Don't Grumble Against One Another

In this message Pastor Kelly speaks on not grumbling against one another.  We turn to Jn 6:35-51 and learn about ending conflict quickly. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

So, well, I get the honor and privilege of speaking today when Pastor Aaron is out. I'm excited to do that somewhat. Somewhat. I always seem to get someone to ask me today, do you always get the hard messages? And I think, yep. Somehow, yep. But you know, within that, I feel honored that number one, Pastor Aaron would trust me to do that. Number two, that God would trust me to bring the hard message sometimes. And I'm going to do my best today to do it in love. But I would ask you to listen closely today, not to my voice, but to the Spirit of God. I'm just, I just want to be the vessel. That's all I want to be today. So, title of our sermon series is One Another, right? It's the blueprint for a loving and peaceful church that Jesus gives us. I gotta tell you, we're growing. And we need to hear this right now. And the title of what I got was Do Not Grumble Against One Another.

unknown 1:15

Ouch.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Ouch. So grumble isn't the word that we have in our common vernacular, is it? I don't use it a ton. I don't. Maybe you use it about me, but I don't use it frequently. So I said, Well, Google, what does that mean? Right? I said, give me some more synonyms for the word grumble. And the first one that came up was to complain, to say that you're not happy about something. To mutter, to speak in a low voice that's hard to hear because they closed the coffee shop for a couple of weeks. To grouse. That means to complain or grumble over a small thing. Like they close the coffee shop? Wine, an annoying complaint. Tiffany, you know what that one's all about? And when I think about these words, none of them seem like very good character traits to me. Seems to indicate a flaw in my character. So I thought I'd give you an example for those of you who maybe haven't picked up on it already. That our coffee shop is closed. Maybe some of you noticed it. Maybe some of you noticed it this week when all the tables and chairs were gone. Right? It's doing some changes. And that results in things being currently closed. Nobody asked me, but that's okay. For some of you, it really is no big deal, right? Some of you it's no big deal. For others of us, mainly me, this is catastrophic. This is catastrophic. The folks who are undertaking these changes might tell you that the biggest grumbler here has been no one else other than yours truly. Nobody believes that, right? That's right. Praise God. Though I started to think about that this week. I thought, what have I really been complaining about? What have I really been complaining about? You could say coffee, right? Somebody say that. And that would be my easy answer. What I really was complaining about was change. It was change. Something was different. You took away my comfortableness. Again, when I walked in yesterday and I saw no chairs and tables, I was uncomfortable a moment.

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Right?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Now you've taken my coffee, you take my chairs, you take my tables. Like, oh, I'm not feeling very comfortable. The truth is, the change is going to be great. It's even better to see people stepping up with passion and vision, and honestly, I don't have it. And that to me is exciting. So, shame on me for all my grumbling. And usually with grumbling comes bad attitude. I might have one of those at times. Because here's what needs to happen: I need to celebrate. I need to celebrate the new things that God is doing. Not just coffee shops, but God raising up new people. God using new folks. I need to celebrate their willingness to step into God's purpose of serving people. That's where it really needs to come at. Maybe some of you have been just like me. And again, I would say, shame on us. We probably owe some people some apologies. We probably owe some people some apologies. Let's be honest. This isn't about coffee. It's really not. It revealed something about my heart. Because it wasn't the grumbling about the issue. It's about what the issue exposes in me. The character flaw within me. That's really what grumbling exposes. Grumbling church is the number one killer of God working in a church. It's the number one thing that stops us from fulfilling the command to go and make disciples. It's not about coming and drinking coffee or getting a donut. I'm here because I'm called to go and make disciples. How about you? Are you called to make disciples? Are you called to a greater commission? I encourage you today to perk up and listen. Because today's a hard message, but it's the one that could propel us into the next thing that God has for us. Look around today. Look at how full this building is. It continues to fill up. And that's not out of happenstance. It's because God is doing something here. And we either get in line with it or we need to get out. It's that simple. It's that simple today. Because God's calling us to win people. He's not calling us to be a country club or a coffee shop or a social club. He's calling us to propel his kingdom forward. So I'm going to pray. Father, I thank you for each and every person in this place today. God, you have appointed them here for such a time as this. God, I pray right now that our hearts and our ears would be open to your voice today, not my voice, God. God, don't let there be any part of me in this. God, let me just be the empty vessel that you use today. But Lord, let us hear your voice ringing in our ears today. Lord, let it propel us to make changes to our life. Lord, let us propel us to forgive one another. Lord, to make amends with one another today. Lord, show us your wisdom today through your words. I praise you, Father, for this message. I praise you for these people. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I want to start us off today with our key verses here. Our first key verses that we have in here that we've got up on here on the slides, I hope, fellas, right? We've got a couple key verses right up here on the slides for us today. First one comes out of Romans chapter 14. This is one of our key verses for this entire sermon series. And Heidi, last week, we actually taught out this in our Sunday school class. So if you don't have a Sunday school class, I suggest you go to one of them. We have two great adult classes, but we taught out this. It says, accept other believers who are weak in faith and don't argue with them about what they do think is right or wrong. And then we go over to Romans chapter 15, and it says, 15 7 says, Therefore accept each other just as Christ has accepted you, so that God will be given the glory. Man, those are those are words to live by. I gotta tell you, most of the grumbling I hear in the church is because we're a bunch of knuckleheads. Right? Because we we want to argue with each other about stupid stuff. Not about the kingdom of God. We want to argue about dumb stuff. Did you see what that person was wearing on the stage today? Did you know they didn't have my favorite donut at the donut shop? That might be a recurring theme here, so please look at it as my character flaw. Could you imagine how we could propel one another forward in the faith? Jesus encountered some of this in John chapter 6, verse 31 through 51. It's a long passage. And some of you might say there is a lot of good messages in here, and there are. But we're going to focus in on just a little bit of what Jesus was saying today. And I want you to read with me. You can read it up here. I know I'm not supposed to do that, Pastor Aaron, if you're watching, but I forgot. So I would encourage you if you have your Bibles, don't get me in trouble. Open your Bibles and read out of your Bibles. Jesus replied, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven't believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. Oh, that's a sharing, isn't it? For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all of those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my father's will that all who see his son believe in him and should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day. Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, I came down from heaven? But Jesus replied, I love this. I want you all to say this with me. Read it up here with me. Jesus replied, Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the scriptures, they will be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has ever seen the Father, only I, who was sent from God, have seen him. I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever, and this bread which I will offer so the world may live is my flesh. Man, come on, it's powerful. It didn't go fast enough? Oh, John chapter 6. John chapter 6, verse 35 to 51. Are we having problems, boys? Technical problems? Okay. Alright, so let's talk about this. Let's talk about this passage a little bit today. It's really a lot of things we could speak out here, but I want to focus on one thing. It's the grumbling, it's the complaining. And there's three types of grumbling and complaining that keep us from God's highest purpose for us. And that's what I want to talk about today, right? There's really three that we can see in here. Very clearly, that Jesus tells them to stop complaining about. I'm gonna tell you the first one here. Grumbling about how God chooses to work and who he chooses to work through reveals our heart. Not his, ours. It reveals our heart. We believe, guys. How many of you have done this before? We believe that we can dictate to God how and who he should work through. Oh, ouch. In our scripture today, the people were upset because Jesus did not act, look like their preconceived idea of what salvation would look like. He was a carpenter's son from the wrong side of the tracks. That was not what they wanted to see. They're looking for a different kind of salvation. Some of us, that's what we're looking for, a different kind of salvation. Salvation from our bills, salvation from our problems, salvation from our spouses, who I don't know, maybe, from our children, right? We're looking for this salvation. And that's really what they were. But they what they're looking for is a military general. They were looking for someone handsome and strong. They were looking for someone who would lead them out of the oppression of the Romans had placed upon them. They wanted someone who fit their image of how they saw salvation coming in their minds. And so when they see this Jesus, they're uncomfortable. Because what they really wanted was salvation that made them feel comfortable. They wanted to feel good about it. They wanted to feel like it was all under their control. Much like Moses experienced when he was in Egypt with the Israelites, people were upset because the salvation that God was offering to them, the salvation that they needed and they received, was not the ride on Easy Street that they thought they would get when they prayed for deliverance. They did not expect to end up at the Red Sea waiting for the Egyptians to run over them. They didn't expect to have to flee for their lives, but yet what God was doing was building them into this powerful, amazing nation. So when they looked at Jesus, Jesus brought salvation from sin. He brings everlasting life. He says, I am the bread of life. But what they wanted was comfort their own way in the way that they saw it. How many of you are guilty of that? Come on. It's okay. We're all friends here today. Maybe not after this message, but were we friends till then? When we choose Jesus, we give up the Burger King life of have it your way. And we submit our lives to a more complete way. Not comfortable. Complete. Come on, it's a more complete way. Submission allows us to trust God even when we don't understand the how. But we know that his way is better than our own. That allows us to stop complaining. Here's what Isaiah said in Isaiah 55, 8 through 9 says, My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord, and my ways are beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. I got the opportunity. Does anybody know what complaining and grumbling is a sign of? Well, I'm gonna help you out with that. It's a sign that we do not trust God fully. That's exactly what it is. It is a lack of trust on our part in the Father. When we complain against God, it's rooted in our distrust of God and his sovereignty. Think about that for a minute. I want to read that to you again because this struck me so hard when I was writing it down. When we complain against God, it is rooted in our distrust of God and his sovereignty. Most of the complaining we do against God is because we fully don't know his character. We don't understand who he really is. So we don't trust him. We fail to spend the time with him that we need to spend in order to fully know him, to fully trust him. We spend so much time telling God what we want, we fail to listen. We don't read his words and spend time in prayer. We see that only as an option. It's optional. We see it as a chore because we see the prayer and we see all of that as a one-way street, and we don't take the time to fully trust him through knowing his character. Because I gotta tell you, my God, when I know his character, I can stand here in the middle of the storm. Because I knew who he is. I know that he loves me, I know that he cares for me. I don't have any right to complain because I trust him. Having true relationship with God, it allows us to trust his ways and for us to lean into him rather than to work against him. Complaining, that's really what it is, that's working against God. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 says this. It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. That's a pretty common verse, but I want you to think about it in this comp on this context of trusting and understanding and knowing his character. You're leaning in. Most of us are doing this number instead. We're leaning back. My encouragement is to lean in. Lean in. When we lean in, that's when we know his character the best. God welcomes our problems and our sorrows, and some of you are thinking, well, Kelly, I'm not supposed to say anything to God. You've said it from the pulpit before, his shoulders are big, and he can handle it. And I'm right, you're right. But there's a difference between bringing our problems to God with a genuine heart and complaining and grumbling. Submission and trust are the key, and they're the difference. Complaining, there is no submission, there's no trust. Bringing them genuinely means that we submit to his will. We don't have to like it. There's a lot of us who've had things in our lives that God has brought into our lives that we don't have to like. But I encourage you to lean into it to see what he's bringing. Sometimes it takes some hindsight. For those of you who've maybe been through something right now, I want you want to speak to you for a minute because it's not always comfortable in the moment. It doesn't feel good. Dare I say, it sucks. Now, speaking from someone who's speaking from hindsight, I see. I see. And I trust. God wants to hear from you. And I'll say it again his shoulders are broad enough to handle it. And our problems. Yet he's not looking for complainers. He's looking for the one who will trust him and lean into him. I like this. My wife added this part, and she adds it at each one of my points because she always proofreads my message. Bottom line we need to trust God. That stops the complaints. That stops the complaints. You want to grow? Stop complaining and trust God. Now there's a second piece that Jesus addresses in here. We need to stop grumbling about one another. This is where it gets hard. Because by nature, we're a bunch of grumblers. We're a bunch of complainers. Myself included. This is one of those sermons I'm pointing the thumb back at myself really hard. Because grumbling and complaining about each other will separate us and keep us from being the complete body that God has called us to be. I gave Mary an earful one day because she told me they were going to do some different things. And you know what I was doing, Mary? I was complaining. And I really was keeping you from your destiny, what God called you to do. How dare I? How dare me? Right? Our scripture today, we see how God doubted how someone they knew could be used by God. Look around here. Some of you are looking at people and go, I know what you did. I know what you did. I know who you were. I went to school with you. I didn't go to school with any of you. Some of you did go to school with one another. Troy's been saying that for weeks now. I went to school with him and whoa. Right? We doubt how they could be used by God. Jesus was someone they knew. We don't put this into context. Jesus was someone they knew. He was from the wrong side of the tracks. I told you that, right? He's from Galilee. Let me tell you what Galilee was as a fishing town. I compare it to where I grew up in a tumble, an old river, dirty town. Man, smelly. You ever go by the XL Hormel plant that's been there for as long as I can live? Good lord. Still can smell it sometimes. His parents, they were humble working class people, probably poor homes, right? They probably lived in my town, it would have been on the east side, probably east side in my town, really poor. Right? They probably live in that house that was not real nice. And they knew this about him. And these people were saying, How could God use this guy? We saw you grow up. They probably seen him when he had acne. Nobody ever wants to think about Jesus having acne. He probably had acne. Right? He didn't have no exfoliant. Little scrubber pads, all you ladies, and guys. Some of you. They knew who he was. They'd seen him. And they were saying, how could this aloof guy, awkward guy, bring salvation, be the son of God? How could God choose him? You might ask yourself, what is the matter with these people? How did they miss it? There's no way I would have done that. No way. I would see if I read his word. I'm like, there's the son of God, right? Fulfills every Isaiah prophecy right there on the spot. Boy, man, I'm way ahead of these people. Come on, come on. How many of you are like that? I mean, read the scripture and you're like, I would have never missed that. He's obvious he's the son of God. We do the same thing every single day. We put a period when God is still working on the sentence. Believing there is no way that God could use that person. Let me tell you, every single one of us are guilty of it. I am pointing my finger today. I told you this would be a hard message. People you've known from their past and you've said, no way. You gotta sit on the sidelines because God can't use you. We remember that person's past while God's still writing their future. We look at their physical appearance because of the way they're dressed or the way they they they talk, and we say, nope. Nope. Because what you've really done, myself included, we've made ourselves the judge of who God can use. Let me tell you this piece here. If God can use a donkey, I'll tell you what, he can use any one of us. Complaining is not about helping another person. Some of you think that. You think it's about helping that person. Oh, I'm going to give them my near full and tell them how to get better. Come on. Come on. It's quiet right now. There's the uncomfortable laugh of Steve right now. Because complaining is not about helping the other person, it's about you and your issue. It's usually because we feel left out. Remember how I told you about the coffee shop? I felt a little left out. Our toes got stepped on because somebody took away my table and chairs. It's because I was uncomfortable. Because God was using other people to do other things. Maybe I was even a little jealous. None of you are jealous people in here. None of you. I'm sure I'm the only one. We're getting exposed today, aren't we? Instead of leaning into God, we're lashing out at others and tearing them down rather than supporting them. Come on. Come on. We're not perfect in this room. I want you to hear that. I'm not saying that everybody is perfect in this room. And we are going to need some coaching. Right, Jesse? That's right. I need some coaching sometimes. Right? I can remember a day when Jim Keller coached quite difficultly in my life. And it was to the effect of somebody needs to kick you in the butt. It was Jim, right? Sometimes we need coaching. But there's a difference between coaching and complaining. Coaching is about helping someone. When we complain about one another, we condemn and pass judgment on each other, and that's not your job. Romans chapter 14, verse 10 through 13 says, Why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For the scripture says, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bend to me, every tongue will declare allegiance to God. Yes, each of you, each of us, excuse me, will give a personal account to God. So let's stop condemning one another. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall. Come on, this is good stuff. Even if it hurts. That's what you're doing when you're complaining. You're causing other people to stumble. Fail. But instead, our job is to lift one another up, elevate them for God's purpose, propel them for the plan and the future and the destiny that God has. Yep, there's gonna be some there's gonna be some bumps on the road. There are some bumps on the road. But our job is to be there to lift them up, not stomp them down. Lift them up. Lift them up. We fool ourselves into thinking that by complaining against one another that we're helping them. But all you're doing is being a gossip, tearing down another believer, a brother and a sister, and more importantly, a child of God. Let me tell you, I got no business messing with God's children. Because God help you if you mess with my child. Can you imagine what the Heavenly Father says? God help you. Our call is to lift one another up, spur each other on on the mission to go and make disciples, to bring God glory in all that we do. That's who we're supposed to be. But really, what happens when you're complaining against your brother and your sister, I want to tell you what really happens. You're bringing judgment upon yourself. James chapter 5, 9 says, Don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. And guess what? Look, the judge is standing at the door. Ouch. Complaining about against one another causes judgment to be brought on us. And let me tell you, there is only one judge. And I'm gonna be honest with you, we're not it. God uses people who are willing and not people who are full of pride. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 27 through 29 says, Instead, God chose the things of the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all. And he used them to bring nothing, what the world considers important. And as a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. According to His word, right here, He will use those who display His purpose and his glory. He ain't worried about what they look like, what they sound like, what their past was. He's looking for a willing heart, one who's submissive. Shame on us if we can't see that too. Shame on us. Our complaints against others are usually rooted in our own pride. Because we're not humble enough to be used, and we're jealous of other people's willingness to be used. God will use those who are submissive, who have a submissive heart, and not those whose hearts are hardened. And when they get jealous, rather than complain, we should look in the mirror and begin to examine our own hearts. I don't want to be a hardened heart. Everything I read about the Bible of people with hard hearts, it doesn't turn out well for them. Here's our third piece that Jesus addresses in this. Always seems kind of weird that Jesus can address three things in just the simple stop complaining, right? But there's a last piece of this. It's that we need to stop complaining to others to get them to agree with us and make ourselves feel justified and stir up dissent within the body. There's another word for that. It's gossip. It's gossip. Complaints that are shared become gossip. Gossip. Complaining to one another becomes gossip and serves nothing but evil purposes. That's all it says. You get on the phone and say, hey, did you hear? Did you see? Heidi was wearing Heidi was wearing dress jean pants today at the church. Did you see that? How terrible. Did you hear what they said? Right? Gossip, it's like a weed. Who plants weeds around here? Somebody in my room. Understand that one. But nobody plants weeds on purpose. Do you water weeds? Do we water weeds? No, we don't water weeds. Right? Yet, if left alone, what happens with weeds? They grow and they spread. They spread. You should look at the crabgrass in my yard right now. Right? It spreads. And gossip works exactly the same way. Gossip in a church, it chokes out new life. Look around today. Look at all the new faces around here. Come on, you know what gossip does to that? It chokes it out. We'll go back to the same 40, 50, 60 people that were here. And we won't be doing the will of God. I'm done with that. It strangles the mission, is what gossip does. Stops the ability to thrive for the purpose that God has created the church for. And it's not your purpose of being a social club. It's not about you feeling comfortable. It's not about me feeling comfortable. It's about spreading the good news that salvation has come today. Proverbs 1628 tells us this. Well, listen up close. Troublemaker plants seeds of strife. Gossip separates the best of friends. Gossip will bring nothing but strife and separation in our body. We have to stand up today and say no. No to strife. No to division. No to separation. How many of you are bold enough to stand up and say no? Not in my church. Not in God's house. No. It takes a bold spirit to stand up and say no. No. Not here. If what we have to say doesn't edify and bring life, shut it down. Shut it down. Shut your neighbor down. The person who got on the phone to call you and say, hey, let's pray about this. And you know what it is. Shut it down. Stop it right there. Don't make the pastor be the one. You're bold. Come on, this is your mission. It's not just mine. It's not just Aaron's. It has to be gone. We can't allow that here. Stop it. Stop it. You are not the judge. We together are meant to build up and not tear down. Ephesians 4.29 tells us don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. So many of us we like to take that about cursing and stuff like that, but I'm going to take it to gossip today. And complaining and grumbling, whining. All of the synonyms I read you at the beginning. Murmuring. Don't use foul or abuse. Don't be a complainer. Don't be a gossip. Be helpful. Be good. Be an encourager today. Gossip directly damages God's most valued creation. His people. You look around. I want you each of you to take a minute. Come on. Put your heads up. Look around at your neighbor. Look at the other side. And then I want you to say to one of them, you are God's most valuable creation. Oh, awful quiet. Some of you don't believe it. Come on, say it again. Come on, come on. You are God's most valuable creation. Gossip separates people and communities, and eventually it will separate people from the Father. Some of you think it's okay. I just I'm just talking. But I promise you, when that gets out, when you go to another person and it begins to spread, what you are essentially doing at some point is you are going to drive someone away from the heart of the Father. And that's on you. That's on you. That's judgment upon you. You are no longer the judge. You will be the judged. Because you drove someone away from the heart of the Father. No, not gonna be me. Not on my watch. It violates Jesus' greatest command to love one another. It destroys trust. It sets us up as the role-playing judge. And we have already established in this place today that we are not the judge. Who's the judge? The Father. It ain't me. The power of words has life and death in them. And we're given a great responsibility in how we use them. What you say and who you say it to has great power. I've already gotten one phone call this week. Broke my heart. Broke my heart. Because someone's the words they used broke hearts. Proverbs chapter 15, verse 4 says, Gentle words are a tree of life. A deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. You have a great responsibility in how you speak. The Bible talks about it a lot. You may think that what you say is harmless. You're just venting. Come on, who's used that word venting? I'm just venting. I'm just venting about them. But according to the word of God, you can bring death in your venting. That is a great power. And too often we become flippant. And our complaining and our gossiping, and we forget the power there is within it because we don't realize what's happening. Our own words, according to the Bible, make us accountable. And we'll be judged by Christ Himself for our complaining and gossiping. Here's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12, verse 36 and 37 says I tell you this: you must give an account on a judgment day, for every idle word you speak, the words you say will either acquit you or condemn you. Simply, this, Jesus reminds us that there is a day of judgment for every word spoken. Every word. And that we'll be accountable to him. You know, I was reading in Amos a while back, says the day of the Lord, and he's talking about it, and he says, for a lot of us, it's gonna be a bad day. It's gonna be a scary day. And it's because of things like this that we have to be accountable for. Let me tell you this. As a father, the father will protect and take up for his children, and we will be held accountable for what we do against his children. Bottom line, this heidi put in there. I like that. Speak life into people. Speak life. Complaining, grumbling, gossiping, it is not life. It's a death sentence. Not yours to provide. I told you we're gonna do something different today. We're gonna take communion at the end of service. And there was a reason why we chose to do communion at the end of service today. Because you needed to hear this sermon before we do it. There's some very clear directions that go into that that we're gonna talk about. But I want to remind you, just in case you forgot what I talk about today. First, that God is calling us to stop complaining about how he works, and to have submissive hearts and to trust him in his ways. Secondly, he's calling us to stop complaining about one another. Stop it. We have to be loving and supporting of one another, nurturing, allowing God to work and I want to see the best out of each and every one of you. Allowing God that God is allowed to work in their lives. Because we're not the judge. I don't care who how long you've been at this, some of you have been at it a long time. Some of you not so long. Some of us midway. You're not the judge. You don't have it all together. You don't get to judge. There are things the Bible tells us that we can help correct each other on.

unknown 45:01

Right?

SPEAKER_00 45:02

And that's needed. But complaining, gossiping, that's out the door. And finally, gossiping has to end. Has to end. It is the tearing down of what God created. And serves nothing. Serves nothing but it is an agent of Satan that allows division and destruction within our midst. That's all it is. We will be required on judgment day. Hear me loud and clear. You will be required on judgment day to give an account of what we said, what we did, who we drove away, who we didn't nurture, who we didn't flourish, who we did not provide a good witness to. You will face that day. Each and every one of us. And it should put fear in your heart. It should drive you back to what we talked about in our last sermon series, fear of the Lord. It should drive you to that place. So today, I don't have this big altar call. It feels weird, but I don't have a big altar call. Because I'm going to ask you to do something different. Or take communion together. But I want to read just scripture before we read our typical communion scripture. It's Matthew chapter 5, verse 23 through 24. It's the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said this. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. Some of you might say, Well, I don't need to ask for forgiveness. They yell me. Sometimes it takes some humbleness there. Sometimes it takes a little humility. Sometimes it takes something to get the you gotta be the person to get the ball rolling. It happens. It happens. Some of you had bad attitudes about people and it's shown up. I'm telling you, before you come down here to take this remembrance of what the Lord did, you need to get your heart right. And some of you that might require you to get up and go find somebody. Be humble. Be humble. And God can use you. My encouragement, before you take that, make it right. Make it right today. I know that seems embarrassing. I'm gonna go find somebody here in a moment. I'm gonna make it right. Because I have no business taking that today until I offer that apology. Because I've offended somebody. Not meaning to. But I did. And I've known about it. That makes it even worse, doesn't it? That I've known about it. So I'd encourage you today. I'd encourage you today to make it right. There's great power in forgiveness and vulnerability. Encourage you to follow Jesus' words and his lessons here. Make your heart right before you remember Jesus' sacrifice today. Don't take judgment upon yourself this morning just to look good. It's not worth that. I'd rather none of these cups get drank today. None of these crackers get ate. If it meant you didn't bring damnation upon yourself and judgment. Because I know there's people that are sitting here right now, just like I am. There's somebody in your mind, and you're like, man, I know I gotta go make this right. But I don't want to look bad. I don't really care. I don't. Hopefully, none of you care about what we look like right now. Let's make our church whole. Let's make it stronger. Let's be the people we're called to be this morning. So I'm gonna read our scripture. I'll open this up, but I encourage you, if you need to go find somebody right now, I'm gonna encourage you to, before you come up here, I encourage you to go find that person. Doesn't have to be loud. Maybe it's just simple. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Simply that. A heartfelt. I'm sorry. So I'm gonna read 1 Corinthians chapter 11 to us. And then our worship team is gonna worship. I encourage you to worship. Take communion as you need to, but just be ready. For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord Himself and the night when he was betrayed. Interesting, he would say betrayed there. Because isn't that another thing that happens when we complain and gossip? Betrayed. The Lord Jesus took some bread and he gave thanks to God for it. And then he broke it into pieces. And he said, This is my body which is given to you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it. For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Listen closely. Listen closely. This is what this whole message has been about. Brings us to this point. So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself. Stand up with me. Don't goof off. If you want to goof off, leaves. Just leaves. I'm okay with that. You're not going to hurt my feelings. I'm beyond that today. If you need to worship, worship.