Unity | Allan Guido

My name is Alan Guido. I'm the high school student pastor, my wife and I, we're new to the position here at Mustang Creek but not new to youth ministry. We've been doing it for eight years and have a lot of fun doing it. So it's been an honor and a privilege to minister to the students and see God work in their lives. I know that a lot of times we see what's going on in this world and can become really discouraged about the way the world is going. But I want to encourage you, and knowing that God is preserving a remnant, that God is still working in the young children in the teens and the children's lives and he's doing a work. He's raising up young people who love him and will serve Him and so, we should have been encouraged in that. So today, I have the privilege to share with you guys a sermon. I'm told it's only once a year. So, if it's not good, then you won't have to hear till next year. But, man, it's again, really, really an honor and privilege to be up here sharing with you guys.

So, let's pray this morning, Father God, we thank you so much for your word and for speaking to us. Lord, we ask that this word not just be heard, but it would be accepted, and a seed will be planted in our hearts, God that would sprout and bear fruits in our lives Scotland, and we could reflect who you've called us to be to the rest of the world. In Jesus mighty name, we pray, and we all say, Amen.

If you guys have been here for the past few weeks, you know that we've been on a journey talking about loving God with our all this is a scripture that comes from Luke chapter 10, in which Jesus is approached, and they asked him, what are the two greatest commandments, right? This guy's like, I've kept all the rules, what's the most important one, I want to put it down on my resume and then Jesus is like, hey, it's to love God with your heart, soul, strength and mind and this verse is followed by something else and it's kind of going to be the focal point of today's sermon.

That next part that Jesus responds to, in the greatest commandment, he says this, and a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself and it's this first part that really caught my attention that intrigued me that loving our neighbor is like loving God as ourselves. He didn't say it was second to or almost as important. He said, It's like loving God with your all. You're all loving your neighbor as yourself. So how is loving our neighbor like, loving God with our all? Anyone in here who likes online shopping?

Yeah, let's do altar call right now. I'm just kidding. No. I hate shopping. I detest it. My wife knows this. I cannot stand going to crowds and stores and lines and trying things, even if it's for me trying something on and then like, God isn't fair, go get something else. And, man, my wife, she's been so gracious with me, because she knows, like, if I'm going shopping with her, we got about 15 minutes, you know, this thing's gonna be okay. I went to Marshalls yesterday with my wife and I liked the little order the smaller stores because you know, we can get in and out kind of fast and this dude sitting on chairs that are not for sale, but he's sitting there like this, and I'm walking by and I'm like, dude, I get it, bro. Like, I want it to go up and dap him up and he probably think I was weird. I was like, dude, I get you I want to leave to, I don't like shopping.

So that's the reason why I can enjoy online shopping. Because I don't have to go anywhere and try things on and be in lines and be in the crowds. You just go click, pay and boom, they ship it to you, right? It shows up at your door. You know, you can be in sweats and slides. I mean, some people do that in ways, but you know, you can be in the comfort of your own house, and your online shopping. But there's also this other part of online shopping that's kind of exciting that you don't get from shopping in person and it's the shipping part when they box up what you bought or ordered, and they mail it to you and so, when you pay for your stuff, you get hey, it'll arrive on June 1, but then you'll subscribe to texts of text notifications, email notifications, drones, helicopters fly by airplanes, so that you know where it's at, who looked at it, who touched it and when it's going to be at my door so much. So that will go out of our door. When we hear a car door closing black is my package here or you get the notification on your ring doorbell and you're like, oh man, my package has arrived. I'm so excited. Because the second we buy it, we feel that we have a sense of ownership over it and so there's just excitement that comes with the brown little box but it's not really about the boxes. That box really has no value. It's what's inside of the box that has the value to it. The brown litter box is just the vessel in which these valuable things arrive.

Today we're going to be in John, the apostles first letter to a group of churches that he was overseeing, in his older age. We're going to read out of First John, chapter four verses 12 through 21. If you check. Okay.

All right, First John chapter four, verse 12, through 21. Here's what it says, no one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit, and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God, so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us, God is love and Whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in by this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us and these next few verses are the ones I really want to focus on.

For a few moments, if anyone says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For He does not love his brother, he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen and this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. My first point this morning is dis unity and it's a play on words. What I mean by this is that we want nothing to do with unity within the church. We want nothing to do with fellowship and connecting with other believers, it's pretty safe to say that oftentimes the church is viewed as being more divided and more dis unified than even the world.

People who do not have Christ at the center of their lives, look at the body of God as being more broken and dysfunctional than groups of unbelievers. Because as a famous preacher put it church folk is messy. You and I have probably experienced this at some point, church hurt and because we have disunity, we want nothing to do with fellowship with Christians and other believers and so there's a song that Vicki Weinstein's wrote called Long as I got King Jesus, this is your theme song. If you guys heard the song, she says, I've been lied on, cheated, talked about, mistreated, I've been used, scorned, talked about soars bone, I've been up, I've been down, almost to the ground. But long as I got King Jesus, I don't need nobody else. Some of us relate to that song and we're like, man, people have done me wrong and so I'm done with people. As long as I've got God, it's me and him were good and that's okay and so we fall into one of these three categories, maybe even two, or maybe even all of them of why we disunity.

The first one is that your expectations of what you thought the church would be, haven't been met, you expected to come to church and meet encouraging and loving people. But instead, you felt judged, ostracized, and even discouraged. Maybe you have encountered real deep hurt from a past Christian community, somebody who should have been protecting and loving on you betrayed you deeply or even abused you or you've given your all to the church over and over and over again and then when you had a need and it wasn't reciprocated to you, possibly you don't even feel good enough. to commune with other believers. You don't feel that you have anything of value to bring to the table, you don't feel that you would fit in or belong and maybe at some point, someone has said something to you to make you believe that and you've carried that with you into your relationship with other Christians. Some of us unfortunately, have found better friends outside of the church than we have within it. Sometimes they're funnier, easier to get along with and so when we go to college or go to work, we pursue those relationships more than we do with other believers and so you've resolved to just stay away, stay at a safe distance as long as I got King Jesus, because Christians can be difficult to love.

The second point today is try unity. Give it a try. The problem with this thinking is that it contradicts with what the word of God tells us and whenever what we're doing, even if it's justified by our experiences, if it's opposed to the Word of God, we should always err on the side of God's Word. Even if your pain is legit, even if somebody legit hurt you, and cause some kind of hurt to you, and I'm not belittling your experience, but as believers, our responsibility is to side first with what God says, and everything else falls to the wayside. First God's word, everything else is irrelevant. Because there's something more profound here in this verse that John is telling us and trying to get us to understand about unity amongst Christians.

Let's go real quick to John chapter 14, verse 69, John's gospel, right, we're reading out of John's letters to the churches. Now let's go back to John's Gospel and see what Jesus Himself said, Here's what he said, Jesus is speaking to the disciples and he said to them, ‘’I am the Way and the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also, from now on, you do know him, and have seen him.’’

Let's break down what John is really saying in verse 12 that section of scripture we just read, it says, no one has ever seen God, because God is not a material thing to be observed. It's almost as if John were kind of telling us that in loving other Christians, we get to see God and that we're encountering God, when we love on one another. This gives us a whole different perspective to the verse that says, for we two or three are gathered in my name. There I am, among them. Okay, so I have to love Christians, right?

Okay, I gotta look, I don't like them. But I gotta love them. All right. That's, you know, I can do that cool. But although God telling us to do it and commanding us to do it would suffice reason to do it. He gives us a little bit more. He doesn't just call us to love other Christians, he reveals for us, what's inside. Just like that little brown box, he helps us see something lovable and desirable, within. So is what John is saying here, is it compatible with the rest of Scripture does it does it add up with everything else and it sounds a little crazy. But this was actually first revealed by Jesus. Jesus said it first before John ever penned it down.

First thing Jesus tells us is that in seeing me, you see the Father, Jesus makes it clear that he is the means by which we access the unseen father, just Jesus, only Jesus, none other than Jesus and that's why the person of Jesus is so important, because it's through him, and by him that we have access and relationship with the unseen Father in heaven. You may be wondering, who is this God, that the Christians talk about and others may pray to an unseen God or, or the universe and they're like, well, if he's out there, he's out there, but there's no real way to know Him and I want you to know that that's not true. If you get to know Jesus, then you can get to know who the father is. That's what Jesus is telling us right here. But I thought we couldn't see God. Jesus is telling us if you see me, if you know me, you see him and you know him, but I thought we couldn't see him. He says, because I am in Him and he and I, when you see me, you see him.

Let's go to verse eight. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

Jesus just told him, he just told this man, if you see me, you see the father, because the disciples sometimes be acting some crazy question, questions to Jesus and he's like, you know, I'm gracious, I'm loving and then he kind of tells him that Jesus says to Philip, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me the words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his work, believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me or else believe on account of the works themselves. He is in me and I in him his language of unity. Jesus did not say God is next to me. Jesus did not say God is above me. Jesus did not say God is in close proximity to me. Jesus said He is in Me, and I am in Him. This is language of intimacy. It demonstrates intimacy and an inseparable union with God to see one is to see the other. Okay, well, this makes sense. Just write Jesus and God and separable together, I see one I see the other, I get that, because Jesus is part of the Godhead, the three, one the Trinity, right. So I can see how Jesus can be the little brown box that holds something beautiful within it and inside of it, and something marvelous.

And so, if we go to verse 15, through 16, he says, If you love me, you will keep My commandments and this is Jesus, still speaking and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever.

So, you met the Father, and you met the sun. But now you get to meet the third part of the crew, the Holy Spirit, I'm leaving, and he tells him, I'm not leaving you as orphans. But I'm out of here and we're like, oh, that doesn't really make sense. Jesus, you know, we might have to call CPS, you're leaving your kids by themselves. He's like, no, because I'm sending out helper, I'm sending someone who is me to be with you and so when one of us is the rest of us are there as well. So, he's sending the Holy Spirit to us. Jesus is going back to the Father. But he's sending help or much like him.

Verse 17, here's what he says about the Holy Spirit The world cannot receive, because it neither sees him, nor knows him. You know him for a duel with you, and will be in you the same language of I in Him and Him and me.

And if you know, you see, and if you see, you know, the same verbiage he's using here to talk about the Holy Spirit. The Father sent the Son, so that the Father's presence remembers the name Emmanuel, God with us, the Father sent the Son to us so that God would be with us and then the son returned to the Father. So, then the father and the son sent the Holy Spirit to be with us, to be connected with us. Okay, so I understand how all three of these can be connected. How all three could be part of this union, this ancestral bull union, this connection with one another. But how can we be connected to that? It seems sacrilegious. Jesus goes on to say but as I the Father and Holy Spirit are an inseparable union and complete and perfect harmony with God. So much so that when people see me, they see God. Same with the father.

Let's go to verse 23, to 23 and that same verse, Judas, not Iscariot, they had to throw that in there said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world and Jesus answered him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him, get this, we will come to him, and make our home with him.

And so, it's like the Trinity is holding hands. It's God, the Father and the Spirit, and on this side is the son and they're an inseparable union and bondage together, you guys have ever played Red Rover and the object of the game is not to break hands is to stay connected while the Trinity ain't breaking hands anytime soon, they're staying connected for eternity, there's nothing that's going to come through and break apart what's there and put in place but for us, they open up and allow us to step into this union, to this connection to this unity with the Trinity, although we're not God, and experience the same union with them. As a Christian, you get to hold that divine relationship, and you become like the first son, Jesus, the visible representation of God's love on this earth. My third point, community.

So, this is all an argument that John is making, that the scriptures make that Jesus makes, about why we should love one another. Because God is in these boxes that you may not yet know and part of the blessing of Christian Fellowship is that despite our brokenness, our dents and our scratches and our rips, we get to go around with each other, opening up the box and seeing God's presence within each other. Then we realize that this is the place, and these are people where we can encounter God, speak to God, see God, and love God. Our faith is the Becoming God's presence on Earth, the means of the manifestation. You are the little brown box that the world is looking for waiting for, at their doorstep, you and I get to be that because the world is a broken place, Jesus left up here, not to sit back and wait for him to return. Because I know, we know some people may be more just waiting for the rapture to happen, right? They built up a bomb shelter, and they're just down there with some 15-year-old food that doesn't expire, waiting for Jesus to come back to now saying the Lord's comments on time. They're not doing anything of which God has called them to do.

So, God hasn't just saved you to go sit down somewhere and hide, he saved you and empowered you to go back out into the world as a little brown box, carry the presence of living God within you so that they will know who He is.

You know, this world, man, this world is messed up and I have to tell you that and it's not just about watching the news. You know people, you've lived it yourself. We live in a broken world, have always held on to the same and no matter what you believe, we can all agree on this, that something is definitely wrong with us. Something is wrong with us and so God has called us to get up and go out and be a representation for people and I know church that it seems like they don't want anything to do with him and I know it seems like as soon as we come and tell them, we're Christians and invite them to church, they're gonna go sit somewhere else for lunch, or they won't want to be our friends anymore and I know that it feels like you've invited 1000 people and none of them have ever showed up. But I want to remind you today don't stop doing it. Because they need Jesus, they're ready for Jesus, they're hungry for Jesus, they may not know that it's Jesus that they need, but they won't know if you won't ever tell them. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of being on a podcast with 15 viewers.

So, I mean, it wasn't like a, you know, it was just my old students. Some of my old youth group started a podcast and it was fun to go and talk to them and just, you know, laugh about some memories. That's really the whole podcast is this just laughing and stuff and two of the students shared about how before they came to church and gave their lives to Christ, they were hungry for community. They said that they would see their friends posts about church and youth group on their social media and they always longed to be a part of that, but they had not been because no one had invited them.

Who around you, who in close proximity to you is longing for community with the church is longing to be in relationship with Jesus, but they haven't been because we haven't told them and if Jesus is who he says he is, and we truly believe that? When friends and family share with us brokenness and hurt and pain, and hopelessness and depression, and something should rise up within us and say, I know somebody I know somebody who can do something about that. I know somebody who can bring healing. I know somebody who can bring restoration. I know somebody who can bring hope. I know somebody who can deliver, and his name is Jesus. His name is Jesus.

Let's go back to the original text. First John, verse 12. ‘’No one has ever seen God.’’ If we love one another, God abides in us and this phrase here and his love is perfected in us. That word Perfect, it can also mean completed or accomplished in us.

If you keep reading, there's this verse that tells us that we can't love Jesus and hate our brother. You cannot be joined in perfect inseparable union with a fully loving God and be a spiteful, hateful person. That is disunity. Christians loving each other Christians loving other Christians is a demonstration of the fact that we live in union with God and verse in that verse we just read his love is perfected in us so that means that God's love has a goal what is God's goal and loving us? And I know listen, I know that, you know some of us become enamored with the amazing things that the Holy Spirit does the signs, and the wonders and the prophecy and all that the biblical and all that's great, but let me tell you something that goes beyond those scenes, it's the love of God, and if you do those things outside of the love of God, they're useless. They're powerless, they mean nothing.

There's this old show I used to watch growing up because we didn't have cable when it was called Captain Planet. Anyone ever seen Captain Planet? It's this weird green dude who goes around and he's saving the world and he picks kids from all the nations, and no one's talked about how this grown man abducted these kids. Like, we should have talked about this, but he did. He took these kids and gave them powers, he gave them these rings and these rings have powers and it was kind of cool. One of them could control water, and one of them can control fire and one of them can control earth and the other one could control the wind and there was this last poor little kid whose power was love.

Alright, man, that sucks. They should have just wrote that guy out of the story. Like, you know, the bad guys are running at you and he's like, wow, you know, like, they're like, say, man, just go sit on the bench somewhere. Pray for us over there. We don't need you. But in reality, in the Gospel, Christians slowly start overtaking the world. Not by might, not by strength, not by weaponry, not by force but by the way, Jesus told them to do it through a laugh. Because there's a stark difference. From the way the world does things and the way we should do things and when the world goes to the world and sees brokenness, hurt, pain, brokenness, hurt, pain, brokenness, hurt pain, when they're looking for something different. They'll go over to the people that bring hope, peace, love, hope, peace, love. That's who they're turning to, and we got it. We have it. So, what's the goal of God's love? What is it?

Let's go to John 17. John likes to quote himself a lot. All right. John's epistle John's letters go back to John's gospel, John chapter 17. This is a beautiful verse. I remember, at a younger age when I was reading through scripture, and I stumbled upon this, this verse and it blew me away because in the high priestly prayer, which is what this verse is entitled, Jesus prays for me and you, Jesus prays for us. Let's read what he says and John 17, he's praying for us and verse nine, here's what he says, I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are yours. He is praying for us. Why wouldn't he be praying for the world? Well, because if the us get it right, then then we'll see it, then we'll understand, the power of God's love abiding in us.

Verse 18, he says, He's talking to the father as you sent me into the world. So, I have sent them into the world. We are continuing God's work here on Earth.

And then verse 20, through 22, what's the goal?Before Jesus is about to be crucified, before he's about to be tortured, and falsely and wrongly accused. Murdered. He's praying for us, and this is what he prays, I do not ask for these only the 12 disciples, not just them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, Pam, Jesus, pray for you, that they may all be one. One, how, just as You, Father are in Me, and I knew that they may also be in us, and so that the world may believe that You have sent me the Trinity opens up and allows us to step in and join in this inseparable union with them to be the presence of God here on Earth.

Christians have a different understanding of what a true human being is, especially a Christian and it causes us to view other believers with beauty, significance, and honor and it causes us to long for that box. The love that we're to have for fellow Christians is proactive and it seeks out other Christians and it pursues them, and it sacrifices themselves to maintain the relationship and anything else, short of that is not the love of God. Proactive, proactive love, not a benign acceptance. Because when we understand who other believers are, and who exists inside of them, it's not about oh, I have to love them, oh, I have to, you know, say hi to them and so we get used to coming to church and just hey, how's it going? How's the weather do so see you later, don't want to have relationship with you. But God says there's something more profound to it, there's something deeper to it and you know, when I started joining, coming to my Sand Creek new church, when the first things that I participated in was the Men's Ministry, the true north series, and I walked into this program, and I see a lot of guys who look different than me. I’m just honest, it's easier to relate to and talk to people who look like and think like and talk like an act like us. different ages, different experiences, different phases of life. But nonetheless, we began the journey together, when we began talking to one another, and we began hearing each other out and it was in an opening the box and seeing God living within them and knowing the experience of who they were, and what they've been through and what God has done in them.

That relationships form with Dwayne, with Roderick, with Vaughn, with Troy, with Lupe, with John, these relationships begin to mold and fall and take place and so what God says is that all those other little disagreements, all those other little petty things that you've allowed to get in the way of your relationship with other believers, he says, guess what, it doesn't really matter to me, because the one thing you have in common with them is relationship with Jesus and that should far outweigh everything else. Everything else and if this world is so bad, and if this world is so horrible, and if this world is so against Christians, shouldn't we be getting closer to one another?

Shouldn't we be encouraging each other? Shouldn't we know what each other's burdens are? You know, the Scripture tells us to help carry each other's burdens but how can I do that if I don't even know what your burdens are? I'm in no relationship with you to really know what's going on in your life and so the power of prayer in a righteous man falls void, and no, because I don't know how to pray for my brother. I don't know how to intercede for them, and we need each other. We need each other.

Jesus himself showed up and could have done it all on his lonesome. But even he elected 12 disciples to walk with Him and it wasn't that he couldn't do it without them. It wasn't that Jesus was like, hey, God, I need a little backup. Send me 12 Somebody 12 homies to come with me. You know, I can't do this on my own. God, Jesus was demonstrating things for us that we would need again, not because he needed it, but because we would need it and if we would pay attention to his life and model after what he was doing, we'd be in a better place. We'd be in a much better place.

CS Lewis said this. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself. Your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your Census.

Think about that. Your neighbor the bonds you form with specifically other believers, other Christians. CS Lewis says the holiest object presented to your senses. There's this story I was reading about missionaries, and they're from the Philippines. But they were going out into the Arab world because they couldn't, they had no work. They had no jobs in the Philippines.

So, they had to leave their homes and go out here to make money and to earn income. The problem was that the countries that were going to it was illegal to share the gospel, to worship out loud, or to gather with other believers. It was illegal to do it and so a lot of them would hum these hymns to themselves. Because there's something about when you know, Jesus, something wells up inside of you, you just got to say, you just got to worship sometimes, right?

Well, they can do it out loud. There’re so many things foreign to us here in America that we don't understand, and I know we say things like, oh, this world's coming to an end. Look at the selection. Look, oh, my God, look at that law, they just pass the world is coming to an end. Far worse things are happening in other countries and have been for a long time. It's not just about this nation. It's a global thing.

So, this, this man goes out there and he's, he's encouraging these missionaries in the Philippines, and he goes to church with them, and they go to church and where they're at, they're away from their families, because they have to go work and he walks in and they're singing out worship and this is what he says, as the decibels rose. I squirmed and muttered, under my breath, this is a little loud, don't you think? Let's keep it down. Do they not all remember where we're at? Don't you know who's in charge? Then I realized they didn't know. That's why they were there, so radiant, and so uninhibited. They were singing to the same power and authority that Christians have honored 100,000 times and 100,000 hard places.

Like Daniel, they were living and loving in the kingdom of everlasting dominion, that will never be destroyed. It was this cosmic reality that empowered them to be salt, and light. So they couldn't wait to run a church with other believers, where they themselves couldn't sing out loud and talk about Jesus and praise his name, they were that much more excited to get around other brothers and other sisters and together lift up a voice to praise and honor and glorify God and so church what I'm telling you is that we have to be excited about getting together with brothers and sisters and worshiping our one true living God and living out the command that God has called us to do and be and be carriers of the presence of our God to this world and it happens in unity with one another with other Christians, because was censored. So, fellowship is not just about hanging out. It's not really even about if we have things in common.

It's not really even about if I like them or not. So, what resides within them is marvelous, beautiful, profound, holy, incredible God and so, I'd like to pray today and also offer up this challenge first. If you feel that you've been hurt by the church, that's legit. I'm not discounting that that can happen. It definitely does. But God didn't say fellowship with other believers until they hurt you and here's the other side of things, too, is guess what? They hurt us.

We hurt people too and so one of the beautiful things that we encounter in fellowship with other believers is grace. so that when I mess up, I receive it and when others mess up, I can give it back. But if there's been a pain that's been holding you away, and the devil is using it, to keep you stuck, the devil was using it. To keep you isolated, the devil is using it to attack you, the devil is using it to keep you right where you are, the devil is using it, to keep you from acting out what he's called you to do and to be the devil is excited that you're not fellowshipping with brothers and sisters, because he knows the purpose of it. He knows the power of it. He knows the priority of it. He knows the influence of it. He knows the holiness of it. He knows the uniqueness that we as Christians have with it and so he wants to keep you there by yourself.

Here's the cool thing as Christians, you no longer have to say yes to Him. You can say no and say yes to God. Second is a call to action. How do you start? Jesus doesn't say introverts, I want you to skip this part. Now as believers and believers fellowship, and if maybe it's a struggle for you, he still heals and he's still emboldens, and he's still in powers. Today, as we leave, I want to encourage you to walk out these doors, meet somebody you haven't met before, and start to unpack God that resides with them. Last but not least, if you're here, and you're like, I don't have that living within me. I don't know that God, I don't know his presence like that.

Will he want to abide in this little brown box? Because it's broken? Let me tell you, yes. He doesn't care about what your little brown box looks like, as he'll walk right up in and change that thing around. As long as you're willing to let him in. Let's pray. Father, God, Lord, I pray that you would forgive us, of isolation of strife of bitterness that we have held on to that as brought this unity to the body, Father God that we've interrupted your manifest presence amongst Christians, God, because we've held on to our rights, we've held on to our experiences, we've held on to our justifications.

And so today we surrender it down at your feet, knowing that you can take it God and redeem it and turn it into something beautiful. You can bring healing into pain, and hoping to hopelessness God, you can bring union where there was this union God, you can bring power and strength where there was loneliness, Jesus, you can bring joy where there was depression, God, you bring healing Father, through the fellowship of the saints and so God, we turn away from disunity. We walk away from being isolated, and we step into relationship with God, so that the world we're looking at us and see you father and see the side and seeing the Holy Spirit, Jesus healed the wounds that are very real God, and I've been there for a long time, but my God still kills and that can't be an excuse for us. Always. There's more that you promise for us, God beyond.

Lord, if there's anyone in this room all eyes closed, and Hezbollah just had a first suspect, if anyone's in the chatroom, and they would like to be the brown package that carries the manifest presence of God, you've been heard, you've been broken, you don't feel worthy. Jesus died for you so that you wouldn't be worthy. Jesus gave his life for you so that your little brown box would have meant and purpose and hope and joy and fulfillment in him. There's anyone here tonight who would like to become a pair carrier of God's presence. I just want to encourage you lift your hands I just want to pray over you real quick.

I just want to pray for you real quick. Is there anyone in here today who who's ready to be that carrier Praise God. Praise God. Lord, I pray God today Jesus that you would fill them up with your presence as the sun is in you and you in the sun the Spirit and you, let them be in you as well God they're joining in the family of God's Kingdom they're becoming a part god of the parcel of your presence Jesus carriers of your manifest presence here on earth. God, I thank you for the healing. I thank you for hope. I thank you for restoration in their lives in Jesus mighty name, and your mighty name we pray Father God, in Jesus name we pray, Amen. Hallelujah Amen.