What our Unity Community says: Show Our Unity Community believes that our world is on the cusp of a new awakening. As we grow in consciousness, we create a more loving and peaceful world. We feel a sacred responsibility, individually and collectively, to make a positive difference through personal example with spiritual and social actions in our communities and our world. Through prayer, positive community building and serving others, we demonstrate that we truly are one. Together, we can create a world that works for all. Faith Strength Wisdom Love Power Imagination Understanding Will Order Zeal Life Have you ever written a letter to someone you’d never met before? Why did you do it? How did it go? The longest letter in the New Testament is a letter written by someone to a group of people he’d never met before. Paul wrote to the church in Rome to introduce himself, to share his understanding of following Jesus, and to encourage the church in the mission they shared. As he moves toward the conclusion of the letter, Paul writes about the importance and power of unity in the church. This is what he says: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15.5-6 February 2, 2014 Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:38 — 24.4MB) In these two verses Paul tells us something significant about God and about unity. The first part of verse five is actually a prayer for the church in which Paul names two aspects of God’s character: steadfastness and encouragement. The God we worship is steadfast. To be steadfast is to be reliable, dependable, consistent, and trustworthy. When someone is steadfast we learn that we can rely on him or her. When something is steadfast we can count on it. Our pews are steadfast; we know this is true from years of experience. Because we know our pews are steadfast we trust them without hesitation. When you sat down today, I don’t think any of you first looked at the pew and thought, “I wonder if this pew will support me? I wonder if I can trust this pew?” Think of all the anxiety and worry that we don’t have because of the presence of things in our life that are steadfast; the chairs we sit on, the walls that surround us, most of our cars, the list is pretty long. God is also steadfast. God’s character is reliable, dependable, consistent, and trustworthy. We can rely on the Lord to be loving, gracious, merciful, and just. Believing in a God who is steadfastly these things takes a lot of worry and anxiety out of life. Whatever the amount of worry and anxiety we have today, we’d have a lot more if a steadfast God were not part of our life. For many people for whom the days seem unwieldy, tough, confusing, and hard – one of the things we need is someone steadfast and reliable like God in our life literally to steady us as so many other things are shifting and changing. According to Paul, God provides two of the most basic things we all need in life: steadfastness and, secondly, encouragement. I’ve yet to meet the person who feels she or he is receiving too much encouragement and really needs to cut back. When we’re down, discouraged, disappointed and losing hope, we need encouragement. We need more courage. We worship the God of encouragement. I could stand here all day and share Bible verses with you about God’s promises, what the Lord has done for us, why we have reason to be encouraged. There are hundreds and hundreds of scriptures that encourage us as we live our life. “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!” When we need encouragement, one of the best places to turn is to verses we know will help pick us up and enable us to persevere through one more day. When we have times in life when we’re sinking in discouragement, remember the lift provided by receiving encouragement.  Paul’s prayer for the folks he hasn’t met in Rome and on Cape Cod is that the God of steadfastness and encouragement will “grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus.” God’s character is the reason why harmony and unity are possible in the church. We know from reading Paul’s other letters that there was conflict and disagreement in a number of the churches he worked with, it isn’t unusual or out of the ordinary for that to happen. Conflict needs to be faced, dealt with appropriately, learned from, and released. However, Paul’s prayer is that the church in Rome and Brewster and everywhere else live in harmony in the way and manner that Jesus taught. This is where unity comes in. Because we have a steadfast and encouraging God, we’re to do everything we possibly can in the church to live in harmony according to how Jesus teaches us to live and treat one another. If we don’t believe the truth about God and if we don’t do everything in our power to live in harmony with each other, then a church will not succeed at fulfilling our purpose, which is, “so that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” A unified, harmonious church presents a powerful witness to the world. A church filled with individuals seeking their own agendas, wants, and needs leads to conflict, disunity, a lack of togetherness, and lots of “voices” instead of one voice glorifying the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Unity is powerful everywhere it is found, not just when it’s found in a church. A lack of unity is highly destructive wherever it is found, not just in a church. This past week our President gave the State of the Union address, something required in the US Constitution. Whoever is President always says the state of the union is strong, but that isn’t always the case. A problem we’ve seen in our nation for too many years now is that we’ve lost the power of unity and splintered into more and more smaller groups. There’s power in unity and we’ve lost that in our nation. We’re supposed to be the United States of America and we’d all be better off if individual citizens and all our elected leaders started acting like we still believed that’s who we’re called to be. What Benjamin Franklin said to his fellow members of the Continental Congress near the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is still meaningful today, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” We need to do a better job of hanging together as Americans. Unity is powerful force in a church or in a nation. Another area of life where unity is critical is in our families and friendships. Unity in a marriage is vitally important. Two persons may join together in marriage voluntarily and of their own free will, but once they get married, that covenant, that bond, trumps the voluntary. Unity in a family strongly correlates with children feeling a solid sense of security and trust. Brothers and sisters, rather than seeing one another as rivals for attention, love, food and time in the bathroom, are much better off if they understand that their siblings are potentially their greatest and longest term source of support and encouragement. The ability to be motivated by the question, ‘What is best for the family and how can I serve the rest of my family?’ instead of ‘what is best for me?’ helps create a sense of unity. In a healthy family, that group of people is most likely to stand by us when we need them. Hopefully all of us have at least a few friends who also are always there to support us and hopefully we’re the type of a friend who is there for others. Jill and I were blessed to be at the 50th birthday dinner for my friend Joe a couple weeks ago. Joe and I have been close friends for 40 years. He was the best man at our wedding and I officiated at his wedding in 2011. I know he would do anything for me he possibly could and I would do the same for him. All of us need friends like that and we need to be friends like that. The unity of good friendship is one of the sweetest blessings in life. Unity is important in a church, in a nation, in a family and friendships and on Super Bowl Sunday, even though the Patriots aren’t playing – it’s okay to say that unity is usually a part of success in athletics as well. A team can be made up of very different individuals from a host of backgrounds, just like a church, yet if each member of the team is committed to doing his or her job to the best of their ability and if they’re willing to put aside their ego for the single purpose of winning, that team is far more likely to be successful than a team of individuals that is more concerned about themselves and their next contract. The power of unity is hard to overestimate, wherever we find it in life. Even our hands are a great example of the power of unity. Compare the force you can generate or how much you can pull or hold when you touch your pinky to your thumb and only use them, compared to using a closed fist. A father who was growing older was worried about his sons who often argued and quarreled. He didn’t want his family to be broken up when he was no longer with them. He called them all together and asked them to break a bundle of sticks he had tied together. No matter how hard they tried, none of them could. Then he untied the bundle and gave each of them one of the sticks and they were able to break each one easily. Then he looked at them and they got the point. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Paul says in Romans we exist as a church, “so that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If we’re going to be successful doing that, it’s going to take everyone making that our goal. That’s what winning looks like for us as church. It’s easy to tell who wins the Super Bowl, there’s a scoreboard and a clock and when the time is up whoever has the most points win. As a church winning is each of us making every effort to live in harmony as Jesus taught us to live, working for unity in church, in our families, as citizens, even where we work. This past week I was at a gathering of American Baptist pastors from all across the country and Dr. Roy Medley who is the General Secretary of the ABCUSA, he’s our head honcho, said in his remarks to us, “You can fly solo, but you can’t thrive solo.” His point was not speaking to whether we’re married or single but an acknowledgement of the fact that we need each other and no matter who we are, whatever degree of success we’ve been blessed to achieve in life didn’t happen in a vacuum. Family members, friends, teachers, mentors, colleagues, coaches all play a part in our becoming who we are and in our achievements. Fred Rogers, better known as Mr. Rogers, said that “We never outgrow our long to belong.” The desire to experience unity in a community is deep within the human race. When different entities want to punish someone one thing they do is cut people off from community and unity. Governments exile, prisons put people in solitary confinement, the Amish shun, Roman Catholics ex-communicate – all these means of cutting people off from unity and community can have devastating consequences for individuals. We want to help people experience the unity and community we all need to thrive as human beings. This year is going to be a year of new beginnings at BBC. I believe it’s going to be the launching pad of our next decade of ministry. I’m telling you directly I need your help. I need your commitment to live out the truth of these two verses from Romans 15. To believe that God is steadfast and that the Lord who has blessed us so much in our history will continue to do so. I need your commitment to being a source of encouragement to people both inside and outside the church. We’re hoping to add additional staff so we can reach more people for Christ and that means we’re going to need to raise more money. We’re going to need more ministry volunteers to serve in the nursery, in the AV booth and as Worship Welcomers. If you think connecting people with Jesus is important, and I hope you do, I hope you’ll begin praying and asking the Lord, “What do you want me to do as an instrument of encouragement, with the gifts, talents, and skills I possess and with the resources you’re trusting me to manage for you? What are you calling me to do to help move our church forward into the future to impact lives and connect people with Jesus in a life-changing way?” Blessing “Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” 1 Peter 3:8 “The Power of Unity” Romans 15:5–6 Questions for Discussion or Reflection What does it mean to you that God is steadfast? What is it like for you when you receive encouragement? What difference does it make? How important is living in harmony? How would you describe the power and impact of unity? When or where have you experienced that? What can you do to become more steadfast, more encouraging, and a force for unity? What does the Bible say about power of unity?The Savior prayed for unity among His disciples: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21). The gospel creates a unity of faith with our Father, our Savior, and our fellow believers (see Ephesians 4:13).
What is the power of unity in Christianity?When Jesus prayed, Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one – John 17:11. He was praying for the power of unity as one Body with other believers. We, joined together in fellowship with other Christians, are unified in one mission, one heart, and one spirit.
What is the power of togetherness?The desire to come together on varied occasions and connect with our friends, family, groups, community etc is culturally celebrated across the globe Some of you may well have already before heard that what I'm about to say next; In truth we are all connected cosmically.
What are benefits of unity?Unity is needed for survival. As we all know unity protects us from all the evil doings, hence we people should help each other and together we should fight and face the evil and negative things, when we together stand only then we get freedom from all kind of negativity.
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What are the powers of unity?
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