Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Pastor Robert: Praise the Lord. Brian and Jacque, that was wonderful. How long have you guys been singing together? Yeah, it tells. 50 years. You know, in a good way. You guys, the harmony, the flow. Just a beautiful sound and a beautiful gift. These musicians, Brad, and you all, you guys be playing their guitar. Ooh, yes. Keep it up. We love it. We love it. We love our musicians and our praise teams. It's just a wonderful time of worship and praise and enjoying the melodious gifts that God has given us. While we are in the edification mode, we want to give honor to someone today. This person, I call friend, has been a friend since day one. He was one of the first people to reach out to me and understood the way to Pastor Robert's heart is fish. He got that right away. But he does a lot for the church. He is our facilities manager. We would like to call up Pat Quig.
TaQuaris: Yes. Come on up here, pat.
Pastor Robert: I know he doesn't like this, but we want Pat to stand up.
TaQuaris: Come on up here, Pat.
Pastor Robert: Come up here, Pat.
TaQuaris: Come on. Give honor where honor is due.
Pastor Robert: Pat is a tremendous blessing to this church.
TaQuaris: I don't even have adequate words to express, especially in this very short amount of time that I've gotten to know him. But he has been a tremendous blessing and encouragement to me and to my family, and to keep up this building and so many other things that you don't know. If everything is going right, it's because of Pat. If it's not going right, he's going to make sure that it is going to get right. Pat, I want to tell you, if I had anything to describe you-- you know I like to teach. And if I was doing an illustrative teaching on the fruit of the spirit, you would be on that poster illustration. When I think of you, you check off every list of that fruit of the spirit. We want to tell you we appreciate you and we appreciate what you are to this body of believers, and we want to honor you today.
TaQuaris: Such a servant.
Pastor Robert: Yes. Such a servant. And we are blessed in this, in this congregation. And I'm blessed I get to sit next to this beautiful God given bride of mine and do what we like to do. I know I can be long winded sometimes, but I promised Pastor Brian, I'm going to be watching the clock. Because not only to keep us together, but I have to go preach at another church across town that was not in the plans for today, but God knows. Praise God. And it's not the same message. So don't worry, praise God for God is good. He's inspiring me all the time. We are ready and we are willing servants.
I want to read something to you. I believe in giving credit where due, so I didn't come up with this, but this is some information that comes from the Pew Research Center. It says, since the World Health Organization declared Covid 19 a global pandemic, three years ago, observers of religious life in America have wondered whether and how the upheaval would impact religious worship. Would the temporary shuttering of churches and other houses of worship accelerate the long-term decline in attendance, especially if many people who stopped attending religious services in person during the pandemic never go back? Or could the widespread introduction of virtual services extend congregations’ geographic reach, increase their appeal to young people and help them attract new audiences? These are some of the things that the Peer Research Center were gauging because of what we went through in the past three years with the pandemic.
I wanted to point out some key points in this research. Number one, to let you know it said, would the closing of houses of worship impact or accelerate the long-term decline in attendance? Which says what? Church attendance has been on a rapid decline for some years now. I remember about 10 years ago, well more than 10 years ago now, I was in seminary. We were doing research on discipleship and church models and stuff like that, and so I read a lot of Barner reports, more than I wanted to. One of the Barner reports that we read a lot was what did it look like for the average church goer today in attending church? For lack of a better term, the good attending person went an average of twice a month. That was considered the top, attending church twice a month. That was 15 years ago, so church attendance has been on decline for quite some time.
Post pandemic numbers-- we are not really-- covid is still lingering around. Just ask me around Super Bowl Sunday. But as far as the pandemic is no longer labeled as a pandemic right now. Since we've gone through the pandemic, those numbers have increased. But now, recently those numbers are starting to level off as far as people attending church services. Online participation was at its peak during the pandemic. And thank God for online services. Thank God for the churches that embrace online service. Thank God for our online community because we are not limited to just a building. Thank God for technology that we are able to use for the benefit of the church. But the online participation is starting to decline as well. And the research is not necessarily because now those online participants are attending church in person either.
What's the point of me sharing all this with you? First of all, we love you. Yes. And this is a, a call. This is a call; this is a pastoral call. This is a ministerial call. This is a believer's call to the church, to those that called themselves followers of Jesus. We want you to be a part of the church. Now, you've heard me and my wife talk many times and encourage you to think outside the four walls of a building. Our stance hasn't changed in that. That has more to be about a state of being who we are as a church. We are not limited to congregate in the building. If our extent of Christian experience is just on Sunday, we are not really being followers and disciples of Christ. We have not changed, and encouraging us to go beyond these walls of comfortability and go out and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ on the street corners, on your jobs, at the restaurants. Wherever you encounter a soul is where we need to represent the church of Jesus Christ. We haven't changed from that.
Church is not just about attending; it's about being. However, there is a time and a purpose for the body of Christ, the church, to assemble together in fellowship and worship on a regular basis. That's the heart of our message today. We entitled this message, let's come together. Let's come together. That's the cry for this message today: let's come together. It's important for us to meet on a regular basis together. Let me put a big disclaimer. This is not a knock on our online community. If you are online with us today, we are together. Stay for the whole message. We have something to speak to you about too. This is for the entire body just to meet, to assemble where there is around the screen or in the chairs or in the pew regularly. This is a call for us to meet on a regular basis. Let's see what the Bible says.
TaQuaris: Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 through 25. Let us think of ways to motivate one another, to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing.
Pastor Robert: There were a lot of things going on with the climate of the original recipients of this letter. Those of you are getting to know me in Bible study, I'm always going to go to the context of the scripture and then we are going to make application for us today. Because sometimes we skip over it and we try to make applications, but we've got to first understand what was going on. The original recipients of this letter were beginning to waiver in their confession about Jesus, and specifically about Jesus being the only pathway to God. As converts from Judaism and pagan religions, that was the one thing that stood out in their conversion: understanding that Jesus was the way. That was a major theme in their gathering together, their assembling. That's where we get the idea of church anyway. It was the assembled believers that were called out by Jesus.
The original recipients of this letter were in a place where they were wavering in their confession and they were in danger of losing hope that was offered to them in Christ, and they started looking for other pathways to God and even to the point that they were starting to give up on meeting together. It's a very, very dangerous thing for our faith and for us spiritually when we neglect meeting together with the body. We open ourselves up to so many different temptations. No one is immune to this. When there is a neglect of us coming-- there is something powerful and strong when we come together. When we neglect that, we expose ourselves to all kinds of different elements and temptations and lies and falsehoods and deceptions. And this early church was in danger of doing that, so the Apostle Paul, who I believe wrote the letter to the Hebrews, is giving them a warning about this.
TaQuaris: Because Christianity, it's not a faith that's, that is intended to be lived out alone. There are many different benefits that come with attending church. It helps us grow in community and grow in the knowledge and in the wisdom of God and also his word. The community that is at the church is something that will be there to support and encourage us to strengthen us. You can get around like-minded believers. It's a time for us to grow together as the body of Christ, but also grow closer to God. And you know, God, he can work amazing ways in our lives through the community that we have at church.
Pastor Robert: Going back to the scripture in Hebrews, and the reason why I brought up the idea of context, because many of us have used this scripture to talk about our present day, the reason to meet together as we wait for the Lord's return. That's a good application, but that's not what this letter was, was hap was going on. What was going on was there was a terrible day that was coming for the Jewish nation. Whether we like to talk about it or not, Jerusalem was in judgment at the time of Christ. And that the judgment was coming because of the rejection of Christ. Jerusalem was soon going to be destroyed, and that would affect the believers. The remnant of believers that were there in Jerusalem at the time, that would have a devastating effect on them.
This would be a day of dispersion. I mean, the church was already in the cusp of meeting underground anyway. And so once this destruction happened, the church would have to go underground. This letter is to put them on notice concerning what signs would proceed that day. That's when he said, as you see this day approaching, then you need to meet together more, not less. You need to be encouraged more, not less. You need to be amongst believers more. You need to be in that support system more, not less. And so they could be prepared as a body of believers for that day. That day that would come would be so devastating.
If we put that in our modern application today, context today, we can use the same scripture to say as we see, especially as we see a culture that's more threatening to the ideals of Christ today. You don't have to go far to see anti-Christ. I'm not talking about a person, I'm talking about things, philosophies, ideas, ways of living, legislation, everything that is antichrist. You don't have to go far to understand the day and time we are living in, whether Christ returns now or not. It really doesn't matter. We see that this is a world that's getting further and further away from the things of the Lord. That should be alarming enough for us to want to come together, band together as a Christ family, Christ family, to protect the family.
As a father, I'm a protector. As a husband, I'm a protector. If I see my family in danger, if I see signs of my family in danger, I'm going to take measures to compensate for that. My wife knows I grew up in the streets. She knows when we are out and about, and I see certain things. What do I say? Get behind me. When we were first together, she asked me all these questions. I'm like, don't ask me questions. Right now, do what I say. You can ask me questions later. Because we are out, if I'm telling you to get behind me, there is a reason. The same thing with my children. Get in line. Daddy sees danger. That's the same thing as we see the signs as a church, danger. We should see danger all around. What better way for us to protect each other than for us to come together, to be with one another. Jesus, in his great wisdom, provided for us a functional model for the church. You know, there, there are specific things that are a part of church that the Lord himself has designed for specific reasons. Again, we want to go to the scriptures to see what the Lord has given us.
TaQuaris: Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 13. Now, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's son that we'll be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Pastor Robert: The Lord gave the church leadership gifts for specific purpose. That number one purpose is to equip. But it wasn't equipping just for the sake of equipping. The Lord gave the leadership the equipping charge for the work of the ministry and for the building up of the body of Christ. For many times we've heard about the so-called fivefold ministry, and that has been our stint. You know, the church congregants want to attack the fivefold, the fivefold, the fivefold, the fivefold, referring to these apostles, the prophets, the pastor, teachers and evangelists. But the job of that leadership is to equip you, the church, for the work of the ministry. Can I say that again? It is to equip you, the congregation, the church, the body, the individual members for the work of the ministry, not just for the fivefold. The five folds' job is to equip, to edify, to build up.
I was talking to one of my friends earlier, my students. My students always called me the hard instructor. Pastor Robert is so hard and strict. Yeah, because Pastor Roberts going to be gone one day, and you’ve got to pick up the work of the ministry. You’ve got to continue it on. You have to be molded in a fashion where you can operate. As the scripture says, our job is done when you have become a full, mature person in Christ. If you are not full and mature, our job is not done. That's our goal: for each and every one of the body of Christ to become full, mature people in the body of Christ. And that's our job.
My philosophy is like the Apostle Paul. I'm not going to hold anything back from you. I'm going to give you everything and more than what you want so that you can be brought into that full maturity. That, I believe should be the heart of every leader in the church, that we want to see everybody go beyond their potential if that's possible.
And so the body of Christ to operate as Jesus designed it is not for just the leadership just to be propped up all the time and we get all the accolades and we are the only ones that's supposed to be studying and reading scripture and growing. No! Our job is to encourage you to continue to grow. I'm not threatened if you know the Bible more than me. I'm being funny, but I'm just throwing out some of those attitudes where I've seen people so guarded and on defense and so prideful and threatened by the lowly member. No, there is no lowly members. And we are going to get to that in a little bit. There are no lowly members in the body of Christ.
TaQuaris: Because churches, you know, they are far more healthy and they reproduce far more effectively when there is a team of leaders working together, equipping a saint. But then these saints in turn get involved because every believer is to get involved with using his or her own gifts to help with building the kingdom of God. And there is more than enough work to go around, trust me. So a healthy church consists of volunteers who are prepared by their leaders to do the job that God has called them to do. That means sharing the responsibility, sharing the vision, and sharing the load. Because a growing church consists of saints who serve and when you serve, you grow.
But on a side note, just like my husband had spoken of earlier, doing the work of ministry, it's not just limited to volunteering at your local church. It's also ministering to those that's in our sphere of influence, our coworkers, our neighbors, our friends, our family, people in our city, people in our town, divine appointments created by the Holy Spirit. Because church is not meant to be a weekly evangelistic outreach just to bring someone to church to quote unquote get them saved. Yes, you should bring people to church just like Jacque encouraged you to do. It's a very good thing, but it doesn't just stop there. The church is supposed to be a time for equipping of the saints, so we are prepared, we are confident in the Holy Spirit in us, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of the ministry outside of these four walls.
Pastor Robert: Amen. The church is about building community. I want to say more about that, but let's look at Acts chapter 2, verse 42.
TaQuaris: All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer.
Pastor Robert: This was describing in Acts when the foundation of the church began and how the church grew. And this was something that was descriptive of the church and how it grew. These are key characteristics that, number one, they continued in the apostles teaching, so there was a foundational teaching that they didn't depart from. But they continued in fellowship and sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer. All of this, the body of believers assembling together in this fellowship is all about building community. This is a very different context in just going or attending church.
A community of believers is very important. We love to see you sitting in the chairs, listening, taking notes, but then what, right? What's beyond Sunday? We need to make applications of what we are hearing. I don't know about you, but since I've been here and I think September is going to be two years already. Wow. But the word that we've been given, what we've been learning, God forbid if we didn't make application to our lives What a waste of time that would be. Not only applying it to others outside of the church, but most importantly the household of faith.
I think I told you early on, we have to be a loving community. We are called to be a loving community, but we cannot be a whole loving community if we don't start within our own, within our own local body. I love this body of believers. I love coming around you, amongst you, laughing with you, crying with you. I love it all, and I'm not in any way displeased at that. I invite many people to church, as you know, on a weekly basis. And one of the things they experience is that embrace, that great hope and embrace and love. They even see the leadership going and encouraging them and greeting them and fellowshipping with them. I love that about us. I'm saying we need to do it more.
We can always do more. It doesn't mean that we are doing anything wrong, but I believe we are going to have more and more come to visit, come to join and want to be a part of this faith community. And we need to step it up even more. I want to see the faces. If you are physically able, I want to see the faces of the friends of Hope and the members of Hope that I've yet to see in two years. I love to see you. I love to sit down. Well, I don't drink coffee, but I'll sit and watch you drink coffee. It doesn't bother me. But I love to be in your presence. I thank God for the members.
Dave, we are still working and Lou, we are still working. We need to get to your house. We haven't forgotten. I hope the invitation is still there. I think you still got fish in the pond, so I'm still waiting. But I thank God for those that we have been able to sit down and fellowship. John and Tina, we have more games to play. We have more scriptures to talk about. We, we got more dominoes to win. I mean, play in.
TaQuaris: Yeah, I need a rematch. Just saying.
Pastor Robert: There are many of you. We've been on the two-year waiting list of getting to fellowship with people, but we are thankful for the times that we have had, and we thank God we have a waiting list. I'm not really into bashing, but I was in a ministry that that wasn't a regular part of invitation in the ministry. I can count on my hand the number of times I've gotten an invitation for fellowship. This is something special. This is something good. This is something that we need to nourish and continue and need to spread that love. You know, reach out. Jacque will tell you, I'm always like, where is so-and-so? Where is so-and-so? Why aren't they here?
We care about you. We want to see you. Even if you are not online, we are tracking. Are you still online? Are you still with us? That's what we want to cry out. Are you still with us? If you are still with us, we want you to be a part of this body. We want a fellowship with you. We want to love on you. We want to pray with you. We want to laugh with you. We want to build community. And so that as we build a strong community, then we can go out and witness to a larger community and they can see the strength of community that we have as a body of that's distinct as a body of Christ. That's what the world communities need to see: strong communities of Christ that are influencing the world. There is something that is beautiful that happens when the body of Christ comes together as Jesus intended. As they say on social media, long post alert. This is a long scripture alert.
TaQuaris: First Corinthians chapter 12 verses 12 through 30: The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. It is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some of us are Gentile, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized until one body by one spirit and we all share the same spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand, that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, I am not part of the body because I am not an eye, would that make it any less a part of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have been parts and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part. Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, I don't need you. The head can't say to the feet, I don't need you. In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those who we clothed with the greatest care. We carefully protect those parts that should not be seen while the more honorable parts do not require special care. God has put the whole body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members so that all of the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all of the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. And all of you together are Christ's body and each of you is a part of it.
Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: First are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers. Then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages. Are all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not.
You see, the church is the visible manifestation of Christ in the world. It's one entity, yet it is made up of many different people with many different gifts. There is no unnecessary people, unnecessary people in the church. We are all needed and the church needs all of the different gifts that we have to be the body of Christ in this world. We all have different personalities, different gifts, different interests, different ways to looking at the world, different work experiences, different types of education and so and so and so on. We are not all the same and God didn't intend for us all to be the same. But we are all brought together into one community to be the body of Christ in this world, which means that we are all needed to accomplish our mission and purpose as a church.
Sometimes it's hard to work out where you fit in and, and sometimes you might feel like you don't fit in at all. Yet the Bible tells us that we all have a part to play. So if you are at that place where you don't feel like you fit in and you don't know which way to go, you know, I would just ask the Father. God, where do I fit in? What do you have for me to do? Lord, speak to me. You know, and God who is faithful, he will answer you because we all have a part to play. There are no unnecessary people in the body of Christ.
Pastor Robert: There is a need for diversity in church. We are called to be united. That does not mean we are called to uniformity. There is a big difference. Pastor Brian, pastor Jeff and I, we are not uniformed, but we are united in our cause for Christ. And that's what matters. So many times, churches have been built on a so-called uniform code. Everybody dresses the same, speaks the same, looks the same. I even heard some social media posts over the past year where the so-called pastors were saying you need to look like me. You know, or you need to dress like me. I'm the example of-- I'm the standard, not the example. I'm the standard. If you are not looking like me, if you are not talking like me, if you are not dressing like me, then you are not meeting the standard. I just don't find that. That would be one of my episodes, Micah, right? But the Bible says--
That's just a little plug. Those are the type of things I engage in the podcast if I can do a little commercial here. Those are the type of things that I do in my podcast. All of our podcasts are different. But I like to take little social things and cultural things that people are talking about today or traditional things and say, but the Bible says this. I don't care. There is this pastor on social media saying that they are the standard, but the Bible says--- Tune into what the Bible says. We'll have more conversation. Sorry. I have a marketing degree too. It comes natural for me.
But there is a need for diversity. There is a need for us to be united in who we are in Christ. But we don't have to look the same. We don't have to dress the same. We don't have to talk the same. We need to have equal concern for one another. Therefore, we are not to stand alone and be unconcerned about the individual members of the community. That's what building community is about, that we share the same concern for one another. Let me see how I can put this, this that's palatable to you. I love this country. I love being in the United States of America, but I don't need the church to resemble certain ideals of America. Meaning, I don't need to have us be cutthroat and competitive and individualistic to the point that we divide and segregate the church. I need us to reflect the spirit of unity. Yes. Where there is no competition, there is no jealousy, there is no cutthroat ness. I'm not stepping over you to get ahead. It's not survival of the fittest. My pastors and leaders don't have capitalistic campaigns to rob you of your money. But we all come together mimicking Jesus Christ, where we all participate with one another. We look out for each other. If you are hurting, I'm hurting. If you are happy, I'm happy. If you are grieving, I'm grieving. If you are being elevated, I'm cheering you on. If you are being dumped on, I'm going to come and see what's going on.
I'm going to be big brother to you. I'm going to be father to you. I'm going to be grandpa to you, and I'm going to see what's going on, and I'm going to come to your defense. That's what we need to build. That's what the love that we have for one another should look like. Yes, that's right. I don't care if you think differently than me. I'm going to love you as a brother. I have three brothers and one sister. I'm the top, the head big brother. But we are all different. We all think differently. Sometimes, in our disagreements, we have our very strong disagreements. But you know what, can nobody else come between Robert, Howard, Jason, Chris or Joy? You can come talk about us to somebody else. You cannot bad mouth.
We live miles, in states, a part, some of us. But you don't come against us because you are going to have to deal with all of us. What do I mean by that? And of course, I'm not advocating violence. But I'm saying that even if our disagreements, we have to have the same love that we go, we transcend beyond those agreements and have the love of Christ for one another. We are going to disagree. If you guys really sat down and talked with me, you'll learn some things like, oh, really. I don't ask you to agree with me. I just ask you to still love me because I'm going to still love you. Because I see things and hear things all the time that I don't necessarily agree with. But I smile and I say, I still love you and I do. I'm being funny but I do, I still love you. I think you want to say something.
TaQuaris: It just reminded me of what Paul was saying to Thessalonian church that they are known for the love that they have for their brethren. For the body of Christ, to the world, we are known for the love that we have for each other. Like my husband said, we need to be more supportive and encouraging to each other. And then when you see someone going through, offer a prayer in your personal time. If someone says, can I pray for you, sometimes you need to just do it then because you might forget later. Just different things that we can do to grow together as a family. And I am just looking forward to what God is doing in Hope Community. Like I said earlier, we are not all the same and, but we all make up one big loving community, and that's what makes the difference.
We can agree to disagree, and that's fine. But our love goes beyond our disagreements. That's just something to think about. I just want to say like, the ladies got together yesterday. No, we weren't at church. We went bowling. We can have fun too. God wants us to have fun. It was such a community of love there. For me, I just walked around, looking at everyone and just me seeing how much they were having fun really blessed me, just seeing them having fun and laughing. The good thing about it is we were all encouraging each other. It didn't matter how well we did; we clapped, whatever, you know. And that's how we have to be in our everyday life, not just during activities, but just in everyday life. Just being there for each other and encouraging each other and thinking outside of our own family. Because sometimes we get into a place where all we can think about is me, mine and myself and my kids.
We have to think about others. Sometimes you have to ask God to help you to be sensitive to that because with the life that we live in and we can get so busy and it's easily to get distracted and especially when we are going through our own situation it's hard to think about other people. But one of the best ways to get out of your situation or to even feel better is to really think about somebody else. As I was studying this word and thinking about the community of faith here, it just kept dropping in my spirit about people being isolated. Sometimes we get into that mode where we just don't want to be bothered by no one and we think we okay, but, but we are not.
God did not intend for us to be in an isolated state because actually that leaves room for the enemy. A lot of people that deal with depression and mental illness and things like that, they are isolated. I just want to encourage us to come out more and just embrace each other. And just like Jacque said when she was up here, which was wonderful. You said something about seeing the lights, like the Holy Spirit, the lights were like we were all connected. It reminded me of Christmas tree lights. If you think about the Christmas tree lights, when one is messed up on some of the lights, the whole thing doesn't work. Think about that seriously. But when they are all in the right place at the right time, it's just beautiful.
That's the same as us as the body of Christ, as the body of believers. It's just such a blessing. And I say this; my husband says this. I'm not trying to keep us going, but it's just being here at Hope Community is such a blessing. I think God is doing something uniquely different. I've been here since 1999 in Minnesota. I was at one church for 12 years, another church I served for 12 years and I went around to a lot of different churches, so I know a lot of different churches here in Minnesota. The feeling that I get here is completely different, the feeling of sincere love, walking into this building knowing that someone cares about me, walking into this building, knowing if I'm down, someone will come and pray for me. Sometimes, I don't even have to say anything. They just know because they have the spirit that's inside of them. We have something that is a jewel here. And all we want to do is be more encouraging, encouraging to build this church, this community of church, this community here so we can go outside these four walls and minister to others.
Pastor Robert: We are here committed to help build this community. It takes commitment. It takes work. If I was the apostle Paul, I would call it a labor of love. Labor doesn't sound good. Labor sounds harder than work. Sometimes, it takes labor and loving people that are different from you. It takes vulnerability. You don't think it's vulnerable for us, two black, a couple coming into an all predominantly all white church? That's a labor of love.
TaQuaris: I have to say this because I shared this story before, but I had been praying and asking God that there are some intricate people that you want to connect my husband to. I just knew that within my spirit, and I just prayed, Lord, let your will be done, not our will, but your will be done. And within a week he was connected with Pastor Brian. I knew in my spirit, okay, God, I know this is you because I did pray for it, and as I walked in here, I was like, God, there is nobody that looks like me. What do you mean? I'm like, are you serious? I'm okay with that. But I'm like, okay, where do I fit in? So here I'm telling you it was through experience and I'm like, where do I fit in? But I'm family. I fit right in. There are more people. There is more diversity. And God is going to do more things than bigger things through us for such a time as this because they waited a long time and God is actually doing what he called them to do for such a time as this.
Oh yeah, that's another thing. They were seeing how they were praying for it. You can clap on that because that's, that's God working things out in miraculous ways in our lives. It is just a benefit. It's just a plus. I want you guys to know you guys are a blessing. We are a blessing to be where we are located right now. And God has just begun. He just started. It is not done. He's going to continue to move and do wonderful things. That's why we are just trying to line up a little bit more and get ready for what he's going to do. Because there are more people coming; they are coming and we’ve got to be ready and we’ve got to be loving and we’ve got to be like my husband says, get in their business in a good way. Sorry.
Pastor Robert: All of that. And speaking of winding up, I’ve got to wind this up. I'm going to conclude. And my first conclusion, I just want to say this, we still have a lot of work to do in building the community. We've opened the door in the racial barriers that we've had, but we’ve got to bust this generational gap. It can't just be on me, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Brian or Daniel. It has to be all of us, working together. Whether they know it or not, we have something that's foundational that the younger generation needs. And guess what? They have something that we need.
We need to work hard, pray earnestly, work hard, but put our hands to the plow and seeing that come to pass. It's not just going to drop in our lap. We need to work hard to make that come to pass.
In conclusion, I want to say this: If you've been away from us, we are calling you back. Those of you online, we appreciate you. We thank you for being online. You have been more beneficial in many ways that we can even verbally express. We ask that if you do continue online, don't just be a spectator. We don't just want you to log in to watch a streaming video. We want you to be a part of the community. We want to be a part of you. We want to make connection. We want you to be a part of us growing, not just financially, but spiritually, physically, in our vision and what we want to see Hope as. You are a big part of that.
We thank God for our immediate team and the things that we've been allowed to utilize and use. That's great. We want to keep that going. But we want your input. We want your request. We want a fellowship more with you. And if you have time every now and then, pop in on us like Sally's mom; we love to see you. We love you being here. We love to get to see you. We want to have more of those experiences. I love the ones that have come and say, we've seen you on TV or we saw-- that's great. We know that you are engaged. We are just reaching out the olive branch to say, if we can do more, let us know.
If you are attending regularly in person, we don't just want you to be a spectator either. You are valuable and the church needs your giftings. I would love to get to know each and every one of you, what your giftings are. I hear we have some mission- hearted people because we've been talking about that lately and I've had more and more people come up to me every Sunday, talking about that. That's great. That is encouraging to me because I have many ideas for this church. I have many things that I would like to see in this church, but I'm not going to bring it on if there is no interest, just not. We'll move on to see what we need, what works.
But the more we hear from you and what you would like to see, let's do it. Why not? Let's do it. The men, we had a great time yesterday, fellowshipping with the men at ERC, the Russian speaking church. It was great. I think we got them up too early, but that's okay. They came anyway and they brought food. We’ve got to send the message out. We ha this food, right? We prepared food. They were bringing food. Then we heard the ladies that were preparing the food, they were afraid to be too different, so they were safe with the food. So if they are listening, don't be safe with the food. Bring all the diverse food that you got.
Hey, Baca. See you later. We got to hear a different language engage in conversation with guys that we didn't have a chance to sit down and talk to before. These are some beautiful people. These are some good-looking guys. I was sitting down-- Vlad is their tech guy. He helps us out every now and then, and this guy sits downs like, this is my father. I'm looking at him like, there is no way that's your father. He's like, yeah, I'm 50 years old. I'm like, I am not too far behind you. And I'm like, you are looking pretty good. They some good-looking folks, strong and they love the Lord. 25 men, we got together yesterday. It's good. It's good to see us reaching out and that's building community. We don't care if you got Hope's name in front of you or you congregate. It's the body of Christ. We need to be about building the body of Christ, building a loving community. But in order to do that, we’ve got to come together. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for the body. We thank you for building the church on the foundation of your lordship. We thank you as you promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. We thank you that you've equipped us with the Holy Spirit to go out to make disciples. We thank you for the fellowship of all the saints in the body of Christ. We share a common bond, and that's our allegiance to you. One baptism, one spirit, one faith. And so, Lord, we pray even for Hope Community Church, that our bond will grow even stronger, that our labor of love would intensify as we wrestle through vulnerability, wrestle through misunderstandings, wrestle through differences. We pray and thank you that we have the great referee in Jesus, that when two or three of us are gathered in the midst, he's there in the midst of us. So we thank you for what you are doing and we thank you as we submit to your direction that you will be well pleased with us. This is our prayer in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Pastor Brian: Well, wasn't that great? Thank you, Lord. I'm really, really looking forward to all that God is doing. I don't want to look so forward that I miss what he's doing today though. Today was a great day. It's a real benchmark day in so many ways. I just look forward to what God is doing. The Jesus movement of the late sixties and early seventies was not something that five men got in a room and contrived and say, I think this would be a good idea. But this was something that God did and he did it all across the world. And he's doing something very special here, bringing all of us together in such a diverse way. And there is going to be more diversity in the future. If you are looking for someone to be just like you, this may not be the place . But you are important to be here. You are important to be here.
We've had a hole here at Hope the last couple of Sundays. Last week, our dear friend, Adrian, was sick. His blood white cell count went down to zero, which is not a good thing, but he got some treatments and that came back. Tammy was supposed to sing this morning, and I got a call late last night that she had been rushed to the hospital, and this morning she had emergency appendectomy operation. We are still actually waiting to hear how that went. We will pray for her before we are dismissed here this morning. But everybody has a part. Everybody has a place where they fit.
Father, we lift up Tammy and Adrian to you. We ask God that you just help her to recuperate, recover. We look forward to when she'll be back to sing your wonderful praises and inspire us with her beautiful music. We look forward to the others that are coming. We pray your Holy Spirit will just continue to saturate us here, this property, this facility, your people with your presence. And we go back to our worship time this morning when there were people that you brought to our mind that we could speak the name of Jesus over. And we just, again, speak the name of Jesus over all those people, all those circumstances, all those situations. Because Father, it's your name that we have victory in.
If there is broken-heartedness today, we speak the comfort of Jesus' name. If there is addictions today, we speak the power of breaking those addictions in Jesus' name. If there is provision needed, Jehovah Jireh, our provider, we speak your name, Jesus, over those needs. Whatever the needs may be, we just speak your name, Jesus, over those circumstances and situations. And we just thank you for what you are doing here at Hope Community. We bless all of our online people. We thank you for the blessing they are to us. We also thank you for all who will be coming to this place. This we pray in Jesus' name. Let's raise our hands together.
And now, may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his faces shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace. And may you see clearly where you fit into this wonderful body of Christ. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
We have Dave and Lou that's going to be serving communion over here this morning to my right, your left, and all of you are welcome to have communion. If you'd like, we'll also have some people to pray for you if you have any prayer needs this morning. God bless you. Thank you for being here. Next week is the weekend of the 4th of July, and Jacque and I will be ministering next Sunday. Thank you, Pastor Robert and TaQuaris today, and we look forward to seeing you hopefully next week. God bless you. Have a wonderful week. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 6-25-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.