Nashville United Matthew W. Pittaway - Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Nashville United is a ministry dedicated to developing
unity among all of God’s people in the Nashville metropolitan area.
Every Christian wants unity. However many of us are vague in our understanding on what unity is, how we should act to have it and how far we should go before we are in compromise. We as God’s people will find unity in one of 2 ways; by humbling ourselves and seeking God’s way, or by waiting until the level of persecution forces us into it. I choose the former, which is why Jesus said “the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force”. The best defense is to make the first move (a good offense!).
Some folks reject the idea that we could even have a written document outlining how to have unity. They say it is some spiritual state of mind, but Jesus said “My words are spirit and they are life”, and Paul said “We compare spiritual things using spiritual words”. Jesus never said to check your brain at the door when you walk into the church house to be ‘spiritual’. That’s the attitude taken by cults; on the contrary Paul said “The Berean’s were more noble than some because they searched the scriptures to see if these things were so”.
So we see Unity was not only Jesus last request on earth before dying for us, it is something we can and must work towards. This document outlines our vision and strategy for developing unity here and in other US cities. I think that the strategy for any region will vary because for unity to come repentance from divisive sins has to take place.
Unity
It can help us understand true unity by looking at what it is not. Unity is not just acting nice around people in spite of deep seated differences; that is denial. Unity is not looking and acting the same; that is uniformity. Unity is not agreeing on anything and everything just to be all warm and fuzzy in the notion we are a huge number of people; that is compromise.
Jesus prayed for us to be one “as you Father and I are one”. Jesus and the Father are one because they know the pure unleavened TRUTH and have no wavering of compromise on any issue of righteousness! Jesus gave the apostles this truth and the authority and power to show the people it was absolute. It has not changed. True unity is only experienced by those who hold to pure truth no matter what the circumstances.
There are different levels of unity we need to strive for. As a nation we must all agree together for freedom and democracy, however we have differences that we can live with as US citizens. As a Christian I believe we can be proud of our nation and her calling without pretending like the sins of our nation such as slavery and the abuse of Native Americans never happened. So as Americans we can have unity without compromising our stand on truth.
We can stand on the vision of one nation under God knowing the founding fathers meant the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and not a false God like Buddha, Krishna or Allah. This is critical to all Judeo-Christians to believe for our nation to be restored. We must know that the United States was established by God’s people to be a bastion of truth and freedom in these end times. Right now our nation needs revival and it can happen as long as “My people called by my name” will truly repent of all tradition and hypocrisy.
Nashville
Nashville has a strategic place in God’s plans for these end times. This capital of Country and Christian music is one of the self-proclaimed “Buckle of the Bible Belt” cities. There are more churches here per capita than any of the many US cities I’ve been to in my 20+ years of traveling.
However it is also one of the biggest porn sales cities. Racism is rampant among whites and many still hang onto the divisive confederate issue in a spirit of bitterness and rebellion. The music industry has produced “country” music which is more and more filled with lust and rebellion, and the Jezebel spirit rules in country music and in the city with a giant statue of the pagan goddess Athena enthroned in the “Parthenon” copy.
The typical church in Nashville is filled with pew sitters who live out a co-dependent relationship with their pastor all hoping it will be over soon so they can get back to their TV and roast in the oven. Mention revival and most churchgoers in Nashville will yawn and say “Oh yeah, we hold revival in the fall”. To most believers revival is just another religious word void of God’s presence and power to change the city.
So the job ahead in Nashville is a big one. However God has been on the move here. In pockets in and around the city individuals and small groups have been praying for revival. God has sent special emissaries from around the US to move here and pray for revival, and to preach repentance. Prophets and apostles are meeting in homes and at churches leading God’s people to cry out to God for this strategic city in the heartland of the USA.
Unity is a key to the success of revival in Nashville. Revival comes from heart transplant level repentance. So we must know 2 things;
1) Repent from what?
2) Repent TOWARDS what goal?
As we seek the Lord He will be faithful to convict us of our sins and what we need to repent of individually and corporately. Unity is critical when we look at what we need to repent TOWARDS. That is, what do we agree upon as foundational truth that we as believers in Nashville can agree upon so that we can have unity of mind and spirit? When we know what we agree upon, when we see our self in a larger group and identify what we stand for, we have a cause we can then fight for united as Jesus’ representatives in 21st century Nashville.
Stand Together on the Rock
Benjamin Franklin said “We
must all hang together or we shall surely all hang separately”. He said this to
the other founding fathers who were about to take a stand on truth against the
most powerful nation in the world at that time, England. He knew that unity is
key to any group trying to create and environment for truth and freedom to
flourish. The question we must answer is; what do we agree upon that we are
willing to die for? When we know that, we are in unity.
The scripture clearly points us to one man, Christ Jesus. He is the rock upon which we build anything. The word Jesus used for “rock” in this case was the Greek word ‘Petra’ which is a huge slab of granite such as would support a house. It was not the ‘Petros’ or “little pebble” used as a nickname for Simon (Peter). We must build upon this rock to have a unity which will stand against the storms of life as Jesus said in the parable of the wise and foolish builders.
Jesus is the word, He is the truth, and we must know what He said in context to have the rock upon which to build, for as evangelist Robert Scales so eloquently said; “A man is what he says and what he does.” Then for more depth as we build we can go to the apostles who detailed the New Covenant for us as it relates to the Old.
Firstly we must understand that in Matthew 5;
17 Think not that I am come to
destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
We know that the apostles later did not require anyone to be circumcised, which was a major Hebrew law and proceeded by a covenant. This shows clearly that Jesus fulfilled the law, and he says also “the prophets”. All righteousness is only understood through the filter of the cross of Christ. He paid for our righteousness and this is the only way we exceed that of Pharisees who kept every jot and tittle! They did not keep it in their hearts however and Jesus amplifies the law to our very inner thoughts saying not only can we not kill, we must deal with anger, and not only can we not commit adultery we must not lust in our hearts. So we see Jesus fulfilled and thus abolished all legalistic letter that kills us to give us His law of the Spirit of Life that revives us!! All O.T. writings are for our education, purification and edification; any condemnation comes from the evil one!
So we can find unity when we build upon the Rock Christ Jesus. This sounds simple, but why then do so many churches argue and divide over the Words of Christ? How can we find unity when they do not? Is it even possible? I say a resounding YES! Would Jesus pray for something that was impossible? NO! We can find it if we with diligence press into the pursuit!
LOVE
The key to unity is love. Jesus prayed for our unity before He demonstrated the greatest love; to lay down our life for our friends. Jesus replaced the Decalogue, or 10 commandments with a new commandment; “Love one another”. We are to Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves. This is not sloppy agape’ but a true commitment to give up our lives for God and His people.
When we lose our life, that is our right to hold onto what we are comfortable with, we are walking in love and find the new life of Christ. We must exchange our right to be right for our right to be broken. I learned this personally by always trying to prove my brother RIGHT in a doctrinal disagreement instead of proving him wrong. I found that I already knew my stand, and if I studied to find his view, I usually found a balanced truth and that we were both seeing different sides of the same coin.
UNITY LEVELS
We will not all come into perfect unity instantly. It will take time and work (a four letter word to some) as we walk it out. What we can do is come into unity at deeper levels as time goes by. Here are the levels of unity I feel God’s people need to come into for Nashville and our nation to stand in these last days. You could see it as a target with circles decreasing in size as you go to the center. The largest group being number one, the second largest number 2, etc.
1) We are citizens of the United States that is one nation under God, YHWH (or Jehovah), the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the critical point of entry into unity. It is the largest group
2) We are Followers of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who was God’s only begotten son, born of the virgin Mary, the only perfect man who took the sins of the world upon himself on the cross, He rose from the dead and lives in a literal resurrected body such as believers will receive when he returns to judge the living and the dead on the last day.
3) We are living stones built together with Christ into His church, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, which 7 foundational teachings are clearly laid out in the New Testament and outlined in Hebrews 6: 1-2:
a. 1- Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 -Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
These 7 doctrines (# 7 is perfection or maturity; when we all unite as the body of Christ) are clearly defined in detail by the apostles’ acts and words in the New Testament, and more meat is gained as we study the old covenants. See my teaching “Foundations” on our web site for more details.
Agape’, Matt Pittaway, matthewwp@comcast.net
The churches in Huntsville, Alabama are experiencing a move of unity by celebrating Old Covenant Feasts together; especially Passover. for more go to:
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