The Power of Unity

Truth takes the guesswork out of life because you're operating on an absolute standard that sits outside of you. Dr. Tony Evans talks about the problems that result when truth becomes nothing more than a matter of opinion.

When you've got everybody with their own direction, you don't have unity. And when you don't have unity, you don't have God. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. In modern culture, the truth has been replaced by my truth, or your truth. But today, Dr. Evans explains why the path to unity begins when we recognize the authority of God's truth.

Let's join him as he explains. America's desire to be one nation under God is quickly becoming, instead of being the United States, the divided states. And everywhere you look, division is occurring.

We all are aware of the ongoing racial divide, the divisions within our own homes and families. Jesus Christ prayed a prayer, the longest recorded prayer in the Bible that He prayed, found in St. John chapter 17. And in that prayer, He's going to give you and me a secret. He's going to tell us something that will be life-transforming in light of all the divides that we're facing today, all the schisms and the fissures that are separating us. In Jesus's discourse, He is about to be arrested. They're getting ready to come and arrest Him within 24 hours and begin the process of taking Him to the cross. On this day before His arrest, He gathers His disciples together and gives them final words before His departure, knowing what was to come. And as He concluded His time with them, knowing that the moment of His arrest and crucifixion was nigh, He prayed for them. Chapter 17 of John is that prayer, but He says, I'm not only praying for you, I'm praying for all of those who will come after you who believe on Me because of your Word. So in other words, the prayer wasn't just for them, it was for all Christians. So Jesus's prayer is for you and me, and tucked in that prayer is a secret. I call it a secret because I don't think we've fully gotten the impact of what Jesus shares with them and with us. Because the secret He is going to disclose in His prayer to His Father about His disciples is about the power of unity.

Please notice with me just some of the references. For example, in verse 11 it says at the end of the verse that they may be one even as we are. In verse 21 He begins it by saying that they may all be one. In verse 22 He ends it by saying that they may be one just as we are one. In the beginning of verse 23, I in them, you in me, that they may be perfected in unity. So as you can see, Jesus Christ is torridly concerned in His prayer for His Father that His followers emulate the oneness that He possesses with His own Father.

And you'll see why as we go along, because if you get this secret, I call it, it really could be life-transforming. Since He's concerned about unity and oneness, let's clarify what it means. Because everybody doesn't define this word the same way, but Jesus makes it clear what He means. He says, I want them to be one like you and I are one. So whatever the unity is He wants us to have, it wants to be a replica of the unity He Himself possesses with His own Father. What did this unity mean?

Look at verse 4. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Unity has to do with oneness of purpose.

I completed the work you have left me here to do. Unity is not sameness, where everybody's the same. It is distinctiveness going in the same direction in order to achieve a common purpose. Unity is purpose-driven, not persons-driven.

When the cowboys line up, there are different positions by different people with different backgrounds, but there's only one goal line. So all of these differences that exist of positions, of persons, they're all pointed toward that one direction, to that one goal line, for their differences are designed to achieve a purpose. So unity is purposeful. Apart from sin, it's okay for folk to be different than you. Differences are absolutely critical, absolutely essential, and eternally determined. So when you try to change folk apart from sin, you're being more God in their life than God is.

In this unity of purpose, there is a key element in order for the unity of purpose to occur. Notice what Jesus says in verse 17 and 19. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.

Verse 19, For their sake I sanctified myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. His goal is that there might be oneness. The road to oneness is sanctification in the truth. Let me put it another way. If there is no truth, there can be no legitimate unity.

Let me say it again. If there is no truth, you cannot arrive at legitimate unity because God only responds to the truth, which means you've got to know what the truth is. We live in a world today of probabilities, of potentialities, of preferences. We live in a world today where everybody's got an idea about everything. And we base our decisions on our own ideologies and ideas. And so you hear people talk about my truth and you talk about your truth. When you've got everybody with their own truth, you've got everybody with their own direction. And when you've got everybody with their own direction, you don't have unity. And when you don't have unity, you don't have God. Remember the biblical definition of truth. It is an absolute standard by which reality is measured. Truth lives outside of you.

Let me say that again. Truth lives outside of you. We call it objective truth. It's true whether you like it or not, want it or not, accept it or not, believe it or not, buy it or not. If it's true, it's truth. Because you believe it doesn't make it true. It just means you believe it. Then you could be believing a lie, thinking it's true. And if you believe a lie, thinking it's true, and you operate on your belief, that's not the truth. It means you're operating on a lie and will be led by a lie into falsehood thinking it was the truth during the trip. And a lot of us are living our lives on a lie and wonder why things are not working out because we believed it to be truth.

Truth is an objective standard by which reality is measured. And he says, I want you to be sanctified with the truth. Sanctified means to be set apart for a purpose. Jesus says, I was sanctified. I sanctified myself, verse 19. I set myself apart based on the word to the truth to fulfill the purpose that God has for me.

God, He now says, sanctified them the same way that I'm sanctifying me, by the truth. Okay, what would you say to an unsure pilot who says, I think this is the button I ought to push to get this plane off the ground? I think, I'm not sure, but it's my best guess. I don't know about you, but I'm changing planes, because I don't want a pilot guessing with my life on the flight. Okay, suppose you had a doctor who said, well, I think this is the place I ought to cut.

And if it's not, don't worry, I'll cut till I find it. I think you're going to change doctors because you want some certainty if they're going to be splitting you open. Or let's say you go to a pharmacist and the pharmacist says, well, there's a lot of medicine in here, and I think this will help you.

There's a lot I could choose from, but let me just choose something. And he comes up with his best guess about your medicine. You're going to go to another pharmacy, you're going to talk to another pharmacist, because when your life is at stake, you don't want folks guessing with your life. God doesn't want you guessing with your life. Truth takes the guesswork out of life, because you're operating on an absolute standard that sits outside of you. Dr. Evans will come back with more of our message in just a moment, including a look at how we know absolute truth actually exists. Right now, though, he's here to share a thought about writing his book Oneness Embraced, the perfect follow-up for what we're learning today. Well, that was really a book from the heart where I deal directly with the race issue.

I confront it, I talk about the justice issues, the cultural issues, the political issues that inform it, the historical issues, and then we try to conclude with giving a practical strategy for transformation in any community based on the Word of God. So we want to not cancel out our differences, but we want to embrace our uniquenesses so that we can manifest all that God had in mind when He created, like He creates differences in every area of His creation to show the breadth of His wisdom, the breadth of His glory. Well, the same thing happens with race. God wants to show the breadth of His creative genius when He creates the races. So embrace the uniqueness of your race.

Just use it in concert with God's purposes. Oneness Embraced explains why unity among Christians of all kinds isn't just about getting along, but getting things done in our hearts, in our churches, and in our communities. We'd like to send you this powerful book as our gift, along with all six full-length CDs and digital downloads from Tony's current series, Race, Culture, and Christ, all with our appreciation for your contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching coming your way on this station. This special offer ends tomorrow, so visit us right away at tonyevans.org, or give us a call anytime day or night at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information for you when Dr. Evans returns with more of today's lesson, right after this. As we come into the celebration of our 40th year since the beginning of the Urban Alternative, words cannot express my gratitude to God for His faithfulness to the development of this ministry. Little did I know when we began with cassette tapes and we were bagging them up because people were requesting the sermons, that He would take humble beginnings and turn it into an international ministry. Now, on over 1,400 stations daily in 130 countries around the world, reaching hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people with the truth of God, I am humbled by His faithfulness to me and to us and to the Urban Alternative. And I'm certainly grateful for all the friends He's given us who have been faithful, too. I praise God for 40 years of His favor on us.

The Urban Alternative is celebrating 40 years of God's faithfulness, and we look forward to His continued guidance in the future. And now back to Dr. Evans with part two of today's message. Jesus made a powerful statement, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Now, there's a whole bunch in there. Number one, He says truth exists. You shall know it. Secondly, He says the truth that exists, you've got to know it before it can free you.

So just because it's there doesn't mean you have it. Let me put it in everyday language. Truth is God's view on any subject matter. If you want to just be raw with it, truth is God's view on any subject matter. Or as the Scripture says, let God be true and every man a liar. So if you disagree with God, guess what God just called you? He's called you a liar. If your mama disagrees with God, guess what God played the dozens with on your mama? Your mama is a liar. If your partners disagree with God, guess what God just said about your posse? They're liars. If the government disagrees with God, guess what God said?

You're a liar. Doesn't matter how many people believe it. Doesn't matter how many people vote for it. Doesn't matter how many people feel it.

Doesn't matter how many people think about it. Once it disagrees with God, personally, as a family, as a church, or in society, God called all of them liars. And if you are a liar, you're not operating on the truth. And if you're not operating on the truth, you can't be set free. So His goal is unity, but God only operates with truth that you know. If in fact you want to see Him manifest Himself to you.

Now, watch this. He gives a warning, because He knows that this unity can be interrupted. And so He says, verse 14, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Verse 16, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He knows that there is a system at work to keep you from the truth. And that system is called the world. The world is defined as that system headed by Satan that leaves God out. It is that system orchestrated by the devil—stay with me here— that wants to get God meaningfully out of the conversation without getting rid of God's name.

Satan doesn't mind God's name as long as it's not God's truth. You remember Adam and Eve? God gave them a word.

Watch this now. The last verse of chapter 2 says, man shall leave his father and mother, cleaveth his wife, and the two shall become one. Oh, one. That's the word one. Unity. They're going to be unified.

They're going to live happily ever after. The next verse, slick, shows up in the garden. The devil slithers his way in and says, hath God said? The first conversation between a human being and the devil was about God.

Have God said? And so he twisted the word of God so that the oneness that was agreed upon a verse earlier destroys the garden, the whole home, destroys the relationship, destroys the kids, wind up destroying the whole world because the truth got co-opted by the devil. He knows if he can keep you from the truth, he can break up the unity. And if he can break up the unity, he'll keep God away because God cannot operate in disunity. So Satan is after removing it, and it's a kingdom issue because in Matthew chapter 12 verses 25 to 29, Jesus says, a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

He says if Satan casts out Satan, then Satan can't be strong. He goes on and says there's a city divided against itself, and watch this, and a home divided against itself, he says. So if I was the devil and I wanted to keep God out of your home, your church, and your country, then what I'm going to do is I'm going to create illegitimate disunity. I'm going to create disunity because I want to disrupt the kingdom.

And a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Genesis 11, 1-9, Tower of Babel. It says all the world spoke with one voice. They were unified. They came up with one plan to build a civilization with one religion. They build a ziggurat that's a tower, and they said this tower is going to take us all the way to heaven. Humanism. We're going to get to heaven by man. We don't need God.

We just need men to come together and sing kubaya, you know, hold hands and all that. We're going to build a civilization. And then it says, and God came down.

So here's a great lesson right there. No matter how high you get, God still got to come down, because you ain't going but so high without Him. So don't think any of us, me, you, us, we all that. Because no matter what degrees you have, what title you have, what money you have, what car you drive, what home you live in, God still got to come down.

You ain't but so much. So He comes down to see what the sons of men have built. And when God sees that they want to build a civilization without Him, He says, let us divide this thing.

We're going to split this thing up. And He says, the reason we're going to divide it is if we let them stay unified. There is nothing that they will not be able to pull off on earth because of the power of unity. Remember, unity is oneness of purpose. It is establishing a common goal that's legitimate. He says in verse 23, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, get better at it, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me.

Whoa, wait, wait, wait. He says, when you have legitimate unity, as defined biblically, the world will see something it has not seen. The world will see you love them, like you loved me. Where there is unity, you get to see God show up. You get to see God invade your circumstances. You get to see God invade your situation. You get to see God flip things, twist things, change things, whether it's invading it emotionally or invading it circumstantially.

You get to see God loving you. See, a lot of us are operating on other folk testimony about how real God is and powerful God is and strong God is. We depend on what God said to our neighbor because He never talks to us. But He says, if you will operate based on the truth in unity, you will show the world that you love them like you show that you love me. Now, how did God show that He loved Jesus?

By showing up wherever Jesus showed up to change things. Psalm 133, 1 to 3 says how God loves the unity of His people, for it is out of that unity He will command a blessing. Now, watch that. That's the only place in the Bible that I'm aware of that God talks about commanding a blessing. You know what a command is?

You better do it. That's what a command is. A command means you don't have an option here, not a legitimate option. So God tells blessings when to come and when to stop. He says, when I see unity, I tell a blessing what to do, and the blessing has got to obey me. I tell heaven what to send down to earth, and when I tell heaven to do something, heaven doesn't.

Earth is where I have my problem. But up in heaven, I command a blessing, and the blessing has no choice but to fly down where you are because you're operating in unity. Dr. Evans' current teaching series, Race, Culture, and Christ, is a collection of messages reminding us that class and background are unimportant to those who belong to God's kingdom, and that only through approaching life God's way can we truly move past bigotry and racism once and for all. All six full-length messages from this series will be yours as our thank you gift, along with the powerful, best-selling book he spoke about earlier today, Oneness Embraced. Get details right now and make your request by calling our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. That's 1-800-800-3222. Or visit tonyevans.org to make the arrangements online. Again, that's tonyevans.org. It's become common to acknowledge racism in our culture, but tomorrow Dr. Evans will point out that cultural evils are rooted in spiritual sins, and that overcoming them requires embracing a lesson learned at the cross of Christ. I hope you'll be with us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.