Dr. Tony Evans reminds us of the spiritual necessity that is unity between one another. He points out that disunity within ourselves, in families, and in communities, hinders the presence and work of God. Genuine unity, rooted in spiritual principles, is crucial for resolving conflicts and returning to a state of divine connection and harmony SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/drtonyev… If you would like to download two encouraging, FREE full-length MP3s of Tony’s popular sermons: “The Sovereignty of God” and “How to Handle a Crisis,” you can do so by clicking on this link: https://share.hsforms.com/1atT9MJvXQN…

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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

the more you can get spiritual Unity the

more of God you can experience the less

you have spiritual Unity the less of God

you will experience in our lives in our

homes different races different

backgrounds different cultures different

positions but one go live Unity is

Oneness of purpose it is moving in the

same direction because you want God

involved in the legitimacy of the goal

my green lawn is regularly disrupted by

ant hills

many of you know what it is to have a

mound

on your lawn disrupting your life

the life of the greenery on your lawn

these ants are

committed

to a queen

and they’re building a kingdom on my

lawn

when these ants build this Kingdom on my

lawn killing the grass in the sphere of

where they are raising their Kingdom

in service to their Queen

they fight being disrupted

if they’re red ants they gonna bite

because they don’t want their Kingdom

that’s disrupting your lawn Kingdom to

be interfered with because they’ve got a

queen to serve

you and I have a king to serve

[Music]

but there is an enemy who wants to

disrupt

the life of God

with his own

Kingdom Agenda

with his own program

and one of the chief ways that this

enemy seeks to disrupt

the program of God

and keep us from him

even though God invites us over and over

to return to him

is through promoting disunity

[Music]

disunity is one of the enemy’s Chief

ways

of keeping God at Bay

far too many particularly Christians are

unaware of the spiritual implications of

disunity

and how that keeps us from God

so in our series

call the return I want to talk to you

today

about this issue of unity because it is

such a cultural Calamity today

we are finding disunity on every level

of life first of all

more and more people are disunified with

themselves

and if you can’t get along with you

[Music]

then it’s going to be hard for anybody

else to get along with you either

the discontinuity of self with self

of people not being able to function in

harmony with their own being

has created disruption everywhere

amen

see if

if I don’t like me I don’t mind hurting

you

because I don’t even get along with me

not only is that disunity within our own

Humanity

increasingly as we all know disunity has

become the Mantra of the family

structure

whether it is

abuse

conflict disruption divorce

disrespect

lovelessness

this

fraying fracturing and fissuring of the

family has created cultural havoc in

society

God established the family as the

foundational unit for The Ordering of

society

so the fracturing of family

between Maids between parents and

children between siblings and on and on

and on has created

chaos in a generation that is either

fatherless or parentless

and they’re growing up with wrong

influences in the culture

we are all aware of the racial

disunity

the fight over CRT the fight over black

lives matter the fight over 1619 project

the the battle between

privileged non-privileged black white

black Asian I mean it is replete within

the culture

that this disunity the political divide

that has become normalized in the

culture

and now of course we’re on the precipice

of international disunity

that is threatening the very existence

of humanity

from a human point of view

this is no small subject

because of the nature of God

in Ephesians chapter 4

the Apostle Paul says in verse 3 be

diligent to preserve the unity of the

spirit in the bond of peace

be diligent be on target prioritize

the marginalize the unity of the spirit

let me pause there for a moment

he says Unity is a spiritual issue

the unity of the spirit

which means if you’re not spiritual

then your propensity for disunity

has exponentially increased

let’s put it another way the more

spiritual you are the more unified

you’re likely to be

the more non-spiritual you are the more

disunifying you’re likely to be or

become

for he calls it the unity of the spirit

so therefore wherever you see this Unity

being normalized the spirit is missing

when a husband and wife decide to get a

divorce one or both parties have left

the spirit

even though both may be Christians

when churches divide

somebody has left the spirit

because it is the spirit’s Unity

he says preserve the unity that belonged

in the spirit in the bond the word bond

means belt

like a belt holds up your trousers he

says be unified in the spirit with a

belt that holds together order or peace

he goes on to give his theological

understanding of unity he says in verse

4 there is one body one Spirit just as

you were created in one hope of your

calling one Lord One Faith one baptism

one God and Father

who is overall and through all and in

all

the word is the word one

Unity may be defined as Oneness of

purpose

Unity is Oneness of purpose

Unity is not sameness of persons

it’s Oneness of purpose

he brings the godhead into this he talks

about the spirit and the Lord and God

and

to understand why this is a big deal you

have to understand

theology proper

theology proper starts with a Triune God

one God composed the three co-equal

persons father-son spirit

who are one in essence while being

distinct in personhood

the father is not the son the son is not

the spirit

but they all three together make up the

one godhead you’ve heard me use the

illustration of a pretzel with three

holes the first hole is not the second

hole the second hole is not the third

hole but they all tie together by the

same Doe

what ties the father to the son to the

spirit is the divine nature

or the attributes of God all of them all

hold the attributes of deity

so all are omnipresent omniscient

omnipotent

all have veracity all of faithfulness

Justice Mercy wrath all of the

ingredients of godhead belongs to all

three members of the godhead

but while each of the members of the

godhead are distinct as per Sons they

are not distinct in purpose

the unity of the godhead is their

Oneness of purpose as they share in the

same divine nature

the only time there was a breach in this

was on the cross

when Jesus said my God my god wow hast

Thou forsaken me

so you have

A disruption of sorts

that takes place

and I I don’t God would have to explain

how God could stop being god without

stopping to be God so he could be God

for us

because there is this trinitarian

hell

that takes place on the cross

but the unity of the godhead is the key

to the unity that he has

placed in humanity

the enemy understands

that God functions in a unified way

therefore if he wants to keep God out he

creates dysfunction

because he knows God won’t show up and

show off where this Unity has been

normalized

so if he can get you fussing cussing and

fighting

within yourself within your home

within the nation of the races or the

culture if he can do that

then he knows

God won’t hear your prayers

first Peter 3 7 he says the husband

who’s disunified from his wife his

prayers are hindered

but he comes right around in First

Corinthians 7 5 and he says but the

husband and wife who come together in

agreement

can get through to heaven

it was their Unity so the reason say

Satan has y’all fighting

it’s because he knows your church

attendance won’t matter

he knows your prayer meetings won’t

matter

have you ever noticed how somebody in

your life where you’re in conflict with

you start off fighting about one thing

that’s small

but like David Ruffin says it’s growing

you know he just keeps getting bigger

and bigger and bigger now you cussing

each other out over something that was

Tiny

when you started

that’s because Satan intervened into the

argument

in order to create the Discord

in order to keep God away

Unity is Oneness of purpose

Jesus comes and he says I’m coming to

glorify the Father the holy spirit says

I’m coming to glorify Christ

because they’re all in the glory

involved in the glory of God

that’s why Romans chapter 16 verse 17 in

fact I’ll read that

read a couple of scriptures today

because this is so critical to get God

back involved he says in verse 17. now I

urge you Brethren keep your eye on those

who cause dissensions

and hindrances contrary to the teaching

which you learn and turn away from them

for such men are slaves not of the Lord

Christ but of their own appetites

he says watch out for disunifiers

watch out for folk who want to turn race

into a cudgel

because they don’t want Unity they want

to keep division going

and so they’ll stir up things to keep

the racial divide intact

even in the kingdom of God

so that God will be kept at Bay no

matter how many

can we all get along meetings that you

have

says watch out for this sentence

disunify us

one of the things we have to do is

counseling is determine which party or

whether it’s both parties

are keeping this Unity going because

they don’t want it fixed

because if they do then God

is not involved

watch out for this unifiers

Unity is not uniformity

it’s not everybody being the same

it is everybody being on the same agenda

Paul in First Corinthians 1 verses 10 to

13.

condemns the church at Corinth for

developing a personality cult

where people were choosing personalities

that they would align with that was

creating havoc and disunity in the

church

a hundred pianos

tuned to the same tuning fork will

intrinsically be tuned to one another

and he says the holy spirit is the

emulsifier he is the link

that pulls together

the unity

and the more you can get spiritual Unity

the more of God you can experience

the less you have spiritual Unity the

less of God you will experience it’s

it’s it’s that key and that important

in our lives in our homes and most

certainly in our world

a football team is made up of 11

different positions

on each side of the ball

last time I checked there’s only one

goal line

because the different positions are only

moving toward that common purpose

which is that goal line

different races different backgrounds

different cultures different positions

but one go live

Unity is Oneness of purpose it is

moving in the same direction because you

want God involved in the legitimacy of

the goal

now

there’s a standard for

for Unity because there are limitations

in Ephesians 4 he says this a little bit

later in the chapter

he says in verse 13 until we all attain

to the unity of the faith

and of the knowledge of the Son of God

to a mature man to the measure of the

statue which belongs to the fullness of

Christ as a result we are no longer to

be tossed around here and there by ways

and carried about every wind of Doctrine

by the trickiness of men by craftiness

of deceitful scheming but speaking the

truth in love we ought to grow up into

all aspects unto him who is the head

even Christ from whom the whole body

being fitted and held together by that

which every joint supplies according to

the proper working of each individual

part causes the growth of the Body for

the building up of itself in love

he says until we all attain to the unity

of the faith you divide over two things

sin and false Doctrine

those two things you divide over sin and

false Doctrine they are designed to

create divinely ordained division

but apart from those two things he says

you all attain and you have a goal post

here speaking the truth in love you want

truth and love

you want God’s standing being proclaimed

that’s truth

you want God’s heart being felt that’s

love

and once you have those two goal posts

you can kick Unity for

for your success

when God’s standard can rule and God’s

heart can be expressed you can have

unity in the situation that you face I

face or we face which will give us the

privilege of returning to God because

then God will be free to return to us

he says when you get Divine unity in

yourself in your home in this church the

church

of Jesus Christ I’ve been involved here

lately in some major meetings with

universities and and

um publishing houses and yesterday the

president of the whole Southern Baptist

convention came and spent the whole day

over this Unity question

and he says unless the church does

something

with all this happening in the culture

there is no hope

and he wanted to come and

hear more about the philosophy or the

the

agenda that we’re setting forth but the

point is that Unity

if it is not spiritually based

will only be temporary