SPEAKER_00: Let me read a confession of faith that it revolves around what we believe about the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that God has spoken and continues to speak in and through Scripture, the only infallible and sufficiently clear rule and authority for Christian faith, thought, and life.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture is God's inspired and illuminating word in the words of his servants, the prophets and apostles, a gracious self-communication of God's own light and life, a means of grace for growing in knowledge and holiness.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it commands, trusted in all that it promises, and revered in all that it reveals.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we stand out of reverence for God's word if you're able, if you're able.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.
SPEAKER_00: It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.
SPEAKER_00: For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: One other scripture while we are standing here.
SPEAKER_00: Um Romans 15, 5 to 7.
SPEAKER_00: May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: But the word of our God will stand forever.
SPEAKER_01: The word of our God, the word of our God just stand for Jesus, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: We see a creation.
SPEAKER_00: Creation creates all kinds of things for us to look at and say, either to ourselves or somebody else that's with us.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_00: We talk about maybe clothing, especially that women might say, well, that's a beautiful dress, you know, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: When I think of exclamation, I tell you I have to go back to a movie a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: Tom Cruise was like 18, I think.
SPEAKER_00: A movie with George C.
SPEAKER_00: Scott, Sean Penn.
SPEAKER_00: Can't think of who else.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, Sean Penn.
SPEAKER_00: I said Sean Penn.
SPEAKER_00: And they were in a military academy, and the cadets had risen up to take over the military academy, and they bust through the door, and Tom Cruise is on this machine gun using it and saying, It's beautiful, man, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And I was just saying, you know, moving just one line.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, I were looking at some old clips of this is really dating me and Betsy, Carol Burnett last night.
SPEAKER_00: And so I said, I was like, I remember all these skits when I was a child.
SPEAKER_00: And they bring back, you know, some nostalgia.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know why I say that, but that's what I say about Tom Cruise in that movie.
SPEAKER_00: But um, I have a friend who, uh cradle friend, I mean, all the way through actually seminary, we were college roommates for a year.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he really likes to use that word beautiful about things he sees.
SPEAKER_00: He does it really well.
SPEAKER_00: He's usually seeing uh examples of the gospel somewhere, and a lot of times he'll point like this, say, that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, parents, I'm gonna keep it up here in a high level, just so you follow along here.
SPEAKER_00: So, my nephew, as many of you know, lives an alternate lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and he's married and lives in New York.
SPEAKER_00: And as the time, you know, through um coming out about his uh life and all, uh, he dated.
SPEAKER_00: And um my sister, his mother, and my brother-in-law, uh, I will still tell people in those situations to contact my sister, brother-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: I I've never really seen hardly anyone.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's been some.
SPEAKER_00: I put them up though, as an example of how to handle that with the gospel and with love.
SPEAKER_00: And uh they they they were they gave and they gave and they gave and they loved and they loved and they loved, still do.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but they drew a biblical line.
SPEAKER_00: There came a point where they had to draw a biblical line, they were cut off.
SPEAKER_00: But in the midst of that kind of post-college years, their son was worshiping with them.
SPEAKER_00: You got a picture, you know, first Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, with fourth, he was a fourth generation there, and um, he's got his partner with him, his friend.
SPEAKER_00: And uh my sister, you know, the probably fourth or fifth row, like where they normally sit.
SPEAKER_00: My friend was five or six rows, pews behind them, and all he did after the service was walk straight up to my sister and say, That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: What you showed me in that service is what he meant, because that's all he said was that's beautiful, and walked away.
SPEAKER_00: But he was saying, You showed me the gospel in the midst of a worship service.
SPEAKER_00: That was beautiful to him, and is to us.
SPEAKER_00: Unity is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: In verse one, it says, Behold, how good and pleasant, in other words, how uh absolutely wonderful it is, how absolutely beautiful unity is.
SPEAKER_00: Um obviously you know where I'm going with that when it comes to church unity, but church unity is a certain picture, it's a picture to it's a picture of the person sitting next to you, but it's a picture to the world of something that is attractive.
SPEAKER_00: They they see this uh even in their darkness.
SPEAKER_00: I think there has to be a sense where it's uh noticeably attractive, and that it's something that draws people in.
SPEAKER_00: Beauty draws people in, unity draws people in.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if someone were here visiting, we got a few people I know visiting, and you're looking for a church, I'll tell you what you probably already know if you're looking around, what you were probably looking for in a church.
SPEAKER_00: And I say this to our membership as encouragement, but you want to look first and foremost at the worship.
SPEAKER_00: You want to see, you want to hear the word of God being preached.
SPEAKER_00: Is it being preached?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a high high view like we just read in that confession about scripture?
SPEAKER_00: Do they really believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Uh does the man, the preacher, take you through verses of the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: And then are the people engaged in that?
SPEAKER_00: Are they engaged in the singing?
SPEAKER_00: And when the person standing up here prays, are they are they praying with him?
SPEAKER_00: Uh are the people singing?
SPEAKER_00: Lots of and they'll say, the health of you can really determine the health of a church by looking to see if the men sing.
SPEAKER_00: Women typically will sing more than men.
SPEAKER_00: But boy, and I was standing here, and I knew I was going to use that illustration, thinking about it, and I heard, I really did.
SPEAKER_00: I could hear the voices of men singing in this church.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, up there too, when people are top five looking for a church, they want to know about the nursery.
SPEAKER_00: They want to know if the nursery's clean, they want to know if it's uh uh uh, you know, hospital, what's the word?
SPEAKER_00: That it's uh it's uh inviting, uh, that it's safe.
SPEAKER_00: Um another one is you want to find out if the church is outward.
SPEAKER_00: And because if they're not outward, they're very inward, they're grown inward.
SPEAKER_00: And so the way you look at that when you're determined to decide about a church, you want to say do you hear about missions?
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear about evangelism?
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear about the fact that they love the city?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you come and you say, Well, I heard they they really have a passion for Birmingham, Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: Um, another thing to look for is spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00: When you look around and you want to ask, maybe somebody's invited you and you want to ask that friend of yours, are you growing spiritually?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, is this a place where you thrive?
SPEAKER_00: And then you might ask somebody you trust too, do you think I could thrive here?
SPEAKER_00: It's a great deeper question to ask a member of a church you're visiting.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think I could grow here?
SPEAKER_00: And how do you think I could grow?
SPEAKER_00: What are the means by which y'all do that?
SPEAKER_00: So again, probably know where I'm going on that is you want to look for a church that is unified.
SPEAKER_00: Are they one?
SPEAKER_00: Do they think alike?
SPEAKER_00: Are they committed to the same things to which they really need to be committed?
SPEAKER_00: The things that are most important.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you want to know if they really love one another.
SPEAKER_00: So it's one thing for the preacher to stand up here and say, uh, our church really loves one another, which I believe.
SPEAKER_00: But it's something else when people see that you really do love one another.
SPEAKER_00: You look forward to getting here, you look forward to seeing one another.
SPEAKER_00: You you hasten an opportunity to express that love when somebody's down and out or sad.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's real unity.
SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of division.
SPEAKER_00: Um, well, you know that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just beaten to our heads all the time, especially since the pandemic.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just been in the country, but we've also seen in the church, sadly, even from the speaking of the pandemic, there was a lot of division that came out of that.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people showed their true colors, did they not?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't know that about that person, or they were that passionate about that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, comedians, comedians, not all of them, but many, you know, that's what's funny, is they they really capture something that you know is right, you know that's true, and maybe they're laughing at themselves or they're making us all laugh at our laugh at ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jim Gaffkin's a kind of a favorite comedian for me.
SPEAKER_00: He said this about the pandemic.
SPEAKER_00: The biggest reveal of the pandemic pandemic was how many crazy people there are.
SPEAKER_00: That was a bit of a surprise.
SPEAKER_00: We all knew there were some unibombers out there, but nobody thought there were so many, or that we were related to a couple of them.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody had a relative or a friend that came out bonkers.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives this example.
SPEAKER_00: I know of the bonkers.
SPEAKER_00: I no longer believe in reality.
SPEAKER_00: It was like a gender reveal for insanity.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is no longer true.
SPEAKER_00: That's out of the words of Gaffigan.
SPEAKER_00: That's why unity, I mean, you know, you think about all this talk about division, and we get tired of it, and we need to pray for it.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for unity.
SPEAKER_00: But it's like the psalmist, you know, as I've just read, has some um language maybe in our culture we're not as used to.
SPEAKER_00: But we might think of after a long hot day when we worked in the yard, or maybe after some football practice, basketball, baseball practice, and we're, you know, that the water coming over our head and down our necks.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a place I would love one day if we if the church wants to, is to go on a mission trip to uh what's called Isaiah 55 in Reynosa, Mexico.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I love that place, a lot of reasons, I've been with it for probably 25 years now.
SPEAKER_00: But your family can go.
SPEAKER_00: It is across the border, but you can uh six to seven years old and up.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we can you can go in families, the youth group can go as a group too.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you work really, really hard.
SPEAKER_00: And when you get back about 4, 4:30 in the afternoon, they have uh guacamole and chips and limeade, and it's like, oh the adults especially will sit down, you know, just say, what a great day.
SPEAKER_00: The youth are usually playing, and uh, I don't know, maybe it's the smell of a good food, your favorite food.
SPEAKER_00: Um custard over blueberries would be one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_00: And you look at something like custard, let me custard.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, custard is like life is good, you know.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way unity is meant.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way the psalmist wants us, and the Holy Spirit would like for us to look at unity.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful, it is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: It's good three things.
SPEAKER_00: It's good and pleasant, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's good and pleasant, it's God given.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's also God commanded.
SPEAKER_00: All three.
SPEAKER_00: It's good, it's wonderful, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: He gives it to us, but he also expects it from us.
SPEAKER_00: Again, verse one, when he says, Behold, how good and pleasant it is.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if somebody says, Well, I I don't I'm really sure about that, I don't know if it's really good and well, you say, Well, if only if only God had said it, then that would be enough for us, right?
SPEAKER_00: God says it's good.
SPEAKER_00: God says it's precious and pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: And he even uses this word, behold.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, you know this is about to be an announcement.
SPEAKER_00: Behold.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the angels with the shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not, behold, I bring you good news, great tidings.
SPEAKER_00: The idea here is you're not gonna believe this.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you something awesome about unity.
SPEAKER_00: It's good and it's pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: And y'all coming from the uh the mouth of David, yeah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but he's still David, a man who had known so much dissension in his own life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, really, since maybe before he was anointed or to be, you know, one day would be the king.
SPEAKER_00: He's a child with all those brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but even, you know, Saul himself tried to kill him, throwing a javelin at him basically after dinner one night, uh, chasing him through mountains and caves, you know, treating him like an animal.
SPEAKER_00: Even when he was king, there was a mutiny, there was a coup.
SPEAKER_00: His own son led a coup against him.
SPEAKER_00: So David knew something about how precious unity is when he writes this.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't take unity for granted, which is part of our application this morning, certainly.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to take unity for granted.
SPEAKER_00: And also, by way of application, let me just say this, and somewhat of an aside, but yet it might be a good exercise for you.
SPEAKER_00: God's word, the Psalms do this a lot, actually.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of self-reflection in the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: So, not only self-reflection, self-assessment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I gotta look at that and go, okay, Holy Spirit, please reveal to me.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, ask the Holy Spirit, or maybe an exercise when you go home, but say, um, am I a unity builder?
SPEAKER_00: Or am I unity destroyer?
SPEAKER_00: That's a strong word I know, but let's just use those words.
SPEAKER_00: Am I one who builds up unity?
SPEAKER_00: Or am I one who tears down unity?
SPEAKER_00: And then in what ways do I do that?
SPEAKER_00: I've brainstormed, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So I've got 10 and 10.
SPEAKER_00: We'll go quickly, but 10 ways that you promote unity.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna ask ourselves, am I, do I do that?
SPEAKER_00: You know, my am I part prayer, prayer would be right up there at the top, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, for starters, praying for unity brings unity.
SPEAKER_00: God answers that.
SPEAKER_00: But also praying for others and telling them that that's unifying.
SPEAKER_00: I prayed for you, which really leaves a second, a second way to bring about unity is encouragement to other people.
SPEAKER_00: And real encouragement means that I'm gonna weep with the person who weeps, I'm gonna rejoice with the person who rejoices.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a unified church right there, because we care about each other.
SPEAKER_00: So we talk up a third way, talk up unity.
SPEAKER_00: When you say it, tell a person.
SPEAKER_00: So that's really good.
SPEAKER_00: I I need to be more like you.
SPEAKER_00: You you're very unifying.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the opposite being, or the opposite would be a good thing to do, is but fourthly, discourage unity, disunity, discourage disunity.
SPEAKER_00: When you call it out.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when you see it, I mean, we we ought to be, we we want to be bold about a lot of things.
SPEAKER_00: This is one area that we could improve in our boldness to say to somebody, hey, wait, stop.
SPEAKER_00: You're at lunch.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really want to do that at lunch today.
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's not unifying.
SPEAKER_00: So call it out, be bold about it.
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation is a one let's put these together.
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation and restoration.
SPEAKER_00: You all may think back on what was the greatest act of reconciliation in your life.
SPEAKER_00: A friend, spouse, father, mother, uh, somebody in the church, but they maybe they came to you, maybe you went to them.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe they came to you and said, you know, years ago.
SPEAKER_00: They may say that's years ago I hurt you.
SPEAKER_00: Or I hurt your spouse, and I'm not like that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to ask you to forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: Some sometimes, you know, we need to go back to some college friends and say, you know, hey, I I wasn't, I I was a different person then.
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: So I'd like to um I'd like to talk to you about what I may have done to you.
SPEAKER_00: Seeking counsel with somebody is a good way to seek recognition um unity.
SPEAKER_00: Like if I'm at odds with somebody, you always think, well, I'll go by myself or I'll go with my spouse or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, to go with somebody and say, hey, can we have a third party and just sit down?
SPEAKER_00: That brings unity.
SPEAKER_00: Confession of sin is unifying.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, when we confessed our sins a moment ago in unison, that's unity.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, where what other body are you gonna have in the next seven days where you're gonna sit down and read together confession of sin?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's really letting yourself out there and showing I want to be unified and then appreciate it tenthly.
SPEAKER_00: So again, it's just some brainstorming here on my part, but just not to take it for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Josh came up to pray, he was vulnerable, you know, and he said, Here's where I'm struggling, which is amazing we didn't even connect earlier about uh the fact of unity and how we might discourage unity in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: But so when I when I give you my next list of ten, it's a window into this heart right here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I know.
SPEAKER_00: So I would even put it, maybe that is one of my soapboxes, but um gossip is a unity destroyer.
SPEAKER_00: Uh talking about things you just don't really know about, talking about things you only heard secondhand, third hand, fourth hand, I heard this, you know, uh lying uh is a unity destroyer when you bear false witness, uh, which leads into a word, I just was gonna use the word shifty.
SPEAKER_00: But what I really mean by that is when you're you're shifting truth, you know, or shifting the way something really happened because you want to put yourself in a better light.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm talking about a window into my heart here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just preaching to myself, but I'm just saying that's that is um a unity destroyer.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I learned the word persnickety about eight or nine years ago when somebody said I was persnickety.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I looked it up.
SPEAKER_00: Um, meticulous, nitpicky, fussy.
SPEAKER_00: I really was they were joking with me.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I had I had this incredible blessing, I know, um, that an older man in our church gave me a car, uh, a new car in 2012.
SPEAKER_00: And I was proud of that car, and I love the car.
SPEAKER_00: And the man left it to me saying to me, he was for snickety, uh, don't eat in the car, don't drink in the car, put the seats down the back, put a blanket there.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know me still, I still have this in my new other new car.
SPEAKER_00: But this is um my car I'm driving now.
SPEAKER_00: But the uh, so it got to be a joke at Trinity and Montgomery.
SPEAKER_00: And so on Wednesday nights, a lot of times when people give announcements, they would make fun of me about my car and that you couldn't eat in it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, anyway, we went on a mission, we went to Isaiah 55, we took three cars up to Atlanta Airport and parked them.
SPEAKER_00: And uh people that rode with me, of course, had nothing to drink, nothing to eat.
SPEAKER_00: And um we went to Mexico for seven or eight days, and when we came back, there were three cars.
SPEAKER_00: My car was the only car of the three, and the only car in the entire parking lot that a flock of birds had decided to use my car.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, it was just like it was the only thing there to do that upon.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was like it covered the car.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't hear, I never heard then of that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: For snickety.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not good for unity.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, taking a much stronger and deeper adultery.
SPEAKER_00: We know that, adultery, affairs, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that sounds but it is, it's true, right?
SPEAKER_00: But let's talk about what brings it to a point of an affair.
SPEAKER_00: That's that brings disunity in a marriage when you're flirting, bringing something to you say, Well, I'm just gonna take it up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: I'm only gonna let it go this far.
SPEAKER_00: No, you never you don't even begin to think that.
SPEAKER_00: You don't take it too.
SPEAKER_00: A line or something, it's very it'll ruin a marriage, it will come between you.
SPEAKER_00: Pornography is another uh unity destroyer within the home.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, let me just go through quick slander, envy, jealousy, all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Not being a trustworthy person.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if somebody says to you that, you know, I didn't really think I could trust you, well, you're put in a position at that point that you're not really bringing unity into the situation.
SPEAKER_00: And so anger is another one, uh, holding a grudge.
SPEAKER_00: So that makes it, we're we're bitter.
SPEAKER_00: All right, thanks for putting up with that list.
SPEAKER_00: It's 20 things, but let's move on.
SPEAKER_00: The outline is long, but it's I'm gonna go through a lot of it quickly.
SPEAKER_00: But the reasons I want to be a unity seeker is number one, first and foremost, because he reconciled me to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he took the initiative.
SPEAKER_00: He came after me.
SPEAKER_00: God shows his love in this that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: I won't read all the scriptures that are here for us, but 2 Corinthians 5, 18 to 20, where he through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Let me recover reading that, keep reading that one.
SPEAKER_00: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, so what a great assurance of pardon there, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_00: We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_00: And then secondly, he recreated us for, you know, we're created for unity, but then our sin nature, we uh we we have to be recreated for unity.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really what I read from Romans 15 earlier.
SPEAKER_00: You know, whenever you're at odds and there's not unity, it for as a Christian, it'll just drive you crazy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, keep you up at night, make your palms sweat, or just you have something nervous in your stomach, you think, why am I nervous?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm not right with that person.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: What if you were Yoda and Syndechy and they, you know, you went throughout history if you know about them in Philippians when Paul said that these two women were quarreling and that the church needs to come around them and reconcile them to one another.
SPEAKER_00: But what if your name was written in a book of the Bible forever that you didn't get along with somebody in the church?
SPEAKER_00: So obviously, Paul wants us reconciling.
SPEAKER_00: We're recreated for that.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus' desire for the bride, his prayer in John 17.
SPEAKER_00: I am and I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this, that they may be one even as we are one.
SPEAKER_00: That's hard to say, except for the fact Jesus said it.
SPEAKER_00: If he hadn't said it, how could we that the fact that my relationship to you and your relationship to me is a microcosm picture of the unity that exists in the Trinity?
SPEAKER_00: That's how we already are.
SPEAKER_00: We're already there.
SPEAKER_00: We just need to act like it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we need to we need to treat people like that.
SPEAKER_00: The example of the early church, we've been in Acts for a year almost, and you know, they devoted themselves in Acts 2 to the apostles' teaching.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, this was it right here: the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is what unified them, the church, this is what unifies the church today.
SPEAKER_00: This is what unifies Cahaba Park Church.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the ministers, it's not the elders, it's not the deacons, it's not someone's opinion.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we may give a lot of opinions in Sunday school or small group Bible studies or communion group, but your opinion is not what unifies us unless it's based on this.
SPEAKER_00: This is what unifies us.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's that was true in the apostles' teaching.
SPEAKER_00: That's a reason that's first and foremost.
SPEAKER_00: Their fellowship with one another, they shared with one another, they took care of one another, breaking bread, communion, but also bringing bread in their homes, their fellowship with one another, the prayers, worship, singing, all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: And then Psalm 133, where we are now, seek what's pleasing.
SPEAKER_00: This unity is not only a gift from God, it is a lavish gift of God.
SPEAKER_00: So this language that seems a little bit weird, a little strange, is God's way of saying, This is how much I'm gonna lavish on you something I love, which is unity, the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes.
SPEAKER_00: And where we might get a clear picture for us, not necessarily a modern-day example, but Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we say, well, he um he prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
SPEAKER_00: He anoints my head with oil, my cup overflows.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's grace and his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: He sits you down.
SPEAKER_00: It's like sitting you down at a table with uh with white clothing tablecloth and nice silver and uh china in the midst of uh in the woods where there's these enemies of yours that are gnarling and they're they're barking and they they hate you, and yet you're sitting down at a fine dinner because God has prepared a table for you in the midst of your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: And know you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Your cup's overflowing.
SPEAKER_00: This is how much, this is so beautiful, precious, overflowing.
SPEAKER_00: The path of it is from above.
SPEAKER_00: Our theology is from above.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard that lingo?
SPEAKER_00: Our theology is from above.
SPEAKER_00: We start with God, we end with God.
SPEAKER_00: Um there are theologies that are from below, and they're not evil, they're just they're different.
SPEAKER_00: We believe in a theology from above.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why, by the way, theology is important.
SPEAKER_00: Theology matters in our lives for this very reason.
SPEAKER_00: And then the scope of it is Mount Hermon, this grand mountain, Zion, not so big, you know, more like a hill.
SPEAKER_00: So you've got this great and small.
SPEAKER_00: God will give to the greatest person in this room, the least person in this room, the richest person, the poorest, the most athletic, the least athletic.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Unity is for you.
SPEAKER_00: Unity is for me.
SPEAKER_00: He's given it to us as a gift.
SPEAKER_00: And only God, only God can grant it.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice thirdly, as we mentioned earlier, it is a command from God that we be unified.
SPEAKER_00: And the one reason we know the beauty of that is the fact of his promises that are made.
SPEAKER_00: Like, uh, look at the outline: Christ will build his church.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_00: God the Father, by the way, does, will, has answered the prayer of his son in John 17.
SPEAKER_00: And he's continuing to, he hadn't done it ultimately yet, but he will.
SPEAKER_00: The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.
SPEAKER_00: The verse that follows that I and them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, and that the world may know that you sent me and loved me even as you loved me.
SPEAKER_00: Love them even as you love me.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you as much as he loves a son.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's an infinite, unfathomable love.
SPEAKER_00: We'll spend an eternity just in awe of how much he's loved us.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to embrace it daily.
SPEAKER_00: We need to embrace it today.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just keep it off.
SPEAKER_00: Don't say, Well, I'll get to his love one day.
SPEAKER_00: Breathe it in, breathe it in.
SPEAKER_00: And then this command really is life forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: Um, for the Lord, the second part of verse three, for there the Lord has commanded the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_00: He's commanded a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Life forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: Life forever in a place where there's no discord whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: Ever again.
SPEAKER_00: This part of your question is for, you know, we've broadened those questions in the bulletin to be, yeah, with the children, mom and dad with the children, but also community groups.
SPEAKER_00: But then you can take it home, just sit down with it this week and think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's one of the questions that talks about what is it like in heaven in re in relation to this passage in this sermon, it's unity forever.
SPEAKER_00: There's no stress, there's no strife, there's no tension, no dissension, no mention, no discord, no riots, there's no protests.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing to protest in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: No protests, no terror attacks.
SPEAKER_00: Never looking over your shoulder out of fear that somebody's gonna drive their car down the fast, fast down the road.
SPEAKER_00: Ever, ever, never.
SPEAKER_00: You will never be in a situation where you are afraid that something might happen today that changes my life forever.
SPEAKER_00: That fear is gone forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: So closing, beginning to close anyway, two things.
SPEAKER_00: One is if you are an unbeliever, and hopefully you kind of sense that in your own heart, be honest, the Holy Spirit working in your life, even through hymns and prayers and the people around you sense, you know, I don't know if I'm a believer or not.
SPEAKER_00: Um you can ask yourself about peace.
SPEAKER_00: The reason we know you don't have peace, those are those of us who love you very much as Christians know, because we've been there.
SPEAKER_00: We know exactly what you feel like.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the reason you don't have peace, real peace, is that you are at enmity with God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you don't want to admit it, I know, but it's true.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're at war.
SPEAKER_00: And it's time to put the weapons down, it's probably lay it all aside.
SPEAKER_00: You're at war with him.
SPEAKER_00: And the beauty is that he has come after you.
SPEAKER_00: As we read Romans 5, 8 a minute ago.
SPEAKER_00: God shows his love for you, and that while you are a sinner, while you're at enmity with him, even when you were an enemy, Christ died for you.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never get over that.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never be able to give enough to earn that.
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's a gift from him.
SPEAKER_00: While you are just a thought in God's mind in eternity, Christ died for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so he brings out of enmity and discord, he brings unity.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine those of you who have not had unity with God, and you're being offered this morning an opportunity to have unity with God, unity with your creator, your maker.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Ephesians 2.15, he is your peace.
SPEAKER_00: You're looking for peace?
SPEAKER_00: It's right in front of you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: He is your peace.
SPEAKER_00: And then secondly, um, that doesn't mean that we as Christians aren't struggling sometimes with peace.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to find peace, especially living, of course, in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: It's tough.
SPEAKER_00: But we need to be reminded that our peace is with God and our peace that we can have in our own hearts is because of what he's done for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So whatever, we have probably 150, 200 different reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Person doesn't have peace for some reason.
SPEAKER_00: He died for that.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the sin, in a sense, as much as, well, much sin, but it but the fact that he's died for whatever's causing you pain.
SPEAKER_00: He died to reconcile this world to himself.
SPEAKER_00: I I gave you that list of 10 things earlier, and these are some things that sometimes cause us not to have peace in our lives, like gossip, lying, shiftiness, persnickety, adultery, slander, envy, jealousy, not being a trustworthy person, anger, holding a grudge.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's just ten.
SPEAKER_00: All of that was put on him.
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna do it again tomorrow, and he's still gonna have covered it with blood.
SPEAKER_00: He's covered it with himself, and he's taken it.
SPEAKER_00: So he took all that, whatever you're you may have 20 or 30 things to list there.
SPEAKER_00: He he took all that list on himself and took the wrath of God for it, and then gave you his perfection.
SPEAKER_00: It's if you never gossiped and never lied and were never shifty and never worried about anything.
SPEAKER_00: He just gave it to you, and that's the way he sees you.
SPEAKER_00: He sees you in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So don't ever take it for granted.
SPEAKER_00: That's one thing.
SPEAKER_00: And then just this quote you know, may each of us do everything within our power to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
SPEAKER_00: This table, you can't get much clearer than this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we get it every week.
SPEAKER_00: Every week we have a picture before us, and we get to not only have a picture, but we get to participate in peace.
SPEAKER_00: It is um, it's almost like saying we're eating and drinking peace.
SPEAKER_00: We have the act of coming down.
SPEAKER_00: We have the act, actually, when we do, and it's good not everybody has to come down, but when you do and you see your friends and brothers and sisters in Christ coming down, got a little smile on your face, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you pray for them as they come down.
SPEAKER_00: It's all part of the peace, it's all part of the unity.
SPEAKER_00: And so the table is for those who have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, okay, and Him alone.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, uh thank you so much for your word.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you particularly this morning for the Psalms and specifically Psalm 133, for your servant David, who was a man after your own heart, and you called him that.
SPEAKER_00: You called him your friend, and we know many of his sins, God.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to take the log out of our own eye and put it at the foot of the cross and come and enjoy our peace we have with you first and foremost.
SPEAKER_00: And then, Father, we ask you to let us celebrate the peace we have with one another, and may we enjoy peace within.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.