[0:00] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, you're probably aware this is my last time in this pulpit, or at least my last time in this pulpit as one of your elders.
[0:11] And I was thinking through, what should I preach on this morning? What text should I go to? What should my final sermon be? What's the final encouragement, the final prayer that I have for Grace Fellowship Church?
[0:24] And the Lord directed my thoughts to a passage in John chapter 17. And John chapter 17 is this prayer. We call it the high priestly prayer of Jesus, because here we see Jesus.
[0:38] He's serving as this great high priest. That means he's interceding with God on our behalf. And because he's doing that, he's praying on our behalf. I thought that would be a good place for us to go.
[0:49] What did Jesus pray for us? So you can turn to John chapter 17. The context of this prayer, Jesus has been doing his public ministry for three years. And the time, he knows, is drawing near to an end.
[1:03] And beginning back in chapter 13 of John, Jesus begins what's been called his farewell address, his farewell discourse. It's really his last words before his betrayal and his arrest and his crucifixion.
[1:17] And here he is. He's speaking to his disciples in this upper room. And he's told them, I am going away. He's told them, in a little while, you will see me no longer.
[1:28] And then in chapter 17, he prays. He prays. In fact, it turns out that the final words before his arrest are going to be words of prayer, are going to be this prayer.
[1:39] And in John chapter 17, he begins by praying for himself. And then he transitions and he prays for his disciples, these men who are in the upper room with him, the ones who will become the apostles.
[1:52] And then in verse 20, he prays for all believers. Go ahead and look at verse 20. Jesus says this. He says, I do not ask for these only, for the disciples, for the apostles, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
[2:12] Which means that Jesus here is praying for you if you're a believer. He's praying for me. He's confident that the word, the message that the apostles will give will result in future people coming to know Christ.
[2:27] He's sure that that's going to happen. And don't you love that? Jesus was so certain that this gospel message would have success that he could pray that there will be those who will believe in me.
[2:38] He knew there was going to be those who would turn to Christ through the power and efficacy of the gospel message. And so here he prays for those people. He prays for all believers.
[2:48] He prays for you and for me. So what does he pray? What is at the core, what's at the heart of this prayer? If you were praying for the church universal, what would you pray?
[3:01] What would be at the heart of your prayer? I mean, perhaps you'd pray for the holiness of the church. That God would keep the church pure. Perhaps you'd pray about the ways in which you don't want to see the church following after the ways of the world.
[3:15] And so keep it pure. Or perhaps you'd pray that it would remain doctrinally solid. Or maybe there's a particular issue that you feel is seeping into the church. And you'd pray that, Lord, keep that issue out of the church.
[3:26] Don't let that issue damage the church. Or maybe you'd pray along the lines of missions, evangelism. Lord, help the church to do that work. Lord, make your people true worshipers. All sorts of things we could pray.
[3:37] And those are great things to pray. We should pray them. But they're not what Jesus prays. I want you to listen as I read our text. And I want you to make note of what is at the core of his prayer.
[3:48] What's the main thrust of his prayer. So I'm going to read from John chapter 17, verses 20 through 26. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
[4:03] Father, I desire that they all be one.
[4:33] That also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory that you've given me because you loved me before the foundations of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you.
[4:47] And these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name. And I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
[4:59] That's the end of our reading. So the main desire, the main concern, the main prayer of Jesus, the thing he focuses on in his last moments together with his disciples.
[5:12] You probably caught it. He prays for unity. He prays that they may all be one and unified. As I was thinking about this passage, I thought, boy, in many ways that's perfect.
[5:22] Because those of you that have listened to me and kind of put up with my preaching for so many years now, you remember we started in Ephesians. And one of those main ideas of the book of Ephesians is this unity, this oneness that's in the body of Christ.
[5:36] And this body of Christ has many members but is one. There's this unity. You might remember we even started looking at the book of Acts. And we didn't finish it. But what's going on in the early church, first century church?
[5:49] You see God knitting together this early church and this just incredible unity and fellowship that they have. And here, Jesus prays that the church would know unity.
[6:01] And that's going to be my encouragement to you this morning, that you will grow in unity. Now, we might ask why? Why unity? Why focus on that? Why does Jesus focus on unity?
[6:12] And we'll get there. I want to talk about that. And we'll eventually look at what unity does and what are the results of unity and why unity is so essential for God's people. But before we look at why unity, I'd like for us to focus on what is unity and how do we get unity.
[6:28] So here's where we'll go this morning. First, we'll look at the definition of unity. What is unity? Then the source of unity. How do we get unity? And then we'll focus on the results of unity.
[6:40] What are the results of unity? So the definition of unity. What is unity? If you look in the dictionary, the dictionary defines it as the state of being united or joined as a whole.
[6:53] There's this idea of togetherness. There's this idea of a singleness of spirit. We're united. You know, after 9-11, that was a catchphrase we saw all over the place. United we stand, right?
[7:04] And you know the idea of that. We're not broken apart by this. We're solidified. We're united. It's the opposite of disunity. Disunity is being fractured and broken and combatant.
[7:16] Now you may have noticed here that Jesus never uses the word unity. You can look through this passage and that word never comes up. But instead he speaks of being one. Of being one. You see it in verse 21. That they may all be one.
[7:28] Verse 22. That they may be one. Verse 23. That they may become perfectly one. So there's this strong idea of oneness. And Jesus prays that you and the person next to you and the person in the pew in front of you and the person in the pew behind you, that you would all be one.
[7:47] The many becoming one. You know, that's the same sort of language we use when we talk about marriage, isn't it? We talk about marriage as the two becoming one. That's Jesus' prayer for his people, for Christians.
[7:58] Would the many become one? There's this singleness of purpose. There's this singleness of affections. There's this singleness of commitments. Now I want you to realize this unity that we're talking about is not uniformity.
[8:13] Uniformity does not equal unity. Uniformity is when everyone is exactly the same. You know, it's like the kids in private school, right?
[8:23] They wear a uniform and you watch them coming out the front door down the steps and they all look the same. They're all dressed exactly the same. Or it's like those development communities where they build the houses and every house is identical.
[8:36] Every house is uniform. They look the same. We use the word uniform for soldiers in an army, right? And kids, if you can picture all the soldiers lined up in the army, they are wearing the same uniform.
[8:46] They look the same. And uniform is not the same as unity. Jesus' prayer is not that God's people would be uniform and look exactly the same, but that they would have unity. And we know God doesn't expect us to all be exactly the same because he's the one who's created us and he's designed us with different personalities and different mannerisms and different giftings.
[9:06] We know from his word, if you go to Romans chapter 12 or 1 Corinthians 12, that while we are one body, we are many parts. And we all have different abilities and different giftings.
[9:18] Ephesians 4 talks about how he gave some to be this and he gave some to be that. So we're not uniform. We're not clones of one another. One commentator that I was reading pointed out that he says, The insistence that others be just like us is one of the most disunifying forces in the church of Jesus Christ.
[9:42] The insistence that others be just like us is one of the most disunifying forces in the church of Jesus Christ. You know, I don't need to insist that everyone have the same exact opinion as me, right?
[9:55] As if I've got kind of the sanctioned holy opinion and every other Christian must look uniform and must look identical to me. You know, we don't all have to prefer the same Bible translation.
[10:07] You like the ESV. You like the NIV. You're in the King James. Do we have to look uniform? No. We don't all have to look alike. We don't all have to prefer the same exact hymns or the same songs.
[10:19] So you like the hymns from the Baroque era and you like the revivalistic hymns and you like something that was written in the last 30 years. We don't all have to be uniform. We don't all have to educate our children in the same exact way.
[10:34] You do private school. You do homeschooling. You do public school. And that's okay. We're not called to be uniform in those areas. Don't all have to vote for the same political party.
[10:44] Believe it or not. There does not need to be uniformity in that. You see, to insist that everyone see things your way is to insist on uniformity, not unity.
[10:57] Now, are there issues we must all agree on? Certainly. There are very important issues that we must all agree on. But let's be careful about what we lump into the category of these essential non-negotiables.
[11:11] And let's be very careful that we think through what is the essential non-negotiable. So, brothers and sisters, can you, even though someone has a different opinion than you, and someone may have a significantly different opinion than you, can you see that you can still be united to one another?
[11:28] Even though you're not identical, even though you're not clones of one another, you can still be united to one another by the blood of Christ. Think of it this way. Imagine we put in the same room all sorts of great men of Christian history.
[11:45] Let's put Augustine in there, and John Calvin, and let's throw in John Wesley, and Charles Spurgeon, and Billy Graham. And imagine we can take all these guys and put them in the same room together.
[11:56] Would they have uniformity of thinking? No. If they got talking on different issues, they would begin to disagree, and they're going to start debating predestination or whatever.
[12:07] But are they united? Are they united in Christ, the way that Jesus prays that the church would be united? They most certainly are. Now, that leads to something else I'd like for us to think about, and that's this.
[12:20] Your unity with other Christians is not just with present believers. The unity in the church is not just with those who are in the room with you. It's not just with those who are currently alive.
[12:32] Your unity is with Christians from across the ages. So, through Christ, you are united with John Calvin. Through Christ, you're united with Augustine.
[12:44] Through Christ, you're united with the Apostle Paul or the Apostle Peter. Which means that part of Christ's prayer here is that there would be this continuity with the church across the ages.
[12:56] There would be this similarity, this unitedness of the church across the ages. We're united with the Apostle Paul because we still adhere to those same apostolic doctrines that we find Paul teaching in the New Testament.
[13:10] And so, the teaching in the New Testament is the same teaching that you should hear taught from this pulpit. Because we're united with our brothers even in the first century. And so, brothers and sisters, if I could encourage you to guard this pulpit.
[13:25] Guard this pulpit. Make sure that this is a church that proclaims the apostolic truth that goes all the way back to the first century. Guard this pulpit. Now, you have men who will guard it.
[13:35] These are elders that I've labored with and they're going to guard this pulpit. But it's your job as well. Listen to what's being taught. Is it in line with apostolic truth? Because Christ wants us to be united.
[13:48] United even across the ages. So, we've defined unity. Secondly, what is the source of that unity? What's the source?
[14:00] Where does this unity come from? Well, it's very clear in Jesus' prayer. If you look at this passage, you'll see that the unity comes from God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
[14:13] In fact, in this passage, three different times, Jesus repeats the fact that there's this correlation between this unity in the church and the unity that exists amongst the members of the Trinity.
[14:25] So, you see in verse 21, Jesus prays that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. Or in verse 22, towards the end, he prays that they may be one, even as we, talking to God the Father, even as we are one.
[14:42] Or verse 23, I in them and you in me, that we may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. So, the source of our unity, the source of the unity that exists within the church, is found in the Godhead.
[14:59] Now, we can look at this source of unity on kind of two different levels. We could say it this way. God is both the model and the enabler of our unity. That is, we have unity because it's modeled for us by God, and we have unity because it's enabled for us by God.
[15:15] And I want to look at both of those. So, first, the unity that we should have is modeled for us by the unity that's enjoyed between the three persons of the Trinity, the Father and the Spirit and the Son.
[15:27] I mean, if you think about it, the Trinity is the perfect example of a place where there's not uniformity, but there is certainly unity. Trinity, and it boggles the mind, but you've got three different persons in the Trinity, and they are of one essence.
[15:41] There's three who are one. So, there's never any pull. There's never any pull between the members of the Trinity. There's not infighting or disagreement.
[15:51] You never have this thing going on where Jesus says, well, let's do this, and God the Father says, no, I think we ought to do that. They're united. Well, how are they united? We could say, first of all, they're united in their purpose and their mission.
[16:04] They're united in their purpose and mission. They all agree about what God is up to. They agree that the glory of God is paramount. They agree that sin is ugly and must be punished.
[16:16] They agree that they should accomplish the redemption of sinful men. So, they're united in their purpose and their mission. They're also united in the mutual love that they have for one another.
[16:27] The Father loves the Son and the Spirit. The Son loves the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit loves the Son and the Father. There's this incredible unity of love that they have for one another.
[16:42] And that's a model for us. The unity that we see amongst the Trinity is a model for how we ought to be. Just as the members of the Trinity are united, so ought we to be united with one another. So, brothers and sisters, do you have a unity of purpose and mission?
[16:57] Even here within this local congregation, is there a unity of purpose and mission? Why is this church here? For what reason does Grace Fellowship Church exist? If some of you think it's a social club, I have good friends here, and others think its main goal is evangelism, and others of you think that this church is really here to help straighten out my kids, then there's not a unity of purpose.
[17:22] There's not a unity of mission. Or, brothers and sisters, do you have that unity of mutual love that we see exemplified in the Trinity? Do you genuinely love one another?
[17:33] That biblical, selfless love, that love that's ready to forgive, even 70 times 7, if that's what it takes. It's that love that's ready to take the hit, to absorb the pain, for the benefit of someone else.
[17:48] It's that love that's ready to humbly admit to error. It's that love that's ready to give your resources, your time, your money, to help someone else. It's that sort of love that's modeled for us in the members of the Trinity.
[18:03] But the Trinity is not merely a model for us. It's not just some sort of example that we should follow. It is that, but it's more. Our unity is not just modeled by God.
[18:16] Our unity is enabled by God. Listen, Grace Fellowship Church will not be united because it knows that God the Trinity is united.
[18:29] Just having that head knowledge isn't going to unite you. It's not enough for the Trinity to just kind of be a nice model. It's a nice example. Here's what we ought to be. And so, hey, let's make sure we all go and do it.
[18:40] You see, the reason that you can all be united, one with the other, is that Christ, in securing your redemption, has also knit you together in love. Your unity is enabled by God.
[18:54] Jesus died on the cross to unite you. Ephesians says that because of Christ, the dividing wall of hostility, this dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, has been torn down.
[19:07] It says it's because of Christ that you've been adopted into a family and so you've become brother and sister to one another. It's because of Christ that you're members of a body who cooperate with one another.
[19:18] It's because of Christ that you're one of those stones in this beautiful building, this temple that God's building, and you're supporting those above you and being supported by those below you. It's because of Christ that that's possible.
[19:31] God's not just a model of your unity. He's the enabler of your unity. The path to this unity with one another lies first in being united to God.
[19:44] You see this in the middle of verse 21. Jesus first says that he wants all Christians to be one, and then in that verse he mentions the oneness he has with the Father. And then he says this.
[19:56] He says, it's wild. He says that they also may be in us. The they as Christians, that they also may be in us. You see, this crazy thing happens when you become a Christian.
[20:09] You become united with God. You are in Christ. 1 Corinthians 6 says that he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
[20:20] You know, in this regard, verse 23 says something astounding because Jesus says to God, he says, you have loved them, you've loved Christians, even as you have loved me.
[20:32] That even as can actually be translated just as. You've loved Christians just as to the same degree that you've loved me. And so we have this marvelous union with God.
[20:45] And when we're united with God, that's how we become united with one another. The unbelieving world will never know the kind of unity that can exist within the church of God's people.
[21:00] They won't. They can't. Because this unity only comes as Christ redeems us and as the Holy Spirit works in us to draw us closer to the Father.
[21:11] You see, there's this thing going on. In drawing nearer to the Father, we draw nearer to one another. Kids, have you ever gotten to play with magnets? Magnets are fun to play with, okay?
[21:25] And you've had a magnet, and then you've had maybe little pieces of metal like paper clips or just shavings of metal. And you know the way in which you can take that magnet and all those other paper clips are drawn to the magnet.
[21:39] It's a good picture for us of what happens with God. God's the magnet, and we become, through the work of Christ, drawn to Him. But notice, we're all drawn to God together, and we find ourselves closer together.
[21:50] Just like those paper clips find that they were spread out, but the magnet draws them together. God the Father draws us together. It's a helpful illustration, although it maybe doesn't show that we were paper clips that hated God and hated one another, right?
[22:04] We were like the similar ends of a magnet that have that opposition, the north and north, that pushed against each other. And God fundamentally changes us, and He draws us to Himself, and then we find ourselves drawn to one another.
[22:21] So, brothers and sisters, if you find yourself wanting to become more unified, where do you start? Well, you start by drawing closer to God, by drawing near to Him, loving Him better, serving Him better, pursuing Him more, knowing Him better.
[22:38] As we are drawn to God, we are drawn closer to one another. But I'll tell you this, just as unity in marriage doesn't come automatically, you have to work at it, right?
[22:53] Some of you are looking at me like, really? Okay. Just as you have to work at unity in marriage, so in the church, there is a degree to which we have to work at it. If we want there to be unity from pew to pew, it's something we have to invest in.
[23:07] You have to pursue God, but you have also got to pursue others. And so what that means is, if I am going to pursue others, I have to intentionally say no to my own selfish desires, my inclinations, so that I can love others.
[23:29] It means I have to get out of the pew and actually go shake hands with that person who has been attending the church for six months and I don't even know their name, right? It means perhaps sacrificing your Saturday because there's that brother in need and it would be good to spend time with him, right?
[23:49] I pursue unity. It means giving up your Friday night to practice hospitality and bring another brother or sister or family into your home. You see, unity is something you should be working towards.
[24:02] Relationships do require effort. That's why I think Jesus had to pray about this. He knew that relationships don't come naturally, that unity doesn't come naturally.
[24:14] Now, are you already united in Christ? Well, the answer is yes. But do you need further unity? I think the answer is still yes. You need to strive to be what you are.
[24:26] You need to be that which you already are in Christ. Christ's blood has united all of you together and we keep in step with the Spirit and we pursue unity on the day-to-day level.
[24:36] Jesus actually prays here. In the Greek, it's kind of that they would continually be one. The idea is that you already are one and Jesus' prayer here is that you would continue in practice, continually be one with one another.
[24:52] Well, we've seen the definition of unity and we've seen the source of unity. So finally, let's look at the results of unity. What are going to be the results of unity?
[25:05] Grace Fellowship Church. If you are unified, what will it look like? We might say, why should you bother? Is there any benefit to this? Why should you give yourselves to the practice of building church unity?
[25:19] Unity. And let me quickly give you two things that will happen that I find in this passage. There's probably more. But two things that will happen if you strive towards unity.
[25:30] And these two things, these two results of unity, by the way, can also kind of serve as motivators. Because if you can see, boy, if we're unified and it leads to that, I want that.
[25:41] It's kind of like if you try to lose weight, you keep in front of yourself what the results will be. If I lose weight, I'll be healthier, I'll live longer, I'll look good at the beach, whatever it is, you keep that in front of you.
[25:52] And that motivates you to stay on the diet. And so as I give you these results of unity, they can even motivate us, boy, that's what I want. That's where I want to be. So here we go. The first is, your unity will be a witness to the watching world.
[26:08] Your unity will be a witness to the watching world. Look at verse 21. Verse 21 says, 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.
[26:29] You see it also in verse 23. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that, here it is, the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.
[26:44] The world is watching. And Jesus here by the world means the unbelieving world. The world is watching. They're trying to figure out if this God stuff is really real.
[26:56] Is this God stuff legitimate? I mean, think about it. They know they live in a broken world. The world knows that. That's obvious. They see it all the time. They see wars between countries.
[27:07] They see people groups that don't get along. People, racism, kids being bullied in school, marriages that are falling apart, siblings that aren't on speaking terms, neighbors that hate each other.
[27:18] They see road rage. They see riots. They see people yelling at each other in the grocery store checkout. So they know the world's broken. But they also have heard that these Christians claim that something can be different.
[27:31] They say that they love each other. They say that they one another each other. They get along. They call one another brother and sister.
[27:42] And they talk like their family. They claim that Christ's blood doesn't distinguish between Jew and Greek, between male and female, between rich and poor.
[27:54] And so the world wants to know, is this for real? Could this actually be? There's this watching world. So what will they see?
[28:06] What will they see in Hazleton, Pennsylvania at Grace Fellowship Church? Will they see that the Holy Spirit is able to knit together disparate people? Will they see that reconciliation between people who have hurt one another is possible?
[28:21] I believe that Hazleton's watching. Even this community right around here is watching. They're wondering what's going on in that church.
[28:31] I wonder if they've caught on to the fact that we have an English-speaking worship service and a Spanish-speaking worship service. If you talk to the typical Hazletonian, they'll tell you that we've got two different groups that don't seem to get along very well.
[28:44] What's going to happen at Grace Fellowship Church? Will we see that the blood of Christ can knit together people of two different language groups? They're watching. They're watching.
[28:56] And so what are they going to see? You know, our prayer is this. Really, it's verse 23. Lord, make us to become perfectly one so that the world may know that God has sent Christ and loved his people.
[29:13] Lord, unify us so that they can see that the gospel is true. I mean, really, our end goal and the end goal for all Christians is the display of the glory of God. And so why do we want unity in the church?
[29:25] We want unity in the church because ultimately, people will see the glory of our God, the wonders of our God, the glorious grace of his gospel lived out in the unity of the church.
[29:36] And so result number one is your unity can be a witness to the watching world. And then secondly, if you are unified, you will better experience the love of God and the presence of Christ.
[29:52] You will better experience the love of God and the presence of Christ. Did you notice that this passage doesn't only have language of horizontal unity, right?
[30:05] Unity amongst the church or even that unity amongst the members of the Trinity. It also has the language of vertical unity. Jesus says, I in them, they in us.
[30:20] It's this convoluted mess of pronouns. I mean, but think about it. God in us, we in God, it's such intimate language. And so with this horizontal unity, we also get a greater experience of the fullness of the love of God on the vertical.
[30:39] In verse 23, Jesus prays that we would be unified so that we would know that God has loved us even as he has loved Christ. That's remarkable.
[30:49] Something in this horizontal unity gives me greater awareness of my unity with Christ. Have you ever gained a better understanding of the love of God as you've grown in your love and unity with someone else?
[31:05] Maybe some of you have experienced that in marriage. As you've experienced the unity that comes with marriage, it's also helped you to know more and understand the love of Christ better. For some of you, it was as you became connected with this local body of believers and you finally saw what God's love is like because it was revealed to you through other believers.
[31:24] It was on display in this sanctuary. You saw people that were loving because they were first loved by God. They said, we love because he first loved us and helped you to know God better by seeing the love displayed on that horizontal level.
[31:42] So what that means is that if you let yourself get knit into this local congregation, and some of you need to do that, some of you have not yet knit yourselves into this local congregation.
[31:54] Some of you kind of roll in and then hit the doors as soon as you can and we don't see you again until next Sunday at 1045. Some of you have grown up in this church, but you're not teenagers.
[32:05] Have you made that profession of faith? Have you publicly proclaimed? Have you been baptized? Because listen, if you let yourself get knit into this local congregation, you will better experience the love of God and the presence of Christ as you're in community with these people.
[32:24] I love what Jesus says in verse 24, because our response to hearing that can be, could Jesus actually love me that much?
[32:38] Do you doubt that? Do you doubt that, you're a Christian, but do you doubt that Jesus could actually love you so much that he wants to give you more of his love and more of his presence? Look at what he says in verse 24.
[32:50] He says, Father, I desire that they also whom you've given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you've given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
[33:05] Jesus is talking about being in his full heavenly glory and he longs for that day when you'll be there, when you'll be there with him. You see, one day, we will experience even greater unity and intimacy with Christ.
[33:20] John says in 1 John, Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.
[33:35] We have this wonderful unity with Christ that we can look forward to. If you're here and you're not one of God's children and what I'm talking about is foreign to you, I encourage you, turn to Christ.
[33:54] He is a wonderful, wonderful Savior and he doesn't just kind of do this little religious transaction where he says, okay, your sins are forgiven. He calls you to be united with him.
[34:06] He calls you to be a family member with him, a brother of Christ, a child of God the Father. That's what's offered to you if you would turn to him.
[34:20] Well, I'd like to close by simply reading again verses 25 and 26 because what happens here is Jesus closes his prayer by making something of a vow.
[34:31] It's a vow that kind of shows itself mostly in verse 26 and he makes this promise, this commitment to not give up on his people. Let me read to you 25 and 26.
[34:43] Jesus prays, O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
[35:02] Jesus prays, I'll continue to make known to them your name. I'll make certain that your love is in them. These are the vows that Christ makes here. These last few words right at the very end even have this covenantal overtone.
[35:16] Jesus prays, I in them. Your mind should be going back to the Old Testament promise that's repeated again and again where God says, I'll be their God and they will be my people.
[35:28] I will be in them. Church, be encouraged. God will continue to draw you closer to himself. He will continue to knit you together in unity.
[35:43] He will make you love one another more. Now, this doesn't rest on your shoulders. Be faithful. Be faithful in pursuing God.
[35:54] Be faithful in loving your neighbors. But God will move unity in his church. God has great things to do with this church.
[36:05] He has wonderful things to do with Grace Fellowship Church. And you guys will be in my prayers. I'll be praying that you will be a church that keeps in step with the spirit that you may all be one.
[36:17] Same prayer as Jesus prays here. It's a prayer that you would be a church known for your unity. Let's pray. Amen. Lord, we do ask that you would unify your church.
[36:31] Lord, we don't want the church unified simply for our ease or our comfort because it would make things nice for us. But Lord, would you unify your church for your own glory?
[36:43] We know, Lord, that the church reflects better the Godhead when they're unified. The church proclaims the wonderful efficacy of the gospel when they are unified.
[36:56] So Lord, would you unify and help us to participate in that unification, help us to extend ourselves to one another in love and care for one another, the ability to put aside arguments and disagreements for the greater cause of you and your glory.
[37:12] We pray that you would help us in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[37:22] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.