All right, this morning we're going to look into the Word of God, which I'm very much looking forward to doing, because if you are like me, and by the way, I know you are because the Bible says you are, you need the Word of God in your life. We need to hear from God, not just in our homes, in the mornings or evenings, whenever you do your devotions, afternoons, We need to hear from Him as a collective this morning, and I pray that God will open His Word to us. You don't need to hear from me this morning. You really don't. You don't need to hear from me. You need to hear from God. This morning, we'll be looking at the topic of I'll say the topic of the title, Sacred Unity. The topic is whatever, by the way, the passage of 1 Corinthians 3, 5-17 is. That's the topic. But the title this morning is Sacred Unity. I'm just going to look at these verses together. You know, 1 Corinthians is largely a book that is written by Paul, inspired by the Spirit, to address various divisions that exist in the church in Corinth. and to speak the gospel into those divisions. Okay, so Paul's writing to address divisions that have taken place between the brothers and sisters, and to speak the Gospel into those divisions. In fact, from chapter 1, verse 10, all the way to the end of chapter 4. Can you bring that slide up for me, Matt, if it's up? I hope it is. I've done it, yes. I had a bad night with slides on Wednesday, so I'm hoping this is better this morning. From chapter 1, verse 10, all the way to the end of chapter 4, Paul is addressing this one division that we are currently bang in the middle of. This first division. Here's the big idea, okay? If you want a big idea for this sermon, for this passage, here it is. The reason that the division of Corinth was such a big emphasis is because unity among Christians is a work of God that is sacred. Out of everything that we're going to look at, we're going to look at metaphors, what represents what, all these different things. Don't lose this. The reason that Paul is making this a big deal is because it is. Unity is a sacred thing to God. Now Paul knew what a challenge it would be for these Corinthians to forsake their Corinthian worldview and to turn to a Gospel-centered way of viewing the world and a Gospel-centered way of living in the world. And he knew that empowered by the Spirit, only the love of Christ could overcome these dividing issues. It was tearing their church apart. And coming straight on the heels of Alan's sermon last week about how believers to whom Paul was writing were acting more like Corinthians than Christians. It had become about jealousy and strife. It had become about division and power grabs. But this wasn't just something they were doing in the moment. It's something they had been taught to do from their earliest of days as Corinthians. It had been ingrained into them. Now remember what Paul addressed in chapter 1 verses 10 to 17. Similarly to the passage that Alan preached from last week, there were fractions. taking place in this church. And among these fractured groups were factions of Christians in the church who were using Paul, Apollos, Peter, and even the Lord Jesus as a tool to create division in the church. And the question is, why? And the answer is, they were acting like Corinthians. They were acting like Corinthians. The city was obsessed with competition. You know, there were games called the Ithnian Games, much like the Olympics, that fed the need for competition by lavishly rewarding winners. You know, even we talked about the word sophistry. Corinth was obsessed with sophistry. And it was the art of using words to convince people to join your group or faction. And that could be a political party. That could be a religious group. That could be a house of nobility. You name it. They were paid by people to stand in the public and convince everyone else to join their faction. And if you were fortunate enough to join up with the most successful group or faction, then you really had status in the community. I mean, you were up here. Sadly, the Corinthian believers had begun applying their culture to their church life. They were turning spiritual leaders into status symbols. They were treating apostles like celebrity philosophers, measuring them by how well they could speak, or how they spoke, or what influence they had in society. They were essentially saying, well, you may have been baptized by Paul, but listen, I was baptized by Apollos. Or, I was baptized by the great Apostle Peter, the leader of the disciples. Therefore, you should be silent and listen to what I have to say and fall in line and follow our group. That's essentially what was taking place. They were allowing their Corinthian culture to push the gospel out of their church life, rather than allowing the gospel to shape the culture of the church. You see, the unifying power of the gospel was absolutely necessary in their lives if they were to overcome these divisions and find oneness and unity. It would only be found on the basis of the gospel. And this is the context that we're bringing in to verses 5 to 17. God is going to use Paul to draw their minds back to the gospel, to remind them of who they are and who they are not in Christ. He's going to do so by using three metaphors. And I like to bring those on the screen. Three metaphors. He's going to use the metaphor of a field. He's going to use the metaphor of a building. And he's going to use a metaphor of a temple. So how is he going to relate to these fragmented Corinthians? He's going to teach them about the sacredness of living in unity. He is going to use these metaphors of field, building, and a temple to do so. So we'll begin with the former. The inspired Apostle Paul makes this declaration. Number one, you are God's field. You are God's field. Remember, they were dividing over Apollos and Paul, weren't they? And notice what he says in verses 5-9. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." So neither He who plants nor He who waters is anything, but only God who gives growth. He who plants and He who waters are one. and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field." We're going to stop there for the time being. Now, it's important when you come to study any passage that you understand a few things about whatever passage you're studying. It's important to understand who the author is writing to and what he's writing about, or in this passage, whom he's writing about. Here's the interesting thing about this passage. Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, every Corinthian believer in Jesus, about the Bible teachers in their lives. So he's writing to Christians about Bible teachers. And he gives this powerful metaphor to them about a field. He says definitively in verse 9, you are God's field. Let's go to the next slide there, Matt. As he goes on, he's making it clear to them. In this metaphor, the field is the Corinthian church. The field is the Corinthian church. And we're going to understand why that's important as we go. Then in verse number 5 and the beginning of verse 6, he mentions the Lord or Master here. This is the farmer, the owner of the field. And he sends the workers or his servants to the field to work in the field. Now, if the church of Corinth is the field, then who do we think the owner of the field is? Well, God is the farmer. God is the owner of the field, right? What about the workers that he sends into the field? Notice how the whole passage starts in verse number five. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? And what's the answer with the very next word? Servants. And what does Paul say that his role was as a servant? I planted, Paul says. So the farmer sends one of his servants, the workers, to plant the seed, meaning God assigns Paul to found the church in Corinth by planting the seed of the gospel and seeing converts, right? So this is the metaphor so far. Paul says, listen, I'm nothing. Apollos is nothing. God only used me to plant just as a farmer. The owner of the field sends a servant into the field to spread seed. But the farmer doesn't just send a servant to plant seed. According to the end of verse number 6, he sends a servant also afterwards to water the crop that's been planted. Who was the servant that watered crops? It was Apollos, right? It was Apollos. After Paul founded the church in Corinth, God later assigned Apollos to teach them. So notice at the end of verse number 6, God gives the growth. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? We are nothing but servants. Who gives growth? Only God, the owner of the field, gives growth. Only God can make a crop grow and only God can make a church grow. It is not the one who plants or the one who waters that makes it grow. It is not the one who preaches or the one who teaches that makes it grow. Only God can do it. It is God and God alone who gives growth. Now this is important. Listen. What were the Corinthian believers dividing over? Over who'd been baptized by Paul or Apollos, right? As if that gave them superiority over one another. But Paul says, Apollos and I are just servants. We're nobodies. We just do what we're told. And notice how he puts it in verse number 7. So neither is he who plants, nor he who waters anything, but only God who gives the growth. And here's the really important part in the context of their divisions and power grabs. Both the servant who plants and the servant who waters work together. They're not competing. They work together doing the same work in different ways. They're working together. They have the same purpose. They are trying to accomplish the desire of the farmer to produce an abundant harvest in the field. And they're working together on that. Paul and Apollos were not against each other. They were working together with the same purpose of accomplishing God's desired growth in the church of Corinth. Now on a side note, I find this powerful, and perhaps you do too. There are times when, because of our sin, our suffering, and the element of the unknown, we can begin to feel like God is not working, and nothing is happening. But be rest assured, be rest assured, if you are His field, God is at work in your life. And if I may be so bold as to say as well, He sent teachers and pastors into your lives to plant and water so that He can produce an abundant crop in your life. But listen to me just for a moment. The pastors, you are not the pastor's field. You're not my field. You're not Alan's field. You are God's field. And He's a good Master who looks to produce abundant growth in your life. That should bring you comfort like it does me this morning. And verse number 9 brings it all together, and He puts it all in perspective. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field. Both the servants and the field belong to God. Both the teachers and the rest of the church belonged to God. The divisions over teachers was irrelevant because like the rest of the church, teachers need God and are nothing without Him. You are God's field. Second metaphor. You are God's building. And that's verses 10-15. You are God's building. Let's pick up in verse 9 again. At the end of it, it says, You are God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built upon the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any work is burnt up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Just as the field in the first metaphor was the church, the building in the second metaphor is the church. The building belongs to God. The church of Corinth was a possession of God. Oh, listen, Blurton Baptist Church, take heart. You are a possession of God. You are His building. Now, according to verse 10, a skilled builder lays a good foundation that everything else can be properly built upon, right? According to verse 11, what foundation did Paul lay? It's important to notice about passages like these that there is a two-fold purpose in the metaphor. Of course, as we mentioned earlier, Paul was addressing the division and calling them to unity in the gospel. But this passage is also a stern warning. Paul founded the church of Corinth upon the most solid foundation of all, the Gospel of a crucified Messiah. That's the foundation that the church was built upon. Now we've noted before that the idea of a crucified Messiah would have been counter-cultural to the Corinthians. His death looked like failure to them. But His death successfully absorbed the wrath of God that we deserved. So we could say that those who trust in Him can be fully and truly forgiven and set free. And this is the foundation of the church that Paul laid. But not just the foundation that all can be set free in Christ, but the foundation that in order to accomplish this, it took a crucified Messiah. Someone who died for the benefit of others. The metaphor goes on. Afterwards, according to the middle of verse 10, builders come and further build upon that solid foundation. Even after Paul, other teachers were to come in and build upon Paul's foundation as the church was being built. Now earlier, we mentioned that one of the reasons Paul wrote this passage was to address the division and call them to unity. And again, that is most certainly the purpose. But it's important to notice this stark warning. Verse 10, let each one take care. of how he builds upon it. Now, he is primarily speaking to teachers right here. I want you to understand that. He's directing this primarily to teachers. But it doesn't mean that it doesn't apply to us as well, and we'll see why in just a moment. But each builder, according to the metaphor, must take care how he builds upon the foundation. and church leaders in Corinth, they were being called to be careful to build on the Gospel foundation of the church. Be careful that no matter what you build as pastors and teachers and leaders, that you're building upon the foundation of the church. Now in verse 12, two groups of three are mentioned in terms of materials for building. The first group consists of high quality, inflammable materials, gold, silver, precious stones. And the second group consists of highly flammable materials, wood, hay, and straw. So later builders who came after the foundation had been laid could use either flammable materials or a highly Inflammable materials were highly flammable materials to build with. Why would you choose flammable materials? Why would you use anything else to build on such a beautiful and perfect foundation? Church teachers could either build God's church consistent with its foundation of a crucified Messiah, or they could build it in a way that reflected the worldly wisdom of Corinth. Gold, silver, precious stones are the basic truths of the Gospel. They're the basic truths of the Gospel, which say that we all came in the same way, level-pegging, and we all stand level-pegging in the Gospel. The wisdom of Corinth says, on the other hand, through this wood, hay, and stubble, divide and conquer. That was wood, hay, and straw. But the gospel foundation that Paul laid declares that we are all one and equally deserving of honor in Christ. The quality of the building materials must be consistent with the builder's foundation of a crucified Messiah who laid down His life for the brethren. Now what are things that we often divide over in church? We'll get back to this a little bit at the end. Sometimes we like to divide over good things. Things we shouldn't be dividing over. Things we should be uniting over. Things that we should be worshipping Christ over. Even when we don't understand. Even when we don't agree. Like, when is the Lord going to return? Like, what are the sign gifts and the proper gifts of the Spirit? Like, is it Calvinism? Is it dispensationalism? And some of you don't know what those terms mean. And you're probably better off in some ways not to know what those terms mean sometimes. Because people fight over things that we should be uniting over. A lot of people like to fight over what type of music we're going to use in the church to worship the Creator. People like to fight over what translation of the Scripture we're going to use as we read it from the front or preach it from the front. And these are types of things that divide us so many times. But they're actually things that should never divide us. There are things that when we don't understand them or agree on them, should prompt us into worship of the God who does know and understand. The gospel teaches us that even when I disagree with you, even on good things, that I'm going to seek unity. And my goal in our relationship is never going to be division. When we use these things to divide, even though they're good things, we're using wood, hay, and straw to build. So beware. Notice verse 13. Each one's work will become manifest for the day. And by the way, when you see the word day, that's referring to the day of the Lord, the day of judgment when the Lord returns and judges. The day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. Fire is the only way to reveal the quality of the materials. It's horrible to think of, but the metaphor is this. Imagine that the building catches fire. Let's imagine there's a massive fire in the building. If it was built with wood, hay, and stubble, wood, hay, and straw, what's going to happen to the building? Up in flames, the building collapses. If it's built with these precious materials, these inflammable solid materials, gold, silver, precious stone, what's going to happen? It's going to catch fire, but the structure is going to stand. A builder whose building survives, the fire has built it well. Right? Gold, silver, precious stones will survive a fire and the building will stand. Wood, hay, and stubble will be burnt up. The building will collapse. So God will on the day of the Lord, someday at the judgment, the quality of the teachers the quality that the teachers have built the foundation upon is going to be revealed. All will be revealed someday. Now, I just want to say this. As we've been going through our deacon series on Wednesdays before the evangelism series, we spent a long time. How long did we spend actually in that series, Alan? Ten months we spent looking at deacons. Once a month for ten months we looked at deacons. And one of the things that we were saying about deacons, and this is relevant given the fact that this is the last week that you can actually nominate a deacon, but what are we looking for in nominating a deacon? Are we looking for the qualities of Christ? Are we looking for the qualities of a servant? We talked about that, didn't we? That there's a certain gospel-centered focus The deacons must bring in to serving in the church. And if that applies to deacons, can you imagine how much more highly and profoundly that applies to those who are the teachers in the church? By the way, that scares me. It scares me in a good way. That makes me say, Please let me be Gospel-focused. God, please let me be building upon that Gospel-focused foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ, using Gospel means to do so. Now according to the metaphor in verse 14, a builder whose building survives a fire will receive a reward." Meaning, God will reward church leaders and teachers who build with the right materials. But according to verse 15, a builder whose building does not survive a fire will suffer loss, but he himself will survive as the only one escaping through the flames. That's the metaphor we're getting here. And it means this, that God will not reward church teachers who build with wrong materials, though He will save them from eternal judgment, because they're His. Remember, the field and the worker are His. Now, I want you to note the tender care and nature of God toward His children. He deeply cares about His people, the field and the building. But He also deeply cares about the teachers who get it wrong. That's implied here. On that topic, I need to take a moment to stop and apologize and seek to repent before this congregation. You know, in the past, I've taught this passage incorrectly. From this pulpit, this lectern, whatever it is. This passage is dealing with teachers who get the emphasis in teaching wrong. And I've done in the past, in this passage at Blurton, is I've taught this passage from the wrong perspective, as if those Christians who work hard and for the right reason will be at the front of the queue, and lazy Christians are at the back of the queue. It's been many years ago, but I got it wrong. And I hope you forgive me. But I'm so glad that God still loves me. That God still cares about me and my stumbling. I want to keep learning. I want to keep repenting when I get it wrong. Just as God is at work in the building, He's at work in those who are building as well. And I love that note of care in a passage that deals with some difficult truths, and that's just like our God of love, isn't it? You are God's building. The third and last metaphor is this. You are God's temple. Verse 16, do you not know that you are God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him." Now, we know what the limitations of that destruction is based upon the previous passage as well. For God's temple is holy. You are that temple. Now, the interesting thing here is the tense of the word you. I found this mind-blowing. Actually, I had a tough time wrapping my mind around it, to be honest with you. When Alan and I were studying this out on Tuesday, But it's plural. The word you here is plural in the Greek. So I find this interesting because the Holy Spirit, we know, indwells individuals personally, right? We know that. That right now, Sam Aichen is sat on the second row indwelt by the Spirit of God. I believe that about him, by the way. I've been around him enough to know that this is my brother in Christ. So I know that, that individually I'm standing before you as a Spirit-indwelt believer. But God here is saying, you all are the temple of God. You all are indwelt. Many people, one temple. Now immediately, my mind, in terms of the temple, goes to the Old Testament, right? The temple of God in Jerusalem, where there was a structure, and inside of that structure, the Shekinah glory, the perfect glory and presence of God dwelt. That's what comes to my mind here in this passage. And I think that's a precious thought to consider. And that's how I've always viewed myself individually as a child of God, as an individual temple of God. And I'm right to believe that, but there's so much more to it. You all are the temple of God. The church of Corinth was the temple of God. Blurton Baptist Church is the temple of God. Not this building, but us as we gather. But this isn't the only place where this principle is taught. I don't have this on a screen. I'll just read through these passages real quickly. Ephesians 2, verses 21-22 say this, In whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also all are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Same principle. 1 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5. As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house. Notice the plural nature there. Stones, plural, one house. Now the church as a group in God's temple. That's a fascinating concept. When spirit and dwelt believers, individuals gather together as a collective, the spirit dwells among us in a profound way. The Christian life is never private. It's always personal, but it's never private, right? And whilst there is this personal principle of truth that every individual Christian is indwelt by the Spirit, the most sacred realization of being indwelt by the Spirit is experienced in doing what we are doing right now. Gathering together. The most sacred realization of being indwelt by the Spirit is experienced in unity with other Spirit indwelt people. There is something sacred about God's temple. Notice how it's described in verse 17 as holy. Holy. Set apart for a reason. That's what holy means. Set apart for a reason, for a purpose. We are God's temple. Holy. But notice the beginning of verse 17. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. Now, the language here would have been profound to these Corinthians. First off, I think it would have been profound because I think there's a possible shift in who he's speaking to here. I'm not sure he's speaking strictly to teachers anymore. He says, if anyone destroys God's temple, what he says fits with the building metaphor, since while the only believers, church teachers, may construct the building, anyone, church teacher or not, can tear it down. Only the teachers, only the builders can build it up, but anyone can tear it down. in the context of the verses around this metaphor, what is it that destroys the temple? What was Paul addressing, we said, in this passage? Division. Division and a lack of unity. Division and disunity. So how do we destroy the temple? We divide. Divide and conquer. Be a Corinthian. But the gospel speaks into it something so different. Don't divide and conquer. Unite and surrender. Unite and surrender. Now the second reason this temple language would have been profound is because of their cultural connection to temples. I just want you to hear this for a moment. So I'm gonna bring a few pictures up on the screen. And this is from a video game, but it's historically, it strives to be historically accurate. And so this is, if you were to look at what the structure in Corinth looks like right now, you would realize that it looks The geography, the hill, the pillars that are there look exactly the same as this. So this is a pretty accurate depiction of what it would have looked like. Notice at the top of the hill, there's a temple. At the bottom of the hill, there were multiple temples, something like eight other temples in Corinth. But this on the top of the hill, this is the Temple of Apollo. The temple of Apollo. You could see it from everywhere. Go to the next slide. You could see it from anywhere, no matter where you were in Corinth. You could look up upon that mountain, see the temple of Apollo. It was the most elaborate structure in Corinth, and it was the most visible structure in Corinth. Therefore, it was probably the most revered structure in Corinth. So when it comes to temples, the Corinthians, immediately if they hear the word temple, I think their mind would have gone to that. Now what was true about that temple is it was used for the worship of a false god. There was no God dwelling in that temple. There was no presence inside of that temple. They could go, they could sacrifice, they could pray, they could do other ritualistic things, but it would not change the fact that there was no God in that temple. In spite of the fact that there was no God in that temple, it was sacred to them. Their culture had forced them to believe that that was something sacred, that was something untouchable. Now think and imagine for a moment, what if, go back to the previous picture for a moment, what if someone had gone to that beautiful structure on top of that mountain and had just started kicking in those pillars? They just grabbed a big massive mallet and just started bashing in the pillars. How do you think the city would have reacted to that? How do you think the average Corinthian would have reacted to tearing down the pillars of that structure? It would have been a riot. An angry mob would immediately ascend on the temple of Apollo. They'd have been incensed. But we're not talking about the temple of Apollo in our passage in 1 Corinthians 3. We're talking about the temple of the living God. The church is the temple of the living God indwelt by the Spirit of God Himself. How do you think God feels about someone who goes to that temple and starts knocking out pieces of the pillar. How do you think God feels? And how should we feel? The Corinthians would have been incensed by that temple being torn down. Why are we not incensed when this temple is torn down? When disunity ascends. Now just to sum all of this up before we go to the 20-25 stuff. In the literary context, the way to destroy a church... This is a quote from a commentary, by the way. I want to be honest. The way to destroy a church is to focus on worldly wisdom rather than the gospel. Thus, the way to destroy a church, including dividing over teachers, focusing on less important issues instead of the gospel, or teaching false doctrine, is the way. Paul's warning applies especially to divisive people in the church of Corinth. Now what does this mean to us in 2025? I want to send with you four brief questions to consider over the next couple of days. Maybe this afternoon you just go away someplace quiet and reflect on this. First question is this. Who's influencing you? Who is influencing me? What is currently at this moment drawing me in? What has the capability of drawing me in more than anything else? What is my standard for being influenced by people, especially by teachers? Now we live in the most frustrating day and time in the history of the world for faithful Bible preachers and teachers. It is the most frustrating age to live in. And I'll tell you why. Because there are people on TikTok, on YouTube, on Instagram, who are influencing a generation more than the pastors of the churches they attend are. We live in a day and time where thought is just given constantly. In a day and time where we can scroll through thought after thought after thought, teaching after teaching after teaching of the Bible. And many times, I get so frustrated as a pastor, because I'll watch a video and I'll say, you're a liar! That's not true! And that's what we're ingesting. Constantly. We call those people, even though they're teaching the Bible, we call those people influencers. What is influencing you the most in your online activity? But I would ask you this. What is influencing you the most in your community teaching as well? What is drawing you in? What gets your attention more than anything else? What's the foundation? The foundation is meant to be the basic truths of the gospel, the message of a crucified Messiah who laid down His life. Second question. Am I living in unity? Am I living in unity? Why would we ask that question? Well, it's quite obvious why we would ask that question. The context of the entire first four chapters of 1 Corinthians is addressing this unity. We learn something from the context as a whole that unity is precious to God. But we learn something from verse number 17 that is even more precious than all of that. Unity is sacred to God. It's sacred to God. You know what that means? It means that you and I living in unity with one another is a sacred thing. It's sacred. It means something to God more than we often believe and teach. And that naturally leads to the third question. Am I creating sacrilege? Am I involved in sacrilege? Now, when I commit sacrilege, when I commit division, I'm committing sacrilege. Think about that for a moment. I just want you to hear that, okay? And I'm going to tell you why I say that. You, we are the temple. God calls the temple holy, right? Sacred. when we divide from one another over non-essential things. Now, I'll tell you this right now, you start saying that Jesus was not born of a virgin, we're going to have problems. And that's going to divide the church, right? We're going to have to divide over things like that. But when we divide over non-essential things about the gospel, it's like someone is taking a hammer to one of the pillars of God's temple. You think God's going to take that seriously? God sees that as sacrilege. And I really believe what I'm saying out loud right now. I know that's a hot take. But I believe it. When I create division, purposely create division, I am committing sacrilege. Now, when we normally think of sacrilege, we think of things completely unrelated to unity, don't we? You know, we think of someone running through the church building at any particular time, running, some little child running and screaming, hey, don't do that in the church. We think of someone cracking open a can of pop or something like that. Why would they do that in the church? And I'm not saying that neither one of those things aren't pet peeves for me. But I will say this, those things are not defined in Scripture as sacrilege. Disunity is. And here's the fourth and final question. Do I belong to God? Am I part of the field? Am I part of the building? Am I part of the temple? I want to double down on this again. You might be sitting here in this particular moment saying, I've committed sacrilege. Oh no. God, help me. And I'm glad that you're feeling that sense of the weight of this passage. But what I don't want you to feel in this moment is that you've bottled it. What I don't want you to feel in this moment is that there's no way back. What I don't want you to feel is that you've blown it, and now you're disqualified from ever being holy ever again. That's not what I want you to feel right now. What I want you to feel, if you have messed this up, is I want you to feel a sense of the reality that God is committed to you, even though you've got this wrong. There is nothing that the blood of Jesus won't cover for His children. There is no mistake that is greater than the atonement of Jesus. So you may have committed sacrilege by purposefully creating division. But don't forget, God is committed to you even when you get this wrong. May God bless these thoughts to our hearts. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that this is true and profound to those of us who are willing to admit that we get things wrong. We thank you that you died in order to bring about unity. You actually died to unite all things together in one, as Ephesians says, in Christ. We thank You that You prayed for this for us in the garden in John 17. God, I thank You that this is dear to Your heart, because I know it's what I need the most. God, please help us, create in us an intuition, a hunger, a desire to experience gospel unity. Protect this congregation from disunity, God. Protect us relationally, God, but protect us from ever having anyone that would come into this congregation that would not preach the gospel faithfully, that would seek to undo the foundation. God, please. Protect Your people. Give us an overwhelming sense of Your love and commitment to us as Your children. In Jesus' name, Amen.