Executing Joy in Unity

The speaker discusses the importance of unity within a church and the need for an inward unity based on relationships rather than just an outward unity based on containment. They express their dislike for apathy and their fear of discontentment and discord within the church. They emphasize the fragility of unity and the need to constantly work at maintaining it. The speaker also highlights the importance of living for Christ and the gospel, even in times of suffering, and encourages believers to stand firm in their faith. He's looking at executing joy in unity. And he begins this chapter by saying, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any vows and mercies fulfilled you, my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, that each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. When you look at the letter to Philippi, the letter of Philippians that was written to the church at Philippi, what you begin to discover is and if you read through the whole entire letter and look, Philippi was a pretty good church. They were a good church. And just like I believe today that Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church is a good church. We're constantly bragging on our church and what's going on. And you know, when you look at Kentucky church, we don't really have any doctrinal issues. You see so many churches out there that are fighting over doctrinal stuff, but we don't have really any doctrinal problems. We don't have any major immorality going on that I know of within the congregation. And you know, from my own personal viewpoint though, the thing that I hate the most, you know, the Bible says that God hates six things, yea, a seven, or an abomination to him. But one of the things as pastor that I hate is apathy. You know, I'm watching it happen more and more in our day today that we just have people that are apathetic when it comes to God. We're not serious about God. We're not serious about our relationship with God. And there's just this indifference, you know. Nobody is attacking us or whatever. It just doesn't really matter. We're just going through the motions. And that's kind of the thing that I hate. That's what, you know, one of the things about pastoring. I told a young preacher the other day, I'm glad that I am starting my downhill slide because I cannot even begin to imagine another 30 years what the apathy and stuff is going to look like. But this is probably one of the biggest things that I pray for the most. But one of the things, that's what I hate, but one of the things that I probably fear the most as a pastor, my greatest fear is discontentment and discord. My greatest fear is that we are not all on the same page and we don't have unity with one another. And I can honestly say one thing about Kentucky Church is we have unity right now. But man, any day, you're always looking, the first thing and the best way that Satan can attack a church is with their unity. Just get one or two people disgruntled or on a separate page or wanting their own desires. And all of a sudden you can throw unity out the window. But when we think about unity, I want us to understand we're not talking about an outward unity. What I believe Paul was talking about here when he talks about unity is this inward unity. You say, well, what's really the difference between an outward unity and an inward unity? Well, we'll give you an example, and I meant to bring a visual example for it today, but I think all of you can imagine in your mind. How many of you kids carried around a bag full of marbles? Any of you had a bag full of marbles? You had all your marbles in one bag, right? They were contained in that bag. They were all pushed together. They were all there. They were all in one place. And you would say there was unity among them marbles, right? But what happened the minute you let the marbles out of the bag? They went everywhere, right? In other words, we're talking about outward unity. They were confined and unified because of the bag. You remove the container and the marbles go everywhere. We're not talking about an outward unity. And a lot of people look at the church as being this container, you know. As long as I'm in the church, then everybody is together, everybody is unified. But then what happens when we step out of church and go to work on Monday? Everybody's kind of doing their own thing until we come back next Monday and get back into our container. That's not the unity that we're talking about. We're talking this morning about an inward unity. An inward unity. Unity that is not based upon containment, but we want to have a unity that is based upon relationships. And what I mean and what I describe about this type of relationship is this inward unity is this idea of magnets. I bought a game that me and Parker like to play with. Well, I like to play the game. Parker likes to play. But we put a circle down with a rope in the middle of the floor and then we take magnets and you put these magnets down inside of it and the goal is to get rid of your magnets before the other person and every time they come together and attract, then you acquire all of the magnets that you sat down and did. And so you do that until somebody runs out of magnets. That's what we're talking about by inward unity. What happens? They are pulled together because of an attraction that is with inside. They have a pull. They have something that brings them together. And what I've said about Parker is what Parker likes to do instead of playing when he starts to get frustrated or just wants to mess things up, he likes to take one magnet or two magnets in his hand and run it over the top of the thing and all the magnets jump to his hand. Right? And so now the whole game's over with because he's got all the magnets. And so that's the way he likes to play the game is let's acquire all the magnets, not try to get rid of the magnets. But that's what we're talking about by this inward unity. It is not based on containment. It's based upon a relationship. And this is true unity of the Spirit. This is the unity that we as Christians, that we as a church are trying to do. But that type of unity is very, very fragile. It can be torn apart. It can be messed up very easily. If you go back to Ephesians, to our study in the book of Ephesians, Paul told the church at Ephesus in chapter 4, verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In other words, that word endeavoring means that we have to work at it. Unity happens, but it's fragile to maintain. It's very fragile to keep. And endeavoring means that you and I as individuals are constantly working together. We're constantly making an effort through the Spirit to come together. And that's the unity. That's what we're talking about. And when you look at the context of Philippians, we go back to last week's message in Philippians 1, verse 27. Paul said, let your conversation be as it becometh what? The gospel of Jesus Christ. He had just said a few verses that for me to live as what? Christ. He said what? He said there's preachers that are preaching Christ to try to get me in bonds. There's preachers that are preaching Christ out of envy. They're jealous of what God is doing through me. But he said, here's what I want you to focus on. Not necessarily what they're doing and their motives behind what they're doing. Focus on the fact that they're preaching Jesus Christ. And so everything about Paul was about Christ. And he said, let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. And then he says, whether I get released out of prison and come to you, or else I stay here in prison, the absence that I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. This is that inward unity. What brings us together? Jesus Christ and the cause of Jesus Christ. And guess what? That keeps us united whether it's on Sunday, whether it's on Monday, whether it's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Because we are brought together, why? For the faith of the gospel. It's about Jesus Christ. He said in verse 29, For unto you it is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake. See, Christianity is not just about believing. We think, man, all I have to do is witness and get someone saved and the job is over with. I'm saved now, I'm going to heaven, so life is good and I don't have to worry about anything else. Guess what? That's not what the commission says. The commission says to go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and teaching them to do what? Observe all things. We're to grow. We're to be united. And when we live for Christ, when we live for the gospel, guess what? We're going to suffer. Things are not always going to be great. Things are not going to always... But what happens? We see part of this apathy that we have in our society today is because when struggles begin to happen and things don't go just exactly the way that we think they should, what do we want to do? We want to fall back. We want to fall away. But Paul says, I don't need you to fall away. I don't need you just to believe in Jesus Christ and stop there. I need you to believe in Jesus Christ and live for Jesus Christ even when you suffer. Paul didn't stop preaching Jesus Christ because he was in prison. No, he kept doing what he was doing. Paul didn't allow sickness to stop him from preaching to Jesus Christ. Paul didn't allow anything in his life to come between him and the gospel of Jesus Christ. So he said in chapter 1 and verse 30, having the same conflict which you saw in me, now here to be in me. Living the gospel is a struggle. Living the gospel is not easy. It's not something that just happens or takes place. It is a lifestyle. It is not something that you can just do one moment and step out the next moment. Because what did he say? He said, let your whole conversation, your whole life, everything about you needs to flow toward the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing easier than to allow the flesh to jump up and destroy our witness and our testimony or someone's faith in the gospel. Or even destroy our faith in the gospel. How many of you have ever heard the line, united we stand, divided we fall? I thought about that this week as I was working on this message. And so I wanted to use that quote today, but I wanted to give whoever credit for it. Because there's a lot of politicians that have used that phrase. There's a lot of people that have put that into speeches. And so where do I give credit for it? Well, I got to going back. And actually, it is from a stanza in an Aesop fable called the Four Oxen and the Lion. The very last phrase of the Four Oxen and the Lion is united we stand, divided we fall. And this is kind of interesting because I want to give the context of where this phrase first came from. In that Four Oxen and the Lion, it says, a lion used to prowl about a field in which four oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them, but whenever he came near, they turned their tails to one another so that whichever way he approached them, he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they fell a quarreling among themselves and each went off to pasture alone in the separate corner of the field. The lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four. United we stand, divided we fall. And isn't that what unity is saying? God wants, and that's the purpose of the church, and that's what we're seeing in society today is so many people say, well, I have no need for the church. I have no need for fellowship with other believers in Jesus Christ. I can worship God at home by myself. I can watch on Facebook Live and get just as much about God as I can if I go to the church service live. You might can, but here's what you miss out on. You miss out on the unity of the group. You miss out on the encouragement of each other. And guess what? When you are divided, when you are separated, and you are outside of the fellowship of other believers, you're easier to fall. You're easier to succumb to attack. And so let me give you a couple of things this morning. First of all, Paul begins with our motivation for unity. Why do we have unity? And he's answering this question is why do we even need unity? Right? Why is unity so important? Why do we need to maintain this unity? Why do we need, as he said in verse 27, to be in one spirit? Why do we need to strive and endeavor together in unity to keep unity? And notice what he says in verse 1. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any vows and mercy. The word if there, and this really doesn't mean a whole awful lot to most of you, but I'm going to give you the important part of it. But this is actually a first class conditional clause. In other words, we know in English, if there is an if, then there has to be a what? A then. And we call that an if-then clause. But the if-then can be conditional or non-conditional. In the Greek, this is what's called a conditional clause. In other words, it doesn't mean if this is true or not true. It's saying if this is true. If this is a fact. And so it's a positive thing. And so really, you could take that word if to make it understandable just a little bit better in English, and you can substitute the word since. Since there be therefore any consolation in Christ. Since any comfort of love. Since any fellowship of the Spirit. Since any vows of mercy. Then comes in verse 2. So now you're starting to see a little bit with the since. But even a better word than that, because it is true that God loves us, right? And there is consolation in Christ. Because there is comfort of love from Jesus Christ. There is fellowship of the Spirit when you are in Jesus Christ. There's vows of mercy with Jesus Christ. Not only since these things exist, but really it even makes more sense when you say because. Because there be therefore any consolation in Christ. Because any comfort of love. Because any fellowship of the Spirit. Because any vows of mercy. Every single saved individual. If you are a saved child of God, you have had encouragement from Christ. Amen? Christ has encouraged you. Not only the first encouragement that He did was the wages of sin is death, but He gave you eternal life by just calling upon His name, thou shalt be saved. If that doesn't get encouraging, that God will take you while you are yet a sinner, and He died on the cross for you, if that doesn't encourage you, then you're probably not saved. And so every Christian, every believer has been encouraged by Jesus Christ. Every Christian and every believer has been comforted by the love of Christ. For God so loved the world that He what? He gave. He loved me. He didn't make me step up and give. He didn't want anything from me. Nothing that I had to offer Him was any good. But He loved me. There's comfort in knowing that Christ loved me in spite of me. And so therefore, we have all experienced the love. What about fellowship of the Spirit? At the moment of salvation, we taught a while back that what? The minute that you are saved, God gives you the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within you. To guard you, to protect you, to keep you saved until the appearing of Jesus Christ. And so every one of us that has been saved has had fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Every one of us that has been saved has been affected by the vows. The inward emotion and mercies of Jesus Christ. And so that's what He's starting with. He's starting with this because if these things are true, why is unity important? Because Christ loved you. Because Christ encourages you. Because Christ has given you the Holy Spirit. Because Christ verges within His vows to give you mercy, not what we deserve, but to withhold His punishment from us. And so that is our motivation for unity. See, it all comes out of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Because I have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, because we're all saved believers, right? And because of Christ, we ought to be on the same page. We ought to have unity. That's the motivation. Because guess what? I didn't do anything more or different than what you did to be saved. Christ saved and gifted us and blessed us all equally. And so that's our motivation. It's our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so He starts off, if there's any encouragement in Christ, that word encouragement there is the word paraklesis, which if you've been around church very long, you've heard that word being used because it's the same word that is also referred to the Holy Spirit. And what it means is to come alongside of, to help somebody. That's what consolation is. Consolation is not just, I'll pray for you, be warmed and filled. That's not consolation. Consolation and encouragement is when we come alongside and say, come with me and we'll get through this together. That's what Christ did for us. Christ didn't just save me and say, ok, here's your Bible, you have prayer, come and get me, right? No! He comes alongside of me. He lives every day. As we saw this morning in my Sunday school class, all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for instructions. Everything that is there, Christ has given to come alongside and encourage me and say, guess what? The Bible says that we have a high priest that has been touched with all infirmities as we have, yet without sin. When I'm struggling, when I'm suffering, when somebody doesn't like hearing about the Gospel, you know what? Christ says, I've been there. I've been there. We can do this, right? When people want to crucify me, when people want to do away with me for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Christ says, I can understand. When your best friend, your closest church member, turns their back on you and betrays you, guess what? Christ says, I'm there with you. I've been there. I've done that. I had a Judas in my group, right? And so, this word encouragement, He doesn't just leave us on our own. Christ is not this God that has departed and went to heaven that is seated right there at the right hand of the Father, but He's also with us. He's going through life with us. And He's there with us. And the Holy Spirit, He calls Him the paraclete. Someone that is exactly like Him, that has the same personality as Him, the same character as Him, but is different. Now see, Christ in His body could only be in one place at one time. But the Holy Spirit can guess what? When we all leave, the Holy Spirit leaves with each and every one of us as we go. Christ says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. He is always with us. And what He's saying here is because Christ has so consistently and faithfully helped us, this is how we ought to respond. We ought to be of the same mind. That's what He said in chapter 1 and verse 30. He says, having the same conflict which you saw in Me, and now here to be in Me also. If the great blessing of encouragement of Christ, if the great blessing of His constant forgiveness, His constant strength, His constant encouragement and wisdom and blessings, and His love in your life means anything, and it does, then you should respond by endeavoring to be of the same mind as Jesus Christ toward each other. Because that's what Christ's great prayer was. You remember back in John chapter 17, which is actually the Lord's Prayer, where Jesus Christ prayed the night before He went to the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane? He prayed in verse 21 that they all may be one. You know who He's praying for? You, me, Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church. He's praying that we all may be one. As thou, Father, art in Me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. How did Jesus Christ prove that He was God? By doing the things of God, right? It was His holiness. It was His power. It was His authority. Remember Jesus taught that no man... He had authority like no man had. Jesus had power. He raised Lazarus from the dead. No man has the power to raise Lazarus from the dead, anybody from the dead. Guess what? He exhibited, and guess what? He says, if I and my Father are one, and you are a believer and you've accepted Me, then I pray that you are with us. And if me and the Father and the Son are one, and you have accepted the Father and the Son, then guess what? We ought to now be one. And so what happens? We become one as we grow. In John 13, 35, He says, "...By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another." The great passion of the heart of Christ while He was sitting there fixing to die on the cross of Calvary, He was not worried about what He was going to suffer, but He prayed in that prayer. His passion was unity amongst His people. Man, does the influence of Christ in your life move you to obedience? Are you so ungrateful that you will take, take, take from Jesus Christ all of the wonderful, rich blessings that He gives upon us and never give back? That's the issue. That's what Paul is dealing with with the church of Philippi. See, disunity, not being in unity, is disloyalty to Jesus Christ. To Him that knoweth to do good, and does it not, to Him it is sin. And so when we are not in unity, then we are in sin. So out of the encouragement of Jesus Christ flows this love of Christ. Notice the second thing He says, "...if there be any comfort of love." Of love. What does it mean? This second incentive is what He is saying, in a sense, the loving tenderness of God in Christ Jesus has been all of our experience as Christians. Since, or because, salvation and sanctification, through them processes, we have experienced and known His love and the comfort of His love. We have known that comforting love of forgiveness, of mercy, of grace. It has been so shed abundantly upon each and every one of us. Shouldn't we, as Christians, as believers, as followers of Jesus Christ, be constrained to seek that which is precious to His heart? Namely, in this context, the unity of His people. That's the same idea. That word consolation here is worthy of a note. It's the word paramouthion. And in one translation of it in a lexicon, it means gentle cheering. Gentle cheering. See, not only does Christ come alongside of us, not only did He, and Paul is going to get to this in Philippians later, that He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but did what? Made of Himself in the form of a man and took upon Himself the death of the cross. Right? That is coming alongside so you and I can have salvation. But then, there's this consolation of love. There's this gentle cheering that we have from Jesus Christ. See, He's there in our corner rooting for us to love. What did He say? He said all of the commandments that was given to Him is what? Hangs on two commandments. Number one, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all your strength. And the second is kind of like it, but instead of loving God whom you have not seen, love your brothers, your neighbor as yourself who you have seen. And so, this gentle cheering for love. And most translations make it comfort. And basically, it's this idea of tenderness, of this tender counsel. Literally what the word means, if you just look at the component parts, is to speak to someone by coming close to His side, to come close to someone to whisper in their ear. In my life, I am still a sinner saved by grace. But you know what? Jesus Christ is constantly whispering in my ear, I still love you. God, I'm messed up. I didn't do what I'm supposed to do. Jesus is still whispering, I love you. I love you. It's not because of you. It's because of me. People are not going to be saved and come to Jesus Christ because of you. They're going to be saved because of me. Right? And so, He's just gently whispering in our ear. And this word is about friendship. It's about friendship. And this is what love is all about. This comfort, this friend. And it's the word agape. It's the greatest love that is ever out there. The highest love. The supreme love. And Paul is saying, look, because you have been so constantly encouraged in your relationship to Christ, because you have been so frequently and so often had this gentle cheering of Jesus Christ coming alongside of you to speak words of friendship into your own ear, because of that intimate relationship in which He has poured His love and grace into your life, shouldn't you be compelled to give back as Christ has given to you? So you see where Paul's going with this? Paul is saying, we have in the Christian life, we have no place for apathy. Because Christ was not apathetic when it came to us. No, He gives us abundantly and beyond what we can even begin to imagine. And so Paul is laying out these things. And I want to tell you this morning, because I don't want you to miss this, that if you're not in unity when it comes to the church, it's a sin. It's a sin. If you remember, sin is not that I have violated a code. See, we think of sin as being violating a rule of God, right? Well, I sinned. Well, how did you sin? Well, I told a lie. I was angry. I lusted, right? We go down through this list of code. But see, sin is really not about a list of code. What sin really is, and what we need to understand, it is a violation of a relationship. See, why did God give us the code and the laws to begin with? So that you can be holy as God is holy. Why is it important that we be holy? It's important that we be holy because we want a relationship with a holy God, right? And so it's about relationship. And we've messed up in our society. We think, man, sin is just breaking a rule. Well, it's no big deal, right? I sped on the way to church this morning. That's no big deal. Guess what? Y'all not going to fire me for going five miles over the speed limit on the interstate, are you? It's no big deal. It's a law. Everybody does it, right? Right? You've sped before, haven't you? We're being honest here, right? It's not about the code. What does it do? It's about a relationship. It's about a relationship. See, what happens when I speed? I put people's lives in jeopardy. I put my life in jeopardy. I've got a wife. I've got kids. I've got grandkids. I put their future in jeopardy. You see, it's not so much about the code. It's about the relationships. And if we would start looking at sin in a relationship idea, and not just breaking the code, then guess what? I mean, how many times have I counseled men that drink and get drunk and beat their wives? And they say, but I'm only that way when I drink. Right? I don't do it all the time. What happened? The sin is not the problem. The problem is the relationship. Every time you beat your wife, guess what? You're destroying the relationship. And so it's not necessarily what you are doing or how you're doing it. It's the relationship that it destroys. And you can't build that back. And so sin deals with the relationship. But notice what Paul is saying here. Because this is kind of cool. This has taught me a lot this week. And forget about the last two points. We'll do them next week. So that way you can relax and really focus in on me right now for just a minute. When he talks about this love, notice that Paul is not doing this in an abrasive way. Paul is not battering and beating up the church at Philippi. He's not hammering this down on them, you bunch of sinners, reprobates, right? He's not hammering them with judgment. He's not making any threats to them. He's not saying, well, if you don't get back to unity, and you don't get back to being together and all focused on Jesus Christ, then this is going to happen or that's going to happen. Is he doing that? No. He's not being abusive. He's not battering. He's not hammering. He's not making the threats. He's not pounding on them with fear of punishment. What's he doing? He's saying, just simply look at what Christ has done for you. We have too many preachers today that want to hammer and want to beat and want to break down. Listen, if I can beat you into submission and unity, then guess what? You are them marbles in a bag. But the minute the bag is removed, the minute that I get moved to another church or something happens to me, guess what? Then you have broke through the bonds of that confinement. That's not what we want today. So Paul just simply appeals, here's what Christ has done for you. Now, why aren't you doing it for others? Why aren't you doing it to each other? In 1 John 4 and verse 11, he says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. If God so loved us. How did God love us? And we need to remind ourselves of this sometimes. God loved us while we were yet sinners, right? Well, I'll love you when you straighten up. I'll love you when you get your act together. And is that not the message that the church has presented to our world today? You are welcome here when you get your life all straightened out. When you dress a certain way. When you get yourself appropriate. Then you're welcome to come into our church and worship with us. Did Christ do that to us? No, He loved us while we were yet a sinner. While we were yet a sinner. While we were unlovable. While we were despicable. He said, come unto Me, all you that are labor and heavy laden. And I will give you rest. He didn't say get rest up and then come follow Me. See, we've got this wrong idea of love. And you can't go to this person or that person. I'm going to start showing some videos here of some guys that are in prison that we did Thursday night. I was finally able to video some of their testimonies and some of them sharing. Some of them have been in prison. One guy had mentioned that this was his thirteenth stay in prison. And for the first time, his thirteenth time to be arrested and put into prison. And he's not that old. He says for the first time because of us in the seminary and coming in on Tuesday night and Thursday night, reading and sharing the Word of God with him, he says for the first time in his entire life, he has a purpose and a reason for living when he gets out. He said, when I get out, I won't be back the fourteenth time. Because he's got a purpose. See, that's what the Word of God does. See what Christ does for us? Then guess what? We are to do that to others. In John 15, 12, he said, This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. And so he goes from this comfort of love to this relationship with the Holy Spirit as leader. What does he say about this relationship? See, God gives us the Holy Spirit. He comes, and not only did He come to become a man to live and die for us, but when He returned back to the Father, He literally sent Himself in the form of a Spirit to be and dwell each and every one of us. So He can constantly whisper in our ear how much He loves us and how much He's rooting for us and how much He's cheering us on. Why? Because there is no greater gospel. Adrienne asked me this morning. I didn't have time to fully answer her question. But she says, I've got an atheist friend. How do I witness to them? How do you witness to someone that doesn't believe in God? The greatest evidence that there is a God is for a sinner to be saved and converted by God. See, they can argue. You remember the blind man when Jesus Christ healed him? He was blind from birth. Everybody knew he was blind. Everybody knew. And what were they saying? Did he sin or did his parents sin that he was born blind? What did Jesus Christ tell them? Neither one of them. You're limiting the categories too small. This man wasn't born blind because of his parents' sin. This man wasn't born blind for his sin. You know why he was born blind? For this very day that I, God, may be glorified. And what did the blind man say? He said, y'all can argue all day long over whether this was God, whether this was God's Son, who this was. I don't know. I don't know where he come from. I don't know who his human parents are. I don't know nothing about this guy, but here's what I do know. I was blind, but now I see. And what do the people do? They rejoice in God. You can't argue with the evidence. And that's what Paul is saying. If Christ has done these things to you, then we ought to be doing them to others. We ought to be encouraging others. We ought to be loving others. Because why? The Holy Spirit indwells them also. The Holy Spirit guides them, directs them. And so this fellowship of the Spirit, in 1 Corinthians 12, he says, For while one spirit are we all immersed into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, and have been made all to what? Drink into one spirit. We don't all have different churches, different ideas, different opinions. Christ put us all here in one to be unified. He's treated every one of us the same exact way. And the last thing that he mentions, any vows and mercy. Vows and mercy. Vows, you know what that is? That's your gut. That's your gut. Metaphorically, it means affection. Have you ever told somebody, I love you, your girlfriend or your wife, I love you with all of my heart? Well, we've moved it to the heart. Back in Bible days, they used to say the kidneys. I love you with all my kidneys. But in the Old Testament, where Paul's talking about is this gut. It wasn't necessarily one single organ, but it was this whole entire gut. Have you ever had something so pressing and so pushing upon you that you literally felt it in your gut? You know, that's where we get the word gut-wrenching, right? When somebody dies or something happens to us that we don't expect, you literally feel it. You know, when somebody dies and I go and visit with them, you know, one of the things that I have to remind them of is you need to eat. I don't feel like eating. Why? Because my gut's tore up. My mind is on this. It's not time. But guess what? Our body still needs food. We still need energy. But it was gut-wrenching. And that's what he's talking about here. If there's any bowels, if there's any of that deep emotion, that thing... As a matter of fact, Paul told the church at Rome, he said, likewise the Spirit also helpeth with our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray, for as we ought, but the Spirit itself make it intercession for us with what? Groanings which cannot be uttered. That word groanings is the same thing that we find here in our bowels. In other words, have you ever been hurting and so gut-wrenched you didn't even know what you needed? You know, so many times when somebody gets diagnosed with cancer and death of a loved one or whatever, I always ask, what do you need? How can I help you out? And in that moment, I don't know what I need, preacher. I don't know. But guess what? Jesus Christ has given us the Holy Spirit and placed Him within us. And He knows what we need. And when our gut is wrenched and our gut is torn, here Paul told the Romans that it's then that the Holy Spirit takes what I cannot put into words. I cannot say. I cannot even think right. But guess what? The Holy Spirit, because He is one with Jesus Christ in God, and He is one with me, He knows what's going on inside my gut. And He can put it into the words that I need to make. That's a cool benefit, isn't it? Because there's a lot of times as pastors, Lord, I don't know what to pray. I just know I need to be praying, right? I just know I need You. I can't fix this situation. I can't do it. And when you're in a relationship with Jesus Christ, there's this encouraging and exhorting and ministering and giving grace upon grace and comfort and encouragement and cheering and blessing and whispering in our ear. And what happens? When you fall, He picks you right back up again. And when you sin, what does He do? He forgives you. If you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive you of your sins. I have lost count of how many times I've asked for God's forgiveness. But guess what? Not one single time that I've ever asked that He did not forgive and restore me back into full fellowship and relationship. Holy as He is holy. When you need strength, He infuses it. When you need wisdom, He grants it. It's that personal being because He loves you. And when you sin and violate that relationship, that intimacy, it's the same with the Spirit. The Spirit is not this floating fog. You know, everybody thinks of the Spirit as this fog, this mystical cloud, this mysterious thing that is happening. That is not what the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is a Person. He is referred to as a He. A part of the Trinity who lives in you. And that Spirit longs for your good. The Spirit longs to bless you and blessings on your life. That Spirit longs to pour out benedictions and grace upon you. It's that longing of the Spirit that you have received through the grace of God. But then He doesn't stop there. He adds the word mercy. Mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is God withholding His judgment. So not only does the Holy Spirit, when you don't know what to say, when you don't know what you want or what you need, the Holy Spirit is there to give you grace. But guess what? When you mess up, He's also there to give you mercy. See, the wages of sin is death. How many times since I was 9 years old I'm fixing to be 55 this summer, how many times in all of them years have I sinned and been worthy of death? But guess what? God still accepts my forgiveness. He not only didn't kill me, what I deserve, but He's allowed me to pastor churches. He's allowed me to minister to you. He's allowed me to help. See, that's His mercy. I don't deserve to be up here. I'm not honored to be up here. It's a privilege. God, because of His mercy, I'm able to stand before you. It's because of His mercy that I'm not struck dead when I read the Word of God to you. And so what He is telling us is to think of others the way the Holy Spirit thinks of you. In verse 27 of chapter 8, He says, "...and he that searcheth the hearts..." Talking about that Holy Spirit again. "...knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for all of the saints according to the will of God." Let me ask you a question this morning. We're going to stop there and we'll pick up the other two points next Sunday because we've got a baptism here in just a minute and an offering and all of that. So I want to let you get out of here. But listen to me very carefully. Has God, Jesus Christ, encouraged you? Has Jesus Christ come alongside of you and whispered in your ear and encouraged you? You can keep going. I say, God, there's no way I can pastor. God, there's no way I can do that. And every time I say, God, it can't happen, guess what? God says it can happen. And it did happen. And it will happen. And then He gave me the Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit was able to reach in. You see, there's two things that He's talking about there. One is Jesus Christ and the other is the Holy Spirit. Both of these, the second item under each one of these is what flows out of them. He says if there's any consolation in Christ, any encouragement in Christ, then what? What flows out of the encouragement of Christ? How are we encouraged by Christ? Because of His love, right? For God so loved the world. And so He says out of Christ, His encouragement is love. How do we encourage other people? By love. How many of you like to be loved? We all like love, right? We all want to be loved. Man, there's nothing I long for more every single day than to hear my wife say, I love you! Right? No matter what kind of day I've had, no matter what I've experienced, when I come home and my wife says, Donnie, I love you! It just kind of makes it all better, don't it? And Jesus Christ, every single day, because He is Christ, no matter what happens, no matter what I go through, He's constantly whispering in my ear, Donnie, I love you. I love you. You can do this. You can hang in there. And then He says the second part of that is the Holy Spirit. And what flows out of the Holy Spirit? This guttural moanings, this love that understands our deepest seed of emotions. And even in that, He's willing to extend us mercy. Mercy. And Jesus says, I've given you that. Will you give it to others? As we stand and have a verse of invitation, I'm going to ask Brother Michael to go back and get ready for the invitation of baptism. I'm going to ask Brother Austin to come stand before you. But listen to me this morning. Paul's not beating you up. I'm not beating you up. I'm not hammering on you this morning. All I'm asking you is like Paul, if Christ has done this for you, if the Holy Spirit does this for you every single day, why aren't we doing it for others? Why aren't we doing it for others? That's unity. That's unity. Having the same heart and the same mind as Christ and the Holy Spirit has. The Holy Spirit lives to know what's going on in my gut. The Holy Spirit lives to give me mercy. What are you living for? What are you living for? Thank you for listening. Brother Austin.