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Unity, Criticism, and the Sovereignty of God • Mar 18th 2000

The Letter to the Romans: Message #7 – Chapter 13

Fellowship New Testament Organic Church Paul the Apostle The Epistles

We often look for external fault, but the greatest threat to our spiritual life—and the unity of the church—might be closer than we think. This profound message challenges us to embrace the radical truth of God’s absolute sovereignty, teaching us that all things, even those that are difficult or uncomfortable, are ultimately in His hand, not the devil’s. If we fail to fall down before the Lord and accept His ultimate purpose in our circumstances, we risk being destroyed by bitterness. The speaker warns that criticism is a destructive power of the tongue that inflicts enormous pain and shatters the fellowship of believers. Division begins when we start the “highly exacting monitoring” of others’ patterns and eccentricities, forgetting that love fulfills all law and never hurts another person. True harmony and God’s glory are dependent on unity; the only way forward is to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and consecrate our tongues to Him.

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Mama sat down, and this guy got up to preach, and his topic that morning was Billy Graham, and he laid it on Billy Graham, and he was giving Billy Graham down one side and up the other. Mama got madder. You can’t imagine what my mother’s like when she got into a steam. It was something like this: she got up in the middle of a pew. She was in the middle of a pew. She got up, cupped her hands like this, and said, “Hooray for Billy Graham!” And stormed out. I have always felt sorry for that preacher. I would like to console him today by saying Mister, that was a pattern. My mama would do anything. That was so typical of her. That was just my mother. Now you know a little why I’m like I am. Patterns, Patterns, Remember them. There are patterns. This should help you.  If you can remember this, it will help the unity here a great deal. It doesn’t mean you throw them out because of it. They just got patterns, and they are probably going to keep them right up until the day they die, unless something intervenes.

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