Speaker: In our flesh.
If our flesh is unchecked, this can get down to like, whoa.
The person that set up the chairs this week, I don't like the way
they set up the chairs this week.
I set up the chairs better than they set up the chairs.
Something as petty as that can begin to creep into the church, right?
Gossip, envy, covetousness.
These are all things that work against unity Unforgiveness.
Things that, that create a breeding ground for division in the church
and things that are all antigo things that are all things that work
against the mission of the church.
Instead, what do we need to do if, if we're gonna be a church that that's
gonna catch the world's attention?
We have to be a church united for a common purpose, a common mission, and
it's gonna involve things like this.
There's more, but some things like this.
Number one, commit to a Philippians two preference of one another.
When Paul writes in Philippians two, Hey, do nothing from selfish ambition or
conceit, but in humility, count others is more significant than yourselves.
That's gonna foster unity in the bride of Christ.
Commit to killing envy in covetousness at the earliest
sign when they rise up within us.
If you find yourself envying, one of your brothers or sisters in Christ are
coveting what they have, man, put that to death as quickly as you possibly can.
Commit to killing gossip in the church and not contributing to its spread.
You hear a brother or sister sharing something that, that is, is laced
with gossip, then, then you need to, to say, Hey, we need to not
be talking about this right now.
Or, Hey, have you talked to them about this?
Have you gotten to them about these things?
Commit to seeking forgiveness when you've wronged a brother, a sister
in Christ that's gonna foster unity within the bride of Christ.
Commit to forgiving as we have been forgiven.
And that one's huge and so hard too.
But that's gonna foster unity with the, with the, in the bride of of Christ.
Learn to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
Take more of an interest in each other than just the passing comment about, how's
your week and how's the weather been?
This is what's gonna produce unity here.
That's gonna cost somebody to walk in here from the world that's not a
believer and say, what do you have here?
I want that.
Again, that that's why we're we're, we're called to be united.
That's the reason for the unity that Christ is praying for in our
lives, that we would be one such.
The world stops and takes notice of what we have going on here,
but he prays more for them.
Look at verse 24.
He says, father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be
with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved
me before the foundation of the world.
Now he's praying that we would be with him and this is in keeping
with John 14, John 14 verses two and three in my father's house.
There's many rooms.
If it were not, so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place
for you and if I go verse three and prepare a place for you, I will
come again and take you to myself.
That where I am you may be.
Also, Jesus wants us to be with him, church.
And he's praying that we would be united with that in mind, that ultimately
our final destination is not here, but there it's gonna be with him.
It's gonna be in the presence of Jesus.
In fact, so much so one commentator put it this way, he says this, he
says, the ultimate goal for the disciple is not participation in the
mission to which Jesus called them.
Okay.
That's startling to read that alone.
The ultimate goal for the disciple is not the great commission, is
what this commentator just said.
It, but before you pick up stones, he goes on here, he says, as vital
as that is, but last half of this, he says, but the ultimate goal is
to see the glory of their exalted redeemer in the presence of the Father.
That is the ultimate goal.
Rush Church is to be with Jesus, to be in his presence, to see his
glory, to experience the, the joy of being face to face with our savior.
That's what Jesus is praying for, ultimately to the Father, for you and me.
He's saying, father, I desire, I'm asking that they would be with me where
I am, that they might see my glory.
And the reason he's praying that is because he knows that's what is
best for us, is to be with him and to be in the presence of his glory,
y'all.
That's that, that truly is what, what?
Connects us.
That that truly is a, the, the bond, the glue.
It's, it's what keeps us together.
It's the foundation of our unity, if I can put it that way.
The fact that no matter who you are, what your background looks like, where
you come from, what your religious beliefs were prior to coming to faith
in Christ, what you make a year, no matter what it is, all of us together
sit here in this morning as those that are on the, the road to the same place.
That is if you are in Christ and that destination is actually
a person and that person is.
Jesus.
That's our common future, and that is the foundation of what unites us together.
Point number two, this morning, along those lines, is this
unite around a common future?
Unite around a common future Being with Jesus, we're not, we're uniting for
the, the common mission of reaching the lost and our, our unity is, is a
passive expression of that mission, but we unite around the foundation of
is, of our union is a common future.
And that is being with Jesus,
Jesus desires that we would be in his presence.
The question for us this morning is, do we desire to be in his presence too?
I don't know if you feel it this morning, guys.
I'll just, just sidebar.
I'll just stop here.
I, I feel like I'm like the, the, the heirs out of the room this morning.
That's just what I'm feeling right now.
I don't know what that is.
It just feels like we're, we're a little dead here this morning.
Anybody else with me on that this morning?
We need to stand up and do jumping jacks or something and sit back down.
I'm, I'm for it if, if we need to.
I, I, I feel that need too.
And, and I, I get it.
Sometimes it's, it's hard and, and, and you're coming off of a week where you've
been busy and you're coming off of a week where you've gone through it and you're
coming off of a week where your car's been in the shop or you're coming off of
a week where you've had marital problems.
You're coming off of a week of being sick.
You're coming off of a week of problems at, at work with your boss.
You're coming off of a week in a broken and fallen world.
And you're drained.
I, I get it.
I fully understand where you're at this morning.
This is our future though.
We get to go be with Jesus.
We get to be with Jesus.
And, and I don't think about that enough.
And, and, and the disadvantage that we have is that he's not, he's not
sitting right here in the room with us.
Right, and, and so it's hard for us to conceive of, man, what's it
gonna be like to be with Jesus?
And so let's piggyback for a second if we can on Peter.
Peter, he has his high points.
There are not a lot of 'em before Pentecost, but he's got some, he's got
some, you remember Matthew chapter 17.
Jesus calls Peter, James and John up on this mountain with him,
and we call it the mount of what.
Transfiguration.
Right.
Why do we call it the Mount of Transfiguration?
Because Jesus was transfiguration on the mountain.
Yeah.
He was transfigured on the mountain, meaning he, he showed up in his full
glory on the mountain there, and there were two other people with him.
Who else was with him?
Moses and Elijah.
Exactly.
Yes.
Moses and Elijah and Jesus.
And they're on the mountain.
And Peter and the, and James and John are up there with Jesus
and Peter says this to Jesus.
He says, Lord, it's good that we are here.
It's good that we're with you.
It's good that we're in your presence, Lord.
And then he says, in just as honesty here, he says, I, I'll make these tents.
One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.
We don't need anybody else.
Lord, we're good here.
Let's just hang out here.
Moses is here.
He's got the manna covered.
He can hit a rock or speak to it, whatever you want him to do.
We'll get some water out of there.
We'll be set.
Let's just be here.
Jesus, I just wanna be with you.
That's Peter in the presence of Jesus.
And so for us, I think it's just that, that the work that we have
to do to, to get there, to be like, that's gonna be so good.
Peter's not on the Mount of Transfiguration going,
Jesus, do I get to fly?
Am I gonna get a hole in one on every golf course that I ever play?
Now Jesus.
He's not sitting there looking around the Mount of Transfiguration going,
is there anything else to do up here?
Sometimes we fall prey to that, don't we?
When we think about eternity, w we think about man, oh yeah,
it's gonna be about Jesus.
And it's gonna be about this over here too.
It's gonna be about Jesus, but it's also gonna be about this over here too.
It's gonna be about Jesus, but I'm also gonna get to see
this person over here too.
And, and, and listen.
Eternity's gonna be more than than choir robes and pews.
But it's certainly not gonna be less than us being overwhelmingly consumed with
being in the presence of Jesus, being in his presence and saying with Peter,
good Lord, it is good that we are here.
It's good for us to be here.
Is it good for you this morning to think about being in the presence of Jesus?
That's where we're all headed.
That's our common future.
That's the thing that is the foundation of what unites us.
No matter where you come from, what your background looks like is you and I are
gonna be together for eternity with Jesus.
And you might be thinking, well, why should I look forward to that?
Help me understand that a little bit.
Two thoughts.
Number one, you're gonna be like him when you're with him.
You can be like Jesus and I, I don't mean that in the sense that Satan wanted
to be like God and fell from heaven.
I mean that in the best sense.
We talked about sanctification a handful of weeks ago, that we've
got our positional sanctification that is at the moment of salvation,
you are justified and positionally set apart as holy to the Lord.
Then we've got progressive sanctification, and that's what
we're all in the midst of right now.
This progression of being made more like Jesus, the longer that
we live here, and then ultimately is the perfect sanctification.
That's what I'm talking about here with the fact that you're,
you're gonna be like him.
Uh, John describes it, our author from John's Gospel in one John.
He says, beloved, we are now God's children and what we will be has
not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him
because we shall see him as he is.
We'll be in his presence.
No more sin nor any of its effects will be there.
Mark was reading about it in, in Revelation 22, earlier.
That's our future.
There's no son.
Why?
Because the glory of Jesus is all the light we're gonna need.
You don't need a temple because you've got the Lamb of God
and you're gonna be like him.
You're gonna be able to draw near to him.
You're gonna have access to him.
Paul says in Philippians three 20, our citizenship is in heaven.
And from it, we await our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform
our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him
even to subject all things to himself.
Jesus is gonna make your earthly body like his glorious, heavenly, holy body.
Colossians three, four.
Paul says, when Christ who is your life appears, then you also
will appear with him in glory.
So church, one of the reasons why you should long to be with Jesus
is because you will be like Jesus.
You'll be like him.
No more sin.
All the sin that besets you, the sin that frustrates you.
It's gone.
And you'll be with them and you'll be like him.
Not only will you be like him, but also second, you will
know true joy and true peace.
True joy and true peace to be in the presence of Jesus.
And, and there's other things that I could have pointed to besides these
things, but I think the, the, the presence of Jesus conveys these things.
Psalm 1611, David says, in your presence there's fullness of
joy, and that's your right hand.
Our pleasure's forevermore.
John chapter 20.
After the resurrection, we read this on the evening of that day, the first day of
the week, the doors being locked, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.
Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you.
And so here we see the, the presence of Jesus is accompanied
by the peace of Christ.
The presence of Jesus is, is imbued with peace.
That's going to last.
Peace.
That's going to transcend, and, and, and there's an already not yet component
of that, that as Christians, we get to experience Philippians four, that
the peace of Christ would guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Right?
There's an already component to that, but the fullness of it, we will know
in eternity we will be with him and we will know a peace that will never end
a piece that will never be threatened.
But he not only says, peace be with you.
Notice the, the response to the disciples when he said this, he
showed them his hands and his side, and then the disciples were glad.
And that is the understatement of the century right there.
It's him.
It's Jesus.
They're not just glad, they're rejoicing with joy and expressible,
and that is a, a byproduct of being in the presence of Jesus.
And so to be with him, you will know true joy and true and lasting
peace will be yours as well.
CS Lewis, I think hit the nail on the head with how little we think about how great
that's gonna be and how satisfied we are with the things that this world offers us.
Instead, when Lewis wrote this.
He said, if we consider the un blushing promises of reward and the staggering
nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds
our desires not too strong, but too weak.
And then he says this, we are half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink and
sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us like an ignorant child
who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what's
meant by the offer of a holiday at.
See, we are far too easily pleased.
Amen to that.
We are far too easily pleased and I, I'm, I'm convicted of that.
Anytime.
I think, man, Jesus, I wanna be with you, but can you wait until this happens first?
And to be with Jesus is better than anything else This world can offer us.
And that's our common future.
That's what unites us together.
That's what ow allows us and enables us to come together as brothers and sisters
in Christ and to sing songs of praise and to encourage each other and to spur
one another on towards Christ likeness.
Because we get to say, this world is not it.
It's not it.
We're not here to just try to make the world a, a better place.
We're here to, to try to, to, to introduce more people to a better
savior until we get to the better place.
Which is with him.
And so you might say, well, okay, how do I get there?
How do I cultivate this?
If, if I, if I say, man, I, I want to want Jesus more.
It's a great desire.
It's a great hope.
That's a great ambition.
Let me give just a handful of suggestions.
Number one, spend time with Jesus.
If you wanna be with Jesus, there want to be with Jesus here.
If you don't wanna be with Jesus here, why do you think you're
gonna wanna be with Jesus?
There?
Spend time with Jesus.
How do I spend time with Jesus?
You spend time in His word and you spend time in prayer.
I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever apologize for telling you to
read your Bible and pray more ever.
That is the, that's the conduit of your relationship with Christ.
Spend time with him.
You wanna cultivate a desire to be with him.
Spend time with him, talk to him.
Talk to him, pray, engage in relationship with him.
Spend time with Jesus.
Friends, say, who are Jesus friends?
Look around the room at those that are in Christ.
Remember what Jesus told his disciples, no longer do I call you
servants, but I call you friends.
Spend time with other people that love Jesus and that's
gonna stir a love for Jesus.
And you too.
A desire to be with Jesus.
Do the things that Jesus loves.
Jesus loves the Father and loves to submit and obey to the obey the Father.
So be submissive and obedient to the Father, to the word of God.
Put off the things that Jesus hates.
You wanna cultivate a desire to be with Jesus if, if you are engaged in a lot
of things that Jesus hates, that's not gonna produce affections to be with Jesus.
You're not gonna wanna be with Jesus if you're doing the things that Jesus
hates, which we call sin, right.
The, the more Christlike, the more sanctified, the more holy you can become
this side of eternity, the, the more you will desire to be with Jesus in eternity.
And so you wanna cultivate that desire to be with Jesus so that you would say, man,
that that's, that, that is what I want.
That is what it looks like.
It's that old quote from Piper, if you could have heaven in everything
they're in and not have Jesus, would you be okay with that?
We wanna all get to the place of saying no.
Because we're all tracking that direction.
Did you know that there are such things as cruises to nowhere?
So it's a thing, it's a, it's a real thing.
I was listening to another pastor who, who called this to my attention first,
and then I, I dug into it this week.
This is a, a, a real ship that's a cruise to nowhere.
Um, and it's, it's that there's no destination for this cruise.
You get on the ship, you, you leave your port, and the whole point of
this cruise is just to enjoy the ship.
It is just to be on the ship.
Enjoy the amenities of the ship.
Enjoy the views from the deck on the ship.
I've never been on a cruise.
I have no desire to go on a cruise.
The Titanic will always be there.
My wife would let me on the door.
There was enough room.
We've covered that already, but I just, I don't wanna go on a cruise.
Some people like to go on cruises to nowhere, and the whole point of a cruise
to nowhere is just to enjoy the ship.
In fact, here's from their website, the cruise itself is the
destination on a nowhere cruise.
And with the innovations that cruise lines, cruise lines have implemented on
their world-class, state-of-the-art ships, what a destination it is With a nowhere
cruise, you could find yourself bathing in the sun on a spacious deck with a city
as a background surrounded by ocean waves.
A nowhere Cruise is all about exploring your ship and letting the ocean breeze
put you in a relaxed state of mind.
Somebody who apparently enjoyed their nowhere crews, they had a a, a.
A recommendation for it on the website said Our cruise to nowhere
was the perfect way to experience cruising for the first time.
We weren't sure we that we would like cruising, but now we're hooked
and ready to plan our next cruise.
We witnessed spectacular wildlife and enjoyed all the amenities on board.
Being at sea for two nights allowed us to take advantage of the pools and
the entertainment, which was perfect.
See, that's just it.
Everyone on a cruise to nowhere is content to just enjoy the ride without
any concern for their destination.
A lot of people treat the church like a cruise to nowhere.
You're just here to enjoy the benefits.
You just wanna enjoy the amenities.
Just be able to check the box, feel good about yourself, feel good about your
family, because you're involved in church.
You've got your kids in a kid's ministry, that's good.
We're doing what we're supposed to do.
That's great.
Church.
This is not a cruise to nowhere.
We have a destination, and the destination is a person, and the person is Jesus.
We're, we're here not to just simply enjoy being here.
We're here because this is meant to take us somewhere else.
It's meant to take us to Jesus.
It's meant to usher us into the presence of Jesus with our
brothers and sisters in Christ.
So if you're wanting to just enjoy the amenities of the world and
float around aimlessly, that's not what the church is about.
The church is the bride of Christ united together around this common
future, which is our foundation.
He continues though, and wraps up in verse 25 and 26.
He says, oh, righteous father, even though the world does not know you, I know you
and these know that you have sent me.
So here Jesus is praying similar to what he had said earlier.
I'm sending them into the world.
The world's gonna hate them.
He's creating this distinction again between us and the world.
The world doesn't know you, but I know you and these know
that you have sent me verse 26.
I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known.
That's, again, think the spirit.
This is all in the context of the upper room discourse.
He's prayed that the spirit would continue to enlighten them and and
teach them and call to mind the things that he had taught them.
So that's how Jesus is gonna continue to make the Father's name known to them.
And then he goes on here and he says this in order that.
With the result that the love with, with which you have loved me may
be in them and I in them, that the love with which you have loved
me may be in them and I in them.
Okay?
We gotta ask ourselves the question, what's the nature of this love?
Is it a love in us in the sense that it's, it's in us as believers.
We've received this love, we've experienced the love of the Father
through the son, applied by the spirit.
Is, is that what he's talking about, that the love is in us as
believers, or is this love among us?
Which is another translation of that preposition.
Therein is the love among us as believers in that it's showing up in the love of
God, has manifested in our relationships with one another as the church.
So is it the love in us or the love among us?
If you've listened to the podcast long enough, you know
the answer to this question.
What is it?
Yes, yes.
Is the answer to this question.
Yes, it's both.
It's not one over the other because you can't have one without the other.
Teacher, what's the greatest commandment?
Love the Lord your God with everything that you've got.
Oh, by the way, the second is like it, love one another as yourself.
Why is the second like it?
Because the, the first produces the second.
And so as Jesus hears praying and saying that we would know the love that the
Father has shown to the son, and that that love might be in us, which is read,
salvation, there experiencing the love of the Father for the son applied to
us through the Spirit is by faith alone through grace alone, right by grace alone
through faith alone in Christ alone.
That's salvation.
That, that, that we would experience, that love.
And if we experience that love, guess what?
It's gonna show up in our relationships with one another.
It's gonna be the love that's manifested among us.
This is why, again, we, we talked about this passage last week, first Peter
1, 2, 22 through 23, having purified your souls by your obedience to the
truth for a sincere, brotherly love, love one another, earnestly from a pure
heart since you've been born again.
Love flows out of our relationship with Christ out of our being born again.
And so we talked about it.
We've got a reason, we've got a, a purpose for our unity, and that is the mission.
We've got the foundation of our unity, and that is the, the, uh,
the, the future with with Christ.
And then finally, we've got the means of our unity, and that is the common love
that we should have for one another.
So point number three this morning is this unite by a common love.
Unite by a common love.
This is the means for how we're gonna be a United Unified Church.
Without this, we can't have it.
Your relationships with people in this room should be tangibly
different than your relationships with your neighbors and your coworkers.
And I would even go so far as to say even your extended family members.
And if they're not, then there's a disconnect here.
We moved into our, our new offices this past week, a couple
weeks ago, which was, was great.
And by the way, those of you guys that made it out for the, the open
house, thanks for stopping by.
It was so fun.
Uh, we, we loved having you there, but as, as we're there, I replaced
the light switch in my office and it came with a three pack.
So I gave one to Pastor Ron.
I gave one to, to mark too to, to put into their offices.
And I all of a sudden had Mark asking me, Hey, did, did
your wires look like my wires?
And this is a, we're, we're a bunch of guys in, in ministry, right?
None of us, none of us are electricians.
Mark's probably the smartest guy amongst us when it comes to these things.
Um, and so I walk into his office and it's got three extra wires that I didn't have.
So I'm like, I, I don't know what to do with that.
I said, mine didn't have this wire, and it also didn't have those three wires.
So Mark's like, okay, well, I'll figure it out.
So Mark.
Pulled one wire out and tried to hook it up and, and then he broke the office.
Um,
well he broke his lights in Kelly's, lights in the hallway,
lights in the bathroom lights, which made that an adventure.
Um, anyways, I don't understand how it happened and John
Kingsolver can explain it to us.
I'm gonna say it was the short circuit 'cause it fits my illustration.
Okay.
Short circuiting.
What is short circuiting?
I had to look it up, but I figured out what it's a short circuit is
when the, the, the, the electricity, the, the current doesn't complete
the loop that's meant to complete.
Instead, it takes the path of least resistance and it bypasses the
ultimate destination and it ends up overheating and overloading because
it, it, it's not able to dissipate its energy the way it's meant to.
John, did I get that somewhat right?
Thanks.
He gave me somewhat of a head nod there.
We'll take that so.
When we as Christians don't display the love that we've received from God, we're
short circuiting part of the purpose for that love that he's given to us.
The love that he's shown us in Christ is meant to be expressed in
our relationships with one another, in other words, and so we should be
loving each other tangibly this way.
That's why these relationships are different than any other relationship
that exists on the planet.
Uh, because they are, are grounded by, and united by and expressed through
a love that's unique to Christians.
This is why your relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ
are in many ways more significance than your relationship with your
biological unbelieving family members.
Because there is a love that you can express mutually between one another that
cannot be expressed outside of the church.
It's, it's not possible.
Jesus was meeting with people and, and preaching to them and talking to
them, and his mother and brothers and sisters come and they're outside and
somebody says, teacher, your, your family's here, and they, they need you.
And Jesus says, who is my mother, who are my brothers?
And stretching out his hand towards his disciples, he said, here are my mother
and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my father, and heaven is my
brother and my sister and my mother.
Jesus is establishing the paradigm that there are relationships within
the body of Christ that transcend the depth of even blood relationships.
Paul experienced this and knew this one.
Thessalonians two, verse eight, one Thessalonians chapter two, verse eight.
Paul says this, he says, being affectionately desirous of you, we were
ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves,
because you would become very dear to us.
That's what we need to have in the church.
A love for one another that's even sharing our own selves with one another.
Paul says, in one Corinth or second Corinthians seven, five, he says,
when we came into Macedonia, I mean, our bodies had no rest, but we were
afflicted at every turn and we were fighting without fear or fighting
without, and and fear within.
And then he says this in verse six, but God who comforts
the downcast comforted us.
Notice how by providing a brother in Christ to comfort them,
he comforted us with Titus.
He comforted us with the relationship of another believer, and not only by
his coming, but also by the comfort with which he comforted us by you as Titus told
us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me so that I rejoice still more.
You see how Paul is built up in the midst of affliction and suffering
and pain, knowing that he's got Titus there and knowing through
Titus that he has other brothers and sisters in Christ who love him and
are building him up and care for him.
Church, our unity is, is, is only realized through our love for one another.
We don't have time, but Philippians chapter two verses 19 through 30,
we, you, you see another example of this as Paul talks about Timothy and
a paphitis there in that passage.
This is the how y'all.
In other words, if we're saying, okay, we need to be un unified for
our mission, and we are unified on the foundation of our common future,
how does, how do we realize this?
We realize it through our love for each other.
We realize it through the love of Christ that we've experienced
poured into our hearts.
Then as we turn around and we, we show that love to one another
as we walk through this life, it's the one Corinthians 13 love
that we talked about last week.
It's the love that's patient that's kind, that doesn't envy.
Doesn't boast.
It's not arrogant.
It doesn't insist on its own way.
It's not irritable, it's not resentful.
It doesn't rejoice.
It wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
I, it's the love that Peter calls the earnest, brotherly love.
The sincere brotherly love.
In one Peter, chapter one, verse 22, it's the love of Colossians,
chapter three of kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, peace,
instruction, admonishment, singing thanksgiving above all these things.
He says, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
It's the love that Jesus commended to us in John 1334, A new commandment
I give you that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
You also are to love one another, and by this, will all people
know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
Here's the thing though, y'all, this love is going to cost us.
If you look around this room and at this pulpit.
All of us are sinners, and just like any other family, we're
gonna step on each other's toes.
Sometimes people are gonna step on your toes intentionally, and
they're gonna step on all of them.
A couple times.
You're gonna step on theirs too.
If we're gonna remain, remain united together as a church, we
have got to count the cost and love this way, and it's gonna count us.
It's gonna cost us forgiving when we don't feel like forgiving.
It's gonna cost us having to humble ourselves and go and seek forgiveness.
Even though we don't want to do that, it's gonna cost us covering a, an
offense of a brother or sister in Christ.
'cause love covers a multitude of sins.
It's gonna cost us weeping.
The, with those who weep.
It's gonna cost us our time, it's gonna cost us our comfort.
It's gonna cost us these things.
But church, I'm convinced it's worth the cost, and I hope you are too.
Y'all if, if you're not hungry for this kind of unity expressed in a
community, committed to Christ and committed to one another, if you're just
looking for a place to get expository preaching once a week, I've said
it before, but there are far better podcast preachers out there than me.
Church if, if you want the unity that Jesus is talking about here, it's more
than an hour and a half every Sunday.
You can't get it that way.
You need to be all in with other people who love Jesus.
You need to plug in, you need to invest, you need to
connect, you need to be with us.
I, I don't know what the future holds here.
You may have seen the news, but over towards McKinney, they're building a,
a, a massive Islamic community that is purported to be pursuing Sharia law.
There.
McKinney.
I said, I didn't say Flint, Michigan.
I didn't say the Middle East.
I, I said our backyard here.
I, I, I don't know what the future holds with us.
I know one thing, I'm, I'm thankful for our administration, but I also
know Donald Trump is not Jesus
and there's no political savior that's coming for, for us.
So what the next administration does, we have no idea if the heat gets turned up.
We're gonna need one another in this room.
We're gonna need to be able to know what oneness in this room looks like.
In a way, again, that being here for an hour and a half every week is not
gonna, is not gonna do the trick.
We need to have relationships with each other.
We need to actually be building into those things with each other.
Uh, this past week, my dad took Josh and I to a a Dallas Stars game.
And, uh, we were, for about two and a half hours, we were united with about
19,000 other people in the American Airline Center, and we were rejoicing
with those who rejoiced when the good guys scored a goal High five, in celebrating.
It was awesome.
And we were weeping with those who Weep won.
The bad guys, scored a goal, which unfortunately they
scored one more than we did.
So.
But we were united with these 19,000 other people in this building, all
of us together with one cause and we're all like, yes, this is great.
Ghost stars, Dallas Stars Pantera was playing, it was goals, it's great.
But as soon as we walked out those doors and got our cars to leave the parking lot,
any unity that existed inside that building was a distant memory.
Don't treat the church that way.
Don't be all in as long as we're here under this roof and then have
no thought or connection to the bride of Christ for the rest of the week.
Make this place different than anything else out there in the world.
I think Jesus wanted that.
That's why he's praying for this right before the cross.
He's praying for our unity right before the cross.
How do we know if we're alive and not dead?
I think the pulse at least a good place to check the pulse is
checking the pulse of our unity as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Will you stand with me?
I'll pray and then we'll be dismissed.