Preserving Unity so the World Will Know

Well, I think we all know that this world is a mass of confusion and chaos. I think the current crisis in the Middle East is an example of how men get out of step with one another. The current administration of the United States, I think we can also observe, is trying to forge a new relationship with the Muslim world. And as a result, it seems to be that we're heading in the direction where we're not going to be supporting our former allies as strongly as we have in the past, and particularly Israel. And I think rather than solving the problems of the Middle East, what is likely to occur is going to stir up more of a whirlwind of greater hatred and bitterness than we've had before.

In other words, more chaos, more confusion that is on the horizon. You know, the Bible tells us that God is not the author of confusion. Of course, by that we understand that Satan is. He's the one that causes this confusion that exists in the world. And you know, the United States and the world, I think we all understand, are on a collision course with destruction. We're headed in that direction, and until somehow that can be changed, which we don't expect that's going to occur, you know, we're going to see man headed toward his own demise, his own destruction.

And I think to myself, if only our people in the United States would walk humbly before our God. If only we could walk in harmony with Him. One of my favorite scriptures is found over in 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14. You don't need to turn there, but it says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if that were to happen in the United States, in the world for that matter, that we could somehow get along and be in harmony and in step with God. You know, on the night of the Passover, Jesus Christ said some words that are very poignant, very important for us today. Let's do this in John 17. Let's do turn to John 17. Here Jesus Christ, remember, spoke these words to His disciples. And here He lifted up His head, His eyes to heaven. And verse 1 of chapter 17, Jesus spoke these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And He says, And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. And so He looked to the time when He would rejoin God the Father in heaven. And of course we know that is where He sits now at the very right hand of God. But let's notice going on again down here, and it says, For I have given to them, that is to the disciples, the words which You have given Me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You, and that they believed that You sent Me.

And so this was one thing that was very, very important in the mission of Jesus Christ to do, to teach His disciples that He was sent of the Father, that He came from God, that He did not come of Himself, but He came because the Father directed Him to come. Now let's notice it down in verse 17. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.

And so we're sanctified. We're set apart by the Word of God and made different from this world that we live in. And as You sent Me into the world, I've also sent them into the world. And it says, For their sakes, I sanctify Myself. Christ revealed Himself to the disciples in a very powerful way, so that again, they knew that He was from the Father.

You know, He showed them powerful miracles and examples throughout, in fact, His ministry. And it says, And for their sakes, I sanctify Myself, that they may also be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their Word. And rather than that, it's us. You know, we've come to understand through the words of the apostles that have filtered down through the centuries to this time that we're living in the 21st century.

And it says that they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us, and that the world may believe that You sent Me. And so this is a theme, by the way, as we go through here, that Jesus Christ brings out.

You know, that they would be one, they would be in unity, so that the world will know that You sent Me. In verse 22, And the glory which You gave Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one. I in them, and you in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me.

And it says, For You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. That's interesting, isn't it, what He says here? So the night before Jesus Christ was taken to be crucified, Christ prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. In total unity and harmony with one another. Well, brethren, how can we be at one with one another? You know, Jesus Christ and the Father in heaven are one. How can we be one like they are one with each other? You know, how can we, as God's people, preserve unity and harmony so that the world will know that the Father sent Jesus Christ? So the world will know. How can we do that, I think, is a very important question. I think that John 17 is a remarkable prayer of the will of Christ. And really, truly, this is the Lord's Prayer, because Matthew 6, you know, often people call that the Lord's Prayer. But remember, that is not the Lord's Prayer. That's a model prayer over there, showing us how to pray and how to go about doing that, how to break our prayers down so that, again, we can go before God and have a unison, a voice when we pray before God. But again, it's a remarkable prayer that Jesus Christ prayed. But notice in Christ's mind the most important thing. Prior to the time when he was crucified, and he was going to be in the heart of that grave, and after that, ascend to the Father, his concern was that we would be in unity. The disciples would be in unity, one with another. Why was unity so important to Jesus Christ? I think we should ask the question, what has Jesus Christ done that it could be accomplished? What did he do to bring about unity between his disciples and among his disciples? And, brethren, how can we maintain, as God's people, that unity that we need to have? Think about this fact that when Jesus Christ was born, that Satan the devil made every effort to stamp out Jesus Christ.

Remember the story of Herod and the wise men, and how Herod tried to kill Jesus Christ at the very beginning of his life. And Mary and Joseph had to take Jesus as a child into Egypt to get away from Herod and did not come back until afterwards, after that time. When the Church of God was formed in 31 A.D., Satan endeavored to stamp out the Church of God.

What do you think would happen in the world, brethren, if the Church of God disappeared off the face of the earth? If Satan the devil was able to destroy the entire Church of God, that there was not a living, breathing human being on the face of the earth that was one of God's people within the Church of God? Well, brethren, if he were able to do that, he would be able to wipe out the name of Jesus Christ. He would wipe out the Church of God, and we would disappear off of the face of the earth. And so Jesus Christ, one of the things that he wanted to happen is that we would be in unity with one another. And so that we, as God's people, could preach and teach that Jesus Christ was sent of God. He came from God. And not only that, again, that we, with one voice, would be able to preach the gospel to the world about God's way of life. You know, unless we are in unity, brethren, we cannot persuade this world that Jesus Christ is the Messiah who came from the Father. Because Carl-minded men of this world are looking for ways to reject God. You know, men look for ways to, again, do everything opposite of what God says. And, you know, they don't like petty arguments between people. And, of course, we've had those within the Church. And what they do look for is harmony. They look for unity. They look for some semblance of what is going to happen in the kingdom of God.

You know, if we say we're talking about the kingdom of God, if the kingdom of God is going to be such a special place, then what are we doing as God's people today? So they look, again, to that unity, that harmony. And our uniqueness, brethren, as a Church is our unity and our ability to work together with one another in love. At least that has been, you know, our hallmark, the hallmark of God's people. Now, this, brethren, is not to say that doctrine is not important. However, we must, as God's people, be unified so that we can speak with one voice crying out in this world of religious confusion. You remember Mr. Armstrong talked about how that he was a voice crying out in the wilderness. Well, brethren, we're still a voice crying out in the wilderness. And, you know, we need to realize that when Jesus Christ ascended to the Father, the most important thing to Him, again, is that we must be one. We have to have love for one another. And love fosters harmony. You know, the Apostle Peter said that love will cover a multitude of sin. And Jesus Christ, of course, Himself said, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. So we are to be unified. We are to be one, brethren. And we ought to walk in unison and harmony with God. You know, it's not important that we so much walk in harmony with one another is that we all are walking in harmony with God. If we're walking in harmony with God, then we will be all walking together in harmony with one another. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Let's notice here this particular verse was one that we have read in the past a great deal.

Here Corinth was one of those churches that had all kinds of schisms, all kinds of divisions. And notice in verse 10 here in 1 Corinthians 1 that Paul says, he says, Now I plead with you. Have you ever had anybody plead with you about anything? I know that children plead with their parents if they want to go somewhere. Don't they? You know what that is. But imagine here with the Apostle Paul, he said, I'm pleading with you. Pleading with you. Did people come back and say, well, wait a minute, Paul, there's this difference and there's that difference that we have within the church. Isn't it a little bit simple, like something a simpleton might say, to plead with us? Well, obviously not. I think Paul expected people to listen to what he was saying here. But he says, Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. And that there be no divisions among you, and that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. So, I mean, what Paul is saying here is we cannot hang on to our own ideas. That we, as God's church, need to work in conjunction with each other. We need to work in harmony and unity with one another.

And quite frankly, sometimes people hang on to their own ideas because they're simply stubborn. They're simply stubborn. And there's a pride issue that is involved in it. And so we need, brethren, as God's people, to divest ourselves of the schisms and the splits, and we need to speak the same thing. We need endeavor to do that, as God's people. Again, Paul pleaded with them. Now, I'm sure with Corinth that it did not really happen right away. It must have taken a while for that to occur and to happen. So we need, brethren, to walk in harmony with each other. We need to speak the same thing. I'm not talking about the color of cars. I'm not talking about, you know, what do you like, squash, or what do you like, peas, or whatever. I'm talking about, as God's people, we need to speak the same thing. Be in harmony with one another. Well, brethren, again, how can we be at one, even as the Father and the Son are one and in unity with one another? I want to spend the remainder of the sermon talking about this. The number one thing in my feeling and study within the Scripture, brethren, that causes us to be at one with God and His Son, is we must abide, all of us, in Christ. We have to abide in Christ. Let's go to John 15, John chapter 15.

I'll explain what I mean by that. We have to abide in Christ.

I think certainly all of us understand the ego, how the ego can be quite champion itself. We can champion ourselves. But we're told we must abide in Jesus Christ.

In verse 1, let's go to this here, Christ says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser, and every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. That should be a warning to all of us here that we need to be bearing some sort of fruit all along the way.

In every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. Because if it doesn't bear fruit, He cuts it off. But it says, and you are already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you, as He's saying here to the disciples. But He said, abide in me, in I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you cannot do anything. You can do nothing, as it says here. So we must abide in Christ if we expect Him, brethren, to abide in us.

If we expect Christ to abide in us, then we have to abide in Him. And you know, the Greek word from the Strong's concordance for abide is the Greek word mino, and it means this. And I give a number of the meanings of this word. It means to stay. Stay. It means, you know, it's like a dog. You know, you have a dog. You say, stay. Remain. There. It means to continue. It means to dwell. It means to endure. It means to be present, to tarry. This means, in other words, brethren, that we should be firmly planted in Jesus Christ. Firmly planted in Jesus Christ.

In other words, we're so firmly planted, brethren, we're not blown around by every wind of doctrine, but we stand in Christ. In other words, we must endure in Christ to remain in Christ, enduring in Christ. You know, Paul said in Galatians 2.20, he said that he, of course, died with Christ. He was crucified with Christ. He said, nevertheless I live. He said, yet not I, but Jesus Christ lives in me. In other words, Christ was living in him, remaining in him, and abiding in him. But in order for that to happen, Paul had to abide in Christ. He had to live in Christ. You know, if we abide in Jesus Christ, what it means, brethren, is we make our life's work to learn about Jesus Christ. To learn about Christ, and certainly to mimic Jesus Christ. You know, we're not supposed to become monks and nuns. You know, sometimes some of the monks are so far back in some of these monasteries, he probably takes a slingshot to feed them, you know, sometimes, so far back. You know, God hasn't called us to be nuns and monks, but we as Christians, brethren, are, or should be, more dedicated, more loyal to Jesus Christ than they ever thought to be. You know, all I know about monasteries, by the way, is that monasteries do produce a lot of wine in the world. They work in the computer industry quite a lot. You know, for people that are supposed to be depriving themselves of material physical things, sometimes it's amazing how much wealth comes out of these places like that. But, you know, brethren, we are, again, dedicated, so dedicated to Jesus Christ that we're willing to die for Him as God's people.

Let's go to John 8, John 8. You know, are we so committed to Jesus Christ, brethren, learning all about Jesus Christ and trying to mimic Jesus Christ, to be like Jesus Christ, brethren, that we live in Him? I mean, if somehow, you know, your calling would somehow rip from you, it would destroy you. I don't know about you, but I feel that way, you know.

I know my wife feels that way as well. The very core of our lives has to do with Jesus Christ, has to do with the Church and what we're trying to accomplish, that our whole life revolves around it. Frankly, sometimes it's hard for us to even tell when our personal life begins and ends.

We have no idea sometimes because we're enmeshed in it. It's everything. And again, if it was taken from our lives, it would totally destroy me. I mean, you might as well take me out and shoot me, if that were to happen, because that's what it's all about. That's everything. But John 8 in verse 31, John 8 in verse 31, And then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, If you abide in my word, you live in my word, in other words, you are my disciples indeed.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. So if we abide and live in the word of God, then we, brethren, become His disciples, and we become united with Jesus Christ. And so that's a part of what it means to abide in Jesus Christ. Now, this world right now is headed toward destruction. I think we all see it. I wonder if people are saying the handwriting wall. I mean, what do we have? We have Contrita that occurred. We had the tsunami in Japan that occurred.

We had the earthquakes down in New Zealand, Christ Church that occurred. And here we've had this issue take place recently with the tornadoes going through not just the first time, but the second time that has done major damage in the world. And I have to ask myself, what is next? And when will people sit up and take notice and realize that this world that we're living in is a tenuous place to live? It's a dangerous place, and it's probably going to get more dangerous than that. But the world is headed toward destruction. But, you know, we as God's people have been set free. Because no matter what happens to the world, we're free.

We're not going to be destroyed. We're going to be saved. We'll be a part of God's kingdom. And the reason is, is, brethren, we've been set free from the destiny of the world because we are in harmony, or are trying to walk in harmony with God. So again, number one thing, brethren, is that we need to abide in Christ. If we're going to be unified with God, unified with one another, if we're all doing that and seeking that, brethren, that is what is going to come about eventually among us.

Secondly, secondly, brethren, when Jesus Christ came, Jesus came and died for all of us upon this earth so that he could break down the barriers and the divisions between people. That's why he came. Because there were many, and still are in the world, divisions between people. An example, of course, is Israel and the Palestinians and, you know, what is going on in the Middle East right now.

In this world, there's strife between people, there's strife between sexes. You know, you have the male against the female. There's strife between races. There's every kind of strife among people with different backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds. And in the time of Christ, remember, it was the Jews and the Gentiles.

You know, the Jews, you know, looked down upon the Gentiles. But Jesus Christ came to break the walls down between people. You know, the proverbial hat filled in McCoy, he wanted to make a part of history. And it will. It's going to take place where the conflicts between people are going to eventually be dissolved.

The Old Covenant dealt primarily, remember, with Israel. And of course, if a stranger came among Israel, there were certain things that had to be done and how they lived and they could become a part of Israel. But Israel had laws. There were ceremonial laws which divided other peoples from Israel. Gentiles were considered to be dogs. They were considered to be unclean, ceremonially, in the ceremonial sense.

And remember, even during the time of Christ, there was a court of the Gentiles. So that Gentiles could not go where Jews were able to go on the Temple Mount. But through the New Covenant, Jesus Christ broke down those walls between Jews and Gentiles. And in fact, Paul talks about how there is no longer the divisions between men and women. No longer the division between people who are slave and free. So those walls have been broken down and we can be made into one before God. And through Christ, there is, in other words, a possibility of peace.

Amazing what it's probably going to be in the world tomorrow. God is going to sit down with the Jews and he's going to sit down with the Palestinians and he's going to say, guess what? You come from the same daddy. And you've been made one through Jesus Christ. Let's go to Ephesians 2. What a wonderful thing, again, that Jesus Christ came, brethren, to tear down the walls between people. Men have a problem of wanting to erect walls and fences around people.

But Ephesians 2 and verse 14, here Paul says, he says, For he himself is our peace. You want peace? Jesus Christ came to bring peace between people. Who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. And so he's broken down, again, that wall of separation and has abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances so as to create in himself one new man from the two. Thus making peace.

So he made a Gentile and a Jew the same as far as he was concerned and made them one, one creature and one new creation. And it says that he might reconcile them both to God and one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And so Jesus Christ, again, came to do away with those barriers.

And he came and he preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through him we both have access by the one Spirit to the Father. And it says, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And so Jesus Christ, again, came to break down those walls and to bring everybody into one group of people. And, of course, break down the walls of racial differences and differences between people to bring about peace. So Jesus Christ is our peacemaker. He's the one that is going to bring about peace in the world. We know he's the Prince of Peace that is going to come. And so Christ intends to bring the church and eventually the whole world into unity. And that we would be in harmony with one another and that we would be in harmony with God and Jesus Christ as well. No, do we believe that as God's people? Well, we should. That's why Jesus Christ came. That's why he came and died for the whole world, not just to save us from our sins, but to bring us in harmony with one another. Ephesians 4. Again, remember, the night before Christ was crucified, the uppermost thing in his mind was that we would be unified. You know, can we be played with, brethren? Can we respond to what God's Word says? Can we set aside our own ideas? Can we come together in unity and abide in Christ and be in harmony with one another and with God? And if Ephesians 4, notice, and a bond of peace. So we, brethren, are supposed to be working toward unity. How much are you contributing to unity and harmony within the church? You know, how much are we doing that? You know, it used to be when people had their own ideas. I remember talking to people about this, is, look, you got your own ideas. Why don't you put that on the shelf and study it for a long time? Keep it to yourself. Let's speak with one voice. Let's speak in unity, one with another. So we need to be working at endeavoring to keep the unity and the harmony in a bond of peace, as it mentions there. Let's notice over in verse 11. Here Christ gave the apostles and prophets and evangelists, in other words, those who were to serve as elders within the church, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith. Now, we're going to be there right away, but we come to it.

But in order for that to happen, again, we have to keep our own ideas to ourselves and speak in unison with one another. And it says, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men into the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth and love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. Let's face the reality, too, brethren, that you and I don't know it all. Why do we sometimes speak as though we do? That we know everything.

You know, one thing I have learned through the years is that often my ideas are not necessarily right. Now, I'm not perfect with regard to this, brethren, but I try to keep my mouth shut most of the time. And when I say something, I hope it makes sense for number one, and I hope it engenders unity in people. I may have certain ideas about things that would be different from yours about something, but I don't go spouting out to everybody in the congregation. I put it on the shelf, and I keep thinking about it. I keep studying it. And my opinions don't really mean a whole lot, and I hate to disappoint you, but yours don't either.

Our opinions don't really count as much, does it? This is the only thing that really means anything to anybody or any being in the universe, for that matter, because it's the word of truth. So Christ intends that we recognize that reality. We're growing up. We're growing up into the head who is Jesus Christ.

You and I have not arrived to that yet, and the purpose is so that we can become one body and be in harmony with one another. There's an old song that we used to sing in a master college in the choir, the chorale, and I always enjoyed this song because of the message of it. It was called, Let There Be Peace on Earth. You remember the lyrics, Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Let it start with me.

If we expect the world to ever be at one with God and the Father, brethren, it has to start with us. It has to start with you and it has to start with me. Brethren, for us, it should be here in the church where we practice on that as God's people.

Out of this world, we need to become unified with one another like no other time. Then another point here, I think this is the third point here if you're doing, numbering the different bullet points. And this is something I want to dwell a little bit more on because I think it's so important as we must get rid of our pride and our personal egos.

No, I think these are some of the very same things that Mr. Luker touched on in the first conference in January and in this conference as well to get rid of our egos. You know, when the United Church of God was refounded, or the Church of God was refounded in 1995, we became then the United Church of God. I remember distinctly that all the ministers were at one particular meeting, I believe it was Bob Dick who made the statement, and somebody may very well have had a trash can. I think I remember a trash can with some sort of an ego sign on it. But he said, when all of us entered in, he says, we would like you to check your ego at the door.

And there were 145, 50 people in that room. I can remember it again very well that way. But even so, some who came did not do that. They didn't put their ego in the wastebasket. Because, you know, we had rifts which occurred right after the Church was established. And we found that there were few who had their own hidden agendas when they attended. And of course, it became immediately apparent. In fact, in the very first meeting after that, that particular evening, it became apparent there were some again that had their own personal agendas. Let's go to Jude, verse 3. You know, it's always been that way in the Church. You know, when we see times, events in the history of the Church, it seems that there's always been certain little schisms that occur because some again have their own hidden agenda. In the first century of the Church, in Jude 3 and 4 here, Jude says, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. Ungodly men, of course in the first century, who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And so there were people, even back then, in the first century of the Church, that were trying to undermine, that had again their own personal ideas. You know, the motivation of a few, it seems, has been through the years to gain a following. Frankly, I have no idea why anybody would want to have a following of any sort. You know, I know personally, I think I've been open to you that I am reluctantly a minister of the Church. I would not have chosen this as my job, as my profession in life.

The furthest thing from my mind, brethren, is that you or anybody would follow me anywhere. You know, that's not my goal. Whatever.

But there's some men that want to follow it. Again, I don't understand that, but they do. Some men want to gain power. They think there's a lot of power, you know, in being a pastor or being over a group of people.

Some people do it for money. I think that's clear in 2 Peter 2. They do it for money. And there are others for other reasons. But you know what? Satan doesn't really care what the reasons are. He really doesn't care. Because, you know, he works well with anyone for any reason who wants to go against the Church of God.

You know, he works well with those who are power-hungry. He likes greed. He loves greed. You know, working with greed. He loves vanity. Somebody's vain. He loves that. Whatever. And so this is why I say, brethren, we have to get rid of our ego and our pride.

You know, it's been said an egotist is a self-made man who worships his Creator.

And isn't that true? Because we create ourselves. We worship ourselves if we allow their ego to sort of run us around by the nose. I read a book about the life of Ronald Reagan. And, you know, his mother in the book was quoted as saying this, and I thought was an appointed quote.

She said, you can be too big for God to use, but you can never be too small. And so, brethren, we need to think about that fact. You know, people can get such big heads, you know, that they're scratching their head way out here. You know, they can't submit to anybody else. They can't have an attitude of working with other people because their pride and their ego gets in the way.

And we need to recognize that the work of God is not about you. It's not about me. I'm talking about individually. But you know what? It is about all of us. And it is about the whole world. And as such, brethren, we must work together as a team as we head to the same goal, which is the kingdom of God. And you and I are just privileged to be a part of that team. And we need to work as a team with one another as God's people here as we head to the goal of the kingdom of God. And you know what? None of us will make it to the kingdom by ourselves.

No man is an island in himself, as John Donne said. When Christ came in the flesh, you know, we're even told He emptied Himself. He came in the form of a man and the form of a servant. And He was obedient even to the death of the cross. So even Jesus Christ could not do it on His own. He couldn't accomplish. He realized without the Father He would be nothing.

And so He needed the Father, and He and His Father were a team working together. Remember when, in fact, Christ at the very end, when He, in His crucifixion, He said, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? That was the only time He felt alone when God sort of had to walk off into the universe and could not bear to look upon Jesus Christ, upon which all the sins of humanity had been placed. It's kind of interesting that when you observe nature, it teaches a lot about teamwork, doesn't it? All of us have seen geese flying in formation. And I know, by the way, what I'm about to tell you is true, because of a recent event that occurred where, if you want to talk about it, I would be glad to tell you about it. My wife is more qualified to tell you about it than I, because she heard it firsthand. But geese are kind of interesting when it comes to teamwork.

As each goose in that V formation flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the others behind them. And by flying in that V formation, the whole flock adds 71% flying range than if each bird flew alone. Now think about that. 71%. So, brethren, if we can work together, I think the lesson is from that, that people who share a common direction and goal can get where they are going quicker and easier because they're traveling on the trust of one another, that they're working as a team with one another.

We can go farther. We can do much more. Also about geese, what's pretty interesting is when a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and the resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into the formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front. Now what's the lesson for us, brethren, with that? If we had the sense of a goose, we will stay in formation.

Don't get me laughing because I can't see my notes when you're going to be laughing. We'll stay in formation and head where we want to go and be willing to accept their help as well as give our help to others. Also, when the goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation. So if the geese, one of them gets tired, they rotate back into formation, and another goose flies at the point position. Well, these geese are pretty smart, aren't they? Working with each other in that way. What's the lesson for us?

It pays to take turns doing the hard task and sharing leadership with people as with geese. We shouldn't work independently of one another, but we should be working together again as a team. Now, here's another thing that's quite interesting for me, at least. The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those that are up front to keep up their speed. Now, I understand why people honk at me on the freeways. But the lesson is that we need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging and not something else.

We need to be encouraging one another. We had a group of young people up in Oakland who made cookies during the days of Unleavened Bread and sent them to the home office. And anyway, they got a card today from those in the home office thanking them for these cookies that they'd made.

It's encouraging, you know, to receive that from these young people. They're pre-teen age that were wanting to do that and did a wonderful job with it. So we need to, again, encourage one another. Also, when a goose gets sick or wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. And they stay with it until it's able to fly or it dies. What a remarkable thing. And my wife can tell you the story about what happened right after I gave this sermon up in Oakland to verify that this is true.

This is what happens. But the lesson is, brethren, is we have to, if we had the sense of a goose, we too would stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we need strength. You know, we as God people, again, need to work together in unity, get rid of that old pride and, you know, our personal ego. Then finally, the most important thing, brethren, is we need to develop the mind of God.

We're so lacking in that, aren't we, brethren? The mind of God. You know, this is, in fact, a mandate, you know, a mandate for all of us. A number of ministers I talked to about this at the conference, the GCE, that, look, we need to have the mind of Jesus Christ, the attitude of Jesus Christ. This is what's missing. But let's notice here in Philippians 1 and verse 2, it says, If there's any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, I'm sure that Paul had his tongue in his cheek when he was writing this, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, and of course the answer is absolutely through Jesus Christ.

And it says, fulfill my joy. You know, Paul is saying, you want to make me happy? You want to make me happy? Really happy, he says, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. You want to make me happy, Paul says, be of one mind. And he said, let nothing be done through ambition or conceit, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look not only on his own interest, but also for the interests of others.

We're thinking about other people. We have, again, that mentality. You know, within the church there is no place for selfish ambition and conceit. You know, we all need to, again, esteem others better than ourselves. This is the kind of attitude that we have to have if we're going to walk in unison and oneness with God. And if we're all doing this, brethren, then we're going to be in unison with one another.

We have the mind of God. You know, we must manifest the fruits of loneliness, of gentleness, of long suffering and forbearance in love. And if we do that diligently, and we should, brethren, we will endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, as Ephesians 4 tells us. And without this mind of Christ, brethren, we will misuse the Word of God. We don't have that attitude. You know what? We're going to take the Word of God and we're going to twist it to whatever we want to say.

Men do that all the time. We don't have that humble attitude. We're going to misuse it. We're going to destroy the unity that Jesus Christ Himself came to die for, on this earth, for us, through His sacrifice. Now, brethren, what do disagreements and dissensions in the church prove? Does it prove that we're not the church?

No. It couldn't possibly prove that we are not the church. But what it does prove is when we have petitions, when we have divisions, what it proves, brethren, is we don't have the right kind of character. That's what it proves. You see, if you had to be in unity to be the church of God, Corinth would have disqualified itself. And so it's important for us to recognize again it for what it is. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1, chapter 1, I'm sorry. Down in verse 10, where it talks about again Paul pleading with the brethren to speak the same thing.

But let's notice in verse 11, going to verse 13, For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. And I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paulus and I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ. You know, some of them even would say that they were of Christ.

It says, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? And of course the answer is no. So Paul had to plead with those who were contentious. And what it meant, brethren, when people are contentious, when they're not getting along with one another and they're continuing with each other and fighting with one another, you know what it means? That they're Carl. That's what it means.

You know, you look over here in 1 Corinthians 3, you know, Paul says to the Corinthians, he said, you know, I couldn't speak to you about some of these things. And he said, are you not carnal? You're carnal-minded. You're thinking carnal-minded in a carnal-minded way. You know, we've been called to overcome carnality, to modify the deeds of the flesh and get rid of that old man that's so contentious.

Is it true that sometimes old men can become contentious? Get off my yard, you know. It's interesting. We're that way, too, when we turn into old men. And I'm talking spiritually, brethren. So there's a tendency for us to be carnal, but we need to, again, have the mind of Jesus Christ. And, you know, if we have the mind of Jesus Christ, we can avoid the systems. We can avoid the divisions. It was God's people. But, you know, even saying that, brethren, I have to also, to make sure I balance it out, I have to say that, you know, there are probably always going to be divisions that come about.

Paul says why over in 1 Corinthians 11. And we'll just notice in verse 19 here.

Paul says, "...for there must also be factions among you, that those who are proved may be recognized among you." You know, sometimes God allows a test like this to happen to the church, and we find out who is who, don't we?

You know, it is amazing that, you know, the people, like I said, that were heroes that rose up to defend the faith, to defend the church, and to preserve the church.

People did rise up to do that, and they were proved. They're considered to be people that, again, who are heroes, like Phineas. Remember the story of Phineas? He was a young man during the time of Moses.

And Israel was committing immorality with the Moabites.

And, you know, Phineas took action.

Remember that story at that particular time. He did it in a physical way.

And he was considered to be a hero at that time. Interestingly, that later on, Phineas becomes the high priest. Of course, he was the grandson of Aaron.

So, brethren, there are going to be divisions, and we're going to see people come to the fore when that happens. And, you know, God is the only one, again, that Himself can allow things like that to happen. And, of course, to see it happen, sometimes there's a reason for it. Sometimes we can't really fully understand why things like that come, but there must be those things to see who is approved before God.

God starts testing the waters, and sometimes people come to the fore, that we're not, maybe, leaders in the past that become leaders in the church. But, brethren, we as God's people, again, may sometimes have to, again, stand up in that way if the need presents itself. But we need to endeavor as God's people to preserve peace within the church, as much as lies within us and the responsibilities that we have. Sometimes, frankly, it's not totally up to us, because, you know, you have to have two people that agree with each other to reconcile, that come into unity. You know, sometimes a husband and a wife have problems, but it's like the old saying, it takes two people to take home.

You know, it takes two people to resolve the differences that occur in marriage. And there is one final thing I want to talk about with regard to how we can have a oneness of mind, and that is this. God has established His authority within the church. He has done that. When Jesus established the church in 31 A.D., He selected disciples who became the apostles and the elders within the church. And you know, there was no authority that was placed over the apostles and the elders with the exception of Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church.

And so the elders had the responsibility of making decisions within the church. Over in the book of Acts, in chapter 15. Let's do notice that quickly over here. In Acts, chapter 15, we see that there's a great contention within the church over the subject of circumcision. And as we notice here, and the story of the account, you know, the apostle Paul and Barnabas were involved in this, and they went down to Jerusalem. And notice here in verse 6, and now the apostles and the elders came together to consider this matter.

So apparently all the elders got together and they had to consider the matter of circumcision. And you can read the account for yourself. But when it was resolved, when a decision was made, a decree was made, the church took the responsibility of assisting and carrying out the decree that was made by the elders within the church. And they sent Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas, and they sent them out with a letter from Jerusalem to all of the churches with this decree.

And so the elders had the responsibility of making these decisions. And God has established that authority within the church. And of course, they have to work in conjunction and team worth one another with a humble mind. Over in 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, notice this, what Peter says over here. Peter, by the way, who was an apostle, he was a man, of course, that had great authority and responsibility. But let's notice how he looks upon himself. 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 1, and he says, The elders who are among you, I exhort.

He says, I am a fellow elder. So he was an elder within the ministry of Jesus Christ. He didn't become the first pope, as a lot of people have in mind him being today. And it says, A witness of the sufferings of Christ, so he was a very special elder, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed.

And he tells the elders, he says, Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not by dishonest gain, but eagerly. He says, Not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples of the flock. In other words, servant leadership, being a servant to the people of God. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

And so here Peter considered himself an elder, and he showed the manner of attitude with which an elder should serve as shepherds within the church. You know, when the United Church of God, or the United Church of God, formed in 1995, and the elders came together to preserve the church of God, the attitude of the ministers that were there, the majority of the ministers, was one of humility.

And I remember having these discussions with elders at that time, and we realized that we did not have a Herbert W. Armstrong-type person who could fill his shoes.

You know, we all prayed about it and realized that there should be some form of shared responsibility within the leadership of the church. In other words, it would be a collaborative-type government that we would have. And the form of governments that we agreed on was that there would be a GCE, as we have within the church today, and that from the GCE, the elders, through prayer, would select a council of elders, or the COE, as it's called.

And it was decided that we would select 12.

Initially, it wasn't stipulated that they had to be from international areas or the United States, domestically, in other words.

But eventually, it was decided that we should have three that were from international areas and nine that were from domestically, because there were more people at that time in the United States. The number 12 was used, by the way, for the council because there were 12 apostles. So that number was simply chosen for that reason.

So what happened is then the council would determine and select the president of the church who would manage the day-to-day activities of the local church. And by the way, the president could be removed at any time, without any reason whatsoever, if the council of elders decided that would be so.

And so that is what it's been like for the last 16 years in the church. And we have a paper on governance, if you'd like to go and study it. But what we realize too, brethren, is no matter what kind of governance you have, unless there is a right spirit, an attitude, it will not work.

Unless the attitudes are right, it just simply will not work. You know, you could have a one-man rule, and unless the attitude is right, it simply will not work. You know, the attitude has to be right. I'll give you an example of that. God's government, which definitely is a one-man rule, isn't it? One being rule.

God's government did not work for a third of the angels because they did not have the right attitude. And they rebelled against God. You can have that in any form of governance whatsoever. And so if you don't have people with a humble attitude, no kind of governance will work if the spirit and the attitude is not right.

I remember Mr. Armstrong used to comment on the role of King Boonapal and Queen Sirikut of Thailand. And you may remember him talking about that because he felt that they serve their country with real grace and care and concern. And now there are different kinds of rulers that are in the world. Interestingly, King Boonapal and that royal family is worth something around $35 billion. Very wealthy in terms of that monarch. But he has established so many projects throughout the nation of Thailand. There are 3,000. In fact, when I traveled to Thailand with Dr. Karlek, he was going to look at one of the projects that had been started by the king over there. But he felt that, again, they ruled with tremendous grace as monarchs in that nation. Of course, King Boonapal is getting so old now. He is about ready to probably turn over his kingship to one of the sons. But you can have that, and then you can have an unbelievably brutal king, like Idi Amin. I guess he called himself a president, but he was the last monarch of Scotland, if any of you remember the story about Idi Amin, the last king of Scotland. So, brethren, it is not the system that's the problem, but it's the attitude of those who are in the system of governance. What is important, brethren, is the attitude of us as brethren in the church and the attitudes of the elders within the church. And this is what Peter, in fact, addresses here in 1 Peter 5. Let's notice going over here in 1 Peter 5, verse 5, he says to elders, he says, Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you, it says, be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility. You wrap yourself up in humility. And it says, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And, you know, that's what we should be doing as God's people. Humility is the key. Humility is the key. The mind of Christ is the key. You know, in one sense, brethren, I would have to say that I think we have a governance today in the United Church of God, which is far closer to the model in the New Testament than the Church of God has ever had before. You know, this is what was going on in the early New Testament Church. I believe that when we gathered in 1995, the Spirit of God was there, and God established this governance in the United Church of God as a blessing to us, quite frankly. And, you know, what is important again is our attitude, that we have a right attitude as God's people. You know, if we can, we need to resist again that pride and that ego and be clothed with humility as God's people. You know, in Jesus Christ's prayer, I remind you again, he prayed earnestly for this one thing. He wanted his disciples to have a oneness with the Father and himself, and that's our challenge. If we're going to, again, follow the instructions of our elder brother, Jesus Christ, that's our challenge. We all must endeavor to maintain and keep unity within the Church. And Christ came and founded the Church with his own blood and prayed earnestly that we would do that, that we would be at one with one another. Brethren, those who are truly endeavoring to preserve unity are a very special people to God.

In fact, this is necessary to be in the kingdom of God. It's necessary to be in the kingdom of God. When Jesus Christ gave the Sermon on the Mount, and I'll leave this verse with you as a conclusion to this message, Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.