You cannot operate in disunity and be blessed. You can't operate in disunity and expect to hear from heaven. Dr. Tony Evans discusses the importance of unity in ministry. Why must there be a spirit of unity?
Because that's where the blessing of God rests. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. God doesn't want believers to all be the same, but he does want us to be one. In today's message, Dr. Evans took a look at God's definition of unity and the importance of finding harmony in spite of our human differences.
Let's listen in. What is unity? The word is used regularly and it is what people long for and hope for and call for.
What is it? In its most simplest form, unity is oneness of purpose. Unity is not uniformity or sameness.
That's not unity. But what it is is uniqueness going toward a common goal. That is, to fulfill a common vision.
It is oneness of purpose. A unified family doesn't mean everybody's the same. The children have different personalities. The mates have different personalities. They're different genders.
They look different. In a family, people aren't the same, but what unifies a family is that they are all headed in the same direction toward the fulfillment of a common purpose, vision, and goal. In sports, unity is not that every player on the field or in the stadium is playing the same position.
They aren't. They are unique in their talents, their skills, their identity, their responsibilities. They all are unique, but the goal line to which they are headed is the same, because unity has to do with the commonality of the goal. It is that sense of oneness of purpose. Be diligent, he says in verse 3, to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He says, be diligent. The word diligent speaks of making a deep commitment to this goal. In other words, don't be casual about this.
Don't be cavalier about this. He says, this is a big deal, but he says, be diligent. And please notice his word. He doesn't say, be diligent to create unity. He says, be diligent to preserve it.
That's different. A lot of people spend time trying to make things unified. They're trying to create unity. When it comes to God's program, he's not inviting us to create anything. He's inviting us to preserve what he's already created. He says, no, I want you to preserve the unity of the Spirit.
So he's talking about a spirit here. Of course, it's based on the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is interested in, among God's people, to create an atmosphere, a climate control, an environment, if you will, of unity where the thing that ties it together, he says, is the Spirit. Preserve the unity of the Spirit. Now, the implication here is staggering, because what this means is, if you are not spiritual, and if you have no orientation to the Spirit, you're gonna have a problem preserving unity, because your point of reference won't be the Spirit of God, and the only other point of reference that you and I have, if it's not the Spirit of God, the Bible calls the flesh. The flesh is your human understanding, your human approach, and man's way.
The Spirit is God's point of view, God's perspective, and his way. The conflicts that exist within us and between us is really a battle of flesh versus spirit. Many times we think problems that create chaos has to do with simply a person's personality, or a person's background, or a person's history, and yes, that can reveal itself, but ultimately, the inability to function on the biblical definition of unity has to do with the absence of the Spirit of God in a situation, because the Spirit of God has the power to override the human differences. So if it's Christians involved, and there's chaos involved, God has been left out of the equation. It is the job of the Spirit of God to override the human divisions when he is allowed to do so. The reason why he says be diligent to preserve it is because it is possible not to be preserved.
It is possible to be lost. The illustration I love to use here is the illustration of mayonnaise. I am NOT a mustard person when it comes to sandwiches. I am a mayonnaise person. Now, one of the problems with mayonnaise is the problem of getting the oil in mayonnaise and the water in mayonnaise to come together, because oil and water doesn't mix. So what the makers of mayonnaise did in order to create what they needed for this spread that so many of us enjoy on our sandwiches is to introduce an emulsifier. An emulsifier is an ingredient that you add to ingredients that don't coagulate on their own in order to enable them to hang out together when that's not their normal profile to do so. So a necessary ingredient in mayonnaise is eggs.
But it's not just for the taste. Eggs serve as an emulsifier in mayonnaise. And when the egg gets mixed in with the water and the oil, the water and the oil will now hang out with one another, not because water and oil like each other, but because both of them can agree on egg.
And their ability to agree on egg forces them to hang out with one, I'm trying to go somewhere here, it forces them to hang out with one another. Something greater than the individual parts force the individual parts to come together, but they not only come together, they come together to create something better than any one of them could ever be by themselves. He says, preserve the unity of the Spirit. Guess what the Holy Spirit is?
He is the emulsifier of the people of God. If you are living in a war zone, if you are operating in perpetual conflict even with yourself, if you don't like you, or with others, it is because some part of that situation has refused the emulsification work of the Holy Spirit because he says it is the Spirit's unity. That means no spirit, no unity, except the part-time unity you create for a minute.
What the enemy wants you to do is to think it's these underlining problems, but these underlining problems are simply issues that are there that when left unaddressed by the Spirit, creates the conflict. Preserve the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit always reflects God's way of thinking on a matter. Let me say that again, because I know for many of us that's an amorphous concept.
Let me bring it down to ground level. To do something by the Spirit is to bring God's view on a matter to bear on that situation. As long as there is the refusal, which there regularly is, to bring into the discussion and to operate by God's view on a matter without mixture. See, what we will do is we will bring the part of God's view we like on the matter, the part of God's view we prefer on the matter. But that's asking Spirit and flesh to mix together, and the two don't don't get along. The Bible says in Galatians 5, they're at war with one another. Whenever you bring God's way and man's way and try to work both ways, they will not work. The Bible says they will cancel out each other because they don't get along, and will never get along. Dr. Evans had more to say about the important difference between unity and sameness, and we'll hear about that when we continue in a moment.
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Do not be caught off guard. There are plenty of problems and issues in the world that individually we can't change, but there are also many situations that we do have the power to alter. Selfishness, pride, hostility, these issues may dominate the headlines, but God has given each of us the ability to counteract the negativity by choosing honor over hate. In Dr. Evans' newest book, Kingdom Kindness, he helps us recognize everyday opportunities to spread God's love and discover the courage to step out and practice kindness. This book is part of a special package of resources we put together for our listeners that will help you become a visible and verbal presence for God in a world that needs to feel the positive influence of men and women of faith. Along with Kingdom Kindness, we bundled all nine full-length messages from our current audio series, Returning to God in Unity, as well as Tony's popular devotional book, Stronger Together Weaker Apart. These three powerful resources are our gift to anyone who will make a contribution to help support this radio program and Bible teaching outreach at this time. Be sure to contact us right away to request this special limited time package. You can do that online at tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. I'll have that contact information for you again after the second part of today's lesson.
Here's Tony. God is calling you and I to create an atmosphere of unity, oneness of purpose, common direction, common vision, different people, different personalities, different histories, different backgrounds. This week, simply read Ephesians chapter 2. You read Ephesians chapter 2, he talks about the coming together into one of two groups who would never even look at each other, Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles didn't like the Jews.
Jews didn't like the Gentiles and now Paul writes them now that they're all Christians and he says that he has brought both into one body and created something that the culture would never accept, except it be a supernatural work of God. Preserve the unity. He says now for this to happen, it starts with your internal character. He says in the first three verses, first three verses, walk worthy, all humility, gentleness, patience, showing tolerance from one another in love. We've already talked about love as responsibly and righteously seeking the well-being of another.
In other words, it starts with the character of the person. Unspiritual people will never produce unity because it's the unity of the Spirit. So that's why you've got to become the kind of Christian that the Spirit can work through so that you can be a, what does the Bible call him, peacemaker.
Blessed are the peacemakers. He says to do that, there must be humility and gentleness. That is humility, by the way, it walk around with your head down talking about I'm nobody. Humility is your willingness to submit to Jesus Christ.
Okay? I'm willing to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ over my life in spite of what I think, feel, or want, or how I was raised. The Jesus Christ is Lord, so for me to put him up there, I got to come down here. Or as John the Baptist said, I must decrease, he must increase.
I'm gonna come underneath of him. And once you do that, you have now entered the realm of humility, which positions you to become gentle. Peace doesn't mean let's forget what happened, or let's forget what you did to me, or let's forget what I did to you.
No. Peace is identifying the sin addressing the sin, then building the bridge. If you're not willing to acknowledge it, then we can't correct it. But once there has been acknowledgement, it's addressed, and it's forgiven, now we can construct the bridge to reconnect that which split us up, where things that were in conflict are now operating together.
Notice what he says in Ephesians 4. One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Not two. Most marriages fail for a very simple reason. It's really not that deep.
It's deep, but it's not that deep. Most marriages fail because the two want to stay two. The two want to stay two. When God created, he says, and the two shall become one flesh. Once you insist on something opposite to what God is doing, then the Spirit will not produce the unity. I don't care how much you pray for it, but what God will not stop is your insistence on disunity. That's one of the reasons he's told every Christian to become part of a body, one body, a local church. Why?
So that you have opportunity to practice. One. One. Look at Psalm 133 as we wind down. Three verses. It's only three verses in Psalm 133. Three verses.
Let me read it and then comment. Behold, Psalm 133 verse 1 says, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard coming down upon the edge of his robe. It is like the dew of Herman coming down upon the mountain of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing life forever. He says, it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell together in unity.
It is like the dew that came down upon the head of Aaron, going down Aaron's beard, down Aaron's robe, down Aaron's feet, and all over Zion. And there the blessing of the Lord rested. Why must there be a spirit of unity? Not sameness, not uniformity, but why must there be a spirit of unity?
Here it is. Because that's where the blessing of God rests. That's what the end of verse 3 says. It comes down from heaven and it flows from the head to the body, from the leaders to the family of God in Zion, and the blessing of God rests there.
Or let me put it another way. Where there is disunity, there is no blessing. You cannot operate in disunity and be blessed.
Your blessing will turn to a curse. You can't operate in disunity and expect to hear from heaven. You can't operate in disunity and expect God to answer your prayers.
The Bible is clear in 1 Peter 3 7 when a husband and wife are disunified, the prayers are not answered. What made the book of Acts so electric? The book of Acts was so electric because the Bible says the Spirit of God took over, and then you read the last part of chapter 2 and it says, and they were together on one accord in the temple. Their miracles didn't happen because they had the best program. Their miracles didn't happen because they had technology. Their miracles didn't happen because they had big buildings to meet in. They didn't have there, none of that. Their miracles didn't have happen because they had this big income. The poor were in Jerusalem. Their miracles didn't happen because of all the land they owned. They didn't own land. Their miracles didn't happen because of the people of notoriety.
Most of them were common people. They happened because the Spirit of God was so free to flow that heaven could bring blessing in history. So there's a benefit to unity. The first benefit is that you're living in peace and not in war, but the other benefit is God can do some things He will not do otherwise if the Spirit's point of view is the final view on a matter. Now I'm gonna tell you now, the first time you hear the Spirit's point of view, if it disagrees with your flesh, you're not gonna like it or want it. But you know how it is when you're changing your taste buds. For a while you don't like it or want it, but you acquire a taste. You acquire a taste.
The problem is not wanting to go through the acquiring process, because you're too in love with the way you always ate, the stuff you always like. So you don't want to go through the process of acquiring a spirit taste bud. But if you ever decide to acquire a spirit taste bud, He says, then you'll see the blessing flow.
You'll see heaven visit history. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about the vital need to nurture an environment of unity in this classic message from the Alternative Broadcast Archives. As a reminder, you can get a copy of the full-length version of this lesson, including material we didn't have time to bring you on the air, along with all the other messages in this powerful nine-part sermon series called Returning to God in Unity. For a limited time, when you get in touch with us and request this classic collection, we'll send it to you on CD or downloadable MP3s, along with those two bonus gifts I mentioned earlier, Tony's brand-new Kingdom Kindness book, as well as his Stronger Together, Weaker Apart devotional prayer book. They're all yours as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help us keep the Alternative Broadcast available on this station. Just visit tonyevans.org to make your donation and request. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call us any time of the day or night at 1-800-800-3222, and one of our friendly team members will be happy to help. That number again, 1-800-800-3222.
We'll return right after this. The Bible makes it clear that you know when God has cursed a land, when its fathers are nowhere to be found. Dr. Tony Evans says that what becomes of the next generation of men depends on what happens with this one. But what does it take to be that kind of man?
You can find out with the help of the Tony Evans Training Center's free course called Kingdom Man. It'll teach you to see past the phony images of manhood that society surrounds us with, and become the loving leader that a wife and family would want to follow. As with all of our courses, there's in-depth study material you can work through at your own pace. Lots of exclusive content from Tony, tightly focused Q&A videos, and an online forum where you can collaborate with other students. It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone. Check out the free course called Kingdom Man and the growing list of other subjects waiting for you. Visit tonyevans.org today and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. The Christian life is about focusing first on God, then on others. But where do our own needs fit into that equation? Well be sure to join us tomorrow on The Alternative as we take an important look at activating the Golden Rule.
