Unity

We get to step in tonight to our second week of family meetings. Last week, if you weren't here, we had our first week of family meetings, and we were just full of anticipation for every single week that we could actually speak to what's happening in culture. Sometimes when there's a lot of things swirling around, we need to just pause, look at each other, and say, okay, but what's God's saying? What's God's heart?

We're excited to have the second week where we can just come together, and Katie and I can act like we did five years ago and we started in the living room, and we get to do that even though we're in a bigger room than a living room. We're going to talk about culture for the next few weeks, and for some of us, we might go, why are we going to talk about some of these things in church? Let's just stick to the basic. Let's stick to the word, and we are going to stick to the word, and we're going to apply it to culture.

We really believe that culture is not something that believers are supposed to run away from or shield themselves from, but we believe as a church, we are to engage with culture and influence culture, and we believe that God has given us the authority to impact and influence society. But I think we're in a hard spot right now because we are not seeing society or culture, mirror, kingdom, culture, and I would say that that is at the feet of the church. As a church, the global church, it is our job to engage with culture and influence culture and show society what Jesus looks like. And so these next few weeks are our conversation around what that looks like, and how do we engage as kingdom people?

How do we not just be a part of what culture is doing and jump in the current of what culture is doing, but how do we change the current and affect culture? And so I want us to just look at that, and today we're going to be looking at the topic of unity, and how do we operate in unity? And I think that it gets really confusing because I think it's easy to think that God has called us to get uniformity with unity, really confused and complicated, because we go without uniformity, how can we have unity? And so we start building these alliances or whatever you want to call them based on topics or beliefs to unite us when in all reality it's not even necessarily what he's talking about.

He's not saying that we're all going to look the same. He's not saying that we all need to think the same or act the same or speak the same or arrive at the same conclusions. He's saying in the midst of disagreeing, in the midst of differences unity is possible, only through Jesus, only through Jesus. And so as the world is searching, because we were all built to be one, we were all built to operate in unity, so we all crave it as humans.

We're all searching for that. And so as we see the world trying to get their hands on unity however they can, the church has the answer and it's him. And we want to surround ourselves in that. We want to surround ourselves around Jesus.

And so today I want to talk a little bit about our differences within the church, because I think that that's unfortunately something that we haven't done well as a global church. We aren't very comfortable with differences, and we're really uncomfortable with disagreeing. And I think we all understand that as humans we gravitate towards people that think that the same as us, it's more comfortable that way. And I think we've allowed some of that comfort to rest on the church.

Like, okay, I'll just associate with people that think like me and act like me in these areas, and that's comfortable, but I just believe that there is a higher invitation and a higher call for us to be able to disagree well. And I know it's elementary, and some of you are like, is this really what we're talking about? And it is because even though it's elementary, I don't think that we're doing it very well yet. And so we can keep talking about the basics until they become basics for us, right?

And so I think that when we look at culture right now, our desire as believers is that culture would emulate him, that it would emulate love. But right now, culture is saying the opposite. Right now, our society is so polarized. It is so divided, like I haven't ever seen before, and I think a lot of us would agree with that.

It doesn't look patient. It doesn't look kind. It's very self-seeking. It's keeping a record of wrongs.

Hello. It's hanging on to those offenses. It's delighting and evil. It's not rejoicing in truth.

It's not protecting. It's not trusting. It's not hoping. It's not persevering.

Love is failing in our culture, and the church needs to pay attention. Because if culture is not emulating these kingdom values, I think the church needs to wake up. This is up to us. We're rejecting passivity.

We're going to lead courageously. What are the other ones? We're going to be fueled by the future. We're going to accept your responsibility.

100%. I'm a main woman. That's right. This is our invitation as a church.

As we're looking at this topic of disagreeing and getting more comfortable to disagree, I want us to lead by example. I want us to step into disagreeing well. Tonight, I want to do something a little outside the box, which that's a shocker for all of us. We didn't come as spectators, am I right?

You didn't come tonight and go through all the hoops of getting a ticket and wearing a mask and being hot. It's always hot in here. Now it's really hot with these masks. You didn't come to be a spectator.

We came to engage and to grow before we leave the doors each Sunday. We're going to do something kind of uncomfortable or maybe extremely uncomfortable. We're going to talk about the things that we might disagree on right here in this room at the 530 service. What are some of these polarizing topics?

Here we go. How do we just talk about them? How do we maybe even share where we stand on them? Some of you are squirming right now.

What are we going to do? I'll tell you. I'll kind of back up. What we're going to do is talk about a couple polarizing topics and we're going to all stand for where we would stand on that issue.

We're all going to do it. Buckle up. Here's a deal. At the 330 service, I was really nervous.

I was like, should we stand? Should we raise our hands? I was like, let's stand. Hopefully you guys are as radical as the 330.

I'm ready to do this. I thought it was going to be so awful, uncomfortable, but actually it was really fun. Those of you that were in there, we were laughing. It was great.

We're going to be okay. Everyone say I'll be okay. I do want to even know how that feels in the room. We're going to have to stand if it's like, okay, we're going to talk about politics at some point.

Are you Democrat, Republican, or are you other? What is that? It's like, wow, I don't know if I can do that. I want to just address.

We have to call our attention to that because we're so afraid of what that's going to mean. Culture is communicating to us that it is not safe to stay where we stand. If we say the wrong thing or ask the wrong question, it's not going to work very well for us. So how do we change that dynamic?

We have to start here. We always are saying that if we can't do it here, we're not going to be able to do it out there. This is our training ground, okay? And so we all know that we're going to list some topics.

Some of them are just going to be funny too. We're going to list some topics. And we are all mature enough in this room to know that if someone stands for something that we disagree with, there is no dishonor in our heart for them. But we are learning how to hold our brothers and sisters in our differences and in the ways that we disagree in honor and respect and love and knowing that maybe they stand for, I won't even list one of them because they will look like I'm biased, but they might stand for one specific thing and we better be mature enough as believers to know that that thing does not define who that person is.

But it's an opinion and are we all going to agree on everything? Absolutely not. You can't find one person in this room that's going to agree with you on everything. Josh and I definitely do not agree on everything.

I'm always right, but we definitely disagree. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But even in this community, even in this community, there is diversity represented.

Now I know that we have a predominantly white community and I believe that that's changing. I know that we have a predominantly young community and I believe that that's changing. But even in that demographic, there is a uniqueness of thought and perspective and opinion and we should honor each other in those spaces. And so we're going to start.

We're going to start as a church community learning how to hold each other in honor. And we might learn something new about our neighbor or our spouse or someone we're in community with. And then guess what? You can talk about it.

Because right now, there's a lot of us just not talking about anything. Because if I open my mouth, it's not going to go well for me and we are going to break that. We are going to have conversation. We're going to dialogue all through the lens of kingdom thinking.

Are we ready? Are we okay? Are you guys ready? They are a little more hesitant.

The 330 was like, what's the question? They were so ready. You guys are like, I'm in my seat belt still. Okay.

We're going to start off light. We're going to start off light. Okay. We're going to talk about phones.

These are the most polarizing topics of our day. Okay. Phones. The options are iPhone or Android.

Or Android or other. We make our opinions so clear. We're going to do this too. I'll sit.

Android or other. Stand up. We're going to do this fast too. Don't be shy.

Don't be shy. Look at them. Look at them. Okay.

iPhone. Stand up. Okay. All right.

Take a seat. Next one. We're going to talk about football. The options are Vikings, Packers or don't care.

I wonder which one. Vikings, Packers or don't care. All right. Vikings, take a stand.

All right. Packers. Whoa. Way more Packers.

All right. Don't care. Who's with me? All right.

There we go. Okay. This one is education. We're going to talk about education, public school, private school or homeschool.

This is actually a very polarizing topic. All right. We're going to start with public. Where are my public school people?

All right. Private. Private and homeschool. All right.

Couple of us hanging in there. Okay. This is when things get serious. We're talking about vaccines.

Are we warmed up? All right. Anti-vax, pro-vax or unsure about vax. And okay.

So I'll just say too. Yeah. Not about COVID. I know.

I almost didn't do that one just because of that. So all of these opinions are so nuanced. I don't know. I don't know.

I be kind of in this. Okay. Which one mostly do you resonate with? All we know is that you're not pro-vax.

Then you want tuberculosis. Stop it. Okay. Vaccines.

Okay. Where are my anti-vax? Where are you at? Okay.

Okay. Where are my pro-vax? All right. Here we go.

And where's my unsure about vaccination? Okay. That's good. That's good.

Okay. Here's a hard one. We're not quieter on that one. Okay.

Okay. Okay. This one's pretty serious. Worship volume here at Grove.

Too loud? Too quiet or just right? Okay. Too loud.

Let us know who feels like. Oh, Stephen! People from worship are standing. Okay.

Well, I got questions. Okay. Too quiet. Anyone think it's too quiet?

Okay. All right. All right. Just right.

I'd say it's about just right. Okay. So Stephen, where do you sit in the room? Okay.

Where's the quietest place in the room? Oh, yeah. Toes to the front. Quiet.

And then if it's, where's the loudest spot? Just position yourself perfectly with a speaker. Great. Okay.

Well, we solved a problem there. Okay. Politics. Are we ready?

Politics. Democrat. Republican or other. We're going to start with Republican.

Stand up. Don't be shy. All right. Democrat.

Stand up. Don't be shy. All right. Other.

Stand up. Don't be shy. Okay. That was right across the board.

I wonder how many people went to other just to not say the others. Last one. Last one. And I'm personally very, very, very passionate about this one.

So I'd really need you to agree with me on this. The topic is toilet paper. And I need to know if your opinion is that it should be over, under, or if it doesn't matter. I know.

Okay. So I agree with you. You said over. It is the only way, but I'm willing to listen to everyone else's opinions.

So who thinks it should be over? Thank you. Okay. Who thinks it should be?

I know I give commentary. But it's true. So under who thinks under. Okay.

Hold it down for under. Okay. And who says it just does not matter? Who says it just does not matter?

Wow. Good job. It's the fruit of the spirit. Appreciate that.

Oh, it's so good. So good. I, you know, I'm reminded of Jesus as we play that game and Jesus was probably picturing that moment when he was praying in the Garden of Vigasamini, right? It's just sweating blood like Lord.

I want them to be one. I'm just kidding. Um, how can I? He's like sweating blood and I'm actually making light of it.

I apologize for that. Um, but when we look at John 17th, actually, no, but seriously, Jesus is praying in John 17 and he's saying, Lord, make them one as you and I are one. And he's saying, I want this to be this is one of his last prayers before he goes to the cross, the longing of his heart. And he says that they're going to become one by the revelation of the knowledge of the gospel and the revelation of the knowledge of the fathers love for them.

And he's going, man, I want them to become unified in these things. And then Apostle Paul and all the apostles throughout all of the letters, they start writing these letters to churches that are struggling with disunity. And in most of the letters in the New Testament, they're addressing this topic of unity. So we could have opened up most of the epistles tonight.

We could have said, okay, this is the passage on unity for this epistle, this letter, but tonight we're going to the book of Ephesians. So turn into your Bibles to Ephesians 4. The question that we're answering is, how can we maintain unity? How can we actually live in unity as the people of God?

Ephesians 4, say amen when you get there? All right. What I want to do is I want to read from Ephesians 4 and then we're going to go really word by word through some of the passage and we're going to talk about unity. Okay.

So Ephesians 4, it says this. I therefore, and Paul is writing to, let me give some context, Paul is writing to the Church of Ephesus. And Ephesus is like a melting pot in the first century. And so there's people from all around the world, from different backgrounds of religion, different backgrounds of ethnicity.

There's so much happening in Ephesus because it's a port city. And there's a lot of diversity in the early Church of Ephesus because you've got simple prostitutes giving their lives to Jesus, entering into the Church of Ephesus. You've got Jews, you've got Gentiles, you've got people from different trades, different backgrounds, and they're all in the Church of Ephesus. And Paul, in the chapters of one through three, he's talking about the good news of Jesus.

And then four through six, he's saying this is how it plays out in everyday life. This is how you can apply the gospel to everyday life, to your Church relationships, to spiritual warfare and Ephesians 6. And so here we are, he's just talked about the truth. Now he's saying how then shall we live in chapter four.

Here we go. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to what you've been called with all humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love. Oh man. And eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

There is one body, one Spirit. Just as you were called to one hope that belongs to our call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is overall and through all and in all. And he continues. What I want to do is focus on verse three.

So look at verse three with me. It starts with the word eager. He's saying be eager or be diligent or labor over or study. So he's saying be diligent to do what?

To maintain or protect or keep. So he's saying I want you to be diligent to protect the unity of the Spirit. And then he goes on and he says this is how you protect the unity of the Spirit. It's through the bond of peace.

Through and that word bond in Greek is also the language that's used for ligaments where bone is connected through ligament, right? And it allows the bones to actually move and separate, but then they come back together, right? And so he's saying I want there to be ligament. I want you to experience unity in the Spirit through having ligaments of peace or safety.

How many of you know that the bond that the world offers becomes very brittle, right? We've got the unity of humanism in the bond of bitterness in the world. We've got the unity of suspicion in the bond of fear in the world. We've got the unity of pain in the bond of resentment.

As the people of God, we're called to have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How do you do that? How do you achieve unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace? He shows us and he bookends it in verses two and four.

So let's look at it. I want to start in verse two and I'll cut to the chase really quickly. The key here is how we carry ourselves in our conduct and what we believe to be true. If you want the bond of peace, if you want ligaments that allow for some flexibility in disagreements, if you want to have connection that actually is maintained and actually produces unity, you have to have conduct that looks like the kingdom and you have to have truth that acts as a foundation.

Look at verse two. Conduct in the Spirit. He lists them with humility, which is considering others more significant than yourselves. Gentleness, which means not being harsh or divisive.

Patience rather than being quick to anger. And long suffering love, which means bearing with one another when we feel misunderstood, not seen, when we feel like the other person is ignorant. And we have to actually educate them and we have to long suffer with them because they know that they know and we know that we know. And here we are and it's very difficult to actually live in these things when there's not perfect harmony.

So does he say, since you're all in harmony, practice patience. No, he's going, I know that in this church of Ephesus that there's this unity here. I know that there's some things to disagree on here. And that's why he's calling us to carry yourselves in the Spirit, which is with humility, gentleness, patience and long suffering.

We need that snapback reality. How many of you know that in the world, the maintaining of unity is not often the priority. I believe that when we look at, I want to just turn to James 3 really quick and just read from it. I think this is very interesting for us right now.

James 3, James is talking about the tongue. The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts great things. Listen to this. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is restless, evil, full of deadly poison.

With it we bless our Lord and Father. Hallelujah, amen. Praise God. And with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing my brothers, these things ought not to be so. The modern day tongue is actually the thumb. We've got thumb tongues typing on our phones. That was worse.

That was worse. I made that up today. The thumb tongue. I don't think I can take the thumb tongue.

Oh, we've got to give them a new way to say that, guys. I can't do it. It is a good point. So just stay with me.

All right. How often are we saying things that we wouldn't say in front of a person face to face? And yet our thumbs are literally setting the world on fire. Bringing forth dissension, bitterness, resentment.

We're playing in the enemy's playground of bonds. And it's creating a fragile bond in the body. I believe that God is calling us to carry ourselves with conduct in the spirit. Verse four.

Let's look at Ephesians four, verse four. So we have to have, if we have this conduct, you can have so much love. But then if you don't have truth, that's a problem. We have to agree on something.

We got to agree on something. Because there's a lot of things. How many of you guys know there's a lot of things to disagree on in 2020? There's a lot of things to be on the spectrum.

And the enemy has tried to divide our whole country, our nation and the church. And the Lord is saying, let's agree on something. And here we go. We Paul, he's right.

And he's going, this is what we have to agree on. If we're going to be in the Church of Jesus. This is what we have to have as our foundation. If we're going to stand together in the unity of the spirit.

And he starts listening. He says, one body, which means one global church, multi-denominational, multi-ethnic, multi-generational church, one body. One Holy Spirit. One hope, which is the return of Jesus.

We need him to make all the wrong things right. Amen? One Lord, one master. One faith in Jesus.

That's faith in Jesus. It's the one faith. One baptism, which is the picture of our old nature getting crucified and buried in the earth. And our new nature, because we're called to be in new creations, rising.

One God and Father. That God is a Father. And one omnipotent God, which means all powerful. He's above all, He's all powerful.

And lastly, one omnipresent God. In other words, He's in all and through all that all things are from Him and to Him. It's Jesus. He is a manual God with us.

We have to agree on these things. If we can't agree on these things, we will not have the unity of the spirit. We have to have the foundation that God created all things. There's one God.

That sin is a problem. Sin needs a Savior. Jesus. Jesus died on the cross and then came up out of the grave victorious over death and sin.

And that He's returning. Jesus is on the way back. There's a man riding a white horse on the clouds. There's a day coming and I believe it's not figurative.

There's a day coming. Where Jerusalem will be the epicenter of government in the world, in the new heavens and the new earth. And Jesus is going to be on the throne, reigning. More than ever right now, we need some things to agree on.

And these are the foundational truths that we can agree on. We might not think the same way. There's a lot of secondary things. There's a lot of experiences.

There's a lot of pain. And the people of God are actually going to carry the empathy of God. The patience of God. The gentleness of God.

How many of you know when there's injustice that happens and there's pain that's present? There's gentleness that's required from the people of God. We get to step in through the conduct of the Holy Spirit with the foundation of the truth. And it's actually going to be the bond that keeps us connected.

We want to stay unified and this is our way forward. And we feel such conviction about as we talk about the other things that we're going to follow these weeks. That it's so important to get one main thing. That there's the main thing that we carry ourselves as a people of God with honor.

And that we carry ourselves with an understanding of there is truth. It is not subjective. There is truth. And we get to stand on that as the family of God.

Yes, come on. The word says that they will know that we are Christians. They will know that we follow Jesus because of our love for each other. The way that we treat each other as brothers and sisters in Jesus.

They will look over the fence so to speak. They will look over and see the way that we love each other and go, that is completely other than. I've never seen love like that before. I've never seen unity like that before.

I know those two people, they totally disagree on this hot button topic and look at the way they lay down their life for each other. That is what the world is looking for and that's our job. Our job to reveal Jesus. All creation is groaning for us to engage revealing what he's like.

And so I just want to invite us. We're shifting. You guys can come up. I want to remind us who we are specifically grove as a community.

One of our greatest cultures that we call them. Things that we are known for within this body are honor and hunger. The way that we honor each other and the way that we hunger for Jesus. You guys might remember if you were here, Dan Muller was here a few years ago.

He gave us a word as a community and he said, I have never, he travels all around the world, sees all different churches all the time. He said, I have never seen a church that is operating in such unity in my life. It really struck us because I wouldn't say that we are talking about unity a lot. It just hasn't been one of the main things we've talked about.

What does he mean by unity? He just said, the way that you are like-minded as a people. That you're single and you're focused the way you're going after him. I'm like, yes, he tapped into seeing our culture of honor, the way that we prefer one another, consider each other more significant than ourselves and championing each other.

He perceived our hunger. Hunger is marked by humility. Teachability. Saying, I have not arrived.

I can't exhaust the depths of who Jesus is. I always have more to learn. So I'm quick to listen, slow to speak. I'm slow to become angry.

And I'm always an active listener seeking to understand and the best question-asker. That is hunger. Hunger to lean in. Hunger to learn and to listen.

That's who we are. And we're not talking about this tonight because we've seen a bunch of this division at Grove Church. That's not a problem. We haven't even seen it in our people.

But culture, the current of culture, is so strong that we need to address it before it infiltrates our own body. And so this is us standing as gatekeepers right now. This is us standing at the gate saying, no, no, no. Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This is who we are. This is what we rally around. We rally around the man, Jesus. And these secondary issues will never divide us.

And that is our stake in the ground as a community. And so what we want to do is, I know that that's a corporate word, but I want to make it personal too. And we have just a couple of minutes, but we're going to take a few minutes to just process on our own before we leave the doors and forget everything we talked about tonight. I just want to invite us to each of us individually to invite Holy Spirit to convict us of our righteousness.

That's what he does. He reminds us, this is who you are. That's not who you are. And I want to invite him to bring conviction to places where we have not been true to who we are in these areas of engaging in disagreements.

When our conversations have been emulated through the Spirit, which we host and hold in our own frame. I want to invite him to remind me who I am and to call me higher. And I want to give you guys this space to do that too. So I'm going to pray and then we'll give us a couple minutes before we close.

So Jesus, we love you. We just say it again. You're the reason that we come here. You're the one we arrange and orient our whole lives around.

Jesus, you are the worthy one. We invite you, Holy Spirit, to convict us of our righteousness. What you've bought and paid for in our conduct, in the way we have conversations, in the way that we disagree. Thank you for sanctifying our hearts.

We love you God. Amen.