The Tension: Staying United in a Divided World

• Church Division and Unity [00:35:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the prevalence of division in churches and denominations, contrasting it with the biblical call for unity, and shares a personal anecdote about his brother leaving church due to a conflict over music selection.
• The Trinity as a Model for Unity [00:42:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus' prayer in John 17 for unity is based on the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, urging believers to emulate this supernatural oneness.
• Koinonia (Fellowship) [00:44:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines the Greek word 'koinonia' as the deep, supernatural relationships and mutual care seen in the early church in Acts 2, including sharing property and praying together.
• The Trinity and Supernatural Relationships [00:42:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the mystery of the Trinity as unique and uncreated, urging believers to rest in that mystery and pursue supernatural relationships, friendships, and love within the church body.
• Unity as Evangelism [00:45:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that church unity is the primary driver for growth and evangelism, citing Acts 2 and the concept of 'koinonia' (supernatural fellowship) as evidence that draws the lost to Christ.
• The Glory of God as the Source of Unity [00:47:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines God's glory as the key to unity, illustrating it through personal anecdotes of miraculous healings and baptisms where believers 'saw' Jesus, melting away division and prejudice.
• Love as the Driver of Unity [00:55:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies love as the essential power for unity, urging the congregation to prioritize God's love and the salvation of others over personal preferences, political parties, or past hurts.
• Unity as a Growth Process [00:54:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor clarifies that unity is not immediate perfection but a process of growth, encouraging believers to adopt Jesus' mindset to overcome natural prejudice and petty nature.
• Love as the Driver of Unity [00:55:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines love as the primary force for unity, citing Jesus' prayer and the Great Commission, urging the congregation to prioritize God's work over personal preferences.
• Keeping It Real / Vulnerability [00:57:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares personal struggles (anxiety, depression) to illustrate that 'keeping it real' means admitting flaws and weaknesses, allowing God's grace to shine through vulnerability.
• Love as Patient and Kind [00:59:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using 1 Corinthians 13, the pastor instructs the congregation to be patient with those outside their 'box' and kind to 'weirdos,' avoiding judgment.
• Avoiding Gossip [01:02:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines gossip as rejoicing in wrongdoing and contrasts it with bearing with others, using the 'telephone game' analogy to show how secondhand information distorts truth.
• Bearing with Others [01:03:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that love bears all things, urging believers to give God time to change others rather than demanding immediate perfection or spreading complaints.
• Conflict Resolution in Life Groups [01:04:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor advises resolving 'personality odors' and conflicts privately within life groups rather than publicly, emphasizing the role of leaders in guiding members.
• Hope and Belief in Others [01:05:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor encourages believers to 'believe the best' about others, hoping for God's transformation in their lives, illustrated by a story of evangelism in Uganda.
• Evangelism and Transformation [01:07:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a story of sharing the gospel with a man named Spartacus, resulting in the salvation of the family and their transformation.
• Breaking Prejudices and 'Boxes' [01:09:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor prays for God to help him and the congregation break out of their own 'boxes' of preconceived ideas and prejudices to see God's work.
• The Gospel and Salvation [01:11:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines the core message of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, inviting listeners to pray for salvation.

• Sermon Illustration [00:33:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces his son Will Kranz, a 6'5" 250lb bodybuilder, as a 'baby boy' and a 'real deal' pastor, using this to celebrate the church's leadership before transitioning to the sermon topic.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about his brother who started going to church, only to leave after the church had a fight over music selection and ran the pastor off, illustrating how division hurts people.
• Sermon Illustration [00:36:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts attending a men's group where they discussed the biblical story of Cornelius and Peter, using it as an analogy for God breaking people out of their 'boxes' or preconceived ideas.
• Sermon Illustration [00:37:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his blood pressure spiking over 20 points when reading about division in America, and mentions his habit of quitting watching the news to avoid being 'jacked up' and divided.
• Sermon Illustration [00:39:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the example of a family reunion where one person wears a rainbow alphabet shirt and another wears a MAGA hat to illustrate how people get annoyed by differences, noting that while these extremes exist, most people are not that radical.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a story about a staff member named Jeff Ward who was dying; during prayer, the monitors went up, and Jeff was released the next day eating breakfast, illustrating God's glory and power.
• Sermon Illustration [00:49:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a recent baptism of a young man who was in immigration detention; just before the baptism, he was supernaturally released, and his path to citizenship opened up, illustrating God's intervention.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the 'Go Bananas' series during the 2009 recession, where the church collected cards of hurts, collected offerings, and turned their atriums into 'Costcos' to feed the hungry, resulting in thousands of dollars and people moving to the church.
• Sermon Illustration [01:00:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about being cut off by a driver he initially thought was a 'chucklehead' (someone driving recklessly), only to discover the driver was a student leader rushing to invite someone to the prom, illustrating how perspective changes judgment.
• Sermon Illustration [01:06:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a trip to Uganda where he met a family living in a mud hut with no furniture. He describes the father, 'Spartacus,' who was muscular but malnourished, and how the family responded positively to the gospel message.
• Sermon Illustration [01:06:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts meeting a man named Spartacus, a muscular farmer in a mud hut with no furniture, who was fighting poverty. After sharing the gospel, the family accepted Christ, and later photos showed their transformation and joy.

• Pastoral Charge [00:34:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to commit to praying for him (Will Kranz) and his family every day.
• Pastoral Charge [00:47:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to make a conscious decision on how to respond to potential offense within the church community.
• Pastoral Charge [00:47:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to make a conscious decision on how to respond to potential offense within the church community.
• Pastoral Charge [00:55:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > Prioritize God's work and the salvation of others over personal preferences, political affiliations, and past hurts.
• Pastoral Charge [00:56:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > Persist in loving others despite external distractions and cultural influences.
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > Exercise patience and refrain from judging those who are different.
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > Extend kindness to those perceived as different or 'weird' within the church community.
• Pastoral Charge [01:00:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > Avoid arrogance, rudeness, and irritability in interactions.
• Pastoral Charge [01:02:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > Cease engaging in gossip and secondhand judgment.
• Pastoral Charge [01:04:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > Resolve conflicts directly with the offending party rather than complaining to others.
• Pastoral Charge [01:04:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > Join a life group to work out conflicts and seek guidance from leaders.
• Pastoral Charge [01:05:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > Actively protect the unity of the church.

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:17:51] In your word you say if my people by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways I will hear from heaven and I will heal the land in our own hearts as individuals we humble ourselves today in your presence we know it's easy to show up when something has looked like maybe we've gotten distracted anxiety we've forgotten to thank you for the many many blessings and good gifts in our life but father we choose right now
[00:18:44] look to you choose right now to make you the lord of our life to humble ourselves in your presence that is such a beautiful gift thank you for your presence lord thank you for your presence lord
[00:19:02] how we love you we surrender ourselves in two because we trust you you're good you're holy your ways are higher your thoughts are greater we'd be lost without you God we thank you for the price that was paid on the cross for hope life freedom we thank you and how we love you
[00:19:35] had claimed its victory had given up his life the darkest day in history A cross they made for sinners, for every curse His blood atoned.
[00:20:25] One final breath and it was finished, but not the end we could have known.
[00:20:37] For the earth is yours.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:20:38] Church, Father God, we come to you today.

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:25:05] Still our minds.
[00:25:07] Let us not just go through the motions of singing the words of this, but just with our whole heart, we profess this today.
[00:25:17] You are whole.
[00:25:21] You are set apart.
[00:25:22] There is none like you.
[00:25:25] There is none worthy of my praise.
[00:25:30] You are holy.
[00:25:32] You are holy, God.
[00:25:36] There is none that can do what you do.
[00:25:40] There is no one who has loved me like you have loved me.
[00:25:47] There is no one who has the power that you have.
[00:25:50] Today, Lord, we come and we say, all hail King Jesus.
[00:25:54] I pray that that wouldn't just be words that come out of our mouth, but that that would be the cry of our heart.
[00:26:00] Today, we worship you as our king, as our savior, as our father, as our friend.
[00:26:07] Today, Lord, we worship you, King Jesus.
[00:26:14] All hail.
[00:26:16] A day is coming.
[00:26:17] Every knee will bow, Lord.
[00:26:19] Every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
[00:26:24] And so today, we pray that we wouldn't wait for the moment where we have no choice.
[00:26:29] Today, out of choice, we come and we worship you as our Lord and our Savior.
[00:26:35] Thank you, Father.
[00:26:38] Thank you for who you are.
[00:26:40] We love you and we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
[00:26:43] Amen.
[00:26:45] Amen, amen.
[00:26:46] Hey, let's praise, let's celebrate King Jesus, amen?
[00:26:51] Go ahead, turn around, greet your neighbor.
[00:26:54] Let them know you sound amazing this morning.
[00:27:02] It's good to be together, church.
[00:27:04] Hey, I want to take a second and welcome those of us joining for the first time.
[00:27:10] If it is your very first time here, we're so glad you're here.
[00:27:15] We really do.
[00:27:16] We're aware there's people checking out the church for the first time.
[00:27:19] So if it's your first time here, we want you to know you're welcome.
[00:27:22] We're glad you're here.
[00:27:24] Can we make some noise and welcome our first time guests?
[00:27:30] We're so glad you're joining us today.
[00:27:32] Hey, let us know you're checking out the church for the first time.
[00:27:35] You can do that at the Next Steps area or at any of our New to the Cove areas.
[00:27:42] We'd love to answer any questions you might have about the church, and we'd love to welcome you.
[00:27:46] We have a small gift to say thank you for coming as well.
[00:27:49] Hey, you're joining us at a great time.
[00:27:51] We've got movies at the Cove starting next week.
[00:27:55] Come on.
[00:27:56] So that means this week is Build Week.
[00:28:00] And what that means is we're going to be transforming our atriums across all of our campuses to be an engaging setup complete with a Toy Story theme.
[00:28:11] Has anyone seen the new Toy Story, Toy Story 5?
[00:28:13] Anyone gone and grabbed?
[00:28:14] Okay, my kids just went and saw it.
[00:28:16] I haven't seen it yet.
[00:28:17] We watched the first four Toy Stories.
[00:28:19] We want to make sure we're ready for church is what we're making sure.
[00:28:22] Out in the atrium, we're going to be doing an engaging theme around Toy Story.
[00:28:27] And what we do is we create an environment that's fun for families, fun for kids.
[00:28:32] In the messages, in the services themselves, we actually use movie clips, not Toy Story.
[00:28:38] We'll use adult movies, but we use movie clips to demonstrate spiritual deeper truths of why these movies make us feel a certain way.
[00:28:47] And maybe you're hearing about all this and you've never been to a Movies at the Cove.
[00:28:51] Can I just see a show of hands?
[00:28:52] How many of you have never been for a Movies at the Cove before you haven't been here over summer?
[00:28:56] Okay, there's quite a handful of you.
[00:28:58] Maybe you hear this and you're like, I don't get it.
[00:29:00] Can I just tell you, we've been doing this nine years now.
[00:29:03] And the first time we did it, I didn't get it either.
[00:29:06] I was like, the leadership described it.
[00:29:10] I was like, that sounds weird.
[00:29:11] I don't understand what you're talking about.
[00:29:13] I remember I was hanging Legos.
[00:29:15] We did Legos.
[00:29:16] So I was hanging these giant foam Legos that we built until two in the morning up in the atrium rafters.
[00:29:24] This is the dumbest thing ever.
[00:29:26] You know, I mean, what are we doing here?
[00:29:28] And then I didn't get it until Movies at the Cove actually started.
[00:29:33] And by the second week, I remember there was this little seven-year-old girl.
[00:29:36] She was standing outside at the front entrance, just looking out of the parking lot, waiting.
[00:29:41] I said, did you lose your parents?
[00:29:43] You know, what are you waiting for?
[00:29:44] And she said, I invited my friend, and I want to see his face when he sees the setup.
[00:29:52] And yeah, it was awesome.
[00:29:53] This little seven-year-old boy comes running up.
[00:29:55] And the first thing he says, he came and he looked around.
[00:29:58] He went, oh, that was it.
[00:30:00] That was all he said.
[00:30:02] And he ran to the next area.
[00:30:03] He went, oh my goodness.
[00:30:05] And this kid, this kid, it was his family's first time at the Cove.
[00:30:09] And they ran around and they were, the family was just chasing after him.
[00:30:12] I said, okay, I think I'm starting to get it a little more what we're doing here.
[00:30:16] This is an amazing time.
[00:30:17] Typically summer is a time the churches get empty.
[00:30:20] Everyone's out on the lake or on the golf course.
[00:30:23] and this is a time that actually some of our highest attended weeks are over summer.
[00:30:28] We don't lose momentum over summer because of Movies at the Cove and specifically because of your willingness to invite your friends, to invite your neighbors.
[00:30:37] Say, hey, come check this out.
[00:30:38] It's really a different way of doing church.
[00:30:41] And so I wanna say thank you for being faithful in the invitation.
[00:30:44] I wanna encourage you, grab some invites on your way out.
[00:30:47] This is the perfect time to invite your coworkers, invite your neighbors, invite your family invite your friends. We've also got yard signs out there. Those yard signs are for you. You can grab a yard sign. Someone's excited about the yard signs. Okay, you're going to get some yard signs
[00:31:02] out there. Grab a yard sign. We've got plenty. We'll replenish them. Anywhere you see a yard sign around here, just grab a yard sign. You can take it home, throw it up in your yard. And I ask that
[00:31:15] you really pray about who's God putting in your path to invite to Movies at the Cove. I want to also stop and say, thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your faithfulness. We've got a busy
[00:31:24] summer. We just got back from student camp where our students had an amazing time. We saw salvations. We saw the Holy Spirit moving. Your tithe and offering and your faithfulness and generosity goes towards how do we reach people? How do we engage people? How do we raise up our
[00:31:43] students? How do we meet needs in our community? And so I want to say thank you for your generosity and your faithfulness in giving.
[00:31:50] You can give in the silver boxes or you can give online at covechurch.org slash give.
[00:31:55] Hey, we're closing up our series today called The Tension.
[00:31:59] It's been all about our core values and the tension that comes with the values that God has given this church.
[00:32:04] We've talked about, we love God passionately.
[00:32:07] We love people unconditionally.
[00:32:09] We take the Bible seriously and that we are generous.
[00:32:12] And today we're gonna be talking about that we stay united and we keep it real.
[00:32:16] Two of my favorite core values.
[00:32:18] And to talk about that, we've got a special blessing for us.
[00:32:23] We've got our founding pastor, Mike Madding, who actually put together these core values many years ago.
[00:32:29] He's going to come up, and he's going to share with us.
[00:32:31] So please make some noise and welcome our founding pastor to the stage, Mike Madding.

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:32:49] Thought I did. All right.
[00:32:51] I'm out of practice. Y'all pray for me.
[00:32:53] Help him, Lord. Help him.
[00:32:55] What's going on over here?
[00:32:58] You're trying to get your son to come?
[00:33:00] Will Kranz, would you come sit with your dad, please?
[00:33:03] Come on. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Will Kranz. Steve, would you and Kathy stand up?
[00:33:10] Stand up, you two. Come on. Get on your feet. Give it up for Steve until he stands up. Look at that.
[00:33:20] Yeah, you're a baby boy. Steve Kranz makes Will look like a shrimp. Man, I'm just going to tell you. This is the strongest guy I know right here. Six foot four, five, 250 pounds of solid muscle.
[00:33:33] So, hey, since we're talking about Will Kranz instead of Jesus, I just want to say, I do want to celebrate.
[00:33:44] We have got one of the best pastors you could ever imagine.
[00:33:47] Can we celebrate that?
[00:33:50] This guy's a real deal.
[00:33:52] He's been here since he's 12.
[00:33:54] He's been on staff for 16 years.
[00:33:56] One of the best pastors, I believe, in the whole United States.
[00:34:00] We're so blessed.
[00:34:01] So blessed.
[00:34:02] And so I'm going to challenge you all on this one.
[00:34:05] I pray for Will like every day.
[00:34:07] Well, I'll tell you, like every day, because nobody prays every day, right?
[00:34:10] I mean, do you ever, your devotions, okay, we try.
[00:34:12] But anyway, you know what I mean.
[00:34:14] How many of you would agree with me, and this is a challenge, that you'll pray for Will and his family every day?
[00:34:20] Would you put your hand up and just say, I'll take that challenge.
[00:34:22] Every day, as best I can.
[00:34:23] I may miss a day, but I will pray for my pastor every day.
[00:34:28] Because it's a gift.
[00:34:29] Will is a huge gift.
[00:34:31] You know, I'm just one of you guys now.
[00:34:32] I used to be paid to be good.
[00:34:35] Now I'm just like y'all, I'm good for nothing.
[00:34:38] I get to be a part of the Cove Church, and I love it, love everything about it.
[00:34:43] I'm doing all five of our habits.
[00:34:45] You know, they're awesome.
[00:34:47] The life group serving, coming to the weekly service, the generosity piece, and the daily devotion.
[00:34:54] I'm just getting to live all those things that we do, and I'm telling you, we have an awesome church.
[00:35:00] Now, I want to talk to you today about these two core values that we have that Will was talking about, to stay united and to keep it real.
[00:35:08] Those came out really before, like the staying united came before we even had this church going on.
[00:35:15] It goes way back to me noticing what many of you notice.
[00:35:18] There's so much division in churches, right?
[00:35:21] They divide all the time.
[00:35:22] There's so many denominations.
[00:35:24] There are so many church fights.
[00:35:26] and people, their lives can be shifted by that, right?
[00:35:30] How many of you have seen that, maybe in your own life or in someone else's life?
[00:35:35] Go ahead and raise your hand.
[00:35:36] That you know someone, you saw it happen and it can really mess up, it can really hurt people.
[00:35:42] And it becomes personal when it's your own family.
[00:35:45] Like my brothers, they never went to church.
[00:35:47] I call home to Arkansas and I find out I got a brother going to church, it blew my mind.
[00:35:51] Kind of like that guy, you're like, God could never reach him, right?
[00:35:54] We have that thought.
[00:35:55] And then he's going to church, and God's working in his life in a great way.
[00:35:59] I called to check on him a couple months later.
[00:36:01] He's not in church.
[00:36:02] I said, what happened?
[00:36:03] He's not in church.
[00:36:04] Okay, this is the thing.
[00:36:05] Yeah, that's where I was.
[00:36:06] Oh, I called.
[00:36:07] He's not going.
[00:36:08] The church got in a fight over music selection, and they ran the pastor off.
[00:36:12] And he was really connected with that pastor, and he's never really settled back in.
[00:36:18] So this stuff really matters, this unity.
[00:36:22] And I got to tell you that God's kind of doing something miraculous because I went to the men's group, Saturday men's group.
[00:36:29] Shout out to that group.
[00:36:30] I had gone to it when they have it here at the campus on the third Saturday of the month.
[00:36:36] But I went and checked them out, and they're meeting in town, about 20 guys outside.
[00:36:40] And I just realized, oh, my gosh, at one point I said, hey, guys, man, what we're talking about right now, this is all my message.
[00:36:47] You're writing my message.
[00:36:47] Thank you.
[00:36:48] Appreciate that.
[00:36:49] Because we were talking about Terrell, who I know is here also.
[00:36:53] Terrell, look, where are you at, man?
[00:36:54] Give it up for Terrell.
[00:36:55] I saw you somewhere.
[00:36:56] There you go.
[00:36:57] Life group leader extraordinaire.
[00:37:00] The group was talking about how God was trying to answer this guy's prayer.
[00:37:05] Cornelius was praying, you know, hey, show me God.
[00:37:08] And so God is trying to send Peter to go to Cornelius' house to tell him about Jesus.
[00:37:15] and he's got to do something first in Peter's life because Peter has got to hang up.
[00:37:20] He's got a box that he's living in and even told God, he said, I would never go to a Gentile's house.
[00:37:28] I would never do that.
[00:37:29] And so God had to break him out of that box.
[00:37:31] And so we were talking about, what is your box?
[00:37:36] What is your preconceived ideas?
[00:37:38] What is it like politics came out, which we're not gonna talk about, take a break, you know?
[00:37:43] As a matter of fact, I was looking up division in America today as I was researching for this message, and I started having symptoms of a heart attack, you know.
[00:37:54] And I happened to have a blood pressure cuff.
[00:37:57] I put it on.
[00:37:58] My blood pressure went up over 20 points on high and low numbers just reading about the division in America today.
[00:38:06] That's a fact, man.
[00:38:07] Just like we're all going to kill ourselves if we're not careful.
[00:38:11] There is so much division, and there's so much to be divided over, and it's in all kind of areas.
[00:38:19] I mean, it's not just, you know, there's the race thing, the immigration thing, immigrants.
[00:38:25] I mean, the dishwasher, I didn't know that was going to be one, but, you know, there's a right and a wrong way.
[00:38:31] There are people that know how to load a dishwasher, and there's people like me.
[00:38:35] I'm just like, get it all in there.
[00:38:37] I don't care if we throw it from a distance, shut the door, and wash it, you know, so I really don't care, but they're all, I saw a guy wearing a buffalo t-shirt recently, it was like, no buffalo,
[00:38:49] I was like, what is that, I didn't know we were against buffalo, it was not the bison thing either, which is a whole other story, that's a group too, do you say bison or buffalo, but it's like, no,
[00:38:59] I had, I was like, what is it, oh, buffalo, they don't want buffalo on, you know, BLM land, whatever. I mean, it's just so many areas to be divided on and divided over. And, you know,
[00:39:13] whether you're old school or modern day cool or, you know, old people, I know old people, I get it now because I am one. We are in a weirdo group. I get that. I'm understanding that now.
[00:39:27] We get annoyed. We drive slow. We forget where we're going. I love to drive along with my blinkers just on. I don't know why. It's just on, you know. I turned at some point, or I thought about it,
[00:39:40] okay? And I'll turn it off when I get home, you know. It's just like, all these, you know, maybe you've been at that family reunion where, this really, I've seen it play out, where somebody's
[00:39:53] got the whole alphabet rainbow, you know, thing on, and somebody else got a MAGA hat. Have you been to that reunion. That's really a thing. It really happens. And here's the good news is that
[00:40:05] none of us are that radically extreme, but what happens in politics is you really end up voting for a very extreme person, and then the news makes it even more extreme. You know, one of the things
[00:40:17] that after 25 years of preaching that I'm known for is to challenge men, all you old men, to stop watching the news. And I have, yeah, I have men come up to me all the time and say, Mike,
[00:40:33] when you first said that, I was so angry, but finally God got through. I quit watching the news and it has changed my life. That's what men have told me. Because their job is to sell ads, you
[00:40:45] know, to get you jacked up and to get you divided. And the good news in that research is we're not as divided as we seem, but everything seems to drive us into these groups and into our corner and into
[00:40:57] our box. We talked about podcasters out there with all of their extreme views, all of these extreme ideas, and we called it brainwashing. And I love what Terrell is very famous for calling it, who's, or asking, who's washing your brain? Can I just ask you to think about that? Who are you
[00:41:18] listening to, what weirdo, you know, is in your life. And so, church, let's see what God has to say about it. Now, what we need to do is adopt this basic, deep respect for unity that Jesus had.
[00:41:32] And you see it when he prays for you and I, just before he goes to the cross, just before he died for our sins, he prays in John 17, and he says, Father, I don't ask for these only, talking about
[00:41:44] his disciples and followers at that time but also for those who will believe in me through their word talking about us that's you and i that they may all be one just as you father are in me and
[00:41:58] i'm in you they they may also be in us this is his big prayer request right before the cross is that we would have lived in the supernatural state of unity of oneness now you know when this
[00:42:15] is how preachers write messages. When you read a verse like that, then I'm thinking, what in the wide world of sports is this talking about? You know, this he and you and me, and what does that
[00:42:27] really look like? And the example Jesus gives is the Trinity, which in a way doesn't help at all, right? Because who here will say, I really get the Trinity? You can't understand the Trinity fully.
[00:42:39] This is the idea that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons and one person, boom, blows your mind. Why? Some of you are uncomfortable with that. I love it. Because what it says is that our God is unlike anything else. He is uncreated. He is not just unconventional.
[00:42:58] He is unique in all of creation. And there is nothing in science or in history or in anything you will run into in this life that compares to the Trinity, because God is eternal, and he's
[00:43:13] beyond our ability to fully understand. And so I would say rest in that, enjoy the mystery of the Trinity. And what Jesus is saying, in the same way, I want you to have supernatural relationships
[00:43:27] with one another. I want you to have supernatural friendships in my family, in the church, in the body of Christ. I want you to be supernaturally loving, supernaturally protective. I want you to be out of the world when it comes to caring and being helpful and hopeful and forgiving.
[00:43:48] Forgive as you've been forgiven and to be crazy about your generosity. And so we see this begin to happen in Acts chapter 2 when the church just blasts onto the scene. There's this beautiful picture in that chapter of how they're loving each other so deeply. They're selling their stuff,
[00:44:08] their extra property and other things, and they're giving so that everyone in the church is cared for. Everyone had a need. They're being loved on. They're hanging out together, praying together, eating together, studying scripture together. And the Bible word for that
[00:44:25] in the Greek is koinonia, and it's hard to translate it. We just say fellowship, but it's supernatural fellowship. Now, this kind of unity is so rare that when people see it, they're drawn to it. Jesus went on to pray that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I'm in
[00:44:46] you, that they also may be in us, look, here's why, so that the world may believe that you've sent me.
[00:44:52] You see, when people see a church that loves like this, it enables them to believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
[00:45:02] It restores their faith in the church.
[00:45:07] Now, I've been a pastor for about 40 years, and I've seen that churches will do almost anything to try to grow.
[00:45:13] We can be obsessed about that.
[00:45:14] There are conferences about growing your church, books about it, ministries, organizations, whose single focus is how to get the churches to grow.
[00:45:23] and the secret is staring us in the face right here. Focus on unity, because unity draws people.
[00:45:30] It reaches the lost. It is attractive, and I believe that God sends people to the church that he can trust to take care of his people, and that's why some churches grow. God uses unity
[00:45:44] in the church to prove to lost people that we're really his followers. I was talking about this with some folks on staff here at the Cove Church and some other people.
[00:45:56] And two of the staff members there said that when they first came to the Cove, it was the joy, the excitement they saw in people when they were getting here early.
[00:46:07] They were hanging out together and hanging out after the service and going out to eat together.
[00:46:11] And they thought, what is this?
[00:46:14] What's going on?
[00:46:15] I want to be a part of something like this.
[00:46:18] You know, people ask all the time, why is there so much division?
[00:46:22] And I have people ask me all the time, why are there so many denominations?
[00:46:26] I believe the answer is because Satan knows the power of unity.
[00:46:30] And so one of the things he's really focused on is making sure to divide a church.
[00:46:37] Now, church, listen to me.
[00:46:39] Our church right now is on fire.
[00:46:44] And this is, I mean, we have seen 258 people come to faith in Christ this year, and 200, right at 200, baptized.
[00:46:54] And when your baptism number gets right to where how many people are getting saved, man, you know God's really, those are real, God's doing something.
[00:47:01] So be on guard for the enemy's attack.
[00:47:06] Be prepared to be offended.
[00:47:08] Because I love to say, if you go to the Cope Church long enough, you will be offended.
[00:47:12] We don't go out of our way, it just comes naturally.
[00:47:16] It's full of people, so there's a lot of opportunity.
[00:47:19] But decide now, what am I gonna do when I do get offended. Now, God's given us a supernatural ability to be united, to have this oneness. Look at verse 22. As Jesus prayed to the Father, he said, I pray that the glory,
[00:47:36] there's the key word, the glory that you've given me, I've given to them. Why? That they may be one even as we are one. God has given us something that helps us to be unified. It is his glory.
[00:47:51] Now, what is that?
[00:47:52] What is the glory of God?
[00:47:55] The glory of God is like if you saw God, you would be like, whoa, man.
[00:47:59] And Jesus, he's restored in heaven.
[00:48:01] He's in his full glory.
[00:48:03] But when he was here on earth, people saw his glory.
[00:48:06] If you read about the miracles, when they saw God do something.
[00:48:10] And so anytime you see God do a miracle, something amazing, you see a glimpse, just a little snapshot of God's glory.
[00:48:18] Like I was noticing that my friend Jeff Ward is here.
[00:48:23] It's sitting over here in this area.
[00:48:24] I won't point him out exactly, but you can stand up if you want.
[00:48:27] But we got a call that, hey, Jeff Ward's dying.
[00:48:32] Bring the family in.
[00:48:34] They said, if you want to call the pastors because he's dying tonight, we think he's going to go.
[00:48:39] And so me and George Franco went, and we were there at the bed with the family praying when all of the monesters started going up.
[00:48:47] Now, this doesn't happen all the time, but I saw it happen once.
[00:48:50] All the monesters went up immediately, and I called to check on Jeff the next day.
[00:48:55] They said, well, you can talk to him yourself.
[00:48:56] He's sitting up eating breakfast.
[00:48:58] They released him the next day.
[00:49:02] And when you see the monitors going up and you sense Jesus right there in the room, man, it just rocks your world, man.
[00:49:11] It just changes you.
[00:49:13] When you see our students coming up to the front and in their service and just praying for one another and one of them laying their hand on me And you just sense God's work in these people's lives.
[00:49:25] Or there was recently a baptism.
[00:49:28] We'd been praying for this one man, young man, very young man.
[00:49:32] He had been in a detention facility for four months because of immigration.
[00:49:38] And during that time, his wife gave birth to their daughter.
[00:49:42] We'd been praying for him.
[00:49:44] And then suddenly, right before the baptism, a couple of days, just like magically, supernaturally, he gets released.
[00:49:53] And his path to citizenship's all opened up.
[00:49:56] And it was just God coming through.
[00:49:58] And so now, here we are standing in the water.
[00:50:01] I'm standing in the water with him to be baptized.
[00:50:03] And he's looking up into heaven.
[00:50:06] And Luis is praying, and he's just thanking God.
[00:50:10] And I thought in that moment about, it acts when it talks about Stephen looking up into heaven and seeing Jesus.
[00:50:15] And I felt like, man, I'm in that moment.
[00:50:18] You can just feel Jesus's presence right there.
[00:50:22] And when that happens, it wakes you up inside.
[00:50:27] Tears roll down your face.
[00:50:29] You feel like Jesus is right there and you see him with your spiritual sight.
[00:50:33] That's the glory of God.
[00:50:35] And God's given us those glory experiences when Jesus is doing great things because it melts away all of those things in our life, all of those boxes, all of that division, all of how we look at other people
[00:50:51] and suddenly just like see people created in the image of God and Jesus, they're doing something amazing.
[00:50:58] So God does that, not just in the church, but he does it in the lost world also.
[00:51:03] We saw this happen when the church went crazy once.
[00:51:07] God put this idea on our hearts to do a series, and it was called Go Bananas.
[00:51:12] The idea was that we were just going to go crazy.
[00:51:15] Just get outside the walls of the church.
[00:51:17] That was the idea.
[00:51:19] And so what happened was, on the first part one of it, I asked people, it was during 2009 when there was that great recession, and I just sensed that there was some hurt in the church.
[00:51:30] And I said, fill out these cards.
[00:51:32] Give everybody cards.
[00:51:33] and if there's something need you have just write it on the card and let us know we want to help and I got those cards on Monday and when I read those cards I just started bawling and you would
[00:51:46] too eight-year-olds kids will say what parents wouldn't say 12-year-olds saying there's no food in our house our cabinets are empty it was real pain in the heart and the life of this church that we did not see our electricity's been turned off I need a job I don't have a car
[00:52:03] on and on and on and on so the next part two the next week i had him take up all the offering receptacles so nobody could give any money and then at the end of the service we brought out
[00:52:14] the offering receptacles put them across here with and labeled the the hurts and the pains the food and so forth and then i invited people come forward and let's make a difference let's help and man people responded thousands of dollars tens of thousands of dollars came in and then
[00:52:30] the next weekend. I said, let's go outside the church. And so what we did is we turned our atriums. We had two campuses here and in Statesville. Shout out to Statesville. And we turned our atriums into Costco's. We had pallets of food out there. And we gave people bags as they
[00:52:51] left the service. People said, Mike, I'm afraid they're not going to take the bags. We're going to be stuck with all this food. Everybody took a bag. People I know were not Christians took a bag.
[00:53:00] and you were deputized to go out and just find hurting people and feed people. And people went crazy. They just drove into neighborhoods. They walked down sidewalks. They jumped over fences.
[00:53:14] I mean, it was insane. They went into grocery stores and bought more food, paid for people's groceries, and we shook Statesville. God, I should say, God shook Statesville and Mooresville.
[00:53:28] People moved.
[00:53:31] Listen, we had people from out of state visit during that, and they left, they moved.
[00:53:39] John Gibson's one of them.
[00:53:40] You wonder how the Gibsons got here?
[00:53:41] They came to go bananas.
[00:53:44] They went home and sold their house and said, I want to move and be a part of a church like that.
[00:53:49] It draws people.
[00:53:51] God's glory breaks through our coldness and our boxes and our indifference.
[00:53:58] Now, disunity is a growth process.
[00:54:00] Don't feel bad if you're not there yet because God wants us to grow.
[00:54:03] Look at verse 22.
[00:54:04] Jesus prayed, Father, may they be one, I in them, and you in me, that they may become, notice, perfectly one so that the world may know that you've sent me and loved them as you have loved me.
[00:54:18] That phrase, that they may become perfectly one, tells me that unity is a growth process and that still God's hope for you and I that we would become perfectly one.
[00:54:29] Because right now, I believe that most of us are imperfectly one.
[00:54:34] But God says, keep growing.
[00:54:36] The truth time is, we're all petty by nature.
[00:54:39] Can I get an amen?
[00:54:40] Amen, can we just own that?
[00:54:42] We all are prejudiced naturally, but God can change that if we all adopt Jesus's mindset.
[00:54:49] It was a passion of Jesus's, a massive priority.
[00:54:52] So I can't just be neutral.
[00:54:53] I can't have a take it or leave it attitude, especially in the church. God's love can give you the ability to grow in unity and oneness. His glory, and look at this next tool, is love. Jesus prayed that the love with which you have loved me
[00:55:09] may be in them, and I in them. Love is the driver of unity. Love is the power to change in every area of your life. God can change you, and he will use love to do that. Jesus said that God is love.
[00:55:26] John said that in 1 John chapter 4.
[00:55:29] Jesus said in the Great Commission, the biggest thing, the most important thing is to love God with everything you've got.
[00:55:35] And number two is to love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:55:37] Love is the key to our relationships.
[00:55:41] So Jesus prayed that we would have God's love in us.
[00:55:44] That we would love people more than we would love living in our box.
[00:55:49] that we would say of our church, I love what God's doing in this church more than I love my preferences.
[00:55:57] I love what God's doing here.
[00:55:59] I love seeing people getting saved more than I love my political party, more than I love hanging on to my hurt or my offense, more than I love my box.
[00:56:08] It all melts away in the presence of the glory of God and the love of God.
[00:56:14] I love this verse.
[00:56:16] Peter talks about it also.
[00:56:17] So he says, above all, meaning that love really matters most, above all, this is the most important thing, keep loving one another earnestly.
[00:56:26] Don't give up.
[00:56:28] Don't get discouraged.
[00:56:30] Don't get distracted by all of the things that are out there, all of the media that we see, all of the podcasters, all of the folks that are washing our brains.
[00:56:42] Keep loving earnestly.
[00:56:44] That means deeply.
[00:56:46] And then Peter says, love covers a multitude of sins, a lot of sins, a lot of issues, a lot of mistakes, a lot of flaws.
[00:56:55] It covers it, not like a cover-up, but like a bandage.
[00:56:59] You know, another one of our core values is that we keep it real.
[00:57:02] That means I'm being real about who I am, about my struggles.
[00:57:09] One of the things that I've done, I don't know where I got the idea, really, in the beginning, but I've shared with you my struggles. If you've been around a while, you know that I
[00:57:19] talk about my anxiety issues, depression, I struggle with my quiet time, I'm judgmental, it's a big list, right? And I'm not perfect. I struggle with the same things that you struggle with, and I've got a lot of issues. And that's the one thing people tell me is the best thing
[00:57:38] about my preaching. It's like, you know, that's about the only thing anyone ever, the thing I loved about your preaching was that you were so real. That's the number one standout thing.
[00:57:47] The apostle Paul was praying about his weaknesses, and he asked God to take him away.
[00:57:51] And when God said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect at weakness.
[00:57:58] So Paul's response was, I'll brag all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Basically, I got to live that verse out for about 25 years, and I can tell
[00:58:10] you it works. There is power in you admitting and being real about your weaknesses. And so here at the Cope Church, we keep it real. That means that we're not faking anything. We're open about our
[00:58:25] flaws and our hang-ups and our addictions. Keeping it real doesn't mean that you can just be yourself and expect people to get over it. No, that's called being rude. It's about putting aside self-righteousness and pride getting out of your box and allowing humility to really shine
[00:58:43] this is the answer this is one of the keys this is idea of love you know I was in another life group I was been going to a couple different ones and we were talking about how to deal with
[00:58:56] annoying people we got any of those in your life put your hand you might be sitting next to one I get it you know but uh we're talking about what does it mean to really love them how do you love
[00:59:07] And you know, we don't have to make this up.
[00:59:09] We could come up with our ideas.
[00:59:10] People come up with really dumb ideas.
[00:59:12] But it's in the Bible.
[00:59:13] This great passage called 1 Corinthians 13.
[00:59:17] It's called the love chapter.
[00:59:18] And so here's what we need to do.
[00:59:20] We want to love people.
[00:59:21] Here's how we can grow.
[00:59:22] Love is patient and kind.
[00:59:24] Just be patient with people that you don't like.
[00:59:26] Folks outside your box.
[00:59:27] Just slow down.
[00:59:29] Don't judge them.
[00:59:30] Just be patient.
[00:59:31] Let God change people in his own time frame.
[00:59:35] You know what I mean?
[00:59:35] instead of demanding that they be perfect like you right away?
[00:59:40] And it says, be kind.
[00:59:42] There are so many weird things out there, and it's easy just to get angry and everything.
[00:59:47] But what I would say is, be kind to weirdos.
[00:59:51] Can we get a shirt, a T-shirt?
[00:59:53] Where is, he's still right there on the front row.
[00:59:58] Wouldn't that be cool?
[00:59:59] Be kind to weirdos, the Cove Church.
[01:00:01] I'd love that idea.
[01:00:06] Don't be arrogant or rude, thinking you're so smart about your box.
[01:00:09] you know that's loving just get off your get off your you know self don't don't insist on your own way everybody's got to be like me don't be irritable okay can i talk to the old man oh my
[01:00:20] gosh i had no idea that i was going to be suffering from hardening of the arteries and the attitudes right oh my gosh i'm so irritable and and again it's getting worse you know just everything can
[01:00:34] really aggravate me as I've gotten older. It's gotten really worse in the last two years. And so you got to battle this stuff. I was coming to the Cove Church recently, and I was getting off on
[01:00:44] Langtree Exit off the interstate when someone cut me off. And at first I was really mad until I thought, they might be going to the Cove. This is going to be good. Don't you just want to see
[01:00:58] these people? Am I the only one who wants to see a chucklehead? I mean, whenever somebody does something like that. I want to drive up and just look at, I'm not going to flip them off. I don't
[01:01:08] even want them to see, I just would love to see, what does their chuckle head look like?
[01:01:14] And so I was like, oh, it's good. They're turning left. I told my wife, she's over there watching me, you know, and I'm like, oh, they're going, that's where they're going to go. They put the
[01:01:21] blinker on. I said, yeah. And then the parkers, they're messing with you because they're like, you got to park over here. The chuckle head's going that way. I'm like, ah, okay, I'll just run. And I was like, come on, we got to go find this person. They're getting ahead. They're
[01:01:35] walking quick. They're holding something. They came into the atrium. They finally caught up with them. And what they had was some flowers. They were so excited. They were inviting someone to the prom. And our students were all gathering around them, our student leaders. They were also
[01:01:50] in it. And the chucklehead turned out to be me. You know, so out of step. This guy was just excited.
[01:01:56] You know, he's just driving quick to get to church, to be with his friends, to do the, you know.
[01:02:00] and it's so easy to become so irritable and judgmental with people and love doesn't do that look at verse six love doesn't rejoice at wrongdoing i always wonder what does that mean have you ever wondered yeah this is how preachers write message what does that mean who would do
[01:02:19] that that's called gossip gossip is getting happy about somebody's wrongdoing you can quote me on that gossip is getting happy because you're all suddenly talking about it. Oh, they really screwed up. But it rejoices with the truth. And the Bible's full of verses about gossip separating the best
[01:02:39] of friends. That's one of the biggest ways to create disunity. And you can cover up a sin by not talking about it. Don't gossip. Don't judge. When you repeat something that somebody told you that they heard from someone else
[01:02:56] or they saw this secondhand, there's no way you can share it without getting it wrong.
[01:03:03] Do you see what I'm saying?
[01:03:04] I believe it's impossible that you can share that now without lying, basically, without hurting someone.
[01:03:12] Have you ever played the telephone game?
[01:03:15] Don't play it with people's lives at stake.
[01:03:19] And keeping it real doesn't mean talking about somebody just because you think you know it's true, even if it's true, it doesn't mean it's helpful for you to talk about it. Let God deal with it,
[01:03:28] not you. And keeping it real means kindly saying, I don't want to talk about this person. Can we talk about something else? Keeping it real means, you know, I think this might be gossip, and I
[01:03:39] already have a problem with that, gossiping, so I need to abstain. Look at this next one, verse 7.
[01:03:45] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Patient love is willing to bear with someone. Give things a moment to play out. Give God time to change them and believe the best. Whenever someone has an issue, let God change them in his timing.
[01:04:06] And when you see something happen, you don't like, we have a complaint about an issue or our first instinct is to tell someone else about it. Instead, Jesus says, if you have a problem with someone leave your offering at the altar and go to that person but we kind of do the opposite
[01:04:23] don't we we go to everyone else and we don't go to the person the idea is to go to the right person don't text your complaint about your church to your friends don't talk to folks about how you
[01:04:37] were hurt and sometimes it takes prayer it's a real in-depth research to know what to do that's what it means to bear with someone. Be patient. Figure out who you should talk to. This is why
[01:04:50] it's good to be in a life group. Can I talk to life group leaders and life group members?
[01:04:54] If you're not in a life group, I mean, this right now, this is a huge gathering. So many people right now, it's a large group. But when you're in a life group, this is where you can work out
[01:05:03] your PO issues. You know what VO is? Some of y'all have PO. That's personality odors. And when you get in a life group, this is where you can ask questions about the Bible or where there's a
[01:05:17] problem. You can go to your life group leader and don't do it in front of everybody. Go privately and say, I don't understand something. I don't like something. I've got a conflict. And your life group leader, they can direct you. Life group leaders, if you don't know what to do,
[01:05:31] go to your leader and help someone do the right thing instead of talking about things and doing the wrong things. Let's be prepared for conflict. Life group leaders, if you don't know what to to do, pray about it and give some direction. God's doing an amazing thing in this church.
[01:05:47] Let's be like Jesus and be passionate about protecting the unity. Love believes all things.
[01:05:54] It hopes all things. That means we believe the best. We're thinking about the best for people.
[01:06:00] We're looking and hoping that God's going to do something amazing in their life because we're getting out of our box and we're just letting people be people and just see what God's doing.
[01:06:11] I saw this happen.
[01:06:12] When I was in Uganda last, we went to this family's home.
[01:06:18] They were at like the end of the road where the road actually stops.
[01:06:21] It just washes out.
[01:06:22] And then there's a path like you would see on like Discovery Channel or something, you know, just a National Geographic path.
[01:06:29] And then there's this, just a mud hut with a grass roof.
[01:06:32] And inside there's no furniture.
[01:06:34] There's no clothing.
[01:06:35] There's nothing.
[01:06:36] Waiting on us outside It's a family of five kids.
[01:06:41] Mom and dad, dad's like 38, mom's like 34.
[01:06:44] And they're just sitting there and they have nothing.
[01:06:50] And I will never forget in my entire lifetime meeting this guy.
[01:06:55] I call him Spartacus because, I mean, he's just, he's there.
[01:06:58] His pants were made to be long pants, but they were just worn off as shorts.
[01:07:03] He's all muscular because they don't use tractors in this area.
[01:07:06] just people like him just dig and huge fields. He digs all day long. So he's just ripped and he doesn't get enough food. He's got two buttons on his shirt. You could just see the muscles rippling
[01:07:18] the veins in his arm. This guy's just, I feel like I call him Spartacus in my mind because I feel like it was him fighting against poverty, fighting against his situation, fighting against the world. His 15 year old daughter had been attacked. She's got a little
[01:07:32] baby there, fighting against the anger. You could see the anger in his face. And I thought, well, this is going to be a rough end. But as we were talking and praying, John Gibson started to share
[01:07:45] the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, and ask him if he wanted to receive Jesus. And he said he did. So we started praying. I opened my eyes after we'd been praying, and I looked. His wife had come
[01:07:57] over, and she was kneeling on the ground. She was praying to receive Christ. His daughter got saved.
[01:08:03] we prayed for that baby and pray God would just bless them and just make that baby a blessing and to feel the love of God on that child and that we just love them and received they received
[01:08:16] all of that a few weeks later I got a picture of Spartacus he's wearing a yellow shirt well I don't know where he got it looked brand new there's a huge smile on his face it changed he'd been
[01:08:32] transformed by the love of God, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then later on, I got another photograph and some videos. Barticus was there with Pastor Godfrey, who I call Sir Godfrey because he's so amazing. You know, he's an amazing pastor. He's working with this pastor. He's been
[01:08:49] faithful in church over these months and months now. God's transformed that situation. There's so much joy and hope in that family. I want to be part of that more than I want to be a part of my
[01:09:04] group, more than I want to be in my box. I'm not sure we can do both. So we have to choose. What are we going to do with that box? Let me pray for us. Father, we come to you in Jesus' name.
[01:09:19] Lord, I know that many people are like me. We struggle with this. I'm 67. I've been a pastor all these years. I've been a Christian for a while, and yet we're still struggling with my
[01:09:34] preconceived ideas with my preferences with my prejudices could we just could you admit that just follow me in prayer just lord i've created my own boxes people that look like me there's very few of them right they just believe just like me act just like me match all of those again to be a
[01:09:55] very small box y'all not even sure my wife fits in it anymore it's a better way to live lord i pray that you would just pour out your glory on us so we could see you at work and we could see the
[01:10:13] numbers on the monitor going up, that we could see the students' life change, that we could see the people getting baptized, that we could see the life change.
[01:10:22] When someone comes to faith in Christ, see your glory, Lord Jesus.
[01:10:25] We know you're alive.
[01:10:25] You're living.
[01:10:26] You're in this room right now.
[01:10:27] Each place, each campus, Denver, Salisbury, Statesville, Boardsville, online.
[01:10:38] Lord, we know your presence is so real.
[01:10:43] Lord, pour out your glory.
[01:10:44] Pour out your love.
[01:10:46] That's something we have to grow in.
[01:10:48] above all, above all love. Lord, help us to grow in our ability to love people more than our own ways. Now listen, if you don't know Christ as your Savior, it's such a simple, simple concept.
[01:11:09] We've been talking about Jesus, how real He is. He came, He was sent to earth. He is fully God. He became a human to reach us. He died on the cross for our sins. He was raised three days later,
[01:11:20] and He's alive today. And if you believe that, you've been coming along this journey, and you believe that and you want to receive him, you would just pray and say, Lord Jesus, I believe and I want to receive you as my savior. I want to turn from my way of living. Make that your prayer.
[01:11:34] I believe, I receive, I turn, I give you my life. I apologize. I'm sorry for my sin.
[01:11:44] Make those your words. I want to follow you and you'll come into your life and you'll save you.
[01:11:49] Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, guys. Yeah. Hey, let me encourage you to come back at one o'clock for our build out for movies at the cove i love you guys thank you for
[01:12:05] being here it's a great church invite somebody back next week god bless y'all