Sermon Transcript
Well, good morning, everybody. I hope that you’ve been encouraged already today. I sure have. Take out your Bible if you brought it, and let’s look together at John chapter 17. If you didn’t bring your Bible, you could use the message notes, or there’s probably one in the pew there, or, you know, you probably have a place you find it on your phone.
So wherever you want to use that, we encourage you to follow along this morning. We’re gonna begin, as Nate said, a brand new series we’ve titled Perfectly One, and really this passage in John chapter 17 is the basis of this series, and so that’s why we’re gonna jump into the passage this morning. But as we do, I want you to be thinking about family, just family, okay? The family that hopefully loves you and you love them and you care about each other. And when you share that kind of love, it’s the best to share that kind of love as a family.
When you wanna be together with each other, hanging out, working through challenges, forgiving each other, showing respect and appreciation for each other, it’s the best, wouldn’t you say? I would. When a family looks for ways to build each other up, encourage each other, serve each other, be helpful, well, that’s the best also. And when a family is there in a time of need and hurt and pain and failure and loss, and they come alongside with compassion and empathy and hope, well, that’s just what’s needed. It’s the best.
But let’s go to the other side for a minute. Conversely, when a family just can’t get along, when somebody in the family treats somebody else in the family with a contempt way or mean or hurtful or whatever that is, maybe they just treat the whole family that way, that’s the worst. And when somebody in the family is rude or domineering or distant or bossy or just plain mean, that’s the worst also. And when somebody in the family walks away and they want nothing to do with the family again, when people turn their backs on each other in the family, that’s no good. And when a family can’t get along even though they are husband and wife or mom and dad or brother and sister or parent and child, and then the home is filled with tension and fighting, verbal abuse, unresolved conflicts, lies, arrogance, or lack of peace, well, that’s the worst for sure.
Now, my guess is to kind of get you thinking here that all of us could probably identify with the best and the worst of family life. We know the pain of a broken relationship, and we know the joy of relationships that are working really well. But when marriage or family life is just messed up, when it’s falling apart, people get wounded, they get emotionally distraught, they wonder, you know, if they can go on, especially when the relationship ends. They wonder if they’ll ever find love again. Or it could be a child brother or sister who’s just walked away from the family, and that’s left all kinds of pain in the home.
Or it might be a parent who’s just too busy with the job, and so they neglect the family, and there’s not the kind of love that could be shared. Or maybe it’s just pain, period. You know, it’s just part of life, and the family’s trying to work through Physical, emotional, whatever the pain is, that hurts as well in the core of our being. Now, people all around us who care about us, you think when we have that kind of pain, well, we would, you know, find a way to stick it out, work through our problems and that sort of thing. But we all know that this is a part of family life, and quite frankly, it’s a part of family life that if we could rid ourselves of it for once and for all, we would.
Wouldn’t that be great? But the fact is, is that it’s just going to be a part of family life because we are imperfect people connected to imperfect people. I mean, if it wasn’t for imperfect people, we’d be okay. Everything would be great. But we’re just human, and that’s just who we are.
We, we don’t have it all together. There’s always the possibility that we will mess up The relationships that we share with each other. And not just, you know, in families, and not just in friendships and romantic relationships, but in here also, in the church. We can easily hurt each other. We can and will say stupid things to each other.
We will do stupid things that will hurt each other or offend each other. I mean, when you look at the scriptures, Jesus recognized this. He recognized that we would offend one another, so he said on occasion, if somebody offends you, then, you know, don’t just like push them out of your life, but go to them. Go to the offense and see if you can bring reconciliation back into the relationship. And if you offend somebody, then you need to go to the person that you’ve offended, Jesus said.
Jesus talked about forgiveness. Why did he talk about forgiveness? Why did he say you’re gonna need to learn to forgive each other 70 times 7? Why? Well, because forgiveness is needed and forgiveness is gonna be something that we’ve got to learn to show toward people who’ve hurt us.
Jesus had to step in from time to time with his self-centered children, his apostles, and basically straighten them out on matters like You know, who’s gonna be the greatest, matters that they argued over, they fought about, those sorts of things. I mean, they didn’t have it together perfectly. Have you seen some non-loving actions like that in the church? I’m sure you have. You ever heard a Christ follower say something hurtful?
You ever heard a Christ follower say something mean or demeaning or condescending or condemning toward another person that Jesus loves and Jesus died on the cross for? And yet we treat them as if they have no value when they have immense value in the eyes of God. Have you ever seen somebody leave a church because they were hurt by somebody in the church? Fact is, those kinds of things happen in every local church congregation. Just a week ago, I heard about another one of those stories.
This one was connected to a pastor who had left this church that he had only been in for 6 months. Just 6 months. The reason that he ended up leaving the church ultimately was because a member of the church, longtime member of the church, came to him, stuck his finger into the pastor’s chest, and said some very hurtful things that ultimately broke the pastor’s spirit, and the pastor said, I’m done.
It’s no wonder that Jesus saw the need to speak to the matter of relationships, but not just speak to the matter, but also to pray for it. And that’s what John 17 is. It’s a prayer for people like us. In fact, in John 17:20, it begins this way: I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Who’s that?
Well, that’s us. That’s people like us. That’s people who’ve come after the apostles, who’ve heard the message that was spread from the apostles on down, but from Jesus. So Jesus was actually in this prayer praying for people like us who have come to believe that gospel message. And in verse 21, this is his prayer specifically for us: that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one. There’s the concept that we’re gonna be working with. That they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Now, if you look at this prayer, actually this part of the prayer is just part of what Jesus prayed in this entire chapter of John chapter 17. And John 17 actually is the longest recorded prayer that we have that Jesus prayed that we find in the Scriptures.
And this prayer is a prayer that he prayed just hours before he was going to be crucified on the cross. And so after, we’re told, after he had devoted some exclusive time to the apostles who were in this upper room with him, after he had washed their feet, After He had eaten with them, after He had comforted them and encouraged them, and after He spoke of His death, then He prayed. And He prayed, first of all, for Himself in verses 1 to 5 of chapter 17, and then He prayed for the disciples in verses 6 to 19, and then He ended His prayer by praying for people like us who would one day believe this gospel message. Now I’ve always had an interest in what I’ve read about people or heard from people on their deathbed, their dying words, like the guy who told his loved ones, put this on my tombstone, I told you I was sick.
Now Jesus, you know, he could have talked a lot more in this time that he was up there about, you know, I told you I was going to die. But here at the end of this conversation, instead he prays, and he prays for their unity, and he prays for our unity. He prayed for the unity of future believers. Why? I mean, that’s the big question we should be asking ourselves.
Why would you, you know, on your deathbed, if you’ve only got a little bit of time left, would you even be bothering to pray for people in the future and for their unity. That was one of the matters that was on Jesus’ heart. Why did he pray about that? Well, we’re gonna look at that this morning, because if we’re gonna spend 40 days, you know, focused on unity, we should have some strong motivation to do that. And I think what we’re gonna see here is strong motivation that hopefully, if we’re coming into this with, you know, a little bit of complacency, or, well, it really doesn’t matter that much, Hopefully it changes our perspective on what we’re about ready to experience as a congregation so that we’re all saying, you know, I wanna get the most out of this.
Why did Jesus take any time at all in those last few hours to pray about unity among people like us? Well, let me give you just from this passage 2 significant reasons why he focused this way. Number one, because God wants believers to become perfectly one. Do you see it there in the text? He wants believers, verse 23, to become perfectly one.
And He gives us the standard, to be perfectly one like God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are perfectly one. Again, look at verse 21, that they may all, and that’s more than just like a few of us, isn’t it? That’s all of us. You say, well, I think I’ll take a little time off on this unit. No, this is something for all of us to share together.
Anybody who’s a member of God’s family, his desire for that member of God’s family, for his children, is that all of us together would be one. Just as, and underline those 2 words, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. Then verse 22, the glory that you’ve given me I’ve given to them, that they may be one even as, and then underline those 2 words. So you’ve underlined or highlighted or just noted just as in verse 21, and then you want to Note, even as we are one, so even as. Now, what’s He saying?
He wants our unit to be just like God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit share, so that as they share in unity, we would share in unity. So what Jesus is basically saying is, here’s the template. Okay, here’s the pattern. Here’s the example. Here’s the model.
Here’s what you want to go after. You want to be one as we’re one. And I always think about a triangle when I think about the Godhead. You know, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So each angle is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
And in the middle of the triangle, I put God. And they are one. They are one. And God is— Jesus is saying here, I want you to be one even as I am one, or just as I am one. You know, Bernice and I enjoy The Amazing Race.
I don’t know if you guys ever watch that on television, but we enjoy The Amazing Race. It’s like in its 30th season. I can’t believe it’s been around that long. But it’s common during this worldwide race, where they take these contestants all over the place, but it’s common during the race, and they’ve done this again this season, for them at some point to have to build something exactly like an already assembled object. So on this race so far, they’ve already tried or had to build something like a rock-launching catapult, okay?
This huge rock-launching catapult, and They had an example and they have to do it exactly like— and if they can’t do it exactly like that, then they can’t go on with the race. So they gotta complete this assignment or get a penalty. And sometimes it’s not something big. Sometimes it’s like really small, like a small ornate cake that they have to decorate precisely like the example that they have in front of them. They can’t get it precise, then they’re not going on.
Well, that’s the idea here. We as God’s family The pattern here is that we become perfectly one, not sort of one, but that we become perfectly one like the Godhead is one. And I want you to notice the word become because it suggests a process. It suggests that Jesus knew, I know you guys haven’t already arrived, but that’s okay, we’re on our way. Let’s keep on moving in the direction.
Keep moving in that direction. Now, let me just make sure here. Anybody here already arrived at perfectly one in the relationships you share with other Christians? Any? Go ahead, just slip your hand up.
Nobody. So I thought. I mean, some of us, it’s easy to get along with some people. You feel like you’re, you know, getting close to perfectly one, right? I mean, you like think alike, you have the same chemistry, you like the same things.
And, you know, those people, it’s really fun. I mean, it’s just like, this is so easy. Why can’t people get along? I remember after I married Bernice, I remember saying, I don’t get why people have problems with marriage. I mean, ours is so good, you know.
Then, you know, after a few months go by, but anyways, you understand. I mean, you know, it’s just, it’s a challenge. Relationships are a challenge. But, you know, for some of us, there are people in our life, it’s just easy to get along with them. But then there are other people in our life, they’re just hard to get along with.
And actually, it could be because we’re the one that’s hard to get along with, you know, opinionated, controlling, judgmental, narrow. You want any more? Opinionated. Did I say that? Okay.
Those kinds of qualities just show up. They can show up in any one of us, which makes this mission of becoming perfectly one a challenge. And notice this, it’s a mission of becoming perfectly one. It’s not a mission to find some people that you are already in agreement with and maintain that unity. Now, that would be a good idea.
We’re not saying, you know, don’t maintain unity. But the focus here is on making progress in relationships where you’re already falling short.
That’s the focus. So here’s the big question: Do you want that? I mean, do we want that? Do we share Jesus’ desire for becoming perfectly one? It’s a great question to ask, isn’t it?
I mean, are we motivated in this oneness pursuit to seek oneness not with a few family members, but with all family members? Are we motivated to start that process, and are we motivated to maintain that process? You know, it’s a time of year when the gyms are full. Have you noticed this? If you go to a gym, you know, in January and February, it’s like the places just fill up.
They really do. And then you get to about November, December, the place is really empty, you know, when you get to about November and December. And really in November, December, that’s when everybody should be at the gym because that’s at the time of year with around all the holidays, you know, and all the extra sweets and all the extra food and that time when you feel dutiful that I’ve got to be dutiful in my diet. I can’t, you know, turn down Grandma’s pecan pie. That wouldn’t be loving of me to do that, so we enjoy those kinds of foods around November and December.
But it’s interesting because at this time of year there’s a lot of initial, we’ll call it initial exercise motivation, where we basically say, hey, you know, I gotta get off the couch and I need to do some much-needed exercise and get a routine about all of that. And so we get some initial motivation going, but the key is whether or not we can continue You know, can we continue it all year? Can we continue it through November and decision— or November and December? Or is it just something that was like a nice intention? It was an intention to continue, but it didn’t ultimately happen.
What Jesus is saying here is that he wants this oneness to get started, and he wants it to continue until we are perfectly one, which means it’s a lifelong pursuit. But the good thing about this lifelong pursuit is that he never intended us to try to do this alone.
It’s at least 4. There are at least 4 involved here. Who are the 4?
Well, it’s God the Father, it’s God the Son, it’s God the Holy Spirit, and it’s me, and it’s you. It’s 4. And that’s why there’s an emphasis on the word in. Did you see that already in the passage, the word I in? In.
Verse 21, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. Verse 23, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one. What is he saying? He’s saying if you want to be one, perfectly one, you’ve got to maintain the in factor, the in factor, I-N. You can’t leave in out. We could say it that way.
You can’t leave in out and have one. O-E don’t make one. You’ve got to be in, in God the Father, in God the Son, in God the Holy Spirit. Perfect oneness is a job for 4, and actually, it’s a job for more than just 4, isn’t it? It’s a job for the whole church to come together on and say, we’re gonna go after this.
You know what this tells me? That in fact, if God is in us, then this perfectly one thing is possible and it’s also sustainable. It doesn’t have to be something that just lasts, you know, for a few months, but it’s something that could be sustained over the walk that the Lord wants for us in a vital relationship with him. You know, think of it this way. We live in a day where people often contract experts.
You know, we get people to help us do things. So we have families and individuals that hire trainers, or they hire tutors, or they hire teachers, or they hire mentors, or they hire therapists. Why? Why are they there? Well, they’re of immense importance in helping a person become what it is that they hope to become.
And so they become a part of our life. So take Jordan Spieth, for instance. He’s a touring PGA pro. That’s why I talk about him, because I know at least something about golf. Basketball, Brad sitting there, I don’t know.
You know, I know the Warriors, they’re really good. But anyway, but you know, beyond that. But so Jordan Spieth has this team. He has a team of people. He has his caddy, he has his agent, he has his golf instructor, he has his physical trainer, and of course he has his family.
And he calls these people, they’re all a part of his team, and so when he talks about, when he does interviews after a round of golf or whatever, and they’re asking him, you know, how did the round go, and what was today like, and he will say it this way in his answer, always say, well, we had a good day. And you wanna say, well, you were the only one playing. Well, no, no, no, no, no. He sees it as a we, it’s not a me, it’s a we. And one of the foolish things that oftentimes can happen in our lives is it becomes about me instead of a we.
And perhaps that could be why so many people fail in sustaining something that’s very important in their life. And so, what we have here is a setup for success. If we are in Christ, if we are in God the Father, in God the Son, in God the Holy Spirit, there, there is where our power is. Our power to sustain this direction toward oneness, and not just the power, but the plan. So we’re going to be talking also about the plan.
We’re going to be talking about the power over this series. We’re going to be talking about the plan. You say, the plan? Yes. In order for us to experience oneness, we are going to have to learn humility.
Humility in relationships. That’s going to be our focus 2nd week that we’re into this whole series. This week, the desire, God’s desire for us, understanding that. So we’re going to be looking at this week, if you’re doing the devotionals, we’re going to be looking at the 7 thats that are a part of John chapter 17. 2nd week, we’re going to focus on humility.
Why humility? You’re not going to have— we’re not going to have oneness without humility in our relationships. It’s going to take 2 people humbling themselves in experiencing oneness, to experience oneness. So we’re going to talk about humility. That’s part of God’s plan.
That’s part of living in God’s plan. We’re going to talk about peacemaking. We’re going to talk about forgiveness. We’re going to talk about— how about this one? We’re going to talk for a whole week about embracing our differences.
Go ahead, look around. Those people around you are different. God designed it that way. He designed it that way. I mean, it would be so easy if everybody was like you, perfect.
Okay, I’m just kidding. I mean, yeah, but it would be so easy. We’re just all the same, right? He intentionally designed it this way. And then we’re going to talk about dependence, because we’re not going to get this thing done without dependence upon God.
See, all of that is an expression of living in, in God the Father, in God the Son, in God the Holy Spirit. So why should we talk about this? Well, because God longs for His children for believers to become perfectly one. And secondly, because God wants unbelievers to come to believe.
Because He wants unbelievers to come to believe. You see that here in John 17, that they may all be one so that the world may believe that You’ve sent Me. Verse 23, so that the world may know that You sent Me and love them. Even as you loved me. See, what Jesus is saying is our oneness or lack of oneness is going to impact unbelievers in a positive or a negative way.
And the desire is, verse 21, that unbelievers would come to believe in Jesus, that Jesus was sent by God to save the world, that Jesus is the promised Messiah. That’s a big jump for people to get there. And then also that unbelievers would come to know, verse 23. Notice the word believe in 21, And in verse 23, no, they’re different words. To come to know that Jesus was sent by God.
And why was Jesus sent by God? It tells us there, because God loves them. He loves the world as much as He loves His Son. How about that? He loves unbelievers as much as He loves His Son.
Now, how does that sound to you? Is that a worthy reason to live as one so that, listen, our love for each other will have a greater impact on those who are still outside of God’s family. Because our love in here is going to impact people who are out there. That’s what he’s saying. If we love each other, if we experience oneness, then there is a greater likelihood of gospel impact.
That sounds good. So that unbelievers will come to believe intellectually. The idea here is they’ll put their faith in Jesus. They’ll be persuaded. If you’re an unbeliever, we long for you to come to a place where you would be persuaded, that you would be confident, that you would give credence to, that you would put your trust in Jesus.
You would believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah and that God loves you so much that he sent Jesus into the world to give his life so that you could have life. And it’s not just something that’s going to happen, it’s something that happens in a relationship. And that word know, the word know that’s found there, in verse 23 is a word of relationship. It’s a word of personal experience. God longs to have an intimate, personal relationship with you.
And our hope is, is that you will see in Christ followers an example of the love of God, and you will see in Christ followers an example of the unity of God, of the oneness of God, that that somehow will have a positive impact on you. I mean, what you’re seeing here is God telling his children, this isn’t a job for you alone. This is a job for the whole church. And if we can get the whole church involved in all of this, this will have an impact on the unbelieving world in a positive way. I mean, for a person to come from unbelief to belief, that is a huge step.
It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the fruit of God working in the life of a person. It could be the fruit of research. It could be the fruit of observation. It could be the fruit of conversations about spiritual things.
It could be a number of things, but one of the things that’s often left out is it could be the fruit of looking at other believers and seeing the credence that this, in fact, is something that’s true, that these people really do love each other, and they really do work out their problems, and they really are expressing the love of God in their relationships with each other and in their relationships with other people in the world. You know, some years ago, Dan Kimball wrote the book, They Like Jesus, But Not the Church. They like Jesus but not the church. And he asks the question, why don’t they like the church? And he shares the answer throughout this book before he gets to some remedy.
But basically, one of the matters that he brings into focus is the lack of unity in the church. It’s kind of like a family. You know, if your family is fighting all the time, it’s very common for a child that grows up in a family that’s fighting all the time to say, I don’t want anything to do with that. I hope I never get married. I mean, I’m not buying that.
Well, why would a person buy that in the church? I mean, if all they see in the church is divisiveness, I don’t really have a place in my life for the church. So Jesus is talking here about oneness that comes through intellectual belief and experiential belief, and this belief can oftentimes come through the unity that the church experiences and enjoys. So the stakes are high. Let’s, you know, let’s raise the stakes in this.
The bar’s high, but the stakes are high because we as a church can potentially impact the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ in such a way that they long for what it is that we have. Some of you identify with that. Some of you, that’s your story. That in some ways is connected to my story, my conversion story, having been raised in a home where my parents fought all the time. It was just a part of their life.
They were religious, but they had not yet come to the place where they had embraced Jesus to save them, to bring them out of their sin, and to begin to transform them. They couldn’t do it in their own strength. As much as they tried to build a good marriage, it was not a good marriage. If either one of them was here today— they’re both in heaven now— but if either one of them was here today, they’d tell you that. And they would tell you why, because it was just religion for them.
It wasn’t a relationship with the Lord, it was just religion for them. And we watched that as kids and we didn’t want it. We didn’t connect with church, we didn’t connect with God until they connected with God. And once they started to connect with God, that began to connect with us in a different way because we saw something different in them. I mean, it’s one thing for you as a parent to say to your children, I love your mommy.
It’s another thing to show that, right? I mean, we can say it, but to show it, to make the connection between showing and telling, you know, both of those, they’re both necessary. And we began to see that in our parents, but we also began to see that in other people that were a part of that children’s ministry or people that were a part of that student ministry. Where we got into groups of students and kids that loved us and they cared about us and they saw that we didn’t have any place in our life for God, but God used that community to change our hearts, to change our hearts. And I think Jesus is praying that that’s what would happen in his church.
And we are praying that that will happen more and more in this church. So why should we get all in on this? Well, first of all, because God wants believers to become perfectly one. We’re not there yet. One like God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are.
There’s no better way to live. Would you agree with this? There’s no better way to live than in relationships that are unified, that are experiencing oneness. Because in oneness you find encouragement, excuse me, encouragement and healing, and they are invigorating. And boy, when oneness is not there, it is just depleting.
But then secondly, because God wants unbelievers to come to believe. He wants unbelievers to look at the relationships that we share with each other and be drawn into the love of God. We hope for that, we pray for that, we long for that, and throughout this series, that’s what we’re going to be seeking. I got a feeling as we share this experience together, I got a feeling that God’s gonna do something special in our lives. I really do.
I think if we’ll open up our hearts to whatever it is that God wants to teach us, I think he’s gonna teach us all something. There are probably gonna be challenges ahead. You know, some relational challenges, but God will use that to help us take what it is that we’re hearing and we’re thinking about and help us apply it. And so my encouragement to you would be get all in on this thing. You got a half sheet in the bulletin, and it’s just a way to make the most of the next 40 days here at Bridges Community Church.
Obviously pray. Make this a part of your prayer life, would you? If Jesus prayed about this, We gotta pray about this. Secondly, make sure you benefit by all of these messages. There are gonna be 6 messages that focus on this, so try to be here every week.
If you miss a week, you know, go online and catch up with the message that you missed because it’s gonna be focused on that subject. And then thirdly, try to get into a group. If you’re not in a group, some kind of a group, student group, you know, adult group, whatever it is, get into a group where you can discuss this with others. This is gonna be best done with a group of people. You know, the idea is unity anyway, so why not practice it, you know, in a group and talk about your opinions and all those sorts of things?
But it’s best done in a group. And if, if you don’t have a group to be a part of, I’m going to start a group this Wednesday night. You’re invited. It’s at 7 o’clock. It’s going to meet over in my office.
Love to have you come be a part of the group. Come over for Fusion. I’m pointing at Steve. We have a wonderful program that begins at 6 PM. You can have dinner with us.
Let’s have some fun together. Then come on over and be a part of this group at 7 o’clock. Or if you want, form your own group. We don’t have to form a group for you. Form your own group and experience this together with some other people that, you know, are willing to join you in this group.
That would be wonderful. And by the way, we have now— just came up this morning— a Perfectly One page on our website. So you can go to that page and you can find out a lot of information, but you also have some downloadable links there So you’ll find there the, the links for the discussion group videos. There are some videos to set up the discussion groups, so you can go there and see those. Uh, you’ll see the message links as well.
You’ll also find some PDF, uh, writables— I don’t know what you call them— fillable, uh, PDF documents that have all of the lessons and all of the family devotions. And the family devotions are in the back of our book. And the 4th way to get the most out of this is to do the daily devotions. So pick up a book or use the ones online, but we would encourage you to pick up the book. You know, if you want to give a $5 donation, we’d love that, but you don’t have to.
The important thing is that you get the book and you use it. All right, did you notice that I said get the book and use it? Don’t get the book and put it on the counter at home and say, that is a beautiful book, I love the color they used, and you know, all the rest of that stuff. Don’t do that. If you’re going to get the book, use the book, and it will really be an encouragement to you.
It will help you as we make progress together toward this matter that concerned Jesus so much he took time just before he was to die and prayed for this.
Well, let’s pray together. Lord, thanks for helping us get started on this wonderful subject.
Open up our hands and just ask you to do in us and in this church everything that you want. May it be one of the best things that happens in our life this year. May it be one of the best things that happens in the life of this church as this year we experience something that potentially could impact years to come. And Lord, we pray that where we are going to be challenged in the days ahead, that you would intervene, that we would hear your voice, and we would learn something, and we would grow, and we would be changed. And we pray, Lord, that if there are relationships right now that are broken, that you would bring healing into those relationships, that the relationship would change.
And God, we ask that in it all you’d be glorified. We love you, Lord. Thank you for the privilege of sharing together in this focus on unity.
May it be to your glory. Amen.
