Is that charging?
Good.
The Wi-Fi is not degraded for the connection.
They wouldn't stop everybody putting their phones on maritime mode?
I don't think anyone's on the same network as me.
Yours is Canadian, that's why.
Dustin Trudeau is strange.
Is it Dustin Trudeau?
Yeah.
It's going on.
Okay.
They can hear us talking about Justin Trudeau?
Oh, man.
Oh, my gosh.
Do you have any bottles of water?
I've got water bottles.
To the bottom.
Actually, there's a drum.
There's more pipes from it.
It's actually gone.
There's more pipes from it.
There's more pipes.
There's more pipes from it.
There's more pipes.
There's more pipes from it.
All that put out.
There's a couple more chairs here.
There's the road, the black chairs, right here.
You can't walk in some of them when you get out.
Obviously, there's a lot of people here.
Alright, we're going to get started.
There's three more chairs over here.
Alright, if you please be seated, we'll try to bring in some more chairs.
We're going to get started.
There are some hymnals.
We might need to share.
Does anyone not have any hymnals?
If you have cell phone reception, I can give you a place where you can go to find it online.
If you go to sfbcnorth.com slash hymns, you can find them on there.
Now everyone knows.
Yeah, but sfbcnorth.com slash hymns, you can find the hymnal on there.
We're going to start in hymn number 58.
Can you please stand with me as we sing 58?
He the Pearly Gates will open.
Coming from the heart of Jesus.
Just the same through tests of time.
He the Pearly Gates will open.
So that I may enter in.
For he purges my redemption.
And forgave me all my sin.
Like a dove when hunted, frightened.
As a wounded bone was I.
Broken hearted, yet he healed me.
He will heed the sinner's cry.
He the Pearly Gates will open.
So that I may enter in.
For he purges my redemption.
And forgave me all my sin.
Love divine, so great and wondrous.
All my sins he then forgave.
I will sing his praise forever.
For his blood is power to save.
He the Pearly Gates will open.
So that I may enter in.
For he purges my redemption.
And forgave me all my sin.
In life's even tight in twilight.
At his door I'll knock and wait.
By the breath of Jesus.
I shall enter heaven's gate.
He the Pearly Gates will open.
So that I may enter in.
For he purges my redemption.
And forgave me all my sin.
Amen. Open Word of Prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for gathering us here from both sides of the border.
We're just so thankful that we have this opportunity to join together and see friends, see each other, see the brethren in fellowship together and hear some good preaching.
I just pray that you be with us and fill this place with your spirit and that everything done here today would please you and bring you glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Let's go to hymn number 175. And once again, if you don't have the hymns, you can go to sfbcnorth.com slash hymns and it's going to be on there.
Don't go to the Christmas ones because we're not singing Christmas hymns today.
175, It's Just Like His Great Love.
A friend I have called Jesus, whose love is strong and true.
And never fails, how ere tis tried, no matter what I do, I've sinned against this love of his.
But when I knelt to pray, confessing all my guilt to him, the sin clouds rolled away.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day. It's just like Jesus all along the way.
It's just like his great love. Sometimes the clouds of trouble, they dip the sky above.
I cannot see my Savior's face. I doubt his wondrous love.
But he from heaven's mercy sees, beholding my despair.
In pity bursts the clouds between, and shows me he is there.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day. It's just like Jesus all along the way.
It's just like his great love. When sorrow's clouds o'er take me, and break upon my head.
When life seems worse than useless, and I were better dead.
I take my grief to Jesus then, nor do I go in vain. For heavenly hope he gives at years, like sunshine after rain.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day. It's just like Jesus all along the way.
It's just like his great love. Oh, I could sing forever of Jesus, love divine. Of all his care and tenderness for this, for life of mine.
His love is in and over all, and wind and waves obey. When Jesus whispers, peace be still, and rolls the clouds away.
It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day. It's just like Jesus all along the way. It's just like his great love.
Amen.
All right. Good morning. Welcome to Share Foundation Baptist Church.
And let's just go through a few announcements before we start the service. It's great to see everybody. We've got a full house, so praise God for that.
And we have our verse of the day. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Psalm 133 verse 1.
It's been over two years since we've been able to fellowship with our church up here in the north. And it's really weird to just like look across the field and see that Canada's right there.
My brother Sean was saying like, wow, I know it's an imaginary line, but it just feels weird. But it's great to be here. It's great to be able to see everybody. There's a lot of new faces that I haven't got to meet yet.
And so it's nice to see everybody here this morning. And a lot of people from our church have made it. Can I get somebody to count in attendance to make sure we get everybody counted today?
I just want to make sure to see how many we got. Anyway, at some point. You're probably already off, aren't you? No, he's not. He's not. What kind of leader are you? Anyway, not.
That's a good answer. I like that answer. All right. So just our schedule today is, of course, 11 a.m. is the preaching service. I hope you got something for breakfast. I don't know if there's anything left over.
But we are having lunch at 1230. We're going to have pizza. And so if pizza's not on your menu, then there's grass outside. We eat grass like the ox. No, I'm just kidding.
Hopefully everybody's okay with pizza. And then we have 2 p.m. We're going to have another preaching service. And after that, we're going to do a little bit of fellowship and we're going to start cleaning up.
We have to be out of here by 5 or they'll lock us in and make you all get vaccinated. So at 4.15, this place has to look like it did when we first locked in. So we have cleaning products. We have plenty of people.
And so we'll probably want to limit all the kids running in and out with muddy feet at the very end. But anyway, so if you could stay and help make sure this thing looks shipshape, that'd be great.
And maybe we can come here again, because as of right now, we can't. It's like Abraham's bosoms right here. But we can't go to you and you can't come to us. So like this is Abraham's bosom, I guess. Right here. We can all be together. Anyway, I'm just teasing.
So anyway, so we have the list of the hymns that we're going to be seeing are in this little sheet. So if you're standing next to somebody and they have 20-20 jet fighter vision and they can see these, I think that some of them are, nope, they're all small.
Okay, that's all right. I just have to go like this. But it's okay. It's great that we have all that. And then like you said, you have your phones, you can get the music on there too.
So other than that, I don't think we have other announcements. Is there anything else that I'm missing? So yeah, we just need to make sure it's all cleaned up. And then thank you. Thanks again, everybody for coming. We really appreciate it. And hopefully we can do this again soon. So that's I think all I have for announcements. And then we'll sing another song.
All right, if you please stand with me once again, we'll sing two more hymns. Start with 217.
217, he included me.
Yes, I'm so happy to know and say, Jesus included me too.
Jesus included me. Yes, he included me.
When the Lord said whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me.
When the Lord said whosoever, he included me. Gladly I've read whosoever may come to the fountain of life today.
But when I read it, I always say, Jesus included me too. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me.
When the Lord said whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me. Yes, he included me.
When the Lord said whosoever, he included me.
Ever God's Spirit is saying come, hear the bride saying no longer roam. But I am sure while they're calling home, Jesus included me too.
Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said whosoever, he included me.
Freely come drink words, the soul to thrill. Oh, with what joy they my heart to fill. For when he said whosoever will, Jesus included me too.
Jesus included me. Yes, he included me. When the Lord said whosoever, he included me.
Amen. We'll sing one more. 225. 225, nor silver nor gold.
Nor silver nor gold hath obtained my redemption. Nor riches of earth could have saved my poor soul.
The blood of the cross is my only foundation. The death of my Savior now maketh me whole.
I am redeemed, but not with silver. I am bought, but not with gold.
But with the price, the blood of Jesus, precious price of love untold.
Nor silver nor gold hath obtained my redemption. The guilt on my conscience too heavy had grown.
The blood of the cross is my only foundation. The death of my Savior could only unzone.
I am redeemed, but not with silver. I am bought, but not with gold.
But with the price, the blood of Jesus, precious price of love untold.
Nor silver nor gold hath obtained my redemption. The holy commandment forbade me draw near.
The blood of the cross is my only foundation. The death of my Savior remove in my fear.
I am redeemed, but not with silver. I am bought, but not with gold.
But with the price, the blood of Jesus, precious price of love untold.
Nor silver nor gold hath obtained my redemption. The way into heaven could not thus be bought.
The blood of the cross is my only foundation. The death of my Savior, redemption hath wrought.
I am redeemed, but not with silver. I am bought, but not with gold.
But with the price, the blood of Jesus, precious price of love untold.
Amen. You may be seated. Please turn to Psalm 133 in your Bible. Psalm 133.
All right, hopefully you're there in your Bible in Psalm 133. I'll start reading there in verse 1.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments.
As the dew of Herman, the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.
Let's pray. Lord in heaven, I just pray that you fill Pastor Thompson with your spirit and help us be attentive to your word being preached, and I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right. It's great to be in America. I wore my Donald Trump suit just so you guys would realize what country you're in, all right?
But it is great to be here and with all the brethren from Canada and all of our church family here from our home church back home.
And there's a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time, and I just want to thank you once again for coming.
And I wanted to preach a very encouraging sermon this morning because it's not going to get any better from there.
So if you're a little squeamish, tonight's sermon or this afternoon's sermon might not be for you, but this one is supposed to be encouraging for us, and the next one not so much.
But it might encourage you to break some fellowship with certain people or to look at things a little bit differently than you normally would.
I'm talking about the second sermon, but this one is all love and roses and candy and sweets and stuff like that.
So anyway, the title of the sermon is Unity with the Brethren.
So let's look at Psalm 133, verse 1, it says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
And I thought it was a fitting sermon to preach because our brethren are finally being able to dwell together in unity and we're all getting together.
And it's actually probably a little more like we've had services where we come up to Canada and we have a lot of our church family come.
But like I said, it's been a while. It's been over two years. It seems hard to believe, but it's been two years.
But it's great to be together. The Bible says it's good and pleasant to dwell together in unity.
Verse number 2 says, It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments.
So the Bible is saying it's like this precious ointment. And I'll explain to you more kind of what that precious ointment is a little bit later.
But verse 3 says, As the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.
So it's a very short psalm, only three verses, and I only have three points this morning.
I only have 16 pages, so no, I'm just kidding. I don't really have 16 pages. Just take 10 off that and that's what I got.
Anyway, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You, Lord, so much for all these people who would rise up early and come and hear some Bible preaching and have some fellowship together on a Saturday.
Let's pray, Lord, that You'd bless each and every single person for being here. I pray that, Lord, You'd work with Your Spirit and that You would help me and fill me with Your Spirit as I begin to preach, Lord.
I pray that the sermon will be edifying to the people this morning. And again, we thank You for Your blessings, Lord, and everything that You've provided for us for this trip. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
So number one this morning, unity with the brethren is good and pleasant. Number one, unity with the brethren is good and pleasant. I had to fit two into one point here.
But it's good and pleasant. And so it says, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
Now what kind of unity do you think would be good for a brethren to dwell together with? Well, how about doctrine? Doctrine is a good thing to be united on.
Now obviously we don't all necessarily believe the same on every nuance of the Bible. A lot of people might take things differently in the Bible than other people.
But as long as we agree on the main things like salvation by faith alone, baptism by immersion, eternal security of the believer, and we agree on the same music.
You notice we didn't have a rock concert here this morning. We had some great old-fashioned hymns. Was that not a Spirit-filled song service? Amen.
And so we should be unified in our doctrine. The Bible says, How can two walk together except they be agreed?
And so we want to be agreed. We want to be unified as brethren. And when we come to a service, even though one group is in Canada and one is in the United States, when we get together we're all preaching the same stuff.
We all believe pretty much the same thing. We all listen to the same types of music. And not just listening, but we're singing that music to the Lord.
And so it's good and pleasant for us to dwell together in unity. Now sometimes you can be with somebody and they're your brethren and you're not united.
They believe a bunch of different junk. And so at that point it would not be good. It would not be pleasant because what happens when Christians get together and they don't agree?
They usually end up fighting, don't they? They fight about doctrine. They fight and they're not unified.
But what's another good thing to be unified in? Well, how about church? When we get together in a church service, we're in one. We're unified together with one purpose.
And what is that purpose? Well, to hear the preaching of God's word, to put those things in place in our life, and to go out and preach the gospel to the lost.
So, and then what's another good and pleasant thing about being unified with the brethren? Well, how about our fellowship?
You know, it's hard to be unified with somebody. Maybe we can get together, we do the preaching, we go out soul wanting.
But you know, a lot of what we do is fellowship. And fellowship means that we're of like faith, we get together, we have like beliefs and like passions.
And the Bible talks about that over and over again throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's good for us. The Bible says it's good and pleasant.
So, good, you know, what is goodness? Well, when God says something is good, He means it, right?
So when He made everything in the beginning, He made everything good, right? And He saw that everything was good, and the evening and the morning was the first day.
So everything that God made was good. And so when He says it's good, that means it's a good thing when we get together and dwell together in unity.
So we're united together with the brethren. So what about prayer? Soul wanting?
So, I mean, all these things are things that we should be unified in. When we're praying, what are we praying for? Each other's issues that we might have.
Or just, you know, that so and so would get a job. Or we get together, we pray for each other, and we're unified in those prayers.
We want what? The church to grow. We want the church to do better. We want our soul wanting to increase.
We want, you know, health and blessings upon our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Isn't that what we unify in when it comes to prayer?
And now unity with the brethren doesn't mean that we're in unity with the Catholic Church, the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses.
You know, there's an ecumenical movement out there that say, hey, we're just supposed to be one big, you know, church. No, that's not what the Bible says.
It has to be in the right kind of unity. It has to be with our doctrine. It has to be the way God said and put forth in His Word.
So it's not just what's, you know, you've seen the New World Revival versions of the movie, I'm sure, where they're all up on the stage at this Roman Catholic convention or something,
and they're waving sage, and you've got Hindus and mystics and Muslims and Jews and Catholics all together.
When I look at that picture, that makes me think of wickedness, because that's what it is. It's wicked, because they don't believe the same thing.
Most of those people don't even believe the Bible at all. As a matter of fact, I'd say zero of them believe the Bible.
Because, you know, in the last days, there's going to be a one-world government. How do you think that that comes to pass?
Well, everybody just drops what is important, which is in this book, and they say, well, hey, for the sake of unity, let's just get rid of this.
Because how are they going to be unified without doing it through this book? It's impossible.
So let's turn to Acts 2, verse 41. We'll see in the early church after Pentecost, we'll see how the church of Acts was so successful.
It was so successful because they were unified in their purpose in everything that they did, actually.
Look at Acts 2, 41. It says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. In the same day, there were added unto them about 3,000 souls.
So it was a great day, multiple salvations. They all got baptized. Wouldn't that be great if everybody we got saved got baptized right afterwards?
But that's just not how it is so much today. But people do get baptized, amen? I can baptize you today. If you need to be baptized, we'll just go right out there.
We'll wait until the tsunami comes in, and then we'll do it. It'll make it a little more exciting. Did you guys know we're under a tsunami warning? Okay, I just want to make sure.
So, you know, if we die today, we'll all be in heaven together, in unity, amen?
Well, if you start hearing alarms go, that means it's time to leave.
Anyway, so look at verse 42. It says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking in bread and in prayer.
So they continued steadfastly. So they didn't get away from it. They stayed strong in these things.
Doctrine was number one. So it's important that we have the same doctrine. Fellowship, hanging around like faith believers.
Breaking in bread, that means eating together. Guess what we're going to do today? We're Baptists. If we're not eating, we're not meeting. We're going to eat some food together today.
And it says, and in prayer. So all those things I mentioned at the beginning, these things are important for us to be steadfast.
We're supposed to be unmovable, always abounding to the work of the Lord, right? And it says in verse number 43,
And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things in common.
See, it's important for us as believers to have all things in common, too. What do you have in common?
Well, we have the same God, the same Lord that we serve, and the same Lord that saved us, and so we have something majorly in common that we're all saved.
Because the Bible says there's few that be saved. So if you can get together with people and you're saved, you're on a winning track right there.
But it says all that were believed were together, and had all things in common. What do you talk about when you get together in fellowship?
Well, hopefully most of the time it's about the things of God. Because when we get together, you know, we're iron sharpened with iron.
We're supposed to sharpen each other and make each other better, not come together for the worse, right?
And so it says in verse 45,
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
You're like, whoa, wait a second, Pastor Johnson, you're talking about selling everything. Hey, you know what, we do need to help each other out.
And I'm not saying sell all your stuff, but, you know, we should be helping each other out as Christians.
And like, I know our church is very helpful when people are in need. I know that personally, and obviously I don't want to single anybody out or anything.
But I just, I know that our church is very giving and very helpful towards people that are in need in our church.
And it says, And they continuing daily, and with one accord in the temple, and breaking in bread, see it goes to the food twice, right?
And from house to house, you know, maybe hospitality, and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.
So basically this early church here, they did everything together. It said that they were daily in the temple.
See, we go to church three times a week, and we act like that's so hard, they were doing it every day. And they were unified.
So if you have, we have special services where we're having, oh, I can't believe we're having three services in a row, and then we're having all, hey, just be happy that you can go more days than three.
Because three is like the bare minimum, you know? It's bare minimum at a church like ours, because we need it.
And especially as dark as this world is right now, we need more unity with the brethren than we ever had before.
And so it says in verse 47, Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily as should be saved.
So you know what? God was happy about this. I don't think that this is here as an accident. I think God wants us to know that He wants us to be together like this.
He wants us to dwell together in unity. He wants us to be unified as one great sowing powerhouse, dragon slaying church, right?
He wants us to go out and have one heart and one mind. And so the devil will take that kind of mentality and make it something wicked where we're all this one world government.
The devil just counterfeits and copies everything that God does anyway. But when it comes to unity with the brethren, the Bible says it's good, and so God blessed that unity that they had in the early church there in Acts.
And it's pleasant. Isn't it pleasant to be able to go to a church where you can talk about the post-trib rapture and nobody freaks out and tries to kick you out? Isn't that nice?
Isn't it nice that you can get together at a church and talk about replacement theology and nobody even bats an eye? It's just like normal?
Do you remember the first time you ever went to a church and you didn't have to be worried about talking about something like that?
You know why? Because it's good and it's pleasant to be able to be around like-minded believers that believe the exact same thing as you do.
Number two this morning, unity with the brethren is precious. So it's not only good and pleasant, but it's also precious.
Now what does that word precious mean? It means of an object or substance or resource of great value not to be wasted or treated carelessly.
Not to be wasted or treated carelessly. Unity with the brethren is precious. What kind of thing would you consider precious? Isn't gold a precious metal?
If you had a brick of gold, would you just treat that carelessly and act like it was no big deal? No, you'd be like shining that thing up and making sure that it was okay, it was locked up, it was good to go.
It's a precious thing and when something's precious you take care of it and you make sure that it's taken care of and kept safe.
The Bible says in verse number two in our text it says it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments.
So it's talking about when Aaron was anointed as the high priest when Moses had brought the people out of Egypt and they got their special outfits that they had, the breeches, the short pants and the mitre and everything on their head.
All the stuff, the linen stuff that wouldn't make them sweat. All those outfits, those things were hard to make back then. They didn't have like looms like they do now. They didn't have mass production clothes where you can just go to Walmart and pick it off the shelf.
These were like custom tailor made outfits for the priest. Now what else was custom and precious that nobody else had was this ointment.
The anointing oil that was poured upon Aaron's head was like no ointment that's in the world and it's not recreated today.
God is the one that showed Moses the pattern of the things in heaven and it was actually I believe you were cut off from among your people if you tried to recreate it.
So you know how today they have cologne and perfume and they're made by Chanel and all these different brands. Well you know they have patents on those things and people try to steal those so they're like you'll go to Walmart and it says smells like jakar.
And when it's not really jakar it's like they're copying that kind of they're trying to copy the formula that they make this cologne and perfume from and it's usually not made with as good of products.
But you know you want to smell like you have jakar or obsession on or something like that then it lasts for like an hour instead of like four hours or something like that right.
So with this this precious ointment that was poured on Aaron's head it was really special and what is oil being poured on someone representing the Bible?
It represents the anointing of the Holy Spirit doesn't it? The Spirit being poured upon the Son of God at the baptism you know it says I you know that John saw the Spirit like in the form of a dove coming down upon Jesus Christ so it's just like coming down upon him.
And the Bible says that Jesus was filled without measure and what does it make you think of when you see that it ran down his beard and down to the skirts of his garments like he they just dumped the whole thing on his head right.
It's just like you know and to me that's like one of the weirdest feel would be the one of the weirdest feelings in the world is to have oil just like running down your face or something.
But what does the Bible say about it says it's like the precious ointment when you're dwelling together with unity with the brethren it's good it's precious it's a precious thing.
Now let's turn to Exodus chapter 30 verse 22 we'll read more about this precious ointment that it's talking about.
And remember this that Aaron was anointed as the high priest of Israel the first high priest of Israel he was the brother of Moses but what did that picture for later on?
That Jesus Christ was going to be our high priest right and so that picture of Aaron being anointed with the oil is also a picture of Christ being anointed with oil without measure.
And he was able to do all these wonderful works and all these these things he did all these miracles healed lepers healed blind people and raised Lazarus from the dead when he was stinking after four days.
You know and I was just reading through John if everybody's doing the New Testament challenge right now you read that verse you're like I wonder if he stink when he come out.
Have you ever thought about that? Like you know maybe he made the special perfume for him at that time no I don't know.
But he probably didn't stink because he was alive again right? But I don't know if that lingering in the cave might have been I don't know.
But I don't know it's just things that you think about when you read the Bible right? I'm just sharing with you publicly on YouTube my thoughts of the Bible.
Anyway so look at Exodus 30 verse 22 says moreover the Lord spake unto Moses saying take thou also unto the principal spices and pure myrrh 500 shekels and of sweet cinnamon half so much even 250 shekels and of sweet calamus 250 shekels.
So all these different spices is what God was telling Moses to take and it says and of cassia 500 shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary and of oil olive and hen.
So it was of oil but it also had these spices these chief and principal spices that was added to it and it said how much to put into it right?
It says and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary.
It shall be in holy anointing oil and thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith and the ark of the testimony and the table and all of his vessels and the candlestick and his vessels and the altar of incense and the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels and the laver and his foot.
Thou shalt sanctify them that they may be most holy whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy and thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them that they may minister unto me in the priests office and thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel saying this shall be in holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generation.
So this is not just some regular oil this is a special anointing oil and that's why the Bible says in Psalm chapter 133 verse 2 it says that it's like the precious ointment upon the head.
It wasn't just like they beat it all you know they smashed some olives and just dumped it on his head.
No this was special anointing oil that they put upon him.
Look at verse 32 upon man's flesh shall it not be poured neither shall you make any other like it.
After the composition of it it is holy and that shall be holy unto you.
So it's sanctified it's set apart it's a special anointing oil.
It says whosoever compoundeth any like it or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger shall even be cut off from his people.
So it was a big deal to not try to recreate it like you're trying to make obsession or I don't even know all the like that was what was popular when I was a teenager.
Is there any other popular ones Calvin Klein or something I don't know I don't wear cologne anymore but I'm not saying you're wicked if you do I'm just saying for the purpose of this sermon you know people will copy these top name brand colognes and perfumes.
But the Bible says that they were not supposed to you know because it probably smelled really good.
It was probably a really good smelling and they anointed themselves they lived in a desert place so it was kind of a thing that they did there.
But look at verse 34 it says and the Lord said unto Moses take them to these sweet spices.
Stock tea and Onetia and I can't even pronounce these.
Galbanum these sweet spices with pure frankincense of each other be a like weight.
Thou shalt make it a perfume a confection after the art of the apothecary tempered together pure and holy.
And thou shalt beat some of it very small and put it before the testimony the tabernacle the congregation where I will meet with thee it shall be unto you most holy.
For the perfume which thou shalt make you should not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord.
Whosoever shall make like unto that to smell thereto shall even be cut off from his people.
So God took it very seriously this wasn't just some regular oil.
Now if you think about the just what oil does.
Oil does a lot of different things for humanity and like even different types of oil like you know whaling was a big thing in like the 18 you know probably before the 1800s but like it kind of stopped being a bigger thing later you know in the like early 1900s and things like that.
But people use whale blubber and oil for lighting and heating and all different types of things.
So oil is a blessing right.
Any type of oil and oil that you get from the ground you know your car won't run without it.
Unless there's electric cars don't have oil on them do they.
Maybe the hybrids I don't know I don't know much about it but.
But oil if you have a you know 66 Mustang you know you're going to have to have some oil on that thing right.
So oil is a blessing that we get but this is a different type of oil.
But in the Bible there's different things that God uses oil for and one of those things of course is anointing.
And so we saw that Aaron was anointed with the oil.
Turn to James chapter actually turn to Psalm 104 verse 15.
Psalm 104 verse 15.
The Bible talks about oil being a blessing in Psalm 104 verse 15.
It says,
And wine that maketh glad, it's talking about all the things that God makes that are a blessing in the world in this chapter.
But it says, And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
So oil the Bible says makes a man's face to shine.
So it's talking about things that are a blessing so apparently that's a blessing.
I don't rub oil on my face in the morning. I don't know like, you know, I guess I don't want my face to shine. It shines enough.
But the Bible does talk about it being a blessing here. Now look at James chapter 5 verse 13.
So there's different properties of oil. Obviously the lamps in the tabernacle were lit by oil.
They, you know, they were supposed to burn all the time.
So it could be used for lighting. It could be used to make your face to shine.
And it could also be for healing. Now look at James chapter 5 verse 13. It says,
Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any married? Let him sing songs. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church.
Let him pray over him. What does it say? Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
So this is something in the New Testament that is still supposed to be practiced.
Now I don't think that we should anoint people with oil over every little cold and sniffle that they get. Otherwise we'd be doing it a lot.
Because our church always seems to have people singing it. But it's been a rough month hasn't it?
So, but the Bible says that this is something we should do and we should anoint someone.
If someone is really sick that we need to pray for that person and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.
And is it the oil that heals them? Is it the oil that actually heals them?
Look what it says, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up.
And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
But doesn't the Bible say to anoint them with oil? So that is part of the process. Why?
I believe it's just a picture of the Holy Spirit. You know, because God can heal anybody.
You know, God can heal the worst sinner, but he can also heal the worst sickness.
As proved by the Lord Jesus Christ, filled with anger by the Holy Spirit in his personal ministry.
So it even says your sins will be forgiven, which is good, but the prayer of faith shall save you.
But that is predicated by putting anointing oil on them.
And I don't think it's the same oil that Moses was told to make, so I think I just use olive oil, so extra virgin.
But anyway, it says confess your faults one to another and pray one for another
that ye may be healed the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Now turn to Acts chapter 4 verse 29.
So unity with the brethren is precious according to the Bible, and it's like the precious oil that was poured on Aaron
and went down into his beard and down into the skirts of his garments.
In Acts 4.29 it says,
And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul,
neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own,
but they had all things in common.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great grace was upon them all.
Neither was there any among them that lacked,
for as many as were possessors of lands and houses sold them,
and brought the prices of the things that were sold."
So notice that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit in verse number 31.
So when we as brethren get together and we are filled with the Holy Spirit,
it says it's like the precious oil that came down Aaron's beard,
but when we're all filled with what that oil represents,
then we can do mighty things through God also.
And it says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit,
and they spake the word of God with boldness.
And that's why it's so important for us to dwell together in unity.
It's so important for us to hold our unity as something that's precious,
because you know what, the Holy Spirit is precious.
And like I said, not everybody is saved.
There's hardly anybody that's saved in this world.
We think, well, there's a lot of people that are saved.
How often do you really run into saved people outside?
It's probably as often or maybe less.
It's way less than you get.
It's probably more than you get saved.
But you know, most people are not saved.
When you knock on their door, what do they all say?
Well, I'm a good person.
They're all good people. Everybody's good.
The Bible says there's none good, no, not one.
That's what the Bible actually says.
So when we get together and we have one purpose to go out and preach the gospel
and to get people saved and to be a blessing in each other's lives,
you know what, that is a precious thing.
And it's not a thing that a lot of churches have.
But you know what, our church has that.
And right now we're all one church right here.
You know what, because your church in Canada is part of our church.
It's just we're not in the same location, right?
But right now we are.
And that's a blessing.
It's a blessing for us to be together.
It's a precious thing.
And we should treat the times that we get to spend together like this
as a precious thing, just like it was precious for Aaron
to have that special anointing oil in his beard.
Look at verse number 35. It says,
And laid them down at the apostles' feet,
and distress was made unto every man according to he had need.
And Joses, who was by the apostles a certain name,
which is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite,
and of the country of Cyprus, having land sold it and brought the money
and laid it at the apostles' feet.
So here we have another instance in Acts.
So in Acts chapter 2, it's kind of restating a similar type of situation
where they're all filled with the Spirit and a bunch of people get saved
and they go out and they preach boldly.
You know, sometimes we just need to be able to get together
and give each other that boldness.
Because, you know, when you're all alone,
you know, it's a lot harder.
Like if anybody's not been in a church,
but you're already like, I need to go soloing.
I need to get plugged in. I need to listen.
I can't just listen to sermons on the internet.
I actually got to be in church.
I actually got to be around God's people.
Look, it's a big part of your Christian life.
It's not something that you should take lightly.
If you can be in a great church, well then be in a great church.
And let me tell you something.
Not all churches are great churches.
They're not.
And is our church perfect?
You'd probably say, no it's not.
People are already like, no.
It's not perfect, but you know what?
It's a great church.
And we have one purpose.
Do you think that your church in Canada,
do you think soloing is made a big deal out of?
It is. In our church it's a big deal.
Hey, we have people soloing all the time.
I see your guys' posts.
I see, hey, pin dropped here.
Who's coming?
It's the same thing in our church.
People are always just constantly soloing.
And you know what?
And it gives us that boldness to go back out there.
Because you know what?
Sometimes it gets tiring.
Sometimes it gets lonesome.
And sometimes we need each other
and that precious fellowship that we have together
to spur us on to continue doing great works.
Because you know what?
Just honestly we might not always be able to be together.
We might not always be able to be together.
There is coming a time, a great tribulation on this earth
and who knows what things are going to be like.
Look at what they're doing right now.
How many churches are out?
I mean we're having an in-person church service
in the middle of a pandemic.
It's like...
But you know what?
Most churches are not even gathering together
still for in-person church services.
It's like you probably have already gotten it by now, people.
You know?
The Omicron is going to finish us all off.
We're all going to be immune at that point.
I'm not saying finish us off as in this.
I'm saying everybody should be immune after this outbreak.
But you know they're going to just keep doing it.
They're just going to keep...
It's just like the Iraq war thing.
Some of you probably don't even know what I'm talking about.
But anyway, George Bush when he went in
said they had weapons of mass destruction and all that.
And then like at first all the media was on his side
and the Muslims were bad guys and all that stuff.
9-11 and all that happened.
But then the media turned against him and hated him.
He was like Donald Trump style people.
A lot of you are young and don't recall or remember this
but everybody hated George Bush.
But it's nowhere near the hatred they have for Donald Trump.
Donald Trump magnified like 50 times over, right?
And it's like Donald Trump didn't even put us in a war.
I mean our economy was good.
It's like I don't know what they were so mad about.
Just because their guy wasn't doing it or something like that.
But you know what they did in the media then?
And they do the same stuff now.
They would put how many dead soldiers on the screen
the whole time, every newscast.
And it would change as you're watching the news.
This is how many dead soldiers there are in Iraq.
But it's the same kind of thing that they do now.
They want us to be scared and afraid of everything
and scared to fellowship and scared to solo and scared to preach.
And I'm sure it works on people.
Just turn the media off.
And then you'll just live a normal life like you always were.
You have to put a mask on when you walk in the store.
Big deal.
So you have to put a mask on when you're flying on an airplane.
Big deal.
I mean I know it's not fun.
I hate it.
But is it the worst thing that we could endure?
No, I think running for the hills and hiding
and not having any food or anything to drink
or any way to support your family unless you take the mark of the beast.
I think that would be a lot worse.
I think we can survive in this pandemic a little bit.
So again, Aaron is a picture of the high priest Jesus Christ
who had the Holy Spirit poured on him without measure.
Look at Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14.
I'll move on to my last point after this.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14.
The Bible says,
For we have not an high priest
Oh, excuse me, verse 14.
I was reading verse 15. Sorry.
Seeing that then we have
Yeah, that's the same verse, right?
Oh, no, it's not. It's two different ones.
All right.
Seeing then we have a great high priest
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our profession.
For we have not an high priest
that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities
that was in all points tempted like as we are
yet without sin.
See, Jesus Christ is our high priest
and he's going to be our high priest forever.
Amen.
And just like we are sealed with the Holy Spirit now,
he's sealed with the Holy Spirit forever
and we are sealed with the Holy Spirit forever.
We might experience some kind of death process
but it's only going to be the death of our body.
Yeah.
So the moment we close our eyes for the last time
we're going to be in heaven.
Right.
When we close our eyes for the last time
you're going to be with the Lord.
That's what the Bible teaches.
So, but if you're not saved
you're going to be in flames and in hell.
So we want to be on the side that's,
you know, going to heaven, right?
Amen.
So point number three, unity with the brethren
is like precipitation.
It's like precipitation.
I took a little license with this one
but look at verse number three in our text.
So dew is like precipitation.
It does get things wet, right?
All these P's together are like pastor numbers
but I'm just not as good as him.
Anyway, so number three,
unity with the brethren is like precipitation.
It says in verse number three,
as the dew of Herman and as the dew
that descended upon the mountains of Zion
for there the Lord commanded the blessing
even life forevermore.
So this is a great verse here too
because it says it's as the dew.
Now we're experiencing two days of drought right now.
Like on the way up here yesterday
it was so beautiful.
Like the sun came out right when we got past
like, you know, a long view or whatever.
Maybe it was like Olympia.
But then like when we were driving up
and we drove through Seattle
you could see mountains on each side.
I think there was mountains you guys enjoy over here
that you can't climb up because they're too steep.
But it was just mountains on every side.
It was just completely beautiful outside.
The sun was shining.
It was awesome.
But you know, when we think of rain
we don't necessarily think of it
as a blessing.
Because we kind of get to the point where we're like
really?
It was a blessing.
Like the first time it rained after the summer.
But you know we live in the northwest
where it rains a lot.
We kind of live in this like natural rain
mountain forest type weather.
And so it's hard for us to maybe picture it
like the Psalmist is picturing it here
because when it rains in a desert place
it is a blessing.
And people are like,
so when there's a drought in a desert
it's raining season in most deserts.
But so it says that, you know,
dwelling with brethren in unity
is like the dew.
And a dew is a blessing.
When it rains or when there's precipitation
in the desert or in a desert place
it is a blessing.
And look what it says.
It's like the dew that descended upon
the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord commanded the blessing
even life forevermore.
And when I think about it
when I think about this verse
I think about the living waters
that the Lord Jesus provides for us.
When we get saved, you know,
you talk to the woman at the well
and he said, you know,
if you would have known the gift
that you would have asked
and I would have given thee living waters.
So he talks about these living waters
and this well of life
that bubbles up into your soul.
And so I don't think it's an accident
here that it says that
it's a blessing even life forevermore.
So what is this actually talking about here?
You know, if it rains one time
it's not a blessing forevermore is it?
But that holy, you know,
when you get the Holy Spirit
when you get that water
that wells up in your soul
it's like a dew that gives you
life forevermore.
You know, everybody's probably
got a bottle of water with them.
If you drink of this water
it's like a dew that gives you
life forevermore.
You're going to be thirsty again.
I'm going to be thirsty again
after I drink this.
I'm thirsty again.
No, I'm just kidding.
But Jesus is talking about a water
that you'll never thirst again with.
Isn't that going to be amazing
that we get to dwell together forever?
I mean, if you don't like each other right now
you got forever to work your problems out.
Like, I really don't like that
first of all.
Maybe God's just going to have your mansion
in your hands.
You think about that?
You're going to work it out.
You're going to dwell together.
Look at Acts chapter 28.
Let's turn to Acts chapter 28.
Now Paul, he went through
a lot of hard things in his life
and when we get to the end of Acts
he's gone through these shipwrecks
where he's out
and they have to throw everything overboard.
They crash land on this
Gilligan's Island or whatever
and he's just putting these
fags in the fire,
these sticks in the fire,
these bundles of sticks.
He throws them in and a snake
reaches out and latches onto them.
So he goes through a lot of stuff
and then he's road weary.
And we can feel that way as Christians.
We're just kind of like
we've got so much going on
that sometimes it just feels like a big grind.
And anybody can feel that way.
I know I feel that way.
I'm sure you as Christians
when we have a lot of stuff going on
like back to back services
up near the Canadian border
and then we have to drive all the way back home
four hours and have another service
and you guys got to drive what, 45 minutes?
Anyway.
But you know what?
Sometimes what makes that good
is when you get to dwell together
with your brother once again
because it might be crazy
when you get in the car
but when you get back to church
you get to have all your smiling happy faces on again.
Right?
Look at Acts chapter 28.
So Paul, he comes to the end of his journey
and he finally gets to Rome
and what's at the end of Rome for him?
He asked, he pleaded to go to Caesar
and the Caesar that he's going to
is not the nice Caesar,
it's the crazy Caesar.
It's Nero.
And Nero was a very wicked person,
a total reprobate
and I don't know how bad he was
at this point when Paul went to see him
but I'm sure Paul had probably
heard some things about him.
But look at how he responds
in verse 11.
It says, and after three months
we departed in a ship of Alexandria
which had wintered in the isle
whose sign was Castor and Pollux
and landed at Syracuse.
We tarried there three days
and thence we fetched the compass
and came to Regium
and after one day the south wind blew
and we came the next day to Petioli
where we found brethren
and where we desired to tarry with them
seven days and so we went toward Rome
and from thence
when the brethren heard of us
they came to meet us
as far as Appii Forum
and the three taverns
whom when Paul saw
he thanked God
and took courage.
You know sometimes when we're
dwelling, when we get together
with the brethren
it's like having that fresh do upon us.
It helps us and strengthens us
and gives us power to move forward
in our Christian lives
because Paul, you know
he'd been through all these journeys
he's been through all these hard times
and he even spent the night
at some brethren's house
but when he finally saw
these brethren came to meet him.
It's great to be supportive of each other
in this kind of way.
We don't even know the blessing
that we could be for another Christian
when we just reach out
and do something nice for them.
I feel like that they did something
really nice for Paul.
You know what Paul did?
It says when Paul saw
when he saw these brethren
he thanked God and took courage
because he'd been through a lot.
You know what?
Maybe you're going through a lot
in your life right now
that you feel right for you
to go back to Egypt
but I'll tell you what
God has all throughout the Bible
going back to Egypt
is not a positive thing.
Going back to Egypt is like
going back to the world
and the sinful life that you used to live in.
There's nothing for you there.
There's not happiness.
Once you get saved
and then you try to go back
to your old life
it's never the same.
It's the nagging thing that you're saying
I need to get right, I need to get right, I need to get right.
You know where that road ends.
Don't go back towards that road.
Don't go back to Egypt.
Didn't God say multiple times
don't go back to Egypt.
Don't multiply horses from there.
Don't get anything from there
because you know what?
All you're going to learn is wickedness.
All you're going to learn is idleness
and you're just going to go back
and you're going to be worse than you were before.
Listen to me.
Don't go back to Egypt.
Maybe your health is bad right now.
Maybe you're hurting right now.
Maybe you've lost a loved one right now.
But let me tell you something.
Going back to the world is not going to make that feel better.
You know what you ought to do?
Thank God and take courage
with your brethren.
So look at what verse was I at.
Okay, he took courage.
Now skip down to verse 27.
Now,
actually, I'm sorry.
I'm looking at my notes wrong here.
Let me get to this chapter real quick.
I just added this
after I'd already put my sermon in.
It's okay.
Acts 28, sorry.
The last chapter is in the chapter.
All right, look at verse number 30.
So Paul even, you know,
he even got, God spared him a lot.
He allowed him to have people come in.
He still was getting people saved while he was in jail.
It's pretty weird.
Like they would let you have visitors
that you could just get saved, you know.
And so, you know, usually the prison ministry,
you know, people come to you.
All right.
But people came to Paul to get saved
instead of the other way around.
Anyway, look at verse 30.
It says that Paul dwelt two whole years
in his own hired house and received
all that came in unto him,
preaching the kingdom of God
and teaching those things
which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ
no man forbidding him.
So Paul the Apostle, you know,
just think about that.
Just with the strength he had
of those brethren coming to see him
was like precipitation when you actually need it.
It's like water when you're actually thirsty.
Right?
You know when you're really thirsty
and it's like nothing else is going to satisfy that thirst
like a cold glass of water?
It's not going to be a Coke.
It's not going to be a Mexican Coke.
It's not going to be any kind of soft drink
that you could think of.
And that water is that water
and that water is a blessing.
And the water that it's talking about
in chapter 133 here in Psalms
is the blessing of life evermore.
It takes water.
Everybody knows that, right?
You can go a long time without food
but you can't go a long time without water.
You have to have water.
I think it's about three days
and then you'll die of thirst
and you'll die of thirst.
So water is important.
It is a blessing.
Those scriptures talk about it being a blessing.
It's basically what makes the whole earth live
if you think about it.
Everything thrives because of water.
Now if you get too much water
it could destroy things.
I obviously understand that.
But when brethren get together
it's like the fresh rain.
It's like on the 4th of July
do you get something?
You don't have to fly there.
We'll find something that we can copy America with.
No, I'm just kidding.
Well, in America we have the 4th of July now.
But when you light off a bunch of fireworks
have you ever noticed that it usually rains
the next day and washes all that stuff away?
It's like a natural thing that happens
for some reason that God just
finds a way to purify the air.
Or like when a thunderstorm happens
have you ever smelled the air
after a thunderstorm kind of zaps
all those ions or whatever
and it smells like fresh rain?
That's a blessing.
When the air smells fresh.
I think people were talking about
when we came up here that the air
smelled really fresh here.
I didn't smell anything.
I'm a long hauler with the COVID stuff.
I didn't smell anything.
But my wife says,
I think I smell a blessing.
But there was somebody else that was talking
about how nice it smelled coming up here.
But anyway, God has His way
and it'll be refreshing.
And one of those things is when
like a fresh rainstorm or a thunderstorm.
Rain washes away scum, doesn't it?
Rain cleans the air.
It preserves life on the whole earth.
And every plant needs it.
Every fish needs it.
Every animal needs it.
And all of mankind need it.
So let's look at John 4 verse 13.
I'm getting close here.
Pizza's not here yet, right?
Who cares?
You don't want any pizza anyway, do you?
John 4 verse 13.
Jesus answered and said unto her,
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst.
But the water that I give him shall be in him,
a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Now turn to Matthew chapter 8 verse 10.
Matthew 8 verse 10.
So there's Jesus talking about
this water that will well up into
a water springing up into everlasting life.
It'd probably be nice in those days
to have a place that had a spring
where you could just go get fresh water.
Because if you live at the coast or something
you probably have to boil it or something.
We live in a very blessed time
where we can just turn on a faucet
and for the most part I know the fluoride, whatever.
We don't have fluoride in Portland, just so you know.
But it is still a blessing.
I know if you didn't have bottled water
you know, if things were really bad,
the tsunami hit or something like that,
would you drink the tap water?
I would.
There's a blessing in it.
Just turn it on and drink.
It's not necessarily the best thing
to do all the time,
but I would drink the faucet water
before I'd drink anything out of the ocean
or anything out of a river.
If you just drink water out of a river
they could kill you.
So if kids don't just scoop up water
and put it in your mouth,
because it could put some stuff in your body
that you can't get out.
Anyway, just a little warning there
for the Cub Scouts.
Anyway, Matthew chapter 8 verse 10.
And when Jesus heard it, He marveled
and said to them the following.
That following, excuse me.
Verily I say unto you, I have not found
so great faith, no, not in Israel.
And I say unto you, that many shall come
from the east and west and shall sit down
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and the kingdom of God.
But the children of the kingdom
shall be cast out into outer darkness
and there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
But you know what He's never going to say to us?
See, there's a lot of Jews out there
that they're God's chosen people,
but what's the Bible say?
It's not going to be,
we're going to actually be the ones
that get to sit down with Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob and fellowship with them.
Isn't that cool?
We're all brethren here,
we get to hang around each other,
we're in heaven and we're actually
sitting down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
and just chilling, hanging out.
You know, that'd be pretty cool.
I mean, it's not just the fellowship
in this life that we have to look forward to,
we have fellowship forever.
And like I said, you're stuck with each other.
And there's some of you I might not want
to hang out with for the next 10,000 years,
but you know, after that we'll be good.
No, I'm just kidding.
But you know that term safe spaces
is like this liberal term, right?
But in eternity, we're going to have
one big giant safe space.
Like you think about our churches right now,
like they're kind of a safe space for us.
I mean, that's one of the reasons
why we like to go to church
and fellowship with the same types of people
and currently our churches are like a safe space,
but they're not completely safe, are they?
Because we have, you know,
these wolves trying to come in
and not spare the flock.
We have infiltrators that come in
and try to destroy the church.
We have false brethren crept in unaware
and we have false doctrine
that always tries to rear its ugly head up
and destroy our safe place.
And so church is a great place to go
and I'm totally encouraging you
to stay in church and be in church,
but it's not the safe space
that it's going to be.
It's not the safe space
that it's going to be in heaven, right?
So I'm not trying to sound like a liberal here
about safe spaces.
You know, there's a bunch of freaks and weirdos
that need a safe space
because they get their feelings hurt or whatever.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about safe space
from the wicked of this world,
from the sinful people that would come
and try to destroy our church,
but there's a coming day
where we're going to have a safe space
for a thousand years.
Isn't that going to be cool?
Like in anybody here that's saved,
you're going to have a new glorified body
during that thousand year reign.
Now the people that live afterwards
after the rapture happens,
there's going to be people that will be saved
that will go into the millennium
and they'll be saved,
but they won't have the blessings
that we have right now.
But Jeremiah chapter 33,
go ahead and turn to Jeremiah 33.
I know I'm running out of time here,
but I just want to show you
that there's going to be,
like our safe space,
where we don't have to worry
about any of that junk coming in.
There'll be no wolves,
no false prophets,
nobody trying to come to kill
and destroy us.
Look at Jeremiah 33 verse 14.
It says,
In those days and at that time
will I cause the branch of righteousness
to grow up unto David
and he shall execute judgment
and righteousness in the land.
He shall be saved
and Jerusalem shall dwell safely.
And this is the name wherein
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness.
So there's that thousand year reign of Christ
and it says that people that live in Jerusalem
will dwell safely.
That means you won't have to worry
about people coming and messing with you.
That thousand year reign of Christ,
if anybody steps out of line,
they're going to be dashed in pieces
like a potter's vessel.
And so we will rule and reign with Christ
and if you have a glorified body,
nothing can hurt you,
nothing can kill you.
So even if someone did try to do that,
they would just get smoked.
They'd live a long life
until they ran into you, right?
And then we'll also have that safe space
to dwell together in unity for all eternity.
Look at Revelation chapter 21 verse 6.
Revelation chapter 21 verse number 6.
It says,
And he said unto me,
in the beginning, in the end,
I will give unto him that is a thirst
of the fountain of the water of life freely.
So this is, you know,
the water of life that God gives us,
it's free and it's going to be something
that we're going to enjoy
for all eternity with God.
Look at verse number 27.
It says,
And there shall in no wise enter into it
anything that defileth,
neither worketh abomination,
whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie,
but they which are written
in the Lamb's book of life.
So these types of people
that can creep into churches now,
they won't be able to do that later on.
They're not going to be in heaven.
You know what?
It is God's house.
God can put in heaven whoever He wants.
You know how He chose to do that?
You have to believe in His Son.
You have to put your faith in His Son
and then He is the propitiation for your sins,
the appeasement of God's wrath
and He doesn't judge you to hell.
He says, you know what?
I'm going to give them heaven.
That's when He's declared His word.
And these types of freaks,
all these people that make lies
and want to defile and work abomination,
you know, there's not going to be
any homos in heaven.
Isn't that what an abomination is?
That's what it says.
Look at verse 14.
Blessed are they that do His commandments
and they that may have right
to the tree of life
for without are dogs
and sorcerers
and whoremongers
and murderers
and idolaters
and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
This is going to be our safe space.
We don't have to worry about these types
of people being around us ever again.
You know what?
God's going to wipe all of our tears
away from our eyes
and we're not going to remember
those former things anymore
and it's probably a good thing.
Because they have to think about
your loved ones in hell,
the people that you tried so hard
to get saved on this earth,
the ones that you prayed for every day,
the ones that you reached
and they said, you know what,
I don't want that.
I don't want to have anything
to do with you anymore.
I'm sure there's people in this room
that have had that happen to them.
It's a bad feeling.
You know, and just to think
that they could have chose something
we're not going to want to think
about that kind of stuff.
Look at verse number 5 in chapter 21.
Just go back to the chapter there.
Actually look at verse number 4.
It says,
And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes,
and there shall be no more pain,
neither sorrow nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain
for the former things are passed away.
All that stuff's going to be gone.
All the things that we cry
and heartache about,
the world I make all things new.
And he sent it to me right,
for these words are true and faithful.
So let it be written,
so let it be done.
That's what the Bible says.
These are the words of Jesus
if you have a red letter edition.
These words are true and faithful.
And so we will dwell there
with brothers we've never met.
We'll dwell there with the people
that we would find, you know,
we would think are like famous people
in the Bible.
We're going to be cool.
So in conclusion,
unity of the brethren is more important
and more of a blessing
than you can actually realize.
Hopefully this opened you up
to thinking about how much
of a blessing it really is
because sometimes we can be
around each other too much
and we can start thinking,
well this person kind of annoys me
or whatever.
They're not going to be annoying in heaven
so just think of it that way.
You can still be nice.
You can still say hello.
You can still say God bless you.
You can still pray for that person.
We don't have to be best friends
with everybody at church
but we should love each other.
We should love the brethren
and we should call it a blessing
that we get to fellowship
and be with them.
Yes, we do everything together
and it probably gets old
to some people sometimes
and I'm sure it does to you
but it's precious
and it's like the morning dew.
It's like that fresh oil
that went down Aaron's beard
and we ought to enjoy it
and thank God for the blessings
that we have and the unity
that we have in this church.
Even though we haven't seen each other
in a long time, isn't it a blessing
to be able to just fellowship
and we'll have some time to fellowship
if I get done with this sermon
so with that I am going to be done
with this sermon but
I'm going to be being unified
here in one purpose, one faith
and one purpose for the hope
of the gospel.
Lord, I pray that you help us
to stick and stay in church
and to love our brothers and sisters
in Christ and to pray for them
and Lord that we would count it
as a blessing that we can get together
like we have this day.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Alright, if you stand with me
we'll close with one hymn.
It's number 238.
238, Christ liveth in me.
Once far from God and dead in sin
No light my heart could see
But in God's word the light I found
Now Christ liveth in me
Christ liveth in me
Oh, what a salvation this
That Christ liveth in me
As rays of light from yonder sun
The flowers of earth set free
So life and light and love came forth
From Christ liveth in me
Christ liveth in me
Oh, what a salvation this
That Christ liveth in me
As hearts have flowered within the sea
As in the cone of the tree
So praise the God of truth and grace
His Spirit dwelleth in me
Christ liveth in me
Oh, what a salvation this
That Christ liveth in me
With longing all my heart is filled
That like Him I may be
As on the wondrous part I dwell
That Christ liveth in me
Christ liveth in me
Oh, what a salvation this
That Christ liveth in me
Holy Father, thank you so much for your word
and thank you for the hymns to sing
and thank you for the opportunity to gather here
and we just pray that we don't take this for granted
the opportunity to gather in your name
with Canada and the USA together
we just pray that you bless us as we go on our way
and eat some food and your holy Christ will say we pray
Amen
Hang on real quick
Is anybody leaving right away or anything?
There's actually the peace arches down there
I wanted to get a picture with everybody down there
So are you so starving that you can't go right now?
It might not even be here
Pizza will be here any minute
It might be here, it might not
Alright, can we all just gather down everybody
Get a picture, who's going to take the picture?
It's not going to be me
We'll bring the picture
You go ahead and play it come on, I'm sorry
We're going right down there
Is that it?
So who gets that?
Who gets that?
Who gets the attendance up past Thompson?
Is this a sure foundation, not a sure door?