Well good morning and welcome to church online. I hope you are safe and warm no matter where you're watching from whether it's on a Phone a tablet your TV website Facebook YouTube. It doesn't matter Maybe that it doesn't matter where you're watching from. I'm just glad that you are watching and being a part of what God is going to do Today through this online service pastor.
Del has a great message prepared for you and get ready to share with you in just a few Moms, but before he does I want to just say a couple things first off welcome And if you're tuning in for the first time we'd love to hear from you drop down below where you're watching from and who you're watching We are also if it is your first time shoot us a message man We would love to connect with you Maybe give you a little bit more information on the church and love for you to come be a part of what God is doing Another thing I want to mention is that we got a lot of stuff coming up in February And I want to make sure that you have ample time to sign up because some of them start next Sunday and because we won't be meeting together in person You need to sign up now All right, and so one of those is church 101 it starts next Sunday morning at nine o'clock 315 chestnut street right beside the church You come there for a 45 minutes right before service starts and you go over to the main service have church like normal It's only a two-week program now some of you might say who's church one oh one four well It's for anybody that's new to our church that wants to know a little bit more about it But it's also for people that are ready to take those next days. Maybe you're ready to start serving maybe you're ready to start Thinking about baptism. That's a great next step for you church 101 also maybe even come to church for a while and you're like You know maybe I want to get more involved church 101 is a great place for you So make sure you sign up for that that'll start next Sunday morning Also, we have our celebrate recovery ministry that is getting ready to kick off big in February starting February fears They'll have a men's group and a women's group now I understand the women's group is just about full if not full So if you want to be a part of that you need to sign up immediately men you too So go ahead and sign up let us know that you want to be a part of that I'll start on February fifth the women will meet at our connect center downtown and the men will meet at the connect house Right beside the church and so looking forward to those ministries We are really trusting God is going to use those to change lives and impact lives in a positive way and really help restore some people To Jesus and maybe some of you that are battling something and maybe you feel like you know I could use a little extra help a little push a little support group around me Well, this might be for you so go ahead and sign up for that also for those of you who are interested We have a marriage class that we do is called marriage on the rot as we pass today I will start on Wednesday night February the fourth though several of you have signed up We still do have a few slots available for that So if you're interested in that marriage class I would highly encourage you to go ahead and sign up for that today because that'll start February 4 first Wednesday night in February So like I said February is going to be a big month And so you want to make sure that you're signed up and so I'm putting links up or QR codes or whatever it is for each Particular class to make sure you sign up but you can always shoot us a message right here on Facebook messenger And we can get you signed up that way as well. I also want to mention that new light outdoors this month We're gonna move it one way because normally we made on the second Sunday each month But this month happens to be Super Bowl Sunday and so we're gonna actually move it to February the 15th And so we would love for you to sign up is free to come we're gonna have a great meal We'll get you to address and all that information next Sunday How to get there and all that kind of stuff, but it's gonna be a great time of fellowship looking forward to it with all those guys That's our men's ministry, but we'd love for you to be a part of new light outdoors I also just want to say the truth is we wouldn't even be here online today if it weren't for your faithfulness to give We can and we can't because here's the truth there are some churches and there in the past there have been times where women Snow and ice and stuff like this is the impact that's the only option We had was just cancel church and then we couldn't even meet together virtually online like we are here today But because of your generosity to give and to steward and for us to steward what God has given us we were able to launch an online Ministry a media ministry with cameras and microphones and internet broadcast so that we can still have church even though we can't come together And be together physically and I'll be able to say thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for that In Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 and 10 he says honor the Lord with your wealth with the best parts of everything you produce Then he will feel your barns with grain and your vats will overflow with good wine Man, this is the one area where God says test me see if you can out kiss me And one thing I can say about our church is that we are a generous church that you give and you give greatly and because of that We are able to impact this community in ways that we never dreamed like I said We're live today on Facebook on YouTube because of your faithfulness to give and next week as we start a brand new series Possibly the best series that we've ever done You're gonna hear a lot more about how God is using what you're doing to impact this community because we're starting this brand new series And it's called living on purpose. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be a great day I'm also looking forward to what God has in store for us today So I want to show you a little video as we go in today's message And then I hope you enjoy a great word from Pastor Dale as we close out our series thrive I sat in my car for three weeks before I walked through the doors the first time I had tried almost everything that I knew to try I came to celebrate recovery extremely broken.
I had just been through a divorce and I was a mess I needed a place for my kids to feel safe. I thought my marriage was over I remember I was dealing with some pretty traumatic grief from my father's passing Nobody shied away from talking about their struggles. That was something that I had never seen in a church before I was in the church house and all of a sudden they were talking about real things things that I struggled with I thought the walls started coming down. It's like oh, this is the place where I can be real The procrastinator the anger the alcohol the drug addiction everybody that was in there.
It was all level ground We were one. Oh, okay. This is a safe place. This is where I meant to be.
I was able to go to Open chair and all these other guys around me. I'm just running the same thing and I knew that was a seat that I needed to be in It's like okay. God. I'm here now what and he said now we go to work that inventory process Not only deals with your relationship with others, but your relationship with yourself come to see our first learn that God was able to Helping live a healthy life without having to have those crutches Good morning guys I trust everybody's doing well and I trust your home and you're safe if you're watching this video that means we're not having Physical church, but we come to bring you a message today and my prayer is you're safe and you're warming things are going well And thank you so much for joining us online Please share the video and like the video let people know that we're here and let's spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world I want to remind you of a couple of things celebrate recovery starts next month downtown and our Connect Center I want to make sure you will wear that and please understand we're having a men's class a women's class and some of those classes are Filled I think but there is a waiting list, but you can be a part of that and you can inquire With the church about those classes if you'd like to and so we want to invite you to be a part of that I want to remind you of deeper dive on Tuesday night with pastor Corinette and myself We're doing a deeper dive into the sermons on Sunday morning.
So make sure you're part of that We can't cover everything in the sermons here and one setting but we'll do that on on Tuesday night at seven o'clock Also pastor Bobby has a Wednesday night Bible study. He's going through the book of Hebrews Make sure you're a part of that if you like Bible study you can be downtown our Connect Center He'll be doing that and so again Thank you so much for coming to down one to jump right into the sermon I want to finish this series today. This is the last sermon of this series here It's called thrive and but we've learned some things about thrive and let me just when tell you what it's all about again thrive It's a call to rise above surviving and step into the life God created us to live God has this plan He has this desire He desires that we would live an abundant life and a free life He wants us to do that strengthen by his presence. That's good our faith anchored in Jesus Christ and his finished work renewed for each day and Surrounded by the right people that's so important right there We've talked about a fresh start and we're talking about running on empty and and several things in the sermon series We've talked about but today I want to talk about something I think it's so interesting and I hope that you'll understand it and the Lord will speak to you through it I want to talk about being better together so important that we understand the importance of being together And that's what the sermon is all about today with that I want to give you this thought We were never meant to thrive alone.
That's so important. We're never meant to do life alone No question about that our greatest growth and that's important right there See if you don't understand this principle you'll never grow spiritual like God intended for you to grow You'll never mature into the believer that God desires for you to be and so here's the deal right here We were never meant to thrive alone our greatest growth happens in godly Relationships and in fact I'll say this not necessarily godly relationships They take you to a different level no question about that But any relationship you're in you're going to grow because people have a way of Heating us with things and getting us into things and conversations and situations where we are really have no choice But to grow in those matters so when you think about that godly relationships do a couple of things in our life number one When you think about a godly relationship, there's mutual accountability there That means that you and I depend on each other the whole list accountable if you're not connected with other people You're not connected with the church you're not connected with other Christians. There's no accountability there We also get encouragement from godly relationships And this is a good thing because all of us need encouraging So when you think about that we are absolutely better together because there's some opportunities that come from good godly relationships And one of them is simply this we get to practice grace together in other words We fall we fail we stumble whatever we have the opportunity to grow in grace and show other people what grace really looks like We practice grace we're around other people we practice forgiveness because all of us understand and know that when we are involved With other people in our lives things will happen where we have to practice forgiveness I love that God created relationships to help us grow spiritually And then one of the greater things that comes out of God the relationship is opportunity for all of us to show unconditional love And if you live long enough the truth of the matter is you're gonna have situations where with other people you have to show unconditional love and not only that You have situations where unconditional love has to be shown to you and godly relationships Absolutely provides that for us and gives us the opportunity to do that I love something else about godly relationships because a lot of times they will reveal what's in our heart our inward character if you will When you think about that our inward character the Bible says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks So when you think about that godly relationships sometimes force us to deal with ourself things in our life that are not good and attitudes and personalities We'll get around other people things that cause us trouble Then we have an opportunity to deal with self and ask God to actually change our life change our heart and make us a better person God the relationships cultivate patience I think all of us would agree that if you're gonna have relationships with other people You're gonna have to learn how to have patience and God gives us that the greater thing above all of that is it brings an opportunity for Change in our life and that's what God desires to do God did not save us for us to stay where we are remain like we are and just kind of Coast through life he created us to in his likeness and his image and he desires that we would be more Christ alike So God the relationships make us help us change in our life So there's a few things I want to talk about about being better together We already have a foundation here about God the relationships and how important they are and all the things they do in our life So three things I want you to know about being better together. So important So it looks like this the first one is walking together We accomplish more I think the truth is if we ask each other the question do we want to accomplish more?
We want to be all we can be do we want to do all that God create us to do and all of us I think we'll say yes well one principle we will find in the word of the Lord that to do anything requires other people to be in your Life if you want to accomplish more other people's better So Ecclesiastes would say it this way Ecclesiastes four or nine two people are better off than one For they can help each other succeed now we read this scripture a lot of times and we're doing weddings But the truth of the matter is it's true in life We just simply do better together and we can accomplish more with people if you if you were take a couple of strong horses take one strong horse And hook behind him and watch what he can pull well when you put two together They can gently pull twice the amount that one can the same way in life if we get together And we hook up with other people we can absolutely accomplish more I want to give you a thought behind this scripture right here God do not design us to carry our burdens alone build our dreams alone or fight our battles alone when we partner with other with others And invite God into the partnership. We don't just get a good return We get a God sized return that it sees anything we can accomplish on our own that's so important right there And too many people have come to this place in the devil a lot of times He convinces us of a lie the lies that God desired for us to build this life alone to build our dreams alone to live life alone And to handle failures and hang ups and habits alone But the truth of the matter is God never called us to do life alone And the Bible is when you look at the Bible and you go through the Bible look You can see from the very beginning of time even in the book of Genesis with the first man that God ever created God says something significant to him And we should learn from that So when you go to Genesis and look in that Genesis 2 and 18 then the Lord God said it is not good for man to be alone I will make a helper who is just right for him now think about that right there That simply means that Adam although he was created in the likeness and the image of God It simply means that he didn't have everything he needed to do everything that God told him to do none of us do We have weaknesses in our life and therefore God will send other people into our life to offset the weaknesses I like and then we all set the weaknesses and other people's lives are here in the beginning of creation God said to Adam It's not good for man to be alone. Well, God doesn't change. It's not good for man to be alone today Now here to deal that doesn't mean necessarily in a marriage you can apply it to a marriage But the truth of the matter is it doesn't necessarily apply just to the marriage it can be in any aspect of life It's better when we do life with other people no question about that another note You might take from this scripture simple this this is the first time in the creation process that God said something wasn't good Everything else he created was good when he created the heavens and earth He said it was good when he created the sea and the land he said that was good the Vegetables on the land the trees and all that guy's all that's good night and day was good always good But when it come to man being alone, he said that it's not good and you and I should understand that because pride will tell us We can do it alone pride will say we can have it ourselves pride will say we're better than most other people You got to be careful about that and heed the word of God where God says hey It's not good for you to try to do things alone When you look at that you can look at the book of Exodus and we see something here I want you to think about Moses for a moment now We can remember the stories about Moses where God used him mindily to prepare him to leave the children out of Egypt God's people out of Egypt We understand that story in the book of Exodus now when you think about that Moses went through a lot But here's what I want you to say Moses prepared in the wilderness for 40 years God prepared him there He was anointed by God.
He was empowered by God He really was called by God to do this great work God was absolutely with him and when you look at the stories about him You'll see God moving and you'll see God using him mildly to do a lot of things Well, he was called and the children of Israel were fighting a battle and it was an intense battle And so watch the scripture right here and where it shows us that we don't need to fight alone This is important right here as long as Moses held up the staff in his hand the Israelites had the advantage So the whole deal was Moses God told Moses you hold this staff up and while they're in battle right there As long as you hold the staff up they're gonna win you don't have to worry about that But this battle went for a little longer than they thought maybe Moses thought it was going to go But whenever he dropped his hand the malachites gained the advantage Moses arm soon became so tired He could no longer hold them up now watch this Dependent upon Moses holding this staff up would determine whether they would win the battle or not But he's a physical man. He gets tired you and I get tired we are physical people and we're not supernatural people therefore We get tired and we get run down we can't do this thing on our own There's no preacher that can have church on his own He has to have all the people around him We have to have each other to accomplish everything that God has called us to accomplish When you think about the praise team and the people back there serving and doing and helping other people throughout the church and in children's church I want you to understand that we can't do this thing alone that God has called us to a battle and the Bible tells us That the things that happen in the Old Testament were given to us to understand how God works So when you look at Moses the first thing we understand here It's God never called us to do what we do alone He placed other people around us and in fact you'll see in this story that if we don't use other people to allow other people If other people don't step up we will lose the battle according to this scripture right here Moses arm soon became so tired He could no longer hold them up so Aaron and her found a stone for him to sit down on Then they stood on each side of Moses holding up his hands So his hands held steady until sunset as a result Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in the battle Here's what I want you to see God never desired us to do this work for him alone He's placed all of us here He's given us gifts and talents and resources and God would say to us today if you want to win the battle if you want to win So if you want to win the spiritual battles that you're facing you got to get other people involved They have gifts and talents you don't we ought to come together and partner together to do exactly what God has called us to do When you're doing a family when you're doing a business when you're doing whatever you're doing I want you to understand that you don't need to try to do it alone that God never Decides you to carry that burden on your own when you think about the Lord you look at him and God had called him He was a hundred percent man a hundred percent God but the reality is simply this God never intended Jesus to do what he did alone He gave him twelve disciples so that she tell us something right there whatever we intend to do We ought to take more people with us and we ought to partner together and understand that God works through a group of people not one person Now he'll raise leaders up and he'll put people in place and he knows people to do certain things and all of us won't be In order to do the same thing but the point is we need each other tremendously if you look at the church the initial church the founding church in The book of that the church in the very beginning you'll find out that they work together watch this here Acts 2 44 and 47 and all the believers met together in one place shared everything they had they sold their property and Possessions and shared the money with those in need they worshiped together at the temple each day Men in homes for the Lord's Supper and share their meals with great joy and generosity All the while praising God enjoying the goodwill of all the people watch this now and each day the Lord added to their fellowship Those who were being saved now here is a is a demonstration of the first century church right here And here's what we learn about them. They thrive together. They did life together They understood the importance of togetherness they understood they were better together They pull their resources together They God multiplied their resources and when they brought them together There was more multiplication there the point that I'm trying to make to you today is we accomplish more together God never designed us to do it alone or go it alone He didn't give all of us all the gifts all of us do have the gifts But one individual doesn't have them all and God has called us to understand that we are much better if we do things together Second thing I want you to see is this falling together.
We recover faster I think all of us is live long enough. We understand that we're gonna fall we're gonna fail We're gonna fall short. We're not gonna do everything right life is gonna throw us some turns and curves and some potholes We're gonna hit those and God just sent me to tell you today that God never intended for you to do life alone It must less he didn't intend for you to fall together or fall alone He wants us to be together with other people a clisiesties would say it this way if one person falls the other can reach out and Help but someone who falls alone is in real trouble. I'm telling you right now.
This is such an important point I want to give you this thought we'll talk about it falling doesn't make us a failure staying down does the reason So many people stay down is because they're trying to get up alone. God never designed us to recover in isolation He gave us the church that's important right there And there's a belief now in the body of Christ that church is not important that church is irrelevant that really I don't have to go to church to serve the Lord Well, you don't have to go to church to serve the Lord But God sent me to tell you this message this morning that God did not design you to live this Christian life alone He gave you the church the body of Christ We meet together as the body of Christ locally to do what God has called us to do So when you think about that he gave us the church he gave us brothers and sisters He gave us celebrate recovery one thing that we're pushing right now We're gonna launch next month to celebrate recovery think if you have a habit hang up or a situation that you need to deal with it Maybe you prayed about it Maybe you salt God about it, but maybe the hurts too deep Well, you can join these celebrate recovery classes and God will minister you through that God created this ministry for that single purpose So he gives us celebrate recovery. He gave us accountability partners. He gave all this because he is wise.
Think about this now God is wise. He knows all things He knows how the human body works best he understands how we accomplish more better and that is because he's a wise God He's an old knowing God. He knows together. We recover faster stronger and more completely than we could alone that's so important Well, when you think about that There are some dangers of you and I falling alone We're alone and we're out there soloing and doing things on our own There are some major dangers that we need to understand and a lot of times this goes right above us We don't think about it But I want to show you a few right here number one is this right here when you fall along shame whispers stay down You're done in it so I would imagine that I'm talking to some people right now that are watching me online today And you're you made a mistake you've been in a bad place made a dumb decision You wish you had to done it and now you're living with the results of it Well, here's what I know I understand that when you get there There isn't any out there that comes to steal killing destroy.
I understand that he wants to take you out He wants to take your life out. He wants to take your family out I understand that completely because the Bible tells me that and here's what he'll do He'll tell you when you get down and when you made a mistake and when everybody has given up on you and things are not looking good He'll tell you to stay down that life's over you made too bad a mistake You can't win anymore stay down. Don't get up. You're done.
It's over But I want to tell you right now It's not over and if you have the right people around you they'll begin to speak into your life and encourage you and they'll help you And they'll help you get back up and they'll tell you do have a future It's not over until God says it's over You don't want to do life alone because when you fall you need somebody to encourage you to get back up when you Fall along you rehearse your failure. I see people in this situation all the time They're trying to deal with it on their own. They're trying to handle the pros and cons to it They're trying to get over the thing and all they can do along is because they have nobody encourages them that have nobody loving them They have nobody promoting them. They have nobody balancing out really the whole aspect of the deal So they rehearse the hurts over and over and over and they never get up and move beyond that hurt And if they do they carry the hurt with them when you fall along you're isolated and vulnerable That's the worst place you can be right there when you're isolated the enemy targets you and you can do a work in your life When you hide your fall you multiply your pain a lot of times we're embarrassed about the fall We're embarrassed to talk about it And then when we do talk about it We clean it up But the truth of the matter is the truth sets you free So when you have people around you that you can share it with and you can get it off your chest and you can get it out there And get wise counsel coming back to you the truth is you don't bear as much of the pain But if you're alone in this thing you multiply the pain Pride says you can get up on your own the truth of the matter is we can't get up on wrong first of all We need God second of all we need Godly people around us don't let pride Isolate you hear me carefully here now pride is a sin and pride will cost you more pain and trouble than you want it to Pride says the devil uses that and he tells us we can do this alone We don't need other people we can get up on our own we can handle this on our own But the truth is you need other people around you because God designed it that way if he created man And he said it's not good for man to be alone Then it's not good for you not to be alone We should believe what God says and when God calls a person He doesn't call us to do it alone if he puts other people around us like he didn't Moses Then that ought to be an example of us because the Old Testament isn't example about how God feels about things and how God does things It's early church needed to be together to accomplish what they needed to accomplish We need to be together to accomplish what God has given us to a coffee and if Jesus absolutely needed 12 people Around him you and I need that meaning or more around us I want to show you something about this right here There's some benefits of falling with other people when you fall with others gray shouts get up you are not finished yet boy I'll tell you when you fall and you have a big problem on your hand and no matter what it happened Maybe someone else calls the fall.
Maybe you caused the fall It doesn't matter about that Here's what does matter it matters that you have people in your life that know God and they know the Lord They know the word and they can speak in your life and they can tell you to get up in fact this statement Here says they shout get up you don't have to stay where you are and I'm shouting maybe to some of you today I don't care where you are I don't care what you've done and I don't care what the enemy say what I am saying to you is You can get up God can take this mess what the enemy meant for bad and God can turn it to good We serve a God that can get it done So I'm telling you right now to get up But if you have nobody around you if you don't have good Christian people around you if you don't have good support around you You'll stay there and you'll deal with it on your own God said it's not good to do that you can get up and you can finish God It's not finished with you yet when you share your phone you divide your burden now That's good right there because here's the deal the burden can be heavy the burden can be bad and and the enemy can be coming in Like a flood if you've got other people around you that you can share it with what I've come to tell you today is this You that burden can't be so heavy on you when you've got other people to share it with when you fall with others We are reminded of our future because we have people around us that will tell us God will take what the enemy meant for bad He will turn it to good God can take bad and make good out of it And he gives us all the examples throughout the Bible and there are godly people around you that will communicate to you what the Bible says About where you are you still have a future It's not over until God says it over God will teach you tremendous things through the battles and the falls You go through but you need godly people around you helping you understand that the Bible would say it this way in Galatians 6 1 and 2 Dear brothers and sisters if another believer is overcome by some sin you who are godless you gently and humbly help that person back on to the right path That's our job as a body of believers and be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself right here It tells us right here. We need brothers and sisters around us. We're gonna fall into sin We're gonna fall into things we shouldn't know we shouldn't be involved in things are gonna happen And we need these godly brothers and sisters around us who will be gentle with us and humbly help us back to get on our feet and get up And live like like God desires for us to live life James would say it this way in 5 and 16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and Produce is wonderful Resoles well if you don't have partners around you if you don't have a church family around you if you don't have people You can trust around you they can't pray for you the Bible Simply tells us right here that that with other people around us that we can overcome just about anything that God can work on that We get up quicker and better if we have other people around us first The salonians would say it this way 5 and 11 so encourage each other and build each other up just as you're already doing Now, let me say something about this all these scriptures I'm reading were written to the churches individual churches local churches just like this church is right here So when you think about that God intended us to do life together as a group of believers the local body of Christ It's there you can't get away from that so falling together the Bible teaches us we recover faster And that's what we want to do anytime you have a fall you want to get that thing behind you want to recover You don't want to focus on that you want to move on down the road and do what God has called us to do leave your life And enjoy life last thing I want you to see about that is this fighting together We overcome anything get the word anything right there There's nothing that can happen to you in this life that you and some other people around you with God's help can overcome No matter what the circumstances are no matter what the situations are we overcome things together We can overcome anything if we do it together Please yes these would say it this way likewise two people lying close together can keep each other warm But how can one be warm alone a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated but two can stand back to back and conquer Three or even better for a triple-braded cord is not easily broken. Please yes these four eleven and twelve So when you think about that God doesn't want us to do life alone We can overcome just about anything if we live here it is by the principles of God's words and God's principles don't do life alone Don't try to do a solo act.
Don't do that. There's some dangers when you think about it that God wants us to understand Dangerous are fighting along when you try to fight live this life and you try to fight the enemy and you try to fight Circumstances and all these things that are coming at you There's some dangers of trying to do this alone that we need to know about wolves hunt packs Wolves hunting packs looking for isolated sheep I talked about that a little bit last week And so what I want you to understand is God didn't design a Christian to be out there on his own isolated think about a think about a pack of sheep And a pack of wolves right here. They are lurking they're looking and they're watching and they love to find a Christian That's out of the sheep fold. They love to find one out there on the French.
That's the one they're going after There's a danger of that you can't overcome that on yourself when you fight alone you fight tired you get tired You get emotional you get fatigued you get burnout when you're on your own But if you're with a group of people they can step in and they can help you fight when you get tired solo fighters burn out You can burn out trying to do it all on your own God place people around you He didn't intend for you to burn out he intended for you to share the burden and the problems and things like that with other people Samson watch this one right here He fought alone and ended up blind bound and grinding grain for the enemy so when you get out there all alone It's really easy to become spiritually blind It's really easy to start believing in yourself and believing lies that the enemy has sent your way when you don't have other people speaking positive Christian and biblical things into your life He he become blind bound and grinding in a meal for the enemy God never designed him to do that and he would not have done that if he Would have been in partnership with other people and other people speaking to his life psalms would say it this way How wonderful and pleasant is it when brothers live together in harmony right there? It is you can't get that we live together we do life together We do it in harmony for harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron's head that ran down his beard And onto the border of his robe harmony as as refreshing as to do from the mount Herman that falls on the mountains of Zion and there the Lord has pronounced his blessings even life everlasting where we are In harmony and in unity and together we find the blessings of God get that right there If you want God's blessings in your life partner up with other people and watch God do the work in your lives So the question would become how in the world do we overcome really? How do we overcome what is bringing people together what this partnerships and other people? Why are we better together?
Well, I want to tell you a few reasons you're better together goes when we pray together There's power in praying together. You can pray on your own. There's power there And you can pray to God and it's really good and you want to have a personal relationship with God But let me tell you when I think about this church and I think about all that's going on There are a lot of people praying for this thing. There are a lot of people seeking God on my behalf I pray they pray we all pray there's power in prayer the Bible is clear about that Matthew says it this way I also tell you this if two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask my father in heaven will do it for you For where two or three gather together as my followers.
I am there among them right there It is where two or three of us get together together. The God is absolutely there Now a lot of people get confused on this scripture because they hear this one part of the scripture says you can do anything You ask it'll be done. Well, what's God saying there? We got to understand we're talking about God's wheel here And if you earnestly asked according to God's wheel, it'll be done.
Nothing outside of that God will do what his wheel desires to do there So when you hear me what I'm trying to tell you is we pray together and we pray in unity and we pray one for another And we partner together and prayer God is there with us and God does great things to us in our lives He answers our prayer, but not only that there's power in fellowship when you and I come together and fellowship one with another I'm not isolated anymore. I'm a believer. I'm a part of the body of Christ I'm a part of the church of almighty God. I believe that I'm going to find myself in the body of Christ working and doing things in the body of Christ And God tells me that I want to do that there's power in fellowship in together He never created us to be an isolated Christian and do things on our own So here's the scripture for that and he brews 10 24 and 25 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good work stop right there He was talking to a group of church people here He wanted to understand let us think of ways of motivating one another and acts of love and good works Well, how you got to motivate people if they're not together we're to motivate people in the body of Christ in the local church We're to motivate each other and I'll tell you all the time some of you just motivate people by getting up on Sunday morning and coming to church You motivate your neighbor you motivate your family you motivate your immediate family and friends around you You motivate them because they see something in your life that is different than the rest of the world And they get hungry for what you have because they look at your life It seems to be pretty good But one thing they notice is you go to church and you're a part of a local body a local fellowship there And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do and God is very clear right here Some people chosen not to be in the body of Christ.
They chose not to meet together anymore They become prideful and arrogant. They believe they can live on their own They don't care what God said to Adam back in the day. It's not good for man to be alone They don't they neglect the part where Moses had people around him helping him a win the battle They neglect the part where Jesus had 12 disciples They neglect the part where the first century church came together shared the resources work together lived together did life together They neglect all of that they say you know this scripture that the plot of me I don't have to be a part of the local body I don't have to be a part of the local church I really don't have to have that people around me my relationship with God is fine on my own That is a lie from the bill of hell because here's where the devil has you he's isolated you He's made you believe alive and it sounds real good, but he's isolated you you're not using your spiritual gifts You're not using your talents. You're not using your resources You're not partnering together my question would be how many souls have you won lately Are you partnered with a group of believers that are ministry all over the world have we come together for the great commission to do what God It's called us to do there's power in fellowship and that's why God said don't stop meeting together But encourage one another well you got to be here to encourage someone Especially now that the day of his return is drawing year very clear.
There's power in fellowship when you think about that On the day of Pentecost acts chapter two and one says on the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together In one place now. I want you to see this think about what I said in the last scripture that the enemy has convinced some of you You don't have to meet together. You don't have to be a part of a local church There were 500 people when the Lord told them to go to Jerusalem and wait. He said I don't want you to build any churches I don't want you to preach any sermons.
I don't want you to lay hands on anybody and pray I don't want you to prophesy I don't want you to do anything I want you to go to Jerusalem and wait until I spend the sin the Holy Spirit to you He told 500 people that and the truth is 120 listen to them think about that for a moment He told them what to do but only 120 listen well when they listened they came together and they did what he said the mighty holy spirit did come They were baptized in the holy spirit and they launched the first church and the first century church And because they were listening to God and they were together and they waited on God and they did it like God said You and I are the benefactors of that today. That's where we come from. That's where church comes from It's all because that group of people understood the power of coming together as believers and doing it like God says So when you think about that a church is healthier when people come together and grow together Churches are healthier when you think about that Ephesians would say it this way in four and one He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. Jesus does that now if you're isolated you're not fitted together You got to get that and I'm not saying this This is what the Bible says if you're isolated and you're not part of the body of Christ and you're not a part of the church You're isolated you're not fitted together.
God wants us fitted together some translations say joined together You got to be close you got to be touching joined together as each part Here it is does its own special work Every one of us have gifts from the Lord all of us don't have the same gift I need your gift you need my gift God called us to do it that way when I think about what it took to put this video together today So we can minister you on Sunday morning because the weather is bad It took a lot of people to do this a lot of people sacrificing their time It was easy for me. I come in I had the sermon I put it together this week and they gave up their time to come out and work on This thing and make it right and do it see it took other people to do that because they have gifts that I don't have and all of you have gifts and Taliesh but if you are disconnected from the body of Christ you're not using those gifts and those talents where here's what he says It helps the other parts grow if we're gonna grow we gotta have other people so that the whole body is healthy and growing And full of love that's the word from the lower right there when you think about what we said this morning and sent to this We are better together. God demonstrates this all through scripture. We're more powerful when we're together We recover faster when we fall when we're together and we accomplish much more as a body of believers together when I think about this I did a video on Friday and I was in the the mission hallway out there I was looking at the 13 flags that represent the 1300 or 13 different countries where we serve about 350 churches financially every month I was thinking about the 50 plus ministries that are represented out in the hall when I was thinking about The the prayer wall for salvation where people have placed their loved ones and their friends name up there that need salvation I was thinking about every time we walked through that hallway We pray over those names and we pray for the ministries represented there And I was thinking about this that we couldn't do everything that we do if you were not partnering with us and working together with us And therefore the principle that God is saying we're better together when we work together.
We can accomplish more I'm so thankful for what you do in this church. I'm thankful for your prayers I'm thankful for your faithful attendance. I'm thankful that you're watching this morning I would pray and hope you would share the video and like the video tell other people about it I'm thankful for your contributions to this church the resources that you have and your faithfulness and giving back to God So we can do the ministries that God's cause because the truth of the matter is For this if I were here alone I was doing it by myself it would be very limited But because all of you had partnered with us and you're doing that we can do all these ministries all over the world And we're sleeping at night during the week the truth of the matter is people are hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ We're a part of that lives are being changed souls are being saved because we partnered together So I just want to talk to somebody out there today your own your own You're isolated. Maybe you've fallen Maybe you've fallen and you're down and it seems like the enemy is wearing you out And there's no hope I want to encourage you but I want to encourage you this way.
God can help you right where you are If you call on the name of lord, he'll certainly help you But I want to encourage you this way find you some good godly people to get around you that can speak in your life That will help you because life is better together You can get up faster quicker if you have someone there with you And here's what I want you to know you can overcome anything If you work with other people god places people in your life to help you overcome He places people in your life to help you be better He places people in your life to help you do what God has called you to do I trust you've learned something from the lord today I want to pray for you right where you are and I want to ask god to test you heavenly father We come to you today. We thank you for this word you've given us. We are better together Throughout the scripture. It's very clear that you never intended for us to do life alone But god sometimes we're hard-headed people sometimes we're stubborn people sometimes we're misagaded people sometimes we're deceived by the enemy We mean well, but we believe the lie So god for whatever the situation may be for those who are trying to live this life independently Who are trying to serve you in an isolated place and and they believe the lie that they can do it on there I pray that this sermon speaks to them I pray your holy spirit would minister to them right now right where they are And I pray god you would touch them and minister in a mighty way And I pray you would send people god to minister to them And I pray god that they would be receptive to receiving the people that you send And I pray that the principle of doing life with other people is better than doing life alone I pray god that you would give us insight through that Give us revelation about that and help us god to reach out and embrace other people And help us to do life like you've created us to do We'll give you the praise honor and the glory for this in Christ and we pray Amen.
I trust god has ministered to you I trust you're doing where you're safe and you're warm God bless you remember to see us on Tuesday night We'll dive a little bit deeper into this I pray I'll see you Tuesday night if I don't I'll see you next Sunday morning And if I don't see you then I hope I see you if the Lord comes I should say I'll see you in heaven. God bless you. Have a wonderful day