Celebration CA '24 - Session 4

Scripture References:

• 2 Chronicles 20:12
• Psalm 23:4
• Matthew 14:30-31
• Philippians 4:6-7
• Isaiah 41:10

Intro

In this powerful sermon, we dive into how to respond when life feels overwhelming. Through biblical truths and personal reflection, this message encourages us to shift our focus from our circumstances to God’s promises. Learn how to cultivate trust, release fear, and embrace God’s peace in the midst of uncertainty.

Key Points

1. Admitting Our Need for God
   • Just as King Jehoshaphat acknowledged his helplessness (2 Chronicles 20:12), we are reminded that recognizing our dependence on God is the first step toward victory.
   • Admitting that we don’t have all the answers opens the door for God’s guidance and intervention.
2. Shifting Our Focus from Fear to Faith
   • Peter’s experience walking on water (Matthew 14:30-31) teaches us that when we fix our eyes on Jesus, fear loses its grip.
   • Fear paralyzes, but faith empowers us to move forward even when the future feels uncertain.
3. God’s Peace Surpasses Understanding
   • Philippians 4:6-7 reminds us that through prayer and thanksgiving, God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds.
   • Cultivating a habit of prayer realigns our perspective and fills us with unshakable peace.
4. Strength in God’s Promises
   • Isaiah 41:10 is a reminder that God is with us, strengthening and upholding us.
   • Meditating on God’s promises equips us to face challenges with confidence.

Conclusion

When life feels out of control, God calls us to turn our eyes toward Him. Admitting our need, shifting our focus, and standing firm on His promises allows us to experience His peace and strength. As we surrender control, we discover that God is faithful to lead us through every storm.

Call to Action

Take time this week to identify areas where fear has taken root. Bring these concerns before God in prayer and meditate on His promises. Trust that He is with you and will guide you through every situation.

Transcript

 Hey, we get to hear from Danny and Colleen Cantelmi about what's happening in Visalia, at Radiant Visalia. These two have been such a gift to Tiffany and I, and to our church family in Visalia. They carry considerable weight. They carry considerable weight, and there's a lot that's on their shoulders, and we're so thankful for the way they do what they do. They're a huge gift to us, so they're going to report on the happenings of Visalia. Colleen and I are really excited to give an update and celebrate some big wins, and also just highlight three things that we can be praying for. We actually, Tim, we have seven on our list, so take that. We have seven. No, I'm just joking. We have three. We don't break many rules, so.

 As we were just kind of preparing a list of things to celebrate, I began to kind of bowl it out and come up with, you know, stats and data, and God just kind of stopped me abruptly, and I just felt two things really drop in my heart, and I'm going to actually connect some celebration points, too, but the first one is, it feels like one of the things that we want to celebrate for Visalia is, is that there is this growing hunger for multi-generational discipleship, that God's doing something really special in our church. He's building a multi-generational church where not just the young, but the middle and the old, all three are represented in that multi-generational hunger for what God's doing, and one of the ways that that was represented this year that was just such a beautiful thing was what we had.

 We had Kingdom Come monthly prayer meetings, and one of the visions that we carried was to take it out into our city, not keep it in our church, so we picked different high school campuses this last year, and we went out, and we led worship and prayer on a high school campus, and every single campus we went to, we brought a list of teachers, and we prayed for four teachers by name all the way down, and faculty members, and administrators, and the whole support team on that campus, and we prayed that God would come and interrupt the things on that campus and bring His kingdom, and then the next month we went to another campus, and we just kind of created this rhythm of taking our prayer out into the city on a high school campus, And it was just a beautiful thing, and we had over a hundred or so people each prayer meeting show up, including our youth and our junior high, and we worshiped and prayed together.

 And I believe that that was something we're celebrating. Another thing was, you know, last month at Feaster, which is the Sunday after Easter, we celebrate with baptisms, and we had 13 people baptized on that Sunday morning, and we celebrated as a church community, and again, there was this multi-generational representation of people that were being baptized, and as I was thinking about just the beautiful thing that God's doing, I was even reminded of that. And I just wanted to share a quick testimony of what God does among us as we are believing and trusting him that he would add people to the kingdom. At the end of our service as we were leaving, there was a student that came down to the front, and he was a staff member here at Hume Lake, and he just happened to hear our worship, and he came up to the balcony and stayed through the whole service.

 And at the end of the service, he was like, I'm going to pray for you. And at the end, he came down, and he said, 'I just recently made a decision to follow Jesus, and during the sermon, he mentioned that that decision is like a wedding, but I'm ready for a ring. I want a ring. I want to be baptized. How do I do that? And I thought, well, there's a lake, right? We've got a plan. And I said, 'hey, this is a community thing that you celebrate. It's not just something for you. Could you grab a couple buddies and bring them down to the lake?' And then we gathered. We gathered probably 20 or 30 people, and we witnessed a baptism today, and we celebrated with him. Yeah.

 And I think that that captures this idea of a hungry generation that's saying, 'I want more.' And that's something that we're really celebrating. And I would say that the second thing that God kind of dropped in my heart was this idea that we have this growing desire for family. We have this growing desire for families to be on mission together, that we honestly want to do something bigger than our own lives. And that looked like a lot of different ways. Like we had a club, 456, which is grade four, five, and six, father-son camp out recently that was well-attended where dads engaged their sons intentionally for a weekend. We had all kinds of things happen this year. But the beauty of that is, is that families are taking their place and saying, God, use me, use me.

 And I just want to celebrate those things. Those are a huge win by Celia. We're taking ground in families. We're taking ground in stewarding the gifts that God has given to us in a multi-generational representation. A couple things that we want to just pray about and be intentional about tonight, there's three, not seven, is the first thing that I think is this, that I think God's transitioning us and really broadening our perspective on the need for team. Every day. Every single ministry that we have at Radiant by Celia is ran by a team or we need a team to run it. And those leaders need to be equipped and raised up. And we're desiring over this next year to begin to raise up teams and equip teams, and release them in ministry.

 So, that's the first thing. The second thing is this: number two is to serve and impact our community. One of the things that I think, man, I love Jared and Rachel about just your vision for Tulare-it's this idea of serving before service. Don't ever forget that. I think that's a real true deposit from God. And I think that we have a community around us that are actually ready for the gospel and ready to be served. And we want to know just some ways that we can do that. And thirdly, is we want to develop more ministry space in our campus. Right now, we are pretty much hemmed in on our capacity to do different things on our campus. And we're believing.

 We're believing that this next season will be a season of expansion, that we're going to have more usable space so that we can serve our families, not just in our church, but actually serve our community as well through our campus. So those are three things that we would love for you to pray with us tonight. Hey, if you're a part of Radiant Visalia, would you stand? Oh, no. What are we going to do? Wow. That's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, come Holy Spirit. Hey, let's open our hands. And if you're next to or near someone, would you just begin to pray for them and over them? Would you actually agree with what Danny put before us? Let's lend your voice to this choir of prayer. Let's pray for these three things.

 And then Nick's going to close. He's going to close us. Radiant Church, your multiplying story is just beginning. Your multiplying story is just beginning. There's an acceleration coming of church plants and campuses and multi-sites. It's just beginning. It's just beginning. It's time to wake up. It's time to wake up. It's time to open your wallets. It's time to open your calendar. Your multiplication, your multiplying story is just beginning. The favor of the Lord's upon this house. So Holy Spirit, come for each of the people gathered here, for the families that aren't even Lord. We just pray for your blessing upon them. Lord, that you would pour out your favor, that they'd be prosperous in all that they do as they follow you. God, we pray, Lord, just with such heart, so full of gratitude for this church's generosity.

 The way that they've released leaders to speak life over other cities. The way that they've sown faithfully, financially, and given to little churches in Carlsbad, and Tulare, and San Francisco, and Exeter. We're so grateful for the ways that they've shown up and served in season and out of season. The ways that they've given. So, Lord, would you pour out blessing upon this community? And just as we pray. I've been praying. I just, this real sense of, there's this move towards multiplication for you guys, an accelerated rate. And it's going to cause people on the margins looking in to become core. And almost this sense that there's maybe a few people even here this weekend that you're on the margins looking in, wondering. And I just, the invitation of the Lord has become core.

 Just imagine what he's going to do with your yes. A little risk. A little risk goes a long ways in the kingdom of God. So Lord, we pray for these guys that they be fruitful and multiply. Lord, we pray for space. God, I pray that there'd be buildings given to them in the city. In the region. God, we pray for neighboring communities just to come to them and say, we have buildings. Can we have some people? Can we have some ministry? Can we have church? God, we pray for the next generation. Lord, we thank you for the passion amongst the youth at Radiant. Lord, would it spread through our entire region? God, we thank you that the future of the church is bright in the Central Valley.

 Lord, I pray for all your spirit gifts, spiritual gifts to be present in this community. And I pray for a greater, greater access to the prophetic. Lord, would you pour out the prophetic gift in this community? And the gift of healing. There's going to be a stigma around you because you move in the signs and wonders of the Lord. People are going to look in and go, oh, I don't know. But God's going to be with you. God's going to be with you. So Lord, we pray for your kingdom to come. God, thank you for these people. Bless them. Fill them with your spirit. Encourage them. In Jesus' name. Amen.

 Jerron come on let's go Jerron oh man I'm not sure we got you oh yeah here we go yeah I'll hand this one to you cool hey Jerron leads a church that we love in Joplin Missouri many of you know Tim and Mary Chambers they've come out a number of times over the years he's like an old Jared Turner I mean it's real it's surreal and Tim has just transitioned leadership to Jerron and we're all really excited to see what happens next in in that church so I asked John to please or Jerron please speak to us but also he'll be speaking with the youth of the church and he'll be speaking with the youth of the church tonight eight o'clock we'll gather again here at Cedar Chapel is that what we're calling it yeah yeah so it's eight o 'clock it's tough everyone's gonna be out here smoring and you're gonna think oh there's probably not anything going on there is at eight o'clock it's going on I went last night and had a wonderful time in in worship it was led so well by Grace and Addie and Bethany and anyway you can't go it's for the youth but I was there just making sure things were you know went well so

 how we doing good um i'm gonna get to preaching here in a few minutes um really quickly um so the church in antioch uh in acts 11 and acts 13 um i've been like obsessed with them the past four or five years um obsessed it's been sick um why are y'all laughing oh um Oh, that's fun, okay, um, so I mean one of the first things about Antioch is like it says Barnabas like went from Jerusalem to Antioch and saw it in person and I was like 'oh, this is the freaking real sorry I said that, this is the real deal dude.' Um, um, I just want you to know like it's not normal for people to take Memorial Day weekend off for U. S. citizens to take Memorial Day weekend away to go to church camp where you're completely unplugged and you're worshiping at the top of your lungs at 4: 30 p.m. That's like, not normal,

 I mean this in the most genuine sense, like that is the real deal, grace of God, like in the most genuine sense. Um, Travis and Tiffany, good night, dude, I don't know, well done, well done, I don't know, um, radiant. While we were praying, uh, Antioch came up, came to mind while we were praying, and the idea is so when you read Antioch Acts it seems as if Antioch is like the ideal that Jesus wanted. Um, Jerusalem was slow to get there; Antioch looks like this is what Jesus actually wants. Um, radiant by extension of radiant, all of you, I mean got this super strong sense, like God wants that more than you want that for you. Um, you want that for you because God wants that and God gave you that want.

 Um, so whatever you have up here, it's it's small; this is grayscale compared to what He wants to do he wants to do something in Antioch. The coolest thing about Antioch is like the Gospel got to us through Antioch, like like Antioch's the gateway to the world if you will. Um, there are four churches here because the Gospel came from radiant to four of you that's going to double and triple and quadruple uh in a few years, a few decades, whatever you want to call it. People are going to like look at California and they're going to be like 'what in the world happened in Cali'? It'll be the Grace of God, so well. I need to get to preaching um uh, a few house rules, ground rules, I don't know what to call it um uh, you can tell um, there's like Five of us in the room, so it's not hard to miss um

 uh. I grew up, I grew up in churches where everybody looked like my grandparents planted a church and it was just a bunch of us, um. So, like when we preach, you gotta like say something back, you see? I'm saying like, listen! Listen! I'm gonna act like we're family, listen! Listen! Um, white brothers and sisters, there is nothing like do this for me as an act of love. I'm gonna preach as an act of love, and I need you to talk back as an act of love, like there's nothing that freaks me out more than a 42-year-old white man while I'm like preaching hard, just kind of like... And then, like, after and then like After they're like, 'That's great' and it's like, 'Are you gaslighting me?

 Like, I don't know what you're doing here so um yeah uh, talk back to me. Uh Psalm 133, let's go to Psalm 133. Uh Psalm 133. Um, guy running the slides. Um, this plane ended or this sermon ended up going in a different direction while I was on the plane, so don't try to follow me on the slides. Um, you can just like ignore them, give us the scripture and we'll be good. Um, stand with me uh, to read this uh, so you know this um, we do this back at home, I have our church stand um set up as a bodily reminder um that in this moment we're hearing the words of God um, I hope that's true when I'm preaching. But for sure, it's happening right now in this moment.

 Um Psalm 133; this is a psalm of ascent. This is essentially the song that Jewish people sang while they were on the plane and they were on the plane and they were on the on the way to the Temple so imagine Sunday morning, who knows what you listen to on the way to church? They're singing on the way to church, and here's what they're singing: this is one that David wrote. He says, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.' Shout that word, unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon Aaron's beard, coming down upon The edge of his robes it is like the dew of Herman coming down upon the mountains of Zion.

 It is like the dew of Zion coming down upon the mountains of Zion. It is like the dew, for there the Lord commanded the blessing. Life, shout! Life, one more time, shout! Life, forevermore, Father. Thank you for your word, Jesus. We want to know You more; we want to have deeper faith in You together. We want to look like You more, so unite us to Yourself, that end. Think! Give me thoughts! Give me words! Take the words that leave my tongue pierce hearts, persuade people, build Your church, Jesus. Amen! On Your way down, tap someone next to You and tell them 'Hold on For dear life,

 one more time, tap somebody, tell them, hold on for dear life, hold on for dear life, so, so the first time I preached this sermon, uh, first time I preached this sermon, uh, I, or a version of this, I titled it, Let's Stay Together. Inspired by my, I'm, I'm so in love with you. But we're going to change, we're going to change. This changed on the plane yesterday. It changed to hold on for dear life. One more time, tap someone, tell them, hold on. Here's a rhetorical question I want to throw at you as we get going. Where do I go to get what God has for me? Where do I go to get what God has for me? I am the Bible college I teach at, I was a student there, graduated in 2018.

 After my first year in 2014, I was on my way to an internship in Albania. And I had to raise my own support, obviously, to get over there to live, get food, have transportation, have a translator. So I spent probably three months, four months, absolutely hustling. And hustling and hustling and working and working and working and sending emails and calling people and mowing lawns and working and working. And after about three months, I had about $12. So I thought, well, that didn't work. That's why I started preaching. I'm joking. So it got pretty close to the deadline. And I remember one night telling myself, well, I literally have $0, very literally $0. And I've got to go in a week. I guess this whole thing's not happening.

 So it's a Friday night. And I remember planning on Monday to email the organization contact mission and tell them, hey, I can't come. I failed to raise the money. I woke up Saturday morning and one of my assistant basketball coaches had emailed me on Facebook, had messaged me on Facebook. And he said, Jerron, I've got a blank check with your name written on it. All you gotta do is come to my house and get it. Ooh, he already had what I needed. He said, you just got to come and get it. Listen to me. There is so much that God wants to give you. And in this passage, David points us to the place where we get it. Shout this word, unity! One more time. Shout unity!

 David says, God is providing every good thing. And the place that you come to get it is unity. I want to be very clear though, on what we mean when we say unity. This word in verse one, David says, behold, behold, look at how pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. He's, he's using a term that's brothers and sisters translated in modern day. He's literally pointing at the people of God. And he's saying, look at how good that is as they're living in unity. Here's what David was not pointing at. David was not pointing at a bunch of people who were the same personality type. David was not pointing at a bunch of people who had the same mental bents. Unity, unity, it's this idea of oneness. It's this idea of harmony.

 It's this idea of confluence, of two rivers coming together and flowing together. There it is. Unity is not sameness. Unity is togetherness. Let's play a game. Let's play a game. Okay. Do any of y'all like know the verse to We Will Rock You? Raise your hand because I need you for this. Raise your hand if you do. Not the chorus, the actual, we're in the place, kind of lying on your pace, you big disgrace. Do any of y'all know? Oh, let's not do that one. Let's just do the chorus. Okay. Here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to do. This half of the room, I need you to give me the, just, just, not the clap. Not the clap. Give me the clap. In the back, give us the words.

 We will, we will rock you. We will, we will rock you. Okay, pause, pause, pause. I want you to notice you are perfectly harmonized doing three different things. Unity is not sameness. Unity is not being the same instrument. Unity is not having the same sound. Unity is playing the same song. It's being together in one sheet music. Here's your sheet music: One Jesus, one Father, one Spirit, one mission, one baptism, one faith. Unity is not sameness. It's togetherness. I didn't know if that was going to work. That came on the plane too. We've got to be clear about this. We've got to be clear about this. Listen to me. Listen to me. We've got to be clear that unity is not sameness.

 It's togetherness because our society is slowly, quickly drifting to this thought process that says conformity is the price tag to community. The only way you can be a part of this community is if you conform, not about the important things, but about everything. One of my good friends, he was on this board, D-E-N-I board for the city of Joplin. The first meeting. Listen, D-E-N-I. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. They say we do diversity. The first meeting. He came back and he said, this woman, five minutes into this meeting, asked at what point do we kick somebody out of the diversity group? And she was dead daggone serious. You've seen this play out. Most of every social movement in society says you've got to go if you don't conform. That is not the community of Jesus Christ. Jesus started this thing of unity in the midst of diversity. Have you seen the 12? 12 disciples. You've got a guy named Simon who's a zealot. Think make Israel great again. We'll kill somebody over this thing. Very literally, like they were ready to storm the Capitol in Rome on January 6th. I didn't mean to say that. And then you've got Matthew attacking Jesus. You've got Matthew attacking Jesus. You've got Matthew attacking Jesus.

 You've got Matthew attacking Jesus. You've got Matthew attacking Jesus. You've got Matthew attacking Jesus. You've got Matthew attacking Jesus. You've got Matthew attacking Jesus .ア Komment

 already said this. women, poor, and different races can be a part of this thing. We've always, always, always been about unity, not sameness, but togetherness under Jesus. Unity's not sameness, it's togetherness. I want to keep pushing though, because this is a good message. This is a good thing for us to hear. David says, look at how good it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity. Look at how good it is. Shout the word good. Look at how good it is. One more time, shout good. Now, now, now this will make you happy because good, it means three different things in Hebrew. Good, it, on one end, it means it's, it's, it's morally good. To, to, to say it's good when brothers and sisters dwell in unity means that it's morally, it's ethically good.

 I grew up going to a daycare that was run by my aunt and they'd had to have us do the thing. Like they'd have us sit down and pray together and we will learn. God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. By our heads we shall be fed. Thank you, God, for daily bread. Amen. After a while, I was like, why do we have to do this? And they were just like, it's the good thing to do. It's good. I want to push it further and say it's not just good. It's godly. God has forever, eternally existed in unity. Father, Son, and Spirit, not one another, but perfectly one. More one than you know. Augustine says, God is inseparable, therefore God does everything inseparably.

 God in the beginning said, 'Let us make man from the beginning.' God has always been living in unity. Listen to me, 19 twenties and thirties. You're living in a society that man in the 90s predicted that we would live this lifestyle called the expressive self. It says the highest virtue, the highest value, the best thing that you could do is figure out what you're feeling most deeply at any given moment, what you're thinking most deeply at any given moment, and express that out individually. And if anybody tampers with that process, you've got to start over because you're headed for hell. That's a lie. In the middle of the expressive individual being the highest virtue, God says, 'My value, the godliness is togetherness.' It's unity. Unity is not only.

 Unity is not only. To be morally good, it's also practically useful. To be good means it's practically useful. There's this phrase I love: 'Many hands make the work light.' You ever tried to like carry a piano by yourself? No, you probably haven't. I remember when I was younger, I'm 30, so I grew up right on the cusp of like things taking off. So I got like a cell phone when I was like in high school or something. And so I had one of these big black box TVs. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Like major big black box TV. I remember being a sixth grader thinking, I want to move the tube from here to this side of the room.

 So I pulled that thing off and I was like five foot 100 and negative pounds. And so I remember unplugging it and pulling it and realizing this is way too heavy for me to carry and literally ended up falling over and getting crushed by the thing until my grandmother and cousin came and we all moved it to the other side of the room. I wonder, I wonder if some of you are feeling, feeling crushed in the Christian life because you think Jesus asked you to do it alone. Some of you have hit a wall. And here's, I just want to try to diagnose what could be the problem. You're reading the New Testament when it says you, you're reading it as 'you'.

 That's plural, which means every time, 95% of the time you see the word 'you' in the New Testament, it's the word 'y'all'. Some of you heard Brian sermon this morning and asked, what do I got to do? Wrong question. The right question is Jesus. What are you calling us to do? Jesus didn't give the Great Commission to one. He was talking to at least 12, maybe 120 different people. It's impossible. Listen to me. I'm not speaking rhetorically. I'm not, I'm not speaking dramatically. It's impossible to fully obey the call of Christ on your own. Try loving your neighbor as yourself alone. Try it. It's impossible. Everything Jesus told you to do was together. So, so, so it's, it's, it's, it's good morally. It's practically useful. Here's the last one.

 It's aesthetically beautiful. That word 'good' means aesthetically beautiful, aesthetically pleasing. Some of y'all have heard this phrase, I'm eating with my eyes. It's when you see something and just because you see it and how good it looks, you think I want that. This is what Jesus is getting at when he says they'll, they'll know you for your, by your love for one another. They'll see that and they'll want to come in. There's this old apologist in the early church. He was talking about Christians in the Roman empire. And one of the things he said that people were saying about them is look at how they love each other. And that's when we were growing rapidly. Some of you have friends and family, family members who don't know Jesus, what they need, what they desperately desperately need to see is you living life with your church.

 They don't need to see you out here, lone wolfing it. They need to see you worshiping. They need to see you being loved. They need to see you being forgiven. Somebody brought the word today. Uh, I think it was Megan who, uh, read, uh, Ephesians three together. We know the love of God. They will see the love of God. As you're together with the church, they desperately need to see that beautiful unity. Um, there's a confluence church, um, in, uh, quad cities of Iowa. Um, if you ever go visit, um, or if you ever come to any of our conferences, they're all really buff. Um, so if they're like buff, they're from Iowa, um, very literally, I'm going to tell you why.

 Um, um, when the church, a few years ago, the church was meeting in a CrossFit gym owned by the lead elder. So all of them were really big. Um, but check this, check this. Cool. Uh, so Chelsea and I went and visited, um, in like 2020 or 2021, I believe. And, um, they told us one of the things, one of the reasons the church was growing so fast is because they all CrossFit together. Is that a verb, CrossFitted? It is now, um, they all CrossFit together. Uh, they did the thing together. And they're like talking to each other and loving one another and having a great time together, living out love in their gym. And the unbelievers who were, uh, uh, uh, subscribed to the gym or working out there saw Rock Church, loving one another as they were working out.

 And Josiah, the pastor said, this was the phrase they would get. Whatever that is y'all got. I want that. And the answer would always be come to church. They'd come to church, hang out around the community, end up knowing Jesus. Following Jesus and sticking in what they did was godly. There was not a single one of them out there running rogue. What they did was practically useful. None of them said, I'm going to go and try to make all the disciples myself. And what they did was beautiful. Unbelievers saw it and said, I want that. It's good to be together. One more time. Shout! It's good. It's good to be in a small group. Shout! It's good. It's good to be a part of your church. Shout! It's good.

 It's good to spend Memorial Day weekend with other churches. Shout! It's good. It's good to be a part of a global family of churches. Shout! It's good. It's good to be a part of the universal church. One more time. Shout! It's good. It's good to be together. It's good to be together. But that's not even the good part. Ironically, that's not what David was getting at. Look at what he says in verse two and three. Look at what he says in verse two and three. Verse. Verse two and three. He says, I'm going to explain this to you and go backwards. He says,

 So I'm going to read this backwards. We're going to workshop this backwards. Verse three: Unity is where God commands, directs, supernaturally sends the blessing of life. And here's what, and because of that, David says this, because unity is where God commands the blessing of life. It's like the precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard coming down upon the edge of his robes. In Exodus, when God gave Moses instructions to build the tabernacle, he also gave him instructions to build or to make Aaron, who would be the priest, close. And the oil represented God's blessing. And here's what God says in Exodus. He says, 'When Aaron has his clothes, clothes on is when I want you to pour the oil on him.

 Don't pour the oil just on his clothes. Don't pour the oil just on his head. I want him to have it on. I want his body to be together with the outfit. And once they're together, then you pour the oil down.' Listen to me. God wants to command blessing upon you, but he's saying it's not going to be when you're separate. It's when you are, when you are together. And then, and then, and then look at what he says. Look what he says. He says, 'It is like the dew of Hermon.' Oh, this is really cool. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountain of Zion. Mount Hermon was the tallest mountain, tallest mountain in the region. So it was easy for dew to come because it's literally in the clouds.

 Dew would just be there. Mount Zion was the lowest mountain in the region. So scientifically, their idea is there's no rain coming here because it's all going up there. Rain was another sign. Rain was another sign of blessing. But here's something that the Israelites found out through their history living on Mount Zion. We get just as much rain down here where we're not supposed to, as they do up there where they're supposed to. Listen to me, churches. You might not look like much. You might be four small churches not named Radiant by Celia. But listen to me. God will supernaturally direct blessings that should not come to you when you are too. Together. Listen to me, San Francisco. There are 18 of you in that picture.

 God will supernaturally work things out to you as you're together. Nolan Megan. God will supernaturally work things out to you when you're together. The rest of you. God will supernaturally direct blessings that blow your mind when you're together. Can I remind you? That Pentecost happened with less people than were in this room. Good night. God dwelled among not millions on 120. He said, I'm going to step into that room and birth the church from there. He will sovereignly, supernaturally. The earth is the Lord's. Every cow is God's. Every blessing is God's. Every power is God's. And he says, I can, I will direct it to you as you are too. Together. He says, God directs the blessing. What's the blessing? Life. It's like, it's, it's, it's, it's a big word. Life.

 Life. It could, it could mean, it could be, it could mean physical life. God will direct the blessing of physical, biological life. I've seen God extend people's life in the context of unity. I was preaching at this conference back in 2019, I believe in Kentucky. And I met this kid. I'm high school. Kid ran up after the sermon. He's like, I want to tell you my story. I want to tell you my story. This was like, what's up, dude? And he says, I got saved about two years ago. I was like, that's phenomenal. Like got saved. And he said, I started coming to church and then immediately my parents divorced. And he said, I was in the lowest point of my life. And he said, I tried a few times.

 I tried. And I was like, but you're here and you're happy. What happened? He said, the youth group that I actually, accidentally ended up in found out about the divorce. And they wrapped around me and they were there every day. And they said, you can't pray, but we'll pray for you. And you don't know how you're doing. We'll check up on you. We'll be there with you around the clock. We'll live with you. And here he is, the boys pushing mid twenties. Now his life was extended in the context of unity. So it could mean biological life. It could even mean spiritual life. God gives spiritual life in the context of unity. When I was, I think I was just an intern at Christchurch when this was happening.

 But a few of us went to this, it's this nonprofit ministry to the homeless and the poor called Water Gardens. So a few of us, we were going and we were going to do like a worship night and serve dinner there. Bunch of 22-year-olds, 21-year-olds had no clue what we were doing. We stumbled up to Water Gardens, getting ready to like put on some makeshift church service. And there's a guy on the side of the road looking beat down, helpless. And he was being berated by another. Another person who was about to get served. And so this girl at our house or at our house girl in our group said, 'Hey, I think we gotta pray for that guy.' So went over and was like, cool, whatever, prayed for him.

 And then another person was like, maybe we should invite him to come eat with us. I thought, I don't want to eat with that man. But everybody was like, whatever. So we ate with the man, talked with them, learned a story. He had actually just moved here, moved to Joplin from California. It just got off the bus. It was being berated. So we talked. Talked with them, prayed with them, had the makeshift church service. Didn't think about it again. Honestly, they didn't probably like, I think it was 2020 or 2021. I was in the gym working out, as you can tell, as in the gym. I wear athleisure to cover up the dad bod.

 I just got lost. So in the gym, working out in the gym, working out. And somebody taps me on the shoulder and is like, hey, you remember me? And I was like, cuz, you come up on me like that, I'll remember you real good. And I was like, no, I don't actually have any clue who you are. And he was like, you and your friends, I was at Water Gardens that night, and y'all prayed for me, and y'all talked with me. He said, I got saved that night. Not only did he get saved that night, he entered into Water Gardens transitional program that transitions men into stability. Not only did he do that, he ended up enrolling in Bible college, not only did he do that, he's now working for Water Gardens, helping other men transition. We had no clue what we were doing. We were a bunch of stupid 20-year-olds who talk more confidently than we ought to. Sorry. Shout out Gap Year.

 We had no clue. We had no clue what we were doing, but God commanded the blessing of life in the context of togetherness. And here's the last little bit. I think what he might be getting at, Jesus defines eternal life as experiential knowledge of God. You'll experience, you'll know God in the context of unity. You ever been in church, worshiping together, and get this deep sense that, this morning, actually, while we were worshiping, had this deep sense that Jesus was literally just sitting right here, just sitting. Sitting there, nowhere, just sitting there, as real as you are right there. That ever happened to you? In the context of community, we know God. Back in 20/20, a person in our church ended up calling me and texting me and saying, hey, just want to give you, I felt like God said, give you this check.

 I was like, cool, I'll take the money. So we took the check, and then like a week later, my car almost blows up. Like, Kia has this weird thing with cars. So my car, like literally, I mean, my car pooped out pretty bad. And so Chelsea and I are in this spot where we got to buy a car. A few days later, we go buy a car. The car I'm looking at is pretty darn close to the price of the check that man gave us. Oh, Jesus says, 'Your father knows what you need, even before you ask, and he'll provide.' I experienced that through another person in the context of togetherness. Listen to this. Listen to me. You can't force God's hand. You can't make him do anything.

 You can't make him bless you. But what you can do is put yourself in the pathway of grace. How can I posture myself to receive? And this is what Jesus says, get together in unity, because that’s where God’s sending the rain. That’s where God’s sending the oil. That’s where God’s commanding the blessing. Shout together. Together. One more time. Together. Together. Lisa, how do we do that? How can you stubborn even say it? How do we do that? I want that. I can’t do that. How do I, how do I get that? That’s a huge question. I’ve been pastoring Christ for a minute. How do we make that? How do we do that? Married. Five going on six years. How do we do that?

 Got a bunch of friends. How do we do that? November's coming quickly. How do we do that? How does, everywhere in our society is forming us towards divisiveness. How do we do that? How do we do that? How do we do that? from every angle how to not do unity. So my question is, as a church where we probably have been taught disunity way before and way more than we've been taught unity, how do we do that? Ephesians chapter 2. I want to read Ephesians 2 to you.

 No, it's up there. Ephesians 2, starting in verse 11. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ. Listen to this. You were at that time before coming to Jesus, separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. You were living in disunity and you had no hope of blessing on you. But now, check this: in Christ, don't miss that word, in. Don't miss that word, in; shout in! In Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace.

 Who made both groups into one, who made, not as making, not as who will make, not who hopes to make, but who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in himself, he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, that's unity, and might reconcile them both in one body, to God through the cross, by having put to death the enmity. Here's what he's saying. When he died and rose, he joined you to himself. Just by virtue of you being joined to Jesus, you are now joined to all those who are joined to Jesus. In him, you are one.

 To come to Jesus is to come into the church. To be united to Jesus is to be united to the church. He created this cross-shaped unity; he unified you with God and unified you with one another. A guy named Brian Loritic calls it the back half of the gospel. Ephesians 2:1-10, but God, you were saved and brought close to God. Ephesians 2:11-20, you were brought together with one another. Here's what I'm saying. He already did it. Christ created, past tense, a cross-shaped unity. What does that tell me? In the church, unity is not an ideal to be pursued. It's a reality that we need to live in. We don't have to ask, how do we do that? We don't have to ask, how do we make that?

 We don't have to ask, how do we manufacture that? Here's the question. Jesus, you did it. It's a spiritual ontological reality. What does it mean for me to live that out? My son cannot talk. That does not mean he is not a person. It's who he is. He's talking right now. Literally, that was him. I think he heard my voice. He was just born into this. He was born into personhood, and he's spending the rest of his life learning how to live it out. This is unity. When you came out of those waters, you were born into this unity, and we spend our life living it out. It's not an ideal to be pursued. You don't have to think about what unity even means. You don't have to think about what unity even means.

 You don't have to create it for yourself. He's already defined it. Some of you have been working real hard, fighting, almost, for relationships. Am I forcing it? Some of you feel uncomfortable because this is forcing it. You can't force what was already finished. Our efforts aren't forcing anything. What we're doing is we're adjusting ourselves to the reality that has always been in Christ. When I moved to Joplin. Oh, man. I grew up in a military town where there was a lot of black people. Moved to Joplin, Missouri, and it's as white as it sounds. Literally. I had never been when I got to the Bible college. When I moved into the dorms, it was my first time ever in Joplin in 2013.

 I remember going to the mall and walking into the mall, and I said, 'Oh, no.' Very literally, I had to learn. I was like, 'Oh, no.' I called my grandmother and was like, 'You gotta come back and get me.' And one of the things I learned pretty quickly is because there aren't many of us, there aren't many barber shops for us. Now, I know some barbers say they can cut black people's hair. But this is Christianity 101. Just because you can don't mean you should. So I didn't get a haircut for like two years. There are pictures from back then where I had an Afro and people were like, Were you growing your hair out? I was like, No, there was no barber shop for me here.

 And I remember I played basketball at Ozark and I remember being in the locker room and one of my teammates, he was another black guy, he had just gotten a fade and I was like, Where do you get that? Where did you find one of those things at? And he said, Oh, you ain't never heard about Reed's? And I was like, What thou meanest this, Lord? And he said, Reed's, it's a barber shop only over on 7th and Maiden. And I said, For who? And he said, For us? I was like, Hmm. I want to see this for myself. So I drive over to 7th and Maiden. I walk through the doors and I was like, Oh my goodness. There are three black barbers with three black men in those chairs.

 I desperately needed a haircut. I didn't know where to get the haircut. But praise God, Mike Reed built a whole barber shop for me to get what I desperately needed. I know you want the blessing of God. And it comes in unity. Praise God, Jesus already built it. Have you heard the story of how he built it? He built it. He built it when he took two nails in his hands. He built it when he took a slab of wood across his back. He built it when he climbed up a mountain. He built it when they hung him up on a pole. He built it when he breathed his last breath. He built it when he laid down in the grave for one day. He built it when he laid down in the grave for the second day. He built it when he laid down in the grave for the third day. He built it when early on that third day he got back up with all power in his hands and said, 'I have joined you to me and you are joined together.' Christ built unity in which we are blessed.

 I'm done. I'm done. Here's what I want to say. Paul in Ephesians 4, he doesn't tell you to make unity, but he says, 'Make every effort to preserve it. Keep it.' You want to know why? Because Satan is making every effort to steal it. Jesus says, 'thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy.' Some of y'all have made it through a lot. You haven't been killed. You haven't been destroyed. You just might not have known he stole something from you. He might've stole from your house. He might've stolen between adult parents and adult kids. He might've stolen from your church in the past few years. I realize in the scriptures, I mean, most of every time in the New Testament, when Paul talks about spiritual warfare, he's speaking in the context of relationships and relational breakdown.

 Ephesians 6, when he says, put on the full armor of God, he's talking into relationships. First Corinthians 1, when he says, we don't want you to be ignorant of Satan's devices, he's talking about relationships. He's constantly talking about Christians relating to one another. A man named Cyprian says, Satan, he persecutes us overtly when he brings the government to our front door, or he persecutes us covertly. He sneaks through the back door and he brings disunity. Last year, I was talking to some other pastors in Joplin because I could not figure out what the heck was happening relationally in our church. Had no clue. It was this crazy thing. People just could not be reconciled. Bent over backwards for people. Could not be reconciled. And watch people just drop off like flies.

 Stuff that didn't make sense. Marriages breaking down in ways that didn't make sense. Friendships breaking down in ways that didn't make sense. People went bouncing from churches to churches, like, for what? So talking to some other pastors, and it was like, tell me, what's going on? And five of them, five of them, said, the same thing's happening in our church, from small church plant to the two biggest churches in Joplin. All of them said, it's happening in ours too, and we can't figure it out. One of them, biggest church in Joplin, I asked, what are you doing? He said, we've tried to hire counselors. And every counselor we reached out to said, 'I'm booked.' And a lot of them said, 'I'm quitting after this round because I can't take it.' And this pastor, his name's Cody, a pastor at a church called Hope City.

 He said, Jerron, at this point, the only way to get out of this is to get out of this church. The only thing I know to do is ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That's when it clicked. And I was like, oh, this isn't surface level. This is an attack of Satan. He's robbing us right now. And this is why Paul says, 'Make every effort, fight for it, keep it.' There's a story. This is the last thing I'm done. I promise I'm done right here. Typical black preacher, but I promise I'm done here. Genesis 32 is this picture. This picture I want to leave. Genesis 32, Jacob, who would be named Israel, ends up being the representative of the people of God.

 Jacob, he's walking and it says this man comes up and starts grappling him. The words wrestle, but it's a grapple. This man grabbed onto Jacob. And so Jacob says, well, I'm going to grab back to you. And he's like, no, hold me. I'm going to hold on to you. I'm not letting go of you. I'm not letting go. I'm not going to let go of you until you bless me. I'm getting every blessing you got for me. I'm not letting go of you. Jacob ends up getting blessed. And then afterwards it says, Jacob wrestled with God. So Jacob is wrestling with this man who was also God. It was a pre-incarnate. It was Jesus before he was born. So here's Jacob. Here's the picture. He's holding on to the body of Christ.

 He's holding on to Christ's physical body and saying, I'm going to grab back to you. I'm not letting go of you. I'm not letting go of you. I'm not letting go, because I want to be blessed. Here is the picture. Hold on to the body of Christ. Hold on for your dear life. Do not let go husband. Hold on for your dear life. Do not let go small group leader. Hold on for your dear life. Do not let go elder. Hold on for your dear life. Don't refuse to say sorry. Hold on for your dear life. Don't harbor bitterness. Hold on for your dear life. Don't take a poor attitude. Hold on for your dear life. Hold on for your dear life. Don't harbor bitterness. On for your dear life. Keep believing the best. Hold on for your dear life. Keep having the conversation. Hold on for your dear life. Keep showing up. Hold on for your dear life. Start a community group. Hold on for your dear life. Whatever you've got to do, hold on because he's going to bless you. I want to pray for us. Stand up.

 Jesus, thank you. Thank you for this unity. Thank you for blessing us. Even now, Father, I ask for an outpouring of the Spirit. We're not wrestling against flesh and blood, and we also recognize this isn't a battle we can win on our own. It's not by our strength, but it's by your Spirit. So even now, Father, I ask for a very specific anointing for unity in these churches, a very specific grace to lead through the division of this fall for pastors and leaders, people who've been hurt and are on the edge. Heal them, Lord. Supernaturally touch them and bring them into greater unity than they had before. People who struggle with conflict resolution, give them a grace for it. Make people more willing to be with you. Make people more magnets for one another, Father. We need you, Jesus. We're going to take communion here together. So there's some stations up here. I think there's some along the walls. Here's what we'll do. I'll have you go get it and then come back to your seats. I want to take it all together. So you go ahead and get it. In the back as well. Sorry about that.

 I'm green. Oh! Oh!

 Thank you so much.

 So, Paul in 1st Corinthians, he's talking about the Lord's Supper. He's putting three words he puts on it first. He says what we're doing is a remembrance-this is recalling, rehearsing mentally in our hearts that God came as a man, died for us, joined him to himself and one another, and united us to God. So we're remembering. Then Paul says, 'What it is.' It's a participation; it's this idea of the bread and the juice are a visible sign of a spiritual reality-in that Christ who's already joined us to himself as we take in the bread and the juice what we're saying is we're taking you in more. He's not in this, this is a

 sign he's given us; and by receiving Christ more, we're also receiving one another those who are also joined to him, and then Paul says it's a, it's a, it's a proclamation he says we're playing proclaiming to one another proclaiming to the angels proclaim proclaiming to satan christ has won the victory he's reconciled us to himself and to god so when we take this we're we're we're remembering we're participating we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're we're proclaiming so jesus we thank you for your blood or thank you for your body jesus broken for us so that we can be joined to you you can take the bread

 jesus we thank you for your blood of a new covenant you'll be our god forever and we'll be your people forever you don't Remember, our sins anymore, but you've written your law in our heart and you've put your spirit within us. Thank you Jesus. You can take the cup. There's a man named Ignatius who he's talking about church unity and he says one of the predominant ways that we-he uses this language: we pray for you to be pushed back the fiery darts of Satan is when we get together in worship, so what we're about to do this is talking to Jesus, yes. And at the same time, this spiritual warfare, every divisive demon in hell is looking in saying goodbye, but we cannot, so when we sing, we're singing and like no said: we're contending pretty hard; we're. Contending