The Power of Unity

Reason. Psalm 133 verses 1 through 3 says this.

Psalms 133 · chapter mention

It says, behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

That term brothers there, it's a generic term.

That's men and women, brothers and sisters.

How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity.

It's like the precious oil on the head running down to the beard.

The King James says, even the beard of Aaron running down onto the collar.

The King James says, skirts of his garments, It's the collar of his robes.

It is like the dew on Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.

For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forever.

And commentators agree that that there that he's talking about is not Mount Hermon.

Mount Hermon is not talking about that.

But unity is the place where God commands the blessing. that the place where

God pours out His blessing, His anointing, and His presence is the place of unity.

And that's what I want to talk to you about for a few minutes this morning.

I want to preach on this thought.

The power of unity. The power in a world that loves being divided.

In a world that likes to point out our differences.

The church comes along and says there's power.

Aren't you glad that you hear something where God can encourage us this morning?

There's power in unity let's pray this morning father in

the name of jesus we come before you we thank you

for your holy spirit we thank you that you have

life-giving word and father right now even if

the message is counterculture god speak into our lives holy spirit speak into

our hearts this morning or deal with us even in our own lives concerning unity

and and division in our lives in our in our in our world and even our workplace

in our homes holy spirit speak to us this morning.

And we thank you for your word. In the name of Jesus, we pray. And the church said.

Amen. Amen. Like I said, I believe that this message this morning,

God laid this in my heart a couple of weeks ago, just dealing with a thought of unity.

And I started putting this together. And the more I prayed about it,

the more I thought about it,

the more I'm convinced that this is not just a sermon to encourage the body of Christ,

to show you the avenue for blessing and presence and anointing,

but also I believe it's a warning message, a warning sermon for any church that

walks into vision and does not understand the power of unity.

Now, I've seen what unity looks like in a church firsthand.

As a matter of fact, when I used to work years ago, another lifetime ago,

more than 20 years ago, more than 25 years ago, I started working,

traveling back and forth to community family church, community Pentecostal church at that time.

But I used to travel around with Pastor Tommy Bates. I lived with him and his

family, worked at his church, and I would travel with him.

Now, Pastor Tom preaches more than any human being that I know.

That guy preaches nonstop.

And so when he preached on the road, usually we would travel and he would preach

somewhere Monday and Tuesday night.

We'd drive back. He'd preach at home in Independence, Kentucky on Wednesday night.

Then we'd hit the road and he'd preach Thursday and Friday night.

We'd drive back on Saturday. He'd preach three times on Sunday and then we'd

start again on Monday doing the same thing.

And so most of the time I would drive while he was in the passenger seat, most of the time asleep.

And he had his infamous sandals with socks on up in the, up in the window.

He'd be like that chair laid back, that seat laid back. And man, that was the old days.

All right. Just to set the picture for you. That was the old days.

That was around 99, 2000.

That's back when we had real cars, big V8 engines that drunk gasoline and nobody frowned upon it.

That was before we plugged our cars into the same outlet that we plugged our hairdryer into.

You He had a big old Ford excursion. How many people remember the Ford excursions? Yeah.

So if you're too young to remember an excursion, just think about what it would

be like if they put wheels on your house, all right, in a steering wheel.

That's what an excursion would like.

And so I remember I used to love driving that excursion, man.

We'd drive down. We'd be heading down Mountain Parkway in eastern Kentucky to one of them churches.

Pastor Tom would be asleep. I'd get on that big V8 engine just letting that baby eat, you know, gas.

I wouldn't pass a gas station. And we'd come up behind some little Toyota Civic

or something like, or Honda Civic, little Toyota Camry on the left lane,

which was a passing lane on the mountain parkway.

And so I'd give them a little instruction in righteousness. I'd put the headlights

of that big Ford excursion right there in the back.

I know. I was like 22, 23 years old, okay?

Cut me some slack. Pastor Tom, he'd be asleep.

I'd put that grill right up next to that car, and he would ease over,

and I'd just let that big dog eat. Just keep on going.

We'd get there and he'd say, that's a pretty good trip. And I'd say,

oh yeah, that's a good trip.

But I remember on one such occasion, we went down to a place in Eastern Kentucky

and this church was packed.

We walked in, and man, you could feel the life of God in that church.

As I walked in, I thought, man, I've got to see what this is all about,

because surely the music is amazing.

Surely the pastor must be incredible.

Surely there's got to be something where people are gathering here in this place.

I went in, and they did the worship service, and the music was okay,

but it was not as good as our singers and our people, because I think we've

got some pretty doggone good singers, don't you?

I mean, they do a great job. They do a great job. Yeah.

Sit down, Kristen. Sit down. Okay. But I'm joking.

But the music was okay, but it wasn't like Bethel didn't show up.

It wasn't Maverick City or anybody like that. It was just kind of normal church

music. I said, surely the pastor has to be phenomenal.

And the pastor got up and greeted the people, and I had a chance to talk to him afterwards.

And it wasn't that he's this dynamic orator or anything like that. He doesn't have this.

He doesn't have the charisma. He doesn't have, he's not got a magnetic personality.

He's just a guy that loves people and that loves the Lord.

And I'm thinking, what in the world is it?

Because the Holy Spirit moved in that service tonight. The glory of the Lord fell in that service.

And the reality that I came to was it wasn't about a music group.

It wasn't about a personality in the pulpit. It was a group of people that loved

God and loved one another.

And when they got in that perfect place of unity, that's when the Holy Spirit fell.

That's what I come to share with you this morning, is that if we want to see

God move in our presence, it's not about bringing somebody in from somewhere else.

You're not going to get a big personality in a fancy suit that flies in and

comes in here with his charming voice and his alligator shoes.

That's not what brings the presence of God.

The Bible shows us that the perfect place of unity is where God commanded the blessing.

I started thinking about the old story that I heard long ago about this father,

that he had several sons, and he was coming to the end of his years,

and his sons, they were always fighting with one another. They never could agree with one another.

And he brought them all in, and he gave them each a stick.

And he said, break that stick. Every one of them without even trying just broke that stick.

So he gave them all another stick. And he said, now all of you put your sticks together.

And they put those sticks together and he bound around them.

He said, now you all break those sticks.

And they tried and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't break those

sticks because the father was showing them that when you're by yourself,

then those sticks are easily broken.

But when you gather them together, there's strength and unity.

Church, I believe the Holy Spirit is telling us today that in the world that

we are living in, there's going to be a lot of attacks. There's going to be a lot of pressure.

There's going to be a lot of divisiveness in our world today.

There's going to be a lot of contending voices that tell you why you shouldn't

come to church and why you shouldn't trust God and why you shouldn't put your hope in Jesus.

But if we would come together in unity, that's where the blessing,

that's where the power, that's where the anointing of God flows.

Now, in case you didn't get the theme of my sermon this morning,

when God's people walk in unity, the anointing flows, the blessings increase,

and the presence of God dwells among them and dwells among us.

That's what happened when we get in the perfect place of unity.

But Jesus warned us about division. We live in a world of division.

Jesus said this. Jesus said, if a house is divided against itself.

That house will not be able to stand.

In other words, when you let division come in, when you are not united,

doesn't matter how good the music is, doesn't matter how good the preaching

is, doesn't matter what the budget looks like,

doesn't matter what all you got going on, when you are divided,

the Bible says Jesus himself said that that kind of house, a house divided against itself,

cannot stand. What does that look like in our world?

Where does that hit us? Well, we see it, don't we?

Because in families, we see it that this division leads to broken homes.

There's brokenness all across families in our world.

In the church, we see it because it stifles revival.

You've got churches that come in and all they're doing is coming.

You hear a talking head on a Sunday morning, but there's no life.

There's no power. There's no change.

There's no anointing. There's no revival, and it's not because it's not needed.

It's because God will not come in a place of division and bring the unity that

only comes through the Holy Spirit. I need to say that one more time.

God will not. I don't care how much it is needed. God cannot, because of his word,

he cannot come into a place of division where there's pride and arrogance and

hate and division and place his anointing there. It only comes in a place of unity.

In communities, we see that we We are more hostile, our communities are more

violent than ever, and it's all because we.

Perfect place of unity. See, that's where the enemy sows discord.

That's where we see that there's opportunity for a life change that is squandered

because there is no unity.

But we see this, and I really believe this with all my heart,

where unity is, there is anointing, there is blessing, and there is going to

be God's presence every single time.

See, something we've gotten away from in our modern day church is the importance

of being the body of Christ.

That's what it's all about, being the body of Christ. This doctrine of ecclesiology.

See, sometimes we spend our time on theology.

Theology is the study of God. We need to know God. We need to know about God.

But just as important as theology is the ecclesiology, we've got to know that

God's desire for humanity was to place him in a body called the church so that

we could operate together in fellowship and in unity.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, for just as the body is one and has many

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

members, all the members of the body, though many, are one body. So it is with Christ.

In other words, there might be a lot of us in this room right now,

But when we join in here and we begin to lift our hands to heaven and we begin

to worship the Lord, it's not just a bunch of individuals anymore.

It's one body praising God. It's one group of people that's worshiping God.

That's why when you've got a need in your life, the Bible says if any would

agree, if any two would agree touching one thing, it shall be done of our Father which is in heaven.

That's why that when we come in here and we've got a need and we begin to agree

together in prayer It's not your individual prayer anymore It's the body of

Christ coming together and praying for your need and

he goes on and says, for in one spirit, we're all baptized into one body.

Jews, Greeks, slaves are free and all were made to drink of one spirit.

This passage shows us that every believer is a part of one, the same spiritual body.

In other words, what it's showing us is this, is that we are one in Christ.

It doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter where you're from.

Doesn't matter what your income is. Doesn't matter how many bedrooms are in your house.

Doesn't matter how many cars are in the driveway or the garage or whether it's

a gravel driveway or a concrete driveway.

Doesn't matter if it's a 2025 F-150 or a 1988 Celica. Hallelujah. GT.

It doesn't matter any of those things. What matters is, is that we are one body in Jesus Christ.

Not only that, but every member plays a role.

That means that you are important this morning. When you're not here,

we're missing something.

When you're not here, we're missing a voice that's praying and asking God for

miracles on our behalf. When you're not here, it's a piece of the body that

is absolutely necessary.

You know, sometimes I've had people say, well, you know, I was gone last week.

I know you probably didn't notice.

I said, no, no, we notice because you're important. I want to tell everybody right now.

That you may feel like, well, I'm not a singer, I'm not a preacher,

I don't work the audio-visual, I don't take care of the kids,

I'm not in the diaper ministry, and you know what? You can do any of those things. Just talk to us.

But even if you're a part of none of those things, you are a part of the body

of Christ, and you are needed here because every member of the body plays a role.

He was here at the first service this morning. I picked him out,

but I know a few weeks ago, I was, I preached something that is one of those

stepping on the toes kind of sermons, you know, and I'd preached one of those.

And after church, it's kind of, you know, just like, man, I hope it wasn't too

hard. I just hope I delivered it in love.

I hope all, you know, all these things that go in your mind after when you pastor

and you love people and I'm sitting at home and I'm just kind of going through

things, I'm kind of struggling with it in my mind.

And all of a sudden my phone rings and Ed Boyd's called and Ed,

man, if you know Ed, Ed's just an encourager.

And I picked up the phone and Ed and Susan, they were traveling.

He was working out in the Virginia Beach area that day and they were traveling

and I answered the phone and said, hello.

He said, hey man, I just want to let you know that I heard that sermon.

And man, that's a tough one to hear and a tough one to process,

but we need it and I appreciate you and keep on preaching the gospel.

Keep on doing what you're doing. We need to hear that. And with Ed,

you guys, you may not even know him. He comes in the nine o'clock service,

sometimes 11, but you may not even know who he is, but he plays a vital role. You play a vital role.

Every person in the body plays a vital role.

And then finally, we must work together. We see this, that it is the will of

God for us to be called together working in unity.

And if we are not working with each other, we are working against each other.

I'm going to say it again. If we're not working with each other,

we are working against each other.

I want to boil that down a little bit more so that we can see this.

And I'm going to tell you, the next three to five minutes is going to be a little delicate, okay?

But I've never lost a patient, and we'll get through this together, all right? So here we go.

While the Spirit is the author of unity, okay, the Spirit is the author of unity,

we are commanded, We are admonished to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

The Bible tells us, he's demanding or actually requiring of us that we as believers

keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. In other words, we've got to guard it.

We've got to protect it. We've got to cherish it.

We've got to make sure that spirit of unity is growing.

The scripture tells us that it's an endeavor. It says us to endeavor.

You know what that shows?

It shows it's going to take work. It shows it's going to be strenuous.

It shows you're going to put out a little effort in order to accomplish that.

I know sometimes we think, well, we just want to go to church,

and we just want to kind of, you know, I don't want a church where there's a whole lot of pressure.

Yeah, you're right. You know, you're exactly right. Jesus carried a cross up

Golgotha and died for your sins so you wouldn't spend eternity in hell.

And sometimes we get the attitude that we want a church where there's no real

pressure and no real, you know, the preacher doesn't get too tight and doesn't

get too close. And I know you're looking at me with that face right there.

And, you know, there's a part of me that says, oh, Scott, back off.

And there's a part of me when you look at me like, oh, yeah, here it comes.

I know. Okay. I'm just I'm serious right there. But I look at this and the Bible

says there's one way that contention can arise.

There's one way that contention can arise, and that's through pride.

One way. You say, preacher, that's awful bold of you to narrow that down to one way.

Are you sure? Well, I wasn't sure, so I just went ahead and took it from the

Bible. Because the Bible says, only by pride cometh contention.

Right? Only by pride cometh contention.

And what does that look like in the workplace?

That's when you want to look better in front of your boss than everybody else.

And so you start doing everything you can to look good and everything you can

for them to look bad because pride is rising up in your heart.

That's in the social environment, the family environment, when you want to be the best child.

And you know what? I've seen that carried out even into the 30s and 40s and 50s.

And they want to be the best child and they're the smartest son and they're

the smartest daughter and they're the most successful one.

And you try your best to make sure that you look bad and somebody else,

you know what that is? That's pride.

And it brings nothing but division and contention.

And if you say, God, I want you to move in my life. It's not just church. No, no, no, no, no.

Because sometimes we say, well,

I got my work life and I got my family life and I got my church life.

Don't think that you can go out there, be walking in division in your family

and walking in division in your job and walking in division in your community

and operating in a spirit of pride and then walk into the church and you're

just the most humble little unified little thing in the world.

It doesn't work that way.

The Bible says that sweet water and bitter water cannot flow from the same fountain. So, so.

I was going to tell you what my grandmother said about that,

but it's probably not pulpit material. Okay.

So we see this. We see this, that it's pride that flows out,

and that's what causes division in the church.

Hey, I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen in the church where somebody,

they want to be the best singer, and somebody else may not feel like they're

the best, or somebody's the best preacher, and somebody else,

and I want to say this right now. There is no pride like preacher pride.

My goodness. I have seen people, when they walk in the door,

you can tell they think they're God's gift to humanity.

You can tell they think they're on the left hand of the Father,

right? Jesus is on the right.

You can tell. No, that's not what it's all about. It's not what it's all about.

As a matter of fact, thank God that I've been here on some Sundays and some

Wednesdays, and I've needed to hear a word from God, and I've prayed,

and I feel like I'm going through things, and Pastor Rob or J.R.

Or somebody will say something and God speaks to me and says,

you need to listen right there.

And you know what we gotta be able to do? We gotta have enough humility to say,

God, I don't have it all right.

And I don't have it all figured out. And I can't do this on my own.

And I need my brothers and sisters to pick me up when I'm going down.

We need the spirit of unity in the church today.

And keeping with the spirit of unity and the bond of peace, we gotta submit to God.

I know. We've got to submit to God. We've got to submit to those who are over

us in the Lord, and we've got to submit to one another.

I'm going to bring up another dirty word right here. Submission.

Submission. That's tough.

Wives, I'm not going there. Just calm down for a second. Submission.

The word submission means to arrange or place under or to come under the influence of.

The idea of submission is a term that was taken from years ago,

days gone by, that when a king would overtake a people group,

that people group would submit under the authority of that new king,

and they would see him as their new ruler, and they would see the people of

all of his territories as their new brothers and sisters. They were all subjects of the king.

Can I tell you this right now? that when Jesus Christ came in on April 17,

1997 and washed me clean of every sin that I'd ever committed,

that old man, that old nature died and a new nature became alive in me,

then Jesus Christ became the new king of my life.

Everything that I'd ever done, every wrong, every sin that I'd ever committed

was washed under the blood of Jesus.

So now he was my king. I was submitted to him. But not only was I submitted

to him, I was submitted to my pastor. I was submitted to my teachers.

I was submitted to everybody in authority over me because I realized no longer

was I subject to just a democracy.

I was subject to a theocracy where the head of that was the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only that, then I was submitted to one another because when I saw my brothers

and sisters in need, I didn't kick them down when they were low so that I could look better.

I raised them up because I realized that two are better than one because they

have a greater reward for their labor.

I realize that we were better together.

I realize if two would agree touching one thing, then it shall be done of our Father.

I realize that the Scripture said that one can set to flight a thousand and

two can set to flight tens of thousands.

I realize that when we get together in the Spirit in this house,

there are supernatural signs and wonders, miraculous encounters that can happen

all because of the unity of the Spirit.

Look at this. All throughout history, we have seen this happen in the church of the living God.

In the very beginning, the Bible tells us that the New Testament church grew rapidly.

Acts chapter 2, if you read it in your Bible, they grew rapidly because they were in one accord.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Supernatural favor followed them because of the unity of the Spirit.

Sometime later, a few hundred years later, you'll find that the church has started

to splinter off into divisions and are around the year 300,

325 A.D., the Nicene Accord was struck, and the Nicene Creed was delivered,

and what that said was that we believe there is one Father, and there is one

Son, and they are one together.

They're a cohesive Father-Son in the Spirit. A few years later,

then they came along, and they did the.

Revision to that Accord, and they said, not only is there one Father,

and not only is there one's son, but he, the Holy Spirit, is also a part of that.

And they did that because people tried to start preaching things that was contrary

to the doctrine of the triune God.

Then you come along a little later, and here we are at a time of division.

In 1906, people are divided by social class. They're divided by race.

But yet in Los Angeles, California, on Azusa Street, there's a revival going

on. It didn't matter what color you were.

It doesn't matter what your economic status was. It didn't matter who your daddy or who your mama was.

It didn't matter what your social class, it didn't matter what your denomination.

God started pouring out his spirit on Azusa Street and it wasn't a second blessing.

It was a continuation of what God did on the day of Pentecost,

and I want to say this right now, that here we are a hundred years later,

here we are, and God can do the same thing in Norton, Virginia.

Music.

In Wise County, Virginia,

across America that he did in the upper room on the day of Pentecost that he

did in Los Angeles, California at Azusa Street.

If we get in the unity of the Spirit, what it comes down to is the church is

the most powerful when it walks in unity.

We live in a world that likes division. I was telling the nine o'clock crowd

about it. I said, I was reading an article.

Jonathan corrected me. I was reading an article about, it was talking about

politics, but then it got over into modern pop culture and something other.

And they were talking about these music artists.

And I called it, what I call it in the first one, a feud.

I said they were feuding.

I didn't think it was funny, but Vip said Scott Rappers don't feud What'd they do?

Oh they have a They did diss tracks and they have They have beef Beef,

I'm thinking they're throwing hamburgers at one another. I didn't know what was going on.

Even in our arts and entertainment, we love division.

See, people, and we laugh about it, but what happens is this sets the tone for our culture.

And so our young adults growing up see this, and they think that the norm for society is division.

They look at politics and they think that the norm for society is division.

They see that more than half a marriage is in divorce and they think that the

norm for society is division.

They see that even Christian denominations are getting mad and splitting all

over the place and they think that the norm for even religion is division.

And I want to come right now and set the record straight and go ahead and get

everything back in line and let you know that that is not the norm in God's kingdom.

Because God has told us that God commands his blessing on the perfect place of unity.

And if we want to see the Holy Spirit move, if we want to see prayers answered,

if we want to see people saved, it's only going to happen when we operate in unity.

I know somebody's like, I wonder what happened if God's preaching this. Nothing.

But it will if you don't walk in unity. I'll tell you that right now.

It will if you don't walk in unity. Three things, and we're going to bring this

to a nice close, and Hope's going to play an amazing song at the end.

It's going to be incredible.

She don't know what that is yet, but I put a lot of pressure on her.

Number one, first thing you need to realize is unity brings the anointing.

Unity brings the anointing. We said this several months ago.

We said God's anointing is supernatural ability to do things that we cannot do in the natural.

God's anointing brings with it supernatural ability to accomplish,

to do things that we cannot do in the natural.

The Bible says in Psalms 133, our text said the anointing, that this blessing

is like the precious oil on the head running down to the beard, even the beard of Aaron.

Picture this, because here's what the Bible is trying to give us a picture of.

The Bible is trying to give us a picture of Moses.

Moses is out there. Moses is mentioned. Other than God, Moses is mentioned more

than any other character in the Bible. Any other person in the Bible, Moses is mentioned.

So Moses is there. God is giving us a picture that Moses has a horn of oil.

And they would put that oil in that ram's horn, and he would begin to pour that oil.

And he's given us a picture of that oil running over the top of Aaron's head.

And even it would start to flow over his skin, even to his beard.

And the oil was still flowing to such an extent that it would flow even down onto the collar.

And the King James says, to the skirts of his garment that's

the way the oil you know what god is showing us god is

showing us that when we allow unity to come into our

lives then his anointing is going to permeate every

area of our lives see here's what i've here i've seen an operation and people

in the church that they come to church and god doesn't just place his anointing

on their life for church but he they walk out and they're anointed they're anointed

to do bit we got people in this church you're anointed to do business we got

people here that are anointed to to communicate with people when you go out there,

man, I got a couple of people I could name right now that when they go out and

they communicate the gospel to people, God has anointed them to communicate.

We have people that go out and they're anointed to bring people together.

They bring people to the table.

See, when God anoints you, it does it in every area of my life, of our lives.

See, what God was trying to say, he was trying to say that when my people are

set apart from the world, but operating together in unity, my anointing will flow without limits.

Somebody needs to hear that one more time. That when we are set apart from the

world, but we are agreeing together in perfect unity in the church,

that God's anointing will flow without limits.

The Bible says on Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, when the day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1–4

had arrived, King James fully come,

said they were all together in one place, and they were all filled with the

Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues.

You know why it happened? It didn't happen just because they were there and needed it.

It happened because they were in one mind, in one accord.

There was perfect unity, and God said, I can pour out my anointing on the place of unity.

I remember stories of people that would travel to the Brownsville Revival back in 1995, 96,

97, and they said we would walk in, and there would be people that were there in suits,

and people that were there in shorts, and people that were there,

you could tell they had money, and people could tell They didn't have money,

but none of it mattered because they walked in in unity, and God's spirit,

God's anointing began to just absolutely flow in that place.

See, here's what's so important about, here's how God feels about being in unity, all right?

Get this. In the New Testament, because this shows it's important.

In the New Testament, the word tithes is mentioned 24 times.

The word offerings is mentioned 265 times.

The word fasting is mentioned over 100 times.

The word prayer is mentioned over 100 times. But the word together is mentioned 484 times.

It shows us that God places a premium on unity.

Not only that, if you add in the number of times that gathered together is mentioned 97 times.

Mathematicians will tell you 581 times in the New Testament.

We are told that we need to be together in unity.

God places a premium on unity It brings the anointing of God Not only does it

bring the anointing But it also brings the blessing I believe that We talk about

the blessing The blessing has been turned into things That are just,

you know, like a check in the mail How superficial is that?

How limiting is that?

We came through a church culture That we got some big name preacher With bad

hair That's talking about his airplane And we think that's the blessing Right?

Maybe you thought that was good hair, but still, it doesn't make any difference.

We thought that was the blessing.

I mean, really. And that's not the blessing. The Bible says this, Psalms 133.

The Bible says, for there the Lord has commanded the blessing.

Life forevermore. He tells us where he commands the blessing,

and then he tells us what the blessing is.

He said there, not at Hermon, no. He says there at the perfect place of unity.

That's where the blessing is. But then he tells you what is the blessing.

The blessing is life forevermore.

There's people in here right now, you need life in your marriage that a check

cannot give you, has the value to solve.

Some of you, you need healing in your body right now. You need life in your

body, your physical members, and there's no check I could write to make you better.

There's people right now that you've got hurts, you've got trauma from things

that's happened in your lifetime, and you've seen physicians,

and if you could write a check can make it better, you would.

But there's not enough money. But the Bible says there's a place in unity that

we can get as a church where the blessing of God will flow and everything we

need is in the blessing of the Lord.

Imagine a waterfall, that you get under that waterfall and the more it flows,

the more you're refreshed and it just keeps, that's the blessing of the Lord right there.

Because the Bible says that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and it adds with that knows sorrow.

That's not a financial term. That's life that's poured out in the life of a

believer. That is living water that's poured out in the life of a believer.

If you need healing this morning, that's the blessing of the Lord.

If you need restoration this morning, that's the blessing of the Lord.

If anything you need is found in the blessing of the Lord, Deuteronomy chapter

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

28 says the Lord will command the blessing on your life, in your barns,

and all that you, you know what that is?

Go read that Deuteronomy chapter 28 blessing when you get home.

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

That you are blessed in the city. You're blessed in the field.

The fruit of your labor shall be blessed. Your children shall be blessed.

You shall be the head and not the tail. You shall be the above and not beneath, saith the Lord.

That's the blessing that God places on your life.

But it only flows when there's unity.

See, just to show you the unity that it requires, that kind of blessing.

Back in 1989, Paul Harvey, I know some of you guys wasn't born in 1989,

and some of you don't know who Paul Harvey is, but here's the rest of the story, all right?

Some of you got that. Thank you for all you middle-aged laughter right there, all right?

But radio commentator Paul Harvey, he told the story about blue whales.

He said that blue whales, this is one of the largest mammals,

he said they don't speak, but they sing, right?

So blue whales sing. I don't know if you knew that or not, but here's the miraculous thing.

This is a creative miracle that God did to show us, to give us a picture of

what his unity looks like.

Not only do blue whales sing, but they all sing the same song, all right?

So when you heard a blue whale singing a song in the Atlantic Ocean.

If you were to fly over real quick to the Pacific Ocean and get down beside

of your blue whale friend, that blue whale is going to be singing the same song.

But let's take God's creative miracle just a little bit further,

because what scientists revealed was this, is that not only are blue whales,

not only do they all sing the same song,

but they sing the same song at the same time all around the world,

which means that the blue whale on one side of the world is singing in perfect

harmony with the blue whale on the other side of the world.

Let me take God's creative miracle one step

further because then what researchers pointed out was when

one blue whale changes the tune of his song on

one side of the world at the same time all over

the planet every blue whale changes the same tune in unison as that blue whale

on the other side of the world and they all keep on saying you know what that

means that means that when the church of the living God is in unity and we're

worshiping in the spirit it doesn't and I've been there let's We've walked down

into churches in Mexico on missions trip,

and I don't understand a word they're saying.

But I lift my hands to heaven, and I'm speaking it in English,

and they're speaking it in Spanish.

And the same God that answered Elijah by fire, the same God that spoke this

world into existence, the same God that sent his son to save my soul is hearing

the prayers that are coming.

I've been on the continent of Africa. and in that little church on the outside

of Dar es Salaam, where we were in Tanzania.

There we go.

We were in Tanzania, and there we were. I didn't understand.

Some of them were praying in English. Some of them were praying in Swahili.

Some of them were praying in a native mother's tongue.

And there I am in cornbread Southwest Virginia English praying and lifting praise.

It didn't matter because all

God heard was the same tune and the same song being sung at the same time.

That's the unity of the Spirit, and we see people healed, and we see people

saved, and we see people delivered. Why?

Because there's blessing where there's unity.

I know there's people that are

like, well, if we could just get the right music. Music don't do it. No.

I know some places they've been through three pastors.

They're like, if we could just

get the same preacher. No, those people are meaner than junkyard dogs.

Yeah my goodness it's not

about the right preacher it's not about the right singer it's

about unity in the spirit and then finally this

one finally it's unity attracts

the presence of God the Bible says it's like the dew of Hermon which falls on

the mountain of Zion in Israel Mount Hermon is the highest peak it's covered

with dew every morning and that dew runs down to the bottom of that mountain,

flows to the bottom of that mountain.

And at the bottom of that mountain, because of the life-giving water,

life-giving streams that come off Mount Hermon, there's flowers,

there's forests, there's streams.

And the Bible shows us that where the presence of God is, there's everything we need.

That's what it comes down to. You can't have anointing without the presence

of God. You can't have blessing without the presence of God.

The There's pleasure in sin for a season. That's not blessing.

That's temporary pleasure.

But the blessing of God is something that's eternal. Hope you'll come help me.

We're going to wind this thing down right there.

Here's the way that I thought about this. Because we said where unity is,

there's anointing, there's blessing, and there's God's presence.

I started thinking, why are we limiting what God can do in our midst?

Because we're not willing to dwell together in unity. It's a choice we make

sometimes. It is. So I was thinking about it this way.

We were watching basketball last night up at the Convocation Center.

I told you, God is a Raiders fan. And so our boys and girls both won those championships last night.

Sorry if your kids go to a different school. You can transfer them tomorrow.

Sorry for your school your principal don't come to our church and

so you know they did would give them some pulpit

time but uh basketball basketball

was invented in america springfield in 1891 1891 james a nasmyth created this

game he was a p instructor,

he nailed two peach baskets to opposite ends of a gymnasium he didn't have all

the kinks worked out yet because he had nine people 13 rules and a soccer ball think about,

that sounds like my backyard growing up.

This game was invented in America. America invented the game of basketball.

America perfected the game of basketball. As a matter of fact,

it became so popular, so perfected in America, that we lobbied for this game

to be included in the Olympics.

When finally they decided to include it in the Olympics,

they said that it could be, and this is the guidelines that we put in there,

that that the game would be included but

american teams could not have any players

that were compensated had been compensated for playing basketball and

so our professional players couldn't play in the olympics and so

what happened was even though we were the country that invented the game we

were the country that perfected the game we went decade after decade and our

basketball teams just got pulverized by teams around the world because we didn't allow everybody,

that should play to play we were

limiting our success because everybody that should have

been playing they weren't playing but oh dig in the back of those those those

cabinets in your kitchen and pulled out those mcdonald's cups from 1992 when

you had the dream team have you guys collected the collector's edition mcdonald's

cups in 1992 from mcdonald's man you guys are just weirdos.

I don't know if you can go to heaven without a collector michael jordan cup

from mcdonald's no wonder you guys think lebron james is the greatest player of all time.

In 1992 they decided to remove that rule and professional players in america were allowed to

play in the olympics compete in the olympics for the first time as

a result they got 16 corporate sponsors

that brought in millions and millions of dollars more than

had ever been brought into an olympic basketball tournament

in olympic history not only that when

the americans were allowed to to have all of their

athletes professional athletes come and play against

other nations who already had their professional athletes playing what

what we resulted in was the dream team

as it was called back then uh they won their

every game by an average of 43.8 points

per game in other words when everybody

that should have been playing started playing

it wasn't even a competition it wasn't

even close church think about

what we try to do in the kingdom of God and we

try to utilize we try to

utilize sound systems and we try to utilize multimedia we try to utilize web

campaigns I'm not against those things I'm saying if everybody that should come

in unity and the church came together in unity what can we do in this world.

How much of the laws could we see one how many people that were that are hurting

and hopeless today could hear the gospel if we walk together in unity i say

that we're two months away from easter,

easter statistically there's more people that attend church on

easter sunday morning than any other time of the year every single year easter

we call it the super bowl around here internally it's super bowl sunday it's

the biggest sunday we got because we know that people that may not come any

other time of the year we're going to be prayed up and we're going to make sure

that we try to have we have their people to connect with them because we love them,

but what if what if this easter more than just a campaign what if the church was here in unity.

What if we were showing people that we love them between now

and easter i know we didn't do it

all the time but i'm just saying what if for two months we

did it i believe we'd see souls saved like we've never seen

before i believe that there wouldn't be

enough room to hold people in this building i'd love that i'd go out

in the parking lot wouldn't bother me none no bit none i'd sit in the floor

because that's where god commands his blessing is the place of unity let's all

stand up all over the building the reality is when god's people walk in unity the anointing flows,

blessings increase and God's presence dwells among us His anointings flow,

blessings increase and His presence dwells among us. Every head bowed, every eye closed.

My call this morning is for those that you want to make it personal You want

to say, Scott, I want to get rid of the division. I want to get rid of the pride.

Maybe you've been one of those in your workplace that's been trying to look

better yourself while somebody else, you're pushing somebody else down. You know who you are.

Maybe it's your family. Maybe you do that in your family. Maybe it's just a social thing.

Maybe there's just division right now between you and some other people.

You know it shouldn't be there. God's dealing with your heart this morning.

Here's what I want to know. if you're here today and number one you want to

say i i want to do better at not being divided,

not being prideful but number two i want to do a better job of lifting up my neighbor.

Of loving one another of being the

church that god has called us to be that's you i just

want you to raise your hand right now we're all gonna raise our hands yeah here we

are there we are that's us that's us can we do this right now before we receive

communion can you join hands with the person next to you i want us to pray that

god would do something in our hearts today now just because i pray this doesn't

mean it's going to happen but if you mean it and you allow god to change you it will happen.

If you mean it in your heart and you allow God to change you,

it will happen. I'm going to pray that God would soften our hearts,

that he would open our hearts up with love, that we would see our brothers and

sisters in Christ in a way we've never seen them before, that we would walk

in unity in ways that we've never walked before.

We'd love and we'd lift up our fellow human in ways that we've never had before.

Let's do that right now. Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you.

We thank you that you are with us.

We thank you that you promised where two or three are gathered in your name

that you will be here in the midst.

And Father, right now I pray across this church, God, everybody that's here,

Lord, God, forgive us for our pride.

Forgive us for trying to get ahead at somebody else's expense.

Forgive us for not lifting up others when they're down, when they're struggling.

But Father, right now do a work in us as a church, every individual, all of us, God.

Let us have a love for one another like we've never had before.

God, give us the realization that we can't be divided at the workplace and we

can't be divided in our homes and then walk into the church and think that we're

going to be unified because it doesn't work that way.

You see beyond all that. You see our heart, God.

So God, purify our hearts today.

Purify our hearts today. Set us into right fellowship with you.

Set us into right love with you and with one another, God.

And God, we believe, Lord, when you do that, we believe, God,

that the anointing will flow.

We believe that the blessings will increase. And we believe that your presence

will be here in our midst.

In the name of Jesus.

In the name of Jesus.