One Heart

By Pastor Sharron Scott

4/13/13

In Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, he asked the Father to have the same relationship with us that he had with his Father in Heaven. “As I am in you, and you are in me, may they also be in us.”

John 14:20

²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

John 17:20-21 One as we are one.

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I believe another way of saying this is that Jesus wanted us to be of one heart with Him and the Father.

So many of us know God and love Him with all our hearts. But we are not “One Body”. Yes, we call Christians the “Body of Christ”, but we are not united. Our hearts all beat differently. We love differently—not as God loves, but with divisiveness born of the enemy.

Evidence that we are not yet “one Body, THE Body of Christ”, is the fact that we can’t even worship together. Oh, once a year or so a few churches may gather together for a picnic or barbeque and love on each other. But what happens the rest of the year?

“Well,” we say, “they do weird things like wave flags and dance and fall on the floor. It’s embarrassing! It’s distracting!” or “they are too judgmental and legalistic” (what’s wrong with THAT statement?) We are very good at agreeing with the enemy. That is not what love looks like.

1 Corinthians 13

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

That is what the heart of God looks like. Because God is love. As his body, we are called to love as He loves. That means seeing as he sees. Feeling as he feels. Hearing (and listening) as he does. Thinking as he thinks.

And before you think or say it, I want to remind you--- we are not “just human” or “just sinners saved by grace”. As hosts of the very Presence of God, his Holy Spirit, we can’t play that card. We are not alone, ever.

What does it mean to be “in” Jesus, and for him to be “in” us, and for us to be “in” the Father?

Encarta Dictionary defines abide as “to dwell, to live or reside in a place”.

To “abide in” is very close to meaning “of one heart”. When we surrender our own feelings of superiority, and form our opinions based on how God feels, not the enemy, we will begin to respond to each other in a new way—His way. Partner with God, not the enemy.

Finding common ground first is a great way to begin:

Do we love Jesus?

Do we love to sing his praises?

Do we love to worship him?

Do we love to thank him?

Do we love to serve him?

The best way and the most pleasing to God is to do all of these by fulfilling Jesus’ requests:

Matthew 25:35-45

³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Have you ever noticed how a disaster will draw people together? Suddenly the “legalistic” folks are shoulder to shoulder with the “fundies”, serving together! It’s amazing! It is a display of God’s love, and it is good.

When the perceived need dies down, the enemy creeps back in. Everyone goes back into their comfort zone, and they forget the feeling of “oneness” they shared for just that moment in time.

That feeling, in that moment, is the heart of God. Our hearts beat to the rhythm of His. Why? Because his blood courses through our veins. How do we know this?

Because only God can make blood. The very same blood he gave from himself to Adam. That same blood runs through each of us, giving us life.

When we received Christ as our Savior we were given access to His precious, shed blood. We renew this in the spiritual realm every time we take communion in the physical realm, together.

John 6:53-58

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Do you see how desperately the enemy does not want our hearts to beat together? He does not want us uniting—abiding in the power of the blood of Jesus!

If we are united, abiding with Christ by the Holy Spirit in God, you are talking about some major blood pressure! That power is something the enemy cannot face!

And all we have to do is what Jesus asks of us. Love one another as He has loved us.

John 13:34-35

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

You see, we have it in us to do this. It courses through our very veins!

Ego, pride, superiority, authoritativeness, resentment, laziness, selfishness and so on… “That’s not what love looks like” as Pastor Cameron Ross says. So what are we doing and WHY? We are giving the enemy victory when we ignore or disobey God.

We must defeat the enemy’s efforts to divide the Body of Christ. A divided Body is not a picture of God’s heart. Scripture teaches us about the divided body—

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Unity and Diversity in the Body

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²⁸ And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹ Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Gather together. Worship. Love each other as Jesus loves us, through God’s eyes. Our job is to bring Heaven to earth NOW. There is no division in Heaven!

One God, one heart, one Body. One love. Us in Jesus, Jesus in us. Us abiding together in God.

One Heart.