COMPLETE UNITY - Week 1

[♪ Music playing. A video by Laura Gautier, a member of the Go Church family.

Hello, Go Church family! I'm Laura. I'm here with Pastor Matt Hatovo.

Hey, everybody!

And Gilbert.

Hey, everyone!

Welcome!

Yay!

It's good to be back.

It is good to be back. We're so glad to be with you today.

And we are so excited to get back into our series called Complete Unity.

I told you Laura would be back.

Laura's back.

I'm back.

Whoop, whoop. Excellent.

This is now the podcast team is in Complete Unity.

That's right.

Yes.

So this is going to be a good series.

I've already just enjoyed our discussion, opening it up.

But we have a lot of things.

We have a lot of good things happening in Go Church.

Yeah, that's right.

We are excited because as we get into the series, we're going to see more and more and more.

We're going to be able to understand the importance of unity with the Father,

unity between ourselves and unity, which brings results in our walk with the Lord.

So I'm really excited about that.

Before we get into it, I just want to make a couple of quick announcements.

First announcement point is that we are this is part one.

Out of three parts for our February series called Complete Unity.

So we're as we always do, we record our podcasts, we release our podcasts on the Sunday.

And we expect over the course of the week that everyone at Go Church listens to the podcast

and is able to take thoughts, see new things.

And hopefully the discussion becomes more and more fruitful in our grow groups,

because if you're part of Go Church, you're part of a group, because we are a group space church.

Like we also mentioned last last week in our introduction, in our series over the year,

we're really going to as much as possible touch upon the values of our grow groups.

And I'm so thankful for Lara because she came up with the acronym that I'm actually happy to say.

It's not like I have to hide behind my hands to say it, but the acronym is CAC.

What does CAC stand for?

It stands for Care, Accountability, Activation and Communication.

And a tasty breakfast.

That's right.

I'm hungry now.

So what I will also say is that towards the end of this month,

so on the fourth Friday of this month, we're going to have our believers gathering.

It's been a while that we haven't had one.

So I'm really looking forward to getting together, worshipping the Lord together and just taking the time to minister to the Lord.

Yeah, that'll be February 23rd.

And we missed because of the Christmas holiday and then we missed because of some scheduling conflict in January.

February 23rd, it's a great opportunity for all of us to come together.

We call it a believers gathering.

Who's welcome at a believers gathering?

Everybody.

If you're hearing this, you're welcome and you're welcome to bring someone.

And we come together during that time.

And so, so many testimonies, I hear so many testimonies.

And in those testimonies is this phrase like I was in a time of worship,

I was in a time of prayer and the Lord spoke to me or I saw this truth.

And that's what these believers gatherings are really designed for, is to create that space.

Maybe we should do it more often, but we're going to do it on February 23rd and it's going to be great.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So doors open at seven.

Typically, we start at seven thirty and sometimes it's an hour long, sometimes an hour and a half long.

Sometimes two.

Sometimes. Yeah, basically.

But it's always a great time.

This is what it is.

It's always special and we're always blessed with the presence of the Lord.

And that's that's what we come together for, because we're expecting to see the glory of God in manifestation.

Go Church Beirut and in Lebanon.

We're so excited about what the Lord is doing.

And this is why we, you know, this is why we get together.

We talk about series and we build upon these series.

And, you know, we take a series for the month and then we dig deeper and deeper and deeper into it.

It's not like we're just wanting to share theology or share, you know, the latest, coolest thing we heard about the Bible.

We want to unpack the word of God, which belongs to you as part of Go Church Beirut, because there is life, there is anointing,

there is power in that word that we can receive for ourselves, but also unpack in our lives, through our lives, for others around us,

because we can change dynamics in our families.

We can change the nation.

We can change the region with the word of God.

And so we start by applying that in our lives and walking out the word of God in our lives.

That's well said.

Praise the Lord. And so let's get into our series for this month called Complete Unity.

I'm so blessed that Christelle got to join us last week and introduce the series, share from her heart about this series,

about this title of the series, which I really, really like.

I so enjoy the name of this series and the fact that it's not just unity, but it's complete unity.

And the more I just sit down and think about the series, the more I realize, well, it's important.

You know, there's different elements to it.

And actually, that's what we're going to look at over the course of the month.

Over the course of this month, we're going to talk about this in three parts.

So part one, which is what we're going to dig into today, is unity with God the Father.

Part two next week, we're going to build on that and we're going to talk about unity with one another,

because unity is not complete unity unless it involves one another.

And in part three, we're going to talk about unity bringing results.

So how about we read the purpose of our series together and we can just elaborate on this.

Laura, would you like to read that for us?

We want the Go Church family to grow in unity with the Father so that we can grow in unity with one another,

so that the world will be able to see Jesus.

When we love one another, we fulfill the commandment of God by showing Jesus to the world.

Praise God.

Amazing.

Yeah, I like that.

I like that we always have a purpose to what we do.

Yeah.

It keeps us on track, you know, and this is hopefully what we do on podcasts,

also models the dynamics of discussions and grow groups, because, you know, it's not a free for all Q&A, right?

We're looking at the Word of God concerning complete unity,

concerning the love of God, concerning our walk with one another so that the world will be able to see Jesus.

Yeah.

Our purpose in this message, it really echoes our purpose as a church, our values as a church,

to experience the unconditional love of God, grow in His love and then go.

Go is at the root and also then at the pinnacle of what we're aiming at.

Our purpose is to take that which we've received from Him and give it away.

You made the comment about grow groups are not a place where, you know, it's a debate of ideas.

And the reason for that is debating ideas doesn't help me grow.

And debating ideas will not empower me to go with His love to the rest of the world.

But something you said, Gilbert, when you were beginning there is from First Peter,

that the Word of God, if we'll take the Word of God in, the Word of God will make us grow and grow what?

Grow strong in Him. If we grow strong in Him, He is love.

And this discussion that we're having this week really gives us the opportunity to look at who He is, what He's like.

And as we look at Him, you know what happens. We are made like Him.

Yes.

Praise God. So I really want to read a passage of scripture in the truth New Testament.

I wanted to read it to Pastor Matt and to Lara before the mics were on, but we said, hey, let's not do the...

We're sharing this with everyone.

Yes. Let's not do the Bible study before the Bible study. Let's get into this.

And I just thought it's a great passage because this is actually the passage that Christel was reading

when the Lord actually spoke to her heart and said, you know, this is what the church needs to get.

It's, you know, it is about unity.

And actually, I'm sure we'll get into this over the month, but the Lord even shared that word with Pastor Matt.

And he shared it with us as part of the Emerge team.

The lead team at Go Church Beirut.

And he was talking to us about how important unity is and how important it is that we never find ourselves in a place of division.

And so we talked about unity and division last week, and we talked about it being like math swords, right?

Kind of whereby this really stood out to me when I saw it is that unity is it means singular.

It means singularity. It means oneness.

So it doesn't mean, you know, many parts that are just kind of put together with super glue or gorilla glue or whatever that looks like.

But it's a single unit. That's what unity is.

It's a single it points to one whole part.

And actually, as I was reading in John, Chapter 14 through to 17,

John 14 · chapter mention

and I was reading through the Passion Translation, actually, and there was a part that was talking about union or to be united with.

And this is what Jesus was was was praying out in John 17.

The word in Aramaic was actually shrunk into one.

You know, it means like compressed into a single point.

You know, that's that's what the word union or unity means when he talks about being.

I am one with you, Father, and they are one together.

And so it literally talks about they are shrunk into one or they were they are compressed together into a single unit.

And I just it's such a powerful image when we see what unity means.

So let me read through First Corinthians, Chapter one, verses four through to ten.

I'm going to read it in the truth New Testament.

And and hopefully we're going to get to see all three parts over the month that we're going to talk about in this passage.

And we'll take it from there. So First Corinthians, Chapter one, verse four.

This is Paul talking to the church.

I am always thankful to God for you because he has shown you so much grace through your union with Christ Jesus.

So immediately here we see union, unity with Christ Jesus because you live in Christ.

You have been blessed with all his heavenly riches.

He has blessed you in every conceivable way.

You know that all his riches are yours and you're able to speak his many blessings over your lives.

So we automatically so I'm pausing here, but we immediately see that our union with the Father through Jesus leads us to enjoy all these heavenly blessings,

all these riches that the God has in store for us.

So when we're united with him, everything that belongs to him belongs to us.

Let me read on verse six. This is possible because all we taught you about Christ was imparted to you when you believed in him.

For this reason, you do not lack any of his spiritual gifts.

They are yours to enable you to persevere in faith as you look with eager expectation for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed in his full majesty and glory.

He will keep you strong to the very end so that on that glorious day when you come before our Lord Jesus Christ, you will be without any blame or guilt.

God is faithful and he is able to do this because he has called you to live at one with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So all that belongs to us.

Every single every single part of that that we don't lack any spiritual any spiritual gifts that we we are blessed with all these heavenly riches that, you know,

we are able to speak his many blessings over our lives.

Yeah. All of that because he has called you to live at one with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Let me let me tie this up.

Verse 10, I urge you strongly in his name to be in agreement with one another. There should not be any divisions among you.

You should be united perfectly, even agreeing together in the way you think.

So so we see here these these three parts, we see our union with the father, we see that he urges us strongly to be in unity with one another.

And he calls it what I really like is you should be united perfectly.

Yeah. Perfect unity, complete unity.

I really like that. And then he talks about when we have unity with the father, unity with one another, then there are results that come.

Yeah, we start to see the blessings.

We start to walk in these spiritual gifts.

We start to be able to effectively serve one another in the strength of God.

And that's the thing. Everybody wants the results of unity.

I mean, without a doubt, even if you don't know exactly what they are, let me tell you, you want the results of unity.

The the thing is, all those results are in that oneness.

They're in that that fellowship together where I was just reading in the my Bible where it says we've been called to live as one.

The translation I have is we have been called to live in fellowship and we've looked at that word fellowship a lot, you know,

which is not just being together, but it's acting as one.

It's putting energy and effort together. And yeah.

And it and Paul, he said, I'm telling you, the whole church at Corinth, and that applies to the church in Beirut, there should be no division among you.

Why? Because there's no division in the plan of God and there's no division in God's plan for his relationship with us.

His there's no division in between the father and the son.

They are at one. They're they're two separate, but they're at one.

How can that be? Well, that's what we're going to talk about.

Yeah. So we kind of started from the end here talking about how unity leads to results and how the Lord planned it this way because he's trying to get us to a certain place.

And he's trying to get us to to like he's trying to enhance our walk with him and help us enhance our walk with others so that we can accomplish this great big plan.

But let's go back to the very beginning and talk about that plan that God has that, you know, that that initial intention, which is revealed.

In the story of redemption, because unity and perfect unity was actually his intention from the very beginning.

So if we if we go back to the story of creation, we see that we were created or mankind was created for perfect unity with the father, perfect unity with God.

And so how about we go we go back to Genesis one and we look at the story of the creation of man in chapter one versus twenty six through to twenty eight.

So let me read this. I'm going to read it from the New King James version, Genesis, chapter one, verse twenty six.

Then God said, let us make man in our image.

Sorry, I'm going to cut myself off here, but I love the language.

Let us make man in our image.

So already we see that God is united.

We saw that last week, but I'm just I want to emphasize this again, that he already had unity in himself.

That is his character. That is his nature that he is unified. He is united.

Yeah. And so man was created from a place of unity.

Yeah. Yeah. So let me go on to say this.

So let me let me go on to read this this verse.

Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him male and female.

He created them. Then God blessed them.

And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God said, see, I have given you every herb that yields seeds, which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed to you, it shall be for food.

So I'm going to stop right there. But we automatically see that there is unity in the design of the creation of mankind, because he it says it a couple of times.

God created man in his own image. And that image is the image of unity.

Let us make man in our image.

And he goes on to say, you know, you have dominion over everything in the earth.

So there is already a. I don't want to sound too poetic, but like there is already a marriage of man and his authority in creation.

Like we are already in unity with our purpose at the very beginning.

This is how God had designed mankind, that this is man.

And this is what man is supposed to look like.

This is what man is able to do.

This is what I'm expecting him to do.

And it's not only, you know, we weren't created for work.

You know, we were created for fellowship with him, for love with him.

We go on to see in Genesis three that the Lord regularly walked with Adam.

Right. There was this they walked together and we see at that point where where Adam was hiding, hiding and the Lord was looking for him.

They were not in that moment anymore walking together.

They were not in a picture of unity.

But the initial image of creation was unity.

There was unity between God and man.

This is how God had designed mankind.

This is how God intended for mankind to live and move and walk and and have his being.

So, you know, you mentioned about that Genesis chapter three that man walked with God.

That's the the let's say that's the action after the creation.

And we don't see much of that in the first chapters of Genesis because then Genesis chapter three,

where God comes and he's looking for man.

Adam, where are you? And it's very bad.

But I want to point something out.

This really this really ministers to me.

Hebrews 11 five says, by faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death.

And he was not found because God took him up, for he obtained the witness that before

his being taken up, he was pleasing to God.

And without faith, it's impossible to please God.

There's this man named Enoch, who is the seventh from Adam.

And the Bible says that Enoch walked with God.

Hebrews 11 says that he did that by faith.

Why? Why did Enoch walk with God by faith?

Forget about how. Why?

But when Enoch was little.

His great, great, great grandpa, Adam, would tell stories about how he walked with God.

Enoch had to hear about it somehow, that the creator would come and walk and have time

together with man.

And so at some point, when Enoch just started going out by himself and saying, God, I'm

going to walk and I just believe you're going to walk with me.

And he did that so much that finally the Lord said, OK, you're closer to me than you are

the rest of the people that are on the earth.

You can come on home with me.

Enoch's story is beautiful and rich for a lot of reasons.

I love that picture that the intent of fellowship, of connection, of unity in creation made it

outside of the garden, passed down into Adam's kids and grandkids where there was a desire.

Man, if we could just get back to that.

And we can because of Jesus.

That's right.

Hallelujah.

So God's intention for us was unity with himself.

That was his idea.

I like that in Psalm 8, we see.

So let me actually read this because it's just such a powerful, such a beautiful passage

of scripture, Psalm 8, verse four through to six.

The psalmist says this.

What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him for you

have made him a little lower than the angels.

So this translation, Elohim, you could also say made him a little lower than God and you

have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet.

It's just it's amazing that the Lord is mindful of us.

The Lord visits us and desires to spend time with us and has put things under our feet,

has put things in our hands that he has made us a little lower than himself.

He has made us in his own image, his own likeness.

That was his intention.

His intention was to make an extension of himself in us.

And that is so powerful when you see it and when you see yourself in it.

And the fact is, you know, we share this a lot during our call to actions, during our

big Sundays.

But yeah, we are born in this world and we are born in this world separated from God.

And God found a way for us to come back into this relationship and fellowship with him.

That separation was never his idea.

That was the devil's idea.

The fact is, God created us for unity and the devil put his foot in and basically created

division.

So if we look at Romans chapter 5 verse 12, it says this, Therefore, just as through one

Romans 5:12

man sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because

all sinned.

That is the condition that man finds himself in.

You know, at birth in this world before we come back to the Father through Jesus Christ.

Yeah.

And that word death, it's important for us to understand that that word death does not

mean a casket and a body that's not breathing.

That word death means separation.

So there are three kinds of death that we see in the scripture.

Physical death, physical death, and then the second death or eternal death.

And when it's a beautiful picture what you just painted there with your words, a baby

born into this life is subject to the one sin that one man committed, which was Adam.

And through that one sin, death has spread to all.

What is that death?

It is separation from the living one.

And what is the gospel?

The gospel is the power of God because there is a revelation of the righteousness of God

where he, the innocent, covered the guilty.

Not just to cover, but to make us new, to make a new creature in him.

And in that new creation, what is it?

There's a new life.

That's why Jesus said, you must be born again.

If you're listening to this and you think, I've heard people talk about that.

I've heard that phrase before, newborn, born again, but I don't know if that's ever happened

to me.

Listen, you want to know that you know that you know that you're born again.

Why?

Because you don't want to be disconnected.

You don't want to be separated.

You want to have complete unity and that starts with being connected to the Father.

And it's not hard.

You don't have to go anywhere.

You don't have to talk to anyone.

It doesn't cost anything because Jesus paid it all.

The Bible says that if you believe in your heart that God raised up Jesus from the dead

and you'll confess with your mouth that he is Lord, the Bible says you're saved.

And that qualifies you for that new creation.

Second Corinthians 517 says, therefore, if anyone that includes you is in Christ, they

are a new creature.

All the old things are passed away.

Behold all things are become new.

So you can say that right now.

Say I believe God raised me Jesus from the dead and I believe that Jesus is my Lord.

And in your spirit, there is a new creation, just like the one we read about in Genesis.

And that new creation means all the old is passed away and the new is come.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

Praise the Lord.

I'm excited.

Wow.

Can we ever talk about that enough?

No.

And the thing that we should do is tell other people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's right.

That's right.

Praise the Lord.

You know, Romans chapter six, verse 23 says this, for you have seen for yourself that

sin pays wages, eternal death and separation from God.

But God's gift to you is eternal life that is yours in Christ Jesus your Lord.

Glory to God.

That's mine.

That's mine, too.

That's mine.

Praise the Lord.

Life, eternal life, the way God has it.

Yeah.

And Jesus made it clear.

What is eternal life?

Is it just this never ending life?

No.

Eternal life, according to Jesus in John 17, three, is knowing the Father.

That's right.

It is connection with Him because He is life.

He is light.

That's all through, especially John and the epistles of John.

We see that again and again.

John had this great revelation on the life and the light of God.

And we receive Him.

We're connected to that life.

That's right.

John said it.

If you know the Son, then you know life.

Yeah.

Praise the Lord.

Glory to God.

So hopefully you don't shout too loud.

I'm going to read John chapter 14, verse six in the in the passion translation.

John 14 · chapter mention

And it is so, so powerful, especially in the context of our series for the month.

So Jesus says this.

Jesus explained, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.

No one comes next to the Father except through union with me.

To know me is to know my Father too.

And that is the truth of the story of redemption.

That God sent Jesus, His only Son, to the world to live like we did.

You see, the story of redemption is a story of unity because Jesus emptied Himself of

all power.

He separated Himself from this perfect heavenly union with the Father, came down to live as

a man.

He did live as a man unified with His Father in the Spirit, but He lived in the world like

we did.

So He was united to us in humanity.

That's why the story, the Christmas story talks about the promise of Emmanuel, which

is God with us.

So God became man.

God became one with us.

He unified Himself in the flesh.

He unified Himself on the cross with our sin.

So He became, He became sin.

He identified Himself with our sin so that we would identify ourselves with Him in His

resurrection.

So He, you could call this the great exchange, right?

He united Himself with my sin so that I can unite myself with His resurrection life.

Once He beat the grave, He beat death.

And so really the story of redemption is the story of our unifying ourselves with Jesus

in death, in burial, and then also in resurrection.

Praise God.

And so when we see that and when we get past the cross and we get into resurrection, we

understand that whoever Jesus is, I'm now united with Him.

Whoever Jesus has, I'm now united in that.

You know, whoever Jesus is in terms of position, in terms of relationship with the Father,

I now have that.

So in unity with Jesus, I now have unity with the Father the way Jesus is connected to the

Father.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

Yeah.

Glory to God.

That's true.

And it's true about me.

Yeah, that's right.

And that's why we're talking about unity with the Father, because when we build the story

from the ground up, when we see the story of redemption from the ground up, we understand

that Jesus took my sin.

So He came, He united Himself with everything that was wrong with me, put it in the grave,

threw it away, and now He beat the grave.

And by default, I'm in unity with Him.

Praise the Lord.

I think that there's a verse in 2 Corinthians about this, Chapter 5, verse 21.

I'd like to read that.

Yeah.

2 Corinthians 5, 21.

He, that's God, made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin on my behalf.

Isaiah 53, 5 describes this exchange that you're talking about, the identification of

Christ with sin, which meant that He was separated like me.

Yeah.

But that act of identification meant that Romans Chapter 4, verse 25, when Christ was

Romans 4:25

raised, He wasn't raised because He had paid the penalty for Himself.

He was raised because He'd paid the penalty for me.

He was raised up for my justification.

And when He was raised for my justification, I was raised.

So God put, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, He put sin on Jesus so that sin would do to Him what

it had done to me, separate, so that I would be made one with Him.

And there is the answer to Jesus' prayer in John 17.

It's the text for our series.

We haven't read it yet, but John 17, I in them and you in me, that they may be made

perfect in one and that the world will know that you love them as you have loved me.

Yeah.

Glory to God.

Glory to God.

That is good news.

Yes, it is.

Hallelujah.

And you know what, He did all of that because He loves us that much.

That's the truth.

That's the motive for you.

That is the motive for the whole redemptive story.

And there is no also for that.

It's just He loves me that much.

Yeah.

So He loves us that much.

He loved us when we were still His enemies.

We're still dead, separated and our sins away from Him.

He did all of that for us.

He sent Jesus knowing that Jesus would have to go through all of that.

He would have to bear our sins like 1 Peter 2.24 says, He bore our sins in His own body

on the cross that He having died to sins, you know, we would live for righteousness.

We would live in His righteousness.

We would have that by whose stripes.

We were healed.

Praise the Lord.

Thank God.

And He did that because He loves us.

So if there's anything you're going to pick up from today's series, there's a lot that

you should pick up.

But if there's anything you can pick up, you can see the number one through Jesus.

I am one with the Father.

It's not that, oh, you know, I'm close to the Father.

It's not like I have, you know, yes, you do have access to the Father.

But you are one with Him.

He joined Himself with you.

There is no separation between you and the Father.

You are literally one with the Father.

And He did that because of love.

So if there's anything that you see from unity, it is done in love.

It is fulfilled and completed because you say complete unity, perfected in love, through

love.

Which, and this will get into our discussion for next week, but it's why Paul, the scripture

that you read in Corinthians, it's why, you know, Paul points at it's absurd for Christians

to have divisions among themselves because it's simply not part of our divine DNA.

Yeah.

Praise the Lord.

So John chapter 14 verse 20, I'm going to read this in the passion translation again.

John 14:20

I think the passion translation just, there's such revelation concerning unity between Jesus

and the Father and us with the Father through Jesus.

So John 14 verses 19 and 20, soon, Jesus is saying this to the disciples, soon I will

John 14:19

leave this world and they will see me no longer, but you will see me because I will live again

and you will come alive too.

So when that day comes, you will know that I'm living in the Father and that you are

one with me for I will be living in you.

Thank God.

So he goes, it's funny because he's talking about, you know that I am living in the Father

and then he goes on to talk about you are one with me and I am one with you.

Yeah.

Like he doesn't put a separation between his unity with the Father and then my unity with

the Father.

It's all the same.

It's all the same to him.

So as much as he sees himself in the Father, he says, Hey, Pastor Matt, me, Lara, we all

have this oneness with the Father.

It's so big.

Thank God.

Yeah.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

So this is the reality.

The reality is that once we have this union with the Father, because we are one with the

Father, he has changed our position in heaven and he has changed our access and the way

we access the Father.

And actually, I really like this scripture in Hebrews chapter 10 in verse 19.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19, and now we are brothers and sisters in God's family because

Hebrews 10:19

of the blood of Jesus and he welcomes us to come into the most Holy sanctuary in the heavenly

realm boldly and without hesitation.

That's so big.

That's so big.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's changed our access.

Yeah.

I mean, the way we have presence before the Father, the way we have this view of the Father

and he has a view of us, there is no separation.

There is nothing between us.

There's not even a seam of glue.

There is oneness.

There is complete unity between us.

And that also means that in that unity, our position changes.

So we are now heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

We are seated in heavenly places.

We have a heavenly citizenship.

We are no longer identified with this earthly body, with the sin that is in the world.

We are no longer of the world.

We are in the world, but we are no longer of the world.

That is another thing that Jesus says about us in his prayer in John chapter 17, that

John 17 · chapter mention

we are not to be identified with the world.

God doesn't see us as part of the world.

That's exactly right.

He sees us as his children.

He sees us as members of his family.

Glory to God.

Yeah.

So how important is it for us to build in ourselves a consciousness of this relationship

with him?

It is precious because it was paid for with the precious blood of Jesus.

It is unique throughout scripture.

We see it's like that's really the text of the epistle of Hebrews that once, only once,

the high priest could come into the presence of God and not without the shedding of blood.

But with the offering of Jesus, the temple veil was torn in two and now we have this

bold access to God.

There is a unique connection that has been opened to us and it is precious because of

the price that was paid.

We need to build in ourselves this consciousness that there is no separation because I am in

union with Christ.

I have been made one with him.

When God looks at me, he sees me in Jesus.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank God.

Praise the Lord.

And this is why, you know, we're going to go on to this and talk about this more next

week, but Galatians chapter three, verse 26 says this, for you are all sons of God through

faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

It goes on to say this in verse 28, in case you were saying, oh, he said sons, but not

daughters.

Hold on.

We're not done here yet.

Verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek.

There is neither slave nor free.

There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham seed and heirs according to the promise.

So this is a God thought, but the way he sees me is not the way I look in the mirror and

see myself in the natural.

He doesn't see me with, oh, you're like a citizen of this country.

You're this old.

You're this tall.

You can't ride this roller coaster because you're not this tall or you're overweight

here or you don't have a six pack or you're a man and you're not a woman.

You're from this place.

You're not from that place.

I'm literally one with Christ.

I am one with my brothers and sisters.

I am the same in his eyes.

I am literally in his eyes.

When he sees me, he sees Jesus.

And that perfect unity with the father changes my identity completely.

And that helps me get over everything in my past because I am a new creature.

All things have passed away.

All things have become new.

I am one with my father through Jesus.

I'm a heavenly person.

I'm a heavenly citizen.

I don't have to identify with my sin because Jesus united himself with it and left it in

the grave.

Praise the Lord.

We're going to talk about this in more detail.

I do want to introduce this week's Grow Group discussion, which is actually the picture

of our unity with God through Jesus, which is marriage.

Because marriage is an earthly covenant between a man and a woman, but it is instituted in

God's eyes.

So actually, when I got married, I realized that it doesn't take two people to get married.

It takes three parties to get married.

It takes me, it takes my wife, and it takes the Lord.

And he instituted that covenant.

And we don't have much time to talk about this in a lot of detail.

No, but in the Grow Group, what I'd like you to do, and it would be good if you think about

this ahead of time, consider what God asked Adam to do, what God charged Adam to do, which

was to rule and reign.

And the first thing that Adam realized is, I can't do this alone.

The very first realization was, okay, I have this divine call.

I have divine equipment.

I have the blessing of the Lord.

In Genesis chapter 1, 28, God blessed.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And that blessing was the able message for Adam.

However, Adam said, hey, I need help.

I can't do this by myself.

And Adam was called and equipped to do something for the Lord.

But the first thing he realized is he couldn't do it by himself.

He was called to do it with his wife, but not just with his wife.

They had to be connected and in union with God.

So they couldn't do it independent of God.

And once they were separated from God, they could no longer do it.

It's a beautiful picture of really the problem that sin introduces and how Jesus solved that

by taking sin out of the way.

And the other thing I would encourage you to do, whether we were studying this or not,

is to spend time looking at your identity in Christ.

You might not know your passport number or your passport expiration date, but you should

definitely know the details of your heavenly identity.

And you can find that in the New Testament, these verses, anything that says in Christ,

you can go through your Bible and underline that with a red pen or write those scriptures

down on a piece of paper.

Don't let Google do it for you.

But you could use notes if you wanted in your phone if you're real techie.

But I think this is going to be a great study and I'm looking forward to our next week's

podcast.

Yeah, it's going to be amazing.

So for this week, please make sure to read Ephesians chapter five, verse 21 through to

33.

I insist that you start reading, men.

I insist that you start reading from verse 21, not verse 22 chance Roy.

I insist that you start reading from verses 21, not 22.

But the goal here is really to look at marriage and to understand that marriage is a picture

of our relationship with Jesus and how how we can really compare or learn from our relationship

with Jesus and how we apply that to marriage and vice versa.

So we're going to we're going to take a look at this, you know, maybe from a little bit

more of a natural or practical side and see, see the truth of marriage in spiritual reality.

So we're going to have a great time discussing this.

And like Pastor Matt said, this is a great action point.

And this is something that we should really all be doing daily, which is look at our identity

in Jesus.

Look at what unity with the father really means.

Just take some time, close your eyes and and picture what that looks like.

I am united with my father.

There's there is no gap separation.

There's not even like a little, you know, misapplied glue somewhere between me and him.

It's perfect.

Like we are perfectly united.

And so if you just close your eyes and picture that and and and pick up a couple of scriptures

that, you know, reveal that truth to you and just meditate on those, that is something

that is super powerful and will take us a really, really, really long way.

Can I give an example of what you're saying?

Yes, please.

I have on my phone as a wallpaper because of Jesus.

I am a child of God that's in Galatians three twenty six.

I am a spiritual contributor, not a spiritual consumer.

I am alive.

Romans six eleven.

Glory.

I am content in Christ alone.

I am chosen.

That's Ephesians one four.

I have so many more.

I have all the Galatians five.

The fruit of the spirit.

Yes, I am joyful.

I am gentle.

These are all me in Christ.

That's my identity.

That's awesome.

But what's beautiful about that is it's where you see it all the time.

Yes.

Putting things where you see it all the time.

And you know, that's that's key, because otherwise it just gets drowned out in the noise of life.

But praise the Lord.

Well, if you made it this far today, we want you to say actually, I just want to say thanks

for sticking with us.

This is a longer, longer podcast, but we want to say that we love you and we're praying

for you.

God bless you.

Thank you for listening to this message.

We want everyone to experience the unconditional love of God, grow in His love and go with

His love to the rest of their world.

We invite you to connect with us at one of our groups for our next gathering.

And if no one told you yet today, we love you and believe God's very best for you.