Message Description

Senior Pastor Dr. Kurt Bjorklund completes the message series "Ascent" exploring Psalms 120–134. Together, we’ll reflect on the journey of rising—whether in personal growth, spiritual depth, or relational connection—embracing challenges, celebrating triumphs, and discovering deeper lessons along the way.

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Message Transcript

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Good morning. It's great to be together. Bridgeville, Wexford, the Strip District, Butler, online, let's pray together. God, as we are gathered this week, I ask that you would speak to each of us. I ask that my words will reflect your word in content and in tone and in emphasis. And we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

So, as you've heard, we are finishing our series on the Psalms of Ascent that we've called “Ascent”. This is a series in which we've looked at Psalm 120 through Psalm 134, which are the Psalms that the people sang or recited as they would journey from where they were up to Jerusalem to go to the temple for the three festivals that they were required to go to for worship and recognition of who God is. And usually when I lay out a series that we'll do here at Orchard Hill, what I'll do is several months ahead, I'll look at different sections of scripture and try to decide between Old Testament, New Testament, different types of literature, things that I think address the needs of where we are. I'll spend some time praying about it, and I'll usually land somewhere like this where say, okay, here's a series.

And in order for me to say, yes, this is what I want to do, usually I'll have six, seven of eight weeks, or however many weeks it is. There will be most of the weeks, 'll say, I am pretty certain that this is a really good idea for a talk. And then there are one or two that the passages are there, and I'm like, I don't know if I'm excited about this, but I'll plan on the fact that when we get closer, I'll be able to study it and get closer and say, oh, this will be good. Well, today is the category of I wasn't sure.

A few weeks ago...now, before you leave, I realize this is not a compelling introduction, by the way, but before you leave, what I did was I looked at this and I thought, well, unity is the theme, clearly. I mean, the text says how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in union. I thought Christian unity. And I had a little bit of a yawn to that, just to be honest. Like, is that really what I want to talk about? Is that what people wake up saying, I care about unity. I need to go and hear a message on unity. And my answer, and this is why this wasn't compelling for me, was, no, that's not what people think about. And so I did what probably many of us do when you're not sure what to do. I Googled it, and a church service came up in which seven churches appeared to come together to hold a joint service on unity. And so I clicked on it. I'm thinking, this could be good. I'm going to get some good ideas. Seven pastors, they're best thinking on Christian unity. And so these pastors start this service now. Seven of them. Did I mention seven of them? Seven churches. And then they panned the congregation that had gathered. Do you know how many people from these seven churches came together for a service on Christian unity? Three. And I realized I'm not alone in saying that this topic is not an exciting topic.

Now, again, before you say, okay, where are you going with this? As I studied this text a little bit, I began to see that even though it may not be something that you initially are drawn to, this is an important topic for a variety of reasons. And so what I'd like to do is I'd like to ask and answer three questions that look at Psalm 133, 134, to talk about how important unity is in our own Christian journey, our own faith.

And the first question is, “Why is unity good?” Psalm 133:1 says:

“How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!”

Verse 2:

“It's like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard...”

That, just right away you get it right?

“...down on the collar of his robe. It's as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life evermore.”

So the Psalm says, it is good and it is pleasant for brothers to live together in unity.

So I looked up the Hebrew word for good and pleasant. Do you know what they mean? Good and pleasant. So the statement from God here is, this is good and pleasant. And then he talks about the oil that was running down from the head onto the beard. And then it says, on the beard of Aaron. And the theological study Bible's notes on this say this was a reference to how people would be set apart, really for the service of God. That his is a statement about the people of God coming together. So everybody else would basically say these people have something about them that is distinct.

In John, chapter 17, when Jesus was talking about unity, he put it this way. Verse 23, he said:

“I in them and you and me — so that they may be brought into complete unity.”

Talking about how people, when they worship God, come into unity. And he says, they're brought into complete unity. And then he says:

“Then the world will know that you sent me, that you have loved them even as you have loved me.”

That part of what happens when people come together to worship God is that the world looks at it and says, there's something there that is compelling. And then he talks about the dew on Mount Hermon as if it were on Mount Zion. He doesn't say Mount Hermon, but here's a picture of Hermon. This is the tallest mountain in Israel, and it remains snowcapped through much of the year. And so what happens is the moisture from this in a very dry, arid region, evaporates, and the dew comes and creates green vegetation all over Hermon. But in the rest of the region, because it's a desert, it's arid. It's as if they don't get the dew and they look and they see that's where the moisture is. And he says, when people are unified, it's as if God does something, something in our midst that is beyond what would happen normally.

And then he states very clearly that there's blessing. He says in verse 3, that there's blessing that comes. Have you ever gone to a concert or a game, and when you were at the concert or the game, you had a moment that transcended your own individual experience, and you felt a sense of corporate celebration or joy? Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, you go to a concert and you're there and you're experiencing it, and all of a sudden the whole room comes alive, because you're overwhelmed together by the beauty of what's happening. Or you're at a sporting event and the crowd starts to cheer and come together and you feel unified with the people around you. The idea here of how good and pleasant it is when brothers are in unity is actually much greater because it isn't just around a sporting event or a concert, but it's around the people of God coming in a way that says, this transcends our space. Hopefully this happens week in, week out when you come here and you sing. That, there's a moment often when you say, I could sing by myself, but there's something about singing with other people that makes me say I'm part of something that's bigger than just what I do on my own. And so this is why unity is good.

But let's just ask the question, “so what is unity?” Now, as I mentioned, this is part of the Psalms of Ascent, where people would ascend to Jerusalem, to the Temple Mount, to be able to worship. This brought together 12 different tribes, and the tribes sometimes were at war with one another and sometimes were at odds with one another, and they would come together and be united. And it also says in Psalm 133, again that this is a Psalm of David. And David was a man whose own son tried to take his throne from him, who was at odds with people at war at different times. In other words, when he says how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters basically dwell in unity, he was talking about something that he at least knew the opposite. And here it appears that he knew what unity was.

So unity, at least from this Psalm, maybe a little beyond, we can see, is at least a shared goal, a shared purpose. The people came together to worship. There was something shared, there's encouragement. And I somewhat infer this. I don't know this from this passage, but I would assume, as people are making this journey, this trek, that there are times when they say, is this worth it? Are we sure we want to go? And in the New Testament you see this because of all of the one anothers in the Bible, all of the places where it says, encourage one another, love one another. These are the challenges to say there's something here. There was support as they came together, and there's accountability. Are you coming? Are you part of this?

I mentioned the being at a sporting event or a concert. But you know, where sometimes there's even greater unity, isn't just the fans who come together, who have one amount of that, but if you're part of the band or the production company or the team, sometimes there's even a greater sense of unity, of saying we have come together, together for something.

And certainly there are levels of unity. There's a casual unity that might be the friends or people who live in the same city. There's a unity that comes from a more close-knit community where people are connected around something. And then there's a committed group that says, we are all about doing part of our lives together.

And what happens for many of us is our sense of community is more accidental than it is intentional. Meaning, what we do is we are friends with the people who our kids play soccer with, or who live on our street, or who are part of our work environment. And those are good connections, connections we should foster, but instead of saying, who is it that I really feel should be my sense of ultimate community.

And without a doubt, there are different levels of connection. And even recognizing this can be helpful to say, we need different levels of connection. This is an old pyramid that I didn't come up with, and this talks about levels of communication. So at the top is the idea of the best or highest level. At the bottom is the most casual because it's supposed to be more broad.

So number five, the casual conversation speaks really of cliches. This is, hey, good to see you. How you doing? Good. But there's another level, reporting information or sharing facts, which would be saying, hey, it's still cold outside today. That's a fact. And then you would say, how do you feel about it? Or what do you think about it? Which is your opinion. And so you move from a relationship that's very casual, just kind of cliche level, to sharing facts, to giving opinions. Then you start to share your emotions, you start to share what it is you really feel about things. And at the very top, you share the essence of who you are, some of your dreams, some of what really concerns you. And clearly you don't have these relationships with everybody. And the point of unity is to say on some levels, it's okay to say I have unity with a person that's more cliche or fact or opinion based. But there are some people who it is deeper with for me.

And sometimes even in a church, even a small church, what people will do is they'll be in a place where they'll say, well, I don't know everybody. But what happens is, as you have some relationships at one level, when the time comes that it's needed or you want to, you're able to progress to another level and to another level and to another level, because you've shared certain levels over time, and you find yourself having the community or the unity that brings the support, the encouragement, the accountability, the shared purpose that all of us need.

But here's the challenge or the problem that happens. And it happens certainly in church, it happens in other parts of our society. And that is what we like to do often, is focus on what divides us, what separates us, what makes us distinct, rather than on what unifies us.

There's an old story about this. And this was where a woman was on the Golden Gate Bridge. She was about to jump off and a man saw her and he ran over to her and he said, God loves you. And she began to tear up a little bit. And the man felt moved. And so he said, are you a Christian? And she said, I am. And he said, I am too. That's amazing. And then he said to her, are you Protestant or Catholic? To which she said she was Protestant. And he said, me too. That's amazing. What denomination? And she said, well, I'm Baptist. And he said, me too. That's incredible. Wait, wait, wait. You're a Christian, You're Protestant, you're Baptist, Northern or Southern? She said, I'm northern. He said, me too. That's amazing. Are you a northern conservative or liberal Baptist? She said, I'm conservative. He said, me too. This is incredible. And then he said, well, wait, wait. Are you a northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist or Reformed Baptist? She said, well, I'm fundamentalist. He said, that's amazing. I am too. Well, if you're a northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, are you part of the Great Lakes region or the Eastern region? She said she was part of the Great Lakes region. He was amazed because he was too. And then he said, well, okay, okay, okay. So you're part of the northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist of the Great Lakes region. Let me ask you, are you part of the Council of 1879 or 1912? And she said, well, I was part of 1912. And he said, die heretic, and he pushes her off the bridge.

Now, obviously that's probably a made up story, at least I hope it is, that somebody told years ago. But it highlights something that often happens and that is people will often say, look, I know we agree on a lot of things, but here's our little difference, and that's what I want to focus on. And part of what creates dissonance in community and in Christianity is this obsession with saying I'm right and somebody else is wrong. Now, don't misunderstand me. I believe truth matters immensely. Trying to get our doctrine right matters. But what happens sometimes is we focus on that to such an extent that we only want to have relationships with people who agree with us down to the smallest letter of agreement.

It was Augustine, I believe, who said:

“In essential things unity. In doubtful things liberty, In all things charity.”

Now, again, I think sometimes we mistake what are the essentials? If somebody doesn't believe that salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone, it is hard to have some kind of unity with them. If somebody is expressing views that are blatantly contradictory to the clear teaching of scripture and presenting it as good truth to the exclusion of other people, it's hard to have unity. But I love the sentiment of saying there is a sense in which we can say there are essentials that we're unified on. There are some things that are doubtful. We can have liberty to say, you can practice what you want, but in all matters we want to have charity.

It was Don Carson, who once wrote that the church is really a place where people who are natural enemies come together in the name of Jesus Christ to worship Jesus. And by natural enemies, all he meant was people who aren't naturally going to always be on the same page come together because there is something that unites you, that's bigger than your differences.

Now, there is a false unity. And a false unity is where you say, everything's good, everything that you think is great, and there's no problem. But the real hindrance to unity is what I call “othering” the other people. And I get this from Luke 18. Luke 18, one of the stories that's told there is the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. It’s at the very beginning of Luke 18, and the tax collector and the Pharisee go into the temple to pray. And what we're told is that when the Pharisee's in there to pray, that he stands up and he says, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, like this guy. And then he names all of the things that he does that the other people don't do, as if somehow God was impressed with his resume, as if to say, God likes me and my kind better than he likes other people.

And then what happens is the tax collector stands up to pray, and he can't even lift his head. And when he prays, he just says, God, have mercy on me, the sinner. And here's the point. At the very end of the parable, what it says is that this man, rather than the other man, went home justified. And the idea is the person who was religious had it all together and said, God, I thank you, I'm not like him, was not justified before God, but the one who was justified was the one who went and said, God, have mercy on me, the sinner. And to the degree that you and I have a I thank you, God, that I'm not like them list is the degree to which we're more like the Pharisee than we are like the tax collector. And when that becomes true, we destroy unity.

Now, again, I'm not suggesting that there aren't differences that aren't worthy of consideration, that aren't worthy of even different churches, different beliefs. What I'm suggesting is when you and I say, I thank you that I'm not like them, I'm not like them, they're less than. That there's a sense in which we are destroying the unity that Jesus said, I pray that people in me would be one and the world would see. So how do we get unity? How do we get unity?

Psalm 134 gives us some ideas on this, along with some other passages. First thing I would say is we need to worship together. Look at what Psalm 134 says:

“Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.”

That is describing worship. And one of the ways that you begin to say, I don't have to focus on everything that's different, but I can focus on what unites is by saying, I'm united around who God is and my desire to worship. You see, if you try to get unity directly, what happens is you find differences. But if you have unity as a byproduct of joint worship, it becomes something that is part of your life.

The second thing is to commit to community. And I say this because it says here that there were those who ministered by night to the house of the Lord. Well, by saying by night, what it's inferring is that people took some shifts and they took time to go into the temple at night to be able to worship. And this was people who were saying, we are taking part of the responsibility for the communal aspect.

See, there's a move in our day and age to treat church gatherings much more like consumers than like community, saying, do you give me good worship experience, good teaching, good programs, good everythin for kind of an acceptable level of my engagement. But ultimately, unity is found in saying, I commit to a group of people. I don't know exactly who said this, but there's an old phrase that one of the early church fathers said, and it's debated who said it. That's why I don't know who said it. But it was, you can't have Jesus or God as your father if you don't have the church as your mother. And the idea was to say, part of worshiping God is saying, I'm part of a community, part of a church.

And this is not my attempt to get you, if you're not part of Orchard Hill, to say, Orchard Hill is my thing. This is just my attempt to help you see that if it isn’t Orchard Hill, it should be somewhere or it should be to a church that you say, I am part of a community. And around Orchard Hill, over the years, we have talked about this in a way that we've tried to be consistent. We call it “up”, and we've used these phrases, show up, grow up, step up, to just talk about what the process of engagement looks like. And the idea comes from Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 23 and following where it says:

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds; not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

And so to show up means that you don't stop meeting together, as it says, some are in the habit of doing. And if you were here during this series, we talked about this early on, about just saying part of worshiping and being in a community is saying, unless I'm sick or out of town or providentially hindered, I'm just going to commit to showing up week after week and participating in public worship. Sometimes people will look at this and they'll say, well, okay, I get it, but I can worship from anywhere. And it's true. But there's something about the gathering that says, now I'm unified and I'm portraying it to the world.

Our staff was talking about this this last week, and Russ Brasher had done some research and came with this stat that he found. He found that 80% of people who are invited to a church gathering will actually go. Meaning if you have friends, if you invite eight, ten people, eight of them will say, I'll come and check it out with you. And part of worshiping is saying, we're inviting more and more people in to be part of what God is doing.

Now, I know some people will say, well, the church gathering isn't for people who don't believe. It's only for the believers. And then they go out. But I would just challenge you, if that's your thought, to read First Corinthians 14, because what you have there is you have people who believed and people who they called outsiders who came in. And the priority instruction was for those who worshiped God to say, we will make some accommodations for those who come in from outside so that our worship is intelligible, so what we do makes sense so that people may come to faith. I believe it's part of the biblical model of what gatherings should look like.

And so there's this idea of showing up, and then there's the idea of growing up, which is in this idea of simply saying that we should encourage one another, that we should be in a place where our love spurs one another on to love and good deeds, or our involvement does that. Around here we talk about this in terms of group engagement, where we move from simply being in rows to being in circles. We talk about this in terms of our classes, our seasonal studies, where there's an opportunity just to say, I move from simply attending a weekend to saying, I'm part of something more. And we even have a host of online studies now, so that if you say, I'm busy, I can't get out to one of the campuses on a weeknight to be part of something that you can do online studies. But saying, I will take responsibility to grow up, to be part of a growing commitment.

And then we step up, how can we spur one another on? Saying, I'll be part of a ministry team in some way, part of a serving team. I'll use my resources that God has given me to help foster what God is doing, because when we do this, what happens is we start to say, I'm part of a community. I'm not simply a consumer. And again, my point here is to say, if Orchard Hill isn't your place, I understand, but then have a place. I think Orchard Hill is a great place. I love it here. But it's a place that, like anywhere, may not ultimately be your place. But don't let your criticism of places keep you from putting your feet down in a place. Because any place will be imperfect. And do you know why any place is imperfect? Because it's full of people. And what are people? Sinners. And so there will always be problems wherever you are.

Now, here at Orchard Hill, one of the things we try to do is to create a culture that acknowledges what I just said. Sometimes a culture grows up around a church community, especially that says the price, so to speak, for admission is being right. Because we're all about truth and we want to be about truth. But what happens when that is how you are organized, is people then start to say the highest value is being theologically correct. It isn't about who I am and what I've done, when the reality is that the way that we actually bond is over shared brokenness, neediness, not over shared belief.

And this, I believe, is the point of Jesus on the cross. I mean, obviously the point is that he paid for sin. And by belief in Jesus there is eternal life. That is right belief. But the ground at the foot of the cross is level because all of us have to come with our brokenness. That is how we become part of the kingdom of God. That is how we live. And when a culture focuses on brokenness rather than always belief, what happens is it becomes okay to struggle, to doubt, to have moments where we don't live our perfect life. But when it's all about shared belief, what happens is sooner or later, people start faking it in order to try to fit in.

There's an old call to worship. We use it in our chapel service often. Sometimes in our other gatherings. Here's what it is. It says:

To all who are weary and need rest,
To all who mourn and long for comfort,
To all who feel worthless
And wonder if God cares,
To all who fail and desire strength,
To all who sin and need a Savior,
This church opens wide her doors
With a welcome from Jesus Christ,
The Ally of His enemies,
The Defender of the guilty,
the Justifier of the inexcusable,
The Friend of sinners.
Welcome!

That says so much about who Jesus is, who we are, what our need is, and what shared gatherings are about. So we want to worship together, commit to a community. I would say it's important that we stop “”othering. This again goes back to Luke 18, this is the God, I thank you, I'm not like them list. And this certainly can happen within a local church context, the broader church context.

When my family and I lived in Michigan, we had a neighbor who went to a different church than we did. And they were nice neighbors, we got along well. But what I found myself doing, and I want to be careful how I tell this, so I don't “other” them. And what I found myself doing is when people in the neighborhood would talk about faith or anything like that, I found myself wanting to say, well, I'm a believer of Jesus, follower of Jesus, but not like them. Do you hear how I “othered”? Because in my mind, that version of faith wasn't the version of faith that I practiced, that wasn't appealing to other people, but what I was doing was instead of saying, yeah, there's different beliefs within the kingdom and different churches, different expressions, but it's ultimately about who God is. What I was doing was I was distancing myself because I didn't want to be thought to be like them. And so there's a need to say, I'm going to resist the need to “other”. And the ways that we “other” are to say that person isn't as deep, isn't as worshipful, doesn't care as much about social justice or the causes of the poor. That person doesn't believe correctly on this piece of doctrine. This person doesn't. And we make a list. And the need to put that aside is important.

And then one last thing that I would just say, and that is, we want to strive to outdo one another in honor. And this comes from Romans 12, verse 10. Here's what Romans 12:10 says. It says:

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

You see, a lot of times what happens in Christian circles is we strive to outdo one another in critique and in criticism and in slander, rather than outdoing one another in honor. But what if in the places where you feel a little disunity, you said, I want to honor the people around me? What if in your marriage you said, I'm going to outdo you in honor? What if in your family you said, we're going to outdo one another in honor? What if in your groups and in your churches, in our environments, we said, we're going to outdo one another in honor? Because it doesn't take a lot to try to outdo one another in critique, criticism and slander, but it takes a lot to say, I'm going to honor you repeatedly. And what that does is it puts us on the solution side rather than always saying, here are the ways that we “other”.

Now, again, I'm not saying that there aren't times to legitimately point out some differences and talk about those things, but the invitation, so to speak, here today is to say there is an invitation from God to say, come and be unified with my people around worshiping me. Because this is, and did you see it in the text, where life, evermore, everlasting life is found? This is where you will see and sense that all is right for your eternal destiny, because Jesus Christ has become your savior, and in becoming your Savior, he unites you with others.

We're going to partake in communion here this morning in just a moment. And part of what happens when you come to communion is you come and you say, around the table are people who are different, but we are united around who God is and what God has called us to be. And it's a moment just to say, God, I affirm that you are worthy of worship. And even if I don't agree with everything, there is a unity that transcends differences, and it's good.

And if you're here today and you're in a place where you're saying, look, I don't know if I believe, in a sense, the table is an open invitation. And I don't mean that you should come today, because you may say, if I'm not sure what I believe, maybe today you pass. But it's an invitation to say, there's room for more at the table to say, I want to be a part of the community. And the way that that happens is by simply acknowledging that you're sinful and need a Savior and saying, I am part of the broken group who needs what Jesus has done. Not I have met the standard, but Jesus meets it on my behalf. And that puts us in a place of unity.

God, I ask today that you would help each of us who are gathered here to not just have an individual journey of faith, but understand that our journey is to be communal. And in that, that you would help us today to experience even a little taste of unity and to respond to you today. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.

This transcript was automatically generated. Please excuse errors.