baptism, one God over all, through all and in all. Honestly I do not have enough time to explain each of these seven points of oneness. But Paul, by showing this example is asking us to do one thing, i.e. to make every effort to keep the unity. My dear friends, I don’t know why, but God is talking to us about unity again and again. Last time I preached I talked about unity. This time while I was preparing for my sermon I tried everything to not preach on the topic unity. But God did not allow me to do that. I think God is asking something very important through this. God put a burden in my heart to speak of this unity and urge us to be united. Friends I do not mean that we do not have unity. We all are united in Christ as ONE body through one sprit. But if you look closely, Paul is making a very crucial statement which is important for us to understand. He says, “Make every effort to Keep the unity.” He does not say, make every effort to be united, he says, “To keep the unity." I believe Paul here is urging us to keep the unity that we have found in Christ. There is far more to attain in this unity. This unity we have is not sufficient. We need to pursue for greater unity. My dear friends, are we willing to make every effort to go beyond and search for the unity God wants in us? In v. 3 Paul points out that we can keep this unity by being completely humble, and gentle, patient, bearing with one another. My dear friends these virtues are the basic component for getting us together. These are virtues which will help us continue in this unity. Coming together or being united for one event or a program or for a while is easy, but maintaining that unity and continuing in that purpose we are united is totally another thing and it requires a lot of effort. We need guidance and we need help. To keep our unity we have Holy spirit who will bind us with love and peace. My dear friends, this unity is key to revival. We all long for a revival in our midst. We wish and hope to do amazing things for God through VCBC and our fellowships and our ministries and missions, but dear friends, unity is the key to all this success. It is the key to revival. Many years ago, there was huge revival in Indonesia. It was a country with the most number of Muslim population in the world. But in the recent past it saw a great revival breaking forth from all quarters. Mr. Rochugna Pudaite was the delegate representing Indonesia in one of the Asian congress on Evangelism in Singapore. In one of the gatherings, some of the delegates asked Mr. Rochugna, what is the reason for the great spiritual awakening which is sweeping through his country. He replied: “When the new government was formed, most missionaries left the country fearing they might be killed. And the government was against all Christian activities. However, some of the Christians began to mix together and found they believed the same things and started to do things together. This gave them a new sense of unity. They began to work together and to pray together, ignoring organizations boundaries imposed on them. And all the barriers began to go away, and the Holy Spirit began to work among them. And remarkably, their lives were seen by many non believers and many of them attracted to Christ and the gospel. And a big revival broke out.” My dear friend, do we long for a revival? Are we expecting God to do mighty things among us and through us? Let us come together and continue in this unity. Let the world see the unity in us
WORTHYLIFE 4