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. 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 In modern culture, the truth has been replaced by my truth or your truth.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. Presidential candidates talk about uniting the nation while they fight. We all are aware of the ongoing racial divide, the divisions within our own homes and families.

And the divisions keep growing no matter what the efforts are to seek to heal them. 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 is the same. It is distinctiveness going in the same direction in order to achieve a common purpose. Unity is purpose driven, not persons driven.

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 got everybody with their own truth, you got everybody with their own direction. And when you 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 believe it to be true. 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. 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 that 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 breath of His wisdom, the breath of His glory. Well, the same thing happens with race. God wants to show the breath 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. Request your copy of this important book at tonyevans.org. Also, the message you're hearing today is part of a brand-new audio compilation called The Best of Tony Evans 2020. It contains 20 of Tony's most requested lessons of the past year, covering the biblical antidote for worry and anxiety, how to plant seeds for a more fulfilling future, how God's truth can help you fight temptation, and more. Right now, we're also making available a copy of Tony's popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose, that will help you discover the fulfillment that comes from doing what you were created to do. This giant collection of 20 audio messages plus the devotional book are available as our gift when you help support Tony's ministry with a year-end contribution. Make the arrangements today by visiting tonyevans.org or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by to help you day and night. Again, dial 1-800-800-3222. Right now, Dr. Evans is back with more of today's message. Let's join him. 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.

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 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. So he's a fan of religion.

Keep God's name, use them for invocations, benedictions, go to church, all that stuff, but don't let His truth be the determiner, because the devil has a kingdom because he knows. He knows something. He knows something.

Let me tell you what he knows. 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. That's why Romans chapter 16 verse 17 and 18 says, Mark them out who cause disunity in the church, and if necessary, remove them. Illegitimate disunity. Disunity comes because of the absence of God, and the absence of God will always be with the loss of truth, because God can't function in a lie. The Bible says the devil is a liar, and then it says he's the father of lies. Now you know what a father is?

It's folk that got children. So he a born liar, and he got offsprings. 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. But 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. That's what the devil does. Have you ever wondered, if you marry, you have a good friend, how did we wind up wanting a divorce because of how you cooked? How we wind up in a fistfight? How we wind up you throwing my clothes out? When we were just talking about, you know, which TV show we like.

How did we get there? Because once the devil got an opportunity on a little thing, he fed that thing, he fed that thing, he fed that thing, and one thing became another thing, and another thing became another thing until you wind up not even knowing how this argument got started. Because that's what he's after. He's after getting God out because 1 Peter 3.7 says, when you and your maid are out of sync, tell the husband, don't pray, God won't listen. So in order to keep God out of your house, He keeps you in conflict so there is no unity, so God doesn't feel comfortable, so the devil can sow seeds and make a little thing a huge thing. Let me tell you how good the devil is at disunity.

He can create you disunified with yourself. Have you ever been in conflict with you? You're in conflict with you. You don't know which you you're talking to. And if you don't know which you you're talking to, you know you're going to confuse everybody else. So you split between, I should do that, but am I going to do this?

Should I do that? He gets you fighting with you because he can draw us from the truth. And so this world system, you know, I got a problem, I got a problem.

You have this problem, too many of you. On my lawn, because I got ants wanting to set up their own kingdom. And these are not normal ants, these are fire ants. And they will let you know if you've touched their premises. Okay, you ever been stung by fire ants, a bunch of fire ants?

They will light you up. You know why they're building their kingdom? Because they're serving their queen.

See, right there in that fire, they got a queen, and that queen has called her workers to serve her kingdom. And when that queen calls her workers to serve their kingdom, they build up a castle in your kingdom called your lawn. They want to disrupt your lawn. And they keep growing and they're growing and the mound gets bigger and bigger because they want to disrupt the beauty of your lawn with their kingdom. Satan wants to build his kingdom in your life, in your home, in the church, and in the culture, and he builds it and he gathers his folk there in a lot.

So I have very little sympathy. I want to get rid of the mound. I want to get rid of the mound because it will continue to grow if I don't. It will continue to expand. So Satan wants to build a kingdom so that his kingdom expands so that— let me tell you how big this unity thing is. Genesis 11, 1 to 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.

God, we just need men to come together and sing kubaya, and, 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's still got to come down, because you ain't going but so high without it. 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's 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's 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.

That's a powerful statement. To love is to compassionately and righteously seek the well-being of another. He says, if you will be perfected in unity, God will manifest His commitment to you.

Let me say that again. 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. He says, if you are unified based on the truth, then you will see Me.

And He uses another word. I love this word in verse 22. The glory which you have given Me, I have given to them. Ooh, not glory. Glory is where God shows off. Glory is where the invisible God becomes visible. Glory is where He enters into your situations and lets you see His attributes at work. Glory is where God paints His name on a billboard so you can see that it was God. Glory is where God just wants to show off. He wants to let you see He's God. That's why He tells a couple that's in conflict, you pray, I'm not listening.

But in 1 Corinthians 7, 5, He says, but if you come together in unity, He says to a couple, He says, if you're married, the same way that you're physically intimate, He says, if you become spiritually intimate, I'll show you My power. There was a couple of them, and they were in conflict. They had a rebellious son.

He was on drugs and all of this, and it was causing disruption in the home, and they had to put him out and all of this. Every Wednesday, they came together for fasting and prayer. Every Wednesday, they came together, they fasted, gave up the food, and spent that 30 minutes, 45 minutes in fasting and prayer, either by phone or in person. They came together in unity and fasted in prayer. Six months later, they got a call from their son. God had brought some other people in his life that challenged him, brought him back to the Lord, got him off of drugs, and he called, Mama, can I come back home?

I'm clean. And right now, he's working with his parents in the ministry. And they credit it to the unity that they had. Spiritually. Spiritually. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to pray with your maids sometimes, or to pray with your kids, or to pray with people in your life, how it keeps getting interrupted or it's uncomfortable or something else goes wrong?

You just think that's personality or your emotions, no. That's Satan wanting to keep you being disunified so God doesn't have to show up. That's what that is. Or in the church, he wants to keep us from contact with God so that God doesn't feel comfortable showing up where we are. That's why Jesus' prayer is so big on unity, that the glory of God may be revealed. 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. 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 does it. 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. Tony Evans, wrapping up a message on the power of unity. You can request your own CD or digital copy as a stand-alone lesson or as a part of his new compilation, The Best of Tony Evans 2020. As I mentioned earlier, this giant collection is available for a limited time as our gift when you help support Tony's ministry with a generous year-end contribution. In addition to the 20 audio messages, if you contact us right away, we'll also include a copy of his powerful book, Called for a Purpose, containing devotions that can help you overcome feelings of anxiousness, aloneness, and uncertainty as you gain a better understanding of the calling God has just for you. Visit tonyevans.org today to get the details and make the arrangements, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are ready to help you day and night. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222.

When you're following someone, you don't get to choose the route or the destination. If you do, it no longer qualifies as following. Next time, Dr. Evans will remind us the same is true for Christ followers. I hope you'll join us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.