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you you you you you you Well good morning everyone welcome to Mountain Baptist Church take your song books and turn to song 343 Song 343 in your song books And if you would stand We'll sing revive us again song 343 We praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love, for Jesus, who died and is now gone above. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. We praise thee, O God, for thy spirit of love, for Jesus, who died and is now gone above. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again. We praise thee, O God, for thy spirit of light, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has cleansed every stain. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again. Revive us again, fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, Lord, again, we just want to thank you, God, for this beautiful Sunday morning. You've given us to meet in your house and to hear your word preached. I pray, Lord, now that you would fill our pastor with your power and spirit. We love you, for it's in Jesus' name we ask all of it, amen. All you may be seated and take your Mountain Baptist Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songbooks. The blue folders should be on your seat or in the back of a chair. And turn to song number three, page three, Psalm 24, in your blue songbooks, and we'll sing Psalm 24. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the sea and established it upon the floods, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob, see him. Lift up your hands, O ye gates, and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord my King, the Lord my King, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your hands, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is this King of glory, Selah. So it's good to be back here in West Virginia. California can keep all their costs and everything. Everything is really expensive out there. But they do have In-N-Out Burger, which is the best by the way. I just want to pull rank there. Culver's is good, In-N-Out's better. So we need to get that over here. But as far as announcements go, everything should be normal this Sunday. So we have our morning service right now. We'll have our afternoon service at 4 p.m. Before that though, we're going to have our soul winning at 1 p.m. So get here if you want to go out soul winning with us. Meet up before 1 o'clock and we'll get teamed up to go out soul winning. And I know it's hot out there, so just make sure you stay hydrated and all that stuff. But it's hot everywhere. It was like 109 degrees or something like that out in California. When I was out in Arizona it was like 112 or something like that. So it's going to be in the 80s today, so it's better here. So just put things in perspective, it could be hotter. And then as far as regional soul winning times, we have the Monday through Saturday here. As far as those regional times, just get with the men that's in parenthesis there on times and all that. And then we have the men's prayer meeting at the end of the month here. This coming, is it this Saturday? Yeah, this Saturday. We have the baby shower that the ladies are putting on. And so get with either my wife or Miss Paula on any details if you don't already know. And then on August 5th we have the women's prayer meeting. And then we have a missions trip that we're doing out to Greece coming up the second week of August there. So just be in prayer there for safe travels, but also just be in prayer for the reception of the people that we talk to out there. And that everything goes well with that. And then after that trip I'm going to be done traveling. I just don't want to travel anymore. I don't want to be on a plane, I want to be around people. You guys, obviously, are the exception. But yeah, I'm just not a traveler. I just don't love it. Brother Richie loves it. As far as the flying and all that stuff, I'm just not. Once I'm there I'm good. And I'm like, alright, let's do this. But that whole experience of getting there, it's for the birds. Bible memory is Malachi chapter 2. So for the month here we're memorizing Malachi chapter 2. And then our memory verse for the week is Psalm 133 verse 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity. So that's our memory verse for the week. And then birthdays. Kelly's birthday is today, right? Yeah. So happy birthday, Kelly. You don't look happy on your birthday. There you go. How old's Kelly? Three. Three? No. There's no way you're three. Man, time's flying. So we'll sing happy birthday to Kelly. Two. You're a little older than that, right? There you go. That's how I do three, too. I can't do it the other way. My hands are all just like, ah. Every time I do that I'm just like, oh, there it is. It's bad. Anyway. I can't be a Star Trek fan. I'm just like, ah. Ah. Actually I can do it with this hand. But I'm not going to be like the Jew that played that guy that lived long and prosper. Anyway, man, I'm getting off track. What am I doing here? We have our anniversaries that are coming up. We sang happy anniversary to the Simonses, right? And then my anniversary is coming up. Is it Wednesday? Is that Wednesday? Nine years. We haven't hit double digits yet. But yeah. Holly and I's anniversary. It's kind of crazy though that it's nine years. It doesn't seem like that long ago. I feel like we just got married and that we just had our first child right after that. It was after that. Just so you know. You can do the math. It was after that. It was not a shotgun wedding or anything like that. And then pregnancies. We have all the ladies on the pregnancy list here. And so being prepared for all these. And so I think someone was preaching about it at the Red Hot. About one way to go to church is just having a lot of babies. It's facts. So that's one way to grow the church. And so I think that's about all I have for announcements. The offering boxes in the back there are going to give Tyler an offering. The mother baby room for the mothers and babies only. Dave's going to come and sing one more song. Before that we're going to sing happy birthday to Kelly. And then brother Joseph. Oh there he is back there. Brother Joseph is going to be reading Philippians chapter 2 for us this morning. By the way. Our channel has a strike on it. And I thought it was going to be done by today. Because it said it was for a week that we couldn't live stream. But then there were just like four days left. So YouTube apparently can't count. But so we're streaming to Facebook. And we're streaming to the KGV Soul Winners YouTube channel. And so yeah we're just going to have to wait until YouTube puts us back on there or whatever. So but we'll plan on uploading all the other stuff to our main channel. Unless it just gets nuked. But we'll find out. Alright take your songbooks and turn to song 325. Song 325 in your songbooks. We'll sing trust and obey. But before we do that we need to sing happy birthday to Kelly. You want to stand up? There we go. Perfect. Awesome. Alright you're three years old today. Happy birthday. We'll sing happy birthday. Ready here we go. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Kelly. And we need to sing happy birthday to the Robinsons. Happy anniversary. Alright we're going to sing happy anniversary. We'll get you all to stand up. And nine years. It has gone by quick man. Like I was just at your wedding. Alright we'll sing happy birthday or good night in the morning. It's been a long week. Happy anniversary. Ready here we go. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary God bless you. Happy anniversary to you. And we will sing song 325. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word What a glory he sheds on our way While we do his good will He abides with us still And with all who will trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey Not a shadow can rise Not a cloud in the skies But a smile quickly drives it away Not a doubt nor a fear Not a sign or a tear Can abide while we trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey Not a burden we bear Not a sorrow we share But our toll he doth richly repay Not a grieve nor a loss Not a frown nor a cross But is blessed if we trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey But we never can prove The delights of his love Until all alter we lay For the favor he shows And the joy he bestows Offer them who will trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey Then in fellowship suite We will sit at his feet Or we'll walk by his side in the way What he says we will do Where he sends we will go Never fear only trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey Alright take your Bible and turn to the book of Philippians chapter number two Philippians chapter number two and we'll have brother Joseph come and read that for us Philippians chapter two And if you found your place there say amen If there be therefore any consolation in Christ If any comfort of love If any fellowship of the spirit If any bowels and mercies Fulfill ye my joy That ye be like minded having the same love Being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory But in lowliness of mind And let each esteem other better than themselves Look not every man on his own things But every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus Who being in the form of God Thought it not robbery to be equal with God But made himself of no reputation And took upon him the form of a servant And was made in the likeness of men And being found in fashion as a man He humbled himself And became obedient unto death Even the death of the cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him And given him a name which is above every name That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow Of things in heaven and things in earth And things under the earth And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord To the glory of God the Father Wherefore my beloved As ye have always obeyed Not as in my presence only But now much more in my absence Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling For it is God which worketh in you both to will And to do of his good pleasure Do all things without murmurings and disputings That ye may be blameless and harmless The sons of God without rebuke In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation Among whom ye shine as lights in the world Holding forth the word Word of life That I may rejoice in the day of Christ That I have not run in vain Neither labored in vain Yea, if I be offered upon the sacrifice The service of your faith I joy and rejoice with you all For the same cause also do ye joy And rejoice with me But I trust in the Lord Jesus To send Timotheus shortly unto you And also may be good comfort When I know your state For I have no man like-minded Who will naturally care for your state For all seek their own Not the things which are Jesus Christ But ye know the proof of him That is, as a son with the Father He hath served with me in the gospel Him therefore I hope send presently So soon as I shall see how it will go with me But I trust in the Lord that I also myself Shall come shortly Yet I suppose it necessary to send unto you Aphroditeus, my brother and companion in labor And fellow soldier But your messenger and he that ministered to my wants For he longed after you all And was full of heaviness Because that ye had heard that he Ye had heard that he had been sick For indeed he was sick nigh unto death But God had mercy on him And not on him only But also on me also Lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow I sent him therefore the more carefully That when ye see him again Ye may rejoice And that I may be less sorrowful Receive him therefore in the Lord With all gladness And hold such in reputation Because for the work of Christ He was nigh unto death Lord, I thank you for this holy word you've given to us Lord, I thank you for the safe travels Lord, I ask you be with Pastor Robinson Edifies this morning In Jesus' name, amen Amen So you're there in Philippians chapter 2 And I'm going to be preaching a sermon Dealing with being with one accord I preached a sermon I was actually looking it up It was actually in 2019 On how to be a pastor It was actually in 2019 On basically keeping unity in the church And that's been almost four years So that's crazy But this is a sermon that I want to preach I preached it back then Because if there's one thing I love about our church It's our unity And this is one of those sermons that I'm not preaching this because we need to get this right or anything like that Because of the fact that we have it And that we need to keep it And just some principles on that But the Bible teaches this a lot as far as having unity Being of one mind and all that And look at what it says here in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 1 It says If there be therefore any consolation in Christ If any comfort of love If any fellowship of the Spirit If any bowels and mercies Fulfill ye my joy That ye be like minded Having the same love One accord of one mind And so this is something that we're constantly wanting to strive for And I preached that sermon about four years ago To basically keep the unity Because we have unity And I believe we have kept the unity For the most part as far as that aspect of our church And I want that to continue As far as the idea of being unified We don't have a whole bunch of divisions amongst ourselves But we have a nice unity in our church And our memory verse in Psalm 133 in verse 1 It says Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity And so we want to have unity And obviously we don't want to forsake doctrine or purity or anything like that for unity I mean this isn't a kumbaya Baptist church where we're all going to just have unity for sake of unity But the idea is that we want to have unity And I'm going to be getting into what helps us keep unity Obviously the word of God is what we should all be united behind And I believe that's why we have unity A huge reason why we have unity Is because everybody that comes to this church believes that the King James Bible is our final authority And so if we're all reading the same book and we're holding that as our final authority Then ultimately we should probably have unity If we don't have unity then there's a problem with somebody not holding to that being their final authority And you say well are we all going to agree on everything? No, there's not one Christian in here that would agree on every little point to the T There's not one person in here that would say I agree with Pastor Robinson on every little thing that he believes Nor could I say that about anybody else So we're not talking about just complete to the T, the minutia type of unity We're talking about unity as a whole on the big things When it comes to the major doctrines, when it comes to our major focus of what we're doing at this church That's what we're talking about And I believe that that type of unity will help those little things that we differ on Just kind of not be a big deal And what happens with churches is when that unity falls apart When there's something that's keeping that unity apart Those little things is what tears everybody apart Those little differences here and there It could be doctrine, it could be people that you like or people you dislike And it could be a lot of different things, it could be just your personality We have all kinds of different personalities And there's little things that shouldn't matter That end up tearing churches apart And ultimately it's because I don't believe they have the major things in unity And the major things that are being like minded and being of one mind I was reading through the book of Acts, go to Acts chapter 1 I've been reading through the book of Acts and this just gets brought up over and over and over again About being of one accord And it's something that's just on my mind when it comes to our church That we want to keep that So this may not be one of those I just got back from the Red Hot Preaching Conference So if you're expecting me to come back and just swing from the chandeliers I'm tired This isn't going to be one of those sermons where I'm just ripping face This is a sermon that I believe is a precautionary type of sermon But it's also just one to be reminded of Hey, here's why I believe we're unified And we want to keep that to be the case Okay, in Acts chapter 1 and verse 12 here Notice what it says It says, Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet Which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey And when they were come in they went up into an upper room Where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew And Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus And Simon and Judas the brother of James These all continued, notice this With one accord in prayer and supplication with the women And Mary the mother of Jesus And with his brethren And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples And said the number of names together were about 120 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs to be fulfilled Which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas Which was a guide to them that took Jesus And so he's getting up and preaching to the disciples And notice how many disciples that are there with them Now it talks about the apostles and obviously the women And I believe it's talking about Jesus' brethren That are all in one accord But then there's also other disciples as well When it comes to who's there with them In this upper room if you will And it's 120 Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 And the thing to notice is that this is before the day of Pentecost We're talking probably around 40 days or so past the resurrection And because Jesus was seen of them 40 days And then the day of Pentecost would be the 50th day after the resurrection And so I want you to see something here And notice how that number differs there As far as the 120 that are there right before the day of Pentecost 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3 it says For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures And that he was seen of Cephas then of the twelve After that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once Of whom the greater part remain unto this present but some are falling asleep After that he was seen of James then of all the apostles And last of all he was seen of me also as one born out of due time And so basically this chapter is showing you like who's all the witnesses of this resurrection And there were 500 brethren at once above that right Above 500 brethren at once Jesus was seen But yet right before the Pentecost when there who's in one accord 120 So when it comes to brethren that are united and in one accord it's not the majority I'd say most churches don't have the unity that we have And I think it's important that we recognize that That we're grateful for it but also that we continue to have it Because we don't want to take it for granted But when it comes to unity we obviously don't want unity for sake of unity We want it to be grounded in truth We want it to be obviously according to the Bible But know this is that Jesus is desiring us to be united And to be a one accord of one mind And go to John chapter 17 This is a great passage here where Jesus is praying to the Father And one thing that is very clear is that he wants us to be united That he wants all of us to be united And notice what it says in John 17 verse 11 John 17 verse 11 it says And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world And I am come to thee Holy Father Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me That they may be one as we are So he's basically talking about all of us being united as one It says in verse 17 And here's the thing it's not just that we're united over anything It's like well you know I want them to be united over a football team or something like that No we need to be united I believe in the word of God And in verse 17 it says Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word You know who that is? Us Ultimately those are those that haven't believed yet but will believe once they hear the word Once they believe the gospel I believe that you can put yourself in that where Jesus is praying for this And personalize this to say hey he's praying for us not only to believe But also to be in unity with one another It says in verse 21 That they all may be one as thou father art in me and I in thee That they also may be one in us that the world may believe thou hast sent me In the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one So just on and on The Bible's teaching or Jesus' teaching here is that he wants us to be united He wants us to be of one accord Paul stating that in Philippians chapter 2 is that it would fulfill his joy You know that his joy would be fulfilled if you be like minded of the same love One accord of one mind And that that is what we're trying to do Actually keep reading there in John 17 It says I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one So I can keep reading through I mean obviously John 17 is really hitting on that aspect of hey Jesus is leaving the world And the big thing he wants is that all his believers would be unified And that they would have unity be of one accord of one mind And be sanctified through the truth And obviously where's the truth but the word of God The word of God is the truth that we need to be unified under So go back to Philippians chapter 2 And let me just give you some things that the Bible teaches as far as how do we keep unity How do we cause that to stay the case or how did it even come to be And I believe in chapter 2 where it's stating that we need to be of one accord Is going to give us an answer here Notice what it says here In verse 2 there it says Fulfill you my joy that you be like minded having the same love being a one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Here's how we keep unity is everything isn't about you That when you come to church it's about helping others You know there's a lot of people that come to church and be like We'll go out soul winning and we'll invite people to church and be like Well what does your church offer? Do you offer a kids program? Do you offer this or that? And obviously with the kids program I'm always like well we're family integrated So obviously all the children are welcome in the church So I mean that's the program is the church service But it's always just like what can the church do for me But you should really be thinking to yourself Not how it profits me but how I can profit others How I can help others And this idea of not just everything just wanting to take everything And we don't want to have that mentality And especially in church especially because you know You know in church we don't sell anything everything here is free But you don't want to have this mentality of like Well since everything is free here it's just like give me everything you got Now listen I'm not here to say hey don't take Don't get food, don't get drinks Obviously things are here for a reason We want to be a blessing, we want to help people out We're going out soul winning, all this stuff We have stuff that's here for everybody to use But at the same time it shouldn't just be like hey it's all about me Sometimes you need to be thinking about like Hey maybe I shouldn't take that because someone else might want it Someone else might need that And we're not policing it when it comes to things like that But at the same time it's the mentality that needs to be there The mentality is saying hey it's not about me getting something It's about everybody else getting something It's about esteeming others better than yourself And that you're basically looking on their welfare more than yours And that's where unity is going to come into play Because at that point there's going to be a lot of love There's going to be a lot of reciprocation Because if you're doing that to everybody And you're saying hey you know what instead of me wanting all this stuff I want everybody else to have it But then they're thinking that And then it kind of comes back to you And that's the way it should be is that more so it's just like hey you can have this And then you're like well hey you can have this And that's where the unity is going to come into play Where we're going to be a one mind and one accord And we're going to obviously care a lot more for one each other because of that Because you're not just coming in and just like I'm going to mess it up but my name is Jimmy Give me all you got right Anyway I still have it on my mug right I can't get that to save my life as far as like that expression I'll take all you get me right My name is Jimmy I'll take all you get me Anyway But we shouldn't have that mentality We should have the mentality of saying hey it's not about me getting stuff It's about others getting it And so but keep reading there because It says that we want to be of the same mind We want to mind but we want to be the mind of Christ Ultimately And notice what it says here in verse 5 It says let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God So Jesus is God I mean he obviously became one of us But we want to have the same mind We want to have the same attitude The same way that Jesus acted We want to be like that And notice what it says here in verse 7 So think about this It says but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant So think about this You don't want to be someone that's just trying to get a reputation Trying to get the limelight Trying to basically get all the spotlights put on you And you know sometimes spotlights do get put on you But you shouldn't like desire that It shouldn't be like what you're striving for And you know when I went out to the Red Hot Preaching Conference You know there's a lot of people that wanted to see me And wanted to talk to me and all that stuff And it's weird to me that that's the case But I don't really want that just to be honest Like I'd rather just kind of go in there preach and be like And just kind of be a normal person in the crowd kind of thing But some people want that reputation Some people want that limelight They desire that type of attention And we should be those that are basically trying to pull back from that I think in the flesh everybody wants to be famous Everybody wants to have recognition And wants praise and all these different things But we need to pull back from that and say you know what That's not what I desire And if it comes it comes right You shouldn't be praising yourself Let another man's lips praise you and not your own And so it's not bad for people to praise you Or to give you praise or whatever But the idea is that we shouldn't be seeking that We should be pulling back from that And becoming a man of no reputation And taking on the form of a servant So if everybody in here is saying hey you know what It's not about me getting stuff It's about others getting things It's about serving others I believe that that's where unity is going to take place Where you're not going to have a whole bunch of fights and all that Keep reading there it says And was made in the likeness of men And being found in fashion as a man He humbled himself And became obedient unto death even the death of the cross So notice that Jesus, the king of kings and Lord of lords The son of God I mean think about this If God can make himself of no reputation And can be made a servant How much more should we? If he humbled himself, how much more should we? I mean we're not greater than our Lord Or our master We need to be like him And how much more should we be of no reputation Be made of no reputation And to be humble and become a servant and all that Go to Romans chapter 12 And honestly I think our church is I mean like I said this isn't a sermon to preach against our church I think our church is filled with a bunch of servants I do believe our church is filled with a bunch of people that are humble And that are trying to help each other out And all of that But sometimes you just need to know like hey that's the route Right that's how we keep it Cause I know I almost guarantee a lot in here Would say hey I love the unity in our church I love that hey we can Have fun serving the Lord And all that The thing is that we don't want to let that go We don't want to let that slip And sometimes I think people Maybe we don't realize why it is that way Why do we have great unity Why is it that We're so close knit As a church And I believe these are the reasons And the bible teaches Hey here's how you stay one minded Here's how you stay of one accord And again Like I said this isn't like Every little thing we're all gonna agree on But if we keep these big things In mind and we As a whole we're just like hey I want to serve I'm thinking about other people It's not about me You know I'm not trying to get the limelight Then I believe Everything else kind of takes care of itself You know if you're not trying to get the limelight And you're not trying to Basically just get everything you can When you're here The idea is that you're gonna tend not to Have a whole bunch of division And discord with everybody Okay And so in Romans chapter 12 and verse 16 it says Be of the same mind one toward another Mind not high things But condescend to men of low estate Be not wise in your own conceits Recompense to no man for evil Provide things honest In the sight of all men If it be possible as much as lie within you Live peacefully with all men And you know obviously we use this verse A lot of times to talk about The world which is true But even in church right I mean there's gonna be things where people are gonna People are gonna rub you the wrong way at church Just gonna happen You're gonna be around people They're gonna rub you the wrong way They're gonna say something that you don't like And the big thing is that you don't just You don't just hit them back with the same thing You know render evil for evil or anything like that That you basically suffer to be defrauded In a lot of cases Now obviously if it's a big deal Something that becomes like a Matthew 18 You know type of thing Or you know someone's like a railer You know they're just railing against you Or they're railing against me or something That's a different issue I'm talking about like someone makes a joke about you Or something like that and you're just like Alright buddy it's coming back on ya You know like we should obviously have The mentality that hey Let's uh Let's let the stuff roll off our back right We don't let stuff get to us And all that And I think about this too is that Tribulation and persecution Will let all that stuff go away So we gotta, listen you may say Hey you know we haven't had a lot of tribulations And persecutions well I believe a lot of times The tribulations and persecutions Are meant to bring unity and keep us Close together and like Because we're in a battle and at that time you don't Care whether someone chews with their mouth open Or you don't care if someone leaves the church a mess Or you don't care that this or that You're just like hey we gotta battle on our hands That's more important So if you don't want If you don't want this hard persecution Then I believe one of the reasons for persecution Is to keep us close together And so I always think about that When you think about if we're Prospering and if we're you know at peace You always have to beware You always have to beware Because prosperity breeds wickedness And a state of peace A lot of times will cause people to be comfortable And then they'll be thinking about things They become idle They start thinking about things that don't matter They start making things a big deal That aren't a big deal Right And so Hey listen Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution So don't get me wrong It's not like I'm saying hey we'll never have persecution If we just stay unified right If we just stay unified But I don't want that to be the reason we have tribulations and persecutions Does that make sense I don't want it to be like hey you know Mountain Baptist Church is kind of getting a little They're getting There's divisions in there And people are you know getting irritated with each other I need to put some persecution on them To get them their mind on what's more important Does that make sense I'm all about persecution trials and tribulations But I don't want it to be because we're messing up Right It shouldn't be because hey It is what it is right You know the word of god is offensive You know the world's gonna hate us It is what it is and that should be the reason It shouldn't be because hey god needs to get his church back on track You know I don't want it to be like hey I have a few things against thee Right I want it to be more so hey you're doing well You're gonna have trials and tribulations Be thou faithful unto death and I'll give thee a crown of life I'd rather be that As far as the reason why we have trials and tribulations Okay Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 3 So we want to have lowliness of mind You know we want to be meek and lowly and esteem others better than themselves So when you think about being meek and lowly That's really the definition Is esteeming others more than yourself Jesus came being meek and lowly And he esteemed the world above himself To die on the cross He despised the shame But it says that he looked forward to the glory that was set before him And you know what we need to think about that As far as Hey the ultimate reason why we're gonna be defrauded Or we're gonna suffer these things And esteem other people better than ourselves Is because there's a bigger prize that we're looking for There's a bigger purpose that we're trying to accomplish And in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8 It says Finally Be ye all of one mind Having compassion one of another Love his brethren Be pitiful Love his brethren Be pitiful be courteous Now when it says be pitiful it doesn't mean like Oh woe is me My Eeyore mentality like pitiful It means like Basically have pity on others Right Like the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy it says about Job But it wasn't saying that God's pitiful As far as like he's a pitiful You know being or something like that It means that he's pitiful because he had pity on Job And we need to have pity on others We need to be courteous We need to love his brethren We need to have brotherly kindness And brotherly love And have compassion And notice what it says in verse 9 Here's how you really put that to use Is not rendering evil for evil Or railing for railing But contrary wise blessing Knowing that you're there unto call That you should inherit a blessing But he that will love life and see good days And bring his tongue from evil in his lips that they speak no guile Let him eschew evil and do good Let him seek peace and ensue it You know when there's things that come You know when there's things that are said Or you know someone rubs you the wrong way You just need to let it go Just let it go Now if that person keeps insisting on doing it And it becomes an issue Then you know what bring it to someone else And just try to get it right But Ultimately In a lot of cases though We just need to let it You know be like water off a duck's back You know whatever And listen they'll suffer The person, if the person's doing that They're gonna suffer the consequences for that Because a man that has friends might show himself friendly And if someone's just constantly like You know And I'm just kind of using this as an example I'm not saying anybody's just like making fun of people all the time But if someone's just like making fun of somebody all the time They're not gonna be friends with that person Like it's just They're gonna suffer the consequences of not having a friend They're not gonna have unity with that person But When it comes to You know being one mind one accord We need to think of others above ourselves And even when others maybe You know do things that we don't like As far as how maybe they treat us Or whatever We need to just let that go Okay Go to Philippians chapter 1 And so You know obviously the big thing is Is that hey we're coming here to serve We want to be humble Because when it comes to divisions A lot of times the divisions in the church Has to do with pride I'm right you're wrong And It could be between brethren in the church It could be between brethren in the church And the pastor And You know just know this that I'm right and you're wrong And just know that And then we'll have unity No but you know All joking aside I do believe that As a pastor you know The Bible says actually I don't have this in my notes But Galatians chapter 6 There's a good verse on this Dealing with you know talking to your pastor About things It says in Galatians 6 It says let him that is Taught in the word communicate unto him That teaches in all good things Like it's a good thing to communicate with your pastor And even if you disagree Maybe you have a different thought process On a doctrine or whatever So that's a good relationship To have And I want that relationship to stay there I want that to be good you know As far as that goes I'll get into that a little more in a minute But I want to get to the point of Okay well we're going to come in we're going to be servants We're going to be humble we're going to see others better than ourselves That's going to cause good unity That's going to cause everybody to be a one of mine One accord and we're going to like each other At that point you know But go to Philippians chapter 1 verse 27 Here's what I believe really gives us a lot of unity in our church You say well what's one of the big reasons I think I think like I said at that first point Our church is filled with a bunch of people that are pretty nice people Right Just they got good manners They're nice you know like If you're nice you usually get along with people Right So we need to obviously be thinking about that That we're not going to be a bunch of jerks to each other And that's kind of the low on the shelf way of looking at that first point Is just don't be a jerk Be a nice person Right But in verse 27 It says only let your conversation be as become at the gospel of Christ That whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs Notice this that you stand fast In one spirit with one mind Striving together for the faith of the gospel And in nothing terrified by your adversaries Which is to them an evident token of perdition But to you of salvation and that of God In front of you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him But also to suffer for his sake Having the same conflict which you saw in me And now you're here to be in me Here's why I believe our church has great unity Because we're a soul winning church Because we're laboring in the gospel Listen if you ever have You're just like that person Just annoys me Go out soul winning with them A lot of times that will take care of that Because you're out there You're soul winning You may even have a case Where someone's not happy with you You get the door slammed in your face You know what that's going to cause? Unity Because now you're both in this fight together You're both basically in the trenches And you're out there trying to win people to Christ You're laboring together And I believe that if we were to stop soul winning our unity would go to nothing I believe everybody would start fighting about doctrine We start fighting about things that don't matter Because ultimately why are we here? What's our purpose for being here? Our purpose is to go out and preach the gospel to every creature And to baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost And to teach them to observe all things What's our command of you? The idea is that our whole job as a church is to go out and win the lost And to get them in the church to do likewise I mean that's ultimately what we're trying to do And if we just take that out of the equation Then we're just kind of a bunch of people that get together and talk about the Bible Isn't that what church would be then? Let's just come to church It's a TED talk For you to come and listen to the Bible being preached But you're not doing anything with it There's no ultimate end game There's no work being done And you know what? That's why a lot of churches have divisions That's why a lot of churches end up basically not having any unity Because no one's working together If you're busy working You don't have time to worry about these petty differences And sometimes I'll see little petty things Or I'll hear little petty things And in my head I'm like persecution's coming soon I can think about it I can think about hey I think we might end up getting some persecution Because you know what? Our church has never been probably more united than when we had persecution When the sodomites or people were coming after us Or attacking us or whatever That'll maybe cause some people to run away out of fear But ultimately you know what that causes a lot of people in our church to do? Is to get closer I think it's time to put away our differences I mean think about it, our country was that way when 9-11 happened Now we can all discuss on who did 9-11 And talk about building 7 and all that But we're not going to do that today Let's just say this It is true though That our country came together at 9-11 and says hey let's go take out the enemy Does that make sense? It's just kind of like you put away a lot of differences and be like we're Americans right? And it was just kind of like this unifier of like hey we're in trouble, we're in distress, we're at war Well here's the thing, we are at war We're at war with the world when it comes to the principalities and powers and rules of darkness And we're at war for the minds of men And we're out there trying to win souls to Christ You know the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life and he that win his souls is wise I mean we are in a battle to win And when you realize that on a weekly basis hey we're in a battle, we're in a war, we're in a fight And you realize that hey we're the ones that are in it And it's just like all these other Christians aren't doing anything Hey we need each other We need each other and we put away all our little petty differences in order to have unity in that battle But sometimes we need to just remember that that's the big reason why we have unity Philippians chapter 4, we go to Philippians chapter 4 and verse 1 Philippians chapter 4 just to show you another place kind of dealing with that is the idea of being a one mind And it's dealing with laboring with each other So obviously we need to be unified on the word of God Okay sanctified through his truth, thy word is truth right? This is what we're unified, when it comes to all faith and practice and doctrine it's the word of God And that's our final authority But then it comes down to the fact that as Christians we need to be humble, we need to be servants We need to esteem others better than ourselves But listen if we're doing that and then we're working together in a battle, in a fight for the souls of men When you think about the gravity of that situation that if we don't go out and go preach the gospel People are going to hell And you think about that gravity in that situation then you know what? Unity is going to come into play And in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 1 it says Therefore my brethren dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown so stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved I beseech Euodius and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord And entreat thee also true yoke fellow, I entreat thee also true yoke fellow Help those women which labored with me in the gospel with Clement also And with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life So notice how this being of the same mind has to do with laboring together in the gospel That you strive together for the faith of the gospel that you be of one spirit of one mind And that as you're doing that you're being lowly and meek and humble you're a servant You're like does that apply to you pastor? You better believe it applies to me I mean I am the minister of the church if you will And what does minister even mean but a servant? I am a servant to the church That's my job I'm here to actually serve you a meal I'm to feed the flock of God I'm to protect the flock from wolves that's a job right? I'm serving you I work for you And now when it comes to unity I do want to hit on this and I haven't had problems with this But I always want to mention it because you know what it could become a problem one day And I don't want to be said well I didn't know this could be a problem We have great unity and I love that people aren't afraid to come to me and talk to me about doctrine Or even differences in doctrine or stances that I take or whatever the case may be But go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 1 But I do want to say this is that we don't want to dishonor positions of authority You know by taking unity too far and that's kind of an oxymoron because it wouldn't be unity then It's kind of like it's not really unity It's kind of like the idea of liberty without the law of God right? It's literally called the perfect law of liberty right? So when people try to take the law out completely and say that's liberty it's like well no it's not Because where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty But also with unity I believe there comes honor and respect for the positions of authority And not despising authority and all of that And like I said I haven't dealt with this you know I haven't dealt with people being like You know treating me with disrespect or anything like that But I don't want it to be an issue so I don't want to be someone where I have to address it So I just kind of want to hit on this is that in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 1 it says Rebuke not an elder but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren The elder women as mothers the younger as sisters with all purity Now this I believe this applies this would apply to a pastor because I am an elder right? Elder, bishop, you know pastor But this also applies just to the elder people in the church Those that are think of children that would apply to all the adults in the church When it comes to the respect that's given there Right you treat your elders with respect and honor So the elder women I'm going to treat with respect and honor But also just spiritually speaking when you think about the leadership And the fact that you treat them with respect and honor It says this in Leviticus 19 and you don't have to turn there but you can note it down Leviticus 19 32 it says thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man And fear thy God I am the Lord The idea of respecting your elders and respecting those that are older than you is a principle older than time Obviously it's in the Bible but the idea of like standing up and respecting someone that's older than you That's a principle that needs to apply and that will help that unity We don't want people disrespecting their parents right? We don't want children disrespecting their parents their authority right? But we also want to carry that over to the fact that hey we shouldn't be disrespecting people that are older than us Or people that are in higher positions of authority than us So go to 1 Timothy 5 verse 17 Like I said I haven't had to deal with this I haven't had anybody just coming up and just being really disrespectful to me Except for people I've kicked out of the church You know but that's a different story A lot of times those are just people that are coming in trying to cause trouble or something like that Like Ram's horn guy you know But I haven't that I can remember okay So maybe I just don't dwell on it if there is a case where someone was disrespectful to me and I just let it go But this is something that needs to be you know On the you know at least the back burner of your mind Like hey if I talk to a pastor about something I need to be respectful about it Even if I disagree with them or maybe you preach something I disagree with Just have respect It's not saying you can't talk to the preacher You can't talk to an elderly person about something It's just basically saying and treat them as a father though It's kind of like just don't rebuke them openly in front of everybody And just like put them on the spot to where they're going to have to answer you in a harsh manner Because if you rebuke me openly in front of everybody For something I preached or something you know my stance on something Then you're going to have to expect kind of the same type of response You know as far as like now I'm going to have to rebuke you openly Right? And that's obviously going to cause some strife That's going to cause some clashing there Whereas if you just don't treat me as a father maybe And you might even be right about it Let's say you're even right about what you're saying to like an elderly person Or to you know or to your pastor or to the deacon or something like that Maybe you're right Maybe what you're saying is true and they're wrong about it Because I don't know if you know this But I'm not right about everything I do make mistakes But it's how you talk to them about it right? It's how you approach them How you discuss that with them It's the respect that you give there Because you may approach me one day and be like Hey you know that stance that you're taking right there I don't agree with that and here's my verses Here's my reasons like scripturally why that's the case And I may say yeah you're right about that I'll get that I'll fix that you know Or you know I'll fix that next time I preach on that I'll mend that you know like you're right But if you come up to me and start rebuking me in front of everybody Then I'm not saying that I won't take it to heart as far as what you're saying As far as I'll look at it and make sure that it's right or wrong or whatever But I'm still going to have to deal with the fact that you're disrespectful You know that that's still something that applies In 2 Timothy I'm sorry 1 Timothy 5 verse 17 It says, Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor Especially they who labor in the word and doctrine For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn And the laborer is worthy of his hire Against an elder receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses And so if you're going to receive an accusation Let's say against me as a pastor Then you better have a couple witnesses Right it better not just be hearsay or just like Well I heard someone say this and then you start bringing that up It's not to say that a pastor can't be accused of something Right it's not saying like don't ever accuse a pastor for any reason Just let him do what he's doing Right it doesn't say that But do you see how there's kind of like this extra level of respect there To where you're like hey I'm not just going to on a dime just accuse a pastor or something I'm not just going to treat him like he's just a dog And just rebuke him in front of everybody You know I'm going to give him some respect And say hey you know what I'm going to treat him as a father On this issue And so when it comes to you know the position of being a pastor There's a lot of things that people say out there when it comes to I'm just going to you know like as far as like should you always call me pastor Okay And I'm just going to be honest with you like obviously the Bible doesn't say like you must call the bishop a pastor Okay it doesn't say that So I'm not here to like make up like commandments And say you must call me pastor if you're not you're not right with God But I'll say this Is that it's good practice It's good practice to call your preacher pastor or brother Or at least give him some kind of like title At least while you're in church Okay Because at least while you're in church like everybody knows like hey he's the leader He's you know he's the pastor of the church And there's this kind of there's this known respect that's given to the pastor right So I'm not here to say like if you you hey you came in call me brother be like you call me pastor Like I don't I don't get And even if someone like slips and calls me by my first name You know I'm not like just like how dare you call me by my first name You know Like I don't I don't take offense to it But what I'll say with this is that sometimes it can be a slippery slope To where that leads into being too informal at church Okay And that's all I really want to say with that I don't want to put like commandments out there that aren't there I don't want you to be like oh you know you know pastor has a complex He needs exactly do you know No but the big thing with is that is the fact that We want to have unity and we want to have respect for you know the offices of the church We want to have respect for one another And I think that's good practice at least while church is going on While you're in church to you know give honor to whom honor is due And give respect to whom respect is due And you know that's just something that needs to be known there Is that this isn't a free for all This isn't open mic night This isn't a democracy Baptist church This is a pastor led church And in some cases in the Bible Paul had the full rank You know he's kind of like I am an apostle And he had to like basically I speak foolishly And he had to basically give his resume Of why they need to sit down and shut up and listen to him Right And praise the Lord I've never had to do that Like listen let me tell you why I'm the pastor and you're not You know like I've never had to do that I don't ever want to do that The idea is that that would be an extreme situation wouldn't it That would be like when people are just like completely trying to assert the authority in the church And like I said this is more of a cautionary sermon Because like I said I never really dealt with this That I can remember Of like people being disrespectful to me or anything like that And so I don't want you to just go away from this And say and just be scared if you call me brother or you call me You know like the idea there is that obviously that there's just some kind of respect there for the office And so you know when it comes to like if you If we're going on like let's say you know we're out there like building a barn or something like that You know we built a barn not too long you know like a couple years ago or whatever And like I'm up on a ladder and you're just like hey Jason you know watch out for that up there And I'll be like you call me pastor No call me whatever you want at that point like you know like hey And listen by the way my parents can call me whatever they want They've earned the right So if you ever hear my parents say Jason they'll be like you call him pastor Obviously my parents though aren't like trying to pull rank on me And like trying to like assert authority and like try to tell the church what to do Okay so when it comes to this I just wanted to kind of just put that out there That hey you know what we want to have respect for our elders We want to have respect for the offices in the church And that this is a church this is serious business You know I wear a suit up here and I wear a tie because this I take it seriously And that I'm not playing around this is a real job this is a real title This is a real you know we're going to battle And if you think about like going to battle with like a general or a captain Is the idea that you give respect to the captain to general you say yes sir let's go You know where are we going Okay And so you don't have to take it that far you're not saluting me And you know you're like yes sir to everything I say you know what I mean But at the same time like you know you think about like children saying yes sir or yes ma'am to adults Isn't that what we try to teach our children Why because we want them to have respect You know what this is going to cause people to do is it's going to cause them to like them It's going to they're going to be better people because of that And when you have people that are respectful to each other and say excuse me They're not just plowing through like get out of my way You know even if you're like you're on a mission they're just standing around And you're like hey I need to go do this you don't just be like you don't just plow through people And just be like get out of my way slave You know get out of my way servants you know like Like I shouldn't be like that it's not like I'm going to be like get out of my way Get out of my way you layotins you know you layotins you just lay people Get out of my way the clergy is walking through you know Don't you have any respect Obviously I need to respect you you know I need to get you know And so I think it is and I'll embarrass my brother a little bit But my older brother I've known him as Joey all my life Okay and you're like who's Joey you know But like growing up it was Joey And it was one of those things that when he got into his career And you know I think maybe even in college he was having people call him something other than Joey But you know he was going by Joseph So like I remember working an internship and everybody's calling him Joseph And I'm like oh it's so weird and it's still weird to this day to be honest with you Just because I grew up with that right But I think about this is that my older brother My older brother will call me pastor than I can call him Joseph You know what I mean And the respect goes both ways And so now there's times where we're working out in the farm We're doing something and I'm like yelling for him I'm trying to get him to stop I'll slip into Joey because it's just kind of like I'm getting his attention You know and at that point like the quorum goes out the window Okay If I'm about to fall off a ladder and you're like and you see that The quorum goes out the window I don't care what you call me at that point You know you say what you got to say So the last thing I want to get to here is that acts dealing with the idea of having being on one accord And what that accomplishes Because you may say well it's great to have unity because it's fun You know it's fun to be around people that you like being around It's fun to talk about the Bible It's fun to like have that unity with people and have that community That's all great stuff but the thing is that that accomplishes great things for God If you want our church to do great things for God we have to have unity Because we need to be together in this battle Go to Acts chapter 2 and verse 1 So I'm just going to give you a little tour de force through the book of Acts here Not many places here but actually just three chapters that I'm going to show you here Where there's a case of being on one accord and what that accomplishes So in Acts chapter 2 and verse 1 it says And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place So that's how it starts Obviously this is going to be this great event that happened back then But it says And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind And it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire And it sat upon each of them And notice that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost And began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance By the way these are real languages Not that gobbledygook gibberish garbage barking like a dog Pentecostal stuff It says they heard in their own language the wonderful works of God But they were filled with the Holy Ghost They were all together in one accord in one place And we see this idea of unity and what that produces Being filled with the Spirit Go to Acts chapter 2 and verse 46 Now this doesn't take away the fact that you can be filled with the Spirit by yourself somewhere But I believe there's a special blessing there when you're in unity Doing the things of God and the Spirit of God working there I believe the Spirit of God really works when you have believers in unity And it says in verse 46 It says And they continued daily with one accord in the temple And breaking bread from house to house Did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart Praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved I believe our soul winning keeps going up every year But you know what? The labors go up every year The work goes up every year But you know what? I think a big reason why Think about this Why is the soul winning increasing and the numbers increasing? It's because we're united Because this isn't a one man show Listen those regional soul winning times I don't lead up Other men in this church lead that up And other men are getting with other people in the church To basically go out soul winning throughout the week That is not led by me or Brother Dave That doesn't mean that we don't maybe go to those events sometimes I'm not leading it up every single week And even when I go I'm not the one leading it up You know like if I go to Brother Richie's time He's the one that's figuring out the place we're going to And he's the one leading it up And I'm the pastor but you know what? That's unity right there It's being like minded Hey we're all about the same mission And you know what? I don't need to have my hands in every little detail That's the great thing about unity Is that hey we can accomplish so much more If I don't have to be the one that's just like Hawking over everybody and everything that they do Because we're all the same mind The guys that are leading up to soul winning times I'm not worried about like Okay do they know what they're doing Are they preaching the right gospel No it's like they know what they're doing They know what they need to do They know the places they should go They know how to deal with any situations they run into When it comes to confrontations and stuff like that That hey you know what? They can go do that And we're going to see a lot more people saved And that the Lord has been adding daily souls to be saved And I believe unity is a big reason for that Being of one accord, one mind We're all here for the same purpose We're all here to win people to Christ aren't we? The reason that you're hearing a sermon The reason that we're coming here is that we want to You know what? You say well I want to raise my kids right Yeah we want to raise our kids right so they get saved And so that they win people to Christ And we're coming here because hey We need to hear more word of God We need to be exhorted so that we go win people to Christ That's our purpose here We are ambassadors for Christ And we are beseeching people in Christ Said to be reconciled to God That's the reason we're here That's the reason that this ministry exists That's the reason we're coming to church If not, just go home and read your Bible Because the anointing which you received from Him By then you need not that any man teach you But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things And is truth and is no lie And even as it hath taught you shall abide in Him You don't need me to teach you the Bible But you know what? The word of God is manifested through preaching And that exhortation, that rebuke, that reproof That you hear from preaching the word You know week in, week out Is going to cause you to go out and win people to Christ It's going to cause you to raise your family right It's going to cause you to be a good Christian That's meek and lowly and humble And a servant of the Lord Gentle, meek, instructing those that oppose themselves If per adventure God will give them repentance and acknowledging the truth And you know what? That is why we do what we do And there's a reason why unity is so important Because we're in this together And I was going to go to Acts chapter 4 And this is the last one I'll show you There's another one in Acts chapter 5 But honestly the book of Acts is like One accord and one accord and one accord and one accord Now there are cases where there's like enemies of the gospel That are in one accord going after You know But I'm not saying like every mention of being a one accord is a good thing in the Bible Because it depends on who's in one accord The haters of God are in one accord with each other You know But that's not a good thing Acts chapter 4 verse 23 says And being let go they went to their own company And reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them So this is where John and Peter were brought before You know the elders and all that stuff And they were basically telling them not to preach in the name of Jesus And when they heard that they lifted up their voice to God with one accord And said Lord thou art God which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in the midst So notice that they're all saying this with one accord They're all agreeing with this I don't necessarily think it's necessarily a chant You know like that's being said But they're all at least agreeing with what's being said here And they're all in one accord with it It says who by the mouth of thy servant David has said Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine being things The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus Whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate With the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done And now Lord behold their threatenings And grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word By stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus And when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness Now we are to individually be like this But you know what that unity of church is just another level of it Of the boldness to preach the word of God And you know there's going to be days where you're not very bold but someone else is And that exhorting one another unto love and we need the fellowship of church And we don't want to just come to a church though where we're technically here We're technically together but we're not unified And so our church I believe And it's kind of hard to speak about other churches that you don't really go to I can't just be like we're the most unified church in the world I mean I'll say this is the most unified church I've ever been in I've ever been a part of That we're all just on the same How many churches have you been to where it's like you had some people that were going soul winning but most people didn't And they weren't on the same mind Doctrinal wise, work wise, they just weren't in the same mindset But yet our church holistically is in the mindset of like hey here's our doctrine We agree on at least the major points of doctrine And then hey here's our mission We're going to go out and win people to Christ We're going to get them baptized and we're going to try to get them to the church Try to teach them to deserve all things That's our mission And we're all on lockstep with that but we want to keep that the case And the way we keep that the case is that we're meek and lowly We're humble, we're servants, we have respect for our elders And respect for one another as brethren And just be nice people But that we just obviously keep our mindset on the work of God The work of God is that others would believe on Jesus And that is our mission And if we keep that our mission and our focus Then all these little things that will annoy us And little things that will divide us Will fall off by the wayside Listen Satan can't destroy us but we can destroy ourselves And usually churches get destroyed from within And this is a precautionary sermon Cause I'd rather preach this now and things get mended Or at least your mindset is like hey here's what we need to do to keep this Than be in a case where we have some church split going on And then I'm preaching about unity So when it comes to unity I believe our church has great unity But we want to keep that And I preached a sermon close to this about four years ago And I wanted to keep unity And it stayed that way I wanted to stay that way for another four years You know another eight years You know and just down the line I want it to continue I don't want it to stop So praise the Lord our church has remained unified since day one And we want to keep it that way So let's end with a prayer of the Father We thank you today, thank you for your word And just pray that you'd help us to be of one accord Of one mind, of the same love Being unified And just the pleasure of being in unity with brethren We just want to keep that the case And obviously we want that to be the case So that your word would get glorified And that more people would be saved And that that would multiply Lord And just pray to be with our church And be with us as we go out soul winning today And just Lord we love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name Amen Brother Abel come sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed We'll take your songbooks And turn to song three hundred and forty four Song three hundred and forty four in your songbooks If you would stand we'll sing Fall Fresh on Me Song three hundred and forty four Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me Loud me, mold me, fail me, use me Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me