Unity: Work Together

Well, Father God, we just want to say thank you for the opportunity to come and to worship,

up to have songs that we get to just remind ourselves of what it is that we truly believe

of the promises and the rewards and the things that we get to cling to.

And Lord, you know that many times in our life,

it takes some really hard things to bring us to the point where we're willing to get on our hands and

knees and truly submit and surrender to you. And so while we are not particularly thankful for the

hard things, Lord, we are thankful for you and how you draw us to you during them.

Lord, as we gather this morning, Lord, every man, every woman, from teenagers to senior citizens,

Lord, we've gathered in this place because we realize there's something that we need that we can only get

through you and meeting with other believers as we seek your face. And Father, this morning,

I pray that you would speak and work and move powerfully. I ask that your Holy Spirit would

touch us as individuals, but more importantly, touch us as a body of believers. Lord,

we dare not claim to have it figured out. We dare not claim to be perfect or whole in any way.

Lord, we are very aware of how much we need you because we need more than what we are.

We need more than what we can have or gain in this world. And you're the only one who can feel

that whole in our life. Father, as we meet together and we get to read your word and pray

and sing, we know that there are loved ones that we have who are not able to be here today. Lord,

we pray for them. We pray for all the people of our church who aren't able to be here. Lord,

we just specifically lift up Pastor Gary and Miss Magdalene and their family to you this

morning as they're in the hospice house. Lord, they're just having those final few days with

Miss Magdalene. We just pray that your Holy Spirit would go and comfort them and speak to them and give

them a peace for this situation that only you can give. Father, I pray that you would help us as

believers and brothers and sisters to not only pray for them in this moment, but to pray for them

in the coming hours and days. Lord, in these moments, we ask that your Holy Spirit would be present,

that you would work and move in our hearts, that you would speak powerfully,

Father, we need you this morning. We need you to reveal truth. We need you to just do something

new in us. Father, we thank you and we love you. We just humbly ask all this in the precious

time. What is good to be with you this morning and coming off of a great service last week and

baptizing so many people. That was a lot of fun, but it is September. We're in a new month.

We're in a new sermon series and we're going to be talking about unity over the next several

weeks and as Christians, it is one of the most important things that we have been called to do

as believers is to be in unity with one another. We neglect it. We forget about it. We don't think

about it too much, but when you look at scripture, and I've said it many times in the New Testament,

that when you read the New Testament, one of the most familiar topics in the New Testament is

talking about unity among the churches that all the epistles were written to. And so from looking

at the calling on our lives as Christians to abstain from sin, to be obedient to God's word,

to be ministers and witnesses of the gospel, unity is as much of a calling on our life as any of

the other stuff is. So I just want to say that again. Unity with one another is as much a calling

on the life of a Christian as it is to abstain from sin, to be obedient to God's word, and to be

a witness and a minister of the gospel. Unity is that important. In the American Church,

this is probably one of the things that we miss the most because we are so busy.

Our schedules are full. We have family. We have obligations. We have jobs. We have requirements

on our life. And so many times, it feels like just a win to just show up to church on Sunday

morning, right? Have you felt like you just won just to get here today? Most times, Sunday mornings

are the worst. It's when families fight the most. It's when the most problems happen. The

car's going to break down. The kids are going to poop on themselves. Somebody's going to throw up.

Somebody's mad. Somebody's arguing. It's like it all happens on Sunday.

Getting here is hard. But guys, I'm telling you, with all of the truth that I can give you

this morning is to remind us as believers that Sunday morning just isn't enough.

I'm not a good enough speaker. As great as our worship team is, the songs that we sing,

it's just not enough. The few moments that you get to see one another and wave at each other

from across the room and say, hey, and just get that little bit of encouragement, that dump of

whatever it is that we get on Sunday morning, it's just not enough. And to know that Christ has

called us as believers to live in unity with one another, not just for one hour out of the week,

but for our entirety of our lives. He wants us to be in unity. He wants us to be in fellowship.

He wants us to truly be one with one another, and we miss it so much. We cheat ourselves out of it

as believers. And so this is what we're talking about today. In John 17, verses 20 through 21,

John 17:20–21

I'm going to read you a couple of verses. And this is an actual prayer of Jesus. Jesus

praised this prayer. Undoubtedly, he prayed it out loud because John gives us the account of

this prayer. And it's a beautiful prayer as Jesus is praying for his disciples,

but he's not just praying for his disciples, he's praying for us like we are included

in this prayer. So when we read this this morning, I want you to know like he's praying for you

as an individual, he's praying for us as a church, he's praying for everyone who would ever

claim faith in Jesus Christ. Beautiful passage. Let's read it together. Jesus said,

I am praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me

through their message. That's why we're included. This morning, if you believe in Jesus,

as a result of hearing the message of the gospel, Jesus is including you in this prayer. And even

if you don't believe in this today, if you come to the point where you believe in it a week from

now, a year from now, 10 years from now, you are included in this prayer. In verse 21, he says,

I pray that they will all be one just as you and I are one, as you are in me, Father,

and I am in you. May they be in us so that the world will believe that you sent me.

So when you think about this, now, before we move on, because I got another short passage

and read to you in just a second. But as Jesus is praying this prayer,

think about what it is that you claim that you believe in Jesus Christ.

Because in John 1, chapter one, verse one, it says that in the beginning,

the word was with God, the word was God, and through the word, all things were created.

What we claim to believe in Jesus Christ is that he is eternal just as God is eternal.

That in the beginning, he was with God, that Jesus actually is God, and that through him,

all things were made. So the fact that Jesus came to this earth and he lived this life

in a physical body as part of the requirement of being the sacrifice for our sins,

that there is nothing more closely in being united with God as Jesus was even in the flesh,

that his spirit and God's spirit were one and the same, that he walked with God perfectly.

And as Jesus is praying this prayer, there is nothing more one with God than Jesus was.

And he prays, he says, God, I pray that they, all Christians, would be one just as you and I are one,

that they should be as close to one another and join with one another and on the same page and

loving one another just as you and I are one with one another and we love one another and we share

in the spirit together. That's what his desire is for you. And may they be in us so all these people

are one with one another, we're all one with one another, and then we are one with God and Christ

so that the whole world will know and believe that you sent me.

When we talk about unity, the importance of unity in our walks with Christ,

you can't replace it. It's a gaping hole that so many of us are missing and we don't realize it.

We feel it like we know like there's something not whole but we this is one of those things that

we miss a lot of times because unity is one of the greatest witnesses that you will have

as believers. Nothing will be more powerful to people out in the world than the unity

and love amongst brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. So you can try to obey all the rules

that you want to obey. You can read God's word and know it up and down like the back of your

hand and you can quote books of scripture because I've met some people who are that talented and

you just start quoting books of scripture. You can quote scripture, you can preach sermons,

you can try to live as pious and holy of a life as you can possibly live and if you are not walking

in unity and fellowship and love with other believers in Jesus Christ, your witness about

Jesus, your test of your ministry in Jesus Christ, it's not going to be very effective.

One of the greatest aspects of your witness in your ministry in Jesus is going to be your

fellowship and unity with other believers. So the second passage I want to read to you this morning

is from the Old Testament. It's Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verses 9 through 12 and the author says

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12

two people are better off than one for they can help each other succeed.

If one person falls the other can reach out and help but someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm but how can one be warm alone?

A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated but two who stand back to back and conquer.

Three are even better for a triple braided court is not easily broken.

It's a point number one this morning that I want us to see is that we were never meant to

follow Jesus alone. One of the greatest things or most familiar things that you will see

from a lot of people who claim to be Christian is yeah I can be a Christian I don't need to go to

church I can worship God here I can worship God there blah blah blah I can do this I can do that

yeah it's true you can have moments of worship you can have times where you're extremely close

to the Lord out in the woods on a boat in the bathroom staring at the door while you're

doing your thing you can have times with Jesus anywhere anytime anyway but the truth of the

matter is that we need to just be aware of and know and remind ourselves he didn't call us to do

this alone in fact if we try to do it alone more than likely we're going to fail and when we do

fail or fall we don't have those people around us to help pick us up as it was talking about

ecclesiastes we need people surrounding us because here's the thing how many of you are perfect

I thought I saw some hands about to go up you're not we're not but I'm not perfect how many of

you accepted Jesus Christ and have failed in your wall of Christ sent you accepted him as Lord and

Savior we have all had those moments where we needed someone to reach out that hand and to

pick us up and help us back we were never meant to do it alone and thanks be to God he never

expected us to do it alone and he designed it and set it up specifically so we would not have to

do it alone when you go back and look at scripture the only time that God called one individual do

you know when it was he called Abraham and he did it specifically because Abraham believed he had

and he called Abraham said I want you to leave your homeland I want you to go here

I'm leading you to a new place and then I'm going to create in you a nation as numerous as the stars

and the sky it's the only time in scripture where he called one man to do something to follow him

but through that one man he created a nation of people he took his family he used the bondage

of slavery for 400 years to hold them captive to let them be built up and keep them together

he exited them out of Egypt into the promised land created a nation created a kingdom he sent

Jesus and as Jesus comes what does Jesus and John the Baptist constantly say the kingdom

of God is near work build serve in the kingdom there's always this aspect and attitude

of doing this with other people together as a group

and sit here this morning and to think that as believers in Jesus Christ

if we claim to to believe in him to serve him to follow him if we claim eternal life

and to look around this morning and to see someone inside this room who also claims to be a believer

and yet they would feel alone would be one of the greatest failures that we have as a church

be one of the greatest failures we have a church I got something fun for you this morning you ready

this morning's about being challenged it's not about being comfortable I want you to look around

this room really quick I want you to find someone you don't know and I want you to go and introduce

yourself to them and ask them their name have fun go ahead

all right thank y'all for doing that now one of my greatest fears as a pastor

is doing church in a way that um would fall short of what Jesus expects you know one of

the things we talk about in staff meeting a lot is is what we do as as a church especially when we

come together on Sunday morning if Jesus came would he be pleased with what it is that we're doing

and so that's one of the reasons why we try to keep church within reason pretty simple we pray

we sing songs we read God's word and we try to keep it to that within reason if y'all testify

great we want that too and so but one of the other fears that you have is okay well what is

what do we do as a church that Jesus would not be uh excited about or think it would be effective

while we're not meeting together so Monday through Saturday

and the idea that someone would be at church and to be a believer and feel alone to me I feel like

if we stood before Christ one hand said yeah I'm a Christian put my faith in Jesus I went to Graham

chapel blah blah blah and then yet Jesus would say well so did this person

and you never spoke to him don't know their name don't know nothing about them it would be it

would be terrifying to think as a church that we would allow that happen that no okay so let's do

a little bit of back up a little bit there are people who are out there who will make it

extremely difficult like they will seclude themselves on purpose right there are those

people out there and so even for me one of the greatest things I've had to overcome as a pastor

of when do I insert myself into other people's lives whenever they may not want me there and

what I've come to over the past couple years that I feel like God has continually spoken to me about

is is just do it it's not a Nike commercial but just do it like if you feel like somebody

like you you're wondering about it just do it it's better for you to make them uncomfortable

than it is for you to make them feel like you don't care

like one of the worst things that I could do as a pastor is they have I don't know if they

would want me to pray with and my grandma helped me know that just like you're their pastor they

want you to pray for them and so that's one of the things I've like tried to do is step out of

my comfort zone in situations where I don't feel comfortable which is most situations because I'm

an introvert if you didn't know I feel uncomfortable in most situations how many of your skin how many

people skin crawl whenever I say get up and go introduce yourself to somebody my skin crawled

too it was like horrible having to watch you do it because I know how uncomfortable it is

it is hard but it is better for us to be uncomfortable and to make other people feel

uncomfortable than to other people make to make other people feel like we don't love them or

care about them there's something greater there that we need to see and understand we were never

meant to follow Jesus alone the idea that someone would come into our church and feel alone or

unwanted or like the fact that they would feel invisible is one of the worst things that we

could do as a body of believers and not just to make them feel invisible or unwanted on Sunday

morning because you could go up and you could shake hands with every single person that walked

through this door but Monday through Saturday if they felt invisible and unloved and uncared for

even Monday through Saturday it's just as bad if not worse the need for us to do

this walk with Christ with other people is so important it's such an important aspect

of our walks with Jesus in John chapter 13 verses 34 through 35 Jesus said so now I'm giving you

John 13:34–35

a new commandment love each other just as I have loved you you should love each other

your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples there's no greater

witness or testimony that you can give to the world other than loving your fellow Christians

and what's interesting is that you will find a lot of the time

especially if you watch a lot of social media stuff like TikTok Instagram all that other stuff

you'll find a lot of people who claim to be followers of Christ and they're criticizing

other people the entire time and we should never fall into this trap of criticizing or judging

because like let's be honest there's a lot of weird people in the world there's a lot of weird

people in here I'm one of them we're all weird we're all different we all look different and it's

a good thing God created us to be different we cannot get caught up in this idea of criticizing

one another or not agreeing with someone or not like we don't have to agree on every single

thing in the world Jesus is the thing if we love him we agree on him then we agree on all

that we need to agree on the rest of it is just love and overlooking a multitude of faults

is that not what we do in family lord knows we'd love to choke family half the time

but we love them anyway because they're family and the same thing happens inside the church

Galatians chapter 6 verse 10 therefore whatever we have whenever we have the opportunity

Galatians 6:10

we should do good to everyone especially to those in the family of faith there needs to be an

attitude in our life that that we are excited and ready to do good to other people especially

Christians and for some of you some of your extroverts the idea of speaking to people out

in public or at church like you get excited about that it fuels you some of your introverts

and the idea of coming here and having to talk to people you don't know it kills you from inside

and you should pray about that and ask God to help you and to strengthen you and prepare you

to come in to to a place like this and say lord help me it's not just for me

I want to make sure that I love your other children the way that you've called me to love

them that's what's important and if I'm exhausted if I go home exhausted that's okay

as long as I do what you call me to do

we should be ready and eager the need for unity is not just the benefit of other people or maybe

someone who's an introvert or they they seclude themselves it's not just for their benefit

the need for benefit is also for us as individuals like we need to be unified with other people

because there are things that we receive from the unity as well whether it comes natural or

it doesn't come natural there are benefits from the unity that we receive as believers

that we need to be tapping into point number two we need to get in the trenches together

this is another thing that Christians in America miss out on greatly

as believers as Christians as brothers and sisters there's a serious lack of jumping into

the trenches with one another and doing stuff together and working together there is a bond

and a camaraderie that is built from people who work together that you cannot get it any

other way this is why you can see husbands and wives who are married together for 50 years

and they may not have a very good bond or unity because they have not done a lot of stuff

together they've basically just had this arranged life but yet you can have this

these couple of men who have absolutely nothing in common but if they go to battle together

this is why men who served in the military there is a bond and a unity between people who've

served in the military that only they have only they know what they have had to do only they know

what they have had to experience that's why when you get two people who served in the military

together there's something between them that's unexplainable and you you get that similar

situation when people who's been on a team together or worked a job together for 20 or 30

years there's a bond that happens when people get in the trenches together and you have wins and losses

together and you suffer together and you experience joy together there's a unity there

that is unexplainable and in the american church we rob ourselves of that unity that natural unity

that takes place when we get in the trenches and we work with one another we cheat ourselves

out of this experience of making these incredible bonds with one another as we work alongside with

one another can i be honest a lot of times it's the failures and the suffering that draws us

together more than anything in our culture we seek out these great experiences we seek out fun

we seek out comfort but can i tell you that whenever i played ball like baseball was always very

enjoyable and the people that i played baseball with it was a great time loved it would go back

and do it again the bond i had with those guys is not the same as the guys that i played football

with football was miserable we hated our coach you suffered five days a week you bled sometimes

you cried like you were mad and you went out and you got to play one game and most of the times

we got our butts kicked in the game too but the people that i did that with i have a much stronger

bond and unity with them than what i did with the guys that i played baseball with because we

suffered together we had fun but we also all went on to have fun and different things

but the people we suffer with is like yeah we did that nobody else knows what we went through

but we know and it's really cool whenever you see other people who helped coach during that

time and who were adults and watching said yeah what you what you you're not just like remembering

things we were like it really was that bad we had that bond together as christians

a lot of times you're you're ministering you're preaching the gospel you're you're you're pouring

into people's lives and a lot of times we don't see a whole lot of return especially immediately

i can tell you that from as a pastor like you do a lot of stuff to try to talk to people and

pour into people's lives you preach you preach you preach you do all these lessons you you

talk to these kids for years and it might be 10 15 years before anything ever comes back as being

positive or productive but we need to experience that stuff together so that we build that bond

and that unity together to know like hey man like it's good we're in this together we're hanging on

we're clinging we're gonna do this we're gonna do what the lord has called us to do

in romans 12 verses 10 to 11 paul writes and says love each other with genuine affection

Romans 12:10–11

and take the light and honoring each other never be lazy but work hard and serve the lord

enthusiastically take note of that never be lazy it does not matter how young you are

it does not matter if there's not an adult in the world that would give you

a responsible position to serve in some fancy way or big way never be lazy

it doesn't matter how old you are it doesn't matter if you're retired it doesn't matter if

for 15 or 20 years you served in the church and you did that one position you say well

i'm going to let somebody else handle that they got that now i did my time no never be lazy there

is no retirement in the kingdom of god but you give up that thing and you let somebody else do

it and then you go find a new thing work enthusiastically there should be a desire

in our life to work for the lord to build his kingdom and guys i'm going to tell you this

morning you ready for some hard truth

there's a lot of people who claim to be christians and we think about serving in the church and

doing god's work and preaching to other people and ministering to other people and it sounds

like work and then we like dread even thinking about it

but if you're truly walking with the lord and you're filled with his spirit

it's not going to be work it's going to be a joy and can i be honest with you

that as a pastor there's some days i show up to church and it is a joy

and there's some days i show up to church and it's not right like we're human we're not always

on our a-game we're not always prepared but the truth is is that we should be praying and asking

god and helping us to be prepared to step into whatever it is he's called us do to work and serve

him enthusiastically to never be lazy so no matter how young you are or how old you are

does not matter don't be lazy work for the lord enthusiastically verse 12 rejoice in our confident

hope be patient and trouble keep on praying and you're not going to be any of those things if

you don't keep on praying when god's people are in need be ready to help them always be eager

to practice hospitality there's a need in our life to be ready and eager to walk into situations

and just do what god has called us to do because here's the thing if we're not prepared if we're not

ready we're going to walk in those situations like i'm not doing that like i asked some of

you this morning go introduce yourself somebody like i'm not doing that that's not me i'm not

dude i'm gonna tell you as a pastor there are times when i'm not i'm not prepared to walk into

situations and i'm not ready and that's why we have to pray we have to be prepared and

prayed up and ready to go for the holy spirit to be in our lives and to to to walk us into

these situations and for us to just step in and it just be this natural flow when the spirit is

present it's a natural flow it's not work it's it actually comes very easy when when when you're

filled with the spirit and that happens because i've experienced both you walk into situations

that i don't even know where that came from but thank god that you worked that out and you helped

me because that was way better than i thought was going to be and i walked into situations and

it'd be a disaster and i was part of the disaster because i was not prepared to be there or go

there or say anything in there we got to be prepared and be eager we all have the calling on

our life and if you're a believer this morning i challenge you don't walk out of this church today

and say well james is telling us we got to work we got to do something let's sign up for something

to the church i don't want you to come to me and say what do you need because i don't know

what it is that you should be doing and i'm not saying come work for the church

or serve or volunteering the church i'm saying work and serve for the kingdom

when you go out tomorrow morning monday through saturday and you're living your life

and you're operating in and out of your daily routine with your family with your friends

with your co-worker with your teammates and classmates you work for the kingdom there

that's where you need to be working some of the greatest ministry is going to happen

actually the greatest ministry is going to happen outside of these doors

this is just to give us a little pep talk for the coming week but the ministry happens there

do the work there figure out ways to serve god there to work there to get in the trenches with

one another there and point number three last one there are strength in numbers

when you go back to our ecclesiastes passage two is better than one

three is better than two and obviously the more the merrier

when we talk about what it means to follow jesus and the calling that's on our life

he never called us to do it alone there's strength in numbers in act chapter four

verse 34 you know it's such a powerful time in the bible as the holy spirit is working and

moving the church is just birthed into existence thousands of people have professed faith they're

speaking different languages but god is providing there's all these people from all over the place

who have come in for pentecost there's this new church and and are just trying to figure out what

to do but the holy spirit is leading which is an amazing thing you're just kind of guiding them and

it's all just happened very naturally you know it's not work you don't have to think a whole

lot about it when the spirit is leading and guiding in your life the lord will show you and guide you

and help you to just step into these things naturally as you walk with him in the spirit

and in chapter four verse 34 of acts it says there was no needy people among them how awesome

would it be if we had a church that we could truly say that like there was nobody among us

that was needy and it wasn't because you had to hide it or you were ashamed of it or you're afraid

to admit it but it was because literally like it was it was taken care of like we were so united

in love and camaraderie with one another that if someone was struggling with something or

dealing with something that someone loved them enough to be involved in their life enough to

know about it that would be a great and amazing thing

and to know today that the truth is is we need christian friends

you need to surround yourself with other believers in your life and as we said earlier all right let's

be honest if you went around and you had your draft pick of a lot well these are the people

i'd like to hang out with and these are requirements we want them to have and you like start lining this

thing up more than likely you're not going to find very many people inside these walls who

meet your draft pick requirements i can remember going through that as a high school kid

coming to church there were a lot of things about church that i thought were

like that just seems boring that's not fun this just seems weird and when i look back on it

it really is just kind of one of those things it's like what i thought was fun and what i

thought was normal and what i thought was like relevant and cool at the time it was simply

because i was of the world and whenever i came in and i started being friends with other people who

were believers and yeah they did things differently i remember going and playing roller hockey for the

first time because they played roller hockey like they didn't play football and baseball they played

roller hockey about broke my ankle off my leg that time but it was amazing at how much more fun

and the joy that i had with those people who were very different from me

because we had something more important in common than just things that we were interested in

like we had christ in common and the peace that you have to go with a group of friends

to go do something that might seem silly to everybody else but to have the peace and joy

to know it's like at least i know we probably won't go to jail doing this at least i know

that we're not going to get in trouble and somebody may die as we're racing down the road

doing stupid stuff like there's all kinds of things that we could do that sounds fun

and that we've done as people before but in reality there's freedom in christ

that is unexplainable but you have to get to the point where you realize that man i need people

in my life who are believers and surround yourself with believers christ is the most

important thing the number one thing on your friend draft pick should be christ

and i'll go as far to say is it's okay to have a friend or two that's not a christian

as long as your main priority with them in your life is to present the gospel to them and trying

to get them to become a christian but be very very careful because as soon as they begin to

influence you rather than you influencing them it's probably time to cut ties and surround

yourself with some christian people you cannot sacrifice your relationship with christ because

of people that you love or care about as much as you love them or care about them the goal is is to

bring them along with you if you love them and care about them that much but don't let them drag

you back away from your savior and if they're influencing you cut ties move to the people

who's going to help you get to where you need to be and walking with christ surround yourself

with believers

there's power and strength in numbers there's power and strength

in unity this is what we see all throughout the new testament

as jesus is talking as as these these passages of scripture are being written

what's amazing is is that these disciples who are writing these books

they're not just writing about these theoretical things they're not writing about stuff that's

like i bet if we were all united together then it would probably go pretty well like let's write

about that let's try to convince all the churches to be that no they saw it with their own eyes

as much as they saw jesus christ and all the miracles and all the healings and the casting

out of evil spirits as much as they saw jesus down the cross they saw him raised from the dead

they saw him ascend to heaven they saw with their own eyes what happened when the holy spirit came

down on them and the church was birthed into existence and they were living in unity and

there was no needy people among them because they were all so unified and they were doing

everything that the spirit was leading them to do it was not something natural it wasn't

this man-made conjured up thing that they said oh let's get unified and then this will happen no

the holy spirit led them into unity and the disciples witnessed it with their own eyes how

powerful it was when the holy spirit was present among them and they were living in unity they saw

what was possible and this is the reason why they spent the rest of their physical lives

writing about unity writing about why unity was so important and willing to give up their lives

and die for writing about unity and promoting unity among the churches because they saw

how powerful it was

in matthew 18 verses 19 through 20 jesus said i also tell you this

Matthew 18:19–20

if two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask my father in heaven will do

it for you for where two or three gather together as my followers i am there among them

sunday mornings are not enough what we do here today it's not enough it's not going to sustain

you till next sunday it's a good jump start i think it's valuable i think it's part of

the things that god has called us to do as believers to gather together and worship together

but it's not enough and during the week i believe that you would find if you would gather together

with two or three other believers and you would simply pray for one another you don't have to

have an hour-long prayer meeting and take 500 requests and spend two hours on your hands and

knees simply just pray for one another read scripture you don't have to read a whole book

read a few passages of scripture encourage one another and spend time together with christians

it does not have to be a significant amount of time it does not have to eat into your entire day

to do it but i promise you i believe with all my heart that if you would commit yourself

to get together with two or three other believers during the week at least one other day if not

a couple of days during the week the presence of the lord would be with you and would guide you

and i i believe with all my heart it would drastically change our relationships with christ

like the the fuel that we would give that the spiritual fuel that we would get from that would

just be amazing and we miss it because we're busy because we have so many other things

and i just challenge you man like what do you believe about jesus

like he's your lord and savior you're counting on him to give you eternal life

if you believe that about him do you believe that everything else that he said is true

and if it is why are we not doing it why are we not gathering with other believers why are we not

united why are we not pouring ourselves into one another to buy into this gospel message as a whole

to experience the benefit that we all receive from it

it's communicated over and over and over again and god knows we need it

that's why he did it that's why he set it up the question is is whether or not you believe it

because only you can make the decision to make this a part of your life to experience the fruits

from it let's pray together father thank you for this day thank you for the men and women here

thank you for their hearts and lives

and lord i just asked that you would speak truth into us today

lord there's some people in this room right now who are excited and love the idea of meeting with

other people lord they they get fuel from meeting with people in general and there's other people

who are just like oh man that sounds like the most weird and worst thing i could ever imagine

and lord i pray that they would simply call on your name and ask you to reveal truth to them

ask you to speak tenderly to them and powerfully

that there's a reason why you've called us to this

and it's not to make us uncomfortable or to drain us but lord it's to give us life it's

to give us guidance it's to give us strength and power and courage and lord just the everyday need

that we have to serve you that this is just part of your plan help us to see that clearly

this morning lord we love you we thank you and we ask all this in jesus name amen