Unity In The Body

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

For more information on KTC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.

Man, I could have stayed in worship.

Hey, I wasn't how many of you were ready for that this morning?

Just some time of worship this morning, just to celebrate who Jesus is.

You know, we never have to be ashamed of the name of Jesus.

Never be ashamed of the name of Jesus.

There's favor in that name.

It's a beautiful name.

It's a precious name.

The name of Jesus, the name above every other name.

And if that isn't, that's our unifying factor here, is that all of us were once far from God, but now because of Jesus, we can now be close to him.

Isn't that what brings us together today?

Is that now we're close because of him.

Amen.

Well, so glad to, I'm I'm just, I spent some extra time just out in the lobby this morning because, man, there are people coming from out of town and people visiting.

I know we've got people away, but we have people at the same time coming in.

And it's just so great to be able to have uh those of you who have been away come in and just uh connect with us.

We really are a family and and we feel that we are united in heart, uh, despite where you may be living, like Alberta or anywhere like that.

Where we still love you lots, okay?

Today we're gonna read the scripture.

Uh in the month of August here, we're gonna do some standalone messages.

We've got uh next week, Pastor Ed is gonna be speaking with us, speaking and sharing, and then after that, Pastor David's gonna be sharing.

And we just have some great news.

You want to hear some good news to start before we just begin here?

Uh this last week we had a it was a surprise to us in the how expedient it was, the process with the city and the city council.

Usually uh when we go to rezone, as we're uh suggesting that we're doing in the front of our property here, we needed to have it rezoned for residential development uh to be approved by the city based on the plans that were engineered by some of our designers and our architects.

And uh what we were able the we were expecting late August for it to go before city council.

And they said, hey, in two weeks' time, be ready, an address to us.

And I just am pleased to share with you that by unanimously they approved our development, the rezoning of the developmental front, uh, with much favor.

It was a lot of favor.

People said it's in the perfect location, it's gonna beautify the area along the highway.

Uh they're looking forward to the development happening, and so praise the Lord for a city that's seeing the vision that we've got for development and the and uh the development of this society.

So that's a praise report.

Well, today we're gonna be sharing on uh unity.

Would you say that with me?

Unity.

Unity.

Now, unity is a often like it's a conversational piece, it's a critical piece that we often talk about in church, and I think it's the it's the reason why we do courses like communication courses, because no matter what what level of what environment you are in, whether it's work or marriage or relationships with friends or others, or just relating to your neighbors, people have to be able to be in unity.

There's a blessing associated with unity.

And we're gonna go to John chapter 17 and look at one of the more uh famous scriptures related to unity, is that the prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples.

John 17 · chapter mention

And let me just read a portion of that scripture to you today.

It says, This is Jesus' prayer.

He says, that they may be one as we are one.

I in them, you in me, so that they may be brought to, would you say that with me?

Complete unity.

Now there's a unity that says, you know, we're on the same page.

Or maybe we're in the same book or the same chapter.

But there's a place of unity that is complete unity.

Now, I I feel like that's a challenge perhaps for some places and sometimes with all people, we're not always going to be in perfect agreement with each other, but we can be in perfect and complete unity.

And you know why we can be in complete unity?

Because Jesus said we could.

There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to work things out between each other, between spouses, between people in fellowship and relationships.

That is why we have communion each Sunday.

We have opportunity for you to lay down a fence, lay down some areas that you might be struggling with another person, and bring Jesus into the mix.

And because Jesus is in the mix, unity can occur.

Complete unity can occur.

Last week we I did a wedding for uh Pastor Malachi and Rebecca and uh uh Rebecca, and they uh during that wedding ceremony, we didn't I didn't go before the ceremony and say, here are two individual people coming together and they're gonna become joined in partial unity.

10%, 10% there, they're gonna start their journey together towards unity.

No, when we brought them together, we said, you know, the Lord is in this place, he's covenanting with you to be that third strand, and that third strand is gonna bind you together, and that cord will not be broken.

There's complete unity that the church can experience.

Amen.

That's resounding, amen.

It was a conditional response because Jesus said this if you're in complete unity, chapter 17 here of John, then the world will know that you sent me and you love them even as you've loved me.

This portion of scripture is saying that Jesus says, if there's unity in the house, then people will come to know who Jesus is.

How many of you and I want to know who Jesus is, want others to know who Jesus is?

You've got the heart of that evangelist, the heart of that disciple maker who's saying, let the whole world know how great God's love is for us.

That song we sang today is a joy in our hearts, and we want the whole world to know that same joy.

If we want them to know that joy, then that unity, that complete unity, has got to be residence in our hearts.

Now, in the world we're seeing today, a um, in the world today we're seeing challenges of unity.

If if any, there was a time that I can recall, like in my short life, uh, is that I'm noticing the the conflict in society.

The conflict in government, even the conflict in relationships between Canada and somewhere I'll be going after the service of the United States.

Like the relationships aren't the same.

There's division, there's either far left or far right.

There's no one really in the middle leaning, play like work in that line.

There's there's either, you know, far that that spirit that's divisive.

It's saying you're either one or the other.

And there's no one who's saying, okay, let's find that common unity.

Let's find that space where we can actually walk in this achievable complete unity.

So clearly, the motto stands, you know, united we stand, divided we fall.

We understand that that that saying actually is referred to a uh team of oxen that, you know, in the in the old ways of of agriculture, they used to team up oxen.

And if one wasn't pulling its weight the way the other one was pulling its weight, if they weren't in unity, moving together at the same pace and pulling the same weight, then you they would, if they were divided in any way, it would just fall apart.

But together they could actually pull and they could have great impact.

Together we need to make sure that we actually are standing together, standing united.

So the world is in a difficult place when it comes to unity, and it's it seems to be not a new issue.

Jesus was praying for it 2,000 years ago.

I think it's still relevant for us today.

But why is unity so difficult to achieve?

That's a good question, Brody.

Thank you for asking.

There are areas that we pursue, oneness, that we desire, but we want people to be a part of our oneness.

We have loyalties towards areas or ministries to ourselves.

You know, what a great example of this.

Uh, last year, uh, one of our pastors, uh uh Sean Lalonde, he in December he was diagnosed with liver cancer, but before that, he was our uh youth pastor, and he was overseeing our youth ministry and our young adults ministry, and we were going through shifts in in the church, shifts in ministry, and there was a case there came a time where we thought, you know what, we gotta look forward as to where the church is moving.

We have to start staffing up the areas in the church that need to be staffed up.

And we thought we were really watching Pastor Malachi going through second year of Bible school.

And we looked at Malachi and we said, Where is Malachi?

Does Malachi, is he called to Kelowna Christian Center?

He's like, yes, we believe he is.

We we should approach Malachi about coming to KCC, serving in KCC.

We believe the calling is on his life.

But we can't have two youth pastors.

We can't have Sean doing youth and young adult ministry as well as Malachi doing youth and young adult ministry.

And we looked at and we had a vacancy at the time, and Pastor Ed was leading the church, and he said, we had a vacancy in our in our children's department at that time.

And Pastor Sean, like in a lot of churches, they see, you know, you start like it's a children's minister, you work up to junior youth and senior youth and young adult and associate ministry, then you're the senior leader, and then you die, right?

Then you're done.

I'm sorry, Dad.

Right?

Like I didn't.

There's hope today.

But you're moving in that direction.

And so, in a lot of churches, to have a youth pastor who's working in an active ministry, a young adult ministry, active, for him to consider.

You know what, Pastor Sean, we may need you to move into an area where we feel you would just grow, you would just flourish in, and that would be children's ministry.

He would have considered that that a demotion.

In a lot of circles, that would never have happened.

People would have rejected it, they would have turned their turned their back and thought it was uh, they would have been offended at it.

But Sean laid down his loyalty to a ministry.

And he said, you know what?

I'm gonna serve the greater call, the greater calling towards unity, and saying, wherever I can serve, and he, it wasn't that he was gonna serve his own vision.

He wasn't just loyal to his own vision, he was saying, I'm gonna become loyal to the big picture vision.

Where is the church?

Where do kids need, where do people need Jesus?

Well, they need it in our children's ministry.

And so Pastor Sean said, That's great, wonderful, and he stepped out of the way, allowing Malachi to come in, who was once his disciple, one of his student leaders, and Pastor Sean moved into a place overseeing children.

And he flourishes in that area.

He wasn't, he wasn't loyal to his own ministry.

And I just celebrate, when I saw that heart in Pastor Sean, I just said, I just celebrated.

I said, Lord, thank you for a man who's loyal to the is united in heart and soul and mind for the true call.

Whatever I need to do to see the mission accomplished, I'm going to do.

So we all have our loyalties, but it's important to be united.

And so the first step I see for moving towards loyalty is a place where, because it's going to be a process towards unity, is we actually move towards commonality.

My wife and I, before when we got married, um we we were actually moving towards that place.

But we started making things in common, we started bringing things into commonality.

We shared the same bed.

And then we started sharing accounts.

I wanted that to be the right way, right?

But I want the same account, the same kitchen, the same house, the same vehicle.

There was like a commonality started to occur as we move towards complete unity.

So, where is the commonality in your life?

Where are you living in a space of commonality?

And we see this in the life of the of the first church, the New Testament church.

We can read about it in Acts chapter 2, and I'll just read about uh a little bit about this and see if you can pick up this area of commonality as they move towards unity.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 2, starting verse 40, it says, with other many other words, he warned them and he pleaded with them, save yourself from this corrupt generation, this generation that was divided in heart.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

He said, Those who accepted this message were baptized.

It's a step towards commonality, baptize, baptism into the faith, baptism into that common water.

And about 3,000 were added to their number that day.

That's a good day, hey?

And they developed, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property, possessions to give to anyone who had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

They broke bread in their homes, ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God, enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved.

We move on to chapter four of Acts.

Again, this first church, an example of where the church is moving.

Verse 32, all the believers were of one heart and in one mind.

No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own.

They shared everything they had.

With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And God's grace was so powerful, there was great power, great grace at work in them at all, that they were so that there were no needy persons among them.

For from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, put it at the apostles' feet.

It was distributed to anyone who had need.

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, who the apostles called Barnabas, sold a field he owned, brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

There was this great spirit of commonality among the believers of the first church.

They didn't just come in and leave.

These verses are sometimes difficult to read, and actually, because when we look at those things, the first thing that goes in in our heart is mine is what's mine is mine.

And that hasn't changed since they were like babies.

Yeah, ever had a baby.

Mine is mine.

Mine.

And we hold on to things so tightly.

And when we think about this scripture about the first church, we just kind of shake our heads and go, la la la la la la la la.

I like my stuff.

I like my plans about my things.

Instead of looking at the spirit of the church and saying, we want to move towards unity.

And the way we move towards unity, I like the example.

Um my dad talked about this, about the spokes of a tire, and this the hub being the central part of that tire.

And sometimes we're on the far perimeter, and we need to move closer towards that central hub.

Because from the far sides we're we're isolated and and separated from who's in the in the core.

And by moving towards the center, it requires us to take steps, but those steps aren't just arbitrary steps.

They're they're they're intentional steps.

They're saying, what's mine is what's mine is now ours.

Now, are we saying sell your house?

No.

The scripture says they met from house to house.

The first church was meaning from house to house.

They had houses.

Some sold their houses, some sold land.

We know that there was Barnabas, he did well.

He sold a piece of land, he said he gave it to those who had need.

Wonderful.

Ananias and Sapphira, they sold a piece of land, and it didn't end up so well for them because they lied to the Holy Spirit, which they were just and there was comparison going on.

Like you gotta think, put your head in the space of this first church.

People are loving one another, they're keeping close to one another, and and they're they're sharing with each other that was in need.

There was desire to say, you know what, what's the what's the the big picture here?

And are we in common?

This word common comes from the word koinos.

It means to partner, to share, to have community.

And you may know it from a word koinania, a place where we fellowship together.

We share together.

It's like sitting across the table, having coffee and sharing and communicating with each other.

It's this fellowship that you have that's not just it's a sharing of each other's heart, soul, desire, mind.

It's a deeper place and it's foundational in the early church.

Jesus prayed for it.

He said, the first thing you need to have is this unity.

And the first church, they established it by first creating commonality.

So when you view your life, your family, your church, where's the koinos?

Where's this mutuality, this sharing being experienced in your life?

Uh we know that we have common ground, the common thread, the common mission, the common goal.

Yeah, common sense, which someone said to me the other day isn't so common anymore.

It's not quite common sense, it isn't common.

But there are some things that in our church we hold as common.

When you come to our church, we believe in expressive worship.

We don't just allow someone else to worship on our behalf.

We engage and we participate in worship.

We we believe in moving, we believe in being generous with our resources.

Some people look at us at the at the church on Highway 33 in Rutland.

How are you able to do as much as you do as a church?

In Rutland.

And I can tell you this, it's not because we've had a lot of rich people in Rutland in our church.

It's we've had a lot of generous people in our church over the years.

Generous people who have given sacrificially and generously towards a common vision.

Reaching a culture, reaching a generation, training and raising up disciples, education.

It's the heartbeat of our church that's working together.

And when we work together, nothing is impossible with God.

So we work together, we serve together, we step in together for the sake of unity.

So we all have these things in common.

Like, for example, the love for the global church.

There's some of you from different places in the world today.

You've got a global church.

We love the global ministry.

We've got churches in different places around the world.

There's a love for the local church.

How many of you love the local church?

Amen.

If you're here, we are the best church on Bagkey Road, right?

Amen.

We can be proud of our church.

We can be proud of the place where we where God's placed us.

We need to love our church.

We need to engage with our church and actually show a passion for our church.

Because if we don't love our church and we don't love our community, then who will?

So God's brought you here to love the church.

Love Kelowna Christian Center Center.

And uh each year we we're voted the best church on this street.

Amen.

I hope that we have a love for each other.

And this love for each other is a place that we have in common.

And if there isn't a love for each other, there's a challenge between someone someone in particular in the church, that's why we're here today.

So you can get your things together and just deal with your stuff.

Bring the Lord into the mix.

Go to communion.

Say, Lord, help us, give us this great power, this great grace.

Do you think everyone at the first church was was amazingly like agreeable with each other and everyone was in perfect relationships with each other?

It didn't work like that.

But they knew where to go if there was division.

They knew where to go and to find that that reconciliation that we now find in Christ.

Because if God, if if Jesus could reconcile himself, us to the Father in heaven, how much do you think he can reconcile us between brother to brother?

Sister to sister in family.

Commonality, it's relevant.

So there are a number of characteristics with commonality we need to understand.

They they work together.

In Acts chapter 2, it started with 120 in one Honda Accord, in one accord.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And it ends with the church continuing to be in one accord.

And so there was this idea of togetherness.

What they were doing, they were doing together.

Would you say that to word together with me?

Together.

Together.

They work together.

And it's true.

We're better when we're together.

We're better when we're working together.

We need each other.

And together we can actually have tremendous impact.

Number two, they were of one heart and one soul.

When we serve, we serve together, reaching this uh this uh for a similar purpose.

And uh unity really isn't something you need to talk about or hear about until you've actually lost it.

And I would say one heart and one mind is really important to have.

And don't, if you find yourself like deviating off that track, go back to that place where you need to find where you can find that one heart, one soul.

And my wife and I are having a disagreement, which never happens.

I'm just saying this for all the other couples out there.

We go out and we're like, you know what, we need to actually sit down, we need to go on a date, we need to spend some time together, we need to find that common heart, that common soul.

There's there's powerful, uh, there's a powerful nature of commonality.

Amen?

At KCC, we believe this.

When you're working together and you're you're of one heart and one mind, we believe that you can actually serve together.

And at KCC, we believe that every every member of the church has a ministry.

There's no place, no one in this place who's here without a capability of doing something for the kingdom of God.

That everyone here has a purpose, everyone here has a call, everyone here is a minister, and everyone here, your job that you do is important.

And we believe that you can be a 10 in some area.

You are there's a job you can do that no one else can do like you.

And you might look at your life and be like, man, I'm not sure.

I don't know.

Do I have a call?

Do I have a purpose?

Do people really value me?

And I'm telling you, you don't leave without finding a place of engagement with your skill set.

We'll help you find that space where your passion and your giftings collide and your leadership style collide so that we can actually, you can actually work together and actually engaging in the community.

Number three, it was voluntary.

There was no law that said, hey, the church needed to hold things in common.

It was out of a heart that they said, hey, is there a need?

I've got a capability, I've got an ability.

And instead of holding it to myself, I'm going to offer it to someone, offer it for help.

There's some people in here today, you're struggling with financial issues.

There's some people in here who have a strength in finance.

And holding those things in common is saying one person has need and the other person has the ability to give and to offer, allow them to come together and become stronger in the process.

It was occasional.

In other words, it wasn't all the time, but um they they had this mutual opportunity to connect with each other, and it was a way of living in a unified way.

So, what is it that is one of the main obstacles to unity or commonality?

And I when I was studying this, I really felt to talk about one word in particular, and just so that we're careful that we don't stumble into a place that divides us instead of unites us.

And the one word I wanted to talk about today is the word opinion.

You say that with me, opinion.

Opinion.

And I I believe that this word really is relevant for today in today's culture.

Do you realize that everything that you've probably in some way, form, or fashion engaged your own opinion today?

Every time you like something, you're saying, I give it my thumbs up.

Facebook, it's a thumbs up, Instagram, it's a heart.

I like it.

If you don't like it, you just flick past it.

But I like this.

I'm gonna share my opinion.

I'm gonna comment.

An opinion is something that everyone has a right to, but it's not always something that's necessary for you to always share with someone else.

Opinions are given.

They're given.

They're like, I'm gonna give you my opinion.

Okay.

Do you want to hear it?

No, but I I feel like you're gonna give it to me anyways, right?

It's like a given.

You're gonna share this opinion with me no matter what.

And but it's and it's it's divisive.

Opinions can can actually split people, it tears down.

Nothing great has ever been built on the back of an opinion.

But there's counsel is a separate conversation.

Counsel engages people and it welcomes their thoughts.

It's like, what do you think about this?

How do you think we can benefit this?

Counsel, the Bible says, welcome counsel.

Not welcome opinion.

Opinion is often critical.

The root of it actually comes from a word that means heresy.

It's your own perspective that I'm gonna impose on you from my own way, my own, my own interest and my own experience, and my own uh thoughts are going to impose on you the way my perspective should is.

Counsel says, let's go to the Lord and actually find counsel in what the scripture says about the way we should be relating to each other, and to the way we should move forward.

And the way, and believe it or not, the scripture has answers to almost every question you would like.

I haven't found a question that the that the scripture doesn't have answer to, other than are there aliens in outer space?

But even that's arguable.

But there's there's opportunity for counsel at every occasion.

So when you move into a place from opinion into counsel, you're actually moving the church and you're moving your life forward.

So we believe it all comes down to unity.

Now, for the next few minutes here, I just want to share with you the joy of unity.

We move from commonality to a place of unity for a reason.

There's great joy in unity.

So if you go to Acts chapter 2, and if you want to follow along in your own script in your own Bible, that's great.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

I'm just gonna reference here together.

It's starting in verse 41.

It says this they gladly received his word and were baptized.

One of the great areas of unity is it creates gladness.

Gladness is excellent, gladness is beautiful.

To me, gladness is the opposite of opinion.

Gladness is something where when the church is full of gladness, when the church is full of people who are willing to offer a smile.

Amen?

To the church, to others, it is an awesome thing.

When you walk into a place and there is gladness because of the unity experienced in the first church, the result of it was gladness.

They gladly received the word and were baptized.

Number two, there was receptivity.

They received the word.

They received it.

Receptivity is powerful as well.

Um, I was reminded of this in Ezra, where the Bible says he actually got up on a platform of wood, like a stage.

He opened up the scripture to speak the scripture.

People responded by saying, Amen, in agreement.

They stood up and they shouted, they received the word, and then they fell on their face and they worshiped God.

There was great receptivity to the word of God.

There's so much that happens when there's a receptive spirit in the house.

I feel like I know when it's there because it's pulling something out of you.

It the words are clear, the thought process is more concise.

The message goes out and lands with impact.

There's great receptivity when there's unity.

I love it when people are going, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like they're agreeing with the word.

This is a great place to build.

When you're building on the place of gladness, come to church, have gladness in your heart and receive the word of God with that smile.

You know what?

Sometimes you just got to receive it with a smile.

When my wife calls me, I I just imagine her smiling when she's talking to me.

I'm gonna receive the word.

What do you need, honey?

Like that's what she's gonna do.

I never call her honey, but what do you need?

And she's like, I need you to stop by and pick this and this and all right, I love you so much.

I receive it with gladness.

I receive it today.

Another one of the things that the great unity brings is momentum.

We know that 3,000 people were added to the church in one day.

That was added to the church.

But you go to chapter 6, and the Bible says, as the disciples grew, the number of believers became multiplied.

And so there was multiplication.

So the momentum that they had, because there was gladness, smile, and there was receptivity, resulted in multiplication.

Addition is wonderful.

We have people who are added to the church regularly.

But what we really want to see in order to have impact and we need to see is multiplication.

Amen.

So we want to believe God for this multiplication factor.

Number four, there, there's steadfastness.

They began, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.

You know what that word steadfast means?

Immovable.

Immovable.

It's and it's great when you're you're working with people who are just immovable.

Like, you're not gonna move me.

I've got my loyalty to the vision, to the heart of the house.

I'm immovable.

I'm you can't offend me, you can't hurt me, you can't tear me away.

I am immovable.

Amen.

Some of you are like, I wish some people would move, but it's like, no, I'm immovable.

I'm a movable.

I'm gonna hold on to my spot and I'm gonna carry on with the vision.

When you're building a church like that, we believe it's the way Jesus intended the church to be built.

Upon Peter, who said, who was like the rock.

It wasn't Peter the sand.

It was it was on a rock, it was on a pillar of revelation that we're connected to this call, this mission of Jesus, and we're gonna continue in it.

We're gonna be steadfast in reading the scripture and in prayer and moving the church forward.

Next, there was fellowship.

There was great fellowship.

They gathered together, and it's more than just connecting with each other, but they wanted relationship with each other.

They wanted to unite around that vision.

How many of you believe you can unite around this cause?

How many of you think this is a wonderful church?

A church that's glad, a church that's receptive, a church that's got that momentous spirit and steadfast and movable, and fellowshipping together.

And the result of it was signs and wonders.

Signs and wonders.

Amen.

We did a series a few uh months ago on miracles, and the thing about miracles is miracles isn't something that we can just conjure up.

It is the result of having great unity together.

When people come together, one of the great, yeah, and so when we talk of, when we talked about miracles, we didn't talk about the ABCs in the script on how to have a miracle today.

We talked about unification.

We need to be united together.

When we're united and walking together and of the same heart and the same mind, nothing can stand in our way.

So we unite together in this lifestyle that believes in miracles.

And then there was a simplicity of heart, and this is so wonderful because the scripture says that they believe together with gladness and simplicity of heart.

I know that there are some conversations, I have them twice, three times a year when I sit across the table from someone, and I just know the conversation is going to be complicated.

And what a joy it is when you're working with people and you're connecting with a body of people that have just got a simplicity of heart.

What do we need to do?

How can I help?

What can I do to be assisting the church in moving forward?

There's a simplicity of heart.

When the church moves forward, it moves forward with simplicity.

It's not moving, it's it's a whole different scenario when you're having a conversation with someone and you're having to be careful about the oversensitivity of that individual and watching the words you say and how you say it, and thinking about history, and you're just guarded the whole pro throughout the whole process, versus just, hey, I'm gonna walk up to you, I'm gonna give you a big hug, I'm gonna unite my heart together with you, and we're gonna move the church forward.

Amen.

What'll it take?

What do you need?

How can I help?

It's that simplicity of heart that goes so long, that goes such a long way.

Um, the lastly here is that there's genuine praise and celebration.

And the scripture says this, that they began to praise God and had favor with all people.

Now, I like I agree, Jesus, like Jesus says they had favor between God and man.

He didn't have favor with every man, or else they wouldn't have crucified him.

But he had this favor with him, with people.

He had a favor with God that was that was wonderful, that was what that was deep and intense, that people were like willing to follow and willing to rally towards that mission.

And this praise and celebration, it just comes out of the heart towards God, out of the heart towards towards Him because we know that we He deserves it, and we can reflect back to Him all the good that He's done for us.

We look at this culture and we say, What can we do to get to this space?

And I I want to tell you today to not be discouraged.

I want you just to take it as part of your heart and say, How can I raise the bar?

How can I raise the bar in my own heart to be unified in a deeper way?

To hold commonality in a deeper way.

And it may be a place where you say, you know what, I'm just gonna start coming to church 10 minutes early just so I can welcome people to church this morning.

I'm gonna stay 10 minutes later so I can just be an assistance.

I'm gonna write a card to the kids that are downstairs and to the teachers and instructors that are down there just to be a blessing.

I'm just gonna come in with a word of encouragement just to bless and just to encourage.

I'm gonna come with a word for someone, but I'm gonna come with an intent to actually move towards commonality.

Hey, if you want to come in with a check, come in with a check.

If you want to come in with a great big hug, come in with that great big hug.

We want it all.

We want it all.

We want to move the church into this place because we believe that's in God's heart and likewise it means it's in our heart.

Amen.

How many of you agree with me this morning?

Amen.

Amen.

Father, we thank you this morning for your word.

We thank you for the message, Lord, that you have for us, Lord, in that great prayer, Lord, that we would be one.

We would be one together, we would be one with you, Lord, that we would experience this great unity, this complete unity, this great unity.

Lord, not for our own sake, even though we know that there's an automatic blessing that's commanded towards us when we walk in unity, brother to brother.

But Lord, we want that unity so that there's impact in our community.

Lord, our community would come to know you.

And Lord, even extending beyond these four walls online and around the world, Father, that we would be an example of a church that's walking and believing and trusting together for the wonderful things that you have for us.

And so, Lord, we thank you for your great love.

I just want to share today with every eye closed, every head bowed, that if you're here this morning and you've never experienced what it is to be walking in that unity, you felt separated from God the Father, from His heart.

Well, I'm here to tell you today that Jesus is available for you today.

Today is a day of salvation to come close, to bring peace between you and God.

And if you ever want that peace, it's available to you.

And for your sake today, I'm just gonna pray a prayer and I'm gonna encourage the church to pray it with me together, um, just to invite you into that fellowship with him, because it starts first with him.

Would you just as a church pray with me today?

Father, I receive you today as my Lord and Savior.

I receive Jesus as my my intermediary.

By because of the cross and because of his work 2,000 years ago, I can now have peace with you.

I believe and I receive the great grace that you have for me.

I ask for forgiveness of my sin.

And I believe that I'm forgiven.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.