Announcements
🍽️Shatter Ceremony
⏰March 28th at 5:30 pm (Saturday)
📍Frannie’s Vegan Cafe, where we have church
🛡️Redemption Warriors
⏰April 1st at 5 pm (Saturday)
📍Frannie’s Vegan Cafe, where we have church
This is our recovery support ministry. Here you will learn about addiction, mental health, and other forms of hurts, habits, and hang-ups. You will learn how faith meeting science can help you and/or others. You will learn about boundary building and maintenance. You will find a network of people rooting for you. Come check it out!
📚Redemption Seekers
⏰April 8th at 4 pm (Wednesday)
📍Blue’s Brews, Johnson City, TN
Join our small group Bible study that meets each month. We are currently learning about the book of Revelation. Here we discuss the various view points. We don’t judge. We share our mutual knowledge and understanding. We learn about the history. We discover context. If you want to dive deeper into biblical studies then this is the place to be!
Pastor Alex is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join our Zoom call via the button below:
Meeting ID: 831 9134 2410
Passcode: 7Q1q7G
🏊Pool Party
⏰July 4th (Saturday)
📍Brother John’s
Brother John Squibb has graciously invited the assembly for food, fun, and fellowship. We ask everyone to bring a dish and drink to share. Let’s have a blast!
Sermon
Tonight’s sermon began to be put on my heart around our anniversary service last month. You see, my grandfather had visited for the first time when I gave a teaching. Afterwards, he asked me questions about what we believed. I explained that I can tell him our statement of beliefs found in our Bylaws but that I can’t cover the melting pot that is in our church body.
I told my grandfather that we have some people from a Messianic background, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist. We have Conservatives. We have Liberals. We have those who follow the philosophy of Jesus rather than his divinity. We have all kinds! Yet, we work. We understand that we don’t need to be exact copies of each other to stand united. Unity without uniformity.
“How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!”-Psalm 133:1
The word used here for “unity” in the Hebrew is “yachad”. It means to be “one” with Yahweh (God) and with fellow believers. Community. Unity of the Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh).
“making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
-Ephesians 4:3-6
In the New Testament they use the word “henotēs” for unity. Henotēs means oneness as well. In the verses we just read it tells us to guard that unity. The peace that unity gives. It tells us of what bonds us together.
What does unity look like in practice?
What does it look like with others who you may have tension with but they are still part of your community?
What does unity look like when you are struggling with yourself?
Let us know in the comments below.
“Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.“
-1 Corinthians 12:14-25
These verses are often forgotten. Especially when dealing with ourselves and others.
Do you get mad at your foot for not being able to write like your dominant hand?
Then why get upset with others or even yourself for not being able to do something like someone else? You can’t be upset with a fish who can’t climb a tree! And yet, when a fish is in the right environment it flourishes.
Unity does not mean uniformity! We are each a different body part in Yeshua’s church. His assembly. We each have an anointing. Different callings. We cannot and will not force uniformity. Uniformity can kill the spirit. Our uniformity could cause us to miss a blessing because we are too focused on being like how society “expects” us to be. It holds us back!
We are united followers of The Way. Followers of Yeshua HaMashiach. Followers of Jesus Christ. We are his branch. His natsarim. We are united! That means we will not be identical in our faith walks. Our personal lives. Our families. Our careers. Even our church.
Unity means we stand together. Unity means we share. Unity means we build each other up. Unity DOES NOT mean uniformity.
So as you go through your week. As you look at those sharing their edited life on social media. Remember, you are not a fish. You are not them. You are not everybody else. You are exactly how Yahweh created you. Unique. Set-apart. He gave you a specific path unlike anyone else. Next time you compare yourself to others remember this.
“For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.”
-Psalm 139:13-14
Amen.
Connect with Pastor Alex via the Bible App linked below: 👇