{"id":39675,"date":"2017-09-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/united-we-stand-divided-we-fall\/"},"modified":"2017-09-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T00:00:00","slug":"united-we-stand-divided-we-fall","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/united-we-stand-divided-we-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"United We Stand, Divided We Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In her book <em class=\"citation\">Grapes of Wrath Or Grace<\/em>, Barabra Brokhoff tells the following story:<\/p>\n\n<p>A group of American tourists were taking a bus tour in Rome led by an English-speaking guide. Their first stop was a basilica in a piazza, which was surrounded by several lanes of relentless Roman traffic. After they were all safely dropped off, the group climbed the steps for a quick tour of the church.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then they spread out to board the bus, which was now parked across the street from the church. The frantic guide shouted for the group to stay together. He hollered out to them, &quot;You cross one by one, they hit you one by one. But if you cross together, they think you will hurt the car! They won&#39;t hit you.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>There is always much to be said for unity, especially unity of the Spirit.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[406,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3511,3601,3644,3666,3717,3811,3989,4120,4237,4751,4792,4889,5003,5087,5127,5167,5213,5214,5272],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39675","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-conflict","tax_ctp_tags-criticism","tax_ctp_tags-disunity","tax_ctp_tags-fighting","tax_ctp_tags-harmony","tax_ctp_tags-individualism","tax_ctp_tags-quarreling","tax_ctp_tags-relationship","tax_ctp_tags-schism","tax_ctp_tags-small-groups","tax_ctp_tags-strife","tax_ctp_tags-teamwork","tax_ctp_tags-togetherness","tax_ctp_tags-unity","tax_ctp_tags-unity-of-church","tax_ctp_tags-wholeness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>United We Stand, Divided We Fall - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/united-we-stand-divided-we-fall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"United We Stand, Divided We Fall - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In her book Grapes of Wrath Or Grace, Barabra Brokhoff tells the following story: A group of American tourists were taking a bus tour in Rome led by an English-speaking guide. Their first stop was a basilica in a piazza, which was surrounded by several lanes of relentless Roman traffic. 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