Moving Forward Together

A few weeks back, we started a brand new series called Never Going Back.

And the idea behind the series is really simple.

Right now, it is natural for us to want to go back to the way things were.

To just go back to the way things were a few months ago, that makes all the sense in the world.

I have felt that.

I'm sure you have felt that.

But the idea is that God never really wants us to go backwards.

When you look at scripture, you find God constantly calling people forward, constantly calling people to places they've never been before.

He's not trying to tell people to go back to the good old days.

That's just not something you really see God do.

A great example of this is something that we looked at last week, Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 through 34.

Jeremiah 31:31–34

And the idea behind this is really simple.

The people of Israel, who are God's chosen people, the people he's working through at this time in history, they've really stopped being faithful to him.

They've stopped taking him seriously, they've stopped following him like they used to.

And when he speaks to Jeremiah, this prophet, to speak to the people on his behalf, he doesn't say, I just want you guys to go back to the way you were.

I want you to go back to the way you were back when our agreement, when our covenant, that was the word that they used, was working.

He actually says, No, no, no, I want to create a whole new covenant.

I want to create a whole new relationship with my people where it's not about whether or not they follow the rules, it's about love, it's about mercy, forgiveness.

That's what he wanted to do.

God's always looking forward, he's not looking backward.

And so in this season that we're all in, this storm that we're all going through together, we're all in the same storm.

I heard a really good quote this last week that we're not all in the same boat, but we are all in the same storm.

It is natural for us just to want the storm to be over and go back to the way things were, but but I don't think that's what God wants.

I don't think God ever really wants us to just go back to the way they were.

I think God wants to use this to take us places we've never been before, to go places in our relationship with Him we've never gone before, places in our relationships with other people we've never gone before, places in your career, you name it, God wants to use this situation because He uses all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

He wants to use this situation to take us places we've never been before.

So we're not going backwards, we're going forwards.

And today we're gonna talk about the fact that we want to go forward together.

Now, because we're talking about being together, being united, I don't just want to do this one alone.

And so I've got I've got Madison with me.

And so how are you doing, Madison?

I'm doing well.

Good, it's good, it's good to see you.

We are six feet apart.

I want to stress that.

At least.

I'd say a solid eight, nine feet.

Yeah, probably.

Probably so.

Um, Madison, so you're you're gonna be digging into scripture for us.

You're gonna be our official, our official scripture reader, which is nice because it means I don't have to look down every single time I read something.

And you now you have the problem of like, I don't know what to do with my hands.

No, I know I just I just move them around.

I just move them.

I just move them.

Yeah, so you're gonna read scripture for us.

You're also here to provide relatable banter.

It's very important to have it needs to be relatable.

Toast, am I right?

When it gets burnt?

It's the worst.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, you're like, well, I don't even know the setting to put on my toaster.

It's like it's always not toasty enough or too.

Oh my gosh.

You think that was relatable?

Well, everyone gets toast.

No, um, hey, I have a question for you.

So, lockdown, a couple months in basically, some social distancing lockdown, whatever.

Yes, you are in a unique situation because you have you're a first-time father with a brand new baby.

Brand new.

And basically, you're what was the distance from like time-wise, your child being born to everything shutting down?

Yeah, so we got like a solid two weeks to two and a half weeks of of getting family to see the brand new, brand spanking new baby.

Um, and then two and a half weeks later, we were we were locked down, isolated in our bedroom or in our house with that screaming child.

So you have so you have done the entire lockdown as a first-time parent with a baby.

How has that gone?

It has been amazing.

Really?

So yeah, it's like it's one of those things of I get lots of baby squishy time that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten.

So I get to see Simon as my child's name.

Um, I get to see Simon's first smiles and be there for a lot of the firsts that I otherwise wouldn't have been there for.

That's a good point.

Um at the same time, you go kind of stir crazy when um you can't get him to stop crying and he's screaming, and we're just helpless, and we eventually figure it out.

But yeah, but it's been really good.

Wow, Madison, that was uh that was really relatable.

Thank you so much for sharing that.

You know, it's it's interesting.

Uh, you're gonna have so many experiences with Simon, experiences that I'm having right now, because uh, you know, I've got a 10-year-old, I've got a six-year-old, I've got a four-year-old, I've got a two-year-old.

And we've been, you know, in quarantine basically with them for for this whole period as well.

And I can say this, we all still love each other.

We're all still alive.

These are wins in my book, but it's it's been interesting.

One of the funny things that that we've noticed about our kids is is I think being together all this time, how good they are at the divide and conquer strategy with Megan and I, because they want certain things, and and they try really hard to actually like divide us so that they can get what they want.

And so, you know, one of the things we're trying to keep really, really close tabs on is our food at home because you know, we ordered a bunch of food and we're trying to make sure that we're not being being wasteful.

Uh, and so when it comes to like snack foods, the whole point of every one of my child's day is like, how can I get as much sugar today as possible?

Maximize the snackage.

Oh, it's it is there, it's like, and and they're they're all really united in that.

They have very different strategies.

And so Eli, my youngest, he's two, he's not very sophisticated in his approach.

Uh, he'll come to me and he'll say, like, he wants yogurt or he wants you know something else, he wants a cookie, he'll say cookie pretty well.

And if I say no, he'll just go right to Megan.

He'll just go right to her and say cookie.

And we went, we might be in the same room.

Like we're we're together, and he doesn't even think that, you know, because he's two, so he's like, Oh, he said no, how about how about her?

And I'm usually the weekly, to be honest with you.

Um, Lily's a little bit more sophisticated.

She uses emotion.

Lily will like, she'll just cry and she'll she'll start to like let all the emotions that she has out, and she'll say things like, I never get cookies, and I have I've only had one cookie in the last two days, and it's not fair.

And and I think she's doing that to get to me, because she's my only girl, and uh she knows that I don't want to see my only girl cry.

Uh Liam, my oldest, he just sort of like, he I think he's just he does this like subtle sort of, I can tell he wants something, and I'll be like, Hey Liam, you you want something?

He's like, not that big of a deal.

It's not a big deal, right?

Not, I guess, no, I don't know.

And I'm like, well, what is it?

He's like, ah, you're probably gonna say no.

You know, he starts to like do that whole thing, like try to butter me up.

I don't I don't know what the like wear me down.

That's his approach.

Judah just, it's just anger.

Judah, and this is true, and I Judah, if you're watching this right now, I love you, dude.

You are you and I are so close.

You gotta stop this, though.

Like, Judah, if I say no, he just yells and runs away.

Like goes to another room.

You know what I mean?

Hey, can I have a cookie?

Uh, not right now, dinner's in like 10 minutes.

Ah, and he just runs off and he's in the house, and so it's it's that's what we're dealing with.

And you know, it's interesting because it's helped me see how easy it is for us as people to divide.

You know, divide and conquer, it's it's a real strategy, it's a military strategy, it works.

My children use it on me all the time.

And Megan and I have to work really, really hard to be united.

I think in this whole season, we've had to work harder than ever to be united as a husband and wife because there's so much that could divide us.

Truth of the matter is, this whole coronavirus lockdown, quarantine stuff, everything that's been going on for the last few months, it's been a really interesting experience for our nation, for our world.

In some ways, I think it's brought us together.

We've seen people come together and do some amazing things for people in need.

There have been some really beautiful, beautiful moments in the last few months.

At the same time, this whole situation has highlighted and maybe even magnified how divided people actually are.

You know, you look back to whenever the lockdown was first announced in Georgia at least, and people were pretty divided.

Some people were saying, you know, it's too late, like this should have happened earlier.

Some people were saying this is just a giant media overblow.

I can't believe this is happening.

And now that those lockdowns are starting to be lifted, you're seeing just as much division.

Some people are saying this is crazy, people are gonna get sick, what's going on?

Other people are like, it's about time, this whole thing has lasted too long already.

People are divided.

It's very, very easy for us as people to live in a divided state.

And unfortunately, it's very easy for the church, for the people who are who are supposed to belong to the same family, to God's family.

It's very easy for the church to be just as divided as everyone else in the world, but it's not supposed to be like that.

If we're gonna move forward, if we're gonna come out of this whole situation and we're gonna go to the places that God wants to take us, we have to understand something.

God doesn't want to take us there individually, He wants to take us there together.

He wants us to come out of this more united than we've ever been before.

If we're gonna move forward together, we've got to be together.

I've been thinking all week long about the fact that when this is all done and we can be back together again, I don't just want us to be together.

I want us to be like together.

I want us to be more united as a church than we have ever been before in our history.

And I believe very much that that's God's, that's God's absolute heart and desire.

Great, great example of this would be John chapter 17, verse 23.

John 17:23

This is uh an excerpt from Jesus' prayer right before he gets arrested.

Madison, can you go ahead and read that for us?

I and them and you and me, so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

So there's a phrase in that, such perfect unity.

Is that what you have in your translation?

Complete unity.

Complete unity.

Other translations say such perfect unity.

And that's what Jesus prayed for.

He actually says this.

He says that that our unity, that our unity together as followers of Jesus would be proof of something.

And go ahead, real quick again.

What did he say it would be proof of, Madison?

Oh, I already turned.

You already turned this passage.

It's all good.

No, no, no.

It would be uh then they will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Yeah, so how crazy is that?

Jesus is saying that our unity as his followers, that our togetherness as the people of God would be the proof that God sent Jesus and that God loves Jesus.

It's like it's not our devotion.

He doesn't say that, hey, it's how how strongly you guys as Jesus followers uh you know adhere to my commands.

That'll prove to the world that I'm really from God.

And he doesn't say it's like you guys, you're gonna do miracles and amazing acts of love and kindness, and that's gonna prove to the world, they're gonna see these incredible, you know, huge demonstrations of faith that you guys have, and that's gonna prove to the world that God really sent me.

He actually says that the unity of the church, that the togetherness of God's people would be the proof to the world that God actually sent Jesus, that the Father sent the Son.

I mean, that's that's crazy, and and it's actually really convicting.

Because if we believed that our unity was that important, I believe we as followers of Jesus would act very, very differently.

We look at scripture, we see all kinds of examples of a call to unity.

For example, 1 Corinthians 12 has some specific scriptures about that.

Madison, go ahead and share that with us.

Yeah, Paul says there are different kinds of gifts, but some the same spirit that distributes them.

There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in every one, it is the same God at work.

And then he continues at verse 12 and says, Just as a body, though one has many parts, but all of its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

For we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, and we were all given the one spirit to drink.

So what this is obviously saying is not that we're going to be uniform, but we will be unified.

We're not uniform as people.

We have variety, we have variations, we have different personalities, we have different gifts, different abilities, but we're supposed to be incredibly unified, as if we have the same spirit inside of us, because newsflash, the teachings of scripture tell us that we do have the same spirit inside of us.

It's the spirit that we call the Holy Spirit.

And so when the when the world looks at the church, when people who are not followers of Jesus look at Jesus followers, they're supposed to see a wonderful variety of gifts and abilities and talents and personalities and approaches, but at the same time, they're supposed to see undeniable unity, unity in purpose, unity in love, unity in mission.

And the question I think we have to ask ourselves, is that what the world sees when it looks at the church?

And I think the obvious answer is, yeah, probably not.

Probably not.

For example, just imagine for a moment that there were more than one of me.

And we were saying different things, but at the same time we were saying the same basic thing.

You know, a little bit of variation in the words we're using, a little bit of a variation in our approach, but the same message was being communicated.

If that happened, you'd probably, you'd probably be able to track with it, even though you'd have two different people talking at the same time.

But let's go the opposite.

Let's say there were there were more than one of me, let's even up it, let's say there's like six of me.

And we're all saying very, very different things.

Not different just in tone or in approach, but different in content, different when it comes to the core concepts that we're communicating.

If that was the case, it would probably be extremely jarring.

God, you're not the most vulnerable thing, but you can have money.

Yeah, no one wants to look at that.

Anyone, anyone who would who would see that would naturally be at best confused and at worst completely and totally turned off.

That's unfortunately what the world sees so often when it looks at the church.

It doesn't see unity, it doesn't see togetherness.

But Jesus himself prayed.

I mean, think about this, guys.

If you're a Jesus follower, he prayed to the Father and he said, God, please let them be as united as I am with you.

Because their perfect unity, their complete unity, that will be the proof to the world that you really did send me and that you are with me.

If we're gonna be the church, if we're gonna be God's people, and we're gonna do the things that He's called us to do, if we're gonna come out of this whole crazy season that we're in, and we're gonna go to places we've never been before, we've got to do it together.

We've got to be unified.

We have to have a deeper commitment to unity than we have ever had before, because we have a world right now that I believe is recognizing a need for someone, not something, but someone for help.

We have a world right now that's recognizing that many of the things that we've we've put our trust in, we've put our faith in, they are way more fragile than we thought they were a few months ago.

So our world is hungry for an answer, and Jesus is that answer.

And if the world looks to Jesus' followers and it just sees a bunch of disunity, if it sees a bunch of shattered ideas, if it sees a lot of infighting and anger and all that kind of stuff, it's just not gonna track.

We've got to be unified, we've got to be together.

But the question is, is how?

I mean, how is that even practically possible when clearly we're different people and we have different opinions and we have we have different ideas and different personalities and different preferences, and some of us are really convicted and passionate about certain things, some of us are really convicted and passionate about very different things.

How in the world, with all the variety that we have as people all over the world, how could we ever be unified?

It's not it's not gonna be easy to walk that out, but I believe that God's Word gives us gives us the answers.

Scripture is not only profound, but it's practical.

It gives us the practical day-to-day steps, mindsets, ideas, actions to live by that actually help us put these ideas in practice.

And I think there's a specific scripture in Colossians chapter 3 that gives us what we need to actually live unified.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

So, Madison, go ahead and share that with us.

Colossians 3.11.

Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive one another.

If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And all over these virtues, over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ dwell in your hearts, since as members of one body you are called to peace, and be thankful.

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

That's awesome.

And obviously, there's a lot there, and that's one of those chunks of scripture we could probably sink our teeth into for months on end and still have a lot left over to talk about.

As I read through that and really thought through and prayed through this whole idea of unity, like, God, how can we take this and put this into practice right away?

There were four big things that stuck out to me.

And so the first was this idea of being God's chosen people.

Madison, what verses is that in?

That's verse 12.

Verse 12, what does it say?

Uh therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved.

Okay, so so that this is this is so awesome to think about.

God, God chose you.

Like He picked you.

I want you to think about that for a second, because it's a pretty powerful thing.

A lot of us are sitting here going, like, no, no, I picked God.

And and yeah, you you did, but God also chose you, and and his choosing you probably happened before you chose him.

I got a really interesting example of that not long ago with my my youngest son Eli.

He loves yogurt.

Uh, I mentioned that a little bit earlier.

Anything with sugar, he he loves.

And he'll come to me and he'll ask for yogurt.

And so uh the other morning he comes up to me and he says, Dad, yo-yo.

That's what he calls, he calls yogurt.

He says, yo-yo.

And so I go to the fridge and I open it up, and he's at this interesting point as a two-year-old where he wants to feel big.

And so he didn't want me to reach in and hand one to him.

He wanted to pick it himself.

And so I open up the drawer in the fridge and I lift him up, and he kind of looks at him.

They're all the same flavor, by the way, and he he picks one and he's very proud of the one he picked.

And as I shut the drawer, I don't know, I got I got really impacted by this thought that he thinks he picked that yogurt.

And he's very proud of that fact.

He he made the choice.

But in reality, I picked that yogurt out.

Well, actually, in reality, my wife picked that yogurt out when she bought it and put it in the fridge.

The only reason he could even choose it in the first place is because we chose it ahead of time and put it in the fridge just to start with.

And that's how it is so much, I think, with with us and God is that, yeah, we might choose to follow Jesus.

We might choose to follow God, but he already chose us.

He already decided to love us enough to send his son for us.

We actually see that in Ephesians chapter 1 that says that before he laid the earth's foundations, he loved us.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And he'd already decided that he was going to do whatever it took to bring us to himself, to have a relationship with us.

So you have to understand that you belong to God.

He chose you.

And here's the thing: if there's someone else that you don't like, someone else that you don't get along with, someone else that really just annoys you and bothers you, well, God chose them too.

So we are united by the understanding that we have that we were all picked by God to be part of this movement, that he's chosen all of us to be his people, and we have to have respect for that.

We have to have respect for the fact that God has made a decision to bring us together as a family, and we have to ask ourselves at the end of the day, do I trust him more than I trust myself?

So I may not agree with that person, I may not like everything that person does, but if God, if God chose them like he's chosen me, then I have to have respect for that.

So I think that understanding that we are chosen by God, that we're his people, that we belong to him, that's where a lot of our unity begins.

I want to see other Jesus followers, first and foremost, as family members, as brothers and sisters in Christ, because we are all, we are all united in the fact that God's He's chosen to love us.

And that's a really beautiful and really powerful thing.

The second thing that really sticks out to me a few verses down is the phrase, teach and admonish.

What verse is that, Madison?

That's uh verse 16.

Can you read that part?

Yeah, it says, Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Okay, so so those words teach and admonish, really, really interesting.

When you hear the word admonish, Madison, what pops in your head?

Is that like positive, negative?

That's like a school marm doing this.

Okay, it's like a finger in your face.

Okay.

That actually kind of tracks.

Yeah, the word admonish, it is a it's a word that has connotations of challenge.

Like it's not a gentle, necessarily like, I don't mean gentle, it's not harsh, but it it's not like this, oh, it's okay.

You just just try your best next time.

It's kind of like a, hey, you gotta you gotta make some changes.

I think a big part of the reason that the church is is not unified, a big part of the reason that there is a lot of uh of division in the church is because there, frankly, are a lot of people who just refuse to be teachable, who refuse to be easily admonished.

And so uh 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 3.

2 Timothy 4:3

Will you read that for us, Matt?

It says, For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.

Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Yeah, so the idea there is that there's gonna be people who don't want to listen to someone tell them the truth, if the truth maybe hurts a little bit.

And so they just leave and they go find people that say things they already agree with.

And that is obviously something that is rampant in the world right now in general, but yes, in the church as well.

If we're gonna be united, if we're gonna be together and we're gonna move forward after this whole season, together, unified, for the purpose of letting the whole world know that, hey, Jesus is the answer, and God the Father sent him and you can know him.

If we're gonna be unified in that, then we have to be teachable.

We have to be people who can who can handle it when we are, when we're conflicted, when we're maybe uh convicted would probably be the better phrase that I should have said convicted, not conflicted.

They're pretty close.

Uh, but we gotta be people that can handle it when someone tells us something that maybe we don't want to hear.

And when that happens, when we're maybe uh admonished, corrected in some way, we could either A, get mad, say, How dare you?

I can't believe someone had the gall to tell me that I need to do something differently or I really need to pray about something, and I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna go.

I'm leaving, and I'm gonna go find someone that already agrees with me.

That's human nature.

That is not the Spirit of God.

When we follow Jesus and we have we have the humility to surrender to God, that humility should extend to one another, and we should have the humility to be teachable.

And if we're not teachable, if we're not people that can handle admonishment of any kind, then we're gonna be divided because the simple truth is there's gonna be moments where we get called on stuff, either directly or often indirectly.

Sometimes I'll be given a message on a Sunday and I'll indirectly call someone out, and I didn't realize it.

I've had people text me before and say, hey, I feel like you were probably talking about me when you made that statement.

I was like, no, you weren't even on my mind at all, I promise.

Maybe that was God.

I don't know.

Like that's that's a Holy Spirit thing, I guess.

But we have to have the ability to handle that.

If we're not teachable, if we can't be admonished, we'll just divide, we'll split every time that we get offended.

A couple other things that really really jumped out to me.

One of them was the whole idea of clothing yourself.

Can you read that part?

Yes, the second half of verse 12.

Uh it says, Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

And then later on it says, above all these things, put on love.

Yeah, a few verses later, I think it kind of goes back to that.

So over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Yeah, so there's this idea of putting something on.

And I know earlier we said that we want to be unified, not uniform, but for a moment I want us to think about the idea of wearing a uniform.

I think Madison, toward the very end of that section, it says, above all things, or or on top of all this, make sure you do everything you do in the name of the Lord.

Yep.

Verse 17, whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in the name of Jesus.

Yeah, so think about a uniform for a second.

Um, you know, and we'll just go classic sports analogy.

Think about like a football team or a basketball team or a baseball team or a hockey team or a golf team.

I don't know, a golf golf team.

Any any team where people wear a uniform, you know, there's a name on the front of that jersey, and that name on the front you it unites everybody.

And if you saw that team go through an airport or you saw that team, you know, all out in public together and they weren't wearing their uniforms, you you may not know that they they go together, except for their extreme size.

You'd probably be like, that's a giant group of people.

But other than that, uh you'd have a variety of people, different sizes, right?

Different heights, different ethnicities, different ages, and you wouldn't necessarily know that that group of people belong together.

But if you saw that same group of people walking, wearing their uniforms, you would see them as a unit.

And so as followers of Jesus, we have we have a uniform.

And it has it has Jesus Christ on the front of it.

And that uniform for us are some of those things that he mentioned.

Madison, can you read those one more time?

Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

And then love.

And then love.

And so every single day we have to make this decision to say, you know what, I'm gonna put my uniform on today.

There's other scriptures that say that we should be clothed with Christ, and I think that just kind of sums up all of that, that we should be like Jesus, that we should put on those things and make the effort and actually pray, Lord, give me the strength to do this.

Holy Spirit, I'm surrendering to you.

I need you to give me what I don't have.

I need you to fill me with love.

I need you to fill me with compassion so that I can give that to everyone else.

God, put my uniform on.

And the thing is, that uniform is something that's that's given to us.

It's not something that we we necessarily choose ourselves.

It's not like a custom order thing, like, oh God, I'll be compassionate, but I'm not gonna be this, or I'll be loving, but I'm not gonna do that part.

You know, when a when a team plays for an organization, the individual players don't make individual uniforms.

There's a uniform that's given to everybody.

There are certain things that should unite us that we're all committed to, and it's those very things listed.

We gotta put our uniform on and clothe ourselves in such a way that the world sees that, yeah, wow, there's something united and different and unique about that group of people.

I've never seen compassion like that, I've never seen love like that, I've never seen gentleness like that.

That's that's what we're called to be.

One one more takeaway for me, and there's a phrase that says, bear with one another.

Yes, verse 13.

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.

Why are you laughing?

I'm just laughing because it's like it calls us out so specifically.

Like that just gets to the heart of like even being trapped in quarantine.

It's like, yeah, bear with one another.

Like, that's the that's you're gonna need like, have you ever have you ever thought about the fact, those of you who who call yourselves Jesus followers, that you would have to forgive other Jesus followers?

Like, we love the idea that God's forgiven us.

I love that idea.

God's forgiven me of everything, but but Jesus makes it really clear if you read his teachings that we are absolutely supposed to give that same forgiveness to everybody else.

Have you ever thought about the fact that you're gonna have to forgive everybody else?

You know, I some translations say make allowances for one another.

And my wife and I were having an amazing conversation about this a couple nights ago.

She said something brilliant.

Um, she, you know, she used the idea of a body, and that's something that Paul used in 1 Corinthians.

We read that earlier.

But she said, think about a body.

And think about a body specifically worshiping God.

You know, that body is going to be directed by the head, and we are all under the headship of Jesus if we're Jesus followers.

Jesus is our head.

So he's the one that's making the decisions, he's the one that's calling us to do different things.

But just to worship, that head might have different parts of the body do very different and very opposite things, at least at first glance.

And so the head might tell the hands to raise, but the head might simultaneously tell the knees to drop.

And the hands are raised and the the knees have dropped, and the hands could look at the knees and say, hey, you're supposed to go up, why are you going down?

And the knees might look at the hands and say, hey, you're supposed to go low, why are you going high?

And at the same time, that that same head may tell the eyes to close, but the mouth to open.

And the and the mouth could, you know, look at the eyes or talk to the eyes and say, hey, open up, like me.

God said open.

And the eyes, if they could talk, could look at the mouth and say, You're supposed to be shut, God said shut.

But the reality is, God is saying different things to different members of the body, but it's all for this united purpose.

And so when it comes to making allowances for one another, we have to at least think in terms of the idea that God might be calling different people within the church to do very different things, but all for the same purpose.

Right now, there are churches that are starting to open.

And I've been on phone calls with other pastors, and I've gotten to listen to some of the thought processes that other pastors are having.

And, you know, I said it earlier, we're all in the same storm, but we're not in the same boat.

And so everyone's making decisions based on their unique groups of people.

And the reality is, some people are going to open this week, some people will open next week, some people will open in June, some July, some not till August.

And it'd be really easy in a time like this for the church to look at the churches that are doing it differently than they are and throw stones.

You know, for us to look at churches that are opening right now and be like, what are you guys doing?

You're crazy, you're making a terrible mistake.

Likewise, for those churches to look at us who are waiting a little bit longer and say, like, you guys are just being fearful, what's going on?

Maybe we should make allowances for one another.

Maybe God is actually calling us all to do things in different ways, but it's united for the same purpose.

You know, we are a body, and body parts have different functions and operate in different ways, but they're all united under the head.

We have to have that mindset when it comes to other believers, that maybe, just maybe, God's calling them to do something specific.

Now, I'm not talking about things that are obviously off.

I'm not talking about things that are obviously against God's word and his will.

I'm talking about just differences in preference, differences when it when it's not a moral issue, when it's not a matter of clear right and wrong, but it's simply a matter of what God might be calling that person to do.

We have to bear with one another.

So those are my four takeaways from that section.

This is this is practical, really practical advice on how we could actually be unified and together like never before.

We make we make allowances for one another, we bear with one another, we clothe ourselves, we put on our uniform, uh, we're God's chosen people, and we see ourselves as God's chosen people.

And then there was a fourth one, and I forgot it.

We teach and admonish.

Thank you.

I'm so glad I have you here, Madison.

We teach and admonish, and we are teachable.

If those are things that that we're committed to, we're going to be united.

And when we get back together, we're just not going to be together in a room, but we're going to be together in spirit.

We're going to be together in our purpose, and we're going to see things happen.

We're going to see things happen in our nation, in our community, because when the church is united, things change.

Madison, before we wrap up, do you have any any thoughts, any takeaways?

Yeah, I mean, I have a select handful of friends that are more concerned with being compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient uh way more than I am.

And so the value of having them as uh people in my life that can teach and admonish me and encourage me, or uh just listen to me when I'm going on my rants, which are endless rants.

Um if you know who you are, thank you for listening to me.

Um see that but you know what's funny though is here you are, you're sort of like putting yourself down a little bit.

Yeah.

But one of the things it tells us too, I didn't mention it, was gratitude.

It's like that was one of the things it mentions that we should always be thankful.

And here you are expressing gratitude for people who teach and admonish you, which I think actually means that you are teachable and you do have a lot of gratitude.

And so everyone should just be like you.

No, yeah, but it couldn't happen without everyone.

Right.

Yeah, right.

So it's cool.

That's really cool.

That's really cool.

Man, I love God's word.

Uh, we say it a lot here in the office that God's word is both powerful, practical, and profound.

It's all of those things.

When we when we take time to read his word and study it, uh it's it's incredible the things that he'll show us.

And so I want to encourage all of us with a few things as we wrap up.

Number one, I want to thank you guys for just watching right now.

Because I love the fact that even though we can't be together physically, we're united right now.

Because if we're if our attention and our gaze is on Jesus right now, we are we are united, no doubt about it.

I want us to look forward, really look forward to when we can get back together, but don't think about it like us just getting back together physically.

Let's think about it like us getting back together, together in spirit, together in purpose.

Because when the church, when the church is together again, like really together, we're gonna be able to go places we've never been before.

This is not about us yearning to go backwards, it's about us yearning to do things and experience things that we've never been able to experience before.

That is that is God's heart.

I do want to wrap up, obviously, with with one other thing.

If you don't know Jesus, you know, I just want to say this, I'll be honest with you.

If you don't know Jesus, maybe maybe you don't know Jesus, you haven't decided to follow him because you've seen some of the fighting that's taking place in the church.

You've seen the division that's happened in the church.

And you're like, I don't, I don't even, I don't even want any part of that.

And look, I I would just want to say, on behalf of Jesus followers, I'm sorry about that.

You know, we're not perfect, we're figuring it out like everybody else, but I also want to say this.

Yes, there's differences, yes, there's division.

I have also seen more love, more compassion, more forgiveness, more grace, more mercy, more, more togetherness being part of a group of Jesus followers than I've experienced in in any other situation in life, whether it's working for the same company, being a part of the same the same team, you name it, I've never experienced the kind of togetherness that I have experienced in the church.

I want to see it go to levels it hasn't been before, but I've already experienced that to a tremendous degree.

And what I want you to know is that if you follow Jesus, if you give your life to Jesus, you will become part of a family.

A family that is filled with love and compassion, a family that desires to help you, to help you grow, to help you succeed.

And that family is made complete by the fact that we have the same head.

We have a God who loves us, who cares about us.

And if you don't know him, he knows you.

And he desperately wants you to know him.

He desperately wants you to know his love and his power and his purpose for your life.

And all that, all that you have to even do, like there's no formula, there's no crazy uh number of hoops you have to jump through, anything like that.

It's just it's a surrender in your heart and a recognition that you need him.

It's a prayer that says, Lord, I I need you.

Jesus, I don't fully understand you, but I believe in you.

And I want to give my life to you because I I need I need to be part of something bigger than myself.

There's nothing greater, nothing bigger than the movement of Jesus.

And if you want to be part of it, what I want you to know is that we'll we'll gladly have you.

And more importantly, God is eager to have you be part of what he's doing in this world because he loves you so much.

And so if that's something you're interested in talking about, we would love to have that conversation with you.

All you need to do is text the word ready to the number that you see on the screen right now, and someone's gonna give you a call.

In fact, Madison, you called someone this last week that text in.

How was that?

I got the voicemail.

You got the voicemail?

Keep at it.

I will.

Keep at it.

All right, well, sometimes you get voicemails.

But the point is, you called.

I did.

We'll call you.

And what we want to do is is if you want to let it go to voicemail, feel free.

But if you if you have questions, if you want to have a conversation, if you want to be able to help have someone help you kind of get your feet underneath you, we're here for that.

We're committed to that.

Text the word ready to the number that you see, and we'll help you get started in a relationship with Jesus.

Well, I'm gonna pray, and we're gonna worship just a little bit longer, and then at very end we're gonna have Lord's Supper.

Uh, and I guess I guess after that, we're gonna have our kids service.

So we have more to come, but all that said, let's let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much for desiring us to be unified.

I think back to your prayer that we get to read in John chapter 17, and it's so clear that that in your last moments on this earth you were thinking about us, not yourself.

John 17 · chapter mention

And you prayed specifically that we would be unified, that we would be together, that our unity would be so complete, it would be so perfect, that the world would not be able to ignore it.

God, I pray that you you work in our hearts to make us become committed to that, God, that we're not looking at just getting back together like we used to, but we're looking at getting more together, more united than we've ever been before.

And we pray, Lord, that you would use that commitment to unity to do things in this community and beyond that that no one's ever seen before.

Draw people to yourself, Lord, because you're good for all of us.

You you're the only hope that we really have.

We love you so much.

We worship you because you're you're worth worshiping.

It's just an honor to be with you, Lord.

It's an honor to be called your followers.

It's in your name, Jesus we pray.

Amen.