SELF-SACRIFICIAL LOVE FOR ALL REPENTANT BELIEVERS IS THE MISSING KEY TO THE GLORY OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN US

Show us, Father, the parts of your word that say the key, one way that all of us, in the whole body of Christ, have fallen short of the glory of God in the past is in failing to make each, our own spiritual self-sacrifice, however small, for the glory to honor the Father in the Son that Jesus said He already gave us that we may be one, as He and the Father are one, in self-sacrifice for all regenerated believers, in all Christian denominations and faith groups, not just our own Christian faith group.

Show us we can’t increase our faith for miracles by the glory Jesus gave us to make us one, by trying to prove we are more worthy servants of God than all those other repentant believers, in all those other Christian denominations and faith groups outside our own.
“5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” (Lu 17:5-6 NIV)
“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’"” (Lu 17:10 NIV)

Show us, Father, we all fell short of His glory that way by failing to do “everything we were told to do” in our shared mistake of sometimes allowing a conceited spirit toward believers in other Christian denominations and faith groups, like those who had become “conceited, provoking and envying each other”, as the apostle Paul referred to in Galatians 5 quoted below.

Give your Holy Spirit to help us realize how we mistakenly often allowed that conceited spirit to develop in our hearts among ourselves and within our own Christian denomination or faith group, that for so long past has caused us to look down on, and reject one another believers not in our own Christian faith group, instead of accepting to be spiritually with us as our siblings in Christ, all repentant believers right where they are, in all Christian denominations and faith groups, which thanks be to God, many believers of different Christian denominations and faith groups all over the world now are beginning, more and more, to do in recent decades.
“19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Ga 5:19-26 NIV)

Help us to remember and compare to the light of Jesus that shines from the heart of all regenerated believers, that prior to about 50 years ago, even if we did, in some cases, recognize there were regenerated believers in Christian denominations and faith groups outside our own, that same spiritual conceit that sometimes led us to provoke and envy each other in those other Christian faith groups, kept us from believing that there was any power of God in the glory that Jesus gave us to unite with them, when they were yet unable to recognize what we see as the obvious superiority of our own Christian group’s doctrinal distinctives, in doctrines above and beyond the requirement to repent and believe the gospel. We thought, surely Father, you reserved the glory you gave Jesus, that Jesus gave us, with your intention to prove the superiority of our group’s doctrinal distinctives, so that through our Christian faith group primarily, God could lead the world to repent and believe the gospel.

Help us to learn now in your word, Father, that it may well be that our own Christian faith group has beliefs that believers outside need to learn, and maybe you will work through our Christian faith group most of all, which is for you to show us all if you choose, not for us to brag. If it’s true doctrine, you put it in the Bible for all repentant believers to know, we didn’t create it, and we’ve got nothing to brag about.

Within all Christian faith groups, we all must teach and worship you, Father, in the best teaching of our members and worship of our Lord we can think of to offer. But if it's a Scriptural distinctive of our Christian denomination or faith group beyond repentance and believing the gospel of Jesus and the holiness of God He gives to all us repentant believers equally, then bragging about it, or lording it over those believers outside of our own Christian faith group in a public forum or venue will almost certainly have the opposite effect of what both we and God intend for how the Holy Spirit will speak through us into the heart of our sister and brother in Christ for their edification, in love, in that true doctrine of our group's distinctives.

As the apostle Paul told the Corinthians, if it is written in Scripture, then the things our Christian faith group learned in that Scripture are learning our group received from God who gave it to us in that Scripture. So boasting about it as though we did not receive it, causes nothing but worldly arguments between believers.
“3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?” (1Co 3:3-4 NIV)
“6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. 7 ¶ For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1Co 4:6-7 NIV)

If we really love our sisters and brothers in other Christian denominations and faith groups, then we need to learn the difference between boasting about what we received from God in scripture, versus sharing it for edification in fervent, brotherly love. We must learn how to humble ourselves to believers in other Christian denominations and Christian faith groups so we can share, in love, the fruit of the Spirit of God's word and faith in our hearts, and in humility offer the distinctives our Christian denomination or faith group has learned from scripture for the edification of our brothers and sisters in Christ whom our group and God both love as dearest family members in God's household together in Christ.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Php 2:3 NIV)
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Eph 4:2 NIV)
“15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph 4:15-16 NIV)

Help us, Father, to always remember that none of us has any holiness but the holiness Jesus gives us, the same as He gives to all repentant believers who love and forgive one another, repenting and believing the gospel, and living in faith of His name for His grace gift of repentance and forgiveness of sins.

We pray, Father, that you give the Holy Spirit to help us always remember that quote above by Paul in Galatians which is a good summation of the Bible’s message to all us believers, repeated and referenced many times by the apostles, and especially by Jesus, that we believers “who belong to Christ” must constantly, and daily according to Jesus, crucify that sinful nature Paul wrote about, that leads us do unholy acts, and also makes us want to be conceited, provoking and envying one another repentant believers, including those in every Christian denomination and faith group outside our own.

Show us in your word how that is precisely the repentant self-sacrifice that Jesus Himself, calls on each of us to do daily in ourselves, in order to make all repentant believers one, in all Christian denominations and faith groups, so the world will know God sent Jesus to save all of us in the world from our sinful, selfish selves.

Help us to always call to mind what the body of Christ seems to fall short of remembering when reading such Bible passages, that this message of the Bible was directed to all believers in the world at the time of Jesus and the apostles; and is still directed to all of us today who believe in their gospel message through their words in the Bible, of what God, in the man named Jesus of Nazareth, did to give the grace gift of repentance and forgiveness of sins to all repentant believer in His name, in all Christian denominations and Christian faith groups.
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,” (Joh 17:20 NIV)


ALL US REPENTANT BELIEVERS NEED TO OFFER GOD A SELF-SACRIFICE IN LOVE FOR ALL REPENTANT BELIEVERS, AS ONE SPIRIT IN THE ONE, GOOD SHEPHERD, AS WE OBEY JESUS’ FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S 1ST AND 2ND COMMANDMENTS

Give the Holy Spirit to remind us especially, Father, of many of the words of Jesus which collectively and consistently convey the central meaning that He tells us we are one in Jesus' name when we accept all repentant believers in the one Spirit in which Jesus and the Father are one, in the Spirit of the One, Good Shepherd, who lays down His life to gather in one flock all the Father's sheep who repent and follow Jesus into laying down each, our own, former life of sin and past rejection of one another believers in this world who are in some Christian denomination or faith group other than our own.

Give your Spirit in our hearts to lead and keep us out of that former life we once lived apart from all repentant believers in God’s one flock in all Christian denominations and faith groups, so that we are now welcoming all of them in self-sacrificial love, as Jesus loved us, in the love like the One, Good Shepherd’s self-sacrificial love for all the sheep, as our dearly beloved, brothers and sisters in Christ; all believers in His name for repentance and forgiveness of our sins, receiving forgiveness of our own sins in proportion to how much we love and forgive one another believers in His name, loving one another self-sacrificially as Jesus loved us, and forgiving one another repentant believers as we are forgiven, in obedience to the first most important commandment as Jesus commanded us to obey it, in the way Jesus fulfilled the first commandment of the law by His new command: to love both God and all our sisters and brothers in Christ as God has loved us self-sacrificially in Jesus.
“29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mr 12:29-30 NIV)
“And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1Jo 4:21 NIV)
“34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."” (Joh 13:34-35 NIV)
“12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (Joh 15:12-13 NIV)

Remind us of how Jesus fulfills the first most important command, by commanding us to love all our sisters and brothers in Christ, as Christ loved us with His life laid down, if we want to love God, which would include all repentant, mutually forgiving and loving believers, in all Christian denominations and Christian faith groups.

Show us in your word, Father, that in our obedience to this, the first most important commandment shown above, as Jesus said to obey it in His new commandment which He gave to fulfill the law in the first most important commandment, with our lives laid down for one another repentant believers, it turns out that if we believe how Jesus says the unbelieving world will be blessed by it to know God sent Jesus, then we are also obeying the second most important commandment, as long as we also love and forgive our unbelieving neighbors in the world so as to include even our enemies, as Jesus also commanded us to do in the way He fulfilled the second most important command of the law, telling us to love even enemies as neighbors, as much as we love ourselves.
“The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."” (Mr 12:31 NIV)
“43 ¶ "You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:43-45 NIV)

Teach us to remember always the truth of your words spoken by Jesus when He specifically made clear the greatest way we can do this 2nd Commandment love for all our unbelieving neighbors in the world, even our enemies, loving them as much as ourselves, is by showing the unbelieving world what we would most want to know, ourselves, if we were in their place: by us repentant believers showing them the very greatest gift of truth that we could possibly give them to know, which is exactly how Jesus said they would know God sent Jesus, by our oneness in the one Spirit as Jesus and the Father are one.

Remind us that Jesus also said this same one Spirit, as Jesus and the Father are one, is the self-sacrificial love for all the sheep, as taught and made known to all of us sheep in the flock by the Spirit we sheep know and follow in the One, Good Shepherd, in which the Father and the Son are one, gathering the one flock together in that same Spirit: that the world may know God sent Jesus to save all who are willing to become repentant believers, receiving into the flock every sinner who looks to Jesus, if they will only repent and believe the gospel, good news message that God sent Jesus here to earth, and put the Father’s own, one Spirit in Him, to live His perfect life, willingly lay His life down and die for our sins at the hands of evil men as commanded by the Father, reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, so Jesus could then be resurrected and ascend to the Father, to be given all power in heaven and earth, and then give His eternal Spirit to live in all who believe and live with faith in the name of Jesus for repentance and forgiveness of sins, thus gathered into the one flock of the One, Good Shepherd.
“that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Joh 17:21 NIV)
“14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (Joh 10:14-16 NIV)
“27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one."” (Joh 10:27-30 NIV)
“13 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 ¶ So from now on we regard no-one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2Co 5:13-19 NIV)

(END OF PART 2 of 4)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tim Warlick,