[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians chapter 4, we're going to read the first six verses, it'll be on the screen if you want to follow that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says, therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received with all humility and gentleness with patience, accepting one another and love diligently, keeping the unity, everybody say unity, of the Spirit with the peace that binds us.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and a father of all who is above all and through all and in all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're taking notes this morning, the title of today's message is, in this together, in this together, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's pray today, Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for the truth, that be your word.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you, Father, for speaking to us today, God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you, Lord, for bringing us together, unlike ever before.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, that there would be such a strong spirit of unity in this church, that we will be united with one another, that we would do the work of your kingdom, Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we would do it in a spirit of unity, going after you, chasing after you, with all that we have, with all that we are, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Father, we thank you today.
[SPEAKER_01]: We lift you up a week's solitude.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for your word.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus name it by said, amen, amen, praise God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Ephesians 4.
[SPEAKER_01]: is a unique passage of Scripture because it is there that Paul is addressing a group of people that the Church of Ephesus who are very diverse.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's dealing with both Jews and Gentiles who have come to be part of the church and it's important to note it's important to understand
[SPEAKER_01]: meaning that they had all different kinds of cultural things that were happening all at once.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was some negative cultural things that were taking place at the same time, and a lot of that is somewhat of what we see obviously today, and it was a very perverse culture.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was idolatry, perversion, lots of prostitution, sexual sins happening there and
[SPEAKER_01]: All of the first three chapters of Ephesians, chapters one, two, and three about really getting the people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a letter, remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he wrote in letters, and this is a continuation of a letter that he wrote to the Church of Ephesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we see that the first three chapters are him, really trying to teach them who Jesus is and helping them to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then it takes a radical left turn, and it goes into a complete transition as we go into chapter four.
[SPEAKER_01]: where he no longer is talking about coming into the knowledge of Jesus Christ, but rather, now he starts talking about different things, like behavioral issues, about sin, about being aware of some of the challenges of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we see him going from talking about Jesus, this is who he is to all of a sudden saying and starting at the beginning of chapter 4,
[SPEAKER_01]: He starts talking about sin, he starts talking about behavior, and as a preacher, as a pastor, you know, I shouldn't be telling people that they should do this, and that they should do that, and all that kind of stuff, if I don't tell them first about the knowledge of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one thing to tell you all of the things that are principles of the Word of God and truth and different things that we are to follow.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's another thing to have the full revelation of who Jesus Christ is and who He is as your Savior because this walk with Jesus is not about behavior modification but rather heart transformation.
[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel of Jesus Christ has never been how to I get somebody to change all of their behaviors.
[SPEAKER_01]: But rather it's always been something where it's, how can I change the heart of man?
[SPEAKER_01]: How can I transform the heart of an individual?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want us to understand the power of the gospel this morning and I want us to understand the truth about that because I feel like so many times especially, you know, going in and out out of church and all that kind of stuff and trying to live this Christian life, it can become so much so that we're just trying to fix stuff all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fix our sin, fix our behavior, fix our attitudes, and it's fixed this and fixed that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think so many times we try to do all this fixing without really getting down to the heart of who Jesus is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if he can transform and change your heart first, then let me tell you all the stuff will fix itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to do all of these things and take all of these steps to try to fix who you are, who you're not.
[SPEAKER_01]: All you have to do is trust the Father in heaven and he will begin to transform your heart and he'll begin to fix all those things that you're concerned about without you even having to try.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is not about behaviorally modifying our lives to fit into some sort of mold, a perfect this, or a perfect that, but it's really building a relationship with the one who knows us most, and the one who loves us most, and the one who loves us more than anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And listen, church, Jesus didn't come and die and race from the grave to be on behavior watch for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did those things to have a connection with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: His one desire that he longs for with his children is to be in relationship.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's to be in connection with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is why Jesus has never fit and doesn't fit into any kind of mold of religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, aren't you grateful for that today?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesse, we take my mic up just a little bit brother, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he doesn't need an obligation to rules, nor do we have to perform in some kind of way and do certain kind of things to make him love us more.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, aren't you thankful for that today?
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I don't have to try to perform.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to try to do a whole bunch of things for him to love me more.
[SPEAKER_01]: He loves me unconditionally.
[SPEAKER_01]: He loves me exactly the way I am, exactly the way that he created and formed to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, and who he made me to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus broke the chains of religion, and he offered him so fully.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we get to believe in Him, but it's not religion, it's a true relationship.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a true relationship with our Creator, with the Father, and according to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, it says that we have been saved by grace through faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have been saved by grace through faith, and it's nothing that we could do.
[SPEAKER_01]: to have earned it, but the Bible says in Ephesians 2 that it is a gift of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing we could have done to earn it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't earn it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's literally a gift of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the only reason we are saved today is because Grace rescued us when we couldn't fix ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: We tried all we could to try to fix this and fix that, coming to the conclusion that I'm never going to fix who I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the only one that can fix me is Jesus, come on in the power of His grace and the power of His mercy, Hallelujah, and it is forgiving love and His forgiving power in my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: That I can sin and I can fall short and it's his grace that picks me up.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's his love that picks me up It says I still love you son.
[SPEAKER_01]: I still care about you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you fail.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you made him a stank But I'm gonna love you through it anyways And that's the power of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the power of his love
[SPEAKER_01]: So in Ephesians 4, Paul begins to transition into taking us and talking to us, hear me about our walk with Christ and about the different things that we're going to experience and the different kind of things that are going to come up in our life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, walk worthy of the calling that you have received.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walk worthy of the calling that you have received.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hear me this morning, church, if you are one of the cold and if you have chosen Jesus, then there ought to be an accommodating walk with your confession that you have made.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, pastor, I thought you said it's all about grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know that grace is not a license to sin, but you cannot get saved by grace but then only pull grace out when you need it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, it's not that Christians don't fall down, that Christians don't sin or make mistakes.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when a Christian makes a mistake, and when a Christian sins, their response should look completely different than a person who has not yet been saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: The response is entirely different.
[SPEAKER_01]: A person who isn't saved when they sin, they really don't feel bad about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you know Jesus and He has the Lord of your life, then the Spirit of God will convict you, and the Bible says that it will lead you into all truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when we do fall and we do make a mistake, it's not condemnation that's coming over us, but it's an understanding that I did something I shouldn't have done.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm convicted and now let me be led into the Spirit of Truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in Ephesians 4, the walk worthy of the calling,
[SPEAKER_01]: is basically saying that our walk ought to line up with our testimony.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your walk should line up with your testimony.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now what's interesting is that the first thing that Paul discusses when he's addressing our walk is this whole concept of unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about our walk.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says walk worthy of the calling that you have received, and then immediately he jumps
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like he understood how important it would be to be speaking to this church of emphasis and saying, hey, there's going to be times where you're going to be going through some stuff, but you better make sure you're in unity with one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: You better make sure that you're together with one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: That you're walking in a spirit of unity that you don't allow division, but you keep a spirit of togetherness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you're taking notes this morning,
[SPEAKER_01]: that I want to dive into.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's, there's three truths of walking in together and a togetherness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three truths of walking in togetherness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the first one is this that you got to know that we are family.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are family.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to know it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to know that you don't just show up to church and you're just here.
[SPEAKER_01]: to exist, or you're just here to take up space.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just here to suck air in.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what we're here for, but you gotta understand that we are here as a family.
[SPEAKER_01]: That we have come together as one unit, a family unit.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is nothing more powerful than understanding this and coming into the place where you know and you understand that we can all walk this life together.
[SPEAKER_01]: that you don't have to be alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to be alone in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to be alone in your walk with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to be alone through trials and situations that come your way, through circumstances that you're dealing with, but that there is a spirit of oneness, a spirit of family, that you are grafted into, and you say, yes to Jesus, and he surrounds you with the perfect people that you need in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they'll be there to help you, to train you, to equip you, to motivate you, to encourage you, to pray for you, whatever it may be.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what the family of Jesus Christ is all about.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the church is all about.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one thing to come in here and have a place where we can lift our hands and sing, and have a place where we can hear the word.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's another thing to know that when I walk into this building, I'm walking into my family's house.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm walking into a place where I know my brothers and sisters are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where if I'm going through something, I can reach out and I can have a conversation and I know that they're going to be there for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that they're going to be there with me, understanding that we really are a family.
[SPEAKER_01]: In order to understand that there are four when he starts, when Paul starts and chapter
[SPEAKER_01]: In order to understand that, we got to go back to verse 14 of chapter 5.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to read that for a second Ephesians chapter, or see me, you got to go back to Ephesians chapter 3, going backwards.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at it on the screen.
[SPEAKER_01]: For this reason, I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I pray that He may grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power in the inner man through His Spirit and that the Messiah made dwell in your hearts through faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: I pray that you being rooted and firmly established in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints, with all of us, the family.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the length and width and height and depth of God's love?
[SPEAKER_01]: And to know the Messiah's love, that surpasses knowledge.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you may be filled with all the fullness of God, now to Him who is able to do above and beyond, all that we can ask for, thank according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory and the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then immediately, He says, therefore,
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you are born again and you are part of the kingdom, part of your family is sitting right here in this room with you this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Part of your family is sitting right here with you this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the other part of your family is in the great cloud of witnesses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm so thankful that the Lord, you night, is body.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord United's his body.
[SPEAKER_01]: In those five verses in Ephesians chapter three, we see we are family, we are us, we are, we, this is not some individual eyes disconnected set up but rather it's a family unit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, therefore, now I urge you to walk out this calling but right before that, if you understand context when it comes to scripture, it's saying we are a family.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as a family, we therefore walk out this thing with Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it means to be together.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it means to be in a spirit of togetherness, a spirit of unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And hear me this morning church, you will never step into your calling outside of the revelation and connection of other believers with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can try to do it by yourself and it won't take you very far.
[SPEAKER_01]: God has purposely surrounded you and he plants you in places where you can connect with one another and you can run after him and the calling that he has placed upon your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is what the church is for.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is what the body of believers is for.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is why I'm concerned with loan rangers out there who have no church, they're connected to, or no pastor to come up under.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you see the enemy flourishes in isolation.
[SPEAKER_01]: He flourishes in isolation.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows that if he can get you isolated, the next step is that he can get you defeated.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you can say, all day long, well, I got a prayer life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know how to worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know how to fight the enemy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that a hundred percent.
[SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes, when all hell is breaking loose, you need other believers to link arms with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need people who you can connect to.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need a pastor in a church that you can come up under that you can submit to.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you will see how the body together
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why it says, we are the body made up of individual parts.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Josh may be the hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Zach may be the foot.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Melissa's definitely the brain in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't trying, but I'm not the brain and I know that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we all are individual parts, and we make up one body.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when you, as an individual, you're individual part.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you don't link up with the body of Christ, then the body is missing a part.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't ever want to be in such a place of isolation where I am forsaking the body of Christ because it's not doing me any good to remain disconnected and isolated and it's not helping the church either.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need every single part all the way down to the pinky toe.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, come on, somebody.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we need every single one of us joint together in one voice, one sound, in a spirit of unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've got to have all of the parts to make this thing work.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the body crisis about.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can't go around acting like you don't need the people of God and think that you'll make it without them, think that you'll make it without a church, without a pastor, without spiritual leadership in your life because it's in that place and in that position that the enemy always will try to come in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Boom, boom, boom, one thing after another.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll be your finances this week, but then it'll be your relationship next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it will be your job this week and then it'll be your marriage next week.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it will just be constant, constant, constant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you'll say, how in the world am I gonna get over all of this stuff and when is all this stuff gonna ever end?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's because you're isolated and you're not connected to the body.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're connected, we work together to help one another, and we come under the spirit of God in unity, and through his help, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we're able to work together as a joint force, going after the kingdom of God, but also helping one another to get there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So number one, you gotta know that we are family.
[SPEAKER_01]: And number two is this, that your calling is attached to togetherness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your calling is attached to togetherness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we know that there are, especially in DFW and down in the, well, we call the Bible belt here in Texas.
[SPEAKER_01]: right it seems like I mean you can you can drive a block or two and boom there's another church you can drive a little bit further and there's another church it may be a small church it may be a big church but there's churches everywhere right they're all over the place and it seems like
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a reason why there's so many churches and so many denominations and all this kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, the body is completely different.
[SPEAKER_01]: The body is unique.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, we find our right spot in our group that we belong, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, can you imagine if the church, the big sea church, the overall church would just join together in the spirit of unity together?
[SPEAKER_01]: What that would look like?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it would be incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not talking about joining together on a Sunday morning and having the biggest crowd you've ever seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not exactly what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying, can you imagine if the churches all came together?
[SPEAKER_01]: in a spirit of unity and chased after Jesus together, worshiped together, did life together, you know, that there was no competition of this and competition of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I can't stand that when it comes to churches, you know, can't stand when pastors say, oh, that's my people.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's not your people, it's God's people.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's like, I don't, I don't ever get that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't ever understand that, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't, don't talk to my people.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not your people.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and we got a, we got a, you know, really get past all of that, but there's churches on every corner and some of those churches are products of rebellion, people that I said, I don't want to be there no more, forget it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go do our own thing, you know, or split a church or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, some of the churches that we see are literally by products of the spirit of rebellion, disobedience.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now in order for us to walk out this calling, Paul says in Ephesians chapter four, verse two, this is how you walk it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, this is how you walk it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says with all humility, and gentleness with patience, accepting one another in love, and diligently keeping the unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice how all of those things have to do with other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're pointing the finger to help one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just about me, but it's how can I help you and how can you help me?
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't do that if I'm not humble.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't do that if I don't have patience.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't do that if I don't love you, and I'm not willing to do life with you and walk with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he says with all humility and gentleness, with patience accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul says, I want you to walk this out and I want you to do it together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Together, you can't walk in togetherness, unity or oneness without first embracing humility, gentleness, patience, and acceptance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Since I want you to walk this all out together, but you on an individual level, you better be working on humility, gentleness, patience, and acceptance for one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, we can work real hard to establish and create togetherness and unity, but there will come a time when you're challenged on a relational level.
[SPEAKER_01]: With someone who has offended you or someone who has hurt you, you will be challenged.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what's the response to that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Humility is the first thing that is mentioned in this text when he says, we got to do this, we got to walk this thing out together in unity and he says you got to be humble.
[SPEAKER_01]: Humility is the first thing that is mentioned there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you see, humility means that while you may say something that could be offensive, my response will not be rooted in offense, but rather my response says I'm willing to lift you back up.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may offend me, but I'm willing to be humble enough to lift you back up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So our response has got to be God's opinion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our response has got to be a God response.
[SPEAKER_01]: What if I told you that some of your breakthroughs are attached to your willingness to lay down your own selfishness and to care for someone else?
[SPEAKER_01]: Even the people that have hurt you, even the people that have offended you, what if some of your breakthrough is attached to your willingness to to let go of your selfish desires and what you think about them and how you feel about them and literally to lay down your life for your brother, for your sister?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you don't understand how bad they hurt me.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've all been hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know what they said that offended me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get that the offense is there and I get that it's real.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I get that they may have said something that was really, really bad, really, really hurtful.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what if your breakthrough is on the other side of forgiving them?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if your breakthrough is on the other side of walking and love with them again?
[SPEAKER_01]: Saying, I know you hurt me bad, but I'm going to choose to forgive you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to walk in grace like the father walks in, like the father walks in grace for with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to say, you know what, no matter what you've said, no matter what you've done, I'm going to love you anyways.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the things that we're praying for and believing for on the other side of that?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if your victory was attached to your willingness to be a blessing to someone who hurts you in the past?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where you could say, I bless them, and you can bless them, whatever way that looks like.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what if your breakthrough was attached to that?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I feel like so many times we get offended and we get hurt and we just try to figure out a way to move on.
[SPEAKER_01]: and we move on past that and we keep on going and we keep on going and that thing every time we look back is still like right there even though it may have been years and years but somehow when we turn around it's still right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we have a hard time of forgiving and loving and accepting and being patient with one another and walking in humility because we didn't take care of the thing, come on, that was trying to take us out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's amazing to me, the people that harbor unforgiveness and bitterness resentment for one another, especially in the house of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't understand it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why we allow those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know it's the devil, but I don't understand why we allow those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the Lord is saying, hey, look, humility, patience, walking together and love says in gentleness, gentleness, you don't know what they did to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get it, but can you be gentle?
[SPEAKER_01]: because the Bible says very clearly to restore one another out of a spirit of gentleness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so while you may have been hurt and while there may have been things that were said to you or done to you, can you walk in a spirit of gentleness to the person that hurt you the most?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's there, and in that place that we will truly experience true freedom, true victory, and that we can really come to this knowledge of being in unity with one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying you have to accept what was done.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because maybe it was really bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying you have to accept that, but what I am saying is that you've got to choose this day,
[SPEAKER_01]: to move on and say, I'm not going to allow that to affect me any longer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I will forgive, I will walk in grace, I will walk in humility, gentleness, patience, accepting one another in a spirit of love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And through that, I'm telling you the Lord will do miraculous works in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Miraculous works in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So number one.
[SPEAKER_01]: know that we are a family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number two, you're calling us attached to togetherness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And number three is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Togetherness is worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: 100% is worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like being in unity is worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like think about in your own personal life, like in your job.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not in unity with your boss,
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you're going to be fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: So togetherness is worth it, unity is 100% worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So walking this thing out, he says, walk this out, walking this thing out will be a challenge at times, but it's going to be absolutely rewarding, absolutely rewarding.
[SPEAKER_01]: because it's really easy in this hour that we live into fine reasons not to do life together.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can come up with all kinds of reasons, and all kinds of excuses as to why I don't wanna do life with the people that I'm sitting in in this room right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or we can come up with all these reasons excuses of why I don't wanna do life with the rest of the body of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there can be some very valid reasons as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the end of the day, God is looking for us to be in a spirit of togetherness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sadly, the spirit of division is getting rich off of people of God who had rather stay offended than move forward in peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sadly, the spirit of division is getting rich off of the people of God who would rather live an unforgiveness than rather walking and forgiveness with one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: The spirit of division is getting rich off of the people of God who would rather walk in disunity than walk in true unity with one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I get so sick and tired of people who all they ever wanted to do is strive for division.
[SPEAKER_01]: What can I do to stir things up today?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't get that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, well, and it's almost like the enemy will just take people and plop them into churches and plop them in the groups.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've all witnessed it before in your lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've been around the second long enough, that they're literally just division starters.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're just disunity thrivers, they want to stir up the pot and they want to bring about division in whatever way they can and it might start small and it might turn into something big but the Bible says it's the little foxes that spoil the mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: And before you know it, maybe just a disagreement or just somebody looked at somebody wrong and we thought, oh God, they don't love me anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, they just, they needed a sneeze and you just looked at them right in that particular time.
[SPEAKER_01]: They still love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just were about to sneeze.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just caught them in the wrong moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: But don't be offended because of their face, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: We get so caught up in such silly little things and we let it boil up into something much larger than it should ever be and then we thrive on the division.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thrive on the disunity, on the complaining, on the griping, on the separation, and the severance of relationships.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just say, yes, it's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, wait a second, where is our love for one another?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where is our humility?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where is our patience?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where is our accepting one another in love?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where did all this go?
[SPEAKER_01]: It just like literally got kicked out of the door.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why we always say hurting people hurt people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hurting people hurt people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they'll do all kinds of stuff to try to hurt other people because they're hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that takes a lot of deliverance and freedom and prayer and all kinds of stuff to get set free of hurts.
[SPEAKER_01]: But don't you dare take your hurt and cause more hurt out of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't take your hurt because you're hurting and say, oh, I'm going to make them feel what I'm going through right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you call out something to happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have time for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that that's happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: You hear me church?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our church isn't unity, but I want you to understand like it can't happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: It has happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: The enemy loves to divide people and mess up relationships.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he hates marriage.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will do anything he can to divide a marriage.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hates it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because God established it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Simple as that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hates relationships with one another in the body of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hates it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he'll do all these little things to try to sever relationships.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you see those things happening, you got to have a spirit of discernment, recognize it, and be able to put a stop to it, pray against it or whatever it may be.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's so easy.
[SPEAKER_01]: These days, it walk into spirit of disunity and division
[SPEAKER_01]: and follow me for a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here, maybe before you cut me off on this, we're in competition.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're in competition.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not in competition with the church down the road, but we're in competition every day with NBC and ABC and CNN and MSNBC and Fox and all of these entertainment, this and entertainment that and all this kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're in competition with all of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: because all of that is rooted in the spirit of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's out to destroy the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we are literally fighting daily, a constant fight to overcome the spirit of this world, and to overcome the deception of the enemy and the lies of that are coming against the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's a daily, a daily fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a daily competition where we are combating against the schemes of the enemy, and we are waging war against the spirit of this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let me ask you this today, church.
[SPEAKER_01]: What will our kids?
[SPEAKER_01]: We're our grandkids, even.
[SPEAKER_01]: do if they never, if they never excuse me, see a spirit of unity in the church, but they only ever see strife and division.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we'll our kids and grandkids do.
[SPEAKER_01]: What all will they have to overcome?
[SPEAKER_01]: What challenges will they have to face?
[SPEAKER_01]: And what are the things that they're going to have to deal with?
[SPEAKER_01]: If all they ever see is strife and division?
[SPEAKER_01]: would let you know right now that quite frankly there wouldn't be a future church if all there ever was was strife and division because god can't operate in that he doesn't well there he dwells in unity with one another so what kind of church are you here this tossed around all the time well that's a woke church
[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard it said about other places, well, that's a woke church, they've allowed liberal agendas and all of this and all of that in their church organization.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard different things toss around like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard that's a conservative church, I've heard that that's a magic church, I've heard all of these things, but what if we were just the kingdom of God?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if we were just the kingdom of heaven, come on somebody who just love people, and love the hell out of people, come on now, and love the Jesus and people, come on!
[SPEAKER_01]: What if we were that church?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if we just love Jesus so much that we didn't, we didn't affiliate ourselves with any kind of title or any kind of model, or whatever it may be, but we were just going after the kingdom of God together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just loved him with all of our hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today we are known by our politics more than we're known by our love for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, togetherness at times can seem difficult.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can seem far out of reach, but let me tell you today, that togetherness will always be worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will always be worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And listen, we were never called to create unity, but we were called to keep the unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus never said, establish and create all the unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And never said that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, but what I want you to do is I want you to keep the unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, he is the unifying, centralized force of unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, I want you to keep the unity going.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't you dare allow destruction, don't you dare allow bitterness, don't you dare allow offense and a spirit of division to creep up amongst yourselves, but keep the spirit
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't like something, it's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't mean you have to say it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't like what somebody said to you, that doesn't mean you have to go tell them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like what you said to me, last Sunday at church.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's division starting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's division starting.
[SPEAKER_01]: We tell our kids all the time, even.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they'll get in the car and, you know, they'll gripe and complain about what each other did in children's class or what another kid said or, you know, whatever else, and I'm like, guys, like, you gotta be the example to make sure that there's unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the enemy will use even a spirit of division amongst children to mess up the family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, I'm telling you, I mean it's it's it's real.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we got to start even at a young age of making sure that we are coming to this understanding that we are called to keep the unity in the body of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're offended, just say I was offended at that, but I'm keeping the unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you get upset at somebody, I was upset about that, but I am just keeping the unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody says something that was hurt for offensive to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know they said it, but I am choosing to keep the unity with a big old smile on my face.
[SPEAKER_01]: Looking real good, I'm going to keep the unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what it takes, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this is something that we have to daily walk out and we have to walk it out together.
[SPEAKER_01]: team, you can come up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, church, we're being built together for a dwelling place of his spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the Bible says.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so hear me together, anything can happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Together, anything can happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: God lives in unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't live outside of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But He says, if you can do things together, I'll be there with you through it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be there with you in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you can do things together, but if you're going to allow a spirit of division and a spirit of disunity, maybe rooted out of offense or bitterness or hurt or whatever it may be, I can't be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't be there, but God lives in togetherness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to today's message.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray you were inspired, challenged, and marked by the word you heard.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this message blessed you today, we encourage you to subscribe to the Church of the City Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you can find more faith-filled messages to uplift you and help you on your journey of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: For more information about Church of the City, head on over to www.cotcdfw.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, remember this, the best is yet to come.