Sunday Words of Encouragement February 3, 2019

We continued in Sunday School with another lesson in 1 Corinthians 10 regarding temptation, testing and tragedy. Our church service seemed a little empty with our youth away for an outing.

Our Pastor continued with the sermon series “Forward”. This part was titled “The Dance.”
1. Seek God's presence.
2. Capture God's heart for the lost.
3. Pursue life transformation as an ongoing process.
Those who want to deliberately hurt the church are called wolves. But sometimes our behaviors accentually hinder the church.
The Church resembles a dance. It doesn’t have to be a sophisticated dance like the tango or the samba. But the church can be like line dancing where the participants follow along on the same steps.
Forward motion of any kind demands unity. Unity of purpose, direction and pace is good for church and community.
Church is a whole, gifted, diverse body. 1 Corinthians 12:12-20.

Point: We can achieve God's best when we live and move together in unity.

We live in a society of division. We in the church can have a Spirit of unity or a Spirit of division.

Ephesians 4:1-12 v. 12 God's people are equipped to carry forward the mission.
In the Church we have active leadership and active followership. Leaders set the course; all must accept and follow the course.

As believers in Christ we are all followers and need to be active followers. By fulfilling the mission of Christ the Church is to bring life to all.
What would it look like if we moved together in unity?
What do you need to surrender today, or work on surrendering, so you can b be the active follower you need to be?

I didn't find too many songs focused on Unity.
But this one sings of One Accord and has been in my song list for a long time.

Verses for Today:
Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIV)
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.