Risen For A Reason | Claire Buntrock

In this Sunday evening word from Glorious Way Church, 2 Corinthians 5 and Ezekiel 37 are brought together to reveal that every born-again believer has not only been raised to new life but has been given a ministry of reconciliation to help bring that same life to a broken and hurting world. Just as God breathed on the valley of dry bones and raised up an exceedingly great army, believers are being assembled, connected, and equipped to function as the body of Christ in the earth, not as spectators but as active participants in what God is doing. Drawing from the power of real community, the message calls the church to move beyond just occupying a seat and into genuine relationships where burdens are shared, truth is spoken, and love compels every interaction, knowing that a church walking in love and unity is the very thing God will use to bring revival to a generation desperate for hope.

Transcript

Opening Prayer And Expectation

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Take out your Bible if you would, and if you have one tonight, lift it up. You can even stand up one more time so that your blood can flow, you know, in there. So, why don't you just say this after me? So, Lord, I love your word. I'm here to let it change my heart. I'm here to learn how to do it. I'm here to let your spirit breathe on it and make it come alive in me. Tonight I will receive something good from you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, well, we have set in high expectation. Um,

Risen For A Reason

SPEAKER_00 0:42

so this has been rolling around in my heart today, and my title of tonight's message is Risen for a Reason. And we're going to talk about, you know, my dad touched on the believers' ministry this morning. You have a ministry. Um, you were once dead in your sin. If you and if you were a born-again believer, now you are raised to newness of life. The old person who committed every sin against God is now dead. That nature that wanted to uh war against God, that craved things that were sinful, now has been put to death, and you are a new creation. So turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5. And uh, this was once my dad's favorite scripture. I don't know if he has a favorite one anymore, but he did. He used to always quote this because uh we did see it come to life in him when he was 33 years old, and I was seven years old. And uh I saw that when he became a new creature in Christ. So here it is. It says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Everybody say that's me. Uh new creation, of course, is the same word, it's a Greek word metamorphoo. It is the same word we use like for a butterfly that used to be a caterpillar, something completely new. And when we dedicate our life to the Lord Jesus Christ, he does that in us. He made we're born again. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. And now, uh so then so the first step is we we entered his kingdom. Praise God, we're brand new little newborn babies, and we need to grow our spirits. But then, but then immediately something else happened. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself. So we were once afar off from him, and now we can come into his presence as perfect. I mean, we might might not be perfect on the outside, but on the inside, we've been our spirits are renewed.

New Creation And Reconciliation Ministry

SPEAKER_00 2:39

So now he's reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Everybody say, I have a ministry. So because you have been reconciled to God, now your new ministry is to help other people now be reconciled to him and everything that that means. It's an awesome responsibility, but thank God He He didn't leave you by yourself to do it. He's given you the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, uh, not imputing their trespasses to them. In other words, you know, you you charged up a big old bill of sin with God, and Jesus said, I'm not gonna charge you. I'm gonna mark paid in full. I'm gonna pay the price for that with my blood. And uh, so it's not imputing your trespasses against you, and has committed it to us the word of reconciliation. Everybody say, I have the word. So he gave you a ministry and he gave you the word or logos in the Greek, or a decree, a mandate, an order, moral precepts given by God. Those are all things that you can though that that's a word that God gave you. He gave you this as your manual, your guidebook. Every and and everything in nature, everything in the universe works according to the power of this word. And uh, and and so he gave you the word of reconciliation that he raised you up, and then he gave you this this ministry and this word. And uh, and so a lot of people, and I see this in church, and that's what one of the things that motivated me, I think. I a lot of us we are believing God for a miracle. Because we bel we know God can work miracles. We've seen him work miracles sometimes for ourselves in the past, sometimes for somebody else, and we say, ah, God, miracle working God, miracles, miracles, miracles. And we are waiting for God to part the Red Sea or appear to us in a pillar of fire by night, in a cloud by day. And he did all of those things in the Word, and He has had some miraculous guidance. I can tell you some stories. But at the same time, write this account down. God uses people. Yes, God works miracles, and but yes, he also uses people. That means he uses you. All of the miracles that we need in our society, in our country, in in your workplace, in your family, in all around us. Who is God going to use to enact those miracles? If we just pray and beg him enough, is he going to sovereignly come down and send angels to change the world? He already sent Jesus. And we are his hands and feet. We are who God uses. Um, so it's wonderful to pray. We should pray for our nation, we should pray for our friends, we should pray for ourselves, we should seek to always align ourselves and truly be reconciled to Christ and the Word in all the parts of our lives. You know, some of us are working on it. Some of us got some things really good in one area, but there's another area that we're struggling in, and we just need to reconcile ourselves to God in that hidden space where we don't want to tell anybody about it. And uh, to be fully reconciled with God, um, you know, He receives us with open arms where we can come boldly before the throne of grace, but there's a process of sanctification where we have to kind of get rid of some bad habits, some insecurities, some broken places. And um, you know, in church, we are so good at speaking the word over our broken places and just declaring the word, and that is really great. And we're and also focusing on our strengths, you know. But if you went to a physical therapist today, Miss Teresa's going to one, camera soon, you know, she's she's working on her back. She got a pain in her back, and so she's gonna go in there. And they're not gonna come in, you know. When she walks in, they're not gonna say, Wow, Teresa, look at your shoulder. It is really working really great. And so they're gonna pat her on the back and send her out. She didn't come there for her shoulder. Yes, she's doing good in her shoulder, but she's got pain down here. So what are they gonna do? They're gonna work on that area. And uh, and so God's word is yes, he is encouraging for that, he sees what you're doing right, praise God, but sometimes he's gonna touch that place where you need help. And that's what the word does when we come to church, and that's what when we say God uses people, what if God uses a person to help you work on that thing that you are that that hurts? That part that's insecure. What if God uses a person? What if God uses you to help somebody else? What if that doesn't always make them in a good mood when you notice that or help them with that? What if they're not ready for you? Then you have to just follow the Holy Spirit. But these are these are these are places that we're gonna have to get better at here in the kingdom of God because um we have a we have a world that has some really broken people. Many of us are here in church tonight because we're we know that we need Jesus to help us. We're not here because we're perfect and we're on display. We're here because, man, I mean, people especially, you know, people walk in as as guests sometimes, and you do not know the story that drove drew them to church today. You do not know what hell has broken loose in their lives and why they are so desperate for the Lord. And but you know what? You have a ministry of reconciliation. You can help bring that part of them that's broken to the Lord and so that it can be bound and set and healed. Jesus said, I mean, the uh the Psalm says he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Yes, God does that, and he uses people. He uses you. Um, okay, so then so it so you've been made alive. You are a new creature. You were uh Ephesians 2, 1 said, and you has he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Uh being a Christian is not just about being a good person, it's about being a dead person who is now raised to life. Uh we can never be good enough in our own strength. Never. We can never be perfect because God, his heavenly creation is perfect, and we would never fit in there. We would never fit in there in our own strength. We have to die to all of our own effort, and we have to plead the blood, as James said. We have to say, you know what, I can't do it, but Jesus already did it for me. He was perfect, and I'm going to claim what he did and make it mine. And now I am worthy to look face to face to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and I can come to his throne room and I can commune with him because of the blood of Jesus that covers my sin, that wiped it away. That wiped away not only my sin, but my guilty conscience of it. I am free. Praise God. All right, so um, so we're dead people that have been made alive, and we have now we have this ministry to help other people be alive and be healed. And um, and so uh, and and then I want to, and I'm gonna go, I'm gonna make a leap here, and we're gonna go to uh don't worry, it does relate. Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s Valley Of Dry Bones

SPEAKER_00 10:35

37. We're talking about dry, uh dead, dead things that that come alive, and we're we're one of them. And uh, but then who are we next to? Who is right near us? Who are we in proximity to? And uh and we have something that can touch them and heal them. So, so come with me to the the valley of dry bones here. This is the prophet Ezekiel. This is in the an Old Testament, this is um Ezekiel and Jeremiah kind of ministered at about the same time, and uh talk about all hell breaking loose. Things were bad in the in the kingdom of Israel. Uh the kingdom had split already, and then as we know, one kingdom uh you know degenerated into sin, and then they kind of dissolved, and then they left the one kingdom, and it took them longer, but then they dissolved, and then they were carried away to Babylon, and every Israelite became a uh just a slave and was carried off to Babylon, and all of their beautiful temple was destroyed, everything, all of their culture was gone. And uh, if you think you have it bad, there their their kids had no future and hope if they were even still alive. There was probably nothing to live for. And Ezekiel is watching his entire society, that everything that he built and believed in just completely fall apart. And um and the hand of the Lord brought me, uh came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley. And it was full of bones. And he caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley. And so, what this is is it's a picture of valleys were often places of warfare where two armies would maybe they were inhabiting the two sides of the mountain, and but in the valley is where the big battle happened. And so what we're seeing is like the aftermath of a battle that happened a long time ago, and somebody lost. One side got slaughtered and spread all over that valley, and nobody cared to even bury them, which in that day was a humiliation. It meant that they were completely degraded, dishonored, and and obviously killed, and they they were fighting for some cause that they really believed in, but they lost really badly. How many of y'all know that that feels it's not good? Okay, and so they were, so now they were dead and they were decayed, and they had gone through a decay process where not only were the bones, you know, now they dried out, now they're spread apart, animals had carried them around everywhere. And indeed, they were very dry, long dead. And he said to me, Son of man, God said, Can these bones live? And so I answered, Oh Lord God, you know, I might not have enough faith to say yes, because it looks really bad, it looks dark, it looks like there is no way. And again he said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord to the dry bones, surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live, and I will put sinews on you and bring flesh back upon you and cover you with skin. See, do see how the decay process is now reversing? They went from spread out all over and dry. Now they've been assembled, and now there are sinews. Okay, so they're connected, the bones are connected, and then there's some flesh that's coming on them, and then the skin comes back on, but uh, and put breath in you, you shall live, and then you shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. There was a noise, say a noise. You know, there was a noise when the Red Sea parted. There is a noise in the book of Revelation when all things are made new. There's a great, there's a sound, there's a noise, there's a it's a it's awe-inspiring. It's it will strike you. It's a it's a noise. And um suddenly a rattling, and the bones came together bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over, but there was no breath in them. Now God had said he was gonna put breath in them, and they got it this far, and they thought, wow, this is a miracle. Now there's a dead body laying here. I couldn't have recognized it before, but there this is a big improvement. But what good is a half a miracle? If you have a half a miracle, you still have a body laying there, but it doesn't have its purpose that it had when it was alive. And so he said to me, Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, say to the breath, thus says the Lord, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live. And so I prophesied, and he commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceeding great army. Let me talk about the breath for a minute. So now God's breathing, he breathed on you and brought you into his kingdom and breathed life on you, and rattled your bones, and got you into his kingdom. And he did the same thing for Kim and for Gwyn and for me and for Bloss, and he did that, and he's rattling us, and he was he's assembling us into something. And that's and then he's breathed, he breathed the breath of life. He breathed on them. That Hebrew word is ruach, probably not good at saying that, but it definitely is the same word for spirit, for wind, for being animated, for vivacity, vigor, and courage. Um, it's also that same word is the spirit of God. So when it imparts warlike energy and executive and administrative power as endowing men with various gifts, as energy of life, as manifest in the Shekinah glory of God. That is what he breathed on that, on those bones. And it turned out it wasn't just one person, it was an exceedingly great army. It was a lot of people. He had to organize the bones into each body, and he had to breathe, and when he when he breathed on them, they rose up. He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the house of Israel. And indeed, uh, they indeed say, our bones are dry and our hope is lost. That was true. Ezekiel's friends were hopeless, did not look like they it looked like God lied. God gave a promise to them that there would be never be a there never cease to be a son of David sitting on the throne of Israel. God lied. That's what the devil said. God lied. It's not gonna happen. So they were our hope is lost. We ourselves are cut off. We don't have any spirit in us, we don't have any vigor or courage or the breath of life left in us. We have nothing but misery and sorrow, and our they're hopeless. And therefore, prophesy and say to them, thus so there prophesy and say to them, there are words that we speak over death. There are when we speak, there are there's power in our words when we speak life over something, even when it is dead. If God says it should live, we need to speak life over it, and it can live. Okay, thus says the Lord God, behold, O my people, I will open your graves, cause you to come up from your graves into the land of Israel, and then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put, verse 14, I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land, and then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and performed it. So God made him a promise, and uh, and you know what? 48 years later, it came true. I don't know if Ezekiel was still alive, probably not. But 48 years later, somehow different kings ruled over Babylon, and Cyrus, the king of Persia, allowed the Jews to go back and return to their homeland and begin building a temple, a second temple. 48 years. And not only that, but this word, this dry bones prophecy, how many of you have ever prayed this out in your own life? I mean, this is a this is a familiar, yes. This is a familiar scripture that we like to apply in a lot of ways. And you might say, ah, blasphemer! You can't apply that. That was about them, that was about that time, that was then. And uh, you know what? But it then it happened again in 1948 when the state of Israel was formed. The bones of Jewish people from all over the world and every nation came and gathered in Israel, and they're in there and a state was formed. Um and it was a holy thing, it was a it was a yet another fulfillment of Ezekiel 37. And the thing I like to, when you see a cycle and a pattern in the Bible, I I love to notice this. Do you know that um when when the Jews would worship the Lord, um for especially when they would come to Zion, when they would come to the to the temple to worship it was a holy feast time or something like that, they would sing and recite Psalms of Ascents. There are 15 Psalms of Ascent, Psalm 120 to 134, I think, um, are all psalms of ascent. And they would they would say those as they were marching around Mount Zion, all the like because you couldn't just go straight up it. So they would march in little, it was not as steep if they just marched around and around, and they kept going up with every level, up and up and around and around. And the Bible does that, it circles back around so that you see the same scenery in different ways from a different vantage point. You might be a little higher. Have you noticed that your life cycles around and around? And sometimes you get frustrated because I have seen this scenery before. Lord, I did not want to see this again. Guess what? You're a little higher this time than you were last time. He has some, he has a different angle for you. And don't be frustrated. God is still there with you, and he is showing you the way up and out. Do not give up. But

Assembling Into One Body

SPEAKER_00 21:40

we are raised like this body was raised. We are raised, yes, individually, but there do you see the collective force of the raising? There is a body of Christ arising and waking up today. We can look through our nation's history and see great awakenings. How many of you saw that movie, A Great Awakening? Recently. I think we need to do a showing probably in the month of June. We'll book it for a nearby theater. But that was a great movie. But it shows how people are alive to God. They're suddenly, you know, they they're suddenly there's a hunger for the things of God. And uh and we see that arising. Um but uh so God is bringing us together, uh, and but he's got to put flesh on us, he's got to assemble us. Assemble, assemble. Y'all are assembling on a Sunday night. If you keep assembling, God might connect you with somebody, he might put a little sinew out over toward this bone over here. And and then he might put a little muscle on there so that y'all can kind of get together and do something for the Lord. And then, you know, pretty soon the body is working like it was supposed to in uh in 1 Corinthians 12, 12. I'll just read it. Paul said, as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. Jesus is that body, and we are his body. He's up in heaven, we are his body on the earth. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free. In other words, it doesn't matter what your past was, it doesn't matter what your race is, it doesn't matter anything about what you were before you were a new creature, but now you are a new creature in Christ Jesus. We are baptized into the same body and blood. We have all been made to drink into one spirit. Look, we took communion together, we are one. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many. And so um, you know, I kind of see our church, if you want to look at the same analogy, the dry bones. I mean, maybe we're like one of the soldiers, but there's another church over there, and they're one of the soldiers, and there's another church over in, you know, across town, and they're, and we've got soldiers that are waking up and coming together and rattling and putting putting muscle together, and and we're about to, we're about to be doing some work for the Lord, not in our own strength, but with his spirit, his ruach, his breath of life on us that animates us, that gives us the why and the passion in our belly every day, not as a form of religion, but as a uh just a work of God, of his spirit. Hebrews 10, 24 says, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. And then you remember the last part, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as of the manner of some, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching. I remember during COVID when people just gave up this scripture and ripped it out of their Bible and scratched it out and said, No, we can't assemble, somebody might get sick. The church I've read about in history when there was a bubonic plague or whatever, Black Death, or whatever there was, uh, the church I read about was the one on the, they were the ones on the front line praying for people. Right? Yes, wiping their the sweat off of their brow and and tending to their physical needs and sickness. That's the church that I read about. The the Jesus I serve laid his hand on the leper.

unknown 25:35

Right?

SPEAKER_00 25:37

That's the God I serve, and so I didn't get no uh staying home during that. No. Um, so we we want to assemble ourselves. Uh, God commands us to do that because there's exhortation or exhortation that takes place, and uh, and we're supposed to not do it less when as the day of Jesus Christ is approaching, there's judgment coming. We we need to be together more often. And then why are we doing that?

Real Community That Heals People

SPEAKER_00 26:07

We're considering one another to stir up love and good works. So, considering one another to stir up love and good works, and you know, everybody has a different, you know, just a different personality, a different way of making friends. Some people are shy, some people are not shy. And I used to be shy. Um, but I can tell you that if we're gonna consider one another to stir up love and good works, it's gonna take more than just staring at the back of their head in a church service.

unknown 26:46

Right?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

And that's why Pastor laid out Ephesians 4 recently how every joint supplies, and there's gonna be sometimes, I mean, some of you are already good at making friends. You already have your group of friends here in the church, and you can tell them anything, and you know that they would walk through fire for you because you've you've prayed with them, and you've you've, you know, that's great. But maybe you're not that person that has that yet, and we haven't always made it as easy as we want to for you to find those people. But you need those people, and those people need you. You know, networks really matter. The word networking is such a smarmy word with such a baggage on it. Um, network, I'm gonna go to this networking event, and I'm gonna see what I can get out of everybody there. I'm gonna see how I can lie to them and make them think that I, you know, I am not a fan of that. I hate that. Uh that's a hypocrite. But you know, the Lord said, Jesus said, Luke 6.38, give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. Shall men give unto your bosom? Who gives? Men do. Men will give to you, but you give to them first. So it's a mindset. If we're gonna come together in the body of Christ, we come here. Every time we come here, what can I give? Who can I, who is sitting in the back that hasn't, that I don't know, they look kind of out of place? Who can I speak with? Who can I encourage? Who can I make them, how can I make them feel welcome? What do I have? What scripture is on my heart? And it doesn't have to be real. I mean, uh, you can be sticky. You can get, hey, um, you know, after you've seen somebody a few times and you know that they're going through something, hey, can I send you? I I'm gonna pray for you this week. If I get a scripture, can I send it to you? Hey, boom, now you have a phone number. You might be able to send them a scripture, or hey, I was listening to this worship song. I thought of you. I'm gonna send it to you on the I'm gonna send it to you on my phone. I'm not gonna ask you a bunch of nosy questions, but I'm gonna encourage you in the Lord. That's good. Um, that's sinew, that's connection with people. And uh, and so that's why we will be, I mean, there will be groups in this church that have, you know, there'll be Bible study fellowships. We're getting better at fellowships. Wednesday nights in June will be fun. They will be informative and they will be fun, and there will be food, like dinner. Um, and but they will be a time where you can get to know people. But beyond that, uh, listen to these. I'm gonna kind of rapid fire you about this. Um, so Jesus said, John 13, 34, 35, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. Uh, also you are to love one another by this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. There is a comp we are compelled not by being right, not by being, you know, important, whatever. We're compelled by love for the other person. Not to be loved, not to be noticed, not to be by them, getting something from them. But if our goal really is to give, that is how the world sees that we are we are believers, that we're Christians. They see Jesus in us. He came not to not to serve, uh, not to be served, but to serve, not to take, but to give. And um, so then listen to all of these little uh rapid fire. Galatians 6, 2, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Can I do that if I'm just looking at the back of their head in a church? No. I'm gonna have to get to know them. I'm gonna have to know what in the world their burdens are, and and then it like this, then the scripture also says to bear your own burdens, you know. So, um, God, what in the world are you trying to say there? But bear your own burdens, but be willing to bear somebody else's who couldn't bear their own. There are people who are broken. You know, I I think I've told this story before. My I love my my sweet youngest child, she has such a heart, and uh she wanted to go minister at a homeless shelter, and I said, that is wonderful. Then I thought about my 15-year-old daughter and the logistics of that, and um and I got to thinking about all the opportunities that she has here at this church to serve and and in our community, like yesterday she was at at uh Salem Lutheran packing meals. Um those meals will go to Malawi. Um but then I it got really existential. Why do we have homelessness? Why has it exploded so much? Why are so many people so broken that they cannot care for themselves? And how did their family network fail them? Oh, they don't have a family. Oh, they took they turned their back on their family, their their family, their family failed them. That so you know, you start looking at networks, real networks. Who loves you? Who who loves you? Hopefully it's your family, but we haven't done a good job of raising secure people who know how to bond in a family for life. We have serial bonding, and that creates broken children. So now family falls away, and then maybe maybe that person didn't learn how to make friends and bonds with other people because their their uh their life was on fire and they just didn't have any safety growing up, and so they they didn't learn that, and so and then they couldn't keep a job, and so that network, and then they didn't nobody told them about the the the Lord, they didn't go to church, they didn't know, they don't have any, there's no network for them, they're just them, and now they're just trying to survive on the street, and that's more and more and more people. And what can we do? I mean, yeah, you can feed the homeless and they can have another meal and exist for another day on the street, but what if we could build relationships and networks where families could be strong, where children could be raised with a secure, they'll know who loves them. And that those people will be present in their lives every day. And what if we could raise uh beyond that for the people who didn't have a good family, what if we create a family environment in the kingdom of God here in church? That's what churches are supposed to be, that's what they were for in the early church. When their family, when when people in the early church, uh many of them first became born again, their families disowned them, wrote them out of the will or whatever. And so the apostles uh said, Well, um, we're gonna have everything in common for a while. We're gonna just give, we're gonna, the people who had people say, Oh, God's a communist. No, no, it was a short little time, but they but there were generous givers that were not compelled by the government to give their wealth, they were moved by love. Everybody say love. And they chose, I see that person suffering over there, and I can help them. And I'm gonna sell my house and give the proceeds so that the apostles can uh can can give it to the people who have need. Because I love, I mean, because I know God will take care of me. I've got faith for that. I've got another network over here that I know I've got my family, it still loves me. I've got something to give, I've got something. So you just look and you see that's the church. The church is supposed to operate like a network, like a second family, like another chance at a family that somebody didn't have. Okay, so um, we're we're getting sinews now. We're getting some muscle. Bear one another's burdens, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12, 10 and 15. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. I got to attend a wedding yesterday. Little Angel Chavez came when he was like eight years old. Big cheeks. You know, and now he's a man, and he married this beautiful, they look like little wedding cake figures. And uh it is the reason why we exist to celebrate people when they have success. James 5, 16, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. That's a that's something that we're probably not doing a lot of. How are we gonna confess our how are we gonna feel comfortable enough to confess our sins with somebody that we just see once a week in the back of their head, you know? There's gonna have to be a chain, we're gonna have to shift, we're gonna have to. Now, thankfully, the wedding that I went to yesterday started 37 minutes late. And uh so then Sheree and I got to sit next to each other and Jody, she's not here tonight, and uh, we got to just ham it up for 37 minutes in the burning sun with no shade, with sweat running down. Um it was 37 minutes. But but in that conversation, I got to know about Jody. I got to know her life story, I got to know what God has brought her through. I got to know that uh that her kids are serving God now, one of them is, and she's praying for the other one. I had all kinds of like goodness there, and I wouldn't have gotten to do that, but we just made room, we make room for community, we make room for family. All right, confess your sins one to another, that you may be healed. You know, blind spots, those are areas that we know every say ministry of reconciliation. So we have to reconcile, yeah, first ourselves. When we're here to hear the word, we should apply it to ourselves and not to Kathy right here. You know, Kathy really needed to hear that today. I've noticed, you know. I wish Kathy would have heard that. She needed to, you know, she hurt my feelings. I love you, Kathy. I'm gonna joke, picking on her. Um we should listen for ourselves till we look in the mirror of God's word and to reconcile ourselves to God. He has we're just cooperating with him, we're reconciling that ugly part, we're reconciling it to God. And then and then our ministry of reconciliation, as we as we have a trust and build sinews and tissues and skin on the on the leg bone or whatever, now we can start to, we can really speak truth to one another. And that's where it gets real because somebody's gonna speak truth to you and it's gonna hurt a little bit, and it's gonna feel like physical therapy for uh for Teresa when they twist her into a pretzel or whatever they're gonna do. Um but 1 Thessalonians 5:11, encourage one another, build each other up. Philippians 2, 1 through 4. So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation, spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of like mind. Okay, how am I gonna be of like mind? You know, because pastor preached it one time, and now I believe it, and now we're all of the robots. No, it takes time. People have questions. You have to you have to work with each other. So we're of this, but eventually we will be of the same mind because we're gonna work it out in here. Having the same love, being in full accord, and of there is one mind. Again, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, networking. Um, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others. That sounds like something good that we should all do. That sounds like if we have that mentality, look, there's nothing God won't connect for you. Ephesians 4, 2 and 3 and 32. With all humility and gentleness, patience, and bearing one another in love, humility, gentleness, patience. I mean, you don't need patience for somebody you see once a week and never speak to. And I'm not, I know I'm gonna bother you sometimes. I mean, I try to be nice. Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Uh I believe that that translation is not good. It's actually um like it's a struggle to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. It's it's hard. It puts pressure on you. It's like as if to strain every nerve, I think it says in the Amplified. Uh, but I want that unity with you, and I want it to be real, where we are both of the same mind because we've come to the same conclusions. We were we arrived at it in a different way, but we came to the word, and that's our foundation, and now we can be kind one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. So

Unity, Groups, And Making Disciples

SPEAKER_00 40:32

that is a that is a picture of the church I want. I know y'all want that. Maybe that's uncomfortable because you're used to just kind of there. Are people who come to church and sit on the back row and never need want to speak with anyone, and it makes them feel good like they came, you know, they checked a box, or or they're just dealing with something in their heart and they really are ashamed for anyone to see. And those are the people that make me the it's it's I pray for them because they are missing out on all the relationships that they could have, and they're and and then the devil picks them off. They're easily picked off because they're on the edge of the flock, way out here, and they come late and leave early in case they have to know they don't want to talk to anybody. And um, and you know, even some of you are good at finding them and chasing them down, talking to them anyway. I admire you. I do that sometimes. I'm gonna that's how I bother you. I'm gonna bother you. If I ask you a nosy question, it's because I care. Um, but I try not to. But that's the kind of church God wants. He wants that church of relations. So I don't know when it'll happen, but we will be having, I mean, many of you will have, you will be group leaders, especially my Sunday night crowd. Y'all know the word. There's a group in your heart. There are people that you will be able to uh not um pour out all of your supreme wisdom upon people for three hours at a time. A group is where there is sharing, back and forth, and where you can really get to know what somebody's struggling with. Where is that little, where is that place that God needs to bind up and heal? But um, so be praying for us because we have a there's a plan that because everything needs to be decent and in order, and we don't want to have a mess. And um, but we just want to have that love and unity. Our pastor always says love plus unity equals miracles. Love plus unity, and God is raising us up a great army. We're a great army. What are we doing? We're we're an army of people who are reconciling, making disciples. Go ye therefore, make disciples of all nations, all people, tribe, and tongue. Doesn't matter where they're from before. Once they're a disciple of the Lord, they're following the Lord, they're our brother, they're our sister. And that's what we're about doing. Amen.