Speaker 1: We are in a second lesson of what matters most, and it is not best or Benton dancing.
Speaker 1: We were talking about unity last week, we began the discussion on the unity that unity matters most for ultimate success.
Speaker 1: And in John chapter 17, we're looking at this intimate conversation that Jesus has with his father and four times Jesus prays that they may be one that they may be unified.
Speaker 1: The world.
Speaker 1: The world is shifting the world is changing and, and used to.
Speaker 1: We would say things like, well, a hundred years ago, it was like this, this and this.
Speaker 1: And now it's like that in that.
Speaker 1: But today we don't say a hundred years ago.
Speaker 1: Now we say 10 years ago, 15 years ago, things were like this.
Speaker 1: And now things are like that.
Speaker 1: Everything many things have changed and, and culture has shifted so dramatically.
Speaker 1: And it's important.
Speaker 1: It's important.
Speaker 1: Now as much as ever that the church be unified in its purpose, be unified in its mission, that the family of God be unified.
Speaker 1: In fact, scripture reveals God's priorities and Jesus is here.
Speaker 1: Prioritize amazing unity, intentional unity, intentional unity with the faith family, for sure.
Speaker 1: But it's also intentional unity.
Speaker 1: We can see the priority through family unity, through business, unity, through unity, with your friends, with unity, with everyone that you're connected with, make sure you are unified with them.
Speaker 1: That, that, that there is a purpose and a reason for the unity.
Speaker 1: And that's really what it comes back to.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're talking about today.
Speaker 1: Why do we unify?
Speaker 1: We know that we're called to unify.
Speaker 1: We know that we're called to unity, but why do we unify?
Speaker 1: And if we can answer the question to that, then we will know whether we should or should not be unified with some of the things that we are.
Speaker 1: And we can intentionally increase the levels of unity that we have with the right things.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: Jesus said this in John chapter 17, he said that they may all be one just as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be in us.
Speaker 1: Why, why is Jesus asking this so that the world may believe that you had have sent me so they will see the message of salvation that Jesus Christ brought to this earth.
Speaker 1: Then he continues.
Speaker 1: I in them and you and me, that they may become perfectly one.
Speaker 1: Why again, why Jesus, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as, as you love loved me.
Speaker 1: So the point of unity here is to connect the world with Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's complicated to understand.
Speaker 1: It's also not easy to do anything.
Speaker 1: That's simple to understand.
Speaker 1: Doesn't always equate to, easy to do, and Jesus is come.
Speaker 1: He is connecting his prioritization of unity with his overall purpose in life and his mission in life.
Speaker 1: He's saying I have something that I want to do, want to accomplish, and the way to accomplish that is for my disciples.
Speaker 1: And then the church that is birthed to be unified around this mission, this purpose.
Speaker 1: And so our big idea today, if you're a note taker, take some notes or take a picture of the screen.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I do this.
Speaker 1: Nobody does a picture like this anymore.
Speaker 1: It's all like this now, but you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: Identify why you are unified for long-term success.
Speaker 1: Why are you friends with that person?
Speaker 1: Why are you marrying that person?
Speaker 1: Why are you married?
Speaker 1: What is the, what is the purpose?
Speaker 1: The overarching purpose of that marriage?
Speaker 1: Why are you in that business?
Speaker 1: Why are you working for that company versus another company?
Speaker 1: Why are you a part of this faith family?
Speaker 1: The why behind it?
Speaker 1: And, and some of the answers to that could be things like, well, I'm part of I'm friends with that person because they're super funny.
Speaker 1: They make me laugh and that's, that's why I'm friends with them, or I'm married to that person.
Speaker 1: Cause have you seen them?
Speaker 1: They're gorgeous.
Speaker 1: They're handsome.
Speaker 1: They're then that's a, that's a valid reason.
Speaker 1: I have to say that about my wife all the time.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Um, I'm working for that company cause I'm making great money.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I'm unified there.
Speaker 1: Um, I go to that faith family or I'm part of this faith family, cause it's convenient.
Speaker 1: It's close to this, the closest church to my house.
Speaker 1: Somebody recently told me they drive 45 minutes to be here every Sunday.
Speaker 1: Um, that blesses me and some people, they walk to church every Sunday that blesses me.
Speaker 1: All of those things are reasonable, good, solid, not bad reasons to be unified with somebody, but there are also short term reasons.
Speaker 1: They're all viable, but long-term, they're not enough to stay unified and have long-term success.
Speaker 1: And our three thoughts for us today.
Speaker 1: And the question may be why aren't they enough?
Speaker 1: And here's thought, number one, what got you here?
Speaker 1: Won't get you there.
Speaker 1: What got you here?
Speaker 1: Won't get you there because your initial need, whatever it may be is not enough to produce lasting success.
Speaker 1: We all unify with something for a, for a reason we're fulfilling a need.
Speaker 1: We might have a need to be needed.
Speaker 1: I want to be wanted by somebody.
Speaker 1: And so I'm going to enter into a unified relationship with them because they want me, they need me.
Speaker 1: And so I'm going to, that makes me feel good, but eventually you feel needed.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: You feel wanted now and now, you know, you have somebody who wants you.
Speaker 1: And, and so that need is sated.
Speaker 1: That need kind of, kind of fades a little bit.
Speaker 1: You might say, well, I'm in getting into a relationship romantically with this person because while I have some needs in my life, I want some intimacy in my life.
Speaker 1: And that's a logical, that's a, a rational reason to connect with somebody and, and, and look for a romantic relationship.
Speaker 1: But eventually, eventually the intimacy will be dwarfed by the responsibility of a long-term relationship.
Speaker 1: And so now that need for intimacy may not be enough to keep the unity in time or how about I need resources.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to take that position, that job, and maybe you continue to Excel in the company and you're doing better and better, but eventually your need for resources goes down.
Speaker 1: As you have gathered more resource.
Speaker 1: And the weight of the responsibility of at the job goes up as you've been elevated in position.
Speaker 1: And so suddenly how many times have you heard somebody say, I'm making great money, but it's not worth what I'm dealing with.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what that is.
Speaker 1: The initial need has now shifted.
Speaker 1: And the faith family, we said last week that the local church is the hope of the world.
Speaker 1: It's what God created to bring the gospel of salvation to the world around us.
Speaker 1: The church is God's plan a, there is no plan B and the majority of people in the world put that up, their talent, their churches God's plan a, there is no plan B and the majority of the world comes to Christ.
Speaker 1: When gathered with the church, with the family of faith, it might be in this kind of a building, or it might be in a hut somewhere in a third world country.
Speaker 1: But it's gathered with people of faith that most people come to Christ and we come to Jesus.
Speaker 1: We enter into whatever relationship it is.
Speaker 1: But in this case, we come to Jesus low, we have a need, we need a savior.
Speaker 1: He saves us and we begin to rise.
Speaker 1: We get the job and we begin to rise.
Speaker 1: We get into the friendship and we begin to rise.
Speaker 1: We get into the relationship, the romance, and we begin to rise.
Speaker 1: And so our needs are met.
Speaker 1: And now our, our situation begins to shift.
Speaker 1: We begin to change because, well, again, our initial need has been dealt with and I have other needs that are now beginning to be realized.
Speaker 1: And so things begin to shift.
Speaker 1: And then the church, sometimes as Jesus fulfills our needs, our attitude begins to shift.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's a good way.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's a bad way in the good way.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we'll say, well, Hey, Jesus saved me.
Speaker 1: And now I want everybody that I know to get to know him.
Speaker 1: Jesus did this in my life.
Speaker 1: Now I want him to do that in everyone's life and to the bad.
Speaker 1: Sometimes our attitude shifts where we say I'm now saved.
Speaker 1: And so I'm good.
Speaker 1: So I'm good.
Speaker 1: I'm saved.
Speaker 1: And so I don't need anybody or anything.
Speaker 1: Now I'm saved.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do my own thing.
Speaker 1: Now I'm saved.
Speaker 1: So I'm cool.
Speaker 1: Now you go on and do what you need to do, but, and if you keep me happy enough, if you keep me comfortable enough, I'll stay in the relationship.
Speaker 1: Whatever kind I'll stay in the relationship.
Speaker 1: But if I'm not happy, if I'm not comfortable that I'm gone.
Speaker 1: And lone Wolf Christianity is very popular today because there's no submission to anything I'm there.
Speaker 1: When I want to be there and I'm gone.
Speaker 1: If I want to be gone, there's no accountability to anything because I'm there.
Speaker 1: If I want to be there and I'm gone, if I want to be gone, nothing's no one can call me and say, where were you?
Speaker 1: No one can say, Hey, you need to get this.
Speaker 1: You need to straighten this out in your life.
Speaker 1: There's no one holding us in submission or accountability.
Speaker 1: And so we get saved.
Speaker 1: Our needs are met.
Speaker 1: Now we come and go at will.
Speaker 1: And sometimes selfishness rises and we say, well, I've hit my limit of what I care about.
Speaker 1: And so I'll do my own thing.
Speaker 1: Now I might be here.
Speaker 1: And when I'm here, I'm here.
Speaker 1: But if I'm not here, don't count on me being here.
Speaker 1: Don't, don't count on me because I'm doing my thing.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a kid that's raised in a house they're blessed by the house.
Speaker 1: They're, they're resourced by the house that the house moves for them and keeps them in mind in all things.
Speaker 1: And as long as they are dependent on the house, they are part of the house.
Speaker 1: And, but soon as they become self-dependent in that, they're now making enough money to move out.
Speaker 1: They move out as quickly as they can.
Speaker 1: And now the house can't depend on them for anything.
Speaker 1: The house is like, Hey, can you help me with all I'm busy?
Speaker 1: And so that lasts until they need something again.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden it's like, Hey
Speaker 2: Mom and dad, Hey uncle, Hey whomever, Hey,
Speaker 1: A business person.
Speaker 1: Hey, could I get that job back?
Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, could I get that situation back?
Speaker 1: Hey, could I, could you come back?
Speaker 1: And how could I live in your basement for a while?
Speaker 1: Hey, could I?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm pretty doing good right now.
Speaker 1: They're a family, but they're not really unified.
Speaker 1: A family can live in the same house and not be unified.
Speaker 1: A company work can work in the same building and not be unified.
Speaker 1: Friends can ride in the same car and not be unified.
Speaker 1: You might want to take the picture of this screen.
Speaker 1: Selfish need can bring you to salvation, but selfless service adds value to a family.
Speaker 3: Selfish
Speaker 1: Need.
Speaker 1: I need a savior.
Speaker 1: I am lost.
Speaker 1: And I need to be, I want to be found that will bring us to the place of salvation, but selfless service is what adds value to a family.
Speaker 1: And hear me clearly on this, a mature child, a mature believer, a mature employee and mature employer will bring value, will add value to the house that they
Speaker 3: Are in an immature
Speaker 1: Person takes and does not add a mature person, always finds ways to add value to the house that they're
Speaker 3: In.
Speaker 3: And we can't fulfill
Speaker 1: Our call from Christ without being willing to unify with others.
Speaker 1: In fact, the progress of the mission is artificially restricted by lone Wolf,
Speaker 3: Any kind of it,
Speaker 1: Initial attraction, the initial desire, the initial need to we'll connect you, but it will not keep you
Speaker 3: Together.
Speaker 3: It will not
Speaker 1: Keep you together.
Speaker 1: And so in order to get from here to there, we must develop a focused why now that Y can be called a mission, that why could be called a vision that why can be called the purpose.
Speaker 1: It can be called any of those things, but ultimately it boils down to, I have an intentional and a focused why here at five lakes, church, are it focused?
Speaker 1: Why is we love God, we love each other.
Speaker 1: And we get the message out.
Speaker 1: That's what we do.
Speaker 1: Everything that we do, centers around, loving God, loving each other and getting the message out.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't point us to God connect us with one another or get the message of Jesus Christ into the world, we do not do it.
Speaker 1: If it does one of those things then, or all of those things, then we consider it and see if it's the right step for us to take.
Speaker 1: But Christie and I, as a family, she and I, as a couple, we developed our own why our own, why is that?
Speaker 1: We are bringers of hope, agents of change and connectors of people with God and each other.
Speaker 1: If you want to know what Christie and I believe our marriage is all about is this.
Speaker 1: We are bringers of hope.
Speaker 1: We are agents of change, where connectors of people with God and each other.
Speaker 1: That's what we do.
Speaker 1: If we're feeling good that day, this is what we do.
Speaker 1: If we're feeling bad that day, this is what we do when we, when we look at our marriage, not as our individual beings, but as our marriage, our unified marriage.
Speaker 1: When we look at that, this is what we believe that we are called to produce from that marriage,
Speaker 3: That unity of her and I in a business,
Speaker 1: The greater purpose that you serve, what difference do you make in your friendship?
Speaker 1: What's the greater purpose?
Speaker 1: How do you elevate one another?
Speaker 1: What do you come?
Speaker 1: What, what are you producing from that intentionally thought?
Speaker 1: Number two, intentionally develop your
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 3: We tend to
Speaker 1: Be intentional about our, where,
Speaker 3: And our, why we dream about where we're going to live dream about where,
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to live in this little house and we're going to have this little thing.
Speaker 1: And, and, um, we're gonna, you know, this is what the yards going to look like.
Speaker 1: And if you listen to couples that are going to get married and they're dreaming about their future, they're often dreaming about the, where they're going to live and what their life is going to look like.
Speaker 1: But rarely are they intentionally looking at the Y we dream of where we live, but not so much why we're going to live there.
Speaker 1: We value our environment, oftentimes over our engagement.
Speaker 3: How are, why are we
Speaker 1: In, why are we engaging in this house, in this location and this situation?
Speaker 1: And so you must develop your why around something greater than yourself.
Speaker 1: Your why is something that supersedes you personally at five lakes church, the R R Y is encapsulating.
Speaker 1: The words of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus was talking to his disciples and they said, Hey, can you tell us, I don't know if the disciples said, Hey to Jesus or not, but you know, they're like, Hey Jesus, which one is the greatest commandment?
Speaker 1: And Jesus says in Mark, chapter 12, you must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, all your mind and all your strength,
Speaker 3: He doesn't stop there.
Speaker 3: However,
Speaker 1: He said, the second is equally important.
Speaker 1: You got to love God, but it's equally important that you love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1: No other commandment is greater than these is what he's saying.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you love God, you're going to love your neighbor.
Speaker 1: If you love your neighbor, you can love God.
Speaker 1: They're not separate because one is as important
Speaker 3: As the other.
Speaker 1: And then one of the last things that Jesus said to his disciples is recorded in Matthew 28, 19, where he says, go, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the Holy spirit.
Speaker 1: So when you take what Jesus said about the commandments, and then you take what Jesus said about going and making disciples, it boils down to Jesus has said for the church that we are to love God, we're to love each other and want to get the message out.
Speaker 1: So everything we do is in the, for the purpose of that very thing.
Speaker 1: Now how Christie and I came to a place of, of developing our own family mission or our own family.
Speaker 1: Why us as a couple, our, why is we were sitting down into coffee, we drink coffee together from seven to eight every morning, and we have conversation together.
Speaker 1: And so in that, the only time we don't do that as a, on Sunday morning, cause she's already here by that time.
Speaker 1: And so as we're sitting there having coffee, and we're trying to, we're looking into our future and we were saying, what is our, what is our marriage supposed to be?
Speaker 1: What, what are we supposed to be doing?
Speaker 1: Why did God bring us together?
Speaker 1: We'd already been married for a little while, but now we were saying, let's be intentional about figuring out why God brought Micah Sutton and Christie LeBlanc together and made us Micah and Christie Sutton.
Speaker 1: What's supposed to be produced from that.
Speaker 1: What's our combine and why.
Speaker 1: And, and this is where we come to the white whiteboard, because the way it had been working and the way that most marriages and most relationships work is that you have two people.
Speaker 1: I was an art major in school.
Speaker 1: So this was going to be amazing.
Speaker 1: I was not.
Speaker 1: And it won't be, uh, the information will be invaluable.
Speaker 1: However, so here, you got two people.
Speaker 1: You can decide who's who here, but they have very kind eyes.
Speaker 1: And so here, here's the two people, Mike and Kristie Sutton and Micah, I guess I just told you, who's who, so Micah has his track that he's, he's living on.
Speaker 1: And then Christie has her track that she's living on.
Speaker 1: And now they've decided to get married.
Speaker 1: And so as they're going, you know, he's gonna produce ministry and she's gonna do well in the business world.
Speaker 1: And, and she has on a number of occasions.
Speaker 1: And so here you go.
Speaker 1: Here's what they're doing.
Speaker 1: And what they're doing is they're holding hands in the middle here.
Speaker 1: And so they're walking along, they see each other and so on, and this is what we were doing.
Speaker 1: She was doing her thing.
Speaker 1: I was doing my thing, but generally we were going together and that was good.
Speaker 1: That was okay.
Speaker 1: But the scripture said, this is where, why the man will leave his father and mother's house and Cleveland to his wife.
Speaker 1: And they shall become one flesh.
Speaker 1: So if we are to become one flesh, then the question was, how can we, instead of doing it like railroad tracks, how can we develop a mission, develop a why that takes us away from the railroad track concept.
Speaker 1: It causes us to merge our lives together to where here's our marriage.
Speaker 1: Now it's a monorail.
Speaker 1: Now it's one track that we are both on completely unified.
Speaker 1: She may be working over here and I may be working over there, but we are working on one mission, one vision in life.
Speaker 1: She may be operating in one company.
Speaker 1: I may be operating in another, but we're operating on one mission, one vision in life.
Speaker 1: And we're, we're getting here to this singular goal.
Speaker 1: What's that goal right there.
Speaker 1: That goal is we are, we are bringers of hope, agents of change, connections of people with God and each other, but then you take it to another level.
Speaker 1: Why did we get to that spot?
Speaker 1: Because if you really want to know Christie, and I then you'll know that she's an introverted person.
Speaker 1: If she never sees another living human, other than myself and our kids for the rest of her life, she's going to be okay with that.
Speaker 1: And if you know me, then you know that I really, in my heart of hearts, I want to be living on about 20 acres somewhere with horses and cows.
Speaker 1: And if you throw in the cows, I probably need 40 acres, but whenever you come right down to it, that's really what I want to be doing.
Speaker 1: And that's really how I want to be living.
Speaker 1: And yet I'm living in a subdivision and Sylvania, Ohio, and I don't,
Speaker 4: Of course
Speaker 1: My boys eat like them, but they are not them.
Speaker 1: And so, and so, and so, and so here, here, you really, and truly, I love what I do.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: But my vision for life often includes range and ranch and horses and so on.
Speaker 1: And her vision for life is, is more secluded than, than what the life is that we live.
Speaker 1: And so how does that work?
Speaker 1: Are we unhappy?
Speaker 1: No, don't misunderstand, but, but how does that work?
Speaker 1: Why is it that we do what it is that we do?
Speaker 1: Here's why here, here's the railroad track world and here's the monorail world, but then, but then we have another aspect of life and that is our life in Christ.
Speaker 1: Here's Micah, here's Christie Sutton.
Speaker 1: And then here's Jesus over here.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says, okay, here's what I'm calling you to do.
Speaker 1: I put the two of you together and I made you an amazing team.
Speaker 1: I put you together as a man and a woman as a team, that's going to elevate things.
Speaker 1: That's going to move things forward.
Speaker 1: And we began to pray and began to think, and for months we discussed, what has God done when he put the two of us together?
Speaker 1: What did he do?
Speaker 1: And what he did was he brought people together who have the capacity to bring hope to many people, to, to bring positive change in many lives, to connect people with God, to connect people with one another through the gifts and the callings that he's given us.
Speaker 1: And so all of a sudden, what we have is here's Christ's plan here's God's plan for Micah and Christie Sutton.
Speaker 1: And so Mike and Christi Sutton said, Oh, it's not our monorail.
Speaker 1: It's not the ranch.
Speaker 1: It's not the seclusion.
Speaker 1: It's not all of those things.
Speaker 1: It's Christ monorail.
Speaker 1: We're going to get on board with what he's called us to do, and we're going to accomplish something greater than we could ever accomplish on our own.
Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: When we're talking about unity, intentional unity together, we can do that in ways that not everybody can, what can you and your friend, what can you and your spouse, what can you and your company, what can you, what can this faith family, this unique blending of men and women of God, what can we do that?
Speaker 1: Not everybody on this planet can do.
Speaker 1: We can do it because what God has created in you.
Speaker 1: And in me, when you put that together, it becomes a unique and powerful thing.
Speaker 1: It's intentional unity saying, we're going to do that.
Speaker 1: Now in your service guides, there is a guide for creating your own.
Speaker 1: Why statement.
Speaker 1: We created that for you this week.
Speaker 1: We're supplying it to you.
Speaker 1: If you're online, you can download it off the website where you can download the sermon notes.
Speaker 1: It's there for you.
Speaker 1: And I encourage you walk through it.
Speaker 1: And gentlemen, gentlemen, it is very likely.
Speaker 1: It is very common.
Speaker 1: Let me say it this way.
Speaker 1: It's very common that men will step back from this and hand this paper to their wives and say, if you want to do this, honey, go ahead and let me know.
Speaker 1: When I fit in, I've also known many men to sit with me and say, I'm trying to lead my home, but my wife, my family are not
Speaker 5: Following me.
Speaker 5: Gentlemen.
Speaker 1: One can follow you if you're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: And so my encouragement is pick up the paper and start working on that and say, honey, we're going somewhere in life.
Speaker 1: We're going to do something and I'm not willing for you to do your thing over there.
Speaker 1: And me to do my thing over here.
Speaker 1: Let's do our thing together as God leads us and guides us.
Speaker 1: And let's see what we can do in this world to make a difference.
Speaker 1: Can we say amen to that praise God.
Speaker 1: And that brings us to thought number three, that unity is hard and division is easy.
Speaker 1: If all you needed was really love and love was all you needed,
Speaker 5: Then
Speaker 1: There would be a whole lot easier to not have so many divorces in this world.
Speaker 1: But the reality is it's easy to divide.
Speaker 1: It's easy to separate from one another.
Speaker 1: It's easy to walk away.
Speaker 1: It's hard to stay unified.
Speaker 1: Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.
Speaker 1: I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ to live in harmony with each other.
Speaker 1: Let there be no divisions, no divisions in the church.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been in a church with no divisions?
Speaker 1: I have not.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: And, and yet that's what Paul's calling us to.
Speaker 1: That's what Christ is calling us to rather be of one mind United in thought and purpose.
Speaker 1: So he is using every authority that he has relational authority.
Speaker 1: He said, I implore you.
Speaker 1: I beg you to do this.
Speaker 1: And then positional authority, as he's calling on the authority of our Lord, Jesus Christ, as an apostle, he say, and let there be no unity in the church.
Speaker 1: He's pulling out all the stops.
Speaker 1: Cause cause unity is hard to maintain.
Speaker 1: It's difficult to maintain.
Speaker 1: And this is just one of many scriptures on unity, but there's only two biblical reasons that I can find on why we should,
Speaker 3: Why we should separate.
Speaker 3: The first
Speaker 1: Is we should separate from someone who refuses to prioritize Jesus
Speaker 3: And his teaching.
Speaker 3: And
Speaker 1: So that is, that is a reason to separate.
Speaker 1: In fact, second Corinthians six says if someone's not following Christ, don't unify with that person.
Speaker 1: Second Thessalonians three six says if they're teaching false doctrine, don't unify with that person.
Speaker 1: Second John chapter one verse 10 and 11 says that they're teaching false doctrine.
Speaker 1: Don't unify with that person.
Speaker 1: First Corinthians five 11 says if they are in willful and continual sin, it doesn't mean if they've sinned before it doesn't even mean.
Speaker 1: If they're sending now, it means if they say to you, I am going to send, I'm always going to send in this area because I don't care.
Speaker 1: I'm going to just do it because I want to, that's a warning sign about being in a relationship with that individual.
Speaker 1: So if they are in willful and continual sin, then that's a good reason to separate from that person.
Speaker 3: The second reason is someone causing division.
Speaker 1: How ironic is it that one of the reasons that we can separate biblically from somebody is if they're causing division, if they're causing problems within the church and causing rips and tears and division within the faith family, then that is a reason for the faith family to say, you know what?
Speaker 1: This isn't working out because you're causing problems in this family.
Speaker 1: Romans 16, 17 says if they're causing division separate from them, Titus three 10 says if they're causing division separate from them, Titus six, three through five says that they're teaching false doctrine and creating controversy in the church, separate from them.
Speaker 1: These are all reasons to separate.
Speaker 1: Now I'm talking about as a faith family, but I want to be clear on something.
Speaker 1: The scripture does not speak to some of the individual situations
Speaker 3: We walked through.
Speaker 3: Specifically, for instance,
Speaker 1: A woman leave a man who was abusing her.
Speaker 1: The answer to that is yes, she absolutely should leave that man who was abusing her now, why do I go there?
Speaker 1: Why do I say that?
Speaker 1: Because the Bible says that a husband is to treat his wife as Christ has treated the church in that he gave his life for her.
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 1: And so a husband's role is to lead his family, but to lead his family as a servant, to lead his family as a servant.
Speaker 1: Now, Jesus, wasn't uncomfortable with saying, this is how I want it.
Speaker 1: And this is how it needs to be done.
Speaker 1: And at the same time he said, and I'm going to sacrifice myself.
Speaker 1: And I will endure a much pain and suffering in order for you to be saved.
Speaker 1: And so that's what Jesus did.
Speaker 1: So if a man is beating his wife, that is not sacrificing himself for her, he is not fulfilling his biblical obligation to his wife.
Speaker 1: And so I cannot in good say, so lady, you must submit yourself to two consistent beatings that is not biblical in any way.
Speaker 1: Can somebody say amen, amen to that.
Speaker 1: I'm saying you meant to myself too.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: So there may be some reasons as individuals that we must separate from singular in other individual relationships, but we don't separate from the church and we don't separate as a church for other reasons.
Speaker 1: And sometimes people say, well, I love Jesus.
Speaker 1: I love God.
Speaker 1: I just don't love the church.
Speaker 1: The problem with that statement is that Jesus, the one you love gave his
Speaker 3: Life for the church.
Speaker 1: So you can say that I love Jesus, but I don't like the thing he gave us life for.
Speaker 1: If you love Jesus, you're going to love
Speaker 3: His church.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 1: But it's always easier to, to walk away than to fight for unity.
Speaker 1: I want to be clear on this.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying
Speaker 3: For my way of doing things,
Speaker 1: Eating for unity, cause fighting for unity means I locking in on a few non-negotiables and building unity in every other area.
Speaker 1: And I'm Mac, we're actually going to break this down next week.
Speaker 1: How do you do this as a family, as a business, as a church, how do you do this at five Lake shirts?
Speaker 1: We say this unity in the essentials Liberty, in the non-essentials and love in all things.
Speaker 1: And next week we'll break that down.
Speaker 1: How you can apply that in your own life, unity and the centrals Liberty and the non-essentials and love and all things.
Speaker 1: But somebody, someone may ask, well, why, why bother with this?
Speaker 1: If unity is hard.
Speaker 1: And in fact, pastor, you just said, you'd rather be on 40 acres of land somewhere else with cows and horses.
Speaker 1: So if that is really what you want to do, why fight for unity in the body?
Speaker 1: What difference will it make?
Speaker 1: And here's what I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 1: You don't know what difference is going to make.
Speaker 1: You don't know.
Speaker 1: You don't know what a difference it's going to make at all.
Speaker 1: My parents were raised in Christian homes.
Speaker 1: My father was raised as a Southern Baptist in Louisiana and my mother was raised as a Presbyterian.
Speaker 1: Neither for neither of them did Christianity and Jesus become the driving force of their life through high school and into college.
Speaker 1: They weren't, they were nominal Christians.
Speaker 1: And if you hear the word nominal, it just means that they are in name Christian, but Christianity and their relationship with Jesus, wasn't really driving their life.
Speaker 1: And so in high school and in school, my mom and dad met after high school, they went to college, LSU university go tigers.
Speaker 1: And then they got married and, and they went into the hippie movie.
Speaker 6: They were drug addicts.
Speaker 6: They were partiers.
Speaker 6: They were
Speaker 1: Absolutely everything that the hippie world offered.
Speaker 1: They weren't
Speaker 6: Bracing it well, one night whenever they're in their home and having this party and they're all highest kites smoking weed and doing whatever else they were doing, they got to talking about the book of revelation.
Speaker 6: And one of the
Speaker 1: Great things when you're high, I hope you never are.
Speaker 1: But if you are
Speaker 6: Talk about revelation, I'm sure it's going to bless you.
Speaker 6: And so they were,
Speaker 1: They were talking about revelation and, and, and they'd started thinking about who can tell us something about this that explained any of this to us.
Speaker 1: And they thought about this one
Speaker 6: Lady.
Speaker 1: They knew her in high school, they went through school with her.
Speaker 1: Her name was
Speaker 6: Tricia Fleming,
Speaker 1: Ms.
Speaker 1: Pat Fleming is in our life.
Speaker 1: Even right now, today that night they called Pat and they said, would you come talk to us about the book of revelation?
Speaker 1: And so she walked into that house, a smoke billowing out of it.
Speaker 1: And she walked in there and she talked to them, her and her friend talked to them about the book of revelation.
Speaker 1: She walked out of there thinking that was the weirdest thing ever.
Speaker 1: I'll never hear or see anything
Speaker 6: From this.
Speaker 6: Again, couple
Speaker 1: Of weeks later, a month later, I don't know how long it was.
Speaker 1: They, they decided to go visit the church.
Speaker 1: That Pat was a part of.
Speaker 1: Cause she was the only person that they knew that really was living out this Christian
Speaker 6: Thing.
Speaker 6: And so
Speaker 1: They went to that church and it was a Pentecostal church.
Speaker 1: And then this Pentecostal church during the worship, people were dancing and people were shouting.
Speaker 1: People were running around the building in the aisles and, and my father has never been a subdued or subtle person in his life.
Speaker 1: So while my mother was just like, my dad was like, Whoa, look at that guy.
Speaker 1: Hey, look at those people.
Speaker 1: And they thought they were the craziest bunch
Speaker 6: Of people ever.
Speaker 6: And
Speaker 1: They laughed and they laughed and they thought that was hilarious.
Speaker 1: And they thought we'll never be back.
Speaker 1: But a couple of weeks later, they were back in a couple of months later, they accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior.
Speaker 1: And they were saved.
Speaker 6: Praise God, I wasn't born yet.
Speaker 1: Fleming began the conversation, but she did not baptize my parents.
Speaker 1: She did not lead them in a prayer.
Speaker 1: She did not see them being baptized with the Holy spirit.
Speaker 1: She did not experience, uh, the, their, their life change alone.
Speaker 1: She did.
Speaker 1: She wasn't the only one involved in this.
Speaker 1: What happened is Pat Fleming introduced them to a unified church.
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 1: Not unified church helped them to develop and discover what it meant to be mature, Christians and out of those people in that house that night, that Pat walked into and entered into a world that she wasn't really with in
Speaker 6: Order to reach people.
Speaker 6: Cause that we're not familiar with her world.
Speaker 6: Every couple in that room that night, my father and mother, my aunt, my uncle, there are a couple of friends that was in there.
Speaker 6: All of them became pastors of plant and planted churches around the country and missionaries around the world.
Speaker 6: Every one of them in that room and years later, I was born and I was not born.
Speaker 6: I wasn't born to the fatigue and to a drug addiction, addicted home.
Speaker 6: And I wasn't born into a home that was filled with all kinds of nastiness and terrible life.
Speaker 6: Now I was born into a house that the first words I ever heard in my life were a hero.
Speaker 6: Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord that I am a product.
Speaker 6: I'm a product of a unified Birch praise.
Speaker 6: The name of God.
Speaker 6: What does God want to produce in us?
Speaker 6: And through us five lakes, church, business, family.
Speaker 6: If we're unified, Lord Jesus, we need you.
Speaker 6: We want you follow your wheel.
Speaker 6: We want to follow your word.
Speaker 6: We want to follow your work.
Speaker 6: Unify us mighty God by your glory and by your Holy power, help us to humble ourselves and magnify you and let your name be glorified in this world.
Speaker 6: Let your saving grace be known among the nations and let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 6: Use us for your glory today.
Speaker 6: My God, in the precious name of Jesus, I'm asking you to stand.
Speaker 6: I'm going to ask the prayer partners to come forward.
Speaker 6: You need prayer as we close.
Speaker 6: I want you to come forward and let us pray with you.
Speaker 6: The spirit of the Lord is in this place right now.
Speaker 6: And I encourage you open up your heart and let him move on.
Speaker 6: You.
Speaker 6: Let him touch you in Jesus.
Speaker 6: Amen.