Hi. This is Dave Olson.
I'm the senior leader of Hartman church located in Ankeny Iowa.
I hope the following message, challenges and courage's and
ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.
We're going to, we're going to continue on.
In the series. We've been in what we're looking
at is we're looking at the progressive, the progressive
experience of the spirit in our life that there's always more
and we need to realize that. There's always more Or if for no
other reason we're finite and God's infinite.
You'll never Plumb the depths of who he is.
You can until your God, you have to remain teachable because only
God knows everything and you never will be.
So remain, teachable will be learning for eternity.
And there's always more in God and there's dangerous theology,
that says you have it also calm down.
As your faith is, so be it unto you.
And so there's always more than God and.
So we've been using this analogy of in scripture, this typology
that's all through scripture of water, being a type of the
spirit. And so we talked about in
Isaiah, Isaiah said, we drink, we draw Joy from the wells of
Salvation. So our first drink of the spirit
is in Salvation. He comes to reside in Us in
measure, then we are filled with the spirit in the baptism in the
Holy Spirit, we take a drink that is then becomes a river
that's released from us. And and salvation, we partake of
him in the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
We become a source of Supply in Salvation, the spirit resides in
Us, in the baptism. In the Holy Spirit, we enter
into the spirit in Salvation. You take a drink in the baptism,
you take a bath. We are submerged into him, we
come up dripping, saturated dripping with his presence, but
there's a further analogy and we love this one around here.
And that is of outpourings, the reign of the spirit revivalism,
the outpourings of the spirit, and those seasons are awesome.
And that's the way we replenish the river.
Paul is very clear that we are to keep on being filled to the
spirit. There is an initial baptism but
there's many and filling. X.
And often those in fillings happened when we get connected
with a larger group of believers who are contending for an
outpouring. And there are seasons of rain
where God replenishes our River. I want to replenishing.
I'm not I'm not dry but I can handle some more.
I want it running over the bank's.
I love Revival but then we talked about the last couple
weeks I shared with you in an encounter.
I had with the Lord and 2009. Really, it was 2010 I had walked
Out the side out, looking over the monkey bars, where that
playground the kids playground here and it was during a time of
soaking at the congregation and I was, I was in danger of
snorkeling that's when you snore when you soak.
And so being the pastor, I didn't want to do that.
That just doesn't look good. You know, you're speaking in
tongues you start, it's just not, it's not proper.
So I got up and I walked out there and I looked out that side
window and when I did I went into a vision and I saw Saw this
Dome, this translucent Dome over Heartland with this oil, just
dripping out over the whole property and we were under this
this Dome of God's glory and I was so excited.
I was blown away at what the Lord was showing me.
And then he spoke a couple of personal things to me and then
he said this, the do of Herman will be released.
And I shared with you last week that I was excited by what I saw
but disappointed by what I heard because to me do doesn't sound
exciting. I'll pouring sound exciting, but
do do not, do not to sound exciting as a I wanted
outpouring. I wanted power the Lightning's
of God but the Lord told me, I said God, why do?
And he said it's mine on disruptive way to nourish the
land. And when he said that, it's so
ministered to my heart because we had been through a move of
God, tremendous move of God over months about a year and a half
prior to that and I was still tired from that time.
It was exhausting and I realized the disruptive nature of an
outpouring and although they're necessary their disruptive, when
you've had famine and we pray for rain.
It's disruptive but its necessary, their Seasons, where
we've seen the pain start to go low the streams around Iowa go
low and we rejoice in the rain. But usually we still wait to for
a break in the rain, to go to our car.
Unless you've really been in and famine and you might be one of
those crazy people that dances in the parking lot and sings In
The Rain for a few minutes. But you don't do that every
time. You because it's disruptive and
and so I began to talk to the Lord about this.
In another thing, he Said to me, which really edited my theology.
It shocked me. I almost argued with him, but
he's a lot smarter than me. He said, outpourings were made
necessary by the Fall. As you begin to meditate on
that. I thought, you know, Lord you're
right, you always are but you're right.
It never rained in Paradise, the heavens never opened until sin
had come to a certain point in humanity.
Adam and Eve were driven from the garden but as the thoughts
of men were continually towards violence, then the deeps opened
up and the skies opened up and there was a flood and that's
when it began to rain. And so what we talk about is
outpourings are necessary because of sin but it's not the
superior expression. God wants us to go for now.
We're praying for Revival and I Rejoice every time I'm I hear of
one but I'm telling you this Superior expression, the Zenith
of what God wants to release and we have a promise in this house
of this thing. The Lord told me in an open
Vision, the do of Herman will be released here and I do not
believe we've yet touched the fullness of that word and what
he told me was that it was going to be released here and the idea
is this that we begin to no longer be dependent upon
outpourings Because we are nourished.
By accessing the hidden Caverns within one.
Another In Paradise, it did not rain.
There were Caverns under the Earth that would emit a mist and
it would nourish the land and it was called Paradise.
And God longs to bless environments that step into what
we call the unity of the spirit or the do of Herman.
So, let's look at Psalm 133. I'm just going to read these
quick three verses and we're going to spring into another
passage father. We ask God that this morning
that you would anoint our ears to hear.
And Lord. We, as we speak of rain Lord, I
pray along with Moses's phrase, Lord that you're teaching would
fall like rain Lord, on our hungry hearts are parched
cracked hearts. Lord, that your word would begin
to nourish those areas of our hearts where they're dry.
Lord, I ask for a spirit of wisdom and Revelation that we
would have flashes of insight and understanding we didn't have
when we stepped in here this morning and Lord that you would
move us along corporately as your people that you would
accomplish what you want to accomplish.
In and through us that you would receive the rewards of your
suffering in Jesus name. Amen, Psalm 133 and this is part
of the biblical text, it starts with this phrase, a song of a
sense of David. And I mentioned this last week,
this is one of the songs of ascent.
There were a body of Psalms that were sung as they made their way
to the temple. They would step on a stair.
Read the psalm step up, the next stair.
Sing out that song. And So forth.
And Psalm 133 was one of them but I believe there's a
prophetic element to that phrase that this is a Psalm that holds
the keys to going higher. Two ascending verse 1 behold,
how good and pleasant it is when Brothers dwell in unity and so
he's giving us a vision for something, trying to present our
instill in US of value for something.
Something that you, and I don't realize the great value of and
that is when Brothers dwell in unity together, it's both good
and pleasant. It's good for you, but it's also
Pleasant and those aren't always.
A package deal. Some things that are good for
your heart Pleasant and vice versa.
But this is both Hallelujah. Verse 2 and he so he gives us
two analogies. It's like the precious oil on
Aaron's head running down his beard, on the beard of errand
running down on the collar or the Hem of His robe.
We talked about that. Then number three is the one
we're really going after, because it's the one, the Lord
spoke to me, it is the do as like to do of Herman.
What would fall on the mountains of Zion?
And then he closes it with this blessing for there.
The Lord has commanded the blessing and then he defines it,
life forevermore. All last week.
And really the week before as we've been praying in the
sanctuary we we meet for prayer Tuesday through Friday.
And as I've been just I like to walk and pray and so as I'm
walking I kept seeing this picture of these giant grapes.
I'm talking they were about this big around and the vine was just
bending low under the weight of the fruit.
And I just kept feeling the Lord, invite me to make that
Declaration of fruitfulness of life.
Evermore to be released into the environment.
There is an invitation from God, there's a fruitfulness that
we're about to step into, their has been a pruning.
Unnecessary, but painful, pruning in many of our lives
corporately and individually. When God sees a fruitful Vine,
he prunes it. He cuts it back so that it can
be even more fruitful later on. And if you'll endure with the
right attitude, the pruning process, you'll find more fruit
on the horizon and I believe there's greater fruitfulness on
the horizon. There's a heavy-laden asst to
the Vine. And so, there's a declaration of
blessing forever more. Now, I want you to catch this.
It's a commanded blessing. The Lord himself says, they're
there is a place a circumstance, which he commands a blessing.
I'm gonna tell you when God commands a blessing, there is no
demon in hell, no person on Earth, that can stop that
blessing from arriving at your doorstep.
There is a place that God commands a blessing, there is a
context through which God guarantees a blessing.
I am not shy about it. I want the blessing, I am hungry
for the blessed life. I want to live in the blessing
of God, I want to live a fruitful life and I understand
the fruit I produce is not for my own consumption.
You don't see grapevines eating grapes.
They produce them. So others can come by and enjoy
the fruit and God wants to produce a fruitfulness out of
this house that will feed the nation's.
So, it begs the question. How do we step into that place?
What are the circumstances that will guarantee that commanded
blessing? If we can answer that question
and dedicate our life to that, we will guarantee the blessing
rather than praying for blessing.
Maybe what we need to do is pray that we can be blessed ssible.
I don't know if that's a word, it is now.
We just created a word that we want to be blessed ssible.
We want to be, we want to meet the criteria of Heaven.
God, what is what is the man or the woman that you will bless?
What does that matter woman? Look like what is it to walk in
life forevermore? I want life to emanate from me.
I don't want people to come up and there's just Death Or
there's just there's no life. I don't want them to shake a
cold hand and feel no life from my words.
I want The drippings from Heaven to be flowing off my life.
I want that for you, I want when people step into this building,
they encounter the life of God, that they know.
Oh my goodness. There is a presence From Another
World in this room. They I'm reminded of that that
testimony Tommy 10 he had in his book.
The God Chaser she was. He was talking with this young
Pastor in this, pastor was sharing the story, their church
had moved into a tremendous. Outpouring during this season,
and he had a brother-in-law who was an atheist, Not only was he
an atheist, he was an Evangelistic one.
He was very willing to share his atheism with anybody that would
listen. He was a cynic and an atheist
and therefore there was a bit of a strain in their relationship
because one was a preacher and one was an Evangelistic atheist.
Well lo and behold in the middle of this move of God, they people
would drive by the church and just pull off in the grass and
come in and get saved. It was animate.
The blessing of God was literally on their geographic
location and in the midst of that move, the 8th, the
Evangelistic atheist brother-in-law calls the pastor
and says, hey, I'm going to come for a visit and he said, okay.
And he's thinking this will be awkward, he said, yeah, and I'm
going to be flying in at such and such a time.
Can you pick me up? Up.
Absolutely, I'll pick you up from the airport so they're
coming home from the airport and it you know it's he's trying to
talk but the guy's not real open and and so they're driving by
the church. He said hey we put new carpet
in. Do you want to see it?
Just trying to make conversation you guys ensure they walked up
to the church, the pastor and locked the door, open the door,
the brother-in-law put one foot on.
The threshold fell down began to weep and got gloriously saved
later on the shocked. Pastor asked me son?
What happened? He said, I don't know.
All I can tell you. Is this that when I stepped up
to the door, I didn't believe in God, but once I was in that
church, I was in the presence of the one.
I didn't believe existed. I had to surrender.
That's what I want. There is a place in God, where
God will entrust a level of his presence to those people if they
will. Steward at well, last night, my
17 year old said, Dad can we just go down to the church?
I'm studying at that, well, I guess I could study there,
that's not a bad thing. So he just wanted to come in the
sanctuary and I was in my office just praying and reading and
studying and I thought, man, he's been in there a long time.
I'm going to go in and I came I'm in, I could hear him sing
it. So I just kind of blacked out.
I'm back to my office. I said, Jesus, what are you
doing? Finally.
It was we'd been here several hours I walked in, he was just
laid there and he looked up. He said, Hey Dad, we got in the
car. He said he's working with the
kids this morning so I'm not embarrassing him.
He can't hear me. He said, hey Dad, he said I
think we had to do this every Saturday.
He said, I just like being here. I like being in that room.
So we began to talk about theirs.
There's places that have been cultivated with God's presence.
And he said, you know, Dad, not every band you here carries the
presents and and it's a lot like places, isn't it?
Not every place carries the same amount of presents and I told
him, I said, God is not picky where else show up.
Doesn't have to be a real nice place, but he has to be the
guest of honor, not because he's arrogant, but because he cannot
entrust himself to people who will not value him.
Told the children of Israel, I can't go with you.
Because they weren't obedient the presence of God.
In the midst of a disobedient, people is a dangerous thing.
It's why the front end of Revival is always repentance
where people are preparing their heart to getting their heart,
right? So that he can be stewarded as
the guest of honor and where he is the guest of honor.
Be in a barn, a Manger or a cathedral, he will come God is
looking for places to land. He's looking for places to
occupy. Where is that blessing?
The blessing is the place of unity.
Now, I talked last week and I love this, I started getting
text. What do you mean by unity?
Pastor Define then I think that's what I need because I
don't want to scratch itches that don't exist or not scratch
an itch that does exist and I am painfully aware.
I'm more of a philosophical preacher.
I'm not real practical. So just ask me questions and
I'll try to be more definitive - so that's what we're going to do
this morning, turn with me to Ephesians, 4, Ephesians 4.
I told you last week, I believe it was that I personally
believe. Psalm 133.
Lays over Ephesians 4, very beautifully.
You could say that they're both dealing with the same subject.
Psalm 133 from an Old Testament perspective Ephesians 4 from the
New Testament perspective of the church.
When he talks about the oil flowing down, he's talking about
fivefold Ministry, we're not going to get into that.
This morning, we've taught on that before.
But when we're talking about the do being transferred from one
mountain to another, it's talking about that.
Mutual exchange of Honor that we recognize what one another
carries. And it's very, very clear in
Ephesians 4 that we each have a measure of the gift of Christ,
but we can't touch the fullness of Christ without being
connected to other believers because God will not release the
fullness of himself to an individual.
There's only one man that ever touched that and that is Jesus.
The Apostle Paul didn't touch that.
It was the Apostle Paul that carried the Revelation that the
body is the fullness of Christ, and God will never give me all.
I need directly. He will give me much of what I
need indirectly through you. And he will with, if I refuse to
get with you, he will withhold it from me.
Because God intends that we are mutually dependent upon one
another. And it's in that way that were
no longer dependent upon outpourings the heavens opening
that even when there's no rain, we can access the hidden caverns
of anointing with win one another.
But and we talked about this last week but let me just touch
on it and you may not have been here that We've got to be so
careful because the test of honor is familiarity, it's so
easy. Once you get to know someone, To
no longer appreciate what they carry, you stumble over what
they're not and failed to receive what they are.
There's a mature level of honor that can say, hey, we're all in
process and I know your weaknesses.
But I also value what you carry in God, you know, God is less
picky than we are. God will anoint people?
We don't agree. He would, he should annoyed.
I'm not talking moral issues here.
Talking idiosyncrasies and even irritations, sometimes God will
give he will place the thing. You need the most in the most
irritating person in the room. We could just go home right on
that. Yeah.
So we've got a pass that test of familiarity.
There is a level of maturity, required of a body that really
becomes a place of honor where we can accept one another's
giftings, it's easy to honor a mystery.
You bring in some famous person that has these great stories of
Miracles overseas, or whatever, and you don't live with them and
they come in and they're God's moving. with them and they say
these profound things, But you're not rubbing shoulders
with them day to day, where they're the fractures in their
personality, begin to be revealed.
It's one thing to honor a mystery.
It's another thing to honor familiarity, it's a higher level
of maturity. When you can say, I receive God
in you, the anointing on you the Insight that comes through you.
even though I know that you're not perfect, And so a lot of
times churches don't break into that.
They they cut themselves off from that final Progressive
expression. The ultimate they can experience
outpourings but they can't maintain what they obtained
because it's got to be maintained through the unity of
the spirit. So they break into things and
they lose grown and they break into things and they lose ground
and God wants to call us higher and teach us to really honor one
another. Create a prophetic culture that
believes in one another before we believe in ourselves.
That we call each other higher and when one goes up, we all get
to go up. That's the whole idea of the do
of Herman. How can the do that's on on
Mount Hermon? It's up in the north of the
north part of Israel. It's what, as a wetter climate
fall on Mount Zion, which is in the South, and it's a drier
climate. It's too far apart.
You're not going to have do show up there and you're going to
take your bucket full on Mount Zion, it's a supernatural thing.
That is the point that when there's Unity when one mountain
gets wet, the other is so Act as well, your Victory becomes my
victory, and it undermines competition in that jealousy
that that encroaches into churches.
I don't have to have the beautiful pipes to be able to
get up here and sing and Lead You In Worship.
I don't need that gift because I have the worship leaders.
I'm in Covenant or relationship with them and because I have
them, I have their gift. And I can I can cheer them on
and when they get a win I know that's my win to we're in this
thing together when God anoints him I'm on the front front, row
getting wet. And it causes us to fight for
one another as Kingdom family. That's what God wants to bring
us into. So let's look at how, what is,
what's the nature of this Unity? Because I got some texts and I
want to try to answer that and oh boy, we're going to take
communion receive communion a few minutes and that was just
the intro. Look at verse 1.
I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a
manner worthy of the calling to which you have received.
There is so much in that phrase. Paul is referring to the calling
that he is unpacked. In chapters 1 through 3 there.
He talks about how the church is, the fullness of God.
It's to teach the principalities and powers in Heavenly Realms.
The wisdom of Heaven, the wisdom of God, God is going to force.
It's like he is His Psalm 82 refers to these principalities
and Powers as the Fallen sons of God, and they're under his
judgment. And he's taking these rebellious
sons and forcing me to go to Sunday school.
You know what, the Sunday school is your life, the church and he
says watch this. I'm going to force you to learn
my wisdom by watching my church walk through what they walk
through. And the ignorant principalities
and powers in Heavenly Realms. Learn of the wisdom of God
through your in my life. And there's more that Paul
unpacks in Ephesians, it's an amazing book of the Mysteries
that he unpacks and then he shifts gears, he goes, he stops
teaching on Doctrine and now he's gonna get real practical.
Like Pastor Dave fails to do a lot.
He gets real practically said, walk worthy of the calling the
word worthy there. It's translated worthily.
It literally means a counterbalance.
And at the idea is that what if you have ten pounds on one side
of the scale, you need to put 10 pounds on the other to
counterbalance it. If you got a calling, a 10-pound
calling a 2-pound lifestyle won't balance the scale.
If you got a 10 lb calling, you need to walk in a 10-pound
lifestyle. Or you will fail to live up to
the calling. You're not living worthily.
Some of you have been going through some 10-pound trials
because you are called to attend pound calling.
And you're wondering why God has allowed the things you're going
through. He's wondering why you he's
allowing you to go through it, man.
Of God. What these other people that
have to go through this stuff I want just tell you.
One thing is that everybody has their heartache, everybody has
their story. I remember one time people don't
say this to me anymore, but years ago he had some
missionaries in and we were we took them out to lunch
afterwards and we were talking about just things, you know,
life and stuff. We had shared, one of our
children had passed away at 4 and we have a daughter that's
handicapped and stuff. And the missionary's wife
blurted out, She said I was wondering if you guys had any
problems, you got this great church and she said, you're
beautiful. I'm looking at my, they still
said to my wife don't said to me anymore.
I thought well, thank you. She said, she said, you guys
look like you have a Charmed Life and I'll hear people said
everybody has their story. Everybody has their heartache.
Don't compare yourself and allow yourself to get jealous because
someone else is breakthrough in the church.
You attend is your breakthrough if you if you handle it, right?
And if you're going through things, other people haven't had
to go through. It, just may be that God has a
more weighty calling that he's placing on your life.
And if you can understand that, if you can understand how to
Steward that you can get through that process quicker, So Paul
says walk worthy of the calling. In other words let your
lifestyle show up and the same weightiness that God has called
you into so he goes on. He says Verse 2 with all
humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one
another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit
in the bond of Peace. We're going to land it there
this morning. Look at verse 2 again with all
humidity so the walk worthy of the calling.
How do you do that with all humility?
These are progressive elements to you walking worthy with all
humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one
another in love eager. To maintain the unity of the
spirit in the bond of peace. What does unity look like
humility? Gentleness.
Patience bearing with one another in love means put up
with other people's stuff. It means to have another way to
say it in the Old. English is long-suffering
Forbearance. That we're able to walk with
people as they go through their stuff and not get impatient and
discard them. But in fact, there's an
interesting verse in Romans. Paul said you who are spiritual
bear, the failings of the week. Listen to what he's saying.
He's saying the true measure of your spirituality is how much of
another's, weakness, you can put up with what without showing
your own. The true measure of your
spirituality is how much of someone else's weakness can you?
Put up with, and keep your love on.
And he's not just talking about biting your lip.
Sometimes you gotta bite our little bite our tongue but I'm
talking about suet. It becomes so worked in us that
we don't feel tempted to say what?
Because we truly see from God's perspective, we don't have time
to unpack these maybe we will next week, but let me just make
a few comments because I want to get to this Unity of the spirit.
He says, how he put it With all humility.
Humility is not. A mask we put on, it's not
something. We try to White Knuckle.
It's we accept the revelation of Truth.
Humility is simply seeing yourself the way God sees you,
nothing more, nothing less. You no longer argue with God,
you never take credit ultimate credit for what you do because
you knew it started with him. Why would we brag about
anything? When God the very breath we
breathe is a gift from heaven. The Greek word that Paul uses
here. They didn't have a word in Greek
or Greek tradition culture, or Roman culture.
For that idea of humility because it was such a degrading
that was not something that they aspired to.
They looked at as someone groveling.
Many people think that Paul invented the word to sum up this
high value and it's it's really the seedbed out of which all
these other things grow. So, we walk in humility.
Says, and out of humility, then that gentleness flows that
gentleness were tender with people, we're not in patient
where we start to get an edge in our voice, where we discard
them. There is a tenderness that
exudes from us because we're truly humble.
We realize everything that we have is is on loan That we're
just we're stewards of the gift of God.
And so we walk in gentleness with people and then he says
bearing with one another in love and then here's what we really
want to get to verse 3. Eager to maintain the unity of
the spirit in the bond of Peace. Eager to maintain that word is
also eager to maintain. That phrase is also translated
with with haste, make haste, do it quickly keep short accounts
go after this thing, he's talking about a Zeal in a deep
concern that We guard the unity of the spirit that we're
maintaining that guarding. It were staying on guard so that
nothing will encroach upon the unity of the spirit and he says,
what keeps the unity of the spirit?
There's a bond, there's an adhesive.
There's something pulling us together and he tells us what it
is. It's the bond of peace.
So the secret to Unity is keeping the peace.
The the word bond there is sin decimals it's where we get the
word Des Mala G. Des Mala G is the medical, it's
the it's that that that it's Anatomy, the study of anatomy,
but a very specific part of anatomy.
And that's of ligaments. We have ligaments, we have
cartilage, we have tendons and they're all made of this fiber.
Burris collagen stuff. The the cartilage is a cushion
between the bones tendons. Tie our muscle to our bone, but
ligaments, pull the bones together.
Remember those those little plastic skeletons are little
people and you'd push that little button and the rubber
band holding them together and they kind of fall down, then you
push but they'd say that's We would be without ligaments, we
just be kind of hang in there. We met a pile of bones.
So you think about it? What we have this element of our
anatomy that is unyielding. You it doesn't Bend or at least
not very much especially the older you get and it's called
your skeletal systems. It's your bones.
It's the unyielding structure of the body and everybody every
organization and every church needs structure.
Sure. It needs a skeletal system to
get up and get something done. Otherwise, we're just a blob of
life. We may be fun to be around but
we don't get a whole lot done. I've attended that church before
and so we have, we have structure, but it within the
structure, there's something that keeps us connected and
enable us to function and also enables us to have movement and
even absorb stress and it's our ligaments.
That's Word that Paul is using your, the ligaments of peace.
I find that fascinating. My daughter has what's called
hypertonicity. My daughter Alisa I took her to
the doctor, the other day for something, totally disconnected.
And I injured her coming out of the doctor's office and she
ended up bedridden for several weeks.
What happened is, is her foot was hanging off her wheelchair
as putting her in the the, the wheelchair van And her foot just
caught the doorway just a little bit and moved her foot back
about this much. She went out to you and I
wouldn't be a big deal I think she's either tore cartilage, or
ligaments. Because of the hypertonicity CC
always lives under stress. So when stress was introduced,
that most of us could absorb it injured her and it it caused her
to be disabled to a greater degree.
And this is the lesson for you. And I if we live in stress you
she see her body is not cooperating with her.
She has a disability called cerebral palsy and so her
muscles are always tight. She's just her muscles.
It's called hypertonicity. She's always under stress, there
are relationships like that. The norm is stressful.
There are churches like that. The norm is stressful.
It's a handicapped relationship. It's a handicapped body of
people. And they can live like that but
the smallest little stress that would cause you and I to say
ouch that was uncomfortable and move on to her caused her to end
up on all kinds of drugs and pain medication.
And she was in bed for weeks and we couldn't hardly just barely
touch her and she would start crying.
And there are a lot of relationships in life that we
don't. We're not living in unity, we're
not guarding the unity of the spirit we stress, and that kind
of the stress, and the relationship is always there.
And so, when stressful time comes, it causes a break.
It causes a tear. Hard times you're going to come.
They always do every one of us have them in our life but we've
got to learn to do is guard the unity of the spirit, through the
bond of peace, and keep short accounts, make haste guard that
thing. We don't allow that stress
between us and if there is stress, we go after that thing
and one of the things that we need to do is we have we walk in
humility one for another? It's not that well, I'm stressed
and I think you have something against me and I'm going to
force you to home. Do yourself and come to me and
make no that's not what Paul said.
He didn't say, make sure your brothers and sisters walk in
humility towards you. He said you walk in humility.
You walk in forbearance and longsuffering.
Walk in peace. And when we do that, when that
is the reigning, relational fabric, that we live in, when
hard times come, we can absorb that stress and go back.
The ligaments are an amazing thing.
You can bend a leg and cause great stress, and even bend it
beyond, what it should be, for a short amount of time, and it
will absorb that stress and go right back and the connection
and the function remains But if you stretch it too much for too
long, you will injure it and you will disable that member of your
body. So Paul says, guard, the
ligaments guard, the unity of the spirit through the ligaments
of peace. Now, we take out your communion
stuff. If you go in the New Testament
did, this is a fascinating study.
We've talked about these and more teaching settings and
classes before But when you look at the biblical concept of
Peace, you're going to find out throughout scripture that
there's another word that shows up in relation to it and it's
more foundational. It's foundational to peace.
Peace is relational. But there's something that
precipitates piece that is personal.
What I mean is this, if you look out throughout the New Testament
and quote, you a few verses the Beatitudes before you say
blessed is The Peacemaker for they shall inherit the king, the
Earth. You know what the the one just
before that is it precipitates it.
In other words, peacemaking flows out of this one.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God you Be a
peacemaker, unless you're pure in heart, you say Pastor, I
think you're making too much out of one passage.
Let's go to James chapter 4. The wisdom that comes from
Heaven is first of all, pure comma then peace-loving.
It's not a coincidence that there's an order that James
picks up on that Jesus already laid out for us.
Why is that? Why would Purity precipitate
piece? Because Purity deals with the
selfish ambition in her heart, the hidden agendas of our heart.
When James says, the wisdom that comes from Heaven is first of
all, pure Prior to that, he said the wisdom.
This wisdom doesn't come from above but is Earthly unspiritual
and of the devil. He says there's a type of wisdom
that is Earthly unspiritual and of the devil.
What what's the markers of that? He says it's bitter envy and
selfish ambition When we go into a scenario and what our thought,
when our thoughts are, what's in it for me, how can I finagle
this thing? So it's good for me, I win you
lose, if I can't win, we were both going to lose, but I'm
going to get something out of this that is an imp your heart.
When the New Testament talks about heart Purity, it's not
talking about moral sexual Purity.
Yes, that can be included but the primary The thrust of what
is being talked about in the New Testament is the motives by
which we live. As we're not living from
self-centeredness, but we're living from a heart Purity that
we just want Jesus to be glorified. when James says, the
wisdom that comes from Heaven is first of all, pure What he's
saying is, if you want the wisdom of God, you deal with
your heart on the front end, because there's Revelation from
Heaven, wisdom from God, he longs to pour out to us, but he
will withhold from us, until our heart is pure.
He can't give it to him. That's why in John 7, when the
Pharisees, the scribes came to Jesus and they said, where did
you get such teaching? He answered their question in
such a way that they didn't think he was answering the
question. He often did that.
They said, where did you get such teaching?
And he said, I came not to please myself, but the one who
sent me And I'm sure this is the sound they heard in their head,
they say, that's not what we asked, we weren't asking your
sore your motive. We're asking the source of your
wisdom. And Jesus is saying you don't
understand. My secret source is my motive
because I just want to glorify him.
The heavens open and God will share anything with me because
he can trust me with it. I'm not going to use it for, oh,
my own selfish gain. I'm not in this for self.
It's ambition. I'm pure.
Heart James says this the wisdom that comes from above is first
of all, pure and then peace-loving what is he talking
about? The only people God can really
use to broker to be a mediator and broker a deal in conflict is
the person who has no ulterior motives, When we really come
into, we say Jesus, I just want you to be glorified.
I just want your favor on their life on Earth Lord.
We just want to be right with you.
What he's saying is. If you can do that, you're
blessed ssible. Nothing can keep you from the
blessing. We can try to break and we have
our own selfish ambition. We're trying to break into the
blessing and we actually barred the door to the blessing of God.
But if we lay it down and say, God, I just want you to be
glorified, we become blessed ssible.
We begin to have insight and we can be barriers of He's now,
this is beautiful in James tear this off.
So, you know, I'm moving ahead. Okay, open your just to top what
I want to tell you. If you open the bottom one
first, you it's hard to get the person, so just open up the
bread. James in that passage, he shows
two types of wisdom. Two different motives from which
it comes and two different results to different harvests in
the wisdom. That comes from the earth.
He says its Earthly unspiritual and of the devil and that where
you find it you'll find disorder and every evil practice.
I don't know about you but I don't want anything to do with
that type of wisdom and it is a type of wisdom, James calls it
that. But the result is every evil
practice. The second body of wisdom.
The wisdom that comes from above which is first, pure then.
Peace-loving, he says, and peacemakers.
See you got to be pure to move into being a peacemaker and this
is the key to guarding the unity of the spirit because what it
does, is it reduces the stress in the environment.
So when stress comes As we can absorb it.
He says peacemakers that's us. When we walk pure in heart so
into peace, we literally create an environment of peace.
Peace makers who sow in peace, raise a harvest of righteousness
of fruitfulness. I'm telling you, that's what God
is offering us but we got to deal with us.
We got to say God, if there's anything in me If I have aught
in my heart towards any brother or sister, Lord, that that one,
that irritates me and rubs me wrong.
Give me a affection for them. I want a warm affection to just
Bubble Up in my heart. When I see that person that used
to irritate me, I want to stake my claim there and say God I'm
going to establish the love of God, an expression of who you
are and that relationship because that's when it's going
to be tested in the most. And we begin to be
long-suffering and for bearing with one another in love.
I'm telling you, we have a prophetic invitation from
Heaven, on this point, it's true for anyone, it's in the word,
but God gave us a prophetic invitation through an open
Vision to your pastor. Before we receive this morning,
I want to say it was Tuesday. We're in an intersession and
I'll ask, does anybody have anything and Amy Strickland.
Amy wave at everybody, there, a me down there in the orange she
often, I'll sit out. Feel like I need to ask game if
she got anything and she said, she said, yes, I kept.
She said I've seen this several times.
It was ranks of the Demonic coming against us and she said,
I was, I was she didn't use this word.
She's like an undercover agent. She was behind the scenes.
They couldn't see her but she could listen in on their
conversation. Kind of like what?
God did with Gideon and overheard, the enemy sees you as
a roll of bread, that's going to Tumble the enemy.
And that's an, so that's good stuff.
When you hear that from the enemy, she said, I could hear
the enemy saying, we're going to have to break rank because
they're living in unity. And she said, she could hear the
discouragement among the ranks of hell.
Listen here, the discouragement among the ranks of hell.
Because when God commands his Blessing, there's nothing they
can do. They're shut out.
What the enemy tries to do is send an unhealthy person into a
healthy environment to begin to disrupt it, but God wants to
release such a level of emotional health that we can
absorb the stress of unhealthy people and love them into
Health. But if we're already unhealthy,
and we're already living under the stress of a handicapped,
Body of Christ. Then there's a Tipping Point.
We bump our foot on the door and we end up disabled and in bed
God wants to give us the victory.
Just told your bread up this morning.
First Corinthians it talks about not taking the bought the bread
unworthily. He says, if you take it and you
don't recognize the body of Christ, he's talking about this,
this body, his body was broken for this body and for us to take
of this bread and say, God, I accept what you did for me, but
I reject the others you did for it is taking it unworthily. it's
when we say, I don't care about my brother and sister, they
irritate me Or they've offended me or they've hurt me.
Be patient. Loving forbearing.
My petty little grievances. Are nothing compared to what he
went through and I can't allow to those Petty grievances to
keep all of us from what he wants to bring us into.
That's what's on the line. So walk worthy of the calling
take your bread and break it. Would you Jesus we thank you for
your broken body broken for us. Now, Lord, I ask that you would
break our hearts for those around us.
Lord, were asking that you would build such Health in this body
that we are white blood cells as a church.
Can fight off every every infection that we can absorb
stress and keep on running after you Lord, that you're able to
plant people that need healing and we just absorb them into the
environment, and they're brought to wholeness and health.
We thank you for it. Let's eat the bread.
Now, peel off the other one. Paul said on the night that
Jesus first partook of this, he said this is the New Covenant in
my blood. Paul wasn't there.
God felt it so important that by Revelation he gave Paul insight
into what happened. I don't know if it was a vision,
a dream somehow, Paul knew the details of what happened in that
room, it was that important. Some movements call this the
Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, We often call it communion.
To compound world word, common Union.
This is what makes us one. It's an old saying, blood is
thicker than water, but spirit is thicker than blood, we're
family. Because of this, So, father, I'm
asking God that you would help us to treat one another
accordingly. We thank you for it in Jesus
name. Let's drink.
Hallelujah. Well, I've already gone over.
Once you go ahead and stand this morning, Hallelujah.
Father, we thank you for your word and Lord.
We thank you for your invitation to us.
Lord, we don't take it lightly. God, we ask for your grace to
come upon us in a greater degree.
Lord. We want to go deeper we want to
go higher with you Lord. Have your way father we invite
your conviction, your correction and Lord any part of us that
would fight it Lord we side with you against ourselves.
Go after it Lord. Have it all reminded of that
song. He will not relent until he has
it all. God, we're we side with.
You don't relent until you have every bit of us.
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