BETTER TOGETHER | PT 4 | Communicator Llewellyn Dixon

welcome to the victory broadcast if this ministry has impacted you in any way please consider supporting the spread of the gospel by visiting us online and choosing the giving option that works best for you now we pray that this message will stir your heart and build your faith get ready to receive the word of god good morning victory family it is so good to be with you all for week four of our better together series thank you for sticking it out with us through four weeks of this amazing series on godly and gospel community and the power and the benefits of what that means for your life for my life for all of our lives so we're in the final series the final message of this series and i'm just excited to share it with you all so a quick recap if this is your first time hearing a message from this series the first message we talked about pastor talked about the history of the church he talked about what community how the church community was initially founded and what it was established for and how it got to where it is now the second sermon was the benefits of godly community what godly community really is and what it really means and if you haven't seen it yet please go and check that out it will definitely be a blessing to you the third one was join a v group if you are a member or participant if you're a a part of this community here at victory we want you to join a v group and if you're not a part of this community wherever you are please join a small group in your church wherever small groups are a powerful foundation of even our lives as human beings and then even more so as believers this message is going to close it out with talking about the importance of community for restoration and transformation in all of our lives um so before i introduce the text we're gonna it's gonna the text has actually two parts to it so if you're familiar with last week uh there were two parts to that as well there's two parts to this one too and we're talking about worldly community um versus godly community and so this text shows you the difference between the two um so before we go on let's pray and then we'll get into it father thank you so much for being faithful god thank you for your presence god thank you for just being here thank you for the opportunity to share your gospel father thank you for the hearts that are tuning in to listen father would you tune my heart to yours father god would you tune my ears to your lips and would you tune my lips to your heart father god would i be a servant unto you father father would you teach that i may learn that we may learn would you speak that we may listen would you lead that we may follow father we love you we honor you this moment and everything in it is wrapped up and given for you we thank you in jesus name amen so the text comes from galatians chapter 5 verses 19 to chapter 6 verse 2. so a quick biblical lesson here uh the don't i don't want you to look at it and say oh what do these two things have to do with each other as far as being in two different chapters actually when the biblical text was initially written they didn't really write in chapters and verses and things like that it was just a letter so this was actually just a regular letter that you might write to your friend or a long facebook post that people eventually broke up so that we could probably understand what was going on so we're going to go from chapter 5 verses 19 to chapter 6 verse 2 and then we're going to talk about worldly community godly community and the benefits of that so now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery fornication uncleanness lewdness idolatry sorcery hatred contentions jealousies outbursts of wrath selfishness ambition selfish ambitions dissensions heresies envy murders drunkenness revelries and the like it's a long list of which i tell you beforehand just as i also told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of god second part but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such there is no law and those who are christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit let us not become conceited provoking each one another envying one another chapter six verse one brethren if a man is overtaken in any trespass you who are spiritual you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself lest you also be tempted bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of christ that's a long passage but there's a lot to unpack for what it means for us in godly community so i want you to think think for a second those of us who have been uh who have had uh worldly friends who have had friends who are worldly just means unbelievers so folks who are just doing stuff that are that don't have a relationship with jesus things that have nothing to do with god things that will push you away from your relationship with god so from saying worldly there's just a one-word way to say all of that so if you've had ungodly friends if you've been in ungodly relationships if you've been a part of ungodly communities then you know that a lot of those times those communities are full of people because all communities are full of people who are also broken messed up may do some some crazy things or whatever there's no difference in the christian community except one main one which we'll get to a little bit later so you'll notice in those communities you may find people who you can't trust you may find situations that are just like man what what is going on different types of beliefs that have you confused uh different people that may have you confused things may go on in those communities where you don't really even know if you're coming or going scripture says a whole list of stuff and if we're honest myself included we've all had relationships with people whether they're romantic friendships communities whatever where something was going on in this long list between verses 19 to 21 that paul gives that we had some kind of interaction with people in that in in in our ungodly communities nobody's nobody's different we're all the same in that regard that's why we all need jesus so it's okay you don't have to act like you don't have to pretend you have to act like you're not one of us i'm one of us everybody in the studio is one of us we're all one of us all right we've all had relationships like that but how does relationships leave you feeling how did you feel in that community did you feel strong did you feel empowered did you feel the love did you feel the love of god in those communities did you even know what love was in those communities did you feel accepted did you feel chosen did you feel called did you feel affirmed did you feel like someone was there with you when you were weak did you feel alone it's very easy to be surrounded by a bunch of folk like literally all day and still feel alone now so people can say i'm alone but not lonely or i have a bunch of people around me but i'm still lonely because you can be alone but if you're satisfied if you're alone but you're good in yourself you don't have to be lonely you can also have a whole list of unhealed un unaddressed issues and trauma and everything else that leaves you in a place where you're around a bunch of people but you're lonely world of community can be the result of that godly community is what we're getting to in the second piece so uh from verses 19 to 21 i won't go through the list again but i like to call those the fruits of the flesh the fruits of the flesh the fruits of the flesh can be draining because you're you may have you may be constantly going back and forth with folks fighting trying to prove yourself uh we have we live in a in a city where you have a lot of people who are always competing with one another uh you have a lot of people who are entrepreneurs you have a lot of people who have businesses you have a lot of people who have ministries you have a lot of people who sing who do this and do that and everybody's trying to compete you have models who are trying to compete with one another and just doing things for the purposes of appeasing other people because their community tells them you're not good enough can be draining can also leave us hurting if we've if we're honest we've been some of us may have been in relationships where we have been left hurting severely because the people we were working with are dealing with they weren't put together either they had their own set of issues they were also hurting they were also broken they were also messed up they were confused they were whatever and so whatever they had projected on to us and now we're walking around carrying somebody else's hurt and feelings another scar they can be contentious when people are are are constantly able to back by when there's when there's a low standard of morality when there's a low standard of integrity it can lead to contentiousness because i'll do whatever i have to do to get over on you to get what i have to get or they can be deceptive they can look good but they're not godly oh they can look good but they're not godly there's a lot of beliefs religions all kinds of stuff out here that look good i'm a good person good person i do good things oh this is a good belief it may be a good belief here is a secret for you all of the good beliefs that we have out here they're literally all taken from scripture they just take out the jesus factor all these good things the love everybody all that's scripture it just doesn't have jesus so it can look good but not be godly and so the deception is it leaves you thinking that you're around good wholesome people who are affirming you you you're you're you're accountable to folks you're growing you feel good on the outside but spiritually you're dead if there's no jesus attached to it so then it has eternal consequences second part of this text the fruits of what is what we call typically the fruits of the spirit the fruits of the spirit i'll go through with love joy peace long suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such there is no law we hear these terms all the time we hear them so much why do we hear them so much because they're excellent and good and needed virtues to have for a community to thrive for people to thrive that's where we get good community but it may not be godly community because the fact is love without god isn't real love joy without god isn't sustainable peace without god ain't peace you literally cannot long suffer without jesus because he gives us the strength to do it kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control these are all attributes of the father that we get from relationship with jesus that now turns into how we communicate with one another the fruits of the spirit so there are three things we're going to talk about that happens in godly community the first one is trust now trust if you're i'm sure like most of you are on social media and we have this seems to be some glorification of people not trusting folks i don't trust i have trust issues and all this other stuff my favorite one is they say uh oatmeal raisin cookies are the reason i have trust issues we laugh about these things uh because we think it's it's funny to make fun of our pain or some of the things that we've been through but the fact of the mate of the matter is a lot of us are really struggling because we've dealt with people who really broke our trust who betrayed us there's nothing wrong with that because we're all human people are going to hurt people are going to betray our trust it's going to happen but in godly community you come into a place where you can learn how to trust again and so the foundation of everything that i'm about to say and i'll say this over and over again the foundation is you have a bunch of people who recognize that like folks in an ungodly ungodly community folks who are in worldly communities they are also broken messed up need help lacking integrity lacking morality all these things we all admit to it i admit to it we all do we all have those issues however the difference is we recognize that that is not the fullness of who god created for us to be we recognize that god created us to be to do more to be more and so we recognize that in order for us to be able to live godly lives to be able to live full lives to be able to be healthy to be able to move on to be able to return to the self that we were before all the trash and the dirt of everybody else got onto us we need a risen savior we need jesus and so we come together in community as a bunch of people who express hey i'm messed up but jesus can fix me and you say oh bro i'm messed up too jesus can fix me too hey sis i'm messed up but jesus can fix me and we all agree to that so we come together with one goal in mind one purpose measuring each other by the same standards coming coming with humility to be able to hold one another accountable to be able to express hey i messed up hey check me when i'm wrong this is what godly community does so if you're in a community of that of of people like that then it becomes easier to trust because when you're in a community of people who have given themselves to jesus their allegiance is not to any they have no allegiances to other things and and trying to appease other people's things they know that how they treat you is something they have to go and deal with the father about later yeah so it becomes easier at that moment to say hey okay man last the last group of friends i had before i got baptized i told them some stuff and they went and told everybody uh these people say they have standards these people say they have integrity these people say that you know i i can trust them with my stuff so okay let me let me just try it and see it becomes easier when you know where people stand godly community is a place where you begin to learn how to trust again so if you have trust issues i've had trust issues i'm sure if i ask people in the studio they've had trust issues i'm sure if you're honest right now you can put it in chat if you want to you can say you've had trust issues we've all had it we've all had people close to us that messed up and messed us up in the process godly community is a place where you can say all right you know what it happened let me start to forgive and let me start to move forward and let me go and say okay this sister said in my v group that you know this is a safe space all right let me let me do this this brother said in my v group this is a safe space okay let me let me do this let me try it out one more time i challenge you right now try it out one more time find godly community second one transparency so we have trust we have transparency transparency is being able to reveal yourself and not need to put up to put on a front so once you trust once you have built some trust now you can say okay i trust you now i can take off the mask now i can let you see what my stuff is now i can i i can really show you who i am now i don't have to maybe i'm i'm really connected i'm a dope ceo out in in the world maybe you know in my job and where i am you know everybody knows me to be one way but internally i have this that i'm dealing with i'm struggling with this i don't know x y z i i i'm not perfect hey i'm not perfect i need help i want to get better i i want to i want to be a better man i want to be a better woman i want to follow jesus better i want to just be better that's what transparency means it allows us to say okay you can see me for real you can see me for who i really am because we've built the trust i came into this community you told me you were one way i tried it out you proved to be trustworthy so now i can show you my stuff do you know how powerful that is when you're in a community of people who genuinely love who genuinely love and are kind and are gentle love of god puts you in a place with with with people who genuinely you can say this brother really loves me for real here's my stuff you ever give you ever told somebody something that you were like man i'm not about to react but i'm gonna just say it anyway hey this is what happened and then their response is nothing like what you thought it was gonna be they're like oh snap really okay they offer to pray with you they give you counsel and they act like nothing ever happened that's the heart of somebody who knows jesus that's the heart of somebody that really genuinely wants the best for you that wants you to grow and get better we have that here in this church with every leader we have that with our community members people who you can be transparent with people who you can love who you can count on to love you for real for real where there's no strings attached i'm not doing this because i want something for some of us love has meant do this and you get this no there's no strings attached when you tell me your stuff i handle it with gentleness like the text says when you tell me your stuff i don't rush to judge you i don't rush to move you out of your your your seat of leadership i don't rush to say now you're not saved for real no more i don't rush to do those things because i recognize like you i'm also human too and just because in this moment i chose not to be as transparent with you and you chose to be transparent with me doesn't mean i'm going to judge you or move you from something godly community the third thing and it's what all this leads up to is transformation trust leads to transparency which leads to transformation one of the most prolific rappers of our time mr sean carter said you can't heal what you never reveal you can't heal what you never reveal like if you don't tell me if you don't talk about something you can't heal from it and you'll never really truly move back move move past living in those scars living in that hurt living in whatever you can't really become better if other people don't know what you're what you're struggling with or what you're dealing with they don't know because they can't help they can't help you because they don't know they can't pray for you because they don't know which is why we have therapy which is why we have counseling which is why people say hey talk to me tell me something because i can give you another another perspective i can help you grow in this i can tell you you're not tripping and that constant affirmation helps you to build yourself up and say okay i'm not tripping i'm good i'm strong i can handle this scripture ezekiel 36 25 and 27 then i will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean i will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols i will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you i will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh the scripture is literally saying when you come into godly community when you come into relationship with jesus you quite literally become a different person transformation it's a process i know a lot of times we may go until we may go to the altar give our lives to jesus we get baptized and we think the second we come up we're supposed to be a whole new person just like that boom not saying it can't happen god can do anything but nine times out of ten it's a process the process of deliverance is a process it's going through the steps of getting into community which is why when you go to the altar we don't say join a v group we don't say coming to community just because we we want to just grow the church and be a big ho a big huge mega church no we know the benefit of it for you we know that if you come into community you will really begin to see the fruits of you coming to the altar and praying the prayer praying the prayer god save me god i'm a sinner i repent that's wonderful it's powerful it's the beginning of these things but the process of transformation the process to say i am now a better person i am now a disciple of jesus because that's what this whole thing is about a bunch of people that recognize hmm i gave my life to jesus he's who i'm following i call myself a disciple of jesus but i don't look anything like him right now so i need to get myself together so we do it together in godly community i will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh scripture says be transformed by the renewing of your mind renewing your mind is the process of what i'm talking about right now you cannot renew your mind without first going to the father going to joining godly community taking them at their word and saying i'll trust what you say you say you have the fruits of these spirit of the spirit these fruits of the spirit okay now i'll decide to be transparent notice everything you do is a decision this is this is the part that's on you christ made the first move on the cross your move is accept the gift and then go be willing to go through the process to say i need this we can't do this alone family we can't be in community alone we cannot you you cannot go through the process of trust transparency and even transformation with just jesus alone now if you are quite literally in the middle of a desert and there's nobody there for the rest of your life then of course i'm sure god will make some some arrangements for you but if you live in a city with people the expectation is you join godly community why do we do all these things again because everybody has the same standards you're joining a community of people that all have the same standards the same mind the same heart we're all under discipleship and ultimately we all serve the same father the community of believers is an illustration of what heaven looks like here on earth it is supposed to be an opportunity for us to continue sharpening one another scripture says iron sharpens iron you know what that means it means that you actually have you ever sharpened a knife before you actually have to rub the knife against something rough in order for it to get sharp if you have a knife sharpened at your house you'll you'll notice the edges of the thing are rigid and you rub the blade on it in old days jesus's time they would have rubbed the knife up against a rock and in the process pieces of the knife are getting stripped away to make it sharper you may see some sparks you may have some stuff but the knife literally can't get sharpened by itself it has to rub up against something there has to be proximity there's a blessing in being close to something there's a blessing for some of us we're shocked we're afraid of godly community and really god just wants to bless you in the community you may even have a good you may have to i'ma keep it real you may have a wonderful heart you may have some stuff that you just need to deal with heal through get over but you may have a wonderful heart to begin with and god just says join this community because i want to bless you do not forsake the counsel of the don't do not save the assembly of the brethren because it's literally a situation of i just want to bless you there are certain things you may there may be a leader in this in your community that god wants you to get close to and you may you may even be admiring that leader from afar and you say man i would love to talk to this person just for five minutes but god wants you to have a deeper relationship and actually be discipled by this person so now you can go behind the veil in their life and see how they actually built things and get access to stuff sometimes just literally being close and that person is now able to see you with your mask off because they've seen they're seeing you now in different situations and they can sharpen you so then by the time you leave that relationship by the time the season for that relationship is over people might even say hey you remind me a lot of this ex-leader who you respected all this time and this person doesn't even know y'all have a relationship there's a guy uh john maxwell one of my favorite leadership people one of his uh one of his top leaders in his organization has said that he goes places and people say that he reminds that they they rem he reminds them of john because john maxwell has discipled him so strongly sometimes community is just an opportunity for god to bless you don't be afraid of being in proximity with folks to get close to people but it takes you going through the process to say i'm choosing to trust i'm choosing to be transparent i'm choosing to allow god to transform my mind and my heart i'm choosing to give in and say god give me your heart of flesh because this heart of stone a heart of stone nothing can get into it god can't change you god can't do anything god can't bless you you the healing that you want that you you you can't receive it in a with a heart of stone nothing can get into it that's why god says i give you a heart of flesh a heart that beats a heart that is soft a heart that actually can be hurt sometimes it's a risk but if you're in godly community the risk becomes so much lower because if i hurt somebody if i do something i can say hey rhonda i'm sorry sis and i don't have to worry about her cussing me out and wanting to fight me i can just say i can say i'm sorry sis we and i and her response is mature and it's godly you ever had somebody in a before your relationship with god when you weren't in godly community you're trying to talk to somebody to settle a conversation and they are tripping and you're like man am i tripping because i want to be mature or are you tripping what's happening because you're living in two different standards you have two different standards of morality two different standards of right and wrong two different standards of what integrity is two different standards of accountability when you're in godly community everybody on the same plane because we all have one master to lean to to lean to one master to look to so family the title of this series is better together i mentioned the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit better together you're going to eat some kind of fruit of some community now that fruit will either that fruit will either kill you or that fruit will give you life better together that fruit will either kill you or that fruit will give you life so families stay connected to one another as a body i know this pandemic has gone on some of us feel like man when is this going to end i want to get back in church i want to do this i want to do that or some of us are just like you know what the church ain't here no more so i'm out that's not how this works stay connected make a decision to stay connected do what you got to do i found i i made sure that i found any godly group of god godly group of men that i that i found during the process of this pandemic i plugged in they having a prayer meeting i'm there a bible i don't care if it's zoom or what i'm there i have my community here at victory where's your community family stay connected stay connected to victory church if you're part of this community stay here if you left for a second that's fine come on home we still here stay connected to this body this is strong we are still a family this community will still be here for you we are still building this house for you to be able to come serve god grow [Music] family i said already do not forsake the assembly of believers no one can do this thing alone it's impossible that's why god had us live in community to begin with and then the last thing which might even be the hardest which is why it's the last will challenge us consider leaving the assembly of some unbelievers i'm not saying none of your friends i'm not saying every last one of your friends you have to have a 100 rating of friends who know jesus and following god notice not what i'm saying i don't even have all of my friends aren't even saved but you want to make sure that that you do have a community of godly people who you can go to and be a part of and who can show you how to love who can show you what it means to be in community with jesus scripture 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 bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of christ that's the process of transformation that's allowing yourself to be held accountable that's allowing others that's that's you holding others accountable this community thing is not just what you get out of it but then there's also a responsibility you have to also give to it as well hold others accountable offer to pray for somebody you don't have to be a pastor you don't have to be a leader you don't have to be a spiritual you don't have to be any of that just be a willing heart have humility be submitted to jesus family we're better together not because of anything else other than our heart to serve love live and look like jesus that's why we're better together because the world out there they will mess us up they'll mess up what god is doing in your life you ever had a powerful experience with god now you log on social media and somebody talking crazy and you're like whoa that shocked me out of what i was doing that's why we need community folks where you can pick up the phone and say look what god did for me have you ever found yourself in a situation where you're like well you know god just you had a dope encounter with jesus he had nobody to call and tell about it if you've had if you found yourself in that situation i'm talking to you bro [Music] i'm talking to you [Music] family community is here [Music] it's how god intended for us to live it's a lifeline [Music] it's our mode of transport transformation it's how we become better if you don't believe me all you got to do is try and i pray that god will give you the discernment to know which communities to trust because scripture does say there are wolves and sheep's clothing so i pray that god will give you the discernment to know who to trust go through the process of making sure that there are worthy of trust of you trusting them it's okay test the spirit to see that it's of god it's perfectly fine nobody's saying run to the nearest church and just start telling all your stuff because everybody unfortunately can't be trusted but if you find the one the place where you say these people really have a heart for jesus watch this is how you know this is a simple way of knowing how do they treat one another before you get in there forget how they're treating you when you walk through the door initially because we know everybody has a um a representative that shows up on the first date how do they treat one another [Music] and if you're looking for a community here is one if you're looking for godly community where they genuinely love you see all the fruits of the spirit you have a place where you can be where you can uh trust where there can be transparency and where there's transformation right here right here this church this community family this this whole thing we do this for you we do this for godly community so join a v group if you're a part of this community if you're not a part of this community that's fine join us join a small group wherever you are if you're not a believer and you resonated with anything that i said in this message if you don't know jesus if you found yourself in a situation where you're like man i need people in my life who will really make me better who will really hold me accountable who really challenged me to be the woman the man that god has created for me to be the first step is respond to the calling of jesus [Music] give your life to christ and watch him introduce you to the people that you need to be in contact with family we love you let's pray father thank you father thank you [Music] thank you for every person in this community in this godly biblical community here at victory father thank you for our pastor whose heart is for you and therefore everyone around him has a heart for you and the people at this church have a heart for you god thank you father god for the allowing us to even have the opportunity to spread this gospel father i pray that wherever this message reaches wherever this sermon reaches wherever in the world they are able to hear these messages god that you provide them with godly community wherever they are father father let there not be someone who's watching this who comes across this who cries out to you for community and then they turn around and there's no one there to receive them god i pray even those who give their lives to you even right now from this and they look around them and they have no one to directly connect with god i pray you give them a divine visitation i pray you you direct their lives in such a way god that they meet people god even tomorrow this week if they give their lives to you right now that you will introduce them to the right people along the way god father god then no seed will go uh uh un-germinated no seed father god will not have fruit attached to it that we will learn to eat the fruits of the spirit god that we will learn to spit out the fruits of the flesh god that we will learn to live in godly community with one another that we will learn to love one another to live for what to live for you god through one another god that our community in you will be strong and that the world will see us and know you because of it that we will be different in the eyes of the world and we will be drawn to and they will be drawn to you as a result father you are the answer to everything father i pray that the way that we love one another will show the world that and this will lead to healing all over revival all over [Music] father thank you thank you for being the head of this community thank you for being a faithful father thank you for being a worthy king thank you for being the head of this community we love you and we honor you in jesus name amen thank you for listening to the victory broadcast we pray that message was a blessing to you if you have a story or a testimony to share we want to hear all about it send us an email to share at victorychurchatl.org or visit us online under share thanks for listening go in peace

Channel: Victory Church

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Length: 40min 33sec (2433 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 30 2021