Read John 17:9-11
Godly Respect Produces Godly Growth.
Jesus continues to pray to God for the believers saying:
1. “I pray for them … And Glory has come to me through them.” Honestly, this is my heart’s desire. I want to bring glory to God’s name in all I do and say. I want my gifts to be used to the fullest in and through every Ministry opportunity. May that be all of our heart’s desire.
2. “Holy Father, protect them [all believers] by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be ONE as We are ONE.” Here’s God’s call for unity amongst the believers. This is hard. Churches all have problems. It’s not always easy to keep a unified body of believers. But here are some principles I’ve learned over time that need to be implemented within a church in order to keep unity.
- Respect God’s Word As The Ultimate Truth And Authority. Once you start to manipulate God’s truth so it coincides with how our society defines truth, we have a broken body of believers.
- Respect Your Authority. David, in the bible, was a great example of respecting the Authority. We must quit trying to be “Right” while disrespecting the authority God has established. More than once, I have seen people disrespect God’s Authority within the church because they didn’t like how the Authority was running things and they felt their way was better. Two examples include how the church was doing worship and how children’s ministry was being implemented. We could do better in keeping unity if we would pray for our Authority versus trying to fight against them.
- Respect One Another. Gossip is a killer for unity. Gossip is designed by the devil to divide a body of people and destroy the focus of oneness. It’s toxic and a church must confront it and remove it from one’s fellowship. I’ve seen division in churches by ongoing gossip which results in making others look bad in the attempt of making oneself look good. God, help us not participate in gossiping.
