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CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
John 17:20–23 NIV
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
CONSIDER
Unity. Unity. Unity.
Everyone says this passage is about unity. What if it’s not?
What if, in fact, unity is not the point? Here’s what it says:
“that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”
Jesus is praying for our relationships with each other to carry the same essence and ethos as his relationship with his Father. There is a word for this: love.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (John 15:9–10)
Jesus brought the entire program down to one command: “Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
This text is about love. How can I say that?
Here’s why:
“so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
It takes us back to another familiar text. Rewind the tape about fourteen chapters: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
The Father puts all the freight and weight of his love for the world on his Son. Jesus puts all the freight and weight of the world’s faith on his followers’ love for each other. It comes down to our relationships, which is why I am fond of saying, “Our relationships are the mission.” It’s why we are investing ourselves so deeply in what we call banded discipleship. We believe Jesus’s prayer will only be answered in a big way through being answered in millions and millions of small ways.
Unity is not the goal. It is not even the outcome. The goal is love. The outcome is great awakening.
I think what I am trying to say is if we focus on unity, we often get disagreement, but if we focus on love, we will get unity.
PRAY
Abba Father, thank you for your Son, Jesus, who shows us what love is by becoming love incarnate in his relationship with us. Come, Holy Spirit, and make real the love of Jesus in my love for others. Lead me into even one relationship where I can become the life-laying-down love of Jesus for another. In Jesus’s name, amen.
JOURNAL
What do you make of this reading of the text? Why is it that we tend to think of unity as the goal, and why do we think of unity as the outcome of agreeing with one another? Do any of your relationships approach the character of the relationship between the Father and the Son? Are you becoming love? How so? Where?
SING
Today, we will sing “They’ll Know We Are Christians (We Are One in the Spirit)” which isn’t included in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
P.S. The SERMON ON THE MOUNT FLASH CARDS are going fast and . . .
I want you to have a set. They are fresh and fabulous, unusual and uncommon. They are, after all, the Word of God. You will enjoy them and should you choose to make them a gift, your recipient will think you are the best gift-giver ever. And you will be all the rage at this year’s Dirty Santa party. And your kids will be more than mildly intrigued when the Elf on the Shelf turns up every other day as the Bard with the Card. I know you want one, but I have to tell you—they are going super fast and we won’t be able to source a new printing in time for Christmas (or even New Year’s for those over achievers who will be making the whole Sermon their Word from Scripture for 2026).
SO CLOSE THE DEAL NOW WHILE ITS STILL TODAY.
John David (J. D.) Walt Jr. is the Sower-in-Chief for Seedbed and the pastor of the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas.
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3 Responses
I’m sad this 89 days is coming to an end!
No words for the transformation that I have experienced!
I really enjoyed knowing what the next days lesson was going to be on so that I could read the chapter ahead of time.
What a blessing through you!
Praise God JD
Living water causes Christians to love one another and unites them heart-to-heart as one in the Spirit. Bottled water divides Christians and scatters them into hundreds of thousands of denominations and nondenominational churches worldwide, each one acting independently and disagreeing with the others (often with hostility) about many things.
Living water is the risen Jesus Christ freely flowing in your heart and releasing rivers of His presence and the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) from deep inside of you. Bottled water is religion with its talks, rituals, divisiveness, controls, pride, and expectations.
Christians too often treat Jesus — the living water of Christ in you — like a plastic bottle of water. Bottled water is completely contained and controlled. It is opened and closed. At times it is carried around and other times it is set aside and ignored. Bottled water is sometimes sipped, sometimes gulped, and sometimes even tossed aside.
Living water, however, is completely different from bottled water. Living water freely flows without human controls. Attempts to control living water will quench and slow down its flow. Dams will even shut it down. (1 Thessalonians 5: 19)
Lectures or teachings about living water don’t satisfy the hunger and thirst (Matthew 5:6) in a human soul. Living water needs to be experienced not explained. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8) Jesus said: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink.” (John 7:37)
Jesus offers to release “rivers of living water” from within your “inner most being.” (John 7:38) He doesn’t invite you to a religious meeting to hear another theological lecture about Him.
It’s not enough to hear religious talks. Instead learn to jump into and be freely carried along day and night by the inner flowing of the living water of Christ in you. Let the world see Christ living in and consistently flowing through you so that they can truly know that Jesus is sent from God. (John 17:23)
Two words came to my mind today during this devotional time: Communion and Harmony. Jesus said, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…they may be one as we are one– I in them and you in me…” True communion can only happen with love. Harmony provides for the unique distinctions we each have, brings out the best in each other, and makes the days creative and interesting, and life moves forward even in challenging times.