Choosing Unity in a Divided World

0:44 I'm gonna give you a little assignment. And before we do, if you're meeting this weekend, I'm glad you're meeting. If you're snowed in somewhere because a big part of the nation is snowed in, tell us where you're watching from, wherever you are. All of us, we're gonna play a game. I'm gonna ask you to use your imagination. This is an odd game, and I admit it, but use your imagination. and I wanna ask you, if you were the devil, I know I told you it was weird, but if you were the devil for one day and your assignment was to slow the work of God through the church, how would you do it? Imagine if you were the devil for one day and your assignment was to try to slow the work of God through the church, how would you do it?

1:37 Let me tell you what you wouldn't have to do. You wouldn't have to even shut the doors to the church. You wouldn't have to get people burning Bibles. You wouldn't even have to get people to stop believing in Jesus. If you were the devil and wanted to stop the work of God through the church, one thing you could do is just get God's people to turn on each other.

1:57 Divide the body of Christ. You could do it through some hateful social media posts. You could distract well-meaning Christians with secondary issues and get them fighting about secondary issues instead of communicating our primary message. You could get Christians to divide over preferences rather than being united in mission. To hurt the work of God through the church, when you think about it, the devil doesn't need to destroy the church. He just needs to divide the church. And that's one of the reasons that Jesus prayed for unity. I want you to think about this. On the night before Jesus is going to go to the cross, Jesus prayed.

2:49 And when he prayed, he didn't pray for miracles. He didn't pray for growth. He didn't even pray for protection. When Jesus prayed for his disciples, He prayed for unity. Look at what Jesus prayed in John chapter 17. He's praying for the disciples and he said, my prayer is that all of them may be one. Why is he praying for unity? So that the world may believe, God, that you have sent me. Jesus says, I've given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, so that they may be brought together in complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. When you think about this, the night before Jesus is crucified, he prayed that we, you, me, we, the body of Christ would be one. Why? So that the world would believe that the Father sent Jesus.

4:07 In other words, Jesus tied the credibility of the gospel to the unity of his followers. because when we stand united, the world clearly sees the love of Jesus through his body, which brings us to our message series. We're in a message series called A Church That Pleases God. And what kind of church are we praying that we'll be? We're praying that we will be genuinely a church that pleases God. And what is a church that pleases God made up of? The answer is a church that pleases God is made up of people that are pleasing God. And we're gonna find out today from the living word of God that a church that pleases God is a unified church.

5:05 A church that pleases God is a unified church. and I just want to acknowledge that there was a solid amen and several head nods. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Pastor, unity. Sounds nice, right? But what I want to tell you right now is this is not a soft suggestion. Jesus prayed, make them one, because when the church stands as one, Jesus is impossible to ignore. Make them one. Make them one. Make them one. Make them one. A church that pleases God is a unified church, and it's not easy to be that, especially today, because we have a spiritual enemy working overtime to divide the pot body of Christ, and he's doing a decent job of dividing God's family, because if we are united together, we are unstoppable, filled by the power of the Holy Spirit to make a difference in this world. But if we are divided, we are weak and ineffective.

6:13 And I want to be really, really clear. This isn't just my opinion. This is God's word. To be really, really clear, God doesn't just love unity, which he does, but he hates division. Proverbs 6, 16, scripture tells us there are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him. The English one, two, three, four, five, six. The seventh is that he detests is a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

6:49 He hates these things, they're detestable. That's strong language. God doesn't just dislike division in his family, he hates it. If you're a parent with kids, you know that, you just love when they get along. And if you're driving in a car and they're not getting along in a backseat, you'll pull that car over. Or you'll just start swinging for anybody, anything. God wants his family to be unified. And some of you are thinking like, I'm glad our pastor's preaching this because I know someone who needs to hear this message. If you're sitting next to them, don't nudge them, but you can just kind of lean in their direction. I hope so-and-so hears this. But I'm gonna just approach this from a more humble standpoint and ask, what if the person that's stirring division isn't just them,

7:47 but what if sometimes it's you and what if sometimes it's me? because I don't know any Christians that wake up and think today's the day I'm going to divide the church. I don't think that happens. I think it happens more subtly and unintentionally, especially from those of us who really believe we're right. you're not laughing because you really think you're right. I mean, like, genuinely, like, you know, I think I'm right, and you think you're right, and when we're really convinced we're right, sometimes we may even be right, but our approach may not be right. In other words, let me just say this. You can be right in your beliefs, but wrong in your approach. And sometimes we think like we're defending the truth, but our attitude is actually dividing the body. I'll tell you something kind of cool I read about that's a cool thought, but not a cool outcome. The Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year for 2025.

9:01 Does anybody know what the word of the year is for 2025? The word is rage bait. Now, if you're thinking that's two words. It's exactly what I thought, but nevertheless, that's what it is. And if you don't know what rage bait is, essentially rage bait is like any kind of content that is crafted to trigger anger or like very emotional reactions. If any of you are on any form of social media or read any type of news, chances are you see stories or posts that drive comments and shares and division. And some argue that rage bait is actually designed to provoke outrage because anger spreads faster than truth. And all of us, me and you, we're all incredibly vulnerable to the algorithms. And what we look at, we tend to be fed more of. And if you find yourself getting into kind of divisive comment and seeing content and one side swings or swings on another. And all of a sudden, the stuff that gets the highest engagement gets pushed out the most.

10:16 And sometimes that which is most controversial and that which is most divisive gets pushed out the hardest. And if we're not careful, rage bait isn't just annoying content, but it's weaponizing divisiveness. Because especially in the body of Christ, if the enemy can just keep us offended at each other, at our own, and keep us suspicious of other Christians and those churches and those pastors and the people who read that wrong version of the Bible, if he can just keep us suspicious with each other, the devil doesn't have to destroy the church. We'll literally do it for him. Jesus prayed, make them one. Make them one.

11:08 This is how they will know that you sent me when they're unified. Now, let's just be realistic and honest. We're all gonna disagree about different things. I mean, all day long, we're gonna disagree about politics. We're gonna disagree about certain preferences, personalities, who we like, who we don't like. In time's beliefs, what version is the best version of the Bible to read? We'll disagree about the most important things in church, like what's the most holy thing to do with your hands during worship? Do we worship God like this with a very comfortable, do we worship God with hands half-masked? Do we worship God with a pageant wave one? Is it the Holy Ghost touchdown? Is it two hands up in the air. I mean, we'll argue about any kind of thing. And so we have to understand that unity is not surrendering our convictions. It's not pretending that we think the same.

12:10 It's not acting like, thinking like everybody else. Unity is being different and deciding that we belong together anyway. Because if we can really focus on what really matters, and that is that we've all sinned and are in desperate need of a Savior, and that God loved the world so much that he became one of us in the person of his Son, Jesus, who was without sin, died in our place, rose again so that our sins could be forgiven. If we can believe in a sinless Savior who gave his life so we could be forgiven and have the power of God to do his will on earth, if we can agree about that, what unites us is infinitively greater than what divides us. So to be a church that pleases God, we have to be a unified church.

13:09 And yet we're very, very different. He made us differently, which was good because it was intentional. So how do we love each other and be unique and be different and have different opinions and live together in unity. To be unified, to be one in the family of God, we need three ones. I'm gonna tell you what we need. We need one enemy, we need one mission, and we need one strategy. If Jesus is gonna make us one, let's talk about the first thing is, we need to recognize that we only have one true enemy and it's not us, it's the forces of darkness. Ephesians 6.12 tells us this, that our struggle, our battle, is not against flesh and blood. It's not against the people who whatever, don't like, don't do, don't whatever, it's not against them, but it's against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

14:16 Scripture tells us that our battle is not against each other. The person that votes differently than you is not your enemy. I'm going to say it again because I didn't get a single amen. Because some of you don't believe that. Like you literally don't believe that. You literally don't believe that. Your God is not that small. The person who votes differently than you is not your enemy. The person who posts differently than you is not your enemy. The person who worships in a different style is not your enemy. We have one enemy. He is the devil. Lucifer, the serpent, the thief, the prince of darkness, the accuser, the father of lies, the great deceiver. Many different names, one agenda. To divide the people of God, to stop the work of God. Jesus said this.

15:08 The thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy. The devil wants to steal our unity, to kill our credibility in a dark world, to destroy our witness of showing who Jesus is. And one of the strongest unifying forces is a common enemy, a common enemy. And we, as Christians, no matter the denomination, no matter the beliefs about spiritual gifts, no matter the beliefs about end times, no matter if you vote this way or that way, as Christians, we do have one enemy. And a common enemy unites us. I'll explain it this way. In college, I was a part of a fraternity. I'll tell you which one, but I don't want cheers or boos. I'm just gonna tell you which one.

16:03 And then I'm gonna tell you about the one down the street. because they were the enemy. In college, I was a Lambda Chi Alpha. Down the street, there were the Kappa Sig's. I actually liked the Kappa Sig guys. They were sharp, good athletes, many of them, really kind, very smart. They were really, really good men. When they got together, I hated them all. And some of them liked me, but when I was with the land of Kis, they hated us all. They were the enemy down the street. One time, true story, they actually came in and stole our crest. And so this was back before I was a Christian. I might've been filled with the unholy spirits, drunk on wine or alcohol or vodka or a lot of things. And we went down to our house, challenged into a fight, went out to the Taco Bueno parking lot, and about 20 of us on 20 of us threw down. A couple people in the hospital.

17:06 I was not one of them. They were the enemy. We were their enemy. Until one day, the baseball team toilet papered both of our houses, and guess what the Kappa Sigs became? Our allies. suddenly we had a common enemy those baseball players coming after the frat boys and suddenly the two frats that didn't like each other became friends problem is baseball players were bigger tougher and they're the wrong enemy the good news is the greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world that when we unite together against the real forces of darkness we recognize, hey, there's actually a strategist of the dark side trying to kill the effective work of God through the church by dividing the body.

18:06 When the world looks on and goes, I wonder if that Jesus stuff is true, and look how they hate each other. Look how they can't even get along. Look how they're mad all the time and angry and kind of jerks. We have one enemy. and it's not the other believers. And so the moment you feel it, even when you start to like get mad and start to push off of others and start to become critical of those in the body of Christ, okay, I know we're different, but devil, I see what you're trying to do there. I'm not going to let you divide me against my brothers and sisters in Christ. The devil wants to divide us, but God is pleased when we unite. Jesus prays, make them one. One enemy will unite us. Also, that one mission will unite us. Jesus told us that we have a mission.

19:00 He said this, he said, go and make disciples of all nations. This is your mission, this is our mission. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus didn't call us to win arguments, but to make disciples. And I hope that we can all agree that God calls us to be a light in a dark world. He calls us to be ambassadors. That's a representative of the kingdom of God. He calls us to be witnesses. And instead, so often, we're shooting at each other. years ago we lived in our old house a guy knocked on my door and I came to the front door and I opened it up and he said hey I'm so-and-so and he started to witness to me about Jesus and I thought I should probably stop him and tell him I'm a Christian but I thought it was cool like I'm excited this guy's excited about his faith so I just thought I'll see how he does maybe I'll hire him who knows you know and so he just starts telling me about Jesus he's so excited I mean And Jesus saved my life.

20:06 And he told me his testimony. He goes, he can save you too. And he went on and on. I let him go on for quite some time. And I thought you're doing really good, but you should try to close me soon because you're talking too much, but you're doing really, really good. And so then I thought, I said, hey, hey, let me just stop you for a second. Just, I have to be honest with you. I'm just excited you're here. It's awesome. Praise God he saved you. But I actually am a follower of Jesus. He said, that's amazing. I'm so glad. He goes, you need to come to my church. My church is the best. And I said, what church do you go to? and he goes, oh, I go to this. He told me the church, and I thought, I like that pastor, and he's a nice guy. You need to come to my church. Will you come to my church this weekend? I said, well, I have to be honest with you again. Like, I'm actually very involved in my local church. And he said, okay, great, what church do you go to? And I said, well, I'm a part of a church called Life Church, and his face just went black doll.

20:58 he looked disappointed, sad, angry, scared, nothing positive. And then truthfully, I remember he just looked over his shoulders like there was nobody and you were close, like looking, make sure no one, and he looked over and then he leaned in and he kind of whispered to me, it's just being him there. And he whispers to me, he goes, my pastor says your pastor doesn't preach the truth to tell your pastor to meet the pastor of Life.Church in the parking lot of Taco Boy. I didn't say that.

21:45 I didn't say that, but I was so sad because I like that guy. And my kids were like literally friends with his kids. And are our churches different? Oh yeah, very different. Is our church different than a lot of churches? Like, absolutely. I hope so. because every church is unique with a unique calling into a unique context to reach a unique group of people. I mean, we're like different on purpose because there's tremendous diversity in the world. Literally, if every church were the same, then we really just have the same ministry and the same reach, but a diversity of churches reaches a diversity of people, like different styles, same Savior.

22:53 Different methods, same message. And God is pleased with a unity of mission, not method. If the methods aren't different, the message won't go into different places. So how do we do it? Like just our little part, our little church in the whole scheme of things, is what's our posture gonna be? What I'm gonna ask you to do in the spirit of Jesus's prayers, let's try to be passionate about what we're passionate about. And let's try to be good at what we're called to do without being critical of those who aren't good at what we do or do something different than what we do. Can I explain? I want you to feel this and unpack it. For example, I grew up in a church, going to church, but I didn't understand the gospel. I didn't know.

23:46 Now, doesn't mean they didn't say it. I didn't understand it. And so every week when we preach, anyone, we clearly and compellingly with love present the gospel because that's unique to our calling. What I'm not gonna do is say, if your church doesn't preach the gospel every week, do it like us. You should leave that church. that's not standing for truth. That's storing division. I'm very passionate about doing that. Our passion, our method, what we're called to do. Other churches are like, if you don't preach, you get to preach this way. No, no, no, you just go, you preach that way. Let's be for what we're for and good at what we're uniquely called to do without pushing off of or against someone who is good at something else, passionate at something else, because God made us uniquely different with the same message to compellingly reach a broad group of people. And so what I want to do is just try to help you look at you, and I'm going to look at me and ask, like, how's our heart?

25:07 And you gotta be honest, because it can be really subtle. Like literally, you can be a very committed Christian and you're judging the Christian family across the street. It was a different philosophy of parenting. Because this group homeschools, which is obviously God's will, or they shouldn't homeschool, which is obviously God's will, so they can be a light into the, and they vaccinate, which is deadly, or they don't vaccinate, which is deadly. And they let their kids watch K-pop demon hunters and we don't even watch SpongeBob SquarePants. and I could go on and on and on. And if I didn't offend you somewhere in there, I didn't do my job because I'm trying to get to all of you. If that's the driving force of our mission, we've missed the real mission. Go and make disciples of all nations, not go and make people who think like you and act like you and do everything just like you. We have one enemy and we have one mission.

26:05 And we have one strategy, one strategy in the body of Christ. And the Bible gives us, front to back, start to end, the Bible gives us one example, and only one example, of how the world will know that we follow Jesus. Jesus said in John 13, verse 34, He said, a new command I give to you. All of our churches, let's say it together. What's the command? The command is to? Love one another. A new command I give to you. Love one another. Jesus says, as I have loved you. How many of you have experienced the unconditional love of God in your life? As I have loved you,

27:00 in that same love that you don't deserve, in the same love that you could never ever earn. You must love one another. in the same way that we've been loved by him. He calls us to love one another.

27:32 By this, by that love. Everyone will know that you're my disciples. if you love one another. I've got to say it, and I don't mean to poke, but I've got to poke. It doesn't say we're going to be known by our politics. It doesn't say that. It does not say that. It doesn't say we're going to be known for being right. It says we're known for how we love. And yes, you can be passionate about what matters to you. Please do. And you can be loving. Let me say it again. You can be passionate about what matters to you and be loving. Say it this way. Let's work to never let secondary issues, and I could list 50 of them, don't let secondary issues ever distract you from your primary calling to show the love of God.

28:44 Jesus prayed, Father, make them one. Make them one. Could you imagine if we, us, you, me, the church down the street and across the other side and in the other country and to the north of us and south of us and around the world, could you imagine if we could be the answer to the prayer that Jesus prayed? Could you imagine? Could you imagine God would be so pleased and the world would see the love of Jesus? I mean, like on the smallest thing, like, do you hear about that Christian guy at work that forgave that person? He did that. Can you believe the way that Christian forgave? Do you hear about that small group from that church that like all pitched in and got that single mama car?

29:40 Did you see what the church did? I mean, I don't even really believe what they believe. but like when the disaster hit and they came out like an army and just like, bless people. Can you believe what the church did? Oh, the church matters. The church matters. The church is the body of Christ. The church is the hands and feet of Jesus. As imperfect as it is, it's still God's bride, God's chosen vessel. And Jesus said this about his church. I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And that's why God is calling us. He's calling you. He's calling me to be a united church because God is pleased by a unified church. And that's why we believe that Jesus, the Son of God, Jesus, through the local church, is the hope of the world.

30:41 And it's not because we're like, oh, you're a pastor. No, it's because the church is the bride of Christ. The church is the body through which God shows his love. The church reaches people, meets needs, cares for people, restores the broken, welcomes people from anywhere and everywhere and doesn't leave them dead in their sins, but points them to the one who'll save them from their sins. And we don't judge them for their sins because we've been saved by similar sins. And so we love them with the same love that we've been loved with. And the world knows that we love him because we love each other. Where does it start? Not with them. With me. With you. With us. With us. And so, as far as it depends on us, as much as we can do, my commitment is to do the best I can as a pastor. I'm very opinionated. Not to make other pastors, churches look back. Some pastors won't tell you this, but I'm going to tell you the truth. I used to say that because it's kind of effective. Because when I say, other pastors won't tell you this, but I'll tell you this, You go, boom, we like our pastor.

31:57 But what I'm doing is I'm making someone else look bad to make me look better. I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna tell you what I believe. Passionate about what, that's my part. And I'm gonna do everything I can to help create a body of believers who celebrates the work of God for the church that way and celebrates the work of God for the church that way. And if they do it different and they still believe in the same risen Christ, more power to you, more power to you. Because when the church is divided, our message is diluted. But when the church is united, the world notices and the Father is pleased. We have an enemy, his name is the devil.

32:38 We have a mission, it's to take the message all over the world. And we have a strategy. And it's not just an effective evangelism program or contemporary worship or messages, the style that I preach. The way we do it is love. To come in with so much love that they go, how could people be that loving? I need to know more about what they believe. And what we believe is there's a really good God who sent a really holy and perfect son who died so we could be forgiven and rose again so we could be made new. And because we've been forgiven of that, we don't deserve any of it, the only thing I can do is show that love to other people. Because it doesn't make me better and it doesn't make me right. It makes me humble and it makes me loving.

33:31 and the world will believe in him when we love one another. So, God, we really want to be a church that pleases you, and we know that a church that pleases you is made up by people that are pleasing you. So help us, God, to be people-pleasing you. Today, all of our churches, those of you online, a lot of you have snowed in online, you want to do your part in becoming one you want to be more unifying would you lift your hands right now just lift your hands up i hope every i hope every believer lifts their hands type in the comments section i want to be an answer to jesus's prayer holy spirit do a work in us and god thank you for every unique gift that you've given every unique person and every unique passion that you've given every unique person. Passion for a unique part in your body to protect the unborn, to rescue those who are imprisoned, to free those in bondage, to help those heal in marriages, to help people find freedom from addictions, to be an evangelist, to be a discipler, to be a voice of Jesus to the nations. God, whatever our part in the body of Christ has helped us to do it well and to do it with love and to be loving to one another and be so unified, serving you that the world would see your son, Jesus.

35:09 God, help us to do our part to honor you. Jesus, make us one. As you keep praying today at all of our different places, is you may feel separated from God right now. God may feel distant. And what I want you to know is that God is a relational God, and he sent Jesus to show you his love. And when you look at Jesus, it's what's amazing is Jesus said, hey, I did not come to condemn the world, but I came to save the world. Jesus said this, I didn't come for those who were already righteous, but I came for broken people. I came for sick people. like I came for sinners. Essentially, our problem is this, that we have every single one of us, we've sinned, and our sin separates us from a holy God. But Jesus was without sin.

36:02 Therefore, he could be the sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice. He's called the Lamb of God. He died as a replacement, as a sacrifice for our sins, and God raised him from the dead. So that anyone, and this includes you, It doesn't matter whatever you've done in your life. It doesn't matter how dark you feel. Anyone who calls on his name would be saved. Essentially, we're separated from God and we can be right with him. We can be forgiven. We can be in his family, made new by the grace of Jesus. The Bible is really clear. You cannot earn it. You don't work your way there. He loves you enough to have sent Jesus to pay the price for your sins so you'd be forgiven. That's how much he loves you. When you receive that gift, you're overwhelmed. I've been forgiven, I don't deserve it. I belong to him and I don't deserve it.

36:53 I'm gonna show his love to everyone else. Today at all of our churches, all over the world online, those of you who recognize you're apart from him, today we're gonna step away from our sins. We're gonna call on him, the one who loves you, who will hear your prayer and make you new today at all of our churches. Those of you who say, I need his forgiveness. I need his salvation. Jesus, would you save me? Would you be the Lord of my life? Today you're stepping away from your sin. You're stepping into eternity. You're stepping into his grace. You're stepping into his forgiveness through Jesus Christ. You say, I need him today. I give you my life. It's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now? All over the place, all over the place. Come on, church. Can you thank God for people today at all of our churches saying, yes, Jesus, we need your grace. Type in the comment section, I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. Just type that in. You may be snowed in. You may be in another part of the world. Just type it, I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. And together as the body of Christ, we pray. No one prays alone. Would you pray aloud? Pray, Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins.

37:52 Save me. Make me brand new. Fill me with your Spirit so I could know you, so I could show your love, so others would know you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray and all God's people said amen.