Radiant Church

[Music] Let me tell you something about God. God is not mad at you, but he's madly in love with you. He is pursuing you. And I don't know who told you shame on you, but Jesus is saying shame off of you. Because shame was on him at the cross. Guilt was on him at the cross. Fear was on him at the cross. Brokenness was on him at the cross. And because it was on him at the cross, now you can come home and not have shame, not have fear, not have worry, not have depression, but have acceptance.

[Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up [Applause] here. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good morning, Radiant Church. Are y'all ready to worship the King this morning? Come on, put your hands together like this.

[Music] [Music] I feel it when I'm with you. So full of expectations. It's feel like my heart is racing. Nothing more I want to do without any hesitation. I'm living my life for you.

[Music] You're into it. We're here for it. We want it. Nothing short of it. going to give you cuz we know there's two more together if we reart it. We know there's your living is what we're asking. We say let your will be done. We're your friend. Oh yeah. See all these TRS I'm walking through. I won't give it my attention. Your victories that I'm expecting. See what I'm going to do. I'm not even mad about it cuz I know the part is you. We're into it. We're here for it. We want it. Nothing short of it. going to give your name cuz we know this crown we're true if we reing we know that you're here with us here as it is in heaven limits to what we're asking we say will be done we're here for it every single one we're here for it every single part of them. We praise every single part of this.

[Music] We're going to lift up a praise to you today, Jesus. We'll give you all our praise. Oh, we'll give you praise. Say, Lord, we want nothing more than to praise you. We just want to lift our hands and thank you. We want nothing short of it. Want all of us to be here forever. [Applause] [Music] Cuz Lord, we want nothing more than to praise you. We just want to lift our hands and thank you. We want nothing short of this. Want all of it. We're here for it. Say, "Lord, we want nothing more. We want nothing. You just want to lift our hands and say, we want nothing. We want nothing more than you. We want to praise you. We just want to lift our hands and praise you. We want nothing short of it. Want all of it. We praise because we know the power. We're too long together. If we agree upon it cuz we know that you're here with us here as it is in heaven to what we're asking cuz we know there are a We know you [Music] say you everything on my everything. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Music] Oh, we love you, Lord. Hey.

[Music] I want to be with you more than Sundays. I want to know more than just my mother's faith. Cuz that's not enough to get through the rough. Oh, I need a Monday morning of faith. Want to hear you in more than just one way. Show your voice in all of the mundane things. You're in the in between. You are my everything. That's all I really need. My soul sings in the morning. I love the king and he loves me. And all that I'm compelled to break is my everyday offering. Oh [Music] Jesus, we love you. Let my worship be more than just the music become a religious. Let these songs be meant to be the sounds of your church. Tell my heart to keep up with the heaven. When the angels sing 247, you're already enough to get through my teaching me.

[Music] That's all I really need. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. Everybody [Music] as you me to bring my every day off. Hell's not scared of a Sunday faith if it only leads to empty praise. What really makes darkness rain is when the saints are rising praise in quiet Monday [Music] to know you to love you to choose you Thursday you behold you and worship me Holy, holy, holy to [Music] glory to you. [Music] Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. My everyday offering. My soul sings in the morning. I love the king and he loves me. It's all that I'm compelled to bring. God, all that I'm compelled to bring. It's all that I'm compelled to bring. You're all that I'm compelled to bring. You're saw that I'm compelled to break. You're all that I'm compelled to break. You're all that I'm compelled to break. He's my everyday offering. So come lay your broken dreams at the altar. And every victory at the altar. Fear and anxiety cannot live here. There's no at the altar. Let your heart sing out and tell him you love him. Don't make it perfect. Just let it be hest. He can use anything. Sit back and watch him. There's no way at the office. There's no way at the Come lay it down. There's no way at the There's no way at the altar. There's no ways at the altar. There's no way at the altar. There's no way at the altar. There's no waste at the altar. There's no waste. And my soul sings in the morning. I love the king and he loves me. And all that I'm compelled to break is my everyday offering. His mercies new every morning. I come alive as you call me. And all that I'm compelled to bring. Yes. All that I'm compelled to bring. Oh, all that I'm compelled to break is my everyday offering. We love you, Lord.

[Music] Mighty warrior, sovereign king, you and every battle, even in the shadows. Gentle Father, rich in love, you called the open and double their portion. Roaring waters, rushing wind, running like a fountain, moving every mountain. Hey, great Jehovah, the architect, alpha and omega, holy way maker. Unto the great I am with everything I have. Unto the great I am. I'm singing how great is your name. Unto the great I am with everything I have. Unto the great I am. I'm singing. How great is your name? [Music] Wonder worker. The bread of life. Your body was broken in heaven to open. Now resurrected and lifted high with the Messiah. Glory in the highest. Oh, sing unto the great I am with everything I have. Unto the great I am. I'm singing how great this morning to the great I am with everything I have. To the great I am how great I am. Oh, how great is your name? Wo, how great is your name? Oh, how great is your name? How great is your name? Oh, praise the lion of Judah. Oh, praise the lamb was slain. Sing Yahe we love you. Yahweh we love you. Oh praise the rock of ages. Oh praise the God who saves. Sing Yahe we love you. Yahe we love you. Your name is our salvation. Jesus the king of kings. Say Yahe we love you. Yahe we love you. Your name is resurrection. Your name is everything. Yahe we love you. Yahe we love you. Yahe we love you. Yahe we love you. Yahe we love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. [Music] Holy fire, comforter, peace within the chaos. How you sustain us. Breath of heaven within our lungs. A new sound stiring. It sounds like how great is your name. How great is your name? How great is your name? [Music] Your name. Yahe. Yahe. Yahe. Yahe. Yahe. Yahe. Yahe. Yah. We are way [Music] praise the bride of truth. Oh praise the lamb. Yahe we love you. Yahweh we love you. Oh praise the rock of ages. Oh praise the God who saves. Yahe we love you. Yahe we love you. Your name is our salvation. Jesus the king of kings. Say we love you. Yahe we love you. Your name is resurrection. Your name is everything. Y we love you. We love you. Way we love you. We love you. Way we love you. We love you. Way we love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. Way we love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. [Music] So unto the great I am with everything I have. Unto the great I am. I'm singing how great is your name. Unto the great I am with everything I have. Unto the great I am. I'm singing. How great is your name. How great is your name. How great is your name. There is a name [Music] I love to hear. I love to sing his words. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. I'm singing all how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because he first love me. I'll sing it. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus because he first loved me. Can y'all sing it with me one time? Oh, how [Music] Jesus Jesus [Music] So unto the great I am with everything I have. Until the great I am. I'm singing how great is your name. Unto the great I am with everything I have. Unto the great I am. I'm singing. How great surely how great is his name. How great is his name? How great is his name? How great is his name? How great is his name? How great is his name? How great is his name? Power until the great I am with everything I am. Unto the great I am. I'm singing how great is your name. Unto the great I am. With everything I have. Unto the great I am. I'm singing. How great is your name. [Music] The name Yahweh, the name Yahweh is so important and it's so significant because the name Yahweh literally means to inhale and to exhale. And so when we think about the name Yahweh, that means we're breathing in the the air that God has given us. God said out of the dust he breathed his air which means at the beginning he was everything that we are God is. So every time we take a breath and every time we exhale we have to be reminded of the existence and of the greatness of God. God is so good. He's so good that our very breath si signals back to him. Everything that we have, God is every good thing in this earth. God is. He said, "I am the great I am." He said, "I am everything that you need." He said, "I am the breath in your very lungs, Yahweh." So, I want us to sing back through this song. And I want you to sing back through this song with that in mind that it's the very air of my lungs is because of God. That everything I am is because of God. Yaheh. Come on, church. Say Yahe. Say Yahe. Say, Yaheh. [Music] Yahe. We love you. Yahe. We love you. Yahe. We love you. Yah. We love you. Yah. We love you. Your way. We love you. Yah. We love you. Yah. way we love you. We love you. Your way. We love you. Your way. We love you. Your way. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. Your way. We love you. We love you. Your way. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. [Music] Way [Music] we breathe your name. We see your name. Yaheh. Come on y'all sing it in the room. Sing Yahe. Yaheh. Way. [Music] Yahe. Yahe. Way we love you. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, sing. How great. How great is our God. Oh, we sing to you this morning. Sing how great. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, sing. How great. How great is our God. How great. How great. Sing. How great. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. [Music] Oh, sing. How great, how great. Come on, lift him up this morning. He's our God. How great. How great. How great. How great. Oh, y'all sing. How great our God with me. How great our God will see. How great how great how great our God. How great is our God. Let's lift him up. How great, how great is our God. Sing with me. How How great is our God? Oh, see how great how great is our God. The name of my life of the glory. You are worthy to be praised. Worthy of the praise. And our hearts will sing. My heart will sing. You're the name. You're the name. You're the name. You're the name of the Lord. To be praised, worthy of the praise. And our hearts will sing. Our hearts will sing. How great is our God. How great, how great, how great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, sing. How great, how great is our God. Oh, we sing it. out this morning. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Paul will sing. How great, how great is our God. [Music] We're so glad that we serve a good good father that everything that we need, he is. Let me pray for you, church. God, thank you so much for being a good, good father. Thank you for providing for all of our needs. God, thank you for knowing what we need before we even know we need it. God, God, thank you for being the author and the finisher of our faith. God, God, thank you for breathing the air that's in our lungs right now. God, God, thank you for all that you do. That we serve such a great God. We serve such a good God. And so many times we can get so overwhelmed with what's going on in life that we forget to thank you. So God, we won't stop. We want we we we want to stop and take a moment and say thank you, God. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you for your mercy. And thank you for your grace. That you are great. It's not that we're great, God. That we're not enough, but you are enough. So God, we want to thank you and we praise you. In Jesus name we pray. And everyone said, "Amen." Come on, everybody. Let's give God a shout of praise. Man, I'm so excited to be in the house of God this morning. Who's excited to be in the house of God this morning? Oh, man. So excited to see all of you amazing people this morning. Well, if you haven't already, I want to ask that you fill out a connect card. It's going to be right in front of your seat. or you could text the number 903201606. Our pastors would love to connect with you. We would love to hear your story. We would love to hear more about your experiences and we would love to get you more information about our church. Radiant Church is one of the best churches I know. I've been here for a while and I'm here to attest that there's nothing like Radiant Church. Come on. Well, at this time, we're getting ready to transition into off tithes and offering. And a scripture that God really put on my mind, it says Matthew 6 and33, it says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." And I think this is the principle of priority that in our lives there's so many things that take precedent over God or that appear like they take precedent over God. You know, things could be happening in your life with your kids. You know, things could be happening with your finances. Things could be happening in your family. Maybe you're having marital problems. But but God was very clear about what he said. He said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." Which means that if your life is going crazy, if things keep happening in your life that you can't control, you know, one thing you can control is what you seek first. So, I want to encourage everyone out there that maybe your life isn't the way you want it to be. Maybe it's chaotic. Maybe things are happening that's outside of your control. But there's one thing that you can control. You can prioritize God. And that's just that's not just in your finances, but it's in your life. That that I want to encourage you that the first thing that you do when you wake up is prioritize God. That when you put God first, everything will be added unto you. So if you're going through chaos, if you're going through strife, if things keep happening in your life, calamity keeps happening in your life, I want to ask you a question. Are you putting God first? And so this principle also backs up the second principle, which is the principle of the tithe. Because the Bible says that we are we ought to give God our first fruits. And what does that do? When we give God our first fruits, it blesses the rest. And I'm telling you, come on, somebody. I'm telling you that I rather have a blessed 90 than a cursed 100. That I've I I've lived my life in my own strength. And I'm telling you, I've always fell short. But when I put my life in the hands of Jesus, he never failed me and he never let me down. So I want to encourage you that in the area of giving, give God a chance. He said this is an area that you can test him in. That when we give that when we give God first that he will begin to bless our lives. He will begin to expand our lives and he will take care of the rest. So let's give God his priority. And let's give to God first. Let me pray for you church. God, we thank you that we get an opportunity to give to you first, God. God, I want to pray for anybody that's out there that's struggling with priority, God. They're struggling because they have so many things that's in their lives that is trying to take precedent over you. But God, we know that if we just get you in the right place, our lives will get in place. So God, we thank you that you are our provider. You are Jehovah Gyra. And not only that, God, you said that if we put your kingdom first, all things will be added unto you. It didn't say some things. It didn't say kind of. It said all things will be added unto us. So God, we want to stand on your word and we want to stand in faith that what your word said is true. that if we seek first the kingdom of God that everything will be added. So we thank you that we serve a good good father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, at this time, we're going to pass around the buckets and stay tuned for Radiant News. Hey Radiant family, my name is Stephanie and we're so glad to see you today. Is this your first time? Text first time to 903201606. Our pastors can't wait to personally connect with you. Tonight at 5:00 PM, we're having Vive Youth Night. Invite a friend because you don't want to miss it. You can sign up for Growth Track right after service if you're ready to discover your purpose and join the Dream Team. Do you love serving our city? Sign up for our next I Love My City outreach at the Connect booth. Don't forget to grab your t-shirt. Today is friends and family day. Everyone after service will receive a free t-shirt. You can stay connected with us all week long by following us at radianturch txk on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Tik Tok. Our mission here at Radiant Church is simple. Reach the lost and release the found. Our core value of the week, generosity. We bless people and we push vision. Well, that's it for Radiant News. Thanks so much for watching. Wait, we've got one more announcement. Help us in celebrating our pastor, Pastor KJ, for his birthday this Wednesday. Everyone, let's sing happy birthday. 1 2 3. Happy birthday to you. Everybody get up. Come on. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Pastor. [Music] Happy birthday to you. [Applause] Happy birthday, pastor. We love you and thank you so much for your amazing leadership and everything that you do for this house. Everybody give it up for Pastor KJ. You're amazing. We love you so much. Why y'all trying to make me emotional before I got to preach the word? Thank you guys so much. I appreciate you guys and thank you guys for caring about me and making this the greatest thing I've ever done with my life is Pastor Radiant Church. And I'm so grateful for all of you guys and I'm grateful for the work of the Lord and the things that the Lord is doing. But yeah, today isn't about me. It's about the gospel and we're going to preach it. Who's excited for the word today? Awesome. Awesome. Well, um I like I literally lost all my announcements. Um let's see. Oh, youth today 5:00 p.m. Make sure you bring the kiddos back. It's going to be absolutely amazing. Have you guys been blessed by this series over the last two weeks? Awesome. Awesome. I think that it is vital for the church to be on the front lines of what's going on in our nation. I believe that when our nation gets the darkest, the church has to shine the brightest. And today, I feel like the Lord's given me a very important message to share because [Music] during this everything that's happened, I mean, the horrible assassination that took place, the Charlie Kirk and and everything that's happened from there, there's been some beautiful things and then there's been some things that's not so beautiful. And the thing that I feel like it's been not so beautiful is that it doesn't seem like the church is as ignited as it should be and as united as it should be in times like these. Come on. And I believe that Jesus wants his church united and he wants his church to be one. Last week we talked about if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves, you know, seek his face, turn from their sins and from their wicked ways, he will heal from heaven and heal our land. And I think God is really concerned with his people in this hour. So today, we're going to dig a little bit deeper into that. But before we do, can I pray first? All right, let's pray. Lord Jesus, we just pray that you would come, Lord. You would come like a rushing wind. Lord, you would come and you would descend upon us like a dove. Lord, you would meet us with your grace and your mercy and your kindness. And Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would give us wisdom, the wisdom of God, Lord, the knowledge of God, Lord, that that that that we couldn't even comprehend, Lord, you would bring that to us, Lord. And I pray for the shalom of God, the peace of the the peace of the Lord, that you would come and give us a peace, Lord. But I pray right now, Lord, if anyone in this room has a frozen heart, you would uncallow it. If anyone has blind eyes, Lord, you would open them. And if anyone has deaf ears, you would unstopp the solution to the tragedies in our world. Lord, we're the solution to the brokenness. We are the solution to all the pain and to all the harm. So Lord, I just pray you would use us, mobilize us, ignite us, unite us, and allow us to be the church, Lord, because your church is your answer to the problems that plague our nation. So Lord Jesus, unite us. Make us stronger than ever, boldest than boer than ever, and more united than ever. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. And everyone said, "Amen." Amen. Amen. Anyone that knows me knows I'm holler back. What? preacher. That's real simple. That just means when I preach you back. So holler back then. [Applause] [Music] Awesome. Awesome. If you run across anything in the church that's not clean, by the way, we're under construction. We're going to get there in a couple of weeks. All right. I think the hollowback was cool, but I feel like it could have been better. If anyone's excited to be in a house of God, come on. Sunday morning at the 9:30. Can we give King Jesus a shout of praise? [Applause] That's good enough for me. That's good enough. We can preach. The 11 the 11:30 may be louder today, but hey, we got to start somewhere. 9:30. Um, if you are taking notes, the title of my sermon is the beauty of unity. The beauty of unity. There's something so beautiful and there's something so exquisite and there's something so amazing about unity. Unity in a country, unity in a business, unity in a church, unity in a family. Unity is beautiful and unity has a blessing that's attached to it. And in times like these, in days like these, and hours like these, the Lord wants us unified. He wants us to be one. So today, we're going to take a look at unity. And I just have a question for you before I dive into it. If you knew that the Lord Jesus Christ wanted you to be unified, if you knew that it was his heart, if it was his desire, and if it meant so much to the Lord Jesus Christ, would you open up your eyes, your ears, your heart, and would you lean into unity if you knew it is what the Lord Jesus Christ wanted you to do? Come on. Come on. I'm asking. Yeah. Three people, huh? Three. Okay. Um, it did say where two or three are gathered. So, I guess that's enough to to go forth. But man, we going to try it again. If you knew this is what the Lord Jesus Christ would want from you, would you lean into it? Okay. Okay, we'll take 30. You know, let's run it back. If you knew this is what the Lord Jesus Christ wanted from you, would you lean into it? Okay. Okay, maybe pastor. Maybe. Let's try it one more time. If you knew this is what the Lord Jesus Christ wanted for you, would you lean into it? There we go. That sounds like the church of Jesus Christ right there. There we go. We will lean into it. Lord, if we knew this is your will for our lives, we would lean into unity. And today, I'm going to show you what it takes for us to I'm a little hot on the mic. I'm going to start yelling a little bit so y'all can unhot me in just a second cuz I'm going to start yelling. But um if I knew and if you knew that this is what the Lord Jesus Christ would have us do, we should lean into it. The Lord has a plan for unity. He wants us to be unified with our neighbor. Our neighbors that don't look like us, our neighbors of different ethnic groups, our neighbors of different backgrounds, our neighbors of different cultures, even our neighbors that may not agree with us on everything even though they should. Cuz how could you not agree with us? God wants us unified. And sometimes you look at some neighbors, you're like, "How do you not agree? Are you an idiot?" It's like plain and clear and you don't get it. But God still wants us unified. And the biggest issue in our world isn't Democrat versus Republican. It is who's in Christ. Because see, here's the thing. Without Jesus, the world's doomed. Come on. Come on. We're doomed. Jesus is the hope of the world. His church is the hope of the world. Without Jesus, none of this works. Without Jesus, none of us agree. Without Jesus, we can't be on the same page. Without Jesus, there is no unity. Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. Which means the church is the hope of the world. It's us. It's the church of Jesus that will rescue a city. It's the church of Jesus that will save a nation. I like anyone else. I love politics and and and and I love reading and I vote and I do all that. But I know that Jesus Christ is in control. And if anything is going to get fixed, it's going to be through Jesus. Oh, so good. So, let's see what Jesus has to say about unity and how we can navigate and find unity with our brothers and sisters and figure out what undermines and what stops unity. If you have your Bibles, go to Psalms 133. Yes, a lot of chapters in the book of Psalms. Psalms 133. Old Testament. Psalms 133. I'll give you guys a second to get there. I love this chapter. Here's how it reads. It says, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." Ladies, you are included. Brethren just means the people of God. Okay, so the ladies like, "Well, that's for the brethren. That's has nothing to do with us." Nope. You are included in this. Brethren to door together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard. The beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his garment. It is like the dw of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing life forever more. God is saying it is beautiful and it is pleasant. It is exquisite. It is it is amazing. It is extraordinary when brethren dwell together. When men of God and women of God and people of God of different race, different creed, different background, people that come from different places. When we dwell together as brethren, when we dwell together as one, when we dwell dwell together in unity, when we dwell together in love, when we dwell together in peace, the Bible says it's pleasant. God finds it pleasant. God loves it when we dwell together. Yeah. He loves it so much. He loves it so extraordinarily that God said, "I'm not even going to suggest the blessing. I command one." God commands a blessing. Which means when there is unity in a family, God commands that family be blessed. When there's unity in a business, God commands that business be blessed. When there's unity in a church, God commands that church be blessed. When there's unity in a nation, God commands it it be blessed. Which means if we unify, we have the command of God. Not the suggestion, not even the prayer, not the intercessory, but the command of God. God says if it's unified, it shall be blessed. Where there is unity, there is blessing. Where there is unity, there is blessing. And if we will be a unified church, we will be a blessed church. If we'll be a unified nation, we will be a blessed nation. God commands the blessing. Which means when you see the curse, you know there is no unity. But when you see the blessing, you know there's unity. God commands it to be so. Let me tell you something about a command of God. It will always go forth and it will not be stopped. Which means that when there is unity, God says, I'm sending a blessing that will not be stopped. He said all the way to the point, I want to show you what unity among brethren from all different backgrounds and creeds and tribes look like. He said it looks like the head of Aaron. The head of Aaron who who inaugurated the priesthood. Uh Aaron would come and he would get anointed. We'll be introduced to this concept of the anointing. The anointing was symbolic of the spirit of God, God's approval, God's endorsement, God's empowering, God's supernatural power that would go forth and won't be stopped. The Bible says the anointing break the yolks. Which means if people are yolked in bondage, fear, despair, angry and anxiety, the anointing comes and snaps it. The anointing makes something effective. The anointing makes ordinary look extraordinary. Natural looks supernatural. Hard look easy. The anointing is extravagant. God says when there is unity, oil follows. Wow. Wow. Which means if we would be a unified church, we would be an anointed church. Which means we will be endowed to prosper by God. What we touch would multiply. When we pray for people, they would get healed. When we leave worship, the spirit of God will descend like a dove. When we preach sermons, hearts will be open and awakening to the reality of Christ. Because where there is unity, there is anointing. So good. You are anointed in unity. A marriage that's unified is a marriage that's anointed. And when a man and a woman of God that's anointed by God come together, no devil, no darkness, and no force in hell can stop them because the oil starts flowing. And God says it started at Aaron's head, but it dropped all the way down the edges of his robe, even trickled down to his feet. God says, "Unity starts up top, but it but it but it penetrates all the way down to the bottom. It starts at the mountain, but the oil falls to the valley." In other words, when the leadership of our country is united, all of a sudden, that oil falls down to the valley. When the leadership of our church is united, that oil falls down to the valley. God says the oil don't stop at the head, but it rolls down the beard, down the edge of the jacket, all the way down. Which means when there is unity, the anointing don't just stop. It continues to flow from the top to the bottom, from the mountain to the valley, from the high place to the low place. The anointing of God. And when we are unified, there is an anointing. And I want to tell you, there is plenty forms of unity. Oh, but when all God's people come together, something extraordinary happens that God delights in seeing all his people come together, God delights when he sees black, next to white, next to Asian, next to Hispanic. It makes God's happy because we're all his people. And I want you guys to know that we all have the same exact DNA. We're the same. We're just different shades. Some of us a little chocolate. Amen. Just up here cooking. Some of us a little brighter, but we're all God's kids. And the oil flows when we are united together as one. We don't have to look the same. We don't have to talk the same. We don't have to dress the same because God don't want uniformity, but he does want unity. Uniformity means sameness. We all do the same thing, act the same, talk the same, look the same, dress the same. God said, "I don't want none of that. I want unity where you guys take your differences, you submit them under me, and then you guys unite around what you agree on. And that's the blood, that's the power in the baptism of Jesus Christ. Oh, come on, somebody. Give King Jesus a shout of praise. So then the Bible says it's like the dew of Hermon. It's like the dew of Hermon. And back in Israel, what would happen is it wouldn't rain much. So, so there would be desolation and barrenness on the mountains and on the land and it would be barrenness. It would be dry. There would be no rain and would be barrenness. There would be no vegetation. It wouldn't be fruitful. But then there was the mountain of Hermmon. And the mountain of Hermon has something so supernatural because of the climate of the mountain of Hermmon. It would have dew that would be on the mountain. And de was just wet. You know how like when when it didn't rain outside and you get on the grass and it's just wet. It's moist. And you're like, "Where did this come from? It didn't even rain last night. That's due. Hermon would have dew and it would just be wet. It would be moist. So what would happen is in her mind, vegetation would come. Produce would spread out because there was always dew to come and nourish the mountain. But the dew of Hermon didn't stop at Hermon. It would trickle and descend down to the mountain of Zion, down into the valleys, down into the depths, down into the lowest parts. God said that's what the blessing is like. When there is unity, it may start at Hermon, but it goes down to Zion. It may start at the top, but it goes down to the bottom. God says the blessing will descend where there is unity. The blessing of God, it is important that we are unified because the blessing of God comes. One of the reasons why I feel like God has blessed our church so greatly in in such a short amount of time is because the unity here. When I got ready to pastor, I prayed to the Lord. Lord, what kind of church would you want us to plant? Lord, what do you want us to do? And he started talking to me about radiant church and it would be a multicultural church, multithnic, multi-generational, multiplying church. And I'm like, Lord, how do we do this? How do we pull this off? And he said, I the Lord will make it happen. And I just want to say this about Radiant Church. Radiant Church is not a black church. Yes, I'm a black man, but this is not a black church. This church is a church of Jesus Christ. is for black, white, Asian, Hispanic, and any other nationality you can find. You looking for a black church? I'm sorry. This ain't the one. This is the church of Jesus Christ. And it's called radiant because what happens is when a bunch of colors start shining together, you get a radiant light. And that's what our church is. When white and black and Hispanic and Asian start shining together, you get a radiant light. When the people become one, that is the mandate of God. And God puts a blessing on that. He puts an anointing on that. He makes it flow from Harmon all the way down to the mountains of Zion. That is God's plan. His plan is unity. I want to show you how much God cares about this. John 17:20 says this. It says, and this is Jesus, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me. So, I'm not just playing for the people that believe in me. I'm praying for those that will through their word that they all may be one. God wants us to be one, guys. He wants us to be one. He said, "As you the father are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us." That the world may believe that you sent me. Jesus said, "This is so important." That them being one would be proof that you sent me to the world. In other words, he said, "This would be so hard to pull off that if you pulled it off, it would prove to the world that I was sent. That's the power of us being one. And he says, "I want you to I want to show you the oneness because we see the oneness in the Trinity. We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They are three distinct persons and expressions of God, but they're one God. It's the Godhead. There's the Father, there's the Son, there's the Holy Spirit." But it's not three gods. It's one God, three persons. And you may say, "Pastor Ker, how's that possible?" It's because if you ask me about the Johnson family, you have myself, you have my wife, you have my daughter. We're three different people, but we're one family. We're the Johnson family. The father, the son, and the holy spirit. It's one God. It's the God of Israel. It's the God that we worship. Three persons, one God. And God says, "You guys will be different person, different tribes, different creeds, different races, different backgrounds, different nations, but you will be one people. You would be my people. you would be God's people. And this is what Jesus desired. And he says, "I do not pray for these alone, but I also pray for those who will believe in me." Do you know that Jesus prayed for this? This is one of Jesus's last prayers. How important is this for Jesus to pray for it? And all throughout the Bible, Jesus talks about us being one. We'll look at some more passages in a little bit, but he prayed for this, that we would be one, that in Christ there would be no Jew or Gentile. There would be no slave or free. There would be no male or female. It would just be one. All of us united as one. And God prayed for this, which means this mattered to God. And it's one of his last prayers. And I want to tell you something. Uh just as a ju just just just as a leader, when you're getting ready to leave out of town and you're getting ready to leave, you you talk to your staff and you saying everything that needs to get done. And then the last thing you're getting ready to say, "All right, y'all. Make sure y'all get this job done." You you you that last thing like, "Hey, this is most important above all. This is what Jesus said about unity, and this is what he said about oneness." So, let's give him a shout of praise. If you need some more, if you need some more scripture, we go to Revelation 7:9. And I just want to show you what John saw in heaven and what heaven will look like. Revelation 7:9, it says, "After these things, I looked and behold, a great multitude which no one could number." There was a mass amount of people. Couldn't even be numbered. Of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb." which means every nation, every tribe, every tongue was all sitting there saying, "Salvation belongs to our Lord." In other words, he saved us all. He saved us all. He didn't just save this language, he saved all languages. He didn't just save this people, he saved all people. He didn't just save this nation, he saved all nations. This is the heart of your God. This is his heart. And this is his desire. And this can only be done through the church of Jesus Christ. That they would know he was sent by our unity. They would know he was sent by our love for one another. That the proof of Jesus is how you love the person next to you. Look around this room. Just take a second. Just look around. Take a second. Look around. You see all different types of people. This is what heaven looks like, church. This is what heaven looks like. We have to be one. This is God's desire. So the question, the question is, what stops us from being one? I'm glad you asked. Proverbs 18:1 17. It says, "The first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him." This is such a powerful statement. What what the Bible is saying here is the first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him. Let me give you the best picture of this. I do a lot of marital counseling and when I sit in counseling, it is just staggering. I know this cuz I've canceled so much. But when I sit in cancelling, I I I it just never it just never ceases to exist. I sit in cancelling and we get ready to cancel and and then one of uh the the husband or the wife, one of them presents first, you know, the the issues they're having and it's just crazy how the human mind, the heart and the soul works. When the first person presents their case, I'm sold. I'm like, see, like when the wife starts giving her case, well, he don't come home. He don't spend time, he don't clean, he don't do this. I'm just like, this sorry, rascal. This sorry, no good. I look at him and smile. Hey, buddy. This no good, man. And I'm listening. I'm listening and and just in the inside, I'm like, man, this this poor lady does not deserve this. But then the cross-examination comes and now it's his turn to talk. And when he gets done talking, I'm like, "This lady didn't did this man wrong." And then they just keep going back and forth and I'm just like, and at this point I'm like, I don't even know who right or wrong. I'm going to go argue with my wife at this point. Like I'm just I'm confused. I am confused. And it's like there's something that seems so right, so clear, so easy until crossexamination. What are you saying, Pastor KJ? Well, typically in a counseling session, there may be a person that has more truth than another, but rarely have I ever sat in a counseling session where one person was just clearly right and the other one was just wrong. Rarely have I ever sat in a counseling session that way. There was always a tension. There was always points on each side. There was always facts on each side. And and yes, yes, yes, he was wrong, but she didn't go about it the right way. And and yes, she

was wrong, but he used strong language and he hurt her feelings. And there's just so much tension that when you're counseling, it's almost impossible to take a side because there's so much tension that you don't know where the problem starts, but you know it ends in Jesus Christ. Come on, somebody.

So whenever I'm counseling, it's very difficult. It's very difficult because there's things on each side. And I just want you to know that some of you are called to pray God's will and God's going to change things. But then some of you guys are called to actually go into the heart of this nation and bring change. And I just want you to know when you do that you bring change not by lecturing but by listening.

See, the reason why marriages fight is because everyone has a lecture but no one wants to listen. The reason why nations fight, ethnic groups fight, races fight, politics fight is because everyone has a lecture but no one wants to listen. And guess what? You can be right and wrong at the same time. Yeah, there's been times where I'm arguing with my wife and I'm right, but my spirit isn't right. And then there's times I've been arguing, I'm just wrong. It's too left foot. But I have to sit and have those conversations and listen.

And one thing I can't do is go talk to a bunch of other husbands because we're all in perfect agreement. Yep. Yep. See, see, man, we we provide. We do this. We take care of the house. Mhm. Woe is us. And then you listen to the ladies. Mhm. Yep. We took care of the kids. We did this. We cooked. We did this. We did that. And it's like, whoa. Like, like that's a landmark. And if you a guy, don't you go into a group of ladies trying to argue your point. You would not make it out alive, bro. You just surrender. You'll be like, I surrender. Like, you better surrender. I've tried to argue with a room full of ladies. Barely made it out alive. Scared I might not make it out alive.

No, let me move on to the next point. So, what am I saying? What am I saying? What I'm saying is this. There is always tension and tension is okay. Tension is okay. But if you want to be a part of the solution, you have to lean into the tension. Uh, can I get two? Can I get my two people to come up on stage? Let me get my two people up here. Let me get them. Let me get them. Okay. Okay. I'm going to show you guys something. All right. Can you stand right here? There you go. And you face, sir. You stand right here. Okay.

So we have two individuals and these individuals can't see eye to eye. So now I need a favor. Can I have the truth? Can I have the truth come out? Come here. Come to me. Truth. Come to me. You guys keep looking at each other. Now I want to present the truth of this situation. You guys see the truth. The truth has spoken. You see what the truth is, right? Y'all all read it. Okay, I'm going to show you something else. You see what the truth is? Hey, you guys all ready? Okay, perfect. Now, perfect sequence. Now, I need you to read and tell me what the truth is. The truth is righteousness. Okay. From her perspective, that's how she sees it. That's how she calls it. That's how she sees truth. But now I need you to tell me what the truth is. The truth is justice. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What is the truth? The truth is righteousness. What's the truth? The truth is justice.

See, this look like your household right here. This what y'all be doing. What's the truth? The truth is righteousness. What's the truth? The truth is justice. Now, here's the danger. Both of them are looking at the truth, but somehow they have a different truth. Come on. How can you both look at the truth and have a different truth? Because you're wondering because all throughout the nation, even in this situation with Charlie Kirk, you see some people that has a truth and another people that's having a truth. But if you're looking at the truth, how are you guys having different truths? Devastation happens in a nation and somebody sees it one way and another person sees it another way. And I'm confused because if you have the truth, then how are you not in agreement? If everyone is seeing the truth, then why can't anyone agree?

Because if we be honest, sometimes racially, culturally, and and and and and backgroundly, that ain't even a word. We interpret situations in our nation that clearly seems like the truth. Because clearly the truth is righteousness. But clearly the truth is justice. This is a problem. And this is why our nation sits divided is because we can't see the truth the same way. Wow. And here's the problem. The reason why we can't see it the same way is because what happens is we see a truth, not the truth. We see a truth. We don't see the truth. And a truth is truth is just truth incomplete. And what happens is when truth is incomplete, no matter what happens, we keep going back and forth because the truth is justice and the truth is righteousness. And they're both seeing a truth, but they're not seeing the truth. And the reason why they're not seeing the truth is because they can only see from their perspectives. My god. My God. No matter how hard she looks, she just sees the truth is righteousness. And no matter how hard she looks, she just sees the truth is justice. And this is all they see. And they are blinded by their truth. And she cannot understand how she can't clearly see the truth is righteousness. And how she can't clearly see the truth is justice. And they're both looking at what? The truth. Wow. Come on.

But because they haven't communicated with one another, they get a truth instead of the truth. But if they would start communicating with each other, all of a sudden as they would communicate, as they would listen instead of lecturing and communicate, something so powerful would happen. If they communicated, if they communicated, they would change places. And when they changed places, guess what happened? Their perspectives would change. Wow. Wow. And when their perspectives changed, all of a sudden, she would see the truth is righteousness and the truth is justice. And they can both see the truth instead of a truth because they communicate and they listen instead of lecture. Can we make some merch for these ladies?

And what happens is sometimes we won't listen. And this is what happens in a marriage. It's because he's on one side, she's on one side. And what I try to do as a counselor is to get them to trade places. So she can see it from his view. He can see it from her view. And even if one of them are more wrong, now you can better communicate to the other person because you know their perspective. But I can't communicate to a person whom I don't know their perspective. The same thing with parenting. They want to go out all night. You need your kids at home. Y'all can't get on the same page. And it's not that you're wrong parents, but if you don't see your child's perspective, you would never be able to communicate in a way that convicts them, that challenges them and transforms them. So we have to not just see our truth or a truth. We have to see the truth. And the truth is a man named Jesus. Let's go look at him.

We saw their truth. But even in looking at their truths and their perspectives, it's not enough. We have to look at the truth. And the truth is Jesus Christ. So let's look at the truth when it comes to their problem. Because check this out. I chose those two words because both of our primary political parties, their creeds are built around those words. The Democrat party says we are a party of justice and equality to all. And the Republican says we are a party of righteousness and to keep the moral standards of our God. And these are the emphasis. So, so if you're wondering why would somebody vote this way or do this way, it's because one party is saying, "Hey, God's justice, his equality, his fairness, whether you agree with it or not, they're selling the idea that God's justice, his fairness, his equality is coming from this party." And then on the other side, maybe you're like, "How can someone vote that way?" Well, that party is selling that God's righteousness and his holiness and his standards are coming from this party. And what happens is now righteousness and justice are at war. And one party is saying, "Hey, we're bringing justice to the land." The other party is saying, "We're bringing righteousness to the land." And there's a tension and there's a pull and there's a divide. And what we have to do is step out of our parties and step into the power of God and see what God says about all this. Which takes us to Psalms 89. And here's what God says. God says, "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Mercy and truth go before your face."

So, here's what God is saying. When these two ladies are debating, and I'm not talking for political parties anymore. I'm just talking about God. Now when these two ladies are in the debate, they both see a truth. But the truth is both sides. The truth is God says justice comes from his throne and God says righteousness comes from his throne. And that's truth on all sides. So what happened is they were divided because they had a side of God's truth without the whole side of God's truth. And the whole side of God's truth is justice and righteousness comes from his throne. Which means God cares about justice and he cares about righteousness. God cares about mercy and God cares about truth. He cares about both. So God is a God of justice and God is a God of righteousness. And if we are to be the church, our job is to hold our government to justice and to righteousness. And is the government ever going to get it? No, because the government's not God. God gets it perfect. And then what we have to do is we have to quit being loyal to political parties and actually look at the policies and see which policies line up with righteousness and justice and then we vote our conviction. And if we would take off of our biases and what we were taught and what we were told and if we took off even our loyalty to the parties and we just read the policies, held them accountable to God's word, guess what will happen? We will all come out with the truth, not a truth. And you have to be willing to do that as a child of God. Which means that as a child of God, you are loyal to one and that is Jesus Christ. And I wanted to rebuke anything that's not him. I have no loyalty to nobody but the lamb. Only the lamb gets my loyalty. And I am talking to everybody that's not listening to the lamb, holding them accountable. This is what the lamb said. This is what the lamb said. This is what the lamb said. And no party is going to perfectly capture the lamb. But I'm going to vote closely as I can to the lamb while still trying to make change so our land looks like our lamb. Can we give God a shout of praise?

God says truth and mercy. Everyone say truth. Truth and and mercy. Mercy. Oh, this is going to get good. We're just getting started. Everyone say truth. Truth and mercy. One more time. Say truth. Truth and mercy. Mercy. The reason why both are so vital is because truth without mercy will destroy you. That's good. Mercy without truth will dismiss you. But mercy and truth will deliver you. Ah truth without mercy will destroy you. Mercy without truth will dismiss you. But truth and mercy will deliver you. If you want to be delivered in the hands of God, it requires truth and mercy. And God says from his strong there's justice and righteousness. There's truth and mercy. And you can't lean on the side of one because God is 100% both. And the way God perfectly brings justice and he unites the world is because he has a fine balance of justice, righteousness, truth, and mercy. And when he has a 100% of all four of those, it creates a tension that the world can walk on. It creates a unity that brings all the people of God together. Oh, let's go deeper. We're going to get real deep today. Can we get deep today? We're going to get deep today. Let's get real deep.

So, this was this should raise the question to somebody, pastor. That's cute. That's cute. But what happens when someone is blatantly wrong or blatantly sinful or bl or blatantly against God's word? What happens then? Okay, we got justice and we got righteousness, but what happens when we have the command and then we have sin? At that point, what happens? Because there are some issues where there isn't a truth, it's a lie. And my view is a or the truth. I don't know if it's the full thing because I ain't seen Jesus yet, but it's at least a truth. And that's a lie. So, what do you do in that tension? I don't know. Let's see what Jesus would do. Let's see what Jesus would do. When you are loyal to only the lamb, you see the Bible differently. Come on now. Because we don't see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. [Applause] And we don't see the Bible as it is. We see the Bible as we are. Because I hear everybody from every tribe quoting scripture at this point. So I don't know what's what at this point. The Bible says in the last days the very elect will be deceived. So just because you got a Bible verse don't mean you have a truth.

So this is how we live our lives. We give devotion to God first. We give devotion to God first. I love I love when Joshua was at war. When Joshua was at war, something so powerful happened. When he was at war, an angel of the Lord appeared. And when the angel of the Lord appeared, Joshua had a question for the angel. He said, "I got a question. I'm at war with my enemy." In other words, I'm on this side, they're on that side. And he said to the angel, "What side are you on? I need to know which side you're on. Cuz are you help or do I need to swing on you?" Like, "What side are you on?" Have you ever been arguing with somebody, someone talking in the background, you're like, "Hey, who side you on? Cuz I can swing on you, too. What's up? Like I need to know whose side you on. And he asked the angel, he said, "Whose side are you on?" Oh, and the angel, the angel said, "I'm not on your side or I'm not on his side." He said, "I work for the captain of the Lord." In other words, I'm on the Lord's side. I didn't come to take sides. I came to take over. I'm on God's side. translation. The question isn't whose side is God on. The question is whose side who's on God's side? It's not whose side is God on. Who's on God's side? And let's say if you feel like, well, I'm on God's side. Good. But God's not against them. God said if you're on his side, now he's going to use you to go reach them so they can be on his side, too. Because his plan has always been unity, not division. Because he said, "A house divided against itself won't stand. A nation divided against itself won't stand. A people divided against itself won't stand." If we stay divided, we will come to desolation. We stay divided in America, we will tear down this nation. Preaching.

So the angel of the Lord said, "I'm not on your side and I'm not on their side. I'm on God's side. [Applause] And I just And I just want to make it clear. I'm not on this side. What side is pastor on? I'm not on that side. I'm on God's side. And where God is, I am. And where God ain't, I ain't. I have been given up. I'm sorry, black people. I'm not loyal to black skin. I'm loyal to the lamb of God. Do you not love black people? Sure, I love black people. white, Asians, and Hispanic. But I love God because guess what? When I die, my skin is only worth $25 worth of sand. That's all it's worth. But my soul is eternal. There's not a price on it. And my soul is your soul. And my blood is your blood. I'm not for one people to be against another people. I'm for all people. That's God's people. and even the people that's not because his desire is for them to still be his people. And what happens is the church starts taking sides. And when we take sides, we alienate ourselves from being able to reach people. God's goal, he said, is not to destroy men's life. It's to save them.

So, let me show you God. Okay, pastor, this all sounds good, but is this your opinion? Of course not, or I wouldn't say it. We're going to go through your Bible and I'm going to show you your God navigate the tension I'm preaching on. Go to John chapter 8. Because as a believer, all you should truly care about is not what the news say. You should care about what God says. If you're loyal to this world, then that's you. But I'm talking to the people of Jesus Christ who's loyal to their king who wants to know what do we do at times like this? And here's how Jesus navigated the tension. John 8 chapter 3. It says, "As he was speaking, the teachers of the religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd." So Jesus is speaking. He's preaching. He's preaching to a crowd. He's preaching to a group of people and the Pharisees, the people of God of that day, brought a lady caught in an act of adultery, which sounds like she's naked. They bring this naked lady who's caught in the act. In other words, she was in the act of adultery. They bring her to Jesus in front of this crowd as he was preaching. They said, "Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? Now, they were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him. Wow, that sounds like our nation today. But Jesus stood down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer. Sounds like our nation. So he stood up again and said, "All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone." Then he stooped down again and rode in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?" "No, Lord," she said. And Jesus said, "Neither do I. go away and sin no more.

Okay, so here's the issue that we have. Jesus is talking to a crowd of people. I did my research on this crowd. This this crowd is unbelievers. So Jesus is talking to this crowd of unbelievers and he's sitting here preaching, for God so loved the world, he gave me his only begotten son that you should not perish and have everlasting life. I come to save you, redeem you, restore you, make you whole, make you one. do this, unite you. Woo, it's beautiful. And then the church heard. It was like, what Jesus over there doing? They found a lady in adultery. So now they bring this lady to the service strip naked and they say to Jesus in front of the crowd. The Mosaic law says if she's caught in adultery, stone her. What do you say? Now, what's the trap, guys? Here's the trap. There's a crowd who don't know Jesus, who don't know the law, who don't know the ways of the spirit. And they're like, "This Jesus guy is pretty cool. He's gracious. He's nice. I want to get saved. I want to give my life. I want to get baptized. I want to join Growth Track and serve. I want to go to UFI today." [Applause] And then the church comes and says the Mosaic law says stone her. So it's a trap because if Jesus stones her, he looks cruel to the crowd. And if he spares her, he looks like a coward to the church. So they put him in attention. Are you going to be cruel or are you going to be a coward? And the church is on this side and the crowd is on this side. Jesus, what do you say? Because if we can get you to agree with the law to stone her, we can now make this crowd not want to follow you no more. And if you dismiss the word of God, you're not truly the son of God and we won't follow you. In other words, we got him. We got him. We got him. How do you get out of that? I would have just been like, "Hate, heart, stop beating. Please, like, heart, stop beating." I'll be like, "Lord, just sleep me real quick." Like, sleep me. What do you do? What do you do? And Jesus did. The only thing that Jesus could do in a situation like this, prove he's God. Prove he's God. So what does he do? He He crouches down and he starts writing in the dirt and he's right. And he's right. Jesus, get up. We demand an answer. I bet the crowd's like, "Yeah, what is Jesus going to say?" Mhm. We went to here, too. what he going to say? And Jesus is right. They said, "Jesus, we demand an answer." And Jesus got up. He said, "All right, all right, all right, all right. Whichever one of you are without sin, you go ahead and cast the first stone to her cuz that is the law. And I didn't come to abolish the law. I came to fulfill it. That is the law." Then he bends down and he starts writing again. Come on. And all of a sudden, those guys with stones in hand looked down and they saw, this is what I believe. This is most theologians say. We can't we the Bible doesn't say what he wrote. But if I had a stone in my hand and I am a Jewish leader and I memorized the penetuk and I know the law, I would need to see something that indicted me. So he's looking down and all of a sudden some dude see Ashley. Oh my god, that's my side piece. tax violation. I ain't paying taxes. Stealing our dead still. And all of a sudden, they would have had to see their sins in the ground. And all of a sudden, here's how you know they was exposed. Because the Bible says they snuck out one by one. They snuck out. Yeah.

So what Jesus did was he was caught in between truth and mercy. And he didn't compromise neither one. Mercy on one side, truth on the other side. And Jesus didn't compromise neither one. Why? Because he came to bring 100% truth and 100% mercy. He didn't compromise either one. In other words, they said, "Jesus, who side you on?" He said, "I didn't come to take sides. I came to take over." And now you see this beautiful picture because at this point, Jesus spared this lady's life. He protected her. He spared her. He got rid of her accusers. And he showed her mercy. He showed her mercy. And not only did he get rid of her accusers, he said, "Neither do I condemn you." Which means there was only one person that had a right to stone her and he didn't want to. All the people that did not have a right to stone her wanted to. And he said, "Neither do I condemn you." He gave this lady mercy, triumph, and judgment. And he gave her this mercy. And now we're sitting in this tension. And then as she was getting ready to walk off, he hit her with a truth bomb. He said, "Go away and sin no more." Don't forget about that part now. Because some people want to say, "Yes, Jesus came and he gave her mercy." He also gave her truth. Yes, he did. And he said, "Go away and sin no more." Now, if somebody comes, they cover you, protect you, save you, save you from your accusers, don't accuse you, and then correct you. Guess what you going to do? Repent. Because if Jesus would have said stone her, the crow would have saw him as cruel and never followed and believed. And if Jesus would have said, stone her. And if she so happened to survive that stoning, she would have saw Jesus as cruel and never believed. But Jesus had a way to get everybody on the same page. He showed the church, "I will not compromise the word." He showed the crowd, "I can't show mercy." He showed her mercy. And he then he hit her with a truth bomb and said, "Sin no more." In other words, I'm not on this side or that side. I didn't come to take sides. I came to take over.

Now, now, now, some of you guys are probably looking at the story. Can I go deeper? Yeah. And you're looking at this story and you're like, "Well, well, pastor, it kind of looks like you're kind of maybe saying Jesus aired slightly more on the side of mercy in the sinner than he did the believer." No, I'm not. You just missed it. That's why I'm the preacher and you're not. Um because you see this story and you see Jesus letting her go free and you think he aired on the side of mercy. But if you would slow down and really look at the text, he didn't just let her go free. He let them all go free. Because when he rode in that dirt, it was a right for everybody there to be stoned. He let them sneak out and he let her sneak out. Because he's not choosing these kids over that kids. They're all his kids. He didn't come to take sides. He came to take over. And there was mercy and truth. Why? Because mercy without truth is meaningless. And truth without mercy is mean, but truth with mercy is meaningful. Truth without mercy is mean. Mercy without truth is meaningless, but truth and mercy is meaningful. Why is truth and mercy meaningful? Is because the Bible talks about in Psalms that that truth and mercy meet together. They meet together. And it was really poetic. What it was saying is truth and mercy are married. Truth and mercy are married. And truth and mercy has a baby. And when truth and mercy marry together, they have a baby called love. And love is 100% truth. And it's 100% mercy. 100% truth and 100% mercy. And you cannot have love if you only show mercy. And you cannot have love if you only show truth. You must show truth and mercy to have love. Which means you have some Christians in this room and you see sin and you're like, "I'm so merciful. I'm going to dismiss." And you're are not walking in love because love demands truth. And there are some Christians that's like, "I'm so truthful. I ain't letting you make it." You are not walking in love because truth because love demands truth and mercy. And when you're truly walking in love, you show truth and mercy. You protect, you cover, you remove accusers. You don't accuse. And then you speak truth to a heart that said receive mercy because mercy melts the heart like wax. And when mercy happened, it opens a door and it penetrates truth straight through the heart. Maybe your truth is being rejected because it's not married to mercy. Wow. But when truth is married to mercy, it is accepted. Why? Because I've talked to people and some of the most heinous sins with some of the most heinous beliefs. And I've loved them. I've served them. I showed them mercy. But I stood 10 toes on truth and they repented. And how do I know to do that? Because Jesus taught me. And when I look in the nation, I see a ton of mercy and I see a ton of truth. But I don't see them together. And that's our problem. And that's why we're divided as a country. And unlike Jesus and that predicament, when we're stuck between mercy and truth, we pick a side. And you may be like, "Well, I don't have the wisdom of Jesus. You don't need it. If you had the heart of Jesus, you'll make a way. To not compromise, but to not ostracize. And this, my friends, is the will and the word of God.

I'm going to have to fast forward this sermon. Y'all come back next week because I ain't halfway done. I'm on point one. We're going to fast forward this sermon because we got so much more to show you. You guys are lucky that I ain't got time to keep cutting because we could have kept doing that. I got something I want to do before we close. Ephesians chapter 4. Go there quickly. It says there is one body and one spirit just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all in through all and in you. But each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. So Paul is saying there's one body, which is the church, one spirit, the same Holy Spirit that fills us, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and one father of all. In other words, he's saying everything I do is about oneness. Everything is one. Everything is unity because there's beauty in unity. There's beauty and unity. And God's desire is for us all to be one. There's beauty and unity. God's desire is for us all to be one. But unity isn't uniformity. He don't want us all to look the same. He want us to be diverse. He wants us to be distinct. Sometimes we say, "Oh, we're we're color blind." Why would you be color blind when God created colors? You're not color blind. You're color blessed. that our job isn't to ignore race. It's to appreciate it. I appreciate my white brothers and sisters. I appreciate my my Asian brothers and sisters, my Latino brothers and sisters. I'm not blind to your beauty. I appreciate it. I am blessed by your difference. You are different because God wanted you to be. Because God doesn't like uniformity. He likes unity. There's unity in angels. There's unity in creations. There's there's unity in cities, but there's not uniformity. God never makes the same thing twice. He's a creator. He's not a cloner. God wants to do a new thing, an original thing. God loves unity. And there's beauty in unity. There's beauty in unity. There's oneness and unity. So, what our job is to do is to take our differences and to make unity of our differences. Our job is to make harmony with one another. God wants harmony. Everyone say, "God God wants harmony." Harmony. God God wants harmony. Harmony. Can I get my Can I get my Avengers? Avengers assemble. Oh my gosh. What is he gonna do now? Avengers assemble. God wants harmony. Trey, can you sing me some? Our God. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with stone power and love. Our God is an awesome God. Jess, can you sing me some of our God? Our God is an awesome God. He from heaven above with w a God. Lydia, can you sing me some of our God? And our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with power and love. Our God is an awesome God. Now I'm going to sing our God. I'm playing. Let me not. Let me not. Now Trey sung in a register. He sung in a note which is called tenor and Jess sung in a register called alto and Lydia sang in a register called soprano which means trace is lower just is higher than his. Lydia is higher than hers. They all sung in different registers. And the beauty of this is in order to have something that sounds amazing you don't just want teners. You don't just want altos or just soprantos. You want all of them. Because what happens is when they all come together, they can do something greater together than they can ever do apart. What can they do together that's greater than what they can do apart? Because when they sing apart, they can all sing a beautiful song and a beautiful melody, but when they sing together, they can do something so beautiful. They can make a harmony. And the harmony requires all of them to be different, but yet all of them to be submitted to the same key. And if they're different and submitted to the same key, even though they're different, submitted to the same key, they can do what's called a harmony. So instead of them singing separate, we're going to make them sing together, which is so much more beautiful. Can y'all harmonize for us? Our God is an awesome God with power and love. Our God is an awesome God. Our God is an awesome God. He raised from heaven above with wings power. Our God is an All right. Come on, sing, guys. Our God is an awesome God. Heaven [Applause] above, [Music] power. Our God is awesome. All right, come on. Let's press it right here. Come on. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wower and love. Our God is an awesome God. Now watch this. What they just did was a harmony. And they all had distinct different sounds. They all sung at different registers and different notes, but they was held together by one key. And that key kept them in order. That key kept them tied together. That key kept them close. That key held everything together. If one of them left the key, it would sound like a tragedy. It's the key that stops it from being a tragedy. I want to tell you something, people of God. You might be black, you might be white, Asian, or Hispanic, but it's the king that holds us all together. Because in Colossians, the Bible says he holds all things together. Long as we're submitted to the king we can be together. We can be a little different, but long as we submit to the King. We could be a little different but long as we worship the king. Because the king, like the king, holds all things together. And I want you to know something. Even though we may look different and have different backgrounds, we're held together by the king like their voices are held together by the key. We can be different long as the king holds us together. We can be different long as we're submit to the king. We don't have to look the same, like the same things, dress the same. Are we held together by the king? Because if we are, our differences is not disunityity. It's actually unity. It's the beauty of unity. God said, "I want you brothers and sisters to live in harmony with one another." And that is the call and that's the will of God. So as a church, our job is to live together in harmony. But then it gets bigger than just our church because you have a harmony, but then you have a symphony. And a symphony is when all different people from different places, super diverse different churches, different cities, different backgrounds, different nations, different places, they all come together. They all come together under the same key. And this is what we're going to show you right now. Because now you can pull in drums, bass, keyboard player. You can pull in all these distinct sounds and voices and instruments and they all work together long as they're tied together by the same key. Come on y'all. Our God is an awesome God. Heaven above will power. Come on, turn on my band. My God is an awesome God. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wind down power and love. Our God is an awesome God. Come on. It's a symphony before God. Our God is an awesome. Come on. This is a symphony before our God is an awesome God. Heaven [Applause] above. Our God is an awesome God. Our God, he's an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above where from power. Our God is an awesome God. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with power and love. Our God is an awesome God. Now that my friends is a symphony before God. That's when all people from different backgrounds, tribes, tongues, nations come together as one. And when you come together as one sound, one people, one heart, one baptism, all of a sudden you are unified before Jesus. And when unity comes, the oil comes. And where the oil comes, the blessing comes. And where the blessing of God is, the presence of God is. This is God's calling. This is God's desire that we will be one. That we will live in harmony with one another. That we won't be divided. That we won't be forced to pick a side. We didn't come to take sides. We came to take over as the people of God. That we're to be a light in the darkness. We're to bring healing. We're to bring restoration. And I'm not asking you to compromise truth because Jesus wasn't asking the Pharisees to compromise truth. He was just asking them to humble it. I'm not asking you to compromise mercy. I'm asking you to humble it. And if you will humble it, what Jesus was trying to show everybody out there, the crowd in the church, he was trying to show every last one of them, and I want to show this to you. Every last one of you, no matter where you feel like you are, you need the mercy of God. [Music] [Applause] Don't be fooled to think you're so godly and so righteous that without the blood of Jesus, you are smited to hell. Without his blood, you are just as bad as the people you think are horrible. It's the blood of Jesus. It's the reason you can stand. You need his mercy. But you know what else you need? You need his truth. Because when Jesus was on the cross, he held all four of them together perfectly. The justice of God was poured out on Jesus as he was beat and as he was nailed to the cross. But the righteousness of God was upheld because his holiness demanded a payment. [Applause] And the truth of God, he kept his word that he would rescue his people. But the mercy of God is you get what you don't deserve. And that's salvation. On the cross, he kept righteousness, justice, mercy, and truth all perfectly aligned. And I just want every last one of you to know, without his mercy, you are nothing. And without his truth, you are nothing. But because of his mercy, his truth, his justice, and his righteousness, you get a seat at the table. But you didn't earn it. And Jesus wasn't picking on the Pharisees and he wasn't favoring the crowd. He was letting them all know all of you are the same. Sinners that desperately need my mercy and desperately need our truth. And if you're a believer and you don't stand on truth, you need to start. You need to start. The Bible says in the last days they have itching ears that won't endorse sound doctrine. You need to stand on truth. Just cuz you love something don't mean you can't call it sin. [Applause] But at the same time, Jesus didn't just care that you had the right morality. He wanted you to have the right methodology as well. And if we would just simply operate this way, we would change a world.

Everyone close your eyes. Bow your heads. And if you say in this room that you need the mercy of God, you need the truth of God, you want to turn, you want to repent, maybe you want to give your life to the Lord, I want you to lift your hands up. I want to pray for you. Also, can I ask my prayer team to come down? If you need prayer for anything I listed, I want you to come down, meet with our prayer team and get prayer. Prayer team, come down. Come on, come out your seat. You lift your hands. You want to pray and agree with someone, come down and get prayer. And I'm going to pray over everyone. Lord Jesus, I pray over everyone under the sound of my voice. I pray they understand. They need your mercy. They need your truth. They need your grace. Lord, I pray that we will be one as you, the Father and the Holy Spirit is one. I pray you would heal us. I pray you will unite us, Lord. I pray you will restore us, God. Do a work in us, oh Jesus. Search us, cleanse us, clean us. Let us know that we all desperately need you, Lord. And you are the bridge to all people. You bring us all together, Lord. You are the key that holds all things together, Lord. We can harmonize around you. We can be one in you, Lord. We can serve one another, care for one another in you. That is your mandate. And that was your prayer. So, it's our prayer. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. And everyone say, "Amen." If you need prayer, come down the band, hang out a little bit so you guys can get prayer. If not, you guys are dismissed. We have Youth at 5. Come back next week. We have another part of this. You don't want to miss it. is an awesome [Music]