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*Date Preached:          *February 8, 2009
* *
*Text:                           Romans 12:16, Romans 15:5, John 17, Philippians 2:5*
* *
*Title:                           Of the Same Mind as One Another*
* *
*Thesis:                        *
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* *
*Introduction: *
q  Illustration:
o   Last week was the Super Bowl and for me the game was capped off by an amazing play that made Super Bowl history.
o   It was the last play of the first half when the Steelers’ defender Dave Harrison intercepted Cardinal’s quarterback Kurt Warner in the end zone and ran 100 yards for a Steelers’ touchdown.
o   What a dream come true for many children who grow up and want to go to the BIG game.
o   One man who actually lived out that college dream was named Roy Regal.
He made it to the Rose Bowl and was able to play in this great game.
He did more than just play.
He got his hands on the football and he ran.
He ran all the way down the field almost the full one hundred yards, making it almost all the way across the goal line before he was finally tackled.
o   He lived out the dream.
Yet this dream was not the dream he thought it was.
There were two problems with the run that Roy Regal made.
One is he was going the wrong direction and secondly he was tackled by his own player.
o   This is a picture of disunity.
The team normally goes one way together across the goal line.
Can you imagine if in a church there is this kind of disunity?
A church where someone is running in the wrong direction and being tackled by their own teammate.
And yet sometimes in the church people are all running their own directions and one of two things are happening:
§  1)  No one is there to tackle them in order to set things right,
§  2)  They are dodging tackles because they don’t want to be set right.
o   Church unity is so important.
q  Illustration:
o   I was talking to a minister this week who shared a story of such a situation.
o   Apparently one of the leaders in the church approached the rest of the elders and said that if they didn’t change something he would be leaving the church.
o   What could it be that caused a Christian leader to feel so strongly that he would not only be stepping down from leadership, but also leave the church if it was not corrected.
o   Clearly some spiritual “tackling” needed to take place in order to set things right and get everyone headed in the same direction.
o   Well this leader’s motives were probably not what you might think.
§  He was not wanting to bring the church together,
§  He was the one who needed tackled.
o   He told the other leaders that they were passing the communion trays incorrectly.
o   Instead of passing one tray down the pew at a time, they were passing both the bread and the cup one after the other.
o   To him this was just wrong!
o   Now I don’t know what will become of that situation, but church people become divided over the most trivial of things.
q  Church History
o   If we were to look back in church history we can see this same pattern happening over and over again.
o   In fact, I believe Satan’s primary strategy involves destroying unity among Christians.
§  Satan is the author of /confusion, insensitivity, false doctrine, and church splits/
o   But when we turn to the Bible, we can discover that God has given us the power to defeat Satan’s strategy.
o   That power is found through “being like-minded” or “having the same mind as one another”
o   Turn with me over to *Romans 12:16** *to see what I mean:
§  READ *Romans 12:16*:  “Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.
Do not be conceited.”
§  The verse begins with the statement, “Live in harmony with one another.”
§  It is a word that literally means “Have the same mind” or “Think the same way.”
§  The same word is used a few chapters later in *Romans 15:5* when it says: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you */a spirit of unity/* among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.”
(NIV)—This is a poor interpretation.
§  The KJV actually words it better when it says: “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you */to be likeminded one toward another/* according to Christ Jesus:”
o   Still another verse uses this word that we are familiar with—*Philippians 2:5*
§  We looked at that verse last week.
It says:  “You */attitude/* should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”
§  In other words we could understand that verse to say: “Your */mindedness/* should be the same as that of Jesus.”
q  So how do we come to the place where we have this “likemindedness”—this kind of “unity”—this “harmony” with one another?
o   Today I want us to first look at Jesus heart as he prays for this kind of unity among believers.
o   Turn with me to *John 17**.*
*I.
**Jesus’ Prayer for Unity*
A.    A Little Background:
1.      *John 17* records Jesus’ final prayer before he was arrested at the Garden of Gethsame and taken to be crucified.
2.      A central theme to this prayer is the theme of unity or oneness:
a)      First, his own unity with the Father (vv.
1-5)
b)      Then, a prayer that his disciples would be one with each other and with God (vv.
6-19).
c)      Finally, Jesus prays for you and me.
He prays for believers of all time, that we may be one (vv.
20-26)
3.      Follow along with me as I read a portion of this part of Jesus’ prayer:
a)      As I read this prayer, listen to all of the purpose statements Jesus makes (/italicized/).
b)      READ *John 17:20-23*--“20 “My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 /that/ all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us /so that/ the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, /that/ they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me.
May they be brought /to complete unity to let the world know/ that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
4.      Jesus primary concern for his church stands out clearly in this prayer:
a)      That we may be one as He and the Father are one.
b)      He reveals to us that */unity/* is the very essence of the gospel he gave to us and the very essence of its purposes being accomplished.
B.     Satan’s Strategy:
1.
I mentioned earlier how Satan’s strategy throughout the church is to destroy the unity within the body of Christ.
2.      If you think about it, this strategy makes a lot of sense from Satan’s point of view.
3.      If he can destroy unity, he has destroyed the most powerful means of communication to the lost that Jesus Christ is God.
4.      When that message is blurred by the hypocrisy of disunity, then Satan has won the battle over the lost.
C.     Battling the Enemy:
1.
When Jesus was on earth, Satan’s attacks were fought more directly because Jesus was present to lead his followers personally through miracles, teaching, and personal guidance.
2.      But now, after Jesus has gone to heaven, he has left his church to communicate the truth of the gospel—This, too, is a miracle for the proclamation of the gospel.
3.      Since God created mankind, disunity and disharmony have been the norm:
a)      Wars have ravaged every generation.
b)      Disputes have broken apart families and kingdoms.
4.      So for the church to be united it is truly a miraculous thing.
a)      *Jesus prayer for us shows us that it is by the miraculous power of God that we may be of the same mind as one another.*
5.
This miraculous like-mindedness is what gives the church power as it stands up to the attacks of the evil one.
D.    I believe is why Jesus says in *verse 15* of his prayer for the disciples, /“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.”/
1.      Jesus knew that Satan’s strategy would be to divide his church.
2.      But what does a church really look like if it is able to stand against these evil attacks against the body of Christ.
3.      Turn with me to the Book of Acts to see what the church looked like in Jerusalem after Jesus went up to heaven.
*II.
**The Dynamic Example of the Jerusalem Church*
A.    Flip over to *Acts 2:46*
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