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Good morning.

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If you have your Bibles Ephesians chapter 4,

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here's where we're going to be.

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We're gonna do verses 4 through 6 this morning.

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And we're just gonna jump right into it. How about that?

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So here we go. There's one body and one spirit.

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This is your call to one hope that belongs to your call.

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One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all

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who is over all and through all and in all.

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Amen.

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So in the previous three verses that we covered last week,

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Paul was discussing unity as believers.

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Because of the calling that we have received,

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and in light of who God is and in light of what he has done,

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he's beginning to show us what that looks like and how we are supposed to live.

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Now Paul is kind of breaking down what that looks like.

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And in these three verses, Paul is going to show us exactly what should unite us.

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We all have different backgrounds.

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We all have different families, different hobbies, different interests.

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But as believers, we can celebrate our differences

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while also being united in what we believe about God.

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Unity does not mean uniformity.

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We're not asking you to conform to how we do things.

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We don't all have to be exactly alike.

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But these verses are the fundamentals with which we must agree

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in order to have unity.

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When you think of the number seven in the context of Scripture,

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it is the number of God.

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It's the number of completion.

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So as Paul gives us seven things that unify,

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he is referring not to how we are just unified together,

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but how we are unified with God.

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So let's look at seven things that all believers in Jesus should have in common.

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The first one is one body.

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One body.

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Paul is not talking about the church here at Cornerstone,

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or he's not speaking only to this church body here at Cornerstone.

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He is referring to the body of believers all over the world.

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All those that proclaim faith in Jesus, that surrender to him as Savior,

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that's who he is speaking of.

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He's referring, believe it or not, to different denominations.

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Now it can be said that as individuals, as an individual body,

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we are to function as one.

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1 Corinthians 12 states that we are members of one body.

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We need our body to be healthy and striving for the same purpose.

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Colossians 3, 15 says,

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let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

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to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,

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teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,

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singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

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What unites us is Christ,

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and as His words dwell in us, dwell in our hearts,

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we will become more unified.

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It is coming in here and understanding that we might think different politically.

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We might have different views on what it means to raise children,

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but we put that aside to function with one purpose.

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We have to begin to believe what the Bible says we are.

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Too many people try to be someone else,

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not understanding that God has gifted each one of us

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with certain gifts for the purpose of His kingdom.

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If we are truly one body, like the Bible says that we are,

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then we need each person living out their giftings as part of God's grand design.

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When it came out several years ago,

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I would watch American Idol with my family.

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If you think back to American Idol,

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and you think back to the audition round,

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my family and I would laugh and cringe at some of the contestants.

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People hated Simon Cowell because he said it like it was.

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He said what needed to be said,

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you cannot sing. That was horrible.

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You are wasting my time.

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In reality, that was one of the most loving things that Simon could have done for them.

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Because reality is their parents, their family have been telling them all along,

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you can sing, go embarrass yourself on national television.

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Too many people in their lives had told them they could sing

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when in reality they couldn't hold a pitch if their life depended on it.

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Mom and Dad weren't showing love by encouraging them to go make a full of themselves.

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As one body, we need to understand who we are as Christians,

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who we are in the image of God and stand together.

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Too many churches are living the American Idol syndrome

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and being told by culture that they will be more successful

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if they forget what the Word of God says and go with what is popular at this time.

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That hurts the body of believers all around the world.

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The most loving thing we can do as a body of believers is to understand who we are,

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let the words of God dwell in us so that we can point out off pitch singing when it comes our way.

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So that we can point out sin when it's right before us.

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Now we do that with the help of one spirit.

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When Jesus was on the earth, he told his disciples that when he leaves them,

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he will sin for them a helper.

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He was referring to the Holy Spirit.

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When Jesus was on the earth and the disciples wanted to know something,

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they would just ask him, hey, which way should we go?

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What do we do next?

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What does it mean to follow you?

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They would ask and he would answer.

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Now that he has ascended into heaven, we now have the Holy Spirit.

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Hey, what should I do here?

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Where do I go?

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What is your purpose in this situation?

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The Holy Spirit is the one who guides and directs our step to those questions.

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The problem that many of us have with hearing the Holy Spirit

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is that we think he is going to answer questions differently than Jesus did.

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How many times did the disciples ask Jesus a question?

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And they would walk away confused when he would answer them.

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He was always speaking in parables.

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He could have just flat out given an answer, could he?

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Do you not think they just wanted to grab him and yell at him?

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Is it a yes or is it a no?

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Don't you think they wanted to do that?

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If Jesus didn't give easy answers,

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why would we think that the Holy Spirit would give us easy answers?

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When we don't have an answer, we have to continue seeking.

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We have to continue asking those questions.

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We have to pray, as Jesus instructed his disciples,

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that our eyes be open, our ears be open, that we will be able to understand.

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Here's what we know. We have one body because of one spirit.

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The Holy Spirit was given to us, as Paul has said previously in this book,

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as a guarantee of our inheritance in Jesus.

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If we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit,

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then we can rest assured that our salvation is secure.

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And we can be sure that God is going to guide us through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

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We also know that God is not going to guide us in a direction

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that is contrary to what his word says.

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That is where a lot of problems start to creep in regarding unity.

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We begin to trust our emotions more than we trust the Spirit's leading.

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Scripture says that the heart is misleading.

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The heart is deceitful.

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The heart is sinful.

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When we choose to follow our emotions,

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deceit is introduced into the situation.

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When I begin to see division occurring in anything,

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it is because we are believing our emotions,

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because the reality is the Spirit is what unites us, not divides us.

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At my last church, I had this lady that was being a distraction in the church service.

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Almost every single week, she would make a scene during our worship service

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to the point where it was upsetting people,

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to the point where it was starting to create some issues.

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So I first go and I address it with her husband.

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Maybe, hey, this is the situation.

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Can you talk to her about it and let's figure out a different way to make that happen?

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That didn't work.

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So then I go talk to her.

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Hey, this is the situation.

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Things aren't going well.

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You're upsetting people.

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It's distracting all these other things.

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Can you stop doing it?

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That didn't work.

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So finally, I flat out tell her,

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if you continue to act in this way, you can't be a part of our church.

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You can't be a part of our worship service.

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She flat out told me that God had told her that she needed to do it.

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Now, I am not arrogant enough to think that I am the only one that God speaks to,

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but I did tell her God didn't tell you that.

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And here's, I know he didn't,

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because as the leader of the church, I was asking her not to do it.

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He's not going to go contrary to his word.

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And because the scripture says, hey, don't be a distraction.

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Don't be a stumbling block.

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God was not going to go against his word.

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She was going off her emotions.

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We have to be united in one spirit.

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She chose her emotions over the spirit of God.

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The spirit of God unites believers.

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He does not divide them.

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We have to be careful that we are seeking after the will of God

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and not just our preferences or our emotions.

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Because of the work of the spirit, we then have one hope.

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Now, I've done my fair share of funerals.

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There have been funerals that I have done that there was no doubt that the person that was in the casket

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was with the Lord and spending eternity in heaven.

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Those are awesome funerals.

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I've also done my fair share of funerals, or there is a little bit of a question.

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We're not real sure, but we're going to hope that they're there.

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I've also done some funerals where there is no doubt that person is not spending eternity in heaven with Jesus.

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I've done all of those things.

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In the last two situations, people are clinging to hope,

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but not in things that can hold the weight of it.

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It almost feels like they are grasping at straws to justify why their loved one is in a better place.

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Well, they did some really good things.

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Well, they went to church when they were younger.

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Remember that time?

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He helped that old lady on the side of the road fix her flat tire.

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There were a lot of fun to be around.

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They lit up every room that they walked in.

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They were a great father, a great mother.

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Those are all examples of the kinds of things that people put their hope in regarding being in heaven.

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The truth is that none of those things give you salvation.

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There are tons of people who are great parents, that have great personalities,

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that are not going to spend eternity with Christ.

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The gospel is our hope.

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The gospel that Jesus lived a perfect life and was the final sacrifice for our sins.

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The gospel that if we believe in Him as our Savior, we will have eternal life.

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That is the only thing that we can put our hope in.

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Now, I've been to mission trips all over the world.

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And as I have spoken with non-believers from different faith backgrounds,

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the one thing I always see is they are missing hope.

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They have no hope.

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They don't have it in anything that can bring some sort of assurance.

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They hope they do enough good things.

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They hope they don't upset God by their behavior.

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They hope for good things to happen to them.

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The truth of the matter is that they have this fear that it will never be enough.

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They hope in something that will never be enough.

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Now, I don't know how they sleep well at night.

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Because their hope is in what they can do, but never really knowing if they've done enough.

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When we put our hope in Jesus,

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all of the burden on being good enough is on Him, not on me.

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I am as confident in Jesus as I am that the sun will rise again tomorrow.

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We cannot confuse this hope with other things that we hope for

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because there's too many variables, right?

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There's too many variables.

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The bears are playing the chiefs today.

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Now, we can hope that our team wins, but there's too many variables.

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There's too many variables at stake for you to be 100% confident that your team is going to win.

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There's always a chance for a fumble.

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There's always a chance for an interception.

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Bears fans are hoping that the chiefs will throw an interception or fumble the ball.

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And the chiefs fans are hoping that they don't.

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There are no variables when it comes to Jesus.

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He is our hope. It's a sure thing.

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That hope is joyous so that when the believer passes on, we know that we will see them again.

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We know that they are healed.

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We know that they are in a better place.

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We're not hoping. We know.

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Please do not hope in your good works.

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Because next to all of your good works, there's a whole bunch of bad ones.

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There's a whole bunch of things that are not honoring to the Lord.

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Scripture says that all of our righteous deeds are about filthy rags before Him.

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Our hope is in Jesus.

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Our hope is that when God looks at me,

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He sees His broken son as my replacement.

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Our hope is in one Lord.

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Now what am I about to say? My sound offenses.

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But I want you to know it's not my goal or my intention.

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I've had the opportunity to travel to Israel twice.

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And there's many places that you want to go visit if you go to Israel.

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They call them the holy sites in which people come from all over the world to come

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and worship the Lord in these places.

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But what I noticed there is that there was worship of buildings and landmarks and saints.

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If you were to walk into some of these churches that are built on these holy sites,

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it looks like idol worship to me.

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It all started, it seems, when Constantine converted to Christianity.

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Now in Rome, there are over 900 Catholic churches.

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Many of those churches that is estimated were once pagan temples that got converted.

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Many of the statues of false gods were just renamed Peter, Paul, as well as others.

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So what the Catholic church has done over the centuries is elevate these men who were humble.

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Elevate these men who walked with the Lord.

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And they've turned them into little deities that we now call saints.

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There's a belief out there that these men and women are somehow elevated over us

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and that we need to go through them to have communication with God as our Father.

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So they pray to Mary.

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They pray to Peter.

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They pray to God hoping that they will pass their request onto God.

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The problem with that is that Peter is not the intermediary between me and God.

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Mary is not the intermediary.

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Because of Jesus, we can boldly approach the throne of grace with confidence.

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And we can't approach anybody else.

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They've made it seem like these saints are the bouncers outside of a club.

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I don't need to go to a priest to seek forgiveness.

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I have that in Jesus.

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I don't need to pray to Mary because I know that I can make my request to God, myself.

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We don't worship saints.

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We worship one Lord and that is Jesus.

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We worship one cross for our sins, for us to only be able to communicate to God through dead people.

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This isn't the sixth sense.

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He died on the cross and lives ever more so that we can have a relationship with Him.

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When He died, the veil was torn.

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Now there's no need for anyone to guide you into the Holy of Holies.

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You can just go because of your faith.

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You can approach Him because of your faith.

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And that is the one faith that Paul is referring to in this text.

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Jude writes in 1-3.

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I made a mistake.

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I think I put 1-7 on the notes.

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Cross that out.

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Put 1-3.

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Go read 1-7.

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You'll see that it doesn't make sense before I'm talking about.

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Jude writes in 1-3.

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Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation,

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I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

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Early in the Scriptures, Luke writes that the early followers of Jesus met daily to receive teaching and to gather together.

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What that tells me in these two passages is that our faith has to be fought for.

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Hebrews tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.

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So what do we hope for?

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As believers, we should hope to spend eternity with God in heaven.

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If we have that faith in Jesus, we have the assurance that that is our destiny.

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That goes back to the ceiling of the Holy Spirit.

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The battle that all of us face is that a lot of times what is seen, what we can touch, wins out over our convictions.

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Our faith in Jesus says that we should take on His yoke because it is easy.

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But how many of us have a hard time doing that because we want to do things the hard way?

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Our faith in Jesus says that we should be like Him and turn the other cheek.

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But that's pretty difficult when you have a bunch of people coming at you, isn't it?

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Our faith says that we are to forgive those who sin against us.

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But that is not what the world says.

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Our faith is given to us by God, but we have to fight for it.

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We have to contend for it.

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Jesus tells us we have to contend for it. There are going to be all kinds of things that come at us.

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They are going to try to rob us of growing in our faith and we have to fight those things off.

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The early church had to meet daily so that they could learn and they could be encouraged by others.

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If your faith is private, then it is really hard to grow like it should.

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I tell people all the time, don't isolate.

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Because that's what the enemy wants. He wants you to isolate so that you are not encouraged and equipped by the church.

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If you are struggling with understanding, come to a Bible study.

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If you are having doubts, ask questions, be careful to who you let influence you.

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Now my boys love baseball and they spend a lot of time outside playing catch.

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If the weather is good, you can always assume my kids are outside playing baseball of some sort.

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I love to play catch with them in the yard and work on things that they can do better.

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I like to train them in that way.

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A few years ago I had a season where I was just really busy and I hadn't been able to play catch with them,

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hadn't been able to work with them, but they still wanted to play catch.

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Now my boys are persistent and they will wear you down until you get what you want.

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Since I wasn't available, they start pestering their momma.

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Their momma went outside and played catch.

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I'm grateful that they have that option.

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However, the next time I played catch with them, I began to notice some things that just didn't look right.

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They were throwing like their mother, which wasn't good.

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They were copying the motion in which she threw and it just wasn't good.

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So I had to take some time to correct some things with their throwing motion.

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That is why our faith needs to do life in community so that we can correct things when needed.

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So that we can be encouraged when we are feeling down.

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So that we can be reminded of who God is and what his plans are and how they lead to life.

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And if we are not careful, our faith in the Lord will be weakened by what we can physically see around us

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because we'll start hoping in those things.

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That leads us to one baptism.

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If faith is the inward reality, then baptism is the outward expression of that reality.

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This is a reference to water baptism.

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Now water baptism was extremely important to the early church.

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Not because it was a means of salvation, but as a testimony of identity.

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They wanted to be unified with Jesus.

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Those who are of one Lord in one faith are unified in one baptism.

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This is one of those verses that really makes me struggle with infant baptism.

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An infant doesn't have faith in the Lord because they really can't comprehend that they are a sinner.

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They have no comprehension that there is one Lord.

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They just want to have all their needs met.

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Feed me when I'm hungry, change me when I'm dirty, and let me sleep.

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That's what they want. They can't comprehend that.

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However, once they come of age and they understand that they are little sinners,

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they understand the reality of the gospel,

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they should want to be identified with Jesus by taking the step of obedience and baptism.

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As believers, we should all have a baptism story.

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It's the story of, this is who I once was.

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This is my past.

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And then once I received the grace of Jesus, this is my new identity in Him.

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That's our story.

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I hear pretty often stories of people not wanting to be baptized.

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Because it's going to be embarrassing to have to do that in front of a whole bunch of people.

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More often than not, pride really seems to get in the way of us walking in obedience.

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I hear things, well, I was baptized when I was an infant, so I'm covered.

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We have to understand that this is not a salvation issue.

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This is an issue of obedience.

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Galatians chapter 3 says that when we are baptized, we put on Christ.

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We want to be identified as a football fan, right?

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So we wear their t-shirts, we wear their jerseys.

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We want to be identified as employees of a certain company, so we put on a uniform.

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One of the ways we identify as a Christian is by being baptized.

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And this is what unites us regardless of background.

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And 1 Corinthians 12 says that regardless of background, Jew or Greek, slave or free,

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we are united together in Christ by identifying with Him in baptism.

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If you are unwilling to take the step of obedience in baptism, what other areas are you unwilling to obey?

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The first thing that Jesus did before he started his public ministry

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was to go down to the river where John was and be baptized.

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That tells me that baptism is not a salvation issue because Jesus didn't need to do anything to be united with His Father.

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He wanted to identify and be an example of how to publicly become one with the Father.

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Jesus was showing that this one faith and one baptism connect us to the one God and Father of all.

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One God and Father of all.

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That means there isn't a God for the Jew and there's a God for the Greeks and there's a God for this people group.

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Paul tells us that in Romans chapter 3, Isaiah says that there is one God and there is no other.

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There is no other creator, no other redeemer, no other giver of life, no other one that is in control.

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There is one God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit united as one.

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This is what differentiates us from a lot of different religions.

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Hindus believe there are thousands of gods and when they forget one, they just add them to the list.

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Mormons believe that you and I can become gods.

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Jews don't believe that Jesus was God.

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The Muslims don't believe that Jesus was God.

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This is not Oprah Christianity where you take your path and you take your path and eventually we'll all get to where we want to be.

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This passage is the essence of Christianity. Take away any one of these aspects and you lose it.

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It ceases to be Christianity.

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This is a one of a kind thing and if we start tweaking it, we lose unity.

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I mean, why are there so many denominations out there?

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I love that in the book of Acts, the followers of Jesus were simply known as the way.

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Not Baptist, not Lutherans, not Catholics, they were known as the way.

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They were identified as people who lived their lives a certain way.

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They were looked at as people who lived their lives in unity.

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A way that was counter cultural because they were unified in the bond of peace.

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There is one God who deserves our worship.

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He holds the earth in the right position in relation to the sun.

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He spends it at the right speed to sustain life.

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That does not happen by accident.

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No matter what scientists tell you, that does not happen by accident.

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The sovereign God overall has called you into relationship with him and he has provided everything that you need.

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I want you to notice the things that matter.

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Read through these verses again. It does not say one preference.

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It does not say one feeling is the way that we are united.

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We are united when we come together as one body functioning in the way God created us to be.

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United in one spirit that guides and leads us in spite of our emotions.

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We are united in one hope that believes and trusts that Jesus has made a way for us.

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We are united in Jesus who is our one Lord above all.

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We are united in one faith and we work together to strengthen it as we put on Christ in one baptism.

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What holds us all together is one God and a Father of all.

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Seven things to have complete unity as believers.

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So that's it.

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That's these verses.

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I don't know how you feel about them.

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I don't know if you want more. I don't have any more to give you.

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This is what Christianity is.

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This is what unites us.

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And anytime we start adding to unity or we take away one of these things from the list,

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we begin to be disunified.

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And the enemy wants nothing more than to bring confusion and disunity to our church body.

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There's nothing the enemy wants more than to bring disunity to other fellow believers in our area.

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We might do things differently, but we're all united under the banner of Jesus who is our one hope and our one Lord.

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And so I'm going to pray for us.

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This is one of those Sundays that I just don't have something to...

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What's the word?

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Pull your heart strings.

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Not that I try to pull your heart strings, but the reality is if this doesn't awaken you,

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then my hope for you, my prayer for you is that God would open your eyes,

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that God would open your ears so that you would be able to understand.

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And so as I pray, maybe you just sit there and just ask the Spirit to minister to you.

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Let Him speak to you.

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Listen for His voice.

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What is He calling you?

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How is He calling you to repent?

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How is He calling you to lead the charge in bringing unity?

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I can't wait to see what He does.

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Let's pray.

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Father God, I pray for our church right now.

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And I pray, God, that you will speak to our hearts.

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We thank you for you being our one God, our one Father that holds everything together.

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We thank you for Jesus.

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We thank you for sending us your Spirit.

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I pray, God, that as we think about unity as a church,

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as we think about unity as believers,

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that these seven things will be at the forefront of our minds.

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So God, I pray that you speak.

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I pray that you will open our ears and open our eyes to see you for who you are.

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I pray, Father, that you will strengthen our faith.

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I pray for that individual that's isolated.

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I pray, Father, that you will surround them with people that care and that want to walk with them.

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I pray for steps of obedience to happen today.

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I pray, God, that you move in this place.

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I ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.