We're going to play a little game today.

I'm going to give you a little assignment. And before we do, if you're meeting this weekend, I'm glad you're meeting. If you're snowed in somewhere, because a big part of the nation is snowed in, tell us where you're watching from, wherever you are. All of us, we're going to play a game. I'm going to ask you to use your imagination. This is an odd game, and I admit it, but use your

imagination. And I want to ask you, if you were the devil, I know I told you it was weird,

but if you were the devil for one day and your assignment was to slow the work of God through the church,

how would you do it?

Imagine, if you were the devil for one day,

and your assignment was to try to slow the work of God through the church,

how would you do it? Let me tell you what you wouldn't have to do.

You wouldn't have to even shut the doors to the church. You wouldn't have to get people

burning Bibles. You wouldn't even have to get people to stop believing in Jesus. If you were the

devil and wanted to stop the work of God through the church, one thing you could do is just get God's people to turn on

each other. Divide the body of Christ. You could do it through some hateful social media posts.

You could distract well-meaning Christians with secondary issues and get them fighting about secondary issues

instead of communicating our primary message, you could get Christians to divide over preferences

rather than being united in mission. To hurt the work of God through the church, when you think about it, the devil doesn't

need to destroy the church, he just needs to divide the church. And that's one of the reasons

that Jesus prayed for unity. I want you to think about this. On the night before, Jesus is going to go to the cross. Jesus

prayed. And when he prayed, he didn't pray for miracles. He didn't pray for growth. He didn't even

pray for protection. When Jesus prayed for his disciples, he prayed for unity. Look at what Jesus

prayed in John chapter 17. He's praying for the disciples and he said, my prayer is that all

of them may be one. Why is he praying for unity?

So that the world may believe, God, that you have sent me.

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