James and John once asked Jesus for the two best seats in the kingdom. A few decades later, John sits down to write his gospel and includes a prayer where Jesus asks the Father for something else entirely on behalf of people James and John would never meet. Us, two thousand years later, in Gainesville.

This episode was recorded on Father’s Day, and it shows. Pastor David Chauncey and Pastor Richie Baldwin spend most of it on John 17:20–26 — the part of the prayer where Jesus shifts from praying for the eleven disciples in the room to praying for everyone who’d believe because of them.

A PRAYER FOR GRANDCHILDREN

Pastor David frames the shift simply: in verses 6–19, Jesus prays for his children — the eleven disciples. In verses 20–26, his attention turns to the grandchildren — everyone who would believe through the disciples’ testimony. That includes every believer who has ever lived since.

What does Jesus pray for this future family? Not health, happiness, or a good job — the things most fathers instinctively pray for their kids. He prays for unity (“that they may be one”, repeated several times) and proximity (“that they also may be with me where I am” — John 17:24). One in unity here on earth. One with him in eternity forever.

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THREE REASONS WE OVER ME MATTERS

Pastor David draws three threads out of the passage. First, unity reflects the divine — when believers surrender their own desires for the good of others, they put God’s relational, self-giving nature on display. Second, unity reaches the world: “Make them one, Father, so that the world will know that you love me and that you sent me” (John 17:21,23). Disunity actively undercuts the testimony believers are trying to give. Third, unity recognizes our future — because we are guaranteed an eternal home with the Father, it becomes easier to sacrifice now, knowing the outcome is already secure.

He illustrates the power of unified testimony with the World Cup: stadiums full of fans from Mexico, Scotland, and beyond singing their national anthems with total, unembarrassed unity — a single voice, completely given over to one allegiance. That, he says, is the kind of undivided allegiance God wants from the people he has called out for himself.

TRANSFORMATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP IS RELATIONAL, NOT DIGITAL

Richie’s sermon at Southwest leaned into discipleship as the practical outworking of we over me. His foundation: Romans 12:2 — don’t be conformed to the world, but transformed. Conformity is easy. Transformation is impossible apart from the power of God working through discipleship — and discipleship, he insists, has to be relational. You can’t get it from YouTube.

He quotes Robert Coleman’s The Master Plan of Evangelism: God’s plan A was for the gospel to spread through ordinary people. There is no plan B. Jesus modeled this by narrowing his focus — from thousands, to twelve, to three, to one beloved disciple. Real discipleship happens life-on-life, shoulder-to-shoulder, one-on-one.

Richie cites Brett McCracken’s Scrolling Ourselves to Death: the suicide rate among kids ages 10–24 has risen 62% since 2007 — the same year the iPhone debuted. His point isn’t that phones are evil, but that the digital age is actively pulling people away from the relational discipleship Jesus modeled and commanded.

A MISSION STATEMENT FOR FATHERS

David highlights John 17:26 as a mission statement for dads: “I have made known your name to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them.” His hope for his own kids: to make God known to them through Christ so that the love he has experienced with God becomes the love they experience too. It is not a task to complete. It is a desire to be lived.

Think of David, Solomon, and Rehoboam — a father trusting an imperfect son with everything, generation after generation. In John 17, God the Father entrusts everything to God the Son, who entrusts it to us. The trust runs all the way down to Gainesville, Florida, today.

Theological Triage | What We Have to Agree On

If unity matters so much, why are there so many denominations? Richie introduces Albert Mohler’s concept of theological triage — like a medical triage, doctrines are sorted by urgency. Primary doctrines are life-or-death: salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, the deity of Christ, the resurrection. Pull out those pillars and the faith collapses entirely — it isn’t Christianity anymore.

Secondary doctrines — like the mode of baptism — shape which church you join and disciple within, but don’t determine whether someone is a Christian. Tertiary doctrines, like views on the millennium, are things believers can disagree on while still worshipping together on a Sunday morning.

Pastor David notes that in decades of ministry, he has rarely counseled anyone who struggled to become a Christian because of denominational differences — but he has met many who struggle because Christians don’t look different from the world.