00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
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.
Joy Multiplied
Series John
Title: Joy Multiplied
Series: John
Speaker: Jamie Hawkins
Bible: 1 John 5:19; John 15:8-21
Date: October 6, 2024
How affected is a Christian that is not connected to God? Do we really see the difference in the freedom we have -vs- the constraints placed on early Christians? Do we realize Christianity was outlawed to the degree of death, when practiced? Are we making the best of our fellowship opportunities? For answers to these questions and more, please listen to "Joy Multiplied," by Pastor Jamie.
| Sermon ID | 106242119144705 |
| Duration | 1:41:07 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 John 5:19; John 15:8-21 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.