Overview
Rev. Rico Magnelli examines “One Accord Conference #2: One Accord Gives Glory to God” through Romans 15, Psalm 19, John 17, 2 Corinthians 12, showing how christ, accord, glory shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Transcript
Understanding One Accord Conference #2: One Accord Gives Glory to God
Romans 15, please. Glory to God in one accord. In a world that is at the very least suspiciously, if not antagonistically polarized, we should not allow ourselves to be painted into the corner of limited options, pushed on us by spiritually corrupted portion of humanity.
That is where personal identity, confusion, and malignant agendas come from, the pollutant corrupted portion of humanity, spiritually speaking. Limiting our options is a tactic used by the spiritually corrupted portion of that humanity. So how can people find common ground? Well, the answer lies within the understanding of a concept launched about 2,000 years ago by the first Christians, working together with God.
And that concept is one accord. One accord. The meaning, and more importantly, the application of this one accord, is what we want to discover.
We want to unravel the mystery, if you will, of how to bring people together genuinely and truthfully in unity and share in the benefits and blessings that result from being at one accord. One accord can only be accomplished with God’s involvement. One accord is more than agreeing on something.
It’s to unite in heart, soul, mind, and strength on the will of God. And that’s not necessarily the path that many people take. They’re more interested in their own will than in God’s.
But one accord produces glory to God. His will is His desire and His gracious plan. It’s His desire and His gracious plan for you specifically, and then for all His children collectively.
When Christians are of one accord on God’s will, it is a glory to God. It draws attention to God. It magnifies God.
And the aim of one accord is to glorify God, to draw attention to Him. The works of men draw attention to men, and that’s prevalent all over the world. Psalm 19, 14 says it this way.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in my sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. What a great confession. Here in Romans 15, in the foundational pistol of Romans, are these two verses.
Romans 15, verse 5. Now, the God of patience, that’s really endurance, and consolation or comfort, encouragement, grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind, one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, to accomplish this isn’t because of your biblical knowledge or mind. It isn’t your pedigree or your bank account.
It isn’t where you came from. It has nothing to do with your academic credentials. It has to do with your heart and mind.
We need the God of endurance, encouragement, and a world that rubs us the wrong way. See? Or else we will not be able to hold up under the pressure. We will conform to this age.
The Biblical Foundation
We’ll just blend right in to this age. And the fear and the confusion that is ubiquitous everywhere. It says that we are to be like-minded.
We are to mind the same thing, one toward another, reciprocally. See, we do this because we each have the same measure of faith in Christ Jesus. Because how we are to view each other, how we are to be like-minded one toward another, it’s according to Christ Jesus, and that’s the standard of measurement.
That’s the standard of measurement, Christ Jesus. The word one mind here in verse 6 is a Greek word, homophthomadon, and this word, homophthomadon, means to be of one accord. It means to be united with the will of God in a passionate desire to carry it out.
And when we do this, we actually give glory to God. Is that something you might be interested in? To glorify Him, to bring attention to Him? I would think so. Worldly things bring attention to people.
The things of God bring attention to God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says here, what’s so interesting, it says, with one mouth glorify God. Now, how do we share one mouth? That’s difficult.
It’s a figure of speech, of course. In other words, our words reflect that we are like-minded. We think the same thing according to Jesus Christ.
When you look at me, you think Jesus Christ, and what He accomplished for me. When I look at you, I look at the same thing. Look at John 17, please.
We’ll be back here. When we are of one accord, we bring glory to God. Because it’s going to take humility to do that.
Because we have to rest ourselves on the work of another man. And that man is Christ Jesus. And our world is so performance-based.
It’s so intense upon judging people’s value based on their performance or other criteria that isn’t biblical either. And we can’t allow that. Jesus Christ said this in John 17 in this final prayer before His eventual crucifixion.
He said, verse 1, These words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorified Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. See, the reason why God could glorify Christ is because Christ was carrying out the will of God.
Examples and Spiritual Lessons
And when you and I carry out the will of God, it’s a glory to Him because He’s the one that gave it. We are following His will. And that’s what Christ was doing.
As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth.
I have finished the work which Thou gave us me to do. He always did the Father’s will. That’s what brought glory to God.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. This plan of redemption was in God’s heart way before the creation of the heavens and the earth. And Jesus Christ was going to fulfill it.
But it doesn’t stop there. Look at verse 22. He says to the Father, and the glory which Thou gave us me, I have given them, talking about His disciples, that they may be one even as we are one.
Fantastic. Back to Romans. See, Jesus Christ glorified God, and in so doing, He set the pattern, He set the pace, He set the model, He set the paradigm for glory to God.
And what we do is we view each other, and all Christians, if you will, through the accomplished work of Christ. Now, it doesn’t mean that we have to agree with what everybody does. That’s not necessarily true.
But I do respect what God did in you, in Christ Jesus, absolutely. Because the value of a person isn’t their behavior. The value of a person is the crucifixion.
When that really gets in your heart, will you really realize that the value of a person before God Almighty has nothing to do with their performance. It has everything to do with what God did in Christ Jesus for that person. How valuable is that person next to you? I’ll tell you how valuable the crucifixion.
The sacrifice of the Son of God, a sinless man. That’s how valuable. That’ll change your life.
Romans 15 verse one. We then that are strong. Strong in what? Would you be strong in the faith? Ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.
You have to understand the context here. Keep your finger here and look at chapter 14 verse one. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Faith in Action
In other words, there are gonna be people in the Christian community that are weak in the faith. What does that mean? Doesn’t mean they’re weak people. It doesn’t mean that their value is less than yours or mine.
It just means that they have not gotten to the point where they derive strength. And identity from the work of another man. They’re still trying to work their way into heaven.
They’re still trying to work their way into God’s blessings. They’re still trying to work their way into the grace of God. That’s impossible because it’s unmerited divine favor.
And we are not to judge our brothers. We are not to quarrel with them on opinions. We are to love them and encourage them.
If you are strong in the faith, then lift your brother who may not be as strong, but definitely do not judge him or her. Back to Romans 15. We are strong in the faith.
We are to bear the infirmities or the challenges, those weak areas of our brothers and not to please ourselves. See, once an individual realizes that their entire life has been given to them by grace, everything changes. Keep your finger here.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12. The great apostle Paul, who many of you are very familiar with his writings, he besought the Lord three times to take away a very challenging situation that he had. Three times.
And the Lord’s response was this. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse nine. And he, the Lord, said unto me, my what? My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
In other words, when we get to the point where we realize that we need the strength of the accomplished work of Christ and not our own ability, not our own works, not our own personality, not our own knowledge of the word, that’s when you’ll be strong. Amazing. Most gladly therefore, Paul writes, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
The power of Christ. Do you realize that the crucifixion and the resurrection is still moving the power of God throughout creation? It is still reverberating in the hearts of God’s people, whether they’re in Africa, North America, Australia, Europe, Russia, China, it doesn’t make any difference. The power, the deliverance that happened at the crucifixion when every sin was taken to the cross, when he said it is finished.
That is still moving through the hearts of people 2,000 years later, and it will continue until the Christ returns. And then those three words, he is risen, is still reverberating through humanity. People want to perhaps squelch it.
Walking in Love and Confidence
They want to dilute it. There might be people that are ashamed of it. Let not that be you.
Those two things, the crucifixion and the resurrection is what brought you and I eternal life. Every sin has been covered, and we are to be strong in that. Back to Romans.
This is what gives glory to God. When we recognize what he did, when your life and mine is more about what you do throughout the day and less about what he did, maybe there needs to be a little balance there. The world doesn’t revolve around you.
It revolves around Jesus Christ. The world wants to make it about you and your opinion. They want to mold you, that’s right, into some sort of cookie cutter person.
They want to conform you. Don’t let that happen. And you do have a say in that, by the way, regardless of what people tell you.
For even Christ, please not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written before time or written for our learning, that we through patience or endurance and comfort, encouragement of the Scriptures might have hope. We can learn from our Old Testament forefathers, if you will, where they endeavor to do the will of God and not necessarily what the world wanted them to do.
Look at Philippians chapter two, please. You want to start seeing things happening in your life more dynamically? Start preaching the resurrection. I know people think, well, I preach the resurrection, do you? If you preach the resurrection, then you preach the glory.
If you preach the resurrection, then you preach the God of all solution and answer. You preach eternal life and you live it. Philippians chapter two, verse two.
Fulfill you my joy, Paul writes. Fulfill you my joy that you be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. Boy, what a great theme.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
In the new birth, you have the mind of Christ. You have his moral compass. You have his love and his character.
You just got to turn it on. But what ends up happening is people allow themselves to be molded to this age and they lose their identity as a Christian. That’s right.
Applying the Teaching in Daily Life
The world wants to tether you to an earthly identity and it’s done through money. It’s done through family. It’s done through careers.
It’s done through all hobbies. Nothing wrong with those things. I think they’re great.
So don’t get me wrong. I think they’re wonderful, but that’s not who you are. You’re a son of God.
Now, for some of you, this might shake some things loose. I’m not really sure. For some, it’s music to your ears.
The simplicity of what God is asking us to do is to elevate the accomplished work of Christ and draw our identity, draw our strength, draw our understanding, draw our morality from there. Don’t look to the world for your morality. My goodness.
Movies and tabloids and all these different things. Now, I like movies. Don’t get me wrong, but I don’t draw my morality from them.
You shouldn’t either. Look at Romans 11, please. Romans 11.
We want to give glory to God and the way we do that is with one mind and one mouth glorify God and we see each other as God sees us in Christ. Romans 11, please. It says in Romans 11, verse 36, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever, amen.
That’s talking about God. That means everything begins with God. Everything passes through God and everything ends with God.
There is no word, there’s no action. There is nothing that’s not gonna end up at His doorstep eventually. Nothing.
Nothing. No one gets away. Now, in Christ Jesus, we’ve been set free and we are not judged because we have been delivered from the wrath to come.
A Life Shaped by God’s Word
But the point is is when in our hearts, when we understand that God is sovereign over all things and all time and we understand that everything begins with Him, even free will begin with Him and then people choose what they’re gonna do. And then life passes through Him. He is aware of everything that’s going on.
He knows your situation, He knows your challenges and He’s right there ready to help and everything will conclude with Him. There’s a great understanding with this because this leads us to chapter 12, verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, which is your whole self, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this age.
Be not fashioned, be not molded to this age. Be a nonconformist, if you will, in your heart but be transformed by the renewing mind, the word yours not in the text. The renewing mind, which is the mind of Christ that you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
It’s closed in Romans 15. You see, I don’t have to prove the will of God to you. That has brought me great deliverance as a minister.
I don’t have to. You gotta prove it to you. I will teach you, others will teach you, minister and help people till my last breath but I don’t have to prove anything to you.
It’s between you and your God, your heavenly Father and whether you wanna make Jesus Christ Lord or not. That’s right, totally up to you. I would recommend doing it, highly.
See, if we’re gonna glorify God in one accord, there has to be a standard that’s outside you and me. It can’t be everybody wears the same t-shirt and we all go to the same vacation spot and then we’re in one accord. No, there has to be something greater and you know what’s greater? Christ Jesus.
Now, the God of endurance and consolation and grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus and according to means the standard that you’re supposed to use. Christ Jesus, that purpose you made with one mind, homophumadon, one accord and one mouth, glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is where we’re going in the one accord conference.
Gracious heavenly Father, we certainly are thankful and blessed to be aware of the truth regarding Jesus Christ and we do know, O righteous Father, that there are so many of your children throughout the world that are recognizing the work of Christ during this weekend. We are aware of it as well. Father, there’s so many things we do not know but we know that you do and you’ve seen the end from the beginning in our lives and humanity.
We seek you out, Father, with our hearts. We’re done playing church. We’re done playing games and using people.
We’re just done with all that nonsense. We wanna grow spiritually, Lord, and we wanna embrace our big brother’s accomplished work as if it’s our own because that’s what you gave us through grace. Most gracious heavenly Father, we pray for each individual and for their health and vitality and for opening the eyes of their understanding to what it means to walk forth being strong in the faith.
And as the days, weeks, and months unfold, Lord, you continue to open up, unfold, and help us understand what you’ve done for us through this grace, that we might glorify you, that we might bring attention to you and the world will hear once again the voice, the clarion call of the Christian community that Jesus Christ was crucified and was raised from the dead and we have eternal life to share and enjoy one with another. We pray for these things and for your blessing on our time together in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Key Takeaways
- It says in Romans 11, verse 36, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever, amen.
- Because how we are to view each other, how we are to be like-minded one toward another, it’s according to Christ Jesus, and that’s the standard of measurement.
- For whatsoever things were written before time or written for our learning, that we through patience or endurance and comfort, encouragement of the Scriptures might have hope.
- Fulfill you my joy that you be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind.
- Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main message of “One Accord Conference #2: One Accord Gives Glory to God”?
Rev. Rico Magnelli examines “One Accord Conference #2: One Accord Gives Glory to God” through Romans 15, Psalm 19, John 17, 2 Corinthians 12, showing how christ, accord, glory shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Which scriptures are central to this teaching?
The teaching draws especially from Romans 15, Psalm 19, John 17, 2 Corinthians 12, Romans 11.
How can believers apply this teaching?
Fulfill you my joy that you be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind.
Scripture References
Romans 15; Psalm 19; John 17; 2 Corinthians 12; Romans 11
This text was prepared from the teaching audio or source document. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
