The Abilene Paradox

Well, thank you again, Mr. Janisic and good afternoon once again. It's nice to be here and it's nice to have opportunity to hang out with you this afternoon. I certainly appreciate it. You know, it's been some time since we've talked about this particular concept, but I'm planning today to bring to a close a series of messages that I started back at the beginning of the summer.

In fact, I think the last one was given in June, so I'm going to ask you to go back and dig deep into the back of the cabinets in your file cabinet upstairs, see if you can find that file in there somewhere, that we started back in June on the Abilene Paradox. And I'm going to help, try help a little bit, by reviewing where we've been and kind of hopefully set the stage for ultimately where we're going.

If you recall the story that accompanies the description of the paradox, four individuals from Coleman, Texas decided to take a hot, dusty, and miserable 53-mile drive to Abilene, Texas in a non-air-conditioned Buick to eat at a local cafeteria that served the kind of food only fit for a Roll-Aids commercial. Then, to add insult to injury, it was back into the non-air-conditioned Buick for a hot, dusty, and miserable 53-mile drive right back to Coleman, Texas, only to find out later that none of them were even really interested in going in the first place. Each of them would have rather preferred to stay on the porch, enjoy the breeze, drink ice cold lemonade, and play dominoes.

So, how did they all end up going someplace that none of them wanted to go? What happened? Jerry Harvey, the gentleman who recognized the principle in this situation after he was the one who experienced it personally, kind of made a point as he defined this particular paradox. He said, the Abilene paradox is when a person or an organization frequently takes actions in contradiction to what they really want to do, and therefore defeat the very purposes that they're trying to achieve. The Abilene paradox isn't an issue, again, of managing conflict, it's an issue of managing agreement.

I think we intuitively recognize most people don't want to rock the boat. Some people love to rock the boat. Some people stand on the side of the boat while you're in it and go, heh heh heh, what do you think of that? You know, some people enjoy rocking the boat a little bit. But most people don't. Most people tend to want to go along with people and try to keep people happy.

So sometimes they agree to things that they might not agree with in order to not upset other people. Or alternatively, sometimes people may not think that their opinions even wanted in the first place, or valid and calibrated appropriately. So they may not speak up because, I don't know if you've ever had this situation where you're sitting in a room and you're like, well, the only one that thinks this is a really bad idea? Nobody else is speaking up. All right, maybe we'll just go along with it.

I don't know if you've been there before. I feel like that in a lot of my teacher meetings. A few of my teacher meetings. But yeah, I mean, people don't want to rock the boat. They want to keep people happy. They don't want to have a situation where they make people upset. In this particular series, we've explored this concept that has built to this point today. And what I didn't realize at the time, as I was preparing and giving those first couple of messages, was that I'd actually written the last message before the other two were even completed.

And I didn't really realize that until I was putting all of this together and realizing that what I was doing in those first and second messages was really bringing us to this point. In the first message, what we looked at was the concept of judgment, mercy, and faith, and the importance of there being an unchanging standard by which judgments are made.

That there absolutely, positively is a standard. And we looked at the conditions in the world around us. We looked at the conditions in the churches we see in Scripture, in the end times. And we recognized that we aren't immune from perilous times. We are not immune from things creeping into the church from culture. Mr. Hanson discussed some of those sorts of things that are out there in the world around us today in the first split.

There is a standard. There absolutely is a standard. And we must uphold that standard as the world encroaches. The second message we talked about and examined the topics of judgment, mercy, and faith more specifically. Those weightier matters of the law, as it mentions in Matthew 25. And we talked a little bit about that passage in Matthew 25 that contains the rebuke that Christ gave to the Pharisees.

How the Pharisees, in a sincere effort on their part to keep the law, were likened by Christ as hypocrites. Law was given to govern human behavior to a godly standard. To govern human behavior to a godly standard.

And inherent in that law, you might say, maybe underlying principles, were righteous judgment, mercy, faith. And they were keeping the law as they understood it, but were leaving these weightier matters undone. We discussed taking these three things, taking judgment, mercy, and faith, and flipping them around, looking at it from a standpoint of faith, mercy, and judgment.

And that when we come to a brother, and when we come to someone whom we are interacting with, that we recognize first the common faith that we share. We come with that in place first. We recognize to begin with that we are brothers and not enemies.

And we come with a recognition of that common faith. We extend the mercy that we all need as well to that individual. And lastly, if and when judgment needs to be made, it's made in accordance with that unmoving standard, and with a path forward to restoration and to reconciliation in place. If we go to our brother in the other direction, if we start with judgment in our mind first, and we go to our brother with the intent of fixing the problem, judgment first then mercy, then faith somewhere in there too, we can end up creating a situation where reconciliation may be difficult, if not near impossible.

How many times has that happened before? How many times has that type of a situation led to offense and led to a difficulty in a relationship? Like for honest, countless times. Countless times over the years. So today as we bring this series to a close, we're going to talk a little bit about the effect that offense has, talk a little bit about the concept of unity as the body, unity as brethren, and our part in establishing and maintaining it.

Start today by turning over to Psalm 133. Psalm 133. We'll begin there today. And we'll begin there to set the stage kind of getting the idea and the concepts of King David's thoughts on unity as he was inspired to record these things in Psalm 133. Psalm 133, and we'll pick it up in verse 1, a very recognized Psalm.

In fact, I don't know about you, I start to read it and I hear the hymn in the back of my hands that goes through. But Psalm 133 in verse 1 says, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.

It's like the dew of Herman, descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. The psalmist compares this unity among brethren to the fragrant oil that anointed Aaron as high priest, that flowed down his head into his beard and onto his robes. And you know, I can't help but think in those days that description had a greater meaning than it does to us today.

You kind of look at that and it reminds you of some of the things you see in Song of Solomon, or it's like your teeth are licked onto a flock of sheep. And you think, wow, okay, thanks. Appreciate that. But I think it's a description that by and large is lost on us today. I think it's by and large lost on us today. But what's interesting when you dig into this a little bit, you can understand why and you can see why it was described in this way. The precious oil that's being referenced here is the oil that we see described in Exodus 30.

And we're not going to turn there, you can write it down. But Exodus 30 is a section that contains a description of the spices used to produce it, the myrrh and the sweet cinnamon and the calomasis and the cassia. But it also came with a warning that it was not to be produced by just anyone. It was only to be used on Aaron and his sons to consecrate them.

It was not to be used on other men. It was used to consecrate the tabernacle, the items in the tabernacle, the high priest and his sons. But then they were even warned, don't even make any of it. Don't make it. It was special, it was set apart, it was holy. It was special just like unity among brethren is special and wonderful. The unity of the brethren dwelling together is also described as the dew of Herman and the dew that descended on Mount Zion, moistening the ground, making it fruitful.

You know, the unity of brethren makes their interactions fruitful. It's like dew on the ground watering the plants that allows them to grow, and much growth and much fruit can come from brethren that are unified, that are together. So what does that look like exactly? What does unity really look like? The Hebrew word for unity in this passage is, and some of you are Strong's fans, I'll give you the number, you can look it up yourself if you'd like, it's Strong's H3162, and it's the word yechad, got to put the ch in there, it's got that ch, yechad.

And what it essentially is, is it implies a unit, it implies a unit, or it implies being united in thought and in purpose, joined. Interestingly, when you look at, if you do a search, some of the new Bible software tools, you can type the Strong's word in in the KJV, and it'll bring up every occurrence of that word. Most of the time, it's translated most frequently as, together.

Coming together. So, you might be able to restate that particular passage in Psalm 133, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to come together, to grow closer to one another spiritually, to dwell in unity of purpose, to be there for the same reasons, and to grow closer to one another, and to the Father, and to Christ. This was Christ's desire for us, as brethren, and as part of the Ecclesias, God's church, those He's called out at this time.

Let's turn over to Psalm, or I'm sorry, John 17. John 17. And we'll take a look at Christ's prayer in Gethsemane as we, as He neared the end of His physical life. John, Chapter 17, as Christ says the prayer in Gethsemane. John 17, and we'll pick it up in verse 17. John 17, 17 says, Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. Verse 20, I do not pray for these alone. In other words, I don't pray just for these disciples that I have at this point in time.

But I also pray for those who will believe in me through their word. I pray for those down the road that will read these things, and hear these things, and understand these things, and who will come to me from these things. Brethren, this is where we fit in. We're those who read these words, who believed on Christ from the words that were recorded for us, from the words of the apostles, and from what has been preserved for us in Scripture. We have learned, we have understood, we have committed ourselves to God.

This prayer was as much for us today as it was for them. Christ goes on in verse 21, says that they all may be one. Again, speaking of those whom He is praying for, His disciples at that time, and those who would believe off into the distance, that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one. That we may be one as Christ and the Father are one. That we might have the level of unity of God the Father and Messiah.

That's the standard that has been given to us as brethren. That we would be one as they are one. And while this word here, used for one, does mean one in the numerical sense and some of its uses. In this situation, the word one is not referencing the number one, a numerical one. They are not one entity. Jesus Christ and God the Father are two beings in perfect unity. Let's turn over for that point.

Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6. Go ahead and leave a spot here in John 17. We'll come back to it. We've been to 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6 before, but we're going to go there again. Pardon me. 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 6, we'll see this distinctiveness as well as this relationship. 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 6, we'll go ahead and read verse 5 just to kind of help with the context, since that jumps, verse 6 jumps in in the middle of the sentence. It says, For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, that for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

And so we see an establishing of a relationship here and an interaction. We see that things are done of God and they are done through Christ. So, for example, forgiveness is of God, but it's through Christ. Creation is of God, but through Christ. Salvation of God, but through Christ. They're unified in a sense of purpose and understanding at a much higher level than we could ever replicate on earth.

Yet, that's the standard that is given. I don't know if you've ever done the track event, the high jump. Whether you can jump over the bar or not, the bar is set where the bar is. Whether you like it or not, that's where the bar is set, right? That's the standard in this case that was given, that we would be one as God the Father and Christ are one. And He prayed to the Father to help us to be successful in that way.

So how is that achieved? Let's go back to John 17. Let's go back to John 17. We'll see how that's achieved. John 17, and we'll pick it up in verse 23. It says, I am them and you and me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me.

So we visited this concept on Pentecost. We visited this concept on Pentecost, that what enables us to be unified, what enables us to come together and to be one with one another and with God, is the Spirit of God dwelling in us. Again, when you look at John 14-17, those figurative Last Will and Testament, you know, passages, before Christ passes away. You see the number of times that he makes this point of God the Father and Christ abiding within us, making his home within us.

The method by which oneness and unity of the body of Christ is achieved is the Spirit of God dwelling in us. The essence, the power, the mind of God, living in us, leading us, and leading us as we listen and as we submit ourselves to it. As we let God's Spirit lead us, we grow spiritually, we put off the old man, and we continue to become a new creation. Again, that they may be one as we are one, and that the world would know that you loved them as you have loved me.

You know, there's times in your life where you have a chance to set your own goals, to set your own standards and expectations, to decide what it is exactly that you want to achieve, kind of those standards and expectations that you set for yourself. And then there's other times when standards and goals are set for you, whether you want them or not, they're set for you.

I think about my current job as an educator here in Oregon. Every year I'm evaluated on 29 separate standards of excellence. 29 separate standards of excellence. And I get a zero through four rating on each of those separate standards of excellence. And if my rating is poor enough, I might be facing dismissal. And so they take it pretty seriously.

You are expected as an educator to meet these 29 things. I can't just decide one year that I'm going to go in and go, you know what? I'm not professionalism. I'm not going to do that this year. I'm just going to be as unprofessional as humanly possible. And there's going to have to deal with it, because I don't feel like doing professionalism this year. That's not the way that it works. I don't get to decide which standards I'm being held to.

I'm held to a standard, whether I like it or not. And then I'm judged and I'm evaluated on that standard. In this situation, Christ set the expectation and the standard for us. And He prayed to His Father for us to be successful in it. That we would, as brethren, be one as He and the Father are one, and that we would love one another as the Father loved Him. You know, if we were honest with ourselves and we had to rate our own effectiveness on those two things over the past few years, how are we doing?

How are we doing? Have we gone to Abilene? Have we, and I mean the collective we, have we collectively, have we taken actions as individuals and as organizations contrary to these expectations? Have we maybe at some point stopped and looked around and realized, wait a minute, how did I get here? This is where I wanted to be, looking around and seeing different things. You know, I mentioned this in my message at Pentecost this past year. I had done some digging for a sermon that I had given down at a weekend in California, and I came across a website that cataloged any church group that had ties to the worldwide Church of God, or had similar teachings that maybe had sprung up through whatever.

They'd come across information somehow or divine inspiration or however you want to call it, but that had similar teachings to us. And it's a list. I mean, this guy keeps this giant list online. He cataloged churches, small in-home fellowships, online ministries, Bible study groups, and I started—I thought, all right, I'm going to count this, and I'm going to see how many there is, because I wanted that number in the back of my head to be able to go, okay, that's this. I made it to 250, and I just gave up. I was only at the letter H. I made it to 250, and I was at the letter H. And I just quit.

I'm like—I scrolled down, and it was like three times longer, and I'm going, it's good. 250 plus is perfect. I can use a little plus to indicate I don't have to have an exact count. But each of those times represented a time for whatever reason. Someone chose to part ways with a body over something—a point of doctrine, a difference of belief, something that was said, some kind of an offense. Or, obviously, someone who came across the truth and started this process.

And I know this may come as a surprise to some of you, but my wife and I occasionally have differences of opinion. It's a surprise, right? Those of you that are married, you know full well. Occasionally you're going to have differences of opinion. Sometimes we—and when I say we, I mean me—say something stupid and cause offense. But you know, we're one flesh. We're unified in what is probably the closest analog to the oneness that exists between God and Christ that exists in this physical life. It's probably the closest that you can get in a physical life.

Just because we disagree, just because occasionally we have differences of opinion, doesn't mean that we can't be unified. It doesn't mean that we can't choose to be one despite our difference. Unity is not the same as conformity. It's not. It's not the same. You can be conformed and still not be unified. You can be conformed and still not be unified. Unity doesn't necessarily mean that you agree on every little component. Disagreements are going to happen.

Differences of opinion are going to happen. I would venture a guess that if we polled any congregation in any of the churches of God around the world, you would have people who understood some doctrine slightly differently than others, who had maybe a disagreement on this point here or a difference in application. I would venture a guess that would happen in nearly every congregation that you went to.

But it does not mean that you cannot be unified. And there isn't a certain type of unity that kind of comes from putting on a jersey with whatever group you attend with, you know, having the, I'm with Paul and with Apollo's kind of concept. But I really think that the unity that God desires in His ecclesia is deeper than that.

Those that He has called, the unity that He desires and those He has called, is deeper than that surface level of unity. God desires that His people, His children, will be led by His Spirit, that they will yield themselves to His Spirit. And the expectation, then, is that we as brethren will be one, as Christ and the Father are one, by yielding ourselves to His Spirit.

So therefore, the evidence of oneness in unity in the ecclesia is that He's directing us and that the fruits of that Spirit are evident in the body of Christ. You know, we recognize individuals that are identified as children of God, those who are being led by the Spirit of God, they span organizational boundaries. We know that. We've said we're not the one true church. We've said that there are other churches of God with God's Spirit.

It's like an all-star team. They may have different jerseys, but they're playing for the same coach. They're playing in the same goal, and they're playing for the same victory. Let's go over the book of Galatians. Galatians 5. Galatians 5. If we're going to talk about fruits of the Spirit, we're going here. Those of you that are at pre-teen camp, you can start singing the song in the back of your head.

Don't sing it out loud. I finally got it out of my head. Kidding. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Hey! Now it's all in your head. You're welcome.

It'll get in your head, too. I think it's hard to get out. Galatians 5, verse 19. We'll start with these works of the flesh. We'll start with these things that are contrary to the Spirit of God. Galatians 5, verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering our patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such, there is no law. Verse 24. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. If we live in the Spirit, verse 25, let us also walk in the Spirit.

These works of the flesh are manifest. They're apparent. When they're in someone's life, those actions that are contrary to the Spirit of God, things that will result in someone not inheriting the kingdom of God without repentance and change, they're evident. They're evident. But notice in the midst of this big, long list of things that we would look at and go, wow, murder's on this list! Other things are on this list. Huge things! Notice right in the midst of this list is outbursts of wrath, anger, dissensions, strife. Quick show of hands. Who's never said something they later regretted after being angry? Nobody?

Yeah. There's always one. There is always one. But you know, when we get upset with other people, and when we have wrath and when we have anger, we do. We say things we didn't think through all the way. Words come to our mouth that they come out and then you can't put them back. And they're out and they cause offense and they cause issues and they cause people to be upset. You know, wrath, anger, those kinds of things, these are attitudes and actions that are present if and when we don't yield ourselves to the Spirit of God in our life. I don't know about you guys.

I have a little voice in the back of my head that I'll get ready to say something and it'll capture it. It'll be like, nah, nah, I wouldn't say that. And it molds it around and it kind of holds on to it like, well, is it? Is it not? No, not really. And sometimes it's like, alright, no, go ahead. And other times it's like, nah, you better swallow that one and try a different one.

And it's that little process of trying to stop some of those things before they come out. And I haven't always had that thing. I have not always had that thing. There have been times that the first thing on my head comes out of my mouth and then I later regret what I said. But what we are working to try to do is get to the point where we can capture those thoughts before they come out and before they cause issues. You know, I mentioned Last Sabbath before that.

Wasn't Last Sabbath? Sabbath before that, during, well, maybe it was Last Sabbath. I don't know how you keep track of all this stuff, Mr. Sepulveda, what you say from one week to another. But with the announcements that there are videos present on the Council of Elders that they've put together, and I suggested taking the time to watch the video on the member survey. And the reason that I suggested that is, I would say our member survey data is probably the closest thing that you're going to ever see as a state of the church type speech, where you get a pulse for what is going on and what people think and where people are.

And one of the things that came up during that result from the data that was compiled from numerous surveys was the point that was made where people said, you know, I wouldn't consider bringing someone to church services. That was a statistically significant result in the survey, such that it jumped out in comparison to other things.

It wasn't one survey. It was multiple surveys that said I would not be comfortable bringing someone to church. They said, I realize that UCG is part of the body of Christ. I realize the church has the truth. But they wouldn't necessarily bring someone to church to expose them to it, not because they were afraid of what God's truth might convict them of, but because they were concerned with what one of the brethren might say to them to cause offense. And they didn't want to mess with it. They did not want to bring someone in the door that would then be offended and run out the door and never come back.

They also said they were concerned what might come from the pulpit. They weren't sure. They weren't 100% sure they were comfortable bringing someone into that. They were concerned that what might be said may be offensive enough to turn someone away from the truth before they even had a chance to get started. Brethren, our words contain such incredible power. And like we said before, once they're out, they are out.

There's no pulling them back and putting them back in. They're out. And sometimes no amount of apologies can fix a situation to the full. You know, on the other hand, we see here in Galatians, verse 22, which was again the theme of our preaching camp this year here in the northwest, if we have love, if we have joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, those are the kind of indications of the Spirit of God leading His people.

That is where the Spirit of God is leading that interaction. Obviously, we should be getting more and more and more of those interactions as time goes on. We shouldn't go the other direction. You know, we shouldn't as we move multiple years in the church be moving in the other direction of angry outbursts and things like that. We should be allowing that Spirit to change us at our core. The evidence of unity and oneness in the churches of God in the Eclaecia is that we are allowing ourselves to be led by God's Spirit, and that there is an air of respect and there is an air of love among His people.

Let's go to John 13. John 13. John is not in the Old Testament. I don't know why I went there. But it turns out it's not. John 13. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 34. John 13 and verse 34. John 13 and verse 34 says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

And then verse 35, By this, again, the love that you have for one another, by this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. This is a litmus test for us as Christians. And on the other hand, the opposite is also a litmus test, if we don't have love for one another. This isn't love in a worldly sense, but do we love our fellow brethren as Christ loved us?

And I don't think the disciples understood the full depth of what Christ meant by these words that night. I don't think they understood that a very short time later he would be dead, dying for their sins and for our own. You know, Christ's love for us was shown by laying down his life for all mankind. It mentions that in John 3, verse 16. It also talks about in Scripture that greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.

That while we were still enemies, while we were still in the depths of our sin, Jesus Christ gave his life for us. Matthew 5, verse 44, again you can jot it into your notes, he instructs those listening at the Sermon on the Mount that they should be willing to do the same.

That they should be willing to do the same. That they should love their enemies such that they should be willing to do the same. Makes the point that not just for those that love you, not just for those that think you're a swell person, anybody can do that. It's easy to like people that like you. It's a lot more difficult to show love for people who openly are hostile to you.

It's a lot more difficult. But that was the instruction that was given for our enemies, to love them as Christ dead. Do we have love for one another as brethren to the same degree? You know there's a story that blows me away from World War I. On December 25th of 1914, which was five months into the war and likely people did not realize how bad World War I was going to become at that point. You know, it was just in its infancy and just beginning within the European front. But across the field at Flanders, December 25th, 1914, pockmarked with artillery craters and crisscross with barbed wire and trenches and all sorts of things, drifted this kind of melting chorus of a song.

Sung in German, the song reached the ears of the men and the trenches across from them. Fearing a trick, they grabbed a hold of their rifles even tighter and expected the attack. While someone was distracting them, they figured there'd be an attack coming from some direction. The attack never came. British and the French soldiers kind of cautiously peeked their heads up over the parapets and saw a line up on the opposite side of the parapets flickering candles and in a couple of cases rudimentary little signs written in broken English that said, you know shoot, we know shoot.

Well, obviously, fearing a trick. I'll tell you right now, I'm not going to be the first guy to test that. I'm not jumping out of it. Oh, they said it's fine, they're not going to shoot me. No way, right? I mean, come on.

But so the British and the French soldiers thought, well, we'll cautiously kind of play this out, see what happens. They started to sing a song of their own. And they were very surprised when the German soldiers joined in and sang with them. A couple more shared songs led to shouted messages back and forth and some assurances and eventually both sides crawled out of their trenches and they met in the middle of the battlefield. They shook hands, they exchanged gifts, they exchanged stories, they mutually buried their dead.

They helped each other bury their dead. British, French, and German soldiers who had only days earlier been shooting and killing one another with reckless abandon had for the moment at least in their minds recognized something in their minds that was greater than their collective differences. In some places along the Western Front, what became known as the Christmas truce lasted for a couple of weeks. Other places, they were back to fighting in mere hours. Other places that was right back to it in a couple of hours. Some places greater than two weeks. I'm one of those people that when I hear about cool things like this that are really interesting to me, I go down the rabbit hole.

I start reading everything I can about it and try it. So I started reading some of the reports from some of the men that were actually there and some of their commanders. And I came across one that was really interesting. The person said that after they had a chance to meet the enemy personally, after they had a chance to look them in the eyes and shake their hands and talk about their life and their families, that they couldn't bring them to shoot them.

They couldn't bring themselves to shoot them. And as they were in their trenches, as they kind of went back their direction, the British and the French soldiers sent cases of ammunition to one spot. And the British and the French shot cases of ammunition over the Germans' heads, wasting box upon box upon box of ammo, at least in one situation. In fact, one British soldier involved was quoted as saying, I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, if we had been left to ourselves, there would never have been another shot fired.

The war would have been over had it been left to themselves. But eventually, as you can imagine, someone shot somebody. Somebody got mad. Somebody shot back. And eventually, the war was right-started again. They were hardened, did the brutality of it. They were driven by their commanders into fighting again. And four long years later, thirty-eight million people were dead. You know when you consider the multitude of fellowships that were on the list that I came across and some of the hurt feelings that go back decades.

We aren't shooting each other. You know, we're not. But are we entrenched at times? In our little trench here and their little trench there? Do we sometimes treat one another like enemies? I think if we're being honest with ourselves, yeah. We probably do. But brethren, we're not enemies. We're brethren. We're brothers and sisters. And I understand fellowships were left. Feelings may be hurt. People may have said terrible things and done terrible things. But we're brothers and we're sisters.

Are we willing to tentatively step out of our trench and to extend the hand of fellowship? We're willing to at least introduce oneself, encourage the possibility of reconciliation. Can we focus on similarities at the expense of our differences and re-establish lines of communication with old friends that may be found in another place? John Holmes once said, We love peace, but we're not willing to take wounds for it as we are for war.

You know, peace and unity is our ultimate goal. What are we willing to sacrifice to reach it? Are we willing to lay down our life, give up our wants and our desires, give preference to others? Perhaps our reputation? Can we take it on the chin and be okay with it? Or when we get offended, we instantly kind of ball up our fists and go right back at somebody.

Unity of the Spirit and unity of faith is a process. It takes time, it takes yielding ourselves to the Spirit of God, and it takes showing our brethren mercy and patience and love. Sometimes people are going to say hurtful things. You have to rise above it. You have to rise above it. You have to extend mercy. You have to extend love. Let's go to Ephesians 4. I have a spot in my notes that says, cut time here if necessary.

Looking at it, I think I can do it. Ephesians 4. If not, I apologize beforehand. Now we'll make it. Ephesians 4 and verse 1, I'm going to kind of just skim through this section. This is the unity chapter, and there's a lot of really good stuff in here, a lot of really good stuff in here.

And a couple of things that are really important are really early on in this section. Ephesians 4 and verse 1, As I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring, notice that action word, endeavoring, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Really making the effort, endeavoring, endeavoring, working hard to maintain it. Unity within the body isn't accidental. It's a purposeful interaction, purposeful interactions, purposeful efforts. But we must individually endeavor to create and maintain unity within the body of Christ.

But additionally, it's crucial that we walk worthy of the calling that we've been called to, because it's our actions and our attitudes that have to be in line with the calling that we've received. We have to be very careful not to cause offense and to allow God's Spirit to lead our actions. Verse 4, There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Think about it, regardless of whichever organization a person might attend, when we baptize people, we don't baptize them into a denomination. We baptize them into the body of Christ.

And that body of Christ is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. We were all baptized for the forgiveness of our sins and with God's Holy Spirit. We believe in God the Father, who is over all, we believe in Jesus Christ, who is dwelling within us. Ephesians 4, verse 11, And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And we know God instituted certain organizational elements in place for that purpose, to perfect His things and to edify the body. And there's been times over the years where that's maybe been abused at times. But there are organizational elements that are in place in order to achieve that purpose that's outlined in verse 13, that we all come to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Verse 14, That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, keeping our eyes and ears open, making sure that we are paying attention and that we prove what we hear. Verse 15 and 16, Speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head of Christ, from whom the whole body, joined in it together by whatever joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Let's recognize that as our Church's mission statement. As a body, we must be fitly joined together, all doing our parts. Paul goes on in the next section here to talk about the new man, and giving them admonition not to walk as the rest of the world around them walks. But they were to be different. Again, we've mentioned this before. We should, as believers, stick out like sore thumbs. When you interact with people out on the street, it should be noticed that there's something different about us.

It's not a bad thing to be different. It's not a bad thing. Verse 17, and we'll read down through the end of the section here. Verse 17, it says, I say therefore, in testifying, O Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from a life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you've heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus, that you've put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and in holiness. Verse 25, Therefore putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.

Be angry and do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him whose stoles feel no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Nor individual behavior, our actions, our attitudes, they have to be in line with what we profess to believe. The gospel of Jesus Christ should change us at our core. It should continually change us at our core, not just once, but change us each and every day as we put off the old man and we renew that mind and put on the new. You know, we have a poster at school, and I don't know, I used to kind of think it was cheesy, to be honest, a little bit.

But, you know, it's like one of those motivational-ish type posters, but it says, watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your attitude. Watch your attitude, they become your actions, and watch your actions, for it becomes your character. You know what is totally true? What starts here becomes who you are. If you allow it to, over time, it becomes who you are.

It all starts up here. If we want to be unified, it all starts up here. It takes us renewing our mind. It takes us consistently renewing our mind.

We tell our kids at camp all the time, God's way works, and it's totally true. God's way absolutely does work. And we know, if the thoughts, the words, actions, attitudes, and character of all of the members of the body of Christ, we're all acting in accordance with God's expectations at all times, that there would be no strife, there would be no issues, everyone would dwell together in unity. But we also know, that sadly, that's not how it works, which is why verses 31 and 32 needed to be included in Paul's letter to Ephesus and to us.

Ephesians 4, verse 31, Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. We have to be actively and forcefully putting these attitudes out, weeding the garden, so to speak, making sure that these things are cut out of our lives and burned, getting rid of these things as time goes on.

We have to allow ourselves to love and to forgive, to be kindhearted. And the reason why is because God has forgiven us a lot. And I've said this before, but personally, when I think about that, when it's put like that, that I'm expected to forgive other people because I was forgiven all of my sins, all the terrible mistakes and the things that I've done in my life, that those were forgiven me, and as a result of that, the expectation is that I should then forgive others.

When it's put like that, it's sobering. In some ways, how dare I not?

After all that has been given to me and forgiven me. Unity requires us to forgive. It requires us to allow ourselves to be led by God's Spirit, to be gentle, kind, loving, and tender-hearted to others, to love them as God loved us, laying down our wants, our desires, and our preferences, perhaps, to others. It requires us to live what we profess to believe, to put away anger and bitterness and wrath. It requires us to choose to be unified, even when we might disagree on certain points. Ultimately, unity is created and maintained by each of us individually through our actions, through our words, and our character, setting the example. We each have a personal responsibility in encouraging this, in creating it, and maintaining it, and ultimately it will be our actions, our words, and our attitudes that will make or break our efforts. We have to set the example. We have to set the example. You know, there's another question that we sometimes ask our kids at school, if not you, then who? If not you, then who? If we are going to fulfill the calling that God has given us to preach the gospel to the world and to make disciples in all of the nations, we have to profess. We have to live, I'm sorry, what we profess to believe. If we can't bring people to church because we're concerned what somebody's going to say, that's a problem. That's an issue that we need to deal with and we need to take care of. I think there will always be some that say unity among the members of the greater body of Christ can't be done, that it's impossible, that the relationships are just too far gone. One person can't make a difference on such an issue that's so large. I respectfully disagree. I respectfully disagree. There's a story of a gentleman I'd like to share with you to close today. Back in the 1960s, and his name was Dash Rathman Jahi, and it's a mouthful of a name, but he lived in a small village in India known as Gayler Hills. The village of Gayler Hills is very isolated and due to its location was a solid 70 kilometers by road to get from one place to the other. The other location, the other city, had basic services, medical facilities, schools, economic opportunities. For you to get there sooner, then go around the thing and take the long road around, the 70 kilometer road around, it required you to go over these really steep goat trails over this mountain pass.

And they were difficult, and it required you, you couldn't bring back loads of supplies very easily, you couldn't produce anything in Gayler Hills because you had no way of transporting it easily to the other places where things would be sold. So they were struggling economically, they had no real solid job prospects, no real access to education, and no decent health care. In 1960, on one of the trips around the mountain for supplies, Dashrath's wife misjudged a footstep on one of these goat trails and went down the side of a cliff face. She was injured, but due to the 70 kilometer trek to the hospital, lack of medical facilities, eventually she ultimately lost her life. And Dashrath realized something has to be done here, this is crazy. And so he sold his family's three goats, which was their only source of income. He sold their milk, milked the goats and sold them, that was his only source of income at the time. He purchased the sledgehammer, a chisel, and a crowbar. And using these three tools, he began to break rocks and shovel the rubble away on this mountain with the ultimate vision of a road that would stretch from his village right here across the mountain to the other city that they used to have to go 70 kilometers around to get to. People thought he was nuts. They told him he was insane. They thought he'd gone crazy after his wife had passed away.

He would tell them of his vision of this road through the mountains, and people would just laugh at him. They told him he couldn't do it. They told him he was a poor man. He said, just get a job and eat and live out your days and then die a happy man. He was very industrious. He worked a full-time job plowing other people's fields during the day, and then he worked on his road all evening and into the night. Along the way, he learned some tricks. He learned some life hacks, eventually learning he could break really big boulders by setting fires on them, getting them really, really hot and then sprinkling water on top of the boulder. And the boulder would crack into small pieces that he could then break down smaller and move out of the way. From 1960 to 1982, a full 22 years, Dashrath single-handedly chiseled the road through the mountain by hand.

Using his small tools, no machinery, no mechanized things, by hand he single-handedly chiseled a road through a mountain. When it was finally done, the road was 30 feet wide and 360 feet long, and in some places he had chiseled the mountain down by 25 feet in some places. Because of his focus, his hard work, and his dedication, the distance from his village to the nearest hospital, was reduced from 70 kilometers to one. And now it's a quick easy shot up over the top of the...

from one roof from one town to the next to get to the hospital, to get to services, to get to other things. You know, people told him it couldn't be done. Told him he was crazy. Told him he was insane for even trying. You know what Dashrath did? He just quietly picked up his tools, and over a 22-year period proved every one of them wrong. One shovelful at a time, he moved a mountain.

And we all understand that unity is something desired by God and something that he wants us to draw nearer to him and draw nearer to one another.

It's a goal of ours as well to draw nearer to God and to draw nearer to one another.

When we consider things like the Abilene Paradox, will we individually or organizationally take actions contrary to our stated goals and to our stated objectives? Are we going to go to Abilene?