Psalm 133

Morning again.

We are gonna

continue in the psalms of a sense today.

Look at Psalm 01:33.

But just as we do, I wanna take

a moment and just

obviously, big moment in our

national life together last night, as we see

you know, an attempt that assassination of a

political candidate. That's not uncommon in the history

of the world, but what it is is

anti federal to the kingdom of God. And

so whatever your political affiliation or leaning. It's

something we can always look to and say,

that's not of the lord. Let us pray

against it.

Let's pray for those involved. In particular where

there's a loss life, the folks who were

at the rally yesterday, and then a couple

in critical condition. It's just good for us

to stop and pause

and just pray. And the thing it makes

us do more than anything. Is say, man,

Jesus, do we need you to rule and

reign over us? Our hope is not in

this world and it's not of anyone that

would rule or lead us in this earth.

It's in you and you alone and so

come quickly lord Jesus and wanna align our

hearts around that even while grieving loss of

life,

and grieving violence

and, you know, reminding ourselves of the truth

of scripture,

and and then reminds us of the hope

that we haven't in christ. So you take

a moment to pray together. It's she not

her hearts are around the throne of God

now.

It's father we come to his body and

we

we pray in grief over the loss of

life that occurred yesterday,

for the family now

that is

without a loved 1. We pray. We bother

your comfort. We don't know if they know

you as their heavenly father. If they do,

we pray that you bring your father comfort

as your word tells us you have to

give, father, of Mercy and God ball comfort.

You pray that you bring that comfort to

bear, if they don't know you, we pray

that that they would cry out to you

in this moment of great need, and that

they would find that you fill them with

hope.

And even as they grieve, you fill them

with a sense of

your great love for them.

We pray father for

our national life together,

place of great dis unity, so many different

perspectives.

What that does for us is your people

is it makes us cry out want you

more. We pray father against acts of violence

in this political season and selection season, pray

that you'd protect former president Trump as well

as president Biden from any attacks.

We pray father that you would,

point our

for life in a different direction in those

who think that somehow that is the way

in your will gets accomplished or the way

in which their will gets accomplished that you

would him them in

and not allow them to bring about injustice

or violence.

It's evil, and it's not of you, And

so we pray in your mercy, would you

bring that to pass that you would protect.

Father would you fill us with

the hope that we have in you, and

we remember in these moments that we grieve

loss of life

and we feel sadness over these moments, but

we do not grieve as those without hope,

and we want you to rule over. So

let us not,

pray against evil without also looking and seeing

the inner our hearts resides the same kind

of anger that results in violence, the same

kind of bitterness or unforgiveness and things which

we need you to clear out of us.

Things which we need you to change in

us, Fill us, with the humility of your

kingdom, fill us with the love of your

kingdom, fill us

with the truth of your kingdom. Make us

your people,

make us to represent you well and faithfully

so that we might extend the hope that

we have found in Christ jesus. It's like

beg who found red.

We love it. Some gs then we pray.

Amen.

Amen. Thanks for praying with me.

So we're in these psalms of a ascent.

As I said, these psalms that the people

of israel would sing as they were making

their way 3 times a year up for

the worship of the lord during these specific

religious festivals and feasts like passover and the

feast of Tab feast to booths. And so

they would sing these songs were asking the

question, How would it shape the life of

a group of people who's saying these kinds

of songs with regular? Last week you looked

at psalm 01:27.

We talked about children and work and god's

place in it.

And just so you know what happens in

my house. My oldest daughter, and I was

given her a hard time about something this

week and she looked me dead in the

eyes. She said, dad,

I'm a gift from God.

Using my own words against me.

And I said, yes, you are, and Now

do what I said.

So as we come to Psalm 01:33,

what we're gonna see, it's a it's a

psalm that interestingly enough,

it revolves on Unity. I didn't pick this

last night. We've been moving towards this now

for weeks, but it speaks to to Unity.

And that's a hard 1 thing, the Unity.

And now it's not talking about Unity within

within sort of the life of the world

I'm at Unity within the body of Christ

among the people of God. And so we'll

look and see what he has say there.

Which it's very simple outline today. We're just

gonna look at 2 things. We're gonna look

at what does it mean to be unified.

That's the first question we wanna ask and

then the second question is

how does he compel us towards it? So

God and his great mercy in this psalm

does not sort of wag his finger at

us and say,

so this is Unity get unify. Like do

it. He rather says it's good and pleasant

now let walk in that goodness. Walk in

that pleasant

I've yet to meet the person who doesn't

want goodness and pleasant in their life. Does

that feel fair to you? Yeah. Of course,

we do. And so he's inviting us in

with not the stick but the carrot. He's

saying, here's here's what we'll come into your

life.

As you as you pursue Unity and walk

in the unity that you have in me.

So we're gonna see what it looks like

to shape a church like ours in this

habit of singing a song around this idea

of unity in the, kind of the very

short psalm

but a very big idea, which is that

life in unity with my local lot. It

has to put on flesh. It's not just

why I'm unified with Christians everywhere around the

globe, but but living life in unity with

the people of God that I live my

day to day life with, my church family

that when I have unity there, that's a

richer kind of life. There's... That's a fuller

kind of life, and we're invited into that.

So we're gonna see how he motivates us

in moves us towards that. Now, let me

say this.

There is throughout the history of the church.

Since it's foundations, I'll actually walk you through

a little history here in just a moment.

There has been this tension around unity and

truth. And we still experience that tension today.

There's always this tension between well, you can't

have unity unless you are unified by the

truth that you believe, and that's absolutely true.

There's a... There's a truth that we're brought

into we're unified in God and the truth

about who he is and what he's done

in Christ so that there is no unity

outside of that. And yet at times then,

That appeal to truth gets used as a

reason to divide, and you can't just use

truth truth truth always as an excuse to

divide over everything.

There are some things where we disagree, but

we won't divide, and we need to stay

unified and both those have to be taken

seriously. There's a

tension even in scripture where you have to

take seriously both the command to be unified

with the people of God and seriously the

command to walk in the truth. Of God.

And it takes a lot of humility and

a lot of time and a lot of

sort of

engagement

in conversation and in listening to be able

to discern,

when is this a dividing issue? And when

do I continue to strive for Unity

because it's a secondary issue, or a non

essential issue. Let me just give you a

sense of how difficult this has been throughout

the life of the church. So in acts

Acts 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1,

Jesus sends into heaven. And in acts 2,

the church is formed. Right? This beautiful moment

of Pent cost where the holy spirit comes

into the world, and we get this formation

of this thing we are a part of

called the church. Well by acts chapter 15,

Acts 15 · chapter mention

it doesn't take long, we find the church

having a debate over essential versus none essential.

And there's this, like, are we doing a

good divide over this? Or is this a

place for Unity? So only within a couple

chapters,

within a few years, we're already facing

that reality. Now fast forward to the fourth

century, and you find in North Africa, this

massive

question around

what is what is primary? What is secondary?

What is essential What is non essential In

this debate between? I'm sure you've heard of

it. The the the don and the cecilia?

Yes. You know this 1?

I don't know this okay. I don't expect

you known. So in in the church at

Cart, there was 2 liters, Cecilia and Don,

and they argued over What is the right

way for Christians to engage with society and

what does it look like to be pure

and set apart and what does it look

like to engage the gospel in a culture

that is far from Jesus and needs to

know him, and there was this mess.

The the cider of that debate was

the holy Roman emperor at the time.

Would come to faith in Jesus. So

fast for from the fourth century to the

eleventh century and you get what's called the

eastern and western church sc

over really exciting things like the

I can't even say it,

clause in the Nic sea creed, which I

know we all wanna dig deep into today.

But this discussion over,

what is the nature of the God head?

What is the nature of the relationship from

between God the son and God the father

and

what's essential? What's none essential?

Then in the sixteenth

tree. We have the reformation and Martin Luther

where there's a division over what is essential

and what is none essential

between the Catholic Church and now what has

been birthed out of that the protestant church,

which we are a part of. And by

the twentieth century then, in the 19 forties

and 19 fifties, you get division within the

protestant church over the fundamentalist versus the evangelical?

And what are the essentials? And what are

the non? Do you see that this has

always been a challenge for the church?

What are the essential issues that we must

be united by

and and hold together

that we can't have unity without what are

the non essentials that we can say, we

will be unified even though we disagree

about this.

I bet you can recount

challenges to Unity in your own life with

other christians and you can

trace them back to. Is this an essential

issue? Or is this a non essential issue?

See some you nodding in your head. Yeah.

We all experiences. I don't say that to

discourage as if, well, just throw your hands

up Nothing you can do about it. It's

always been that way since acts 15. Just

gonna be that way.

What I want to show you is this

1,

unity not easy.

It is a mandate but it's not easy.

In fact, I would say it's so not

easy that it doesn't happen unless it's supernatural

gifted.

And we're gonna see that reality.

The other thing I want you to see

is man, do we need to pray desperate

for it. And the same way that we

pray for truth to be. We should pray

for Unity among the people of God, we

should pray for it desperately and regularly

because it's absolutely necessary for that purpose we've

god to go forward in the world. The

other thing I want you to see is

in spite of all those

divisions that I just talked to you about

the gates of hell have still not prevailed

against the church.

The church is still here. People are still

coming to faith in Jesus. The church is

still growing,

and it work and the spirit is moving

and take great confidence in that. Remember the

promise of God that his church

his church will be established,

and it will go forward. We do our

best to screw it up a lot.

And God is and powerful,

and he brings his church forward. So we

say amen to that.

Alright. So have confidence church. Have confidence. I

share with you all those things not to

depress you,

but to help you go, okay, God's gonna

continue to be at work. Alright. So let's

try and answer those 2 questions.

What does it mean to be unified? And

then what... How is it good pleasant? Like,

why is it good pleasant to walk in

Unity? Let's read Psalm 01:33 together? We'll see

those words there. So Psalm of David, it's

very short 1. It's 3 verses it says

this.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is, when

brothers dwell in unity.

It is 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. You see the word down

there twice in the English translation in the

original hebrew. It says down 3 times. It

want you to understand how much oil is

flowing

over the head of this servant. It's going

down,

down,

down. From the head

through a lot of hair onto the beard

onto the collars of his robes, and then

it says in verse 3, it is like

the dew of herman

which falls on the mountains of Zion

for their the Lord has commanded the blessing,

life forever more.

Right. So when I talk about Unity, 1

of the first things that probably happens is

you think about it as an absence of

conflict.

That's my guess is that kind of the

default. We go, oh, well, unity means not,

like, not fighting

with each other. And what I want to

help you see. Maybe that's not where your

mind goes, but it's where mind goes a

lot of times want you to see that

what the scripture is asking for and inviting

you into is something much more

than just not having conflict with other Christian.

He's actually inviting you into a deep kind

of relationship with other Christians where you share

life together. I'm gonna use 3 phrases, and

somebody raise your hand at the end if

I don't come back to these because I

didn't in the first service, and somebody had

to come ask me. Alright? So I totally

feel, but we're not gonna miss it this

time.

Everybody commit that you'll all just throw your

hands up if I don't come back to.

Alright?

We're being invited into what I would call

refrigerator friends, which I've talked about before.

Hospital friends and gasoline and mattress friends.

The last 1 you're like, what are you

talking about, but we're gonna come back to?

Alright. So

we're being invited into something more. And I'll

show you where I find that in the

text, but here's what I want you to

see is the original readers of this text

would have had to wrestle with this as

well. It wouldn't have been readily obvious to

them. What what unity would have meant. The

word being translated here in the hebrew Unity

is normally translated just together, like being physically

together.

And so the context has to decide whether

we translate that word just like, hey, behold

how good and pleasant is, when believers are

just around each other. Is it just talking

about, like, physical proximity Like, it's cool when

your family lives somewhat nearby? You see them

more regularly. Did you just talk about that?

Or is it talking about something deeper. My,

my proposition to you is that it's talking

about something much deeper, And I'll tell you

why context, and then the 2 things that

are the 3 things that follow in this

text. Right? Which gonna root ourselves right there.

The first is In the psalms of a

ascent, where are the people headed? Does anyone

remember? Can you tell me?

They're headed to jerusalem

for these feasts, these festivals to worship God.

So in the context of that worship, the

Psalm the saint man really good. It's really

good. I when God's people are united. Well,

united in what sense.

Just because you happen to be traveling down

the road together? No. No.

Because you're going to worship God together.

Because you're going up into the presence of

God, you're united in your heart to see

god glorified.

That's the first thing that tells us that

this is not some kind of just like,

It's cool when you don't have conflict with

other believers. No. It's

amazingly good and pleasant

when God's people say, are hearts to united

around a vision of god being glorified. And

what I would say to you is you

can't have unity

without that.

It begins when with the vision for the

glory of god in your life. Because as

long as your life is about you or

about some form of selfish ambition or about

some lower

sort of thing,

you will always divide because other people will

be an obstacle to getting what you want

in life.

It's only when God's people have a vision

god's glory that they can let go of

their own ambitions, let go of their own

little perspectives on things and say, you know

what matters more.

God being exalted. God being glorified. Do you

see that context here?

So that's what he's getting at when he

says man.

Unity

looks like

seeking god's glory together. Now, the second reason,

I think this is not just

about physical proximity,

or some low version of unity, but rather

like this robust sense of life together and

hospital friends refrigerator friend and gasoline and it

matches friends

The reason

is the next thing he says, says behold

how good and pleasant it is when who?

Brothers, and we could say brothers sisters, brothers

dwell together in unity

by putting it in the fam

context, what's he saying to us? Your unity

should be like the unity of a family.

It should be like brothers relating to 1

another.

Right? So that what's true about brothers, what's

true about sisters.

They are blood.

They are like... But also, you don't choose

them.

They're yours, whether

you chose them or not. And in a

sense he's conveying that you don't choose who

comes into the body of Christ. Do you.

And when you come in, there's this unity

you have to have. And here's what makes

it hard. Is there's people all over the

spectrum of perspectives on all these different world

issues But you know what else? There's all

kinds of levels of maturity and imma maturity

in the church at all times. In fact

we're doing it wrong, if we somehow could

just, like,

freeze the people who are here let's all

grow to maturity to a certain level. And

then after that, maybe we'll invite some new

folks in that is getting it wrong.

There better always be a brand new baby

Christian,

and they're better always be someone who's been

walking with Jesus for 60 years.

And everything in between... Can we agree with

that?

Okay. Can we agree with that? Like, good.

I just wanna make sure.

Because we want to see people come to

know Jesus and start on day 1.

As god, day 1. Day 1II have no

clue what this following Jesus thing is like,

but he is it. I am in. I

am for him. Now,

what do I do?

And Man. Friends, if that's... If you you're

like new in your walking we expect you

to make a lot of mistakes. Some of

us have been doing this a long time,

and we... I'm 40 years 40 years I've

been a follower Jesus, and I do dumb

stuff every day.

But I am getting more mature, I am

growing.

In Wisdom. I am growing in self control.

I'm growing in those things. We're we're doing

those things.

But man, that's that's where we wanna be.

So

there's just always

this tang

of all these different places that we find

ourselves. So the other

other thing really... By I he's phrase brothers.

He's in a sense saying like listen, you

don't choose your family, Your family chooses you,

and and so, man, if they're in Christ

and you're in Christ. And

you can't say why wish they weren't.

You just say, alright. We're in it. We're

in it. Let's figure it out.

I don't naturally gravitate towards you. You don't

naturally gravitate towards me, but we are in

christ together. Here we go.

Let's figure that out. That's like miraculous kind

of stuff when people get unified who have

no earthly reason to necessarily feel connection with

each other The other thing is recognize recognized

script, what is he saying when he says

it's... When brothers dwell together in Unity. As

soon as the fall happened, what started happening?

What's like the first story after sin enters

the world.

Cain and abel.

A brother kills another brother, and then not

long after that, Joseph is sold into slavery

by his

brothers. Right? If you're new and you're unfamiliar

with these stories. Let me just tell you

that part of what we should read here

when we hear, brothers, brothers brothers is like,

okay. That tells me something about the family

nature of this kind of unity

it also tells me how hard it's gonna

be.

Because brothers

sometimes can be the worst.

Alright?

That's what he's getting at. Now, then after

that, could just go down to the next

2 things and we'll elaborate more on these

when we get to the

what is the why is unity good and

pleasant. But when he says, it's like oil

flowing down, down, down on the beard of

Aaron. What he's getting at is that an

it's an 19 oil, and it's recognizing a

calling upon Aaron's life upon these priests life.

Right? And then when talks about the dew

of Herman, he's saying, it's it's a refreshing

thing. This unity.

Just being near somebody is not all that

refreshing. Right? Just

how does it help you walk in your

calling just to be physically near So, no,

no. He's getting it some much deeper the

kinds of relationships in your life

that help you walk in your calling, help

you uncover your calling

and and then

become the context where you practice your calling,

as well as just receiving the refreshment of

that. K. So when we get back to

refresh, that's when we're gonna come back to

the hospital refrigerator and gasoline. K?

Alright. So if I get there,

everybody just

I know I'm emphasizing that, but I really

hate. It's the worst thing to have stuff

in your notes and then you don't say

it. It's the worst.

Okay.

Now, I wanna go even a little further.

That's probably enough. I hopefully from this text

done an okay job helping you see it

and go, oh, okay. This is talking about

a deeper kinda unit. But I really wanna

root this because I recognize that if you

are, like, if you're the type of personality

who tends to lean in the truth,

direction and kind of are quicker to separate

from other believers.

It's just it's so it's so easy to

lean that way. And listen, Friends both are

necessary. We gotta a hold of intention, but

I wanna give you 1 more thing that

might sort of help you kinda

really locked this down in a way. Right?

So in John 17,

there is this really rich passage

which gets at... As far the the chief

passage scripture, as it relates to this doctor,

this theology, this doctrine of what we call

the our union with Christ.

Now, when I say that, I don't know

if you'd know that that's a formal theological

category. When we talk about union with Christ.

So anytime we see in scripture,

that we are in Christ

where he is in us. That's not just

a nice little preposition that's meant to communicate

some kind of

metaphor.

It's actually communicating a spiritual reality

that is a theological category.

And so when we think about union with

Christ,

it is everywhere in scripture. So when the

scriptures talk about the fact that Jesus is

like the vine, and we are the branches

and we abide what

in him. Right? So we draw our nourishment

and the very source of life from him.

When he talks about that he is the

head, then we are the body

and we are in this body where... Of

which he is the head. It's referring to

this like, he leads us. So union is

this formal category where theologian talk about it.

As having an impact in our eternity past

in our present and in our eternity future.

They talk about it as being both mystical,

which means

beyond full comprehension.

Right? That there's a mystery to it. When

the scriptures talk about being in Christ and

our union with him that we are united

with him, it's, like,

that that slips past language

in a way that we strive to understand

it, but it's the under comprehension that we

are

united with him and his death. His death

is is our death

that his resurrection is our resurrection.

That we are united with him in his

heavenly session now before the father he sits

the right hand and inter seeds on behalf

of the saints long to spirit, and then

we are in him and therefore, with him

in that session. And that his glory is

our glory that we live and move and

have our being in him that, like Pulse

says in galatians chapter 02:20

I have been

crucified with Christ,

and I no longer live.

The life I live in the body, I

live by faith in the son of god

loved me and gave himself for me.

That's not just a not... When he says,

I have been crucified with Christ. And I

no longer live but Christ lives in me.

He's not just kind of

painting a nice picture.

He's stating a miracle,

and this this miracle of union with Christ.

The way I would sum up the doctrine

of Union is this.

Is to say, I see

no part of my life as outside of

christ.

Everything that I am is inside of who

he is. He lives in me, I live

in him. There is no separating

any part of my life from who he

is. He defines my identity,

my purpose,

He shapes my variability to breathe and move.

All of life derive its meaning from this

fact,

I

am

in

Christ.

All the benefits of his work are imparted

to me because I'm in him.

All the power to walk out what it

means to be a Christian is found by

being in him.

There is no part of the Christian life.

No perspective, no the mindset,

no action, activity,

attitude of the heart.

That can be conceived of as in any

way

being

outside of christ. I am summed up in

whole total

by who he is,

I'm in him.

Now all of that is just the doctrine

of union.

And you're like, well, okay?

What does it have to do with union?

If I've done an okay job of describing

that. Here's what should begin to start to

trickle into your minds.

When I say I'm in him,

I'm not the only 1.

Are you in him?

Yeah And here's an even more for natural

mystical Mir. I said theologian talk about the

our union is being mystical,

spiritual,

soluble, which means that it can never be

dissolved

done away with and,

vital, meaning, like, every, like, a, like, the

branch in the bond. Everything.

Everything is about this connectedness. To Christ. Right?

Those are kind of the formal theological categories.

Here's does that mean in a in a

supernatural mystical way,

Christ behold us. Yes, as individuals. He sees

us as individual human beings that he shaped

and made. And also

sees us as 1 thing.

Now that 1 thing is his bride, the

church.

So that as he looks at us, he

says, you are my 1 bride.

Supernatural naturally mystical

taken up into me so that when I

see you and behold you, I see you

and behold you, in union with me as

this 1 thing?

Now what does that mean?

A lot of things.

But in this case, what it means is,

I can no longer

think of myself as having any possibility of

not seeking unity with you because we are

in union with Christ as 1 thing there

in his presence, I can resist unity with

you and do a horrible job of expressing

this truth of the union of Christ and

his people

where I can seek that unity so that

union gets expressed, but union is no choice.

Unity is the expression of union. Do you

follow that?

The reason that's so deeply important is because

it's the theological category and the truth of

doctrine that helps us understand how vital this

is. I can't just go,

I don't care about it.

I'm just happy to divide. I'm happy to

live on the periphery of the church. I'm

happy to ignore it. It means nothing to

me. I'll treat it as a secondary issue.

No, no. No, no No.

1 of the most fundamental theological truths by

which we

know that we have salvation

and san

and eternal life is union with Christ. And

the more I found it... Let me just

make this this practically. I know it's very

hard to comprehend in.

The more I think,

I literally think of myself is here's is

Christ, and I'm I'm in. I'm in him,

like, I'm in the glass, you know?

And then like, oh, yeah. And and all

my brothers and sisters are there too.

And, like, well, how can I not seek

unity with him?

How can I not? It's not like a

choice.

I have to do it.

Reason I say that is because I think

it's very easy to think we have to

go after the truth we have to go

after the truth and kinda

unity if it's possible

Would you agree that we sometimes treated it

that way?

Yeah.

And I want you to think I have

to go after the truth. I have to

go after the truth, and I have to

go after Unity and I have to go

after Unity, and I will strive with everything

in me. To hold those things together and

to walk in them. And I know I'll

probably mess it up, and not get it

right, but I'm not gonna... I'm not gonna

just for sake 1 for the for the

other.

I'm gonna hold them together. So that I

can't just go sure. Whatever you believe we'll

be united. I don't care. Doesn't matter. Unity

is all that matters, but I also can't

just say, unless you leave everything. Tick tick

tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick

tick tick tick all the way down the

list. I got 80 of them.

And I have a good reason to divide

from you unless

we take all the same boxes. There's

we have to hold them.

Alright.

Now,

here's the text, John 17,

and,

oh, we're doing good.

Alright. John 17 verse 23 23. Listen, to

John 17:23

how beautiful expression of union I already referred

to, like, john 15 and,

and I know I've heard a lot of

texts. But this this is, like, the richest.

Alright? So, listen,

Jesus in his high priest sleep prayer he's

just prayed for his disciples. Now he's gonna

turn his attention to those to us, to

those who are gonna come through the generations

to believe and follow him. And he says

this, I do not ask for these only

the disciples, but also for those who will

believe in me through their word that they

may all be 1.

Okay? So he just prayed for our unity.

What's he say next? Just as you father

are in me and I in you. So

what he's just done is he has said,

the union

of the father and the son in the

c eternal God head, the way that they

are 1 divine being in 3 persons, and

he's talking about 2 of those persons, the

father and the son. In the way that

we are in union

may they also

be united,

and then he goes on to say this.

Just as you, father and me and I

and you that they also

may be in us. Now, here's what's important

about that. He did not have to say

that last phrase.

Jesus could have just prayed,

father make them 1 just like you and

I or 1. Just like we have a

union, may that be kind of the prototype

for the way they love each other and

think about each other.

But what did he go on to say?

Just as you father are me, And I

am in you that they may what,

be in

us, what's he talking about our union

with Christ and God the father through me

saying, oh, they're gonna inhabit this union with

us, and that will be the source of

their unity.

Then he goes on to saying,

so that the world may believe that you

sent me.

He's gonna double down on that in a

minute. The glory that you have given me,

I have given to them that they may

be 1 even as we are 1. So

there's some kind of glory that we've been

given

that will be this a source of 1.

I and them and you and me that

they may become perfectly won So that, here's

the double down. The world may know that

you sent me and loved me. Love them.

Even as you love me.

As you read that, does it make you

kinda go hold?

It's so rich.

Alright. So hopefully I've done an okay job,

and I know I I be labor that,

but I really want you to see the

theological debts

of Unity. I don't want you to just

go,

unity.

If it works.

I want you to go, oh, no. Like

this is the huge theological category. I've got

it inhabit this. Alright? So...

Or like, I think something people think people

who strive for Unity or, like, theological lightweight

because they don't think about deeper theological categories

that, like, well, I'm the champion truth. And

so I've got, like, category upon category 1

category. Like,

it is not true that unity is for

theological lightweight and truth is for theological heavyweight.

Both those things,

truth theological heavyweights

pursue.

Is that fair?

Okay. If you don't think so,

Read your bible.

That's the worst like Trump card ever.

Alright. Now let's talk about why Unity is

good and pleasant. Here's how good god is.

As I said, he just gives us the

carrot here. He could give us the... I

I command you to be unified.

So stop messing around,

but he doesn't. He says, I'm gonna show

you how good and pleasant. So let me

point out a couple ways that man. Unity

is so

brings such pleasant this to life.

When we live deeply connect run. Okay? So

the first thing is is right here in

John 17. I want you to see that

when he says at the beginning of this

psalm, you hold a good and pleasant it

is when brothers go together in Unity, that

he doesn't immediately

identify the object of that pleasant or the

direction of that pleasant. Now, it becomes obvious

in the psalm that he's talking about It's

pleasant for you and me for the people

who practice unity.

But there's enough breadth to that statement that

I wonder if he doesn't intend a little

bit of a a broader

understanding where he says, It's not just good

and pleasant for you. I the father, I

God find it good and pleasant when you

are unified. It pleases me.

And the reason that's again, so important because

we always start with... Well, not not just

what pleases me, but what pleases who.

God. It's always a more powerful motive when

you ask, does this please you, father? Not

thought does it just please me. It puts

our hearts in the right framework. Now why

is unity

good and pleasant to god?

K? The first thing we saw was in

that John 17 passage.

Because when we are unified, living out our

union,

so that the world may know what

that you sent me and that you love

them even as you love me.

Our unity is a big reason why people

will or won't, depending on how well practiced

it is.

Come to No Jesus.

I mean, why would he pray that the

night before he's gonna die?

Unless you really meant

Not that you didn't really mean everything you

said,

but parting words are big words. Would you

agree? A parting prayers is a big prayer.

And Jesus says, man. I want the world

to know that I came from you father.

So unify my people. Unify my serve

unify the generations of believers that come.

And it's probably somewhat easy to understand, but

let me make sure we root that in

the theology and because it's not just like

he's going, Well, when they see my people

being nice to each other. They'll be like,

oh, that's a that's a cool group to

belong because I'd rather be a part of

a group of people that's nice to each

other than a group of people who are

mean to each other.

You can find people who are nice to

each other anywhere.

That's not that hard.

Right? At least nice for a while.

Right? But what he's getting at is that

theological truth of union. What he's saying is

something supernatural

is displayed

when you are unified.

And I'm particular unified across your your differences.

But, like, my,

I don't

want us to be a church where everybody

thinks the same politically

or about every secondary doctor issue. I would

hope we could be a church where you

and I can have a conversation. Now I

say, oh, I really disagree with you.

Like, you take this perspective about living out

our faith in the world you think this

is a good way to do that. And

I'd say,

tell me more about it.

Okay. I wanna really understand your perspective. I

wanna understand your point of view, And I'm

truly listening.

And at the end of, I might just

say, I I really... I'd really disagree with

you?

Can I tell you what I think?

Yeah. That that can I tell you what

I think is a really important question to

ask?

Now I'm gonna tell you what I think.

And just say, okay. And we could say,

Okay. I haven't convinced you. You haven't convinced

me, but we are brothers.

We are sisters in the lord.

I love you.

Can you imagine what that would be like?

If you just said, yeah, we really disagree

about politics? I mean, we really disagree.

And I think I think your choice is

a is is a rough 1.

And here's my reasons, You know? But Brother,

let me finish this conversation by Sand, I

love

I love you. I see that you're trying

to apply biblical wisdom here.

And that's that's all I'm gonna ask.

And and I will not separate myself from

you.

Wouldn't that be cool?

I hope you have a vision for that.

I mean, it seems to be what Christ

is getting at here. And saying when people

see that the... Not just the pragmatic of

with they're nice to each other, but when

they see theological union lived out in the

unity of God's people, It's such a supernatural

thing that it draws them,

that it draws them and that's what he's

saying here. Now the second thing he's saying,

I think why it's so good and pleasant

to God.

That people live in Unity is because it

gives people us a sense of a... Well,

actually, this is for him and for us.

1 of the reasons is good and pleasant

people to live in Unity. It is because

it gives a sense of assurance.

Now follow me on this. He says,

well, let's go back to the text. Look

at John 17, let me make sure I

read it word for word here. It says

in verse 22, the glory that you have

given me, I have given to them that

they may be 1, even as we are

1.

Alright. So I don't know if you just

read past that or if you think what

glory

that the father gave to the son

has the sun then given to us

that would then cause us to be 1.

So there's there's this glory that's received that

somehow makes this 1. Did we all see

that in the text? Nod your head? Yeah.

Alright. So we all see that in the

text? So he says that? So what's he

what's he getting at? Well, We need to

go back to the life of Christ and

say, well what glory did the son receive

from the father.

And I think the answer that is best

found in a couple episodes in Christ's life.

Number 1, his baptism. Do remember it his

baptism the heavens open, and the father speaks

about the son and says this is my

beloved son. With whom I'm wealth, please listen

to him. But there's like, heavenly

identification. He's mine.

Right? And then now go to the go

to the trans transformation with Peter and James

and John on the mountain. And Christ is

revealed in his divine glory,

his humanity gives way in that moment in

such way they're not not stuff being human,

but that his divine nature is revealed on

display, and the response is, like, they're shattered

by it. Right? They're on their faces. Peter

James and Johnson. What do we do?

This is... We don't know what to do.

And the father speaks.

And he says this is my beloved son.

Listen to him.

The father again claiming the son.

And now think about the resurrection of Jesus.

That after his resurrection. Right? Jesus is saying

that I have been vin by the father.

In other words, the father has complained to

me as his own. You might have thought

that my death meant that the father dis

approved of me, but the resurrection proves that

he approves of me that I belong to

the father. So I think what he's getting

at is the glory that the son receives

from the father is the glory of the

father claiming him as his son and saying,

he is my representative. He is the 1.

I claim him as mine. Do we see

that?

And so then when he says that glory,

I give to my followers.

Think what he's saying is the the glory

that the father gave her the son sun

gives to us is the glory of being

identified as the children of God.

And knowing with complete assurance

that we belong to the father.

You are his son, you're his daughter, you

belong to him he gets him pleasure to

call you that. He's not embarrassed that you're

in his family. Me

He's not embarrassed that you're his daughter.

He's not gonna I kinda wish.

But she she prayed the prayer, so

He treasures claiming you. Just like he treasure

claiming the sun.

He treasure claiming you.

There's a glory

in belonging to the father.

And I hook you know it.

I hope you know that he delight to

claim you,

and it is your glory that he claims

you and loves you.

Treasure

Now,

how does that then lead

to 1 list to unity because that's what

the tech says. The glory I received from

you give to them so that they may

be 1. Think about what that does. You

are done fighting for table scraps.

You are done

trying to win some competition

so that you get your identity above anybody

else's.

There's no more 0 sum game

for a successful

meaningful life or it to belong at the

table, you have a permanent seat at the

table.

You've been brought there and it's you

and you don't have to do a thing

for it.

You just enjoy it.

Just take your seat.

There's room for you.

And when that's the case, I don't sq

with with my siblings, do I?

I think well, I... I'm gonna... Because we've

all seen this. Right? Like, I'm gonna

do better than my siblings. So mom and

dad will be more pleased with me than

they are with them. Don't lie to me

You've all done that.

Go like, look, when my siblings mis behaving.

Look, how I'm doing the dishes, mom and

dad,

You're like, that's an evil doing of the

dishes. It's an evil.

I'm just trying to get me to go,

Oh, you're my favorite child.

That stuff is done.

So there's nope.

You got see at the tape.

And that 1 this is brought about by

the glory. Okay. Does everybody follow that?

Yeah.

How pleasant is that?

Now last few things and they're quick and

then we need to lead time to praise

God together.

The last 2 things are right here in

Psalm 01:33,

and like I said says the short psalm,

so it's super simple.

When he says,

that unity is like the oil flowing over

the, you know, the hare and the beard

and down on the collars of Aaron. He's

getting at this idea

the the... There was a... A special oil

that was poured out on the priests. Aaron

was the first high priest, and then his

family line became the priests of Israel. Their

job was to help people connect to God

just to in Layman's terms.

You're to you're to help people meet with

God and connect with them. And

that was their calling and that an annoying

oil represented their calling, and it would... Mean,

just just picture it.

Now, picture if there's a physical

manifestation of god's call on your life. They

just pore over your head and just the

sweet fragrance

of that annoying oil flowing. Every so much

better than like, you know, don't don't picture

ex bodies spray on a seventh grade boy.

Alright?

Picture the full, like, you know, beautiful annoying

oil.

Just flowing over your head.

As this

constant reminder that god is calling on your

life.

First calling is the same as it was

for Aaron we believe under the new covenant,

we are all priests.

This means we are all called to help

people connect with God and to grow up

in him.

That's a step pounding, but it's a new

testament truth.

This doctrine that we call a priest of

believers.

There's no special christians. There's not like the

There's not like the the pastors or the

super Christians who help people connect with God,

and then then there's the ordinary people, or

there's the bible study teachers or that

forget all that bunk.

We are all priests.

Every single 1 of us.

There's unique pastor calling...

It's a good thing. Right? But it's not

more special than you're calling.

So that's the first thing is like, when

you're unified,

it enables you to walk in your calling.

And reminds you you're calling because you're practicing

your gifts

then the body. You're helping people connect. God,

think about that, then not just in your

priest calling,

that priest to of believers, but think about

it in terms of just whatever god is

gifted and equipped you to do.

If you're a leader, if you're a teacher,

if you're gifts of mercy or help. So

whatever spiritual gift god's given you. The presumption

is, and I wanna say this just super

loud and clear. Like, we expect

that everybody in this body is using their

gifts

to serve. You cannot grow up in jesus

without doing that.

You cannot

So if you're like, sitting on the periphery,

and I'm not like, I'm not trying to

wag my finger at you. I I am...

Sometimes pastors forget. I think they feel like,

whoa, we can we can be guilty of

slipping into this. Alright, We've created this pathway

for people to engage with so that they

can grow in Christ. And then we forget

that it's about people growing in Christ and

Act like it's just about people doing the

pathway because we made the pathway

in whatever,

you know, church system we're in. I don't

care about that. I want you to grow.

I want you to grow and you can't

grow without using your gifts. So the expectation

at this church is that

everybody uses their gifts. Whether it's with an

outside partner in the community, whether it's through

your vocation, that you're doing your gifts or

whether. Teaching a third grade class here.

I don't care.

I do care that you use your guess.

When the body is in unity,

right?

It enables you to select the fertile soil

for using your gifts?

How can you lead if you're not in

unity with the body? How can you teach?

If you're not in unity with the body?

How can you practice the gifts of help

or mercy if you're not in unity with

the body? How can you practice edi identification

or encouragement or use a musical gift? How

can you do any of that if there's

not this living in connection within the life

of the body?

Now,

Last thing is that last the last verse

when he says,

it's like do on Mount Herman, and Mount

Herman would have been in the northern most

reaches of Israel under David's rule,

and it was the tallest Mountain in the

nation. And it was known for the amount

of moisture that it got because it was

so high in the sky.

Mount Zion, which it refers to is jerusalem.

It's just another term for Jerusalem. Jerusalem in

a more arid climb. And so when the

Psalm says,

in Unity is like the do that falls

on Herman,

then coming down on to Mount Zion, It's

not because the dew would make its way

that far. It was they were too far

apart. He's saying,

it's like the richness of the due

that

brings life and refreshment on Herman, it would

be like, if that fell on a really

dry place like Jerusalem.

So don't you want

refreshment

in this dry place.

That's the place of God's blessing. So he's

saying Unity is refreshing to the life of

the believer. Now we come back to the

gasoline and matches and we close with this.

Yeah.

Somebody was waving their hands at me.

Good. Thank you.

To live in unity within the body. Think

about how refreshing is. We... I've talked for

about refrigerator friends. You should have friends that

are closer to you. They just walk in

and get whatever they want out of your

fridge. That may sound silly, but that's that's

a type of closeness in intimacy isn't it?

Yeah. You don't what to ask Just come

on. What's mine is yours.

Like,

She'd have hospital friends?

Who's showing up without being asked?

When

the stuff hits the fan.

When your health goes downhill quick.

Who shows up? Isn't it refreshing to wouldn't

it be refreshing if there were friends that

lives so close to you that

they didn't have to ask.

And like the nurses could see that visiting

hours didn't apply to them

they just come on in.

Right? Because they're the people that show up.

That's of unity he's talking about here. And

then the gasoline matches, I I had a

friend who always said this.

He said you should have people that live

so closely to you

that

they don't just notice when you burned your

house down with the choices that you were

making. They can tell when you're playing with

gasoline and matches.

People who know you so well that when

your patterns change, when your speech changes, when

you're kinda bubbling over with anger a little

quicker than you would expect. They see that

pattern because they know you.

And they come in and say, brother, I

don't wanna wait till you burn your house

down.

It looks to me like something going on

was changed in your life and it seems

like you're playing with gasoline and matches.

Let's put those down.

Let's change our have back to where they

need to be. Does that make sense?

Isn't that better than burning the house down

and have somebody go well. Let me help

you sift through the ashes.

If you're not a follower Jesus, I hope

what I'm describing for you is a picture

of something you would want.

And the invitation is come and habit,

come to union with Christ.

Now for those who in, my hope is

that you would see the seriousness of the

call to unity and that you'd you'd strive

after it Come off the periphery.

Coming off the margins,

begin to take steps towards this kind of

deep connectedness within the body because it refreshes,

and it calls and it annoy and guide

you into fullness of life.

Okay. Let's pray together. No will sing to

conclude our time. Father, thank you for the

gift of your word,

I pray that we've done an adequate job

of

of putting our eyes in it and our

minds on it so that that living word

would then have its away with us and

shape our heart. In our minds.

With no preaching that does that, but but

your word is alive and it does. And

so that's our desire. To let your word

have its way with us. There's anything in

us that resists that. Just do away with

that in your mercy, father.

Fill us with love for you. And each,

and now would you receive our praises? It's

in g's name we pray. Amen.