Psalm 133 - The Power of Unity

If you want to turn to Psalm 133, that's where we're going to be together in Psalm 133. It's funny when you look at the psalm that we're going to read, and then you look at your notes, someone made the remark in first service, how is it our notes are more than twice as long as this Psalm? But I want you to know I'm going to simply use this Psalm as a springboard for a bigger picture that we're going to paint together today. And the reason for that is as we're ending our Psalm series this week, and we're going to begin our new series in Exodus. But every time we get to the end of the year, we like to spend a week talking about the state of the church. And so this is for us to just reflect on where we are at here at Alpine Bible Church and where the Lord is leading us to as a community.

Now, I want you to know I'm going to be sharing predominantly more with where we are as a church, and I'm going to be looking forward to where we're going to go as we get more into the capital campaign. So I'm holding off a little bit on that, simply because our budget for the year, normally our fiscal year starts September 1st, but we can't really set our budget for the year until we know exactly the cost that we're going to be encountering with this facility. We got an idea of what it's going to be, but as we get the actual numbers in, then it's going to give us the ability to set our budget for the year. So our budget is going to be a month off for this coming year. We'll be sharing that with you in September. But I do want you to know if you're new to Alpine Bible Church, this is more of a family message, but this gives you a little bit of an insight to what we're about as a community here and what God desires to do. And we're going to be talking about the state of our church and more so from the perspective of unity. As you look at Psalm 133, this is what this psalm is centered on, the beauty of unity in God's people and the way that unity is used to be a blessing to the world around us.

When we think about the significance of what God has done here at Alpine Bible Church, when we started ABC in 2008, we started ABC as a Bible study, and we didn't really know then what the Lord was going to do. But we knew where the Lord was calling us to be. In fact, I would tell you, in 2003, I came to visit Utah for the first time. I had no spiritual interest in Utah at all. My motive in being here was completely selfish. At that point in my life, I knew I was going to go serve the Lord somewhere in this world, and my prayer to God was, God, just give me a place that would so burden my heart that I could spend the rest of my life there. That's what I was looking for, and I thought it was going to be somewhere international. And I happened to meet a guy in the middle of a cave in Virginia, about three miles deep, and he was telling me that he was going back to Utah, where he was from, and he was going to start a church. And I said, that's cool, but you live in the Rocky Mountains. I've never seen the Rocky Mountains. Can I use your house to come visit the Rockies? And I was in college. So he said yes. So I came out. I stayed here for two weeks, and I didn't realize then what God was going to do in my heart, in stirring my life to move back here. And in just a couple years later, 2005, the Lord led us back here. I remember I went over to Wein's Park, and I did this actually in 2003 and 2005. In 2003, went to Wein's Park, and when I saw the need in Utah, I just said to the Lord, Lord, if you would ever lead me back here, if you would burn my heart for this place, I would give all that I am, all of my days for you. I will come with casket in hand and just spend my life serving, because I just wanted to find a place to do that, to honor the Lord all of my days. 2005 the Lord led us back here, and I remember going to Williams Park and praying over the possibility of starting a church here and asking the Lord, Lord, if in years to come, if all we have is just ten people, let us just be faithful as those ten people in honoring you. Never did we imagine what God would do through that.

If you were here last week, especially at third service — and not that I'm against third service, I think they're great people too — we had 172 people in this room. And then we had an overflow out here with another handful of people. And then when that kind of filled up, it went back to the mother's room and some people were just standing in the mother's room area because there was a TV trying to watch the service. And if you do the math, we only have 165 chairs in here. So we had lots and lots of people. And it's an incredible thing.

When we think about what has made Alpine Bible Church, Alpine Bible Church, we don't get our kicks off of rear ends in the seat. If you're here, we're happy that you're here, but we don't measure our success by butts in the seat. We do take attendance because when we take attendance, it helps us determine what we need to do as a church to better serve people. We were very diligent in attendance this summer and counting specific numbers because we were trying to decide if we added another classroom, what would be best to do, whether it would be an overflow for our Sunday service or a teenage room. And so we had determined for second and third service we should have a classroom for our teenagers. And we anticipated we'd have about 15 teenagers in that classroom, and it would give us more seats in here. But then we started last week and we had 26 teenagers in one class and 20 in the other, and it's already completely full. So I don't know what we're going to do. But anyway, we just seeing what God does is wonderful.

But our goal is not about numerically growing. That's never been our goal. Our goal has always been about being healthy. And as long as we strive towards being healthy, we just know the Lord's going to take care of the rest, whatever that looks like. In fact, one of the most impactful ways of reaching people for the Lord is being a healthy body. When God's people really are living together in a community that God calls us to, one of the greatest struggles in our world today is people are lonely and they're looking for meaning in their life, and they're looking for meaningful community as they live that out. And when the church is living that out and people see that, they say, man, I want that, and how can I be a part of that? So walking together as a community is critical for us, and understanding that it's been a beautiful thing that God has done here at ABC. But we don't want to just hang our hat on that and say thank you, Lord, and wipe our hands and walk away. We realize that in Christ, our best days are before us. And so we want to be thankful for what God has done in our past. And we also want to look forward to incredible days before us as we walk forward as a community in health in him.

Now, one of the great things about saying our goal is health is that we know as people, we have flowing seasons of our life. There are some seasons where we're healthier than others. And when we're striving toward Jesus in a beautiful way, it just opens the door for other people to come in and experience that. And when we come through those doors, sometimes we bring our brokenness and baggage. And so we realize it takes time to understand what it looks like to know the Lord and walk with him. And so as we're growing in Jesus together, we want to continue to have that target in front of us and what God desires to do.

And so in light of that, we're going to be talking together about unity. And what does unity look like for you and for me to live out in the Lord. And this is what Psalm 133 is about. David is painting the picture of the beauty of unity, as he describes it for us in Psalm 133. We're just going to read it all right now. It says this: Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. He's saying, when God's people are fulfilling that, it's incredible. He doesn't really explain to us all that unity is — we're going to talk about that together. But he just wants to remind us that this is important for God's people.

And we say that as a church — we recognize that God created his church to live out on a mission. And we typically say to one another, we exist for a purpose greater than ourselves. We exist to give ourselves away for the glory of God to the benefit of others. And so we're really living that out. It is a blessing. I don't need to tell you guys, I think here in even where we live today, how important it is that we fulfill what God has called us to as a people. And I don't simply mean doing a job. I think one of the greatest things we could acknowledge together as a people today is that what God's primarily interested in isn't your performance, but your heart. What God wants more than anything is your life. And God wants a relationship with you. That's the reason he created you. When you walk in that relationship, then you'll ultimately live for the purpose that he's designed you. But it's not until you have relationship with the Lord that you're really going to live that. And then when we do it together as a community, it's even more powerful. It's incredible how God uses his people to achieve his purpose in this world.

And when you think about it, you could live anywhere in the world and do that. And if you wake up tomorrow and you're one of 7 billion Christians on the planet, good. Glorify God and bless others. And if you wake up tomorrow and you're one of the only Christians on the planet, it shouldn't change who you are because your identity is rooted in Christ through a relationship with him. And as you walk with him, you should be a blessing to others. So it doesn't dictate who we are. But when we can do it collectively as a community, it matters.

Now, in saying all that, I don't need to tell you how important it is that we do it, especially here in this area. There were some demographic studies done recently on all of the United States, trying to determine where is the gospel neediest state in the United States. And then they went a step further and said, what is the gospel neediest county in all of America? And after all these studies, there were different places that were picked out, like the Pacific Northwest and the northeast. But the gospel neediest place in all of the United States was the state of Utah. And the gospel neediest county in all of the United States is Utah County. Now, you didn't have to tell me that. I already knew that. When I moved to Utah, we did demographic studies throughout the state. And the reason we started Alpine Bible Church is we decided to look for the highest concentration of population with the least gospel presence, or the least biblical gospel presence, and landed here. And that's why we started the church in this location. It's about simply reaching people, which Christ has called us to do, and not just on an individual basis, but what would it look like as a community participating together in all that God called us to? And in order to do that well, God calls us to walk united. And so David is saying, this is incredible. This is a blessing that we would dwell as brothers in unity.

And he says it like this. Verse two: it is like — here's what it's like — it's like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron running down on the collar of his robes. Now, I don't know about you, but when I read that, I don't see that as a blessing of unity. That sounds gross to me. Just this oil dripping down of this person. But I will tell you, one of the things that really helped me understand this better is moving from the East Coast to the West Coast.

I've lived in Utah longer than I've lived anywhere. But before I lived here, I lived on the East Coast, generally around a place of the world that's really one of the greenest places someone can live — right where West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee kind of come together. That's the area I'm from. In fact, if you were to pull up a map and you were looking at the United States and you're like, where is the greenest spot in the United States? It's that area. I know some people will typically say it's the Pacific Northwest, which it is green, but I want to tell you, they have this persona about them, this way of stating things about living in the northwest that is incorrect. People in the northeast will say, it's cloudy all the time. There's no sun there. And I want you to know, I actually googled it. What is the cloudiest place in the United States? And they have been lying to us. It is not the northwest. In fact, Michigan gets more clouds than the northwest. And where I'm from gets more clouds than any of them. So that is the — I should be sad all the time. It is the most humid place on the planet. I feel like that's where I'm from.

And then I moved out west, and then I learned about arid climate, which by the way, is way better than humidity. Humidity stinks. But one of the things that I've come to know in living out west — on the East Coast, there are so many bugs everywhere. They're big enough to carry you away. That's the kind of bugs they've got in the humidity. You come out here and I know you might think there are bugs out here, but not really. I count this as no-bug land in comparison to the East Coast. And one of the things that was really unique for me when I first moved here — I remember I went to a store with an individual. It was another dude who was a biker. He was a biker dude. He was a part of a biker gang. In fact, Jesus radically transformed his life, that kind of a biker life. And we stopped at a store and he put the car in park, and I got ready to jump out. He said, hold on a second. And this grown man out of his middle console opens it up and pulls out lotion and proceeds to put lotion all over himself before we go into this store. That sounds weird. But on the East Coast where there's a lot of humidity, that is not something that we do. Like you might randomly do that, but there's so much moisture in the air your body just sucks it in. You have it all the time. In fact, you take a shower, get out, you just start sweating. Even your teeth sweat on the East Coast.

Come out here and I remember when I first moved here, I felt like for the first year I was here, I just had a bottle of water in my hand. I could never quench my thirst. My body could not get used to the desert of where we live. Your skin goes from fresh into lizard. And then watching him put on lotion — it was shocking to me because I'd only been here for 24 hours. I'm like, that is not normal. But then I started to realize, in the desert you have to have some lotion. And this is what they're describing here with the idea of ointment — it's a gift that's refreshing to the body. And when you are called as Aaron is in this, before the Lord, and you're being anointed, it's being set apart and receiving this gift. And so not only is it refreshing to the body, but there's also fragrance with it. And so if you were ever somewhere and someone would offer you this in a setting, it was considered an honor. And when you're doing this sort of religious ceremony before God's people, it's honoring this person before the Lord. But then we're recognizing that that blessing flows because Aaron, as a priest, is a connection between heaven and earth. And as that oil is dripping from his body, it's as if it's painting a picture that it becomes a blessing to the people around him. And then wherever Aaron goes to honor the Lord as he's with people, it becomes a blessing to those around him. And not only that, just the fragrance of Aaron, just the scent of that refreshment, was soothing to the soul.

He goes beyond that in verse three, and he describes it in a similar way. He says, it's like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. And so Hermon, by the way, is not a person, because this would be gross if the dew of Hermon was a person laying on a spot. But this is a mountain. So there's the dew of the mountain of Hermon, and it's saying that this dew is spreading itself around to other lands. And so it's helping other places flourish. And so it's describing our life in Christ when we really understand what it means to be united. This becomes important for all of us because not only is your soul in the Lord being enriched, but we understand that what God is doing in us is also a blessing that flows through us. Because as God changes my life, as he transforms my life, it impacts those around us in an incredible way, because the interest of the Lord in this world is for the hearts of people. And as my life is transformed in him, I get to be a part of that blessing and sharing the goodness of who God is, his heart and his interest for others.

And this is why it's critical for us when we understand the significance of unity, especially what unity is. Because unity is kind of a pansy word in our culture today. When you think about the idea of unity, people just say things like, you know, we should just get together for the sake of getting together. Let's hold hands and sing Kumbaya. And I feel like it's always a good idea to be nice to people, even when they're not nice — other words throw through my head. But when they're not nice, it's always good to just still be honoring because everyone's made in the image of God, and we want to honor that image in them, regardless of what people choose to do or not do. But when we think about the way that we live in this world, unity as God's people is much deeper than just simply, let's get together for the sake of getting together. Because we could ask the question, for what? What is that about, getting together for the sake of getting together? There's nothing that really unites that.

I remember a couple decades ago, I used to take college students to inner city Baltimore and do some mission trips there. And Baltimore, at least at that time — I haven't been back recently, so I can't speak to it — but I'll just say Baltimore was a city that needed some hope. And we would work right in the heart of the inner city. And they had determined at some particular point that they needed to take taxpayer money and create this campaign that would inspire people for hope by simply taking the word "believe" and putting it on bumper stickers and billboards throughout the city. And so you drive through Baltimore and you would see all these stickers everywhere. And I would just look at it and think, for what? About what and for what? What's the reason for this belief? There's nothing that really defines it. Believe in what? What is it that's going to give people hope? What are they ultimately getting hope from? And then what are they going towards? Believing just for the sake of believing is nothing. There's got to be something more critical in defining what they're about.

And so when we think about unity as a group — always be nice to people — but I want you to know that there's something unique about who we are as God's people that defines the mission that we're called to live out. And so refining our understanding of that unity is what makes God's people powerful in the mission that he's called us to in this world.

So we're going to talk about together, then, understanding the power of unity — what unity is and isn't, how do we get it, and what are the results.

In order to save some time, I've got to give you all of answer one right now. So here it is. What unity is and is not. Unity is more than a union. Unity is not uniformity. Unity takes effort. And unity is powerful.

Let me just say it like this. It is possible to be in union, but not in unity. You can be in proximity. If you showed up today, you are now in proximity to this church family. But it doesn't necessarily mean you're in unity. And look, I want you to know if you're here this morning and you're like, I don't even know if I want to belong to you guys yet — maybe this message will help you discover this. We recognize as a church, people come in through these doors having gone through all sorts of different life experiences. And sometimes we may have just barely made it through those doors. And I want you to know that on our end, there is not this pressure of saying, you must take a blood oath right now and give us everything. Our heart is about recognizing God created you for a purpose. And we want to take the truth of what God says about who he is and the truth about what God says about who you are, and help you understand what a relationship with the Lord looks like. We're not here to take truth to bludgeon you with. We're here to take truth in a loving way to help you discover what it means to walk with Jesus in your life and to see your life transformed in him. Which means when you come through our door, you need a place to be able to ask questions. A place where you feel comfortable to take a moment and learn and grow. Because sometimes we might be going through a transition in life where we're doing a lot of deconstructing. And what that means is we might have embraced certain beliefs and ideas that we held to, and we realize either it wasn't true or it was wrecking my life, and I need to let go of those thoughts. I need to let go of those lies. And I need to step into something different. But we're not sure what we're stepping into. And so in order to do that wisely and do that well, you need a place to be able to ask questions. That's why we do a class like Christianity 101 — it's a non-threatening environment where you get together with a group of people that are just asking some questions about the foundation of what Christianity is about, whether you believe in it or not.

But for those who find their life in the Lord, it's then important to recognize, okay, now in Jesus, God's calling me to something. And that unity is different than a union. If you want to know the significance between the difference — if you happen to leave here today and come across two cats, just tie their tails together and throw them over a clothesline and watch what happens. I'm just kidding. Don't do that. It's violent. Don't do that. But there is a way to be united or in union, but not in true unity. Proximity doesn't necessarily mean that you're in unity. Attendance, butts in a seat, doesn't necessarily mean you're in unity — union, but not in unity. So there's a difference.

And the idea of unity and uniformity — we're not here to create this uniformity. There are groups that do that. That's not what we're about. And the reason we're not about that is because we understand that while God has called us to something collectively as a group of people, God has also made us all unique. In fact, the Bible has multiple passages that talk about different spiritual gifts that we could have. If I toss them out — Romans 12, First Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and Galatians 4. You'll find within those chapters certain giftedness that God could give us. And they're not an exhaustive list. It's like the apostle Paul in each one of those letters is writing some sorts of gifts that God's people can have, but not necessarily all the gifts that God's people can have. And he's acknowledging God's made us all unique. And that uniqueness — God has made our hearts prone to be towards certain people groups or certain ways of serving. And so we want to live that out and say, we're not called to be the same. That's boring. God has made you uniquely for a purpose. And so discovering what that is and living that out becomes important. There's a difference between the idea of uniformity and unity. We take the uniqueness of who we are as God's people, created for his purposes and the gifting that he gives us, and then we live it out towards a common goal. In fact, First Corinthians 12 tells us we're all many members of one body.

And then unity also takes effort. We'll look at Ephesians 4 in a minute, because this is the great unity chapter in the New Testament. But Ephesians chapter 4 reminds us that we all come from brokenness as people. We all have a sinful nature. And so sometimes as we're living together as God's people, we can rub against each other the wrong way. In a room like this, in any other environment, there's a high likelihood we would not be friends. Maybe with some people in this room you might be friends with, but definitely not all people. And that's because in other settings, we find commonality in different ways. But there is one way that supersedes all things, and that is your relationship with Jesus. And because of that, that takes precedence over everything and therefore creates a stronger community and what we can do in him. But as we're living our lives together, we understand people are different and sometimes we act in our sinfulness. But we say to one another that we care more about the cause of what Christ wants to do in one another's lives than just simply putting our feelings in the way. In fact, we'll become the servant of the Lord for your benefit, so that all of us can learn to walk with Jesus together. And sometimes that includes forgiving each other in our brokenness. Sometimes it includes helping one another carry burdens at different times. Sometimes it's just encouraging one another to move forward in what God has called us to. But unity takes effort.

And then last, unity is powerful. Maybe one of the best illustrations I could give you for that is a snowflake. And I'm not encouraging you to be a snowflake. Don't be a snowflake. But here's what I'll say: if you ever have the time to look at a snowflake, one of the things you acknowledge if you ever catch one in your hand is no snowflake is the same. They're all beautiful works of art just falling from heaven. And you only get to experience it for just a moment. If you catch it in your hand, it's there for about half a second and it melts. But in that moment, you can appreciate the beauty of what a snowflake is. However, left unto itself, its ending is quick. But when it works together, it does something incredible. When those snowflakes accumulate at one time in a location, many of you look at that and say, Lord, please let that happen this year. We need this. The state burned down this year and then some. I didn't even get to ski last year or snowboard. We're due for some snow. But it's the same thing with God's people.

I love wintertime. I love looking out and seeing a fresh coat of snow. I know that hurts some of your southern hearts — California and Arizona or whatever. But I love looking out and seeing the beauty of a blanket of snow. And if you ever walk in the quietness of a snowfall and you can just hear the snow coming down to the ground, it's an incredible moment, especially at night. If it's ever a bright moon walking out in the snow, it's amazing. But same thing with us as God's people — God has created you for community and living out what he called us to in community.

In fact, it is impossible to be faithful to the Lord and play Christianity like a solo sport. You can't do it. And the reason you can't do it is because Jesus loves his bride. And if you want to love the Lord, you've got to love what the Lord loves, which is his bride, in all of her features, whether she's having a great day or not. If I really want to love the Lord, I'm going to love what the Lord loves. And what the Lord definitely loves is his church, because he gave his life for her, in all of her brokenness and all of her pain. But in order to live out what God has called me to, it's to understand Christianity is not a solo sport. It's a team sport. And the reason God has gifted me is to give my gifts away for the benefit of others. And so we need one another to do what God has called us to do. And when we do it, it's powerful. And this Psalm is helping us think through the uniqueness of that.

In fact, if I gave you a definition of what unity is, it's this: godly unity is oneness God creates among us people through their shared identity in Christ, expressed through love for one another and commitment to his mission. So really there are three ideas there. First, acknowledging who I am in the Lord, that identity. Then it's lived out in the way that I carry myself with others, as that community strives together for that mission. God has a purpose bigger than ourselves. And so living that out becomes critical for us.

So this helps us understand what unity is and isn't. But then the next question we need to define is how do we get it? How do we live that out as God's people?

And can I just tell you, as we get ready to look at this next question — how do we live that unity out, how do we achieve it — it's ironic that I think one of our challenges to understanding true unity is in one of the most American words you could express, which is the word freedom. I think freedom is a wonderful thing. I think when you say the word America, you've got to quickly follow it up with that word a lot of times. I was reading some studies from some sociologists from the early 1980s. In the 1970s, some sociologists studied America for a decade, and they released the results of that in the early 1980s. And what was interesting is they said there was a paradigm shift in an American way of thinking and the idea of freedom in the 1970s that really carries with it some brokenness. And they said the idea of freedom became rooted in the thought of individualism, your autonomy. And I want you to know that's not entirely wrong. But if that's all you fixate on, you're missing the full scope of freedom. In fact, I think it will have you lead a terrible life of freedom if that's all you think about. Because freedom is more than just simply being freed from something. When we think about freedom, maybe even today, you might think, well, I've been freed from — so now I get to be an individual and have my autonomy. But let me just encourage you in thinking about freedom this way: you're never truly free until you live for the purpose for which you were created. You can always be rescued from something. But that doesn't mean you're not going to get trapped into something else. So you can be free from something — that is a part of freedom, you're being rescued from something. But the other question that we should ask ourselves is, what am I free for? And especially in your relationship with the Lord, Jesus has freed you. If you're in Christ, you've been freed from sin, Satan, and death. That's wonderful. You've been freed from something, but also you're freed for something. And it's not until you find your identity in that something that you're truly going to be free.

Sometimes I compare it like this. It's like a fish out of water, or maybe a monkey thrown in the sea. You might look at a fish in the water and you're like, okay, fish, why don't you just try anywhere? And you grab the fish and you throw it up on land and you say, now you're truly free. There's no limitations. You just do whatever your heart desires, fish. And you look at a fish like that and you realize it might flop around for a few seconds, but that fish isn't really free. It was made for something. It was made to be in the water. And it's not until that fish is in the water that it's free. Or a monkey that's on a tree — you could grab it and then throw it in the sea where you got the fish. And you say, go monkey, swim. And the monkey's not really free until the monkey is where it's made to be. And I would say it's the same for you. You're not free until you're found where you're made to be.

Now sometimes when we hear that, we think, I better find that reason for which I exist. And we start to think of it in terms of, what's that one thing I should do? I'm made to do something; I better find that one thing. And I would just tell you, if that's your thought, it's erroneous, because the primary reason God created you isn't simply for what you can do. You will do things. But the primary reason for which God has made you is a relationship with him. You are not free until your life is given completely to the Lord, because he's the one that designed you for his purpose. Now, in your life being shaped in the Lord, you will do things. You will honor the things that you belong to. Your life will start to reflect what you spend your time in or what you're given over to. And if you give your life to the Lord, your life will start to reflect the sweetness of the Lord as you live your life. But the primary reason God created you isn't about your performance, it's about a relationship. And so when you think in terms of freedom, you're not free until your life is truly given to the purpose for which it was created. And since God is the one that made you, that's where you discover freedom. You're free from something, but also you're free for something.

Let me just read Galatians 5:13. It says this: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. He's saying, your life lived out is not just about being free from something, but for something. You were called to this. So take that life and use it for God's glory to the blessing of others.

So how do we achieve this? Well, number one is a shared identity. In John chapter 17, Jesus prayed over his church. Now sometimes we refer to Matthew 6 as the Lord's Prayer — that prayer where the disciples asked Jesus, how do we pray? And Jesus said, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. That is not the Lord's Prayer. That is the disciples' prayer. The disciples asked Jesus, how should we pray? Jesus taught the disciples. If you really want to know the Lord's Prayer, you look to John 17, and this is where Jesus, as he's getting ready to go to the cross, he prays for us. And in verse 20 it says, 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. So Jesus is saying, I'm not just praying for the church right now. I'm praying for my church for generations. God, if you could do one thing, Father, it's help them be one.

Now we should ask the question, well, how do we be one? And if you just go back a few verses to verse 17, Jesus tells us that foundation. He says, Sanctify them through truth. Your word is truth. And so the idea of that unity, of our identity, is rooted in who Christ is and what his word says. That becomes our foundation for building everything. Jesus, teach me who you are. Teach me what your word says, because this is how we shape our identity as a community as we live it out. Ephesians 4, verse 4: You were called to this one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. That one faith is not just saying your faith, it's the faith — what we believe as God's people through Christ and his word. So to live in unity, it's finding that identity that God gives us in him so that we can be free.

In addition to that, there's a shared commitment. It's saying, okay, in understanding that identity and giving my life for it, there are going to be days that are easier, but there are going to be days that are difficult. And the reason for that is because this world is dark, this world is broken. Even within us there's some darkness and some brokenness. And so learning to live in light of the Lord becomes critical for us. And because of that, we're called as light in the midst of darkness — we are called to move forward because of who God is. And Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 7, that God doesn't give you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. We don't walk fearfully because God walks with us. But we understand that in the brokenness of this world, rather than run from it, we move into that pain, we move into that darkness to encourage people in the light that is Christ.

In fact, Ephesians 4, verse 1: I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling for which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He's saying there's going to be challenges, but you walk with this gentleness and humility because you already know who you are in the Lord. You're a confident human being because of your position in Christ and therefore able to serve others, because you don't need others to validate your position. You already have your position in Christ. And then your love for the Lord — as you come to understand how the Lord loves you, you're able to love his body, others, to help them walk with him too.

And the last is a shared mission. This explains where we're going as God's people. Ephesians 4: speak the truth in love. We're to grow up in him in every way, who is the head — that is Christ — from whom the whole body is joined together by every joint in which it is equipped. And God has called us for a purpose. We want to live out that purpose as a community, and we do this by using the truth, not as a tool to bludgeon people, but to serve one another that we could all mature in Christ together. This is God's desire for us, that we would live out this mission in him.

And I need to get you the last answer because I've got to close here. What is the result of godly unity? It's this: that God is glorified and we are blessed. God is glorified through our lives and we are blessed. I mean, that's the history of what we've seen here as a church. When you look at Acts chapter 2, that's what you find with the early church. It says in verse 42, they devoted themselves — that's what they're saying, they were devoted — and then it lists some things that they were devoted to. They devoted themselves as a community to the apostles' teaching, which is God's word, to fellowship with one another, the breaking of bread and prayers. And awe came upon every soul. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Let me just say this: coming here, sitting down this morning, it's an important step in your walk with the Lord. But I don't want us to lose sight of also the importance of the people around you, the importance of what it is that all of us be an encouragement to one another for the sake of Christ. And let me just say it like this — and I'm especially talking to you introverts, not because I want to run over you or make you feel bad, but sometimes we use that as an excuse. And I'm not saying if you're an introvert it's easy to make friends or meet people — you don't make it awkward. For those that are extroverts, you do. You make it awkward for everybody. But look, I don't want you to undervalue the significance of who you are in Christ. It may be true that if you reach out and make a friend today, it's important. How are we ever going to know you're hurting unless you say something? We're not mind readers. How are we going to know you need encouraged in the Lord unless you say something?

And sometimes when people talk about the importance of unity, they say things like this: God wants us to unite because if you ever go through hurting days, you know you need people there. And look, if you wait till you're hurting to then try to create community, you waited too long. It's not to say you can't, but you waited too long. We need community. We do need community, and that is a part of community — when we hurt. But more than that, God creates community so we can move forward. God has called us to storm down gates, do incredible things. You can't do that without community. And when we work together, we get the opportunity of seeing that made known in him.

And when the early church devoted themselves in this way, if you skip down to verse 47, it says this: and the Lord added to their numbers day by day those who were being saved. It's saying one of the most beautiful ways to reach people is when the church is living in a healthy way, because people see that and they're like, man, I want to belong. I want that. This is missing in my life. Help me understand how you got there. And so when a church lives this out, it becomes incredible.

If I just highlighted this for you as you think about what the Lord's done here at Alpine Bible Church — I've got to say this fast, but I want you to just hear this. Since 2020, our church has tripled over the last five years. We've grown by 20% each year. This past year we grew by 11%, which is way more than I expected. I don't know how people keep showing up here. We don't have enough room. But we had between 450 to 500 people on a Sunday. We want more people. That's why we're going to build a building. We baptized 53 people this year. We've helped churches in Utah, Africa, Asia, Central America. We even had a church in Torrey that three years ago their foundation collapsed and they were not able to meet in their building. They were permitted to show up and meet in their entry room. And we found out they had not been able to meet for three years. A team from our church went down and helped them rebuild that building, and they just had their opening Sunday just a couple of weeks ago. We helped a church in Torrey, Utah, rebuild. We bought land for a new church that started in — I'll say — a closed country we can't talk about. But they have a group of believers gathering together and they want to build a building, so we helped purchase the land for them to build a building on. We sent 500 Christmas shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child around the world. We went on two mission trips as a church. We hosted a blood drive. We had two supply drives for the city mission. We had two clothing drives for our area. We supported the local pregnancy resource center. We served over 15,000 people in our food pantry. We started new ministries which included a ministry to special needs, a media ministry, a new prayer team ministry. We put new ministry leaders in several positions. We offered more discipleship classes than ever before. We hosted an Easter event and a Christmas event that had over 800 people at both of those events. We had a Vacation Bible School with over 150 kids. We hosted a summer camp for teenagers that had over 150 campers. We gave away 18 scholarships for kids to participate. We hosted two church plant conferences, hosted multiple retreats for men and women and youth, including an additional men's conference, a Living in Utah seminar, and an All Things New conference. We hosted multiple mission teams. We paid for our new property on Main Street — paid it all off. We added an intern, a brand new pastor, and we're about to break ground on a new building. And that was just in three minutes. I wrote that down and I felt exhausted, so I stopped. We probably could have had more, but I just want you to know, being a part of ABC, we're seeing God doing incredible things.

Now let me just end with this. If you picked up your notes this morning, you'll see in your notes that there is our budget from this past year, our expenses as a church. I want you to know, every year we share this at the end of our fiscal year. And the reason we do that is because if you're a part of Alpine Bible Church, and especially if you give to the work here, we want you to know at any moment if you would desire to request our budget, you can ask for it at any time. Anyone that counts Alpine Bible Church as your church and you give to ABC — our giving is completely transparent. Now, we don't tell who gives what. We let that be private with the individual. But we realize we're accountable for every dollar spent. I know there are places in this world — I won't point fingers — that you can go and give money and you have no idea where it goes. Most of the time you go through a drive-through and they want you to donate to blah blah blah, and you don't really know. But here at ABC, we keep every dollar accounted for. So we want you to know when you donate here, we are very much interested in seeing the work of the ministry go forward. We do have staff here. We have seven people. No one is full time. Everyone serves above and beyond. If they went anywhere else and got jobs, they would make probably easily double, triple what we make here. And it's not to say that's not important. It is important. But I do want you to know this: every moment you serve here, every dollar you give here — we understand the significance of where we are. And we want to see the Lord continue to make a difference in the lives of people around us. But the way that works is that we would walk in unity together.

Now, in the days ahead, as we get ready to do our capital campaign, we'll give you the budget for the new year then. But we typically follow recommended budgets for a healthy church. We gave you a link at the bottom of your notes if you want to see one of those locations that just examines churches and whether or not they're making healthy decisions. But we'll give you the budget for the new year. We didn't want to do that today simply because our building projects are going to change how that looks. Within the next couple of weeks, we're going to have all that information. So we'll release our budget about a month later. But all that to say, guys, in the way that you give and the way that you serve the Lord, thank you. And let's continue to walk in unity together.