Perfect Unity | Ps. Nate Capshaw

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Like Pastor Keith said, my name is Nate.

I'm so thankful that you are here this morning.

Especially if this is your first time here, I want to extend a special welcome to you.

If I haven't met you before, I would love to do so after the service.

I'd love to shake your hand and hear a little bit about your story and how you came to Celebration Orlando.

If you are part of the Celebration family, welcome home.

It's great to see all your familiar faces here this morning.

If you're with us online, welcome to Celebration Church.

Maybe you're listening on the podcast later or watching later on YouTube.

So thankful that you are here with us.

If you are in the Orlando area, however, we'd love to have you come and worship with us here at the Orlando Museum of Art at either 9 or 10:30 a.m.

Before we kind of move on in our service and uh dive into the Word of God, I want to put something on our radar, and that is February 11th.

Everybody say February 11th.

February 11th is an important Sunday because we're going to be participating in our first family talk of the year.

And this is a time for us to share some pertinent information, to sometimes go over our financial standing with the church as well.

So, particularly if you are a member of this church, if this is your church home, uh we just want to make sure that this information or this date is put in front of you today in case you need to rearrange your schedule because we'd love for you to be here in the building with us.

However, if you have family in town or you're inviting a friend to come, don't worry, we're not gonna scare them off.

They are more than welcome.

This is not a closed door meeting.

Everybody is welcome, but we just want to let you know as family members that this is particularly important to you.

Can I get an amen on that?

Awesome.

Today we're concluding our 21 days of prayer and fasting, our annual time of prayer and fasting.

And I have a quick question for the room.

Anybody feel a little bit of spiritual growth over the 21 days?

Maybe some momentum spiritually in your life.

Okay, that's great.

God is moving in our midst.

Amen to that.

Anybody feel the same over the past 21 days?

Anybody doesn't feel honesty is key, and I'm so thankful for the hands because in the nine I didn't get any, and I guess they're just all the saints that we aspire to be, right?

Anyways, I'm so thankful personally for this time.

Uh, ever since I became a part of this church, the idea of fasting actually wasn't something that I grew up with, and so incorporating it into my rhythm has actually been transformational for me, and every single year I do believe that God meets me and that God impresses upon me areas of my life that he wants to develop.

And I think this year in particular, it was a little bit quicker.

I want to say it was like day two or three.

I really felt impressed by the Lord that he wanted me to develop a life of prayer instead of having a prayer life.

You guys catching what I'm saying?

He wanted me to have a life of prayer instead of just a prayer life.

A lot of times we can compartmentalize the components of our spirituality.

Well, I have my Bible reading and then I have my prayer, and then I have work and everything else, right?

However, the the scriptures tell us to pray without ceasing.

So always be before the Lord in prayer.

And I've already seen incredible fruit from that.

I've already seen God do things within me and even around me that are miraculous in a sense.

And I'm just so thankful for that.

And I just wanted to share that with you because I'm excited about what God does in my life through a re-devotion, a re-centering almost to this concept of praying without ceasing.

And you can also hold me accountable and say, yo, man, you've been praying.

Um, you're you're free to do that.

Today we're also concluding our series called Devoted.

And we've been kicking off this year looking at the early church and their devotion to God.

We've particularly been looking at a passage in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You don't have to turn there, but I'll read it here in a second.

But the church devoted themselves to God in a few different areas.

And in the first week, Pastor Keith sort of laid this foundation for the series where he talked about how, in a world today of customization, we can often try and condescend the things of God, the ways of God, the word of God to fit our lives, to fit where we are, to try and to try and customize it to what works best for us, instead of us, through God's grace, in the sanctification process, rising up to meet what God has for us, to meet his standards and his word and his truth, right?

The second week, he went on to share the importance of God's word, how God's word is transformational in our lives, devoting ourselves to God's word has so much ability to transform us.

That very week we had our prayer and worship night that Pastor Keith referred to, devoting ourselves to prayer and hoping that that sticks with us throughout our time.

And then last week he went on to talk about the church and the church being God's idea and how, as believers, even when things are imperfect, we're devoted to God's house and to his people.

Acts chapter 2, 42 says, all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Today we're going to be looking at that final component of devotion, and that will be the idea of fellowship.

They devoted themselves to fellowship.

Our passage of Scripture is John 17.

So if you have your Bible with you and you want to turn to John 17, perhaps you want to open the Bible up and go to John 17, you can do that as well.

If you don't have a Bible, we actually have one for you.

We'd love to give you on your way out this morning.

John chapter 17, we're going to begin our reading in verse number 13.

John 17 · chapter mention

The author of this gospel has placed what's happening here, which is Jesus praying to the Father on behalf of his disciples.

He's placed this near the time of Jesus' arrest and betrayal.

John 17, let's start at verse number 13.

Here is God's word.

Now I am coming to you, Jesus, to the Father.

I told them many things while I was with them, the disciples, in this world, so they would be filled with my joy.

I have given them your word, and the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.

They do not belong to the world any more than I do.

Make them holy by your truth.

Teach them your word, which is truth.

Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world, and I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them, so they can be made holy by your truth.

I'm praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who ever believe in me through their message.

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one, as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.

And may they be in us, so that the world will believe you sent me.

I've given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.

Notice the theme here.

I am in them and you are in me.

May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

Our message title for today is Perfect Unity.

Perfect Unity.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for the ability to gather this morning.

We thank you, God, for your church, for your word.

Lord, that it still speaks to us today, that it still molds us and shapes us even thousands of years later, God, and we're just so grateful for that.

Lord, we need you.

I need you.

We need you to speak to us both individually and collectively.

And we just need your presence here in this room right now.

We invite you here.

It's in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Amen.

Genesis suggests a time when humanity enjoyed uninhibited fellowship with God and with one another.

I can imagine the joy it must have been to experience an untainted and unadulterated relationship with the Creator of all things.

Think about the conversations that are possible when complete trust rules the relationship, when skepticism of motive doesn't exist, when authenticity and openness are instinctual.

Hiding your true self from God lives beyond the realm of possibility because as one who is created in the image of God, you reflect the purest version of existence possible.

Think about the synchronization and unification realized amongst humans.

The male and female distinctions form an inseparable binding, a comprehensive representation of the nature of God.

Imagine, for a moment, mornings uninterrupted by conflict, afternoons without dissension, evenings void of division.

Sounds nice, doesn't it?

This relational paradise promotes unbridled worship and devotion to God.

Everything within the territory directs its attention to the one who by a word spoke it into existence.

Need for fulfillment elsewhere is foolish because complete satisfaction and gratification rest within the fellowship of God and the relationship between man and woman.

Unfortunately, opposition lurks in the background.

An evil entity surmising a scheme that breaches the confines of this communion.

This being realizes that sowing a single seed of discord places in jeopardy the paradise with which humanity finds itself and the union they share with God and one another.

The diabolical one plants doubt within the human heart.

He cons them into thinking they've misheard God's word, that they've mistaken his protection as repression.

The malevolent creatures undertaking earned success and the fellowship with God and amongst one another experiences for the very first time an interference, the consequences of which are still felt to this day, aren't they?

Research conducted recently found that most believe society has become more divided since the year 2020.

According to the data taken from 17 advanced economies around the world, six in ten people believe that national divisions worsened.

Of those polled in the United States, 88% say we are more divided than ever.

Today we find ourselves in John chapter 17, moments before Jesus is betrayed and arrested.

John 17 · chapter mention

Awaiting Jesus is an unfair trial, public humiliation and shame, desertion of many friends and followers, excruciating pain, and subsequent death.

With this foreknowledge, no one on earth would find fault with someone lamenting over what will soon transpire.

Any rational human being would begin mourning the inevitability of execution.

However, the writer of the fourth gospel communicates something difficult to fathom.

In this moment, this holy Son of God, a man doomed to die for crimes he did not commit, can be found praying to his father for the very people that will desert him and even deny their association with him.

Instead of locating the nearest evacuation route, the obedient son spends these precious moments abandoning any self-preservation tactics.

He intercedes on behalf of his disciples, imploring the Father to protect them.

In addition to Jesus' request for protection, he positions, or he petitions the Father rather, to supply the believers with perfect unity.

This word perfect meaning to be made complete, to fulfill, without lack, finished.

Since man's demise in Genesis, the cry of the human heart has been and continues to be fulfillment, a relentless pursuit of satisfaction, grasping at anything and everything in order to suffice the void of the soul.

Entire civilizations constructed and destroyed out of this seemingly insatiable desire for wholeness.

Innumerable lives, impacted by the perpetual pursuit of accumulation, the endless quest for more, more answers, more knowledge, more territory, more followers, more stuff.

The exhausting venture to acquire more.

I'm of the conviction that when Jesus says anything, especially when it's in prayer, we should pay attention.

And it appears that in this prayer, Jesus implies that our fulfillment can be found in perfect unity.

The concept of perfect unity is derived from the doctrine of the Trinity, a mysterious yet genuine reality.

This doctrine states that there is one God made up of three distinct persons.

A difficult concept, no doubt, for our minds to imagine.

However, the beauty of the Trinity lies within the reality that though the three persons function in unique capacities, they do so as one unit.

This transcends similar ideas of cohesion and teamwork, for the Trinity is of one essence.

A glimpse of this idea is found in a portion of the prayer we read today.

Jesus refers to he and the Father as one.

Included in this prayer is Jesus' desire that his disciples and all those who would believe, including you and me, would follow suit with the everlasting God and become one, perfectly united.

Acts chapter 2 details the day of Pentecost, when those who were gathered in Jerusalem from near and far heard prophetic words in their own tongue.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This inaugural event continued the reversal of sin's curse by undoing what was done at the Tower of Babel.

You may recall that God scattered the people at Babel by assigning them different languages.

Now, at Pentecost, the people witness the power of the Holy Spirit, hear the gospel message in their own language, repent of their sins, and are baptized.

The church is born.

As verse 42 indicates, there were a few practices by which the church devoted themselves to God.

One of those being fellowship.

The early church realized that if there were to be any means of growth, both spiritually and numerically, it would come by way of fellowship.

An unwavering commitment to unite as one.

Just as the Father and Son are one.

We find this fellowship extending beyond the general assemblies of worship into the home and around the table.

The fellowship of believers supersedes all other types of social interactions.

It transcends rallying for a cause or joining hands in an ambiguous pledge of solidarity.

Christian fellowship extracts its very essence from the triune God.

The Apostle Paul says that I am crucified with Christ.

Therefore I no longer live, but it's Christ who lives in me.

The reason male and female, Jew and Gentile, black and white, American, Brazilian can experience perfect unity through fellowship is because the Lord of all creation sent his son into the earth to reconcile the relationship with God.

That fracture that happened in Genesis is reversed.

And now the opportunity for Christ to live within the body of believers.

1 John 5.20 says, and we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God.

And now we live in what?

We live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ.

He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.

God, through his generous love, invites you and I back into fellowship with himself.

Jesus became the sacrifice that what we read in John chapter 17 makes us holy.

John 17 · chapter mention

And the effects of sin by way of the enemy's plan to separate us from God have been terminated.

Now the Holy Spirit reveals to us the fruition of Jesus' prayer to the Father.

The church has fellowship with God and as a byproduct, perfect unity with one another.

Complete, whole, lacking nothing, because it is finished.

As the statistics I read earlier indicated, there's no shortage of division throughout the world.

It's self-evident.

The church with no shortage of its own form.

It's my belief that splinters and fellowship occur when we lose sight of God's love for us.

When we become distracted by frivolous matters and make idols of our preferences.

Interference with the church's unity occurs when, like Adam and Eve, doubt enters our heart.

Doubt concerning God's word, concerning his motives, skepticism of our brothers and sisters in Christ, a lack of trust between one another, a lack of openness and authenticity.

Thankfully, God's word offers the guidance for these moments.

The Apostle Paul says this in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Therefore, I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you.

I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

Always be humble and gentle.

Be patient.

With each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.

Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourself together with peace.

For there is one body and one spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.

Church, some of our greatest acts of testimony to the world take place during moments of fellowship.

Something miraculous occurs when we live worthy of our calling.

A promise unfolds when the church exhibits humility and gentleness with one another.

You see, when believers are patient, when we extend forgiveness rooted in love, the world takes note.

Acts chapter 2 said that because of this devotion, the Lord added to their number daily those that were being saved.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

During the prayer that we read today, Jesus says the experience of perfect unity would what?

It would show the world that he was indeed sent by the Father.

And the Father loves us.

Let us be a people devoted to prayer, devoted to his word, to the teaching in the local church, and to fellowship.

Today, after our service, there's an opportunity for you to meet our group leaders, to ask questions, to sign up in the moment, or like Pastor Keith said, to pray about your next step for the week.

May we be a people that experiences the joy of fellowship in homes, in coffee shops, businesses, boardwalks.

May we be a church that reflects the communion of the triune God, all holding different capacities, yet one unit.

My prayer is that of Jesus that we would experience perfect unity rooted in the love of God and the love for one another.

At this time, let's practice and put this into play here and take communion together.

So go ahead and get those elements out.

If you did not receive that, slip up a hand, someone would be happy to serve you communion.

Got some right here in the middle, and some on this end as well.

Just keep them up just so that they can find you here.

Jesus has bread, and he says, This is a representation of my body.

It's going to be broken so that you can be made whole.

Not only you as an individual, but as a community to be made whole, complete, lacking, nothing, finished.

Let's take this bread in remembrance of that sacrifice.

And perhaps peculiar to us in our contemporary age, any time in the Old Testament that there was a covenant made with God or a sacrifice made, a sacred one, blood was used to confirm or to ratify that because blood represents life.

And so Jesus, being the perfect Son, the perfect Savior, was informing us that there is no other need.

I am the final sacrifice.

My blood is enough.

He actually says this confirms the new covenant.

Scriptures tell us that at one point we were enemies of God.

And now we can be friends of God because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

The beautiful thing about his sacrifice is it doesn't just hide our sin or cover it and sweep it under the rug or shove it into a utility closet.

The Bible says, behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world.

Take it away.

We remember God because God has done this act for us by sending his son to make us holy.

So as a community, let us remember the shedding of that blood and take the cup together.

God, we thank you so much that you've saved us, Lord, that you sent your son as the final atoning sacrifice.

And it's because of that that we can be in right relationship with you, that we can have fellowship with you and with one another.

Lord, we give you this moment in honor and worship.

At this time, I would uh ask us all to stand on our feet and we're gonna not rush out of here, but we're gonna take a moment to worship God because He's worthy of it.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's worship God together.

Thanks again for listening.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

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We hope you join us next time.