So have you ever been part of a group where everyone has to work together, like a sports team? I never played sports, so who here played sports on teams? Hmm, I'm very outnumbered. OK. Choir? Anybody ever part of a choir or band?
OK. Or maybe you've been part of a theatre production.
Yes, there's my man. So this is the one I'm going to speak into more. So the actors are on stage, but behind them there's a whole team doing things that most of the audience never sees, right? Lighting, sound, costumes, props, stage management, set changes. They all have completely different jobs, but they're working towards the same thing, bringing the production to life.
You wouldn't walk backstage and say, "Why isn't the lighting crew doing what the actors are doing?" Because that's not their job. And you wouldn't say to the person running sound, "You're not really contributing because you're not on stage." I dare you to tell our sound team that, right? Of course they are contributing. They're just doing so in a different way. And I think that this is an important picture for us as we think about where we are as a church.
Now, as I mentioned last week, we are getting ready to hear about the takeaways from the Prayer Discernment Journey that some of you participated in over the course of 3 months. And the purpose of that journey was to intentionally seek God's leading for what he has planned for us in this new season of ministry and mission here at Fallingbrook Heights. But knowing God's leading is only the beginning. Once we begin to understand where God is leading us, we have to figure out how we're going to move in that direction. And if you're going to move forward all on the same page as a church, then togetherness matters.
And that's why this message today is called United: All for One and One for All. And yes, that is a Three Musketeers hat on a Bible. Because what matters is not just knowing where we're going, but moving there together. Because when we— when— because we can have a clear sense of where God is leading us and still struggle to move in that direction if we're all pulling in different ways. Last week we talked about the importance of refocusing our attention, lifting our eyes, keeping them on Jesus so that we don't get distracted and pulled in a dozen different directions.
So today we're taking the next step. What does it actually look like for a church to be united? So Paul addresses this in Ephesians 4. So after spending the first 3 chapters explaining what God has done for us through Christ, Paul begins chapter 4 by turning toward how we are now called to live. So he says in verses 1 to 6, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over and— over all and through all and in all. So Paul begins with a calling. Live a life worthy of the calling that you have received. And then he describes what that looks like: humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, and making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit.
And then he gives us the foundation underneath of it all: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. So if you were counting, 7 times Paul uses the word one, and that's where we're going to focus today. When we hear the word unity, I think sometimes we can confuse it with uniformity. We might assume that if we're united, then we should all think the same way, want the same things, do things the same way, have the same priorities, and maybe even have the same opinions. But that's not really unity.
That's uniformity. And the two are not the same. So I want to show you something that illustrates the difference really well. We're going to see a video of a Japanese dance group called Avant Garde. They appeared on America's Got Talent, and they're known for their distinctive look, unusual choreography, exaggerated expressions, and incredible precision.
So as you watch this, pay attention to something. There are a lot of dancers on that stage, and they're clearly moving together, but they're not always doing the same thing. Sometimes they're perfectly synchronised. Other times, one dancer is doing something completely different from the person beside her. They may be moving in different directions, creating different shapes, or doing different movements that complement what the others are doing, and yet somehow all of it fits.
They're united by the music, they're united— unified by the style, they're unified by the choreography, and they're unified by the overall vision of the performance. And that's what makes it so interesting. They don't have to do exactly the same thing in order to be completely together. In fact, sometimes the performance is most effective precisely because they're doing different things at the same time, all of which are working towards the same vision of the choreographer. So can we watch the clip?
[video clip from America's Got Talent]
Pretty cool, eh? Not something you planned on seeing today. Pardon? We're going to do that next time. Yeah.
Joanne really found that funny. If we can't get this one, I'm thinking maybe that's a little farther away than next week. But imagine if halfway through that performance one dancer decided, "I'm tired of doing it this way. I think my way is better." And another said, "I don't really like the choreography, so I'm going to do something different." And another said, "I think my part is more important than everybody else's part." It wouldn't take long before the whole thing fell apart. Because the goal isn't for every dancer to become the same person.
The goal is for every dancer to become part of something bigger than themselves. And I think that gives us a helpful picture of what Paul is talking about in our passage in Ephesians 4. Paul doesn't say that the church is one because we're all alike. He says that we are one body. And a body is made up of many different parts with different functions.
But all parts are what— working towards the same purpose, which is keeping the body functioning. Christian unity isn't about making everyone the same, it's about bringing people who are different together under the same Lord, empowered by the same Spirit, with the same hope, for the same purpose. So look again at verses 4 to 6 where Paul says, "There is one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." Paul doesn't say there's one personality, one opinion, one background, one gift, one preference, one way of doing things. He gives us 7 things that unite us, and none of them say that we have to be identical. The church is one because of what God has done, not because everyone in the church is the same.
And that means our differences don't have to be a threat to our unity. In fact, they're part of God's design. Just like the human body, different parts have different functions. They don't all work in the same way, but they belong to the same body. And that's why Paul doesn't tell us to eliminate our differences.
He calls us to live together in a way that allows those differences to serve the body rather than to divide it. And that's also why Paul begins this section by talking about humility and gentleness and patience. And bearing with one another in love. Because unity doesn't require us to agree on everything, but it does require us to learn how to live with people who aren't exactly like us, who have different personalities, different experiences, different gifts, different perspectives, and different preferences, and most likely different opinions. But none of those things has to become more important than what we have in common in Christ.
Unity doesn't mean we have to be the same. Unity does mean we should not let our divisions— our differences divide us. And perhaps that's something particularly important for us to remember as we look forward to this next season at Fallingbrook. God may be leading us into things that we've never done before. There may be new opportunities, new ministries, new partnerships, new ways of serving, new people, new ideas.
And we may not all respond to those things in exactly the same way, and that's okay, as long as we keep coming back to the things that make us one. One Lord, one faith, one hope, one Spirit, one body, one God and Father, because God did not call us to become identical. He called us to become united. So let's look at the second thing that Paul wants us to understand here. Every person matters and every person has a role.
So go back to the beginning of this passage and Paul says, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." And that word "calling" is important because sometimes when we hear the word "calling" we think it has— it is only talking about pastors or missionaries, those who are practising the profession of ministry. But Paul is writing to the whole church. This calling is for every believer. If you belong to Christ, you have been called by God. You have a place, you have a purpose, you have something to contribute to the body of Christ.
That means that there isn't just a handful of people who are the ministry while everybody else simply attends church. We are the body and everybody has something to contribute. We sometimes struggle with this because we tend to measure importance by visibility. If someone is standing on the platform, we notice them. If someone is preaching, we notice them.
If someone is leading worship, we notice them. But there are countless things happening in the life of the church that most people never see. Someone is praying. Someone is making a phone call to cheque in on someone. Someone's setting up chairs and the tech equipment.
Someone's welcoming people. Someone is encouraging someone else who is feeling down. Someone is quietly giving above and beyond their usual offering. Someone is cleaning up after everyone else has gone home. Someone notices that a person sitting alone doesn't have anyone to talk to.
These things may not get noticed. They may look or felt to be insignificant, but they are hugely significant. They are what keeps the body functioning. And I think there's a really fascinating illustration of this in Cirque du Soleil's production of "O." Has anybody seen it? No?
So it's the water one. If you've ever seen it, they are doing incredible things on stage, like they always do in Cirque du Soleil, but there's people that are diving into the water from incredible heights, there's acrobats flying, flying through the air, there's performers that disappear beneath the water, and then they reappear somewhere else, and from the audience it can look almost magical. But underneath that stage is an entire team of people making those moments possible. There are divers who work underwater throughout the performance. The audience doesn't see what they do, because they're not standing up, they're not under a spotlight, they're not being seen.
But— and they don't receive the applause. They're not flying through the air. They're underwater, hidden from view, and yet they are an essential part of the production because they help the performers underwater. They provide air for them when it's needed. They assist with transitions.
They manage the props and underwater elements and communicate with the rest of the production team. And they have to know exactly where they need to be and when they need to be there. 'Cause imagine if one of those divers decides, "You know what? I don't think that my role is all that important 'cause nobody sees me." And they just stop doing their job. The audience might never know exactly why the performance suddenly isn't working the way they should— the way it should.
But the people on stage would certainly know. Because what happens behind the scenes affects what happens on the stage. And I think that's incredibly helpful when we picture the life of the church. Sometimes we look at someone else's role and we think, "That's important," and then we look at our own role and think, "What I'm doing really isn't that significant. It's not that important." But that's not how God views the body.
Visible doesn't mean more important and hidden doesn't mean less important. The person standing at the front during the service isn't more important or necessary to the functioning of the church than the person sitting quietly in the congregation praying for that service. The perp— person preaching isn't more important than the person who made sure that people were welcomed. The church isn't a stage with just a few performers and an audience. We are the body.
We are valued and needed, and not one is more than another. We are all for one and one for all. And that's important for us to remember as we think about moving forward together. Because moving forward together doesn't mean that everyone has to move in exactly the same way doing exactly the same thing. In fact, that would actually mess up any attempt to move at all.
We'd be just be tripping over each other, wouldn't we? What will move us in the same direction is being united in where we're going and who we're following. And for us, that means moving forward together under the Lordship of Jesus toward the mission he has given us. So instead of asking whether we have a role to play in these next steps, perhaps we should ask, "What has God entrusted to me?" Sometimes I think we like to wait for God to give us some huge, clearly defined ministry opportunity that we can just step into and it just keeps on going. But the reality is that God has already placed ministry opportunities right in front of us.
And maybe your role isn't something that will ever put you on a platform. Maybe nobody will ever applaud you for it. Maybe you won't even know the full impact of what you did. But that doesn't make it less important or less valuable. 'Cause remember those divers beneath the stage at O?
The audience doesn't see them, but the performers depend on them. And in the same way, there are people in this church whose contribution may never be highly visible, but the body is stronger because they are here and because they are faithfully doing what God has given them to do. And there's another side to this as well. If every person matters, the whole body is needed, then one person cannot do everything. Nobody is the whole body— not the pastor, not the leadership team, not the most active person serving.
Nobody is the whole body. We need one another. And that may be one of the most important things for us to remember as we think about our future. God isn't going to accomplish his purposes for this church through one person doing everything. He will accomplish his purposes through his people, each offering what he has given them, each playing their part, each making their contribution, and all of us working together under the lordship of Christ.
And that brings us to our third and final point. So we're gonna talk about something that can be difficult for any church: disunity. And it's important for us to talk about because disunity weakens our mission. Paul says we are to be diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Notice the word "keeping." Paul doesn't tell us to create unity.
God has already created it. Our responsibility is to protect it. Why does that matter? Because unity isn't simply about whether or not we get along. It has a missionary purpose.
Jesus prayed in John 17:21, "May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." Our unity is part of our witness. Now, healthy churches can have healthy disagreements. The challenge comes when our opinions become our agendas, because that's where disagreement can become division. But healthy leadership looks different. It begins with listening, really listening and asking, "What are you seeing?
What are you sensing? What might I be missing?" And that's what actually made our prayer discernment journey so important. It wasn't about one person deciding, "Here's what I think we should do next." It was an opportunity for us as the body of Christ to come together and pray and listen and seek God's direction for the next season of our mission and vision.
We weren't gathering simply to find out what people wanted. We were gather— gathering to listen for what God wanted. Now, if we have concerns, we should be able to talk about them. We should be able to ask questions, and we should be able to disagree. But the goal should always be to bring those conversations back into a process of prayerful discernment.
Because the goal should not be about getting others to agree with us, it should be about trying to discern together what God is asking us to do. That is what it means to be the body. We don't simply decide where we're going and then ask everyone else to follow. We listen to God together and then we move forward together. And that's where Paul's words about humility and gentleness and patience and bearing one— with one another in love become so important.
These are not simply nice qualities for getting along. They're not just fun lyrics in a song. They are mission-shaped qualities. Humility says, "I may not see the whole picture." Gentleness says, "I can disagree without attacking." Patience says, "I don't have to get my way immediately." Bearing with one another in love says, "I can remain committed to you even when we don't see things the same way." And Unity says, "Our relationship with one another matters more than winning an argument." Because none of us has perfect wisdom, none of us sees everything that God is doing, and none of us should assume that our personal preference is automatically God's direction for the church. So when we disagree, we need to ask, "How do we seek God together and discern what is best for his church?" And that brings us back to our theme.
United. One for all and all for one. 'Cause it means we listen and we support one another. We make room for different perspectives. We pray together.
And we keep moving forward together because the church doesn't belong to any one person. It belongs to Jesus. This is not really our church. It's his church. And we have been given the privilege of serving it.
And Paul reminds us that we are to do so united in one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. And if we keep coming back to those things, if we keep coming back to Jesus, to his Spirit, to our shared calling, then our differences don't have to pull us apart. Instead, they can become part of what God uses to move us forward. One for all and all for one. One, and together we can move forward into whatever God has next for Fallingbrook Heights.
Let's pray. Gracious God, thank you. We thank you for reminding us that you have called us to follow you together as the body of Christ. Forgive us for the times when we have allowed our own preferences, our own priorities, or our own agendas to become more important than what you are calling us to do together. Give us hearts that are willing to listen to one another, to encourage one another, and to make room for one another.
Help us to remember that we each have a part to play and that none of us is the whole body on our own. Lord, if, if you are leading us somewhere new, we pray that you give us the courage to go. If you are asking us to let something go, give us the grace to release it. If you're calling us to move forward, help us not to pull in different directions but to walk together with our eyes fixed on Christ. Make us one for all and all for one, a church where we care for one another, serve one another, and move forward together for the sake of your kingdom.
And may everything We do point beyond ourselves to Jesus, who is our head, our hope, and our reason for moving forward. And we pray this in his name. Amen.
