this quickly in Ephesians chapter 4.
It says, Umm, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord Jesus or of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation we're with. You are called with all loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit. Give us your calls and one hope of your calling. 1 Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
There's just a couple of things I wanna point out for our observation here in this passage. You'll notice in verse two it speaks of loneliness, meekness, long-suffering, and forbearing one another in love. What all those words have in common is there on the topic of humility is what we call in Philippians chapter 2, isn't it? I'm just gonna make this observation. It might sound kind of cutesy, but the word humility and the word unity, in both of those words, the letter U comes before the letter I.
And the word I, the letter I, comes first.
And there's nothing else. So let's have humility putting others first, that there can be unity. There's one other thing, or maybe two things I wanna point out. One is most of the time in Scripture, when the word one is used, it's intended to be exclusive. For instance, think of the verse. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
That statement is the exclusivity.
That there are not multiple gods, there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There aren't other mediators, but I want you to notice something about this passage here. When it uses the word one, I suggest to use that it's not using it to emphasize exclusivity, is using it to emphasize inclusivity. Notice how it ended with the verse that we read.
00:30:08
Who is the father of all, Who is above all and through all?
And any wall there is one phase with emphasizing.
Year is the common ground of the believer. So that's what the different passages we've looked at. We've called the call to unity in John 17, We've had the condemnation of division in First Corinthians one. We've had the causes of division in First Corinthians 3 and in James chapter 4. And here we have the common ground of the believer. 1 Lord 1 faith, one baptism, one God, one body, one Spirit I.
Dozen orders I order. I apologize. I just wanna leave it with one practical example of how that works out. This, what I'm referring to is inclusivity. I, I didn't ask him for permission before, but I hopefully my father doesn't mind me sharing this story. He was, umm, raised in a Catholic family and so when he was born at a very young age, he had what is called, umm, infant baptism.
Which in the Catholic Church is potentially you get sprinkled with water from the priests and there are certain theological implications they believe that.
Umm, a young child has been baptized, If they die they can go to heaven, but if the child hasn't been baptized, they don't go to heaven. I'm not sure if I got that exactly right. My dad could maybe set you straight afterwards.
Later, Umm when he got saved, UMM came to a saving face in the Lord Jesus and desired to be Umm, to be gathered in the Lord's name, to break bread and remember him and his death. He brought up the question of baptism.
Do I need to be baptized again?
With the baptism, that's not infant baptism, maybe more of what we would call believers baptism. And there was uh, a brother in the assembly at that time. Umm, I don't know if the name would mean anything to most people here. His name was Don Rule, but.
Umm, he was.
Thanks. Yeah, Donald, Donald rule anyhow. Umm, not umm, And uh, he said he, he turned in his verse and he said there's one baptism and you don't need to get baptized again to be able to break bread. You know, for many Christians, this is a cause of division. Is it infant baptism is a believer's baptism is a household baptism? Was there immersion? Was it just sprinkling?
And what here it says is there is one baptism.
We have created it into a causal division. But here in this passage, baptism is meant to be something that's unifying for the body of Christ. There is, you know, one faith, one baptism. Umm, I just want to leave you with a few practical applications because I know it's easy to go through a meeting like this and just say, yeah, I agree with that. Unity is important, but what are we going to do about it?
One of them is, I believe that we should pray for the whole church.
There's a brother in our assembly who often in the prayer meeting, he'll say just that and pray for the whole church. And there's one sense that's a little sad that he has to specify when he prays for the church that he's praying for the whole church. But it's good for us to do that. It's good for us to pray specifically for persecuted believers in other lands who are going through great difficulties. And I think it's also good for us to pray for the needs of believers of fellow Christians, umm, that we know of. And I think a practical example of how this works out is just what happened at this conference.
Todd Davis and Kim Davis were mentioned for prayer in the Reading meeting. They are Christians. She has cancer. And it didn't matter to us whether she was gonna be there on Sunday breaking bread or not. All that mattered was she was a Christian in need. That's one way that we can be contributors to unity. Oh, I mentioned, mentioned. I'm sorry. I know I'm taking too much time, but they're in.
Umm, where it says endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Verse three, I wanted to point out that it says keep the unity of the spirit. It doesn't say create unity. It doesn't even say foster unity. It says keep the word is literally guard. And the reason that is is because if you were to go to the second chapter.
And I'll let you read through that on your own. You will find that the unity.
The crisis created for every believer. There is no higher level to which we can bring that unity to which Christ has already established. And so our job is not to create unity in the church. Our job isn't even to foster unity in the church. Our job is to guard the unity in the church that Christ has already established. So one of the ways we can do that is pray for, umm, every believer. I give you a reference for that First Timothy.
00:35:14
One the other is to work hand in hand with other believers, specifically in the work of the gospel. Certainly, if there is any area in which we can have common ground for common endeavors, it's in the gospel. I'll give you First Corinthians 3, verse 9. The other is to love every believer and to love them because of who they are to God.
Uh, we don't have time to go into that more fully, but I give to you Colossians 2, verse 2.
And first, John 5 verse one, he's our practical ways, and there are sure many other ways. I'd like to hear from you ideas of how you think that we can in a practical way, guard unity in the body of Christ, both in its universal sense of the church and in its local context in our specific assemblies. Let's just pray.
God and Father, we thank you for the work that you there accomplished on the cross that as I said in Ephesians.
UH-2 you have made both one, we thank you for that foundation that you have established for unity that cannot be risen above. We just pray that Lord would each of us individually contribute to unity and not contribute to division for your glory in Jesus name, Amen.