1 00:00:00,464 --> 00:00:02,397 There's so many differences. 2 00:00:02,397 --> 00:00:04,292 There's so many differences of thought. 3 00:00:04,292 --> 00:00:05,626 There's so many differences 4 00:00:05,626 --> 00:00:07,839 of convictions among us, aren't there? 5 00:00:07,839 --> 00:00:10,385 Haven't you found that to be the case? 6 00:00:10,385 --> 00:00:11,733 I could go down a list. 7 00:00:11,733 --> 00:00:16,287 I've got a few of them written down here. 8 00:00:16,287 --> 00:00:18,308 I'll tell you, if you don't home school, 9 00:00:18,308 --> 00:00:23,950 I question whether you really have a relationship with God. 10 00:00:23,950 --> 00:00:27,830 There's that kind of thinking. 11 00:00:27,830 --> 00:00:29,677 How about dress? How about music? 12 00:00:29,677 --> 00:00:31,143 How about observance of days? 13 00:00:31,143 --> 00:00:39,132 How about diets? How about Bible translations? 14 00:00:39,132 --> 00:00:43,040 This doesn't have to be confession time, does it? 15 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:47,766 Nuances of doctrine? 16 00:00:47,766 --> 00:00:53,550 I don't think you've quite got that. 17 00:00:53,550 --> 00:00:58,013 I'm not sure you should even be in our church. 18 00:00:58,013 --> 00:01:01,685 The application of doctrine? 19 00:01:01,685 --> 00:01:03,565 Do we even think people should be 20 00:01:03,565 --> 00:01:06,392 given a period of time to grow? 21 00:01:06,392 --> 00:01:09,066 Or do they have to walk in the doors where you are? 22 00:01:09,066 --> 00:01:11,615 Oh, aren't you somebody! 23 00:01:11,615 --> 00:01:14,324 You've gotten somewhere, haven't you! 24 00:01:14,324 --> 00:01:16,675 If everybody was just like you... 25 00:01:16,675 --> 00:01:22,436 That's sometimes the spirit that we give off 26 00:01:22,436 --> 00:01:28,521 as if we got where we got by our own power? 27 00:01:28,521 --> 00:01:30,661 By the way, the things that I just mentioned 28 00:01:30,661 --> 00:01:33,147 are not the basis for unity - 29 00:01:33,147 --> 00:01:34,971 not essential unity. 30 00:01:34,971 --> 00:01:37,794 Christ is the basis. 31 00:01:37,794 --> 00:01:39,715 The Gospel of Jesus Christ. 32 00:01:39,715 --> 00:01:42,135 How will you ever get along? 33 00:01:42,135 --> 00:01:43,863 How will you ever find a church? 34 00:01:43,863 --> 00:01:45,513 You know, there's people that jump 35 00:01:45,513 --> 00:01:47,241 from church to church to church 36 00:01:47,241 --> 00:01:51,710 trying to find the church that fits them, 37 00:01:51,710 --> 00:01:54,283 which they never will find that. 38 00:01:54,283 --> 00:01:58,289 They're looking for the wrong thing. 39 00:01:58,289 --> 00:02:00,806 How are we going to get along? 40 00:02:00,806 --> 00:02:02,215 How about this: 41 00:02:02,215 --> 00:02:05,933 Dwelling on the depths of the Father's love? 42 00:02:05,933 --> 00:02:08,164 "That they may know that Thou hast sent Me 43 00:02:08,164 --> 00:02:11,284 and hast loved them as You have loved Me." 44 00:02:11,284 --> 00:02:18,792 The Father's love for His Son is amazing! 45 00:02:18,792 --> 00:02:25,420 It's equated to the Father's love for us! 46 00:02:25,420 --> 00:02:26,831 How about that? 47 00:02:26,831 --> 00:02:30,492 Unworthy, imperfect sinners 48 00:02:30,492 --> 00:02:32,076 like you and me. 49 00:02:32,076 --> 00:02:38,424 He didn't pick the cream of the crop. 50 00:02:38,424 --> 00:02:43,183 I'm so thankful that God's work in my own heart is such 51 00:02:43,183 --> 00:02:50,550 that I can stand and talk to 50-some-odd men wearing white 52 00:02:50,550 --> 00:02:53,296 and I can look at them at this level - 53 00:02:53,296 --> 00:02:54,900 I'm not looking down at them. 54 00:02:54,900 --> 00:02:56,681 And I can look at them at this level 55 00:02:56,681 --> 00:02:59,837 and though I've never done what they have done, 56 00:02:59,837 --> 00:03:08,406 I honestly can say I don't have a feeling of superiority to them. 57 00:03:08,406 --> 00:03:10,308 And I'm not suggesting when I say that, 58 00:03:10,308 --> 00:03:11,601 young people and children, 59 00:03:11,601 --> 00:03:14,364 go do what those guys have done that are wearing white - 60 00:03:14,364 --> 00:03:16,684 you may not even know what I'm talking about - 61 00:03:16,684 --> 00:03:18,744 that's okay. 62 00:03:18,744 --> 00:03:21,241 I'm not suggesting that at all. 63 00:03:21,241 --> 00:03:24,266 You shouldn't do those things. 64 00:03:24,266 --> 00:03:26,131 I'm just saying before God, 65 00:03:26,131 --> 00:03:27,436 who are you and who am I? 66 00:03:27,436 --> 00:03:30,147 He set His love upon me 67 00:03:30,147 --> 00:03:32,490 for no reason found in me, 68 00:03:32,490 --> 00:03:35,131 for no reason found in you. 69 00:03:35,131 --> 00:03:41,586 That ought to help us in our relationships. 70 00:03:41,586 --> 00:03:44,004 You celebrate Christmas? 71 00:03:44,004 --> 00:03:46,216 I don't. 72 00:03:46,216 --> 00:03:48,242 I love you, brother. 73 00:03:48,242 --> 00:03:52,945 I'm not going to chalk you up as some sort of pagan. 74 00:03:52,945 --> 00:03:54,405 Okay? 75 00:03:54,405 --> 00:03:59,257 I'm going to dwell together with you 76 00:03:59,257 --> 00:04:01,184 in a relationship. 77 00:04:01,184 --> 00:04:03,013 You want to know why I don't? 78 00:04:03,013 --> 00:04:05,290 I'll listen to why you do. 79 00:04:05,290 --> 00:04:06,974 Right? 80 00:04:06,974 --> 00:04:09,224 We can talk. Maybe we can help one another. 81 00:04:09,224 --> 00:04:12,264 Maybe both of us are off-center. 82 00:04:12,264 --> 00:04:19,574 Maybe we need to grow together. 83 00:04:19,574 --> 00:04:23,721 But being amazed that He loves us 84 00:04:23,721 --> 00:04:25,643 as He has loved His only begotten Son, 85 00:04:25,643 --> 00:04:27,344 that ought to help us deal 86 00:04:27,344 --> 00:04:30,077 with our distinctions. 87 00:04:30,077 --> 00:04:33,178 You see, when redeemed sinners - 88 00:04:33,178 --> 00:04:36,660 I love looking out here today and tonight 89 00:04:36,660 --> 00:04:38,851 and seeing - I don't know 90 00:04:38,851 --> 00:04:41,526 if every ethnicity in the world is present, 91 00:04:41,526 --> 00:04:44,371 but there's quite a lot of differences here. 92 00:04:44,371 --> 00:04:46,683 Are there any Asians here? 93 00:04:46,683 --> 00:04:49,000 Asians? Okay. 94 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,075 I love that when I look at our own church 95 00:04:51,075 --> 00:04:55,144 and we have the multiplicity. 96 00:04:55,144 --> 00:04:57,180 I love that. 97 00:04:57,180 --> 00:05:00,324 It kind of looks like - 98 00:05:00,324 --> 00:05:03,187 I don't know exactly what it's going to be like in Heaven, 99 00:05:03,187 --> 00:05:04,673 but I kind of have a picture - 100 00:05:04,673 --> 00:05:07,290 it's kind of going to look like that. 101 00:05:07,290 --> 00:05:10,370 So why not on earth? 102 00:05:10,370 --> 00:05:11,844 But when redeemed sinners 103 00:05:11,844 --> 00:05:13,503 from every background of life - 104 00:05:13,503 --> 00:05:15,119 not just different ethnicities - 105 00:05:15,119 --> 00:05:17,727 backgrounds - some of you are educated, some of you are not. 106 00:05:17,727 --> 00:05:19,994 some of you are wealthy... are you wealthy? 107 00:05:19,994 --> 00:05:24,551 Some of you are wealthy and some of you are not. 108 00:05:24,551 --> 00:05:28,018 Different classes of people. 109 00:05:28,018 --> 00:05:29,541 Some of you grew up in the hood. 110 00:05:29,541 --> 00:05:33,394 Some of you didn't. 111 00:05:33,394 --> 00:05:35,802 But none of that matters when you're in Christ, does it? 112 00:05:35,802 --> 00:05:36,707 It really doesn't. 113 00:05:36,707 --> 00:05:44,253 It's like it all evaporates. 114 00:05:44,253 --> 00:05:47,168 All the cultural distinctions. 115 00:05:47,168 --> 00:05:48,658 We come together and we worship 116 00:05:48,658 --> 00:05:51,100 and we serve the Lord together, 117 00:05:51,100 --> 00:05:54,654 demonstrating selfless, sacrificial relationships. 118 00:05:54,654 --> 00:05:56,814 Brethren, that's an evidence to the world 119 00:05:56,814 --> 00:05:59,931 that the Father's love is real! 120 00:05:59,931 --> 00:06:05,445 It's real. Christ is real! 121 00:06:05,445 --> 00:06:07,470 And it's interesting to me that God 122 00:06:07,470 --> 00:06:09,507 wants the world to know about His love 123 00:06:09,507 --> 00:06:10,857 by way of what they see 124 00:06:10,857 --> 00:06:14,522 in our relationships to one another. 125 00:06:14,522 --> 00:06:17,615 You say, well, I thought the cross demonstrated His love? 126 00:06:17,615 --> 00:06:22,833 Well, the greatest manifestation of God's love is at the cross. 127 00:06:22,833 --> 00:06:26,190 But you see, it's our relationship of unity 128 00:06:26,190 --> 00:06:30,808 because of our union with God in Christ 129 00:06:30,808 --> 00:06:35,263 that validates that story of the cross. 130 00:06:35,263 --> 00:06:38,502 You see? 131 00:06:38,502 --> 00:06:41,984 And God has chosen that it would be 132 00:06:41,984 --> 00:06:43,813 our demonstration of unity 133 00:06:43,813 --> 00:06:47,845 that would speak to the world 134 00:06:47,845 --> 00:06:51,767 about His great love 135 00:06:51,767 --> 00:06:53,969 that we have come to know. 136 00:06:53,969 --> 00:06:57,791 Have you taken the expression of unity seriously? 137 00:06:57,791 --> 00:07:00,301 As seriously as you ought to 138 00:07:00,301 --> 00:07:03,193 with your brothers and sisters in Christ? 139 00:07:03,193 --> 00:07:05,718 This excerpt was taken from Part 2 140 00:07:05,718 --> 00:07:07,960 of Kyle's series on Christian Unity.