WE’RE IN HIS NAME WHEN WE ACCEPT IN HIS FLOCK THE LEAST, LITTLE ONE WHO ONLY BELIEVES IN HIS NAME FOR REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS; SEEKING OUT THE REPENTANT RETURN OF STRAYS WHO THE ONE, GOOD SHEPHERD IS NOT WILLING SHOULD BE LOST

Show us, Father, in the Bible, how the key to being one “in His name”, which is by definition in the Spirit the Father sends to live in us in the name of Jesus, is for us repentant believers to welcome all the little ones who simply believe this way for repentance and forgiveness of our sins in His name because we all repent, and love and forgive one another such repentant, mutually loving believers, in all Christian denominations and faith groups. Give your Spirit in our hearts to help us always remember that if we don’t forgive our brother, we are not forgiven ourselves, and if we don’t love our brother, we don’t love God, and if we don’t receive the littlest believer in His name, Jesus won’t be there with us in His name.

Help us to realize that in order to be one in Jesus’ name with all repentant believers, they don’t all have to be with us here yet, of course, they just have to be accepted and welcomed by us as our sibling children of God when they hear about it and come, wanting to be one in Jesus this way. They all will eventually come to Jesus who belong to the Father, and neither we nor Jesus will drive them away.
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (Joh 6:37 NIV)

We know, Father, you give all repentant believers to make their own decision to repent of sins both against personal holiness, and sins against rejecting all other believers as fellow children of God. But help us remember, too, that their decision one way or the other does not prevent any of us repentant believers from choosing now for ourselves to go ahead and get started together to obey God’s 1st and 2nd most important commandments in Christian unity, in the way Jesus fulfilled them by His commands as explained earlier. It’s not our job to force others into such unity, we couldn’t if we tried, and likewise, anyone’s failure to come into such unity cannot hold the rest of us back from obediently doing our own part in the one Body.

We thank you, Father, that you only hold us responsible for our own part in Christian unity in love for one another, for our own obedience in welcoming and seeking out the strays and the lost; for explaining and demonstrating in ourselves God’s offering of unity to all in repentance for forgiveness of sins; then accepting, forgiving, and welcoming all our mutually loving, repentant sisters and brothers in Christ, which siblings in Christ, Jesus says, we can recognize by judging the outside fruit they bear of the tree of the Spirit which is inside them; while the apostle Paul lists what the fruit of the Spirit inside them is and is not; and the apostle John says we can know whether or not they are our fellow children of God at all by the holiness and love for all believers which we can readily see in their outward behavior.
“"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognised by its fruit.” (Mt 12:33 NIV)
“19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Ga 5:19-26 NIV)
“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” (1Jo 3:10 NIV)

We pray in the name of Jesus that you teach us in your word that when we receive every single, one such believing, little child as one with us all who also believe what Jesus says is “in my name”, believing and living as one in our shared, common faith in His name for His gift of His life's blood enabling our repentance and forgiveness of our sins, whether the little one is already in such a mutually loving, Christian denomination or faith group, or just now first learning about what Christ did on the cross to save us all, then we receive Jesus, Himself, one with us all in His name.
“4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mt 18:4-6 AV)

Show us in the various translations of your word, Father, that the KJV, (AV), rightly makes the best translation here shown above about these little ones when it uses the phrase “offend one of these little ones which believe in me”, because being one in His name means making sure we do not offend, fail to forgive and accept with us as a child of God, or drive away the least, little child of God in Christ from gathering in His name into the one flock with us as long as they repent and believe the gospel that Jesus gives eternal life to all who live in faith in His name for repentance and forgiveness of sins.

In Jesus’ holy name, we rejoice with Jesus to gather into your flock, Father, every little one who may not know or agree with all our other “wise and learned”, group-distinctive doctrines, but rather the little child that agrees only in the doctrine of the one Savior, Christ, and Messiah of us all, because we all agree in what any little child of God can understand is our one foundation together in Jesus: that we believe in His name for repentance and forgiveness of our sins, as we love and forgive all, one another repentant believers including those in Christian denominations and faith groups other than our own.
“32 "Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow-servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."” (Mt 18:32-35 NIV)
“21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 22 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no-one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."” (Lu 10:21-22 NIV)
“37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."” (Joh 6:37-40 NIV)

Remind us of how Jesus said that when we receive one such believing, little child who simply believes in His name for repentance and forgiveness of sins, yet lacking of other denominational or Christian faith-group distinctives, as one with us in the one flock belonging to the one Spirit of the One, Good Shepherd, in which both Jesus and the Father are one Spirit in which they each lay down their life in this world, in Jesus, for all sheep in the flock, then we also are become one with the Father and the Son in their one Spirit in this world, in laying down each our own life in self-sacrifice of that “conceited, provoking and envying” spirit that Paul mentioned in Galatians Chapter 5, in order to save every little one the Father committed to Jesus, that might otherwise remain outside the flock, or go astray and perish, as we spiritually join together with one another, as with the Father and Son in heaven in their joy even greater than for those of us repentant believers who are in the flock already, though we still love all in the flock with us already, no matter which Christian denomination or faith group each repentant believer is in.
“10 "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. 11 12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” (Mt 18:10-14 NIV)


THE BODY OF CHRIST ON EARTH, ONE, AS FATHER AND SON ARE ONE IN THE SPIRIT OF THE ONE, GOOD SHEPHERD WHO GATHERS INTO ONE FLOCK GOD’S LEAST AND STRAYED BELIEVERS IN REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS IN HIS NAME, MAY ASK ANYTHING IN HIS NAME, AND JESUS AND THE FATHER WILL DO IT AND GIVE IT

Father show us that when “in the name of Jesus”, we show one another believers, and the world, that we agree that all repentant believers, in all Christian faith groups and denominations are spiritually gathered together in His Spirit, as one in His name this way, as Jesus, Himself, said in His own words, then Jesus is there in our midst with us, to give us anything we ask in His name.
“19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."” (Mt 18:19-20 NIV)

Teach us when we're one in His name, and in His Spirit of holiness and self-sacrificial love for all repentant believers this way, we are all together bearing eternal fruits of His Spirit that last, fruits of the word we obey in our hearts and fruits of our faith in Jesus; fruits both for one another believers to enjoy, and also for the world that will come to know God sent Jesus because we're one in their one Spirit.

Show us in the Bible that we are thus bearing fruits of His one Spirit in us, fruits of God’s word and faith in our hearts that last and remain eternally in all who hear and believe, fruits we bring forth from our hearts where we each hear and obey our King's new command to lay our former, sinful lives down and instead, self-sacrificially love one another in His name, including all repentant believers in every Christian denomination and faith group, so that the Father will give us whatsoever we shall ask of Him that our joy might be full in receiving what we ask for, thus as one in His name.
“11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.” (Joh 15:11-17 NIV)
“13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (Joh 14:13-14 NIV)
“23 ¶ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (Joh 16:23-24 NIV)

Show us in your word, Father, how Jesus reveals Himself to us to be the one Holy Spirit whom we see in our hearts, on the day we realize that we both have His commands and obey them. Jesus wants us to agree in all His commands, but all repentant believers are not yet in agreement in all His commands, so we have to start by uniting in the most important two, which no one can ignore and claim to love God and our neighbors in the world as Jesus commanded us to do.

Show us that to be among those Jesus refers to when He says “Whoever has my commands and obeys them”, our understanding and obedience must include the first most important command combined with the new command of Jesus which He gave to fulfill the law in the first command, because Jesus says we can’t love God unless we love our sister and brother in Christ, as Jesus loved us with His life laid down to gather to Himself and the Father, all us repentant believers in His name.

Show us, Father, that in order to both have and obey the commands of Jesus, in addition to the 1st Commandment, our understanding and obedience must also include the second most important command, to love our worldly neighbors including our enemies, as much as we love ourselves, in the way Jesus said to obey these two, most important commandments, by having our own self-sacrificial love for all repentant believers, in the one Spirit of the self-sacrificial love of the One Good Shepherd, which is in both the Father, and in the Son, and is the one Spirit Jesus reveals to us to be Himself in our own hearts, in every one of us who both have and obey His new commandment, with every expectation of seeing the glory Jesus gave us, that the Father gave Him, to glorify the Father in the Son in Whose name we now pray as one.
“19 Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."” (Joh 14:19-21 NIV)
“11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 ¶ I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 15 ¶ "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (Joh 14:11-15 NIV)
“22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 ¶ "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” (Joh 17:22-24 NIV)

Help us always remember, Father, that we can certainly know we are one of those, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them”, because in obeying both the first and second most important commands, as Jesus fulfilled them by telling us how to obey them both as explained earlier, firstly united in one Spirit of self-sacrificial love for all repentant believers, and secondly in love, as for ourselves, for all our enemies and unbelieving neighbors, with enough love as we would want to receive ourselves if we were of the world like they are, receiving enough love so that we unbelievers could also come to know for a fact that God sent Jesus the way believers know it, exactly as Jesus promised us they would know when we’re one, as Jesus and the Father are one, in the self-sacrificial Spirit of the One, Good Shepherd who gives His life to gather all the repentant sheep into one, eternal flock.

Remind us in your word, that in loving, as ourselves, our unbelieving neighbors and enemies that way in order to obey the second commandment in the very best way we know how, by loving them enough to obey the first commandment for their benefit, Jesus says we are obeying His fulfillment of all the law and the prophets, the way He has fulfilled them by His commandments. And Jesus says that before this world passes away, the world will certainly see all us regenerated believers, the one body of Christ in the earth, united in full obedience to all the law and the prophets as Jesus commanded them to be fulfilled; united in the one Spirit in which we are clothed with power from on high with the glory the Father gave Jesus to honor the Father in the name of the Son, which glory Jesus gave us to make us one; one as Jesus and the Father are one in the one Spirit of the One, Good Shepherd who lays down His life to gather all the sheep the Father has given to Jesus, all the least and all the strays, who will come to Jesus when they hear His voice coming from the one flock united in the holy and loving self-sacrificial love of Jesus.

Jesus says that all the sheep that the Father has given Him will come to Him, and they will come and follow Him when they hear His voice.

Thanks for giving Jesus to let us know, Father, that that's how the voice of the Body of Christ on earth may be the voice of the One, Good Shepherd on earth, as the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ on earth may be one, together in the name of Jesus on earth, in calling out the good news to the other sheep that are scattered all over the earth not yet having heard His voice on earth, to now gather and welcome all the repentant sheep who repent and believe the gospel, entering through the one Gate into the one flock, all of whom recognize that voice, and know the Father sent Jesus to earth as the One, Good Shepherd they now hear calling out to gather them into one flock; and all of whom know the Father loves the gathered flock as He loves Jesus, for likewise laying down their lives in love to help gather all the Father's repentant sheep, including those in every Christian denomination and faith group.
“All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."” (Mt 22:40 NIV)
“17 ¶ "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Mt 5:17-18 NIV)
“44 He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."” (Lu 24:44-49 NIV)
“22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Joh 17:22-23 NIV)
“37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."” (Joh 6:37-40 NIV)
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (Joh 10:27 NIV)
“14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life— only to take it up again. 18 No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."” (Joh 10:14-18 NIV)

So give your Holy Spirit to always remind us in our hearts most importantly, we’re uniting to obey God’s two most important commandments as Jesus said to, when we love both God and all repentant believers self-sacrificially, and at the same time also love all our unbelieving neighbors and enemies as ourselves, so God will show them the glory Jesus gave us to make us one, which will make it possible that the world may know, that God sent Jesus to give His eternal Spirit of holiness in self-sacrificial love to live in their hearts, too, if they will only repent and believe the gospel like all us repentant, mutually loving believers agree we all do.

Because then the world will know, Father, that you love all us repentant believers united in our obedience to the first and second most important commandment; and to all the law and the prophets as fulfilled by Jesus; and to the new commandment of Jesus, to lay down the imperfections of our own lives in self-sacrificial love for all in the Father’s one flock of repentant believers, including those in every Christian denomination and faith group; as the Father loved Jesus for His obedience to the Father’s command to lay down the absolute perfection in Jesus’ life, for the gathering in His mercy of the Father’s same, one flock of all repentant believers; in each of whom Jesus has made known to us the Father to be that credited holiness and self-sacrificial love for one another sheep which we know we now have in our own hearts, which Spirit is also Jesus, Himself, in our hearts, as Jesus and you, Father, are one, in the One, Good Shepherd.
“I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Joh 17:23 NIV)
“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (Joh 15:10 NIV)
“12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.” (Joh 15:12-14 NIV)
“16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life— only to take it up again. 18 No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."” (Joh 10:16-18 NIV)
“27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one."” (Joh 10:27-30 NIV)
“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."” (Joh 17:26 NIV)

(END OF PART 3 of 4)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tim Warlick,