0:04 Let's pray again. Dear father, I pray you'll send the Holy Spirit now. We need you, Lord, and we need your Holy 0:25 Spirit. I pray that each of us will be like a branch that's completely helpless hanging on to the vine. Forgive us Lord for where we have tried 0:47 to do things in our own strength and in our own ability. Forget forgive us for trusting in our own ability so much that when we have reached the end of ourselves, we become anxious 1:05 and full of worry and fear and unbelief. Make us more like the branch in the vine that can do nothing on its own. Apart from you, we cannot speak. We cannot listen. So Lord, will you send your Holy Spirit, please? 1:24 We hang our helpless souls on thee, asking you Lord, but thank you that there is hope, there is joy in your presence. Let there be a reverence, Lord, as we sit here even this morning. And let there be joy, the joy of the 1:43 Lord that is our strength. I pray you will pour out your Holy Spirit aresh in each one of our hearts. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for this time. Thank you that you've met our needs. You've gone above and beyond what we could have asked or even imagined. 1:57 And you've answered our prayers, and you've answered them in ways that we don't even see yet. You're going to do a mighty thing. and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Yeah. We heard 2:18 uh yesterday about the hope of righteousness that we have and the journey of walking by faith and uh the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us the strength to do that. 2:33 And as I closed last night, I encouraged all of us to continually seek for the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is so key. And I even shared from my own experience about how this has transformed my life. 2:51 And I mentioned a book I want to mention again. It's called They Found the Secret. a tremendous uh wonderful book with testimonies of many godly people who had a good testimony of a Christian life but knew 3:09 they were missing something. And when they experienced that baptism of that Holy Spirit, that um filling, it boosted them into another level of spiritual life. I've seen this as my own in my own life 3:28 with this picture from what I understand about how rockets work, rocket ships work is there's different segments to uh a rocket ship and it blasts off with a lot of force but then once it gets towards the stratosphere beyond the 3:46 earth's atmosphere as it were some portions of that rocket ship fall off. Uh, and that causes the the ship to be boosted, the satellite, the rocket to be propelled as it were into the next level where then it's 4:05 completely free to uh go through space. And that's what the filling of the Holy Spirit will do for you and has done for me. But it will involve the Lord cutting away certain things from your life. 4:24 There are certain things that must be stripped away for the Lord to be able to boost you into that next level of experience with him. Certain things you'll have to give up. Certain things that you've been attached to that you 4:36 didn't realize you were attached to that you'll have to let go of. Good things even perhaps. Not sinful things, but things that are a hindrance. things that will are an indication of um or or a test of whether God is really 4:56 all you want. And the one of the best examples of that in the Old Testament was the example of Abraham was a good man, a friend of God, a relationship he had with God and God called him his friend. And then God gave him the very thing 5:14 that he had promised him. And that was Isaac. And after Isaac was after 15 or 18 years of having Isaac, God said, "Hey, Abraham," he God is thinking in his mind, I imagine, I want to see if if this man who has walked with me for so 5:31 faithfully all these years, whom I've blessed with the very blessing I promised I would give him, I want to see that that blessing has not become more precious to him than me. Because there's one thing God is jealous over. 5:46 God wants to bless you. He's a giving God. There's no shortage of riches with which he can bless you. But there's one thing he wants most of all is that you that he is the most important to you really. 6:03 And I'll honestly tell you dear family that the longer you walk with God, the more you'll realize that this is not a once-forall test. This is a constant thing and there's layers and layers and deeper and deeper 6:22 layers where you realize I thought God was I sang Christ is enough for me. What more have I in heaven and all that sounded good and then a test came I realized Christ wasn't enough for me. You know that the root of all anxiety, 6:41 all worry is that Christ is not enough for you. That's the root. If you ever are anxious for even one minute, you're worried in any situation for even one minute, you should be honest with yourself that Christ is not enough for 6:59 you. You sang it so beautifully on Sunday, but on Tuesday when you were anxious, you said, "Lord, I lied on Sunday. Now, I didn't mean to lie, but thank you for showing me Christ is not enough for me." If you take it that seriously, dear brother, 7:18 dear sister, you will be freed from anxiety. I believe it. And I'm experiencing a greater freedom from anxiety because I said that's not just a little scratch. That's cancer. When I saw the little evidence of it in a moment of worry and unbelief and 7:37 anxiety, I said, "Lord, that's that's a deeper problem here. This isn't just a little boil that, oh, put a band-aid over it and hope it goes away. And maybe it'll go away, but it'll crop up somewhere else in a couple of 7:51 weeks. And after a while, you can't ignore it. And I hope you won't ignore it. But you'll say, "Lord, there's a problem here. You're not enough for me." Christ is enough. And he'll he wants to prove that. And so when the Lord takes 8:08 away things and strips away things from your life, oh, it's because he loves you. He wants you to ascend into a higher plane of fellowship with him. So I hope you'll take that to heart. Dear brothers and sisters, 8:26 I spoke about um faith and hope, hope and faith. And today I'd like to speak a little bit about love practically about love. We're told in 1 Corinthians 13 that um or the end of uh chapter 12 that um there there remains 8:44 faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. We're told in second Peter 1, for example, um those verses where um you he you builds on different things and the final destination of that I hope you've seen 9:01 it. Maybe we can turn there briefly. Second Peter 1, the progress in the Christian life looks like this. The goal is partaking of the divine nature. We read in verse 4, 2 Peter 1:4. 9:19 We speak, I spoke about that yesterday. And the last page on the book that God has written for your life, don't ever forget that, dear friends, is Santosh is conformed into the image of Jesus. That's in my book and in your book I 9:34 hope you see your name written there. But that's that verse four. It says partakers of the divine nature. I heard that phrase many years ago when I was a young boy and it just became part of my lingo. Partakers of the divine nature. Okay, 9:49 that's great. And then over the last few years he's really sunk that word in. Do you know what that means? Santosh. you be a partaker of my divine nature. God has had angels in his presence for 10:07 millennia, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years. And not to a single one of them has he said, "You can have my nature. Angels long to look." We read in the book of Hebrews. I tell you, if you could see it, dear brother, dear sister, 10:27 any one of the angels in heaven would trade places with you. You think what a comfortable life angels have. You know, they've never they they're always in the presence of God. They're there. But I tell you, they would trade 10:39 places with you in a moment. It's just you haven't seen it. the glory that you and I can be partakers of the divine nature. You heard it often in this church. Our goal is not to go to heaven. Let that be for all the other Christians who want to 10:56 live self-centered, selfish, moneyloving, worldloving, self-loving lives here on this earth. If you come to this church, I hope you've heard it from the very beginning. Our goal is to be a partaker of the divine nature. 11:09 What a tragedy it would be if after all that you heard, you're like, "I made it to heaven." And one of those angels will call you. Do you know what you missed? Yeah, you're here. I'm here, too. But you had available to you something far greater 11:26 than just being in heaven. God offered you to be a partaker of his divine nature. And you, uh, I want ministry. That's more important to me. I want money. I want a health. I want a comfortable life. I want you to provide 11:42 for all my children. And the angel was saying, do you realize you were what you were playing with the tradeoff you made? And sure, maybe you got what you wanted, but you missed out on divine nature. And so that I started to see things in 11:56 that light and say, Lord, you are offering me your divine nature and the tradeoff is so small. He says, "Just give me your body. Give me your will. I'll give you my divine nature." Is that a fair trade? Now, in the moment of temptation when 12:16 you say, "Oh, Lord, it's so hard. I really want this and I want you to I want to understand this or all do that and I I wish, you know, it's hard for me to give up. I I I just that that lust is so pleasing to me." Or that gossip is I 12:30 enjoy it so much. Or I I want this. I want a little bit more money. And he says, "What are you playing with dirt?" When he's offering you the gold of his divine nature. And our job as teachers is to shine the light on heaven as much as we can to see 12:48 the glory of these things like his divine nature so brightly that it changes the way we live. Partakers of his divine nature. And then he says, "This is how you get there." He makes it very simple. Verse 5, be diligent. 13:07 You be be a hard worker in this. Spend time with God's word. Deny yourself the pleasure of watching that movie or going out with your friends or something. Not saying you can never do that, but listen to the prompting of the 13:22 Holy Spirit who says, "I know you've watched movies every night so far. Just take some time out and spend some time with me in my word. Get off your phone for a little bit and spend time in my word. Apply all diligence in your faith. Supply moral excellence 13:40 and then knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness. Well, you think there's anything more than godliness? Is there something beyond godliness? You would think well that's yes there is brotherly kindness 13:59 and love and you you know if you had to come up with your own ranking of these things you'd say godliness has got to be above brotherly kindness surely right you would think well according to this brother godliness brotherly kindness so clearly we have 14:19 not understood brotherly kindness clearly we thought brotherly kindness is, oh, you want me to come help you shift things in your house? Sure, I'll do that. Or, uh, you need a ride to the airport. Sure, I'll do that. Or, oh, you 14:31 you you're sick, so I'll bring a meal to you. Clearly, it's more than that. If brotherly kindness is a step above godliness according to this, there's something more to it. And if love is the highest of them all, then clearly 14:48 we have been using cheap things to describe love. We say, "I love you, brother. I love you, sister. So good to see you." Let's be a little bit more careful before we say that because this is the pinnacle of it all. I mean, when I say I love you, I say I 15:06 love you down here. And that's the problem. The devil has devalued this. what is we're told in 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 or five uh is the goal of our instruction from a pure heart this is the ultimate destination 15:25 and so when you say brother I love you really have you really reached that goal which is the goal of our instruction or uh I like you really that's what I really mean you know that verse right 2 Timothy chapter 1. No, it's in 1 Timothy. That's why I had 15:44 the reference wrong. 1 Timothy 1 verse 5. The goal, the goal of our instruction, the goal of weekend of fellowship, the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. We've 16:03 heard about some of the things those things already. But he says, "Love from a pure heart." I really believe, dear family, that we ought to be a little slower to use that word love, lest we devalue it like everybody else 16:19 in the world does. You hear people say, "I love you," on the wedding day, and then days later they're already thinking about divorce. And uh people say, "Oh, I love you." had that happen to me. I love you, brother. Come to find out, they're really don't 16:36 love me. They're scheming behind my back to do this. And you've probably experienced that, too. And it's not about others. But let's judge ourselves. I say, Lord, I've used that word love myself. I've said to my wife, "Honey, I love you. I love you." 16:53 and then said words in a harsh way or with a bad attitude with a or or you know had negative thoughts about her and say Lord I I lied when I said love I used that goal that most precious 17:12 thing of all the greatest of all that word I used that to describe some just emotion passing feeling that I that and how much more I'm here to speak today about the church. What does it mean to really build love in the church? 17:32 And if you don't take this seriously, if we don't take this seriously, what we will build will be a club. And there have been many times in my life, there have been times in my life where I was like, surely we are a church. 17:47 And the Lord peeled back layers of lack of love and showed me no in the true church there's love that which is greatest of all and your motives, your attitudes, the way you responded in that particular situation. 18:05 The way you handled that matter, the way you treated that brother, that sister or spoke about them behind their back while you were saying love. what you had was just selfishness and self-centeredness. Love has no selfishness of self-thought 18:22 in it at all. Because that's what he goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 13. Love does not seek its own. If there's any situation in which you sought your own in relationship to others in the church, even once you just have a club relationship. 18:41 That's a characteristic of club relationship. I want this. I want this. Now, sure, I might be nice to you. And there's an aspect of niceness. I mean, we're in a lion's club, which is uh they do nice things. You know, these clubs, Rotary Club, 18:58 Lion's Club, the Masonic Club Lodge, and all these things, they they do nice things to other people, but they're in it for themselves. They're going to get something out of it while they do good to others. And let's not be CFC club meeting in a club 19:14 building. We want to be the church. A simple test, dear family, that we're really building the church is there's no selfthought. There's no thought of what about me. That's the proof that we've understood 19:32 the church and the mark that we're growing. Many of you have been a part of this local church or other local churches represented here for some time, months, years, even decades perhaps a decade or so. And the mark that your 19:48 faith is growing, if you turn with me the previous page to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Now when if you read this letter to second to Thessalon the church in 20:05 Thessalonica they're a suffering church they're going through a lot of difficulty like he says um uh in the middle of verse four he says or verse four he says listen I speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith 20:24 in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you are enduring. So this is a church that's being afflicted, persecuted. They're going through a very difficult time. But why could Paul speak so highly of such a church 20:41 that as they were going through a difficult time in their as a church, what does he say in verse three? He says, "I should always give thanks to God for you, church in Thessalonia, because it's fitting because your faith 21:00 is greatly enlarged and the love of each one of you toward one another grows even greater." So as they were going through this trial, as they were facing this persecution and this difficulty, this affliction, they were like, let's not focus on the 21:20 affliction and the difficulty. Let's focus on love. Let's not try to figure out why who did this and what do that and the facts and the I want to know this and know that other thing. No, let's love. And that's what God was after. When God 21:37 allows you to go through a difficult time in your marriage, dear married couples, he's after one thing. Not that you'll work it out. That will come secondary. Will you strive for love? Lord, let my love grow. For those of you in the local church 21:54 here in Austin, you've been through a difficult time in the last 3 months. Now look back. Has your love grown for the for the Lord first of all, but then also for the brothers and sisters in the church. Has it grown or are you 22:07 still sort of like um sort of still trying to figure this out? You might have missed the chance. The best time for your love to grow is during affliction. That's contrary to human thought. Uh human thought says, "Well, let me get 22:25 through the affliction and once things sort of settle down, then we'll work on love." No, for that you don't need the Holy Spirit. But if you want to attain to the high calling of God in the midst of that affliction while your marriage 22:40 is on the rocks as it were as they say or while your relationship in the church is on the rocks is just like it could go either way you say but I'm going to seek for love. Say Lord I'm not going to lay a lose sight of that vision. Will you let me 22:55 grow in love? And what a wonderful example. I don't know a single name of anyone in this church. at least maybe I maybe there are I don't know I don't remember a name of a single brother or sister in the church in Thessalonica but I can't 23:09 wait to meet them in heaven and I say brother how is it that when you were going through this trial and this affliction and you had a lot of questions and you were perplexed your love grew you don't know their names because they 23:26 were nobodyies integrated into a body and dear brothers dear sisters Your calling in the local church that God has placed you is not to have a ministry, not to have a name, not to be known for this or for that, but to love. 23:39 Will you find your place in the body of Christ in some hidden way? And if God chooses to hide you somewhere where you have zero ministry, zero public ministry, but you love from your heart, you will have no regret in heaven. 99% 23:59 of the people in a church have no public ministering. Very few get up and speak or lead the singing or make the announcements and all that. Very few. But all must love. And the church, the strength of the church is 24:18 comes from everybody grasping this and laying a hold of this and saying, "Lord, I want to love. I want to be one who loves. [snorts] If you turn with me to Psalm 68, there are many pictures that you can think about when you think about the 24:35 church. Um, some years ago, I saw this uh picture as I shortly after I became an elder and I shared this with a church there in Colorado. And a lot of a lot of churches are like restaurants 24:55 where I'm sure you've all been to a restaurant and um nowadays you can pick and choose which restaurant you go to because they've got reviews and you can see oh this is a good restaurant that's a good not a good restaurant or here the 25:07 food is good order this because I've had it and tastes good or yeah the food's good but the service is bad. uh you see all these reviews, right? And you know, [laughter] interestingly, that's how people rate churches too nowadays. You can find Yelp 25:22 or or Google reviews for churches. And like, oh, go to this church because they're like this or like that. And >> [snorts] >> uh that other church, the preaching is good, music's a little too loud, or you I read I see all these reviews popping 25:35 up for the churches in my area. And um that's that's how Christristendom is. What will I get out of coming to this in the same way that I mean what's the purpose of the review? We want if you are looking for a particular combination 25:52 of things then you look through all those reviews. Ah yeah I like that. Let me go there. Now nothing wrong with that. We you know our churches have websites and God has led people to our churches through those websites and all 26:03 that. But I'm sure some of these some of our churches probably have reviews as well. Those mean nothing because the Holy Spirit must lead people to be planted into the church. So I got saw the I I thought Lord is it like a restaurant where well we want 26:21 people to be fed fed spiritually. Do we want to give them the best spiritual food and then give them the best experience make it comfortable? Welcome them at the door. Have a an usher. This is how most churches operate. Have an 26:33 usher there. Kind of like you would expect a host or a hostess at a restaurant. Welcome you. How's your day going? Nice smile. Here, come and let me have you have a seat. Here's a brochure. Here's a a bulletin. And here's where 26:44 you can put your money and all that. It's just like a restaurant. And the problem with a restaurant is you come, you expect to be served a good meal, and if you don't like it, we'll give you something else or have your water brought out to you and make you 26:59 comfortable. Uh churches nowadays have uh you know coffee shops at the entrance and uh what what would you like? Yeah, let's give it to you. And I heard about a church recently that set up a tattoo parlor in the at the entrance as well. 27:14 You want to get your tattoo before you come and worship the Lord. We can do that also. It's sad. This is going on in churches today. I'm not here to judge a single person but to judge myself. Now that's easy to see, right? the the tattoo shop at the 27:31 entrance of the church and the the coffee shop and all that. I'm not here to judge any of that. But that spirit of Babylon is here if you're not watchful over it in some way. If you come to a church and decide what church you want to be a part of because 27:47 of how it will benefit you, you [snorts] have the same mentality. Just call it what it is. Now maybe you don't want the tattoo, but you want something else. something that will build self up that will make you feel a little bit better. You want to be 28:04 treated a certain way. That's why you're coming to this church or not coming to this church. You you have some expectation of what what will you will what will you will get out of it, what your children will get out of it. That's why you choose to 28:18 come to a church. In that case, you might as well get the tattoo. Um, but after you eat at the restaurant, you you're served a good meal. You leave and somebody will you will just walk out the door and pay your money. As long as you 28:34 pay your money, you can walk out the door. No obligation. You don't have to take the dishes back. You don't have to clear your own table. You just leave the mess where it is. You spilled a whole bunch of stuff on the floor. Sure, just leave it. Yeah. You 28:47 walk out the door, pay your money, and leave. Clearly, the church is not that. And I thought about another place. The church is like a hospital. Got people in need. Yes, there we want to be. We want to welcome people in need. Jesus said, 29:02 "Come to me all of you who are weary and heavy laden. You who are sick, you need a doctor, come." Is the church like a hospital where we just welcome anybody who comes and just come. You're got you're bleeding. Sure, come. We'll bandage you up and send you 29:18 on your way. come back the next time you get into an accident and we'll do the same for you. Is that how we are supposed to be? Some churches are like that. People come, they've made a mess, got arrested for DUI and all that. Like, 29:30 I need to go to church, I guess. So, okay. All right. Don't do it again. You know, you need to lay off the alcohol a little bit perhaps. And you get a pep talk, go out, and 6 months later you fall into the same thing and come back. 29:44 Man, I should have gone to church. And you get people coming there because they are just constantly falling in getting into accidents, constantly getting DUIs. Spiritually, I'm talking about constantly getting into accidents, 29:57 constantly falling. And you know, every time you go to a hospital, even if it's the hundth time in a month that you fell down and uh gashed your head, they will bandage you up and you pay your money and you go back. They won't say maybe a 30:11 good doctor will say, "Man, are you getting the point? like you come in here every other day with your head bleeding. What's going on? But if you say no thanks, just bandage me up and I'm good to go. That that's all they are obligated to do. That's not 30:26 the church. The church, if you read here in Psalm 68 verse 6, is a home. God makes a home for the lonely. Beautiful verse. This is what the church must be. 30:46 A home. Now a home will give you a good meal uh a healthy meal uh with because it's done out of love. And the difference between a restaurant and a hospital and a love and a home is 31:02 this. In the home, you have real love. Yes, there's aspects of love in the hospital. Though I I believe almost all doctors, if not all of them, operate out of love. They genuinely love the hypocratic oath. They say, "Do do the 31:18 best you can to care for this individual." That's some aspect of love. In the restaurant, yeah, they love they love food. They love giving good food to people. Anybody who starts a restaurant, I've heard it's it's a nightmare of a 31:31 business to try to run a restaurant. And uh but they do it out of love. They love giving people food. And of course, they love money. So, but but they they they want to do a treat you well. So, there's some love in a restaurant. 31:45 There's certainly some love in a hospital, but that's nothing compared to love in a home. But the difference between among all of these these three examples that I gave you is in a home after you eat your meal or even before you eat the meal, you 31:59 can't just show up and expect to be walk to a table and here's your seat and you sit there and wait. No. If you're part of a home, you have to set the table. You might have to wipe down the table and get the plates. I mean, I have even 32:12 my littlest children from the time they were 2, three years old. Come on, help the family. You're part of this family means you got to set the table. You got to do some work. Fill up the cups with water and help mom get the dishloths and 32:26 whatever. Set the put the forks and the knives and set the table and let's get ready to eat. Help, if you're older, you can help mom cook. and you eat and there's love around that table. And after you're done, you don't 32:41 just get up and say, "Thanks, I'm going to my room." No. Yep. Clear the table. Clear your own plate and clear some of the other plates. Clear the dishes. Help with the dishes at the sink. This is a home. And the church is a home. Yes. If you 32:58 fall down and get hurt and there's blood coming out of your head, dad or mom will help bandage you up or take you to a hospital, but they'll teach you how not to make the same mistake anymore. They're invested in you. The church is 33:13 not even a school where you learn things. You know, for some people, for some Christians, churches are like a school. I get a good good teaching on theology like I would get about math or yes there are some good teachers in 33:27 schools who love their students and love education. I've had teachers in my life but they're not love like my dad and mom. My mom would sit up with me till past midnight. I'm sure she was tired after um working hard making the meals, 33:45 cleaning the dishes and all that. And after that, I still have to sit with Santosh and get him to learn his biology. And she would sit there and I'd be the one falling asleep. I'm sure she was more tired than I was. And yet, she 33:57 stayed up. He she was vested in me. Is that teaching? Sure it is. But it's love. That's what the church is. It's a home. And I hope, dear family, dear brothers and sisters, that you haven't lost sight of that. And when we go through trials, 34:17 when we go through difficult times, it's easy to lose sight of it. A home is messy. When there's a problem in the restaurant, you as the client are never aware of it. You walked out the door once you finished eating. You didn't realize that 34:32 there was so much else going on behind the scenes. The food was burnt and they had to remake it. And you didn't see that. What you saw was just a nicely made meal. Or if you didn't like it, you sent it back. and the cook back there 34:44 who's already stressed out had to remake your meal because you didn't like something about it, but you don't care. It's a restaurant. You go to a hospital and you realize that that doctor who who came there and was nice and took time 34:57 with you has not slept in 2 days. You didn't know that, but you went on your way. You complained about the fact that it took them 30 minutes to let you in, but that's because he was falling behind schedule. You don't know about 35:10 that. You didn't realize that that teacher had to go through whatever they had to to teach you. In a home, you start to relate to these things because you're vested. You're committed to staying there and being a part of the 35:26 solution, not to criticize. Criticism is for the restaurants and the hospitals and the schools. There's no place for criticism in a home because it's us. If a crit if I criticize you, my brother, I'm 35:44 criticizing myself. We must see it that way. In order for us to see that it that way, we must realize that we're not called to be many. We're called to be one. Let's turn to Acts chapter 2. As long as we hold on to this mindset 36:02 that I am me and you are you and we're two distinct people then you cannot have love because I am vested in my own interests and you being different from me are vested and interested in your own 36:20 interests and if our interests are aligned we're we get along but the moment our interests are slightly misaligned, we start to have conflict. I'm seeking my my own interests. You're seeking your own interests. And if they 36:38 happen to align, things seem to be well. Now, I hope you're seeing that this is how most churches in the world operate. That they're togetherness, they're being in the same churches because they happen to align. And oh, just give it a little bit and a 36:56 little bit of a uh no, I'd see it a little bit differently. Split, explosion, division. The problem wasn't that with the alignment. It was that they were never made one. If you're really made one, then your 37:14 interests are always aligned. And this is the secret. On the day of Pentecost, again, we go back to the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, you can never experience this. On the day of Pentecost, you read that 37:31 they were filled with the Holy Spirit. These up to the day of Pentecost, these 11 disciples, if you take out Judas's chariot, if you looked at those men, 13 men walking around through Galilee and Israel, Jesus and the 12 disciples, 37:45 you'd always see them together for those three and a half years. It's like, man, that's a tight-knit group of people. They're always together. They stay in the same place. They travel. Every time you go, they're always together. I'm 37:57 sure the people in those areas knew Jesus in his depth. Man, that looks like a close-knit group of people. Is that what our church is, a close-knit group of people? When people look at us from the outside, they see, man, that 38:09 looks like a close-knit group of people. But those 11 disciples were not one. They were 11. Hours before Jesus was to die, they were fighting to see who is going to be the next leader. Jesus says, "Hey, listen. I'm not going to be a leader anymore." 38:27 How ridiculous is this? They're all thinking, "Okay, now somebody's got to take over. I'm sure it's got to be me." Jesus is stepping down. So, who's going to take over? This is literally hours. After three and a half years of 38:39 listening to Jesus teach and being a close-knit group of people, all they could think about was who's going to take over? What is my ministry going to be? They weren't one. And then they were baptized with the Holy Spirit 50 days later. 38:56 And once the Holy Spirit came, you see in Acts 2:42, they were continually devoting themselves to the apostle teachings and to fellowship. Dear brothers and sisters, God has provided something better for you and that is true 39:15 fellowship. I have a feeling, I'm not saying this in a negative way or anything like that, that many of us have probably not really come to the place of experiencing true fellowship. If you're not experiencing true fellowship, which is selfless love, 39:32 love in which there is zero of self, zero demands of my own things. If we haven't come to that place, then you don't have fellowship. You must have love in order to have fellowship. But you can have anything else. Club relationships, different levels of 39:50 club relationships. But if you want fellowship, it has to be selfless love. Love in which there is no room for self. Love does not think of its own. Zero. Thinking of one's own. That's love. 40:08 So what happened on the day of Pentecost was that these disciples finally became one. And now you never hear again that Peter is fighting with John about like, man, I need to be first. How come you're first? Or no, it's gone. 40:25 All of that self-centeredness and what about me is gone in a moment, as it were. Now, I'm sure they still had to deny themselves, but the filling of the Holy Spirit did something for them. And I invite you again, dear family, dear 40:41 brothers, dear sisters, and dear children. The promise of the Holy Spirit is for our children as well. Acts 2, I think it's verse 38 or so, somewhere towards the end of Acts 2, the promise is for you and for your children. I 40:55 pray, brothers and sisters, before I move on, I want to say this. family uh parents, I hope you're praying that your children will be baptized in the Holy Spirit along with you praying for yourself. Pray that for your children. 41:09 Think about it. A young 4-year-old boy, six-year-old girl, baptized in the Holy Spirit in this church. What a difference that will make. Imagine a little girl getting up, 6 years old, full of the Holy Spirit, and simply saying her 41:22 memory verse in front of you or whatever, just saying her memory verse. child baptized in the Holy Spirit whose only ministry is to say the memory verse that she's done all week, but she's full of the Holy Spirit. Oh, that will change the meeting. 41:39 She may never get up and lead the singing or preach a sermon, but she's full of the Holy Spirit. Pray this for your children. I pray that for my children. I pray that for the children at our church that they will be filled with the Holy Spirit at a 41:51 young age. They don't have to live a spiritless life until they're 40 years old and finally finally got the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the age of 40. Sure, maybe you didn't have that teaching and you were misled or all that and you didn't seek 42:07 for it like you should have. That's fine. But don't pass on that curse to your children, do you? Pray for them. Pray with them. Lay hands on them. You have authority as parents to do that. Say, "Father, I pray that you'll baptize 42:21 this young girl with the power of your Holy Spirit. Baptize this young boy with the anointing of the Holy Spirit." Some of you parents have probably never done that. Okay? Don't feel guilty. Do it now. Pray for them. Pray with them. 42:35 Pray for each other, brothers and sisters, that we will be filled. The baptism of the Holy Spirit will transform everything about us like it did for this church. And I think about it like pieces of gold. Individual pieces of gold. You put 42:50 them in a bag. You know, here's individual pieces of gold scattered around. You collect these. On that day, there was 120 of them. You gather them together into a pile of 120 pieces and put them into one bag. And here we are, 43:03 one bag. Think of that as a picture of the local church. Local church. One bag. All meeting in the same place on a Sunday. And we're connected. We're attached to each other. I'm a member of this church. Okay. But you know, at any point are those are 43:20 those pieces of gold one? They're in one bag. They're there together. But at some point, if one of these pieces of gold decides, I don't like this really. You kind of bump me too much a little bit and it's a little cramped in here. I 43:35 don't like this about I don't like that this and that. I've got my own agenda. I refuse to be made one with you. I'm tired of this. Let me out of here. At any point at that that piece of gold could have been in that bag for 20 years 43:51 and finally say, "Ah, no. This is not the place for me." It gets out of that bag and goes its way. But something happened on the day of Pentecost. Those 120 pieces of gold were immersed, baptized into the fire. How do you make 120 pieces of gold? One, 44:09 do you put them in a bag or attach some glue to it to make them one? No. That's still two pieces of gold that are tightknit like the 12 disciples were tight-knit group of people. Tight-knit pieces of gold tied together really, 44:26 really tight. Yeah. Nobody can separate it. All you need is a power that's a little bit greater to untie that and separate you again. And the devil is a master at doing that. breaking apart tight-knit groups of Christian believers. It's not the 44:43 church. It's a group of believers that are tight-knit for some period of time. And as long as you remain tight-knit group of believers in the local church, one day is going to fall apart. So, how do you make those 120 pieces of 44:59 silver one? As tightly knit or as much glue as you put them together, you put them into the fire. And those 120 pieces now are broken and melted and molded into one piece. 45:17 This is why we seek we preach constantly about the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And if you want to be a true member of the church of Jesus Christ, including a member of the local expression of that body, true body of 45:33 Christ, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the world is full of churches with people attending those churches who don't who aren't filled with the Holy Spirit and go on their lives without that filling of the Holy Spirit. And my 45:48 purpose in sharing this, dear family, is not for you to say, "Brother, I've not been filled with the Holy Spirit, so should I JUST QUIT?" NO. CRY OUT FOR IT. If you know honestly in your own heart, Lord, I have to admit it. I'm not filled 46:01 with the Holy Spirit. Clearly, I don't have this selfless love. My love is tainted with selfishness and thinking of my own self in some way. I don't have it, Lord. But I want you to shed abroad your love. Romans 5:5 through the Holy Spirit into 46:16 my heart. Give me your divine love so there's zero of self in my love for my wife and my love for my husband, love for my children and love for brothers and sisters in the church. I want zero of self in it, Lord. And for that you 46:28 must fill me with your Holy Spirit. He will. That thirst, it's not about you beating yourself up because you're not filled with the Holy Spirit today. It's about let that translate into a unwavering thirst to be filled. And I tell you, dear brother, 46:48 dear sister, you will be filled because God has done that for me. He's doing that for me, I should say. And he wants to do that for every single one of his children. Jesus said it often. If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your 47:04 children, how much more will the only good father give the Holy Spirit to them who ask him? He said it so plainly. And if you've been asking and you feel like Santosh, I I've been asking but I I haven't received, don't stop asking. 47:21 He wants to pour out his Holy Spirit within you. In Colossians chapter 2, we're given another picture. Paul begins this chapter or this 47:43 sentence this phrase you can say by saying I want you to know church in Colasse how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at le oysia Paul is saying I have a great struggle I'm burdened about this he 47:59 church tells the church in Colasse I'm burdened what verse two that their hearts may be encouraged Ed having been knit together in love. This is true love. Love that results in 48:18 your being knit together. I'm sure some of you knit and you've probably seen what knitting looks like. It's multiple pieces of yarn that are taken and weaved together into a blanket or wool cap or something like that. And 48:37 sometimes as I've seen that, I get a picture of this is what building the church looks like. And I picture myself like that one yarn and that other brother like another yarn and my wife like one of those yarns as well. And God 48:50 is taking and it begins with a needle sort of grabbing a piece of yarn and that yarn could say, "Hey, no, what are you doing? I I I was going I was just fine right here. What are you doing grabbing me and putting me into this 49:04 situation? If you want to build a church, if you want to be a part of the knitting that the Holy Spirit wants to do in the church, you have to be willing to be picked at by the needle of the Holy Spirit, as it were, and then 49:18 twisted this way and twisted that way and interwoven with another piece of yarn and taken through trials and and turnings and you don't know what's going on. Oh, I'm going this way now. Oh, wait. We're not going this way now. And what's going on? 49:32 You're being knitted, brother. And that yarn could say, "Hold on, hold on, hold on. Explain to me where we're going. You need to give me the vision and all that." Let that be for the other churches. My vision is, Lord, I want to 49:44 be made one. I'm not here to demand how you do it. But I believe that if I yield to you, you will make me one. We knit together. And so, Lord, I'm not here to explain why are you going turn right now or turn left again. I mean, you carefully watch 50:01 somebody knitting. I mean, I've watched my wife do. She can do it without even looking. Like her hands are just going like this. And you picture yourself like that yarn, that string of yarn is just going like this and like that, like 50:12 that, like that, like that, like that. If you feel like that in the church, it's not that the elders don't know what they're doing. The Holy Spirit is knitting you. Take it to heart. Now, at any point, the Holy Spirit will give you 50:25 the freedom to say, "I don't want this." And you'll miss out. You miss out on the home that God is making. that blanket that is warmth for the world. The church is I pictured like a blanket that's intended to bring warmth 50:40 in the cold, sinful world around us. How are we going to do that? If we remain a close-knit group of people that are here today and gone when I'm decide I'm done with this, you'll never bring warmth. The Lord won't be able to to knit you 50:54 together. If you turn with me to uh 1 Samuel, I want to give you the example of this knitting that [snorts] we see in the Old Testament. You all know about David who 51:13 killed Goliath and defeated the Philistines many times. But there was a young boy his age who did that before even he did. And you know that story probably and that's Jonathan. You read in 1st Samuel 13 and 51:28 uh and 14 many times that Jonathan defeated the Philistines. This is before David even came in the picture. At this time David is still with the sheep I think occasionally defeating a lion or a bear that came to maul one of his sheep writing a bunch of 51:46 songs with his harp. And um there he is, you know, sure cleaning up a bunch of sheep dung is what he's doing while Jonathan is defeating Philistines. I mean, whole garrisons of them. You read, you read 13 and 14, multiple 52:04 stories about one time in chapter 14, there was this crag on both sides and Jonathan scaled it with his hands and legs. Just climbed up that crag and then with his armor bearer behind him. In one place you read that Saul, his father, 52:18 who's the king, took 2,000 men with him and sent his teenage boy with only a thousand. That's how much Jonathan was trustworthy. Like I'm only giving him a thousand. I the king who should take less. You know, I'm going to take 2,000, but 52:36 Jonathan here only, a thousand for you. Jonathan's fine. Okay, Dad. He didn't do the math and say, "Well, Lord, Dad, what are you doing? I'm here 16 years old. you're 30. You get 2,000 and I get a thousand. Jonathan says, "It's fine. 52:50 I'll just take my armor bearer with me." And the two of them defeated the Philistines. I love that story about Jonathan, right? And you read that in 14. He climbs his crag. He and his armor bearer follows him. They go and defeat a 53:02 bunch of Philistines. And then sometime later along comes David. And David kills one big giant. And as a result of that, the Philistines, you know, the Israelites all together then beat the Philistines. And now all the ladies are 53:21 like, "David, ah, David, David this, David that." And what do you think Jonathan is thinking? How come nobody sang about me when I killed? Do you know? Nobody was there when when I killed all those garrison of Philistines. And here 53:36 you are singing about David. David's his own age. David's this young upstart, some shepherd boy from Bethlehem. Like, what could can come out of Bethlehem? This Bethlehem, I'm the I'm the king's son, Prince Jonathan, 53:55 and I've already done a lot of great things. Now, here's this David coming along, and now they're the ladies want to make him king. They're saying that he's even greater than my father. Nobody sang when I killed those Philistines. 54:08 Then you read about uh Jonathan 1st Samuel 18. This is right after David has killed Goliath and the ladies are singing. Saul has slain his thousands and David is 10 thousands and uh look at this verse 57. Um, 54:34 David was still holding the Philistine's head in his hand. Little 17-year-old boy walks in with Philistines's head. And then the next thing you read, it says in verse verse one, Jonathan's watching all of this and it says that the when he had 54:54 finished speaking to Saul that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. It's the same word that we read in Colossians 2:2, a picture of the church. Paul had that burden that the Holy Spirit would be able to knit together 55:11 that group of believers into a church into one. [snorts] And here we see the soul of Jonathan was knit together with the soul of David. And 55:29 Jonathan, there's this word love, loved him as himself. I hope you'll take this story to heart, dear brothers and sisters, in terms of what it means to be a part of this local church or the local church that you're a part of. 55:45 Loving my brother as myself because we're made one. The only way to do that is if you see you and your brother as two different people, you and your wife as two different people, you and your sister as two different people, 56:00 you can never love them as yourself because that's them and that's me. two pieces of gold and never be able to love them because we're not one. But the moment the Holy Spirit is able to knit your heart into one, how easy it then 56:13 then you when you say love them as myself is because we are one. I they are me and I am them. That's it. We're one. Just like if if these if my arm this arm and this arm were separate for a while and then they were integrated into a 56:28 body. Now how how difficult is it for my right arm to love my left arm? The moment the left arm does something, makes a mistake or does something, the right arm immediately comes and helps and says, "Okay, come on. We got this." 56:40 You've ever had a pain in your shoulder, immediately your right arm comes and holds it and say, "I got you, brother. I got you, sister. I'm here to help. Let's remain one. I'm not well, you did this to me or I did that to you or why did 56:51 you do that?" It's I want to help you. We're one. I love I love you as myself. That's what it means to love in the body of Christ. It's not I love you as myself and we are two different beings. And so many churches are trying to do that 57:09 without seeking for love. When you really come to the place where you receive love, the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts through the Holy Spirit. Now you're made one and you love others as you love yourself. Verse 57:24 continue reading. And Saul verse two took him that day and did not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. He says it again and says this is real love. 57:38 Imagine Jonathan going to David and saying, "David, I love you. You're my brother." What did it cost Jonathan to say, "I love you." You know, we hear often in the church, "Lord, I don't want to offer to you anything that costs me nothing." 57:53 The Lord is looking today for those who will build his church through this mentality of sacrifice. Lord, I don't want to offer offer you my membership in this local church that costs me nothing because I get to do this and I get to do 58:07 that and I get my own way and I'm allowed to be my own self-centered self. I want you, Lord, to prove that I will offer you my membership in this church at cost. It's going to cost me something. I'm going to have to give up 58:20 this and give up that and let down my own agenda and wanting things my way and wanting to understand things and all of that. I lay it all down. Lord, it's going to cost me something. It cost Jonathan everything to love David. 58:37 You read the rest of the story. Uh we we'll keep reading a little bit. Let's look at this. Um verse four. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, including his sword and his bow and his 58:49 belt. He gave him everything. That would be like um you know, somebody saying, "Hey, we're going to ask this person to take care of this now." Okay, here let me let me empower you to be better because we are one. It's not, 59:03 well, how come you're taking that away from me? It's here's somebody whom God is calling to be used. Okay, look at Jonathan taking off all of that. his um the robe which is the the the rights to be king 59:20 you can say he took off his robe and his armor and his sword and his bow and his belt and says David it's yours God is calling you now to to serve my my time I I did what I need to do and God will do something else for me but now it seems 59:36 like you it's it's your time to serve this way this is how the church is built This is what happens when your soul is knit together. This is real love. Let's not say we love each other unless we're prepared to say, "Lord, I really 59:52 love them as I love myself." In the next chapter, chapter 19, we read um again, now it's interesting. Saul, while while all this is going on, while the while while David is kind of being 1:00:11 rising up to be who God wanted him to be, here's Saul and Jonathan watching this happen. And while while all this is going on, in Saul's heart, jealousy is growing. I'm jealous of my brother. And jealous that 1:00:29 God is blessing him. And in Jonathan's heart, who had even more reason to be jealous cuz he was the next king to be the next king. Love is growing. What a beautiful contrast. When you face these trials in your life, when you face 1:00:46 circumstances in your life, what will grow in your heart, brother, sister, when you see God bless another. This is this is building the church. This is practically building the church. And God will allow circumstances to come up 1:00:57 where you'll see God anoint somebody else and he to test what will you allow to grow in your heart. How is it that Jonathan I mean he he didn't even have the power of the Holy Spirit that we have available to us while he's seeing David 1:01:14 being blessed of God love grew. The more David was anointed more love sprung up within Jonathan. Meanwhile in Saul jealousy now Saul was able to keep it wrapped up for a while when he saw David. He was just kept it in his heart, 1:01:32 but it festered and festered and festered. Here's where we pick up the story. Chapter 19, Saul told Jonathan his son, and all his servants to put David to death. Now that jealousy has grown and grown and grown. Now it's 1:01:44 starting to come out with his words. He's like, Jonathan, we got to put David to death. But no, this is Jonathan's own dad telling him, "Hey, let's put David to death." If there was a root of jealousy in Jonathan, he would have latched on to 1:01:59 it and says, "Yeah, let's do it." If there was a secret selfish ambition in Jonathan's heart, David's Saul's words would have latched on to it and Jonathan would have responded. How does that happen in the church today? If you have 1:02:15 a root of jealousy or bitterness towards somebody, some sister will come to your house and say, "Hey, do you know about this uh going on?" and it will latch on cuz you have a root of jealousy or some brother will come and say hey 1:02:30 did you hear about what's going on here and I I just want to I want you to be in prayer about it brother that's how we cover gossip often prayer requests humbug hypocrisy but if there's a root of jealousy that gossip that little 1:02:46 tattletailing that little spreading of rumors and all that will latch on to you and it'll drag you away calls it a root of bitterness by which many are defiled. A root of bitterness will spring up and many are defiled. Why were the many 1:03:02 defiled? Because there was a little bit of jealousy in them as well. Here's Saul trying to defile Jonathan with his jealousy. And Jonathan says, "I've got love by the old covenant standard that he had. He had love." And 1:03:17 so Jonathan defends David, the man who is replacing him. He says, "I'm going to fight for you, brother. I love you. I love you as myself." Jonathan, but Jonathan's Saul's son, look at this last verse in verse, last of verse one. 1:03:34 Jonathan, Saul's son, greatly delighted in David. Greatly delighted in this brother who's taken over my ministry. This sister who's being asked to do that which I used to be asked to do. Greatly delighted. This is the church. Do you 1:03:48 want to build a church or you just want a club? So Jonathan told David, saying, "Saul, my father, is seeking to." And then Jonathan goes and tell David, "Hey man, you got to watch out. Saul's trying to kill you. Now therefore, please be on 1:04:03 guard in the morning and stay in the secret place." Then verse four, let's skip down verse four. Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, "Do not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against 1:04:16 you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you. for he took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine. Here's D Jonathan singing the praises of David. No thought about, well, remember when I did this and I did that other thing and 1:04:30 have you forgotten? No. No place for self in love. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by putting David to debt without a crime? And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. And look at Jonathan actually 1:04:49 turns Saul away from it for a little while. Skip down to verse 20. Chapter 20. Uh in chapter 20 you read David and Jonathan make a covenant. And then but Saul, okay, he's good for a while. He's just Jonathan calmed him down, but he's still festering. He 1:05:08 hasn't dealt with the root of bitterness inside. He's talked out of it, but he didn't deal with the root of the problem. And dear family, dear brothers, dear sisters, dear children, if any of you are have been, you know, kind of 1:05:21 just stuffed down that jealousy or that root of selfish ambition for a little while and you're kind of laying low, it's going to come out. You must deal with the root. You must let the axe be laid to the root of the tree like Jesus 1:05:34 said he would. This is what it means to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Matthew chapter 3, when you when you baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, the axe is laid to the root of that bitterness, the root of that selfish ambition. Let 1:05:46 it go all the way through. Otherwise, in a couple of weeks, couple months or a couple years, it's going to come back and surface. Deal with it completely. No selfish ambition, no jealousy. After some time, Saul can't hide it 1:06:01 anymore. But first, it was thoughts. You know it says that when he was in the chariot and the ladies were singing Saul has slain his thousands, David is 10,000s. He was inside John Saul. He didn't say anything about it. Continues all for a while. He 1:06:17 doesn't deal with it and like in married situations the husband is upset with the wife and just fuming. Give her the silent treatment for a while. A wife's upset with the husband and then fers. But one day you don't deal with it. So 1:06:30 it comes out and you say something in a moment of irritation. I can't believe you're always like that. It's just the you burst your top. Kept it down for a while. The pressure cooker was okay for a while, but then it exploded. 1:06:48 And then he didn't Okay, put the lid back on. Hit that button that they have on the pressure cooker to quiet the thing. But he didn't deal with it. It's still boiling inside. 1st Samuel 21 20:30 Saul's anger burned against Jonathan now and he said to him 1:07:05 you son of a perverse rebellious woman do I not know that look at that now he's yelling at his own son he's so mad and Jonathan says to his father still now Jonathan is facing the anger of his own father towards him that's how much 1:07:22 he loves David Jonathan answered Saul his father and said why should he be put to that what's what he's done. And finally Saul has had it. He's wants to actually kill his own son. Throws the spear at Jonathan. And Saul hurled his spear at him to 1:07:37 strike him down. And Jonathan knew that his father decided to put him to death. Sad story. We'll skip down. Here's this verse. Finally, Jonathan goes to David and says, "David, I I I'm I can't do anymore. Uh David Saul's just out to 1:07:53 kill you." I think this is the last time that Jonathan and David see each other. Jonathan's later killed in battle. David goes on to become the king. And Jonathan said to David, 1st Samuel 20:42, a beautiful picture of the 1:08:08 church, relationships in the church. You read in verse 41 that they kissed each other and wept together. David wept. The more I mean, what was going through David's heart? I'm sure he said, "Man, how much this brother loves me 1:08:26 that he's seen me God blessing me and lifting me up and he's just coming underneath me and adding to that." When you see God lift up a brother for a purpose in the church, will you come underneath and lift him up too when you 1:08:38 know that it could have been you that God wanted to lift up? This is the church. This is otherwise anything else you might call it a club church and all that stuff, but it's just another club. The church is where every one of us sees 1:08:52 the move of God through the Holy Spirit and says, "I want to come 100% behind that. I'm going to promote that and be underneath lifting up that whom God has called." Jonathan said to David, verse 42, "Go in safety in as much as we have sworn to 1:09:08 each other in the name of the Lord, saying, "The Lord will be between me and you." Wonderful phrase. Think about it, brothers and sisters. Let the Lord be between me and you. It's the Lord that's holding us together. The power of the 1:09:21 Holy Spirit. Go home husband and tell your wife today. Let the Lord be between me and you in everything. That all my interactions with you will be through the love of God. Tell your husband that. Tell your children that. Tell your sisters in the 1:09:36 church that. Tell your brothers in the church that. The Lord be between me and you. That means I have nothing to hide from you. I have no ambition. I'm not some secret thing I'm going to do behind your back. can speak about you this way 1:09:47 or speak about you that way. No jealousy, no harm, no taking advantage of you. The Lord be between me and you. Let the Lord be witness of my heart towards your heart. Oh, that you will do that. Pray for it, brothers and sisters. 1:10:00 Pray for your marriages that way. Pray for your children that way. Pray for this church, these churches here, that it will always be the presence of the Lord that knits our hearts together through the Holy Spirit. Before I close, let's turn to Ephesians 1:10:14 2. I want to encourage you as a follow on from this message to go home and read the book of Ephesians. It's wonderful things. He says in Ephesians 5 that this the the church is a great mystery. Many mysteries you read about in the new covenant and as 1:10:33 far as I know only one of them is called a great mystery and that is the church the Lord and his church. Ephesians 5:32 and speaking about the church. But if you go to chapter 2, you read here Ephesians 2:14. For he 1:10:50 himself is our peace who made both groups or you can say many groups. All the groups all the individual pieces of gold into one. 1:11:09 Made all the pieces of gold into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity. See this is why Jesus had to die on the cross. This is why he had to walk here in his when he walked on this earth 1:11:22 and denied himself denied himself every situation when he was tempted he denied himself and did the father's will not my will but yours not my when it says he abolished in his flesh the enmity every time Jesus what I understand that to 1:11:37 mean is that every time Jesus was being tempted and he denied himself and denied himself denied himself and then he hung on the cross and his father forsook him and then he died what was going on there he's like through this 1:11:50 I can make these brothers and sisters one that was the purpose it wasn't just oh so much happened on the cross so much happened in Jesus lifetime here on this earth it wasn't just like most of Christendom thinks oh my sins are 1:12:05 forgiven I'm on my way to heaven no it was to make you one in your marriage it was to make you one in your home it was for you in that local church to be one and we can sing amazing great love. How can it be that thou my king should die 1:12:22 for me? And um behold the man upon his cross, my sin upon his shoulder. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. Um how deep the father's love for us. He was forsaken. The father's turns his 1:12:39 face away in his wrath. For what? so that you and I would be one. And as many times as you've sung those songs and remained two, remained five, we've missed it. We missed what God wanted to accomplish. After you've sung 1:12:57 that song and gone back home and fought with your wife or your husband, argued with them in the car on the way home, that's why Jesus died is to make you one. for you to give up yourself, deny yourself, and love them as you love 1:13:11 yourself because you're made one. I've said it like that in our church. I said, I'm not interested in our church growing from 10 to 50 or 10 to 100. This is what they write books about in Babylonian Christendom. Our church grew from 100 to 1:13:28 thousand in one year. Here, follow our program. buy our book, invite me to come and speak in your church and pay me so much money and you can do the same. It's the same thing the corporate world does that the church is copying. It's not the 1:13:39 church, it's Christendom. It's Babylon. In the church, I'm interested in going from 10 to one. If we're 100, let's become one. Before we add one more person to our church and convince them to come and be a member of this church, let's make them one. 1:13:57 If you joined this church and this church went from 10 to 11, you did a disservice to this church. I want to tell you that. I see it that way. If you're interested in adding yourself to the church so that the church increases, 1:14:13 that's you have it wrong. Brother, sister, ask the Lord to add you so that you become one. God sees, oh, this church has grown from 10 to 11. Uh, they're going in the wrong direction. This church has grown from 10 to five 1:14:30 because the other five have been knit together in one. The other six four other six have been knit together in one. Now we got four more that still need to be integrated. But at least they're five now. Six of them have been 1:14:40 made one. And these four are still stragglers. They still have their own agenda. They're want to argue about this and why is this and why is that and all the other things but at least we've got some that are one. And that's what God 1:14:51 call considers the church. The others hopefully they'll be made one. But for now if they remain there they can remain there. And this will always be the focus of us as a church is that the many will be made one. Come in brother sister into 1:15:07 the unity that God is building in the church. God has something better for you. Not just the church becoming now 100 200 whatever. God stops counting at one in your marriage. Maybe you haven't been married 20 years, but are you still two 1:15:25 who have stuck together for 20 years? It's not growth. Lord, make me one. And if it took me 20 years to figure that out, Lord, at least now make me one. And I tell you, you will have no regret. The latter glory of this house will be 1:15:39 greater than the former. Why? Because you've been made one. Your latter years of marriage will be the best years of your life, the honeymoon phase, as they were, because you've been made one. And the latter years of this church will 1:15:50 remain will be greater than the former. Why? Because the church has finally been made one. This is our calling. Brothers and sisters, there's many much more you'll read in Ephesians 1 about the eyes of our heart being enlightened to see that. The verse 1:16:06 that was quoted during the praise time, you being rooted and grounded in love. Paul says in chapter 3:14, "I bow my knees before the Father that you would be rooted and grounded in love and that you would know the length, breadth, 1:16:21 depth, and height of the love of God, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus together with all the saints." So much more in that chapter. Sometime you should meditate on it and ask the Lord to make it a reality in your life. 1:16:35 Let's pray. I hope that in what I've spoken through this weekend, I've shown the light on what it means, what what a good father we have. A father who has provided everything that we need. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him 1:16:52 up freely. Romans 8:32 for us. How much more will he not give us that which he has already provided? I would say because he's already prepared for it. He's prepared a table for you in the presence of your enemies. Psalm 23. 1:17:07 So you're going into a battlefield in the next few days, in the next few weeks, the next few months, the next few years, individually, in your marriage, in your homes, and in the church that you're a part of, you're going into a 1:17:20 battlefield where there are enemies. Here's the secret. Ask the Lord to make you one. If you're part of that church that Jesus is building against which the gates of hell will never prevail, no weapon formed against you can prosper. 1:17:33 Not even one. The devil's got all kinds of weapons prepared for you this week. Do you see it? Ask the Lord to open your eyes to see the vision of the enemies that are that of the weapons that have been formed against you. But ask him to 1:17:46 open your eyes to see the church that he's building that is taking down all the strongholds, tearing them down and defeating every weapon. Pray that for your homes that you won't no no longer be you and your husband or you and your husband and your 1:18:01 children, three, five, whatever, but that you'll be one. Say, "Lord, baptize us in the Holy Spirit. Pray for your wives. Pray for your husbands. Even if you have husbands that are unconverted, pray that the Holy Spirit will come even 1:18:13 right now and do a work and open their eyes. Pray, pray, pray, brothers and sisters, that God wants to do more than he's done here in our in your in your lives yet. He wants to do the the greater things, but he wants to see if you're really 1:18:29 thirsty and what you're willing to give up for it. Pray. May this drive us to our knees for the things that God wants to do in our church. It's not just going to happen through more conferences and more meetings, brothers meetings to 1:18:40 figure things out. No, we're done with that. We'll have them if we need. But let's pray. The next time you're you're you feel a burden to go and talk to one of the elders to ask an explanation for one of the decisions they made, instead 1:18:54 go spend that time in prayer. Oh, you'll be made one. God will do a work of uniting you with the way this church is going through the elders that he's given you that you won't need the meetings anymore. It's like my I I don't know the 1:19:06 answer, but I've been made one with you. Brothers, I urge you, local church, ask the Lord to truly baptize you in the Holy Spirit and make you one with the church that he's building here and in the different parts of this country, 1:19:20 represented here. He wants to do it. I think I I I can't stress this enough. My fear is that some of you will walk out from this place and remain your own individual being cuz that's what you're used to. You're not really willing to give it up. I hope 1:19:37 it won't be the case that you'll really experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit where you won't have to be convinced to be integrated into the church. If you need to be in convinced to be integrated, if I have to sit with 1:19:50 you and tell you, brother, you should be integrated in the church, sister, you should really be integrated in the church, then something's not right. You haven't been filled with the Holy Spirit. That's plain and simple. ONCE 1:19:59 YOU ARE, it will drive you in there. You will be one. You'll be vested with your brother. you'll be vested with your sister. Thank you for listening to me these last few days. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I cry out to you with 1:20:12 all my heart, Lord, that you will fill me with your spirit. And I pray for each one of the brothers and sisters here that's praying with me. Pour out your spirit, Lord. I pray we dare not leave this place, leave this weekend without 1:20:23 an outpouring of your Holy Spirit in our midst. Lord, we don't want a stirring. We don't want an emotional stirring or a physical stirring, Lord, but we ask for that deep work of the Holy Spirit that you will do in our hearts, Lord. We open 1:20:35 our mouths wide uh believing that you will fill it, that you will really pour out your spirit, Lord, in our midst. We've prayed for it often. We continue to pray for it. Believing, Lord, that you will do it. You said thirst and 1:20:48 faith is all that we need, Lord. And we come to you thirsty. Thirsty because we're in need. Thirsty because we've seen our own selfishness in what we thought was love. Thank you for opening our eyes to see it, Lord. And I pray 1:20:59 that you will pour out your spirit upon us thirsty believing people here helpless as we are. We've tried for so many years, Lord, to build your church, to build godly marriages and godly homes, but we see now, Lord, how far 1:21:12 we've fallen from it. So, Lord, will you do a work that is impossible by human means? Pour out your spirit and do a supernatural work in our midst. We thank you, Lord, you've heard our prayer. And I believe Lord, I pray that you will 1:21:25 preserve the word that we've heard and that we'll go from this place into stronger marriages, stronger homes, stronger churches, Lord, full of the Holy Spirit. This is the church that you're building. Thank you, Lord, that 1:21:37 you are rich. You are strong, Lord. And even in our weakness, we are strong because you are with us and you give us your spirit. Bless this church, Lord. I pray here in Austin. Play pray for the other churches represented here. Will 1:21:48 you pour out your spirit and let your presence be in our midst, Lord, going this day forward that we'll be propelled, Lord, into the stratosphere of your our spiritual walk with you. Thank you. Bless our children as well, 1:22:01 Lord. Watch over them. Let them, Lord, come to know you. Open the eyes of their heart to see you. Turn on the light in their hearts that they will be your disciples. I pray for our young people, Lord, teenagers who may be wandering 1:22:12 from you. I pray, Lord, that you will shine your light into their hearts. open their eyes to see your calling, your purpose for their lives. That they won't waste another day with the trifling, filthy things of this earth. That they 1:22:25 will be gripped, Lord, to be your disciples from a young age. Bless our young boys, Lord, as they struggle, as they are tempted with lust, as they tempted with the attractions of this world. Our young men, bring them, Lord, 1:22:36 into a life of victory. Help them to overcome. I pray for our young women, Lord, that you'll preserve them from the attractions of the world. pour out your spirit upon them, Lord, that they will be taken up with heaven and eternity. 1:22:48 Your coming is soon, Lord. And I pray that not one of these children will be lost. I pray, Lord, that you will preserve them, and that they will grow up to be another generation of young men and women who know you, who know your 1:22:59 word, who are men and women of prayer, who have authority in prayer, authority over Satan. They're strong, and they've defeated the evil one. Make that so, Lord. and pray for all of us from the youngest to the oldest that we will 1:23:11 truly know you and be and walk in this fullness of power. Lord, never to turn back. I've decided to follow Jesus. Though none go with me, the world behind me, the cross before me, no turning back, Lord. Make it so. We believe you 1:23:27 will in Jesus name. Amen.
