SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: All right, we're finishing up the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been with me for the whole 32 messages or close to it, you know more about Romans than 90% of the professors of seminaries out there.
SPEAKER_01: This last part of Romans, starting with really chapter 12 to 16, is the most practical part of the book, and it's talking about unity and love.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll understand as we get halfway through chapter 16 why I have entitled this, A Loving Unified Church Crushes Satan.
SPEAKER_01: The number one work of the enemy in anything is division.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's happening in America right now.
SPEAKER_01: The enemy is on the move in America dividing us, dividing us over political stuff, dividing us over economic stuff, dividing us religiously, dividing us spiritually, dividing us racially.
SPEAKER_01: In any marriage, when the enemy has an inroad, he brings division in your own spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's like you got your navigation device, right?
SPEAKER_01: And you come up to that intersection and it's not clear.
SPEAKER_01: I hate coming out of airport with the rental car, with the navigation system, and I and it goes like go northeast on Arroyo Avenue.
SPEAKER_01: Where's Arroyo Avenue and what is Northeast?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Unless it's early in the morning and I can see, okay, it's the sun's coming in from over there.
SPEAKER_01: That's east.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if that's east, then that must be north.
SPEAKER_01: And I can't tell how many times I've driven around, you know, the rent a car garage.
SPEAKER_01: And I see the exit sign, but it told me to go northeast.
SPEAKER_01: So what this what the enemy does is he divides your spirit, and it's like you don't know what to navigate, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's not that if there's anything wrong with you, or that you may not even done anything wrong at all, but you just feel this divisiveness in your spirit and you don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: It's called double-mindedness.
SPEAKER_01: You become double-minded.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the enemy does.
SPEAKER_01: So here in chapter 16, Paul is gonna take us through over 20 names that he knows, people he knows in the church, that he's challenging and he's greeting with the desire that as he finishes up the book, that they'd be unified, that they would be loving, that they'd be kind to each other.
SPEAKER_01: And that unity is the key.
SPEAKER_01: Because with unity, see, here's the difference: unity doesn't mean unanimity.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean that we're unanimous in everything we believe in.
SPEAKER_01: We're united by something.
SPEAKER_01: And in the church, it should be Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't be how we do communion, it shouldn't be how we worship, even though that's important.
SPEAKER_01: It's not how our building looks or anything like that, or what denomination you're part of.
SPEAKER_01: Our unity should be Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why I don't, you're not gonna ever hear me from the pulpit condemning any denomination or any Christian group, because there's Christians in every group, and there's non-Christians in every group.
SPEAKER_01: There's non-Christians in this room.
SPEAKER_01: You think you're a believer, you're not.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knows.
SPEAKER_01: But to the best of our knowledge, have you given your heart to Christ?
SPEAKER_01: If you have, you're in.
SPEAKER_01: You're on the team.
SPEAKER_01: You you you get the you get the shirt, you know?
SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't have your name on the back, it's got Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: His blood has covered you, he brings you into the team, he unites you in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so for that, you're on my team, we're together, I'm for you, you're for me.
SPEAKER_01: We do not have to agree on every little jot and tittle.
SPEAKER_01: Um, some churches are like that, not this church.
SPEAKER_01: We hold to the basic doctrines of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that this book is inerrant, infallible, and authoritative, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I could go through three or four other things.
SPEAKER_01: But after that, we can be gray on a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you think that we should take communion with, you know, a chalice, and some with cups, and some with take uh offering with the plates, and some like Kentucky fried chicken buckets.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't care, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But we care about the essential things, and that's what we're united on.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bibles to chapter 16 as we conclude this great book, I believe, the greatest book of the New Testament, arguably the greatest book of all time.
SPEAKER_01: So in this list, we're gonna have there's some really hard names.
SPEAKER_01: So if I skip a name, it's because I've tried really hard to pronounce it in two services and I've flubbed up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm 0 for two, so I'm not gonna be 0 for three.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, there's uh there's over 20 names.
SPEAKER_01: Nine of them are women.
SPEAKER_01: Four times he uses the word beloved with their name.
SPEAKER_01: Um, Paul could not do his work in Rome without these precious people, and that's true here in this church.
SPEAKER_01: You look at this carpet, you look at these chairs, um, on Tuesday morning, there'll be 57 tables in this room with over 400 guys in here.
SPEAKER_01: Then in the evening, there'll be half that many tables with 200 women.
SPEAKER_01: And then every one of these rooms will be changed out two or three times during the week.
SPEAKER_01: And this will get vacuumed a bunch of times and there's food in the back.
SPEAKER_01: People do that.
SPEAKER_01: They don't just magically happen, like when you're growing up and you know, it's just there because mom did it, right?
SPEAKER_01: People do this stuff, and the church is people, and people are the church.
SPEAKER_01: The church is not this building.
SPEAKER_01: So, whenever if you're ever setting up an appointment with me and they ask, where do you want to meet?
SPEAKER_01: and uh, and I say the ministry center, and then the response they usually get is, oh, you mean the church?
SPEAKER_01: And I go, No, you're the church.
SPEAKER_01: You're the church.
SPEAKER_01: This is just a ministry center, it's just carpet and walls and uh paint and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And if the enemy begins to empower the government to bring persecution upon the church in America, we won't meet here.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be in houses all over the place, but we'll still meet.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're the church.
SPEAKER_01: So remember that.
SPEAKER_01: When you go into situations where you're conflicted and people are saying maybe bad things about you or you disagree with them, remember you're the church.
SPEAKER_01: You might be the only picture and feeling that most people have of the church.
SPEAKER_01: So when you're there, be Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're doing the conference with Christopher Ewan, is because he's, in all the studies I've done on issues like LBGTQ and homosexuality, I feel like he's got the best line on what the scriptures say and the way in which we communicate it.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not okay to have the right things to say, but then to treat people badly.
SPEAKER_01: That's not okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's not okay to preach the good news and be the bad news.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're learning that, right?
SPEAKER_01: So let's let's pick it up in chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: We'll close with this last chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Next week, Christopher, you're going to be speaking.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next week, in two weeks, we're going to start a new series, not on a book of the Bible for a while.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to do the cosmic war.
SPEAKER_01: The cosmic war, Satan, demons, and the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll be talking a lot about Satan, demons, and freedom that comes through the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: I commend to you, Phoebe.
SPEAKER_01: This is like the easiest name in the group.
SPEAKER_01: So, Phoebe.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say Phoebe.
SPEAKER_01: See, we can all do that one.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I commend you, Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Sincrea, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you.
SPEAKER_01: For indeed, she has been a helper of many and of myself also.
SPEAKER_01: So Phoebe, historically, we believe, was a widow.
SPEAKER_01: She could travel alone if she was a widow.
SPEAKER_01: You couldn't travel unless you're a widow.
SPEAKER_01: She's probably bringing this letter.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that she's a servant of the Lord, and that word servant is diokonon, which is where we get the word deacon or deaconess.
SPEAKER_01: So she's probably a deaconess in the church.
SPEAKER_01: And she is giving the latter years of her life to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And at this church, there's dozens and dozens of you in this body that are single, you're a widow, you've been through divorce, and you are here all the time serving, doing stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And that is biblical and right.
SPEAKER_01: We love having you around.
SPEAKER_01: So keep it up.
SPEAKER_01: It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: Greet Priscilla, another easy one.
SPEAKER_01: Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risk their own necks for my life.
SPEAKER_01: So in the Greek, this who risked their own necks, this is a translation in the New King James Version.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, it means their necks have been under the axe.
SPEAKER_01: So evidently, Priscilla and Aquila, who are catalytic church planters, we see them in the book of Acts, we see them in 2 Timothy 4, with house churches, have been in some very perilous situations where they risk their lives.
SPEAKER_01: Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risk their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise greet the church that is in their house.
SPEAKER_01: Greet my beloved Epinetus, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So it appears what we know of history, early church, first 250 years, all house churches, because it was illegal.
SPEAKER_01: Illegal in the whole Roman area, so everything was house churches.
SPEAKER_01: And at the road, we have community groups slash house churches.
SPEAKER_01: So you should be in one.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the best places to be because you get taken care of better than you do in the corporate church because we're just here so briefly.
SPEAKER_01: And even if you come to a class, it's very brief here.
SPEAKER_01: Where relationships happen is in the house churches of the road.
SPEAKER_01: You can go on our website and find out one that's near you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you get sick or you're going through something difficult, when you call the church, if you call the church, the first thing that our secretaries and stuff ask you is, what community group are you in?
SPEAKER_01: Because we expect that the community group takes care of people.
SPEAKER_01: It's the first line of pastoral defense.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't go to the hospital much unless people are dying.
SPEAKER_01: So if you see me show up at your hospital, that's not a good sign for you.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't want to see me at your hospital room.
SPEAKER_01: You want to see community group people coming and praying for you and laughing with you and helping you get better.
SPEAKER_01: If I show up, we're there to talk about your memorial service.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: I actually did that this week with a young lady who had has the forethought, because of the pronouncement over her, that she's gonna die.
SPEAKER_01: We actually went through her whole memorial service, all the details of it.
SPEAKER_01: And I videotaped her because I'm gonna use that at the memorial service.
SPEAKER_01: So it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01: Most people don't think about it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you think about, oh, we can't talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: Oh so the last time I was with dad, we went to the Duke Clemson game.
SPEAKER_01: Afterwards, we're sitting around the fire pit at my brother's house, and he said, You guys, I've got you guys here.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about my funeral.
SPEAKER_01: And we already have a file on his how he wants the funeral to go, but he had some more things to say, so he shared those things.
SPEAKER_01: My dad's so funny.
SPEAKER_01: He he's always planning.
SPEAKER_01: I think he's probably planning what he's gonna say to Jesus when he meets him, where to where he can sit, where his house will be.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, mansion, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
SPEAKER_01: Greet Adronicus.
SPEAKER_01: Remember him?
SPEAKER_01: He's in Star Trek.
SPEAKER_01: So he's um and Junior, my countrymen.
SPEAKER_01: So evidently Jewish, my countrymen.
SPEAKER_01: He could have, he could mean that they're from Palestine, that area where he grew up.
SPEAKER_01: It could be that he means they're from Tarsus, where he grew up.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know exactly.
SPEAKER_01: He says, My countrymen, and my fellow prisoners.
SPEAKER_01: So they must have been in prison together, who are of note among the apostles.
SPEAKER_01: So these are some, this is the only references we have of them, but they must have been noteworthy in their witness for Christ that even the apostles knew about them, who were also in Christ before me.
SPEAKER_01: So they were believers before Paul was.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting, my fellow prisoners.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if we were in China right now and we're in a house church somewhere, that might be the conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, Larry, uh, remember when we did prison together?
SPEAKER_01: Remember back in the day when we did those three years together?
SPEAKER_01: Remember us hanging out in the weight room and doing that Bible study and we had 50 guys coming?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: You see, what we do in America, because we're so privileged, is we talk about where we go hunting, where we go fishing, or where we go out to eat, or where we go shopping.
SPEAKER_01: But for the early church, it was they spent time together in prison.
SPEAKER_01: And it was kind of cool.
SPEAKER_01: Like, man, how long were you in?
SPEAKER_01: I did five.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I did eight.
SPEAKER_01: Man, the food at that prison is terrible.
SPEAKER_01: But the one, a lot, the other one, the last one I was in was pretty good, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Bagels and cheese sometimes, you know, it was really good.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so we're pretty blessed, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: So when you think you're really having it hard and persecution, just think about where the church has been historically through the years.
SPEAKER_01: And remember the people in China.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the pastors in China, remember the pastors in Malaysia, remember the pastors in um India, where they're burning down tree, uh burning down churches left and right, um, and parts of Africa where they're also suffering for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so he says these were fellow prisoners with him.
SPEAKER_01: Greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9, greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and whatever that guy's name is, Stachis, my beloved, greet Apollos, approved in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Aristobolus, uh Josephus, the Greek historian, says he was the great grandson of Herod the Great.
SPEAKER_01: Greet Herodian, my countryman.
SPEAKER_01: Greet those who are of the household of narcissists who are in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I wouldn't want to be named narcissists.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's like that.
SPEAKER_01: Farside comic.
SPEAKER_01: The deer's in the woods, you know, and the deer talking to each other, and one deer's got like a bullseye right here on the heart section, and the guy goes, bummer of a birthmark.
SPEAKER_01: Uh greet Trofina and Triphosa, who have labored in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
SPEAKER_01: So turning your Bibles to the left, go to Mark chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to make note of this guy, Rufus.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 15.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the story?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is carrying the cross, and he stumbles under the weight of the cross beam that he's carrying, and the Roman soldier recruits a guy named Simon of Cyrene to come and carry the cross the rest of the way.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pick it up at chapter 15 of Mark verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Sirenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the son of Simon, who carried the cross being for Jesus, and Simon's wife, Rufus' mother.
SPEAKER_01: So it appears that Paul has become so close to the family that he considers Rufus' mother or Simon's wife to be like his mother.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Like you've gotten saved, you come to the Lord, you've been persecuting the church, and you hear, hey, you remember that story you heard about Jesus carrying the crossbeam?
SPEAKER_01: He fell, and yeah, there's a guy named Simon who came and carried.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he says, that's his son.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: And that's Simon's wife, his mother.
SPEAKER_01: You know, wouldn't you want to go up and just go, what was it like?
SPEAKER_01: You were with Jesus in the last couple hours before he was crucified and died.
SPEAKER_01: It must have been some fascinating stories there, right?
SPEAKER_01: So imagine Simon though from Cyrene.
SPEAKER_01: He's from Cyrene.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming in to Jerusalem for the Passover to sacrifice the Passover lamb, and then there's all this ruckus and this huge crowd happening toward him, and this Jewish guy is carrying this beam, and he stumbles in front of him, and they give him the beam to carry for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He came to do the Passover sacrifice of the lamb, and now he's carrying the beam of the Passover lamb.
SPEAKER_01: That's intense, man.
SPEAKER_01: So that's Rufus.
SPEAKER_01: That's who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Greet that guy and the next guy and Hermes.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good one.
SPEAKER_01: I got Patrobus, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them.
SPEAKER_01: Greet the lola lologos.
SPEAKER_01: And Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints who are with them.
SPEAKER_01: Greet one another with a holy handshake.
SPEAKER_01: The churches of Christ greet you.
SPEAKER_01: There was this guy in my church at Mountain Springs.
SPEAKER_01: Kissing me all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he's kissing me.
SPEAKER_01: So I'd see him on Sunday and I would see him in the distance, and I would move along the edges of the church, you know, head down.
SPEAKER_01: You know.
SPEAKER_01: When he kissed me on the lips, that's when I had to say something, man.
SPEAKER_01: So handshakes are cool.
SPEAKER_01: Stick with handshakes, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's that's a that's a good way to go today.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is Middle East, and you know, if you how many of you have been to the Middle East, I mean they do a lot of kissing on the cheeks and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I guess, I mean, I guess I would do it if I was there too, but we're not there.
SPEAKER_01: We're here.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well, now he gets to um, I think the the crux of the chapter, the crux, the last part of his letter, and this is why I've entitled this, you know, Love and Unity Crushes Satan under our feet.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you've learned, and avoid them.
SPEAKER_01: So literally what he's saying is take note, be on the lookout for those who cause divisions and offenses.
SPEAKER_01: There are people who are so damaged and have been hurt so many times, maybe when they were growing up, they can't trust authority figures.
SPEAKER_01: They were hurt by their parents, they've been hurt by others in authority, and so it's hard for them in a local church to listen and to be a part of the team.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're they're always looking for a crack.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of cracks.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of cracks in any organization with people in it, that they then become gossips and they talk a lot, and they email people, and they start causing division.
SPEAKER_01: They can ruin a family, they can ruin a church.
SPEAKER_01: Demons are always behind division.
SPEAKER_01: God is always for unity.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not talking about the division that comes through bad doctrine and good doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about those that come in with bad doctrine that we know is bad doctrine to pull people away from good doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: There's also people who they actually have such a need to be needed.
SPEAKER_01: They have such a need to be noticed that they'll almost say anything to get attention so they can be the center of something.
SPEAKER_01: And they can be very, very divisive.
SPEAKER_01: It's really sad.
SPEAKER_01: Sad to be around those people.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and I've had to deal with it from time to time.
SPEAKER_01: Not a lot.
SPEAKER_01: We generally are very unified church, but we've had a few situations where things have gone awry.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll explain in a minute how we at the road deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: But take note.
SPEAKER_01: Take note of people like that and avoid them.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say there's kind of two ways to look at this.
SPEAKER_01: One is you avoiding those kind of people that are gossips and stuff, but on the other hand, you need to be unoffendable.
SPEAKER_01: We need to grow in being unoffendable.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, people are gonna say stuff that offend us that they didn't, they didn't mean to.
SPEAKER_01: But some of you are like, there's two kinds of people.
SPEAKER_01: There's pine tree people, and there's rose bush people.
SPEAKER_01: How many have tried to grow roses in Colorado?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, not many of you, and there's a reason.
SPEAKER_01: Um roses are hard to grow.
SPEAKER_01: Roses need the right sunlight, they need the right moisture.
SPEAKER_01: Everything has to be perfect for roses to grow.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are rose bushes.
SPEAKER_01: And if everything's not perfect, you're just like pine trees, I mean, they grow anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: We got pine trees growing out of the cracks of our house.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's pine pine trees just grow and they they're just they're all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to be a pine tree.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be able to grow in almost any situation, even if I don't get the moisture perfect or the sunlight perfect, or people don't treat me perfect.
SPEAKER_01: I can move along and forgive quickly, try to be unoffendable, and uh, and and move along, because that's that's an exciting life.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, so he's talking about here people who have become divisive in the church, avoid them.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18 is why.
SPEAKER_01: It's important.
SPEAKER_01: For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
SPEAKER_01: So what tends to happen is that the best people get deceived.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we at the road, we try to guard our church.
SPEAKER_01: We, when we see stuff out there that we don't like, we try to come in and talk about it and be open and vulnerable about it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't beat around the bush, but talk about it because it's it's I'm covering for those who don't have great theology.
SPEAKER_01: I'm covering for those who are easily manipulated or pulled in to smooth, flattering words that can happen.
SPEAKER_01: So we I want to protect them.
SPEAKER_01: We want to protect them as a church because there's people like that that do that.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we do that, we're putting up, we're putting up a barrier of protection for those that are simple and don't understand truth, and maybe don't understand a half truth from a whole truth.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, if you get truth from one person, you're getting half of it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So if you're hearing one side of the story, just remember I'm getting one side of the story.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's a or she's a and you're like, okay, sounds like you've got her kind of rough.
SPEAKER_01: Are you guys in a community group?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys have any relationships in church?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Are you guys just kind of on your own?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Good luck.
SPEAKER_01: Because if all you have an opinion on is your opinion on, you just might be deceived.
SPEAKER_01: But if you've got some people around you that are more mature than you that you can share with, you can bounce stuff off with, they help give discernment and wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we need each other.
SPEAKER_01: And it's fun, fun to grow that way.
SPEAKER_01: So at the road, we follow Matthew 18, 15 through 18.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 18, 15 through 18.
SPEAKER_01: We call it our covenant of harmony.
SPEAKER_01: And even though you're in a perfect church, what?
SPEAKER_01: Why are people snickering?
SPEAKER_01: Even though you're in a perfect church, sometimes, very rarely, like maybe once every 10 years, we have a problem.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We have regular problems because they're made up of people and we're not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: So this is what we follow.
SPEAKER_01: It says, this is what the scriptures say.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, if your brother sins against you and brothers and sisters will sin against you, go and tell them his fault between you and him alone.
SPEAKER_01: If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
SPEAKER_01: But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
SPEAKER_01: And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.
SPEAKER_01: But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: Assuredly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: See, do you see the context of the last verse?
SPEAKER_01: Binding and loosening is not just about prayer, it is that, but it's really about relationships.
SPEAKER_01: So when we go and we talk about stuff and we work things out, we're binding division and we're loosening forgiveness and unity.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: So the context is work it out together first.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you three steps that we follow.
SPEAKER_01: The covenant of harmony, step one, is with the person in you.
SPEAKER_01: You go to that person.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_01: You work it out.
SPEAKER_01: You guys work it out.
SPEAKER_01: Step two, if you can't work it out, bring along a leader, bring along a pastor, and we'll help you out if we can.
SPEAKER_01: And then step three, if that still doesn't work, we sometimes have to release people and say this may not be the church for you.
SPEAKER_01: And my philosophy is restore the humble, put out the prideful.
SPEAKER_01: Restore the humble, put out the prideful.
SPEAKER_01: And we've done over a hundred.
SPEAKER_01: Over a hundred of these covenant of harmonies have happened.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I know of.
SPEAKER_01: There's probably some I don't even know anything about.
SPEAKER_01: We've only had to release two people so far out of our church.
SPEAKER_01: One single person and one couple, we had to say, look, you need to go haunt another church.
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: We don't play by your rules.
SPEAKER_01: We don't play by your game.
SPEAKER_01: We're playing by the rules of unity, love, forgiveness, care, and humility here.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're all about.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: 98, 99% track record.
SPEAKER_01: So, wow, God's word works if we follow it.
SPEAKER_01: For your obedience has become known to all.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I'm glad on your behalf, but I want you to be wise, and I think this is really a key principle, be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you hear stuff and you know it's divisive, and you need to say, I don't want to hear anymore about that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't call me, I'm not gonna listen to your gossip anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have anything to do with that.
SPEAKER_01: You can have your opinion, that's fine, keep it to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It's like me growing up on the ranch in the farm with grandma and my granddaddy, and I'd say, Granddaddy, what about so-and-so?
SPEAKER_01: You know, like I was living there for two years in this small town, and of course, granddaddy had been there his whole life.
SPEAKER_01: He's 65 years old or so at that time.
SPEAKER_01: He knows everybody.
SPEAKER_01: So I'd ask him using the last name, do you know so-and-so's father?
SPEAKER_01: And if there was no answer, that meant not good.
SPEAKER_01: If he said, Oh, he's a good man, then that spoke volumes to me.
SPEAKER_01: But dad, but granddaddy would not speak evil or negative about anybody.
SPEAKER_01: He would just be silent.
SPEAKER_01: He would just go silent on that.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's a good principle to live by.
SPEAKER_01: And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when we walk in unity, it crushes Satan.
SPEAKER_01: When you walk in unity in your marriage, it crushes Satan.
SPEAKER_01: When you walk in marriage, you walk in unity in your own spirit, you're not double-minded, it crushes Satan.
SPEAKER_01: When you go to work and you're fully, wholeheartedly there for Jesus, it crushes Satan.
SPEAKER_01: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with you.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, right there, man, amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not thinking, it's like this is what I wanted to say.
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if he like goes, Amen, like I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: And the Spirit says, No, you're not.
SPEAKER_01: And so he has a couple more paragraphs.
SPEAKER_01: Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, Jason, and another one of those words, suscipator, my countrymen, greet you.
SPEAKER_01: I, Tertuus, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So Tertius was evidently the secretary of Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Gaius, my host, and the host of the whole church greets you.
SPEAKER_01: Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you.
SPEAKER_01: And Quartus, a brother.
SPEAKER_01: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: Spirit says, no, you're not.
SPEAKER_01: God's more to say.
SPEAKER_01: Now to him, one of the greatest benedictions in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith, to God alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's all one sentence, gang.
SPEAKER_01: In the Greek, that's one sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: How about that one?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: That this is how you get established.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be established.
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
SPEAKER_01: If the Lord tarries for a thousand years, I want to be established.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells us what establishes us.
SPEAKER_01: We're established on the gospel, verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: We're established with the preaching of Jesus Christ, verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: We're established by the prophetic scriptures, verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: We're established by obedience to the faith, verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: So that we are wise and we bring glory to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What a great ending.
SPEAKER_01: Great ending to the greatest book arguably ever written.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's live it together with unity and love.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.