All moms and dads really want is for their children to get along, to love each other, and to not be in conflict. And yet, too often, it's not the case, right? There's division and pain in the offering. And so, love the film because, you know, I thought of it this week because, as you guys know, our city and our nation are in grief. And it leads me to ask this question all week long as the blows just kind of kept coming. What does God think about all this? Like, I know what I think, and my emotions, to be honest, they've been all over the place this week.
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Every individual that gets assassinated or shot at at school is a human being made in the image of God, and it should allow, I mean, it should lead us to say, God, what are we supposed to do? What do you prefer? What are your thoughts? I know my thoughts, kind of. I don't even know where the beginning of anger, sadness, grief, I don't even know from moment to moment if my thoughts are right, but really all I know to do in moments like this is say to God, I just want to agree with you. I just want to think like you think, and I just want to bring how I feel to you.
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What does God think about conflict? The kinds of conflict that we're experiencing, but also different kinds of conflict. Conflicts within families, conflicts within churches, conflicts within Christian communities, conflicts in your nation, conflicts in your city. Why is it important that we resolve them?
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I never want any of you to feel intimidated because of what you don't know about the Bible. One of my profound privileges is to help you understand it.
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Here's what I think God thinks about conflict, that kind of conflict, and it's part of why we exist. Never again. I'm not, there won't be another mutiny in heaven. Those of us that choose to go are not going to favor democracy forever. Monarchy, meaning a king on a throne that we love and we delight in everything about him.
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How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. How good and pleasant. Important adjectives that it is when grace commons, people that claim to know Jesus and walk with him will live together in unity. That's a good thing. That's a pleasant thing, says David.
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The anointing, David says, the anointing of heaven's blessing upon a church is the most important thing. I don't mind asking you for a selfish prayer. You know how you can pray for me? Pray that I would be anointed. Pray that God's blessing would flow from heaven upon me and not just me, on our staff, on our elders, on our deacons, on our trustees, on all of our leadership. What we need most is not human wisdom. What we need most is for heaven to be opened up, for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us, separating us, consecrating us, because the end result will be what? Unity. Unity.
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God pours himself out upon a church. And the next thing you know, the result is a good, sweet -smelling unity.
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There's a lot of things that threaten unity. But here's what this doesn't mean. Because if you're not careful, what we can do in today's world is water everything down to the lowest common denominator. And the next thing you know, the theological things of God don't matter at all. Well, Israel tried that. In the book of Judges, you've got Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges. When you get there, they put the Bible down. Don't need it. In those days, Israel had no king. This is before the days of Saul and David. And all the people did what seemed right in their own eyes. And what you have is the most rated R book in your Bible and it's chaos. Murder and horrible things happen in the book of Judges. Why? Because there's no theological unity. They don't care what God says. They don't care what he thinks. And so part of unity, at least part of it, is that we would look to God's word and we would unify there. Not because our pastor says so, because God's word says so. And we do our best to rally around what he says, not what we say. That's part of the anointing.
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I threaten unity. My stupidity. I'm not just saying this. It's my sin that could threaten the unity at Grace Commons. It's my drifting from God's heart. It's me. And all of us need to be able to say this. King David was never so proud that he ever thought the problems in Israel were disconnected from him. He always was willing to say, God, is it me? And if it is, I'm so sorry.
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The hardest thing in the world to me is for all of us to be self -aware enough to know that I threaten the unity of this church. I'm not just saying that. I know it's true. I've lived long enough to know in my 48 years that I, every day, could be the problem. And that is, to me, a huge part of what's missing in the world. And it's the whole counsel of God's word is that Jesus, born of a virgin, Jesus is the only one who doesn't need to say that. He's never the problem. He's always the solution. And so, friends, what threatens unity is us, starting with me.
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Who do you need to meet with to say, before you come to the Lord's table again, who do you need to try to arrange a coffee with just to apologize for something you did? Because that's a huge part of our unity, that we would be the people that would ask for forgiveness when it's needed, that we wouldn't just assume they'll get over it. No, God's people consecrate themselves and say, Father in heaven, I don't want to come to this communion table, so I'm giving, you know, with any conflict with anyone in my heart, who do I need to meet with to try to make it right?
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How good, how pleasant it is when Christian community happens in unity. It starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with a motive to exalt Jesus and let him be all.
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You might think of Jesus as that dew because he did come to Mount Zion. He did come to Jerusalem, the very dew of heaven to create a reconciliation with you and with me. And the text says forever is the result. Right there in the text. What does it say? For there, Mount Zion, the Lord bestows his blessing, even life eternal.
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Your forever and my forever happened when the dew of heaven came to earth and was hoisted up on a cross to reconcile conflict between you and a holy God. May his name be praised forever.
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That's how important Christian unity is in this world, friends. Jesus prayed for a Trinitarian unity among the body of Christ. Why? So that the world would believe in him. See, when the city of Boulder and the Boulder Valley sees that Grace Commons unites with a trustworthy Bible around the person of Christ to love him, ironing out our conflict, confessing our sin, trying to make reconciliation whenever we can, and they see that stunning unity, it's possible that they will actually believe the Son of God came to earth and bled and died and rose again on our behalf.
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He wants it to be ironed out. He wants us to own our own. He wants us to get along. He wants us to love each other. But ultimately he wants you to live happily ever after in heaven thanks to what Jesus did. But he doesn't just want you to say, well, this world nothing to do here until we get there. No, he wants heaven to come to earth right now. And for us to start living how we're going to live forever more so that he can win this world for himself.
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