"AS WE ARE ONE"

“MY PRAYER FOR THEM IS THAT THEY WILL BE ONE, JUST AS YOU AND I ARE ONE, FATHER- THAT JUST AS YOU ARE IN ME AND I AM IN YOU, SO THEY WILL BE IN US, AND THE WORLD WILL BELIEVE YOU SENT ME.” JOHN 17:21

What was the prayer Jesus prayed for the “Church” as He was preparing to return to His’ Father? His prayer was for the unity of the Church. Not for the Baptists or the Presbyterians or the Pentecostals or for the Methodists or for the Vineyard; No!

His prayer was that His “Church”; that ALL His children would be in unity even as He and His Father are in Unity. What did He say? “WHERE (JUST) TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER IN MY NAME; THERE I WILL BE IN THE MIDST OF THEM”. Bob Munford’s translation of this verse is, “IF JUST A COUPLE OF MY KIDS CAN COME TOGETHER AND GET ALONG; I WANT TO BE THERE JUST TO SEE IT!”

Perhaps you heard the story about the lone man who had been stranded alone on a desert Island for four years; at last he was discovered and the rescue ship sent the first mate out in the row boat to get the survivor. As the First Mate reached the shore he saw three little huts, curious, he asked about them. “Well, said the survivor, the first hut is where I live and the third hut is where I go to Church.” “What about the second hut?” asked the First Mate? “Oh, replied the man, "that is where I used to go to church!”

God’s people (the church), is highly ineffective because we cannot work together in unity. Consider this; how much could a 1000 member Lion’s Club impact your city? What about a 10,000 member Kawana’s Club? Suppose 50, 000 Boy Scouts set out to change a town; what could they accomplish? Yet we have churches of 1000 and 10, 000 and easily at least 50,000 Christians in most cities, but how effectively have we changed our communities for Christ?

Jesus prayed that we would have unity for He knew that we would only be as effective as we were able to remove our egos and titles and work together for a unified purpose, which leads us to the second reason that we are highly ineffective; we do NOT have single purpose.

When the first church gathered in the Upper Room they were of one heart and one mind and one spirit and the Holy Ghost came and they went out and changed the world. The problem is 1st Methodist Church is so busy working to build 1st Methodist Church and Vineyard is so busy making certain that Vineyard is getting credit for their work and the Baptist are so busy enlarging the Baptist Church and New Hope is striving that people know we’re still alive that none of us are working nearly as hard to build the Kingdom of God as we are our own reputation and “our ministries”. Until we reach the point where we do the work of God and we don’t want to be noticed; we will continue to have our worship services while the lost continue to go to Hell all around us.

Even when we get them saved; our first mission is to get them to join OUR church. If we worked as hard as making certain they belong to Him as we want them to belong to us, the whole world could be shaken!

Brethren; we are playing with the souls of men. For the sake of building our own kingdoms we are ignoring the Kingdom of God. If the Lord is returning for a unified church; we may have a long time to wait. Chances are the signs of the earth will be fulfilled long before the Bride is ready for her Bridegroom.

“MY PRAYER FOR THEM IS THAT THEY WILL BE ONE, JUST AS YOU AND I ARE ONE, FATHER- THAT JUST AS YOU ARE IN ME AND I AM IN YOU, SO THEY WILL BE IN US, AND THE WORLD WILL BELIEVE YOU SENT ME.” JOHN 17:21 AMEN!