Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Choosing Unity in a Divided World | A Church That Pleases God: Part 4

Episode Date: January 25, 2026

We believe the local church is the hope of the world. And we can do infinitely more together than apart. Because when the Church stands united, the world sees Jesus clearly. Let’s talk about how to be unified—and why it matters more than ever.NEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://www.life.church/yesTell Us About You!We’re here to help you become the person God created you to be—and we’d love to hear from you. Take this quick survey to tell us about yourself and how we can support you. Find it at https://life.church/podcastconnectABOUT THIS MESSAGEMore than anything, we want to be a church that pleases God. To do that, we’ll explore the qualities the Bible says matter most—being faith-filled, bold, and loving. These aren’t just goals for our church. They’re a calling for each of us, because A Church That Pleases God is full of people who want to do the same. Three ways to make friends at church: https://go2.lc/friendsABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIG GROESCHELYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschelLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/35447748/  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're going to play a little game today. I'm going to give you a little assignment. And before we do, if you're meeting this weekend, I'm glad you're meeting. If you're snowed in somewhere because a big part of the nation is snowed in, tell us where you're watching from, wherever you are. All of us, we're going to play a game. I'm going to ask you to use your imagination. This is an odd game, and I admit it, but use your imagination. And I want to ask you, if you were the devil. I know, I told you it was weird.

If you were the devil for one day and your assignment was to slow the work of God through the church, how would you do it? Imagine if you were the devil for one day, and your assignment was to try to slow the work of God through the church, how would you do it? Let me tell you what you wouldn't have to do. You wouldn't have to even shut the doors to the church. You wouldn't have to get people burning Bibles. You wouldn't even have to get people to stop believing in Jesus. If you were the devil and wanted to stop the work of God through the church,

one thing you could do is just get God's people to turn on each other. Divide the body of Christ. You could do it through some hateful social media posts. You could distract well-meaning Christians with secondary issues and get them fighting about secondary issues instead of communicating our primary message, you could get Christians to divide over preferences rather than being united in mission.

To hurt the work of God through the church, when you think about it, the devil doesn't need to destroy the church, he just needs to divide the church. And that's one of the reasons that Jesus prayed for unity. I want you to think about this. On the night before, Jesus is going to go to the cross.

Jesus prayed. And when he prayed, he didn't pray for miracles. He didn't pray for growth. He didn't even pray for protection. When Jesus prayed for his disciples, he prayed for unity. Look at what Jesus prayed in John chapter 17. He's praying for the disciples, and he's praying for the disciples. and he said, my prayer is that all of them may be one.

Why is he praying for unity? So that the world may believe, God, that you have sent me. Jesus says, I've given them the glory that you gave me. That they may be one as we are one, so that they may be brought together in complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. When you think about this, the night before Jesus is crucified, he prayed that we, you, me, we, the body of Christ would be one. Why?

So that the world would believe that the Father sent Jesus. In other words, Jesus tied the credibility of the gospel to the unity of his followers. Because when we stand united, the world clearly sees the love of Jesus through his body. Which brings us to our message series. We're in a message series called a church that pleases God. And what kind of church are we praying that we'll be? We're praying that we will be genuinely a church that pleases God. And what is a church that pleases God made up of?

The answer is a church that pleases God is made up of people that are pleasing God. And we're going to find out today from the living word of God that a church that pleases God is a unified church. A church that pleases God is a unified church. And I just want to acknowledge that there was a solid amen and several head nods. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pastor, unity. Sounds nice, right? But what I want to tell you right now is this is not a soft suggestion.

Jesus prayed, make them one, because when the church stands as one, Jesus is impossible to ignore. Make them one. Make them one. Make them one. Make them one. A church that pleases God is a unified church. And it's not easy to be that,

especially today. Because we have a spiritual enemy working over time to divide the pot body of Christ. And he's doing a decent job of dividing God's family. Because if we are united, together, we are unstoppable filled by the power of the Holy Spirit to make a difference in this world. But if we are divided, we are weak and ineffective. And I want to be really, really clear.

This isn't just my opinion. This is God's word. To be really, really clear, God doesn't just love unity, which he does, but he hates division. Proverbs 6.16, scripture tells us, there are six. Six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him. The number one, two, three, four, five, six. The seventh is that he detest is a person who stirs up conflict in the community. He hates these things, they're detestable.

That's strong language. God doesn't just dislike division in his family. He hates it. If you're a parent with kids, you know that. You just love when they get along. And if you're driving in a car and they're not getting along in a back seat, you'll pull that car over. Or you're just to start swinging for anybody, anything.

God wants his family to be unified. And some of you're thinking, like, I'm glad our pastor's preaching this, because I know someone who needs to hear this message. If you're sitting next to them, don't nudge them, but you can just kind of lean in their direction. and I hope so and so hears this. But I'm going to just approach this from a more humble standpoint

and ask, what if the person that's starring division isn't just them, but what if sometimes it's you and what if sometimes it's me? Because I don't know any Christians that wake up and think, today is the day I'm going to divide the church. I don't think that happens. I think it happens more subtly and unintentionally, especially from those of us who really believe we're right.

You're not laughing because you really think you're right. I mean, like, genuinely like, you know, I think I'm right, and you think you're right. And when we're really convinced we're right, sometimes we may even be right, but our approach may not. be right. In other words, let me just say this. You can be right in your beliefs, but wrong in your approach. And sometimes we think like we're defending the truth, but our attitude is actually dividing the body. I'll tell you something kind of cool I read about that's a cool thought, but not a cool outcome. The Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year for 2025, does anybody know what the word of the word, the word of the year is for 2025?

The word is rage bait. Now, if you're thinking, that's two words, it's exactly what I thought. But nevertheless, that's what it is. And if you don't know what rage bait is, essentially, rage bait is like any kind of content that is crafted to trigger anger or like very emotional reactions. If any of you are on any form of social media or read any type of news, chances are you see stories or posts that drive comments and shares and division. And some argued that rage bait is actually designed to provoke outrage because anger spreads

faster than truth. And all of us, me, you, we're all incredibly vulnerable to the algorithms. And what we look at, we tend to be fed more of. And if you find yourself getting into kind of divisive comment and seeing content and one side swings or swings on another, and all of a sudden the stuff that gets the highest engagement gets pushed out the most. And sometimes that which is most controversial and that which is most divisive gets pushed out the hardest. And if we're not careful, rage bait isn't just annoying content, but it's weaponizing divisiveness. because especially in the body of Christ, if the enemy can just keep us offended at each other, at our own,

and keep us suspicious of other Christians and those churches and those pastors and the people who read that wrong version of the Bible, if it can just keep us suspicious with each other, the devil doesn't have to destroy the church. We'll literally do it for him. Jesus prayed, make them one. Make them one. This is how they will know that you sent me when they're unified. Now, let's just be realistic and honest. We're all going to disagree about different things.

I mean, all day long, we're going to disagree about politics. We're going to disagree about certain preferences. Personalityes, who we like, who we don't like. In time's beliefs. What version is this? the best version of the Bible to reap. We'll disagree about the most important things in church, like what's the most holy thing to do with your hands during worship? Do we worship God like this with a very comfortable fear? Do we worship God with hands half-mast? Do we worship God with a with a

pageant wave one? Is it the Holy Ghost touchdown? You know, is it two hands up in the air? We'll argue about any kind of thing. And so we have to understand that, Unity is not surrendering our convictions. It's not pretending that we think the same. It's not acting like, thinking like everybody else. Unity is being different and deciding that we belong together anyway. Because if we can really focus on what really matters, and that is that we've all sinned and are in desperate need of a Savior,

and that God loved the world so much that he became one-up, us in the person of his son, Jesus, who was without sin, died in our place, rose again, so that our sins could be forgiven. If we can believe in a sinless Savior who gave his life so we could be forgiven and have the power of God to do His will on earth, if we can agree about that, what unites us is infinitively greater than what divides us. So to be a church that pleases God, we have to be a unified church. And yet we're very, very different. He made us differently,

which was good because it was intentional. So how do we love each other and be unique and be different and have different opinions and live together in unity? To be unified, to be one in the family of God, we need three ones. Let me tell you what we need. We need one enemy. We need one mission, and we need one strategy.

If Jesus is going to make us one, let's talk about the first thing is we need to recognize that we only have one true enemy and it's not us. It's the forces of darkness. Ephesion 612 tells us this, that our struggle, our battle is not against flesh and blood. It's not against the people who whatever. Don't like, don't do, don't want it. It's not against them, but it's against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Scripture tells us that our battle is not against each other. The person that votes differently than you is not your enemy. I'm going to say it again because I didn't get a single amen. Because somebody don't believe that. Like you literally don't believe that. You literally don't believe that. Your God is not that small. The person who votes differently than you is not your enemy.

The person who posts differently than you is not your enemy. The person who worships in a different style is not your enemy. We have one enemy. He is the devil. Lucifer, the serpent, the thief, the prince of darkness, the accuser, the father of lies, the great deceiver. Many different names, one agenda. To divide the people of God. God to stop the work of God. Jesus said this, the thief comes to steal, to kill and destroy.

The devil wants to steal our unity, to kill our credibility in a dark world, to destroy our witness of showing who Jesus is. And one of the strongest unifying forces is a common enemy. A common enemy. And we, as Christians, no matter the denomination, no matter the beliefs about spiritual gifts, no matter the beliefs about in times, then no matter if you vote this way or that way, as Christians, we do have one enemy. And a common enemy unites us.

I'll explain it this way. In college, I was a part of a fraternity. I'll tell you which one, but I don't want cheers or booze. I'm just going to tell you which one. and then I'm going to tell you about the one down the street because they were the enemy. I was in college, I was a Lambda Chi Alpha. Down the street, there were the Kappa Sig's.

I actually liked the Kappa Sig guys. They were sharp. Good athletes, many of them, really kind, very smart. They were really, really good men. When they got together, I hated them all. And some of them liked me, but when I was with the Lamb of Kyes, they hated us all. They were the enemy down the street.

One time, true story, they actually came and stole our crest. And so this was back before I was a Christian. I might have been filled with the unholy spirits, drunk on wine or alcohol or vodka or a lot of things. And we went down to her house, challenging a fight, went out to the Taco Bueno parking lot, and about 20 of us on 20 of us threw down. A couple people in the hospital.

I was not one of them. They were the enemy. We were their enemy. Until one day, the baseball team toilet papered both of our houses. And guess what the Kappa Sigs became? Our allies. Suddenly, we had a common enemy.

Those baseball players coming after the frat boys. And suddenly, the two fraties. that didn't like each other became friends. Problem is, baseball players were bigger, tougher, and they're a wrong enemy. The good news is, the greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world. That when we unite together against the real forces of darkness, we recognize, hey, there's actually a strategist of the dark side trying to do. to kill the effective work of God through the church by dividing the body. When the world looks

on and goes, I wonder if that Jesus stuff is true. And look how they hate each other. Look how they can't even get along. Look how they're mad all the time and angry and kind of jerks. We have one enemy. And it's not the other believers. And so the moment you feel it, even when you start to like get mad and start to push off of others and start to become critical of those in the body of Christ. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. Okay.

I know we're different, but devil, I see what you're trying to do there. I'm not going to let you divide me against my brothers and sisters in Christ. The devil wants to divide us, but God is pleased when we unite. Jesus prays, make them one. One enemy will unite us. also that one mission will unite us. Jesus told us that we have a mission. He said this.

He said, go and make disciples of all nations. This is your mission. This is our mission. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus didn't call us to win arguments, but to make disciples. And I hope that we can all agree that. God calls us to be a light in a dark world. He calls us to be ambassadors. That's a representative of the kingdom of God. He calls us to be witnesses. And instead, so often, we're shooting at each other.

Years ago, when we lived in our old house, a guy knocked on my door. And I came to the front door and I opened it up and he said, hey, I'm so-and-so. And he started a witness to me, about Jesus. and I thought, I should probably stop him and tell him I'm a Christian, but I thought that's cool. Like, I'm excited. This guy's excited about his faith. So I just thought, I'll see how he does. Maybe I'll hire him. Who knows? You know? And so he just starts to tell me about Jesus. He's so excited. And then Jesus saved my life, and he told me his testimony. He goes, he can save you too. And he went on and on. I let him go on for quite some time. And I thought, you're doing really good, but you should try to close me soon because you're talking too much, but you're doing really, really good. And so then I thought, I said, hey, let me just stop you for a second. I have to be honest with you.

I'm just excited you're here. It's awesome. Praise God. He saved you. But I actually am a follower of Jesus. He said, that's amazing. I'm so glad. He was, you need to come to my church. My church are the best. And I said, what church do you go to? And he goes, oh, I go to the church. He told me the church. And I thought, I like that pastor and he's a nice guy. You need to come to my church. Will you come to my church this weekend? I said, well, I have to be honest with you again. Like, I'm actually very involved in my local church. And he said, oh, great, what church do you go to? And I said, well, I'm a part of a church called Life Church, and his face just went, black, he looked disappointed, sad, angry, scared, nothing positive.

And then, truth's why, I remember, he just looked over his shoulders. Like, there's nobody anywhere close, like, look, and make sure no one, and he looked over, and then he leaned in and he kind of whispered to him. It's just being him there. And he whispers to me, he goes, my pastor says your pastor doesn't preach the truth. To tell your pastor to meet the pastor of Life Church in the parking lot of Taco Boy.

I didn't say that. I didn't. I didn't say that, but I was so sad. Because I like that guy. And my kids were like literally friends with his kids. And are our church is different? Oh, yeah. Very different.

Is our church different than a lot of churches? It's like, absolutely. I hope so. Because every church is unique with a unique calling into a unique context to reach a unique group of people. I mean, we're like different on purpose. Because there's tremendous diversity in the world. Literally, if every church were the same,

then we'd really just have the same ministry and the same reach. But a diversity of churches reaches the diversity of people, like different styles, same Savior. Different methods, same message. And God is pleased with a unity of mission, not method. If the methods aren't different, the message won't go into different places. So how do we do it? Like just our little part, our little church in the whole scheme of things, what's our

posture going to be? What I'm going to ask you to do in the spirit of Jesus' prayers, let's try to be passionate about what we're passionate about, and let's try to be good at what we're called to do without being critical of those who aren't good at what we do or do something different than what we do. Can I explain, I want you to feel this and unpack it. For example, I grew up in a church, going to church, but I didn't understand the gospel. I didn't know. Now, it doesn't mean they didn't say it. I didn't understand it. And, you know, it doesn't mean they didn't understand it. And so every week, when we preach, anyone, we clearly and compellingly with love present the

gospel, because that's unique to our calling. What I'm not going to do is say, if your church doesn't preach the gospel every week, do it like us, you should leave that church. That's not standing for truth. That's storing division. I'm very passionate about doing that. Our passion, our method, what we're called to do. Other churches are like, if you don't preach you get to preach this way.

No, no, no, no, no, you just go. You preach that way. Let's be for what we're for and good at what we're uniquely called to do without pushing off of or against someone who is good at something else, passionate at something else, because God made us uniquely different with the same message to compellingly reach a broad group of people. And so what I want to do is just try to help you look at you, and I'm going to look at me, and ask, like, how's our heart?

And you've got to be honest, because it can be really subtle. Like, literally, you can be a very committed Christian, and you're judging the Christian family across the street. Who's a different philosophy of parenting? Because, you know, this group homeschools, which is obviously God's will, or they shouldn't homeschool, which is obviously God's will, so they can be a light into the, you know,

and they vaccinate, which is, you know, deadly, or they don't vaccinate, which is, you know, deadly. And they let their kids watch K-pop demon hunters and we don't even watch SpongeBob SquarePats. You know, and I could go on and on and on. And if I didn't offend you somewhere in there, I didn't do my job because I'm trying to get to all of you, like if that's the driving force of our mission,

we've missed the real mission. Go and make disciples of them. all nations not go and make people who think like you and act like you and do everything just like you. We have one enemy and we have one mission and we have one strategy, one strategy in the body of Christ. And the Bible gives us front to back, start to end. The Bible gives us one example and only one example of how the world will know that we follow Jesus. Jesus said in John 13, verse 34, he said, a new command I give to you. All of our churches, let's say it together.

What's the command? The command is to? A new command I give to you. Love one another. Jesus says, as I have loved you, how many of you have experienced? experienced the unconditional love of God in your life. As I have loved you in that same love that you don't deserve and the same love that you could never ever earn, you must love one another. In the same way that we've been loved by him, he calls us to love one another. By this,

by that love, everyone will know that you're my disciples. If you love, if you love, one another. I've got to say it. I don't mean to poke, but I got to poke. It doesn't say we're going to be known by our politics. It doesn't say that. It does not say that. It doesn't say we're going to be known for being right. It says we're known for how we love. And yes, you can be passionate about what matters to you. Please do. And you can be loving. Let me say it again. You can be passionate about what matters to you and be loving. Say it this way. Let's work to never let secondary issues.

And I could list 50 of them. Don't let secondary issues ever distract you from your primary calling to show the love. Jesus prayed, Father, make them one. make them one. Could you imagine if we, us, you, me, the church down the street and across the other side

and in the other country and to the north of us and south of us and around the world, could you imagine if we could be the answer to the prayer that Jesus prayed? Could you imagine? Could you imagine

God would be so pleased and the world would see the love of Jesus. I mean, like on the smallest thing, like, do you hear about that Christian guy at work that forgave that person who did that? Can you believe the way that Christian forgave? Do you hear about that small group from that church that, like, all pitched in and got that single mama car? Did you see what the church did? I mean, I don't even really believe what they believed, but like when the disaster hit and they came out like an army and just like blessed people, Can you believe what the church did?

Oh, the church matters. The church matters. The church is the body of Christ. The church is the hands and feet of Jesus, as imperfect as it is. It's still God's bride, God's chosen vessel. And Jesus said this about his church. I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And that's why God is calling us.

He's calling you. He's calling me. to be a united church because God is pleased by a unified church. And that's why we believe that Jesus, the son of God, Jesus, through the local church, is the hope of the world. And it's not because we're like, oh, we're a pastor. It's because the church is the bride of Christ. The church is the body through which God shows his love.

The church reaches people, meets needs, cares for people, restores the broken, welcomes people from anywhere and everywhere, and doesn't leave them dead in their sins, but points them to the one who'll save them from the sins, and we don't judge them for their sins because we've been saved by similar sins, and so we love them with the same love that we've been loved with, and the world knows that we love him because we love each other. Where does it start? Not with them, with me, with you, with us, with us. And so as far as it depends on us, as much as we can do, my commitment is to do the best I can as a pastor. I'm very opinionated not to make other pastors churches look back. Some pastors won't tell you this, but I'm going to tell you the truth. I used to say that because it's kind of effective.

Because when I say, other pastors won't tell you this, but I'll tell you this. You go, boom, we like our pastor. But what I'm doing is I'm making someone else look bad to make me look better. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to tell you what I believe. Passion about what, that's my part. I'm going to do everything I can to help create a body of believers who celebrates the work of God for the church that way

and celebrates the work of God for the church that way. And if they do it different and they still believe in the same risen Christ, more power to you. More power to you. Because when the church is divided, our message is diluted. But when the church is united, the world notices and the Father is pleased. We have an enemy of name as the devil.

We have a mission is to take the message all over the world. And we have a strategy. And it's not just an effective evangelism program or contemporary worship or messages the style that I preach, the way we do it is love. To come in with so much love that they go, how could people be that loving? You know more about what they believe.

And what we believe is there's a really good God who sent a really holy and perfect son, who died so we could be forgiven and rose again so we could be made new. And because we've been forgiven that, we don't deserve any of it, the only thing I can do is show that loved other. people because it doesn't make me better and it doesn't make me right it makes me humble it makes me

loving and the world will believe in him when we love so god we really want to be a church that pleases you and we know that a church that pleases you is made up by people that are pleasing you so help us god to be people pleasing you today all of our churches those of you online a lot of you snowed in online you want to do your part in becoming one. You want to be more unifying. Would you lift your hands right now? Just lift your hands up. I hope every believer lifts your hands.

Type in the comment section, I want to be an answer to Jesus's prayer. Holy Spirit, do a work in us. And God, thank you for every unique gift that you've given every unique person and every unique passion that you've given every unique person. passion for a unique part in your body, to protect the unborn, to rescue those who are imprisoned, to free those in bondage, to help those heal in marriages, to help people find

freedom from addictions, to be an evangelist, to be a discipller, to be a voice of Jesus, to the nations, God, whatever our part in the body of Christ is, help us to do it well and to do but with love and to be loving to one another and be so unified, serving you, that the world would see your son, Jesus. That help us to do our part, to honor you. Jesus make us one. As you keep praying today at all over different places,

you may feel separated from God right now. God may feel distant. And what I want you to know is that God is a relational God, and he sent Jesus to show you his love. And when you look at Jesus, it's what was amazing. Jesus said, hey, I didn't not come to condemn the world, but I came to save the world. Jesus said this, I didn't come for those who were already righteous,

but I came for broken people. I came for sick people. I came for sinners. Essentially, our problem is this, that we have every single one of us, we've sinned, and our sin separates us from a holy God. But Jesus was without sin. Therefore, he could be the sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice.

He's called the Lamb of God. He died as a replacement, as a sacrifice for our sins, and God raised him from the dead. So that anyone, and this includes you, it doesn't matter whatever you've done in your life, doesn't matter how dark you feel, anyone who calls on his name would be saved. Essentially, we're separated from God, and we can be right with him.

We can be forgiven. We can be in his family made new by the grace of Jesus. The Bible is really clear. You cannot earn it. You don't work your way there. He loves you enough to have sent Jesus to pay the price for your sins so you be forgiven. That's how much you loves you. When you receive that gift, you're overreact.

I've been forgiven, and I don't deserve it. I belong to him and I don't deserve it. I'm going to show his love to everyone else. Today at all of our churches, all over the world online, those of you who recognize you're apart from him. Today we're gonna step away from our sins. We're gonna call on him, the one who loves you, who will hear your prayer and make you new today

at all of our churches. Those of you who say, I need his forgiveness, I need his salvation. Jesus, would you save me? Would you be the Lord of my life? Today you're stepping away from your sin. You're stepping into eternity. You're stepping into His grace.

You're stepping into His forgiveness through Jesus Christ. You say, I need him today. I give you my life. It's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now? All of the place. All of the place. Come on, church.

Can you thank God for people today at all of our church? Just saying, yes, Jesus, we need your grace. Type in the comment section, I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. Just type that in. You may be snowed in. You may be in another part of the world. Just type in. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus.

And together is the body of Christ. We pray. No one prays alone. Would you pray aloud? Pray Heavenly Father. Forgive all. of my sins. Save me. Make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you, so I could show your love, so others would know you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In

Jesus' name I pray. And all God's people said, amen, amen. Would you celebrate today? Welcome those born into God's family.