and trying my best to discern and get an understanding of not just, you know, the incremental scriptures and pulling out all the fine line details, but understanding the broad message of what God is saying. And it's important to do that because we don't want to miss the point. Amen? Please be patient with me as I'm going through this new process as God and, you know, the Holy Spirit is training me to see his word in a very new way. Amen. And I pray that it blesses you. John 15, hopefully we get into Romans 15 today as I promised last Sunday. We'll see how much time we have because we have communion today. But John 15, just going down to where we left off, we left off at the 18th verse. John 15 chapter, the 18th verse coming out of the King James Version right now. John 15, 18 through 21. The Word of God says, if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they would also keep yours also. But all these things they will do unto you for my name's sake. Why Jesus? Because they know not him that sent me. All right. So, Good afternoon, everyone. It is really good to see everybody here today. And I say that because I want you to really hear my heart. No, it's really good to see every last one of you today. Amen? It's important that we do not take the body of Christ, the church, our brothers and sisters in Christ, for granted. Amen? It's a pleasure, it's a privilege that I get to see you, that you get to see each other today, amen? You know, we need each other. Do we realize this? Amen. Are we taking the body of Christ for granted? That's the question I have today. Are we taking the body of Christ for granted? Let me just set this up. Quick review. Just going back a few verses where we were last week and the week before. Just really briefly, just want to set this next passage or portion of scripture up. Help me Holy Spirit. to his disciples in John 15 that we need to abide in him. And he said, you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. I've given you my word. You believe that I'm the son of God. You believe that I'm the savior of the world. You believe that I am the Messiah. Amen. You may not be clued into everything that I'm doing, but you know that I'm the son of God. You are clean. We are clean because we believe the gospel. Amen. But then Jesus said, now in your clean position, abide in me or remain in me, right? Because a branch that is disconnected from the vine cannot bear any holy fruit. Neither can Christians though they be saved who decide to temporarily disconnect from Jesus. You cannot bear fruit. Amen. Disconnected Christians are not effective. Amen. So Jesus said, remain in me as I remain in you and you will bear fruit. He also said in the same portion of scripture that this gives my father glory. This brings glory to my father that you act like me. That's what Jesus is saying. Amen. You're not going to act like me, you know, being part-time Christians. Amen. Remain, stay, connect. Amen. Jesus said, how do you remain? Well, he told us by obeying my commandments. So we are to abstain from sin. Hello, somebody. Whatever it is that you're doing that can cause distance between your father by disobeying your father, we are to abstain from those things. Jesus said, we keep his commandments. My children are my children by blood. They will always be my children. But they can put a strain on our relationship when they disobey me. We are the children of God by blood. Jesus gave his blood, bought us, amen, redeemed us. We are in the family of God that will never change. Once saved, always saved. However, we can put a strain on our relationship with our father when we disobey him. This causes distance and distance between you and God is all the devil needs. All he needs is a crack to get in. Amen? So, to abide in him, first, number one thing as we learned, is to remain in the commands of God, obey his commands. And then Jesus said, specifically, that his particular command that he's looking for here is not only to abstain from sin, but he's saying that we remain in his love as He remains in his father's love by doing what? Well, go to the 10th verse, same version, John 15, the 10th verse through 13th verse. He said, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. And then verse 11 says, these things I have spoken to you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. Abiding in his love, abiding in the presence of God, abstaining from sin, amen. And he says, there's a commandment that I want you to keep. And what is that commandment? Well, verse 12 tells us what it is. Verse 12 says, this is my commandment, what Jesus? That you love one another as I have loved you. Verse 13 says, the greater love hath no man than this and a man would lay down his life for his friends. Jesus saying, how did I love you? I laid down my life. He's saying to us that we love each other, not by just saying, you're cute and I love you. Girl, I, man, you, Girl, you know I love you. No, he's saying we are actually loving each other when we do what Jesus did and we love others as he loved us. What did he do? He laid down his life. He laid down his life. I lay down my life for you. You lay down your life for me. We are actually doing his will. We are keeping his commandment, which will bring us joy. And our joy will be full based on me not just focusing on myself, but me focusing on you. Interesting, right? And I said, that's completely opposite of how we normally think. We're very selfish people. Amen? Jesus is saying, no, be like me. I didn't come here thinking about myself, demanding grapes and fans. I came here to serve, to love. To give my life, you do the same. Amen? So his specific command, and then in verse 17, just to top that off of where we left last week, come on, Holy Spirit, help me. He said, these things I command you, verse 17, that ye love one another. So your joy that remains requires obeying God's command and that specific command to love one another. Now, moving on. Jesus then in the same passage, the same timeframe, he didn't stop in the middle and go to the next day. Sometimes we read our Bible and we see a break and we go, okay, so that's one chunk and this is the whole new message. No, it's all connected, okay? I'm speaking to you and then I say something else, it's all the same. So basically, we cannot look at our Bibles outside of the context. Amen. Jesus said something in the next verses that's almost seems like it's disconnected. He said, basically the theme is his command to love one another. And he's staying with that theme, but he's building on it. Before I jump into that, I want us to go to 1 John, the back of your Bible. Same writer, John and then 1 John. 1 John 5.19. 1 John 5.19. John, a little later on, gets deeper revelation. And I want to say this, that John, out of all the disciples, you can make a pretty good argument that this guy was extremely close to Jesus. He even says some things in his letter about how close he was to Jesus compared to the other. He was very bold. And the Holy Spirit allowed that stuff in. He was like, now, if there's anybody that knows Jesus, I know him. Okay? John is saying it. So we can pretty much bank on what John is saying. John says something amazing that just blows me away in 1 John 5, 19. He says, we know that we are children of God. that I know I'm saved. The folks that agree with me, I know that they are children of God. And then he says this, and that the world, I know that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. John is saying, Something rather striking here. He's saying that we know that we are the children of God and we know that everybody else that's not a child of God is under the control of the devil. There's nobody in the middle. You are either under the control of Jesus or you are under the control of the devil. Straight up. That means that some of the nicest people, oh, Brother Jamie's just so nice though. Is he a child of God? No. Well, that's a nice demon. That's the nicest demon I'm just telling, just demonic and just nice. Why? Because he's under the control of not God, But if the devil, King James says, the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. Whoa. You know, just Satan just puppeting you. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Yeah. So now, with that understanding, now let's look at this hatred that this world has for the church and why Jesus says, love one another. There you go, John 15, again, 18th verse. Just generally, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you, okay? They don't like what I'm saying, they ain't gonna like what you say. They don't like what I represent, they won't like what you represent, amen? You agree with me, they don't agree with me, they won't agree with you. Okay? Verse 19, very simple. If you were of the world, the world would love its own because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you. You're not one of them anymore. You are now saved. You come from a different Lord. represent a different king. Those two entities, individuals, God and Satan, they do not get along. Satan would not have a problem with you if you were doing what he wanted you to do. But because you have given your allegiance to Christ, he hates you. And everyone that's under his control, sitting in his lap, puppeted by him, the nice demons, they hate you. And you find out the moment you come into some kind of impasse. And morality gets questioned. And your response is not like the world. Well, I think we ought to do this. Well, I just can't do that. Well, what's wrong with you? You think you're better than me? Uh-oh, started right there. Right? Verse 20, remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Jesus went through it. He came here. You know what I mean? He preached the kingdom. They didn't like what he was saying. They tried to kill him. They will try to kill you. You're not greater. You don't get a pass on persecution. You will actually deal with some very similar things that Jesus dealt with. Are you hearing me? Skip down to verse 21. But all these things, they will do unto you For my name's sake. Why Jesus? Because they don't know him that sent me. They don't have a relationship with the father. They will mistreat you and harm you. You got to go to the job and watch your back. Why? Because those people don't love you. Why? Because the love of the father's not in them. They're not in the same family. The Smiths never liked the Judds. It's just the way it is. Okay? All right. William Barclay, one of the theologians I like, he said it this way. He said, as I see it, people are either of the world or they are of Christ, and there is no stage in between them. Further, we must remember that by this time, the church was living under constant threat of persecution. Christians were indeed persecuted because of the name of Christ, because why? Christianity at that time was illegal, okay? A magistrate needed only to ask whether or not you were a Christian, and if you gave an affirmative answer that you were a Christian as your response, no matter what you had done in the past, or how important you were, and whatever you came from, and how your family was important, and when your father was the governor, it did not matter. The sentence, more than likely, was on the lines of death. Okay? John here is speaking of a situation that existed in such a way that it made it most clear and agonizing in an agonizing way. Hey, this world hates us. One of the things that we do nowadays is because we're not being thrown to lions, we don't appreciate the fact that Christianity in this country, or in this time at least, has allotted us a certain amount of freedom. where we can worship God, where we can do what we need to do, we can come to church and whatever have you, and we enjoy each other, and sometimes we take that for granted. But when this was written, Christianity was illegal. Now one of the things you must not do is you must not take where you are right now and cast that over the Bible. No, what you do is you take the Bible and how it was written and then cast that over where you are. you superimpose the truth of the timeless truth of the word of God and put it in your 2024 reality. And what I'm saying here is basically, we don't have a clue of how many horrible things are going on there around us concerning Christians because we are not really dealing in that time that this was written. But rest assured, you will get a wake up call Once you rub one of these folks the wrong way, and you will recognize, you know what? They don't love us. They hate us. Okay? He goes on to say, they will hand you over to the councils. You will be beaten in synagogues. You will stand before governors and kings because of me. At the testimony to them, brother will betray brother. To death, father will betray his children, children will betray their parents, and put them to death, you will be hated all because of my name and what I represent. Jesus is saying that, and it's recorded in Mark, it's recorded in Matthew, it's recorded in Luke. Over and over again, they're saying, listen, we want you to understand what you're really signing up for here. Okay? This world is not your friend. Don't get comfortable. Amen. So, with that in the backdrop, And with the preceding statement before, Jesus is saying, we need to love each other. Why? Because this world hates you and you're going to need to depend on the love of your God, your father, and your brothers and sisters, or who are in his family, in order to make it through this world. It's one thing to be saved and believe in Jesus. It's another thing to depend on your family members who are also in Christ. Amen? Acts 2 42 says this. Acts 2 42 says this. Acts 2 and 42. And they who, the church, after the Holy Spirit came, they, the church, continued steadfastly, consistently, in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. We come to church not only to hear the choir sing or the music, we come to church because we need encouragement from the word of God. We need encouragement from the scriptures on a consistent basis. In order to battle the lies that we deal with out there in this world, we need the truth from scripture to realign us, amen? I need encouragement from God's word to battle the pressures out there that try to get me to be like the world, amen? I need the word of God to help me, to give me power so I know the truth when I deal with sin in my own life. I go, you know what? I heard the word and he read my mail. Pastor, I don't know how he knew, but pastor read my mail, and now I need to go ahead and straighten out this certain area in my life, and I need to, you know, turn from this sin or that sin. We need the word to encourage us. My God, it's hot up here. What else? We need the doctrine, which is the teaching of the word that we hear, which is what I'm doing right now. And that's not only what we need, we need fellowship. They didn't just sit under the word every Sunday, you know, they sat in the presence of each other. They spent time with each other. They encouraged one another. The word fellowship is koinonia. Koinonia, it means to have things in common. We get through this world and dealing with this world and how they have nothing in common with the church. We get through this world because it's a blessing that when I come to church and spend time with God's people, God's children, the children of God, my brothers and sisters in Christ, I get to get with people that actually agree. Amen? On how I should live and on how I should think. I get to, you know, get encouragement. Sometimes it's hard to feel like you're the only one. You're sitting at your job in your cubicle and you're looking around. And everybody else was like, you know, and you're just like, I'm the only one. But when I come to church, no, it's not like that. This is my family. I don't have to go pound for pound with you on stuff. We already agreed. It's the fellowship. It's the koinonia. We have things in common. Amen? You encourage me to be like Christ. I encourage you to be like Christ. We don't encourage each other to do foolishness in here. That's the job. That's the world. I don't expect that. I expect something different. I expect to be uplifted, edified. Amen? Amen. So that's what we were talking about. Fellowship. We need the preached word, but we also need encouragement from one another. Next thing. And in baking bread. Hello, somebody. Don't just go to church, hear the word. Don't just go to church and look at each other. Don't just go home right after church. Go get something to eat. Think about it. Cook a meal, invite somebody over to your home. Amen? This is family. Families eat together. Amen? That's what we do. Have a good conversation about Jesus Christ over some chicken. Okay? This is not rocket science. We do it all the time. You invite a bunch of people over, you don't just have a bowl of potato chips out there and be like, good luck. You know? You invite them over and it's like, listen, let's talk about the Lord. Let's get to know each other. God has been good. I need to be encouraged by you. Well, I'm so glad we agree. Here, have some chicken. my kids out for pizza afterwards. We're going to be down the street. If you want to come with us, come and get some pizza." Elijah said, yes. That's right, son. That's right. All right. Teaching, which is what I'm doing now. Fellowship, we need to get together and spend time with each other. We don't just leave church and go home. We have a meal with people, you know what I mean? Spend some time eating some food. And in prayers. How do I deal with this world when it comes to all the craziness out there? When I get to church, I need you to pray for me. Oh, come on, somebody. I'm having a hard time. You don't know what I've been through. So I fellowship with you, and I say, hey, can we get together real quick? I need prayer. My children are crazy. My husband's crazy. My wife's crazy. My dog is crazy. Everybody's crazy. I'm dealing with craziness. Bank of America shut down my account this week. I don't know what happened. I don't know if there's so many people. I don't even know what happened. I was like, ah! I need prayer. Right? Which says that when we are actually in our quantity or our time of agreement with each other, right, and we're having our baking of bread and we're eating food together, right, what we need to do is we need to actually make sure that we didn't get together to gossip and talk about the saints. It's giving context to what our conversation should be. I didn't come here to put my mouth all on your business. I don't come to church for that. and I'm gonna pray for you. Are you hearing me? It's productive, it's edifying, it's encouraging. Why? Because here's the thing, saints, the enemy is roaming around seeking whom he may devour. He's looking for the isolated ones. He's looking for the ones separate from the herd. Why? He's looking for the ones, the sheep that are all by themselves, who just think, I just came for work, and they just go ahead and leave. Don't get tricked. Don't get tricked. The enemy is like, you just my type. You don't know to stay with the herd. He'll take you and pick you off at all your little Bible study because you don't have any strength around you. We need each other. We need each other, saints. Jesus is saying isolation is dangerous, okay? He's saying, love one another. The world hates you. What's the connection? You need each other. Amen? This world is too much for us to handle on our own. You know, sometimes what ends up happening is lack of encouragement can seep in. Huh? You know, I'm trying to do the will of God, but I feel like I'm all by myself. I'm just doing, you know, you know how you get. You know, I'm just doing it all alone. Well, call up a saint. Get some encouragement. You don't have to do it by yourself, amen? Because that kind of discouragement can do great damage to the heart, amen? We need to increase each other. We need to increase and feed on the joy. So the joy becomes multiplied, amen? When the church gets together, I said it last Sunday, the joy that you have and the joy that you have, it gets multiplied, amen? And we need to feed on that. Jesus did not just call one disciple. He called several of them, right? We're called the body of Christ, not the toenail of Christ. You just say, I'm just going to do it all by myself for Jesus. No, it's the body. The body depends on each other. Amen? I'm not like you, you're not like me, but I need you. You need me. Amen? Amen. We function together stronger. Here's the other thing, just a little historical note before we move on. Back then, the church had no designated church buildings. Okay? The church, if I'm not mistaken, did not come until like maybe 200 years. The buildings did not come until 200 years after they started the movement. Okay? So every day, it says, that they met in their homes. Every day. They continued in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in the baking of bread, and in prayer on a daily basis. They broke bread together in their homes with glad and sincere hearts. They did this every day. Huh? Why? Because they were aware, you know what? This world is dangerous. I'm not taking chances here. Hebrews 10.25. Almost done. Hebrews 10.25. David, you were right on point today. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as in a manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more, so much the more, as you see the day approaching. They met on a daily basis. We complained about coming one Sunday. They were like, listen, as soon as I get off work, I meet you at your house because we need to be together on this because this world is crazy. These folks hate us and I can see it now. And we go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. without being together. Hmm. Maybe we have an interesting perspective on what we're dealing with out here. Maybe we have a lackadaisical attitude on how real this enemy really is. Huh? And then he says, encouraging one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. My virgin says, as we see the day approaching. Let me say this. If you've taken enough time, or if you have the ability to escape all the media that has you over-focused on the election, and who's going to win and who's not, and if your mind is glued to Trump and Kamala, You might notice that there's other things happening around the world. There are other things going on that are quite scary. This war in the Middle East that could pull everybody, y'all, we could be looking at World War III in a minute. There's some rather biblical, prophetic kinds of things that are happening that say, you know what? His return could be near. Jesus could be coming back. And if, I don't know about you, having your mind on all the other things that you think are more important than getting to church, because you want to get married or you want a new Mercedes Benz, listen, ain't nobody going to be caring about whether or not that PG&E bill is late if they drop a bomb. Are you following what I'm saying? At that moment in time, we're going to be thinking about one thing and one thing only, I can't breathe. Are you feeling me? How important is it for us as we see these events that are happening all around us, you know, while we hyper-focused on the USA, and there's all kinds of stuff that's going on around us, where there's several different countries lining up and stuff like that against us, how important is it for us to actually start to go, you know what, maybe I need to be in church with my brothers and sisters growing in Christ because Jesus could be right around the corner. And let it not be said that you was at the Stone Soul Picnic on a Sunday when Jesus breaks through the clouds. You got your drink in your hands, and I'm like, hey, back in stride again. Happy feeling. We need each other is what I'm telling you. I need to be encouraged by you. You need to be encouraged by me. Okay, all right. Are you hearing what I'm saying, saints? Okay, do I have time for this? Let's see. Romans, I know it's hot too. Romans 14 and 15. Let me just kind of see if I can get to this. Now with all the stuff that's going on in this world, Jesus is promising that the world would hate us. With everything that's happening, the world and all that stuff, if we're not careful to encourage each other and spend time with each other and fellowship with each other and appreciate each other and love one another as Jesus commanded us so that we can have that consistent joy, amen. Thank you, Holy Spirit. If we're not careful, the world will rob you of your joy. Amen. This stuff will depress you. Amen? But the thing that should not be is it should not be said that the one place where I expect to be filled with joy is also now stripping away my joy. It should not be said that in the church, you know, I'm dealing with folks who are not careful to fan the flames of joy. Instead, they're pouring cold water on the fire. It should not be that when I get with my brothers and sisters, you are sapping me dry. Well, that's what was happening in the general context of Romans 14 and 15. You had the Gentiles who are now, as we know, coming to church with the Jews. Amen? And there were some issues. And Romans 15 and 14, 14 and 15 kind of deals with the important principles to let God's people be led of the Holy Spirit on how they deal with secondary issues, secondary matters. These things can cause conflict among the believers. These things can cause unnecessary fights like David was talking about, amen. And we shall see how that stuff gets in the way and robs us of our joy. Because I didn't come here to fight with you after I just got through fighting the world. Right? It should not be that that's the case. And some of us have been in churches where we've been, you know, like, oh Lord, where are you going? I'm going to church. Right? So here it is, real quick. Romans 14, one through six. Let's see if I can do this. It says, accept other believers who are weak in faith and don't argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. For instance, one person believes that it is right to eat anything, but another believer is sensitive, has a sensitive conscience and will only eat vegetables, they're vegan. Verse three, those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don't. And those who do eat certain foods must not condemn those who do. Or those who don't eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them. Verse 4, who are you to condemn someone else's servants? You ain't God. Their own master will judge whether or not they stand or fall, whether they're in sin or whether or not, amen? Whether they have God's approval or not. And with the Lord's help, they will stand and receive His approval, verse 5. In the same way, some think that one day is more holy than the other day, right? while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him, amen. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God. There are small matters that if we're not careful can mess up our relationship with each other. Where we start to miss the big picture. I came in here feeling good about Jesus on fire for God and then I ran into you. You got everything to say about everything I'm doing wrong that Jesus really doesn't care that much about. Right? You care more than Jesus does. And I come in here full of joy and then I run into you, the joy sapper. Then Romans 14, 17 just kind of says this, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink. but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God and others will approve of you. Verse 19, so then let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up. Key verse here, don't, verse 20, tear apart the work of God over what you eat. Remember, all food's acceptable, but it's wrong and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's basically saying, listen, don't get in God's way of what he's doing with your brothers and sisters over this small stuff. Don't come in and let that attitude mess up what's happening in the harmony of the believer. I need you to have some joy here. You need me to have joy. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So basically, my troubles with my enemies in this world could possibly, and all the people that could be close to me, that trouble can come from everywhere. But God forbid when I get to church and deal with my own church family, I come against folks that are hating me and don't like what I'm doing. For instance, I don't want to fight the world. And then come to church and you tell me, just because, you know, I'm a woman, just for instance, that I gotta wear a dress instead of pants. You hear what I'm saying? Oh, you go out on Halloween? You know people like that. Right? What's happening? They're missing the big picture over these secondary issues. They're sapping the joy. There are these people in every kind of church. I call them the self-appointed Jesus policemen. Nobody asked you to do that. When I come to church, I expect your joy to mix with your joy, and your joy to mix with your joy, and your joy to mix with your joy, and your joy to mix with your joy, and joy to be in the back. And when we get all together, there's joy that's multiplied. Amen? Not depleted. Because you decided that you want to tell everybody, you know, what they need to do over some simple issues that Jesus probably didn't even care about. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I'm going through too much Monday through Saturday to get in here and also end up in a situation where I get my joy sapped at church. I got to make it to next Sunday. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And I'm depending on you to help me do that, and my joy gets multiplied with your joy, and we come out here and able to face Monday like, all right, we can make it another week. Huh? And how much more of a testimony would it be if the church of God comes out of church and shows up to work on Monday like this? How you doing? Bless the Lord. Verses like, hey, what's wrong with you? Where you been? Church. What happened? Sister Jackson. She always got something to say. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Real quick, almost done. Thank you, son. Romans 15, five and six. And we're gonna end it. Okay, ooh, I love this. May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you to live in complete harmony with each other. as it is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God who gives me the ability, Romans 15 one says, we then who are strong are to bear the infirmities of the weak. and not just please ourselves. May God give me the ability to get along with you, huh? Because that's fitting, huh? That's fitting as a servant of Christ, amen? Then we can all sing together in harmony, huh? And have a joyful praise service, which enables me to get out there next week and be like, you know what? World, I know you hate me, but I got backup. How you feeling? Who's my backup? My brothers and my sisters. That's why the enemy wants to put everything on your plate and say, you know what? I just can't make it this Sunday. He's counting on it. He's like, oh, that's good. Please don't go to church and be built up and edified by your brothers and sisters. Please come to church half the Sundays in the year. Please do that. Please, so you'll be ineffective. So you can walk around here with no joy and nobody will be attracted to Jesus through you. Oh, please do that. Please skip next Sunday and the Sunday after that and find something more important to do than to be with your brothers and sisters. Are you seeing what he's saying? He's saying the world hates you. He can't stand you and you want to go hang out with them more than your folks. He says, this is my command. What's the command? That you love one another. That you lay down your life. I'm too busy for you. No, no, no, no. Girl, let's go get some chicken. We got to battle this week. You know what's coming this week for me. I need to pray for you. You need to pray for me. We need to make it. Are you seeing what's happening? Come on, bro, you got my back. That's what he's talking about. So here's the thing that's gonna lead us right into our, yeah, skip that, you're done. Lead us right into our communion here. He's saying, go back to verse five real quick. Go right back to verse five. May the God, may God who gives this patience and encouragement. The power, saints, comes from God. The power to what? To live in complete harmony with each other. The power comes from God, amen? The ability to put our differences aside comes from God. The ability to encourage each other, one another in the Lord, it comes from God. the joy is multiplied because it's coming. I come with my joy that I get in the Holy Ghost, amen? And you come with your joy that you get from the Holy Ghost and we get together and we multiply that joy and we feed off of that joy and we increase that joy and we live off that joy and we come and do it next week and do it again. He's saying the power of it comes from God. So here's the question. When we leave our home for Sunday, do we pray and ask God for the help to love one another? Or do we just come in here talking about, I need a word? Is that my prayer? When I see Pastor Rick, who more than likely will tell me when he first gets in, how you doing, Rick? Man, this week, man, woo. And I say, man, I hear you, bro. This week, man, ooh. But by the time Rick gets up in here and he sees you and he starts praying, he leaps off the stage. Right? You've seen them do it, right? I'm using them as an example, right? By the time I get through dealing with my kids and homeschool and craziness and managing all the women that help me and my kids, which is no joke, I'll be like, thank you for the help. It's a lot. I can get beat down. I come to church and I see Matt and Beverly, huh? Both Beverly's, huh? I see Doretha, huh? I see my girl, Linda. That's my sister. I see Eduardo and his girlfriend, huh? I see Charlotte. I see them and I get encouragement. But am I asking, before I leave my home, Lord, empower me to love them. and to pray for them. I'm not just coming to take, I'm coming to give. Because I'm not the only one that's got to make it through the week. We are the body of Christ. We all need to make it, and we make it together. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Let us not forsake the assembly of the brethren. Why? Because the joy can be multiplied. We stir one another up to good love and good works. Amen. You encouraged me to get through this week. I encourage you. Amen. The sermon title is called Joy Multiplied, but I forgot to say it. But that's what this is, this is what we're talking about. The world will hate you, but the command is to love your brothers and sisters. Why? Because your joy will be full by doing that. Amen. I'm done.