Here's How You Kill Division | Preston Morrison | Gateway Church

[Music] we're going to talk about something that might seem a little bit surprising and the title of the message is here's how you kill unity the first way you will absolutely kill unity in the family of god cultivate a critical spirit people with a critical spirit think they have a strong gift of discernment when all they really have is a harsh curse of judgment criticism is not how god talks this is good news because if criticism were the way god talked it wouldn't just be the way he talked about everybody else it would also be the way he talk about you you talk the most like the one you listen the most to second way to absolutely certifiably kill unity in the family of god to nurture spirit of offense an offense is an event but being offended is a decision matthew 5 44 jesus says but i say love your enemies pray for those who persecute you it is easy to be critical when you compare yourself to the one who is in sin it is impossible to criticize when you compare yourself to the one who never sinned the third way to kill unity in the family of god tolerate a lack of forgiveness one of the best parts of forgiving is forgetting because if i can't forget it i'll just have to keep reliving it even when you've been hurt and you have a reason to stick it to him you open your hands you turn towards god you begged god to bless them well good morning how is everybody you look good i want to say welcome to everybody joining us online if you've got a bible i want you to open up to acts chapter two acts chapter two we're gonna wrap up our series today on division and unity that's what we've spent the last couple of months focused on and the title of the series is a house undivided and last week we talked about how to kill unity and i kind of asked the setup question at the beginning of the message how many of us wake up every day with the goal i want to kill unity in the family of god and nobody thankfully raised their hand in any of the services at least that i saw but it's one thing not to raise your hand it's another thing to actually walk it out and one of the ways we know that we don't want to kill unity is we're dead set on killing division and that's what we're talking about today the title this message is here's how you kill division last week was here's how you kill unity this week here's how you kill division and we're going to spend some time looking at the first century church because to me one of the best pictures of unity and a lack of consistent division is the first century church and here's why the beginning of the church was the season of its greatest innocence and so it's wisdom to take notes on what it was they did and were known for let's read together acts chapter 2 starting in verse 42 all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals and also to prayer a deep sense of awe came over them all and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders and all the believers met together in one place speaking of the temple and shared everything they had now that's revival right there you get a bunch of humans to share everything they have they sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need they worshiped together at the temple each day they met in homes for the lord's supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity now i'm going to give you three things this is as always not an exhaustive list but three of the biggest things that i think were essential to the unity of the first century church and i want you just to take a look at your own life and on a scale of one to ten where where would you rate yourself so let's take this journey together here's point number one the first way to kill division point number one agreement agreement division develops when you dabble in disagreements this episode of sesame street is brought to you by the letter d i'll read to you again acts 2 42. what do they agree on in order to have agreement you got to agree on some stuff right well what did they agree upon acts 242 all the believers devoted themselves their agreement was based on what they were devoted to not just what they were passionate about all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to fellowship to the sharing and meals including the lord's supper and to prayer my wife holly and i disagree on a lot some of you think that the person who sits in the seat or stands on this platform never has disagreements with their spouse she's not perfect so of course we're going to disagree she's not in this service so i talk a big game you know what i'm saying you know i'm not saying that in the next service i want to stay married we we do disagree in a lot though uh it's just part of human relationship right and one of the things i've learned now we we have what we call date day it's usually friday in our house that's the goal and one of the things i've learned about having a great date day and date night is never start the date talking about what you disagree on i used to make this mistake back in the day and then date night never ended the way i wanted it to because she was still too focused on what we disagree on so for instance back in the day i mean we've been we're about to celebrate 20 years here in january back in the day we'd start off date night with well what sounds good where do you want to go for dinner and she would say well i want to go here and i would say no that does not sound good to me 20 years later now when she says this restaurant sounds good to me here's my response oh my word i can't even believe this that is the exact place i wanted to go more than any other place in the history of humanity how did you we were meant to be together incidentally one of the reasons why i like this agreement is because agreeing after you disagree is awesome but don't disagree just to disagree fight for agreement here's what i would say fellowship is broken when agreement isn't fought for we have to fight for agreement it doesn't just naturally happen one of the ways we fight for agreement is we prioritize what god has asked us to be devoted to not just what opinion we're most passionate about now listen to the way the early disciples talked first john chapter 1 verse 3 we proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us okay so for anybody thinking oh preston you just want me to agree with everyone even if they don't believe what i believe no no no the disciples establish in order to have fellowship with one another in the kingdom like we have to agree on the essentials so they're pointing to the gospel they're saying hey what we have taught you we this is what we saw and this is what we heard we got this directly from the source so that we can have fellowship in other words if you don't agree on this we can't have fellowship and our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ now the greek word for fellowship is the word coina nia some of you may have heard this word but it doesn't just mean fellowship here's one of the strongest definitions of the word koinonia to hold on to something common in a strong way to fight for it to hold on to it together it's not just the fellowship hall i don't know what denomination if you grew up in church but our church had a fellowship hall okay we're not talking about that kind of fellowship we're talking about a committed brand of fellowship holding on to something in common tightly together if the devil can get you focused on areas of disagreement he never has to worry about the power of your agreement i want to show you why agreement is so important in the family of god i also want you to see this is exactly why the devil is trying to divide god's family simply because of the power that comes with agreement matthew chapter 18 starting in verse 19 listen to the words of jesus he says i also tell you this if two of you agree if two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask my father in heaven will do it for you do we actually believe that because i think if we did two of us would spend a lot more time praying together than we presently do this is the power of agreement for where two or three gather together as my followers jesus says i am there among them what a promise this is pointing us to corporate prayer now some of us might think corporate prayer is is only when we gather as the the complete church capital c no no here's what corporate prayer is anytime you pray with somebody else not just by yourself that's corporate prayer and one of the beautiful things about corporate prayer is it puts god at the center of human relationship ecclesiastes chapter four every time i do a wedding i always use ecclesiastes chapter 4. a court of three strands cannot be easily broken that's not just talking about marriage it's talking about human relationship anytime god is a part of relationship it's difficult for the devil to tear it apart and prayer together is one of the ways we strengthen that bond here's one of the things i've learned about praying with other family members of the lords that when we pray together our relationship always gets stronger incidentally this is one of the reasons i've taught for at least 15 years to young adults if you're not married yet i don't think it's wise to pray together because prayer is a lot more powerful than you think something special happens when we pray together and so i just for the young adults who are dating right now i just i'd ask you to pray about it alone just ask the lord because prayer is one of the most powerfully intimate things god has given us and you need to be really careful who you bring into that conversation and when they come into that conversation i want you just to to think about what jesus says in matthew 18 and how powerful praying together is let me just paint a picture this is a hypothetical so don't don't nail your theology to it but i just i want to present a what if okay based on matthew chapter 18. i want you to imagine one day that god just leaves heaven quickly to come down to earth and there's a young angel that's it says to an older angel what's happening right now what's going on where is he going and the older angel says sh two on earth are gathered together in his name to pray sh let's listen to what they say can you even imagine if if if god behaves like that every time you pray with your spouse if he looks around heaven and says hush hush everyone be quiet i'll be right back i promise them every time they do that thing together i'll be there with them and they will see my response this is the power of our agreement so of course the devil would try to divide we will never pray with one another when we don't agree with one another that's why the devil's trying to get all of us just fighting with each other it really stems back to the power of agreement and prayer here's the second thing commitment commitment the second thing that kills the spirit of division is commitment our culture is known for cancellation it's become a buzzword now cancel culture that's what our culture is known for cancellation therefore the church must be known for the opposite commitment cancellation is the exact opposite of commitment so if our culture is known for cancellation the church capital c must be known for commitment let me say it another way this is one of my favorite one-liners of this message culture loves to cancel relationship because of mistakes jesus came to cancel mistakes because of relationship that's nasty let me say it again culture loves to cancel relationship because of mistakes but jesus came to cancel mistakes because of relationship the church must be known for the opposite if everybody's cancelling everybody with a lack of grace then we must be known as a people of grace strong in the area of commitment romans chapter 12 verse 10 be devoted there's that word again be devoted to what to one another in brotherly love and let me show you what commitment looks like and how christian commitment talks in the body of christ this is how seriously the early disciples took being committed to one another first thessalonians 2 verse 8. listen the way they talk having so fond and affection for you we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of god but also our own lives why because you had become very dear to us okay here's a really tough question when was the last time you talk like that about the person sitting in the row behind you i hear all the time oh i met so-and-so during meet and greet that's great that's great i'm glad you met them but meeting is only the beginning of commitment this is how the early disciples talked to one another not just the apostles this is how they talked we're not just sharing the gospel with you we're sharing our lives with you and understand why because you have become unbelievably dear to us now the big question what were the early disciples of jesus christ most committed to relationally let me give you two things if you're taking notes write both of these down here's the first one they were committed to worshiping together in his house in person now let me say just for a minute for those of you joining us online please hear my heart i'm not trying to step on your toes i'm not trying to make you feel bad i'm not trying to make you feel guilty i'm just telling you what god says in his word now some of you joining us online you're doing so because you you fall into an at-risk category and i totally understand i i hear from multiple people in that that bracket every week and they miss us when we miss you and and i don't want you to feel anything but i'm also smart enough to know that there's still many who are staying at home just because they want to and they can so i'm not trying to come at you i promise and this is not political please hear my heart and hear god's word this is not political it's spiritual acts chapter 2 verse 44 and all the believers met together in one place where was that one place the temple and they shared everything they had think about this god's favorite place to be is wherever you are but god's favorite place for you to be is wherever he is oh i love my job that is i'm telling you when he dropped that one on me this week i i was running around like a chicken with my head cut off in my office that is so theologically nasty that it might take me the rest of my life to figure out god's favorite place to be is wherever you are god's favorite place for you to be is wherever he is let's go back to the the date night picture i'll help you understand how i personally see weekend worship in the house of the lord i see it like date day here's why because it's when the bride and the bridegroom come together in god's house implication scripturally is on the sabbath the day set apart by god for god this is date day in the christian faith and i want you just to imagine for a minute remember the church is the bride and who is the bridegroom jesus right that's what the bible says i want you just to imagine every sunday now stats said before kovid started that the average christian attended church in person less than 1.5 times per month imagine how much lower that number is post covid i know we're still dealing with it but we're in a different phase of it i mean imagine what it's like now and let's just go to stick with the date day picture let's just imagine every weekend date day comes and you the bride says to the bridegroom you know what i want to do for date day i just want to stay here at my house i'll i'll join online i'm just going to watch but i'd like to stay here and i want you to imagine that going on for weeks and weeks and weeks and then one day the bridegroom finally says to the bride hey uh i've noticed something about date day we always seem to do what you want to do and we always seem to go where you want to go would it be okay if this week on date day we did what i wanted to do now i know you well enough to know most likely you'd respond something like this oh jesus i didn't know you wanted to do i just thought you wanted to be where i was you want to do something you want to go somewhere you just tell me i'm in we're going and i think if you responded that way to the bridegroom jesus here's what i think he would say in response when you said jesus where would you like to go for date day here's what i think he would say and i'd bet everything to my name on it i'd like to go to my father's house today and i'd like you to go with me that's how i want to spend a day with my bride in my father's house hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 says and let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do i think god put that in for you just to go nope that's everybody else let us not neglect our meeting together in the house of god as some people do now watch this next part but encourage one another especially now that the day of his return is drawing near what does that mean the closer we get to christ's return the more important it is for the family of god to worship together weekly in the house of god again speaking to everybody watching online right now you might be feeling conviction i don't want you to feel condemnation i'm not coming at you i'm simply asking you to pray what's the holy spirit saying hebrews chapter 10 the closer we get to the return of christ the more important it is for the family of god to gather together in the house of god it's interesting to note that the context of hebrews chapter 10 is not on what a believer gets from the assembly but rather on what the believer can contribute to the assembly that's the context here let me say it this way commitment to the house of the lord is based on contribution not consumption now i'm going to close my eyes online crowd when i say this next one okay remember i'm at my best when i just write down and repeat what i feel like he's saying so i'm submitting this please i'm thankful you're not here because you can't hit me all right let me just close my eyes when i when i say this one i'll just look away from you with online church you can consume but you can't contribute i've gone back and forth for months and the elders know this if it were up to me i would pull the plug on our online streaming it goes against everything in the church planner's handbook and i know there are families that travel and it's wonderful that they want to stay connected but i get concerned that i'm making it easy for the enemy to do his job preston i can hear maybe one or two saying online i've been contributing this whole time during covid i know i haven't been in attendance but i have been contributing i've been giving every two weeks since kovitz started i have been contributing and let me just say to those of you watching online who might say that i love it i love that you're so passionate to return to the lord what he said was his the tithe i love it i love it that you're so passionate about giving sacrificial gifts to him it's incredible but i'm going to say something to you i don't think i've ever said to our church before if in your mind it's one or the other contribution from afar with pennies or contribution from within with your presence i want to tell you something i've never told you before if you're asking me to choose between your pennies and your presence i'll see you next week that's not some slogan i hope you know that and here's why and this is kind of strong if you're wondering what president why why can you take that stand i'll tell you why and you'll completely understand what do you call a dad who sends money every month but never comes home those of you watching online if you're doing so just because it's gotten convenient and it's not because your health is at risk can i just tell you we want to see you again the body of christ needs you here's the second thing they were committed to they were committed to being together in your home not just in his house committed relationship cannot exist without consistent conversation it's one of the reasons we have meet and greet the way that we do every week we're trying to foster consistent conversation you can't have committed relationship without it acts 2 46 they worship together at the temple each day now we're talking about just getting into church once a week when they first started they were in the house every day we should all feel like we're getting off easy four times a month they were going more than that every week they worshiped together at the temple each day but that's not all they did they met in homes their homes for the lord's supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity some of my favorite moments in this church over the last eight years have not happened in his house they've happened in yours some of the most amazing stories have come through moments in our groups in your homes see marriages aren't just saved in his house they can also be saved at yours this is what the first century church was built around worship in god's house worship together fellowship together in your house and here's what you need to remember if all we do is fellowship together on sunday or now on thursday as well that's merely formality but here's what you have to remember about the healthiest families the healthiest and strongest families have fun outside of the formal there's some amazing people in this church but you're never going to know that if the only time you give yourself the only chance you give yourself to meet them is for 90 seconds every weekend during meet and greet this is what the early church was built around relationship with god relationship with his family and then here's the third thing that i believe will absolutely kill a spirit of division sacrifice sacrifice the evidence of commitment is sacrifice and all the the marriage counseling i've done over the last 20 years i hear it all the time i i love my spouse they will prove it to me i tell her all the time that's awesome i write love notes to her that's romantic but i always ask a question but how have you sacrificed for her and here's the loaded question what has this marriage cost you to be in it and if their list is short this is strong their commitment is weak the same exists in the church if i don't sacrifice for the bride i can't really make the statement that my commitment level is strong to her cars run on gas but love runs on sacrifice acts 2 45 they sold the church sold their property and possessions as all the californians moved in because they were smart like that i'm selling my house people be going crazy i'm like well i don't want to sell my house but if these californians keep coming in i'm like hey bring your real estate numbers with you they sold their property in possessions and they shared the money with those in need here's what you need to remember about the why behind this those who share in god will inevitably share his nature for god so loved the world that he he what he gave what did he give the most valuable thing he could jesus said greater love hath no man than to lay his life down to sacrifice his own life for his friend listen this kingdom always has and always will run on sacrifice until the return of jesus christ because that's what love runs on sacrifice listen to matthew chapter 6 21 what jesus says for where your treasure is there your heart will also be i get asked every once in a while why preston why do you think god instituted tithing well i'm not god so i can't fully and accurately answer that but i can give you my my thoughts and my opinion why would god create tithing i think matthew chapter 6 tells us not because the church desperately needs it here's why i think god did it to help ensure that his children's hearts were always in his house see here's what the the devil has gotten people convinced about the tithing is about your money i can i can blow a bullet in that one in three seconds with god's word the tithe isn't yours it's not mine god said the tithe belongs to me it's holy it's set apart to me so that the enemy would try and convince us all that tithing is about our money it's not my money that first tenth doesn't belong to me well press in the church must be hurting that's why you're talking about this no it's not because this isn't about money it's about our heart jesus said wherever your treasure is there your heart will be also now i don't know if you're like me aren't you glad the tithe doesn't mean a third like yeah it's okay to laugh about that okay people are like i don't want to seem stingy lighten out okay the tithe my my responding to returning god's tithe to him is not about money it's about my heart koinonia has a variant which just means another word that's closely associated and it's the greek word koinonikos and it means generous specifically sacrificially generous so here's how you can sum up this entire message it's with the word koinonia and kononicos generous sacrificial fellowship in the house of the lord with the family of god generous sacrificial fellowship in the words relationship that all costs us something generous sacrificial fellowship in the house of god with the family of god this is how the first century church kicked satan in his teeth and remember what the bible says was god's response to this behavior the bible says god added to their number those who were being saved every day i believe if we'll behave as they did we will see the same response they did one of my greatest prayers in regards to our church is oh god one day may you be able to say the same thing of us god looked at the first century church and their behavior with one another and you know what he said more people need to be a part of that family and so he added to their family those who were being saved every day it was said of them my prayer is it will also be said of us i want you to bow your heads and close your eyes i know there are a couple of moments in this message that were strong and i try to do my best not to get too strong in my tone because this is not between you and me this is between you and god and a big part of my job is getting out of god's way and as it relates to the bride his church in this moment i want you just to search your heart and alongside the holy spirit answer this question where am i in regards to his bride maybe you've seen her the wrong way maybe you've been more of a consumer than a contributor for years maybe you've been unfaithful to her here and there and everywhere one of the things i felt like the lord said about this moment as we were coming into it earlier this week espresson there's going to be an atmosphere of repentance let me give you the most simple way to see repentance it's not just to confess and turn in the opposite direction let me give you the relational way to see repentance repentance is what happens when something is not right relationally so we're not just talking about your relationship to the bride we're talking about your personal relationship to the king i just want to give a moment before we take communion together in the same way in my relationship with my wife when something's not right the healthier your relationship the quicker you are to address it and change it so you may feel like you don't have the best relationship with the lord right now want to know the fastest way to get things back on track if something's not right between the two of you here's your chance make it right confess it to him and then repent turn and move in the opposite direction from here on out let's just take a moment let's do what needs to be done because god deserves it [Music] let's make things right [Music] do [Music] [Music] hungry i come to you for i know your satisfied i am empty but i know your love does not run dry so i wait for you so i'll wait for you i'm falling on my knees [Music] offering all of me [Music] jesus [Music] restores my life so i wait for you so i'll wait for you [Music] jesus jesus [Music] is [Music] jesus you're all this heart is living for [Music] i want you to want you to reach for the communion elements that you have near you near you and those of you watching online if you are doing communion with us you can go ahead and grab the elements and once you pull out the bread just hold on to it and ask you just to close your eyes [Music] again it's meal time on date day [Music] the god of the universe has pulled up a seat at your table to sit alone with you on the night of the last supper jesus took the bread and he said as though we were looking directly at you into your eyes because he wasn't just speaking to the disciples in the room he was speaking to everyone who would come after them [Music] jesus took the bread and he looked at you and he said this is my body which is broken for you but jesus aren't you just listening to what i confessed didn't you hear that list [Music] why on earth would you talk like that to me after that i wonder if jesus wouldn't just say oh sweetheart i knew all that before you even did it and before i even went to the cross to do that i knew and yet i still did [Music] this is my body which is broken for you every time you eat of this bread jesus says would you do me a favor just remember me as you take this bread into your mouth don't make this merely a matter of digestion make it a matter of connection this is his body which he willingly allowed to be broken for you let's take the bread the same way that night jesus took the cup and he said this is my blood [Music] every drop of it is shed for you jesus you gotta be kidding me [Music] do you not remember the list that i just rolled out to you [Music] i'm ashamed just to speak of such things [Music] do you know remember what i just said i just wonder if jesus wouldn't look you in the eyes and say i'm gonna lean on some words i heard my father speak once oh i heard your list [Music] but i remembered them no more i haven't forgotten your list i've just chosen not to remember it jesus how is that even possible oh cause i've drenched your list in my blood this is my blood which is willingly shed for you every time you drink from this cup and just ask please just remember me [Music] as you take this cup and drink its content let the blood wash over the list all over again let's take the cup you just set your cups down here in this room every head bowed every eye closed there's one more group of people i want to speak to in this moment if you're here today and you'd say i got to know jesus i had no idea that's how god talked i had no idea that if i told him all the things i'm most ashamed of in my life all the things i've done wrong i had no idea that's how jesus would talk in response i have got to know jesus right here right now with every head bowed every eye closed just put your hand up i've got to know jesus i've got to know him no matter where you're at starbucks your apartment your house i've got to know jesus today [Music] anybody else okay if you raised your hand every head bowed every eye closed i want you to simply repeat this prayer after me dear jesus i want to know you i want to be loved by you i believe you're the son of god i believe you came to die for my sins jesus i confess my sin to you can you please do something about it jesus i believe you were raised from the dead so that i could be too jesus take my life take all of me i want to spend forever with you jesus name amen amen if you just prayed that prayer with me i want to ask you to do something whether you're in this room or you're watching online would you just text the name jesus to the number 24587 somebody's going to reach out to you you just gave your life to christ we just want to come alongside you help you in whatever way we can all right if you don't have a bible we'll send you one all right the next steps are really important as you build this relationship this personal relationship with jesus not only am i proud of you all of heaven is celebrating you right now we pray a blessing and we'll be dismissed god thank you thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your family may we never take it lightly may we understand our responsibilities as your sons and daughters may we fall more in love with the bride than ever before just as jesus did may we lay our lives down for her may you see generous sacrificial fellowship in the house of god among the family of god here in this place and may we see your response to such behavior in christ mighty name amen

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 321

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, gateway church sermons, church online, arizona church, scottsdale churches, phoenix churches, gateway people, gateway life, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, house undivided, unity message, how to kill division, killing division, division in the church, division message, unity sermons, gateway church scottsdale

Id: 3SU9Ys8sPZA

Length: 54min 47sec (3287 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2020