WHAT IS GOING ON WERE SO DIVIDED LEADING

WHAT IS GOING ON? WE’RE SO DIVIDED! LEADING IN UNITY IN TIMES OF TRIALS AND DIFFERENCES

Poll. Ev. com/joshhemphill 508 Or Text Josh. Hemphill 508 to 22333

WHAT AREAS DO WE DISAGREE ON? • Politics • Race • Sexuality • Justice • Church’s Job/Response • Pandemic Response

BUT THERE IS HOPE…

MY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ON THE DIVISION • Feelings I have felt in the past 2 months about the state of the Church and our Country: • Pride • Anger • Disappointment • Grief • Fear • Uncertainty • Resignation • Hope • Ownership

JOHN 13 -17 • Last night with His Disciples • Judas’ betrayal looms large • They are starting to see that He’s leaving them • Jesus is preparing them to be without Him • Jesus makes it clear He’s not seizing earthly political power • This teaching is the last great sermon he leaves them with

JESUS LAST(ISH) WORDS FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN • John 13: 12 -17 • John 13: 34 -35 • John 14: 16 -17 • John 14: 27 • John 16: 32 -33 • John 17: 20 -23

JOHN 13: 12 -17 12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

JESUS LAST(ISH) WORDS FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN • John 13: 12 -17 • John 13: 34 -35 • John 14: 16 -17 • John 14: 27 • John 16: 32 -33 • John 17: 20 -23 • We must serve each other

JOHN 13: 34 -35 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. ”

JESUS LAST(ISH) WORDS FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN • John 13: 12 -17 • We must serve each other • John 13: 34 -35 • We must love each other • John 14: 16 -17 • John 14: 27 • John 16: 32 -33 • John 17: 20 -23

JOHN 14: 16 -17 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate [Helper], to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

JESUS LAST(ISH) WORDS FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN • John 13: 12 -17 • We must serve each other • John 13: 34 -35 • We must love each other • John 14: 16 -17 • We are not helpless. We have the Holy Spirit • John 14: 27 • John 16: 32 -33 • John 17: 20 -23

JOHN 14: 27 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

JESUS LAST(ISH) WORDS FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN • John 13: 12 -17 • We must serve each other • John 13: 34 -35 • We must love each other • John 14: 16 -17 • We are not helpless. We have the Holy Spirit • John 14: 27 • Let’s not allow fear to lead our hearts • John 16: 32 -33 • John 17: 20 -23

JOHN 16: 32 -33 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

JESUS LAST(ISH) WORDS FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN • John 13: 12 -17 • We must serve each other • John 13: 34 -35 • We must love each other • John 14: 16 -17 • We are not helpless. We have the Holy Spirit • John 14: 27 • Let’s not allow fear to lead our hearts • John 16: 32 -33 • Our separateness doesn’t define or control us • John 17: 20 -23

JOHN 17: 20 -23 20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

JESUS LAST(ISH) WORDS FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN • John 13: 12 -17 • We must serve each other • John 13: 34 -35 • We must love each other • John 14: 16 -17 • We are not helpless. We have the Holy Spirit • John 14: 27 • Don’t allow fear to lead our hearts • John 16: 32 -33 • Our separateness doesn’t define or control us • John 17: 20 -23 • Unity SO THAT the World may perceive who God is

1 CORINTHIANS 12: 12 -27 THE BODY OF CHRIST 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, ” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, ” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

1 CORINTHIANS 12: 12 -27 THE BODY OF CHRIST 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” … 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

WHAT BODY PART CALLS THE SHOTS? The Mouth The Heart The “Privates” The Butt The HEAD!

WHO CALLS THE SHOTS?

WHO CALLS THE SHOTS? Colossians 1: 18 18 And he [ Jesus] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

SEVEN TRUTHS FOR APPLICATION 1. We must serve each other 2. We must love each other 3. We are not helpless. We have the Holy Spirit 4. Don’t allow fear to lead our hearts 5. Our separateness doesn’t define or control us 6. Unity SO THAT the World may perceive who God is 7. Jesus is the Head, not Us