Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
So we are in numbers 32. That's okay. You're you come in when you need to.
I am going to give a condensed outline as I usually do.
And I'm not going to elaborate on it a lot, but it'll kind of set the stage where we want to be.
So the first part of numbers 32 deals with the request of land east of the Jordan.
And if you aren't familiar with that land, the Promised Land of Canaan was located on the west of Jordan.
So they wanted to have an exception that we don't want to go to the west.
We want to go to the east and we want to settle there and we'll talk about what that means.
So who did that? Reuben and Gad asked to settle on the east side of Gilead of the Jordan
because it suited their livestock requirements. So that was a special request.
So we'll take note of that.
Moses warned them against discouragement.
He fears that their request might weaken Israel.
What happened before then? Remember what happened?
There was Baal worship. There was unbelief.
There was insurrection in the camp.
The tribe Simeon rebelled and he was concerned about their well-being as a nation.
Because remember what we have been talking about?
He has now formed the nation.
When we went through Exodus, we talked about nation building.
Now the nation is built. He has given them the precepts.
He's given them the tabernacle outline.
They are doing the offerings. The priests are officiating and everything is functioning.
The dilemma is now we have this special request and he, Moses, was concerned
about the rebellion that might subsequently be in the midst of the people.
So they promised, after much conversation, to fight with Israel.
In other words, for what? For conquering the battle
and conquering the nations that were in the land to take that land for Israel.
And so they pledged to help conquer Canaan before settling permanently.
Is this too loud?
Oh, that's not me. Maybe it is.
Okay, we'll get out. All right.
Is that your first slide?
No.
How is it now?
Oh, now?
Ah, let's see. We'll get in. Let's get in the format down here.
I don't think it's me. It's not coming from me.
I'll deny that.
All right.
Well, it's still there. Well, we'll let Justin worry about that.
All right. Now we're going on and off, but I guess that's okay.
All right. So he fears.
All right. So we're moving around here.
Is that you, George? Now we're okay?
All right. Okay. Very good.
So they promised to fight. They said, okay, we'll fight for Israel.
And they pledged to help conquer Canaan before settling permanently.
So there was this request and we'll put that out there on the shelf.
We'll come back to that. There was conditional approval given
and accountability was given to them for what they were going to be doing.
So Moses agrees that if they fulfill their military obligation,
he will give them that land or give them the exception that they had wanted.
And the warning was that if there was unkept promises,
they would bring consequence.
So there was this big concern.
So again, the agreement was confirmed and the land was assigned in verses 25 through 42.
So Reuben Gad and now half the tribe of Manasseh received land
after their commitment to fight in Canaan.
Now you'll notice something. There were two tribes that requested it.
Now there is three included in that and we'll talk about that in a bit.
So out of all this, let me ask the question.
While God's holiness, which is again, moral purity, okay,
we've discussed that and truth, which is the faithfulness to his word
are the absolutes that we have to have when it comes to Christendom.
What else have we studied that cannot be compromised?
Remember the nation and their resistance to form.
And we dealt with a lot of things, but there was two specific things
that came about that were consequential in resisting
and applying God's word as they were nation building and now as they are a nation.
Do you have any idea what they may be? What was it?
Well, I gave a little bit away in the sense that they were rebellious.
They had their own ideas about worshiping both Baal and Moloch and Cray and God.
So there was an issue of obedience on the part of the nation
and also the lack of unity, which God wants.
Think about this. If we didn't have unity in our church,
there wouldn't be the church that we have.
Unity is something that he desires. All men should dwell together.
So there were these two things that were obvious.
Unity, defining again, a covenant life as we have,
and then obedience, which is always again reveals who really follows God's commands.
Isn't that interesting? Obedience.
Their individual preferences, their rebellion, their Baal worship
were things that God was dealing with as he planned this nation.
And remember what he said about all this in Exodus 32.9.
They were stiff-necked and rebellious people.
He was disgusted with it. What did he want to do? He wanted to kill them all.
And what did Moses do? He interceded for them.
So we have this dilemma. We've come through this.
Here we are as a nation, and we're still dealing with a lot of these things.
So now let's make some observations.
Only Reuben and Gad ask for land east of the Jordan.
Okay, we know that you gave us this, Lord, but we want this.
Is that what we should be saying to God?
When God says something, I'm going to give you so-and-so-and-so.
But yeah, I don't really want that. I want this.
So that's one thing.
Now here, in these verses,
Moses gives Reuben and Gad the land east of the Jordan
and includes the half tribe of Manasseh.
Why? Why does it not say it in the beginning?
Well, we're going to come back to that why.
But first, let's do a little background.
First, why this odd request from Reuben and Gad?
All right, because they had an unusually large quantity of livestock.
I mean thousands and thousands and thousands of livestock.
And all 12 tribes practiced mixed agriculture,
but Reuben and Gad specialized heavily in livestock,
which made the trans-Jordan, or trans meaning both sides,
the pasture land that was especially attractive to them.
The land east of the Jordan was ideal pasture.
It wasn't ideal for cropland, so they wanted that.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
Okay, let's talk about some of the other tribes as a background
as we set this thing up.
Their primary emphasis are things like this,
and I'll just give some examples.
Zebulon, they were traders and they were men of commerce.
They settled by the shore.
They provided safe harbors.
Ithaca, they raised vineyards.
They were great winemakers.
Ashar, olive groves, they had olive groves.
They knew they could take the husbandry requirements of olives and grow it.
And Ephraim and Manasseh, they needed fertile valleys for their flocks
and the military strength of Manasseh.
So there was different things that they all did.
Levi, they didn't have any inheritance.
They were primarily occupied with their priestly ministry.
And again, here we are.
Basically, they were mixed farmers as things were developed.
Families typically owned, just like subsistence living,
if you've ever seen how people live.
Some sheep for the wool, some goats for the milk,
some cattle for the meat, and so forth and so on.
They had these particular things.
But not like the massive herds described of Reuben and Gad in Numbers 32.
It says, very great multitude of cattle.
So why was Manasseh included in the final land grab?
Well, Manasseh appeared only after Reuben and Gad
accepted Moses' conditions of war.
Then he included Manasseh with this.
I wonder why he did that.
Well, let's find out.
Israel proceeds the conquest.
The killing of the people, the taking of the cities,
the plunder, everything begins to happen and roll forward,
and certain Manasseh clans actively took territory by force
to do what God wanted them to do.
It says in verse 39,
that the sons of Mehar, the son of Manasseh,
went to Gilad and captured it.
In other words, that small tribe underneath the leadership of Manasseh
actually went and conquered the city.
Why this distinction is important?
It's the heart of Numbers 32.
So let me develop this for you.
So here's Reuben and Gad, and here's Manasseh.
So we learned already that they had asked this request.
There was self-interest asking for favor
even before the fighting and the conquering were set out.
Yeah, but you know we want this.
And yet Manasseh over here, they didn't ask for favor.
They simply fought for the sake of Israel
because God told them to conquer the land.
So you begin to see the difference.
Now let's take it one step further.
They negotiated with Moses.
Conditionally, or he wouldn't have been afraid
that they were going to separate.
So there was some concerns, there was some friction.
But Moses being skeptical made them promise to fight first
before they inhabited the land.
You will conquer what God said for us to conquer.
You will join forces with us.
We started as 12, we'll stay as 12.
And then Manasseh demonstrated participation
without any request or favor.
And they were faithful to the obedience of God.
It's just like us.
How many have ever bargained with God?
Yeah, okay, couple hands on that one.
It doesn't work very well.
Another thing, personal gain.
Think about this, the protection of their families
in the east away from the war zone.
They weren't involved in the war.
They weren't in the midst.
Their families were safe on the other side.
And then the property enrichment.
They saw something that advantaged them.
Not that it was wrong, but what they did was,
again, not typical.
They were motivated, the Manasseh tribe
were motivated by obedience and action
for the good of Israel.
And then lastly, they risked division and disunity
by virtue of even asking the question
because of their personal interests,
put about the interests of Israel.
So there's now a distinct carriage
that's going on here between that which is obedience
and that which is, again, the desire for certain things.
And again, Manasseh, they stabilized unity
and strengthened the war campaign
because of their presence and obedience.
So you begin to see the contrast of these three tribes.
Now let's take a look at what we have here.
Here's the settlement that was finally put into motion.
The Jordan River, you can see it down on the map down there.
Manasseh is on both sides, so let me outline it for you.
That's how big Manasseh was.
It was on the east of the Jordan
and it was on the west of the Jordan.
Now, question.
Why did the tribe Manasseh live on both sides of the Jordan?
What do you think about that?
Well, why did they do that?
Why didn't they just live on one side?
All right.
We'll give you some answers.
Unlike Reuben and Gad,
Manasseh did not initially request land east of the Jordan.
The half tribe of Manasseh earned it through conquest.
They captured territory from Og, the king of Basham.
So they were doing God's will.
They captured it and as a reward, they were given the land.
So Manasseh became increased, the word says,
and the militarily they were strong
and they helped again manage the population of the land
and they split their tribe into two.
And again, if you remember why they needed the extra land
was for the livestock.
Now, this is not uncommon.
Remember in Genesis 13.6,
that Abraham and Lot separated
because the land could not support their large herds.
So they had a service.
They broke bread and they separated.
Okay.
So both halves of Manasseh fought together
in the conquest of Canaan without any request for land.
They shared covenant loyalty in spite of the geography
and these were the results of their actions.
Having Manasseh on both sides,
and you can see how big that is,
it strengthened Israel's eastern frontier.
It maintained national unity between the trans-Jordan area
east and west of the Jordan
and the Canaan proper
that they were going to be conquering or did conquer.
Because of their maintaining unity and obedience,
they were increased in number, it says, by numbers 26, 34.
Now, let me contrast this to some other tribe.
So now we're getting down to where we're going to live.
There are certain things that had to be done.
There's obedience that was expressed by some tribes
and some tribes wanted more than others.
So now let's take a look at some tribes that developed
and yet there were others that decreased in number.
I wonder why that happened.
The tribe of Simeon is an example.
Now we're in the land, we're possessing the land,
but here we have a dilemma.
Why did the tribe Simeon live within the borders of Judah?
And if you notice down there, let me take this back.
You see Judah and you see Judah surrounding Simeon.
Well, let me give you some background.
Looking at Sinai census and then the Numbers census,
we can see some patterns.
We can see that they dropped from 59,000 down to 22,000.
They didn't increase in number.
God didn't bless them, they just went about their way.
Eventually Simeon was consumed
and assimilated into the tribe of Judah.
Never having any judges, kings, or priests come from them.
And I think that's a mistake.
I think it's, I don't remember what book that is.
I just saw that as a typo.
But in 1990, and I'll get that for you before we finish,
the inheritance of the people of Simeon
formed part of the territory of Judah.
And it's what's interesting,
Moses did not mention them in his final blessing of Israel.
So their influence was waning, not increasing as Manasseh.
Now, why do you think that?
Why did they fail as a tribe?
Gail?
Because they didn't want to be part of Israel anymore, really.
They wanted to look after their own interests.
And unlike Manasseh, who was willing to fight with Israel
to maintain their position within Israel,
the community of Israel, Simeon was not.
All right, and what else?
Take that one step further.
What happened when they started to divide out
and begin to want to worship other Gods?
They lost God's favor.
Who was that?
Well, we'll give you a name.
Their fall follows the Baal-Peor judgment.
Do you remember that whole thing that we went through?
And that's where we had a division
where some people wanted to worship, others didn't,
they got in trouble, God came down and judged,
and there was repentance on some people's hearts.
There was disobedience, sexual immorality,
and idolatry with Moab eventually collapses the entire tribe,
and they lost their identity.
Zimri was a tribal leader who sinned openly
and defied God, unlike Levi, the tribal Levi,
who humbled themselves and repented of their actions.
And God's long suffering, we know that.
But they didn't repent.
Nowhere in scripture could I find that they ever repented.
The leadership level rebellion invites tribal judgment
and there is no recorded repentance in the Bible of that tribe.
Now, one passion, caution, one passion is not governed by repentance.
Unity and obedience suffer.
God's judges, righteously, God preserves the body,
just like today, by removing influences rather than removing belonging,
meaning the oneness of that body.
So let's develop that theme a little bit.
So how does God preserve unity yet deal with disobedience?
How does He do that?
I mean, you can say, oh, you can get mad.
Okay, get out of my house, don't come back.
That's not God.
He's long suffering.
It could be a rhetorical question.
Were you moving your hand or were you going to answer the question?
I was going to answer, but it seems like the answer is right there already.
Okay.
All right, He values our covenant, our belonging, one another,
but will not allow destructive influences to destroy His body of the church.
You remember that Christ came and ministered first to the Jewish people,
and then when He died in Acts, He blessed the entire gathering
and He unfolded the Jewish privilege into universal acceptance,
and He gave them tongues of fire, and He established a coenia,
a church that would declare God's message.
That church lives today in you and me.
We are the church.
It's not the four walls.
It is the church body of believers.
So we look at that, and we say, okay, God deals with people in the church,
but how do you maintain the unity in church life?
He restrains before He removes.
The goal is not to destroy the church,
because the church has to be the vehicle that God wants.
God could do miraculous things,
but He has chosen to use the church to declare His goodness to the world.
There's no other way.
He's bound by that, just like He was bound by the covenant,
and they were bound by the covenant.
He's bound by the covenant that He made with us.
So we are the church.
We are the witness.
We are the declares, like the tribes of Israel should have been.
So what He does, He, again, comes and He warns.
He disciplines and He limits people and their reach, so to speak,
or their authority before ever removing them completely.
In other words, He just eases them out of the influence of the church.
By removing people too quickly,
and I've experienced this in my pastoral life,
it would be to shatter unity and to create fear in people's hearts
and turn discipline into rejection.
That's why He moves ever so slowly.
You ever come across things in your life and say,
God, I need answers now.
And He moves slowly and slowly and slowly,
and finally things get answered years later.
Oh, my Lord, thank you.
It's finally come about.
So we don't want to shatter that.
God instead protects the body.
He limits damage, and He leaves room for repentance.
That's what He looks for in the hearts of people that are rebellious.
He just doesn't excommunicate them.
And then the example, here's our example.
Saul remained king in title for a time.
And boy, I tell you what,
he gave David one run for his money over the years,
and he was still king.
God removed his spirit, empowering influence, it says,
in 1 Samuel 16, 14.
He was king in name only,
but the anointing that he walked in was not there.
It was flesh, and God then finally removed him.
So here we are.
Let's then take some of these things forward,
and let us then compare the tribal roles
that we've been talking about to 1 Corinthians 12.
Well, let's first offset what we're going to talk about.
God's design for Israel was no accident.
We talked about that.
And Israel's response and action to that,
as we know, was up and down and around.
And then God's design for the church
by way of comparison to the body of believers,
which were the Israelites back in when Israel was a large nation.
And then the connection or response of us.
Well, first of all, the tribes have different talents.
And we learned that.
Some were agricultural, some were fishermen,
some were tradesmen.
Again, some with trade routes, others needed fertile valleys,
pasture lands, priestly duties, all different.
And then God's plan was to unify that uniqueness.
And we can say out of that many members but one people.
That's what Israel was.
Now let's transfer that over to what Paul talks about.
God distributes his gifts today to each one of you.
You have gifts that God gave you.
There are human inclinations that God develops.
There are also giftings that you don't necessarily know
that you have that God develops through you or maybe even want.
So he distributes these gifts.
We as humans do not choose what those gifts are.
In 1 Corinthians 12, 4 it says there are different kinds
of gifts but the same spirit.
So there we are.
What do we have?
Old Testament, New Testament, the reflection.
God values unity through diversity.
We are all baptized into one spirit into one body.
Just like God was asking Israel to be.
One people.
One nation.
Okay, let's go a little bit further.
So Reuben and Gad's strength required them to serve longer
than they wanted to and not withdraw sooner.
And their participation was really needed.
So the action or response was that though they were settled
in different places, Israel pursued common purposes.
Moses kept the common purpose or goal.
East and west of the Jordan belonged to them.
And now in the New Testament, the church side of life,
gifts are given by the spirit as it wills.
In 1 Corinthians 12, 11 and 26, those parts of the body
that seem to be weaker are indispensable.
And then our connection or action is when one member
is honored, all rejoice.
No member can say I don't need you.
All gifts exist for the common good.
And that's so common.
I mean, the Israelites couldn't say that I don't need you.
Well, they did.
But when it came down to it, they needed all the tribes
to do the conquering, to do God's will.
That was the perpetual difficulty that we had with them.
So for the common good, that's us.
All right, let's go one step further.
Calling and responsibility.
Strength demands service to protect, to support, and to lead.
So he would call them.
He strengthened them.
They were to serve, they were to support,
and they were to conquer the land and lead the nation forward.
And what was Israel's action?
Strength in one area brings obligation, not privilege.
There is no position in the church today
where you are called to showcase yourself.
It is the Lord working through you
to accomplish his goals.
Spiritual gifts are entrusted for service, not status.
All roles are equally required.
Those things that are seen, pulpit ministries,
public ministries, those things that are not seen.
The IT department, what George does in the back room up there,
it's still important.
And then God has appointed in the church those gifts
and we are responsible in stewarding our calling,
not somebody else's calling, and say,
gee, I wish I had that gift.
Find out what your gifts are and develop your gifts
because your talent, your abilities
are formulated before we were ever born.
And as you come to Christ and you give yourself to him,
he gives you additional gifts to develop.
For what? His glory.
Not showcasing, but for him.
For the use of what?
For the body in general.
For the declaration of his kingdom.
And then the last one, disunity,
as we saw in Baal Peor or the judgment,
they chose not to follow God's design.
Disunity leads to loss of function.
Think about that.
If you don't function, you create disunity,
there will be consequences as the example in Simeon.
Your influence will be less and less and less.
And the final result was that Moses didn't even bless Simeon
before he died.
God arranged the body that every member would have,
no division.
And disunity, again, emerges when members stop
valuing one another's place.
Well, I want your place because you have a better ministry
than I do.
You know, I see you see where that comes from.
All right, let's connect some of these things together now.
We've been busy people.
And so we covered a lot of territory tonight.
Now, Paul applies a principle that we see one people,
many roles.
We see that in body ministry.
God forms one unified people,
yet within that unity he assigns diverse roles,
functions, and callings.
Only you can do what you can do for the sake of the body.
When you don't fulfill your calling,
the body suffers.
And God, like Simeon, he'll replace you
if you don't utilize the gifts
because he wants his body to flourish.
Unity does not mean sameness
because, Lord knows, we are all different here.
God's design is oneness with diversity, not uniformity.
Ephesians 4, 4, and 6 tells us,
there is one body, one spirit, one Lord,
one faith, and one baptism.
In Galatians 3, 28,
there is neither Jew nor Greek,
for you are all one in Christ.
So the truth of that is that God does not have
fragmented people.
He has one covenant people centered around himself.
Ethical, social, cultural distinctions
do not divide God's people.
Isn't it wonderful that we can sit in a room
and have a common denominator with us all?
That's Christ Jesus.
And as long as we keep him center,
those results or those differences will melt away.
So we have many roles.
We have different functions within the same body.
He intentionally gives each one of us different roles
so that the whole community can flourish.
And again, I was talking to Gail before the service.
We had a leadership dinner here Saturday night,
and it was just such a blessing
to see all the ministries represented
and how they gave and who they are
and how they ministered.
How many people were there, Gail?
Yeah, 40, 50 people.
You know, you wouldn't think that.
Okay, you maybe think of George back there
and Chris preaching,
but there are so many faceted things.
And the overlap was so wonderful
that many people, like Gail said,
she has her fingers in everything.
So I mean, you know, you can appreciate the fact
that multiple functions create body life.
If we didn't have people contributing and doing,
we wouldn't have what we have,
the luxury of being part of that being one.
And it was so blessed just to hear the names,
see the people, connect faces,
and do that as Chris introduced them
and talked about each group
and what they do just a little bit.
So in Romans 12, 4, and 6,
just as each of us has one body
with many members, okay,
two arms, two legs, hair.
Well, I don't have too much of that.
We have different gifts
according to the grace given to each of us.
The truth of that is basically this.
Different callings exist not to compete,
and that's what was so beautiful about that meeting Saturday
that there wasn't any competition.
But we were to serve the same mission.
What is the mission?
The Declaration of the Kingdom of God to Earth.
That's the mission.
And you want to be a part of that.
You don't want to sit in the pew and just receive.
You want to participate in anything.
To begin to see the body be strengthened
because of your ministry to the body.
Unity without hierarchy or inferiority.
God never ranks people by value, only by function.
And 1 Corinthians 12, 25 says,
so that there should be no division in the body,
but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
All right.
The truth of that is that there's no role
that is unnecessary and no calling that is superior.
All are essential.
You are essential to the body.
So let's develop a few more themes here.
The New Testament pattern in 1 Corinthians says this,
now you are the body of Christ,
and each one of you is a part of it.
The truth is that God always has worked through people
with diverse assignments.
That's body life.
Now we can have differences of opinion.
We can think that the Lord's going to come tomorrow
or we can think that God's going to restore
before he comes and visit the earth.
Those are different opinions.
We don't know how that all works out,
but we're serving one God, one Master,
for the sake of what?
Declaration, for the sake of presence.
Think about this.
The nation Israel, just by virtue of their existence,
put fear in the heart of those that were in the land.
What happened to Rahab?
She said, we know that you are a mighty nation.
And so she sided with them and hid the people
when they were scouting out the land.
And the kings knew there was an aura of capability
in God's presence as they went forth, just like you.
When you talk with people, when you fellowship with people,
God, there is an aroma quote that follows you as you go.
Do you ever have people come up to you and say,
well, you know, why do you live like this?
You know, you're so different.
Not that they're saying anything bad, but you're different.
What is that?
That's God in your life.
And the more you yield to your gifts,
the more you are in tune with what he wants
as far as the kingdom of God is concerned,
the more you can see fruit in your life just by virtue of being there.
Just saying to somebody, can I pray for you?
Or, you know, when you're in a supermarket, how are you doing?
Well, I'm not doing so good.
Okay, well, can I pray for you?
Okay, that takes guts to do, but that's part of it.
And you may never see that person again.
But the impact of that prayer,
the answered prayer that may come from that,
is something that is impressionable in people's lives.
All right.
Christ is the center of unity.
The unity of God's people does not come from agreement on roles.
Okay, Gail, you do this.
Tia, you do this.
And so forth and so on.
The unity of God's people, again, is unique.
And then it comes from submission to Christ.
That's where it all starts.
All right, key scriptures, Colossians 1.18,
he's the head of the body.
John 17.21, that all of them would be one.
And truth, that Christ is the center of the authority
and the source of unity.
So God forms one redeemed people, unified in Christ,
assigns many roles so his purposes are fulfilled
through diversity, cooperation, and mutual dependence.
Why do I say that?
You can't be all things to all people, nor can I,
but as long as we share our gifts
and the callings that we have,
we unitedly present Christ to people.
I can't take your gifts. You can't take mine.
I can't have it all, nor do I want it all at this age.
So there is a yielding to what God wants.
Unity is our identity.
Diversity is our assignment.
Okay, one last slide.
Let's see what time.
Oh, we're 10 up. We're doing good.
All right, let's bring this home now.
Israel's experience presents choices to us,
and let's go through their experiences.
Obedience over opinion.
Obedience to God's word makes priority
over personal preferences or external or social pressures.
He trumps everything.
Obedience is the call to what he wants.
He doesn't want to have to say to you 15 times,
although he may, I want you to do this.
You want to begin to be yielded enough
where you can begin to hear God's voice,
that still small voice on the inside.
It's not verbal words.
Like I preached some longer time ago,
there was only one time that God ever verbally spoke to me,
and that's one time in my life.
What he does, he gives me the inward communication
from him to my spirit.
In Matthew 12, 30,
whoever is not with me is against me.
Deuteronomy 30, 19,
I have set before you life and death,
therefore choose life.
And then the rebellious side of it is this,
fear-driven resistance that results in loss.
We talked about Simeon as an example.
Hebrews 3, 15,
today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
And then Psalm 78, 22,
they did not believe God or trust in his saving power.
Numbers 14, 11,
how long will they refuse to believe in me?
Remember, he cried.
Jesus was here.
What did he do before he had met the opposition
and before he was taken away?
He went out and he cried for Jerusalem
that they didn't understand what it was all about,
and he felt bad because of his declarations
and his kingdom message,
and yet they rejected him.
They rejected him.
Okay, let's go to unity versus division.
Unity brings and is maintained when Christ is the foundation.
Now, it can't be people, names.
Well, I go to this ministry,
or Chris is my pastor.
Chris will tell you, you know,
you don't bank on that stuff.
He's just a messenger.
It's Christ is the center, the foundation.
Unity in God is not uniformity.
It always presents diversity of gifts,
binds them together through love, submission to God,
and mutual accountability to one another.
In 1 Corinthians 1, 10,
get along with each other,
don't take sides, it says.
And unity increases when God's will governs our decisions.
The word defines the truth,
and God's glory is the common aim in life.
Now, what does division look like?
Division begins in the heart and the mind of people
and manifests itself in the body.
It all starts here.
Well, I think I should be recognized more than I am.
I think I wish I had that or whatever.
1 Corinthians 12, 25, each part is what?
Is caring for one another.
The focus is not on me, it's on somebody else.
Again, the relational emphasis is discord,
dissension, and strife.
The structural emphasis, then,
is also the separation with chasms in the church.
1 Corinthians 11 says,
I am told that you cannot get along with each other
when you worship.
You are bound to argue with each other.
What a place that must have been.
And then issues of the heart.
Self-interest, fear-driven isolation.
Christians should not, and hear me,
Christians should not disengage from the body of Christ
simply because their feelings or their territory
differs from somebody else.
Mark my words, today's independent nature
in people's unsettled heart
says that they are right no matter what.
And you've ever talked with people, you know this.
You can't even communicate to them.
You say one row and we're going, boom,
boy, this is like venom.
But don't take your marbles and go elsewhere.
Because you know what?
You go to another church, the same issues are there.
And usually the finger comes back to yourself.
What's your heart like?
Who are you?
Can you prefer one another?
Can you live within the gifts and capabilities God gave you?
All right.
So I didn't give you many questions tonight
because I wanted to get through this material.
It was kind of long.
And Christ in the end is the unifying authority.
And God places his people in different callings
yet binds them together with shared covenant responsibility.
And it is as was then one mission, one body, one Lord.
So we can't say enough about what God's doing in the earth today
because he is certainly moving and stirring in the earth.
And thank the Lord that it's just not quiet waters.
Oh, there's differences of opinion.
Heads of state are arguing.
Nations are differing.
Kingdoms are toppling.
But you know what?
That's all ushering in the words that we pray.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
You can't have a redeemed society on earth
without first getting rid of
that which is the rubble and the destitute lives of people.
Now we hope that they all repent.
And we want to be there and ready to reconcile with them
one to another so that they can see the kingdom of God too.
And if not, God brings judgment.
Father, we thank you for this time together.
Lord, your word is so simple yet so deep
that it takes us our lifetime to understand
some of your principles and your ways.
But thank you that we understand that you stand for truth.
You stand for holiness because you are holy,
because you are truthful.
And that you desire from each one of us in this room
obedience and the desire for maintaining unity
within the body of Christ, where we live,
where we work day by day.
Thank you for this opportunity.
We bless you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church
as we praise God and discuss His word.
Don't forget to join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings
at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!