Unity
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We are in Ephesians 4. We've been in like Ephesians 3 for four months. I know that's not completely accurate because we had a couple series in between them, but we have finally made the shift into four, which in Ephesians, the first three chapters are doctrine and theology for the church as an encouragement.
The next three chapters from four to six are the application of that, how we actually live that out. So we finally made it. We're in Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 6 today, which is going to be on page 568 in your blue Bible that is near you. If you don't have a Bible, please take that home. That is our gift to you. In high school, I played two sports.
I played football and I played baseball. Now, I realize when I say that some of you just died inside because you heard a sports reference. It's the Super Bowl, so it's a little bit appropriate today. But I can't give you a whole lot of musical ones. I love music, but I was not good at music and still not. I was in orchestra in the fifth and sixth grade, and I was last chair of the cello section.
I might as well have been last chair for the entire orchestra because I was terrible at it. So I've got sports to work with. And in football and baseball, I had two vastly different experiences. My football team was a unified bunch of guys. We loved one another. It started at the top.
We had a coach that loved us, that invested in us, that spent time with us, that built the identity of family that we were supposed to play with. And we did. We loved playing together. We had each other's back. My sophomore and junior year, it doesn't matter how much you love one another. If you don't have the talent, you don't win games.
So we didn't win a whole lot of games. But my senior year, we finally had the talent to compete, and we won a lot of games because we were a team. One of my favorite experiences from that senior year was the last summer practice before the school year started. We had a guy that missed practice, a senior that missed practice. And he got there for the last five minutes, and he explained the situation, and it was a difficult one. He was working a job.
That job helped support his family, and he could not miss that shift. But we had rules. We had rules on the team, and if he wanted to be on the team still, he was going to have to run for it. And what we did, because we were a family, is a dude, you know you're in a tough spot. We're going to run with you. So we ran all the sprints together, and that kind of set the tone for the whole season.
We ended up losing the semifinals, but it was a great season. My senior year of baseball, or just my baseball team in general in high school, was a completely different experience. It was different for a lot of reasons. We had a strong tradition of winning. Won a lot of titles over the years. Our coach had a great baseball mind, but we were not a team.
We just weren't. We weren't a unified bunch. From the top down, our coach, he knew baseball, but he didn't really show a lot of investment in us. He didn't really care for us off the field. It just was a different feel altogether. So we won a lot of games until my junior year, when the talent ran out, which is when I also started playing.
And the talent ran out. We weren't a team. And man, for two years, we didn't win as many games as we had in the past. There was a lot of finger pointing, a lot of clicks on the team. It was just weird. Some of the same guys I played football with were on the baseball team.
And it was just weird. One of the worst moments I remember was there was a game where I was in second base, and I ran out to catch a ball between me and right field. And the ball dropped right between us. It was my fault. When I got back to the dugout, my coach laid in to me, which is fine in sports. But then he got two former players from our freshman state title team who were in the stands to come around to the dugout and to shame me in front of all the other players.
And it was the most embarrassing moment I've had in sports. And on top of that, none of my teammates backed me up. It just was that that was us. We just weren't a unified bunch of players at all. Unity is vital for the health of any organization, for the growth of any organization. I mean, companies get this.
They spend millions of dollars every year investing in team building. There's entire team building recreational centers that are designed for this, that you might grow in being a unified organization. There are tons of books. There's tons of thought on it. I think if you boil down unity in a team, unity in an organization into three things, there are three things that rise to the surface. There's a culture, firstly, of team over individual.
A culture of team over individual. There's usually a leader or a set of leaders that everyone can get behind, that everyone will rally behind. And then lastly, there is a cause that everyone's bought into. Those three elements show up in unified teams. And the reason that this is true is because God has designed us this way. We have been designed to function and to flourish as a unified team when these three things are present.
And they show up in our text today. We're in Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 6. And in this text, we're going to see a culture of unity, a culture of team over individual, a culture of whole church over individual Christian. We're going to see the leader that we rally behind. And then we're going to see the cause that we're bought into. So I'm going to read the text.
We will pray. And then we will dive in. Verse 1. Verse 1. Let's pray.
God, I'm thankful for this word. I pray that we would receive it. I pray that we'd be able to be present. And I pray that you would go to work on our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so he starts out, verse 1.
He says, I therefore. So that therefore is the big shift. From the first three chapters to the next three chapters as he closes out. I love it because it builds off of what was preached last week, Chet. Preached on the love of Christ. It was a summary of the first three chapters.
And the depth of the love. The height of the love of Christ. The greatness of the love of Christ. So everything in those first three chapters. All the force of that gets pulled in to these first few verses. And he says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord.
So that little insertion there is him saying, I'm in prison for you. He's writing this letter from prison to this church. And he's letting them know, I'm in prison so that you would believe the gospel. I'm in prison so that you would get this. So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the calling.
So he's heightening it up. Showing the importance of what he's getting ready to say. He says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord. Urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. And this is when the shift happens. All the theology and doctrine of the first three chapters.
Everything that he says from chapter one. That you were chosen. That you were adopted. That you were sealed by the Holy Spirit. That you were dead in sin. That you received grace that you could not earn.
All of that that went into your redemption. You were called to walk in a manner worthy of that. So he's continuing to heighten it up. And at this point, the Ephesian church imagined when they originally heard this. They kind of saw what was coming. These letters, like the Ephesians and Galatians and 1st and 2nd Corinthians.
These letters circulated throughout all the churches. So they're probably familiar with how Paul writes. And they're probably wondering what's coming up. That he's getting ready to address some things that are going on in this church. So they're nervously awaiting.
And then he shifts into the next verse. He says, with all humility and gentleness. With patience. Bearing with one another in love. Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. In the bond of peace.
And when they get to that. At that point, they see it coming. I mean, he kind of tipped his hand a little bit in chapter two. When he mentioned that the wall of hostility. That was between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Those who were not Jewish.
That there is disunity in this church. And he is going to address it. And he starts by addressing it with the first principle. A culture of team over individual. It is not about you. It's about the church as a whole.
Disunity was a major problem in the Ephesian church. And many other churches in the New Testament. Because of these differences between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. And he starts by addressing it. Addressing the pride that is dividing them. By mentioning with humility.
With humility. Alright, so that word humility. In the Greek. In the original language that this was written in. Was not a word that Greco-Romans across the Roman Empire were familiar with. It's not a word that they used.
In fact, we don't really even see it show up. Until the New Testament starts using it. They basically had to invent this word. Because in Greco-Roman culture. Humility was not a quality. Being proud.
Being confident. That was a quality. That they upheld. But they didn't. Humility wasn't a thing for them. So they had to invent a word.
And a concept. For a culture that didn't understand it. Which I think. Is actually really cool. That they got to invent something. We actually don't see this word used.
In contemporary non-Christian sources. Until after the early churches begun. I think that's pretty cool. They got to invent a word. And a concept. For a culture.
That didn't really understand humility. And the English language. We don't get to do that. I mean. We don't get to invent cool things. The words that we get.
Introduced in our language now. Are words like yellow. Which somebody should punch Drake in the face. Forever mentioning that word. We get words like squad goals. And phrases like that.
We get words like clap back. Right? I was in the office the other day. And I was talking to Matt. I was talking to Chet. And I used clap back.
It just came out of my mouth. And they said. What? What did you say? I said. You know.
I clapped back. And I could look into their eyes. And I could tell. What they were thinking. Like we had so much hope for you. Like when you came here.
We had so much hope for you. And you just crushed it. Because you used the word clap back in the sentence. And I was like. It's like. You know.
You say something to somebody. And you insult them. And they clap back. And they insult you back. Like I saw it on Twitter. I won't use it again.
Like we. We even had the dumbest things. We even had things like triggered. And microaggressions. Which are my two favorite awful ones now. That you.
Someone could say something to you. That would so offend you. It would trigger you. And cause microaggressions. Small aggressions. Like that.
That blows my mind. That we invent stupid things like that. We don't get to invent cool words. And cool concepts. Like humility. But they did.
They got to bring that into their language. To show them. The value of humility. And Paul. He goes after their pride with it. He goes after their pride.
To show. How these Jews and these Gentiles. Have been divided. Because both of these groups. Jews and Gentiles. Both thought that their backgrounds were better.
They both thought that their culture was more superior. So you can imagine. How their early community groups were. How they were. I mean. You had.
If there was ever a problem in them. You had Jews on one side. That were like. Listen. We're the chosen ones. We've been here.
For like 2,000 years. You guys just got brought into this. Like. The problem must be with you guys. We certainly can't be the problem. On the other side.
You got Romans. And Greeks. And Africans. Who are like. What are you talking about? Like.
We're Roman citizens. We're dignified. We've. Guess what. We just got a copy of the Old Testament. And we've seen your history.
You guys fight all the time. It has to be on you. And these two sides. Are. Are completely. Divided.
In a lot of ways. Because of their cultural backgrounds. Because they both. Are prideful. And they think. That they're better than one another.
Because here's the deal. Pride. It kills humility. Because if you think you're better than someone else. If you think that you're always right. That you've always got the right answers.
You've always got the right ideas. You can't actually ever be truly unified. I mean. Many of us. We've been in community groups. In churches.
With people. That are just like this. They always think that they're right. The church that I came from previously. Was in a. A seminary.
A city. With a big seminary. And there's a lot of groups. That had seminary people in it. And man. Sometimes seminary people are the worst.
I was one of them. But man. They. They would argue over the smallest of things. And they always. Always.
Always had to be right. Always had to get the last word in. And it's like. Then arguments can come out of that. And people can get upset. And then you might go to reconcile with someone.
Who always thinks they're right. You might go and say. Man. I'm sorry. I got. I got heated.
And then they'll come back with. Oh. I'm sorry. You got upset. That's a non-apology. That's.
I mean. That's not. An apology is. I'm sorry. I sinned against you. Will you forgive me?
It's not. I'm sorry. You got upset. And. And. And you see this happen.
In community groups. And if you're like. Man. I've never seen this. I've never actually. I don't think I've ever come across people like that.
There may be people in your group. That are thinking it's you. Pride shows up in a lot of different ways. It shows up when. Maybe you have someone in your group. That you were just annoyed by.
Like man. Because. Because sometimes you get in groups of people that have. Completely different personalities. And you're like. Man.
That person annoys the crap out of me. And I know. That. I know I can't just like dip out. I know that we're supposed to stay in this together. But man.
I can. I can avoid them. I can not return their texts. If they want to hang out. I don't have to return their phone calls. You know what?
I think it's time for us to launch a new group. We need to be more missional. You know what we'll do? We'll launch a new group. And when we launch this new group. We're going to send them out.
And then I'm good. I don't have to hang out with them anymore. Listen. If that is your mindset. You need to know. This is free.
That our God is a God of irony. He just is. And if that's your mindset. Get ready. You will be with that person. For the next three group cycles.
Like it's just. That. Because. If we just get to hang out with people. That are just like us. If we just hang out with people.
That have the same interests. And that don't bug us. How are we ever going to grow. In actually loving people? How are we ever going to grow. And actually be able to.
To endure different personalities. No. We have to grow in this. The last way I see pride. There's many ways. But the last one I'll mention.
As far as that I see pride. Sometimes. Some of us. Will listen to sermons. Or will read the Bible. And will think.
This is good for somebody else. Now. Encouraging someone with. A word. Encouraging somebody with. Something you heard in a sermon.
Is fine. But here's the deal. If you're listening to a sermon. Or you're reading the Bible. And you're not letting it impact. Your own heart first.
And at the overflow of that. Encouraging others. It comes from a place of pride. Pride. Destroys. Unity.
And that's why Paul addresses it. On the front end. And then he goes into the next part of the approach. He goes into. Gentleness. He calls them to gentleness.
Now. If you're like me. This is a struggle. Gentleness for me. Is a struggle. Because.
I go hard after everything. I will bring a sledgehammer. To take out a tiny nail. That's just my MO. Like I just get excited about things. And Matt and Chet first realized this.
Really early on. When I got here. That I would get excited about the smallest of things. And would get all intense about the smallest of things. That is why you've heard so many jokes about Chipotle over the last year. It's brilliant.
Because the Chipotle MO's debate. It illustrates two things. It illustrates the differences that are there. Petting one against the other. But underneath it all.
It's Chet just giving a small dig. Because he knows. That gets me stirred up. Because I'm like. Listen. Chipotle's obviously better.
Mo's has rice pellets. You can't call that a burrito. Just because you have queso. That's not how that works. And I get all excited about this kind of stuff. And it's.
And it's fun. Right? But gentle. The lack of gentleness is not fun when it's my daughter. It's not fun when I'm raising my daughter. And my wife reminds me of this consistently.
She's like. You can't have the same tone. For every misstep that she has. You can't be that way. And I just come hard after every little thing. Like when she.
Is spazzing out. And swings at my wife. That ain't gonna fly in our house. The tone needs to be sharp. But that is not the same.
As when she smells juice on the couch. Or when she does something small. And the wife says. You can't. You can't blow up over every little thing. You can't get intense about every little thing.
You have to have a tone difference. You have to learn. Gentleness. So my wife comes. In a spirit of gentleness. To correct me in this.
And to help me see. And I am. I am trying to grow. In gentleness. But I am thankful.
That she comes alongside. In a spirit of gentleness. As Galatians 6 says. To help me on this. And the same way. That is what we are called to do.
With other people in our group. With other Christians. That we are walking alongside of. We are called to. When. Maybe someone gets offended.
Maybe you get offended. By what someone says. Or someone says something mean to you. Or your wife. Or your friend. Man.
You don't respond with a sledgehammer. You don't come hard. We come with a spirit of gentleness. How. How much more unified. Would the church be.
If we address one another. Like surgeons. With a scalpel. As opposed to coming out. With some brute force. We are called.
To gentleness. To strive for it. And then Paul keeps going. He says. With. Patience.
With patience. Patience. Patience is not putting up. With somebody. For. For a few different.
Community group meeting times. That's not patience. We have a warped. Sense of time. Because of our culture. Because in our culture.
Everything happens. Instantly. I can pull out my phone. Order food. It comes in less than 30 minutes. I can look at news.
That is happening. In remote parts of the world. All the way across the globe. Everything is happening. Like that. And we have this.
Warped sense of time. That we bring into the church. That we think. Relationships. Should happen. Just like that.
And it messes with the fact. That relationships. Take time. Life together. Takes time. It is walking with someone.
For a year. For two years. For five years. As they learn to walk. In the grace. That Jesus provides.
That's why Jesus says. You don't forgive seven times. No. You forgive. 77 times. I mean.
Think about how long. That kind of relationship is. You need to forgive someone. 77 times. Some of you are like. Man.
You didn't see in our group. That's like a week. Maybe. For most of us. That is a long period of time. Of enduring.
It takes. Patience. As we walk with one another. Which means. That you don't get to run. At the first sign of trouble.
At the first sign of trouble. You don't get to dip out. And switch groups. And leave churches. That's not how this works. Like you don't get to do that.
With your own family. Most of the time. Like with my daughter. When she wakes up from a nap. Sometimes she just wakes up angry. Like I always walk in.
I'm like. How's it going to be? Is she going to be happy? Or is she going to be ticked? And then sometimes she wakes up. And she's ticked.
I'm like. You were too. What possibly. Could you be angry about? I don't get to just shut the door. And say.
You're in here all day. Deuces. And walk out. That's. You don't get to do that with your own family. You don't get to do that with church family.
You don't get to just dip out. The first sign of trouble. Leave group. Leave the church. Nah. It's patience.
We're called to walk in patience. And then Paul. He keeps going. He says bearing with one another in love. Bearing with one another in love. Man.
I'm thankful for the sermon last week. I encourage you to go listen to it if you were not here. We need to grow in reclaiming the depth and the height and the beauty of the love of Christ. Because here's what happened in the American church. In the American church throughout the 60s and the 70s the hippie movement happened. And then like the hippie movement got attached to.
That free love and everything else got attached to Jesus. And the picture of Jesus in the 70s was. He was a hippie. And he. He was like. I love everyone.
Doesn't matter how you live. It's just. It's all. You just love everybody. It's all good. And then.
In the American church. There was a response. Because we saw that. And it's cheap in love. And we said. No.
No. No. No. I like the picture of Jesus. When he's making a whip. And he's beating people out of the temple.
Because our Jesus is about truth. And then a lot of us just bang the truth drum. Man. We bang the heck out of it. We're about truth. And theology.
It's not about this cheap version of love. It's about truth. And doctrine. And theology. And we go all hyped up. And excited.
And we listen to pastors online. And what we did. Was we pitted truth against love. We create a false dichotomy. Which is two different truths. They can go together.
But we say that they don't. We love on one side. And truth on the other. And it's like. That's. Maturity is realizing that those two go together.
I mean. Jesus sums up the entire Old Testament law. All the theology in two ways. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love your neighbor.
So we. We. We fail to. To grow into this. If we don't realize that those. Go together.
If we don't deepen our understanding. Of love. Loving. And bearing with one another in love. Looks like. It looks like.
When you're a mom. And another mom in our church. Or in our community group. This happened a lot in the church that I was at previously. Some mom posts. The most ridiculous.
Over the top. Judgmental. Opinionated mom blog. And it's like. If you don't rub essential oils. On your child's eyes.
Before they go to bed. You hate them. And they will grow up awful. It's like. What. What is this?
Like there are so many. Terrible mom blogs. They're the worst. And someone would post something. That was so outrageous. And so over the top.
And it would make other moms. Like man. I'm a bad mom. I'm a. And then. And then.
What happens out of that. Is. I'm done with her. I don't want to hang out with her. I'm unfriending her on Facebook. I don't want to be in community group with her.
I don't want to deal with her. I was like. No. That's not the response of a Christian. That's not what we're called to. We're called to bear with one another in love.
Now there may be a conversation. That comes out of that. That is. That is reconciled. That said. This isn't helpful.
This is actually hurtful. But you don't get to just block people out. Because. Of stuff like this. We're called to bear with one another in love. This looks like when.
Again. If you've got someone who's just got a different personality than you. It's like. No. You don't get to block them out. This looks when.
When someone hurts you. When someone offends you. When someone sins against you. You don't get to just say. I'm done. We're called to bear with one another.
In love. So Paul. He's driving this home. For the Ephesian church. And for us. He starts to.
To show us. The culture of team. And one another. Over individual. And then he starts to transition. Into the leader that we rallied behind.
He says in verse 3. Eager to maintain. The unity of the spirit. In the bond. Of peace. And what we see here.
To start out with. Is that our leader. Is our God. Spoiler alert. I bet you didn't see that coming. Like our leader.
Is our God. And he focuses on the Holy Spirit. And he's getting ready to unpack the Trinity. That's showing up in verses 4 through 6. But he starts with the Holy Spirit here.
And it's a good reminder for us. Because the Holy Spirit. Is inside each of us. Those who believe the gospel. He reigns inside of us. The understanding is.
Is that the church. Is the new temple of God. The Old Testament. There was the temple. And that's where God's presence was. And that's where he ruled and reigned from.
In the New Testament. We are the church. We are the temple. And God resides in us. And his Holy Spirit. Is inside of us.
And why that's important here. Is because we are all bound together. By the spirit. We are all bound together. By peace. Which means.
We're not meant to be divided. Because God doesn't want his spirit. Divided against one another. So he says the bond of peace here. And the word for bond here. Conveys a couple ideas.
It's used in the bonding together of a building. Into a sturdy structure. This word bond is also used. Into the binding together of individual threads. That make up an entire garment. Paul in Colossians.
He uses it. As how ligaments. Bind a body together. And hold a body together. And out of that. He says there's no individual here.
There's no Jew. There's no Greek. There's one body. Bound by one spirit. Which means there's no more hostility. There's no more hostility.
Because of the peace of Christ. Because individualism. Crushes unity. And that individualism. It took a hard turn in the 16th century. When the enlightenment happened.
And the enlightenment happened. And we took the focus off of God. And creation. And we turned it on ourselves. And we thought about how great we were. And then modernism happened.
And then recently. We're in the age of post-modernism. And we're on the back end of post-modernism. The narcissistic. Inwardly focused version of it. That means it's all about you.
Our culture says it's all about you. Your thoughts. Your ideas. Your feelings. Your truth. You have to live your truth.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard some version of that. Now we in the church understand there's absolute truth. And that that is a ridiculous statement. A ridiculous thought. But here's how that kind of individualism seeps into the church on a practical level.
It shows up when somebody is. Maybe they're sleeping with their boyfriend or their girlfriend. Or maybe they're doing something they're not supposed to do. Or maybe they're choosing something that is just not good for them. And someone else in their community group. Or a group of people in their community group are saying.
I don't know if you should be doing. I'm looking at the Bible. And we're praying. We love you. We don't think that you should be. We don't think this isn't good for you.
And the hyper-spiritualized version of individualism. A person says, no, no, no, no. This is. It's about. God wants me to be happy. Or the even hyper-spiritual version is.
Is that. No, God told me. The Holy Spirit told me. And everyone else who loves them. Who has the same Holy Spirit inside them. Is praying to the same God.
And looking at the same Bible. Saying, no, no, no. I think you're an heir. And we make it about ourselves. And that kind of individualism. It crushes unity.
So he starts in this. And he kind of completes the thought here. Of team over individual. And he introduces leader. And then the leader that we follow really shows up. In verses 4 through 6.
He says, there is one body. And one spirit. Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord. One faith. One baptism.
One God and Father of all. Who is over all and through all. And in all. So Paul, he attaches that culture of unity that he's been building. To the leader that we follow. And the cause that unites us.
And he drives home that unity idea. By using the same word seven times. And when you hear it. You're supposed to feel the force of it. He says one. One.
One. One. One. One. One. One.
One. It is supposed to be that forceful. That you would understand. The oneness. That he is striving for here. The oneness.
That is in the Trinity. He introduces Father, Son, and Holy Spirit here. And we are called to reflect. The God that we're made in his image. We're called to reflect. The unity.
Of our God. That there's one spirit. That unifies us. That we belong to one Lord. Jesus. That there's one God.
And Father of all. And in order to understand that. We need to have a better understanding. Of the oneness that is within the Trinity. That our trinean God. Is one.
He's eternally. Existed. As three. And as one. Before time was created. God has perfectly been unified.
In himself. Now there's a lot of attempts. There has been a lot of attempts. To oversimplify. Our understanding of the Trinity. I've heard people say.
It's kind of like water. It's when it's frozen. It's ice. But when it melts. It's water. And then when you heat it up.
It's gas. It's like our God is one. He's got three forms. Or I hear people say. No. It's like a man who's.
He has one role as a father. He has another role as a son. And he has another role as a brother. Any explanation like that. Is actually a heretical understanding of the Trinity. That goes back to the third, fourth, and fifth century.
It's not one God, three modes. We don't try to oversimplify who our God is. He is three. And he is one. I had a professor once tell me. That when you think of his threeness.
And you thought of his threeness too long. You shift back to his oneness. And when you thought of his oneness too long. You think of his threeness. And the beauty of this. Is that our God is in perfect relationship with himself.
He is perfectly unified. And we are made in his image. Which is why. When our community groups. Are great. Like we are loving one another.
We're serving one another. We're unified. We love it. We love our community group. We love when we meet. It's awesome.
But man. When somebody is mad at someone else. When there's bitterness. When there's sin. That's breaking people up. Man.
How fun is our community group then? How fun is meeting together once a week then? Man. It can be brutal. Because we are not imaging our God. We're not flourishing in the way that we're supposed to.
And being made in his image. God wants us to be unified. As he is unified. God. And he wants us to buy into the cause that unites us. Which is what we see in these final verses.
He says. Just as you were called. To the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord. One faith. One baptism.
One God and Father of all. Who is over all. And through all. And in all. And the cause is this. The cause is the gospel.
That's what we talk about all the time. And it shows up here. And the one hope. That binds us together. The one hope. That is actualized.
That is real. That Peter. And first Peter calls a living hope. It is alive. We get to see it. In part now.
And we get to fully take part in it. In the future. That right now. God. The hope we have. Is he has made us new.
And that one day. Down the line. There's a day coming. When everything is going to be made new. When everyone is going to be made new. There will be no more sin.
There will be no more pain. We will forever be in the presence. Of our God. That is the hope. That we get to see in part now. We're united by the one faith.
That he mentions here. The one faith. That we could not earn. The one faith. That was given to us. The one faith.
That was secured. By the life. Death. And resurrection. Of our Savior. And we're bound together.
By the sign of the one baptism. Now that's the internal baptism. The changing of our hearts. That is also. What we get to celebrate. Here.
Coming up on this Easter Sunday. That we're going to have some people. In a heated tub. Right in front of us. They're going to step into the waters. And they're going to say.
Jesus is Lord. And they're going to be dunked in the water. Which is a sign that you were dead in sin. And they're going to be brought back up. That you are alive. In Christ.
We are bound together. By that sign. We are bound together. And unified. By the gospel. So the hope coming out of this.
Is that if you've not fully bought into this. If you've been trusting in anything else. Other than the finished work. Of Jesus on the cross. If you thought that your good works can save you. If you thought that your church attendance could save you.
If you thought that anything else. Could stand in your place. And the hope and the appeal is this. That you would believe this. That you would be fully bought in. That you would trust in Jesus as your only hope.
And that you would see that Jesus is better. Than everything else. And that out of that. We would continue to apply the gospel. That's why we talk so much about. Gospel fluency in our church.
That we would apply the gospel. In every aspect of our life. Because that is the cause that unites us. That is the cause that keeps us together. The beauty of it is. Is that we have a father.
Who sent his son. To purchase us his bride. And that as Ephesians says. He has sent the Holy Spirit. As our guarantee. As our down payment.
That we have a triune God. Who is the leader of our church. And we have a cause. The cause of the gospel. That unites us. And that out of that.
We strive. For a culture of unity. We strive. For it to be more about ourselves. More than about ourselves. But about the church.
About one another. Another. So that's what we're going to. Practice this morning.
