SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday at Northwest Church The Bastery in Northwest Ohio, our congregation is challenged to grow spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast shares the terms, insights, and messages that encourage our congregation to mature spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want to welcome you to our worship service this morning and say thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Linda and I uh retired a few months ago, and we came to visit here at North Lake, and you guys just wrapped your arms around us, loved us, remembered our names, um, welcomed us back, and we just want to thank you for the way you have received us, and uh we are navigating retirement.
SPEAKER_01: It's harder for me than it is for Linda.
SPEAKER_01: Uh she's kind of like really enjoying this.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Pastor asked me to preach a few weeks ago, actually, it's been a while ago, and I said, Well, let me just get myself situated and uh finally thought, oh, maybe it's time.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor, I just want you to know you are a great preacher.
SPEAKER_01: I take notes and I I I read them to Linda on the way home.
SPEAKER_01: Did you read?
SPEAKER_01: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_01: And I have learned so much from you, and uh, it is a joy for me to be um to have you as my shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: And uh thank you for receiving us and blessing us, not just with great sermons, but uh just being our pastor.
SPEAKER_01: We just really want to say thank you today.
SPEAKER_01: We are going to continue the sermon series on uh kingdom culture, and um, I chose this week, I thought, you know, Labor Day weekend, nobody will be here, it'll be great.
SPEAKER_01: And you showed up anyway, so that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: And um that it just so happened that on the schedule for this Sunday is the topic of unity, and I thought, hmm, I could do that.
SPEAKER_01: And then I learned that the Matthew 18 chapter is pretty, oh my, have you read that before?
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of down-to-earth, uh settling your gut kind of conversation about unity in the church, and um, I put together this little video.
SPEAKER_01: How many different um scenes did you notice in the video bumper uh of different examples of togetherness?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone want to guess?
SPEAKER_01: Seven, ten, twelve?
SPEAKER_01: Twenty.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: There's probably that many clips.
SPEAKER_01: I just thought, you know what, if you're paying attention to the video, that'll get your blood pumping.
SPEAKER_01: So let's watch it again.
SPEAKER_01: And this time I'm gonna give you advanced warning.
SPEAKER_01: There'll be a five-second countdown, and get your fingers ready.
SPEAKER_01: And every scene, try to recall how many scenes are in this video of examples of unity and togetherness.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you ready, Mark?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody want to guess?
SPEAKER_01: Eleven.
SPEAKER_01: Fourteen?
SPEAKER_01: Any other guesses?
SPEAKER_01: Twelve.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then it's kind of debatable because there are examples that have two or three scenes.
SPEAKER_01: So probably every one of you are right.
SPEAKER_01: I counted ten examples.
SPEAKER_01: There was the air show, the fireman, uh, the orchestra, which is probably one of my favorites, the air traffic controller, the river rafting, the mountain climbing, the women's small group, a man encouraging another guy.
SPEAKER_01: Did you see that one?
SPEAKER_01: And moms together and a father and son.
SPEAKER_01: So somewhere between 10 and 15, something like that.
SPEAKER_01: What would happen in any of those scenes, in any of those examples, if one of the individuals involved in that group organization structure failed to uphold their responsibility?
SPEAKER_01: What would happen?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the fighter pilot pilots, um, I've told I've been told that the uh uh the famous jet group that flies, they the Blue Angels, they they fly within six inches.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine if someone didn't carry their weight on that one.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, oops would not be a good word for them to have.
SPEAKER_01: There are great examples of what it means and how important it is for us in whatever situation, in our family, our home Bible studies, our work, to be together in unity, and all of us doing what we are called to do.
SPEAKER_01: The same as the in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And it leads us to this question: what happens in the community of faith when we fail to lovingly and gracefully hold one another accountable?
SPEAKER_01: Mark, I'm glad you're changing slides for me.
SPEAKER_01: If you are, I hope you are, uh, because I just that's not working for me for whatever reason.
SPEAKER_01: What happens in the community of faith when we fail to lovingly and gracefully hold one another accountable?
SPEAKER_01: It's a big question.
SPEAKER_01: And I guess there's an overarching statement that we could add to this question.
SPEAKER_01: The body of Jesus Christ is strengthened and is refined through redemptive relationships.
SPEAKER_01: The body of Christ is strengthened and refined through redemptive relationships.
SPEAKER_01: There's some examples of that.
SPEAKER_01: If you look in Hebrews, the 10th chapter, verses 24 through 25, it says, and let us consider how to stir one another up in love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, like we're doing this morning, as is the habit of sun, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
SPEAKER_01: In Proverbs, there's a verse I love to quote.
SPEAKER_01: It says, in iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the other.
SPEAKER_01: The implication is not that all is wonderful and smooth and the road is rosy and paved.
SPEAKER_01: It means that we often, as believers in Christ, living in community as the body of Christ, don't always see eye to eye.
SPEAKER_01: We don't always get along, but our responsibility is to live in unity and to love one another.
SPEAKER_01: So today's scripture that we'll read in just a moment is kind of a hard-driving uh sermon uh text.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know how many pastors would choose to preach from this particular text.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I would have loved to have done a topical sermon and just picked out all my favorites.
SPEAKER_01: But, Pastor, we're on a schedule and I like knowing what we're supposed to be headed towards.
SPEAKER_01: So here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Buckle your seatbelts.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles with you, let's read Matthew 18, verses 15 through 20.
SPEAKER_01: And would it be okay if we just stood up in kind of honor and respect of the scripture?
SPEAKER_01: I'll be reading from the ESV version.
SPEAKER_01: It says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
SPEAKER_01: If he listens to you, you've gained a brother.
SPEAKER_01: But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along with you, that everything, every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: If he refuses to listen, tell it to the church.
SPEAKER_01: And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Galilean or a Gentile and a tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on to say, Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes even further, and he says, Again I say to you, if two or three are gathered about on, or if two of you on earth about anything, they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: One more thing.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I among them.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the truth of the matter is every community of faith faces times of difficulty and struggle.
SPEAKER_01: That's just the reality of being together.
SPEAKER_01: Anytime you put more than two people together, you have more than ten opinions about what should be done.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so it's no wonder that in the church we sometimes experience offense or sin or wounded relationships or uh threats to the unity and cohesiveness of the church.
SPEAKER_01: I that's a reality we as believers in Christ, we just need to face up to that, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: We need to just admit that's the way it is, because we're human beings.
SPEAKER_01: The temptation for us as a body of believers is to ignore offense or crush the offender.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where the reality comes to us to make a decision.
SPEAKER_01: What do we do about this reality that we're facing?
SPEAKER_01: The enemy, my friends, is a master at planting seeds of distrust and division and distraction and disinformation and disillusion and discouragement.
SPEAKER_01: He would want nothing better than for the church to be divided.
SPEAKER_01: The enemy will do everything in his power to render the church as being ineffective.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to say amen.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of just like settles down here and doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: The body of Jesus Christ is strengthened and refined through redemptive relationships.
SPEAKER_01: So then how do we cultivate this kingdom culture in the local church, in our families, in our community, in our workplace, and around the world.
SPEAKER_01: Um, Pastor, I love to take notes and if you are note takers, I've got a pencil here for you.
SPEAKER_01: Um I I just love to write down notes.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're taking notes, write these five words down: tenderness, trust, transparency, tenacity, and togetherness.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Mark, let's just leave those up for a little while because it's gonna take some time to get those written down.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that there are five things.
SPEAKER_01: Did you notice I picked T-words?
SPEAKER_01: It's more easier to remember.
SPEAKER_01: There are five ways I believe the body of Jesus Christ can can stay together in unity.
SPEAKER_01: Number one is tenderness.
SPEAKER_01: To understand this set of verses that on the very surface kind of sound a little harsh, but we're gonna we're gonna deal with that in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: To understand this set of verses, we need to go back a few verses ahead of Matthew 18, 15 through uh 20, and look at Matthew 18, 40.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, So it is not the will of my Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
SPEAKER_01: This follows the examples of the sheep that are lost, and and Jesus said, If one sheep out of a hundred is lost, wouldn't the shepherd go hunting for that one lost sheep until he's found it and bring it back into the fold?
SPEAKER_01: For us to live in unity as the body of Christ, we must be tender and compassionate and understand it is not God's will that any should perish.
SPEAKER_01: It is not his will that anyone be excluded from the body and community of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If God values the wandering sheep so deeply, then the community must also not be casual about a member who is struggling, who's stumbling, who perhaps is losing his faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's no casual matter for us to step in and say, Man, how can I help you?
SPEAKER_01: What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: I missed you.
SPEAKER_01: Is everything okay?
SPEAKER_01: Praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: We must pursue restoration with tenderness and compassion.
SPEAKER_01: I think the church is very much like the the marriage relationship.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's mentioned several times throughout scripture.
SPEAKER_01: That we love each other with a tenderness and a compassion that can only come through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It happens in our marriage, in our family, in our workplace, in our community, and the places that we go.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, the big word is trust.
SPEAKER_01: I love the fact that he begins this verse with these three words.
SPEAKER_01: If a brother, not a distant relative, not an acquaintance.
SPEAKER_01: He's referring to the body of Jesus Christ, and he's telling us that we are brothers and we are sisters.
SPEAKER_01: There is a bond, a covenant, a commitment that we make to each other that goes deep.
SPEAKER_01: And as we make those commitments to one another, we earn the right, we earn the ability to approach someone and say, Hey, how things going?
SPEAKER_01: Man, looks like you're struggling.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I, um, I jokingly say we started our ministry uh by earning$150 a week.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we were there in Oak Hill, Ohio, which we planted um 40 years ago last month.
SPEAKER_01: It's still going strong.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I sometimes say we were there six and a half years, our salary was$150, and after six and a half years, they raised our salary to six hundred dollars a month.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you mathematicians already figured that out, didn't you?
SPEAKER_01: We took our second church, our kids were young, we finally could afford a better car.
SPEAKER_01: We bought a Saturn and um we drove it long enough to know we didn't want a Saturn.
SPEAKER_01: And um, we decided that we we would take our two boys on a vacation.
SPEAKER_01: Remember those huge books, they're like 600 pages long, and they have coupons on them in them, half price.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we took our whole vacation for half price.
SPEAKER_01: It was great.
SPEAKER_01: We put all of our things in the car, we put the kids in their car seat, and we went through the routine every day.
SPEAKER_01: How much longer?
SPEAKER_01: How or why aren't we there yet?
SPEAKER_01: And we'd say, it's gonna be two Sesame Streets, we'll be there in two more Sesame Streets, just hang tight.
SPEAKER_01: And they would argue and we would threaten them, and you know, we would tell them what needs to be done and put her foot down and say, wait till you get to and all of that happened.
SPEAKER_01: But suddenly, one morning we woke up and we were approaching the border of Canada.
SPEAKER_01: We were gonna go see Niagara Falls, and Linda casually said, There's a farmer's market.
SPEAKER_01: And in the silence and beauty of the moment, I said, Yeah, there's a there's a farmer's market.
SPEAKER_01: And we went a few miles down the road, and and she mentioned casually, well, there's another farmer's market.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, that's two farmers markets.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are catching on.
SPEAKER_01: She finally said, There's another farmer's market.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Man, they have a lot of farmers markets.
SPEAKER_01: Three in a row.
SPEAKER_01: We drove for a little bit and she said, Well, if that's the way you're gonna be, and I said, What?
SPEAKER_01: All I know is you said there's a farmer's market.
SPEAKER_01: I agreed with you, honey.
SPEAKER_01: There truly is.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I've been asking you to stop at the farmer's market.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I didn't hear you ask.
SPEAKER_01: Has that ever happened in your family?
SPEAKER_01: Well, March ahead 38 and some years, and one day she uh she informed me that tomorrow morning I was gonna go to Costco and I was gonna have my hearing checked.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I don't need my hearing check.
SPEAKER_01: I I think I sound, I hear myself pretty well.
SPEAKER_01: She said, No, something's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: You're not hearing correctly.
SPEAKER_01: And so you've been in that booth.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of intimidating.
SPEAKER_01: You do the raise the hand, raise the hand, raise the hand.
SPEAKER_01: And the lady looked at me.
SPEAKER_01: I told her why I was there and that I was not there according to my choosing, but her choosing.
SPEAKER_01: She spun my chair around and she said, I just want to show you something.
SPEAKER_01: And she showed me the chart, and she said, Your hearing is perfectly normal.
SPEAKER_01: She said, You do not have a hearing problem, you have a listening problem.
SPEAKER_01: And she proceeded, she looked me in the eye and she said, Now, this is what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look at your wife in the eyes, and I want you to listen carefully.
SPEAKER_01: It'll help your marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Well, ironically, a few months ago I had this something happen, and I lost the hearing in my hearing in my left ear, and I wear a hearing aid now, so now I have the perfect excuse.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, honey, I'm sorry I was in, I couldn't hear you.
SPEAKER_01: My hearing aid.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the ironic thing.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't leave me.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't disown me.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't even harbor resentment.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't carry it with her for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because she loves me and she cares for me, and in her tenderness and her trust, she was able to say, I love you.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same in the body of Christ, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We've been married for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: Not because there was never a misunderstanding or a disagreement, trust me.
SPEAKER_01: Not because there was never an offense, not because there was never a deep wound that needed healing.
SPEAKER_01: And not because she just plain got on my nerves, or vice versa.
SPEAKER_01: We stayed together because we made a deep covenant relationship with each other.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is saying don't just be tender, but trust.
SPEAKER_01: Trust says, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Trust says you're safe here.
SPEAKER_01: Trust says, I'll be here no matter what.
SPEAKER_01: Trust says, can we have an honest conversation about this?
SPEAKER_01: Our marriage has been forged through tenderness and trust and transparency and tenacity and togetherness.
SPEAKER_01: It happens in our family.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's God's desire for that to happen in the church.
SPEAKER_01: It's the way our marriage should be, and it's the way we conduct ourselves in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Can we move on to number 23?
SPEAKER_01: If your brother sins, verse 18, or uh verse 20, if your brother sins against you, go tell him it's between you and him, and you and him alone.
SPEAKER_01: Go straight to the person.
SPEAKER_01: In my younger years, serving under um someone else, uh a boss, um, I I had some frustrations, and I took a trusted friend to lunch and and I said, you know, I'm just really frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just really frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: I went through my litany of concerns and worries.
SPEAKER_01: And Bill looked me square in the eye and he said, Well, have you talked to your boss about this?
SPEAKER_01: I thought, well, no, I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, if you really want to get to this resolved, you should go talk to him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, doesn't that just seem easy and natural?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that just how we would respond?
SPEAKER_01: But I think we can learn something from this whole conversation about unity.
SPEAKER_01: That is, it we have to build a trusting relationship where if there's something wrong, something needs to be corrected, we address it through tenderness and trust and transparency.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Take two or one or two others along with you to establish as a witness.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it kind of provides a safe place where um a person can be protected by what's being said.
SPEAKER_01: In our early years of ministry here in Columbus, we were asked to be the to launch a multicultural ministry at out of Gehana.
SPEAKER_01: And we had 13 different countries represented, and one of those countries was um the Southern Sudan, and we became acquainted with Justin and Nunu.
SPEAKER_01: Justin was one of the lost boys, and he was transported uh here to the United States, given a stipend and a way to get started in life.
SPEAKER_01: He saved up for years and years to earn enough to buy cattle to pay for his wife Nunu.
SPEAKER_01: And they were married and had a few children, and uh the the earliest or the latest one was uh a little girl by the name of Amore.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Justin came to me and he said, Pastor, I'm gonna be gone for a few weeks, and I just want to let you know, we we won't be here, but I'll I'll be on my way.
SPEAKER_01: Nunu will be around, the rest of the kids, but I'll be gone.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, what's going on, Justin?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, in our community, if there's problems in a marriage, then two people are delegated to go to that home and live with that couple until they get their life straightened out.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, So I'll be moving in with my relative who's having struggles in his marriage, and he will listen to us and follow our instructions until we get their marriage on the right path.
SPEAKER_01: Whoo, try that in the United States and see how well it goes.
SPEAKER_01: That just ain't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: But I thought, man, what a what a great way to build unity and transparity and unity in the church where we are not just tender and trusting, but we're transparent and we're able to address the issues.
SPEAKER_01: Tell the church, if it doesn't happen, if he makes no corrections, tell the church and treat him as a gentile or a tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: Um this is only under the circumstances where persistent refusal to repent and repeated confrontation have been part of the mix.
SPEAKER_01: We can no longer, my friends, pretend that this person is walking in fellowship with the church when they persistently reject correction.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we end up in this verse, but it's often where we get started in real life.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this whole set of scriptures is designed to bring unity and fellowship and togetherness and redemption.
SPEAKER_01: So if we reach this radical position, we need and we need as a congregation to stop treating an individual who consistently and unrepentantly rejects any correction that comes from the church and pretend that there's nothing wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Hear these words.
SPEAKER_01: When the church loses its integrity, it forfeits its credibility.
SPEAKER_01: When a church loses its integrity, it forfeits its credibility.
SPEAKER_01: God is calling us to be different from the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And accountability isn't a bad word, but it has to be framed in all of these other things mentioned in the 18th chapter of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Then he moves into some verses that I had to really struggle with.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 18, 18, he says, Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: There are some many, many misconceptions about this verse.
SPEAKER_01: Some people would say, I can decree and declare anything, and heaven must back me up.
SPEAKER_01: And so we walk around declaring and decreeing.
SPEAKER_01: Some people think or believe this treats the verse like a promise of spiritual control over our circumstances and the people and outcomes of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that this is God's promise that if we declare it on earth, that's what's going to happen in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Some people use this language as a way to manipulate situations.
SPEAKER_01: But let's go back to what the context of where it is placed.
SPEAKER_01: This refers to, it's in the context of discernment within the body of believers.
SPEAKER_01: It is designed for the protection of both the offender and the community of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is speaking about the authority given to his disciples, especially in matters of teaching and discipline.
SPEAKER_01: He's giving them the authority to recognize what's already been stated about what is permitted and what is forbidden under God's rule.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you go back to the Hebrew understanding, he says bind and loose were commonly a rabbinic term that means forbid and permit, or for rendering decisions with covenant authority.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is, don't just make things up as you go.
SPEAKER_01: Don't figure it out along the way.
SPEAKER_01: Understand what Scripture says and come into agreement with Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: The point is not that humans make decisions and all of heaven needs to respond.
SPEAKER_01: The point is that Scripture and the Holy Spirit and God are the ultimate authority, and we fall in line with what they say.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: I have two sons, full-grown adults some days.
SPEAKER_01: One is one is 37 and one is 35.
SPEAKER_01: And uh they would they love to play Linda and I against each other.
SPEAKER_01: Does this ever happen in your family?
SPEAKER_01: They know which one of us is the weakest on any particular item.
SPEAKER_01: And so they'll go to uh mom and say, Mom, can this happen?
SPEAKER_01: And mom will say, Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And they'll come to me and they'll say, Can I do this?
SPEAKER_01: Can this happen?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say, Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: And they'll and then they'll point to mom, well, mom said it was okay.
SPEAKER_01: But this is what we discovered.
SPEAKER_01: If we had a powwow before it all started, if we made up our minds before they ever came to us, then they could go to mom or dad and get the same exact response.
SPEAKER_01: Because we have agreed together on how to raise our children and the boundaries and what can and cannot happen.
SPEAKER_01: If you read this verse in context of the whole set of verses, what Jesus is saying is that make up your minds, discover what God has to say, and decide so that there can be discernment and protection and an atmosphere where love can prevail.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is recognizing that what is forbidden by God must be forbidden by his people.
SPEAKER_01: What's bound on earth is bound in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Well, when his authorized followers act in step with the will of the Heavenly Father, they no longer force heaven's hands, they reveal heaven's verdict.
SPEAKER_01: This is the verdict.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going with what God says.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, if you're keeping track, is tenderness.
SPEAKER_01: I love this set of verses.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm glad this is where we land.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
SPEAKER_01: You want the presence of God to get together.
SPEAKER_01: You want to be where God's at?
SPEAKER_01: Be together.
SPEAKER_01: It's not in division or separation, it's in unity and fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: Where three, two or three are gathered together.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, this isn't uh just a thread, it's a promise.
SPEAKER_01: He says, There I will be among them.
SPEAKER_01: God, God is a trinity.
SPEAKER_01: We could have a whole new sermon on that one, but everything God does is in community, even with himself.
SPEAKER_01: God wants us to be together.
SPEAKER_01: It's not when two or three are together, we have a great meeting.
SPEAKER_01: It's not where two or three are gathered, we have a strong organization.
SPEAKER_01: It's not where two or three are gathered together, uh, something happened that was really nice and warm and fuzzy.
SPEAKER_01: He says, There I am.
SPEAKER_01: There's a vast difference between physical nearness and the sacred presence of the Almighty God.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've made full circle, haven't we?
SPEAKER_01: When that happens, my friends, there is a quiet hush of his holy presence.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna invite our worship team to come and help us to finish this morning's service.
SPEAKER_01: When two or three are gathered, I could be a couple thousand if you if it happens that way.
SPEAKER_01: But we when we come with the purpose of meeting with Jesus Christ, he has promised that he will be there.
SPEAKER_01: You need wisdom, get together with some other believers, and God will direct you.
SPEAKER_01: Is there controversy?
SPEAKER_01: Get together with a few other believers and pray through until God's presence comes, and then you'll find the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Is there discord?
SPEAKER_01: Is there trouble?
SPEAKER_01: Are someone struggling?
SPEAKER_01: Get together and just lift them up because God has promised that when we get together and we agree, then God's sitting right there in the chair next to us.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants something beautiful to happen among his people.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Pastor, thanks for letting me take the pulpit this morning.
SPEAKER_01: My utmost joy, my thrill is being near and with others in the community of faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we're the strongest, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Man, would you stand and receive the blessing this morning?
SPEAKER_00: As it is known in our community, Northwest Church is committed to discovering life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: With the split work,