The Unified Church (Part 1): A Prayer for Unity
Part of Sunday Sermon Notes—Message Notes
February 16, 2025

John 17:9–23 (ESV)

1) Be Unified in Identity (v.9-11)

  • 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
    • The context of this passage is about fleeing sexual immorality, but the implication of realizing that we belong to God at a very high price helps us to put into prospective that He must be our all encompassing identity.
  • We can associate ourselves with a lot of various affiliations, but first and foremost we must remember that we belong to God exclusively!
  • Belonging to God means that our highest ambition and desire is to glorify Christ in all things!
    • “I am glorified in them…” (v.10)
    • The Church is most unified when we prioritize, celebrate, and lavish in the fact that we are His and we seek to glorify Him together!

2) Be Unified in Integrity (v.13-19)

  • We cannot be unified just for the sake of unity. We must be unified in the Word and the sanctification that comes from the Word.
  • Sanctification is a journey. We will all be at various places in the journey, but we are unified when rejoice in the journey together.
  • When we have a high view of scripture and lean heavily on the Word, the world will hate us…
    • …BUT when our identity doesn’t come from the world, our integrity and sanctification isn’t tied to the world either.
  • Jesus set Himself apart to be our life and salvation so that we may hold fast to His Word with a new heart, and a new mind, as a new creation.
    • 2 Corinthians 5:14–15
  • The Church grows in unity when we hold fast to the Word of God and draw our integrity from His Word together.

3) Be Unified in Intentionality (v.20-23)

  • Being a unified church doesn’t happen by accident.
    • It requires us to have our minds set on being unified in Christ and in the integrity of the Word.
  • Being a unified church requires us to purposefully journey towards yield ourselves to Christ together.
    • The beauty of yielding to Christ together is that even when we disagree on what that looks like, we are able to give each other benefit of the doubt and intentionally exercise the love of Christ as we seek to grow towards Him together.
  • Our unity, especially in disagreements, shows the world a distinctiveness that out of this world.
    • Look at the world around us. It is polarized. The world is looking for a reason to be divided.
  • Rather than reflecting a polarized world, the Church should intentionally be looking for all the reason why we can be together, even if we disagree in some areas.
    • ”In the essentials Unity. In the nonessentials liberty. But in all things charity!”
  • The Church displays unity when we intentionally seek to prioritize Jesus together, especially when we disagree on secondary issues.

CLOSING

  • We do not seek unity, just for unity sake. We seek unity for the sake of Christ’s collective work within us.
  • The unified Church is unified in Scripture-driven, Christ exalting Identity, Integrity, and Intentionality.
  • The Seven Unifying Statements of our Church:

1) God is triune in nature with Jesus being the incarnate Messiah and Lord of all.
2) God’s love is supreme.
3) In His love, we love others.
4)His Word (The Bible) is inerrant.
5) His calling to be disciples shapes our lives.
6) His command to make disciples shapes our purpose.
7) His love, His Word, His calling, and His purpose unite us together in Him.

  • If we will all agree to all Christ to define these seven statements for us and we then embrace and prioritize them, we will be a unified and growing church!