Episode 1647: So That They May Be One

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,647 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Alexandra Renders: I'm Alexandra Renders. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to live out the principles and values in our business and our life is key.

And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: Again, unity, not uniformity. Being together, not being the same, not demanding that everyone look the same, act the same, be the same, but rather recognizing that in God's eyes, in [00:01:00] Christ's eyes, we are children of God. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling in the Inspired Stewardship Podcast who will learn to invest in yourself.

Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about John chapter 17 verses one through 11. I'll talk about how we have a call to unity, but that doesn't mean uniformity. And also share how important relationship is to living in love. John 17 verses one through [00:02:00] 11 says, after Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, father, the hour has come Glorify your son so that the son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all people to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.

They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you. For the words that you gave to me. I have given to them and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf.

I'm not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave [00:03:00] me because they are yours. All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I'm coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me so that they may be one as we are one.

This is one of those passages, again, from the farewell discourse that has a lot of different threads, a lot of different pieces, a lot of different things that we can talk about. This is not a message of taking people out of the world, but rather protecting while they're in the world. If, if you read on a few verses, you'll see even more of that.

Help them, help us live in the world as though we belong to him. That's kind of the call. And, and as Christians, that is a huge challenge, is how to be in the world and yet [00:04:00] not of the world. And there's a spirit of protection that's called on in this passage that comes over and Jesus hands us over to the Spirit and to God and ask God to let us live and work in the world, but not.

As we were living, but rather as signs of God's presence pointing to the world, beyond to the kingdom or kingdom of God. There's the theme of unity that shows up in here, unif unity, not uni uniformity. So that I may be one. Jesus prays that we, and by the way, that we there is not just Christians. Are one that we are to be as close as Jesus and God are close to function, as if we are parts of the trinity, aspects of the same thing, different but one and in complete [00:05:00] each separate and together essence and in hope, that's what community really is.

It doesn't mean that individuality is lost. After all differences make the whole what it is. But it does mean that we acknowledge we are not on our own. We are part of a larger whole, and we need each other and we are incomplete without each other. It's like fighting with yourself, ripping one part of you out and hating part of you while loving the other.

And although we do that, we do cast stones at ourselves. We do tear apart at ourselves. We do think I'm not good enough, or this part of me is not good enough. And we do that both as individuals and as the community of the church. In this prayer, it's clear that we are called to be one and to be whole.

That in the world and out of the world, [00:06:00] language is about us being. Connected to each other, but also connected to the world. Our eyes are on eternity, but our bodies are still here. Our true home is the kingdom, but we are here in the world today trying to show the light of that kingdom into the world.

There's tons of things in this prayer that Jesus is praying that could be picked apart and pulled out. Verse 10 says, all mine are yours and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. It says something about Jesus for sure. It says a lot more about Jesus than it does of us, but it also speaks again to relationship and to community.

It. It's about how we live, how we love, how we [00:07:00] act, how we don't act in this world, and how that is a presentation of Christ to those who know him and to those who don't. How we share and give doesn't just reflect on us, but reflects on Jesus how we treat one another, honor one another and celebrate one another.

And those commitments that we have made become part of who we are, part of our faith, part of our message. If we don't glorify Christ by the way we live in community, then what are we even doing? Our connectedness, our community is part of our witness. It's part of telling the story that matters. Disunity is a denial of that very message.

To belong to him is to belong to each other. It is to belong to everyone. Again, unity, not uniformity. Being [00:08:00] together, not being the same, not demanding that everyone look the same, act the same, be the same, but rather recognizing that in God's eyes, in Christ's eyes, we are children of God. Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship

Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/.

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