Community // Unified For A Purpose

Main Idea

• Pastor Jonathan said the cross is not just something to celebrate once a year. It is an invitation to live differently every day.
• He asked, “What does the resurrection actually mean for my life now?”

The Cross Gives Us a Mission

• Pastor Jonathan said Jesus left His people with a purpose: to make disciples, spread God’s love, and continue His work in the world.
• He emphasized that spiritual transformation is not just for our own benefit. God changes us so we can bless others.
• He connected this to Abraham, saying God blesses His people so that they can be a blessing.

Real Transformation Should Be Visible

• Pastor Jonathan explained that following Jesus should actually change a person over time.
• He gave examples like God transforming fear, lust, lying, addiction, and anger.
• His point was that the cross should be active and visible in a believer’s life, not just a belief someone agrees with.

Unity Is Central to the Christian Life

• Using John 17, Pastor Jonathan said one of Jesus’ clearest prayers was that His followers would be one.
• He said unity is one of the strongest ways the church shows the world God’s love and glory.
• He also said unity is spiritually powerful and serves as a witness both in the natural world and in the spiritual realm.

Important Illustrations

• Pastor Jonathan used humor and personal stories to show how fragile unity can be.
• He shared a hearing-aid story to show how simple misunderstanding can damage relationships.
• He also described unusual protests he saw in Washington, D.C., to show that even strange causes can gain power when people unite around them.

A Challenge to the Church

• Pastor Jonathan said it breaks his heart that the modern church is often marked by disunity.
• He pointed out that churches and Christians often split over small issues, even though Jesus called His followers to stay united.
• He said the early church changed the world not because it had wealth, buildings, or polished systems, but because people from very different backgrounds lived together in unity.

Holiness and Unity Together

• Pastor Jonathan ended by saying Christians are called to hold two hard things together: holiness and unity.
• It is easy to focus on holiness without love, or unity without truth, but Jesus modeled both grace and truth.
• He said believers need the Holy Spirit to know how to speak truth in love and live this out faithfully.

Closing Takeaway

• Pastor Jonathan’s main challenge was to live in a way that reflects the victory of the cross through transformation, mission, and unity.
• He said the church should be a people who love deeply, stand in truth, and show the world what it looks like when brothers and sisters dwell together in Christ. 

Thank you, man, man, it's so good to be here. Even though it's raining, it's so wonderful to be in this room with you. I love coming to church. I love the Sunday after Easter, because you're the people who decided to come to church two weeks in a row. So give yourself a round of applause. Give yourself a round of applause. You came to church two weeks in a row and the national average is to come every third week. And since you came to Easter and you came here, that means you just like broke a record or something. This is pretty incredible, like we're here, we're doing it, but do this. Listen, we're gonna start with the scripture verse. Stand with me to your feet. I wanna read some words of Jesus found in John chapter 17 verse 20, says this.

My prayer is not for them alone.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, and in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father God, we just thank you so much for today. Lord, we thank you for your words and we thank you for the work of the cross. Lord, we thank you today that we can boldly and profoundly step into and discover what it means to live a life in the light of what the cross has done for us. So in your holy name we pray, amen and amen. All right, you may be seated, you may be seated.

Oh man.

Here we go, here we go. Hey, so listen, here's what we're doing. We're still, we're continuing, we're picking back up our community series. We did four weeks and then we had a family service in Easter and then we're kind of picking back into this community series and any time after Easter, I like to take a minute and I like to think about and I like to kind of reflect on what does the cross mean in my life? But more specifically, how do I live a life in light of what the cross has done for me? Like last week we celebrate the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus, we celebrate what that means and we talk about all sorts of different things as far as atonement and ransom and the battle for against the principalities and the darkness and his ultimate success at what the resurrection looked like and man, all those things are awesome and then you kind of get to the other side of it and it's like, and now what does it mean for me today?

What does all that amazing work mean for me today in my daily life and how I live and how I interact?

Like it's wild because you can say certain things like really profound and then you may just be like,

but then what? Like we can say things and we'll read a couple of cool scriptures today but there's these things that's like man, now that for those of you who are in Christ you are seated in heavenly places and it's like amen

and it's like but what does that actually mean though?

What does that mean to me? How does that change my daily life? Like a lot of times we look at that and that's pretty common. Things will happen in our world whether they're spiritual things or whether they're political things or whether there's things just to end like your job and things will change and there'll be a lot of talk and you're like cool, how does this change what I'm doing in my daily life? Like have you ever had a job where some person who has a cool title comes in and they give you this whole new rollout of this new thing they're about to do and they use a lot of words like synergy and all this kind of stuff and then all of a sudden you're like okay and it's like how is this gonna change what I'm doing and they're like well it won't. Nothing's different in your day. Like you're still doing exactly the thing you're doing. We just got some new logos and graphics and buzzwords.

But here's the thing, the work of the cross is not that.

The work of the cross in your life is not corporate buzzwords that are just like okay, I checked off the thing. Like the work of the cross and what Jesus did was not just so you could be like good job Jesus.

(Clapping)

You did it.

Well I gotta go back to work now.

Like the cross is not only an action but the cross is also an invitation.

And it's not just a one time invitation. It's not just oh I'm saved and now I'm good. It's even more than that. It's an invitation to daily participate in the mission that Jesus left his disciples here on earth.

To go and to make more and better disciples. To live in the unity and the love that he purchased for us. Like it is a mission that we are left for. It isn't just like a hey I'll see you later.

It's an opportunity to daily come to the foot of the cross as the reminder and say look what Jesus did for me but to not to stay in that place and say because the tomb is empty and because I've been redeemed and because the work of the cross is alive in me, I've been giving a purpose and a mission and a job to do here on this earth. And not only is it something that I can participate in, it's something that's being done in me and to me and around me and through me. Like I am growing into becoming more and more like the image of God. I am maturing in my knowledge and understanding of his goodness in my life. I am learning better how to relate to those people around me and how to show them the love of God. And all these things are not small things.

We begin to ultimately understand the analogy where Jesus invites us to have him be our shepherd and to allow him to lead us and to guide us.

And so there's two big things that Jesus kind of leaves us in

and we'll kind of explore these. And they're not the only things by any means. Like the work of the cross is so full and so profound. There's so many things but there's two things today I want to focus on because there's two big ones. The two things that he kind of leaves us with is he leaves us first of all with a mission. And I've already alluded to it. He leaves us with a mission, with a purpose saying like, hey, you are now my royal priesthood, my representatives here on earth. And your mission is to continue the invasion of God's goodness here in the land of the living and to spread the love of God everywhere that you go.

That you can do that with your fellow believers but also for those who have yet to come to know God. That you can go in this process of continuing to take new ground and new area for the kingdom of God.

And sometimes I think that we as believers forget that we are on mission and we are actively in a battle, a physical and spiritual battle against an enemy who would love for people to stay and remain in darkness.

And we sometimes forget that.

Sometimes part of the community and like what we've talked about and the fact that we're fighting against radical individualism is we think that our relationship with God really only impacts and reflects on myself.

And although it will absolutely and profoundly transform who you are as an individual, that is not the only reason that the work of the cross exists. The work of the cross also exists. So through the transformation that you experience by knowing Jesus, you are capable and willing and have the desire to go out and share that goodness and share that truth and share that love with people around you who are far from Him.

That is the heart of Jesus.

And you realize that you become more and more transformed in this image. You become more and more desirous to be able to share that goodness with people around you. So the transformation is not just for you, but it's for others. That's why it goes all the way back to the very beginning. Whenever God was blessing Abraham, He said, "I'm gonna bless you." And He didn't just say, "I'm gonna bless you," so that you can have a lot of stuff.

"I'm gonna bless you so you can be the richest person in the world. "I'm gonna bless you so you have lots of kids. "I bless you so you have lots of sheep." What He says is, "I am gonna make a covenant with you "and I'm gonna bless you and through you, "all the nations will be blessed."

And this is where we get that vernacular, and sometimes it's become like a cheesy little Christian saying like, "I'm just blessed to be a blessing." (Chuckles)

And you're like, "Don't ever talk to me again."

(Audience Laughs) But the reality of that is true. You are being transformed to become more like Christ, and what I mean by that, I'm not talking about like you are growing a beard and longer hair, or you now wear white robes. That's not what I'm saying. When I say you're being transformed, I'm talking about the things inside of you, your flesh and the ways that you behave that are contrary to the actual character of Christ or God are being transformed. So you're no longer an angry elf, you're now like a happy elf.

(Audience Laughs) Okay, and like I'm mid-transformation. I'm not as angry of an elf as I used to be, but I don't think I would be described as a happy elf quite yet, but it's because it's a process, right? So some of you used to really struggle with lying, and God can transform that because that's not the character of Christ. Some of you were fearful, and God can transform that. Some of you were lustful, and God can transform to that. Some of you were stuck in sin or addiction, and God can transform to that. You are being transformed into the image of God, not just in a spiritual way, but in a physical and actual tangible way where you may not see someone for a while, and after years of walking with Christ, they see you, and they're like, "You're not the same person anymore,

"because God has done a work inside of you."

If you go, and listen, this is not meant to be any accusation or guilt or shame, but if you go to your 20-year anniversary at your reunion at your high school, and they're like, "You look and act "and talk exactly the same.

"That's not good.

"That's not good." I know some of you are like, that's why I dyed my hair,

you're not fooling anyone,

and it's not good,

because if you are not different,

what it means is that the cross is not active and alive in your life.

I don't want to be the same person I was when I was 18.

He had issues,

lots of them. Did he know that? No, that was probably issue number one. Denial.

We are not meant to be like, "Hey, I got saved, and now I'm just gonna coast "until something happens, "and I'm in heaven for him to be now and then."

Like, he wants more for you.

He wants more for you, because the life that you can live, the freedom that you can experience, the joy and all the rest of the fruits of the spirit that exist, exist as a result of being transformed through the work of the cross.

And he wants that to happen because there's a mission that we get to participate in.

And here's the thing, there's a way that you can do this mission, in which maybe it'll be outside. Because a lot of times when people think about the mission, they think, "Okay, I'm gonna be part of the mission. "That means I need to go to Quick Trip, "and I need to get some tracks, "and I need to stand at the corner, "and I need to street preach."

That's how I joined the mission.

Or I'm gonna evangelize at the mall.

And listen, if that's what God leads you, I'm not telling you not to do that, I'm not telling you there's bad things. But there's something that we miss in one of the most profound and greatest ways that we as believers can participate in the mission in an active way that is transformative

in the physical realm, and even more profoundly if you can believe it in the spiritual realm.

And it has to do with what Jesus just said

in that chapter we just read, or that verse we just read in John 17, which my Bible calls that the high priest blessing, or the high priest prayer, that Jesus prayed. And by the way, this comes after, John, if you're, John is like, it starts off like kinda interesting, and then man, it hits. Like John 15 is his whole thing about the vine, and then he just keeps going, then John 16 is about the Holy Spirit, and then John 17 is this priestly blessing, it just like is hit after hit after hit.

And he comes in and he says this thing, this thing that when you read it in the language, it's a little confusing, because the Greek is also a little, just the structure's a little confusing, but the paraphrased version of what Jesus prays, and what he blesses is he says, "Father, I want my believers to be united as one,

to be in unity together like you and I are united together."

Because when the world sees men and women united,

what they will see is your glory, and the love that you have for them.

Now you may sit there and say, "I don't know about that, I don't know about that." That seems like just a bunch of like, hippy dippy Jesus stuff.

And you're right, it's hippy dippy Jesus stuff. But it's true. And let me tell you why, unity is one of the most profound and powerful things. It goes all the way back to the Bible. Do you remember what happened in the city of Babel when they were united in purpose and speech, and they decided that we are gonna make a place that ascends to the heavens, that we don't need God to come down to us, we can actually walk into this heavenly realm, and they decided that they were gonna build a tower, and God said because they're united in thought and speech, nothing is impossible for them.

So he introduced the simplest of things, language.

And do you know what it instantly created?

Division.

Do you know all it takes for you to be divided from someone else is to not understand what they're saying?

Did you know that's all it takes?

You can be on the exact same page, maybe you're married today, or you got your best friend, or whatever it is, and you're like, man, we're together, we're linked, we're so, like we have the same beliefs, everything we have the same. If all of a sudden you snapped your fingers, and you two spoke two different languages, you guys would be divided almost instantly.

Almost instantly.

We rely on communication to produce unity so much and so fast, it's like instantaneous.

That's why, like some of you guys know this, I'm maybe just telling myself, some of you guys know that back then, my first job out of college, right when I graduated from ORU, and I wanted to go into the finance world, but it was 2007, and I don't know if you remember 2007, 2008, it wasn't great for the finance world.

Those of you who know, you blocked it out, but for the rest of us, you know, like it is what it is. So I didn't get to go into the finance world like I wanted to, instead I got to go and sell hearing aids.

It was awesome.

And I didn't even get to sell hearing aids to the people. Like that actually would have maybe been better, like where it's like, hey, here's this person, they struggle to hear it, let me help them hear better. Like that actually has some joy associated with it. I had to sell it to the doctors and the professionals who sold the hearing aids. So I was representing a manufacturer,

and I sold hearing aids. And I had to do it over the phone, which is kind of a joke.

Because like the whole, can you hear me now, that was a whole thing, even amongst the people I was talking to. But here was the number one thing, like here's what's wild. Hearing loss is so hard on relationships, and people don't even realize it. And often, it's just as like statistics, more frequently, men lose their hearing more frequently than women. That's just like a result, like that's just an average thing. And there's a lot of different reasons for that. Some of it has to do with jobs, some of it has to do with exposure. There's lots of stuff, just genetics. But typically, men lose their hearing. And here's what's wild, and ladies especially, if you're like maybe above 60 in this room, sometimes you may think, "My husband just doesn't listen to me anymore."

I talk, and I know he hears me, but he just chooses not to. And here's what's wild, like scientifically, and this feels like a joke. The most common hearing loss is exactly in the exact same frequency as most common women's speech. And I'm not kidding you.

I don't know if that's the exposure that I was talking about that caused the loss, I don't know. I didn't create these things, I'm just telling you this is what happens.

And so listen, and here's the thing, like this is the reality. And as a result, as a result of this, like the number of people who end up having marital problems and even getting divorced,

because we just don't talk anymore. He doesn't listen, and literally, he doesn't actually hear.

It was legitimate, like actual hearing loss. He didn't hear.

And then all of a sudden, they get a hearing aid, and all of a sudden like, "You've been talking to me."

And then the wife's like, "I thought you were ignoring me."

And you're like, "We laugh." Except for the ones in the room who are like shooting darts at their potentially hard of hearing spouse.

Here's the thing, it takes that little

to believe the worst about someone else

and to be ununited from someone you were united with. Some of these people have been married for 40 or 50 years, and all of a sudden, they experience a hearing loss, and like their relationship is almost broken down within a year.

Unity is one of the hardest things to maintain, one of the easiest things to use. And yet, when people are united, the things that people can do when they are united together and they put their effort together to work together towards something, it's absolutely mind-blowing what can be done when people are united. And we see this for the most miraculous things that we see around our world, like, "Wow, look what humans can do when they work together." And then we also see it in the most stupid, ridiculous things on the face of the planet what people can accomplish when they work together

or that they attempt to work together.

I just recently got back from a trip to D.C. with my son.

D.C. is always great. There's always wild things going on in D.C. It's like the Wild West. You never know what's going on. And Saturday is the day for protesting, because why not?

So we happen to be there on a Saturday.

My son's already getting awkwardly uncomfortable. This is great.

And there were three major protests going on, okay? This is not political. I'm just telling you what's going on. I'm not telling you where I'm going. There's three major protests going on. The first protest and probably the biggest one that was most organized was the No Kings protest. They had like music and stuff. It was like a wild festival going on out there. So they were going on and they had a thing. Like, so they had a thing. There was another group. They were much smaller, but they were very organized.

And they were protesting the use of shoes.

I came at the tail end of it, so I didn't fully grasp what was happening. But they said that shoes were from the devil and they were the degradation of mankind

and that no one should wear shoes.

And I was like, well, okay.

I guess you don't have to wear shoes. I don't know, but whatever. So I was like, okay, well, that one feels weird. Again, they were small, but they were mighty and they had signs. That's all you need actually to start movement.

But the one that the eighth graders who were there, they really loved this one because it was very in your face. And I didn't know this was a thing and this may be a little graphic, but it's actually biblical, this whole idea. And it was the anti-circumcision league was out.

Yeah, they exist.

And they wore all white with the exception of everyone had a bloody red handprint on their crotch,

the anti-circumcision league. And they were chanting about how devastating circumcision is to the development and all this stuff. And then there were grown men, I'm not thinking this up, holding signs. And again, I can say this because this is all Bible language. Okay, this is all in the Bible. That says, I want my foreskin back.

(Congregation Laughing)

And there wasn't like one guy, there were dozens of them. And I have to walk with like 50 eighth graders in front of this whole group. We're like, ah, and I'm just like,

look at the no shoes guys.

(Congregation Laughing)

And you know, it did not go well for those eighth grade boys. I mean, they were just totally derailed. They'd been doing a really good job until they got to that group.

And I say that to say like, these people, listen, I don't know anything about them, right? Like they have their, this is a belief, this is a core belief that they had. They also printed fake $20 bills that they spread apart that people thought were then. And then it turned out it was just like, Lucas got caught. He thought he'd found 20 bucks, but it was just more foreskin information.

(Congregation Laughing)

I learned some new facts on that 20.

(Congregation Laughing)

But like I say that these people were united.

I literally like, I just find it wild that that's what they decided to unite about, but they were united.

And they were doing stuff. And they had money, and they had posters, and they had screens, and they had all sorts of stuff and transportation. They had cars with like decals on them and stuff.

Unity is a really powerful thing.

And you can be united for all sorts of silly things.

But what Jesus knows is that it takes very little to create disunity.

Like I have a feeling I could be wrong, but I don't think that group was gonna really last for a really long time.

Because at some point, they're just gonna be like, ah, what's the point?

It's too late for me anyways.

(Congregation Laughing)

It only has so much traction.

And people get disunited all the time.

Friendships end over silly things. We've lived in a season where it doesn't take any, like we not only think that things, we shouldn't disagree with people, we actually believe that if we disagree about it, we probably shouldn't be friends anymore.

Like that's how we live.

It's political all the way down to pizza.

Oh, you're a deepness person. This relationship's not gonna work out.

I'm done.

Don't even get me started on all these dating apps where it's like, I need to know everything about you before I ever meet you because I would hate to actually like you and then find out that we're incompatible because we don't like the same type of pets.

And that's probably the end of everything, so we'll just never meet.

But what Jesus says in John 17 is he says, "I want you to be united."

That's what he left them with, unity.

And listen, this gets picked up more and more and more. I mean, he even said before this in John 13, he says, "A new command I gave you, "love one another just as I loved you, "and you will also love one another. "By this, all people will know that you're my disciples, "if you have love for one another."

Listen to Psalm 133.1, it says, "Behold how good and pleasant it is "when brothers dwell in unity. "It's like the precious oil on the head, "running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, "running down on the collar of his robes, "like dew of Herman, which falls on Mount Zion, "for the Lord has commanded the blessing forevermore."

Now, just in case you're saying you're thinking, oh, this is just Jesus in the Old Testament, the New Testament authors, specifically Paul, but Peter and John, they also touch on this. We don't have time to get in all of it, but like this, all of a sudden, they realize like when Jesus says, "You're supposed to do the mission," and he realized the number one way to do the mission is to be united together. It's the number one thing. So listen to this in Philippians chapter two, two, it says, "Complete my joy by being of the same mind, "having the same love, "and being in full accord of one mind." Acts chapter two, verse 44 says, "And all who believed were together "and had all things in common." Jumping down to chapter four, 32, it says, "Now the full number of those who believed "were in one heart and soul, "and no one said that any of the things "that belonged to him was his own, "but they had everything in common."

There's this idea of unity, but Paul, he takes it even further, and I don't have enough time to actually like fully go in to all this, and I may just have to pick it up later, but Ephesians, boy, Ephesians is a beautiful book.

Ephesians is one that is just an incredible, incredible vision of what life and community and life led by the Holy Spirit looks like.

It is the vision of what could be

when you're empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And reading Ephesians through that lens is so beautiful. And here's something, and we're gonna have to jump for some verses here, but in chapter three, verse six, Paul says this, he just set up this whole idea of this mystery that God revealed through Christ and the work of the cross. And what he says is this, he says, "The mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs,

"members of the same body, "and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus "through the gospel."

Now, what does that mean? What he means by that is there was this whole debate between Jews and non-Jews on whether non-Jews could be part of God's chosen people. And in Ephesians, he makes it really clear, and he also does it in Romans and Galatians and other places where he says that as a result of the work of the cross, all people, specifically non-Jewish people, have been adopted into the family of Jesus, and they are now heirs to the promise. There was this great mystery surrounding this idea that now the very words that were spoken to Abraham and Isaac and to Jacob, and when he says that, "Your descendants will be more numerous than the stars "or the sand on the seashore," and you think, well, there's not that numerous, and all of a sudden you realize the people that he was talking about was not just the physical nation of Israel, but he was speaking specifically of all who had come to Christ through the result and the work of the cross. He says that now this great mystery means that you are part of the kingdom and that you are able to receive the promise, and you are now in the same body. You are allowed to be one,

just as a biological family is able to be one and united, you are in the same way.

And then listen to this, jumping down to verse 10, it says, "So that through the church," okay, "the body of the bride of Christ,

"the manifold wisdom," which for those of you who know the car guys in here, we're not talking about the manifold on your car.

Manifold degree means like multi-directional. It means like being able to look at something from multi-angles and multi-ways. It says, "The manifold wisdom of God "might now be made known

"to the rulers and authorities and heavenly places."

Whoa.

Whoa.

Now in a minute, we're gonna read in chapter four what it talks about what happens when people are united in natural places. But Paul right here just makes this massive statement that maybe just goes right past the thing, right right right past you. He says that when we walk in unity through the work of the cross together, and we're brothers and sisters, well in unity together through the work of the cross,

and live in community and preach the gospel, it says that God is made known to the rulers and the authorities and heavenly places. In other places, he talks about the spiritual powers and principalities of this world. This is no longer talking about the things that you and I can see. He is talking about something happens. The very idea and purpose of Jesus is made known in spiritual places when men and women live in unity and dwell together in love and kindness through the work of the cross. Because what it does is it reminds the rulers of this world, Satan and his underlings, that they are no longer the king of this world, that the king has come and conquered. His name is Jesus Christ. And if you wanna know what it looks like when the invading king has reigned, it is when men and women dwell in unity together.

That is the notice that is put out in spiritual places where they say, this is just the reminder that he is yet to come and then the final move, the final blow where death will lose its power and new heaven and new earth will come down. But till that day, you are put on notice that the battle has already been won. The victory is assured that Christ died and rose again, and we are now seated in heavenly places. But in the earthly realm, we dwell together in unity, and that puts you on notice, Satan, in all of your underlings that you have no power here anymore.

That's the power of what unity can create.

But do you know what breaks my heart?

And we're not gonna have time to go through all of it today.

Jesus and these early writers, the whole thing, it's like, you gotta be together. Stop fighting over these little silly things. Don't do this, don't look about this. Don't allow them to come and talk to you, oddly enough, about circumcision.

There was their own anti-circumcision league going on around then.

He said, "And stay united." The thing that transformed, and the reason that became the fastest growing religion, and the thing that everything happened, was not because the theology was beautiful. They didn't have beautiful theology. It wasn't because they were rich. In fact, they were very poor. It wasn't because they had beautiful buildings. They didn't have that. It wasn't because they had all these liturgical things and songs that they didn't have that. Their holy text wasn't even set for hundreds of years. They were borrowing the Old Testament and allowing it to become part of their things. And they were writing letters back and forth. That is not the reason that Christianity grew like wildfire and was transformative. The reason it was transformative is because men and women, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, slave and free, came to church together and sat at the table and said, "We dwell together as brothers and sisters in unity." And that transformed the world.

(Congregation Applauding)

It transformed the world.

And what breaks my heart, what breaks my heart, and this is, I have no accusation against any person or individual or thing, is that the very goal of Jesus was be united. And then I look around at the church today and I see nothing but disunity.

I drive up and down the street and I see a hundred different denominations

who at some point in time broke up because there was something that they felt like they disagreed on that was more important than the unity of the bride of Christ. And so they broke fellowship with one another.

And listen, occasionally there'll be things that you see in church history that were a major separation

and there maybe needed to be some decisions made.

But I've also seen churches break up and split

over what color the lobby should be painted.

And you laugh, but I've literally seen it.

I saw a church split because half the church wanted to spend a surplus in budget on crown molding in the lobby and the other half wanted to buy new cameras for the live stream. And they decided, "Let's just break our church in half. "We clearly want two different things." (Soft Music) Do you know who wins in that?

The principalities and the rulers of this world.

They win because no one looks at that and says, "Ooh, I wanna be part of that." Because you know how that's behaving just like the rest of the world.

That's what the world does. We can't agree on anything. We gotta do our own stuff.

Washington, D.C. is the mecca of that.

It is the mecca of I'm gonna do my own thing. I don't want you to do your thing. In fact, I wanna win and I want you to lose. And that's just how it works.

We can't come together no matter what we say. It's actually not gonna happen.

That's how the world works. That is why it is so completely contradictory when people come together to say, "Hey, guess what? "I got different beliefs. "I got different backgrounds politically. "I have a different idea about certain social structures. "I may vote differently. "I may even cheer for a different sports team. "And yet, because all those things are secondary, "I put them aside and we dwell together in unity "because how good and pleasant it is "when brothers and sisters dwell together under Christ."

And I can still not just know someone who thinks differently than me. I can actually be friends with someone who's different than me. (Soft Piano Music) And love someone who's different than me.

And be in fellowship with someone who's different. Be in community with someone who's different from me. And you know what's wild is usually what happens.

Because of human nature, when two people who are different, they start to be in relationship, they think, "I know what I'm gonna do. "I'm gonna change them."

Which, surprise, surprise, the other person thinks they're gonna change you too.

But usually what happens is both people are changed.

Both people are changed.

We've had too long of a history of church that people break up over the silliest things. I believe they can't be in fellowship because they've done something. Listen, there was churches that they would split up and then they started just having to have different beliefs because they're like, "Well, I gotta distinguish myself "from that church down the street. "So I'm gonna do something a little different "just because I want differentiation." That's called marketing.

That's not called being one in Christ.

And that's so hard.

When you read through Ephesians,

or you read through Romans, and you read through Corinthians, and they're just beseeching, be united, even in persecution, rejoice.

Because he's with you.

He's with you.

He's with you.

And here's the thing.

And this is why it's so hard. We'll close with this.

It's, we're called in Christ to do two things that are so hard. And I'll use the real churchy term and you guys can extrapolate it for yourselves. But you are called to walk in holiness

right? Like God, he wants you to live like Jesus lived. So it's like, you're supposed to live in holiness

and he wants you to be united.

Those are the two things. And here's what's really hard. It's really easy to walk in holiness if you don't care about being united with anyone else.

Because then I can just condemn anyone else who I think is not doing it right.

That's easy.

And then I'm holy.

What we would call those in Jesus' day was a Pharisee holding in your own eyes and broken apart from everyone else. And then guess what? It's also really good to be united and easy to be united if you don't hold anyone to the level of any kind of holiness.

And he says, "Cool, just do whatever you want. "We're all together." Oh, you chose to do that? You believe that? You think that's okay? Great, I accept it no matter what because unity.

But what Jesus walked in was grace and truth,

justice and righteousness,

holiness and unity.

And you say, "Holy cow, how does that happen?

"How can I walk in holiness and unity "whenever they're making a really bad decision "or they're believing incorrectly?"

That is the question. (Soft Music)

And there's no one answer.

There's no one answer.

How do I do what he says here in Ephesians 4.15? He says, "Rather, speaking the truth and love,

"we are to grow up in every way into him "who is the head into Christ."

Truth and love.

It sounds great on a postcard. It's really actually hard to do.

And I've had plenty of people tell me truth and love, which was really just them being able to say mean things to me, but with like a little, with all due respect, and then say whatever you want.

How do we do that?

And in the next couple of weeks, this is what we're gonna continue to unpack is how do I walk in holiness and unity?

How do I live in a world that doesn't do it God's way

and stand for God's way and stand for love?

I'll give you the heads up. If you try to figure it out on your own, you will not be able to do it. But we have an advocate in the Holy Spirit who goes before you, who exists outside of time, who knows not only the truth and love, but also knows the very end roads to the very connection of the person that you are attempting to connect with in truth and unity and love and grace. He is the one who leads you into all these things and can allow you to walk and to be guided.

Jesus displayed this in his whole height. Everywhere Jesus went, he never excused unholy behavior.

And he never didn't love someone.

And he did them both at the same time. And you would think that's impossible. And yet he can look at that woman in the well and basically talk about all of her failed marriages and all of her sins and everything she does and tell all the truth, but do it in some way that she's in love with. Do it in some way that she's in love. And all she does is like, this is the greatest man I've ever met.

Because he was being led

to be able to extend grace and truth all at the same time encapsulated in the person of love.

That's why Jesus could say what sounded like really hard things.

And the people he's had really hard things to loved him more than we could ever know.

Because he knew the heart of the people he was talking to.

He called one lady a dog.

And we read it today and we're like, well, that seemed like Jesus, but she loved him.

It was the exact interaction that that woman needed at that moment that transformed her life.

And then we have the audacity 2000 years later to be like, I think that one's a little rude.

You don't need to know how to interact with every human being on the face of the planet. You know why? Because you're not called to interact with every human being on the planet, but you do have a relationship with your neighbor

and the Holy Spirit can lead you on how to interact with your neighbor

or that person at the coffee shop or that best friend

or that person at the coffee shop.

You're not called to figure it out for everyone, but you are all called to be on part of the mission.

To live in a way that transforms this world.

That's what we're gonna be talking about for another couple of weeks.

If it sounds interesting, don't miss it. If it sounds boring, come back. It's gonna be awesome, I promise. Stand with me, let me pray for you.

Jesus, you're so good.

Your love and your mercy and your grace is all we need.

It's all we individually need, Lord, and we seek and desire to show that in the same way.

But Lord, we only see dimly and we don't fully understand,

which is why we need you.

Open our eyes and hearts to dwell in our mouths so that we can speak your love and your truth and your goodness and your mercy and your righteousness every day.

Help us dwell in unity with those around us

so that we can continue to proclaim

in the natural and the supernatural

how great our God is today

and that he is alive and well

and his mission is at work in this world.

We love you, Father. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. Well, listen, just as a reminder,

we're having our business meeting here in the next 20 or 30 minutes over in the fishbowl. Anyone is welcome to come. And if you're like, "Hey, what can I expect?" I don't know, it's my first one. We'll see how it goes. It could be wild. So just come, show up, it'll be great. And yeah, other than that, you're dismissed. Love you guys. Have a great rest of your Sunday.