Maturity That Leads To Unity

Well, good morning, brothers and sisters. It is a joy to be with you all, and I'll be honest, I feel a bit more at home being with you all in a relatively smaller gathering when the majority of the city that we're in is not gathering. Sadly, this is the reality for many throughout the world. I mean, certainly different circumstances, but it's certainly a unique time in which we are the vast minority who have the privilege of gathering together around the Word of God together this morning. Well, I certainly bring greetings from my family. Lisa and the kids would have loved to be with you all. But as Keith mentioned, we returned to the US just about a little over a month ago. And at that point, we had no idea how this COVID-19 virus would continue to affect our lives and certainly then the lives of the people that we're living life with. You know, before this virus epidemic and then turned into a pandemic, we had planned to fly back here around mid-February, as Keith said, to finalize the adoption of our little guy, Zachary, who you guys would love if he was here. He'd probably be running and screaming around doing something. But we needed to return to make him a US citizen and get a passport. But one morning before that in early February, we woke up to see that our scheduled flights were canceled. Now, with that, I quickly got on the phone with the airline and spent a very joyful hour talking to airline people. But the call ended with success. The only problem was we were rebooked on flights that left in about four hours. So those of you certainly with children and with multiple children can imagine the chaos that then ensued as we tried to pack up and get ready for a really an indefinite time here in the US with getting four kids ready, trying to get masks on, get drivers to be able to take us an hour and a half to the airport and out the door before we had to get on a flight. That was a fun morning. You know, really, that was really just the beginning of not only our family, but the whole world now being gripped by what to do in the midst of a potential pandemic. And now it is. There are, of course, real health concerns that we all should and rightly are taking seriously. But even beyond that, the things that haven't hit fully yet of the political and economic ramifications of what's going on in the world around us right now. Well, all of it is slowly and actually quite quickly affecting every part of our lives. You know, looking and living in the midst of uncertainty in a world around us, we turn this morning to the book of James, as our sister just read for us. This book for me over the last number of months has been a huge encouragement. as James was originally writing this letter to Christians who faced, not pandemic, but who faced persecution and certain uncertainty like we do even this morning. These Christians were in Jerusalem gathering and then they were scattered because of persecution to lands that they were unfamiliar with, certainly jobs that they were unfamiliar with, and really didn't know what was the future held. You know, I'm sure that they all remember what it was like back when life was normal in Jerusalem. They remembered gathering with James preaching or Peter preaching and gathering together and how sweet that fellowship was. They remember what the old normal was like. But now, that normal is gone. They're scattered and facing uncertainty. Well, James' concern in this letter is to not explain the uncertainty. James certainly can't explain what God is doing in the midst of history, and we would be foolish to try to understand every element of what's going on in our own culture right now. But James' concern in this letter is to encourage these brothers and sisters. Encourage those who have been bought and redeemed by Christ into a new family that they should continue living as Christians. Continue living in unity no matter what they face. And certainly that is especially in light of uncertainty. And this morning we're gonna look at one of the most precious aspects of living as a Christian. And not just living as a Christian individually, but living as a Christian together in a church. That is unity. Unity in the body of Christ. Unity among believers in the midst of a world that just, it's hard to grapple with. What can we be united on? You know, from this passage, my hope this morning is that you'll leave this gathering as Jefferson Park Baptist Church with a renewed desire and a renewed zeal for gospel unity among yourselves. That you'll desire all the more to display unity in Christ to a watching world. And then certainly speaking as a missionary, I pray that this morning will also increase your zeal for the unity of the churches that you're a part of planting halfway around the world. So listen, as we just read James 4, if you're taking notes this morning, there's one main idea that I think James is getting at here. So if you're taking notes, you wanna write down just this one sentence, as this is what we're gonna be circling back to throughout our time together this morning. The main idea, I think, of James 4, 1 to 12 is this. Pursuing unity in the church is not easy, but it's worth fighting for. Pursuing unity in the church is not easy, but it is worth fighting for. As we walk through this passage, we're going to see four points or four ways in which James pleads with us to pursue unity as those who have been redeemed by Jesus. So let's dive in. Let's look at verses 1 to 3, our first point. As Christians, we pursue unity by exposing sin. We pursue unity by exposing sin. In verses one to three, James gives us really kind of a very quick spiritual punch to the gut. He does not mince words. He's very clear and he's direct, asking these provocative questions, trying to help us open up our heart and see what's going on inside there. James somehow knows that there's disunity in these churches that have been scattered, even to the effect of, I mean, they're actually fighting. We don't know the extent of that, and we don't know the exact problems that they're fighting over, but, you know, it's not that hard to imagine, right? I mean, if any of you, which I assume many of you have been a part of a church or been gathering here for at least more than one Sunday, you know that fighting and quarreling is not foreign to the church. It's not foreign to our gathering, although we are, by God's grace, redeemed, which we'll look about even more later. We've all experienced some level of disunity in the Church. You know, our church back halfway around the world, we just recently planted a new church back in about October. And brothers and sisters, I cannot tell you, we could fill up the entire afternoon with stories of disunity already rife in our own church that's only been in existence for a couple of months. You know, as long as the church is filled with people who are going to continue to sin, which that's all of us, the threat of disunity and fighting is going to still be there. It wasn't weird for James' churches to do that, and it's not weird to see that here with us, even. And James, though, I think very wisely and pastorally, he's not concerned with who's right and wrong in this disunity. He's not concerned in saying, oh, you know, Bill was right and Bob was wrong, so everybody just go with Bill as you guys fight. Well, no, his main concern in this passage is the posture of these Christians. the posture of their hearts as they live lives together. Christians, we're going to disagree on things. We're going to disagree on something's big and something's small, and really that's okay. We with finite minds are trying to grapple with an infinite God. We're going to disagree on that. And that is okay, but in disagreements, James pleads with us, we need not sin against one another. We need not act as un-Christians as we disagree. And this is exactly what James wants to expose in all of us. I mean, he's like a good doctor, that you go in thinking you have one problem, and he says, well, no, it's actually much worse than you thought it was. Let me expose and diagnose a much deeper problem that's going on inside of you. He shows us that the problem is not the fighting that's in between of us. The problem is what's going on in each one of our individual hearts. Let's just look real quick at these first three verses at two ways in which he shows us this. First, look at verse 2. Disunity exists in the church because we all have a deep heart problem. We all have a deep heart problem. When our desires go unmet, when we have a desire and it goes unmet, well, we take action in sin. James wants us to see that yes, this situation, it didn't work out the way you wanted it to. Your desire went unmet, but before that situation happened, well, your heart was already in a bad place. Your heart was already in sin before you, well before you ever acted out in that sin. You were coveting, demanding on getting something that you don't have, and then when you don't get it, well, what happens? Well, it's fireworks. Our main problem is not that situation, it's the heart that entered into that situation. I mean, all of us have been there, right? I mean, as a man, I can certainly attest to the reality that I want respect. I want people to respect me. I feel like I deserve respect. I even might even earn someone's respect. So what happens when I feel like you don't respect me? Well, fireworks. What was the problem? Is the problem with you? No, the problem was with me. Even for you kids, I love that you guys are a church that have lots of kids in the service. Because we don't have many childcare workers in our church, all of our kids are in the service. It's a bit chaotic. But kids, when you fight with one of your brothers or sisters, And your parents say, well, why did you fight with your brother or sister? How do you normally respond? Well, if you're like my kids, they say, well, it was my brother's fault. It was because my sister did this that we then fought. Well, kids, James is talking to you two here. Your biggest problem isn't your brother and sister. Your biggest problem is actually in your own heart. It's the same for your mommy and daddy, and it's the same for you. Yes, what our brothers and sisters do is sometime horrible, but that doesn't give us an excuse to sin. Disunity exists in the church because we have a heart problem, but that's not it. James is gonna go on. Look quickly at the verses two and three, the end of verse two and three. Disunity in the church exists because we have a head problem. Here, he says, we forget or we don't ask our Heavenly Father. When we want something, we don't ask Him because we forget that He delights to hear from His kids. He delights to answer His children's prayers, but we forget to ask Him. We forget about Him, and so we don't ask. Or we might ask, but our desire is really just so that God, well, God, give me what I want so that then I can go do with it what I want. It's all selfish. So, our thoughts on God are wrong. In many ways, we could even call this kind of an orphan complex. We either think that we don't have a father who loves us, or we think wrongly on that father. Well, in verses 1 to 3, I think James really acts as a wonderful biblical counselor. We walk in, think we have one problem, and he shows us, well, yes, you have a problem, but it's much worse than you actually thought it was. He shows us the work that we all still have to go on in our own hearts. He shows us that our greatest threat to unity in this gathering of the church is not the circumstances. that are around us, whether it be persecution, pandemic, or something else. Now, our greatest threat to unity is our own selves, the sin that we still so closely hold on to. Well, friends, we don't have to look around to see why we fight as Christians. All we have to do is look in a mirror at our own selves. None of us like to dig down to the root of our disunity and see our sin, but if we're serious about fighting for unity as a church, if we're serious to say, no, I'm going to love these people because Jesus loves them, we're going to have to be willing to unroot the deep part of our problem, the root of why we live disunified lives as a church. One practical thing that you guys can do, I think is really helpful even tomorrow morning, is as you read God's word, as you spend time knowing God through his word, read a passage and then ask two simple questions of the Bible. Two simple questions after you read. One, ask, what does this passage tell me about who God is? What characteristics, what attributes of God do I see from this passage? And then two, ask that in light of that, what does this passage tell me about myself? That second question is one that I usually ask of the Bible to say, God, how can you help me make it through today? Or how can you apply to this situation in my life? What I don't often ask of the Bible, or certainly don't naturally often ask of the Bible, is to say, God, help me see my sin, that I might repent and move on from it. See friends, God's given us his word primarily to know him better, but then as we know him better, we actually get a much better view of our own selves. Christianity is not content with just kind of giving coping mechanisms to say, you fight, well, let me help you fight less. Well, no, living the Christian life means pursuing unity, being willing to expose an uproot sin that causes our conflicts. that's actually at the root of all of it. Like I said, in verses 1 to 3, James kind of acts like a doctor who's diagnosing the problem. He doesn't give us a lot of answers yet, but he diagnoses the deep heart problem in all of us. As we go on, in now 4 to 6, we see him beginning to give us the antidote. What's the medicine that's going to help fix this problem in our life as a body? Point number 2, verses 4 to 6, we see we, as a church, Pursue unity by remembering God's work in your life. Pursue unity by remembering God's work in your life. See, up until this point in the book of James, if we had a chance, it'd be wonderful to just read the whole thing together. But James uses words to describe these Christians, and he uses really kind words. He uses words like brothers or beloved as he's writing to them. But not here. Verse four, the language takes a abrupt shift. Instead of sounding like a concerned pastor friend, a sweet guy, well here he sounds more like an Old Testament prophet calling Israel to repent and calling them back to God. Reality is that's exactly what he is doing. You know, when we see our sin and its effects on the body of Christ, what we need is to remember who God is and what he has done for us and the people around us. Here, I think in these verses four to six, James calls us to remember three specific things. First, he calls us to remember who you were. Remember who you used to be in verse four. I mean, verse four, this is a firm warning. You adulterous people. It's a warning to remember that acting like verses 1 to 3 is to take the part of an adulteress. It's to act as though who you were before Jesus. It's to act opposite of your new nature in Christ. It's to walk away from the love that God continually shows you. And it's to walk towards love in something else. Before Christ, we all were in sin. We were enemies of God. Paul, in Ephesians 2, says it so clearly that you were dead in the trespasses and sins once you once walked, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. Well, friends, to harbor disunity in the body, in sin, to not address it at its root issue, is to act out in sin. It's to act out like who we used to be, who we were before Christ came and changed our lives. See, remembering who we used to be certainly is not a fun thing. We don't look on our former self and think, oh yeah, fond memories of who I was before Christ. That taste of sin, that taste of the old self as a Christian should become less and less appealing. The taste of friendship with the world, which we used to have, should become less and less attractive for us as Christians. Why? Because of who God is. Second, in this passage, James tells us to remember God's character. Remember who you were, but then quickly remember who God is. Verse 5, I mean, this is not a direct quote from the Old or the New Testament, but it's rather a very helpful summary of who the God of the Bible is. That is, He is a God who will not stand for His people to love something lesser than Himself. He's a God who, saving His people, will not let His people go. God has, in his wisdom, has chosen to display his glory by calling a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to himself. And when something challenges that, when something tries to pull one of his people back away from him, well, the God of the Bible doesn't take that lightly. He doesn't say, oh, okay, well, you know, they'll realize and they'll come back. Well, no. Like a jealous husband or father, God is jealous over his people. You know, we could think even back again to Ephesians 2 and that beautiful way of which Paul walks through how someone has become a Christian. And I've heard it said that Ephesians 2.4 is one of the most humbling two words of the entire Bible. We who were dead in sin, but God. There's nothing that we could do that preceded that, but God chose to act. While we were dead, God chose to love. While we were walking willfully in sin, God chose to act. There was nothing that made us lovely or attractive to God other than the opportunity that God chose in displaying his power, in bringing the dead to life and back to himself. Brothers and sisters, what a glorious truth this is, that God is actually jealous for you. That His jealousy for His people, His jealousy for His glory among His people, actually outweighs our foolishness. As we would sinfully want to walk away from that, well, His jealousy actually is stronger than that. That God is a God who actually is jealous and will work according to his character for the unity of this church. Not just in salvation, but in sanctification, in making us more and more like his son. You know, if I could just real quick pause right here and talk to the elders and leaders of this church. as a fellow elder of a church that we could, you know, talk about how we desire, what we are desires for our church. Well, friends, how encouraging is this verse to pastoral ministry? How encouraging is this in shepherding ministry that God is more jealous, God desires more for his body than you do? Brothers, as you seek to lead this church, disciple, and care for this flock, would you cling to the character of who God is? Cling to the character knowing that he has given you this flock temporarily, but this flock is his eternally. Well, how sweet is that as we seek to suffer alongside with our people and our sheep? Well, the third thing I think that James encourages us to remember in this passage is, in verse 6, is remember who you now are. Remember who you were, remember who God is, and remember who you now are. You're a people who have received much grace. Ephesians 2, 4 goes on to say that, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. It was grace that God the Father chose to send his son to earth, to live in full obedience, deserving nothing but unity with the Father, but willing to suffer, taking on our sin, on himself, and dying the death that we all deserve. Why? So that he might be glorified and so that we might have forgiveness. But praise God that death did not defeat him, yet in his death and then resurrection, he defeated death in giving us new life. A new life where we're no longer enemies to God. We're no longer at enmity with the God who made us and rightly judges us. No, we're no longer enemies, but we're rather friends. We're loved by that God. God gives grace to all those who would humble themselves and trust in him. We're a people who are now even kept by that grace. We don't deserve his love. We don't deserve to have unity with each other even here. But God has made all of that possible because he's a God of grace. Friends, don't forget who you now are in Christ. Brothers and sisters, remember the work that God has done in your lives, and remember the work that God has done in the lives of the people around you. When we remember that we're a gathering of formerly enslaved to sin people, that we're a gathering who only gathers because God is a God of grace, that we've been made alive in Christ, that we're redeemed through the blood of his cross, that we cannot, when we remember that, we cannot help but be grateful for the people around us, even when we disagree with them, even when we have conflict, even when we struggle in sin together. Friends, sure, we're going to disagree. Sure, there's going to be difficulties that are going to come. And I mean, even the next number of weeks, as you guys choose and make wise decisions on how to respond in the current climate, you're going to have difficulties. Yet. we should always remember what God has done in our own lives and in the lives of others. And that creates and cultivates unity, a posture of humility with one another. And it treasures, treasures the grace that God has shown, not only us, but the people around us. Well, friends, let's move on to point number three from this passage, verses seven to 10, seven to 10. we as a church are to pursue unity by repenting wholeheartedly. We pursue unity by repenting wholeheartedly. You know, I'd love to ask you this. If someone were to ask you, what does repentance look like? What does it mean to repent? That's not a word that we use in common society. We use it a lot in church, but not in common world. What would you say? You know, is it just kind of saying sorry for something I did wrong and then trying to do better? Well, that's certainly part of it. But in this section, James is going to give us a number of commands. It just kind of goes one after another of commands that aren't just boxes to check saying, okay, once I've got them all, okay, well, then I've actually repented. Well, no, all of these are aspects, they're marks of a changed heart. They're elements of repentance that we as Christians should grow in displaying as we still fight with sin while we wait for Jesus to return. These are aspects of a heart that is going to continue to struggle, but is going to continue to turn to Christ and the grace that he has for us. So just looking quickly at these, I think you can see seven marks of a repenting heart. We're not going to go full out on all of these, but we'll go quickly. Seven marks of a repenting heart. First, repentance looks like a willingness to submit to God, verse 7. to place ourself under His Lordship, to take ourselves off of that role and put Christ in. Notice the, the, the therefore that that starts with, that because we've received grace, what we just looked at, well, because of that, well, we submit to Jesus in everything. God is not just our judge and our Savior. He becomes our Lord. He rules over our heart and everything that we do, everything that we are, falls under his authority. The second mark of a repenting heart is a willingness to resist the devil, a willingness to resist Satan in verse 7. It's a heart that is firmly committed to fighting against the schemes of the devil. The reality is we are in a spiritual battle, and we will be until the day we die or until Jesus returns. And Satan wants nothing more than to put just small cracks in our trust in Christ. Just small doubts and cracks in our confidence in our King. But a heart that's turning away from sin is a heart that is going to be on guard for those things, that's going to want to see them and extinguish them as fast as possible. Third, a repenting heart is demonstrated in a willingness to draw near to God, a willingness to draw near to God in verse 8. See, we don't turn away from sin to then stand at a distance from God. We don't stand at a distance wondering, how's he gonna respond to me? Because I just did something really bad. Well, no, he intends us to turn away from our sin, but then draw near to him. I mean, notice the promise that is linked here, that James links for us. If we draw near to him, well, he's gonna draw near to us. It's like the father of the prodigal son. The father that was standing, looking off in the distance, and overjoyed when his sinful, rebellious son comes walking towards him. Repentance has a goal. It's not just to make us feel sorry. Repentance's goal is fellowship and delight in the God who forgives us. Fourth, repenting heart is marked by a willingness to clean your hands. It's not just a metaphor for, you know, using antibacterial soap and things like that, as we would now. This is a willingness to admit when we have actually wronged someone. This begins to get a bit personal for all of us, but to admit when I've actually acted out in sin against someone. You know, while it's much easier to just kind of move on and try to forget about it, a heart changed by grace is willing and actually wanting to call sin what it is and then ask that person for forgiveness. As a church, those who are redeemed, we don't want to let unconfessed sin slowly rot away at the relationships in this church. Fifth, another mark of a repenting heart is a willingness to purify your hearts. Verse 8, that is, repentance is not just an external thing that we do, but it's also an internal attitude. Even when we sin, even when our sin doesn't manifest in kind of an outward action, well, I still want to run away from it. I still want to call it how evil it is and call on God to change me. To say, God, I confess that no one saw this, but I was impatient with that person. I was angry with that person. Thank you, God, for keeping me from acting out in it. But God, I confess that my heart was still as evil as if I would have acted out in that sin. A willingness to purify our hearts, our motives, Six, a willingness to mourn over our sin. I think back to places like Joel 2, where there should be a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a sorrow that mourns our sin and its effects. And we don't want to think lightly of sin, just assuming, OK, yes, God is a God of grace, so just keep on sinning. Well, Paul says, absolutely not. No, we rightly mourn when we see that we still struggle with sin. We still struggle against the old self that Christ has saved us out of. Well, lastly, seventh, it's a willingness to humble ourselves. It's a willingness to take on humility. See, true humility comes from seeing ourselves, not in light of others, but seeing ourselves in light of God. We don't compare ourselves with the brothers and sisters around us, because then we might actually have reason to boast. No, we look to God in His holiness, in His righteousness, in His perfection. In that, we are humbling ourselves. We regularly recognize how great our God is. and how great his grace has been to extend all the way to each one of us. And friends, our only response is to cultivate humility in our own lives. Brothers and sisters, these are our seven marks of what it looks like to see repentance in our own hearts and in the hearts of our brothers and sisters around us. As Christians, in our struggle with sin, we can often kind of make two mistakes that veer from this path. You know, in our struggle against sin, it can often lead us into despair. We can become despair, despairing over our sin, asking things like, I did it again. Will I ever get over this thing? Am I really saved if I continue to struggle with this? Or we can kind of fall off the horse on the other way and say, I'm going to become complacent with sin. Sin is just going to become less and less bad in my view. You know, we acknowledge that we're not going to be perfect, but you know, that's just the way life is going to be. That's just how life is going to be until Jesus returns. Well, brothers and sisters, if you see yourself falling on either one of those sides, which all of us do at various points in life, use this passage. Use verses 7 to 10 in James 4 to fan into flame your heart in a renewed, wholehearted desire to fight and repent of sin. Certainly in your own life, but then also corporately. use this passage to call you out of complacency, to call you out of despair, because he is a God who doesn't take lightly sin, so neither should we, and he's also a God who is rich in grace, so we shouldn't think we are too far from it. You know, I think of a church that is regularly being marked by this passage and how strange that would look to an outside world. How strange it would look for someone to see a church that is by no means perfect. We don't claim to be perfect, but a church who is regularly repenting with one another, who's regularly then forgiving one another and pursuing unity as a church. How strange would that look for people watching you? Members of a church moving towards each other rather than away. members of a church wanting to cultivate relationships in depth rather than allowing kind of an unspoken rot to grow in our relationships. There's no earthly explanation for people who are willing to confess sin with each other. It's only people who have been changed by a God of grace that can live and experience this kind of supernatural unity. Brothers and sisters, pursue that unity by being a church that regularly confesses sin and repents with one another. I mean, what a sweet thing that Jesus said, right? That let your light shine before men. It's not just in the good things that we do, but let your light shine even as you repent of sin so that others might see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Well, lastly, point four, verses 11 to 12, we pursue unity through obedience. We as a church pursue unity through obedience. Here, James, his timbre sort of changes yet again, where he returns to calling his readers brothers. And here he begins to reason with them as brothers and sisters that we shouldn't use words to tear each other down. That seems obvious, but why? Why should we not do that? Well, it's because we're called towards obedience. We're called to obey our new king. We're called to live in his kingdom, and we're called to obey the law that he has given us. As spiritual siblings, as those who are brothers and sisters in Christ, we're united into a new family, into Christ. And just like any earthly family, well, earthly families have, God's family similarly has rules and norms for how the family operates. How do we live life together? We obey those rules, and in doing so, we demonstrate that we actually belong here. We belong in, and we are one of those family members. Jesus, in Matthew 22, when asked about the law, says this, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Friends, God's people are to be marked by a love for God and a love for others. Everything that we do in life should be motivated by that law. Brothers and sisters, What is going to cultivate a deep unity in this church better than rightly loving the God who has saved you? What is going to create a, cultivate a deep unity in this church more than genuinely seeking to love and want the good of the people around you? Jesus has given us the law in how to pursue unity. Brothers and sisters, we're called in Him, in His grace, to obey it, to walk in it, and do it together. You know, there's a weird thing that happens to Lisa and I every time we return to the U.S. We certainly love coming back, but in many ways we feel like news reporters. We feel like we're giving a briefing on CNN or something like that. You know, because we have an insight into things that you guys don't get to see. And likewise, I mean, you have an insight here that I don't get to see. But we have an insight into things halfway around the world. And really, we want people to know about it. We think it's important. And you guys do too. You know, often I get the question of, Chris, how is the work going in East Asia? How are churches being planted? How many people are coming to Christ? Well, I love answering all those questions. I love reporting on the churches that we've gotten to see planted. I love reporting on testimonies of God working in someone's life to call him out of death and sin and to himself. But you know, the one question that I would love to have someone ask me is this, Chris, how are the churches in East Asia doing at loving God and loving each other? How are the churches doing at walking in obedience to Jesus? How are they doing? Are they marked by unity? Are they rife with fighting and bickering and disunity, or are they pursuing unity? And is the world taking notice? And while it's fun and genuinely encouraging to talk about the quantity of the church in East Asia, I think if James were here, he'd be far more concerned with the quality of the church in East Asia. And it's not just James. Remember, what did Jesus pray in John 17 for his people? Father, I do not ask for these only, but for those who will believe in me through their word. For what? That they may be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, and also that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me, I've given to them. that they may be one, even as we are one. Brothers and sisters, God is concerned with the unity of this church. God is concerned with the unity of his people, and so much so that the father sent his son to buy this church for himself, and he's unified us through his spirit. And he intends a world, those outside of us, to look into us and to see something of him when they see us. So, brothers and sisters of Jefferson Park, as one of your supported workers, let me encourage you like this. Pursue unity and seek to be the kind of church that you want to see planted halfway around the world. Pursue the kind of unity that you would rejoice to hear about in a letter from your brothers and sisters in Asia or Africa. Pursue unity that is marked by obedience to Christ, a unity that is not easy, but is absolutely worth fighting for. You know, at the beginning I mentioned that our family returned to the U.S. in February because we got to recently adopt our little guy, Zachary, and to finalize his citizenship process. You know, one of the things that I love most about earthly adoption is watching how a child goes from something that was totally foreign, a new family, new siblings, to then it slowly becomes more and more normal. I remember when we first got Zachary, that first day, we were all a little bit on eggshells. What do we do? What does he like? He doesn't know what we like. Well, that night, probably foolishly, we decided to take all our kids out to our family's classic celebratory meal, McDonald's. Now, Zach had probably never seen a cheeseburger in his two years of life, but there he sat, in a high chair with his new parents, with his new siblings, learning this strange new reality. See, something had happened in that he had become a Phillips, but he didn't know how that was gonna work out fully yet. He had to slowly learn to live as a new son in this new family. Well friends, isn't that a small picture of exactly what James is talking to us about this morning? A small picture of what it looks like to live the Christian life. As those who have been bought and saved by the blood of Jesus, we've been brought into a new family. We have a new father. We have new siblings. And this family by no means is perfect. We're going to have disagreements, we're gonna wrong one another, we're gonna have fights. But we're a family that should never forget the privilege of pursuing unity with one another. Because it's a unity that has been bought and paid for by Jesus. It's a unity that our Father delights in helping us, in causing among us. We're to be a family who delights in unity because it is so precious, especially in the midst of a world where we don't know what's going to happen next. We know who the people are next to us and who are going to walk through it with us. Brothers and sisters, let's pray that God would give us perseverance to continue in that. Let's pray. Almighty God, we praise you as the God of grace. We praise you as the God who has sent his Son, who has sent his Spirit, and who delights in unifying his people. People that have very little in common in this world, but that have everything in common in Jesus. God, I pray for this church, I pray for my church, I pray for churches throughout the world that we would be a people that are marked by not perfect unity because we look forward to that in glory, but a church that fights for unity among one another, a unity that is in Jesus, and it's in his name that we pray, amen.