Togetherness

We’ll as we jump in, I thought I’d share kind of a fun story with you that dates to 16 years ago in October of 2005. You see I woke up cool fall morning, along with a group of others at a hotel in Portland Maine. As we prepared for a non-stop flight from Portland Maine to Chicago, Illinois. Ultimately the military station in Great Lakes Illinois. Now upon arriving in Chicago, my friends and I made way to a long grey school bus and made way for naval station great lakes, and we laughed along the way… but there was nothing that could prepare us for what was next.

And so, as I got off the bus in great lakes, I remember the great excitement and anxiety from rushing swiftly off the bus to standing in rank in front of several boot camp instructors who were all about to give me a loud, noisy wakeup call and one of the craziest experiences of my life. You see, when I got off the bus that day in Great lakes, I grew up. I went from being 18 years old and fresh out of high school, to a well trained, navy firefighter who would go on to serve faithfully for several years in the navy.

But let me tell you, the deployments I went on, the friends I met, the sunsets over the Mediterranean Sea, the victories I experienced… it didn’t start there. You see, this time of celebration and enjoyment would come one day, but friends… it didn’t start with celebration… no friends, my naval career started that October day. You see, it started with getting my hair completely shaved off, turning off anything that belonged to me and completely surrendering my old identity for a new identity as a US navy sailor. In surrendering my identity, I took on not only an outward shift in appearance, but a renewed confidence as just 8 weeks after bootcamp, I was then commissioned as a united states sailor.

But here’s the key, what was to come started long before the ship pulled out of port.

You see, before I could be useful to the Navy, I had to get the basics down. I had to figure out how to fall into rank. I had to walk in cadence, I had to learn the basics of firefighting and the fundamentals of being a sailor. What turned out to be a wonderful enlistment period, really began with the basics of training, I had to get this right… before I could go onto that…

Church, this morning, some of us are struggling. We’ve lost touch with the fundamentals; we’ve forgotten that so much of what we do comes back to the simple idea of love. Others of us have forgotten our purpose as a Church and while over the last year we’ve been told to social distance from others, we’ve managed to do the same thing in our hearts towards one another. Still others of us know that we’re supposed to do good for the Lord, and be his hands and feet, but this morning, we’re struggling to carry out Christ’s mission.

This morning church, my prayer for us is to allow love to unite us and to ask the Lord to lead the way. I mean just imagine with me if you put this principle of love into practice in your own life. What type of an effect would it have on your marriage, what would it look like for your relationships at work, or in the community? In fact, what would it look like as a church, what type of impact would the Lord have through us… if we allowed love to unite us, and then joyfully came together each week where we anxiously looked forward to what God was going to do next?

Church, this morning, God wants us to lead with love. And if we choose to do so, it will radically change us both individually and as a church.

With that in mind, open your bibles to Philippians 1 and as your turning there, there are 3 sermon points I want us to catch this morning.

1. Unifying Love removes Isolation. 2. Unifying loves restores relationships 3. Unifying love redirects our attention. (Gets our attention back to things that matter)

So, beginning with point number one. Unifying love removes isolation.

As your turning in your bibles to Philippians 1 we’ll find this morning a man by the name of Paul. Who you’ll recall was formerly Saul of Tarsus. This man you’ll remember had an encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus… where he goes blind for 3 days, and during that time, we know that the Lord was doing a physical change to Saul, but he was also doing a heart change in this young man’s life.

And so, in time… Saul would go from being one who was persecuting the Christians and approving of their killing… to ultimately one who would go on to fearless declare the gospel message and be an advocate for Christ.

And so here in the book of Philippians 1, we that Paul is writing a letter to the church of Philippi. between between A.D 60 and A.D 62, during Paul’s first imprisonment. What’s interesting too, is Paul while he’s writing this letter is in a roman prison, he’s enduring hardship, and suffering… and he writes to a young church in Philippi, that is also going through persecution by the roman influence living in the region.

Let’s begin with our text Philippians 1: 27

27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit,[e] striving together as one for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

And so, there’s this idea from the beginning of the letter, where he appeals to the believers to live a life of love. He says make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love being one of the spirit and of one mind. Church, Paul is asking the Christians to act like Christian…. And to live a life united through love.

He goes on to write: 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

You see we’re told to humble ourselves and lead from a standpoint of love because ultimately church… we don’t always get it right… Ultimately loving others can be hard work.

But what’s interesting is it wasn’t always that way. You see, I think a good word picture for what sin accomplished when it came into the world is that of a wedge. A wedge serves different purposes in life… but ultimate it separates one thing... from another…

You see, if you look at the account in genesis 2, sin hasn’t entered the world and Things were paradise… and yet you flip just one page, and all of a sudden, a wedge entered the picture… Sin, entered the picture and changed everything. Genesis 3:16 for example says:

16 Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”

What was once a loving, selfless relationship, now had a wedge in the middle that was pushing the two apart.

You see the book of Philippians that we read this morning is written after this wedge came into existence. And on this side of heaven… the wedge stays there, but if we can recognize this wedge… and allow love to lead the way, it has a way of uniting us and bringing us together.

That’s why we’re commanded to “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ And to love our neighbor as ourselves” (Luke 10:27) because it’s the center of our faith. You see love has a way of bridging the gap.

You know I’m reminded of last winter living in small town New Hampshire. and I know it gets cold here, but its not uncommon to have temperatures that are -10 or -20 degrees outside in New Hampshire.Now Kim and I along with our family of 5 lived up in the white mountains of New Hampshire, which were very scenic and full of trees and animals and peace and quiet… but in the wintertime, they were also full of snow.

Well, I remember one particular night this past January where we had gotten nearly a foot of snow, and it was dark out, and just before bed, right around 10 o’clock … we lost power… you see, with the snow and wind, a tree had fallen on the power lines and knocked out the power. Now fortunately I had a backup generator for the house, but on this particular night… I ran out of fuel, and I had to drive my pickup truck down to a friend’s house to get some gasoline.

But the reality is this, as pretty as the postcards of new England towns might seem. When it’s quiet and freezing out and you lose power in a house heated by electricity… you have a major problem, especially with 5 sleeping children.

Church, the problem is this… in this storm, the tree came down, it knocked out the power lines and the conductivity of the power lines was wiped out… While at one point, there was a connection… a wedge came in between and created a barrier, that ultimately needed fixing by the power company.

And fortunately, in time… the power was restored, and things went back to normal… but for a while there, it wasn’t fun.

Church family, in some ways, we live in a world where the power has been knocked out… but here’s the key if we can love others, it has a way of fixing the problem.

1 peter 4:8 says: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

You see, the truth is… we live in a fallen world, with fallen people… and we get hurt, and things get messy… but despite the mess… love covers over that sin. It helps to restore that isolation. A question for you this morning is are you loving God and are you loving others? Because this ultimately covers over a multitude of sin and does away with the wedge that isolates us.

That takes us to point number 2 which is Unifying Love Restores Relationships

You see, just like the power that went off and then was restored… when we go to Christ, he restores things and makes them right.

Philippians 2: 5-10 continues

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

You see because of His great love for God, made us alive in Him, becoming obedient to death for our sake. But church, it started with His love. John 3:16 reminds us For God so… what the world? Loved the world… that he gave us His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him wouldn’t perish but would have everlasting life.

Church he loves us so much, that he was willing to lower himself and humble himself and die a gruesome death for our sake. Paul is writing here, and he’s saying… hey let’s have the same mindset or attitude that was in Christ Jesus and take on the role of a servant.

You see, the bible says that while we were, yet sinners Christ died for us… Friends, we didn’t deserve it. But out of Love, God sent his only son for us… This morning, we read that we are to arm ourselves with the same sort of thinking that we too would humble ourselves in our relationships with one another and put each other first.

You see there is a key word in verse 8 that I want to draw our attention to, and that word is humbled. In the Greek, the word humbled is tapeinos: ταπεινός which means to humble, to make low, to bring down one’s pride and to be ranked below others who are honored and awarded.

You see, naturally coming from the military… I think of the captain of a ship or better yet, the admiral of the fleet. Who by all means, should be given the proper respect and authority. Christ came and not only was he like the captain of the ship, or the admiral, or even the commander and chief… No, he was (and is) almighty God. Friends, he dies for us… and so often we take this for granted. But out of his love for us, he died… and he humbled himself, he lowered himself for our sake.

Paul this morning, is saying hey: “take on the same posture.” Lower yourself. And church, if we choose to do that this morning, if we truly love others, it will ultimately lead to restoration of relationships.

Here’s a question for you this morning… has anyone ever gone to bed mad at their spouse before? (Don’t raise your hands) Anyone? See I’ve heard about this before… I don’t know from experience, but I’ve been told that some have gone to bed upset and angry at their spouse… Can anyone relate with that this morning. You Don’t raise your hands if that’s you. But church, all kidding aside, there have been times where we’ve been there. In the past (not lately) but in the past, there have been moments Kim and I were just really did not like each other very much in those moments. We had been arguing all night, and just mad at each other. Can I ask you something church? In those moments, do we really feel that loving towards our spouse? In those moments, do we really enjoy our marriages?

You see, the truth is… in moments like this, marriage is really, really work… It’s tough. Its not fun. You see, when tension (or a wedge) enters the relationship… it creates problems, and we’ve seen it in our relationships at home, at work with co-workers even in the church. But colossians 3:14 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

This morning, Jesus wants us to put on love and get back to enjoying life. You see, it’s tough to enjoy life when we’re so consumed and caught up with the weight of (this) or (that) with the weight of the wedge, that gets in the middle. This morning, God is saying, burn the wedge. Get ride of it… and put on love… and let that love unit us.

By the way, I love the NLT translation of the same verse… it says… 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Friends, can I ask you a question for a brief second. If I say you’re going to earn an allowance… church how does that make you feel? I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel pretty Good. Church, may we make an allowance for others this morning. Not because it’s always easy, not because it’s what we always want to do, but because Christ commands it…

Church, we can’t control how people respond to us… but we can choose to treat people with love regardless. and in doing so… we can turn energy and efforts back to things that matter.

That’s our final sermon point this morning, unifying love redirects attention

Paul continues in Philippians 2: 12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.

and John 13:35 says 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

You see to circle back around to how we started this message, when I was in the military, we didn’t all look alike, we weren’t all the same age, the same height and we didn’t all have the same taste in music… but church, we were united in our fight against the enemy. The basics of military training came from uniting us together with a common mission. We too this morning, and this very nation, this morning was founded on the idea that we are one nation, the united states… one nation under God, and through that we would be indivisible or inseparable… because God has brought us together.

Church, this morning, God is calling us to be united as one church. And to live a life loving him and loving others. Make no mistake, we may not like the new color of the walls, we may not like that we sing only 3 songs instead of 4. You may not like the color shirt I have on this morning, but friends… can we put aside our preferences for the sake of the greater mission? Can we love each other well this morning?

You see, like I mentioned earlier, I don’t enjoy arguing with my wife… and I don’t enjoy going to bed angry at her, although it’s been a while… but I do enjoy doing life together… I do enjoy going out to eat with her. I do enjoy taking part in church related things with her and dreaming of what things might look like down the road with her.

Friends, this morning, there is a sense of “togetherness” or connectiveness, that has been lost to some degree in churches across America.

The word togetherness by the way means the state of being close to another person or other people. Or the warm fellowship, as among members of a family. I don’t know about you… but that sounds pretty good to me… Like a pumpkin spiced latte on a cool fall morning, you can sign me up for some togetherness.

You see church, this morning… God wants us all to drink a little of this togetherness together.

He’s saying don’t focus so much on the differences… focus on what you have in common! Focus on my love.

You see, my prayer is that as your new pastor… once we are united through love… them we can then carry out Christs mission and truly be his hands and feet in Kenton Ohio for such a time as this.

At this point, I’m going to call Tabitha back up to play.

And as she’s coming back up. There are a few groups I would like to address.

1. Those that have lost their excitementand love for Jesus.

2. Those that have had a wedge in their relationship, that has severed ties. (Maybe at home, maybe with a family member or maybe even here at church.)

3. Those this morning who for whatever other reason, we really struggling this morning… hardship or setback… and feeling alone… and God is here this morning.

Wherever you are… use these next moments with the Lord. I’ll be up front after service. You’re welcome to have a moment right where you are with the Lord. And some of the follow up will take place after church gets out today. Maybe you need to call someone on the phone and apologize and ask for a new start, maybe you need to right a card to someone at work tomorrow and start with a simple step of love. Where is God working in your heart this morning?

So again, if you need to leave after service. You’ll be excused. But be encouraged to take a second and ask God into the midst of your circumstance this morning.