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At Your Best | Unity In An Age of Division · Bayside Davis Podcast

0:09
SPEAKER_00: Today, we're going to talk about unity in a culture of division.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: You know what's funny about our culture today that there's so much said and unsaid messages around division.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy for us as Christians, as followers of Jesus, to get caught up in the divisive nature of our cultural moment rather than filtering the divisive nature of our cultural moment through the lens of what the scripture teaches.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: In God's family, division is antithetical to our faith.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Division is not the way of Jesus.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is that we live in a culture that is brimming with messages that are spoken and unspoken around this reality called division.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: People divide over everything.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's Sunday, it's NFL in America.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: People are dividing over football today.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: People divide over politics every single day.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: Some of us in this room, we're divided over air conditioning temperature.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Church is too cold, church is too hot, my house is too hot, my roommates like it too hot, my roommates like it too cold.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Some of us we're divided over media sources.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: That's a big deal in our culture.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, you watch this, wow, I know what you lean, or you watch this, I know where you lean, or like we hate on people because of their media sources.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, we've been in Christianity so long, we've seen so much division over secondary issues.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Not primary issues, secondary issues.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Things that should not divide the people of Jesus.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Some of us who have lived in other cultures, we're divided over shoes in the house or not shoes in the house.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: I lived in Hawaii.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: No shoes in the house.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: It's disgusting.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Have you studied and researched the science behind what's on your feet?
2:24
SPEAKER_00: It is disgusting.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: No shoes in the house.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Can I get a witness?
2:32
SPEAKER_00: You might not know this if you're 40 plus, but there's a lot of debate and division over fast fashion versus vintage in our culture.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you buy a new outfit every week, and some of you, you buy an old outfit every week.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Same price.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: The vintage actually is probably a little more.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: We find reasons not to like people.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: We find reasons to distance ourselves from certain people.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: We find every reason possible to be divided in a culture of division.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: But I want to talk through this as followers of Jesus because we can't let our cultural narratives and moments decide and drive and inform us on how we're to live.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: We are to be people of Jesus.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: We're to open the scriptures and study them and ask God, what is it you would say in a moment like this that we can lean into as followers of Jesus?
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And I was, as I was thinking this through, I thought Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 6 is one of the greatest teachings on unity in a culture of division in the entire scriptures.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: So open your Bible and let's begin to look at this passage of Scripture.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: As Paul is writing about unity in a culture of division, and we're being informed by that in 2026, there's really four movements in this text, four major plot lines, major subject matters that Paul deals with in light of this subject of unity.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: The first one is in verse 1, you could call this a call to unity.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: A call to unity.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Notice what Paul begins to write.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: He says, as a prisoner for the Lord.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome, friends.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: Paul isn't like walking on the Mediterranean beaches.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: How can I inform you about like unity and the faith?
4:40
SPEAKER_00: No, Paul is writing from Rome on house rest, waiting his conviction or acquittal before the emperor of Rome.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Meaning he could die.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: He could become a martyr.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: And as he's on house arrest, he writes this letter to the Ephesian church and he was doing ministry and he was preaching the gospel in the midst of adversity and persecution for his faith.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: That's a word for us.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we acquiesce to the division of the culture because we don't want to stand out.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be counter-cultural.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be seen as believing something different or having different convictions.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we have to realize that in every cultural moment there is cultural opposition, and we must stand on the side of Jesus.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: We must say, God, whatever you have taught me, that's the way I want to live.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: And Paul was being persecuted because he was standing on the side of Jesus.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: He says, as a prisoner for the Lord, then most of us would just pass by that word, but this is significant in the context of Ephesians.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: It's best translated therefore.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And for you English language nerds like me, it's an inferential conjunction.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever heard that term before, say amen.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: If you've never, say amen.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: It's a summary, it's a conclusion, it's a major shift point in the book of Ephesians.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: Paul has just wrapped up the doctoral section of Ephesians.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 is all doctrine.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: He talks about salvation, he talks about election, he talks about the grace of God.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: He talks about how God has rescued us and all of the things that God has done for us.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: And now, on the basis of that, he gives us a practical exhortation.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: And really, it shifts the entire theme of the book.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: It goes from doctrine to practice, it goes from belief to behavior.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 4, 5, and 6 is here's how to live in light of the doctrine of chapter 1, 2, and 3.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
7:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was thinking about this a couple days ago.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: I thought, you know, spiritual practice is very popular today, and as it should be.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: But every book written on spiritual disciplines or spiritual practices, chapter one should be here's the grace of God, here's salvation, here's what God has done for you.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: And if it's not that framework, we can begin to live out all of these good spiritual practices as a way to please God, as a way to earn favor or some sort of blessing from God, as a way to think, oh, I'm doing all these things right, and God must love me because I'm cultivating my relationship with God through these practices.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we should think, no, look at all that God has done for me.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: As a result of that, therefore, I want to live in communion with God.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual disciplines are not the gospel message.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual disciplines are a byproduct of the message of the grace of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: And Paul transitions here from deep theological truths around salvation to down-to-earth living as followers of Jesus.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: And that is all bridged by this term then or therefore.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: I urge you.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: He's not like, come on, Christians, let's do it.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: He's like, no, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: I pericaleo you.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: I urge you, I exhort you, I encourage you.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: What is Paul doing here?
8:56
SPEAKER_00: He's urging us toward obedience to Jesus.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Not based on earning God's favor.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: No, chapter 1, 2, and 3 says we've already been given God's favor in Jesus.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: But now he's saying, because of your redemption, because of your salvation, now you get to obey Jesus.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: It's a privilege.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: I heard this phrase years and years ago by Matt Chandler.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: It was glad obedience.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: I never forgot it.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like, oh, you know, I'm a Christian, I gotta obey Jesus.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: It was like, I get to obey Jesus.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: It's such a privilege.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Paul is encouraging the church not just toward orthodoxy, but toward orthopraxy.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Not toward right doctrine only, but right living as well.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: He says, I urge you to live a life worthy of your calling.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Live.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Literally, the translation can be to walk.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: I love that idea.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: To walk.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: You can relate to like a walk with God.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: You ever go on a walk with your friend?
10:14
SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, you know, we're back to college, buddies, let's go on a walk together.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Or you could like, you know, your girlfriend, you're like, hey, let's go on a walk together.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: That's a beautiful thing because you're you're in relationship, walking in step with one another, communing, talking, looking at the trees and the birds and the dogs and the bicycles and all the beauty of the city of Davis.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's a relational thing.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: He says, live or walk worthy of your calling.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: The term worthy is a really cool term.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: It means balancing the scales.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: It has this idea of equal weight.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is going along with what Paul is saying here because he's saying spiritually, this means that we should have right doctrinal profession in one side of the scale and right spiritual practice on the other side of the scale.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: Our doctrinal beliefs and our lifestyle behaviors should be of equal weight as followers of Jesus.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: Worthy, balancing the scales of your calling.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: You're like, what's my calling?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Is it like my vocation as a scientist, as a doctor, as a lawyer?
11:31
SPEAKER_00: No.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about that.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Your calling here is your call to salvation through Jesus Christ.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: That's the first element of your calling, that you are a follower of Jesus.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Today you might have come here, you don't know Jesus, you've never believed in him.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: He is the Son of the living God.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: And God is calling you to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved and forgiven and redeemed.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: And then the secondary nature of your calling is your transformation in Jesus Christ.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: It's your salvation and your transformation.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: These aren't segmented realities.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: God is not like, I just want to save you.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: No, God's like, I want to save you and transform you.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: We love to bifurcate everything in life.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: We love to separate.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: We love to compartmentalize.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: No, the salvation of God is all-consuming and holistic.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: It's not like I just want to get you to heaven.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: No, it's I want to change your life on earth.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: And someday you're going to be in heaven.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: And then you're going to come back to earth because that's what the second coming is.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: In a perfect, redeemed earth forever and ever and ever.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: And your calling, your calling to salvation and your calling to transformation.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: This is the thrust of where he's going here, should lead to spiritual unity.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says next.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: The call of unity, verse one, and then verse two, the character of unity.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says next.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Be completely humble and gentle.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Be patient, bearing with one another in love.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: The scripture here gives us three character traits that guard unity.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Three traits.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: If you study the fruit of the Spirit, these are fruit of the Spirit traits.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: These are Holy Spirit-produced Christ-like traits in our life.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: And here they are.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Number one, notice what he says in verse 2 be a little bit humble.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Be completely humble.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: This is good for me.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: And it's probably good for you too.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: The term humility has many shades and ideas.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: It can be translated lowly.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: It can be translated lowliness of mind.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: When we go low, God raises us up.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: But when we raise ourselves up, God brings us low.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: Read the Proverbs.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who exalts us.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: So humility, lowly, lowliness of mind.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of humility or lowliness is pride.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: And here's the problem with pride: pride promotes disunity.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: But humility promotes unity.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever met a humble person that's divisive?
14:29
SPEAKER_00: No.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: But have you met a prideful person that's divisive?
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Because pride always climbs over people, wrecks people, wreaks havocs in communities and relationships.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: Pride promotes disunity.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: Where there is disunity, there is the cancer of pride.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Always.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: I've recently read this scripture in Proverbs 6, 16 and 19, and it really was alarming to me.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: It says this there are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: A person who stirs up conflict in the community of God's people.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: God hates that.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: No, God hates when people bring division in His family.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: He hates it.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: But we are not to be a people that bring disunity.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: We are to be a people that bring unity.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: But humility is the essence that leads to unity.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: How do you get it?
15:50
SPEAKER_00: You get it first before God.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Humility before God leads to humility before people.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: You can't be humble before people, you can't be humble in relationships, you can't be humble in community until you're humble before God Himself.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: There's got to be a point in your life where you're like, God, I'm not God.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: I've tried to be, God, I don't know the best way for my life.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: I've tried it, God, I'm broken.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be honest.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: God, I've failed, I've sinned, I've done wrong.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: I need you in my life, God.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: I need your forgiveness, I need your grace, I need your love, I need your redemption, I need a relationship with you.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Humility before God leads to humility before people.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe the starting point for all of us this morning is just to be humble before God.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the second character trait is gentle.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: He says, humble and then gentle.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: The term gentle can also be translated meekness.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: It's the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one's self-importance.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: It's gentleness, it's considerateness, it's a quality of gentle friendliness.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: You know a gentle person, right?
17:13
SPEAKER_00: It has this idea of gentleness of attitude and behavior.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of gentleness is harshness.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows somebody like that.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: This was a term used of war horses in the ancient times.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: War horses.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: But war horses that had been broken.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they were strong and wild at one point, but now they're strong and trained and under control now.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: A war horse that can become gentle and friendly.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like a war horse, and you're strong and you're passionate, and God can use your life, but God wants to make you gentle, and he wants to take your strength and control that strength in a healthy way.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: And it's so interesting.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh Warren Wearsby, a great, he's dead now, but he was a great Canadian theologian.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: He wrote about this term.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: He says, meekness is not weakness, it is power under control.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says Moses was a meek man, yet, see the tremendous power he exercised.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ was meek and lowly in heart, yet he drove money changers from the temple.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: In the Greek language, this word was used for a soothing medicine, a colt that had been broken, and a soft wind.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: In each case, you have power, but that power is under control.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: You can view this as a person who meets strength or roughness with softness.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: A person who willingly waives their rights to seek the common good of a group or community.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: A person who does not need to defend themselves when they're slighted.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: A person who has an attitude that is patient in the face of offense, free from the desire for revenge.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: This is what Scripture calls gentle.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: And then the third word or third character trait that brings unity is patient, also in verse 2.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Patient.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: What is patience?
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Patience is the state of remaining calm while awaiting an outcome.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: The state of remaining calm while we're waiting, awaiting an outcome.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: It can be translated endurance or steadfastness.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: It's an emotional quietness in the face of even unfavorable circumstances.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: It's not provoked.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: There might be misfortune, there might be the ability for irritation, but you remain calm or patient or steadfast or endure in the face of unfavorable circumstances.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of patience is a short fuse.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I'm wronged, I'm coming at you.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna meet you with strength, I'm gonna meet you with anger, I'm gonna be fired up.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: That is not what God wants to produce in his people.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, notice, he says, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Like this is good, but also convicting for all of us.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Bearing with one another in love.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Bearing with one another in love is the ability to understand that every human is creating the image of God, therefore valuable.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, every human is imperfect, therefore flawed.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: You're valuable and you're flawed, Wesley.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: And everybody's like, amen, we all know it.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: Bearing with one another in love is the spiritual capacity to bear one, to bear with pardon me, to bear with other people's humanity and imperfection in light of the love of Christ that you have for them.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Are you imperfect?
21:37
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a little bit of humanness to you?
21:41
SPEAKER_00: You could translate this in modern language as putting up with one another in love.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: That creates unity.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: How many people give up too quick?
21:52
SPEAKER_00: How many people throw in the towel in relationships too quick because they haven't learned the beautiful spiritual practice of putting up with With one another in love.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Remember also, you know, we're we're hearing this and we're like, yeah, yeah, I look to the person, look to the left.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have to put up with you in love.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Remember, they're putting up with you too.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: Don't forget that.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: You hear this, and you're like, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna tell so-and-so I'm putting up with you in love, you know, like you're so annoying and you bother me so much, and you failed me.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: No, remember, people have to bear with you too.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: We're all annoying, we all fail one another, we're all flawed, but we all get to bear with one another in love.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: We have this beautiful thing where we get to look at each other and we say, You're creating the image of God.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: You are so valuable, and you're also human like me, and you're flawed.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: And that's how we should live with one another, which means that call out culture is not the way of Jesus.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Shame culture is not the way of Jesus.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Gossip about others' false culture is not the way of Jesus.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: None of that is Jesus culture.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Jesus culture is the ability to be humble, gentle, patient, while bearing with one another in love.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: This should inform us in our culture a moment.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Then, verse three, we gotta pick this up because we're only in verse three.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Then verse three, the care of unity.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: The care of unity.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says in verse three.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Caring for unity in relationships, caring for unity and community requires effort.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: It's not always easy.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh man, I'm so annoyed, I'm so bothered.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: This person failed.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: You have to put in effort to keep unity.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: God is calling us as his people to have a resolute determination to maintain unity as followers of Jesus.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: Resolute.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: Resisting disunity, resisting a division at all cost to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Can I be a Bible nerd for a minute?
24:23
SPEAKER_00: You see that term keep, circle it, highlight it, underline it, pen it, pencil it, anything.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: It's the term te reo.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: It means to guard or to maintain, which says a lot.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: That teaches me that unity is not something we create, it's already been created.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, death and resurrection, Jesus bringing us into his family as his people together in one big, beautiful family.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: That is the unity that he already has created.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: But it also suggests to me is that unity is not something we create, but unity is something that we guard.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: We watch over it.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: To guard, to watch over.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: This is something that we already have.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that we all have to like, you know, 300 people this morning.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: We all have to be like, let's work hard to create unity.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: No, we don't have to.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: We just have to say, we already have unity.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: We just have to watch over it.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: We have to guard it, we have to care for it.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: One, one person bent on divisiveness will create disunity in three to four hundred people.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: We've got to guard it.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: We've got to watch over it.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: The bond of peace.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the bond that creates peace or the bond that is peace.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we have peace together through Jesus.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: This is what is taught earlier in uh the book of Ephesians in chapter two, where he says, For he himself is our peace, verse 14, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the berry, the dividing wall of hostility.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: We're like, we want to be divided in our culture, and God's like, no, no, we want to be united.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: We want to bring reconciliation, we want to bring repair.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: We are people that are drawing people to God and bringing people together.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: That's our mission.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: I just thought of that.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: That's it, that was a good one, right?
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Something just come to your mind.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Most things you prepare, and there's a few things that are unprepared.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: With all the division on a university campus, with all the division in our political atmosphere, with all the division in our culture, we're to be people that bring people to God, therefore bringing people together, not fostering more and more division.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: This is so counter-cultural, but so beautiful as well.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is our peace, he brings us together.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: There's a dividing wall of hostility between people, and through the cross, notice what he says in verse 15.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: Peace.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: We want to be peacemakers, not peacebreakers.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is a peacemaker.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: And in Matthew chapter 5, he calls us to be peacemakers, not peacebreakers.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: Be a peacemaker in your family, be a peacemaker in your friendships, be a peacemaker in your relationships, you know, romantic relationships, married relationships, be a peacemaker.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Now you can't do everything, the other person has to want to be a part of that peace process, but you can make efforts to be a peacemaker.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: Don't be the peacebreaker.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Philip Melanchthon, who's dead now, also, all the great writers are all not alive.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: He says, few doctrines are more important than this one.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Because the church is under constant attack.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: We need to be good students of the subject.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Because we are fellow members of the body, we need to apply ourselves to mutual harmony.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: And because disease can diminish the effectiveness of the body, we must maintain habits of health and a consistent program of exercise in harmony with God's body-building program.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: And then he writes what Augustine wrote: in essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all things, charity.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: That is the word of the Lord for us, his people, in this cultural moment.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, verses four through six, the confession of unity.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: The confession of unity.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: This is like an early Christian creed that he shares at the end of this text, a confession of faith that they would say together.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, there is one body and one spirit.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: Just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father over, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: This confession points to the fact that Christianity is a shared faith.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: It's not, it is an individual faith, but it's a collective faith.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: It's a shared faith.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: You and I exist in relational spiritual unity with one another.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: Our unity is relational and it's theologically objective according to this.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: And he lists six things in this creed, this early confession in Christianity.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: He says, one body.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: There's one body of Christ, aka the church.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: Which means that Christian unity is a family matter.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: We're a part of the church.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: There's unity in God's family as God's people, and we should see one another as fellow family members united in the faith because of Jesus Christ.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: One body, one spirit.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God who indwells you, indwells all of us.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: We all share in the indwelling nature of the Spirit of God.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: The very moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ for the first time is the very moment that the Spirit of the living God lives inside of you for the first time in your life.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: And he will never leave you.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: He will always be in you and with you and for you for the rest of your life into eternity.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: One spirit, third, one hope.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: One hope.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: This is our common hope of salvation and redemption and all the implications of that through Jesus Christ.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: This is our hope of our past redemption in Jesus.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: This is our hope of our present redemption, how God is changing our life in Jesus.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: And this is our hope of our future redemption in Jesus when God will free us from the presence of brokenness and sadness and sin and injustice and all the bad stuff that is in our world and make all things right.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: We share a common hope, past, present, and future through Jesus.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: And then fourth, one Lord.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is our Lord.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: He's our leader.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Then fifth, one faith.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: One faith.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: This is that which is believed.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: This is the embodiment of the Christian faith.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: This is uh this is the gospel and orthodoxy.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Faith here is the objective reality of what we believe as Christians.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: We share in one faith.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: Christian unity is a gospel matter.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: We're united by the death and resurrection of Jesus that we believe in.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is a matter of orthodoxy.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: We're united in the core, essential doctrines of our faith.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, can I just say this?
32:47
SPEAKER_00: Do I have your permission?
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
32:49
SPEAKER_00: And even if you don't give me permission, I'm going to say it anyways.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Orthodox doctrine matters.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Two thousand plus years of biblical orthodox doctrine, the shared core beliefs of Christianity matters.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: This is a part of unity.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Unity without truth, biblical truth is not unity.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: Unity is not unity in the concept of unity, it's unity in a spiritual reality.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And you can't have that without objective theological orthodoxy.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: That's why Augustine wrote thousands of years ago, in essentials unity, because essentials matter.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: And then number six, one baptism.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: Some believe this is referring to the believers' baptism, that there's one water baptism.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been baptized as a follower of Jesus, get baptized soon.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: I think we're gonna do it soon.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't know when, but hopefully we do it soon.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna baptize you in your water as the scriptures teach us, as Jesus commanded us to, as the first step of discipleship to Jesus in obedience to him, publicly declaring your faith in this beautiful metaphor of you going into the water, your old self dying, you coming out of the water, your new self being lived from that point forward.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: And it's really a picture of the death of Jesus on your behalf and the resurrection of Jesus that brings you new life.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful and important, and you should do it.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: One baptism.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: And then others think that this is referring to the baptism of the Spirit that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians that we all are baptized into one body by the Spirit of God.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: And then number seven, one God and Father.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: God is our Father.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: This pictures the intimacy between God's people and God's church and God Himself.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: I read this amazing quote this week, and it's by an anonymous ancient author, and it goes like this if we focus on our differences, we focus on each other.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: If we focus on our unity, we focus on God.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: And I just think that's so beautiful and right, and it's like it's like a healing word to our cultural moment where there's so much division, but that is not the way of Jesus for us.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: Can I know one last thing?
35:30
SPEAKER_00: I want you just to see this.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: I want to note that our unity is based on the triune nature of God Himself.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 4, one Spirit.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, one Lord, and verse 6, one Father, one God and Father.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: The picture here is that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have all existed in perfect unity for all of eternity.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: In relationship with one another.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: In other words, our unity can only thrive when our relationships reflect the relational nature of God Himself.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Let's not be more like Bernice or more like Wesley or more like Leanne or more like Peter.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: Let's be more like God.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: Not that, I mean, Bernice is pretty amazing, and Peter's pretty amazing.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: Leanne's pretty amazing, and you're pretty amazing.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: But God is the ultimate model.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's be more like God in how we relate to one another.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: When we're more like God, we'll be more united with one another.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: I read a Charles Spurgeon teaching this week on unity, and I was kind of struck, taken back.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: You guys have an awesome practice.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you're going, bunch of athletes, you're amazing.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: We love you at Bayside Davis.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: I was struck by what he said, and I thought, how true is this?
37:03
SPEAKER_00: Think through this with me for a minute.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: He writes, The Church of Christ is always quarreling.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Not us.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: But did ever did you ever hear that the devil and his confederates quarrel?
37:18
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: They're so united that if at any special moment the great Prince of Hell wishes to concentrate all the masses of his army at one particular point, it is done to the tick of the clock.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: And the temptation comes with its fullest force just when he sees it to be the most likely that he will prevail.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: If we had such unity as that in the Church of God, if we were all moved at the guidance of the finger of Christ, if all the church could move in one great mass to the attack of a certain evil, how much more easily might we prevail?
37:59
SPEAKER_00: But alas, the powers of hell far exceed us in unity.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: I was convicted by that.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: How much more so?
38:12
SPEAKER_00: On a redemptive level, should God's people be in unity?
38:16
SPEAKER_00: And the point of what he said is that when anybody, whether evil or good, are in unity, they're effective.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: When evil is in unity, they're effective for evil.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: But when good is in unity, they're effective for good.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: And when God's people are in unity, we can see the greatest revival of our lifetime and shine light in a culture of division.