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[Music] Thank you for being here today. If you have your Bibles, I'm by to turn with me to Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15. We are nearing the end of this great epistle. Some of you wondered if we'd get there before you died, but we are going to make it. Romans chapter 15, where we come to a very relevant passage of Scripture. Relevant because what we're going to read in Romans chapter 15 is incredibly countercultural.
We live in a country that is increasingly becoming the divided States of America. It seems like everywhere you look, division is occurring. Presidential candidates talk about uniting the nation while they tear one another down. And we're all aware of the racial divide, the ongoing discussion and problems that center around race relations. There are other divisions, not only political, philosophical. There are divisions in homes and in families.
And when you come to Romans chapter 15, the concern of the Apostle Paul is unity, especially unity as it relates to the church family. We have to be careful that the church does not become a reflection of society, but a reflector to society of the glory and the goodness of God. Paul understands that the church is always going to be made up, in the will of God, by people who are from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different places, different experiences, different opportunities. That as we come together to worship this morning, we're all different. Turn to your neighbor and say, "You were just very different."
Unity is not sameness, where everybody's the same. Unity is people who are different, headed in the same direction to achieve a common purpose. For example, when the Kansas City Chiefs line up, let me finish, they have different positions filled by different people, but they are pointed toward the same goal line. Their differences are necessary to achieve a purpose, a purpose that I hope they are less successful at this coming season. For any group of people to succeed, to succeed in achieving their purpose, aftab unity. That's true in a family, that's true in a team, that's true in a company, and it's especially true in a church. In fact, without unity, God's blessing and God's power and God's presence on a church is impossible. Unity makes it possible.
That's why the psalmist says this: "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity." It's good and it's pleasant. What's it like? It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. He said, what the world is out talking about? It's talking about that moment when Aaron was anointed to be the priest of the nation Israel. In that moment, as he's anointed, as the oil is coming down, symbolic of the Spirit of God, the presence of God coming upon him, what the psalmist is saying is that when a person, when people dwell together in unity, what it does, it facilitates anointing. You want the anointing of God in a place, in a church, in your life group? Then walk in unity. It's critical to have unity in a church.
Then he goes on and says, "It's as if the dew of Hermon." Hermon is the largest mountain in the land of Israel. We were there a couple of weeks ago. You can see snow caps on top of Mount Hermon, as it catches the dew from the Mediterranean, as it catches the rains and sends the water cascading down to form the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. Mount Hermon is there, and it's, it's majestic. It says, "It's as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem." Mount Zion is dry, it is arid. What he's describing there, he's saying if you have the dew of Hermon, if you had it falling on a place like Mount Zion, what you would have is you would have a fruitfulness, you would have crop production, you would have plenty. If that were happening.
So when people live together in unity, there's an anointing, and there's fruitfulness. When they're living together in unity, there's the presence of the Lord, and there's a productivity that is exceptional, that you wouldn't think would happen, that you wouldn't imagine would happen, happens when people are living in unity. For there the Lord bestows his blessing. What is his blessing? It's his presence, and it's productivity. It's God dwelling among his people, and it's God blessing his people there. "The Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore." Oh, that ought to make every single one of us say, "I'm gonna do whatever I can to contribute to the unity of the church." Because I want to be a part of a church, I want my family to be a part of a church where where there is an anointing of the Lord, where there is the presence of the Lord, and where there's a fruitfulness and a productivity that only God could do.
Can I just say, we're seeing that at James River and have through the years. One of the greatest graces, one of the greatest gifts that God has given this church is a supernatural unity. Through the years, we've encountered a number of challenges along the way that would have sunk most churches, but as we prayed, as we've sought the Lord, as we kept the hearts right, God has given us a supernatural unity that pervades every single campus, every single service. Well, that doesn't mean there's now problems. It just means there's a supernatural grace of unity, and we're seeing it week after week, and we're living in the benefit of it, the afterglow of God's unity.
This is why Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4, in verse 3, and this is one of several instances. Paul will in seven other places in his writings in the New Testament talk about the value of unity. But here he makes a full-on statement about the priority of unity. And he's saying to every single person in this room, every single person listening, every single person who's a part of James River or whatever church you're part of, "Make every effort to keep the unity." Earlier he said in Romans chapter 12, "As far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." Whatever you got to do, make every effort. Get up early, stay up late, whatever it takes. Have as many conversations as you need to have, whatever it takes. Forgive however many times you need to forgive, whatever it takes. Pray all ever long you have to pray, whatever it takes. Tap unity. "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."
Unity is absolutely critical to the spread of the gospel. It's absolutely critical to the health, the vitality, the life of a church. I don't think I could talk to you about anything more important today than that you and I commit ourselves afresh and anew before God to say, "God, whatever I need to do, help me to have an attitude, a heart, a life that contributes to unity in the church."
I can think of two major churches in the country in this last year. If I named them, you would know them. Dynamic mega churches, much bigger than James River, who somewhere along the line, for a variety of reasons, and I don't know that you can put it on one person, although maybe that's possible. I think you have to put it on a group, because invariably there's always, though there may be a leader, there are leaders in the church. But somewhere along the line, this unity crept in, and both of those churches are in a state of freefall. It's tragic. Churches you might have thought with the generational churches, find themselves in the ditch because of a lack of unity.
Now, with all of that as a background, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Roman believers about the importance of being united. Remember last time when we looked at Romans chapter 14, we saw that there are strong believers, that is believers who understand the gospel, they understand the freedom we have in Christ. And there are weak believers, those who don't yet understand. Maybe you have a hyperactive conscience, maybe are given toward legalism, although a weak believer could be given toward excessive liberty. But you have people of different levels of understanding, different experiences in the church, certainly of different preferences in the church, certainly of different experiences in the church. And Paul knows that when you have that, that potentiates this unity.
We understand that we have preferences regarding music, we have preferences regarding style, we have references regarding dress, we have preferences regarding preaching, we have preferences regarding programming. And we can get ourselves in trouble when we begin to place preferences, our personal preferences, over the proclamation of the gospel and the moving of the presence of the Lord in a place. So I, all of us, starting with me. So if it seems I'm pointing a finger at you, and let me just say this, I am not addressing a specific problem. I'm not coming to you today with this text and have some person or some group of people or some problem in mind. I believe in preventive preaching. That's what I love about expository preaching. If you just let the Word of God speak, if it's us in time, in place, in season, with what we need to hear at any given moment, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and it speaks to us. And so let me just remind you that if it seems I'm pointing one finger at you, I'm pointing two and a half at myself. We all need to commit ourselves to unity.
Now, as we look at it, Paul gives us seven principles for Christian unity. Seven principles for Christian unity. And one, move rather quickly through this, but I hope that you'll write them down. I hope that you'll give time to discuss them. Some life groups do me through the summer, so if yours does, that you'll discuss them, but certainly that you would talk about them with your friends, with your family, and especially before the Lord, just to simply say, "Lord, help me to be a contributor to the unity of the church."
What is it that brings unity? Principle number one: Bear one another's burdens. Bear one another's burdens. Look at it, Romans chapter 15, verse 1: "We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves." In other words, it's not about what you and I want. It's not about what you and I prefer. There will be some places where the ministry of the church, the direction of the church, has either outpaced or it has moved in a place where it's not what you would prefer. That's okay. That's you. We're not in a place because all of our preferences are met. We're in a place because God has called us to that place. And as a part of that place, God is calling, if you're strong, to help the weak.
Notice the three words there: obligation. We have an obligation. That it's the same word that's used in Romans chapter 13 and verse 8, where Paul says, "Owe no man anything." It's the word "owe." We owe it to you. You and I have a debt. If you are mature in the Lord, if you've grown in the Lord, if God's been good enough to give you insight, to give you wisdom, to give you spiritual growth and spiritual vitality, then it's not just so you can use it on yourself, so you can feel good about yourself. It's because he wants you to help those around you who aren't. You owe it to them. You have an obligation to them. To do what? To bear. That is to carry, to take up. It's used that word of Jesus carrying his cross. So you're shouldering the load. You're walking. Oh, you may be tired. You may have people beating up on you, but you're strong. Remember? So you're not just thinking about your own load, you're not just thinking about your own burden, but you're thinking about the burden of somebody else. And rather than looking at it and saying, "Wow, you got a big burden," no, you're grabbing it and you're carrying it.
What is that burden? Well, we're to have an obligation to bear with the failings. One translation only used that word, it's only used one time in the New Testament, right here. Could be translated as the infirmities, the illnesses. He says they're talking physical illness. Well, it could. But it may be the failing of somebody's sinfulness. It could be the failing of somebody's addiction. It could be the infirmity of somebody's depression. It could be the infirmity of someone's sorrow. Could be the infirmity of someone's disability. That that idea of bear is the same as Romans chapter 6 and verse 2, where it says, "Bear one another's burdens." What are those burdens? The pressures of life. Sometimes people go through a season in life that is really difficult. The number one category for suicides in America is middle-aged white males. The people who you would think have it together as a group, in general, are falling apart. The pressure of life, the difficulties of life, the problems in someone's life. If we're not careful, if we don't have, if we don't step back and really contemplate having a mindset of unity, what can happen is the human tendency is to gossip about them and to say, "Did you know so-and-so is?" "Oh, I didn't know that." "Well, you know, and I wouldn't ever imagined." That's not bearing somebody's burden. That's making it worse. Or to feel smug, maybe think things like, "I've never had that brought." "I don't know why people have that problem." "You know, if they hadn't done..." Or to pontificate about how they got into the problem. That's not bearing the problem either. Or to prescribe solutions. "You know what you need to do?" "How about we lay off giving prescriptions and just carry the burden for a while?" "How about we feel the weight of the cross before we tell them how to shrink the size of the cross?" This is what it means to bear one another's burdens. You don't just tolerate their weakness or endure their weakness, you carry the load. The idea is you're carrying the load until they come to a place of freedom. You say, "Well, they'll take advantage of you." Listen, when you're bearing somebody's, for Jesus could have said, "Well, they'll take advantage if I forgive them. Now they're gonna take advantage of that." You know, how about we just carry the burden for a while? And can I just say this? If you'll adopt that as a mindset, this principle will give you more satisfaction than if you were a multi-millionaire. Develop the skill. Pray, "God, give me this skill to detect the burdens of others, and Lord, help me to devote myself to making their burden lighter." You do that, you'll contribute to unity, you'll strengthen them, it will bring you joy, and it will build unity in the church.
Second, build one another up. Build one another up. Look at it, Romans 15, verse 2: "Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up." Remember, he said we're not to please ourselves. He said, "Well, I'm not gonna please myself. Who am I gonna please?" Your neighbor. So you're looking how you can make your neighbor happy, how you can lift your neighbor's load. What is it that you say? Well, who's my neighbor? Whoever's in need. Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan. To build him up. I mean, honestly, what is one of the quickest ways to build someone up or tear someone down? Isn't it with our words? What we say to people, or what we say about people. I mean, have you ever had somebody come up to you and they've said, "You know, I was talking to so-and-so, and they said..." and then they tell you something they said about you, and it was like really kind and really meaningful? You're like, "Wow, I didn't even know they thought that." And and it just, it gives you encouragement. It makes you feel great. You know, most people are desperately in need of an encouraging word, because honestly, the world is so quick to criticize. But in my experience, most people, by and large, are very hard on themselves. They struggle with those critical inner thoughts, that defeating self-talk that says, "You're not as compared to somebody else. You're not as smart as. You're not as good as. You're not as good a talker, your speaker, a worker. You're not as strong as. You're not as good-looking as. You're not whatever." You fill in the blank. Encourage people. Build people up. I want to challenge you. Make it your goal to say ten encouraging things a day to the people around you, people you meet, you don't even have to know them, or people you know. You say, "If I do that, they'll get a big head." Listen, can I just say, you encourage their heart. Let God worry about their hat size. He can handle that. Ephesians chapter 4: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths." What is that? Well, like we could certainly go in a variety of ways, everything from profanity and those kind of things. But I think primarily what he's talking about is gossip, talking about people's problems without carrying the load, instead of carrying the load, talking people down instead of talking them up. Because he says, "but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs." What do they need? How can you give them courage to go again? How do you, what can you say that will help them to feel better about their day, about their life, about the challenges they're facing? What can you say that it might benefit those who listen? Have you ever been around somebody who is encouraging somebody else, and it just challenges you to make sure you were encouraging other people? I mean, that's the way it works. That's what he's talking about, that you're saying good things, and people around you are listening, and what's happening is, whether it's your children, whether it's your spouse, whether it's your friends, whether it's people who don't even know you, it's encouraging them to do the same thing. It benefits those who listen. Words have such incredible power. Researchers at the University of Denver and Catholic University found that the common denominator that separated marriages that stayed together from those that fell apart were the words they spoke. Couples who divorced were flinging five times as cruel put-downs that they're made as those who didn't. The researchers wrote this, and I quote: "Hostile put-downs act as cancerous cells that if unchecked, erode the relationship over time." When you put down your mate, or when you put down people around you, it's just like you're injecting a virus, a deadly virus, into their life. Being encouraged, or build people up.
Number three: Live like Jesus. Look at it, Romans chapter 15, verse 2: "Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up." "For Christ did not please himself." Verse 1, he said, "Don't please yourself." Verse 2, he says, "Please others." Verse 3 says, "That's what Christ did. He didn't please himself." "But as it is written, 'The reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me.'" Jesus didn't come to earth to please himself. He came to bear our burdens. He came to please the Father. He came to do the Father's will. That was his number one goal. You see it all over in the Gospel of John, for example. Jesus said to the disciples, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and accomplish His work." Jesus said, "I'm here to do the Father's work." John 5: "I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." Jesus, that I'm here to do the will of God. What do you hear? Whose will are you doing? Being a lot of unity or disunity happens depending upon the direction. Are we pursuing your own will, or are we pursuing the will of the Father? John 6:38: "I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." John chapter 8 and verse 29: "The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him." Jesus says, "I'm all the time, always about doing God's will." A great question to just impress to say, "God, what is Your will for me today? What is that You want me to do? And would You help me to do it?" And then when you do it, do it with all of your heart as soon as you know what it is. In John chapter 14, verse 31: "But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father's instructions right down to the last detail." Listen, when you're about the will of the Father, the world sees the difference in your life. And in Luke chapter 22 and verse 42, one of the greatest examples of his his submission to the Father, he said, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me." He's in the Garden of Gethsemane, facing the cross. "Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done." Jesus came and he lived to please the Father. It's a key to unity. Live your life to please God, not yourself, but to please the Lord and to please others, and you'll find yourself contributing to unity.
Number four: Let God's Word strengthen and encourage you. This is so awesome. Look at it in chapter 15, verse 4: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction." The Old Testament was written for New Testament people. I mean, here's here's what's really, really important to remember when you're reading the Bible. You're not just reading a story like a fairy tale. You're reading about real people who lived in a real time, in a real place, and served a real God. You're reading about them from the Old Testament. What happens is we learn what God thinks. We learn how God responds, and how He works in the lives of people. That's the purpose of reading the Old Testament. I hope you don't just read the New Testament. I hope you read the stories in the Old Testament, and you read the stories about the people, about Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. You read the story about Noah, and you read about David, and you read about Elijah, and you read about wicked kings and godly kings, and you learn from them the lessons God wants you and I to know. First Corinthians chapter 10, Paul says twice in that chapter, "These things were written down as examples to us." Romans chapter 15, verse 4: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." What is hope? Hope is the anticipation of what God's going to do. In other words, when I see what God did in their life, I can, according to the Word of God, correctly assume God's gonna work in my life in a similar way. You mean God helped them when they were facing that trial, and they prayed and they called on God? You mean God's gonna help me in that way? I got more than one occasion have read that passage where Hezekiah takes the letter from Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, that says, "I'm gonna crush you," and he lays it out before God. He lays on the floor and he says, "God, do you see what he's saying about you? Do you see what he's gonna do to me? Oh God, I gotta have you come through." More than one time I've pictured that as I've laid before the Lord and said, "God, do you see this problem? I gotta have you help me. You helped him, you're gonna help me." And be encouraged. God wants us to have that hope. He wants us to have that anticipation that what He did in the Old Testament, He's gonna do in your life, He's gonna do in my life, He's gonna do in this church. We have every reason to believe the goodness of God we see in the Old Testament is the goodness of God we'll see in our lives. Amen.
Now look at it. It says this: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance..." The word there is "hypomone." It means to bear up. If the Word of God gives you endurance, how so? Well, it tells you it's worth it to serve God. It tells you, "Look what happened over there when they honored God, God honored them. God's gonna honor you." It gives you endurance in the pressures, and the struggles, and the challenges, and the trials of life. It gives you that, "I can hold up. I can keep going. I can be strong. I'm gonna run the race." And through the encouragement of the Scriptures, that word "parakleō." It's, you know, the Holy Spirit's called the Paraclete, the comforter. It gives us comfort. It gives us exhortation would be a way to understand that encouragement. He's the God of all encouragement, Paul says. Same word. He's the God who encourages us, comforts us, so we can comfort others. And one of the ways He does it is through the Word of God. Listen, if you've cut yourself off from reading the Bible, if you've become careless in spending time in God's Word, you're missing out. You're your separating yourself from one of the greatest encouragements to serve God, believe God, trust God, and give you joy in your life. And that's the Word of God. It will encourage you. And when, if we're all getting the same hope, the same endurance, and the same encouragement from the same source, what are we gonna have? Unity, right?
Number five: Let God's power develop maturity in you. Let God's power develop maturity in you. Look at this in Romans chapter 15, verse 5: "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus." I like the way The Message puts it: "May our dependably steady and warmly personal God." I love that. God's dependable, God's steady. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Always the same. Hebrews 13, I think it's 8. And that awesome? Always the same. You're not gonna wake up one morning and say, "You know, I I loved you yesterday, but I'm not so sure today. I felt like answering prayers yesterday, but honestly, you know, I'm tired of this." He's always steady. Yeah. Always the same. And warmly personal. I don't know what you've ever heard about God, but God loves you more than you can imagine. He knows you. He knows you inside and out. He knows you right down. He knows you better than you know yourself. He's numbered the hairs on your head when you've run the comb through or the brush through, or you've taken the shower and you're standing there. He knows how many are on the floor and how many are left up there. He knows. You don't know that. He knows. And He just loves you. He loves you. He cares about you. He's watching over you. "May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you. Develop maturity. Grow you up."
I want you to notice something. That maturity is not something you do. Paul doesn't say, "Now listen, if you want unity, y'all need to grow up." Just grow up. You probably felt like saying it, but he knows this, that you and I cannot create maturity in ourselves. God is the one who has to do it. And here's what I find very interesting in this verse. Is the mark of maturity? If somebody asks you, without looking at the verse and reading it, if somebody asked you, "What's the mark of spiritual maturity?" How would you answer that? It's very interesting. It's not measured by how much of the Bible you know. It's not measured by how long you pray. Certainly not measured by how long you've been a believer. And it's not measured by whether or not you speak in tongues. So all those things are valuable and important and good. None of them are markers of maturity. Very interesting. Christian maturity is measured by how well you get along with others. Watch this. "May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop him, but maturity in you, so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all." Wow. How does Jesus get along with us? Honestly, He puts up with us, right? He bears our burdens. He bears with our shortcomings. He bears with our weakness. He's forgiving. He's loving. He's kind. He's good. He's encouraging. That's how you get along with people. If you're discouraging to people, and you're unkind to people, and you don't care about people, you're not gonna get along with people, and they're not gonna get along with you. Maturity is when you and I can get along with one another as well as Jesus gets along with us. That's how you know. You say, "I wonder if I'm really growing in Christ." Can get along with people. One of the tragedies, just say this, one of the tragedies to see people who've been in the church a long time, but they can't get along with anybody. They've been in church a long time, they want it, they don't want anything to do with anybody. You can't get along with the people they are around. I mean, when we're growing in the Lord, we can get along with people. God's desire is that we would get along with people. And watch what happens when we do that. Look at it in verse 6: "Then we'll be a choir, not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony, a stunning anthem." I love that. "To the God and Father of our Master Jesus." Have you ever been, I'm sure you have, to a symphony or some kind of production that had an orchestra and had the orchestra pit there? And at the start, the orchestra is warming up, and and honestly, everybody's kind of tuning their instrument, and there's just a lot of dissonance. It's just, it just kind of sounds like a train wreck. You can't make sense of what the musicians are playing because everyone's doing their own thing. But then the conductor walks up, and he taps the podium with his baton, and when he lifts up the baton and calls their attention to them, and their focus is on him, then all of a sudden, all of these different musicians, playing these different instruments, playing these different notes, following the leader, create something that is absolutely beautiful. A stunning harmony, a stunning anthem to God. Listen, when you and I, when we have our eyes on Jesus, when we say, "I'm gonna get along with people around me. I'm gonna love them. I'm gonna bear their burden. I'm gonna forgive them if they're unkind to me and say something." I'm not gonna go tell somebody about it, "Talk about, can you believe what they said to me?" Oh, "I saw the look she gave you." Yeah, grow up. I say that in the love of Jesus. They cut me off with a grow up. Well, why do I have to wait in this line? In the grow up. Why do we have to do this? Why is it grow up? Get along with people. Get along with people like Jesus gets along with you. You're no bowl of cherries, let me tell you, and neither am I. And He gets along with us, doesn't He? And when we start to do that, what happens is it's a harmony and a stunning anthem. Can I just say to you again, because you could get the idea I'm teaching this that I don't think we're doing this? And I just want to say thank you because you're doing this in an amazing way. You are offering this area, and you're offering the Lord, and you're offering the world a stunning anthem, a stunning harmony that is making Him famous because of your commitment to these principles. [Applause] So many growing in the Lord and proving it by the way you get along. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. To God be the glory. Amen.
Well, number six: Welcome one another. Welcome one. Look at it in verse 50. I'm so glad this is here. So reach out and welcome one another to God's glory. Jesus did it. Now you do it. Remember when the feeding of the 5,000, I think it's in Luke's Gospel in chapter 9, might be verse 11, that Jesus sees the multitudes coming to Him, and the disciples are tired, and the disciples are thinking, "Oh brother, this has been a long ministry stretch. You need a break." But the multitudes are coming. Jesus has just heard that John, His cousin John the Baptist, has been beheaded. And what did He do? He was tired. He was weary. He was wanting a break, no doubt. But it says He gladly welcomed them. That's the heart of the Savior. He gladly welcomes people. In a human body, God tired. He gladly welcomed. In heaven, without the confines of humanity and the restrictions of humanity, He gladly welcomes us. Welcome one another. Listen, this is why we say, "Welcome home." Because everybody's got the "Welcome Home" shirt on. Thank you for wearing it. It's a message people need to hear. It's a message people need this to know. You know, I say it all the time through the week when people say, "You know, what I found the church, and I'm just so glad to be." I say, "Well, welcome home." Or people who've been gone and they move back, I say, "Welcome home." And I mean it. It's a great phrase. It's a warm phrase. To those who've been here for 20 years, let me just say this, welcome home. To those who've come more recently, welcome home. To those who are watching online, welcome home. To those in Joplin who are new to James River Church, welcome home. To those in the Arthur, just came today's your first Sunday, welcome home. To those who are at the West, welcome home. To those who feel all alone and nobody cares, welcome home. To those who don't have a family, this is the family, welcome home. To those who are hungry and thirsty, welcome home. Would you notice we're welcoming them to more than just a building? Praise God for the buildings. They're tools that help us do the ministry, but the church is more than a building. The building can't contain the church. We are welcoming them home to what? God's glory. We're saying, "Come on in, enjoy the glory of God." You can't have that, though, if you don't have unity. We have nothing to welcome people to if we're so busy fighting one another and selfishly pursuing our own preferences that we, that we're not aware of the larger picture. We're welcoming people home. We're welcoming them to a place of salvation where they can meet the One who died for them. We're welcoming them to a place of healing where the brokenness of their life, or the hurts of the past, or the disability in their body physically, can be healed in Jesus' name. We're welcoming them to a place of power where the power of God works mightily in them to transform them internally, so that they are different on the inside and they lead different in Jesus' name. We're welcoming them to a place where the presence of the Lord is. I remember the first time Debbie and I visited James River. It was in the Twin Oaks Center. We left our kids with a family. We were down for a weekend in Branson. We were still living in Kansas City. We didn't get our kids in time, so we had to go to Sunday night church. We sat through the service, 40 people in that building, and Debbie cried the whole time. I could just feel all the eyes staring at me like, "What is he doing to her?" You know, I mean, that's what you feel. I mean, he was just like, wife's crying, husband sitting there, and you know, you're just thinking, you're wondering what people are saying. Debbie, we get out of there, and everything like, "Can you believe that place? The presence of God in that place." I'm so thankful. But I hear that story over and over again. It's meeting some new couples while we were in the Holy Land, and one of them was saying, "You know, when I came, I just, you know, the first several weeks, I just kept tearing up every time I'd come into the service, I'd start to tear up." That's a common, that's a common story because God is in this place, and God is touching you, and God is washing you, and God is working in you. And for some, you come out of a dry place, and now we've welcomed you home to the glory of God. And to others, you just experienced this whole thing for the first time. And some maybe you said, "You know what, I've done with church." But you came back, and you're experiencing the presence and the grace and the goodness of God. Welcome home.
And finally, number seven: Serve one another. What's our response to all of this? Well, it's very similar to Romans chapter 12 and verse 1: "In view of the mercies of God, I beseech you, brethren, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice." When you really get an idea of all that God has done, and who God is, and how God is working, serve. You want to contribute to the unity of the church, serve. Look at it, Romans chapter 15, verse 8: "For I tell you that Christ became a servant." And you read on, we won't take the time to read it. I hope you'll read verse 8 through verse 13. He served to confirm the promises and the truth of God. Listen, when you and I are serving, we're telling people God is real. Reason why we go paint that school. The reason why we're working there. The reason why we're serving is because we're telling them, we're telling the world, we're telling the community, in a way that they can't ignore, there is a God in heaven who is real, and His promises are true. Every time you direct a car out in the parking lot, every time you open the door and shake somebody's hand with a smile, every time you take that infant and you're back in the nursery area and you're taking care of them, or you're helping in the kids' area, or you're doing security, or you're down at the camp, or a thousand other things that you're doing, every time you're doing it, what you're doing is you're you're making a statement: the promises of God are real, and the presence of God is real, and God is doing something powerful in this place that will transform your life. You're making that statement every time you do it. I don't know if you thought of it that way or not. But Jesus served, and He came to confirm the promises and the truth of God. And then He served. It tells us in verses 9 through 12 that the Gentiles might come to know God, might come to see God. Do you realize that when you serve, that when you will, you give yourself to service, it's speaking to people? They're driving by this campus and every other campus and they're saying, "Oh my goodness, look at all those cars. Something's happening. Something's happening there." When when you help somebody in the parking lot, you're waving out at the front, your your welcoming people who are away from God back to God. The Holy Spirit is using that to speak to them, that they might come to glorify God. You help them get into the parking space, you're serving, and it's raining, and it's hard, and you don't feel good, but you did it anyway. You're like Jesus. Yeah, you come to practice because you're running a camera, and you're a volunteer. And our camera people all volunteer. It's amazing the quality of production we have. I mean, they deserve a hand. [Applause] Their ministry's going around the world through God TV, across the area. Every week, people are watching the James River service online, or watching it on television, or watching it online. It's because the camera, I mean, if you weren't doing that, if the tech, if the tech crew, the broadcast people, you never see behind the curtain running the audio so it sounds right, the people who give hours to practice up here to play. I mean, every time anybody serves, the person you never see in the nursery, or in that in the preschool area, or the early childhood, or in the, the elementary, or the youth person who's running resource. There's no job that's not important. Every job needs to be done. It takes thousands of people to do it. Jesus served. When when you serve, do you understand something? That's when you're most like Jesus. Sometimes people say, "Well, I think we're most like Jesus when we love." No, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus said, "I am among you as one who loves." No, that's not what He said. "I am among you as one who serves." He said, "The Son of Man came not to be loved, but to love." No, that's not what He said. "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve." And when you say, "You know what, it's not about me. And I'm not coming to this church so I can be served. I'm coming to this church so I can serve." So I can follow Jesus and do what He did. In some small way, I maybe can't do it on a scale, but I at least can try to in some way serve like He served, lay down my life like He laid down His life, that people might come to know God. It's why we have Dream Teams. That's why you need to be on a Dream Team. That's why you need to be in Grow Track, because that's that, that's the means of helping you understand how to serve, where to serve, what you can do to serve, and then to get on a Dream Team. Because you're most like Jesus, not when you're sitting down in the church, but when you're serving in the church, when you're building the church. Because Jesus said, "I will build my church." And when a person serves, you know what it does? It brings unity. I, as a pastor, have found this to be true over and over again. Those who are rowing the boat don't have time to rock the boat. Serving brings unity. Usually, when people come with the criticism, my first question, I'll just get you ready so you know how the conversation, you can replay it in your mind. Pastor, I just, I just have a question. I just wonder why we're doing this and why we... My first question, before I answer that question, can I ask what Dream Team you're on? Well, I'm not really on a Dream Team. Aha. Can I ask what Life Group? You know, I'm not really in a Life Group. You see, you start rocking the boat when you're not rowing the boat. You start finding out, once you start seeing what's wrong with the church, because you, you're bored. You don't have enough to do. And listen, there's no perfect church. We all know that. No perfect church because there's no perfect people. And there's no perfect pastors. And if you find the perfect church, please don't attend it. You'll ruin it. You know, I think we all know that that's how that works. But you serve. You serve, and you're like Jesus, and you're bringing people to glory, and that's what we're watching happen week after week after week after week after week, to the praise of His glory. That's what God is doing. Paul closes with this: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in this anticipation of what God is going to do." Amen.