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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org
Church Hurt
Culture call themselves husband and wife if they're living together, they make a some kind of pledge just to one another and they begin to call each other hubby or wifey even though they were never married, that the marriage certificate is actually very important because that makes it a government-approved wedding.
Now the other missionary heard this and thought, wait a minute, she stood before God and man with witnesses and made a pledge, a vow in the presence of God. This is a marriage, it can't just be negated.
And so there was great strife and other missionaries rallied around the one until the point came where there was a split. This missionary said, I cannot attend a church where the leadership is endorsing adultery.
And so he went and worked with another church and helped to establish that church. This phenomenon of well-meaning Christians butting heads has been given a title. You'll see about it online, you'll listen to stories, and they like to call it church hurt.
Church hurt. Differences in the church, problems and pain in the church. It goes all the way back to Acts chapter 15, the Jerusalem Council. After solving one problem, another problem emerged, and that was the great Apostle Paul was ready to head out on the second missionary journey, but Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark with them.
The problem was on the first missionary journey, John Mark had deserted at Pamphylia and gone back to Jerusalem. So Paul said, listen, we can't entrust this resource to John Mark. We can't take him. Barnabas and Paul had such a sharp disagreement, the Bible tells us, that they split.
The missionaries split up. Paul took Silas and went one direction. Barnabas took John Mark and they went to Cyprus and they went in different directions. We see this again and again in church history.
One of the famous clashes was between the great Martin Luther. Can you imagine him butting heads with people? If you know anything about Martin Luther, it would be weird if he didn't butt heads with somebody.
Well, he butted heads with Zwingli. Zwingli at the Marburg Colloquy in 1529. You had the Swiss Reformation, you had the German Reformation, so the Lutherans under Luther's leadership, and you had under Zwingli the Reformed people of Switzerland.
They tried to bring it together at this colloquy in 1529, and the problem was Luther, although not being Catholic and believing in transubstantiation, he still believed in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament of communion.
Now, he thought it was mysterious how Christ could be mysteriously present, so he wasn't Roman Catholic in that understanding, but Zwingli had a different view. It was a bit more symbolic, although it wasn't totally a symbolic picture of communion.
Long story short, Luther comes to the colloquy, he gets there first, he takes a piece of chalk and writes on the table, this is my body, and he covers that with a tablecloth. Zwingli comes to the table and begins to give biblical arguments for his view of communion.
After listening, Luther very dramatically rips the tablecloth off of the table and says this is my body, and he strongly rebukes Zwingli and argues for his view. Now, Zwingli was willing to accept this difference, and they could merge together the Reformation as one movement, but Luther very dogmatically said no, our view is right, and so he rejected Zwingli and that side of the Reformation.
And so it progressed in two separate streams, the Lutherans in Germany and then the Swiss Reformation with Geneva, John Knox to Scotland, you have Cranmer in England, all of that coming out of this side of the Reformation.
There was a division from the very beginning, there was church hurt. A pastor's son named Caleb wrote about what it was like growing up in the church. He said, I've been strung along, overworked, and taken advantage of.
I've disclosed personal information and confidence and then had it shared broadly. Anybody ever experienced that? I've had people sow seeds of doubt and mistrust in my marriage. I've been misled, backstabbed, and left to pick up the pieces.
I've been devalued, ignored, and publicly made an example of. I've had friendships fall apart, and I've been forced to watch people walk away, and that's just my church hurt. I'm sure each of us here could tell stories about painful relationships that have blown up, maybe in the workplace, maybe in your family, but sometimes in the church.
Church hurt is a reality of this life. Now listen very carefully, church. At some point, what you're hearing today from John 17 verses 20 to 26 will be necessary for you to draw back upon. You are going to need to remember that you heard the Word of God, and you learned that you have a great high priest that helps you persevere through church hurt without giving up on the church.
You have a great high priest who prays for you in the midst of areas of disunity, that you should not give up, that you must never give up, because the church is the bride of Christ. And think about this, if he loves this person that you disagree with to the extent that he would lay down on a wooden cross and receive nails through his hands and feet, and wear a crown of thorns on his head for them, how much more must you and I forgive and love this person?
This person who's hurt you, and maybe in a very real way, maybe betrayed a trust, or done something like this Caleb endured, but if Jesus would die for them to forgive them, how much more you, a sinner like them, so prone to wander just as they are, how much more must you forgive and love in the midst of difference?
Let's turn to John 17 and hear the great high priest pray that we would be one. John 17, today 20 to 26, in verse 18 he had just said, I sent, as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
Last week we talked about us against the world. We are called to be in the world, but not of the world. That means two days from now there's a great holiday, and it is called, you better not say Halloween, someone got it, it is called Reformation Day, the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, the start of the Reformation, October 31st, which is what we celebrate, but listen, on Reformation Day, remember you are not of the world, you're not of the world, so if someone comes knocking on your door, this is a very rare occasion.
What we like to do in our family, you don't have to do this, but we like to give out tracts. I don't put on Dracula teeth and act the part of the world. Instead, we take an opportunity to share the gospel, because we're sent into the world, and if they're knocking on our door, we'll give them the gospel.
I would encourage you to do similarly. In the world, not of it. Now let's talk about in the church, verses 20 to 26. We'll finish the Great High Priestly Prayer this morning. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.
I may know unto them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. Aren't those beautiful words our priest prays for us? Notice first in verses 20 and 21, our great high priest prays for us, that we may be one.
Now, this was already implied back in verse 11, where he says, I am no longer in the world. He's speaking kind of anachronistically at that point, picturing him in heaven, in his heavenly session, seated at the right hand of the Father.
He's picturing himself there, and us in the world. He's there, and we're here. So it was already implied, but look at verse 20. Now it becomes explicit. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
How awesome is it that our great high priest prayed for you, and you, and you, and me, specifically in the Bible. We have it written. Jesus praying not only for the apostles, but also for those who would come to believe through the apostolic word, which is what we're reading right now.
This very moment was prayed for 2 ,000 years ago, and guess what? As he's seated at the right hand of the Father, he's interceding for us now, that we would be one. This is the substance of verse 20 and 21, that they may be one.
He's praying for unity, that the church would be one. Now, if unity were something that we attain merely by tolerance, you wouldn't need to pray for it. In other words, if the church was simply anything goes, that there is no distinction in the church between people, believer and unbeliever, then you wouldn't need to pray for unity.
One missionary can believe that you only are married if you have a wedding certificate. Another one can believe, conversely, it wouldn't matter. You have your view, I have mine. Pretend that there's no difference.
You see, the message of our postmodern culture really hinges on this point, that everyone has their own private opinion, but ironically, the one opinion that cannot be tolerated is a claim to absolute truth.
So, if you claim to have the truth and therefore remove, or what's a word for it, reject some other view, this person must himself be rejected. In other words, the intolerant person must be canceled. That's ironic because they are, in fact, drawing a line.
Now, here's the principle you need to understand about unity. The rallying point of unity is not unity itself. Unity does not form around unity. You cannot say that we want to fulfill Jesus's high priestly prayer as if this is a prescription for us, that you must always be unified.
Ecumenism tries to do that, that there's no difference between Lutheran and Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or progressive, conservative, that all things are one. We're just gonna rally around unity. Jesus would not need to pray for us if all we had to do was pretend our differences didn't matter.
No, here's the point. Unity always comes from truth. The rallying point that creates genuine unity, that means internal and mental, as well as sitting side-by-side in the pew. There can be a kind of unity where people sit and worship side-by-side, but their hearts are far from one another.
When they look at the world and consider how things are, their worldviews are diametrically opposed, and yet they sit side-by-side. That is not unity. Unity is when your heart is in alignment with the person you're sitting next to.
Unity is when your lives are entwined and you're chasing after the same goals, the same purpose. There's not a disharmony in the internal life of the people. Unity rallies around truth. In fact, Paul would go so far as to say that there must be factions among you.
Did you hear that? There must be factions among you, 1 Corinthians 11 19, in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. There are certain aspects of truth that Christians must never compromise.
The Trinity, if someone comes knocking on your door preaching that Jesus is a lesser God, the righteous Christ-like thing to do is to reject what they have to say. If someone comes preaching that Jesus is not God, the deity of Christ, you are to reject what they have to say.
Likewise, the substitutionary atonement, that Jesus died as a substitute for our sins. The bodily resurrection of Jesus, if some Gnostic says he was never really raised only spiritually, you must reject that and separate yourself from that lie.
Because the bodily resurrection of Christ is an essential of the Christian faith. Likewise, listen, the inerrancy and authority of this book is non-negotiable. Non-negotiable. There is a movement now which is more prevalent than the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons and the Iglesia Ni Cristo and the heretical cults that spring up all over the place.
Much more common is what is called progressive Christianity. It is no Christianity because it does not accept the authority of this book. If someone departs from the authority of God's Word, they are no longer submitted to the Lordship of Christ.
So they'll fly a rainbow flag and say all are welcome and say that a person does not need to repent. But Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, go and sin no more. And to those who had been caught in homosexuality, Paul says in 1st Corinthians 6, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified.
The genuine teaching of the Word of God is that we must repent of sin, trust in Christ, be forgiven, cleansed of all unrighteousness, and by a new nature, go and sin no more. Repentance is essential in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are many churches that, if you look around us in the world, call themselves progressive, but they're more rightly called Ichabod. Ichabod, the glory has departed. There was a church down in Texas who, it's called Restore Church, Evangelical Free Church of America.
They became inclusive, affirming, no longer calling for repentance, but affirming people in their sin. The Evangelical Free Church of America sought to remove them, but realized that in the bylaws of that district in Texas, there was no basis on which to remove them.
They didn't want to get into legal troubles or anything, so you want to know what they did? They, as a district, rewrote their bylaws, explicitly defining God's definition of sexuality in the bylaws, and then removed that church.
Amen. What they did, what the Evangelical Free Church did, in excluding this church, was not intolerant or unloving. It was godly Christian love. They love these people enough to say that a gospel that does not call for repentance is no gospel at all, and a church that promotes the doctrines of demons cannot be part of our movement.
And I commend them for taking such a strong stand against Restore Church in Texas. Praise God for that. We can read on in the text, verses 22 and 23. Unity is attainable. So the first thing we've said this morning is that the high priestly prayer is that we would be one, a genuine unity, which requires prayer.
The high priest can do this, but in our flesh we won't be able to manufacture it. We will bite and devour one another. If it were easy, the high priest wouldn't need to be praying for it. But the second thing we see in the text is how to attain this unity.
Kind of an important teaching, right? How do we get unity? The priest has prayed for it. How does it come about? Let's look at verses 22 and 23. Jesus says, The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.
Now that phrase, that they may become perfectly one, that here indicates what is necessary in order to bring about the reality of oneness. Wouldn't it be great if every evangelical church in America was internally unified?
And not only within the church, but with one another. Wouldn't that be a beautiful picture? How does it happen? Well in our text, verse 22, it says, The glory that you have given me. Now here, the glory does not refer to the life of the Trinity in himself.
When he says in verse 20 and 21 that they would be one as Father you are in me and I in you, he's not here referring to the unity within the Trinity ontologically, as theologians say, but rather the unity of their harmony and purpose and plan in their cooperation together.
The glory shared in that way. Barnes, a commentator, is helpful at this point. He describes this glory this way. Remember, glory is a display of the beauty of God's attributes. That's what it is. It's the the beauty on display.
So God has this brilliant perfect glory and it's on display in the church because we're reflecting that light. So there's a glory that is communicable. Some things about God are incommunicable. That is his omniscience, his omnipresence, his omnipotence.
This defines God. He's the eternal being. We don't share that glory, but he does communicate to us his love and his holiness as we are being sanctified and made holy. So this is the idea here. Barnes says, evincing as the Father and the Son had always done, the same great aim and plan, not pursuing different interests or counteracting each other's purposes or forming parties, but seeking the same ends by the same means.
This is the union between the Father and the Son, always in the creation, preservation, and redemption of the world. The Father and the Son have sought the same object and this is to be the model on which Christians should act.
So if you look again at verse 22, that's the glory that was given to the Son. The Son would be obedient to the Father's plan and do his will. In the same way, we can share that glory. It says in verse 22, I have given to them.
Do you want to know when a church will be unified? That's the next verse. Not yet in heaven. Do you want to know when the church can be unified here on earth? When you can feel the brush of angel wings and you see glory on each face and you say, surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.
Glory. It is glory that unites. There is a place in the Christian walk where your heart is caught up in glory, where you are gazing upon the glory of Christ. You're not focused on the things of this world, where he has so captured your affection, your attention, that you begin to look like him.
The glory of God begins to display in your life by what is called the fruit of the Spirit. When you have people filled with love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness, self-control, this is the glory of God reflected in the church.
But there is a phenomenon which sadly describes a majority of churches in our world today, which I earlier described as Ichabod. Ichabod means the glory has departed. There are churches that once sang praise with heartfelt worship.
The word was expounded by a faithful preacher and the people were doing just like you're doing, they're taking notes, they love the word. But now the Bible isn't opened. They listen to secular music in the pulpit and dissect that as their sermons.
They fly rainbow flags and welcome all as being equally the same. Listen, the glory has departed. They have allowed sexual sin into the church and the Spirit has been grieved and has departed. Where did that term Ichabod come from?
First Samuel 4. It came when Eli, the high priest, had two priestly sons who instead of worshiping God and faithfully stewarding that relationship as priests, as mediators for the people, instead they were sleeping with girls at the gate.
And so Israel went to war with surrounding peoples just like Israel is at war now. And Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, go into the battle and they are cut down. And the ark of God, meaning the very presence of God as displayed and symbolized in the ark, was taken captive by a foreign power.
And the messenger came back to Eli and said, your sons are dead. And that hurt his heart but then he heard and the ark has been taken. And he fell backwards in his chair. This fat man fell backwards in his chair and broke his neck because the ark was taken captive.
And then Phinehas's wife, this gets even crazier, she sees Eli fall. The ark has been taken so that induces labor. She was carrying Phinehas's child and now she goes into labor and she gives birth to a son and she names him Ichabod.
The glory has departed. The glory departed Israel because they allowed sexual sin into the camp. And the glory is departing American evangelicalism in the mainstream churches today for the very same reason.
There can be no unity where there is no glory but if you will humble yourself before the Living God, if each of us will do that and pray and seek his face and call upon his name, what does the author of Chronicles tell us?
He will heal their land. It's when the glory returns that joy and unity returns to the church. Now listen, there's another thing about glory that I want to tell you about. Glory unifies the church. But listen to this, it also antagonizes the world.
The glory that the world sees is meant to draw them in. Look at verse 23, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me. Do you see that in the text? When we become unified and we're standing on the truth together, there are people in the world who want what we have.
They will know that we are Christians by our love. But I want to show you one other verse because there's a second purpose for displaying this glory that not many people know. Remember, the salvation, the redemption of individuals is not the central theme of Scripture.
What is? The glory of God. Verse 22 is about the glory of God. Turn with me to Ephesians 3 10. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 10. This letter is about the glory of the church. You find that thesis statement at 321 in the doxology that Christ would be glorified in the church.
But the church, which is the body of Christ, as we are walking in the Spirit glorifying God, we are also accomplishing a second function that not many Christians know about. Look at verse 10. It says about the bringing to light of God's plan.
Verse 10. So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to who? To the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. Now at the end of Ephesians 6 we see who these are. This hierarchy of demonic spirits.
There are innumerable angels in the world and in the heavenly places. We think from some biblical evidence that one-third of them have fallen and become demons. Lucifer is a fallen angel and the head of these powers.
When the church is unified, when there's glory in the house of God, when the Shekinah glory, metaphorically speaking, is filling the church, we're rallying around truth. We're united as one. We are displaying to the demons in heaven that they are defeated.
It also says the same thing to those in the world who will not come and be part of us. Philippians 1, 27 and 28. When we are united, shoulder-to-shoulder, standing together, not frightened in any way by those who oppose us, this is a sign to them that they will be defeated and destroyed and that by God.
You see, the glory of God is the integrating theme of the Bible. He's glorified in the church in that he's saving a people for his own possession, but he's also displaying his glory to angels and demons and to the world that rejects the church.
So as we stand as one, we are condemning the world in righteousness. As Noah, the preacher of righteousness, condemned the world. They're welcome to come. We invite all to come. Whosoever will, please come.
Drink of the water of life. It's free. Come. But many refuse. And our unity glorifies God by condemning those who reject him. It's a very deep teaching here. John 17, verses 22 and 23. It is essential and important that we become perfectly one.
That means, by glory, overcoming our differences. Next, a very powerful word of hope. If I ask for a show of hands, who here has experienced church hurt? I didn't. I said if I asked for a show of hands.
I suspect every hand in this building would go up. And sadly, many do walk away from church because of church hurt. But I want to tell you the great hope of the glory which helps us persevere through these things.
Look at verse 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am. Listen, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Church, at the first glimpse of Jesus Christ, either when you die and your spirit is absent from the body, you're present with Christ, or at the rapture of the church, when he snatches us up to meet him in the air, the first second that we see him, every church hurt will be healed.
Every grudge, every pain, every tear will be melted away and gone. Every church hurt, every time you've been wounded in the church, it will be forgiven, it will become insignificant. Because remember, this same Jesus who bled for you, bled for your brother or your sister in Christ.
And in glory, all you'll see is glory. The former things will have passed away. Every tear will be wiped away. So listen, church, if that's our hope, we can persevere, can't we? We can hang on. Someone here has been hurt by the church.
Welcome to the club because we're sinners. We all fall short of his glory. And the more you love the truth, the more prone you will be to butt heads, like those missionaries on the field, right? Because you're passionate about the truth.
I don't blame Luther, but I could picture Luther and Zwingli right now while we're here. They're enraptured with the sight of Jesus Christ. This is the point in 24, to see my glory. When you see him, everything else melts away.
Lastly, this is our prayer, that we would join our great high priest in asking that we would love more like him. Because until that day, we have work to do here. We're gonna need greater love. So look at 25 and 26.
Oh, righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you. And these know that you have sent me. I may known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known. That, here at church, the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
The love with which the Father has loved the Son. That's perfect love. Before there was a creation, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, perfect love. 1st John tells us that defines God. He is love. Now, his love is peculiar because it would include that his beloved would get strung up on a cross.
But through that suffering, that humiliation, that he would then be exalted to the highest place, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. The love of the Father was to exalt the Son through the cross.
In the same way, you will have to suffer much in this world. You will have to endure hardship, but your Father still loves you. 1st Peter 5 .10, after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
He will make all things right. His love is perfect. So what's the prayer? That our love would be more like his. That our love would be more like his. I was really hard on Hezekiah during first service.
I told the story from Isaiah 38 and 39, and I don't think I carefully qualified that Hezekiah himself was a godly man, and the failure I'm about to tell you about was the exception, not the rule. But it's something that has always really bothered me about Hezekiah.
I'm going to tell you this story and then contrast that with Josiah to teach about love, and then we're going to be done. Hezekiah was a godly man who found out he was about to die. He had this weird boil, and he was very sick, about to die, but he turned his face to the wall, and he prayed, God heal me, and God granted what?
15 more years to live. He was so excited and so happy about this that when a Babylonian envoy came to greet him and to congratulate him that he got healed, he showed them everything. He showed them the treasury, he showed them the temple, he showed him his own house, his own bedroom, he showed them everything.
And Isaiah came to Hezekiah and said, what did you show the Babylonians? And Hezekiah said, everything. And Isaiah told him, yeah, and the Babylonians are going to come and take everything. What you have done was foolish.
You've shown them everything, but it's because of the sin of the people God is going to send them into exile. And he said, some of your sons will be carried away to Babylon, and the king will turn them into eunuchs.
He'll make them eunuchs. The reason I'm so mad at Hezekiah, the last verse in Isaiah 39, the last thing Isaiah tells us about Hezekiah, is that he said, well this is good, because at least I won't be here to see it.
He reasoned in his mind. Now there is in Christianity, rightfully, a very individual, me and my salvation, me and my Jesus, me and my Bible under a tree. There is an individualism that in a sense is good and right, because each one of us must individually stand before the Lord our God.
But the problem with Hezekiah is he lacked love for the generations to come from him. He lacked love. One of his grandsons named Josiah was only eight years old when he took the throne. He ruled well, and commissioning the the rebuilding of the temple, they found the book of the law.
And they began to read the book of the law and draw closer to God. In 2nd Chronicles chapter 34, you should read this later if you have some time, in verse 27 it says that the prophet comes to Josiah and says, because your heart was tender, listen, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants.
Josiah got the same word that Hezekiah did. The Babylonians are coming. There's gonna be judgment. This is bad. But you want to know what Josiah did? It says he humbled himself before God and he tore his clothes and he wept.
I also have heard you, declares the Lord. And then Josiah went and he rallied the people and he led a revival. He led a revival. He brought them all and made them listen to the Word, made them covenant to obey it, and he tore down every altar, every high place, every idol.
He made the people obey God because he was not just living for him and God. He was concerned about the Israel of God. And in a sense, church, you are part of an Israel of God. The church is distinct from Israel, but we are a called-out people, a holy nation.
Peter calls us that. It's not just you and God. And so in closing, do you know somebody who's been hurt? Maybe it's their fault, maybe it's not. Do you know someone who's out of church because of church hurt?
Are you gonna be like Hezekiah or are you gonna be like Josiah? Are you gonna tear your clothes? I mean, I don't know if I recommend that specifically, but metaphorically speaking, are you gonna rend your heart?
Are you gonna pray for them? And then take these words to them, the great high priestly prayer, to bring them back into the church. To go after the sheep that is strayed. Leave the 99 and bring back the one.
If you remember how we opened, we talked about missionaries that separated. By God's grace, they're friends again. Not necessarily partnering in the same work, but friends again in the gospel. And Luther and Zwingli have been brought back together.
And Paul and Barnabas disputing over Mark. One of the most beautiful things in the Bible is how Paul ends his writings in 2nd Timothy 4. Everybody's deserted him. Crescens, Demas. Luke alone is with him, which is interesting because Luke and Mark will write the two Gospels as well as the two Apostles, Matthew and John.
Only Luke is with Paul, but Paul says this, it's so beautiful, and make sure you bring with you Mark, John Mark, because he's useful to me in the ministry. That deep church hurt that happened decades before, now Paul has seen the usefulness of Mark.
It's all come back together just before Paul dies, last minute. He'll lose his head within a couple weeks, probably, of the writing of 2nd Timothy. He calls for John Mark. Listen, if it doesn't happen on this side of glory, it's gonna happen there.
We will be perfectly one. So in the meantime, do what makes for peace. Paul will say to the Romans, live at peace with everyone so far as it depends on you. You can't control others, but you can have the glory of God in your life and live in such a way to make peace and be a peacemaker.
And let's pray for it in Jesus' name. So Father, we are so thankful for the great High Priestly prayer, and as we pray to you, Father, we are aware right now that our great High Priest is seated at your right hand, making intercession for us.
We confess, Lord, that we cannot keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. It is an arrow beyond us, but you, great High Priest, are able to do it. So we ask right now in Jesus' name that you would bring glory into this church.
Glorify yourself in your people, that we would be perfectly one as we wait for your appearing. I also pray, Lord, for other churches in this area, many that have departed from the truth. Ichabod, Glory Departed, we pray in Jesus' name that they would come back, and if they refuse, that their people would come out.
Lord, we are praying for true unity, unity centered around truth, not sentimentality. Lord, make us one, make us perfectly one, and I pray for all of those here today and listening online who have church hurt.
Heal them. We look to the great High Priest to be our healer. Bring them back into the visible gathering, the assembly of the church. Help us to rightly value what we have here, the very body of Christ.
Thank you, God, for the oneness you have given us. What a glorious picture it is. We thank you for it, Lord. In all these things we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.