One of my favorite movies of this new century was based out of Atlanta, Georgia. It starred Nick Cannon as this freshman drummer from NYC, heading to a fictitious university called Atlanta A&T. By now, you know that the movie I am making reference to is "Drumline". One of the keys of this movie was the development of teamwork between Cannon's character, Devin, and his drumline family and classmates. The director of the band, Dr. Lee, had one saying to bring unity amongst them, "one band, one sound". In other words, there are various sections of the band, but when the band plays together, it's one sound being generated. Along these lines, within the body of Christ, God wants us to grasp the Dr. Lee concept, but instead of "one band, one sound", it is "one body, one Spirit". Today's text will make this point crystal clear.
Today's main scripture is found in the book of Romans. This book was one of the thirteen epistles written by the Apostle Paul throughout his missionary journey in the New Testament. During this fifteenth chapter, Paul discusses his plan to visit Rome, along with discussion about him being the minister to the Gentile nation, and discussion on unity in the body of Christ, where today's main scripture falls and where today's thought was derived.
Paul begins the text with "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus". He begins this portion of the text describing intangibles that the Father has already given them. Along with the intangibles of endurance and encouragement, Paul declares that God wants to give them, the Romans, a spirit of unity as they follow Jesus Christ. One thing I try not to get into nowadays are denominations. Yes, some of us are Baptist, some of us are Methodists, some of us are AME, AME Zion, Pentecostal Holiness, Holy, and other denominations. When you cut the grass down short enough, God is not concerned about those denominations! What He is concerned about is that we are ALL serving Him! What He is concerned about is that when we come together, what a time we can have in Him and what a time we should have in Him! What He is concerned about is as we follow Christ, we do it as an unified body! One body, one Spirit!
When you have the mentality of "one body, one Spirit", then we can complete the remainder of today's text. Paul concludes this text by saying, "so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". When the saints of God get together and are on one accord, then they share one heart and one mouth! Jesus speaks through the Gospel according to Matthew, in its 12th chapter, when He says, "… for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Ladies and gentlemen, when your heart is right, then the mouth will speak right! When your heart is wrong, then your mouth will speak stuff that's wrong! When we are an unified body in Christ, "one body, one Spirit", where our heart is where our mouth is! When we possess the spirit of unity, we are capable and able to glorify God for the things He has done! When my brother/sister gets a promotion, I celebrate them because we are one body, one Spirit! When my brother/sister has one of their children graduating, we celebrate with them because we are one body, one Spirit! When the Lord has raised one to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we ought to celebrate them because we are one body, one Spirit! When someone hurts, we ought to hurt because we are what? One body, one Spirit!
In closing, once Devin got in his head that it was more about the band than himself, the band became stronger, unified, and able to defeat their foes. When the body of Christ possess the "one body, one Spirit" mentality, not only we can glorify God, but we will be able to walk in unity! My prayer for each of you on today is that God allows you to live life where we are unified as a body of baptized believers in Christ and exude the Spirit that comes from the living God!
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