Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Pray, Part 3: Unity

Episode Date: May 16, 2015

Prayers aren't empty words hurled at the sky. They’re conversations—in fact, they're the most important conversations of our lives. Find out just how much it matters when you Pray. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. It is fantastic to have all of you with us today at all of our life churches and our network churches and all over the world at church online, we are gathered together for part three in a four-part message series called Pray.

If you're new with us, what we'll do is we'll take a text, a character, a book of the Bible, a topic, and we'll talk about it for several weeks, and then after that we'll talk about something else. Right now, we've been talking about four different prayers that the Apostle Paul actually prayed. And we're adding these prayers to our own prayer life, because the reality is so many people know I should pray more often.

I should be more passionate and faithful in prayer. But the reality is, many of us don't really know what to pray for. So we're learning four new things to pray for that the Apostle Paul prayed for. The first week we learned to pray for power so that Christ may dwell within you. Last week, we committed to pray that we would all be active in sharing our faith, so we would have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Today, we're going to look at a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed that is very, very close to a prayer that Jesus prayed.

And if Paul prayed it and Jesus prayed it, then I certainly want to pray this prayer as well. And the content of this prayer revolves around the idea of unity, unity in the family of God, unity in the body of Christ. Because, let's be honest, unfortunately today in the world, Christians are not always the most unified people around. How many of you would agree that is that actually true? In fact, I've heard all sorts of different people kind of criticize our church. They'll say, I wouldn't go where there's a video preacher.

In fact, I've heard he's a hologram that he just materializes in one place or another. It's just a big rock concert. I would never go to the rock concert. It's just for the young people. It's just, it's so shallow. It's a cult. I guarantee it's a cult. I've heard from good sources.

It's a cult, okay? In fact, this won't hurt my feelings, but in all of our churches, honestly, how many of you have heard somebody or a group of people question or criticize our church? Just be real honest, lift up your hands. Almost every hand goes up in the place. I lied that did hurt my feelings.

Now I feel very insecure. You know, not really. I understand that's just kind of a part of it. And tragically, it's just kind of the way it is. In fact, I've had it actually happen to my face. A crazy story, there was a guy that was going door-to-door witnessing to share his faith. He knocked on my door. I opened it up, and he started a witness to me.

And being a Christian, I thought about stopping him. But I was just honestly so excited to see a guy who was excited about Jesus. I just decided to let him do his deal and see how good he was. And so he just started witnessing to me. And finally I thought, I can't let this go on. I stopped and said, man, so glad you're here. This is amazing. But you need to understand, I am a committed disciple of Jesus and more power to you.

But, you know, I just have to let you know. And he's, oh, that's amazing. He goes, man, you have to come to my church. You have to come to my church. You have to come to my church. So I told him, well, I actually am pretty committed in my own local church. And he said, well, what church are you a part of? I said, well, I'm a part of a church called Life Church.

and all of a sudden his face was like, oh, he got really concerned, and his mood changed instantly. Then he looked over his shoulders as to make sure nobody else was listening. He leaned into me, and he said, my pastor says your pastor doesn't preach the truth. I said, well, tell your pastor to meet the pastor of Life Church in an alley, and he will introduce the pastor to truth and grace. But first truth.

Not really, but, you know, there at my own front door, I've got someone who is, you know, illustrating so perfectly how tragic it is that the body of Christ can be so divided. In fact, I would argue with all my heart that one of our spiritual enemy's greatest schemes is to divide the body of Christ. Why? because if we are united, we are unstoppable in what we can do for the glory of God on earth. But if we are divided, we are deluded, and we are weak and ineffective in the way that God would want to use us. And so today I want to dive into a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed that really addresses the very important theme of the family of God being used.

unified, why? So that we will glorify God. If you want to glorify God, this is what Paul prayed. Romans 15, verses 5 through 7, he prayed this. Here's his prayer. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had. His prayers, would you treat each other like Jesus would treat? Would you think about each other like Jesus thought about you. Would you love each other like Jesus loved you? I want you to have the same attitude of mind that this is his prayer toward each other that Christ Jesus had. Why? Say it with me. So that with what? Everybody, all of our churches, with one mind and with what else? And with one voice. Let's try this again. I need somebody in Albany, New York and someone in Keller, Texas to help me out with what? With one mind and one voice.

you may do what, everybody? You may glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. With one mind and one voice, you can glorify the God and Father of Jesus. Then he says, in verse 7, and we'll come back to this verse, he says, accept one another then just as what? Just as Christ accepted you. In order to do what? When you do this, you bring praise to God. If you want to glorify God.

If you want to bring praise to God, what we do is we treat each other as Christ loved us. We accept each other as Jesus has accepted and loved us. This is the prayer of Paul. Why? So that we would glorify God. And his prayer is very, very consistent with the prayer that Jesus prayed. I want to read this to you as well from John chapter 17, verses 20 through 23. Jesus prayed.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may, what, let's say it aloud, that all of them may be one, why? So that they may be brought to complete unity. May they all be one, that we as the family of God would be unified. Then, this is so good, then the world will know, God, that you sit me, Jesus says,

and have loved them even as you have loved me. Paul prayed for unity. Jesus prayed for unity. Why? So that God would be glorified and the world would know that God sent Jesus to reach a lost and broken world. May we be unified.

What are we praying for as a church? We are praying for spiritual power. We are praying that we would active in sharing our faith. And today we're going to add to our consistent prayer life. This is a part of what we as followers of Jesus pray for. For the rest of our life, I hope you're praying for unity in the body of Christ. Why? So that we could glorify God.

And so the world would know that God sent Jesus. I asked myself, well, wonder why this is so important to God. And as I'm getting older as a parent of six children, that's right, a basketball team, with a sub, as I'm getting older, I really think I'm better understanding why our Heavenly Father values love and unity so much. In fact, Amy and I were talking the other day, and one of the things that brings us the greatest joy is when our adult children are loving one another. Because I'm telling you, growing up, there wasn't always a lot of love in the back seat of a car. You know what I'm talking about. I mean, our kids could get along everywhere. You put all six of them in one vehicle,

on a road trip, and it's the closest thing to hell on this side of eternity. I mean, Catholic, you couldn't, with six of them, the alliances, the team, the strategy. I mean, I found myself doing things I would never thought I'd say, like, don't make me pull this car, I'll pull this van over if you don't. And then the next thing you know, I'd just be swinging. I don't even know who I'm going for. I'm just doing this stuff, and I'd always catch the wrong kid. It never failed, but I would find myself doing it.

And why is it that we fight so often in the body of Christ? Tragically, it's because we end up thinking that the Christians down the street are the enemy. It's only when we recognize that we have a common enemy, that we are united. It's a little bit like when I was in college, I was in a fraternity. I was a Lambda Chi Alpha that will make a few of you very excited and a lot of you very mad. And we lived down the street from the cap of Sigs. And the reality is, the Lambda Chi's didn't like the Kappa-Sigs, and the Kappa-Sigs didn't like the Lambda-Kis until one day the baseball players drove through the Kappa-Sig lawn, giving them the

bird, basically showing them one way to God, if you know what I'm talking about. And then they drove through our yard and gave us the bird one way to God, and suddenly, guess what? Kappa-Sigs were our best friends. We love them because the baseball players were the enemy. What would happen is, is there was a common enemy that brought us together. And we need to recognize that we have an enemy whose mission is to steal, kill, and destroy, to steal the unity in the family of God, to kill the power that unity brings, to destroy the credibility of the local church with stands up for Jesus Christ.

And when we recognize his tactics and when we stand together, we can do infinitely more together for the glory of God than we can apart. And that is why we pray, we pray, we pray that we would be unified. Why? So God would be glorified and the world would know that he sent Jesus. In order to motivate you even more to help this become an intimate and ongoing part of your prayer life, I want to give you three different reasons why we pray for unity. We pray to be unified.

The first reason, if you're taking notes, we pray for unity because we desperately need each other. We desperately need one another in the family of God. Paul said it this way to the Romans, Romans chapter 12, verse 5. He said, just as our bodies have many parts, and each part has a special fundamental so it is with Christ's body. In other words, the hand is not the ear, and the ear is not the foot, and the foot is not the esophagus. We all have separate parts, and they all work together. They have a special function, and without one, we are very incomplete. He said this. We, meaning Jesus followers, are many parts of what? Of one body. This is the body of Christ,

and we all, what, let's say it aloud? We all belong to each other. We are a part of of a broader family. And we are different, and this is by design. We need to understand this about unity. Unity is not the same as uniformity. Unity is not the same as uniformity. We actually have strength in our differences. It's our differences which give us the ability to reach many, many people. In fact, I asked you earlier, how many of you have heard someone say maybe something bad about our church or question our church? And almost everybody said they had. Here's my sincere hope. My hope is that in the last 10 or 12 years, you have never heard me say something bad about another church or denomination that's been my goal. If I slipped up, I would apologize for it. But I have

purposed in my heart never to push off another group of Christians. to make myself look better. And the reason I say 10 or 12 years ago is because honestly, 15, 16, 17 years ago, I did what a lot of pastors do and I would push off of others to make myself look better. And you may not ever recognize this,

but what I could do so easily is say, I'm not like other churches. I mean, when you're here, I'm going to tell you the truth, okay? Other preachers won't tell you this, but I'm going to tell you the truth. Why? Because I preach the Word of God.

At our church, we preach the Word of God, whatever. And what I'm doing there is I'm basically saying, we're better than other people because we tell it like it is. You say, when I work with pastors today, I just tell them. Just tell it like it is. Don't say we're not like other people. And we could do this in the church world, and it happens all the time unintentionally like,

we're not like those dead, boring churches. What we do? We just took a shot at somebody. We're not like the chosen frozen. We're not like those crazy charismatic tongue-touches. talking weird, you know, we're not like those big mega-chote, we're not like those small countries, we're not like those seeker-sensitive church-like people, you know, who cares what you're not like? Just be what you are. Be exactly what you are. We don't have to push

off somebody else, just be who you are. The reality is that chosen, frozen church is going to reach somebody else that our church, they think is way too crazy. Those crazy charismatic churches, there's power that are going to reach some people, and those small churches are effective in ways that big churches can't be, and the big churches are effective in ways the small churches can't be. So what we're going to do is we're not going to push off each other. In fact, I'm going to say it this way, if we're going to make a mistake, and I want this to be the posture of our church, because we can only control what we do, if we're going to make a mistake, we're going to err on the side of being four other believers and not against them.

them. If we're going to make a mistake, we're going to speak well of other ministries, we're going to speak well of other movements, we're going to speak well of other denominations, and what I'm not saying is that we won't call blatant error. If someone says Jesus was a sinner, there's no such thing as hell, you know, whatever, we're talking about blatant error. We'll correct that and say, actually that falls outside of the realm of historical Christian beliefs. And we'll call that. But we're going to do that. But we're going to be a lot. But we're We're not going to nitpick over. They got contemporary worship, and it's supposed to be traditional.

When we have brothers and sisters being beheaded in other parts of the world, we're not going to narrow in on those incredibly small things. And I hope you heard the language I use because it was very intentional. When we have brothers and sisters being beheaded, what you need to understand is they need us. I'll tell you this, we need them. We need perspective and we need to pray and we need to be aware. And suddenly when we recognize that we have an enemy who's doing that to our own, all of a sudden we recognize we're a part of a bigger family. Followers of Jesus in Uganda, followers of Jesus in Nepal, followers of Jesus in all over Europe and in South Africa. I'm talking

about from all over the world, from every nation that our good God created. They're men. They are women. They are children. Some are rich. Most are poor. They speak every different language you can imagine from every ethnic background possible, from more denominations than you could even name. And yet we all worship one name, and that is the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord. need each other. Therefore, we pray. We don't just hope. We don't just got to wish.

We don't just do nothing about it. We pray for power because we need power. We pray that we would be active in sharing our faith so that we would have a full understanding of every good thing that we have in Christ. We pray for unity in the family of God so that God would be glorified and the world would know that God sent Jesus.

Why do we do this? We do this because we truly, desperately need each other. The second reason we do this is because the world will see God's love. When we are unified as the family of God, they see demonstrated the active, passionate love of Jesus and his family. In fact, I love the imagery in Romans 157. And when Paul, along with his prayer, he said this, he said, accept one another, just as Christ accepted you. In order to bring praise to God, accept one another, just as Jesus accepted you.

In fact, the Greek word that's translated into the English language to accept, it's such a long Greek word. I'm not even going to try to pronounce it because I would butcher it, but it's a very picturesque word. It's a beautiful word that it carries with it the imagery of when you accept someone is that you receive them into your arms and you embrace them. Then the word carries along the idea of you walk hand in hand with a brother or a sister. So when you accept somebody, just like Christ accepted you, how did Christ accept us? While we were still sinners, Christ accepted. Before we agreed, before we were perfect, which we were. still aren't. Before we had everything together, he accepted us, and that's what we do to other

followers of Jesus. You may be different, you may have different focus, different style. We accept one another, and then hand in hand, we walk together and embrace one another. When we do this, then our reputation is going to change, and it needs to change. Instead of the body of Christ, the church, Christians, being known for what they're against, oh, they're against that, oh, they're against that, and they're against them, and they're against them, and they're against that. Instead of being known for what we are against, then by the grace of God, we will be known for what we are for. And we are for people experiencing the grace and the love of Jesus. When we love and when we accept one another, in fact, Jesus couldn't have said it more clearly. In John 13,

verses 34 and 35, he said, a new command, I give to you. What is it? All of us, say it aloud. Here's the command. It is to love one another. Jesus said this, as I have loved you, so you must do what? So you must love one another. Now watch this. Verse 35 is so powerful. By what?

Say it aloud. By this. Okay. Notice what he didn't say. He didn't say by your right doctrine. Right? By your denominational preference. By your music style.

by you reading the correct version of the Bible because we know all those other losers are going to hell. What do you say? By this, by the way you love each other, okay? But this is so powerful. Don't miss it. By the way you love one another, he says, everyone will know that you are my disciples. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. There is only one description. of how the world will know that we follow Jesus in all the Bible. You know what it is? If we love one another.

If you love one another, they will know. That's why we pray. We pray. We believe that God hears and answers our prayers. We believe that our prayers matter. We believe that if we humble ourselves and seek our God and pray, that he hears our prayers and he answers. So we don't pray small and general prayers.

We pray big and specific and faith-filled, passionate prayers. And it takes faith to pray for a very divided church, capital C, that God would unify his church and that we would stand together. Why do we pray for unity? We pray for this because we need each other. We pray for this because the world will see God's love when we are unified. And the third thing, and this is actually a core value of ours at Life Church, is because with unity, we can do infinitely more together. We believe that the local church is the hope of the world, and we can do infinitely more together than we can apart.

And quite honestly, we want to do everything that we can to demonstrate unity. We want to do everything possible to support other churches. We tried to do this when we only had 400 people coming, and we'll try to do this when we have campuses spread across the country and beyond. And so some of the things that we do is we just ask, how can we leverage what we have to serve the broader family of God? And I'm actually humbled and thrilled to know that the resources that we create,

the sermons, the transcripts, the video, the kids teaching, the student teaching, that we've got, as of now, 177,000 churches that have used free resources available to the broader family of God. I'm so thankful. No charge is please. Be blessed by this. Our church online platform, a special hello and shout out to church online. Countries and territories all over the world, some 150,000 of you gathered together every

week. The broader family of God said, we'd like to do this, but they couldn't afford it. So we raised money and created the church online platform to give away, and now there are 10,300 other churches logged on to stream their services on church online as the free gift to the family of God. And we are so blessed to do that. And then I just have to pause for a moment and say, the thing that's dearest to my heart is our network church partners. And to your pastors, I love you all so much. And every time I'm with you, I just tell you, it's one of the greatest thrills and honors of my life to partner with you. If you're new to our church, you may not understand what

that is. But a network church, they're entirely separate churches that are watching this message right now. They use our kids' curriculum every single week. They use our student material every week. week. They do Bible app for kids. They use a small group curriculum. We don't charge them a thing for this. This is just our gift to say. If this benefits your ministry, then we would love to do it. We have 26 states across the United States that have at least one network church in it. We have countries represented all over the world from Australia to Canada to the Philippines to Africa, South Africa, the United Kingdom. And it is our great honor to say, we can do infinitely more together than we can apart. And this was the heartbeat and the attitude that made the first century church thrive.

Think about it. What do they have? No buildings, no television ministry, no fundraisers, no special campaigns, what would they have against them? Massive persecution. People weren't just tweeting something bad about the pastors, that they were taking the lives in droves of those who said, we believe Jesus was risen from the dead. And yet this little band of non-educated first century passionate Jesus followers spread the gospel all over the world and were known throughout the community by people who said, we may not believe in what they believe in. But oh dear God, they love each other. the way they stand together, the way they are united. It's something I've never seen.

And I want to show you how it's described in Acts chapter four. This is so powerful. Luke described it this way. He said that all the believers were what? Everybody say this. This is so important. All the believers were what? They were one in heart and mind.

What does that mean? They were unified. They were unified. They were all in one and heart and mind. And no one claimed that any of their possessions, was their own, but they shared everything that they had. Pause there. That's crazy love. That's next level. I don't get it love. That's commitment to the family of Jesus, unlike anything that I rarely ever see or rarely ever live like that myself. In fact, in another

portion in Acts, it's described what they did, that these crazy people loved God and loved people so much they'd actually take their possessions, they'd sell them, and then they'd basically give them money to the church or to the leaders and say, hey, you just disperse it. And so if they saw a need, they would just give to whoever was in need. And let me show you the result of this crazy kind of unified love. Verse 33. And by God's grace, God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy. persons among them. Do you see the power in that kind of unity? Every need was met by God through the family of God when they didn't see themselves as individual Christians but as a

family, a part of a body that needs each other, that wants to demonstrate the love of God, that recognizes that when they love each other like it. Think about the skeptics. Think about if we acted like this. Think about what people would say, I don't know about that whole Jesus thing and that whole rise from the dead thing and I don't know about all that.

But, oh, man, you see how Christians treat people? Do you see how loving they are? Do you see how fuller? Do you see how they forgive one another? Do you see how they take care of their own and how generous they are with us? See, I'm going to argue all day long. that the world is sick and tired of hearing about the love of Jesus,

they want to see it. They want to see it, and they want to see it, and they want to see it, and they want to see it. And how will they see it? They'll see it when we love one another. And that's why we pray. We pray. And this is not a, like, hey, it benefits me prayer. Okay?

This is a prayer for the family of God. And so we as a church, we pray. We pray for power. We pray we'll be active in sharing our faith. We pray for unity and the family of God. Why? So that God would be glorified and that people would know that God sent Jesus. And what would happen?

Just dream. Billions of believers, every city, every village, every tribe, every nation of the world. If we stood together and said, what we have, exists for the glory of God. What do you think we could do together? I'm going to argue all day long. By Monday, starvation could be eliminated around the world. By Tuesday, every person could have clean drinking water

that does not have access to it today. By Wednesday, poverty is eradicated. By Thursday, everyone with a medical need, their need would be met. By Friday, all the orphans in the world would be in caring and loving families. by Saturday, every person alive would have heard about the love of Jesus. And by the following Sunday, we would take a break and gather to worship our Savior

because we are one body under one name, serving one God with one purpose to bring his love and his grace into the world. And I believe this is possible because I believe it is God's will. And I believe it will start when the church prays and when the church stands together. and when we don't take shots at each other, but we believe God has called us to be part of his family, a higher calling with a higher purpose to serve our higher God. Father, may we be united, may we be one,

that you would be glorified, and the world would know that you sent Jesus. All of our church is praying together. I ask God that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would lead our church to be a church who prays. That God, we would not wake up. all, what do I pray for today? We pray for power. We need your spiritual power. We need your power that Christ may dwell within us. We need your power to know how much you love us that we could

glorify you in all that we do. God, we pray that we would be active in sharing our faith, that people would come to know you and we'd have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. And Father, I pray that we would pray for unity. At all of our churches, those of you who say as a follower of Jesus, this will become a part of my prayer life. Certainly for the next seven days, but I'm just telling you, there are 12 or 13 things that are things I pray for all the time, and this is one of them. And I believe reflecting the heart of Paul and reflecting the heart of Jesus, this is something that we as the family of God should consistently pray for. I'll ask for seven days. I hope you go more. All of our churches you say, yes, for the next seven days,

I'll commit to add this to what I pray for. Believing God will first work in me and then work in the body of Christ because we pray for unity. If you'll pray with me, would you lift up your hands right now? our churches, I'm so blessed to see a praying church. Father, thank you, that you're speaking to the hearts of Jesus followers and showing us the importance to not only pray for unity, but to live unified. And God, we can't control what others will say or do, but God, give us the opportunity to lead the way in showing unity, to err on the side of being four other Jesus followers and not assuming the worst. God help us to assume the best. and to do whatever we can to bring our part,

to partner with other believers around the world. God, we especially pray for those who are being persecuted right now and those whose lives are in danger. God, we pray that by any means possible, you would protect them. But God, for those who lose their lives, for the name of Jesus, we recognize those are our brothers and sisters. And God, we know you count them as heroes in the kingdom, and we count them as even more.

And God, as your family, we will not sit by and do nothing. We will pray and believe that prayer is powerful and do whatever else within our power to make a difference because we are the family and the body of Christ. And we know you've called us to stand together. God, make us so unified that the world would see your love in your church. And that love would draw people to know Jesus. All of our churches, as you keep praying today, nobody looking around. There are those of you that when you're really on,

you may recognize that you're more outside of the family of God. And there are many reasons. One reason is often because of the way you've seen Christians treat one another. And I just have to be honest and own that. I mean, I own it from me that we can be wrong and critical and narrow-minded and hateful and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we all know that. But let me tell you what, that is not the heart of God.

The heart of God is full of so much love that he sent Jesus, who was without sin to die. for all of us who are sinners. And the reality is, when someone says, well, that's a sin, the reason is because we're sinners and we've all sinned, and we all need the grace of God and need his forgiveness. But the beauty of Jesus is that he hung around and he made friends with the worst to the worst

and the lowest of the low, but he didn't leave them there. When they called on him, when they followed him, he made them new. And the beauty of the gospel is this, that God loved you so much, that Jesus died in your place on the cross. On the third day, he rose from the dead. Why?

So that anyone who calls on his name would be saved. I'm inviting you today to consider the goodness of God. Not what you've seen how Christians have fallen short. Yes, we have fallen short, but the goodness of a God who loves you and you come to him as you are. And when you do, he will forgive every sin you've ever committed and he will make you brand new. And there are those of you you're being drawn to God,

right now, what is it? That's the power of God. That's his love. That's his spirit doing what only he can do. If your heart's beating a little fast, if you're feeling a little bit uncomfortable right now, that's because this is your moment to decide. Yes, Jesus, I believe you died for me. Yes, I want to trust my life for you. Yes, I surrender completely. At all of our churches, those who would say, I'm ready to be in the family of God. I want to lead the way with that kind of love. I respond to the love of God, and I say, yes, Jesus, forgive me. Yes, Jesus, make me new today. I give my life to you. I give my life to That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now all over the place. You say, yes, hands going up at all of our churches, church online, countries around the world, people saying yes to Jesus. I would

invite all of you to pray with me and those around you because nobody prays alone. Pray aloud, pray Heavenly Father, I need your forgiveness and I need your grace. Jesus save me. Forgive me of all my sins. Make me brandy. knew, I believe you died for me, and you rose again so I could live for you. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you and serve you for the rest of my life. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. In Jesus' name I pray, would you all worship loud, give God glory, welcome this.

Welcome to God's family today.