Jesus Brings Unity

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

We are gonna be in Romans chapter 15. We're gonna start with verses five and six here in just a second, but I want you to have a, I want you to have a particular memory, and it's one that we all have, I'm absolutely sure. And it's a two word memory, it's family photo, okay? Family photo, you know what I'm talking about. You take the family photo, and I mean this as when you were a kid, right? When you're a kid and you're doing the family photo, and you're trying to take the perfect picture, okay? And your parents have bought you coordinated outfits, okay?

Somebody in your family scoped out the perfect place for these family photos. You've hired a photographer, okay? You are trying to make, just as the parent, your parents, because you're the kid, your parents are trying to make this perfect. They're trying to make it just, I mean just picture perfect is what they're trying to do, but what happens? What happens, go ahead, tell me. What are some things that happen out of that? Right, yeah, nothing, nothing happens. Nothing that is good happens. It's all going against what you're trying to do. You got kids crying, you've got somebody just not looking, just refusing to look at a camera. For some reason, they're just being persnickety. They just don't want to look at a camera. They don't want to smile, or they have the fake smile, like the six-year-old smile, like the smile who can't, they just can't do it. They just look like they're under siege,

like they're being held hostage. But then what happens to you, as the parent, what happens to you? You start getting the angry smile, don't you? You start like, you literally start threatening kids through your teeth, and it's not okay, it's not okay. It's a terrible experience. And that family photo might look awesome, but every time you see it, you're just thinking about, oh man, that was that time that I blew a couple of blood vessels, okay?

Because what you're trying to do is you're trying to get everybody on the same page, right? You're trying to get everybody united, everybody doing the exact same thing, people in harmony with one another. That's what you're trying for with that family photo, okay? Again, Thanksgiving is coming up, somebody's gonna try to take a family photo, okay? I'm just telling you, just be prepared now in your spirit for whenever that happens, okay? Unity, unity is difficult to come by, not just in family photos, right? Unity is difficult to come by for lots of reasons.

You're having a united home with your kids, right? Everybody going the same direction. That's not always easy, right? You got some people who don't wanna do it your way. You're facing a big transition at work, maybe you're leading a big transition at work, and there's people who just don't wanna cooperate, right? You just got things at work that aren't being united, they're not working toward the same direction. Sometimes you get changes in a church, right? And you're saying, hey, we're all gonna change, we're all gonna go this way, and then some people are like, I don't know if we wanna go that way. I got some questions. And it's fine to have those questions. It's fine to have all these kind of differences, but at some point, unity must be achieved.

And so this is what we see. This is a prayer for unity, actually in Romans chapter 15, verses five and six. We see a prayer for unity. It says, may the God of endurance and encouragement. And by the way, let me just, I'm gonna interrupt scripture here for just a second. When you're praying for unity, you better pray to the God of endurance and encouragement. Just saying, that's there for a reason. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony one another in accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So saying, look, be united, be in harmony with one another as you glorify God with one voice. This is a picture of unity. Look at the next verse. Verse seven, excuse me. Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. Now that word welcoming, it continues a theme

of welcoming that we've seen. And we just think of the word welcome as a welcome mat. We think of welcome as like, hey, come into my home. But this is an idea of receiving people openly. This is like, in the Greek, this is like an Uber hug. In other words, it's not just having somebody in your presence, it's inviting them to be with you. It's inviting into common purpose, common life. It's an invitation to be with someone. This is what welcoming means. And we started this idea of welcoming in Romans 11:15 way back in the last sermon series we were doing where it talks about people that were rejected are now being welcomed into the kingdom. We saw it last week with Romans 14 verses one and three. It says, to welcome, welcome those that are weak in faith.

Why? Because God has welcomed them. Okay, so we're not just, this isn't like, hey, opening your front door, come into my house. Although for some of you that's a big step, I understand. But we're talking about something a little bit more in depth. This is a theme of welcoming. In fact, this theme of welcoming is gonna run into chapter 16 also, the last chapter, next week when we talk about that, all right. So here what we have here, therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. So we have a command now to welcome and not just kind of let them in your front door but to receive people into your life going toward a common purpose. It says to welcome each other as Christ has welcomed you. In other words, be united. So this is the apostle Paul writing to the Roman church and he's saying, be united. Live in harmony is what he's saying.

But sometimes, like we've already discussed, being united with people is like trying to take a family photo, right. Trying to get everybody aligned, everybody going the same direction, united, moving forward, it's difficult. It's problematic. In fact, when companies need to do this, they don't, well, the smart ones anyway, don't just issue the command that we're gonna be united. What do they do, they incentivize it. They have inclusion programs. They have ways to get people aligned and they financially incentivize those ways to get aligned. When you go to a party, what do you do? Do you find the brand new person and just chat them up all night? Some of you do but you're weird, you're like me but most of you don't. Most of you gravitate toward people that you already know, that you already like, that you already have a rapport with, that you already, right, like you're doing,

that's what we do. We are, we're kind of built that way. So what do we do? What do we do with this command to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us? Do we just chalk this up to an ideal that's unattainable? How do we kind of wrestle this? Because it seems unlikely on any, really in an average week, it seems impossible. It seems impossible to welcome somebody in our lives, to welcome our church family into our lives to that degree so that we are united, we are moving forward together.

And when we read this, in our minds, it kind of hits a category of just like, hey, maybe this is once or twice a year at a church event, maybe this is two or three times a month, whenever I see them at the church building because here's the reality, if you're gonna be welcoming people as Christ has welcomed you, Christ welcomed you pretty deeply, if you're gonna be welcoming people the same way, that's gonna take time, that's gonna take energy. And most of us in a given week don't feel like we have any leftover time and any leftover energy, right? We look at that and it's just defeated already. Welcome others, welcome each other, church body, welcome each other as Christ has welcomed you.

That idea that we don't have time or energy to spare, this is a false assumption that we have and part of that false assumption is that unity is something that whenever Jesus is commanding us to do it, that he is just leaving it up to us to achieve it. The unity that we are commanded to have here, the welcome that we are supposed to give is actually something that Jesus himself delivers to us.

In other words, he didn't just say, hey, welcome people just like I welcomed you, he actually brings it to us. And that's what we see in the rest of Romans, chapter 15, that Jesus brings this unity to us and it's unity with God and it's unity with other people. But how does he do this? And then how does that change us? How does that work in us? This is what we're gonna be looking at in Romans, chapter 15. We're gonna look at verse eight and nine, read this with me. It says, for I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order to show that the Gentiles might glorify God in his mercy. Okay, what that, you need to know this. In the Roman church, we've talked about this several times, in the church, you had basically insiders and outsiders, you had Jews and Gentiles, you had religious and irreligious.

And what he's saying here, he said, whenever Jesus came, he was a servant to both of them. He served both of them. And what we see that Jesus is bringing unity because he is serving divided people. Jesus is bringing unity by serving divided people that he sacrificially saves people on both sides of the aisle. He saves Republicans, Democrats, he saves ideologues and pragmatists. He saves everybody. And what we see here, whenever we're talking about Jesus bringing that unity, it means that we both imitate Jesus' service, but also that we cooperate with his service. So if we're gonna be serving divided people, that we're not showing favoritism, right? Okay, so that's great. We don't need to show favoritism. That's kind of an obvious one, but if we're gonna cooperate that, we need to understand that Jesus is still doing this. Jesus is still serving divided people.

None of this has stopped. He's still confirming promises. He's still, the outsiders are still glorifying God. Jesus is still serving people that when Jesus is bringing unity by dividing, excuse me, by serving divided people, look, when you and I begin to serve sacrificially, undeserving people, divided people, what that does is when you begin to do that, you begin to unravel conflict. You begin to see agreement. You begin to lessen frustration, and then you begin to be able to minister in the midst of what would be just an all-out fight. So think about it. Whatever, think of a side of offense that you're on, right? How you vote, how you live, how you raise your kids, how you work, how you think work should go, just all of these things, right? Whatever kind of ideology you're on the other side of, think about somebody on the other end of that, okay? For me, if I'm gonna put toilet paper in a bathroom, okay,

there are mullets, right? And then there are bangs, right, beards, okay? Mullets and beards. So if it's a mullet, the toilet paper enters or exits the back half of the toilet roll, but if it's a beard, it enters, listen, I don't understand how people are psychotic enough to put it on to where it exits the back, right? Okay, I don't know who's with me on here. I don't know if I've just alienated you. Okay, sorry, I've got a couple of you with me, okay? I'm about to get some amens here. Look, I don't understand how people put it on the backside. I put it on the front side, okay? No, like, that's obviously a minor one, but just think about how you vote, right? If you voted for a certain president or if you voted a certain way, sometimes, in some ways, you cannot really understand how the other half lives. You can't do it. You don't know how a sane person could vote.

You don't understand. And it baffles you, truly, it baffles you. And when you think about serving a person like that and somehow making them be able to be more smug in their position, it ruffles your feathers a little bit, right? How am I gonna serve somebody on the other side of the aisle that way? When you do, though, it unravels that conflict. It lessens that frustration. I want you to consider your time in a sacrificial sense. Like, in your time, in the way that you work things out in a given week, what wins? Are you sacrificially serving for each other? Or are you just watching a lot of TV?

Your personal time at work, is that just spent on lunch breaks and only stuff for you? Or are you intentionally ministering to other people? What about whenever you're at your kid's games? Are you just chit chatting? Are you just talking about nothing? Or are you praying with parents? Are you sharing love with them? Are you sharing your story? You and I, we are missionaries to all these people, co-workers, we are missionaries to people that we're at games with. We're missionaries to all these people.

Jesus brings unity by serving divided people. And he empowers us to do the same. Look at verse 16. Romans 15, 16 says, because of God's grace, he made me a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, what the apostle Paul is saying is that Jesus has made him a priest, a New Testament priest. And he's actually using very priestly language here. Paul is using actually very technical language. He's actually using a word that's not even used anywhere else in the New Testament when he talks about priestly service here. What he's trying to do, what he's trying to help you paint this picture is, he's saying, I'm a New Testament priest, right? And it's really interesting. What he says here is not that he is,

he's helping the Gentiles make an offering that is acceptable. Because that's kind of how it reads, right? So that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable. What he means here, he's calling it all the way back to Romans 12, one and two when he says to everybody, hey, go be a living sacrifice, right? He says, we're called to be a living sacrifice. What he's saying is, I'm helping the Gentiles, I'm helping the outsiders, I'm helping them climb on the altar. I'm helping them be a sacrifice. And the picture that he's painting here, he's saying, I'm a New Testament priest, I'm actually preparing the Gentiles as a sacrifice unto the Lord. What does he mean? Is he gonna burn people? No. It means that he's encouraging these Gentiles, these outsiders to understand that their lives are for the glory of God, that their lives, the best thing they can do with them is put them on the altar in sacrificial service

to the Lord, that there's so much joy, that there's so much waiting for them there, that Jesus brings unity by anointing ill-equipped people. He anoints ill-equipped people. Jesus does that. He is doing it in here in verse 16, but he is doing it all the time now. Look, one of our values here at South Burleson is that we share ministry. Sharing ministry doesn't mean that sometimes I get bored and don't preach and somebody else preaches. Or you know, Tribble gets bored. It means, it means that ministry is for everybody to do. And that if we aren't sharing that ministry, if we aren't encouraging people, if we don't have a next man up mentality, if we aren't training our replacements, if we aren't thinking along those lines, if we aren't training up the next generation to replace us, because give it 20 years, this will be our kids' church. Not ours. I know you're smart and you got your wits about you

and your, you know, your hip, okay, you can make good decisions, that's cool. But you will fade. Okay, I'm 46, I'm already starting. I can see it, right, I'm only starting to fade. That's what I tell myself. Part of sharing ministry is coming under the anointing of God. Look, when I invite other people to come and preach, when, like church members, when Sean Coffman is recruiting for preschool ministry and nursery, when Amy Hay is recruiting for student ministry, what they are doing, look, we're not filling spots here. We are asking people to come under the anointing of God and the reason I say that, because when you put yourself in this position where you say, okay, Lord, I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm completely scared, but I'm gonna minister in your name to other people. The Lord's like, okay, I got you, I'll do that. I'll anoint that. Dan Hay has a great story that he tells,

and I don't even know if you've told it recently, but it's a great story where you're just like, you're sharing the gospel with somebody on campus, you feel like a total idiot, and you're just fumbling through it, and you and this other guy just fumbling. Like, I mean, you're just reading this and the person's there, you're not even making eye contact, you're not being persuasive at all. And what's the guy do? The guy's like, I need to be a Christian right now. And Dan and his friend are going, what? Oh, okay, I mean, this is not the outcome we expected. We expect it to be very different than this, but here's the, I mean, the only way to explain that is anointing. The only way to explain that is that God foreordained that thing, that God was paving the way for that thing, that God was making that guy's heart soft way before Dan and his buddy got there. And listen, whenever you are sharing ministry,

whenever you are doing things, when you are serving, when you're serving as a deacon, when you're serving in any kind of ministry that we have, even, man, look, can I just tell you that pumpkin bread ministered to me today, okay? Like, it's good, and yeah, and it is a good thing when you haven't had breakfast to kind of roll up and go, okay, yes, we have some fresh baked bread, that's gonna be great. Okay, I'm pumped. Look, when you do that, and look, you might not feel, I don't know, I don't know what you're feeling about it, but like, when you do that, that is a huge blessing to other people, and that blessing is amplified by the anointing of God.

You and I, in very literal senses, are New Testament priests ministering to other people. Jesus brings unity by anointing our very little paltry things that we think we can do for him, okay? We think we can do these, really, you know, whatever, we're just like, okay, Lord, I don't know, this is kind of dumb, this is like, you know, this is loaves and fish, is what it is, and the Lord just blesses that, and you might not even know, but other people are just like, oh, happens to me all the time. I, listen, I will finish a sermon, and I'm just like, that was a stinker, we're done. I'm glad to go home today, right? I was not excited about that. Felt like I did a terrible job, and it never fails. When I feel like I've done that, it only happens once every other year, but when it happens, when it happens, inevitably, what does the Lord do? The Lord, I mean, blesses that,

and people will come up to me and just be like, look, that changed my life. I'm getting a tattoo with that on, you know, tomorrow. It's crazy, it's crazy that it happens that way, but it does. Jesus brings unity by moving us to serve other people and anointing that and blessing that in a way that we can't really imagine. This is how Jesus brings unity. How else does he bring unity? Romans 15, 18.

It says, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed. This is a very interesting thing right here, okay? The antenna should go up. If you were reading the entire book of Romans in one sitting, okay, just pretend you were doing that. This is not the first time you have seen the phrase to bring the Gentiles to obedience. This is a phrase that happens often, and really, just to say what Jesus is doing here, Jesus is bringing unity to us by making terrible people holy, okay? That's what he's doing. He's bringing unity by making terrible people holy, because if Jesus didn't bring holiness to terrible people, there's no way we would be united, okay? You talk about a family photo, it'd be a family melee, okay, it would be terrible. Jesus brings unity by doing that. He sacrifices himself specifically

for our holiness and participation, right? Our work then, the way that we cooperate with that as Jesus is doing it is that we sacrifice for one another toward holiness, toward your holiness. Here's how this looks in real time. I'm in a life group with Levi Haley, okay? I'm gonna pick on Levi today, and I'm gonna pick an untrue scenario. I'll try to make it as untrue as possible, because it's not real, but let's say Levi, right, had this huge gambling problem, okay? Which he doesn't. Okay, good, he's not crying, we're fine, okay? So, he has a huge gambling problem. What is he, he finally divulges this in life group, okay?

Now, let me just ask you, what's the easy thing to do in the middle of life group when somebody says I have a huge gambling problem and they're crying and they're just, oh, they're just broke, and I just, oh, they just feel so dumb. What's the easy thing to do? It's just to tell them it's okay. Just say like, yeah, man, look, we all mess up, it's fine. Okay, that's an easy thing to do, and there are times to do that, right? Not just that, but I'm not saying don't be compassionate, but what's the temptation is to not bring any kind of heat to that situation, but here's the reality. As Levi is losing all his money in a gambling problem, he's sinning against the Lord, he's not providing for his family, he's doing really terrible things, right? The loving thing for me to do is to push Levi toward holiness, and the loving thing for Levi to do is to do the same for me.

It doesn't just go one way, it goes both ways in the life group. I'm pushing him toward holiness, I'm telling him. I'm warning him, I'm saying, Levi, you are sinning against the Lord, you should not be doing that. Please don't, how can we help you, how can I help you not do that? If we are going to have unity, if we're going to cooperate with the unity that Jesus is already bringing, we need to understand it's not our job to make each other holy, I don't make anybody holy, Jesus does that, but I do encourage people toward what Jesus is doing in their lives already.

It bothers me to no end, it probably shouldn't, but it does, it bothers me to no end whenever people talk about what a bunch of hypocrites church people are, because my response to that is, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, you would not believe it. Yeah, we're hypocrites. You know who's not a hypocrite? A drug dealer who has no problem dealing drugs. You know who's not a hypocrite? A murderer who doesn't care about murdering, okay? Those people aren't hypocrites, they're fine. They're right in line with their conviction. The reason that we're hypocrites is because we have ideals that are given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's why it makes the news when a teacher or a principal does something unbecoming of a teacher or a principal, why? Because they're standard bearers. It makes the news whenever a pastor has a scandal, why? Because they're standard bearers.

And so you're telling me that a church full of people, people, terrible people, that the Lord is bringing holiness to because he had to, right? He chose to do it, but I'm saying, there's no other way for us to be holy other than Jesus bringing us that holiness. You're telling me those people every once in a while don't match up to their ideals? Alert the press. That's every day.

That's every day, and I'm not saying don't be exemplary. I'm not saying let's lessen the standard. I'm not saying any of that. No, let's keep a high standard. Let's push each other toward holiness. But let's not just fall over ourselves just dying about how terrible it is whenever Christians do something wrong. Let's encourage each other toward holiness. And quit being so flabbergasted when it actually, when you find out somebody else is terrible, it'll help you do it. This idea of bringing obedience to the Gentiles, and I don't wanna go into this too much, but it is understandable. It is good to know, sorry, that it's foreshadowed all the way back in Romans 1:5. In Romans 1:5 we see bringing obedience to the Gentiles. We're gonna see it at the end of the letter in Romans 16:26, that Jesus makes terrible people holy. What that looks like is Jesus bringing obedience to people,

making them obedient. It wasn't enough that Jesus died for our sin and forgave us. It wasn't enough. What Scripture tells us pretty often, including here, is that Jesus not only needed to die, to pay for your sin, but he also needed to die to bring holiness to you, to make you into a different person. Jesus makes terrible people holy. This brings unity. Romans 15:19. Romans 15:19, we see another way. He said, it kind of finishes the verse before.

Sorry, he brought obedience to the Gentiles by word and deed and also by the power and signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay, that's another phrase that you're gonna see a lot in the book of Romans, fulfilling the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? What does it mean to fulfill the ministry of the gospel that he's done? Is he not gonna preach anymore? What does he mean when he says this?

Here's what it means. We can get a little bit of understanding when we read Colossians 1, right? It says, in Colossians 1, it talks about what Jesus did. It talks about the gospel. It says, it says, for in him, in Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. When Paul is talking about how he's fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ, what he's saying is, he's saying, I have entered into this phase, right? I am actively pursuing this thing where I am helping people understand that the war is over. I have proclaimed that there is peace through the cross. I have told people that Jesus brings unity by ending our war with God. Jesus brings unity by ending our war with God. And this is the gospel in kind of just a really distilled form, that Jesus made peace

between us and God, that Jesus has brought that unity to us. Now, some people aren't choosing to stop the war, right? So whenever I say that Jesus has ended the war, what I'm saying is he's made provision for peace. That there's plenty of people out there, for example, there's plenty of people out there that are rebelling against God, that are doing everything they can to not follow him, to live their own life, to be their own king, to be their own judge, to do everything their way.

But it's foolish because the war's over. They're fighting somebody who's not interested in having a war. They're fighting somebody who's actually made provision to have peace and they haven't taken that peace. Jesus brings unity by ending our war with God. And so fulfilling that ministry means that he has fully delivered the good news, that the war is over. We've shown people that this peace has arrived and this is the gospel, that Jesus has ended the war. Believe this, believe this, and you will live eternally with Jesus. Believe this, and it's scandalous to say it, but when you believe it, you are made new. When you believe it, Jesus brings peace to you. When you believe it, Jesus brings unity to you. It doesn't all happen at once. It's not just kind of like, you know, you don't like, you know, pull the arm and all the numbers go down and then you get peace, you know,

like that's not exactly how it's slow, but it comes and you see it. You don't get unity all at once, we grow in it. You don't get peace all at once, we grow in it, but it is there. Let's see this last thing. This last thing. It's in Romans 15, 26, and really 26 and following. I'm just gonna pick out some parts. So this is 26 through 27a. It says, for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution to the poor among the saints at Jerusalem, for they were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them. So the quick version of this is that Paul is coming from or has swung by Macedonia and Achaia, places far from Rome, okay? There's churches in those places and what they've done, what they've done is they said, hey, here's some money, here's some of our money. Bring this to the poor in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem was being kind of persecuted

and just really, they didn't have a way to make money sometimes and they were just, they were really limited, they were really oppressed, they were really persecuted. And so when churches in Macedonia and Achaia heard about their persecution, heard about the fact that they need money, they just dumped some money on Paul and said, hey, as you're going to Jerusalem, please give this to them.

But the thing that he says in 27 at the beginning, he says they were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them, owe it to them. What's he talking about? Why does he owe it to them? And here's what he means, in verse 27b, so the second half of that verse, it says, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought to be of service to them in material blessings.

Part of the way that Jesus brings unity is that he gives us a common burden to share. Jesus brings unity by giving us a common burden to share. And so if they're believing the gospel, if they're saying, yeah, we're gonna follow Jesus, then part of that is understanding that we're kind of, we're all pulling the same yoke, the same direction. We're all in it for the kingdom of God

being made alive and real on earth, that we're all pulling that same direction, that we owe it to them. Jesus brings unity by giving us a burden to share. And so we see in 27b, it's the burden of material costs. Yes, right? This is, look, we don't talk about money every Sunday. I'll talk about it right here just very briefly. Part of the reason that we pull our money together is so that our church can move forward in ministering to our community together.

That's why we have a budget at all, so that we can do that in an organized fashion together. When you give, you giving money to our church is you worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I never look at how much people give. It's actually, that information is actually something I'm never gonna be able to touch. We've built it such that it never is going to happen here at our church. I'm not gonna see it. The reason that I don't see it is because I don't wanna see you guys, it's a dollar sign. I don't wanna minister to you or not minister to you because of how much you're giving. And that sounds really terrible, but in the moment, it's a real temptation. Part of the reason that we do that is because the point of you giving money isn't so that I can see how much you give, or that anybody can see how much you give. The point of you giving money is that you're worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ cheerfully.

You are giving that money, you're saying, Lord, I love you, I wanna give you that money. Do with it what you will. And the Lord does it through our church. And part of that holiday serve, part of that is just you're sacrificially giving money. You're buying toys for kids for Christmas. That's what that is. That's part of our common burden that we share. But it's not just money, look, verse 30 and 31. I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf so that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. So we have a couple of burdens there. We have, first, we have the burden of prayer. Verse 30 says, I appeal to you by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.

The understanding is this church is coming together and they are laboring in prayer. They are praying to a degree that you and I have scarcely done. They are sitting together and they are crying out to God and they're saying, please, please bless this ministry. Please bless us as we go and share the gospel, people. Please bless us as we come together for worship. Please bless us as we buy toys for kids for Christmas. Please bless us because they know they're praying together because they know that without that, without them depending on the Lord, nothing of substance is going to happen. The burden of prayer, they share it. They share that burden of prayer. But also, they share the burden of acceptable service.

Verse 31, it says that I may be delivered from the unbelievers of Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. It is not a common thought, but it is very helpful every once in a while to remember. The best we can do is still terrible. The best that you can do, okay, your attempts at holiness, the Bible calls them rags, right? You know what you do with rags? You wipe up things you don't ever wanna use your good towels for, okay? That's what you do with rags. And this isn't a moment to say you're not good enough. It is a moment to say that when it comes between you and the Lord and what you're doing for Him, if you think you're just bringing a lot to the table, then you are misinformed.

The only thing that you and I can bring to the table is just our lives, just availability. But God's not worried about our requisite skill level. God's not worried about how many awards we've won or how good we are or what we do or how talented we are. God's not really worried about that. God can take care of that in a thousand other ways besides you and me. Jesus has given us this burden to share of acceptable service. What does it mean to have acceptable service if we're not good enough? Acceptable service is serving in a way that Colossians talks about, it says serve each other as unto the Lord. Work your job as unto the Lord, right? Meet people that are new as unto the Lord. You're not just doing it for the person who's right in front of you, you're doing it ultimately for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's acceptable service. And we need to pray for that because you and I,

our default position is that we're doing it for ourselves, we're doing it for our glory, we're doing it with us on the throne, we're doing it, what does this mean about me, my family, my legacy, my job, my career? What does this mean for me? All those things are very pressing questions. We wake up with those questions on our mind often. Acceptable service looks like this, acceptable service looks like, how's this helping the kingdom? How is this blessing another person? How is this helping my church grow? How is this encouraging my brother or sister toward holiness even whenever it costs me? If I'm talking to Levi and he's got a gambling problem, which he does not for the record, but if I'm talking to Levi and he has a gambling problem, it is risky for me to say, hey brother, you should quit doing that and I can help you do that.

That's slightly risky, what's more risky is the next day when I call him and say, have you been gambling? That's riskier, even riskier is the next day when I call him again and say, have you been gambling? What's this like for you? You still at it? You still running from the Lord? Don't do it. That's a risky phone call, that's hard. That's a way to get blocked.

But that's what the Lord calls us to do. He calls us to push each other toward holiness. This is why we have life groups. This is why we're in community with each other. This is why we're not just people who randomly show up at the same building every time, every week. That's not who we are, we're a church family. We know each other and when we do, this is what being a member is, when we know each other, part of that is the license, freedom, to call each other out toward holiness. Now we don't do it for sport, but when we need to, we do it. This is what it is, this is what it is for Jesus to bring the unity to us. He makes us holy, he makes us share burdens. He brings all of the suits, he ends the war. Like I wanna leave you kinda with this thought. If Jesus has brought unity to you in me, if he's brought unity to us, if he has ended the war, how does that affect you in an everyday kind of way?

I've already asked you questions about how you spend your time, but I wanna ask you questions about your thoughts. On a given day, what's your mentality? When you encounter a conflict, what's your go-to? Are you just defending yourself ad nauseam? Are you thinking about protecting your career, your reputation, are you thinking about, you just closing ranks, you're making sure, or whenever you experience that, are you thinking, how is the Lord gonna use this for his kingdom? And look, not just to grow you as a person, that's great too, the Lord's growing you as a person, but your life is more than about you, right? How is the Lord using whatever trial, whatever frustrating thing you're in the middle of, how is he using that to further his kingdom? How is he using that to bring unity, not just to you, but to other people? How is he using that in your life to make you a different person?

Something that the Lord has confessed to, something the Lord has been doing in my life. Months now, I don't know, I've lost track, but the Lord has impressed upon me the need for collaboration, the need for bringing other people to whatever table I'm at. And really working with them. And can I tell you, it has not been rainbows and unicorns. It's difficult work, and I'm not sad about it, but it has definitely ruined a week or two in the last couple of months. Now, I don't say that to just say, like, poor me, that's not what I'm saying is that the Lord is working in me to change me, but also to bring unity to our church, to my family, to my friendships, to all of the things that exist way outside of me, right? But what he's doing in me, if I'm asleep at the wheel, if I'm not paying attention, I'm not cooperating with him on this, by his grace, I remember quickly

that I need to be about collaboration. I remember it quickly, because things turn left pretty fast on a straight road, if I'm not aware of what he's doing. And this is what the Lord is doing in me, almost against my will, almost me kicking and screaming, okay, this hasn't been a fun ride, but this has been good. My question to you is, what is the Lord calling you to do? And maybe you've been so afraid of it, you haven't even said yes to it. What's the Lord calling you to do?

This is why we have a time of response at the end. I'm gonna invite worship team to come back up, and as we're singing, right, part of that response, I want you to think through what the Lord is bringing to you or impressing upon you that you haven't even dealt with. And I'm not even trying to put it in the category of major life decisions, but maybe there's something that's a change the Lord's calling you to make, and you haven't made it. You're being stubborn, or you're being fearful.

You just don't wanna do it for whatever reason. My encouragement, when you give in to that, unity comes, peace comes, harmony comes. Doesn't all come at once, doesn't all come in droves, it's not like you don't have a bad day, but it does come. It does come. My encouragement, as we sing, I'm gonna be back there where those couches and chairs are. I'm gonna be back there just sitting or standing, and I want to talk to you about whatever is happening. I wanna have a conversation, I wanna be able to pray with you. If you just, man, if you just come back there, you're kind of a wreck, and you're like, I just need prayer, just pray for me, it's fine, I'll just pray for you. We don't have to have a conversation, but if you wanna talk it through, man, look, I'll be there. What's going on? What do you need to say yes to? How do you need to be part of peace and not continuing the war with God?

Pray for us. Lord, thank you for this morning. I pray that you would help us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, that you would help us to say yes to what you're doing, what you're calling us to do, that we'd cooperate with it as rocky as that is, and that we'd see your peace. We'd see you ushered in in ways that we didn't even expect. I'm sure that we pray. Would you please stand.