1. …that they may be one even as we are one… John 17:20-23 (ESV)

2. Have you ever heard…? “I love God; I just don’t like church people.” “God loves everybody, no exceptions!” “Unity would not be a problem if everyone would become like me!” “We need to embrace diversity!” (…if only for show.)

3. "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. John 17:20-23 (ESV) When is Jesus’ prayer going to be answered?

4. Who are God’s People? For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Deut. 14:2 (ESV)

5. Who are God’s People? For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer. 31:33 (ESV)

6. Who are God’s People? o You are connected to God through Jesus Christ. o You are connected to every other person who is connected to God through Jesus Christ. o God’s people are His agents of reconciliation in the world.

7. Unity as a family But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?" And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother." Mark 3:33-35 (NKJV) For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, Eph. 3:14-15 (NKJV) And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. 2Thes. 3:14-15 (NKJV)

8. Unity as a body For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Rom. 12:4-5 (ESV) They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. Col. 2:19 (NIV) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Eph. 4:15-16 (ESV)

9. Unity as a building For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. 1Co 3:9 (ESV) Do you not know that you (plural) are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you (plural)? 1Co 3:16 (ESV) As you come to him, the living Stone-- rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him-- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house …acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1Pe 2:4-5 (NIV) Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, …Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Eph 2:19-22 (NKJV)

10. Why is this so hard? And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' Mark 12:30 (ESV) Some Christians emphasize: Right doctrine Right devotion Right relationship Right practice

11. A vision for unity What if we followed Christ more than people? What if we valued connection more than competition? Do we really believe unity is critically essential to our mission? If so, how do we demonstrate that? …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. John 17:21 (ESV)