If you would open your Bibles
again to John chapter 17. The title of our message this morning
is Unity. Unity. The unity of believers is genuine. This is not just
something that we talk about. It's genuine. We're not united
because we all read the same Bible. We're not united because
we all have the same doctrine, because we're all Calvinists.
We're not united because we all want to go to heaven or because
we all make a good attempt to live an honest, moral life. Believers
are united to one another because believers are all one with Christ. Believers are not united to each
other because of anything that we do. Believers are one with
each other. because of something Christ has
done for us and what Christ has done in us. And our Savior has
stressed this unity. Unity with Him and unity with
each other throughout His earthly ministry and throughout this
prayer. Now this unity is so important
to our Lord. How important ought it to be
to us if He's put this much importance on it? So let's look at this
subject of unity this morning. Maybe the Lord will be pleased
to teach us something and apply it to our hearts. Now, verses
21 and verse 23, this is what our Lord specifically prays about.
Unity with Him and with each other. Verse 21, that they all
may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou
hast sent me. Verse 23 says, I in them, and thou in me." That's
unity, isn't it? That they may be made perfect
in one. That the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now what is this unity exactly?
He prays for unity. But what is it that our Lord
is talking about specifically? Unity. Well, He's talked about
it all throughout this prayer. First of all, there's unity of
life. Every believer has the same eternal
life. Verse 2, as thou hast given him
power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him. Every believer has been given
the same, perfect, eternal life by Christ our Savior. You know,
one group doesn't have one kind of life, and another group has
another kind of life. All the same life. One life. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ
given to His people. A unity of life. Next is unity
of name. We all go by the same name. The
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're called by His name and
every believer, every saved person knows and believes the same name.
Verse 3, this is life eternal that they may know thee the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Now, there are
not many gods. There's one true and living God. And we must come to that God,
that one God. We must come to Him and we must
know Him. Well, how do we know His name? God's known by His name. How
do we know that name? We don't know God's name through
human knowledge. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. The carnal mind cannot know or
love His name. Knowing God is knowledge given
in divine revelation given in the new birth. Look at verse
6. Our Lord says, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. We know God because Christ
manifests the name of God to us in the new birth. That's how
we know God's name. The natural man, or the new man,
excuse me, the new man, just naturally has an understanding
and love of spiritual things. Just like that old man naturally
has a love and knowledge of sin. It's the same way. When we're
born again, we're going to naturally have knowledge of who our Father
is. And every believer, I don't care where you find them, every
believer knows and worships the same God through the same way. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The unity of name. Every believer has unity in the
Word of God. Every believer. believes the
Word of God. Verse 8, our Lord says, For I
have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they
have received them, and they have known surely that I came
out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send
me. The foundation of faith for every believer is the Word of
God. We believe, by God's grace, we believe what God's Word says. Even when we don't understand
it. We believe it. Simply because God's Word says
it. You know, people talk about the
flood of Noah. Well, that couldn't have happened,
they say. You know, because they can't understand how water completely
covered dirt. I completely believe that. I
mean, I just don't have any trouble believing that. Because God's
Word says it. And they say, well, they couldn't
have built an ark that size and all the animals of the world,
you know, fit in it. Can't explain that, but I have
never felt the need to explain that. God's Word said two of
every kind of animals in the ark. I believe that. God's Word
said it. I don't understand. I was talking
to someone yesterday. I don't understand how the Lord
Jesus Christ, the perfect, holy Son of God, could be made sin
for me. How could he be made guilty of
my sin? I don't know. But I don't have to know, I just
believe it. Because God's Word says it. And by the same token,
I don't understand how I'm sanctified, how I am holy, when the only
thing I see about myself, as hard as I look at myself, the
only thing I see about myself is sin. But I believe I'm sanctified. Because God's Word says it. Every
believer believes God's Word. They might not even know they
believe it. But when you read it to them, they say, yeah, I
believe that. Because it's God's Word. It's in our heart. We have unity of the Word of
God. We have unity of election. Every believer was elected by
God into salvation before the world began. Verse 9, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. For they are thine. All mine
are thine, and thine are All mine are thine, and thine are
mine, and I am glorified in them." Every person that God saves believes
in election. God had to choose me because
I never would have chosen him. God had to choose me before the
foundation of the world because he never would have chosen me
afterwards. He never would have chosen me after Adam fell. He
never would have chosen me after I was born and been the kind
of sinner that I am. God had to choose me. before
the foundation of the world. That's just so simple to understand.
Election is not just doctrine that we believe and doctrine
that we stand on and doctrine that separates us from everybody
else. God's electing love is our delight. I love God's electing love. Every believer has unity of election. Every believer has unity of preservation.
Every believer is kept by God, so that they cannot be lost.
Verse 11, And now I am no more in the world, but these are in
the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are one. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost. but the sign of perdition
that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Every believer is
going to be kept by God. It's impossible for them to be
lost. And the preservation of the saints
is not just one of the five points. The preservation of the saints
by the power of God and by the will of God is our confidence. I'm not kept by myself. He's
going to keep me. That's our confidence. Next,
every believer has unity of joy. Every believer has the exact
same joy. It's the joy of Christ. Look
at verse 13. And now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
he found joy in seeing his elect redeemed through his sacrifice
for them. That's the joy the writer of Hebrews was talking
about, Hebrews 12, 2. For the joy that was set before
our Lord Jesus Christ, that's what made him go willingly to
the cross. Because through that sacrifice,
his people would be redeemed. And he had such joy in that.
And that's the joy every believer has. The believer's true joy
is salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation he accomplished
and finished as our substitute. That's what our Lord meant in
verse 4, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. Christ our Redeemer finished
the work of salvation and he is our joy. Then, believers have
unity in being hated by the world. Verse 14, I have given them thy
word and the world hath hated them because they are not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. The world hates believers
because believers are not from around here. They're not from
this world. And I know somebody's going to
think, what are you talking about? I was born in this world. I live
in this world. I can see how you say our Lord's
not from this world. He's a son of God. He came from
heaven. But I'm of this world. I started here. I was born here.
This is where I live. I'm of this world. My body is
made up of the dust of this world. Well, that's true. But a believer
is not of this world. Because there's been a new man
born from above, and that new man has a new citizenship. He's not of this world. His citizenship's
in the kingdom of God. Look at verse 16. This is where
our Lord says, they are not of this world, even as I'm not of
this world. The new man who's been born has
been born with the nature of Christ, and he's just passing
through. And the world sees him as a drifter,
and the world hates drifters. They hate believers because they're
not of this world. Now, if believers have unity
in being hated by this world, Eric, how important is it that
we love one another? You prayed that, that we love one another.
How important is it that we love one another if we have unity
in being hated by this world? We need one another. Those signs
of affection and love mean a great deal. We have unity of being
hated by this world. We ought to have unity of love.
Then there's unity in sanctification. Every believer is perfectly holy. Verse 17. Sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. Christ our
Savior washed his people from all of their sin. His blood washed
it all away. That's being justified. Being
made without sin, Christ washed it away. But now we've got to
be given a holy nature, that sanctification. We're in the
new birth, we're sanctified, made holy when a new man is born
who has a holy nature, born of the Spirit of God. Every believer
is born with that same spirit, sanctified in Christ. Now, verse
20, this is really where our text begins this morning. Every
believer has a unity of faith. Every believer believes the same
thing. Verse 20. Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also it shall believe on me through
their word. Now, our Lord makes it clear.
He's not just praying for these eleven that are with him. He's
praying for every believer, all of his people from every generation.
Now, you think how the Lord was there praying with your name
on his heart. My goodness, he's praying for
every one of his people. And he prays that we all have
unity. Then we're going to have unity.
The sovereign Savior prayed we have unity. Then we're going
to have it. Now, we're going to have unity of faith. Every
believer believes the same thing. Now, when I say that, I don't
mean we all believe every little detail exactly the same. There
are minor things. that we'll disagree on, that's
fine. We can disagree on the millennium, on the millennial
reign. That's fine. We can disagree on that. I don't
really care. And when Christ comes, it's not
going to matter. We can disagree on that. We can disagree on observance
of days. I happen to love celebrating
Christmas. Somebody else may not. That's
fine. We can disagree on that. As long as we're not attaching
any religious significance to it. We can disagree on that,
that's fine. We can disagree on whether or not to celebrate
a day. We must agree on who's the Lord of the day. That we
will agree on that Christ is the Lord of the day. So every
believer believes the same thing about salvation. I don't care
where you find them. Every believer, every saved person
believes the Lord Jesus Christ is all of my salvation. Salvation
is all of Christ. It's by his blood. It's by his
righteousness. It's by his power in the new
birth. It doesn't come by knowledge.
It doesn't come by me coming to know the doctrines of grace.
It comes in a new birth where a new man is born who loves Christ
and knows Christ and been born of his will and his power. Every
believer believes the same message. What does our Lord say here?
I pray for those who will believe through their words. Now, these
men wrote the scriptures, so partially he means they're the
scriptures, but he also means their message. He prays for those
who will believe through their message. God only uses one message
to save his elect. It's the message of the gospel.
It's the message of truth. Thy word is truth. It's not a
message of error, it's a message of God's word. This is the seed. that God uses to give life. And
every believer believes it. Every believer preaches Christ
and trusts Christ alone. That He's the message. I said
this a minute ago, every believer believes in election. God chose
me before the foundation of the world. If God's given you life,
that is just as plain as the nose on your face. Election does
not have anything to do with what I do or don't do. It's all
of God's free will. Just like all the rest of salvation.
Every believer, I don't care where you find them, they believe
in the new birth that's been given to them by the Holy Spirit.
You tell a believer that God's Word says there's a new man born
in you. He can't sin. He loves God. He's perfect. He
believes. And they say, yeah. Anything
else would be works. If it's something that comes
into my flesh, it's worse. You talk about the new birth,
every believer says, yeah, I've been born again. That's why I
believe. If I love God, if I have faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit
had to come and make me be born again because I'd never love
God or trust God otherwise. Not in this flesh. There had
to be a new man born. Every believer. believes in limited
atonement. Every believer believes Christ
died for his elect. Christ didn't die to make salvation
possible for all the sons of Adam. If he did that, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God's Son, is a failure, and every believer knows our
Savior did not fail. Everyone that Christ died for
is saved. Everyone Christ died for is cleansed
from every sin and can never perish, because Christ died for
them. Every believer believes in the
irresistible call of grace, called by the Holy Spirit. Of course
I believe that. Christ is the Master. I'm the
dog. When He calls, I come running. And not before. Not before. It's of His will. Not of Him
that willeth, nor of Him that runneth. It's of God who calls
and mercies. That calling is of His will. And every believer believes that
all that the Father gave to Christ will come to Christ. And Him
that cometh, He will in no wise cast out. Every believer believes
that everyone Christ died for is saved and they're given faith
in the new birth. And that faith will stand the
test of time. That faith that God gives will
last as long as my life on this earth lasts. Now, that faith
is going to waver from moment to moment, from day to day. That
faith is going to waver because I'm so weak and frail and fickle. But that faith that God gives
will never fail because the object of our faith will never fail.
If God's given me faith so that I believe Christ at this very
moment, Bob, I'm going to believe until the day I die. Because
it's God-given faith. It'll never fail. Every believer
believes the same thing. Every believer believes Christ
is all. Christ is all I want. Christ
is all I have. Christ is all I need. He's all.
Every believer believes. I am not saved by my obedience
to the law. I didn't contribute anything
to this. My obedience to the law is Christ's obedience imputed
to me." Every believer believes that. Every believer has the
same object of faith. Our Lord says He prays for those
that will believe on the doctrines of grace through their word.
That's not the way He said it, is it? I pray for them who will
believe on Me through their word. Every believer has the same object
of faith. We all believe Christ is all
of my hope. My faith depends entirely upon
Christ. I do not believe in the righteousness
of Christ. I believe in Christ my righteousness. I don't believe in the sacrifice
of Christ. I believe in Christ who gave
His precious body and soul as a sacrifice for my sins. He's
who I believe. I don't believe in the finished
work of Christ. I believe in Christ who finished
the work that the Father gave Him to do. And I rest in Him. I rest from all of my works in
Him. We have every believer as a unity
of faith. Every believer as a unity of
spirit. Every believer as a unity of nature. We have the same spirit
and nature that's born in us. Look at verse 21. That they all
may be one. as thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me." Now the unity of believers
begins with the unity of the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit are one. They're one in deity. They're
one in power. They're one in glory. They're
one in the purpose of redemption. And the elect are made part of
the body of Christ. Then we have unity, don't we?
We're part of the same body with the same head. Then we have unity
with each other. I don't care what our background
is. I don't care where we're from. If we are truly united
to Christ, then we're united to each other. We're united to
each other in heart. I've had the blessing of being
able to travel around different places and preach. And every
time you go, you're going to go to some place for the first
time. And there's people there you haven't met, you don't know.
I've been to the place to preach. I didn't even speak the language
that they spoke. But there's unity of heart. There's
unity of heart. And you know when you tell it?
When you start speaking of Christ. He's our head. And we're united
together in Him. And even earthly enemies, Jew
and Gentile, are united together in one in Christ. God has made
of twain one new man. So making peace. Because we have
the same Spirit. We have the same nature that's
in us. And our Lord says He dwells in each of His people. And the
Father dwells in Him. This is not complicated. This
is how we have union with the Father and the Son. The Son's
in us, the Father's in the Son. We have union with the Father
and the Son. And Christ dwells in the hearts of His people as
King. Now wherever He is, He's King. And He dwells in my heart? That's
condescending grace, isn't it? Now look in John chapter 14.
Back just a couple pages. John 14. The only way. that God
can dwell in the hearts of his people is by his Spirit. That's how we have the same Spirit.
John 14, verse 16. And I will pray the Father, and
he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Who is this Comforter? Even the
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth
him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him. Why do you
know him? For he dwelleth with you. and
he shall be in you." Look at Romans chapter 8. It's the same
Spirit that dwells in the hearts of every believer. Romans 8, verse 8. So then, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh,
but in the If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."
Well, how important is it that the Spirit of God dwell in us?
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of His. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. Look over a few more pages of
1 Corinthians chapter 3. Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? And in chapter
6, verse 17, Paul says, He that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
Every believer has unity of spirit, because the same spirit dwells
in the hearts of every believer. Believers have unity of nature. We have the same nature given
to us in the new birth. There's unity with the Father
and the Son and with each other. Unity of spirit. Then we have
unity of glory. Verse 22, back in our text of
John 17. Every believer has the same hope of glory. And the glory
which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be
one, even as we are one. Every believer has the same glory. Now, this glory that Christ gives
his people, that's not his glory as God. That's not his glory
as the Son of God. That glory wasn't given to him,
was it? It's his by nature. And he's not going to give us
that glory. We're not little gods. He didn't give us that
glory. This is also not the glory of
Christ as the mediator of his people. Here he prays as the
mediator of his people. Well, now the father did give
that glory to Christ, didn't he? Gave him the glory of being
the mediator. But that glory is not given to
anybody. To believers or anybody, there's one mediator in there
between God and men. It's the man, Christ Jesus. So
that glory is all his. The glory that he's speaking
of here, that he gives his people, is the glory that the gospel
declares. This is the glory of everything that Christ earned
for his people, as their representative and as their savior. It's the
glory that Christ earned as the God-man mediator, and he divides
that spoil with the strong. He earned the glory, and he gives
it to his people. This is the glory of the forgiveness
of sin. Now, unless you're a sinner,
that doesn't mean anything to you. But if you're a sinner,
to know that Christ has given you the glory of the forgiveness
of your sin, That's glorious. I can't tell
you what that word is. Glorious. This is the glory of
being justified and sanctified. This is the glory of faith that
lays hold on Christ. It's the glory of the new birth,
that there's a new man born in you by the power and will of
God. It's the glory of being made
a son and a daughter of God. I saw these pictures yesterday.
What's his name? Prince, the little guy, the newest
little prince. They're showing pictures of him. He's a cute kid. I've seen lots
of cute kids. Why is a picture of this kid
on the news? Because of who his mama and daddy
is. You think that's glorious? I'm looking at sons and daughters
of God Almighty. That's glorious. This is the
glory given to know the name of God, to know who God is and
how God saves sinners. And this glory that Christ gives,
the glory that He earned as our representative, as our Savior,
unites believers together. The glory of this world divides
people. The glory of this world is divisive. You know why? There's not enough
of it to go around. We've got to compete for it.
And it becomes divisive. The glory of Christ unites God's
people together. Because every believer has been
given the exact same glory. We have unity of glory. Then we have unity of love. I
told you we ought to have unity of love. Well, you know what
we do? Every believer has the same love. Verse 23, I in them and thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."
Believers have union in the love of God. We have union with the
love of the Father and the Son. Both the Father and the Son love
the elect. And the Father, Eric said this
in his prayer too. The Father loves the elect with
the same love that He loves His only begotten Son. He loves us
as His sons and daughters. Now, how does the Father show
that love for His children? My daughters know I love them. Not just because I tell them,
but because I show it. Our Father has shown, clearly
demonstrated His love for His people. He chose them in love
before time began. Before they fell on Adam, God
had already provided a Savior for His people because He loves
them. He sent His Son into this world to redeem them. Now get
a hold of this. The Father sent His only begotten
Son to come into this world as a man. He prepared a body for
Him. And He sent His Son to be in
that body, to become a man. So that he could put away the
sin of his people by suffering and dying in their place. By
suffering the hell that they deserve. By dying the death that
they deserve. Now brethren, that's love. That he would send his only begotten
son to suffer and die for his children. The only reason he'd
do that is he loves them. He sent his spirit to them to
give them life and regeneration. He calls them to Christ. And
He keeps them in Christ. He calls them to His darling
Son. What greater gift could we have?
He works all things together for their good. For their eternal
salvation. Now that's love. Every believer
is united in that same love. And believers are knit together
in love. We're knit together in the Father's
love for us. And we're knit together in our
love for one another. Love is the bond of perfectness. Love
is the cement that holds God's church together. And it's how
we know we're disciples of Christ. That we love one another. We
have unity of love. Then we have unity of vision.
Every believer sees the same Savior. We'll get into verse
24 next week, but let's look at it briefly. Father, I will,
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. For
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." The father loves
his son so much he has showed every believer the same vision. His precious son. Every believer
we know, and our Lord says that Father, I will that they also
must give me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory." Now, whenever we read that statement, we always think
of heaven, don't we? And every believer certainly
has the same dwelling place, that's true. But this statement
of our Lord goes further than that. He means that we not only
behold His glory there, He means that we behold His glory here. That by faith, we see him here,
we see his glory by faith now, by the grace of God. Now, before
we ever see it there, we're going to see him here. Every believer
sees the same savior. Now, look over Ephesians chapter
four, I want to look at a few verses here in closing. This
is a good commentary on this unity that we've been looking
at. Ephesians 4 verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love. There it is, in love. That's
our unity of love. Forbear one another in love.
Out of love for Christ and out of love for each other. We have
unity of love. Look at verse 3. Endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's
unity of Spirit. God gave the same Holy Spirit
to every one of His children. He gave us spiritual life and
the Spirit dwells in us. Showing us the same Christ. Unity of Spirit. Verse 4. There's one body. There's unity
of body. There's one body with Christ
as the head. Now that unity of body, functioning
together. There are many different parts
of the body and they all have different roles, different purposes,
but they function together as one unit for the common good
of the body. There's one body. There's one
spirit. We look at that unity of spirit.
Even as you're called in one hope of your calling, there's
unity of hope. Every believer has the same hope.
It's Christ. He is our hope. And their unity
of calling. Every believer is called by the
same gospel, by the same Spirit, to the same Savior. Unity of
calling. Verse 5, there's one Lord. The
unity of worship. There's one Lord in God's church.
And we worship Him. There's one Lord. There's one
faith. Unity of faith. Every believer
believes the same thing. There's one faith because there's
just one Lord. And there's one baptism. Every believer confesses
the same Savior in baptism. When we are baptized, and baptism
is by immersion. A person is immersed, dumped,
completely under the water. And they're raised up out of
the water. That's a public confession of Christ. This is how our Lord
commanded us to confess Him. Well, what does that mean? What
am I confessing in baptism? I'm dumped under the water, brought
back up out of the water. I'm confessing that Christ is
my salvation, that I'm saved through union with Him. When
He died, He died for my sin. I died in Him. And when He was
buried, I was buried. Under the water, I was buried.
You only bury a dead person. I died in Him. He died for my
sin and I died in Him. But he didn't stay dead. We don't
baptize somebody and hold them down under the water. We bring
them back up. Why? Because Christ rose again
for our justification. And when He arose again, I arose
in Him through union with Him. And because of Christ, in Christ,
I have eternal life. There's one baptism. Every person
is baptized, every believer is baptized, confesses the same
thing. Christ is all my salvation. I may not know it all, but I
know this. Christ is my salvation. Verse 6, one God and one Father
of all. There's unity of family. God is our Father. He dwells
in every believer. There's one home, and He's the
head of it. One God and Father of all, who's
above all and through all and in you all. And verse 7, there's
unity of grace. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. God's
is given to every believer. Provenient grace. Grace that
goes before. Grace before you even know anything
is going on. Provenient grace. Electing grace. Saving grace. Calling grace. Keeping grace. Grace to live by and grace to
die by. Earlene Lorelei, that's why your
dad looked forward to death. Grace to live by. and grace to
die by. Every believer has unity of grace. Now, listen to me for just a
minute. Unity. I was going to say I'm afraid,
but I know this is so. That people take this and look
at it wrong. We get a, boy, this flesh. I'd just be glad to get rid of
this flesh. It takes something as wonderful
as unity and perverted. Unity is not an us against them
mentality. Unity is a spiritual bond of
the heart. It's a bond with Christ. We're
with, we're saved, and we have life because we have union with
Him. Now brethren, that ought to That
will make us a certain kind of person. We have unity with Christ. So we have a bond with each other.
In the body of Christ. It's not an us against them mentality. It's Christ is all mentality.
That's the way to put it. So believers have union with
each other. Because we have union with Christ. Who we worship. who we love, who saved us from
all of our sin, who is worthy of all of our love, all of our
worship, and all glory. Alright. The Lord bless that
to you. Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, how we thank You that You
have made so plain in Your Word the mystery of unity. in the hearts of your people,
the Father in you, that we all may be one. One Lord, one faith,
one baptism. Every believer being given the
same faith, the same grace, the same love, looking and trusting
to the same Savior who is all in all to us. Father, we're thankful. And I pray that you'd apply your
word to our hearts. We have, every believer has unity
with Christ. Father, I pray that you unite
the heart of this congregation together in love. Cause us to
not only to love one another, but to show our love one to another.
To hold one another up. To be of encouragement and help
and example one to another. That you protect the unity of
this place for your glory. That our unity always be Christ. That our unity be meeting together
to worship Him, to read His Word, to preach His Gospel, to sing
songs of His praise. How we pray that Christ be preeminent
in our everyday life and is the life, the Lord, the message,
the Savior of this congregation. Unite us together in love for
Your glory and for the good of your people, we pray.