Unity

I recently concluded a series of three sermons in the Dallas-Fort Worth congregation. I'm going to give you the condensed version, the concise version, which is actually probably worth a lot more, in some ways. But, you know, I've been thinking about this topic for a whole long time, for maybe 40 years, you know, quite a while, since I've been in God's Church.

And it has to do with unity. It seems like unity is an issue from time to time in God's Church. Do we have real unity? Are we pleasing to God when it comes to a unified approach toward Him, toward His ways, toward the Church of God, and everything that goes along with it? So, in the course of time, I have deduced a formula. Now, some of you that were at the Ministerial Conference, you heard some of this, but at the Ministerial Conference in Big Sandy, I did an interactive kind of a discussion about unity, and we went through some...I had about ten questions or so that I asked the ministry and their wives, and we had kind of a discussion about this topic, and I brought out some things that, of course, I'll be bringing out today in different ways, but the formula that I believe is pretty accurate, you can tell me later if you don't agree, whatever, you know, I'm open-minded to your input, but the formula that I have is a fairly simple one. It's integrity plus humility equals unity. If you have true integrity, and I'm talking about all the parties involved in a situation, whatever it is, if you have integrity and then you have humility, and even if there isn't...even if there's a lack of integrity to some degree, if there's humility, then there's likely...there's a very good opportunity to have unity.

But if you're lacking humility and you're lacking integrity, you're going to have a disaster on your hands.

So unity comes when you have integrity and when you have humility. The lack of integrity, for example, has caused an awful lot of chaos and destruction through the ages and all walks of life.

Whenever a person doesn't have integrity, if he's breaking God's commandments, breaking God's laws, there's always a price for that.

Be sure your sins will find you out. The wages of sin is death. It leads to eternal death eventually.

So let's first of all talk about the first part of this formula. Let's talk about integrity. What is integrity?

Integrity comes from the Latin word integer. Some of you have heard that word, I'm sure, if you've taken math. You've heard of integer.

In fact, I surprisingly remember way back when, when I was about 14, I was in an algebra class and this word integer was introduced to me. I don't think I'd ever heard it or I'd never focused on it before. An integer basically means untouched. It means whole. It means complete.

So an integer is something that's a whole number, for example. It's not a fraction. It's not one-third or one-fourth or one-eighth. It's a whole number. So it could be, you know, any whole number. So that's what the word integer is and that's where the word integrity comes from.

So it's basically talking about someone who is whole, who's complete, and who is actually doing it God's way. That's to me what integrity is all about. Integrity is making the right decision, doing the right thing that is most pleasing to God at any given moment. Whatever the situation is, if you can decide to do what is most pleasing to God, that's real integrity. Because God has complete integrity. In fact, this is also integrity. You know, the Bible has integrity. If you start to doubt God's word, if you start to doubt the Bible, then you're in trouble. So there is real integrity in the Word of God. You know, the Word, it says the Word cannot be broken. God's Word is truth. So what we read in the Bible has real integrity. If we understand the meaning of what we're reading, then there's real integrity. You can stake your life on it. You can count on it. You can believe the promises that are in the Bible because God backs them up. God is behind them. And He, of course, has complete integrity. So that's essentially what integrity is. And there's many, many examples in the Bible of integrity. Different ones who displayed integrity. There's a number of words, and I went through a number of different verses where this was used in the Bible. This was used in the series of sermons that I gave. But it shows that David was a man of integrity. David was not a perfect man, but he was a man of integrity most of the time. Now, there were times when, of course, he didn't have integrity. And there was no unity either. When there was no integrity, there was no unity. When there was no humility. David's a great example because, think about this, David was puffed up in pride. He was the king. The king can do just about whatever he wants, can he? In fact, he can take another man's wife. So not only was there a lack of integrity on his part with Bathsheba, there was also a lack of humility. And then he tries to cover it all up and makes things even worse, again showing a lack of integrity in this particular incident. It's very obvious that all of us need to be careful because David was a godly man in many, many ways. He was a man after God's own heart in that he was repentant when he finally saw what he had done. He was blinded to his sin, and I think it was because of pride. He was the king. He justified doing certain things that he should have never justified. He was able to push them off to the side and not dwell on them or think them through. Of course, God sent Nathan. Remember Nathan the prophet comes to him and he says, You are the man. Remember how David became incensed about that poor lamb that was taken from a poor person and sacrificed or taken and eaten? Whereas the rich man had all these flocks, and it wasn't something that David could deal with. He was wrath. He was angry. And then Nathan said, You are the man because you took another man's wife, and you sinned against me. And there was a total lack of unity that came out of that sin until there was repentance.

Psalm 51 gives us that psalm of repentance, where David did go before God and bitterly repented of his sin. And he was a much better man after that time. You don't read about a lot of stuff going on with David after that.

I think he really learned from that sin, and he was a man of much greater integrity after that tremendous sin that he had committed.

So, again, I think that's an illustration that shows where this formula breaks down. If there's a lack of integrity or a lack of humility, then you're not going to have unity. And there will be a price to pay for that. There will be penalties for that.

So, of course, integrity is very important. I think I will go to a few verses. Proverbs 20, verse 7, for example, says, The just man walks in his integrity. The just person. That person who tries to do that, which is right and good and just, he walks in his integrity. And it says, Now, again, the formula of humility and integrity equals unity. Take, for example, Lucifer. Lucifer was full of integrity, right? Until he wasn't. I mean, he was perfect in the day that he was created. So, I think there was some integrity, I don't know how long it lasted, until he became swelled up with pride. So, there was an obvious lack of humility on Lucifer's part.

And that, obviously, messes one's credibility and integrity up a great deal. If you don't have humility, then you're really not a person of integrity. That's an element of integrity. Integrity is also being humble, along with the integrity. So, Lucifer became prideful. That was his weakness. So, again, if you look at the formula, integrity plus humility, if he would have maintained that integrity and stayed humble, and not tried to rise up against God or thought that he knew better than God, then there would have continued to be unity as far as the creation and what God was doing at the time.

So, when pride enters into the equation, there's an automatic reduction in one's integrity. Pride is not an element of true integrity. A person with true integrity is a humble person. So, in order to really be able to effectively serve God and to serve God's people, one needs to serve in both humility and integrity. And, of course, that will build a greater unity. If everyone would serve in integrity and in humility, we would certainly have a great deal more unity in the Church of God. And if you look back at our history, and you can probably think of examples in the history of the modern Church of God, where a person showed a lack of integrity and also a lack of humility, and it caused havoc on the Church. I won't mention anything specifically, but I can think of some major examples of that. We've had loss of property. We've had loss of people, many, many thousands of people that once fellowshiped with us. And why is that? Well, along the line, there was a lack of integrity. There was a lack of humility. And that caused a lot of issues. I believe that we have come a long ways, hopefully. I mean, we're much smaller in number now, but hopefully we've learned. You know, what is a split? Except it's a division, isn't it? A split is a division. It's not a whole any longer. You have a whole. You have that integer, that integrity, that one true Church. And then along comes a lack of integrity, a lack of humility, and it causes problems. There's still one true Church. The true Church is composed of everyone who's converted, who has God's Spirit dwelling in them. There'll always be that one true Church. But all of us have to be careful, don't we? Pride comes before a fall. Scripture tells us that we have to be always on the lookout for pride. And also, humility will keep us out of a lot of trouble along the way. When people are puffed up in pride, then they make a lot of wrong decisions. And that causes a lot of issues. So I think we should be realistic when it comes to our past, as far as not hiding from what the truth is, but learning from the truth and striving not to make the same mistakes or sins in the future. So it is truly important. You know, Webster says that humility is a modest or low view of one's own importance. It's the quality of being humble. A dictionary definitions often accentuate humility as a low self-regard or a sense of unworthiness, but that's not what I'm talking about. We should not have a sense of unworthiness because God is our Creator. And, you know, He doesn't make any junk, the saying goes. God is our Creator, so there's tremendous potential in each and every one of us to reflect the character of God, if we choose to, if we decide to.

So it's not a sense of unworthiness, only in the sense that if we compare ourselves to God, yes, indeed, we fall way short of the glory of God, and we should always keep that in mind.

Humility is to me personally putting the needs of others before our own personal interests, not that we shouldn't take care of our own personal needs. We should do that as well, but we should also put the needs of others. That's taking a humble approach when it's not all about us. We have a saying at camp to our staff, it's not all about you. And that's true with the campers, too. We tell them, look, this is not all about you. This is a team effort, so you shouldn't think of yourselves too highly, that you're so all-important. But look at the big picture and be humble about your part in the plan, your part in the role.

Now, Noah was a very humble servant of God. He humbly went about his task of building an ark. He was also a man of integrity, wasn't he? It's said he was perfect in his generations, or he was one who was faithful and true and kept God's commandments. That's why God selected him as the one by whom he would save the world. When the great flood came, it was Noah, his wife, and his children and their families who were spared.

But it took a long while. He humbly went about building an ark, basically in a desert.

No doubt he was ridiculed. People thought he was absolutely crazy.

But he stayed with it. He believed God. And then, of course, it did start to rain. And it didn't stop for a long time.

So Noah sets a good example of not only integrity, but of humility. And also there was unity in that God was able to save mankind because of the actions of Noah and his willingness to obey and serve God, to be a humble servant of God.

Abraham was another humble servant. He was willing to sacrifice, to give his only son to God because he believed God and thought the sacrifice of Isaac is what God was requiring. Now he also believed somehow God was going to most likely resurrect Isaac because he knew that the promise was that the seed would go through Isaac, that the inheritance would go through Isaac.

So, I mean, that no doubt helped a lot. Still, it would not be an easy task to take a knife to your only son.

You know, that took a lot of integrity on his part as well as humility to be able to do that. And, of course, Abraham is a type of God the Father.

And who's the type of Christ other than Isaac? Isaac, the son, even though he was likely a teenager or even perhaps even a little older than that, a young man, there's no evidence that he was fighting back against his father.

There's no evidence that there was a struggle going on here.

Evidently, he submitted to his father and trusted his father and yielded to his father so much so that he was able to bind him and make him ready as a sacrifice.

Thankfully, God did not require that. God intervened. That was not God's intent.

But, again, Isaac humbly submitted to his father just as Christ humbly submitted to his father.

We know that Jacob finally learned humility after many hard knocks along life's path.

Jacob made some mistakes. Obviously, he was a deceiver. He paid the price for some of his sins, some of his wrong decisions.

But God also used him in a great way to further God's plan.

Joseph was at first quite proud as a young man. He could have been a little more quiet about some of his dreams.

He could have been a little more humble about all of that.

Of course, he paid a price, perhaps, for that humility. If he had even more humble, then maybe his brothers would not have sold him into slavery. But it was God's way of humbling him in prison. He ended up in prison.

Even though he was a man of integrity, he stood up against Potiphar's wife and did the right thing.

He did not submit to her advances toward him. She was probably a very attractive woman. He was a young man.

Thankfully, he had more integrity than that. He said, I will not commit this great sin against God.

He also had a loyalty toward Potiphar, who had given him work and had promoted him.

We see that Joseph also learned to be a person of integrity and also of humility.

He shows this humility when meeting his brothers. He could have handled that a whole lot differently.

He did make them sweat for a while. You cannot really blame him for making them sweat a little bit.

Putting the grain in Benjamin's sack and everything that happened there.

That was good for his brothers to get the message of what they had done.

I do not think they really came to grips very well at all until all this transpired.

We see lots of examples in the Bible of integrity and humility and the lack thereof.

There's a lot of the lack thereof that leads to problems.

Let's go to a few verses in regard to humility.

1 Peter 5.

1 Peter 5.

Peter says, Likewise, you younger people, Submit yourselves to your elders.

Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. Notice it says, Be submissive to one another.

Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud.

But God does give grace to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

So God will, obviously, acknowledge a person's true humility, and in time they will be exalted. So if we can learn humility now, the ultimate exaltation is when Christ returns, when we're changed into spirit beings.

That's when we'll see some real unity in our lives. We'll become at one with God. We'll be like God. We'll be like Jesus Christ. So we'll be glorified. If we can stay humble in this life, and are pleasing to God, and the Spirit of God is with us upon our death or upon Christ's return, then we will truly be glorified and exalted with a new body.

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him. So having faith in God and casting your cares upon him, for he cares for you. That's also humility, is realizing that you are dependent upon God, and that you don't think you can do it all yourself.

And so you do humble yourself by putting all of your cares upon God, and trusting in him, and knowing in faith that he will deliver you. God is the God who delivers. He does deliver us from every trial, from every temptation, from anything that could come at us. We're not to fear man, because man can only kill the flesh. Right? Man can't take away God's Spirit. Only God can take away the Spirit that he's given us. And God isn't going to do that if we stay faithful, if we stay humble, and if we have integrity, God's going to obviously allow us entrance into his kingdom.

So he says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world, but may the God of all grace, who calls us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

And God will do that. You know, God will give us everything that we need. He will settle us. He'll heal us in various ways. If we trust in him and if we wait on him. You don't need to turn to James 4.10, but here it says, Humble yourself in the sight of the Eternal. Humble yourself before God. Proverbs 15, verse 33 says, The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility. Before destruction, the heart of man is haughty. Proverbs 18, verse 12 says, Before destruction, the heart of man is haughty.

Before honor is humility. So if you are seeking honor, which isn't a bad thing, having honor from God, especially, that's a wonderful thing. If that's the kind of honor that you're seeking, then remember that you need to have the proper fear of God, the proper respect of God. And then he will honor you in due time. Proverbs 22, verse 4 says, By humility and the fear of the Lord. Now, again, that's humility, and that's also having integrity. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Riches, honor, and life. Abundant life. Eternal life. And how about Micah 6, verse 8? He has showed you, O man, what is good, what the Lord requires of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

If we'll learn to do justly, which is integrity, and we love mercy and forgiveness, and we are forgiving people as well, and we walk humbly with God, we have nothing to fear. Notice in 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14. This is God to King Solomon. He says, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves. This was shortly after King Solomon became king. King David had died. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their land. I'm sorry, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.

So let's look at this from the perspective of this formula that we're talking about. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves. That's part of the equation. If they'll humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, what's that?

That's integrity, isn't it? If you'll turn from your wicked ways, and if you'll have integrity, and you'll become at one with God, or you'll be whole before God in God's sight, seeking to obey Him and serve Him, and also having a repentant mind. Because we all fall short at times. None of us are 100% full of integrity at all times. Sometimes we will sin against God.

Because of the weakness of our flesh, because the human heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to God's law. That's naturally...we have some hurdles. From a physical standpoint, being fleshly human beings, we start out with a heart that's deceitful above all things. Desperately wicked. It has to be trained. It has to be taught. And we have to yield to God and allow that to happen. So the human heart is deceitful, and also the carnal mind is enmity against God.

So we have to learn to think like Christ, instead of thinking like a normal human being. It's likely to think. We have to think like Christ our Savior thinks. So, again, if you'll turn from your wicked ways and have some integrity, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. And I believe that in God's church, the more we please God, the more He will heal us.

The more pleasing we are to God by having integrity and humility and learning to work together so that there is unity, God will bless us for that. God will allow us to have blessings in a lot of different ways. I believe spiritual blessings, surely, will be more pleasing to God. There will be a lot of spiritual blessings, but I believe there will also be some physical blessings that will also happen. God will bless us in a lot of different ways if we are pleasing to Him. It seems like in God's church, because we are human, that we have a tendency, if things are going well, to start feeling proud or something. And we start, you know, maybe we are, you know, maybe as long as things are going our way, you know, then things are great, but then if something doesn't go our way, maybe not everyone's listening to us and thinking we're the greatest, maybe somebody else is able to make some decisions and move us in a little different direction. You know, rather than being supportive and learning to have integrity and humility, learning to work together, instead we shoot ourselves in the foot, or the leg, or the arm, or even in the head at times, you know. So then we pay a price for that, and then we kind of get back on track after a while, hopefully. You know, we learn, you know, that's the lessons in the Bible. You know, what about the book of Judges? You know, time and time again, you know, they would go into captivity, then they would finally repent of their evil, and God would send them a deliverer, and there would be peace for a while.

But then pride would enter in again, and then the lack of integrity along with the pride, and then there were, again, big issues. So I think this formula, if we are honest with ourselves and we look back, we'll say, yeah, that's, you know, we were lacking humility there, lacking integrity, and that's why, you know, why things happened the way they did. So I'm encouraged by the fact that hopefully we've learned a lot over the years.

Those of us that are still with the program, not to say that there aren't others that are also, you know, okay with God. I mean, they're learning maybe in a different fellowship, they're still learning, they're still growing. You know, God's the judge of all that. I don't claim to have all that sorted out. But I know that if we, as the United Church of God, will learn to be more full of integrity, real true integrity and humility, then we are going to have a lot more unity in the body of Christ. Another example, Solomon was a good... that's a good example.

In fact, what happened to Solomon? 900 wives. That's not a lot of integrity. You know, worshiping other gods and having 900 wives and concubines total. You know, 600 and 300 or whatever it was. Yeah. It was a lot of concubines and a lot of wives and it wasn't God's way and they weren't to make alliances with all the different nations. And a lot of those intermarriages had to do with that sort of thing. And he told them that those foreign gods would cause them to worship other gods, gods of their lands.

That's exactly what happened. And of course, first of all, the house of Israel fell, did it not? You know, the house of Israel, they stopped observing the Sabbath. They were idol worshipers. Tremendous problems came their way because of a lack of integrity. Then the house of Judah. They were taken captive off into Assyria, scattered, lost ten tribes. You know the story. Then the house of Judah. The house of Judah held on longer. What, 150 to 200 years difference there?

586 and 714 or 711. So there was 100 plus years where the house of Judah was still present. But they ended up going into captivity, into Babylon. Some of them came back. You know, a remnant came back with Ezra and Nehemiah. And they started observing the Sabbath. Of course, they went too far. They didn't keep the Sabbath the way they were supposed to. And there's always been a consequence for the bad decisions that we make.

If we could just get it right and stay there for a certain amount of time, then we would see the blessings that God would pour upon us. I've seen it in God's church. There were times when we were more pleasing to God.

And things were a lot better. There were blessings upon the church. And then things got off track again, and down we go. So I find it very interesting. But one of the most important things for us to consider today is found over in Philippians 2. So let's go to Philippians. I want to spend some time here. Because, you know, really the greatest example of unity ever is God the Father and the Word, the Logos, the spokesman who became the Christ.

Their relationship, that's the finest example of true unity, true oneness, true wholeness, true integrity. So let's consider what it says in Philippians 2. We'll start in verse 5. Philippians 2. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ —I'm sorry, I'm starting in verse 1. Now that's good, let's start there. If there's any consolation in Christ, if there's any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, he says, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. So we're talking about unity. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Pride. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

In other words, practice humility. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Now, that's not necessarily thinking that a person's better than you are, but just that you should be willing to care for that person, look out for that person, love that person, look after that person, even if they have foibles, even if they're not perfect. He says, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

So it's being outward-centered, wanting to help other people. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. We know in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God.

The Word was God. Now, it's talking about the One who became Jesus Christ. He was there with the One we know as the Father from the very beginning, who being in the form of God, He was God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Now, this was part of God's plan, that God the Father would give His only Son. The Scripture says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

So that's a wonderful picture of love and humility and integrity, being willing to give your only Son to die for the sins of mankind. This is a being that you've lived with for eternity. The closeness, the love, there's no way we can even fathom the kind of closeness and the kind of oneness and the kind of love that the Word and the One who became known as the Father had toward each other.

That was true love. So the One, the Father, gave His only Son, and the Son was willing to no longer be in the form of God in the fullest sense. He was still God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, God's power. God was the Father. Jesus Christ became born of a woman, became flesh, dwelled among us, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. Jesus Christ was flesh and blood.

Now, He was also God because He had no human Father.

God was His Father. So He humbled Himself and He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So He humbled Himself to die. Someone who had lived forever, for all eternity, had the power of God, was God Almighty, along with the Father.

They had all power. They were both God-beings of the God-kind.

So He came and humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God, the Father, also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in Heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So you see tremendous unity between the Father and the Son. There's no competition going on when you exalt one or you give glory to one. You automatically give glory to the other. Now, every year at Passover we go through John chapter 14, 15, 16, and 17. Now we read it every year where Christ says, I and my Father are one. And He talks about the unity that they have, the two of them together, the unity that they have that they want to share with us. You know, it really takes some time to read through that again in the context of this formula that we're talking about. You know, go back and read chapter 14, 15, 16, and 17 again with the idea of humility, with integrity, and with unity. And, you know, it really adds. I went through that this morning. Before I left here I was just doing some Bible study. I was going through the book of John and saw how well it fit with what I'm talking about today. In fact, John 17, verse 5, says, Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was. Jesus Christ was about to die. He was about to have His life extinguished, His physical human life extinguished on the stake, on the cross. He was laying His life down, and He says, Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world, before the world was ever created. So the Word and the one known as the Father undoubtedly devised this plan. We don't know. We don't have, you know, there's no detail about how it all came to be. But we know before the angels were created, they were created for mankind, right? The angels. So God had this plan in line before He ever created the angels. Man wasn't an afterthought. You know, not after Lucifer rebelled. That was a foregone conclusion, you might say. God understood what was going to happen. He sees the end from the beginning. So mankind would be God's answer to developing His family and expanding His family.

So it's really quite amazing that the Father gave up the one He'd always loved completely for all eternity. He did it for mankind. That He might extend His family. You know, He wants us to be a part of His family. And He was willing to allow the one who was with Him for all eternity to be born of the flesh and to die for us and to go through a very painful death for all of us. So it's really an amazing truth that we can believe in and count on.

You know, in one of the sermons I gave... Actually, the sermon I gave here, I think, I gave one on Saved by Grace, didn't I? Wasn't that the last sermon I gave? In that sermon, I mentioned that God grants us His grace or favor as one who bends or stoops in kindness to an inferior. Remember that?

Isn't that humility? Someone as great as God who stoops in kindness and humility to us and saves us by His grace. God's very forgiving. If God wasn't forgiving, then none of us would have an opportunity to be in His family. So God is a loving, merciful, forgiving God, but He does want us to learn to follow His example. He does want us to become like Him. That's why we're here, to reflect God's character and how we treat one another, the love that we have for each other, the willingness to forgive each other, so that we can learn to follow this formula that leads to unity, to have integrity. Integrity means, I'm going to live by every word of God. The book is full of integrity, and I'm going to live by this book. I'm going to study it. I'm going to write these laws in my heart, so that I won't be someone who has a deceitful heart, but someone who is led by the Spirit of God, because we have a choice. We can either walk in the flesh, or we can walk in the Spirit. That's a choice that God gives us. It's our choice.

Now, if we walk in the flesh, then we will stir up that deceitful, carnal mind and heart. We'll stir up that heart that's deceitful. If we make ungodly decisions, it'll be that much harder to make good decisions. And we're going to train our heart to think evil.

On the other hand, if we resist those evil thoughts that come from a deceitful mind and a deceitful heart, if we resist that, the Bible says, resist Satan and he will flee from you. Satan has no control over you unless you allow that control. You're the one that gets to choose. You're the one that gets to make the choice.

We all have a choice to make, and it's so important that we make the right choices, because they will guide our path. If we make good choices today, we're more likely to make good choices tomorrow. More likely. That doesn't mean we will. Because I've said before in this sermon, look, ministers, we're told not to follow man, right? Except as they follow Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ. A minister of integrity is a minister of integrity until he isn't.

Do you understand what I'm saying? He's a man of integrity until he isn't. So it's by the fruits that you decide whether you follow the person or not. What is he doing? Is he leading you in a good path? Is he telling you the truth? Is he sowing discord? Is he building unity within the body of Christ? Or is he tearing things down? Is he perhaps puffed up with pride? What is motivating the person? Why is he doing what he's doing? Now, these are questions that we may have to answer for ourselves again. I've had to answer these questions. And I know a lot of you have had to answer these questions yourself. Where am I going to go? We're at a crossroads. Who will I follow? Will you have the wisdom to follow those who are following Christ? Or will you be duped?

So it is important to only follow men as they follow Christ. The Bible says, put not your trust in men. Only follow them as they follow Christ. Then you put your trust in Christ. You put your trust in God, not the person. Because a person is a wonderful minister until he isn't. And it's the same with all people. Usually they're fine until they're not. So the point is, you just have to be on guard. You can't assume anything.

Okay, I've got like three or four things in notes. I didn't have time to really do this the way I should have. I apologize for that. I'm a bit kind of busy. But let me just look through my notes here. Oh yeah, I wanted to go through Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. This is really an excellent few verses to consider when it comes to unity in the body. That's what it's talking about. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, Paul, of course speaking here, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Walk worthy. Actually, that was a message I gave to the ministry at the General Conference of Elders a couple of years ago. I was asked to give an address, and I talked about ministers walking worthy of their calling. The same thing is true of brethren. We all have to walk worthy of our calling. So Paul is saying, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, patience, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is unity in God's Spirit. I mean, that's really the tie that binds, isn't it? Anyone who has the Spirit of God dwelling in them and is yielding to the Spirit, that's another key. You have to also yield to God's Spirit. If you quench it and are being hard-hearted and rebellious and stubborn, and you're not yielding to the Spirit of God that's in you, then that's not going to lead to unity. But otherwise, the Holy Spirit is that bond, that tie that binds us together. So we should all endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. All of us should be peacemakers. Christ says a lot about being peacemakers. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. There's one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all, through all and in you all. And dropping down to verse 11, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. He's talking about a certain structure within the body of Christ. Some will have different roles to play for the equipping of the saints. So this is the goal for having an organized work or an organized church. For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, so that we can all preach the gospel of the kingdom of God to this world, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. Obviously, that's our goal to become perfect. Christ said, be you perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. He said, be you holy even as I am holy. So our goal is to become like God. So that's that calling. We are called to become like God. And we're to walk worthy of that calling.

So we are to reflect God's character in the choices and in the decisions and in the behavior that we...in the choices that we make and the behavior that we do.

Till we all come to the unity of the faith, to a perfect man, to the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men. We've seen that take place back in 1995. There was a lot of deceit and trickery going on. And to...unfortunately, too many people bought into that.

Tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunningness...cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, that we may grow up in all things unto Him, who is the Head, Jesus Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. Every joint is important in our body. My knee has not been behaving itself as well as I would like. I've been blessed, because I went 60-some years, with no problems with my knee, but it was good until it wasn't. So you can't put your trust in your knee. It may not always prove reliable. And every joint in our body, whether it's an elbow or all the different joints of the body, different things that we have... Everything is knit together, it says. It all works together, and the effective working by which every part does its share. 1 Corinthians 12 is another chapter that you can read later that talks about the body and how every part of the body has its own function. Everyone is an important part of God's Church. Each and every one of you is an important part, whether you're a child or an adult or a senior. You are an important part of God's Church. You add to God's Church. Your prayers are vitally important to God's Church. So don't ever minimize the role that any of you can have in God's Church. Because if you're a person of integrity and you're a person of humility, then you will add to the unity in God's Church. That's a pretty important role, I would say. A very important role. According to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Obviously, God is love, and we're to become like God. So we are to become loving people, again, who put God first in our lives. I'm not going to take the time to go through 1 Corinthians, but hopefully you remember 1 Corinthians. There were some schisms in the Church at Corinth. One says, I am of Apollos, or I am of Peter, or I am of Jesus Christ. People claiming to follow certain men. That's not healthy. We should all be of Christ and of the Father. That's who we need to look to. God the Father and Jesus Christ, look to the Word, because that's where we'll find integrity. Don't ever let any man get between you and your salvation. Work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling. That's what the Scripture says. It talks about humility. Knowing that your relationship with God is important. You need to relate to God in a godly manner. If you are pleasing to Him, there's no doubt that He will exalt you in due time. It's not something that we should seek ourselves. We should not seek glory. We shouldn't seek to be exalted, except that we want to be in God's family. We have a desire to become a true child of God and live forever with Him.

I want you to think about this formula. Give me some input. Let me know what you think. If you think of a better formula, let me know. If there's a better formula that leads to unity... This one's simple, because it's only three things. Well, it's only two things that lead to unity. But if you think of a better one, I would be interested... I'll probably preach about this for a long time in the future. Unity is an important theme for me. It's probably a theme that I'm going to talk about a good deal. If there's anything that you can add to that... It's true in our families. If we walk in integrity in our families, if we treat our wife or our husband with integrity and with humility, we're going to have unity in the family. If there's no unity, then there's a lack of integrity, a lack of humility, or both. So, study into that. If you have any problems in your marital relationship, be honest about it. Where are the problems? Is there humility and is there integrity? Nobody's perfect. It's true that both people add to the problems in a marriage. Because none of us are perfect, so we both lack integrity to some degree. Just how much integrity do we lack? Are we willing to apologize and say, I'm sorry when we've done something that's wrong? Or are we too proud? Because that goes a long way. An apology goes a long way. If someone believes you're sincere and you apologize for some bad behavior and you show a willingness to stop that kind of behavior, that's going to foster a much better relationship and a greater deal of unity. So it's true in the family. Parents who set godly examples of integrity and humility and also, of course, faithfulness, love, all that comes in there as well, then they're going to have good relationships with their children. Children who are obedient, of course, will also have good relationships with their parents. The parents will see that they respect them, that they do walk in obedience toward their parents. At work, it works at work too. If your boss sees that you're a person of integrity and that you're trying to do the right thing, you put in a good, hard day's work, you're honest and all that, hopefully that means something to your boss. Hopefully you have a good boss and that means something to them. And if you're humble about doing your work, there will be blessings at work. And certainly we talked about the church and how there are great blessings in God's church. So one last scripture before we close this is found in Psalm 133. Psalm 133, Psalm of David, Psalm 133. David did have certain insights into God's mind. What was important to God? In verse 1, he says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's a beautiful thing to see people dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. This is symbolic of God's spirit, God's spirit in the relationship, in this building the unity that comes between brethren who are dwelling together in peace and harmony. It is like the dew of Mount Ehrmon is talking about descending upon the mountains of Zion.

For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. That is the blessing that God wants to give each and every one of us. Life forevermore in his kingdom. That's when we'll see some tremendous unity when the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven. After God's plan is fulfilled, the holy days that we're going to be observing and have observed the spring holy days, the day of Pentecost, all of these days picture God's plan of salvation, how it all works together. So we know that there's much ahead of us so that we may have the gift of eternal life. God will give us life forevermore. But it is important that we learn to dwell together in unity. It's very important. So God has called us all to be men, women, and children of integrity and of humility. And if we're all practicing humility and integrity, undoubtedly there's going to be a lot more unity in our lives individually for ourselves. There will be blessings that come along because of that. But also in God's church, God is going to be more pleased with every one of us. So remember, integrity plus humility equals unity.