Pastor Jon Burgess
December 16, 2018 - W1850

Lokahi Valetine (New Hope member and student at Hillsong International Leadership College in Australia, home for Christmas) opened the service with We are One in the Spirit by Peter Scholtes, and shared an event that challenged his family’s unity with the church they were attending. Several years ago, while in his early teens, his mother was the worship leader at a small local church. A new pastor came in—there was some unfair treatment—and his mother was fired! The whole family had been faithfully serving at this church and the unfair treatment angered Lokahi and his family greatly. But, his mom encouraged them to continue serving and to pray for the pastor who was responsible for her unjust firing. She said, “This is where God called us to serve, and just because something has happened, no matter what the circumstance or situation, we will continue to serve right here.” And she continued to serve in that church, as a volunteer worship leader!

Lokahi remembers his mother faithfully serving until the day she became very ill and was hospitalized. The pastor, who had wronged her, came to visit her in the hospital and tearfully apologized. She said something so profound: “I had already forgiven you when you did it.” Lokahi’s mom experienced forgiveness, but he still stored anger in his heart until an opportunity came for him to actually forgive! Sometime later, this pastor called him into the office asking for his forgiveness. Lokahi’s thoughts turned to the way his mom (who was wrongfully fired) harbored no bitterness and was so quick to forgive; and he wanted to know more about this God who freed his mom from bitterness and hurt the moment she was wronged! He wanted to learn to live a life of reconciliation and to be a light to the rest of his family (aunts, uncles, cousins), who no longer went to church because of what had happened. Lokahi’s mother’s act of reconciliation and her heart for unity had laid the foundation for his immediate family to return to the Lord, but he continues to pray for the rest of his relatives. Unity is easier to sing about than it is to live it out!

PASTOR JON BURGESS: Before Jesus goes to the Cross He prays to the Father—this is one of my all?time favorite chapters in scripture:

John 17:20-21 NLT says, “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are one-as you are in Me, Father and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe You sent Me.”

Jesus prays not only for His disciples, but also for all who would become believers—that’s you and me—us! Jesus had us in His heart and mind as He went to the cross. He also prayed for unity among believers because when we live as one body, it is proof to the world that He was sent for us. If the proof of Jesus being sent for the world is our unity, then our disunity proves to the world that this whole Jesus thing is a sham, an invention, a crutch for the weak minded; and the enemy of our souls will work hardest to divide us, to show that there is no Savior, no Jesus!    

What struck me most about Lokahi’s story was that so many of his family members (who once served in the church) are now divided from the church and from The Lord because of disunity within the church, and the wounding of his mom.And if someone of authority in this church has used his position to wound and crush you, I apologize. That’s not Jesus—that’s not what He does! As a person of authority in this church, I invite you to give Jesus and His church another chance because He came that we would be one with God and one with each other. We pray horizontally for each other and vertically to/with God.

The whole Christmas story is a picture of how God brings different groups of people together: Picture the wise men, the shepherds, Mary and Joseph (none knowing the other) yet all were brought together—to be one with each other!

Luke 2:4-7 NIV says, “⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”

Bethlehem is a very different town today with a population of 400,000 people, primarily, Palestinian Arab Muslims, and only seven percent Palestinian Arab Christians! On tour with Pastor Wayne in Israel, we went to the church of the Holy Nativity, and saw throngs of people waiting hours to go into the church, down into a grotto with ornate decorations, and to touch a point on a twelve-point star that marks the spot where Jesus was born. The tour guide told a story about three different Christian groups that own the church; but, because they could not agree on what to do with it, they left the church untended for hundreds of years! In the meantime, soot, dirt, dust, and grime had covered the walls, and trash covered the grounds! But two years ago a miracle happened! The three owners agreed to restore the church and, together, brought in skillful artisans from Italy who revealed the beautiful thousand-year-old frescoes on the walls and mosaic tiles on the floors! Disagreement had covered up the beauty that was intended! 

It was as if the Holy Spirit said to me very clearly, “Jon, when the church is one, they will reveal my Son. But when the church is divided, we are nothing more than dirty walls the world looks at and says, ‘I don't see anything of worth or value here.’”

We can wipe off the years of bitterness, un-forgiveness, frustration, and arguing through the forgiveness that Jesus was born to bring us in the first place: to restore the beauty of Jesus in our relationships, and bring unity and harmony with each other! 

Philippians 2:13-16 NLT says, “¹³ For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. ¹⁴ Do everything without complaining and arguing, ¹⁵ so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. ¹⁶ Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.”

God has, literally, given us the will and the way to be able to follow Him:

1. Get untangled from complaining and arguing (it prevents the light from shining in our relationships).

2. Stay unmoved by being accountable. (Spouse, friends, or life groups can help you stay unmoved in the things of God, regardless of what else is moving around you.)

3. Don’t unplug from the power source, Jesus! (Go low, through the servant's entrance. Understand that this season is not about me getting everything that I want, but it’s glorifying God by serving those around me.)

The Lord wants us to get through this season with joy in spite of the stress and pressures all around us. The best gift we can give our friends and family members is to make allowances for the fact that everyone is stressed out! Don’t take personally what’s being said. Let’s make allowances—lots of grace and space so we won’t lose our joy so quickly! 

Ephesians 4:2-4 NLT says, “²Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. ³Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. ⁴For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.”

Spoudazo in Greek means to make every effort to keep united in the Spirit. It’s the blood, sweat and tears of giving everything we can to stay unified with our families and friends, to give every ounce of concentration and energy to stay united! If we are not moving into unity, we are moving into division. We are either fighting for unity or fighting with each other. There is no neutral ground on this! God can restore to us what this season is about—it’s all about Jesus Christ, the center/the focus of our season! When we forgive, extend grace, be the first to say, “I am sorry,” the first to respond graciously, even when the other person is harsh, we bring Jesus the answer to His prayer, “That we be one, as He and The Father are One, so the world will know that Jesus was sent for them.” 

We need never bribe God for access to His Throne, or go through some back door, or secret curtain. We can now enter straight into God’s presence because of what Jesus did through His sacrifice on the Cross: He opened the floodgates, tore the curtain in two, and all who believe can enter straight into His presence—no matter who we are, how far or how long we have been away from Him. That access is through our pursuit of unity with each other.

One Hundred-Fifty people from Honolulu and other parts of the country went on a trip to Israel with Pastor Wayne Cordeiro. He had this ridiculous expectation for us and said, “ You will all, at the end of this trip, sing together!” Pastor Wayne, in his shepherding and prophetic vision, could look at this motley crew of strangers, and see that at the end of ten days, we would somehow sound like an angelic choir! I didn't know how it was going to happen, and I certainly didn't think it could!

But every single day we got together for devotions, and Pastor Wayne would stand up, and say, "Okay, let's begin to practice our parts. Let's sing this song together," and he would say, “Whoa, whoa! Guys, let's work on that melody again,” and had Scotty play the guitar and teach us the melody, again. We would sing it again and again, no matter what time it was or how tired we were, no matter how good or bad we sounded—every single day, he had us sing it over and over again!

Just as Mary said, “Be it done unto me according to your will,” each of us surrendered our pride and ego, and we did our best to just sing to the Lord, so that, on the last day in the holy city of Jerusalem, when we approached St. Ann's Cathedral, Pastor Wayne thought we were ready—but I didn't think we were!

The acoustics in that building was extraordinary, that for a moment, I thought we caught the angels' attention. I believe they leaned down from heaven and said, “Wait a minute, what's that? That sounds like the people of God as one from every generation and culture.” Most of us are not professional singers; and, yet, we caught the heart of God, not because we sounded perfect, but we were one, focused on one Person and sang for an audience of One!

Though you could probably find 150 other people who sounded much better than we did, but on that day, we were the most beautiful sound that our God had longed to hear—the sound of a group of people who were not living for themselves, but living for Him in one spirit and one truth, to worship one God. God wanted to birth something in this group; and as we praised Him, He birthed unity!

This Christmas, let us bind ourselves together with peace (reconcile with someone), and in the process of mending bridges, give up our pride and ego, and focus on The One who brings unity and harmony (as at St Ann’s Cathedral, after weeks of devotion and focused practice) made the singing of 150 voices sound as one!

STUDY QUESTIONS to Ponder:

1. How can we show the world that Jesus indeed was sent from God?

2. How can we bring glory to God in this perverse world especially during this Christmas season?

3. What are our joy stealers and how will we deal with them?

4. How do we prevent or deal with unmet expectations?

5. How do we define spoudazo in our daily walk as Christians?