Winter Gathering 8 Saturday Evening session 2

Winter Gathering
February 18-20, 2011
Honored guest: Pastor Robert McLaughlin
Lighthouse Bible Church
Pastor John Farley


Saturday Evening:  Eph 4:6 – one Father


We’re all suckers for the happy ending.
 
 
 

We long for things to be made right. Whole.

We’re not the only ones.

Ever consider that MAYBE Somebody put that desire inside us?

Ecc 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart,

2Co 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

God’s very heartbeat is restoration.  Reconcile.  Unity.

1. Between God and man – “in all”
 
2. Between believer and believer – “through all”

Joh 14:20 “In that day you will know that I am in My Father [over all], and you in Me [through all], and I in you [in all].”

1Pe 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God,

God the Father is the ULTIMATE source of all unity.

Only God can provide unity in the royal family.

Joh 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

We are all the adopted sons and daughters of the same Father!

The Church is a gift from the Father to His Son, Joh 10:29; 17:2,6,9,11.

Doesn’t it change your view of the unity in the Royal Family when you see the Church as a gift that God is giving to His Son?  And He has asked you to protect it and take care of it for Him?

thre/w

to guard from loss or injury, properly, by keeping the eye upon to attend to carefully, take care of

The church is not called to produce the unity.
The church is called to keep it. 
To guard it.  
To maintain it.
 To protect it.
 
We are asked by God to take good care of what He has provided for us.

We are to give all we have, make a strenuous effort, in taking care of this precious gift of unity from our Father.

Joh 17:11 Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name  which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.

It’s the same Greek word –tereo.

So while we are asked to take good care of the unity of the Family from our earthly lookout,  God the Father is also guarding the unity from up above in heaven.

In Eph 4;3, tereo, take care of, guard, keep, is directed toward Church Age believers.
 
Here it is in the present active infinitive.

This points to the fact that it is a daily choice for us, whether or not to contribute to the unity of the Royal Family.

In Joh 17:11, Jesus is asking the Father to keep or protect the Royal Family in unity under His name,
His authority, His power. Here it is in the aorist active imperative.

This refers to the points of time when the Father decreed actions to be taken to establish
and preserve the unity of the Royal Family:

Pentecost – sending the Spirit
The completion of the canon of Scripture
7 ministries of the Holy Spirit at salvation
At the Rapture

The oneness is as indestructible as God Himself!

We have a choice: we can either make the most of this unity, or waste it on our lives here on earth after salvation.

The issue for us as Church Age believers is the extent of our participation in the unity (versus our neglect and disdain for it).

But God will accomplish all His good pleasure (Isa 46:10), and the highest expression of His grace and goodness is on display right now in the church.

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