“The State of the Union”

By Rev. Jerry Cooper, Sermon Taken by Evnlyn Lee（林一華）

Scripture: John 17:20-26

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The last words before Jesus ascended to heaven:

“And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Matt 28:18-20

Jesus prayed for you and me. The last words of Christ before He died, He prayed for “Unity”. His deep desire was for the purpose of unity. “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” John 17:21-23

Unifying of churches is an organization that is trying to merge churches. We do not like bishops, we like elders so we have Presbyterian Church. Organization is no big deal. People do not disbelieve Christ because we have too many denominations. We do not want to ignore each other nor we want to attack each other. In John 13:34 ~ 35: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Jesus wants us to love one another, by this people will know we are His disciples. Jesus had twelve disciples who had various characters. Perspective in life is completely different. We may have different denominations but the important thing is how we love one another.

Love has to be expressed in vivid way. We may have practical different perspective. Camarillo Presbyterian Church is unique. We have contemporary service at 8:30 AM and conventional service at 10:15AM. Republicans or democrats, we all love Jesus. TAPCVC is a church in Christ. They pay rents and all there was the relationship between us. But we are one as Jesus intended us. We do not own the church. The Taiwanese do not own it. God owns the church. Pastor Mao needs an office. Six months they paid for the rent and we did not give them an office. We are planning to build an extension of 17 feet at the end of fellowship hall that will total extra 850 SQ feet for office and classrooms. The Taiwanese church will use Three quarter and they offered to pay three quarter of the cost.

We become one church. We are not landlord and tenant relationship but “partnership” in Christ. We are living out what God’s desire for us. We are committed to Jesus Christ. Jesus has made the difference here. We feel the oneness of feeling and glory in unity.