Unity

Well, good morning again. Uh, hey, I love that you're here today. Uh, it is July 5th, so there's not a lot of people that are willing to stay up late all night with their idiot dogs freaking out and then come to church. So, I'm proud of you.

Also, uh, I did not know, and somebody really graciously came up to me after first service to tell me, "The way that you people make it through having a golden doodle on July 4th is you drug them." I did not know that. They were like, "Hey, have you ever tried melatonin?" I was like on a dog. They go, "Yeah." And I was like, "You could have told me a week ago." Like my night would have been so much better.

But it is July 4th weekend. And so what I want us to do is something a little different. So we uh we it's the 250th anniversary of American independence. And I don't want us to fly Yes. I don't want us to fly past that. Um and also the US plays in the World Cup tomorrow night, and so we need to pray for that. We need to pray for my anxiety more than anything. Uh we're going to spend the next like three or four minutes just praying for our country. So what we're going to do is I'm going to give you an area to pray into and then we're just going to pray for 30 seconds. I'll close us and then we'll go back into the next thing.

So if you will, if you'll bow your heads, this first area that we're going to pray into is gratitude. And I know that I know that sometimes that can feel weird, but we're going to be thankful for all that we have. And that doesn't mean you have to be thankful for every single thing that happens in our country. I'm not saying that. But we do have a lot to be grateful for. We have a lot to be grateful for because we get to be here in church today. And not all over the world is that a thing. We get to be open about our faith. And that is not in lots of places in the world. And we get to walk in all that we get to walk in because men and women came before and paid a price. And so, we're going to be grateful. We have a lot to be grateful for. We can be grateful without feeling like everything is perfect. And so for the next 30 or so seconds, if you will just spend some time thanking the Lord for what he's done in our nation over the last 250 years.

God, we are grateful. We are thankful for what has happened in our nation over the last 250 years. And we know that it's not perfect and it won't there is no perfect place until you return and set up a new kingdom. There will never be another perfect place. But God, we can still be immensely grateful. We can be grateful for the freedom that we get to walk in. We can be thankful and grateful for the freedom that our government like gives us. We can be thankful and grateful for the men and women who came before and paid a price so that we could be free. God, we can be grateful. So, would you allow there to be a sense of gratitude for all that you have done in our nation over the last 250 years?

The next area we're going to pray into is we're going to pray for our leadership, both local, state, and national leadership. And here is my challenge to you. I'm not saying to pray for one specific party, one specific individual. I am saying we God tells us in scripture that kings and rulers are placed on their thrones by him. And so I want us to pray for our leadership, our local leadership, our state leadership, and our national leadership. So let's pray.

That we do pray for our leadership. Uh God, we know scripture tells us that you can you can use broken people to accomplish your purposes. And God, what what we want in our nation is your purposes. what you have. And so God, we pray for every leader in every position of authority from our local leaders to our state leaders to the national leaders. God, we pray for a deeper unity to begin to be found even in the political sphere. God, we pray for wisdom that comes from you, nothing else. We pray as they navigate just immense challenges and difficulties, would you speak to them, whether they're a follower of you or not. And God, we ask that those that aren't following you would follow you. We ask for salvations. We ask for revival even in a government.

The last area we're going to pray into is that we're going to pray for unity in our nation and we're going to pray for revival. More than anything else, we're going to pray into revival. So, let's pray.

God, we thank you that you are a God of unity. I mean, your story is the whole story of scripture is this beautiful reconciliation between broken humanity and you. So God, would you would you allow there to be a deeper sense of unity to be found in our nation across every sphere? Would there would there be a unity that begins to to just roll out? And would there be a unity that is found that is maybe even a little bit hard to understand and explain? And God, more than anything else, we ask for revival. There are thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people who don't know you in our nation. God, before I am a citizen of the United States, I am a I am a citizen of your kingdom. And I want that kingdom to be full. We want revival in our nation. We want to see you move in miraculous ways. We want to see you move in ways that that we have never seen before. We want to see the lost come to you in droves. We ask for revival in our nation. God, would you do what only you can do and draw people to your heart. It's your name we pray. Amen.

>> Amen. All right. We're going to jump into uh week three of our or week four, I'm sorry, of our Ephesians series that we've been in called The Better Life. Uh but before we do that, I need to do one more little housekeeping thing.

Uh over the next four weeks, I will not be preaching. Um, and so we I every July I take some time off just to not time off, I take time away to study and plan for the rest of 2026 in the sermon series and then all the way till through next summer of of 2027 to plan, prepare, ask the Lord what he has for us. Ask the Lord where we need to go. So I have two things that I need from you. The first is this. Be praying for me over the next few weeks because I am going to be spending a lot of time just asking God, what do you have for all of us as a church body?

The second thing is this, and this one's going to be really challenging for you, but I I believe you have it in you, okay? We It's not going to be me preaching. It's going to be You could have said like a or something. Come on, give a guy a something. And uh we we are going to have somebody come in and preach for the next four weeks. Um and I just really need you to not get up and leave whenever you see this person come in and preach because it would really hurt Pastor David's feelings, okay? So, he would be sad. And so, South Campus I mean North Campus David just walked out of the room. Um but I just I really it is that people ask all the time how this transition is going for the last year and a half and it is tremendous that I get to go away for the next few weeks and that Pastor David is going to be here to preach is an incredible blessing to me. It's an incredible blessing to our church. So that's all the businessy stuff wrapped up.

Uh in 2003 my family moved from Leach to Abene. And if you had asked me whether I wanted to move to Abalene, I would have said no. Like I what I knew about Abene is this. I knew the last time I was in Abalene, I broke a kid's nose playing basketball. So I won that fight. And then and then it had taco bueno, which was like God's gift from heaven. And then uh it was awful and everything was bad about this place. And my dad told me he was like, "Hey, we're going to move." And I was like, "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard." I I had grown up in the same place. Like I had lived I went to the same school from the time I was in kindergarten until we moved when I was a junior in high school. I had the same group of friends and it was this small little private school. I mean it it just had a couple hundred people in the entire in the entire school and and we were close. We grew up together from the time we were so young. We did everything together. We played sports together. We did theater together. We did band together. It was awesome. And then and then I had an incredible church that I was at and loved that.

And so then we came to Abalene and and I remember walking into church at Beltway for the first time and they they had youth, but the youth ministry was across the street over at WY Junior High. And if you're a teenager, you know, the thought of walking into a crowded room where everyone knows each other and you know no one, that is the worst thing imaginable. I would rather be alone for the rest of my life than experience that again. You walk in and you're like, I'm weird. and everyone just stares at you and you're like, "Okay." And then and then I had to like the school year started and yo, I went to a public school. Like I grew up at a little tiny private school and I went to a public school. Like you know what happens in public schools? This was my thought as a junior in high school coming from a little private school. Like they the teacher sometimes cuss like there was two people making out in the hallway. I watched a girl get tackled by her hair and I'm coming. I'm like I came from a school that we wore ties on Wednesdays and had worship services. This is an insane experience. And so I was like and now for the record super pro public school. Love what God does there. My kids are in the school that I went to. Okay. So I've changed over the years. I have grown.

But I walked into the lunchroom that first day and it had more people in the lunchroom than my entire school did K through 12. And I walked in and not one person invited me to sit at their table except for the parters. So for a year and a half for my jun the half of my junior year and all of my senior year, I sat with the parters who every Monday would pull out their phones and show me videos of them getting drunk over the weekend and trying to tackle trees. Happened every weekend. They were the only people who made me feel like I belonged, which is I not a great thing. Like at school, I I wanted to belong. I wanted to fit in. And the only people that kind of brought me into that sphere and made me fit in was was this group of people that I I really wasn't very similar to, yet they brought me in.

And this desire of belonging, that is something innate in each of us. like we want to be wanted by other people. We desire for other people to like us. It doesn't doesn't end whenever you're uh whenever you start to grow up. As a teenager, you might be going like, I've got to fit in, so I got to have the jeans that everybody's wearing. I've got to wear Birkenstocks again, which is an insane thing that that came back. I got to play the sport. I got to go to this event. But then we get older and as adults, we still feel the same thing. I got to live in this neighborhood and then I belong. I got to have this job that puts me in this socioeconomic status and then and then I belong. And this desire for all of us to to be with other people, it is innate in us. It's why Ecclesiastes says, "Two are better than one, for they have a good reward for their toil." Like we all have this desire inside of us.

Here's the wrestle. We live in a world and in a society that does everything it can to push us away from one another. Like we live in a world and a society that like if you get on social media, you tell me. Does social media feel like we're bringing people in or pushing people away? Turn on the news. Does the news feel like it's inclusive? Like, hey, come on in. We're a big table. No. The news makes you sad. Politics. Politics is is the most divided and fractured imaginable right now. We live in an entire world and an entire culture that is pushing us away from one another when there's an innate desire in each of us to be with one another. What an odd juxiposition that in all of us is a desire to matter and to belong with other people and then there's a culture and a world that's pushing us further and further away from one another. And and that's just not the plan that God had for each of us. And we have a role to play in bringing people in. We have a role to play to be the metaphorical drunk guys at WY High School that invited me in.

Says this, "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory." We're told like we're supposed to fight for unity and belonging and bringing people into our room, into our table. It's why what Paul writes in Ephesians 2 matters so much. So, if you will grab a Bible, we're going to camp out in Ephesians 2, starting in verse 11.

If you don't have a Bible, there should be one around you. If you think we live in a divided and fractured society, I'll tell you this, who Paul writes this to is divided and fractured at this time. You have the early churches in Ephesus and they have you have both Jews and Gentiles. And what Paul is going to write in these words is to the Jews and the Gentiles. These two people did not like each other. And when I mean did not like each other, I mean loathed each other. They they found identity in their dislike of one another. They they were not a group of people that was trying to do life with one another. And then Paul sits down and he writes and talks to them about belonging with one another. And in there, he's not talking about the neighborhood they lived in, not talking about the clothes they wear, the jobs they do, the political party they affiliate with. He's talking about something so much greater. He's talking about Jesus. And because of Jesus, we get the opportunity to belong to God first and then to one another. It doesn't just cease at belonging to him.

So in Ephesians 2 starting in verse 11, Paul writing to the Jews and Gentiles in the early church of Ephesus says this. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Paul sits here and be before he's going to talk about belonging with one another and what that looks like, he continues to do the the same theme that he's done in Ephesians 1, he continues to point us in one place, Jesus. He's pointing us, shouting at us to remember grace. Because if we don't remember what we've been rescued from, it's really hard for us to live for the life that God has. If I don't remember what I've been saved from, then the next step that I make is deluded by my my misunderstanding or misuse or or watered down belief of grace. We have to remember what we've been saved from so that we can live for the life that God has for us. And it's so easy, at least it is for me. It's so easy to take for granted grace. I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor. Like I I I have been I can't tell you. Somebody asked me the other day what day I got saved. And I was like, I have no idea. I can't even tell you a month. I can give you a year. I grew up in the church. And it's easy for me to take like not take advantage but but not recognize the weight of grace, not recognize the importance of grace, the magnitude of grace, how vitally I need it.

I thought about it like this this week. I uh we we live in Texas. Maybe you're traveling here, but you're in Texas right now and you're experiencing one of Texas's two seasons, okay? You have Antarctica and the sun. There's no in between. And we're in the sun season right now and it's a joy. And you know what's crazy is you walked into this place today at South Campus or at the north campus or maybe you're sitting by your pool at your house but like it's hot outside. We get people bringing in coats into beltways so that they're not too hot because we have this thing called air conditioning. You know what? We never think how grateful we are for air conditioning. You know when you get grateful for it? When it's not there. like two weeks ago at my house and I was sitting on my couch and all of a sudden I'm like, "Man, it's getting hot in this house." And I walk over and I see the thermostat. I'm like, "That's a bad number." And then I get my thing to check my AC and it's shooting air out at 90°. You know what mattered a lot then? Air conditioning. See, we take for granted grace like we take for granted air conditioning. I expect it to be here. I expect when I walk in somewhere that it's going to be there and it's going to make me feel better and it's going to do exactly what I need in my life. And with grace, it's easy for us to just take it like that, forgetting really what God did. And gratitude for grace changes the way we live our lives. When we become people who remember grace, we live lives of grace.

So, do we need to be reminded of what Jesus did? Listen to these words. God shows his love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation.

And before Paul is going to talk about our horizontal relationships with one another, he talks about the vertical magnitude of grace. The vertical magnitude of what we have been reconciled from, what I have been saved from. For while you were still sinners, while I was still a sinner, you know what that means? that while my life was still in complete opposition to God Almighty, while I was rebellious, while I was a slave, while I wanted nothing to do with him, in that mindset, God still sent Jesus. With my life being a proverbial middle finger to God, he sent his son to the most brutal death imaginable, taking on the sins of the world. I needed that desperately, and he did it even before my heart was for him at all. >> That's crazy. What an unbelievable thing. And then in that death, in that blood of Jesus shed on the cross, he bought for us adoption, sunship, daughters, freedom, hope, a life of eternity that was headed in one way to everything bad to another way where I get to be in the presence of the one who gives every good and perfect because it comes from the father of lights of whom there is no shadow or variation due to change. All that happens that is grace.

As followers of Jesus, we have to walk, we have to live our life through the lens of grace. And then we can begin to see what it looks like with one another. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments ex expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to one spirit to the f in one spirit to the father.

So here Jesus begins to then talk about what happened. Remember we're living we're looking at this through the lens of grace through the lens of what we've been saved from. And then Paul writes that Jesus himself is our peace. And he broke down he broke down the barrier the wall of hostility that existed between us and God but also between us and one another. Remember he's talking to Jews and Gentiles. These people did not like each other. But because of what he just said, because of Jesus, we belong to God and we belong to one another. And then he goes on and says what this belonging to one another looks like. And he uses the image of a wall of hostility. This wall of hostility would have been something that they would have understood. In the temple, there was a wall that separated like Jewish people and Gentiles. Gentiles could not go past this wall. And and it's so much so that archaeologists have found signs that were on this wall. And it says this, "No foreigner may enter within the barrier surrounding the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his ensuing death." This wall, a dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. Paul writes, "Jesus himself, who is our peace, breaks that wall down, that wall that separated them."

I mean, you think of what it would have been like to be a gentile and and hear about this Jesus and then hear the words of Paul and the letters that he wrote to the different churches, but also in the back of your mind have this wall that separated you and Jewish people. And then Paul writes that the the wall of hostility between them is broken down. And notice that notice that it isn't past tense when we read this. It doesn't say Jesus when he returns will break down the wall that separates you from one another. He doesn't say that Jesus one day and you know one day when when it's further in the future will break down. There's not a past tense quality to what Paul writes in Ephesians 2. He says Jesus with his death on the cross broke down the wall of hostility separating them from one another. This is the command for how believers are supposed to do life with one another. A new command I give to you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. That's the way we as believers should treat each other. But also people that don't know Jesus. Remember what we just read in Romans where it says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And then we read this in John 13 and it says we're supposed to love like love as he loved us. You know how he loved us? Irrationally. He loved us when it made no sense. I didn't deserve love when Jesus went to the cross. I deserved anything but love. I deserve the punishment that my sin bought me. And yet he says, "Love as I have loved you. Love one another." That's how it's supposed to look.

And we look at our world, and let's be honest, I'm not preaching again for four weeks, so I can step on a little toes today. That's not often how the church looks. I'm not talking about beltway. I'm talking big C church. And I know that because just get on Facebook and you see how followers of Jesus communicate with other followers of Jesus. I'm not saying we can't disagree. I'm saying we see the tone. You see the words. You see the fights we pick. You look on social media. That's only place you have to go to go. Maybe we have a problem loving one another as Christ loved us. Maybe this whole wanting to somebody to sit at my table, maybe it's something I'm not as good as at not as good at as I thought. Where here Paul writes, remember grace, the dividing wall of hostility has been broken down by he who is our peace. See, this isn't something you and I can do on our own. On our own, I I'm going to be incapable. But but it's he who is our peace that allows the dividing wall of hostility to be broken down. And peace is a person and that person is Jesus. Notice he says he is our peace. Not that Jesus brings peace. Not that he offers peace. He says that Jesus is peace. And if you know Jesus, then you know peace. And if we walk in deeper relationship with Jesus, we walker in deeper relationship with an understanding of peace. The more I know him, the greater depth to which I can walk in peace with him and with other people by he who is our peace. Horizontal peace with one another. Walking in unity with one another flows from the vertical piece of reconciliation. We have to remember that the greatest disunityity, the greatest discord in all of human history is humanity and God Almighty. There was no bigger gulf of separation than than existed when humanity was living in sin and God almighty was up in heaven. And yet he who is our peace broke down the dividing wall of hostility between us and him. And if he can love us when we don't deserve it, then that is far greater showing example of love than us loving somebody else that might think differently than both us, vote differently than us, have a different race than us, have a different socioeconomic status than us. If he can do that, if he can restore me, how can I go into a world of people made in his image and not love him? People who are followers of Jesus, how how can I not love them like he loved me? Doesn't matter. I don't get to put qualifiers. because Jesus did it. And he says, "Love as I have loved you." That is the command on us as believers.

And he wraps up our text today by saying this. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens. You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself once again pointing to Jesus being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place by God for the spirit or for God by the spirit. He he says we because of the grace and the dividing wall of hostility being broken down, we then get brought into the same family. Like if you're a follower of Jesus, you're in my family and we treat family different than we do other people. Right? In my house, if we have a guest coming over, you know what my wife does not allow? And this is wrong of her. She's wrong. She's not here today, so I can tell this, but like this is wrong. We have a guest coming over. The laundry couch doesn't get to be the laundry couch anymore. The audacity. That's where it lives. When guests come over, I have to do the dishes. We got to pick up the house. You know, when family comes over, what you do? Hey, don't sit on the clean laundry. When a guest comes over and wants some water, you're like, "Oh, yes. Let me get you. Let me go go to the store and get you the really nice water. When family comes over, you're like, "Turn on the tap." You know what also we do with family? We like live life intimately, closely, care for them. Does that mean every family is perfect? No, it does not. But when my family comes over and a healthy family comes over, you sit down together, you have a meal together, you play Nintendo Switch together, you go on vacations together, you make memories together. Like family is so different and we understand the difference in acquaintances and family in the world. We forget it in the church. Like I might disagree with my family, but you know what I'm not going to do? banish my family from being around me. I'm not going to build up a wall around my family unnecessarily. Like healthy families don't push one another away. Healthy families bring in. And here Paul writes in Ephesians 2 that we're brought into be members of the same family.

Unity is not the goal. It is the reality that Christ created for his people through the cross. All of a sudden, the everything that seems important, you know what? It's less important than Jesus. How we vote matters. And I'm pro politics. You know what? It matters less than, though? Jesus. Race matters. You know what? It doesn't matter as much as the grace of Jesus on the cross. And the church is supposed to reveal the unity Christ created. People should look to the church and go, "How can you love that person? They're so different than you. How how can you love them?" And we could go, "Jesus, how can you be around that person? Did you do you do you even know what they think about this, this, or this?" Sure, but like Jesus died on the cross. Yeah, but but but no, no, there's no but but but it's just Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. And the church should be looked at as this bastion of unity in the world. People should look to it and go, I don't understand how they do this with one another, but I want that. And what we're told in scripture is this. if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceibly with all.

So, we're going to talk practically how do we be people who are come sit at my table? How do we be people of unity? Here's what I'm not saying before we get into this. I am not saying that means you have to think the same way as everyone around you. You have to vote the same way as everyone around you. You have to believe all the same things as everyone around you. That's not what I'm saying. Some of my very close friends in the world think very differently than me on things. They're just not the primary things. My best friend in the world and I have some big theological disagreements at times. You know what? I still call him every day. Other other church leaders, close friends, we don't always have to think the same thing. Unity is not being homogeneous. you unity is love one another as I have loved you.

So how do we do this? We start where Paul did. Remember where we came from. Remember grace. Before we go into how do I do this? We have to view every single person as somebody who Jesus went to the cross for because he went to the cross for me. Every single person as you were made in the image of God just like I was. The less we remember the grace we have been given, the less gracefilled we are with others. When I remember what I have been saved from, I treat people different because I know I didn't deserve it and he did it anyway.

The next one is this. Stop building walls Jesus tore down. We have to stop building with our opinions things that Jesus said were less important. And like I said, I love politics. You should vote every time. I've not missed an election since I was 18. I love talking about it, thinking about it. But if I truly believe that people are made in the image of God and that I'm supposed to love them like Christ loved me, then somebody that sits across the political aisle from me, I want them in heaven. >> I want them to know Jesus. I want them to walk in abundance, have a healthy marriage. I want God to bless them. Does that mean that always has to make logical sense? No. Jesus died on the cross for humanity that hated him and he did it anyway. And we can't build walls, whether it be in anything, politics, race, socioeconomics, we can't build walls that Jesus already tore down.

So that leads us to here. Pursue relationships instead of winning arguments. I'm an eight on the inagram. I genuinely love arguing. Have fun with it. finds some life in it at times. And when Sarah and I first got married, she is not an eight on the enog. And when we first got married, uh I would do what we lovingly referred to as lawyer her. So she would be having a thought that she was formulating to respond to something that I was saying and uh I would just hit her with thought thought and then she would cry and walk off. And you know what's awesome? I won every time. I was good at this. You know what? I didn't win a healthy marriage at that time. Sometimes winning is not the goal. When I when I do premarital counseling with Sarah, one of the things we tell couples early on is your goal in conflict because you're going to have conflict. Your goal in conflict is this unity, not winning. My goal is to fight for unity. Are there going to be things that we're going to be called to fight for and take stands for out in the world? Absolutely. But we don't have to pick a fight about everything. We don't have to try to win all the time. Sometimes fighting for unity means I stop fighting about secondary tertiary issues. Sometimes fighting for unity and come sit at my table means I can recognize that you and I are different, but you are still made in God's image. You are still loved by him. He still went to the cross for you. Sometimes winning is the worst strategy to point people to Jesus. So we have to stop trying to win all the time.

The next one is this. Lean into church instead of away from it. It is it is easy for us in conversations like this to look at the church which is not perfect and and begin to pull back. Here's the truth. If we're going to see the revival we prayed for at the beginning, it's because the church functions like the healthy body that God calls it to be. It's because you're who you you're called to be. You walk in the gifts that you have. You You serve in the ways that you're called to serve. You lead worship in the ways that you're called to lead worship. You take care of kids in the in our nursery preschool. It's because the church functions in the way that it's supposed to. So my encouragement to you is I'm going to plant a bug in your ear for something that's happening in months. But I want you to be thinking about this. It is easy at a church like Beltway to zoom in right as church is starting and then zoom out right as soon as it leaves. and the only kind of engagement with the body of Christ that you have to be a weekend service. And I love what God does in our weekends. I love getting to preach. I love getting to worship with you. I I love what he does in our worship centers. This is so not the only thing God is doing. And every year we do a focused thing for a few months where from kids all the way on up, we chase after one idea together. We read a book. We call it our spiritual growth campaign. This year it's called The Truth About Lies. It's going to start after Labor Day, after boot camp. But I just want you to be thinking about it now because in there we're we're going to want you to like get involved in a group. We're going to want you to read a book. We are going to want you to attend services, but not because I care about every person's I care that these seats are full. I care about every person. That would be the opposite of the whole message. Not not because I care that the rooms are full, but because I want people to walk in the freedom that God has for us. And so we're going to spend a few weeks talking about freedom. How can we get rid of the lies that we've believed and walk in the freedom that God calls us for calls calls us to?

And the last thing is this fight for unity. And I'll be honest with you, it's going to be a fight because the world is doing everything it can to push us away from one another. Throwing every dart it can. The enemy loves for disunityity to exist because you know what scripture says? Where there is unity, God commands a blessing. >> I don't know about you, I love the thought of being blessed. But we're gonna have to fight for unity. Fight for it with one another. Fight for it with people who are different than us. It doesn't mean we have to all agree on everything, but it does mean I can view every single person through the lens of grace and that they're made in God's image and that he died for them.

If you will bow your heads and let's spend a couple of moments with the Holy Spirit. God, I pray that if there are areas of our heart that that maybe we have grown bitter with people, would you reveal those right now? Would you uproot those? We know bitterness, it destroys us from the inside out. If there are things that have made us hesitant to walk in unity, show us, God, would we be a church? Would Beltway Park be a church that is known for its unity? Would we be a church as known for the way that it loves people like you loved us? God, we thank you for grace. Would you let that be the thing that we remember constantly, all that we have been saved from so that we can live the life you've called us for. It's in your name we pray. Emit.