Your state of UNITY determines your Response
I want to show how even before the cross and the tearing of the veil- God has always been a God all about RELATIONSHIPS- not works. Your Salvation/ You being Saved by God does NOT come by your works.
From the beginning of time God has always provided a HELPER for His Children. A helper to help them with their responsibilities or to get through their circumstances, hardships, life, etc.
Tonight I will be talking about UNITY.
I believe that God DOES NOT create us to be alone. He creates us knowing He has a Helper created for us as well so that we cannot be alone. Maybe not at the same exact time He creates you- but I believe that God is our provider and He PROVIDES us with a HELPER COMPARABLE TO US because God is a God of Unity and Relationship.
The definition of UNITY is the state of being UNITED or joined as a WHOLE. The quality or state of NOT being multiple. ONENESS.
When God created me, He created a helper for me that was comparable to me. He created my best friend, Brian. Brian got me through every hard time in my life, went to every family function, funeral, wedding, every Homecoming, Prom, etc. that I went to.
Now we just defined unity as ONENESS.
Draw Numeral One on board and do the explanation. Bessie, Brian, God.
We all have responsibilities in life. But God gives His children response abilities. And Has done this since the beginning of time. Ability is defined as âPossession of the means/Skill to do something.â
The Response Ability God gives us is UNITY. Because of our Unity with God and with our Unity with the Helpers He Provides to us we are ABLE to have the response  of OBEDIENCE. To really understand the awesomeness of this message tonight- I really need you guys to grasp that He gives you the UNITY before He gives you responsibilities. Response is defined as a  âReaction or Replyâ. That is why it makes sense that Mankindâs state of UNITY determines or causes their response. A response from Mankind does not produce our unity.
Now letâs jump into the word.
Genesis 2:7. âAnd the Lord God formed a MAN of the dust of the ground and BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS the Breath of Life; and man became a LIVING being.â
Adam was in communion with God. He had a relationship with God. God walked with Him, and Godâs breath was in Adam. Â There was UNITY with them. Then God gave him TWO responsibilities.
Genesis 2:15-17- â15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, âOf every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.â Since He had a UNION with man and He LOVED mankind- He tells Adam âDonât do this because if you do- youâre going to die.â Sounds a lot like saving Adam doesnât it?
Then before Adam could even respond to the Lord- The Lord responds to Adam. And The Lord set out on a mission to Provide for Adam. The Lord saw Adamâs need before Adam even did. He responded with another relationship.
Genesis 2:18 â18 And the Lord God said, âIt is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.â So God goes out looking for Adam a helper and doesnât find one comparable to Adam. So The Lord Created one. If you have a need of any kind and there is not a solution or a way out or an answer to be found, The Lord God will create one JUST FOR YOU.
In Genesis 2:21-24 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.23 And Adam said: âThis is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.â 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
This is the creation of Eve and the first marriage. Marriage is a permanent union and also produces spiritual unity between husband and wife.
Draw Roman Numeral (I. I is one person. also the roman numeral has three parts but it is one whole) just like Adam, Eve, and God. each line in the roman numeral.
Relationships in Godâs sense. From beginning He only wanted a union and relationship with us. He could have stayed in Heaven but DESIRED TO BE WITH US. He loved relationship with Adam so much that He never wanted Adam to be alone so He created Eve for Him.
Adam and Eve had unity with God. The Bible also refers to their relationship as âbeing in communion with Godâ. First the coolness in this is that communion as the word UNION in it. Secondly, Communion is defined as the act/ or an instance of sharing as of thoughts or ideas. A Spiritual fellowship. A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP with someone.â And thirdly the definition of the prefix of COM is with COMPLETELY.  So Adam and eve were in communion with God (they walked and talked with Him), they knew God as He is⊠their minds werenât clouded by falsehoods or half truths. And they possessed SPIRITUAL life. They were alive not just physically, but their souls were alive. Â
Us Humans were doing real good. Then we jumped on the struggle shuttle.
Now God said that it is not good for mankind to be alone⊠So why ole girl was alone the garden without her hubby Iâm not sure. I guess since she wasnât there to hear God when He said it to Adam- Adam must have forgot to inform her of this information.  So Eve decided to go all AWOL on Adam and God and was wondering about and since she was alone- Satan creeped in. She let him cloud her mind with a half truth and she responded by not being in communion with God. She let Satan appeal to her fleshly desires, then revised the word of God, and then REJECTED the word of God by yielding to Satan and her own desires instead of Godâs will. Basically she broke up with God. She forgot about her unity with God and separated herself from Him. Then Adam did the same thing.
Then Godâs response is so cool. His response set the stage for the entire biblical theme. The moment sin entered in, He responded with REDEMPTION. God found them hiding in the garden, just like how even now when we do something wrong- we want to go and hide. But God covered up their sin even there in the garden. The scarlet thread of redemption that runs through the Bible begins with the hides of animals God used to COVER sinful Adam and Eve and ends with the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God on Calvaryâs cross washing away the sins of the world. Then God initiated a plan to reverse the effects of manâs sin. He tells them that there will be a struggle and both man and the serpent will be bruised but the serpent will suffer a PERMANENT bruise to the head.
This prophetic promise is the FIRST statement of âGood Newsâ of the âComing of Jesusâ.
This shows us that even before the cross- God wasnât a dictating, controlling mean God of rules. He only desired to have communion/relationship with us. He gave us the ability to respond with obedience but also gave us free will. And when we rejected the unity and chose to disobey- He automatically responded with LOVE and came up with a plan on how He could get our intimacy back with Him.
Even with Noah.
Rain had NEVER happened before (which I know is debatable... but from what I understand I donât believe it had before. If Iâm wrong please correct me and explain your thoughts). But when God told Noah to build an arc because a boo koo amount of water was about to fall from the sky and destroy everything on earth- Noah had SO MUCH faith in God that he didnât question God- he just obeyed. Â
Noah was declared righteous by God not because of him building the arc (which would be considered a WORK)- but because he BELIEVED.
*Another hint at God being a God of relationships that Iâm not going to go into is that on the arc God said to take two of each kind. Yes- I know the earth had to be repopulated. But I also know that God always provides a way so if He wanted He could have repopulated by breathing it into existence. But for the like 370 days they had to be on the arc- Â I think that God also wanted to provide everyone with a buddy to have them to lean on too.
Our obedience to God is a product of our oneness/ unity/relationship with Him. Our obedience is a manifestation of our righteousness, not the means to our righteousness. It bears witness to others of our faith in God. Itâs the way we express to God our faith in/of Him.
Just how God responded to Adamâs need by giving him Eve, a âHelper Comparable to Adamâ. God did the same thing when He responded to our need for Jesus. Jesus walked the earth a HUMAN. Making Him comparable to us as well. He was human, but He carried the characteristics and the will of God which made Him radiate the Glory of God- yet He still was us⊠human.. making Him relatable (I think I just made that word up...). Matthew 1:23 says ââLook! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,[a]which means âGod is with us.ââ. Before He was even born we knew that he was ONE with God. Since He was ONE with God -this made Him able to carry out the Will of God. When Jesus  responded to God in obedience by going into the wilderness He was tempted by Satan. Just how Eve was. Satan was tempting Him with the desires Satan knew He had. I would be starving and wanting fall off the highest point of the temple if I didnât have food for 40 days. But Jesus responded by quoting the word of God and the DEVIL LEFT. He didnât respond by giving into his fleshly desires. He kept the Unity with His Father.
Jesus points out unity a lot on His walk on earth. âI am the vine- you are the branches, My Father is the Vinedresser.â Â He tells us that ABIDING in Him- which means being with Him constantly in His love- will cause us to bear much fruit (showing we are true disciples), we can ask for whatever we want and we will get it- because our desires will become in unity with His and we will have much joy. Â But if we donât- then we can do nothing and will be cast into the fire. This is not scary. He literally is telling us that we will be saved from the fire by just remaining in the love of Jesus and manifesting the fruit He bears in us. John 15:1-17
So unity gives us freedom. Freedom comes from Unquestionable Obedience.
John 8:31-36
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him,(WHAT MAKES YOU RIGHTEOUS? BELIEVING IN HIM) âIf you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.â PAUSE. He never lies. So His Word is TRUTH. He TOLD Adam bruh that fruit will kill you. If He would have REMAINED in the WHOLE truth which was the word of God instead of Satanâs HALF TRUTH he would have remained in unity and freedom. UNPAUSE33 They answered Him, âWe are Abrahamâs descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, âYou will be made freeâ?â34 Jesus answered them, âMost assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Jesus abided (yes I know I make up a lot of words.) in complete submission to the Fatherâs Will. Crying out âLet Your Will be doneâ and his body was broken for us and His blood poured out for us.
All so we can have a relationship with God.
When the Helper God gave me went home to be with God. I was heartbroken. My mom still to this day will tell you that she didnât think I was going to survive his death. And Iâm sure the disciples felt the same way about Jesus.
But God always provides for His Children. He gave us, again another Helper to be in unity with. The Holy Spirit.(John 20:19-23) He did not leave them alone. God created humanity with His breath. Jesus gave the disciples the Holy Spirit with His breath. God was recreating humanity in Christ.
John 14:15-18
John 14:25-28 We are one with Holy Spirit because he lives inside of us.
The ABILITY Jesus gives us is the Holy Spirit.
a synonym for ability is capacity.
Capacity: the max amount something can contain. The ability or power to do, experience or understand something.
We want to be filled to the maximum amount with the Holy Spirit. and when we are the Holy Spirit gives us power to experience and understand!
Closing:
Unity is fruitful
Adam and Eve were in communion with God and walked with Him in the garden.
Their unity with God produced life and He also called them to be fruitful and multiply.
Our union with Immanuel (God with us) produces good fruit and will cause us to have much JOY! (John 15).
Walking in unity with the Spirit will cause us to produce the fruits of the Spirit (Galations 5:16-26)
