Well, hey, good morning and welcome to Venture Church. Look, lemme say this, uh, real fast because I know man, there, there may be some folks in here today that trying to check out church, maybe for the first time, maybe just trying to kind of set a, a, a, a rhythm back again, right? Part of your New Year's resolution was to, to be involved in church, maybe find a church, whatever that may look like. And so, if we have not met yet, my name's Kyle, and part of what we call our teaching team, uh, here, if you were here last week and you are, man, whatever campus maybe you're at today, if you were here last week and you're thinking, Hey, look, this, this looks and feels a little bit different. Pretty sure the guy last week at least had some hair.

Uh, you're not wrong. You're not crazy. Okay? Uh, um, one of the things we value here is just a variety of voices. And so, I mean, we have a team that, that kind of meets pretty regularly to meet and, and pray through and plan together where we're going in Scripture.

And so, uh, from time to time, you'll see some different faces, you'll hear some different voices as we walk through Scripture together as a church family, right? And so lemme tell you where we are today, okay? We are in John chapter 17. So the Gospel of John chapter 17, we're gonna jump in in just a minute while you're turning there, my guess is that the majority of us have spent some time, and it's really not that hard to guess. I mean, stats kind of prove this one, um, that the majority of us have spent some time over the past couple of weeks kind of dreaming and thinking about what may be ahead for us, right?

Like goals, resolutions that we, we want to see happen this year. Things we want to experience, things we want to be true in us. Maybe that is just kind of a, you know, you want to get, get healthy physically or financially, maybe that's just kind of part of your workflow, right? In, in January, your boss wants you to set new goals, new metrics, whatever that may be. Now, statistically, a lot fewer of us actually have put some plans in place to do those things, but most of us have at least spent some time thinking about it, right?

I, I was, uh, reading an article the other day from Forbes Magazine about a survey that, that they did around this idea, right? Around resolutions. And what they said in their survey was, out of all the people that they surveyed, 80% of people said that they felt pressured to make a New Year's resolution. I think about that for a little while, like, why pressure? Where did that pressure come from?

Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? Right? And I, and I think for most of us, I don't, okay? I don't know if that's true for most of us.

For me, and I think this is true for most of my generation, like peer pressure or pressure, the idea of pressure comes off really negative because we think about peer pressure, right? And like, I, I mean, dare had its mark on me, you know what I'm saying? Like, we were all gonna succumb to peer pressure and just be drug addicts because of pressure. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's, that's just kinda where my mind goes when we start thinking about pressure.

But I, I think I, I, I think that this actually is a good thing, right? To feel a little bit of pressure to, to move towards better, right? The idea of a resolution or a goal, because I'll just say like, this is true of me personally, like left to my own devices, put me in a corner away from outside influence, and I'm not going to move towards better, right? I'm gonna move towards complacency. I'm not gonna push myself to better.

And so I think that a little bit of pressure around me, whether that is a, I don't know, a, a a boss that is saying, Hey, I want you to try some new things at work. I want you to try to hit some new goals. Maybe, maybe your pressure is just like, you know, the family picture of the beach vacation last year. I don't know, but the, like, a little bit of pressure kind of moves me to, towards something good to better to, to positive. And so here's where I wanna challenge you a little bit today.

Challenge at least sounds better than pressure, right? So here's where I wanna challenge you a little bit. A as we think about kinda where we are headed this year and what we hope to, to be true of us, what we hope to experience this year, whether you are a resolution and a goal person or not, I'm not saying that's good or bad, okay? But as, as we at least dream and kind of think about what we want to be true of us and what we want to be true in and through us, what we want to experience, can we do so oriented around not just what we want and what we hope and desire, but can we do so oriented around what it is that God, the maker, and the sustainer of life wants for us? Now, listen, I'm really, really hesitant to use that kind of language, okay?

I've said this a bunch because I and I bristle whenever people talk about, Hey, here's what God wants for you. Here's what God desires for you, because I think it's really easy and preachers can be bad at this, okay? It's really easy for us to take what it is that we want and project that onto God and try to like co-opt God's authority to justify what it is we want. You know what I'm saying? And so I, I wanna be really careful with that.

But there are a few places in Scripture that are just so clear. We don't have to guess. This is what God wants. This is what God desires for us and from us, right? And so John 17 is, is one of those places.

So John 17, we're gonna jump in kind of the last, I don't know, half or so of this chapter. We're gonna start in verse 20. Lemme give you a little context real fast. Uh, this is what is traditionally called the high priest sleep prayer. It's a real churchy term, okay?

Here's what that means though. This is a moment with Jesus and his disciples, okay? The, the 12 guys that have been following him, the close that have given, actually there's 11 at this point that have been giving everything that they have with this man, right? They've been following him. These are the people that he's gonna build his church on.

And just after this, he's gonna, Jesus is gonna go to the Garden of Gethsemane. And it's there that kind of, the, the events are gonna be set in place that lead to his crucifixion. Okay? So this is really the final pastoral moment with these people. And what Jesus does is he pauses and he prays before he goes to the garden, before he goes to the cross.

He has this moment where he prays over his followers. And here's what he says. Verse 20. He says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Now, Paul's right here with me for just a minute because I don't want you to miss the shift and kind of the weight of what happens in this moment.

I told you Jesus has been praying for his apostles, for his disciples. Those, those guys that have been walking with him, right? Them that are in the room right there. But here's where he says, I do not ask for these only talking about those guys, but also for those who will believe in me. Those who will believe how through their word.

Jesus says, that's who I wanna pray for, right here. So here's what's happening, right? Jesus is, is pausing. He's looking throughout, he's looking forward through the course of history. And he sees you and he sees me.

He sees those of us who will believe, like there is certainty in this that, that there will be those who will believe through the word, right? That as long as there are people who are willing to proclaim the goodness, the power, the majesty, the righteousness of God, there will be the church. Jesus said that not even the gates of hell will stand against the church. There will be those of us who believe. And after us, there will be more who will believe, so long as we are confident in the word that God is good, right?

And so Jesus is seeing through history, he's seeing us, he's seeing you, he's seeing me, he's seeing the church, and he is praying on our behalf. But don't, don't miss man, don't miss the power of this moment where Jesus is taking you as a son, as a daughter. And he is holding you up before God the Father, and saying, God, let this be true of them. Here's what I desire in their life. So what does he pray for?

Let's keep breath. Verse 21. That they may all be one just as you Father 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, in you and me, that they may become perfectly one.

There's a whole lot of one, right? So that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have 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. 'Cause 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 you that you have sent me, I may known to 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. Now, let me, um, I I wanna give you like a little bit of a different flow today, okay? Uh, not, not so much like a, a problem, a question, and then three points that all rhyme, even though I really do like alliteration and we're gonna iterate today. 'Cause it's just my mind works that way. Um, but not, not so much like a question or problem, three points that that answer that that's kind of a, a normal, not a bad flow.

It's kind of a normal flow. Here's what I think is happening in this text though. I think there's kind of four movements in this prayer. And so what I wanna do is I wanna, I just kinda wanna walk through these movements together. We're gonna focus primarily on one verse, verse 21.

And I, I wanna show you, I wanna kind of move through these four movements together and my hope, my goal today, right? My prayer is that, that as we see what it is that God, the son, that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, desires for us. That that then will be the thing that we set our, our hearts, our heads, our hands towards this year. Make sense? Alright, so let's go back to verse 21.

Lemme show you this first movement in the prayer. First we see is Jesus pray for us, right? There's a prayer here of unity. He says, I'm praying for those who will believe that they may all be one. And so as Jesus holds you up and begins to pray for you before God the Father, he's not praying that we have it easy.

He's not praying that we avoid the difficulty. He's not praying that we always get the raise or that we always get the good rate at the banker. That no one around us get gets sick. But that's not, he's praying what? That we will all be one.

He's praying for unity here. And I understand that as Jesus prays that we are one, that we are together. He is not praying that we are the same. Like we're talking about unity here. And unity is different than uniformity.

I I, I've said this before, I mean even know if you've been around, you know, kind of, this is a little bit of my story, uh, man, I grew up in church, a church very different than venture. But, but I mean something really important to me that poured into my life, a group of people that just fantastic in my faith. My faith really began to grow as a teenager in student ministry and part of a, a smaller student ministry, a small handful of kids my age, most of which by the way, like I could walk to their house on a regular basis. So my point in that for you is that like, man, my faith, very early on in my faith, the voices that were the most influential to my faith were a part of a very specific and very small kind of slice of the social pie. You know, everybody looked like me.

Everybody thought like me. Everybody acted like me. You tracking with that? And so then when I got to college, I'm just gonna be honest with you, you can judge me on this one. Um, when I got to college, I met some really weird Christians.

Like, I mean, just some weird folks. And I'm not saying bad, not necessarily good, I don't know, just weird, just different, you know? And it threw me, and honestly it threw me. And I, and I'm really thankful that mean my, my faith was, was at least founded in that season of my life because it would've been really easy for me to look at some of those dudes that clearly loved Jesus and were following him and wanted to know more about Jesus. But it'd been really easy for me to look at their life and think, man, if following Jesus looks like being like him, I think I got some questions.

You know, I think I, I think I may have some reservations here, but as I've grown in my faith, right? And as God is gonna move me in his body, here's what I've learned, man. That's part of what makes it beautiful. That's part of what makes the body the people of God beautiful and powerful is, is diversity, right? Is diversity unified together?

Uh, Paul says in Galatians chapter three that there is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither man nor woman. There's neither slave nor free. We could say that there's neither black nor white. There's neither American nor Chinese, but rather we are one together.

Now, that's not to say that those distinctions do not exist, like of course they exist. Of course, God has, has created us with individuality, right? Like we are unique and we are distinct. But here's what's happening in that prayer. Jesus is not doing away with diversity.

He's doing away with division. Like yes, of course those lines of distinction are there, but it's that those lines of distinction should not define or divide us, but rather we are united together under the banner that it is Christ as Lord above all else. And so then what if we're, if it's not so much a sameness, then, then what is it that we are united in? Well, I could give you a whole, like, we could, we could talk a lot about this. Okay?

There's a bunch in Scripture, uh, I'll give you four real quick though, that I think are, are unique and powerful to this conversation. One, we are united in sharing needs. We are one in the needs that we have. This is one of the very first characteristics of the New Testament church. Sorry, in the book of Acts, acts chapter two, right?

What we read there is that they were one with their possessions. They were willing to sell all that they had to meet the needs of others because it wasn't your need and my need. It was our need, right? 'Cause we were together, we were unified in it. Gray, uh, in a couple of weeks, gray's gonna talk a little bit about this idea, what it looks like to live open handedly right?

To say, God, you have blessed me, not just for me, but for us, right? We are one, we are united in our failures, our flaws, our failures. This, um, Galatians chapter six, Paul talks about when a brother or sister falls away when they, when they fall, when in their faith they're pursuing Jesus. I mean, they, they fall flat on their faith that our role as the church isn't to reject, it's not to shun, it's not to turn away, but rather it is to restore, to bring back into right relationship with God. Like we, we are one in that we are one, we are united in our needs, our failures, and then our problems.

The very next line there in, in Galatians, Paul says that we are to share our burdens with one another. We're to bear with one another's burdens, which means that like, you should be a person, I should be a person. And we need people around us that, that, that pay attention enough to see the needs, to see the difficulties, to see the burdens, and are willing to say, lemme come alongside you in this right? Man, I see the season of life that you're in, and I see the difficulty, Hey, look, can I keep your kids this weekend so you and your wife can go on a date? Like, that's not a, that's not a judgmental thing to say, that's a loving thing to say to somebody that you are united with, right?

Man, I see, I see what's going on. Can I, can I buy you some groceries? Can I, can I come cut your grass? Hey, look, lemme fix you a cup of coffee and you come over. I just wanna be a listening ear for you, right?

We, we can bear one another's burdens in that way, and we need people with us that can bear our burdens. Like understand in these, as we talk about what it looks like to be united in these ways, like there is a responsibility on our part to be willing to be known, right? Like, like the idea that a Christian can be a part, a follower of Jesus can be a part of the community of God, the people of God, and not be known and not know others is completely foreign to the prayer of Jesus and the way the church is built throughout the New Testament. But that only works if we're willing to be known. Like, I cannot be united in these ways with you if I'm not honest in my needs.

I can't, I can't be united with you in this way if I'm not honest with my failures or my problems. I, I give it to you this way. Like if, I mean, if, if you only come to church, I don't know, every other week, I think the stats now are, are less than twice a month. That, that most people attend church and you show up late and you leave early and you're not involved in any of the ministry rhythms and flows. You're not going to experience what God has for you in, in his church.

It's impossible to be known that way. And that's what God has. That's what God desires for you, right? I'll tell you another one. Um, we are united in the truth and sharing truth.

My great fear in this conversation is that we would sacrifice truth on the altar of unity. Christ isn't praying for us to be unified in He, he is praying for us to be unified. In truth, Paul, um, says in Ephesians four that as we are built up together, that we are speaking the truth in love. It's not unity or if we are ignoring the truth, but rather it is the truth that unites us. Now, all of this, like we, we could talk through all this and in a very idealistic way feels and looks great, but then you begin to look at it and say, okay, but, but practically it feels really impossible.

And I think Jesus knows the difficulty there for us. And so here's kind of the next movement, right? He, he prays for our unity and then he gives us a pattern to participate in order to experience this unity, right? He says that they may all be one. That's what he's praying for, is how, just as you father are in me and I in you.

That's what he's saying. That's, that's where our unity comes from, right? Is that God the Father is united with God the Son and God the Spirit, and through the pattern of the triune and God, we experience that unity, right? That the unity that God is calling us into, that common unity that we experience through the body isn't one that we make. And it's not, listen, it's not even one that we are responsible for creating, but rather we maintain it.

Uh, Paul says that, um, we are to maintain the unity of the spirit. So here's what that means, that this kinda oneness that God is calling us into, it is, it is a sense of unity and togetherness that is true. It exists within God, the Father that is made possible for us to experience through God the Son, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And it is manifested in and through us, through God the spirit. Now I realize that is a really kind of heady thought process that can take lifetimes to get our mind wrapped around.

And so lemme just kind of move that into a really practical space for us. Here's what all that means. A unity with one another has to start in unity in him. Jesus, just a few moments before this prayer in John chapter 15 is where he teaches, I'm divine and you are the branches apart from me, you can do nothing. It's the same place where he talks about the importance of abiding, right?

Like when my life is rooted in rested in him, then his, his, uh, presence is able to grow through me, right? All of which is simply to say that I cannot have a right relationship with you if I don't have a right relationship with him. Has to start there. Last week, uh, heads up, sorry. Uh, last week, uh, Craig introduced and talked a little bit about, um, uh, some of our focus for this year, right?

As a church, as we've begun to kind of pray through and, and think through what, what's ahead of us, right? Like what it means to be a church for the young church leading people to know love and follow Jesus. What that's gonna mean and, and and necessitate for us this year, the next three years, the next five years, whatever the case may be. What we want to do right here at the beginning of the year is we wanna hold up kind of these, uh, four practices, if you will, that we see in the life of Jesus. And really where we want to challenge you is just to grab one of these.

We've got these cards throughout all of our campuses now in different places in our campuses, uh, where, where, man, we're just challenging you this month to grab one of these and use it kinda like a word for the year, right? Say, man, this is a place I think God is calling me to grow in. And you begin to pray about what that looks like and you begin to take some steps towards growing in that way. Last week we talked about hospitality, right? Like living a life of hospitality.

Today we're talking about unity and what it looks like to live towards unity. So here's the definition of unity that we're using, at least cultivating a meaningful spiritual relationship with God and others. Now, I, I saved the, the definition for this point in the message because I want that word to land with some weight for us, meaningful relationships with God and others. Listen, our goal for you, my heart for you, isn't just that you, you have good friendships. I want you to have good friendships.

I want you to have people around you that, that you enjoy being around. But at the end of the day, I want more for you than just good friendships, a meaningful relationship with God, with your creator, with your heavenly Father, that then flows into meaningful and purposeful relationships around you. Great. So how do I do that? Well, practically, right?

Like I, we can give you a a target. You'll see this on the back of the card and it's something you can kinda aim at. And that starts right? With investing in one-on-one time with God. Listen, I I don't know if you know this or not, but, but man, we've got, we've got members, our team members here that are passionate about putting resources and, and help in front of you, like removing whatever barrier may be from this space and from this time for you.

Like, man, where do I start with, I don't know how, where do I begin in the Bible? Well, how do I, how do I pray? Listen, download the Venture Church app. You can, we've got, you can read along to the New Testament with us in a year. You can read along through the whole Bible in a year with us.

We've got daily devotions for you. We got summaries of every book of the Bible that we're putting out this year. Like all of it can even be read to you. Like, you don't even have to stop and read. You can literally listen to it on your morning wall.

Like, listen, we, we want, man, we want to come alongside you in this, but I can't invest in that time for you. Nobody can invest in that relationship for you. You, you have to make that investment. Invest in time with your family, your husband, your wife, your kids, man. Start there.

Make your home the center of some Gospel relationships. And maybe you're not married and maybe you don't have kids that some family can mean a whole lot of things. The two or three relationships that are most influential in your life, start right there. Invest in your house. Church, I'm be honest with you, I, this is one that I don't feel like I'm good at.

I, I, listen, I've been a part of house church since the jump, but, but I, I struggle here a little bit honestly, because, and again, man, if you know me, you probably know this is true of me. Like people tire me. I love you, man. I love church. I love this space.

I love being a part of this with you. But I'm gonna go home today and I'm gonna crash. I'm gonna nap hard, right? Because people just, man, I like, I get tired around people. And so to tell me, Hey, look, I need you to take some time and invest in other people besides yourself.

Whew. You know, like it tires me thinking about it. But here's what I know to be true, man. When we live in this way, man, we experience something different in the church and the body that God desires, clearly desires for us. And it's not just life changing for me and for you.

It's life changing for the world around us. Lemme show you what I mean by that. The third movement, you go back to verse 21 with me. That they may all be one just as you father in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. Here's the purpose.

So that the world may believe. So there is a purpose in our unity that extends beyond us. It is a purpose towards the salvation of the world. Um, the, just a couple of years ago, I think it was 2023, the Surgeon General, right? It's like the same government entity that, that put warning labels on cigarettes and alcohol.

The surgeon general issued a warning against what he called at the time an epidemic of loneliness. I think in that, in the, um, research, they even went so far as to say that the mortality rates or effects of loneliness were the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. I was listening to a podcast, um, just a couple of days ago, as a matter of fact, uh, that was kind of unpacking some different like trends and stats that have been seen over the past year and the effects of those things. And, and one of the things that just really, really stood out to me was that, uh, younger teenagers, younger students were beginning to say that they valued, they desired AI companionship more than real life friendships 'cause it was easier. And experts were saying, and that is, is contributing to the continued rise of depression and anxiety and suicide.

Here's the point. Our culture and our world naturally moves towards isolation. So what happens when you live in a culture that is focused on the individual, right? Everything is gonna push us towards isolation, and it is killing us. It is destroying us and rotting us from the inside out.

And it is into that brokenness that God sends a united church with a heart of salvation, the church's unity, right? A together church, a church with a common unity is God's gift to a divided and broken world. Because in a culture, in a world that sees nothing but division, he sees nothing but the individual when they see you. And they see me completely different on the outside, but together under the banner of Christ, there's a clear picture of a better way and a new way where it's not just about you and it's not just about me, but it's about all that God has for us and for our world through us is a different way. Um, let me give you one more.

If you skip down actually to verse 23, uh, Jesus kind of praise the same prayer. He kinda goes to the same movements, but he adds one more thought right here that I want you to see. This is verse 23. He says, I am them and you and me. There's that pattern, right?

We see in Christ that they may become perfectly one. So again, that's the unity He's praying for us, so that the world may know that you sent me, there's that purpose so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me. And so all of this, this togetherness, all of this oneness, all of this unity that, that Christ is saying, I want this for my followers and for my people. I think we've got to understand from the outset that it doesn't work outside of the love of God in and through us. It doesn't work without experiencing his love first.

And as we think about, and we talk about like the state of our relationships, listen, your mind may naturally drift towards things you wish you could have done. Different parents, your your mind may go towards, man, I have been, I I have dropped the ball because I've been way too short and way too angry with my kids. Been way too sarcastic with my kids. Your mind may go towards, you know what I've been, man, I've ignored my parents and cultivated a relationship there. Maybe you think about more heartbreak because you wish you had another opportunity without relationship that you don't anymore.

Maybe, maybe where you go is meant a feeling of failure because you think, you know what? Yeah, I want to invest in time with God. And you know what, Kyle? Man, I've tried for the past, I don't know, 10 years and every year I do good for a couple of weeks and then I fall off. And then I'm just reminded, I feel like I can't do this.

I want you just start right here with this word that it all, that it all finds its strength and its, its beginning through the love that God has for you. He says, I have loved them. You see the past tense of that. I've loved them. You have loved them.

God. It's not a love that he has to create for you. It's not a love that you have to earn and maybe get to one day. No, no. He says, now, I I you have loved them already.

And he says you've loved them the same way you have loved me. If I had to put that in a sentence for you right here, the same love that God the Father has for God the Son, the same love that God has for Jesus is the same love that God has for you. I mean, like, just ponder that for a second here. The same love that God has for Jesus is the same love that God has for you. And in the same way that he sent his son so that you may experience his love, he is sending you into the world so that others may know through our unity, his love and goodness.

I'm give you one more verse, verse 24 of, of, uh, this chapter John 17. Jesus says this, father I desire, what is it that God the Son desires? He has a moment right here with his heavenly Father in prayer to speak of his desire, his want. He knows the cross is right ahead of him. He knows everything is about to change, and he has this moment to speak his desire to God the Father.

And what does he say? I desire that they whom you have given me May be with me as he looks through the course of history, and he sees you and he sees me, and he has this moment to speak, his desire before God the Father. What does he pray for? Your presence. That you be with him, that you get to walk with him, that you get to experience life with him.

That you get to experience eternity with him. So maybe, maybe you come into this place with all sorts of baggage and you feel like nobody's ever wanted you around. You feel like, man, maybe, maybe I just don't belong. Maybe I've never really belonged. Don't miss please don't miss this word.

He desires your presence. Who wants life with you? And listen, I want you to hear this too. You belong. You belong here.

You belong a part of his body, his church, his people. You belong. Lemme pray for us Lord. We, God, we thank you for your goodness. And we thank you that in our f floss, in our burdens and our difficulties, and the endless needs that we bring before you.

And when you, you, you want life with us. You, you want us to, to experience life with you. But God, that, that you've also put people around us to share in that, that you, you, you don't call us to walk this life alone, but God, you've given us your spirit. You've given us your body to, to walk through life with God. We don't take that for granted.

And so whatever it is that we may be holding onto that keeps us from clinging to you, God, I break our hearts of that. God show us that what is in our hearts that keeps us from you. And we pray that you'll give us a, a fresh new sense of hope in life in you today. All things we ask in your name. Amen.