Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Get them to sing. It's okay. Every once in a while we can, right? Yeah. Good. I never get tired of singing about the goodness of God. Do you? I know you don't. I heard the best line in a song on the way to church today, and I only have about a minute drive. It was "When we hear worship, he hears faith". As we sing our songs of worship to him, it's faith. It's telling him we trust him and it's building our faith. He hears faith so good. That wasn't what I was supposed to say. So now I have to get to what I was supposed to say. Thank you so much for all of the birthday emails and cards and Facebook posts and phone calls and texts. Thank you so much.
Brian: Happy birthday.
Jacque: Thank you. I'm on into my next year, my last year of my sixties. Oh, okay. I'm on. I'm on. Thank you so much. That helped. All those nice things helped. Thanks.
Brian: Helped ease the burden.
Jacque: Helped ease the pain of the next year. No, no, it's good. The people that have the most birthdays live the longest. Yeah. It's a good thing. It's wonderful. Okay. And then also just we are going to have a picnic. If you are staying in town over Memorial weekend, we are just going to, after church all gathered at the pavilion in Maple Grove at Weaver Lake Park, beautiful.
Brian: It's just a couple minutes drive from hear.
Jacque: Right on the lake. Please consider coming and we'll just have a fun time of fellowship together.
Brian: If you are watching online too, right?
Jacque: Yes.
Brian: If you are watching online, you are kind of getting into your— or you are part of our faith community here, but you are in the Twin Cities after church drive over to the park and we'll have a picnic together.
Jacque: An there are lots of friends, people in the family of hope that we don't see in the seats yet, but this is your chance to come out, please and be with us. The body of Christ together in one spot is wonderful.
Brian: I've had a message kind of percolating inside of me for many months. Sometimes we can emphasize the, the personal love of God for us as individuals so much that we forget there is also a bigger picture that he also has an agenda for and a purpose for. That agenda is what we are all as a community when we are together. I would like to talk today about what I'm just calling the bigger picture, the bigger picture most of the books of the New Testament begin with the phrase, “To the church at Thessalonica” or “To the saints at Philippi” and so forth. As I was pondering this whole way that the epistles, primarily the epistles, the salutations in these epistles came across, I realized that Brian Lother is not the church. Neither is Brian Lother the body of Christ. Neither is Brian Lother, the bride of Christ.
For me to be part of the church, I have to be fitly joined together as Ephesians 4:16 says. We are to be fitly joined together. How many of you know that a brick is not a wall? It only becomes a wall when it is fitly joined together with other bricks. As long as that brick stays in place, it's a wall. As long as we stay in place, we are really part of the body of Christ and the church. I want to read a verse in Matthew 16; we are all familiar with it. I actually don't even know how far I'm going to get today in this message. We are just going to go as, until you all leave. We are just going to kind of go today and I'm going to just see where we end up landing.
Matthew 16:18, Jesus is in a very pagan part of Israel. It's in the northern part of Israel. He is with his disciples there. This whole area is teaming with idolatry. In spite of the fact that there is the temple in Jerusalem, et cetera, et cetera, there is still idolatry up in this northern region. He begins to ask this incredible question, “Who do you say that I am?” to his disciples. Peter responds by saying, "Well, you are the Christ." And Jesus says to him, well, obviously you didn't get this by studying a book or whatever; flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but the spirit revealed this to you. And then he goes on to say something very unique and interesting. I would like to read verse 18 here.
Jacque: In the Message Bible. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.
Brian: So Jesus said, “I'm going to put together my church.” Another way of saying that is I will build my church. That's probably the translation we are more familiar with, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. We kind of envisioned the gates of hell as this entryway into hell, but that's not really what the term gates mean. The term gates, the gates of a city or the gates of hell in this context, is actually a reference to where the leaders of the city would sit or congregate and strategize for that city. They would plan the city plans and so forth. It's kind of like our city hall, in a sense, where the city councils come together and they strategize and they discuss, and they have presentations about, what are we going to do on our city?
There is a place where the enemy strategizes Jesus referred to that as the gates of hell: the places where the enemy strategizes. Jesus said that he was going to build his church or that he was going to put together his church in such a way that all the schemes and the strategies and the plans of the enemy would not prevail against the church. Are we going to walk in faith believing that, or are we going to walk in fear with all of these strategies that we feel are taking place around the world?
We have to understand that the heartthrob of Jesus is that I will build my church and that we need to consider how we can all come together, be fitly joined together in that process. I believe that those people who will follow Jesus will catch the heart of Jesus. We need to catch the heart of Jesus. I believe if we catch the heart of Christ, we won't get caught up in promoting our own pet little doctrines or even our own denominations, our own recent revelations. Our heartthrob will be what Jesus his heartthrob is all about.
There are certainly trues that I believe we can't compromise on, such as who Jesus is, what is the way for us to be saved and so forth and such and such. But wouldn't you agree that when you look at things that are being said, even on Facebook or from things that are representing different ministries, but even people, it just feels to me like there are some very hard-headed or very narrow-minded sometimes even very bigoted, self-righteous, unteachable, cold-hearted and indifferent things that are going on. And those are the good things.
There are a lot of things that are very, very— some attitudes that I believe in and this past year has exposed a lot of that. Pressure exposes what's really in us, doesn't it? Pressure exposes what's in us. I just have a hard time believing in my heart that all the things that I read on social media and things like that, coming from people who are proclaiming to be followers of Jesus, I just can't— I have a hard time accepting that this is what Jesus had in mind when he said "I will build my church". I have a hard time just believing that the attitudes that come across in some of these posts are truly the heartthrob of Jesus.
I would like to read another portion of scripture. This was a scripture that the apostle Paul was giving to husbands, and those who wanted to become a husbands and how they were supposed to be in their marriages. He was giving them a true admonition of how they were to be as husbands in their homes. Let's read that.
Jacque: Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing, with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Brian: Yeah. You know, there is a verse that all husbands should not memorize. How many know what that verse is? Here is the verse that all husbands should not memorize.
Jacque: Oh, I know what it is.
Brian: What is it?
Jacque: Wives, obey your husband.
Brian: Yes. Wives submit to your husbands. Husbands do not memorize that verse. The verse you are to memorize as husbands is this one: husbands love your wives just in the same way that Christ loved the church, gave himself for her. That's what we are going to be focusing on. How many of you know that the Bible addresses a lot of things and some of them just don't pertain to us as men, so we should just kind of ignore them. We should focus on the things that pertain to us right now. You ladies, you can go look at the verses that pertain to you, but today I'm going to look at this first because there is a very specific way that Jesus loved the church. And how was that? He gave himself for her, and then he, in a sense, washed her with the word so that she could be presented blameless without stain or wrinkle. The Bible clearly shows that Jesus came to personify or picture our heavenly father.
Jacque: Brian, I love that term: a radiant church.
Brian: Yes, a radiant church. What are we radiating? Do we ever ask ourselves this question? What are we radiating as the church? Jesus came to paint a picture of his father. The disciples came to Jesus one day and said, "Jesus, would you please show us the father?" And what did he say?
Jacque: If you've seen me, you've seen the father.
Brian: If you've seen me, you've seen the father. So let's look at John chapter 10 verses 24 through 30. The Jews were always trying to trip Jesus up, some of the Jewish leaders. I shouldn't say the Jews because everybody in Israel for the most part was Jewish, other than some Gentiles that were living there. But the people that Jesus was really ministering to, they were all Jewish for the most part. Some of these non-believing, resisting-Jesus Jews came to Jesus, and this is what this portion of scripture is about: John 10, 24 through 30.
Jacque: NIV, the Jews who were gathered around him saying, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.
Brian: So what they were saying was that you haven't told us who you are, and Jesus response is, "I absolutely have told you who I am," but how did he tell them who he was? Let's go on.
Jacque: Jesus answered. I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my father's name, testify about me. But you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
Brian: Let me just stop there for a second. He said the works that I do in my father's name actually testify. What does it mean to desk testify? We know what it means, don't we? It means to declare a statement about a circumstance, something we witnessed, something we know we testify. We declare that. Jesus said that I did tell you, and that the works that I do testify to me; they testify about who I am. I'm wondering; I ask myself the question. When people look at me, who am I testifying about? Who am I representing in my life? And then when I think of our church, how we are functioning as a church, how we function in terms of being fitly joined together, and then I think of other Christians who are antagonistic to other believers and other ministries, how are we really representing Jesus? How are we really representing Jesus? Why don't you finish reading that?
Jacque: My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they know me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one.
Brian: Jesus said some wonderful things there about how we can be secure in him, but then he also goes on to say about he and his father are one and something I've been praying for myself for well over a year now is that I would have the same oneness with Jesus that Jesus had with his father in heaven. Sometimes that whole concept is somewhat of a mystery. Wouldn't you agree with that? It's somewhat of a mystery. How do we actually know when we are really one with Jesus as he was with his father in heaven? I don't claim to have arrived there, but I believe this: when we have passions like that, those kinds of passions, I believe God wants to, to answer those kinds of prayers.
What I've discovered, even in the short time of reaching for more this 15 minute time slot, that some of us gather every day, we are just asking for more of God. We are asking for more of his presence in our lives, I have sensed a greater connection to hearing the voice of the Lord and having a greater sense of God's power in my life. I don't know what that's necessarily going to translate into yet, but I believe that God is going to show himself strong on all of our behalf.
Jacque: We gathered on Zoom, not in person.
Brian: Yes, thank you for clarifying that. All of you are welcome to join us at 6:45 to 7, 7 nights a week, anytime you can come. It's on our Hope happenings. You can find the link there. But in the same way that Jesus came to paint a picture of our heavenly father, we, the church, the body of Christ are to paint a picture of Jesus. So I began to ask myself the question, well, what is the church right now being known for? What is the church actually being known for? Are we being known for walking in humble love towards one another? Or are we known for judging one another condemning others to having more rules and regulations? What do you think that picture should look like for us being fitly joined together and what that would represent to the rest of the world who is looking at the church?
There are more and more and more people today, walking away from church and walking away from organized religion in numbers that are unlike anything in the past. I think it's time that we as Christians and the body of Christ, we need to ask ourselves this question, how are we representing Jesus? How are we representing him? I remember telling him the story about the lady that wanted to get her picture taken. She got her pictures taken, and then she was looking at the proof.
Jacque: This could have been a man too.
Brian: But it was a lady. It was a lady. It was definitely a lady. She got to prove, and she said to the photographer, "These pictures don't do me justice." The photographer said, "Ma'am, what you need is mercy, not justice." But I'm wondering, what have we presented? Have we presented mercy to the world? When people who were demon possessed and when people who were broken and in tragic need and Jesus encountered them, how did he respond to them? How did he respond to them? Does how we are being fitly joined together and how we are conducting ourselves, does it resemble Jesus? Are we conveying a really good likeness? When Jesus said to his disciples, if you've seen me, you've seen the father, I don't know that I could say that: if you've seen me, you've seen your father in heaven. I want to get to that point. I want to get to that place where I can say to somebody, if you see me, you see Jesus. I really do want to get to that point.
Jacque: The apostle Paul said, do everything I do. He kind of said that.
Brian: He really said that.
Jacque: He said just follow me. Follow me and do what I do and you will be— right.
Brian: When I get to the place of the apostle Paul, then maybe I can say that too.
Jacque: I'll help you know when.
Brian: You'll let me know when I'm there. Okay. I can count on that, right? I recently kind of re-read the accounts of the life of Jesus and just kind of wrote a few things down about his life. These are some of the highlights of the life of Jesus. I figured if I'm going to emulate him, I need to look at these highlights of his life and start to emulate them. I don't qualify for the first one, but he was supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit. We know that that's why he was God. God was his father, but God is my father, so I have an identity there. He lived a life as an oldest child. I didn't qualify for that, but he was raised in a human family and I qualify for that. He did manual labor. I've done that. I worked for your dad. That was an education.
Jacque: Okay. You chose your words wisely.
Brian: He ate and he slept and he had a social life. We know that. He grew into manhood and maturity. He wasn't born mature. The scripture says he grew into that. So we can identify with that, can't we? He was baptized in water. I was baptized in water. He was also baptized with the Holy Spirit. That's a very important thing for us. We are going to talk about if not this week, next week. Next week, by the way is Pentecost Sunday. It's the day that Holy Spirit kind of lit the flame of all of the ushering in of the new covenant.
It's important for us to understand that the last will and testament of Jesus takes precedence over the first will and testament of Jesus. So what I mean by that is this: when we look at the Old Testament, we need to take the overlay of Jesus in the New Testament and overlay it. That's how we need to interpret it. Jesus started to do that. Remember when he said, you have heard, it said, an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth. He was quoting scripture. He wasn't just saying that was some kind of a fable somewhere in our eons past. He was quoting scripture. He said, "You've heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth, but I'm telling you something different."
What is that difference? To love your enemies, to do good to those who despitefully use you, to bless those who curse you. This is an entirely different approach than an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. It's an entirely different approach than calling for justice. It's an approach where we call for mercy. He even made the statement from the book of Hosea. He referred to it; he said, go find out what this means. I desire what? What did God desire? I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I desire mercy, not justice. Jesus comes on the scene and he starts to paint a different picture than what a lot of people thought, a lot of Jewish people had been raised in and believed in. This new picture was truly a representation of who his father in heaven was.
As he began to do this, he presented his body, for example, as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice to God. He began to demonstrate the word of God. He began to demonstrate the will of God. He began to demonstrate the way of God for us. He also preached, he also prayed. He healed the sick, cast out demons. He raised the dead, he sang songs of worship and he overcame evil with what?
Jacque: Good.
Brian: With good. How do we overcome evil? We overcome evil with good, with good. He blessed those that cursed him, and he did good to those who despitefully used him. He didn't—
Jacque: You don't always feel like doing good at that point, but you choose to do good.
Brian: Yeah. Even though he was the master of all, he girded himself with a towel and he knelt down and washed his disciples’ feet. He did much more than just teach. He demonstrated if you look at the Book of Acts, which we'll look at in a moment here— I love how Luke, the writer of Acts, refers to Jesus. He said, "I want to tell you all the things that Jesus did and taught" rather than taught and did.
Jesus was much more desirous of demonstrating what the gospel really looked like, and he demonstrated the character of God to mankind. And then he told his followers, "I'm going to go away." When he said this, he spoke as God, not as a human being. You know there is a difference. If I say to you I won't be gone long, what do I mean by that? Maybe a day or an hour or a week or maybe a month? I don't mean 2000 years. As a human, if I say, I'm not going to be gone long, we have this very short spectrum, don't we? 70, 80, 90, 100 years. Everything in our time span fits into that. But God is eternal. And so when he says, “I'm not going to be gone long,” speaking as God, 2000 years isn't very long.
But because he said this, everybody heard it in human terms. Everybody heard him speaking as a human rather than as a divine. So many people got confused about this, especially the early church, this way. Some of the writing of the Book of Thessalonians is addressing this thing that some of them thought, well, Jesus had already come back again. So then Paul starts to clarify, no, that's not going to happen until these things fall in place. He was, of course we know we sang about it today. He was crucified, buried, resurrected, seen by over 500 people. We are going to read here in a moment how he ascended to the father. We have this description of his final departure here in the Book of Acts. Let's read that, Acts chapter 1, verse 1 through 11.
Jacque: From the message, dear Theopolis, in the first volume of this book, I wrote on everything that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he said goodbye to the apostles, the ones he had chosen through the holy spirit and was taken up to heaven. After his death, he presented himself alive to them in many different settings, over a period of 40 days. In face to face meetings, he talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem, but must wait for what the father promised, the promise you heard from me. John baptized in water; you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. When they were together for the last time, they asked, "Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Is this the time" He told them, "You don't get to know the time; timing is the father's business." What you'll get is the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world. These were his last words.
As they watched, he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud. They stood there staring into an empty sky. Suddenly two men appeared in white robes and they said, "You Galileans. Why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly and mysteriously as he left."
Brian: What a wonderful portion of scripture. He said to his disciples, go to Jerusalem and don't leave there; wait for the promise of the father, and don't be concerned about a natural or political kingdom. I tell you what, it's amazing to me how we can get completely overrun with worrying about our natural political kingdoms in this earth. But Jesus said don't be concerned about a natural political thing kingdom, but rather focus on the spiritual kingdom. I was thinking recently about the combination of the end of the age and the nation of Israel. I'll be honest with you; I've studied a fair amount of prophecy. I don't talk about it a lot because usually we get it wrong and I get enough things wrong in my life, so I don't need to get into that arena. I think you personally— I'll just give me my personal opinion: I think you have to really stretch the scripture to try and figure out where America fits into the end times. I really think you do. Again, that's my personal opinion.
I know there are some references to the isles of the north and all that sort of stuff. I think that's a pretty much a quantum leap, but what seems to be clear about the state of the world when Jesus returns is that Israel will be by herself. That's what it seems like in scripture to me, but there is one nation that will stand with Israel, and it's the holy nation, the kingdom of priests. You and I can be a part of that. You and I can be a part of that; every Christian around the world can be a part of that. So in reality, I don't believe Israel will ever stand alone. I believe that the followers of Jesus will be praying. We will be interceding, and we'll do whatever we are able to do to bless those who God said he will bless if we bless them.
That's not to say that we can, shall we say, turn a blind eye to things that might be wrong. We still need to declare the truth of all of these things. But at the end of the day, Jesus said to go to Jerusalem, to his disciples, and then they were asking all sorts of questions: is Israel going to now conquer Rome? He said, listen, focus on the kingdom of God. That's what you need to focus on and don't even worry about the times or the dates or of the return of Christ. Just focus on the spiritual kingdom. This spiritual kingdom will come with power after they received this wonderful gift, the promise of the father, Holy Spirit. The last words of Jesus were this: "And you will be my witnesses." He cares about how we represent him. He cares about what kind of picture we are painting of him.
In the early morning hours of this Jewish feast called Pentecost, it happened. The church was birthed in a sense, and it swept in like a mighty rushing and wind and it united those people and it empowered those people, and the Holy Spirit made them one body just in the same way that Jesus and his father were one. The church entered into a new covenant relationship with God. It's called the New Testament. The New Testament had just taken place of the old; the followers of Jesus were spiritually translated from Mount Sinai to a new Mount Zion, not the old Mount Zion under David's reign, but a new Mount Zion.
Wind and fire came, supernatural things. A new manifestation came. One of those manifestations was a prayer language that God has given to all of us as a wonderful gift, but that wasn't the only thing that came with a gift of Holy Spirit or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There came discerning of spirits and there came miracles and gifts of healing and on and on and on and on. The writer of Hebrews says it, I think best. So let's look at that and we'll be finished with this: Hebrews 12:22-29.
Jacque: And 13?
Brian: Yes.
Jacque: No, that's not your experience at all. You've come to Mount Zion.
Brian: Now this Mount design is not the Mount Zion of David. This is like the New Jerusalem Mount Zion.
Jacque: The city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens.
Brian: I love that. It's populated by throngs. I don't know how many is in a throng, but it's a lot, throngs of festive angels. What do you think a festival angel is behaving like?
Jacque: Joyful.
Brian: Joyful.
Jacque: Happy.
Brian: Kind of laughing like Pastor Jeff was saying earlier today.
Jacque: They are in the presence of God.
Brian: They are in the presence of God and you know what? They are happy. They are happy being there, festive angels and Christian citizens.
Jacque: It is a city where God is judged with judgments that make us just. You've come to Jesus who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God.
Brian: I love this, fresh charter from God. God gave us a whole new thing. We are going to do it a new way; we are going to do it a new way, he says, and Jesus is what?
Jacque: Jesus is the mediator of this covenant, the murder of Jesus, unlike Abel's a homicide that cried out for vengeance.
Brian: Remember when Abel was murdered and the scripture says, and his blood cries out from the ground. He draws this comparison. That was the old way of doing things. Justice, an eye for an eye, this guy's blood needs to be avenged, but now with Jesus—
Jacque: The murder of Jesus became a proclamation of grace.
Brian: Yes. The murder of Abel cried out for justice. The murder of Jesus became a proclamation of something entirely different: a proclamation of grace.
Jacque: Don't turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who have ignored early warnings didn't get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on?
Brian: So he is really saying that this is a heavenly warning, really like a direct warning from heaven. Don't turn a deaf ear to this. Don't turn a deaf ear to this. This is a heavenly warning.
Jacque: His voice that time shook the heavens to its foundations. This time he has told us this quite plainly, he will also rock the heavens: one last shaking from top to bottom stem to stern. The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough house cleaning get rid of getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakeable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.
Brian: So father, I just want all the junk out of my life. I want religious junk out of my life. I think sometimes religious junk hinders God more than other kinds of junk. It does. When you look at the struggle that Jesus had in conversing with religious leaders in the gospels, it's like there was no greater resistance to Jesus than from those people who had a lot of religiosity to them, but they didn't understand. This is what Jesus said to them: go back and figure out what this means. Go back and read this and figure out what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, not justice. That's not what I'm desiring. I want an intimate relationship with you, and all relationships require mercy. All relationships require mercy.
Jacque: That's really good.
Brian: The only person in the universe that doesn't require mercy is God, because he is perfect. He is flawless in all of his ways. There is no shadow of darkness or turning within God, but all other relationships, especially human relationships require mercy. This is how we can have intimacy with God. And of course, intimacy with each other, connection and relation with each other is by walking in mercy. Let's go on.
Jacque: So do you see what we've got: an unshakeable kingdom.
Brian: Isn't that good? Here is what we have. If we walk in mercy, here's what we have if we walk in the ways of Jesus: an unshakable kingdom.
Jacque: And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship deeply Reverend before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's actively cleaning house torching all that needs to burn and he won't quit until it's all cleaned. God himself is fire. So Stay on good terms with each other held together by love.
Brian: Stay on good terms with each other held together in love. I tell you what, I've seen a lot of fragmentation happen this last year and it breaks my heart. I've tried to do a lot about it and oftentimes to no avail, yet with the new covenant, the personal bodies of the saints we had now become temple of God. Though few a number at the beginning, they had become the dwelling place of God on the earth, this 120 in the upper room. God had now moved his headquarters from the tabernacle of Moses or the temple because we see that with the curtain of the temple being torn in two.
God had moved his headquarters from the temple to the church, which is us. That's his headquarters now. The church has now the dwelling place of God upon the earth. What kind of picture are we painting from our headquarters? What kind of picture are we painting? My prayer is that it will look exactly like Jesus, no more mocking spirits. We’ve seen it. You've read the Facebook. You've seen the mockery, putting others down. You've seen the mocking spirits, no coercive power. That's not Jesus, but a focus on new beginnings and focus on mercy because the fuel— listen to this. If you forget everything I said today, remember this: the fuel that powers our world, the way that God intends it to be powered— notice I said the way that God intends it to be powered. There are other powers that are trying to power the world, but the fuel that powers our world in the way that God intends it to be powered is humble, self-giving love. That's how God intends our world to be powered: by humble, self-giving love, not coercive power, not lording over power becoming under power.
Today we have a chance to be fitly joined together because we all can recognize we all need mercy. We are not going to just come together because we agree with each other. We agree in all of our doctrines. We agree with how I should wear my hair, what little of it I have left, what clothes I should wear as a pastor. That's not what we are going to come to agreement on. We are not going to come to agreement on all the songs that we sing. If I agree with the songs you sing, I'll come to your church. But I don't like those songs. That's not what we are going to be fitly joined together over. It can't be that.
We need each other to walk in mercy and grace with each other. We need to walk in forgiveness of one another. We need to be fitly joined together, and the mortar that will hold us all together, all of us bricks in this wall is Christ. It's him and being committed to representing him as he truly is. When we do that, there will be a power that emanates from this unity. There will be a power that emanates from this unity. I don't know what that power is going to be demonstrated like I'm not going to try and preconceive how God should demonstrate that power. I just know that there is a lot more power when we are fitly joined together than when we are separate arguing and bickering and having divisions among us. The unity has to be more than just right here in this community. We have to be committed to other bodies of Christ, other Christians, other ministries, to be in unity with them as well.
The disciples came to Jesus one day and said, “These people were casting out demons in your name and they don't even believe like we do. Should we stop them?” Jesus said no. His name is being proclaimed. And you know what? If we actually just got along with each other as Christians, we would actually have something to show those who need Jesus. But right now what we have been demonstrating to those who need Jesus is not attractive at all to them, nor does it give them any hope. But we have a destiny. Jesus said, "I am going to build my church." He's determined to do it. Hopefully, hopefully he will do it in our generation, not wait for our generation to die off like the Israelites did, and the next generation come in and inherit the land.
There is a land to inherit here. I think personally, no man knows the hour or the day. I think God is waiting for a condition to come to the world, not a date on the calendar, a condition to come to the world, and that condition, a lot of it has to do with you and I as the body of Christ, not just how much the world is going to hell in a hand basket, not how much hatred there is even necessarily towards Israel or to Christians, but how we, as the body of Christ are going to come together, fitly joined together and be a true picture of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together.
So father, I thank you that Lord, you have the power to deliver us from just not being very nice. You have a plan. Your plan, Lord is to infuse your church with power from on high. That power, I believe God will come. The scripture says they were in one place with one accord. There was a knitting together, a fitly-joined togetherness that happened and they tarried and they waited. I don't think it happened in three minutes. They tarried and they pressed in and they were committed to each other. They were there for a purpose: to receive the promise of the father. That small group of people, smaller than the number of people that are connected to this church, when filled with the Holy Spirit and the power that accompanied it, changed the world for good.
I pray, Lord, that you would show us this bigger picture, this bigger picture of the value of setting aside our own personal agendas and setting aside our own hurt feelings and being able to walk in grace and mercy and be fitly joined together. And in that have a power that will come from the unity of walking together, this force that can't be stopped by the gates of hell, the schemes of the enemies of our soul. And I pray in the name of Jesus that Lord, we, as a body would be committed to pressing into that, that we will be committed Jesus to painting a picture of you, not just as an individual, but we as the body of Christ, that we, your church, we will paint a picture of you that truly represents you. You said that you would draw all men unto you, Lord. I believe you want to draw all men to you through how we are representing you on the earth. I pray Jesus, that you would help empower us to move in that direction to see that bigger picture. This I pray, Jesus in your name for your sake. Amen.
Let's raise your hands together. Thank you Lord. And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace, and may we reflect as the body of Christ, the true image of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. This we pray in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Those of you who would like communion after the service today, Jerry will be over here serving communion. Holly, you are welcome to help him hold up his legs and so forth, gird up his legs and so forth. There could be a really weighty Holy Spirit taking place over there. I encourage you to have communion after the service today. Jerry will be there. God bless you. Thank you for being here today. We love you. God is so good all the time. He is so worthy for us to represent him in such a great way. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 5-16-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.