SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv.
SPEAKER_00: Now join us for a message from our special guest speaker.
SPEAKER_01: Another thing I love about this church, uh, I believe firmly I've been a part of it since 2002, since I was nine years old.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and uh I believe this is a healthy church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if anybody agrees with me.
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you're new here.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that this is a safe place, I believe this is a healthy place, you're in a good place today, you're in a good church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and the two main reasons I have for that are this might surprise some of you, it's not branding, it's not, you know, even vision or money or LED walls or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: The two primary reasons I believe that this is a healthy church is because of babies and grandparents.
SPEAKER_01: Babies and grandparents.
SPEAKER_01: If you spend any longer than five minutes in the lobby after service today, watch where you step.
SPEAKER_01: Because there will be babies just running around, grabbing your ankles and trying to steal things out of your wallet.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm thankful that it's not just young families and young babies.
SPEAKER_01: This happened uh uh to me this week.
SPEAKER_01: There's a guy in this church who he rides his electric bike on one of my running routes, and I saw him this week on his way to work, and he's like, Hey, how are things going?
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Things are going great.
SPEAKER_01: You know, uh my wife is pregnant right now, we're expecting our fourth child.
SPEAKER_01: Um don't clap yet, we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know if we're ready.
SPEAKER_01: And I told him that, and I was like, How are things going for you?
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Well, the same.
SPEAKER_01: Expecting our fourth child.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, that's a preposterous response to what I said.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm thankful that there's a bunch of young families here that feel comfortable that have been inspired to do what God's commanded us to do and raise families and raise godly children.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm also very, very thankful.
SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite things to do, and this might be surprising to some of you, one of my absolute favorite things to do on a Sunday morning, is to hug Pat and Henry Lee.
SPEAKER_01: Uh mostly because I feel like, yeah, I don't know that I'm saying this, and he probably hates that I'm saying this right now, but it's mostly because I feel like I'm like paying respects to the Godfather or like the conciliary or something.
SPEAKER_01: I come and he like kisses me on the cheek, and he's like, You come to me on the day of Rock Group's Fair.
SPEAKER_01: Um uh but it's not just that, it's that I feel safe that they're here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pat and Henry Lee were in a prayer closet with me 15 years ago when they taught me things about the Holy Spirit that I'll never be able to learn from any book, any YouTube video, any sermon.
SPEAKER_01: They taught me things about the Holy Spirit that have stuck in my heart and stuck in my mind for 15 years now, and so thank you guys very much.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just them, I mean there's grandparents all over the room.
SPEAKER_01: There's grandparents that that invest in us young families.
SPEAKER_01: Is anybody thankful for the grandparents, the spiritual grandfathers and grandmothers that have made this a safe place?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's something that's rare.
SPEAKER_01: You can find, you can throw a rock in Huntsville and find a church that has young families because they got cool branding, or because they have the new fresh vision, or because they have better coffee or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: But to find a place that has young families that feel safe and that feels supporting, that feel connected, and also has people that have been in ministry and been doing this for decades and decades and decades is a unfortunately it's a rare thing.
SPEAKER_01: People that have uh a history, an inheritance, something to give.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that we should be incredibly grateful for.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like last week Wendy, Wendy came over and brought us uh crock pot chicken and then just drop it off.
SPEAKER_01: She came over and she was Grandma Wendy to our kids for a couple hours.
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you what she called the chicken, the crock pot chicken recipe.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I don't think I don't think I should say this.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, maybe I'll ask this.
SPEAKER_01: This is a safe room.
SPEAKER_01: This is a safe place, right?
SPEAKER_01: I said that I was really just gaslighting you all into not, you know, complaining about my jokes.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, am I the only one who's recognized this?
SPEAKER_01: What is it with southern families and naming recipes after drugs?
SPEAKER_01: Am I the is that a okay, yeah, so you guys know what it is.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even have to say.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, yes, it's good, but like, alright.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's no one's pawning their mother's jewelry for your casserole.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful for this church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful for the healthy church that we have with the grandparents and the grandmothers and the children and the young families that are supported.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, this is not just some random, you know, rant or ramble.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that the family is important and is evidence of God's moving and his inspiration in this church because before God created the church, he created the family.
SPEAKER_01: And the entire testimony of scripture is that God loves and has plans and purposes and intentions for the family.
SPEAKER_01: And God loves families that glorify Him.
SPEAKER_01: The number one way that we image God is through the way that we tend our families.
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody know that?
SPEAKER_01: God loves fathers who stay in the home.
SPEAKER_01: God loves mothers who nurture and raise their children.
SPEAKER_01: God loves children who honor their parents and promises them things.
SPEAKER_01: Did you guys know that?
SPEAKER_01: And before you get discouraged and say, oh, maybe that's not my situation or where I came from, let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: The entire history of mankind has been an exercise in family restoration.
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody know that?
SPEAKER_01: Are you thanked for that?
SPEAKER_01: That in the beginning God created the family and then he created a garden so he could stay with them.
SPEAKER_01: And then almost immediately the family rebelled.
SPEAKER_01: And brothers started killing each other.
SPEAKER_01: And God had to send a flood to start the earth over, and then even more in Genesis 11, God had to divide the family because they were rebelling against him at the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_01: And he confused their language and he dispersed them into nations.
SPEAKER_01: And then through this whole process of time, we still hear God's heart and his desire to mend and to restore families.
SPEAKER_01: That he wants to turn hearts of fathers and mothers to their children and hearts of sons and daughters to their parents.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants prodigal sons and daughters to come home, and he wants parents to put rings on their fingers and sandals on their feet and coats on their shoulders.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to restore families.
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody want that today?
SPEAKER_01: And we see that so purely when God sends Jesus, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He reserves this remnant for himself after the division of these nations, and God, through this remnant, uh births a new son, the firstborn among brethren.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the beginning of his plan to restore the family.
SPEAKER_01: And before you think this is just some convoluted long metaphor or allegory in scripture, this applies directly to your family.
SPEAKER_01: This applies to your immediate situation, your material situation, your family.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about your spiritual family, I'm talking about your mothers, your fathers, your sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles.
SPEAKER_01: That this is all evidence of God's desire for your family.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying this, okay, I didn't just read a Substack article about families on the way in this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you about my personal experience that God has the desire and ability to restore your family today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful that Pastor Chris prayed for prodigals last week, but listen, if we can take up an offering every week, we can pray for prodigals every single week.
SPEAKER_01: We can pray for people that are far off.
SPEAKER_01: That seems again I'm talking from I'm talking from a very personal experience.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I are sitting on the couch the other day and just rehearsing how good God has been in our family.
SPEAKER_01: And then we start thinking of maybe more distant relatives or some that we have, you know, maybe never even talked to ever at all.
SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, start thinking of it's like, well, you know, they're too far gone, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, it's a shame, but at least we have what we have.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody ever get like that?
SPEAKER_01: Like you've seen God do insane, unreal, supernatural things in your life, and then for whatever reason your faith just turns into praying for for those things to just stay intact.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, it's amazing that God brought our family back together from the corners of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that you could just maybe, in the kindness of your heart, just keep it, just maintain it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like I've seen God do unbelievable, unreal, supernatural things that only he could do.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, bringing family members and bringing relationships and restoring things in such a way, and for some reason I'm so determined in my mind to not believe that he could do it again.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody feel like that this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody ever felt a lack of belief?
SPEAKER_01: We don't hear anything else today.
SPEAKER_01: I want to tell you that God wants to, God has the ability to, God has the desire to restore your family today.
SPEAKER_01: And if you have a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle, a nephew, a niece, uh, I don't know, is there any more?
SPEAKER_01: Are there any other options?
SPEAKER_01: A dog that needs to be made right with God.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to, even right now, let's do that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think in our mind, even say names out loud.
SPEAKER_01: I know we did this last week, but again, like I'm I'm believing for families to be restored here at the Rock Family Worship Center.
SPEAKER_01: I'm believing for people that are on the other side of the planet to come home, people that have that have uh accursed God, people that have gone as far away as you possibly can go to be drawn back to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: I'm believing that today.
SPEAKER_01: God, we thank you that it's in your heart to restore families.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that it's in your ability.
SPEAKER_01: God forbid, in your ability.
SPEAKER_01: God help us with our unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: We call out names right now, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Names that we're gonna see in that baptism tank.
SPEAKER_01: Names that we're gonna see in our next step classes and in our rock groups, Lord, and we're gonna see in these chairs, and we're gonna see lifting their hands, and we're gonna see worshiping Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We call out their names right now, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Restore our families as your family is reconciled and drawn closer to you.
SPEAKER_01: We love you today, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We pray over every detail of the service, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that your presence has already been here.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that it's not.
SPEAKER_01: We really, really thank you that it doesn't depend on me.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit to illuminate, to move on hearts and minds right now, Lord, that your word becomes so evident and so manifest in the room today, and we would all have an opportunity to respond to it, interact with your word, that it would uh uh uh be written on our hearts, reflected in our words, our thoughts, on our actions, Lord, that it would discern the intentions of our hearts, it would be a mirror.
SPEAKER_01: We'd be able to evaluate ourselves today because of your word, so evident in the room.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, more than anything else, we pray that every single individual and family represented in the sermon would have an opportunity to encounter, experience, and respond to you, to your word, to your saving grace, to that blood that we sang about earlier today.
SPEAKER_01: The redeeming blood, the healing blood, the saving blood, the reconciling blood, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Draw us closer to you.
SPEAKER_01: We love you today, Lord, and we thank you.
SPEAKER_01: We give you all the glory, honor, and praise.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name, everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I should probably I have notes too.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna talk about families a little bit today.
SPEAKER_01: That sounded bad.
SPEAKER_01: That sounded like not like, you know, alright, not gossip about families.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about families a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: God's family, our church family.
SPEAKER_01: But before we do that, I want to talk about our series.
SPEAKER_01: How many guys have enjoyed it?
SPEAKER_01: Our all-in, all flame series.
SPEAKER_01: Wanna kinda- yeah, it's been cool.
SPEAKER_01: I've I've enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01: Love Pastor Chris.
SPEAKER_01: You guys like Pastor Chris's message last week?
SPEAKER_01: Came up here like an old sage, like Merlin sitting on a hill with his little cane, his wand.
SPEAKER_01: So I have the seat up here, and then Pastor Chris sat in it, and now I feel like I'm not cool enough to do it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't have a reason.
SPEAKER_01: He had hip surgery and sat in the seat, and I'm just up here, just like, alright, I'm lazy, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I love the series, I've really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01: Also, all in all flame is written on the side of our building, so we feel like we owe you an explanation.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, all in all flame is our series.
SPEAKER_01: All in, I feel like nobody has a problem with, right?
SPEAKER_01: All in.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, we should be all in for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: My time, my resources, my energy should all go to the kingdom work, to the cause of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's an easy one.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you're like, all flame?
SPEAKER_01: Like arson.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, all flame?
SPEAKER_01: So I want to kind of like continue talking about that.
SPEAKER_01: And then today specifically, we can go to this first slide.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Dobby, David Willis in the back for doing stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We can give it up for him.
SPEAKER_01: My dear friend, we lived in neighboring apartment buildings for many, many years.
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't mean anything to you, but for him, this is gonna probably also mean nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Um, our first slide.
SPEAKER_01: Today we're gonna be talking about tongues of fire.
SPEAKER_01: This is very some of you guys just got fired up.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys remember that third week of AG Youth Camp, uh, Assemblies of God, where you were gonna speak in tongues no matter what, or else you weren't allowed to go home.
SPEAKER_01: Um, at least it was my experience.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but we love tongues of fire here in a charismatic, spirit-filled church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you knew that, or if I just ripped the band-aid off, or surprise, we're a charismatic church.
SPEAKER_01: We believe in the gifts of the spirit, we believe that they've continued and should continue, and the spirit moves on people and fills people for the purpose of kingdom ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And not in just like uh, oh, people are nicer.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about in supernatural ways.
SPEAKER_01: Where people are healed where they otherwise would not have been healed, where people are given visions and dreams and prophecies and prophetic words in order to encourage, in order to empower, and ultimately to build up the church.
SPEAKER_01: And tongues of fire is one that we really, really like.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, we like I like talking in tongues.
SPEAKER_01: You guys like talking in tongues?
SPEAKER_01: Such a silly thing to be fighting over, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's like, alright, you don't have to do it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like Wendy's crack chicken, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Like, alright, you don't have to have it, but it's really good.
SPEAKER_01: I like it.
SPEAKER_01: We like talking in tongues, but today we're gonna talk about a couple different kinds of uh uh um uh tongues of fire, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_01: I'll do the big reveal, the twist later on.
SPEAKER_01: But all flame is something that's kind of like, you know, should be specific to our our context or something that we are particularly familiar with in our kind of tradition or our kind of you know more Pentecostal leaning church.
SPEAKER_01: And all flame is really this that we understand as spirit-filled believers that yes, God is everywhere all the time, he's omnipresent, but he's not always everywhere in the same way.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, why would we be praying?
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, you're welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, come be here with us today.
SPEAKER_01: Please, Lord, move on the service, move on our worship, move in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: If he's everywhere, why would we be we be praying those things?
SPEAKER_01: It's because we know that God manifests himself in supernatural ways, in specific ways, in tangible ways, and physical way, physical ways.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody felt that this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't sound like it.
SPEAKER_01: That felt forced a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody feel or experience or encounter the manifest presence of God this morning?
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you could tell.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully you love it.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: And specifically with that manifest presence of God, when we see it in scripture, most often we see it depicted as a flame.
SPEAKER_01: And what does that flame do?
SPEAKER_01: It takes up an offering.
SPEAKER_01: It does.
SPEAKER_01: We see it in the law, we see it in Leviticus and Exodus that the people of God in Israel, uh, this is is this pop?
SPEAKER_01: What is this doing?
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, this is we're we're chill, this is, you know, I don't know if you could tell, this is not gonna be some like really like polished deal.
SPEAKER_01: So if at any point like I'm doing something embarrassing or there's something on my face, just like wave and be like, oh hey, you got, you know, you look dumb.
SPEAKER_01: Damani, you do it, please, help me.
SPEAKER_01: That God gives very specific instructions for how to give an offering, how to worship him, what the liturgy is, what the language is, what the words are, and then the people bring an offering together, a collective offering, and they lay it on an altar.
SPEAKER_01: And God provides the what?
SPEAKER_01: The fire.
SPEAKER_01: And the people tend the flame.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the service was about.
SPEAKER_01: We're providing an offering to God, our worship, not just a praise, not just a song, but every single part of us.
SPEAKER_01: Every part of my life, all in is what we do, all flame is who we are.
SPEAKER_01: Presenting my body as a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I don't just want what I do to be pleasing to you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't just want my ministry to be pleasing to you.
SPEAKER_01: I want every single part of me, every part of my intellect, every part of my mind, my will, my emotions, every my innermost thoughts, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let the meditations of my heart and the fruit of my lips be pleasing to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's what all flame is.
SPEAKER_01: Not just on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to just be able to be consumed on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a delight to the Lord every minute of every day of the week.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means to be all flame.
SPEAKER_01: That it's not just some position that I take or some sort of uh uh a part that I play.
SPEAKER_01: That I become my true self when I worship.
SPEAKER_01: When my life is worship and it's a living sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: That's what all flame is.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want to be.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want us to be.
SPEAKER_01: Is all flame.
SPEAKER_01: Always, always ready to be an offering to the Lord, always pleasing, always an acceptable sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: So this is our job is to tend the flame.
SPEAKER_01: We get the most immediate application to this, and one of our favorite chapters of the Bible, Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: This is the Pentecostal uh mantra, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys have only read this chapter in the Bible, and honestly, it's not a bad one to pick.
SPEAKER_01: We have it on the screen right here.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there we go.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 2, verses 1 through 4, and this is the tongues of fire.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us are familiar with this, and this is a good one.
SPEAKER_01: This is again one of these divine presence motifs or pictures.
SPEAKER_01: The divine presence of God manifesting as fire.
SPEAKER_01: And it says this when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as of fire appeared among them.
SPEAKER_01: And a tongue rested on each of them.
SPEAKER_01: All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say divided tongues as of fire.
SPEAKER_01: Now give you a little bit of context for this, and then also we're gonna jump to some other interconnected passages and hopefully give us more context than just Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: But this is the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: This is a holiday celebration, and every holiday has a place that you're supposed to go.
SPEAKER_01: Right on Christmas, you're supposed to be in New York, right?
SPEAKER_01: So you can see the tree.
SPEAKER_01: Pentecost, you're supposed to be in Jerusalem, so you can get filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Pentecost is a uh uh feast, a Jewish feast or a Jewish holiday from the people of Israel celebrating the giving of the law.
SPEAKER_01: That God spoke, he gave the law to Moses, and Moses stands on a mountain and gives the law to the people.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of sad because it doesn't really go all that well.
SPEAKER_01: If you guys remember, uh, you know, Moses comes down and the people aren't really doing what they're supposed to be doing, and God disciplines them, and 3,000 of them die.
SPEAKER_01: You guys remember this?
SPEAKER_01: That 3,000 people die when the law comes down, but thankfully here in Acts chapter 2, the Spirit comes down, and 3,000 people are saved.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Luke's drawing a direct parallel that the law comes down and death comes, the spirit comes down, fulfills the law, and life comes.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's plan of reconciling his people together.
SPEAKER_01: Um, also, more specifically, it seems like Luke is drawing another parallel here that we see, you know, all these people from all across the region, from from Judea, from Galilee, from even further away, the corners of the earth, come, and then these divided tongues of fire come down, and people go out and they're speaking in tongues, and people think they're drunk, but then they ask a question how is it that we each hear the gospel in our own language?
SPEAKER_01: So now it seems like Luke is drawing a parallel to that passage we referenced earlier, Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_01: That in rebellion the children of God rise up against him to make a name for themselves, and God divides the nations.
SPEAKER_01: He confuses their language and he divides the nations, and so everyone gets scattered.
SPEAKER_01: There's division.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say division.
SPEAKER_01: Division comes, and then here in Acts chapter 2, where God begins or fulfills this plan of unifying his family.
SPEAKER_01: He brings unity.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say unity.
SPEAKER_01: So this is Really, what we're getting at here.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm not going to be, you know, you know, super cagey about it.
SPEAKER_01: But where God previously divided, he has now harmonized.
SPEAKER_01: One language specifically for the purpose of kingdom ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And what we see here in Acts chapter 2, we see kingdom ministry happen.
SPEAKER_01: We see Peter give this amazing sermon.
SPEAKER_01: We see life come down on the people.
SPEAKER_01: We see this plan of reclaiming the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says before his ascension that I want you to go and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So this is this process of God reclaiming his family and reconciling his family.
SPEAKER_01: But if we can take one thing from this passage, right here in Acts chapter 2, with the contrast of the Tower of Babel, it seems like the primary function, the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit and these tongues of fire that come down in Acts chapter 2 in this upper room.
SPEAKER_01: The primary purpose is unity.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say unity.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we want to talk about today.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about unity.
SPEAKER_01: I know this is not maybe the normal thing that you hear when you talk about tongues of fire.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know what the nor I don't know if that is a normal thing.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like I, you know, I I don't know what you heard growing up or whatever it is, but today we're talking about a spirit-filled church is a unified church.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys need to hear that today.
SPEAKER_01: A spirit-filled church is a unified church.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, okay.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I'm acting like I'm gonna say something that's crazy.
SPEAKER_01: I already made the drug comment.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how powerful you think your spiritual gifts are.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how prophetic you say you are, how you can read people's mail, I don't care how big your platform is, I don't care how supernatural you think you are, if your primary function isn't pursuing a unified church, then you ain't Pentecostal.
SPEAKER_01: If your primary purpose isn't harmonizing and bringing the body of Christ together and building up the church, I don't care how often you speak in tongues, you ain't Pentecostal.
SPEAKER_01: And there's all these prophets, self-proclaimed prophets and apostles and and ministers that'll come to your church and say, Hey, how can I get on the stage?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I got a word for the people, hey, I got a ministry for the people, I operate in this function and that function, and you gotta hear me.
SPEAKER_01: And then as soon as you ask them to attend your membership class, as soon as you ask them to serve in a department, as soon as you ask them to actually build up the church, they don't want to be a part anymore.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, the Holy Spirit didn't come down to build your platform, the Holy Spirit came down to add to his church.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm telling you today that a spirit-filled church is a unified church.
SPEAKER_01: This is the last like positive part of the message.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to clap, now's the time.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of it, it's just going downhill from here.
SPEAKER_01: A spirit-filled church.
SPEAKER_01: Is anybody spirit-filled in the room?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe let's do this.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I remember growing up.
SPEAKER_01: This is so funny.
SPEAKER_01: I remember growing up, and you know, like, you know, we're in the South.
SPEAKER_01: You got people from all different traditions and all different walks of life.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: But this, you know, there's something that we do here in like the spirit-filled church where it's like, oh, you know, did you hear about so-and-so from the, you know, you know, from the Krispy Kreme, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like I heard she got I heard she got filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that wasn't a good example.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying not to say names, but has anybody ever grow up in a family where you find out about somebody that maybe went to a different denomination?
SPEAKER_01: Or one that kind of has maybe a different view of the gifts of the spirit or the fruits of the spirit of continuationism, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then you find out that, oops, somebody got filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody ever had that?
SPEAKER_01: Am I the only one?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lady on our street where mom was like, kept talking to her like while she was pushing her kids in the stroller, and then finally one day she came up, she's like, Don't tell anybody, but I got filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody experienced that?
SPEAKER_01: The purpose of that, spirit-filled believers, the reason why God gives us these gifts, the reason why he puts them here in this church, the reason why we operate them in an orderly fashion in service is to build up the church.
SPEAKER_01: When people come in destitute and burden and broken, gifts of the spirit are for recovery, for restoration.
SPEAKER_01: When people come into this church confused, gifts of the spirit are for clarity and unity.
SPEAKER_01: When people come into this church ready to be empowered for ministry, gifts of the Spirit exist for anointing, for the Spirit to move in and on people's lives for the purpose of building the church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna tell you this right now.
SPEAKER_01: There is no other plan.
SPEAKER_01: God is not building the church and then doing some side project over here in case the church fails.
SPEAKER_01: God is not like, hey, the church is going pretty good, but let me just like hedge my bets with some other, you know, secret plan.
SPEAKER_01: God is building the church that the gates of hell will not prevail against.
SPEAKER_01: And he's doing that through the moving, the inspiration, the temperance, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, often in supernatural manifestations of his presence.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, if you want to see a spirit-filled church, it better be a unified one.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what kind of gifts you say you operate in.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how sweaty your preacher gets on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna start saying names.
SPEAKER_01: I used to come home every day to my dad, had TVN on the TV, and there was some new guy in a three-piece suit, and I'm talking about he looked like he ran a marathon.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh, he need some electrolytes or like one of those backpacks to have the straw or something.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so what might get in the way of this church unity?
SPEAKER_01: What do we need to be aware of?
SPEAKER_01: What are some of the diagnostics that we need to do?
SPEAKER_01: What is the thing that's maybe hindering us from this?
SPEAKER_01: You know, tongues of fire came down to unify the church, to build up the church for ministry.
SPEAKER_01: What is maybe the thing that uh uh um, you know, is gonna get in the way?
SPEAKER_01: What do we need to be aware of?
SPEAKER_01: Tell a story about another, you know, uh grandfather in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Twenty years ago, even before my Holy Spirit class, Commander Dan Spiegelberg used to take the kids, the Royal Rangers, out into the parking lot of the hotel next door to the church.
SPEAKER_01: What was the hotel?
SPEAKER_01: The apartment, what was it next to the on university?
unknown: Sheridan.
SPEAKER_01: Sheridan, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: He used to take us in the park in the parking lot of the Sheridan and have us build bonfires.
SPEAKER_01: In the parking lot of the Sheridan, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is back when you could do stuff in church, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: Back when things were cool.
SPEAKER_01: You know, back when men were men, right?
SPEAKER_01: We were Royal Rangers.
SPEAKER_01: We used to go in the parking lot of the Sheridan, and he Commander Dan would make us build little bonfires, right?
SPEAKER_01: And it was cool.
SPEAKER_01: Now they have all these city ordinances and stuff, and it's boring.
SPEAKER_01: Can't shoot fireworks in the you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: That's specific.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, but I'm sorry about that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, so we used to go and build these fireworks, Commander Dan, and also too, man, he's alright, I'm gonna get emotional.
SPEAKER_01: I can't say Commander Dan again.
SPEAKER_01: Still taking care of our family.
SPEAKER_01: This is the grandparents' thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: Man, I'm so thankful for the inheritance that we have.
SPEAKER_01: So inheritance, oh man, alright, okay.
SPEAKER_01: We build shanty towns in the parking lot of the Sheridan, and we would just you know all be down there, you know, grilling hot dogs, you know, on these little things.
SPEAKER_01: But you know how he used to make us put the fires out?
SPEAKER_01: This is how he taught us to put the fires out.
SPEAKER_01: He would take a little stick and he would divide the fire, and he would push the logs of the fire away from each other, and then the fire would go out.
SPEAKER_01: You want the fire in this church to go out, start sowing division.
SPEAKER_01: The presence, the experience, the encounter that you had this morning that was available and evident in the room.
SPEAKER_01: You want that manifest presence to leave this room so fast, start sowing division.
SPEAKER_01: Start sowing seeds.
SPEAKER_01: Start whispering.
SPEAKER_01: Start building alliances.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: I told you it was going straight.
SPEAKER_01: That was a stark contrast.
SPEAKER_01: Put the spirit-filled one back up.
SPEAKER_01: Hold on, yeah, there it is.
SPEAKER_01: Or being silly.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was Commander Dan taught me what the greatest enemy of the church is.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest enemy of the church is division.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not atheism, it's not, you know, you know, YouTube videos, it's not, you know, college professors.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's what I grew up, you know, hearing.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, you know, and obviously, there's some bad ones, you know, like that's not what I'm getting at.
SPEAKER_01: But I grew up, you know, you know, hearing in school, it's like, all right, that those are the ones that are gonna get you.
SPEAKER_01: No, the enemy of the church is division.
SPEAKER_01: That's all that's what it's always been since the beginning, and I'll explain it here in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But but the interesting part, and this is one of the parallels that I want to draw, is that often it seems like the enemy wants to fight fire with fire.
SPEAKER_01: So we talked about tongues of fire being the greatest unifier of the church.
SPEAKER_01: But how does the enemy fight fire with fire?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go to James chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a slide, this is a test.
SPEAKER_01: So everyone open your Bibles and turn it to James chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Go quick, go quick.
SPEAKER_01: Turn the turn on.
SPEAKER_01: You do people still have tabs on their Bibles?
SPEAKER_01: Remember the little tabs?
SPEAKER_01: Oof, man, that was a game changer during the Assemblies of God youth camp.
SPEAKER_01: Because they ask you to go and just, you know.
SPEAKER_01: This is what James chapter 3 says.
SPEAKER_01: Listen very closely to this.
SPEAKER_01: Follow along if you can, because this is gonna be kind of like our primary text for today, and this is what we're really gonna look at.
SPEAKER_01: And look at the the you know um contrast between the tongues of fire in Acts chapter 2 and what we're gonna see right here in James chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: This is what James says.
SPEAKER_01: How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire, and the tongue is a fire.
SPEAKER_01: The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: It stains the whole body, it sets on fire the cycle of nature, and it is itself set on fire by hell.
SPEAKER_01: For every spirit every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed.
SPEAKER_01: But no one can tame the tongue.
SPEAKER_01: A restless evil full of deadly poison.
SPEAKER_01: With it, listen to this with it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.
SPEAKER_01: With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.
SPEAKER_01: From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, my brothers and sisters, this ought not be so.
SPEAKER_01: Does the spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and brackish water?
SPEAKER_01: Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives or a grapevine figs?
SPEAKER_01: No more can salt water yield flesh fresh.
SPEAKER_01: I hope it's not yielding flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, with it we bless with our tongues, with our tongues of fire.
SPEAKER_01: We bless our Lord and Father, and we curse those who are made in his image.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you this question: Is your fire building or is it burning?
SPEAKER_01: That these same many of us, and listen, you know, I'll explain how guilty I am in a second, but many of us have claimed to be spirit-filled, claim to be Pentecostal, claim to be on fire for God, you know, doing the work of the ministry, praying for people in the Whole Foods parking lot, you know, speaking in tongues, doing all the things that we know to do, and meanwhile, we're burning the church down from the inside by talking about people behind their backs.
SPEAKER_01: By sowing seeds of division and by using our tongue of fire, not for unity, but to burn the church down.
SPEAKER_01: Are you building or are you burning?
SPEAKER_01: I want to say this too, if I'm not clear enough, that your words matter.
SPEAKER_01: Your words matter.
SPEAKER_01: I have a friend who's a Bible scholar in South Africa, reminded me today in an article that he wrote that we see how important words are from the very beginning, because words can create and words can destroy.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know that words can create?
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, Word created, and even more specifically, God spoke.
SPEAKER_01: And it was.
SPEAKER_01: Words matter.
SPEAKER_01: Gossip and slander is what divides the church and quenches the fire.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I want to say too, before anybody gets nervous, because this sounds like a very like, you know, preachy at you message.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about any of you.
SPEAKER_01: This is just me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just talking about myself.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you about my sins and the bad things that.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, let me say it like this.
SPEAKER_01: If you are in this room today, I have talked about you behind your back.
SPEAKER_01: First time guests, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as you walked in, I talked to Max.
SPEAKER_01: I walked over to I was like, hey, did you see that person that just walked in?
SPEAKER_01: Some weird-looking people in here, huh?
SPEAKER_01: No, but I do want to do this because a lot of people get nervous, or it's so funny what happens, especially in sermons that maybe might be more on like the you know conviction angle or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's so funny.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm this way, right?
SPEAKER_01: So again, don't think I'm talking about you, but how often we start thinking about like the other people that do the thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh great, we're talking about gossip today.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot wait for so-and-so to hear this message.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, great, we're talking about division in the church today.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot wait for Sudaker.
SPEAKER_01: He's been sowing seeds for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, I just pray right now that you would convict him.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone?
SPEAKER_01: Am I the only one?
SPEAKER_01: It's getting quieter and quieter in here.
SPEAKER_01: I know I took a real quick turn, but can we all just be honest for a second and just say, Lord, help me evaluate myself?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not thinking about anybody else in the room, and I'm not thinking about anybody else at home or on the internet.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help me evaluate myself.
SPEAKER_01: And so right now, put on my spiritual blinders.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna elbow my husband or wife.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to look around the room.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, show me where I have an unbridled tongue.
SPEAKER_01: Show me where I've spoken unfairly about somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Show me where I've incidentally or intentionally sown division in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Because right now, as a spirit-filled believer, filled with the power and presence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Lord, right now, we seek unity.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what that's gonna take?
SPEAKER_01: Self-evaluation.
SPEAKER_01: I don't like it either.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be honest.
SPEAKER_01: I would rather it just be somebody else evaluate me, maybe send it to me in an email, something.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, my wife says no.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: That's true, though.
SPEAKER_01: I really don't.
SPEAKER_01: Please, if I've done something, don't come up to me and tell me after service.
SPEAKER_01: Wait till tomorrow or something.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: And also, too, like I'm not just being silly.
SPEAKER_01: This whole message, this whole concept, this whole conviction came literally within weeks of today, a specific example where I did this.
SPEAKER_01: We had people over at the house, and you know, I don't even know where it came from.
SPEAKER_01: It came from me.
SPEAKER_01: It came from me, I know where it came from.
SPEAKER_01: You know, talking about somebody that wasn't in the room.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the best part it was just a joke.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it always?
SPEAKER_01: I was just goofing around.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hey, you know, did you hear about what so-and-so did?
SPEAKER_01: That is hilarious.
SPEAKER_01: What a what a hilarious blunder they made.
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that is so embarrassing.
SPEAKER_01: And then we start talking about it in the room.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, my wife the Saint is like, I don't think we should do this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, come on.
SPEAKER_01: We're just joking.
SPEAKER_01: And then it was a couple days later where uh uh you know this conversation had gotten further than the conversation, almost like a fire.
SPEAKER_01: And a very real conflict had emerged out of the conversation that I started in my very own home.
SPEAKER_01: And it was at that moment where I realized, oh, this wasn't a joke.
SPEAKER_01: It's never a joke.
SPEAKER_01: We're just goofing around, we're all having a good time, right?
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: This is all fun.
SPEAKER_01: We often think or act like it's no big deal, it's just a joke, or even worse, we mask it as ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, have you heard about so-and-so?
SPEAKER_01: We should pray for them.
SPEAKER_01: Are you hearing me this morning?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to do this either.
SPEAKER_01: This is how it damages the church.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever noticed that we don't gossip about our enemies?
SPEAKER_01: No one was sitting around like, hey, do we hear about Hitler?
SPEAKER_01: Somebody should stop that guy.
SPEAKER_01: He's not a nice guy, he's not good.
SPEAKER_01: No one does that.
SPEAKER_01: We only gossip about our friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ, the people that we worship with on Sundays and Wednesdays and whenever, the people that we go to mission trips with.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the only people that we gossip about.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the only people we slander behind their backs are our friends and our brothers and sisters of Christ, made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if so many Christians deconstructed a few years ago because they got treated better as non-believers.
SPEAKER_01: It's so funny that Paul made specific prescriptions to do good to those, especially the household of faith.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds so weird.
SPEAKER_01: Do good especially to people in the church?
SPEAKER_01: But now look at us.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that we only gossip about our friends?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that we only slander our brothers and sisters in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: This is why, because a relationship built on gossip is not a friendship, it's an alliance.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody have like those friends where it's like, I mean, immediate?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hey, how you doing?
SPEAKER_01: You know, oh it's a great, you know, it's a great day.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, cool.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, what do you got for me?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, come on.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone else?
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody have those for I I need this, guys.
SPEAKER_01: I need a little bit of hand wave or something, because I'm really out on a limb here today.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about gossip and slander in the church.
SPEAKER_01: This is not like, you know, honestly, I should have just spoken tongues.
SPEAKER_01: I should have just done a cla classic Pentecostal message.
SPEAKER_01: You have those friends where it's like, all we do is talk about people.
SPEAKER_01: All we do is gossip, all we do is talk about absent brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, that is not a friendship, that is not a community, that is not a fellowship, that isn't a faction, that is an alliance that you have built.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: To protect yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you need an alliance?
SPEAKER_01: Insecure?
SPEAKER_01: About my own identity, about my family, and about my church community.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I need this alliance in case the others turn on me.
SPEAKER_01: I need this alliance in case my identity isn't what I thought it was.
SPEAKER_01: I need this faction, I need this group that I know is my group.
SPEAKER_01: Just in case the other ones turn or leave, or are absent or don't meet my expectations.
SPEAKER_01: I need at least one.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes these alliances don't even, you know, come straight out of gossip.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it comes from preferences.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe ministry preferences or denominational preferences.
SPEAKER_01: Or it's like, yeah, I know they do things this way, but this is how I like to do things, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: Or I wish we had a church that did more.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you?
SPEAKER_01: I'm my face is gonna get stuck like that.
SPEAKER_01: Keep doing that, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Also, I don't think the light goes good on my forehead like that.
SPEAKER_01: So the church is not divided by anarchy, it's divided by alliances.
SPEAKER_01: Alliances are not built on faith or formation, but information.
SPEAKER_01: Information.
SPEAKER_01: And it's so sad that it seems like in the modern church, information has become our most popular currency.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what do you know about so-and-so?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what are they planning to do next month?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what's Vision Sunday gonna be about?
SPEAKER_01: It's not bad to ask those questions, but isn't it funny?
SPEAKER_01: Like, where's that motivation coming from?
SPEAKER_01: Where's that predisposition that I need to know the inside scoop?
SPEAKER_01: I need to know the secret knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: This is what threatened the church since its inception, so don't feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: This was always the case.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, since Jesus' time, alliances and factions within the church, gossip and slander within the church, this desire for secret knowledge within the church has always been the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: This tongue of fire.
SPEAKER_01: That's why they wrote about it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not just making this stuff up.
SPEAKER_01: We read it.
SPEAKER_01: James did it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not me.
SPEAKER_01: Factions were built on secret knowledge about God or the world.
SPEAKER_01: There's this early church heresy called Gnosticism, right?
SPEAKER_01: Gnosis meaning knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: So literally, like these huge factions inside of the church that are like, yeah, I know the pastor's saying this, but did you know what I know?
SPEAKER_01: Did you know what I heard?
SPEAKER_01: That there's this secret information.
SPEAKER_01: You never met somebody that like they learned something or they watched a YouTube video and that became the most important thing ever?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, did you hear about Christmas?
SPEAKER_01: It's like, man, if your church puts up Christmas decorations, you're a pagan.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's like Shark Week is next.
SPEAKER_01: I know we've made that joke.
SPEAKER_01: Shark Week is pagan.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Toyotathon.
SPEAKER_01: They're all pagan holidays.
SPEAKER_01: But today that same predisposition manifests in the form of secret knowledge about people.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear what so-and-so did or what so-and-so said?
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: Your faction may be built on your philosophy or your style of ministry or even your department.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I serve in kids.
SPEAKER_01: Will I serve on the prayer team?
SPEAKER_01: Will I serve on the worship team?
SPEAKER_01: And we do things this way.
SPEAKER_01: Are you part of a ministry or are you part of a church?
SPEAKER_01: Is your identity built on some function that you perform on a Sunday?
SPEAKER_01: Or is your identity a son or a daughter of God?
SPEAKER_01: Is your identity made in the image, in the likeness of God?
SPEAKER_01: If that's your identity, it doesn't matter what instrument I play.
SPEAKER_01: If that's your identity, I don't have to preserve myself inside of my department.
SPEAKER_01: As a pastor, hey, let me say this from the pulpit, right?
SPEAKER_01: Pastors know this.
SPEAKER_01: Oh well, these are my people.
SPEAKER_01: Who?
SPEAKER_01: Whose?
SPEAKER_01: Whose people are you?
SPEAKER_01: Were you baptized in the name of Apollos or Paul?
SPEAKER_01: Or were you baptized into one faith, one baptism, one community, one church?
SPEAKER_01: What are we doing here?
SPEAKER_01: And it sounds so like, of course, but you see, even I'm saying it right here.
SPEAKER_01: That was written in the first century.
SPEAKER_01: Whose ministry are you a part of?
SPEAKER_01: Who baptized you?
SPEAKER_01: Whose shirt do you wear?
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Are we a spirit-filled church or not?
SPEAKER_01: Are we a church that's secure in our identity or not?
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: I get a raspy voice doing this, and I won't be able to yell at my kids this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: And that's important.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, we'll keep it moving.
SPEAKER_01: We'll keep it moving.
SPEAKER_01: I'm golly.
SPEAKER_01: I did too much of the crockpot chicken jokes.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, I'll say this.
SPEAKER_01: Um, in the early church, fourth century, you know, one of the great fathers of the faith, Saint Augustine, uh, famously had an inscription on his table.
SPEAKER_01: So this is fourth century, so early, early on, this is the how long they've been dealing with this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: He had an inscription written on his table.
SPEAKER_01: His table in his home.
SPEAKER_01: People would come over.
SPEAKER_01: He was the bishop in North Africa of, you know, pretty much, you know, the city of Hippo, but you know, really a big part of the region.
SPEAKER_01: He was one of the most influential church fathers.
SPEAKER_01: He had an inscription written on his table.
SPEAKER_01: And this is my practical thing.
SPEAKER_01: I often get chided for not having like practical application.
SPEAKER_01: All right, here's a practical thing.
SPEAKER_01: I am doing this when I get home.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, he had an inscription written on his table.
SPEAKER_01: It was in Latin, but there's two common English translations.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: This is Augustine.
SPEAKER_01: One of the translations says this, inscribed on the table.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever loves another's name to wound, this table is no place for such a one.
SPEAKER_01: There was another translation.
SPEAKER_01: It says this He who speaks evil of an absent man or woman is not welcome at this table.
SPEAKER_01: His biographer told a story about him where people were over at his house and they started talking about somebody that wasn't there.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Augustine said.
SPEAKER_01: This is the type of conviction that I'm believing for, that I'm praying for, that I am personally asking for, and then I'm personally believing to drive and build and foster unity in the church.
SPEAKER_01: This is the type of conviction.
SPEAKER_01: So these people are at Augustine's house and they're talking about somebody that's not there.
SPEAKER_01: And he said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, either these lines must be removed from this table, or I must leave.
SPEAKER_01: Either the inscription on my table must be removed, or I won't be here.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, right now we ask that you will move on our hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_01: That you would strengthen us, you would strengthen our conscience, you would strengthen our minds, you would strengthen our conviction, Lord, Holy Spirit, to foster unity in your church.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: This brings up another question.
SPEAKER_01: I'm moving quickly.
SPEAKER_01: We're fine.
SPEAKER_01: Don't look at the clock.
SPEAKER_01: This watch is broken, by the way, so that's what happened.
SPEAKER_01: It's been, what is that, 9.15 for like two years.
SPEAKER_01: So all right, this is a real question, though, alright?
SPEAKER_01: Because now we've opened it up, we've talked about the big, you know, questions, but what about this?
SPEAKER_01: What if I need to confide in somebody?
SPEAKER_01: What if I just need to talk to somebody, right?
SPEAKER_01: What if it's my spouse, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's another thing.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Or what if, you know, I'm really dealing with something, I'm struggling with something, and I need instruction.
SPEAKER_01: There's two cultures that I see battling today because there are two sides, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's two cultures that I see battling, and often it manifests in particular demographics.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you'll be familiar with some of them.
SPEAKER_01: But there's like the tough it out culture, right?
SPEAKER_01: Don't ask questions.
SPEAKER_01: Just do it, keep your head down.
SPEAKER_01: If something bothers you, tough.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody kind of familiar with that?
SPEAKER_01: Ethos, that mentality in the church?
SPEAKER_01: And then there's the uh, and this, again, that culture can lead to abuse, manipulation.
SPEAKER_01: There's another culture, maybe a little bit newer in the church, it's kind of like a more self-care predisposition.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: This is like the the protect myself at all costs.
SPEAKER_01: And you save myself, right?
SPEAKER_01: Remove myself, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: And this can often lead to spiritual narcissism or just straight up division.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus deals with this in a few passages in his fulfillment of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: So Moses stands on a mountain and gives the law.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus stands on a mountain in Matthew chapter 5 through 7 or whatever it is, and he fulfills the law in very clear language.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to look at three passages that are kind of, you know, really, real quickly are on the same slide.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus stands on this mountain and fulfills it.
SPEAKER_01: First one is this, Matthew 5.23.
SPEAKER_01: So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.
SPEAKER_01: First be reconciled, and then come offer your gift.
SPEAKER_01: This is reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: The next one.
SPEAKER_01: But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: And then this last one, I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I want to point out of these verses.
SPEAKER_01: We're very familiar with these.
SPEAKER_01: And in the tension of these two cultural extremes, Jesus prioritizes two things: reconciliation and resilience.
SPEAKER_01: Reconciliation and resilience.
SPEAKER_01: There needs to be a great move in the church.
SPEAKER_01: There needs to be a great move in our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, place it on my heart to reconcile, to bring to be one who doesn't divide but unifies.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, give me a resolve that I'm not some weak Christian.
SPEAKER_01: That I have the Spirit of God inside me.
SPEAKER_01: We did an experiment in Kingdom Heights this year.
SPEAKER_01: Dan Jackson helped me with this last part.
SPEAKER_01: The dean of formation, you know, one of my dear friends, but we did an experiment in our chapel services in Kingdom Heights this year.
SPEAKER_01: And it was Matthew 18, right?
SPEAKER_01: You guys familiar with Matthew 18?
SPEAKER_01: This is classic.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 18.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody, you know, offends you, go to them.
SPEAKER_01: If they don't listen, bring a witness.
SPEAKER_01: So we did this because we didn't want the kids to gossip in school.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Ballard Weaver was like, hey, no more gossiping.
SPEAKER_01: You know, go talk to them if they offended you.
SPEAKER_01: Almost immediately it failed.
SPEAKER_01: Not because they wouldn't talk, because they talked about everything.
SPEAKER_01: So Matthew 18 very quickly turned into what I call the grievance Olympics.
SPEAKER_01: So instead of your brother offended you, it's like, no, you just look offensive.
SPEAKER_01: Or you did this thing, you did this thing, or you did that thing, or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: And it was just like every single thing that came to mind.
SPEAKER_01: I say I see this with Matthew 18 all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It's like you said something that I don't like, so not only am I going to stir up conflict with you, I'm going to bring witnesses along.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, how many churches have we seen collapse because of an allergy to healthy confrontation?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so here are the two, you know, this last little thing that we'll look at.
SPEAKER_01: There's kind of two maybe mantras, maybe that your family grew up with one or the other, uh, that I think or two tensions that we can hold as we pursue this church unity together.
SPEAKER_01: And this kind of comes with our language, our words, the words that matter, and the way that we talk to each other, the way that we interact with each other, and the way that we pursue unity and avoid division at all costs.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so your family might have had one of these primary stances, and it's these right here.
SPEAKER_01: Honesty is the best policy, right?
SPEAKER_01: Or if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody get married and you find you know quickly found out your spouse was from a completely different.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, if you don't have anything nice to say, I'm just gonna hold it to myself.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, I'll give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: My dad is from Staten Island, New York.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if he orders a steak medium rare and it comes back medium, it's going back.
SPEAKER_01: Me?
SPEAKER_01: If I would order a steak medium rare, you could send me an octopus and I'm probably gonna eat it.
SPEAKER_01: Were any other millennials so traumatized by their parents' behavior at restaurants?
SPEAKER_01: Am I the only one?
SPEAKER_01: I'm the only one.
SPEAKER_01: Millennials literally had to invent DoorDash to remove uncomfortable situations from restaurants.
SPEAKER_01: The amount of times my father just mortified me.
SPEAKER_01: He's watching too, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: You did this to me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because there's two different values, two different predispositions, but are both right or both wrong?
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at them.
SPEAKER_01: Honesty is the best policy.
SPEAKER_01: Surely this is right all the time.
SPEAKER_01: The strength here is reconciliation, confrontation.
SPEAKER_01: You can never heal a broken relationship that nobody knows is broken.
SPEAKER_01: If we can't learn how to be honest with love and with salt and with grace in the church, then we will never heal or we'll have false unity.
SPEAKER_01: But can't it be right all the time?
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Honesty is always the best policy?
SPEAKER_01: Always?
SPEAKER_01: Fellas.
SPEAKER_01: Never mind, never mind.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, okay, listen.
SPEAKER_01: I'll flip it.
SPEAKER_01: Look, would it do anybody any good if my wife, while I was walking on stage, was like, ah, you don't really look that great.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter if it's true.
SPEAKER_01: Is that really the best time to tell me and the best way to tell me?
SPEAKER_01: And I know.
SPEAKER_01: Honesty is the best policy until your preference takes priority over a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: So let's ask ourselves this question.
SPEAKER_01: If that's my predisposition, honesty is the best policy.
SPEAKER_01: Question, does this offense, did this offend my conscience or my pride?
SPEAKER_01: So so often we'll be like, ah, I gotta go talk to so-and-so.
SPEAKER_01: They offended me.
SPEAKER_01: Did they?
SPEAKER_01: Or did they just say something that you didn't think met your expectation of yourself?
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you two quick examples from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Everyone likes to quote Jesus flipping the tables of the money changers.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was real quick to confront.
SPEAKER_01: But no one likes to quote Jesus when he's on trial and accusations of being hurled at him and he's being chided and he's being lied about and he's being slandered and he gives no response.
SPEAKER_01: That's not often talked about.
SPEAKER_01: Does this offend my pride or my conscience?
SPEAKER_01: Was there an injustice?
SPEAKER_01: Or am I just hurt?
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
SPEAKER_01: The strength here is resilience.
SPEAKER_01: We need resilient Christians that know how to love through people saying silly things.
SPEAKER_01: We need resilient Christians who don't get freaked out by every Facebook post.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people that are just, you know, I'm not gonna say anything at all.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna keep going through life.
SPEAKER_01: But let me ask you this question because we'll often say this.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm just staying in my lane.
SPEAKER_01: My leadership did this, I'm just gonna stay in my lane.
SPEAKER_01: Or somebody, I saw somebody else do this, I'm just gonna stay in my lane.
SPEAKER_01: Am I staying in my lane, or am I passing someone in a ditch?
SPEAKER_01: You remember the story of the good Samaritan?
SPEAKER_01: There were Pharisees and teachers and preachers and famous people who were staying in their lane.
SPEAKER_01: But it was the Samaritan that got out of their lane to help somebody that was in need.
SPEAKER_01: So the weakness here, false unity, will continue to be silent until it costs somebody something.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so how do we orient these two predispositions?
SPEAKER_01: And we'll close with this, if Nick could come to the keys.
SPEAKER_01: If only there's a value or a fruit that could help us bridle the tongue.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at it.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
SPEAKER_01: Something that could help us bridle the tongue or orient the way that we talk to other believers.
SPEAKER_01: If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, that's if I talk in tongues or in regular language, but do not have love.
SPEAKER_01: But do not have love.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say love.
SPEAKER_01: I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.
SPEAKER_01: And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
SPEAKER_01: If I give away all my possessions and hand over even my body so that I might boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll go to these last two quotes right here, if you're wondering what I mean by love.
SPEAKER_01: Because the question here is what's my motivation?
SPEAKER_01: If I'm saying something, if I'm not saying something.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna tell you if it's right or wrong.
SPEAKER_01: What's my motivation?
SPEAKER_01: Is it preservation?
SPEAKER_01: Is it myself?
SPEAKER_01: Is it my spiritual narcissism?
SPEAKER_01: Am I not saying something because I'm afraid of confrontation or what people might think of me?
SPEAKER_01: What's my motivation?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's gotta be love.
SPEAKER_01: This is what St.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas Aquinas says that love is.
SPEAKER_01: Love is to will the good of the other.
SPEAKER_01: And the even better quote, I would argue, is from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful, I mean it's perfect.
SPEAKER_01: It's perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Because laying down your life might look like keeping silent when somebody's wounded you, when somebody insulted you or embarrassed you.
SPEAKER_01: It also might look like speaking up for somebody when an injustice has been committed.
SPEAKER_01: This is perfect.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about fulfilling Pentecost, fulfilling this Old Testament, fulfilling the law.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how does Jesus fulfill the law?
SPEAKER_01: These two commandments, summoned by the entire law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: If only it could be that simple.
SPEAKER_01: Let's bow our heads across the room.
SPEAKER_01: I end with this greatest fruit of the Spirit, love.
SPEAKER_01: I want to ask myself, want us to ask across the church, have we lost our culture of love?
SPEAKER_01: Have our priorities shifted from love to preference, preservation, or popularity?
SPEAKER_01: If love doesn't once again preside over our services, our ministries, our politics, we can't maintain unity.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot tend the flame.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, right now we ask that, first off, you would seal on our hearts your word, your thoughts, your predispositions, Lord, your heart for us, for our families, for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: As you can continue to move on hearts, move on consciences, move on minds, that you continue to mold us into who you want us to be.
SPEAKER_01: You would continue to draw us to conviction, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Holy conviction out of love.
SPEAKER_01: But Lord, more than anything, this morning, we pray that love would abound.
SPEAKER_01: In this room, we pray that love would abound, that love would increase, love would grow in us individually, in us corporately, in our families, love between spouses, love between fathers and mothers and children and grandparents, love between friends, love towards enemies, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Love towards the people in this room, love towards the people that are far off.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we pray that you will move on our hearts and provoke us to love.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we pray that we'll be reflected in our language, reflected in our words, reflected in the way that we conduct ourselves, reflected in the way that we pursue unity today.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: We'd be careful to give you all the glory, all of the honor, and all of the praise.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, if you're here today and you need prayer, and I want to ask this if we can have a prayer team come forward.
SPEAKER_01: I know I've gone a little bit over, and you know, obviously we can go get kids and go leave, but I want a prayer team to come forward.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna ask for a couple things specifically.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe if there's something in this message that provoked you or maybe moved on your heart and you're like, hey, say, I need prayer today.
SPEAKER_01: There's something in my heart, there's something, you know, that love thing is difficult for me.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I want you to come forward and we want to pray for you today.
SPEAKER_01: And also, too, what we talked about at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: If there's something in your family, if you want to stand in for your family today, if you want to believe supernaturally for restoration, reconciliation in your family today, we want to pray for you, I want to ask you to come forward.
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of us, let's stand up.
SPEAKER_01: And you can come forward at any time.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna wait, we're not gonna do a big you know, call or anything like that, but we have prayer people up here right now.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to pray for restoration in your family for a prodigal son or daughter or a grandchild, uh, and then also if you want to pray for that love to be stirred, be provoked, or anything, anything that you need.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we love you today.
SPEAKER_01: We give you all the glory, honor, and praise.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, thank you, thank you for your presence already in this room all day, all morning, and Lord, we pray that we continue to tend the flame as we go today.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impact.
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