If you would, take your Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter 3, verses 8 through 15. Today we're going to be speaking about a specific topic, and that topic is going to be unity. This passage reads like this, "But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.

Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful." Let's go before the Lord in prayer. Father, we ask that as your spirit has been working in our lives, that you would continue to work to renew our minds and transform our hearts, particularly as we think about the unity that you desire amongst your people, your household, your church.

I pray, Father God, that it would be our endeavor and our desire to strive for genuine unity within our church, Lord. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. So our youth group is joining us in service today. And in our youth group for the last month, we have been talking about the topic of unity.

We've been discussing this statement. It's a little bit long, but it reads like this. We must strive for unity in faith in Christ, in like-mindedness, in love, in purpose, in commitment, in shared life, producing joy, edification, and glory to Christ. That's one long sentence. I made it up myself.

Part of the reason why it's like that, though, is not because I was trying to imitate some Puritan or something, but because as I was studying the topic with the high school students, I realized there is so much to say from the scriptures. The scriptures have so much to say in terms of God's desire for unity, the context of unity, how that unity is supposed to come about, what purpose is that unity supposed to serve, how God is going to use that for His kingdom, and more.

And that's why the sentence is long. Now, for our purposes for today, since I'm not doing a series through it, we're going to be talking about only two elements of that statement, which is simply that we must strive for unity in faith and in love, in faith and in love.

See, our youth group is small. For those of you guys who don't know, grand total, including our teachers, is about 19 students, sometimes 20, right? And that being the case, I love it. It's cozy, you know? When we get together, we can fit in one room. We can be really familiar with how, you know, what's going on in their lives, and there's a ready kind of sentiment of just, "Hey, we're close." But it would be naive of me to think, just because we fit into one room, that we have genuine unity?

Because there's familiarity and proximity, does that equate to unity? No, it doesn't. And I would be naive to think that since our youth group is small, "Hey, we're not going to have this drama, and we're not going to have major conflict, and that there would be no resentment, discord, and any kind of division, even within our small group, or within our youth group, right?" No, we're all susceptible to that.

Absolutely are. Now, I'm really thankful because our youth group is awesome, and we don't have major drama. We don't have people fighting each other and stuff like that. Half of them are related, you know? It's awesome, right? Now, even then, though, even then, though, I would be naive to think, just because we don't have major problems, that we don't have temptations to feel apathy towards one another?

That even just because we don't have major drama, that there's distance, that there isn't a sense of genuine unity? And so, one of the things I want to talk about is there are times when I can just think, like, "It's just cute. They're hanging out. They're jamming together. They're talking and stuff.

Unity. Boom." But I believe the Scripture challenges us to a higher standard of unity, amen? And thinking about the broader context of the broader church, we, too, are susceptible to the same challenges, namely because our church has been growing in multiple fashions, growing in breadth and in number, growing in depth of relationships, growing in proximity and closeness, growing in also differences, growing in so many fashions.

And so, we can, too, be susceptible to different kinds of disunity and division. It's natural, right? It's a natural process of growing together. But as we then grow, we have to ask this challenging question, "To what standard of unity are we supposed to strive? To what expectation does God have?" And as I've been studying this topic with the youth group for the last month, I have been personally challenged, "My goodness, God's vision for the unity of the church, the body, far surpasses my expectation, far surpasses the standard of my own." And so, we're going to take some time to think about that.

What is the standard of God? What is His vision? And so, what I'm going to show you is by sequence of level. The first level, level 100, is harmony and peace, okay? What do I mean by this? Let's take a look at this passage, Romans 12, verse 14 through 19.

"Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another." There's our command. "Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord." So, in this vision, how would you vision it in the church? If you would with me, just picture two guys, you know, they get into a little bit of conflict and scuff, they say some hurtful words to each other, but now they have to resolve.

To apply this, they would say, "Ugh, I want to do one of these, 'What's wrong with you, man?' But you know what? We're cool. I got no beef against you, man." And the other guy's like, "Yeah, dude, we're cool. I'm not going to try to hurt you or nothing.

We're in the same church." Right? That kind of stuff can happen. Two people get in strife and they say to each other, "Hey, bygones be bygones, let's be peace." The reason why I say this is level 100 is because harmony and peace are good. Unfortunately, the conception typically is peace equates to no conflict.

Peace means no war, right? There's no residual revenge. We're going to try to humble ourselves and not fight each other. That could be one way of harmony, right? But again, this is level 100. This is good, proper. We should calm those odd sentiments of wanting to react or whatever it may be, but there's more.

Level 300. I'm going to skip because it levels up pretty fast, okay? Level 300. This standard of God, this vision of God for unity, I'm going to call the unity of calling or identity. What do I mean by this? Let's take a look at Ephesians 4, verse 1 through 4.

"I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace." There's our challenge right there.

Be eager to maintain this unity. But I love the second part because there's this mounting, emphatic idea of where this unity comes from. It says, "There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." So you see where the repetition of the terms of you're called for this.

You're in one baptism. You have one Lord. So what is God's picture of this unity? Well, if you couldn't picture this with me, imagine this amazing, inspiring coach, football coach, and he's rallying his troops, his football players together, and they're in this big old huddle. And the coach starts going off, and he's, "You were made for this.

You're one team. You got one same jersey representing the same town. You got one goal." And all the players come together and like, "Yeah!" That's kind of how it should be, I think. I'm picturing it like that in my head, that the church comes together, and if we had, so to speak, this coach saying, "You got one body, one Spirit, one calling.

God has called you to his purpose. You're representing one Lord." And all the church people are like, "Yeah!" Because we're one team. This is who we are. I know that's kind of funny, but in some sense, that is, right? We are one team. That's our identity. This is our calling.

And there's an absolute, just as there is an awesome, awesome sense of fellowship and partnership in sports teams, there should be even that much more to those who are called by the name of Christ, right? Those who are called by the name of Christ, the one team, the one family of God.

So this is why I was saying, man, this is leveling up really fast in terms of the picture, God's picture of the unity we should exhibit within our church. The next one is closely tied with it, so we'll call it 350, okay? Level 350 in God's vision and standard for the unity, which is for the church, is the unity by Christ's identity, okay?

Unity by Christ's identity. What do I mean by this? We're going to take a look at a few verses here. First, we're going to look at this passage in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10 through 13. Apostle Paul says, "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and same judgment.

For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers." What I mean is each one of you says, "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, and I follow Cephas, for I follow Christ." His question is, "Is Christ divided?" So there are a couple of things I've underlined and bolded for you.

There is this idea of having the same mind, and in learning that there is division, Apostle Paul's counter-argument is, "Look at Jesus. Is he divided?" And so therefore, we're thinking on the level of Christ's mind and Christ's body. He is singular. He's not an individual with conflict of like, "I really want this personal thing, but God wants this," and he has conflict of internal desires.

He is singular. And in so much as he is singular and whole, we should be. Here's another passage I want to point to you. Philippians chapter 2. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Now for the sake of time, I'm not going to read the rest of it, but he's going to explain this was the mind of Christ who emptied himself for you.

So what am I saying? We're talking the vision of standard to what degree of unity does God want, to the degree that Christ's mind and his body and his character is whole. That should be the benchmark of our collective minds being together. This really does challenge like the kind of social norm of the day.

Going to be honest, I feel like what's cool and in in our generation is to think different. Like I want to be different. I'm going to be different for the purpose of being different. So I'm going to be your devil's advocate and always argue with you. That's not cool.

That's pointless. These passages that I read actually say I want you to think the same. Think the same of have same judgment, agree with each other, all of you. Now to some people they're like, "Oh, well, we shouldn't be mindless drones. We all think the same, feel the same, and judge the same, and we don't want to be all cultish." Well, to some degree, yes, the Bible does value, not to some degree, the Bible does value difference.

First Corinthians 12. We're all one. He gives a long, lengthy explanation. We're all one, but we're different members. So we're all feet, eyes, nose. We're different, right? Valuing the difference. But at the same time, it is highlighting here that there should be a unity of the mind collectively. And that degree of unity is the benchmark of Christ himself.

Leveling up, the next one. The next level is level infinity. Level infinity. Why? Because as thinking about the standard of God in terms of the unity that he desires for this church, look at how he expresses it in John chapter 17, Jesus' prayer before God directly from Christ as he goes to the cross.

"The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me." So that's pretty mind-blowing.

The unity that God is expressing. Of course, we're in progress. Of course, we're in the journey of being perfected. But he tells us the game plan in whole. That God desires such a unity as found between God the Father and God the Son. The Trinitarian unity that God experiences, the harmony, the perfect harmony is the kind of harmony that God desires for his church.

See how I was explaining to you when I started thinking about the concept of unity, it far surpasses my expectation. It far surpasses what I'm okay with. And that's my question to you. Going through God's vision, God's perspective and expectation for the unity in the church, does it surpass what you're okay with?

And so this is now an opportunity then for us to identify if there is any lack of unity with you and anybody, between the church, between groups, whatever it may be, this is the opportunity for us to say, "God desires more from us." And this is an opportunity for us to grow.

Amen? With that said, I want to highlight that the unity that then we're going to strive for is going to come by these two ways. There's more. Remember earlier I gave you that long sentence? There's a lot more, but we're going to highlight two. The very first one is strive for unity in faith.

Strive for unity in faith. This is not profound, new information to you, but so good for us to review in here, that we have to strive for unity in the faith. Galatians chapter 3, verses 26 and on. This is what it says. I think it's 25 and on. "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian." Meaning before was the law that was just supervising you, keeping you in check and restraining your sin.

But now faith has come, which has afforded us so much. And then he goes on to say, "For in Christ Jesus, you're all sons of God through faith. For as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offering heirs according to promise." I want to remind us, the church, yes, is a social institution. It's a social gathering, right? However, what supersedes everything about our social gathering is our faith. There are sometimes temptations for us to desire that our gathering would be founded upon something aside from faith.

What do I mean by that? Things like friendship, things like, you know, the sense of community. Those things are not bad. Those things are good. The reality is we want to have friends here, you know? The reality is we want to have close relationships. But there has to be the superseding foundation of faith, which is to you, your commonality with another individual that brings that sense of association, like, "You and I can relate.

Dude, I agree with you. I share the same stuff. Yes, there's a connection." That to you is your sense of bond. Dude, we can really partner. We could have this fellowship. That to you also is a greater foundation of loyalty than just even friendships. Your faith and your practice of your love for Christ is going to be so much greater in terms of the kindred spirit you have versus even what?

Even your actual blood and flesh families, even more than your biological families to some degree. So what am I saying? Let it be the foundation of faith that builds the community. And let's not expect just because that, yes, this is a social institution, other things, other things to make us feel like we're connected.

And this is one thing that I would like to say too. What we're seeing here then, because faith is the foundation of it all, faith is going to be the platform and the context by which we have the sense of unity, then if we see a lack of unity, if we see a lack of closeness in that bond, it's not a one-to-one correlation, but we have to ask, "Man, where is our faith?

Where are our eyes right now?" Again, I'm not saying just because you don't have close relationships, therefore one-to-one you don't have faith or that you're not right with God. However, if we see a lack of that sense of camaraderie, that sense of closeness and a desire to build those kind of like a good brotherly, sisterly relationships, then there is a question mark.

"What's going on?" And let that be an opportunity for us to examine where we are with the Lord, right? Because there is a sense to which if an individual has no interest and drive in the spiritual things of God, I can anticipate and expect that the bonds and loyalty and the friendships that they have in the church would also weaken, right?

It goes hand in hand. So again, just to summarize, we are making sure that our sense of bond and community is solely based on our faith in Christ. And anytime we try to base it on anything else, we know we're going to fail. Secondly, and this is where I want to spend the bulk of our time today.

I'm going to skip that one for now. Strive for unity in love. Strive for unity in love. I'm going to reread to us the passage in Colossians chapter 3 verses. I'm going to read from 12 to 15 this time. It says this, "Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body.

And be thankful." I want to focus on this concept here. It goes through a laundry list. This is who you are, holy ones. This is who you are, beloved ones. This is what you need to put on. And it gives you the laundry list of a compassionate heart, of kindness, of humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other.

And then it ends with, "Above all these things." The reason why I want to focus on the concept of love is this passage is interesting. Some of your translations say, "In addition to this, put more love on." The NASB says, "Above all these things," as in like, you know, more than this.

Another translation says, "In all these." The reason why is because there's a sense in which as he's describing this laundry list of character traits we should have, he's summarizing for us the culmination of these sentiments, desires, feelings, hard attitudes that will culminate to a genuine love. Something that our Savior in Jesus Christ has modeled for us.

So rather than going down the list and saying, "Hey, this is what humility is. This is what this is." I'm going to approach it a little bit different way and spend the bulk of our time here. I want to talk about love. And I don't want to just leave you today with, "Come on, people.

Let's just love one another," you know. I want to dissect what are some elements of love that we have to exhibit towards one another to pursue the kind of unity that we just went over. Here's the first. The first element of love that I see in Scripture and in the model of our Savior is desire, right?

Love categorically, not exhaustively, but categorically can be a desire. And that's kind of actually typically the way that we use the word love. I love chocolate, you know. That's what I just want to eat it. You're not saying, "So precious chocolate." You know, you're just, "I want it. I want to take it." You know, "It's mine," kind of thing.

And that is in many ways we use that term. To give an example of this, I Google searched. I said, "I want to Google," and I did, "love, desire, love. I want this," you know. I just want to warn you, when you Google search stuff, be careful because a lot of bad stuff comes out.

But when I Google searched love, I want something, right? This movie came out, and it was the movie The Notebook, which was a long time ago, 2004. Some of you guys are already, like, giggling. It's like a sappy love story, and it's just chock full of poor acting and romance.

And Ryan Gosling is in that movie, and a lady named Rachel McAdams is in that movie. Well, these two individuals, they have a love, but there's a conflict. She has parents who expect her to, you know, marry the, like, handsome, rich man. She clearly has an internal desire to like this guy who's, like, all shabby-looking, almost hobo-looking.

And the guy is all frustrated, you know, and his moment of frustration comes over to this girl, and then he says, "I know our relationship is horrible. We fight all the time." And he looks at her, and he goes, "But I want you. I want all of you, and I want all of you all the time." That was pretty much how he acted.

That was the best he did, okay? And then he goes, "What do you want? What do you want? What do you want?" And then, I haven't watched the movie, but I've watched that clip, okay? And then she goes, "It's not that easy." And then she, like, runs, "I have to go," and then she runs away, okay?

And after I saw that, I was like, "Man, this is such a cheesy movie." But it so accurately depicts how our God loves us in the category of desiring us. Can I say something? We, ourselves, are sometimes in conflict of our desires. We're a mixed bag of desires, honestly, right?

We know the right things to do. We have certain sentiments. We are a mixed bag of desires. Can we all acknowledge? God has never been confused about what he wants. God has never been conflicted. God has never been so unclear. He has been absolutely explicit in his desire for his people.

The New Testament explains to us and says, "God has chosen you before the foundation of the world." As soon as Adam appears, that's good in my sight. Abraham appears and says, "I choose you." I'm studying the book of Exodus. In the book of Exodus, God says, "You're my people.

I'm your God." I show you a passage here at the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 3. "They will be mine," says the Lord. "And on the day that I prepare my own possession." God has been absolutely clear of his longing and desire. It's just we sometimes, like, "It's not that easy." I'm going to be honest.

I'm going to go from different levels of relationships. Between God, that clarity, that clarity of desire is our model. In your relationships, whether it be husband and wife relationships, for marriage. Congratulations, Sal, and Jen. Got married yesterday. Just speaking to newlyweds and you guys, too. In the newlywed stage, a lot of times is when you have conflict of desire.

What's going to be a good, good practice for you is to clarify and purify your desire. There's conflict when you start wanting, like, "Oh, but I really miss my single life and I want to go hang out with my friends, but I really want this, too." But when a man says, "No, I wanted this," right?

I wanted to be a husband. I wanted to be one. I wanted to sacrifice my time. I knew what I was getting to. That's what I want. Peace. Unity. But when we have conflicting desires, there's what? Life. Is that not what James told us? You bicker and quarrel because you have no idea how to control your desires.

Now, by application here in the church, what kind of culture would we have if we truly just desired one another like the Lord desires us? Where we say, "Hey, this might be a little awkward, but we're at the same church. I want to get to know you." Where we're not thinking, like, "I'm just tired.

I'm going to go home. I want to come to a place where I can just easy come, easy go, and that's it." But rather, "I want to be with these people." I'm going to share with you a funny story. This happened recently, and hopefully they're not in here. Okay.

There was a guy that was church service. I was super duper tired. Then he came up to me and asked me, "Hey, do you want to go to coffee after?" I paused, and I said, "Oh, man. I'm super tired." Honestly, it's been a long day. Going to be honest, we kind of meet up pretty regularly, so I don't know if I want to.

I know what's going to happen. If we're going to talk about girls, I don't have the patience for that today. Then I realized I wasn't saying it out loud. It was just all in my head. The whole time, he's talking to me, but I was just staring at him.

Then he looked at me awkward and was like, "Do you want to go?" I feel like, "Dude, I was doing this thing with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams." He's like, "Do you want to?" I'm like, "It's not that easy, man. I'm tired." Well, from one introvert to if there's introverts out here, building community and relationships in the church is sometimes hard because there's desires in us, especially as an introvert, to protect my space, time, and energy.

I have to challenge myself. What do I want, though? What do I want in here? I'm so challenged by the example of Christ, the example of our Heavenly Father. I'm also challenged by examples of saints in the scripture in relation to, again, relationships within the church. Remember Apostle Paul, where he so eagerly desired to go to people.

He goes, "Just say it explicitly. I want to see you. I miss you." I always get challenged by that story. Apostle Paul took three successive mission trips. Remember? He was in the eastern part of Turkey, then he went all the way to the end of Turkey, and then he went into Europe.

When he was in Europe, Jesus told him, "Go to Rome." Apostle Paul said, "I'm going to Jerusalem." Why? Because he knew they were in need. He was in Europe already. He just had to go down to Rome. But he wanted to take a love offering of finances and help, and he went all the way to Jerusalem to see them.

Because why? He desired them. What a challenge for us to exhibit that kind of love, where our desire is for the people. We would definitely then have an affected culture, too. Next. Next element of love that we exhibit for the sake of unity and pursuing unity is affection. This is just simply the concept of treasuring.

This is simply the concept of being fond of. This is the concept of saying, "Not only do I want something, but I see the value." It's precious in my sight. I sometimes hear the conversations amongst the church, and I am so encouraged. There are some of you guys who are absolutely vocal about how much you love the church.

Sometimes way too far. But you'll say things like, "I love this church," and then you'll say, "It's the absolute best, and it's the only one." I'm like, "No, no, no, it's not the only church. There are good churches everywhere." But I get the sentiment, and I'm encouraged by that.

And then some of you protect this church like it's your own family. Someone just talked about, "How dare you say that about the church?" "Don't talk about my mom," kind of thing, the same attitude. And then some of you love the church so much, "Let's move to Texas and live together on a ranch." I'm like, "Man, you're way too far.

Calm down." But when I hear that, I'm encouraged. There is not the love of like, "I just want this," but there's a love of treasuring this, you know, treasuring what we have, being thankful. And I do want to point to God's treasuring of His people as an example of that.

This is a passage I've preached on before, and it's just such a passage of immense, explicit expression of the love of God. Please turn to Hosea chapter 11. It's not on the screen because it's kind of long, but we're going to just read this together. So Hosea chapter 11, we're going to go from verses 1 through 8.

And honestly, every time I read it, it's just heart-wrenching because God's so not in implicit fashion, not through story. When Israel was a youth, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. The more they called him, the more they went from them. They kept sacrificing to Baals and burning incense to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws. I bent down and led them.

They will not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria. He will be their king because they refused to return to me. The sword will whirl against their cities and will demolish their gate bars and consume them because of their counsels. So my people are bent on turning from me, though they call them to the one on high, none at all exalts him.

So so far what you see is God saying, "I loved Israel like my son." Like when a baby needs help, when a youth, young child, teen needs help, I helped him, I aided him. He just never recognized that, and he's always turning from me. And then now he expresses his heart, though.

Verse 8, "But how can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zoboam? My heart is turned over within me. All my compassions are kindled. I will not execute my fierce anger.

I will not destroy Ephraim again, for I am God. I am not a man, the holy one in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." What I hear saying is, "I'm not just one of you. I'm their father. So how can I give them up?" And in that I see God treasuring his people to a degree where his promises of, "I will never forsake you," is absolutely vibrant.

How amazing is that? But likewise, when it comes to our relationships, too, if we are to mature in the love of God and the love of Christ, we, too, have to have that kind of posture to cherish the people that we say we love. We have an option. When people hurt you, when they disappoint you, when they let you down, you have options, some of them legitimate.

They hurt me. Why would I put myself there? I'm not going to be around them anymore. Why? I don't want to be hurt by you again. If people annoy you, you might be thinking, "Dude, I don't want to be unsanctified. I want to be sanctified, so I'm not going to come around you." Or you might even be thinking, "Dude, you hit me.

I get to hit you back because that's the law of the land." But even if we believe that to be legitimate, that is not in likeness of our God. I love the fact that Apostle Paul, clearly, he's been let down by people. He talks about how people deserted him.

He talks about how when he was beaten, no one was around. But Apostle Paul talks about the church. He says, "I love you like a mom. I care for you like a dad. And I would gladly work all day, work all night just to provide for you, just so that you don't think I'm doing this out of some kind of selfish motive." Likewise for us, we will understand people's love for us when we see that kind of affection.

And again, coming down to the idea of unity within the church, imagine the change of culture when we have that kind of, you know, the sight and eye of preciousness. You know? When we look at our fellow congregation members and we don't think like, "Ugh, selfish people so fake." But we think like, "Oh, you're so cute.

You're so precious in my eyes. You're adorable." And that could be weird, so don't do that verbally. Think it in your head. But I work with, you guys know I work with college a lot and I work with youth group a lot and they're in here. You guys know I see you guys so cute.

When you guys are together and you're laughing and talking, I'm just like a dad and I'm like, "Oh, photos." You know? Like, that's what I do now, you know? Because you guys are precious in my eyes. But I pray that we would all see our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that way, that there would never be a heart, an eye of disdain towards one another.

Because that is the kind of love Christ shows us. Element three. Element three is genuine care in the labor of love. Genuine care in the labor of love. First we had love as expressed in desire. Second we had love as expressed categorically in affection, treasuring. Thirdly, we have love as expressed in the labor of love.

Many times if you read conservative Christian books, they'll say, "Hey, love's not a feeling. It's a verb. It's an action." That's true. It's true. Love is an action. Love has to be expressed in the will, the intention of your heart as shown in the action of your love. And genuine love will express itself when you are willing to do, right?

Earlier, it challenged us to have a sense of harmony where you do what is right before all, what is honorable, what is good for their benefit, to have their interests in mind. So when you do what is in the best interest of the other individual, even at the cost of yours, then all of a sudden realize, "Oh, shoot.

That is very, very loving." And that's the kind of love that God has shown us, isn't it? Just for the sake of time, I want all of us to remember, if we ever sometimes doubt, like because certain things don't go wrong or some things go wrong and they don't turn out the way we want, we might say, "But what is God doing?

Why?" But remember that the intention and the labor of God so meticulously has been, God is working all things for the good of those who love Him. And the book of Romans chapter 8 says, when you see that pure intent of God, you can bank on the fact that even if there's sword, fire, destruction, nothing is going to separate you from the love of God.

Amen? Nothing. Even if with your physical eyes, you see nothing but chaos, you have to believe it. God absolutely has the best intentions for His glory and for you. That's true. It is absolutely true. And when I think about Christ, to the degree in which He would go to do what is in our best interest, I think about that sometimes like, Jesus could have demanded people serve Him, but He said, "I came to serve and not to be served." Jesus could have come and said, "You all need to bow down," but rather He looked on His people with pity and He said, "You all need sacrifice.

You've got a huge debt to pay. I'll be your ransom." The book of Hebrews says, "Because you're flesh and blood and you need a substitute, I'll become flesh and blood." Jesus said, "You need a sympathetic priest, I'll be your high priest. You need a king to guide you because you're blind and you're wandering.

I have compassion for you. I will be your king." Christ has exhibited such pure intentions for us as a people. We need to model that in the church, to have pure intentions. If sometimes we have expectations of each other, check your heart. Why do you want people around you?

Is it for their good, for their edification, sanctification, for their uplifting, for their faith, or do you just want people around you just because you want people around you? You see, these three things that I'm talking about right now, desire, affection, and the labor of love, all have to go together.

You have to have that kind of intentionality, that kind of affection, and that kind of desire. If it's unbalanced, if it's devoid of one another, you know what it's going to become. Creepy. When somebody just wants you, I want you. You see how creepy that is? It's creepy. And ladies, I gave this advice at the first service.

I'm going to give this advice too for these single ladies. There's going to come a time when a guy's like, "Hey, girl. Let's get to know each other," right? Don't be flattered by that initially, because there are a lot of men. In their character, they want you because they saw something good.

You have to decipher, is this man of a certain character where he knows how to practice not I want you, but all three? I want you, I have affection for you, and I will do what is in my power for your absolute best. Then you know this man is capable of love.

But don't be flattered because just some guy noticed you and said, "Ooh," right? That's nothing. Okay, sorry. Am I making it creepy? Let's move on. Let's move on. So all three have to go together. All three have to go together. And when they do, they're going to allow us to practice something even more beautiful, which is the fourth element, forgiveness.

Oh, sorry. I missed a slide there. When you do that, okay, when you practice that kind of love, it's going to not so much be like, "Oh, I'm just going to have to deal with you." But by your love, you're going to forget yourself. And that's how the pastor's described to us.

By your desire, by your affection, you're going to forget, just like any good parent, any good brother, any good family, any good friend. Just lose sight of yourself. And sometimes, honestly speaking, what is the greatest hindrance? What is the greatest hindrance to larger context unity is just a simple question, "But what about me?" And then all of a sudden, unity is shone, right?

Last point, I'm wrapping up here, is element of forgiveness. Element of forgiveness. Now forgiveness and love, it does go hand in hand. This might feel like too specific of a concept, but you understand that forgiveness is an act of giving grace. Without desire to want to be near somebody, there is going to be no motivation forgiveness.

Without that kind of affection, there's going to be no context of forgiveness. Without trying to do what's best for that individual, there's going to be no incentive, right? Forgiveness is possible as a fruit of that kind of love, and that's why I say it's like one element as a culmination.

A culmination of gathering of all that love and affection in your heart is going to provide the opportunity for true reconciliation in the church. I'm going to say this, that the Scriptures absolutely assume there will be conflict, right? And you assume it, I assume it. As we grow closer and closer together, as we grow broader and broader in number, as there are more and more differences in the church, there is going to be conflict.

And I mentioned to you again that when this conflict comes, you have certain options of becoming distant, embittered, hurt, taking revenge, or whatever it may be. But the passage to us is clear. Should one of us have a complaint against one another, let us forgive. Let us forgive as Christ would forgive.

Now, that's something profound to think about. I will say that what I've seen in both myself and other people, when you have a complaint, like someone is like this, or someone did that, and therefore I have a complaint in my heart, and then someone gives me advice, like you need to forgive that individual, there is a misconception.

That forgiveness means, dude, stop making such a big deal about it, right? Dude, let it go, let it go. Forgiveness means that. Let it go, man. Just let it go. Is that the way Jesus forgave us? That's something profound to think about. Is that the way God simplistically forgave you and said, "Good news.

All that sin stuff I talked about, how you had to go through sacrifice, and now Jesus is here, it's not a big deal." Is that the way Christ forgave us? No. And this is when, again, I am just reminded, simple truths of the gospel, and then reminded what God expects of true unity, reconciliation, and coming together is so far beyond my norms, what I'm used to.

Because when I think about Jesus, I start remembering all the things I mentioned before. For Christ to forgive us, how He forgave us, what steps He took. It wasn't just a, "It's okay, man. I got no beef with you." That is not the way He did it. Jesus sought something far above and beyond.

He sought to transform. He sought to reconcile. He sought to rectify. He sought your repentance. He sought to bring you light. He sought to shed light and let you see His glory, let you see what's right. You see what I'm getting at? The redemptive approach of Christ to forgive and to be united and to be truly one was so far above and beyond.

That's okay, man. And so for us, that's a challenge to you. That whatever steps it takes for us to say, "You know, I love you, and I don't want there to be this distance because I desire you. I see you as precious in my life. I'm willing to do what's good for you.

And what's more, I'm willing to go the steps that Christ gave." That's the challenge for unity. I'm willing to go as far as my God has gone with me. What a challenge it was. I'm going to share something with you guys. I've shared pretty openly. There was recently just a sense of bitterness in my heart.

And I've been telling people, "No, it doesn't bother me that much." And what happened was right before I left to China, my parents got a divorce. And I'm standing there thinking, "Come on, you're like 75. Why?" You know? And that divorce was very, very bitter. And because it was bitter, I didn't want my kids around that.

So my older brother saw that like, "Hey, did you talk to our parents yet?" It's like, "I'm busy." "Hey, did you talk to your mom yet?" It's like, "Well, I don't think she wants to talk to me." "Hey, did you talk to dad yet?" "No, it's been like four weeks." And I've been trying, I've been trying, but what I realized subconsciously, I was doing this.

Why? Because subconsciously I know if I get involved, that's a burden to me. Right? If I get involved with them, that's a burden to me. And then I was just rebuked. And then I was just humbled. And my older brother, like, he really, really helped me to think about this as we're talking on the phone too.

He said, "I'm struggling with the same thing." But we can't. We would dare just, we can't. We can't distance our parents. Right? How are we going to do that? We can't just separate them from their grandkids. Likewise, for us, we are called the household of God. And though it might make sense for us in practicality, distance creates safety.

But that distance will also create lack of unity, and in that, God will not be pleased. Why? Because our Heavenly Father will be so pleased to see His house united. Our Heavenly Father desires to see His children love each other. Our Heavenly Father desires to see His kingdom have a solidarity.

Amen? Let's do all that to the pleasure of our God. Let's pray. I read you a passage in Psalm, Chapter 133. "Behold, how good and pleasant is it when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard and running down on the collar of His robes." Heavenly Father, I pray that God, You would bless us, Lord, with greater understanding of the profound nature of Your love, that we would desire to practice that faith in our lives and to exhibit that love in our lives and in our church.

But I pray, Father God, that You would also allow us to experience the great blessedness of being united as a family of God. Lord, we thank You so much that You've brought us together, that You have orchestrated and pieced together this church according to Your great design. Lord, all the more than we hope to continue to strive to build it to become what You desire and what You envision.

Lord, we thank You for Your great patience with us. We thank You for the privilege of being called Your children and being invited into Your household. We pray all the more that as we then live our lives in that house, that it would be something pleasing unto You. We thank You.

It's in Christ's name we pray.