Unity in Diversity: Our Call as Citizens of Heaven

We are committed to being people who seek God's kingdom and promote God as king more than any other kingdom, more than any other king in the world. And especially as we draw near to the election, we want to anchor ourselves as people who are the citizens of the kingdom of God. And we want to reveal heaven on earth as we engage in our culture and engage in our context so that we can give a prophetic witness that says Jesus is king. Amen? [00:02:43]

We want to be focused and giving our attention and our hope and allowing God and his word and his presence to guide us and direct us in these times. And so one of the things that we're calling our community to consider fasting in this time is any polarizing news outlets or social media, we'd encourage you to consider fasting that over the span of the next 40 days. And please hear me out on this. I'm not saying don't watch the news or don't participate in social media. What I am saying is if those things cause you to love God and love your neighbor less, then give them up. [00:04:19]

And that God's Word displayed in these pages, it's not just something that we read from a book. It calls us to action. And that's why we stand to our feet each week. So Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 is what we're going to be reading this morning. The Word of the Lord says this, As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. [00:06:37]

And what Jesus actually did was he not only made a way for this, but he prayed in John 17 that the disciples, the followers of the Lamb would be one as the Father and the Son and the Spirit are one. And then he laid down his life for this to be their reality. And the New Testament writers, the early church, thought this was so important that nearly every New Testament document, every New Testament letter contains a call for the church to pursue and celebrate and preserve unity that is found in Christ Jesus. And this call continues today, beloved. It continues today. [00:10:49]

And in this reconciling work, he even launches into this place where he says, God has not only made you united with him in right relationship, but he made you united with the people where there were dividing barriers. He said, the barriers that you built up, Jesus' blood has broken down. And these people were divided ethnically and politically and religiously and socially. And God was able to enter into the space where there was division and create reconciling unity, beloved. [00:12:30]

The simple truth is that just as Paul called the early church to make every effort to keep the spirit of unity, we are called to do the same in our context. And the truth is that our context breeds us to be always right. We are fixate on it. We are addicted to being right. For some of the couples in the room, that's the sexiest thing your spouse can say to you. You were right. We're addicted to it. [00:20:44]

And in our world right now, what that looks like is when we have disagreements, we just say we're done in our relationship. But what we chose to do, painfully, time and time again, was meet together and say, I'm not here to debate over what we disagree on. I'm here to preserve our relationship, because that's more important. Did we walk out seeing eye to eye on every topic? Absolutely not. But did we walk out seeing eye to eye on this? I love them, and they love me? Absolutely. [00:24:09]

This word, honor, in the original language really holds this meaning that's associated with cost or with value. It's kind of where we get the root of some phrases, such as paying respects, right? And ultimately, when we practice honor towards one another, we are treating one another based off of the value that the other person holds. Now, I'm going to ground this in this. And the truth of what Jesus has done, is everybody ready? The truth about me and you and about every single person on the face of the earth is this. We all hold the price of God's Son on our lives as our value. [00:26:46]

And I said, I'm not certain. You know what? I'm not certain what you're referring to. Would you like to meet up and talk? And they said, this is what you said on Sunday. And they quoted that passage, not knowing it was a passage of scripture, and said, I am leaving the church. Just in case you're wondering, to clear the air, I'm not a socialist. And I'm not here to talk about economic viewpoints. I bring this up to say, more than anything, I grieve the fact that relationship was broken, because a sound bite was taken out of context. [00:31:30]

And maybe you read that with me, that there are different gifts, by the way. It's not all the same gift. There's different gifts that reveal a unity and a maturity and a building up together. Because in our diversity, in our distinction, there is a beautiful unity that is found in our movement together and from the same empowerment from the same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Amen? [00:38:07]

And I believe these things are a part of me. They're a part of what makes up the thing that I'm called to and why I do the thing that I do. But can I tell you this? Without doing these things in love, I am just another voice. Without doing these things in love, I'm a loud, passionate person. Without love, I'm just confused for an activist when in actuality, I am called to be a kingdom catalyst, beloved. [00:43:31]

And we are seeing divisions. And we're seeing the damage of misplaced value systems. We are seeing the impact of what it looks like to place our value systems in only wanting to be right about a topic or only having people in my circle that agree with me. We're seeing what happens when we don't see the worth and dignity of all people. And we're seeing what happens when we, when we elevate loving to speak the truth rather than speaking the truth in a loving posture. [00:47:36]