Community in Unity

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Morning, church.

Amen.

Amen.

Glad y'all are here this morning.

Thank you, those who are visiting because you came for a baptism.

What a special thing.

And we uh do not take for granted you being here with us.

And uh glad to have all of you.

If you turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 12 this morning, we're finishing the series on tribe.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

I couldn't be more excited in two weeks.

We're starting a new series on uh the first six chapters of the book of Daniel called Steadfast.

And so it's gonna be an exciting, and that'll take us up really to about Christmas uh season.

So, anyways, I'm looking forward to that.

And uh I do want to say, I don't know if I see her in here, I saw her in Sunday school, but can we praise God that Barry and Tracy Key found Jesse the dog?

If you weren't watching that on Facebook, it might one day be a Hollywood film.

Something else.

Oh my god, my heart is like a roller coaster through that.

I prayed with them, I talked with them several times through it, but man, we're so excited for them.

19 days.

Their dog was missing if you hadn't seen any of it.

And they found it, and it's quite a story.

So anyway, praise God for that.

I'm gonna do what they tell me not to do in this next part, but I'm gonna trust that the church family is gonna prove some uh detractors wrong.

So, what they tell me not to do is to ever tell the church that we're having a guest speak in church.

They tell me if the pastor's out of the pulpit, then the people think they can be out too.

I'm gonna be here and I'm gonna be checking each seat.

But we have a really gifted, it's rare these days to find somebody with the gift of evangelism.

There's not that many traveling evangelists anymore, and probably about 20 years ago, God introduced Heather and myself to Alan Harris and his family.

And I actually got to uh student pastor his boys, and they went on the road, they sang, they had a quartet, and they ran all over the country doing that stuff.

But Alan is a gifted, and when I say gifted, I don't say that lightly, gifted evangelist.

And God has called him and he's kept in that calling, even when many have stopped doing that.

So I want to invite you, and this is what I want you to think on for next week.

If you have somebody in your life that is lost, that's not a Christian, that's a neighbor, co-worker, family member, or friend, next week would be a really great time to invite somebody.

It'd be a great time to consider now who can I text.

Um, because they're gonna hear the gospel explained from the heart of an evangelist, and he's been all throughout this country, and God brings people to Christ through his ministry.

So we're really excited about that.

And prove me wrong, please prove me wrong from what they say.

I am gonna be counting.

Um then in two more weeks, we're gonna start registration here again.

Connect groups will start up in correlation with that Daniel series, so make sure that you guys get plugged in if you haven't been.

Romans chapter 12, community in unity.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Romans 12, verse 1.

Romans 12:1

The first point this morning says living in unity.

And Romans 12, 1 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Today we are eternal beings living in a human experience.

To understand this life and what God has given you, you have to understand two parts of you.

There's the physical body, which is temporal, and the soul, which goes on for eternity.

The physical body is an earthly shell.

This is your earthly Uber, it gets you places.

One day, we're gonna have a new glorified body that will carry our soul in eternity.

Verse 1, Paul said, I beseech you to present your bodies.

Beseech is not a command.

He doesn't say, you have to do this, it's a choice.

And for you to present your bodies, that living sacrifice is a choice of love.

We believe here at this church at Chelsea Webster in the doctrine of free will.

And free will means that you have the ability to make a decision without external coercion.

You have the ability to make choices without God robotically making you.

Why?

Because God wanted to make a creation that has love.

Without free will, there is no love.

And so even the angels have agency.

Angels followed Jesus Christ and his command, and there are angels who followed Satan, they're called demons.

And so he says, I've given you a choice, but what he would have us do, Paul says, is to present our bodies.

What does that mean?

It's an intentional fight against the draws of our flesh, sacrificing the temporal shell, our shell, for the sake of the eternal soul.

Mark said it, or wrote it perplexed in Jesus' words, he said, What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his own soul?

We gain the whole world in the temporal, but forfeit our soul for all of eternity.

Paul said, put your body on the altar of sacrifice.

It's reasonable.

He says, I beseech you.

Interesting, not one word of this scripture is a mistake.

I beseech you who?

Brethren.

He says, Christians are to do this.

Not a word is wasting.

He said, Christians, unite on this front.

Unite in your heading.

That's letter A this morning.

Unite in our heading.

Pray with me.

Father, we ask that you would fill our hearts with Paul's exhortation, God, and help us as a body of people.

God, that we would be united in a space where there's large division.

God, pray we pray that the church would be different in a place that is so negative and so divided on so many things.

God, help us be a light of Jesus Christ because of our unity.

Lord, I pray individually each person here would consider what it is that you have for them during this sermon in Jesus' name.

Amen.

United in our heading, letter A, that is, the word was said to sacrifice.

The word sacrifice is thusaia, and that's to slay.

I have to be willing to go to war against myself.

I have to slay my flesh to be united in the body.

My physical body competes against my soul in a world of hedonism.

My physical body wants every pleasure.

My physical body desires the pleasure of lustfulness, it desires the pleasure of euphoria.

It desires the pleasure of a buzz.

It desires the pleasure of a release.

And all these things.

And so Paul said, Christians, not asking lost people.

Christians, I beg you, present your body, a living.

That's an interesting word.

That word living sacrifice, living means a continuous.

It means I've presented my body to God.

I've oathed it to God never to ask for it back in return.

A continuous sacrifice.

You see, a sacrifice body sees itself like 1 Corinthians 6 19 says.

It sees itself as the temple.

It says, What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Students, that's why when we talk about sexual purity, it's so important.

The purity of your body, Scripture says when we have sex outside of marriage, it's a violation of both soul and body.

But Pastor, they love me.

No, they lust you.

Get out of that basement.

They love me.

Well, Pastor, is what you intake and how you treat your body all that important?

Listen, y'all.

One time I went on a diet for three weeks and exercised for three weeks because I knew a sermon on gluttony was coming and I had to preach it.

I don't know how many times, I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and talk about Heather bacon.

She bakes all the time.

There is seven baked items in the kitchen now.

Okay, she baked all yesterday.

And how many times people come to me?

I don't know how you do it.

I'd be 700 pounds if I were you.

And I say, listen, the truth is, my body's the temple of God.

All of my senses, taste, touch, feel, all of them are an avenue of either worship of God or worship of hedonism.

Paul said, believers are to unite on their heading, unite on the fact that we need to sacrifice the physical shell.

Unite on the heading of our path.

And then he says in verse 2, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed.

Letter B is united in headspace.

Letter A was our heading where we're going.

B is our headspace, our mentality, our worldview.

Are we united in headspace?

He says, be not conformed.

There's a lot of conformers out there.

Are there not?

There's a lot of people in a secular world that are pushing, there's a big mental push for this word, postmodernism.

Now I've not accepted it.

A lot of people say we live in a postmodern world, but let me tell you what postmodernism means.

Let me define that.

It's a philosophy that rejects concepts of rationality, objectivity, and universal truth.

A world anti-the-established traditions and foundations.

They're eliminating history or trying to.

They're conformers.

Postmodern teaching teaches the public that truth is relative.

If it's good for you, then it's good.

But that doesn't have to be the same truth for me.

Truth is relative, it's how you feel.

And the unity is the opposite.

Postmodernism teaches anarchy.

Any truth can be truth, and all truths can be truth.

And if you want 400 truths to be truth, and my truth is a different truth, then that's okay too.

Somebody that believes in this kind of teaching will say things like this.

I don't want to judge one that might be in the middle.

This is blue.

I look at this and I see blue.

But if you want, you can call this red.

That's what postmodernism teaches.

Because I see blue, and everybody who's got a brain that God created sees blue.

But if you identify with that being red, you can go ahead and identify it that way.

And you grew up learning two plus two equals four.

But postmodernism says if you want, two plus two can equal unicorn.

Because I identify with that kind of mathematics.

And there is a gender, hear me, church, a gender and identity hysteria across our nation.

Your children can be born the way God allowed them to be born on this earth, and they can say, Oh, well, I don't identify with that.

I identify as something else, even though biologically we know what we see.

I can identify as something else.

Look, I thought my kids were messing with me a few weeks ago.

And they said, She's a furry.

I said, What does that mean?

She needs a haircut?

Like, like, no, no, no, no, Dad.

She uh she identifies as a cat.

I said, what?

Are you being serious right now?

What do you mean she identifies as a cat?

Where does it end, church?

We laugh, but this is reality.

I Googled it.

Oh, I'm sorry that I did, but I Googled it.

It got my brain running down a train.

And I thought, all right, if we can allow this much, what has happened?

So I Googled, has there ever been people who married animals?

Yes.

Dogs, cats, frogs.

We've made an absolute mockery of God's biblical plan of marriage.

So my question to you today if we allow, if we open the door to perversion, what perversion is too perverse?

Where does it end if we open the door?

Well, let me let you hear this.

Most of this is taken from a caption I read, but in 2023, the United Nations met to discuss this topic the minimum age of sexual consent.

They said this in their meeting: children have the capacity and legal right to make their own sexual decisions.

And they were meeting to minimize the required age of a sexual decision.

That a child can make its own decisions.

The United Nations.

Y'all, my child can't make a decision to match his own clothes.

And he's gonna make decisions like this.

Let me tell you what it is.

It's sick and evil people who want to prey on the innocent.

And we're just supposed to conform.

We're just supposed to watch it all kind of unfold and in the background just conform.

And Paul said, be not conform to this world.

We're not to be conformed.

Edmund Burke had a quote, I want you to see it, it should come up.

And this is what he said about this.

All that we need for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

All that's necessary for evil to triumph.

Church, are you hearing me?

Do not, Paul said, be conformed, because media said it, or Hollywood said it, or politics said it, and an evil agenda is being pushed.

Christians today must unite.

Paul said, don't be conformed to this world.

Why?

There's a demonic mentality promoting disunity.

And they're united.

They're united in a front to divide God's people, rendering us ineffective.

They want the people inside this building's mouths shut.

And there's this, there's this unholy gospel that's going forth saying, well, Jesus would have been right there with sinners, Pastor.

That's what we see in the script.

Jesus was with sinners.

And he'd have been right there just sinning it up with sinners.

And I and I gotta tell you something.

Jesus was holy.

And Jesus did absolutely love sinners.

And he knew that the truth that he had would fill holes in their hearts.

And so, yes, Jesus was around sinners, but no, Jesus did not sin around sinners.

You know what he told the adulterous woman after she came to him?

He said, Go now and sin no more.

He looked past the paralytics physical shell problem and he said, My son, your sins are forgiven.

Now go and be made well.

You see, he's seen past even the physical.

Yes, Jesus got close to him.

And at CCW, we will get close to people, but we will never become unholy to reach a sinner.

We will love, but we're not gonna sin to reach a sinner.

Paul said, but be transformed.

Transformed.

So don't be conformed, but be transformed.

We're gonna talk about in a second that renewing of the mind.

But I saw this, it's like the old lady from the back mountains of Tennessee.

She found herself one day in the big city.

For the first time in her life, she was standing outside of an elevator.

She watched an old, haggard man step onto the elevator.

He hobbled his way, the doors closed.

A few minutes later, she stood there watching the whole thing in amazement.

The doors opened up, and a young, chiseled, beautiful young man walked off the elevator.

And the old lady yelled, Billy, go get your father.

He needs to come ride this machine.

Transformed.

How are we transformed?

Verse 3 says this, for I say through the grace that's given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think.

Hear this, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

Transformation is about our mind space.

He tells us after that, by the renewal of your mind.

The word renew and transform are words that have similar meanings.

And it's to change from one form to another.

2 Corinthians 5, 17 says this about our Christianity.

Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things, the old man is passed away.

Behold, all things are like new.

It's the same picture of baptism.

That old man is buried away.

All things were like new.

And he says, renewal comes in the life of a Christian.

Again, Paul doesn't ask lost people to do this.

He says, transformation happens in the life of a Christian.

Well, how do we do that, Pastor?

How do we do that mentally?

Look down at verse 15.

Verse 15 and 16, I want you to see how to be united in headspace.

He said, Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Be of, verse 16, the same mind toward one another.

Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

Do not be wise in your own way.

To be united means to be of the same mind.

How do we do that?

Well, Tim Keller said this.

Thank you for the man who sent me this quote this week.

Unity does not come by seeking it, rather, it is a byproduct of following Christ.

You ever been to a concert?

20,000 people.

You might have met three of them, but man, about one and a half songs in, man, you are right there harmonizing with the whole all of them, right?

Singing every word, dancing with the person next to you.

You might make lifelong friends at a concert that you never knew.

How is that?

You were united in the thing that you loved.

You loved that music, you loved that song, and so all of a sudden you became one.

And it felt, most of you that have been through this, it felt powerful.

It felt like a movement.

So how do we become united?

Why?

We have to have the same love.

This isn't about a sin or a not sin, it's about are you seeking the face of Jesus Christ?

If you're reading your Bible and I'm reading my Bible, it's really hard for us to have a constant disunity.

If you're seeking God's face instead of your face, then you're in the right head space.

He said in verse 3, every man not to think himself more highly than he ought.

So being in the right headspace.

Second thing this morning is this living in opportunity.

Look down at verse 4 through 6.

Living in opportunity.

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given us.

Let us use them.

And so we see letter A is the opportunity through integration.

Many members, one body.

We all have different functions, but we're one body.

There's opportunity because of the body that we belong to.

God's put you here.

We've been talking about that whole series.

God placed you on planet earth.

He puts you in Alabama, He puts you in your community, He puts you in your tribe, your small group, your church.

Why?

It wasn't haphazard.

God had a plan for your life and for you to affect the other members of the body.

I worked for a small time in college at a place called Steinmart.

It's not my proudest boast.

And I worked in the women's shoe department that did have four or five pairs of men's, okay?

But I didn't know nothing about the place.

They gave me a job, I needed the money, right?

One day, as it were, I walked back to the stock room, not meaning, but I sat down in a chair, I propped my legs up.

I don't know how long I fell asleep, y'all.

I don't know if it was an hour and a half, but somebody heard somebody.

It's funny because it was the back, you know.

If you go to a shoe place, anything in the back, our back was completely empty.

Nothing in the back.

But this lady said, hello, hello, is there somebody there?

I jumped up out of the chair and I got to go and and both my feet were asleep.

And I'm walking up.

I said, can I help you?

She's looking at me.

I'm like, oh, this poor guy.

I was like, and I knocked a few boxes off the thing.

And she's like, I think I got it.

But I never forget.

One of them pins and needles hit my feet, and oh man, I was trying not to laugh at myself and all.

I'm not sure if my hair was right.

But I remember this.

Not having a function of my body didn't feel right.

We're a body, church, and hear me, we need every part.

You have an awesome opportunity because the integration of church in your life.

Don't miss that God puts you in this community.

He puts you in your family, He puts you in your circle to better people and be bettered by people.

All I had to do was lose one function, and I realized it affected my walk.

I lost one function and it affected my work.

One function and it affected my strength.

I used to play baseball, and there were a few times over the years where it'd be getting close to game time, and we'd start looking around, wondering why the coaches are scurrying.

Only eight players would be there.

And the coaches, you know, even when I had good teams, eight of our players, we could have gone out and wiped up some of these other teams.

And there was at least two, maybe three times in my life we couldn't even start the game.

We couldn't get in the game because the ninth one didn't show up.

Y'all with me.

We need everybody.

We need every piece.

We need every part.

Look around you.

Look around.

Look at somebody next to you.

Every piece has value.

Every part has value.

We have opportunity through integration.

Let her be.

We have opportunity through inclination.

Look at down at verse 9.

9 through 11.

Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.

Hear this.

Don't let it be elevator music this morning.

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love.

In honor, giving preference.

I'm gonna say it again.

In honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligent, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

In that passage right there, one another is mentioned three times.

Giving preference all throughout this series, we've looked at it.

The second greatest command in Scripture says, love your neighbor like you love you.

And so what Paul says here is give preference.

In honor, give preference.

What does that mean?

We pursue what is best for others, even if it cost me.

I'm gonna say that again.

You might need to write that one down.

Pursue what is best for others, even if it cost me.

If I gotta take a hit so that it builds up my brother, I take a hit.

So my brother's not hurt.

He says, give preference.

The word is progame, and that means to go before.

To show preference is to let them go before.

The problem is, I prefer me.

Don't you prefer you?

Other than my wife and my kids.

My wife and my kids, I don't have a problem with this.

Most people within their household.

But if you talk about another brother and sister in the church, do I prefer them over what I need, what I want, what I want to get?

How many people be honest here this morning and raise their hand and say, Pastor Rick, I'm gonna be honest before the church of the Lord.

I like it my way.

Just raise your hand up.

I could have been back around with Frankie Sinatra.

I gotta have it my way.

Giving preference is intentionally looking for a way to put somebody before you.

Do we set up others for good?

Speak on others for good.

Unity through opportunity for giving preference.

Galatians 6 10 says this that as we have opportunity, do good unto all men, especially the household of faith.

So are we giving preference to people?

We have that opportunity.

The third thing this morning is this living with impunity.

Say, Pastor, what does that even mean?

Well, I needed something that rhymed with unity and opportunity.

And it works.

Impunity is exemption from punishment for actions.

In other words, it's mercy.

Necessary for the unity of the body is mercy.

We're told the golden rule from a young age.

Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

But Paul gives a couple of really practical insights here.

Letter A.

Impunity through patience.

Look at verses 12 and 14.

This is on my wall as you walk into my home.

So I see it and I quote it and I know it.

Verse 12, it says, Rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.

Well, you could say it this way: the first line, praise, patience, prayer.

This is the formula for this.

He says, I need us to think about something today, to understand patience.

Really, can we look at the opposite?

And what is impatience?

Now, if I asked, if I polled y'all today and said, Who struggles with patience?

I mean, like it feels human a little bit.

But I looked this up on the interweb this week, so it must be true.

Signs you might have patience issues.

Okay, here's a few signs.

You're annoyed easily with traffic, right?

Amen.

Are we not all?

Anyone just like, oh, awesome traffic, yeah.

If you are, I need to pray with you later because low tolerance for delays.

This one got me.

Must always plan ahead.

Which is followed by control issues.

Short fuse.

Small issues sometimes feel like a crisis to you.

You have a hard time counting on others.

Look, I have to confess, this was eating my lunch this week.

I thought, you know what?

I didn't think I had patience issues, but I really do.

Convicted me all week long.

I thought, God, I see.

I see what you're I this is for me, God.

Because I like things to go the way that I think they should go.

And I'm learning.

I think Heather could tell you, I'm learning.

I become more flexible, I hope.

She'll call me and say, We need to do this.

And I go, Okay, okay.

All right.

Let's do that.

Y'all know that, man.

You know that's the right answer.

Are you with me, man?

Like verse 12.

Look at what he says.

He said, patient and tribulation.

That word patient is hoopamano, and it means not to depart, but to continue.

To continue on through it.

Walking through the struggle.

Ecclesiastes 7 8 says, the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit.

Praise and hope, patience and tribulation, continuing in prayer.

Please write down the formula.

Praise, patience, prayer.

One man said, I asked God to grant me patience.

And he said, No, sir, patience is the byproduct of tribulation.

It's earned, not granted.

You may today have to go through more because God wants you to be more patient.

Some will have to struggle more to obtain patience.

A.B.

Simpson said this, and I thought this was profound.

He said, Have you ever thought that someday you will not have anything to try you?

One day in heaven, you'll not have anyone to vex you.

There will not be an opportunity in heaven to learn or to show the spirit of patience, forbearance, or long suffering.

If you are to practice these things, it's now.

And each day affords continuous opportunities for patience.

I said, let's not waste them.

There was a missionary, William Carey.

Hear this.

I was going through a different list of missionaries.

William Carey waited seven years in Burma before there was one convert to Christ.

Seven years.

God wants us, believe me, God wants us to see results as we work for him.

But I believe his first concern is our growth.

That is why he allows us often the discipline of not our way.

Verse 14, I want you to look at.

Bless them who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse.

My God, are you are you serious about this?

Bless them that persecute you.

And here's what I come to understand.

I can't do anything at all to control how others view or treat me.

But I can do everything about how I respond.

There's some people here today, and you've got some stuff.

I mean stuff.

There's a backlog of stuff.

There's abuse, there's hurt, there's pain.

And when you look back at it, you can just get yourself wound back up because in reality it is a mess.

And it did hurt.

And I want to tell you, maybe this would be a freeing thing today to know.

When you forgive somebody, when you let go of that hurt and pain, it's not necessarily for them, but it is definitely for you.

You can't control what somebody else has done.

You can't control the next conversation what they say.

But you have a hundred percent control of how you respond to that.

He said, Bless those that persecute you.

How about impunity to unify?

Jesus talked to the disciples and he said, Forgive.

Seven times seventy.

Peter went to him boasting, thinking, three, seven, eight times I forgive somebody.

He said, How about he just never stopped?

For a body of believers, a group of different personalities to be unified, it takes patience.

Letter be as this impunity through pleasantness and peacefulness.

Verse 17 through 19.

It says, Repay no one evil for evil, have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

If it is possible, hear that, that's an important phrase.

If it's possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath.

For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

That takes some of the weight off the situation.

It ain't my job.

God is in charge.

But it is, it seems like it's a natural inclination if somebody aggravates or irritates you to pay them back with some kind of the same medicine.

Right?

Doesn't that feel human?

Like this is what they deserve.

But the Bible says a Christian man, based on his relationship to Jesus, has no right to reward, evil with evil.

And so while you're here today and you might be ate up with something, keeping a record of wrongs.

You could be bitter or jealous or angry.

Paul says it's not within the realm of those who walk with Christ to live in that.

We shouldn't live in that.

And so we're told in Matthew 18 what to do.

You say, Well, Pastor, what do I do about it?

Well, Matthew 18 lays it out.

He says, if your brother has aught against you, and you will hear this from me to the day I die on preaching in church, if your brother has aught against you, you're to go to him.

You and you alone is what the Bible says.

If you have all, or if you've offended him or he's offended you, you're not to go and take that to six other brothers first.

You're not to say, hey, listen, I need y'all to pray for me.

You're not to call ten people.

He says, if your brother has aught against you, you go to him and go to him alone.

If he doesn't receive it on that occasion, he says, then maybe you take another brother or two with you.

But he says, go to him.

And for the sake of that you can regain a brother.

That's the point.

Not just, oh, I gotta point out you're wrong.

You offended me.

I can't wait to let you know about it.

Woo-hoo.

I'm offended.

Are we not such an offended culture?

He says, if there's aught, and I want to tell you today, if there's aught, today is the day to fix aught.

That's a problem.

If there's an issue, attention.

Today is that day.

If there's a problem and they're not in this building, today is still that day.

Can you fix it?

Look, he said, as much as it responds to you, as much as you are able.

It's not dependent on what they can do.

It's as much as you are able.

Live peaceably with all men.

I believe this phrase I've heard over the years, you can't be wrong with someone else and be right with God.

Impunity.

How hard is it for us, church, to be nearer daily to God and to be without peace?

Jesus Christ is peace.

Isaiah 26, 3 said, He whose mind is stayed on thee has perfect peace.

Psalms 119, 165 said, Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them.

Do you love this book?

Listen, it probably is wrong.

There probably is wrong.

But this is about loving Jesus.

And if I can walk and focus on him, listen, you cannot commune with Jesus and be absent of peace.

He said, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

So that's easy to feed my friend.

It's easy to feed someone I love.

He said, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

Give him a drink.

In other words, don't be negative in a world full of negativity.

Walking with Jesus makes you positive.

You're a uniter of men.

There's so much judgment and critical spirited people throughout this earth.

My kids hate when I bring up this verse because I for a year it was our verse.

Ephesians 4 29 says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is used to build others up.

If they're talking, because man, they get in it and it's just normal in the high school, just to put people down.

Oh man, you're not the best.

I'm the best.

If you're talking, he says, let no corrupt, not any, not to anyone, let no corrupt communication proceed out.

Be a builder of men.

I've never had someone complain to me because someone was too pleasant.

Don't you?

Nobody ever come to me.

You know, they're just all the time complimenting me.

It's just too much.

Building others up is unity.

That's unity.

Verse 20.

Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he's thirsty, give him a drink.

Listen to this for in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head.

Some of us are like, finally, the Paw gets me.

I'll be nice so I can burn him up.

Calvin's commentary says it this way Either our enemy will be softened by our kindness, or if he is so ferocious with his anger that nothing will change him, he will be stung by the testimony of his conscience because we were kind.

But let me tell you something.

Your enemy's response is not the point.

In a world full of negativity, everyone, hear me, everyone in this building should be the most pleasant.

A Christian, Paul said, you sacrifice all of that stuff, and you go out and be pleasant.

You should be outstandingly peaceable, a builder of men.

I shared this on Wednesday, but Jesus prayed in the upper room right before he was taken to the cross.

The last thing before taken to the cross, he prayed over the disciples, and he had this profound prayer over them.

And his final call out, his final plea to God on behalf of his disciples was this God, Father, I pray that they would be one, that they would be united.

Well, I've been challenged with this the whole thing this week, and just my own heart, and it got me thinking about God is doing some amazing things at this church.

And you you are a part of that.

There's no doubt.

And it's so exciting to see what God is doing.

But I want to tell you, it's not gone on notice by Satan.

And Satan looks at it and he says, I want to get in.

If I can get in this family, if I can get in these people, if I can just cause some division.

Heather and I led team camp.

And we would take teens to camp.

And about the time we got through the first and second year, they were just learning lessons.

I mean, every bad thing that could happen.

Satan hates team camp, by the way.

A place where a body of people become united and worship in the word and in walk.

He hates it.

And so we had bus breakdowns, we had kids have diabetic attacks, we everything.

Everything that you could for two years, and then we found out, okay, year three, I'm going in and I'm trying to make a plan.

Just be ready.

I'm the leader of these people.

And I watched, we most of the time it was an eight-hour bus ride.

And it wasn't a few hours onto the bus ride.

This girl over here came here with her friend, and they were sitting together.

And about an hour in, this girl got up and went to talk to somebody else.

Well, she didn't come back to the seat.

And this girl over here said, What has she done?

She's supposed to be my best friend.

And she went and sat with her.

And then an hour later, somebody over here gave a look over here, and they were talking over here, and they said, I know, I know what happened.

You were just talking about me.

And before we got to camp, and then they find out their rooming assignments.

Oh heaven.

Supposed to make 50 people happy with room and assignments.

We get there and they're like, I wanted to room with them, and you got me with them, and that leader.

Before we've got into the first session, just everybody's ticked.

Road eight hours, bus probably broke down.

It did most times.

And we're ticked.

And we go into this thing.

And so God gave me.

I'm the leader of this, and I'm supposed to be helping to fight against this division, keep people bonded.

And as their leader, one night I just said, you know what, guys?

God told me this.

When we're done with our share group and everybody's done sharing, I need everybody to get up and I need you to find somebody to hug.

Talking about Pastor.

I need you to find, I'm not talking about young man trying to find a relationship.

No, that's not what I'm talking about.

I need everybody to hug.

Why?

Why did that happen, Pat?

Well, a couple of things.

It's real hard to hug somebody and not smile.

You can try it.

It's real hard to smile at somebody and stay angry at somebody.

And so we started having this deal where we would hug first or second night of camp.

Well, two years ago, I'm about to wrap up.

I'm saying all this.

Because I'm going to challenge you with something weird.

I don't care.

I'm going to challenge you when this service is over to find somebody.

I'm going to tell you, I needed about seven hugs I got this morning.

I needed all of them.

Devils tried to eat my lunch.

And them hugs meant something.

And so there's people here.

You need that.

Well, about two years ago we went to camp.

First night I forgot.

Didn't have everybody hug.

I should have knew.

Second day, people are spit-spat, all kind of like, what is going on?

And they hit me.

I forgot to hug.

What have I done?

Well, they got going around the share group about 10 o'clock at night.

You gotta realize service, worship, play.

They're exhausted, all this.

But they got in that share group.

And they got sharing.

And Weston goes as a byproduct because we've been in camp our whole life.

So he is eight.

It's all geared toward teens.

But I want you to hear something.

An eight-year-old understood what the Spirit of God was doing.

And it came around to Weston, and they can pass, but he's Weston got up and he said, Tears started coming down his face.

He said, I just want to tell everybody that I haven't been a really good brother to my sister and my brother.

God got to the heart of an eight-year-old.

He got up and he walked across the room and he embraced his sister and then hugged his brother.

And next thing I know, kids are getting up because of the realness of somebody.

And they're hugging.

I didn't even have to call for the hug.

They just got up and people began to embrace.

And I don't know, it might have lasted 30 minutes.

Everybody was hugging somebody else.

And here's what I know.

When that was done, the hardest thing sometimes I ever had to do as a youth pastor was to shut something down.

Like, I don't want this to end.

They're all hugging, and tears are falling down all kinds of faces because God's just purging stuff because somebody finally got real.

And I've been in church for 20 years and I've never once seen a group of adults that got that real.

I've called for people a hundred times.

If you have aunt with somebody and they sit there knowing, and they won't go because it looks bad.

And you know what happens?

They squelch the revival of the Holy Spirit in a place.

And they hugged, and it felt like the most united thing that I've been apart in my whole life.

It wasn't hundreds or thousands, it was 50 kids being real.

So I want to ask you to stand to your feet.

With heads bowed and eyes closed.

And I want to ask you, church, to respond.

If you're here this morning and you have aught with a brother or sister that's here, what better day than today?

I'd ask that you just go to that person.

And here's what I'm going to invite everybody to do.

And you may be here and you say, Pastor, I'm just not really a hugger.

This is making me nervous.

If that's you, you are welcome to take a few steps backwards.

But if you're not, I want to invite you as a body in an effort of unity.

There is somebody here today that needs an embrace.

And would you do what an eight-year-old knew in his heart to do?

And show that you can, in a unified spirit, move?

I'm gonna pray and I'm just gonna ask, can you find five people?

Can you find seven people?

Can you find one person?

Can you tell a person I'll pray for you?

Can you tell a person I'll fight with you?

Can you tell a person I will walk with it through, walk with you through it?

I'm here for you.

I'm gonna pray, and my hope is that you've been touched by the heart of God and what he said, unity.

In Psalms, he said, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.

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