E Pluribus Unum

The hope of the Gospel unites the most unlikely of people, from all tribes, tongues, nations, and even political parties.

As members of Christ's eternal kingdom, we can declare that even in moments of great division, Jesus retains the power to heal, restore, and offer an eternal hope. Well, good evening, somebody. It is so good to be with you, to actually talk to people. Amazing.

I've been looking into cameras for the last several months, and what an absolute joy it is to be here with you. Man, this song about the faithfulness of who God is. Earlier, I was with my two sons, and we were, two of my three sons, we were just sitting out eating and really recounting the faithfulness of God. We put our house on the market in San Jose, California, right in the middle of a pandemic, and God has proven himself to be faithful, sold in seven days.

Unbelievable. Now, that's faithfulness of God plus Bay Area, but no, we give God all the credit, and then moving us here and all that 2020 has thrown at us, there's been moments he hasn't felt good, but even when it doesn't feel good, we can say God is good. Can anyone join me in just declaring that, that God is good. We bless God for his faithfulness. If you have your Bibles, please meet me in Ephesians chapter four.

We're wrapping up our series that we have been walking through on flags. Pastor JD just opened up the first two messages talking about issues of justice and really giving a sound biblical truth and wisdom as we navigate this thing called politics this evening. I want to really just talk about how we are to treat one another as the body of Christ in the middle of all this and I understand that there's some of you who are tuning in who are watching some of you who are in the room with me and you wouldn't call yourself a member of Jesus Christ and I would say tonight is just a good time for you to be here and to just kind of soak in what does it look like for the body of Christ in the midst of such diversity of thought in the midst of the temptation to be divided.

What does it look like to walk together in this thing called unity. Now the guy who wrote this his name is Paul and Paul says this beginning in verse one of Ephesians chapter four. Paul says I therefore a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called with all. Make note of these words humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain here it is the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Why verse four. There is one body 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 in through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us.

According to the measure of Christ's gift. God I just pray that you would speak to our hearts at the seat of your word would fall on good ground that it would take root, and that it would bear much fruit. I pray Jesus you would be clearly seen in this text tonight in my labor Lord God, and that you would draw those who don't know you into a eternal relationship with you. And for those of us who are followers of Christ I I do pray Lord God that that you would clear away the the preconceived ideas that you would clear away the the clutter and allow us to clearly Lord God here from you through me your vessel this evening, it is in Christ's name we pray all these things.

Amen. In 2015 Some of us can remember there was a there was a dress that initially was uploaded on to onto Tumblr an image of a dress and thousands immediately chimed in on what the color of this dress is some of us can remember it some of us said no this dress is it's gold and others of us said no it's it's blue and black to make matters even more divisive. It got uploaded onto Twitter not long after that we're 10 million people chimed in and they said for sure it's gold or white, and others said no for sure it's black and blue. In fact wherever you may be in your homes or in this room how many people thought it was gold or white initially right for those of us remember others of us black and blue right and here's what I want you to see it's amazing how so many people can look at the same thing and come away with drastically different perspectives and conclusions. I think that's one of the takeaways you want to go are we looking at the same thing here and it's just amazing how so many of us can look at the same thing and come away with drastically different conclusions and perspectives.

Of course you know where I'm going with this. At no point is this more true I think than when it comes to government and politics. There are so many different perspectives on it. Some people look at government and politics and say government should be bigger. Others look at government and politics and say no it should be smaller. Other people when it comes to politics is no at the end of the day here's what I'm really concerned about is the platform of this particular candidate going to really protect and fight for life inside the womb. Others say you know what of course I'm for that but but but I'm interested also in that same life outside the womb and I'm going to vote for policies that are going to engage that it's just amazing how so many of us can look at the same thing and come away with so many different perspectives.

Tonight's message is not about what you should believe as it relates to policies and for sure it's not about who you should vote for. It's how do we navigate the differences with one another. I'm a child of the 80s and my my grandparents lived in Roanoke Virginia right there off of Hershberger road and I remember summer times we'd go up to visit them and I remember on many occasions sitting at my grandparents breakfast table where my grandfather who was a blue collar worker for a grocery store for a lot of years before that he was a coal miner before that he played in the Negro leagues and he had a brother who's extremely wealthy. He was he owned a funeral home his brother my great uncle did in Dayton Ohio in fact true story my uncle who owned the funeral home actually tried to get me to take over the business. I'm being dead serious right now and and I remember my grandfather's brother they would go at it at the table over politics. One of them thought Ronald Reagan was the best thing ever and the other thought Ronald Reagan was the worst thing ever and and they would just go back and forth and back and forth and I was concerned as a little kid is there going to be a rift here like like is the family going to going to stay together it was it was that intense of a disagreement. Well, according to a recent Pew study. The disagreements around politics, even among Christians has not gotten better the divide, according to this recent Pew study has only gotten worse.

A recent Pew study revealed that the gap between the views of Republicans and Democrats on fundamental issues has here it is increased from 15 to 36 percent between 1994 and 2017. And his wonderful book Christians in an age of outrage Ed Stetzer says this when you look at it with me. Sadly, Christians have varying religious traditions ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds have often followed their non Christian friends deep into these political divisions. Thus, here it is, even as the country slowly entrenches itself along political cultural and economic lines here it professing Christians are often on the front lines of these divisions. Do you hear what Ed Stetzer is saying? It's not that the body of Christ is just getting swept away in the cultural current when it comes to politics.

Often we're leading the charge. So many of us have allowed CNN and MSNBC and Fox News to disciple us more than Jesus. In the middle of all this, Paul has a word for us. In Ephesians chapter four verse one, Paul begins by saying look at it with me, I therefore a prisoner of the Lord here it is, urge, urge.

Paul is writing in a language called Greek. The Greek word translated urge is a compound word. Para means to bring to one side. Kaleo means to call.

So that word urge, it's the Greek word parakaleo. It literally means to call to one side. The best way I could demonstrate this for you is it's kind of Paul doing this, making the gesture come here. He's talking to a group of believers who are incredibly different.

We'll explore that in just a few moments. And yet in spite of their differences, he's saying come here. It's as if Paul is saying listen, I know that this is an intense election season, but come here.

I know that there's so much going on and there's so much chatter on the television box and there's so much that is threatening to divide us, but come here. Paul says I urge, parakaleo, I want you to just come alongside of me. There's something I want to deposit in you and what he wants to deposit in us is unity. Paul is going to give us kind of three big things on unity this evening. The first thing Paul wants us to understand is that unity is not uniformity.

Unity is not uniformity. Just like oneness is not sameness. For those of us who are married, we understand that we married a very different person. And these two people who are profoundly different, different theologies on the toilet seat and different ways to squeeze the toothpaste.

One of them does it incorrectly from the middle, the other does it correctly from the bottom up. We are incredibly different people and yet the goal of marriage is not uniformity. It's not to get my spouse to be cloned into my image. The goal of marriage is not sameness, but it's oneness. And this is Paul's point here. As he just lifts it to the broader body of Christ, he wants them to understand unity is not uniformity. In fact, we understand that Paul is talking to a very diverse body.

We know this two ways. One of them is the words that Paul uses. I call your attention again to verse two.

Paul calls them to be people of all humility and then look at this gentleness, patience, bearing with. Those kind of three last words or phrases all assume a diversity of thought. I mean, listen, I don't need to be gentle with people I agree with. I don't need to be patient with people who see it the same way I do. And I don't need to bear with individuals in which we are in alignment on just about everything. Those very words, gentleness, patience, bearing with, it assumes that I'm doing life with people who are different than me.

Not only that, we know that there's difference here. Because if you just read about the founding of the church in Ephesus, and I want to encourage you, read Acts chapters 19 and 20 because those chapters talk about the founding of the church at Ephesus. And whenever Paul goes to start a church in the ancient world, he always has two questions. Number one, where's the synagogue?

I want to preach Christ to the Jews. So he goes to the synagogue there in Ephesus, preaches Christ, some Jews come to know him, but he's not done because he wants to reach not just the segment of the city, but all of the cities, so he wants to know where the Gentiles hang out. He goes there and some Gentiles come to faith. And what does Paul do?

He doesn't start two separate churches. He starts one church and calls these diverse people of different ethnicities to work out horizontally what has already been accomplished for them vertically, which is reconciliation. He is writing to a diverse body, and he says to this ethnically diverse body, walk in, not uniformity. So Jews, don't try to expect Gentiles to be Jewish or vice versa. Walk in unity.

Walk in unity. You know, one of the things that I've been so pleased with as I've just kind of locked arms and serving with this team, we've done demographic study as I'm one of the things they've asked me to do is to kind of facilitate greater degrees of ethnic unity here at the church. And I said, okay, what does diversity look like at the summit? And we're right at about 19% minority. If you're new with us, you should understand we have a stated goal of becoming 25% minority by 2025, and we are well on our way.

Praise God. I've pastored multi-ethnic churches all across the country, and let me just put it out there, it can be quite the headache. It's what Rick McKinley calls a beautiful mess.

Why? Because you get people who are ethnically different, and on top of that, ethnic difference, ethnic diversity breeds all other kinds of diversity. And so maybe in a room like this, where there is, or in your own homes, where there is all kinds of diversity, maybe there's some theological diversity on lesser non-essential things like sign gifts. And so maybe some of you would say, I'm a cessationist, and others of you go, no, I'm Pentecostal, and others of you go open but cautious, which is the stated position of our church, and others of you are like, bro, have no idea what you just said.

And of course, there's political diversity. And some of you are like, Trump's my guy, and my 401k thanks him. Others of you are like, never Trumpers. And I love how Pastor JD says it, that's fine. Because we are not the people of the Democratic Party or the Republic Party, we are the people of the Lamb. That whole idea that Jesus is not coming back on Air Force One.

So those are lesser things. And there's room for disagreement on lesser things. But when it comes to the main thing, Jesus Christ, we've got to walk together in unity.

Why? Because at the end of the day, we're on the same team. Some years ago, I watched the film 42, which is the story of Jackie Robinson and him breaking the color line and it was played by the dearly departed now actor Chadwick Boseman, he played Jackie Robinson. There's a moving scene in this movie. In this movie, Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers, they're playing I believe the Cincinnati Reds, which isn't too far from Kentucky and pregame, they're out on the field warming up and the fans in the stand are just saying some horrific things geared towards Jackie Robinson.

In the middle of it all, his teammate shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who's white, senses the discouragement and Jackie Robinson goes over to Jackie and drapes his arm around Jackie's shoulder and the visual is stunning. Two different individuals and yet walking together arm in arm because they're on the same team. Friends, that's what we are in the body of Christ. If you are redeemed by the blood of the lamb, if you know what it is in the words of Jude to be snatched out of the fire to be taken from death to life, then we're on the same team. And what unites us the cross of Jesus Christ is to be bigger than anything else that divides us. But not only that, Paul says something else that's interesting about unity.

Not only is unity not uniformity, but he says this. He wants us to understand that unity with Christians demands union with Christ. Unity with Christians demands union with Christ.

Look at verse four. Paul says there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all. He says to this diverse body, I want to lift your eyes off of each other horizontally and set your gaze onto your creator vertically.

He keeps reminding him of the oneness that they've been called into. One of the things he says is there is one baptism, one baptism. The idea of baptism, there's several ideas that's communicated here. One is it is publicly identifying with Christ. Or to put it in stock terms, baptism is your IPO. It's your initial public offering. It is you just publicly declaring that I am a follower of Jesus Christ.

You are stating what your new identity is. But not only that, it's a symbol of union. When you baptize, especially by immersion, you are declaring your union with Christ. United with him in his death and his burial and then united with him in resurrection. See the idea that Paul is calling us to? He uses vivid imagery by saying, listen, we have union with Christ. Here's his point in context. Paul is saying that our horizontal relationships with others is an indicator light of our union or lack thereof vertically with Christ.

Let me say it another way. Paul is saying if you and Christ are off, your relationships with others will be off. Paul expounds this in Galatians Chapter five. It's a moving text in which Paul is just contrasting life in the spirit with life in the flesh. And here's Paul when he talks about the works of the flesh, he he gives 15 items, but I want to call your attention to eight of them. Look at it with me. Paul says, Now the works of the flesh are evident, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy.

Hear me. He lays out 15 marks of the flesh, and I just read eight of them to you, over half of them to you. Watch it now in these eight are relational.

So over half of the list is relational, which means this. And this is hard for us as Americans to truly understand sin. Here's Paul's point. Sin is not just personal. Sin is not just individual. It is profoundly social and relational. That's why when Adam and Eve sin, the first thing they do is hide from God.

That relationship is off. And the next thing they do is they hide from others. So sin, life in the flesh, when I choose to go at my own way, one of the next dominoes to fall is that's going to impact my relationships with others.

Don't you see Paul's point? Sort of like, I'll invite you into my home. Corey and I celebrated 21 years of marriage this past July, and over the course of our marriage, I don't recommend this, but over the course of our marriage, we've got this little snarky passive aggressive thing that we say to each other on occasion.

And that is, you know, let me just put it this way. Let's say Corey's up early in the morning and, you know, I've been up upstairs and a couple of hours later I come down and then Corey does something or didn't do something I didn't like. And I start snapping at her. I know it's hard for you to imagine that a pastor would snap at his wife, but I start snapping at her and she'll respond by making it all better. She'll say, oh wee, someone has not had their time with Jesus this morning. I don't recommend that.

I don't recommend you try it because that does not make it better. But her point is clear. What is she saying here? We're off because it appears you and God are off. See, if you read Paul's letters, over 160 times he uses the phrase in Christ. In Christ. In Christ. You are in Christ. Your primary identity is not your political convictions.

Have them. Your primary identity is your union in Christ. And when that is in order, that sets the stage for me to have flourishing, unified relationships with others. Now, let me unpack this a little bit more. Exactly what does union with Christ look like?

I think this is very important. I think one of the key texts on this is John 15, if not the key text. In John 15, there's a little word that keeps popping up. It's abide. Abide. Abide. Jesus says, I want you to abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine.

Neither can you unless you abide in me. Again, that text is written in Greek. Greek word for abide is mino.

Mino simply means to remain or to hang out. John 15, watch it now, does violence to the quiet time culture. Don't get me wrong, should Christians have a devoted time in the morning set aside for Bible study and prayer?

Absolutely. I don't know how we grow without it, but so many Christians, that's their only moment of hanging with God. Where the idea of abide, it's so far above and beyond quiet times.

It is just a lifestyle that's remaining in Christ. Best way I can illustrate it is, how many tea drinkers do we have either in your home or in this room? How many tea drinkers? There's two basic philosophies on tea, two basic approaches.

One approach is what I call dippers. They've got the tea bag, it goes in the hot water, they kind of put it in there and then they take it out. And some people might put it in, take it out some more. That's kind of the quiet time culture. It's in there for a moment and then it's out. But others are steepers.

That bag's in there and that bad boy's remaining. Union with Christ is the call for us to steep in relationship with him. And when I steep in relationship with him, there's unity. Paul is clear, unity is not uniformity.

Just like oneness is not sameness. He then goes on to say that unity with Christians demands union with Christ. But finally, Paul ends by giving us four things on how to unleash unity in our relationships and in our church. Look back again at verse two.

Paul says here's how we unleash unity. He begins on a note called humility. He says with all, with all, with all humility. The idea of the word humility means to be brought low. But it's not low self-esteem. It's not me measuring myself against others. But it's the rightful estimation of me against the holy God. One South African pastor said, Andrew Murray says this about humility. Look at it with me. He says, humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.

Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all. Without a doubt, over the last several years, the two most well-known football or soccer players are Ronaldo and Messi. Not too long ago, Ronaldo and Messi sat down for an interview and the interviewer asked Ronaldo, Ronaldo, what do you think your purpose in life is? Ronaldo didn't even hesitate. He says, my purpose in life is that God has sent me here to teach others how to play football.

Messi immediately chimes in by saying, I don't recall sending you here. Obviously, we would not say that's humility. That's pride. And while it's easy to laugh at this caricature of pride, I got news for not all of you, but for all of us. All of us are born into this world, prideful, narcissistic, me first individuals. It's just who we are. We are me first people.

C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity, says the fountainhead all vice is pride. I have numero uno on my agenda self. And so what does this look like to walk in unity with a sense of humility in this political season? Pastor JD has made mention of David Platt's book, Before You Vote. And David Platt is so helpful, and I just want to just give you some questions that he just outlines in this book that I think are a display of humility for how we navigate issues of politics. For example, Platt says, are there any concepts of biblical justice we see in the opposing party? Two, does that political party show any concern for vulnerable individuals in groups? Three, how is that political party trying to promote good and prevent evil? See, I think what Platt is getting at, it takes a lot of humility to point out the good in the other party, and it also takes a lot of humility to point out the bad or to critique your own party. For example, Platt asked these three questions when we think about critiquing our own party. Are there any concepts of injustice we see in our party? Does the political party, number two, I support, show any lack of concern for any vulnerable individuals in groups? Number three, how is my political party failing to promote good and prevent evil? See, I think humility just says the kingdom of God cannot fit neatly in any one political party.

In that sense, I think whenever we go to the voting booth, there should be a degree of tension. Humility again says, here's what's good on the other side of the table, and here's what's not so good on my side of the table. But then secondly, Paul says, if we talk about unleashing unity in our relationships, we've got to be humble, but he also calls us to gentleness, to gentleness. Strictly speaking, gentleness is power under control. But it's interesting to see gentleness in light of humility.

Humility is kind of my inward essence. Gentleness is its outward expression. In other words, gentleness is what humility looks like in public. Gentleness is concerned about how I handle the humanity of people who don't look like, act like, think like, or vote like me. Gentleness says I can be passionate about my issues. Gentleness says that I can have deep convictions. But gentleness primarily says when I run into a person who sees it different, that I treat them in such a way that honors the imago day in that person. So I'm not yelling. I'm not going the route of cancel culture. I'm not fussing with them.

I'm treating them with gentleness. And I think that's something me and all Christians can grow in. You look at people's Facebook pages, and even though you can't hear the tone, it just doesn't feel like gentleness. And sometimes I wonder, how do you have all that time in the first place? And then I just want to encourage you, like, arguments on Facebook just, they don't make sense.

Like, I've never seen an argument on a Facebook post in which the person goes, you know, you're right. But regardless of the banter, may Christians be gentle. Thirdly, Paul would beckon us to be people with all humility and gentleness. And then he says with patience. Patience is the compound Greek word, macro thumos. Macro thumos.

Say that with me. Macro thumos. Macro means long. And thumos, it's from that word we get the instrument of a thermometer from.

This instrument we use to measure heat. It's the idea of anger. So literally, macro thumos means to belong towards anger. In other words, the way that I know I'm patient is that I'm in a situation where I got one nerve left and you're river dancing all over it.

And Paul says, macro thumos. I want you to have patience. See, patience is seen with how we're navigating conflict. With people who are just completely different.

When it comes to conflict, there are typically two kinds of people. Sharks and turtles. Sharks see an issue, we're going to deal with that right now.

Right now, right now. We're dealing with it right now. You do understand that in the natural, sharks cannot go backwards.

They only go forwards. They see something, we have to deal with it. And that's some of us.

Others of us, we're turtles. When there's conflict, we just withdraw. I see this play out all the time. All the time in churches.

Especially churches that are striving towards this thing of ethnic unity. Something will happen and you'll get one group will just turn up the volume. We've got to deal with this right now, right now, right now. And then you've got another group, sometimes they'll just go, man this isn't what I signed up for. I don't understand. So instead of trying to engage, they just kind of take their ball and go home.

Paul says neither approach is conducive to unity. Macro thumos. Be patient with one another. Not be passive. Be patient. Sit down.

Have the conversation. Engage. Finally, Paul ends by saying he's calling us to be people who bear with.

The idea of bearing with simply means to endure something that is unpleasant. He says I want you to bear with one another because you're on the same team. A couple weeks ago I made mention of my love for jazz. In fact, my son Miles is back there and I made mention of the fact that we named him after Miles Davis. Then I read a biography on Miles after he was born and I'm going, alright son we're going to redeem that name, we're going to redeem that name. Love jazz.

The number one jazz I'm of all time, I think I shared with you is Kind of Blue. That's a Miles Davis album. If you don't understand anything about Miles Davis, he had a unique ability to get the greatest jazz players in the world working together in unity on a project. How was Miles Davis able to do that? Miles Davis kind of had this horse whisper. Right before they would go in for a session, Miles Davis would take little scraps of paper and he wouldn't write much on it. He'd just simply go, there's your part, there's your part, there's your part.

Not a whole lot on there. Just enough structure in which he's saying, here's the main thing. Now let's commit to the main thing and within that we understand jazz is improv.

So you can express yourself in different ways as long as there's the commitment to the main thing. That's what Paul is saying. When it comes to the church of Jesus Christ, here's your part, here's your part, here's your part. And your part and my part is Jesus. Once we agree on the main thing, it doesn't mean we clone each other. There's room to express differences on lesser things.

Because there's agreement on the main thing. You know when I think of this text as we close tonight, those four characteristics, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with, I think of one person, that's Jesus. Did you know we're saved by the humility of Jesus?

Philippians 2 says that though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he humbled himself. He humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant.

It says that he became obedient unto the point of death. We are saved because Jesus Christ, he didn't have to go to the cross, but he humbled himself. Not only that, but Jesus is gentle. That's why the predominant image of Jesus in the Bible is a lamb, the picture of vulnerability and gentleness. And praise God, I don't know about you, but I'm thankful that he's patient. As many times as I've blown it, as much as I've messed up, as much as I deserve to just simply be shelved, he's patient. He keeps inviting me back and inviting me back to the table, and boy does he bear with all of my sins.

That's who Jesus is. Friends, I can think of no better person to be a foundation for unity. There is no better than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another, and in some way, shape, or form, to be a follower of his, is to, by the power of his Spirit, incarnate those virtues horizontally with one another, even those who see it differently than us. Let me pray. Father, I pray that Christians would not get swept up in the current of divisiveness, but that we would lead the way in unity.

Not uniformity, not sameness, but oneness. I pray, Lord God, that each of us would leave with a renewed commitment to abide in Christ, because unity with Christians demands union with Christ. So, Father God, I just pray for a spirit of dependence on you. And Lord God, I pray that you would unleash unity through us.

Those areas, Lord God, where we've been prideful and narcissistic, Lord God, those areas, Father, where we have not been humble, expose them to us, Lord God, and we confess those things to you, and we receive your grace and forgiveness. Help us to be gentle, because that's what humility looks like in public. Help us to be patient with people.

Not passive, but patient says, you know what, I'm gonna hang in there, and let's have a conversation about this, or another conversation about it. Let's keep coming back to the table, because we love each other. And Father, may we bear with one another. May we put up with one another's besetting sins, challenging one another, because you bear with us. We pray all these things in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.