United We Stand - Part 1
by Kevin Allen
August 1, 2021 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Psalms 133:1-3, John 8:58, Colossians 2:8-10, Matthew 18:18-20, Genesis 2, Genesis 2:18, Genesis 2:23, Deuteronomy 32:30, 2 Samuel 10:11, Matthew 6, Matthew 6:9, 1 John 1:7, Romans 8:31, Deuteronomy 10:2, Galatians 6:1

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--united-we-stand-part-1
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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I am so thankful for all those who participated in our 20 days of prayer and fasting that come off the heels of a message from a few weeks ago. I have felt those prayers, and I have also seen that God is moving in our church as well. And I think many of you are feeling that. In fact, I've had a few conversations with some of you talking about what we feel going on, that God is, is, is moving in and, and changing some things in our church. And it's because of that that I, I'm going to preach this message today, to hopefully line up what I feel God has laid in my spirit for the rest of the month of August, preparing us for what I believe to be one of our best end of years. That God is, is doing some things here.

Psalms 133 is where we're going to begin in the, the word today. Before I go there, I want to say one more time how much I appreciate everyone who helped to be a part of the musical workshop and the program that was last Sunday. So many of you volunteered and were not able to even being a part of the service because of what you were doing. And I want to tell you that it was a great day. I've received a lot of compliments about all that went on. And from the bottom of pastor's heart, thank you for being a part of that. I appreciate it so much.

Psalms 133, many of your Bibles, if you actually turn and read it, it'll have a little title that sometimes goes along with the psalm, and it says, A Song of a Sense. This was a song as they were going into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. And it says this: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Say that. Say unity. Unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the Duke Hermann descending up on the mountain of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

And asking God to help me today to deliver how I feel like he laid this in my spirit, I want to preach from this title: United We Stand. United We Stand. I'm going to pray one more time before we preach today. Will you help me pray that God's will will be done in this service? Will help me right now? Jesus, he visited with us already. God, your presence is so sweet in this place. Lord, I know the past few weeks you've been dealing with me about what you want to do today. And I pray that I would be obedient to the movement of your spirit, and that we as a church could receive what it is you're wanting to do. Your word has already anointed, God, but I pray that you would anoint our minds and our hearts to receive that anointed word. In Jesus name we pray. And amen.

Something is moving in the spirit. I feel like God is preparing us for the divine breakthrough he intends to do in our church. I believe it. I was wondering if I might have just one person agree with me on that. Yes. Finishing that prayer time that I spoke about a few minutes ago, and following and being obedient, because I always want to be obedient to what God is wanting us to do as a church as he speaks to me, I feel like that I'm supposed to preach and teach a uniting message starting today, to shore up our foundation and, and to convince you that we are better together than we are separated. We must be united in our beliefs if we are going to accomplish all that God has for us to accomplish in these last days. I know that God has placed us here for this season, to do a work not only in our city, in our county, but even in the region in which we are in. In order to do that, we have to go back and make sure that we are all in agreement on what we believe and what the word of God tells us. We must believe that there is one God. We must
 believe that there is one great God, the great I Am of the Old Testament. He has been given a thousand names and titles in scripture, but one God. And in these last days we have the highest name, the greatest name, the mighty name of Jesus Christ. That, that name every knee will bend, every head will bow, and every tongue will proclaim. I know that it is through that name that we are saved. His name links the Old Testament and the New Testament, eternity past and eternity future. John 8 58: Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was I Am. The invisible was made visible, the expressed image of God and his person. In God Christ, Christ in you. The great creator became my savior. And all of the fullness of God dwelleth in him.

Paul, writing to the church of Colossians, chapter 2 verse 8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men and according to the basic principles of the word, and not according to Christ. For in him dwells all of the fullness of the godhead bodily. And ye are complete. You are unified. You are together. In this truth we have to believe that there is one God, and that his name is Jesus. We believe this. We must agree on it. And we can go there today, if you will join me in believing that there is one God, in his name is Jesus.

We must have unity in our nature. We see unity all around us. We see it in the drive to church and the work. We see it as we spend times going out with families and visiting parks. That nature shows us the power of being unified. We only have to open up our eyes to see all that God has around us. We can look at the birds and the ants and the fish and so on, that show us the power of being united. Alone they become easy prey in a quick meal to their predators. But united together, they become an overwhelming force that confuses and intimidates their enemy. And I stand in this pulpit today looking out across this congregation, and what I see is a great army, that when we get together and we unify under one purpose, under one banner that is there, that hell begins to tremble at the thought that you and I might get on the same page. Hell is bothered by the fact. Our enemy the devil is taking notice, and he's going to do everything he can to keep you and I from becoming unified with one purpose, with one heart, with one mind, and one accord. But because it knows this truth, that if we ever fully grasp and understand all the power that is afforded to you and I in this Apostolic truth, that we are a force that hell cannot oppose. Hell cannot allow you and I to agree, because it knows what the word of God declares.

Jesus, when dealing with disagreements among the disciples, gave this truth to them in Matthew 18 verse 18: Assuredly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them. Oh, this is the most often misquoted verse for passage of scripture in Wednesday night Bible study. But I'm here to tell you that Jesus was dealing with disagreements and disunity inside the body when he said that. If you can get together, if you'll fix your problems, if you'll go and make sure you work your differences out, two of you can agree touching one thing. You can bind stuff in heaven. You can bind stuff on earth. And there I'll be in the middle of what you're going on. What he is looking for is a united church. Jesus was telling disciples, you cannot bicker and fight amongst yourselves. You have to work out your differences and get into agreement. So listen to me carefully. You will not make it by yourself. You will not make it by
 yourself. Ladies and gentlemen, we are better together. We are God's creation, and God created us to commune with one another. I am far more better with you than I am without you. And when you and I can be united together for a common goal, we are an unstoppable force. We were not made to live separate and alone. We were not made to live without having contact with each other. But our divine creator put in us, you and I, a desire to commune and fellowship, because he designed us to be better when we're united.

Oh, I'm not going to break down all the stuff that is here, but I'm telling you there were spiritual implications even to the coveted stuff that we've been dealing with. There's something about trying to silence what's going on. There's something about separating and segregating and putting us all alone inside, that the enemy knows that if he can keep us separate, he has a better chance of overcoming us. And I'll rebuke that lie from hell in the name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus. I'll come against that. We cannot be separated in what goes on. And I'm not here saying we're going to buck and go against the government and all this stuff. But I'm here to tell you, I'm going to think real hard when it comes to shutting things down anymore. Not that I'm opposing what's going on, but I have come to understand that we are more powerful when we are together. There is a reason why the word of God says, For Nate, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. Because he knows if you and I can get together and we can touch each other and say, I agree that this is going to happen, there is no opposing force that can come against you and I.

I don't know what's going to happen come fall. I don't know what's going to take place in the next few months. But I'm here to tell you there's going to be another wave that's going to transpire. Let's not be being a prophet up here today that's going to predict doom. But I'm here to tell you the enemy's going to do everything it can to stop the voice of the church. But I'm here to tell you the voice is going to maintain, as long as I got breath in me and the ability to get together with you, we have the ability to overcome anything that comes against us.

We were never made to be alone, submerged in self-interest. We were not created to bite and destroy each other, but rather we were created to agree and unite and to lift each other up. The attack has always been the same: to cause disunity amongst the fellowship. As I was putting together what I wanted to do heading for the fall, I kept coming back to the word unite. Unite: to be together, to unify ourselves, to know that I'm stronger with you than I am by myself. I need you, and you need me.

Genesis chapter 2, we see this story unfold. It says that it's not good for man to be alone. God, our great creator, when forming the universe, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and all living things, at the end of each day he proclaimed it was good. And things were good. The first recorded instance that we have in scriptures of something not being good is when he said this in Genesis 2 18: And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. Which lets me know that in the formation and creation process of you and I, something was different about us. God approached you and I differently than he did all of the rest of creation. Everything else he simply spoke into existence, and it was, and it is still there. But with you and I, he stooped down into the dust of the earth and began to form us. And then most importantly, when all was complete and finished, he breathed into us the breath of life. And from that moment you and I became a living soul, his highest creation, the best thing that he had made. And he looks at that creation and says, it's not good that it's by itself. It needs someone to commune in fellowship. So God in that moment
 created the institution of marriage. It is his invention, and he alone gets to define it. It makes no difference what the Supreme Court tries to do or how it tries to rule on it. It's not his to dictate. It is divine in nature. It was God created and God instituted.

Two different words here we see, and I tried to explain just a minute, that happened when man created man and woman. When God created man and woman, when Adam meets his wife for the first time, we have the first recorded words that man ever spoke. Adam said in verse 23: This is now bone of my bones and flesh and my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out a man. I've heard many a sermons preached out of this passage of scripture. There's so much richness and depth that are here in these words that were there to discover and understand and, and, and spin in depth study. You realize that there are two different Hebrew words used here: the Hebrew word for man-ish in the Hebrew word for woman is she. Two of the letters from both of the words are the same. Only the letter, one difference between the two. The different in man is the Hebrew letter yacht, or the first letter and the holy name. The difference in the word woman is the Hebrew letter hey, the second letter and the divine name. When a man and woman come together as husband and wife, they are the third member that shows up, Jehovah God, the one who makes all things happen. And in the process of holy marriage, God shows up and completes a three-fold court, forming out the holy name, the yad hey vad hey of the Old Testament, the divine name, the one that never spoke of, formed there in creation.

You can't tell me it was an accident that God was doing what he was doing. Because he takes man the ish and woman the issue, and God makes up the rest. And we get Yahshua, or Yahweh, or Jehovah God, or Jesus, as we know him to be today. But I'm here to tell you, husbands and wives, the enemy's fighting to tear you apart. It's fighting on every front to tear you down. Because he understands the divine nature of the marriage union. Then when you go into marriage, you go into a holy covenant that is set aside for God. That's why it's important. That's why we are counter culture in what we believe in this church. Because we don't believe you just go and live and shack up together, because that's not to live in covenant with God. In fact, that's to live in direct disobedience to the word of God. Because God says a man leaves his mother and father and he cleaves to his wife, and those two become one flesh. There's something that happens, it's very spiritual in that moment, that should be honored and ordained by God Almighty. And the only way it's honored and ordained and blessed is when you marry each other. Because doing so is to invite God to be a part of that holy union.

I'm here to speak to anybody in this room, that if you're living outside the marriage covenant but enjoying the benefits of the marriage covenant, you're living in direct contrast to the word of God, and there is no blessing in your life. Please understand my heart. I'm not trying to be mean. In fact, it's quite the opposite, because I love you enough to tell you, this is what the word of God says. If you want to live in a blessed union, then get married and live in that covenant relationship with him. Now in order to get married for married sake, but please know, and there's a lot more to this that I'll, I'll gladly sit down with you, one I want to talk about. But there's something powerful about being united with God. And the enemy's coming against the marriage. The enemy is coming against it. We have now reached the, the, the moment when there are more unmarried households than there are married households in our country. You got to be careful, because that stands in direct contrast to what the word of God wants. Remember, I'm talking about United We Stand. The enemy is constantly pushing his envelope further and further. His
 agenda further and further. We, we know how to avoid the big things in life. I'm not murdering anybody. I'm not killing anybody. I'm not, I'm not hooked on all these stuff over there. But in the small subtle things of life, if the enemy can cause you to trip and stumble in there, he's caused there to be division in the body. And division in the body makes us weaker.

You have to be a part of the family of God. Being a part of the church, the family God, is so important. Our fellowship, or another way to translate that in scripture, is our communion together. This word is used some 20 times in the New Testament. The church is a fellowship of peoples united to Jesus Christ and with one another. No man is an island, because we are better united. Deuteronomy 32 tells us that if God is our rock, one of us can chase a thousand and win. But if two of us are united together, we can put ten thousand to flight. We are stronger together. We are stronger together. Where there is agreement in unity, bad plans can even work. Even the worst plans, when someone's unified together, can work and make things happen. Where there is agreement, it's important. When we unite, brother and sister, we invite the one who framed the worlds into existence to join us.

And I'm here to tell someone today, that if you're facing a devil that's too big for you to fight yourself, I dare you to find somebody in this place that knows how to pray and say, I'm a little weak in this area, but I'm sick and tired of getting my teeth handed to me. And I know you to be a person of prayer. Would you mind if I joined with you for just a little while, to see if the two of us together can help my situation? We are powerful when we unite and when we get synced into what God is doing. Because ladies and gentlemen, don't miss, don't miss this point: he is preparing us for war. He is preparing us for victory. And I stand this pulpit today, and I'm looking at a mighty army, with a mighty army that has unstoppable power, if we will unite under the banner of our Lord and Savior. Something's powerful when we agree to be together.

I know that last year brought so many new things for us. And what I seen happen was that peop, that people started forming new habits in their life. I'm not necessarily frustrated that a new habit formed, but I'm frustrated that we are where we are today, and there are still so many who treat the house of God as if it's optional. That if, if I have the opportunity to go, if it's convenient for me in the moment, then I'll make it a part of my life. But if, if anything else comes up, if I'm worried at all about what might happen to me, then I'll say to God, God it's not all, it's not necessary that I'm there. I can just worship you here. You can, but it's not the same.

Listen to me. Listen, uh, the enemy knows so much about us. He knows the life that we intend to live and the things that we intend to do. And he knows that coming at us with a frontal attack, oftentimes to any person who has had the spirit of God, there we can resist them. I can come at you and you can, you can push me back. He can resist what goes on. We can see the big things happen at us. That's why the enemy, even in scripture, and I can show you this, he changed his tactics, because the frontal assault always ended up with him defeated. But he learned how to sneak attack. Walk that. As we're walking slower, as we're walking through life, as we're just going about our day, he learned to come in and just snipe us. Keep walking. He learned to just come in and just little, little things, just like right there, just plant them, just plant them on. It's just come in just little. Because he knows eventually I can get you distracted enough by just hitting you off this, that something will come up and he can throw something in front of us and calls us
 the trip. Thank you Jerry. If he can get that, well, well, it's, it's, and I know I already said, but it, I'm worried if we get together, man, that, that, that, that, you know, we could get sick. Ladies and gentlemen, we've been dealing with viruses since the Garden of Eden. Our bodies were designed, okay. And there, there are a few of you in this room that I would have a debate with you about this, because of your position and your education level. But I went to school to work in the healthcare division. That's what I did, basic human anatomy. We were made to commune with one another and share germs, because in doing so it builds my immunity and it builds your immunity. And the moment they try to hurt us off to the side, because, hey, it could kill you. Yes, it could kill you. Just like that Big Mac can kill you. Yeah, it can kill you. Just like driving home in that car can kill you. Yes. At some point you're gonna have to weigh out: is this something that's causing me to spiritually stumble in my life? Because the enemy knows, if I can get you off to the side, then I can get you isolated over to where you're just by yourself. He'll let you listen to stuff online, and yes, you can feel the presence of God, but you miss the power of God that happens when you and I get together. There's something powerful that when Holy Ghost-filled individuals come together and begin to worship in God, where he is drawn down to that, and he brings not only his presence, but when we're living in Apostolic truth, he brings his power down where we are. Oh, I'm not about just feeling the presence of God, because I can feel the presence of God anywhere. You can go to any denominal church up and down this street you want to. But if you want to see the power and the demonstration of the Holy Ghost, you've got to go to where truth is being taught. You've got to go to where truth is being lived. You've got to go to where there's unification of the body of Christ.

I believe that everybody's a minister, that everybody has a ministry. You may never do what I do, but that doesn't mean you don't have a ministry, because it takes all of us to make this happen. David, and his wisdom for battle and war when he was fighting as king, at one point he breaks his army up into three divisions, and he and Joab devised a plan in Second Samuel 10. Listen to these words of wisdom. Listen to what he says here in Second Samuel 10 11. Then he said: If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me. But if Amnon are too strong for you, then I'll help you. Oh, how great it is when we can realize, is the body of Christ. I'm doing okay today, but if you're not doing okay, call me. If everything's not well in your world, call me, and I'll come help you. Just like I know that if I get up one day and I get rocked, something happens to me, something happens to my family, out of nowhere somewhere, then my life has go through a transformational moment, that I can reach out to you. Because I may be overcome in that moment by the enemy, but we're two or three together touching one thing. I may be just a little bit weak, but I give me somebody that I know is strong and say, I gotta have you in this moment. Oh, that's what's beautiful about the body of Christ, is we're not by ourselves. But I have you, and you have me, and together we get through this. What wisdom. What would happen if we could unite, if we could commit to each other, and say, I'm here for you. I know that you're here for me. Because we're more effective when we're not, when we're united together. I will never be what I need to be until you are what you need to be. And together, united, we become what God desires for us to be. And there is no enemy that can stop it.

Let me speak to just a minute to all those in the
 room who have acknowledged or accepted a call of God in life. All the ministers here, all the, all the mit, from the yo, from the, from the youngest to the oldest, listen to pastor for just a minute. You must be careful not to chase after being Elijah. You want to stand on that mountaintop and face all the prophets of Baal, laugh at their calamity, and know that God is with you, and stand there alone and called down fire from heaven. Oh, I think that every preacher from the youngest to the oldest, if we're going to be really honest, and as Michael Bardwell says, the house of God's a good place to be honest, quoting his pastor, every one of us, we'd like to, when you Lindsay like to call down fire. Usually it's in traffic, when I'm like, God right now just consume them, vaporize them, so that I can get on through here. Because obviously they're not in tune with you, because they're in my way. Do they not know who I am? The agenda that I have. Anointed man of God. Every preacher, bishop, I'd be cool with it. Just snap our fingers and fire we fall.

The problem with Elijah, the problem with an Elijah mindset, the problem with being alone, is you have no one to encourage you when things don't go your way. Elijah comes in off from the demonstration of the power of God, and he let some bdi little woman tell him, I'm going to kill you. And he runs off and hides in a cave. And I'm just like, what in the world? You just call down fire, and you're gonna let some crazy woman tell you she's gonna kill you? And there he is. He's, he's stole up in a cave, just sucking his thumb, like it's over. There's no, I'm all alone, nobody knows trouble. And God's going, hey, get out of the cave. I got 7,000 that you could have united with. But you chose to go alone. Listen to me, man a God, woman of God. Don't you dare go down the path of Elijah. Because when you do, all Elijah did from that moment forward was name his replacements. It's in the word of God. Go look at it. God got him out of the cave, first aiming a little bit, said, fine, go over here and anoint this one. Put that one in charge. You do this. Because I'm done, because I'm not going to work with anybody that works by themself.

It was Elisha. It was Elisha. It was Elijah's replacement. Elisha looked at the woman who had lost her husband, and their two sons were going to be sold. And she said, the answer's in the house. I'm here to tell you, the answer's in the house. Because it's in the house we get together. It's in the house that there's strength. It's in the house that there's unity. It's in the house of God that I have you. It's in the house of God that you have me. And together we become an overwhelming force. Elijah surrounded himself with people in ministry, the school the prophets, working and uniting with those who had the same goal, building the kingdom of God. His miracles doubled. His influence spanned generations. And there was still life in his bones when he died. When the old boy fell in his grave, you pop back up. Because I'm telling you something: powerful when you unite together.

There's room at the cross draw. We've sang those songs. We've heard it, if you grew up in Pentecost Apostolic churches, which is just the anthem that was there. But yet we seem to always end up at the foot of the totem pole of me, where there is only room for one. I believe that's why in the word of God the phrase one another appears 59 times in the New Testament alone. Jesus said, love one another. Paul said, honor one another, forgive one another, submit to one another, encourage one another. James said, confess your sins one to another, pray for another, that you may be healed. Jesus taught us in Matthew 6, when he was asked, Lord teach us to pray, he said, in this manner, oh pray my father. What did he say? Pray our father. Because we have to be united in what we do. First John, 1 John
 says, but if I walk in the light. No, he said, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ the Son cleanses us from all sin. Paul is talking to the church at Rome, to the church of Rome, to the church and Rome, to the church. He wrote this. He says, What then shall we say these things? If God is for me, if God is for us, who can be against us? If we are united together with God, what possibly can overcome us? Because we have all power, all authority, everything we need together. When I have you and you have me and we agree, there is nothing that can come against us. United we stand. As heaven, as heaven's anthem, they were united in the upper room, in one mind and one accord, when the Spirit came and the New Testament church was born.

You can look at this next part. You can look it up if you want. There's a whole lot written about it online for you to read. But in the Jewish Talmud there's a tradition and a story and an explanation, if you will, about what took place when Moses comes down off the mountain with those tablets. Moses is there. He has led them out, brought them out of their enslavement. Moses, being obedient to the servant of God, leads them out to the mountain. And Moses goes up to spend some time with God. And we find just a few verses later they're like, we don't know what happened to this fellow Moses, but you make us some gods, Aaron, that we can serve. While Moses is up there, God is writing on the tablets his ten commandments, the beginning of what God is desiring for those people to do, because he has proven himself to be a savior for them. He's proven, because that's what God does. God will always prove himself first. And then after he proves himself, he comes back and says, I really want you to be mine. But for you to be mine, I've got a few things I want you to do. I desire for you to do. Always, always, always, always, always, you cannot read that word of God and I come up with the fact that he'll do it. And then he comes back and says, this is what I want you to do. I showed you who I am. Now I want you to become who I want you to be.

While he's up there, my imagination, you know I have a big one, why he's up there, I can just see God. I see Moses. And Moses, in my mind, he's got the two tablets and he's just like, and God's just writing on me. He's like, this is the coolest thing. No other gods. That's a good one. He has, don't covet, don't steal. Yeah, he's like looking at him like, this is awesome. He's going to carry him down. And then God's like, hey, uh, I need you to go down, because they're, they're dancing naked around a cow down there, and I'm mad. And I can just see Moses going, dancing naked around a cow? So he's going down there. And as he approaches what goes on, all of a sudden righteous indignation comes upon Moses. Now he's coming out of a powerful move of God, and he comes in to see once again the fallen broken nature of mankind. And it says he throws those tablets down and breaks them. And of course that whole thing takes place. And you know he's looking at his assistant like, what's wrong with you? One of the funniest passages in all scripture. And he's like, I don't know. I mean, they gave me the earrings and bracelets to throw it in. This cow popped out to die. And Moses is just like, this is my version, he's just like, bust it up, throws it in the water, and makes them all drink it. This just, this whole, this whole scene. And then he's like, I'm going back up the mountain. There better not be any more cows made. Keep your clothes on and stop dancing. It goes back up.

But there's this tradition, Jewish tradition, based off of a literal reading of scripture. You can look it up. You can see it. This
 in Deuteronomy 10 and 2, because he talks about, tells Moses. Go back and read Deuteronomy 10 verse 2: to take the pieces and put them in the ark. The Jews believe this, that if you, if you go in and you lift up the lid of the mercy seat and you look inside the ark, you see the broken pieces laid beside the hole. The broken and the hole laying side by side. And to me, I believe this is a picture of what the church is supposed to be. It's a place where the broken and the whole come in together and worship side by side. That here I come in, and maybe things are good in my life and my walk with God is strong, so I am whole today. But you are here, and things are not the way they need to be. And you've stubbed your toe a time or two. Or you've dropped a few commitments in your life, and things are just not the way they're supposed to be. Or maybe life is, has dealt you quite a blow, and you have been knocked backwards. And you, all you have is broken pieces. But we come together here, united under one banner, that here I come and I gain strength. Here I come and I can be in the presence of the Almighty. Here I know I'm with people of like precious faith. Here I have the opportunity for someone to help me with my circumstances in life. And in the house of God, it's a beautiful picture of the broken and the whole.

I wish that today that the overcomers in the room could get together with the overcome, that you be willing to say, I'm doing all right right now, but if I can help you, if I can pray with you. That's why I love that at this church, when it comes to the end of a message and this alter area feels, it's not just the broken who come down here and pour out their heart before God, but even those who are not broken, who are whole, who are okay right now, say, I remember a time when I was broken. I remember a time when I needed God. And I refused to let my brother or my sister stand down there by themselves. But I'll take what I have in me and go and join with them. Because there's something powerful that happens when we unite together.

As it get ready to close, so I was thinking about where I know God has taken us as a church. Galatians 6 and 1 says: Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. I was thinking to myself, God, I know the things that you have, you have placed in my mind for us to do as a church, where, where you want us to go and how you want us to make an impact into our community. But I'm realizing that the only way we're going to see everything transpire the way it's supposed to transpire is when we get together on the same page. When our agendas become the same. When our focus becomes the same. When our burden becomes the same. When our prayer life becomes the same.

One more story from Jewish tradition. It's a famous story called The Field of Brotherly Love. Long ago in the holy city of Jerusalem there lived two brothers who earned their living as being farmers. The older brother was unmarried and lived alone. The younger brother lived with his wife and four children. The brothers loved each other dearly and worked together very well. Together they plowed, planted, harvested their crops. And they cut the wheat and shared equally the produce of their joint labors. One night during the harvest, the older brother lay down to sleep, but his thoughts were troubled. He said, here I am by myself, all alone, with no family, no children. I don't need to feed or clothe anyone except myself. But my younger brother, he has a responsibility of a large family. It's not right to share a harvest equally. After all, he needs much more than I do. And at midnight he arose, to take a pile of sheaves from his crop, and he carried them to his brother's
 side of the field. He left him there, and he turned and went home. What he didn't know was, that very same night his brother also could not sleep, because he was thinking about his older brother. And he was thinking to himself, how blessed I am with a large and loving family. When I grow old, my children will take care of me. But what would happen to my brother in his old age? Who would take care of him? His needs are greater than mine. Isn't fair that divide the crops equally. So he arose and took a load of sheaves over to his brother's side of the field. And he dropped them off and returned home and went to sleep. When the morning came, both brothers were amazed to find their crops exactly as they had been the night before. Both of them wondering, how is this possible? What took place?

The following night, the same exact thing happened. When the morning came, once again they were amazed to find that they had the same number of shoes as they did the night before. On the third night, each brother once again carried a pile of sheaves to his brother's land. It just so happened that they were doing it at the exact same night. It was a clear night. The moon was shining bright as sunlight. They seen each other. They met at the top of a hill. Suddenly, silently, each understood what had happened. They dropped their sheaves. They embraced, weeping with gratitude and happiness and in love. And the tradition goes this way, that God saw the act of love between the two brothers and bless the place where they met that night. And in the course of time, King Solomon built the holy temple, a form of peace and love, where brotherhoodly and love flows, on that same spot. In fact, some tradition says this: the Jews believe that that is the example of the cherubs facing each other on top of the ark of the covenant, extending out love one for the other, and the place where mercy is extended.

See, there's something about when I get so focused inside myself that I miss the greater thing that God's trying to do. But when I can turn myself towards uniting with you, and you in turn turn towards uniting with me, that they're in the midst, God says, that's where I want to be, and that is where mercy flows. United we stand. I'm better off with you. And whether you like it or not, you're better off with me. I wonder if we might join together. I wonder if the broken and the whole, if the overcoming and the overcome, can meet together down here. And I wonder if we would just allow God to walk between us, that we wouldn't pray selfish prayers today, but we would pray prayers that, God, you see my brother, you see my sister. I don't know all that they're going through or facing, but I want to be there for them. And then if we as the body of Christ, united together in purpose, could just see what God wants to do.

So this altar is open. And I invite all that would come down, the broken and the whole, those that live victorious and those that feel defeated. Will you come today? Will you allow God to do something special in our church? This should be a service that unites us. This should be something that draws us in closer together. I, I have a very good understanding of what's going to take place the rest of this month, on Sundays and Wednesdays. But we have to get this part right today. So they're going to sing something. And I'm wondering if we could come down and just focus on being united together in prayer with each other. Will you come?