Victoria Osteen - Unity In The Body Of Christ
Thank you, Lord. We bless you in this place. So, the other day, Joel and I, we needed to get out a little bit. It was in the evening and a lot of times we'll go ride bikes and get a little exercise, so we thought, "Well, let's just get on our bikes and let's go out and see how far we can go". We usually have a certain path that we take, so we headed out in that direction, and we get to this one intersection and it's a large, four-way intersection with lights governing the cars. But when we got to this main intersection, we saw that there was about six policemen out there overriding the lights.
They were actually moving the cars through the intersection, letting the people go safely through the intersection, and as we were waiting our turn, I was looking from a distance and I was noticing those officers, and I thought to myself, isn't it interesting that they can be far apart, they're moving the cars through, but they're working in such unity together? And they've got this communication as they're working together, and I could see that their major goal was this, to move the people through safely so the traffic will flow and to keep everyone at peace.
Now, you know through this flooding, we've had detours all over the city and the traffic is horrible. So, these guys were literally moving this traffic through, keeping peace. Road rage, no, no road rage at that intersection. Nobody was telling anyone how they felt with hand signs because those officers were doing such a good job. So, I stood there amazed and I realized the strength in that whole process was unity, communication, working together. That's why the traffic was flowing, and the people were safe, and it was a peaceful situation.
You see, we, the church of the living God, should have the same goal to work in unity with one another, to be under the same bond of peace. You see, our main goal should be to move people safely into the arms of Jesus. You see, the traffic was a difficult situation, but because they had the ability to unite together, that difficult situation was made easier. Can you imagine if one of those officers said, "You know, I want this car to go through. No, I don't want to wait my turn. I like this green car. I want it to go through". What would happen if the other one was going, "Well, no, I want mine to go through"? But you know what? They did it, they put themselves aside and they stood in unity.
You see, that's what we have to do as a church. If we're going to rise up to the levels that God is calling us to, we're going to have to put our selfishness, our pride, our own agendas aside and say, "We're going to come together in unity under the blood of Jesus Christ through the bond of peace". When God was taking the children of Israel out of Egypt, the night that he was getting them prepared, the passover, he instructed them to take a sacrificial lamb, and he instructed them to sacrifice that lamb, and to take that blood and to put it over their doorpost. Each family took the blood of the lamb and put it over their doorpost. He instructed them to prepare themselves because in the morning, they were leaving Egypt. It was going to be a mass Exodus out of the Pharaoh's hand and his army. This was it. This was it, the power of the enemy was going to be broken.
But can I tell you one thing? You know what their common bond was? You know why they able to escape the power of the enemy, the thing that brought them together, the sameness, the oneness? It was the blood. It was the blood over the doorpost that distinguished them as the army of God, as God's great people and allowed them to move out of Egypt. It was the blood that parted the Red Sea. It was the power of oneness in their life. You've seen charlton heston split the Red Seas. You've seen the movies. Think about it, it was millions of people bound together, millions of people with different opinions, different likes and dislikes, different habits, but they were bound with that one likeness, that oneness, and it was the obedience to the blood.
We, the church, have the blood of Jesus Christ, and if we will stand together in that oneness of Christ, God will continue to part Red Seas for us. He will continue to build cities, restore families, bring in the lost. He will continue to do what he does best, redeem the life of mankind. You see, the Bible says in Psalm 133, it says, "When there is unity, there is a commanded blessing". God has already commanded the blessing under the blood. We need the commanded blessing if we're going to make it through these difficult times. We need to stand under that commanded blessing. We need to not fight with each other about faith. We need to faith together for our faith and for the blood, for the blood.
You see, God is a faithful God. We must stand together in the spirit. Let your differences go. That's not what's going to save us. That's not what's going to bring people to the arms and saving power of Jesus Christ. It's the love of God. It's the blood that he gave, his son, that makes us one together. We gotta fight together for the faith. You know, the scripture says that if as far as it is up to us, each one of us, as far as it is up to us, we are to keep the peace. We are to be united in the spirit by the bond of peace, and God said it's up to us to keep the peace.
See, that tells me that I have a big part to play in all this, that if it's up to me, I don't have to get in conflict because if I'm in the middle of conflict, I have a choice. I can either be in the conflict and be the conflict or I can be the peace in the conflict, and God is saying where there is peace, there's power because unity and peace go hand in hand. They can't be separated. When you're united under the blood, you can have peace because God has the final say. You don't stand in your own righteousness. You stand in God's righteousness, under the blood. Listen, he's right every time. He's right every single time, and you know, the scripture tells us in Philippians how to put on the full armor of God and it talks about the different things that God has given us to use to stand against the schemes of the enemy, the one that would try to separate us, cause us to back bite, to devour ourselves.
See, God knew, don't devour yourselves. Don't talk about each other. Don't argue with one another. You'll implode. You will do it to yourselves. Stand in oneness under the spirit, and it talks about one particular garment and it's the shoes of peace. Stand in the shoes of peace. Too many people want to stand in the shoes of rightness. They want to be right. "I'm standing for what is right". Can I tell you? You don't need to stand for what's light if you stand in God's righteousness. God'll make you right. He'll make you right. See, it's not about who's right anyway. It's about what's right. It's about the blood.
Listen, God is the one who's going to bring this whole thing around. Hey, it's not if you do this or you say that. It's oneness in Jesus Christ. So, can I encourage us as a church body to not get entwined in civilian affairs? We are the army, the warriors of Jesus Christ. We got a greater commission. We've got a higher calling. God is a faithful God, and can I tell you? He wants to use you and he wants to use me to usher in the greatest revival, the biggest healing, the best act of his goodness so far and he wants to use us. Don't fall prey to the enemy. Don't fall to the trap of the enemy. Don't allow him to steal your commanded blessing.
Listen, our homes should be united. We should be united with our spouses, with our children. Listen, at the end of the day, we have one God, one father, there is one heaven. It is not divided. There is only one, and I want to tell you I don't know, I've been married 30 years and I can tell you that Joel and I agree on everything? Absolutely not, but I'll tell you, at the end of the day, we're standing in the shoes of peace under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We're going to let him fight our battles for us. We're going to let him make our wrongs right, and we're going to stay in unity of the spirit with the bond of peace, and we're dedicated to that more than ever because as leaders of this church, we have a responsibility.
This isn't the time to nitpick at each other, to say, "You should have done it that way, I told you so". It is the time to keep our mouths shut, to stay in peace, and unify ourselves for our children, for our churches, for our community. It's so much bigger than us. Listen, let your kids off the hook. Be a parent, be loving, be kind, instruct them, but don't break their back. Break the power of darkness over their life. You don't need to break them. As long as you're standing under the blood, you can break that power of darkness and you can show love, an irresistible love of the Father.
I just want to pray for us right now because this is the time, we gotta get serious. We gotta wake up. We gotta take charge. You know, the beauty of God and the beauty of Christ Jesus and his sacrifice was that we can always come back and reapply the blood. When we make a mistake, when we say the wrong thing, we don't have to stay there. We don't have to spiral downhill, we can come back and we can apply the blood, and guess what, that blood still speaks. It still forgives. It still redeems. It still cleanses. It still makes us righteous. I just want to pray right now for unity in our community, our families, our churches, and in our land.
Father, I thank you that we are joined in our faith together. Father, I thank you that you're a faithful God and we put ourself under the blood of Jesus Christ because we know when we are under the blood, that's where the power is. There is oneness in the blood. Father, we thank you that you will break the power of the enemy for us, Father, as we keep ourself one with you and one with one another, Father, you will do the work for us. Lord, let us be just beacons of hope wherever we can. Let us bring peace, Father, to every situation. Father, let us extend your goodness, and your mercy, and your love to all those who are lost, and hurting, and crying, and desperate. Father, let us reach a hand out and show love to them, Father, so we can usher them safely into your arms during these difficult times. Father, we thank you that you are a good God. We honor you today and we thank you that we are called children of the Most High God and that we stand in our shoes of peace in your righteousness. In Jesus name, and everyone said, amen and amen. We love you so much.