The Power of Unity and Testimony in Christ

That was amazing okay wow thank you Grace man there’s something there’s something happening right now in uh this house I believe uh God is restoring the writing of Music it really is somebody something we’ve been founded on for many many years our house has written songs and it’s been the mark of who we are and uh there’s been a war for the worship and the songwriters in

01:35:57 this house and I believe it’s time and we’re seeing the Fulfillment of the words that he’s spoken and the words that he’s speaking and I know there’s going to be more coming and I and I even just declare that today that there is a war for the songwriter ERS and it is time to come into position and I believe God’s circling them around I I don’t know I just I know that there’s even people that he’s calling that are not even here at this moment that are supposed to be part of the sound of this house and so I want to

01:36:45 encourage the intercessors of this house where we’re coming off of a month of prayer and worship and prayer and fasting to to continue to seek God for the fullness of what he’s calling us to in this next season and that there is more there is more there is more and I believe last week we heard Elias we’ve got we had this song from Grace today we’ve had this testimony from Shila and I believe that part of the war for her life is because of the sound that is supposed to be released in worship here there’s a war for our kids

01:37:24 there’s a war for my kids because they are worshippers that need to release a sound and we’re not going to stop praying and we’re not going to stop believing amen amen today I believe even though it kind of feels like it doesn’t I believe it goes exactly into the word of the Lord today because today we’re going to jump back into our series about the overcoming Church the overcoming Church Church by the blood of Jesus the overcoming Church by the blood because there is power in the blood of Christ there is power in the blood of

01:38:15 Christ and as we have come into this place of understanding how we need to align with the father to pray and partner with him it is through the blood of Christ that we stand it is by the blood of Christ and the sacrifice that he made for me and for you that we come boldly into the throne room with our petitions it is by the blood of Christ the blood that not only redeems but the blood that unites us as one body body and empowers us to live as Overcomers to live in Victory amen so today we have two passages of

01:39:06 scriptures and if you have your Bible with you I go ahead and open them they will be on the screen but I think sometimes there’s value in following it along too on your own First Corinthians chapter 11 we’re going to start in verse 23 says for I received from the Lord what I also pass on to you the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me and in the same way after supper he

01:39:52 took the cup saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes so then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat the bread and drink the cup for those who eat and drink without Discerning the body of Christ eat and

01:40:34 drink judgment on themselves that is why many among you are weak and sick and a number of you even have fallen asleep but if we were more Discerning with regards to ourselves we would not come under such judgment in the ESV it says and the King James it says if we judge ourselves truly we would not be judged nevertheless when we are judged in this way by the Lord we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned and in Revelation 12 verse 11 says and they overcame him just Satan by the blood of the Lamb

01:41:24 and the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives until the death today we actually heard testimony of that scripture they overcame by the blood of the lamb in the word of their testimony and they didn’t love their lives to death today I believe my assignment is to tie these two powerful scripture passages together the themes of 1 Corinthians 11 and Revelation 12 converge as we recognize the power of the blood you see the Lord’s Supper is a declaration of Jesus’s death and victory they converge as we

01:42:18 overcome divisions of the enemy and we live out the purpose of Christ’s death and the blood that he shed which was for Unity Unity with the father and unity with each other just as the Saints in Revelation overcame by the blood and their testimony we are called to overcome in the same manner Paul will challenge the church in Corinth to overcome the divisions and the selfishness and the judgment that they were in as a church by Discerning what Jesus did for them the price that was paid for them and to examine them their own

01:43:11 selves see Jesus’s blood unifies us there is power there is Victory and there is unity in the blood of Jesus and I believe a challenge from the Lord today that we actually begin to understand truly discern what that means today because I don’t believe that we can move forward into the next thing and be a really truly overcoming church and live an over coming life until we recognize the gravity of what he did until we truly live in a way that understands the power and the victory that his blood produced for

01:44:13 us and that through his blood we can do this together without Division and unity you see the blood of Jesus is the foundation of [Music] redemption it is the foundation of unity the blood of Jesus is Central to both Redemption and a unified Victorious overcoming Church Charles Spurgeon says atonement by the blood of Jesus is not an arm of Christian truth it is the heart of Christian truth even as the Lord said of animals that the blood is the life thereof so is it true of the Gospel the sacrificial

01:45:05 death of Jesus is the vital point of our profession I know nothing of Christianity without the blood of Christ no teaching is healthy which throws away the cross into the background it is about the power of what Jesus did see There Is Power in the Blood of Jesus Hebrews 9:22 it says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin there must be the shedding of blood for there to be forgiveness for me and for you Matthew 26:28 for this is my blood Jesus said the New Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of

01:45:58 sin Jesus’s blood is the means of atonement and forgiveness establishing the New Covenant for me and for you it established it Ephesians 1:7 says in him we have Redemption through his blood the Forgiveness of sins through his blood according to the riches of of his grace this is the foundation of who we are and I think sometimes we get pretty caught up I okay I’m just going to say me I get pretty caught up in doing all the things and sometimes I do not remember the gravity the gravity of what Jesus did

01:46:41 for me I don’t remember that is through his blood that I have the Redemption that I get to live the life that I live it is through his blood that redeems us from sins and secures our reconciliation with God we have Victory through his blood we are called to live in the victory secured by Jesus’s blood he secured it he did the work he secured it for me I have to walk it out it is the victory I want to go back to Revelations 12 I want to start in verse 10 this is John when he’s in having this vision and he said then I heard a loud

01:47:37 voice saying saying in heaven now salvation and strength and the kingdom of God and the power of His Christ have come I’m going to say that again now salvation and strength strength and the kingdom of God and the power of His Christ has come for the accuser of the Brethren who accused them before your day your God day and night has been cast down the accuser of the Brethren who accused you day and night before God has been cast down this is his this is what he’s going to happen to him this is what

01:48:21 we know is truth the accuser of the Brethren who accused you day and night has been cast down and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives even to the death therefore Rejoice oh heavens and you who dwell in them and woe to the inhabitants of Earth and sea for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that his time is short you know the blood of the Lamb defeats Satan the blood of the Lamb defeats Satan and we can defeat Satan when we

01:49:11 walk in the blood of the lamb and the word of Our Testimony that’s what happened today with Shila it is how we have Victory walking cleansed by the blood walking in the victory that the love procured that the blood procured for us and walking with testimony of the victory that God has done this is how we walk in Victory Romans 8:37 says in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us we overcome from a place of Victory knowing who has one knowing that our enemy days are

01:50:07 short that’s where we stand that’s where we wor From There Is Power in the Blood there is victory in the blood there is unity in the blood see the blood of Jesus empowers us to overcome sin to overcome Satan and to overcome division Ephesians 2 13 and 14 says but now you have been United with Jesus Christ Christ Jesus once you were far away from God but now you have been brought near to him through the blood blood of Christ for Christ himself has brought peace to us he he United Jews and Gentiles into one people in his own

01:51:02 body on the cross he broke down the walls of hostility that separated us see the blood of Jesus unites all believers the blood of Jesus tears down every division Colossians 1:18 says and he is the head of the body the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that is in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on heaven or on Earth Making Peace by the blood of his cross Making Peace by the

01:51:50 blood 1 Corinthians 10:16 and 17 says the cup of blessing that we bless is it not a participation in the blood of Christ the bread that we break it is is it not a participation in the body of Christ because there is one bread Jesus who we are many and are one body and we partake of one bread this brings us back to our passage in 1 Corinthians 11 where Paul is instructing the Church of Corinth about the Lord’s Supper you see in in 1 Corinthians 11 Paul addresses the church a congregation that struggled with

01:52:44 division I don’t know if any of you remember when we we preached about it or if anybody studied it out the Church of Corinth was a kind of a crazy bunch of people they had a lot going on they weren’t the prettiest they weren’t the most um respectable uh in um anything they had a lot of division there was a big divide between the wealthy and the poor and there was fighting and there was dishonoring of each other there was humiliating each other there was all sorts of things happening they were failing to grasp the

01:53:31 depths of what it meant to be part of the body of Christ they didn’t understand that they were all many but they were still part of one body of Christ he even said in 1 Corinthians 1118 says for I begin with you this is just a couple couple verses before this he’s talking about the Lord’s Supper he says I begin with you I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you this is the whole basis of what he’s talking to the Corinthians about he’s like there is a lot of problems going on and when you’re

01:54:10 coming together what I’m seeing and I’m hearing is that there’s factions forming and there’s divisions happening and this is a problem and he rebukes the Corinthians for their improper conduct in taking of the Lord’s Supper this is the background of this self-centered divisive behavior that Paul is speaking to the Church of Corinth when he goes in to chapter 11 verse 23 and he gives us the instructions on the Lord’s supper and then in verse 26 he says for whenever you eat the bread and drink this cup you

01:54:50 proclaim the Lord’s death and until he comes and then he really puts it to him said all this backbiting all this division it’s not okay verse 27 whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord UN in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord how does that work how exactly if I am I going to sin against the blood of Jesus but that’s what he’s telling them he’s coming to them and he’s saying all of this divisiveness all of the division all of the bitterness when you come together

01:55:47 and you eat the cup the bread and drink the cup you are doing it unworth worthily and you are sinning against the body because the body of Jesus is more than just the Son of God who actually was crucified the body of Jesus Is Us his church and he goes on he says everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat and drink of the cup for those who eat and drink without Discerning the body eat and drink judgment on themselves see Paul is reminding us that the sacred sacrifice of the Lord’s supper and the importance of approaching

01:56:49 it with reverence love and unity is above all else it’s not about a ritual at church it’s not about good manners it’s about the gospel it’s about understanding that the blood Jesus shed on the cross wasn’t just to save us individually but to form a body of believers who would live in the victory of his sacrifice together and that Victory it’s not just a theological thing it’s not just a symbolic thing it’s real that’s what Revelations 12 is telling us proclaiming that the blood is how we overcome this is the victory we live in

01:57:48 the victory that binds us together as the redeemed people of God we are the redeemed people of God and he is challenging Us in this season to walk as a unified glorious overcoming church and that cannot happen if there is anything between us Pastor Jonathan said on Wednesday night at our prayer meeting it’s like we’re coming into this year we’re kind of asking for a fight we’re talking about the overcoming church the church that the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against this is who we are this is who

01:58:35 God’s called us to be but we have to recognize that it is a battle that we must be prepared for and it is through the blood that we have Victory it is through the testimony of with each other that we have Victory you know what I love that verse because it talks it the blood of the lamb and the word of Our Testimony you who are you telling your testimony to just yourself I mean I guess that’s okay too right God never intended us to do life alone Victory must come through his son’s death and the victory of the body

01:59:23 of Christ the testimonies of each other that press us that encourage us that build our faith is part of how we overcome so I want to challenge you just like Shila said write out your victories and then share them with somebody because somebody else needs to know that there is Victory that there is victory in the power of Christ they may not have experienced it or maybe it’s been a long time and they need to be reminded that Christ Christ is your all in all he is your sufficiency he is the one that will

01:59:56 see to every need he will bring healing he will bring Deliverance he will bring completion to the things that he began but sometimes we need to be reminded and that’s what the body of Christ is for to remind us of his goodness to remind us of his grace to remind us of his healing power to build each other up not tear each other down to build each other up this is who he’s called us to be Overcomers Overcomers by the blood of the Lamb Overcomers by the word of Our Testimony Overcomers by not being

02:00:42 self-absorbed they loved not their lives it’s a whole other message I believe God is calling us today to be able to continue to step into the next things that he has called us to to challenge Us in this message to challenge Us in this time of partaking of the Lord’s supper he’s challenging us to discern the body of Christ you know that word discern it means to perceive or recognize something with Clarity to make a distinction we are to discern we are to bring Clarity in our own lives but what Christ

02:01:53 did for me we are to bring Clarity to who we are as the body of Christ together John would you come to the piano for us thank you know I believe that there is a Clarity that God is calling us to into this next season that we will not be able to be an overcoming Church without it a Clarity of purpose a Clarity of the fullness of Christ and his body the understanding of the unfolding plan of the victory of Christ and how it is won Clarity of the blood and the body of Christ we cannot do this on our

02:02:46 own I believe as we’ve come out of this time of prayer and fasting it is there there to bring us a greater level of discernment and [Music] Clarity that we’re not distracted but we can see clearly to God’s purposes we can see clearly our enemy plans you see the greatest weapon the enemy has is division it’s the oldest trick in the book divide and conquer Paul was speaking to the Church of Corinth about it and God is speaking to us about it that we must discern the body of Christ and it must include

02:03:37 recognizing that we are the church that we are part of Christ himself each one of us we must treat each other like we are all part of Christ’s body God has called us to Unity he’s called us to love in John 13 Jesus says that they will know that you are my disciples by how much you love each other we cannot walk as an overcoming Church unless we are united unless we are united 1 Corinthians 11 in the Amplified verse 28 says let a man thoroughly examine himself and only when he has done so should he eat of the bread and drink

02:04:43 of the cup [Music] Psalm 133 says behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity it’s like the precious oil upon the head running down the beard of Aaron running down to the edges of His Garment there is anointing and there is power in unity so we’re going to take communion today before we do I’ve asked John to sing a [Music] song but while he’s singing I want us to take some time to examine our hearts to examine if there’s sin that might be bringing separation between us and God to examine if there’s

02:05:59 division or strife and to take care of that with the Lord and after uh John is done we’ll go into communion but I don’t want anybody to worry yet I just want to take a minute listen to the words of the Lord in this song and spend some time with the father like to [Music] do on the mountains of Z like do you on the garments of behold how good how sweet and precious how pleasant it is for the body to [Music] dwell there the Lord commanded the blessing even life even life forever more where the last times are upon us

02:07:37 judgment has begun we must all seek forgiveness for the wrong things that we’ve done for the time we didn’t reach out for the time we didn’t care when our brother was afflicted his burden so hard to bear it’s a time we must all reach out to the barrier of pain forsaken our desires so we won’t reproach his name many sick some weep some even sleep when will we learn to deser as the B is one oh many weep some sick some even sleep when we we learn to deserve that the body one we must not come against each other in

02:08:55 thought word deed selfish feelings aside pray for each other’s needs and above all things we must have faith faith must work by love so the life can flow through each of from the father of above many weak some sick some even sleep when where we learn to discern that the body one and when we learn to discern that the body is one then we’ll show to the world that the Christ is come and when we learn to it Des earn that the body is one and will show to the world as the Christ is come many weak some

02:10:07 sick some even sleep when will we learn to discern at the bodies one [Music] and I’d like to ask the elders and family leaders that I’ve already spoken to to go to the six stations we’re going to do communion together corporately today so what I’m going to ask is uh that we each kind of go there’s going to be six stations there’s two up front here and one two in the back there’s four up front excuse me two on each side and um one on the back on each and um we I’m going to ask that you kind of all just get up and go and get

02:11:08 your get the elements get the bread and get the get the cup but if there’s something that you need to make right with somebody else Now’s the Time I want to encourage you that moving forward it’s always better together that God is bringing us into a place of unity amen so when you get your cup and your and your bread go ahead and head back to your seats like you said should have two lines on each of these tables each side and there’s two two stations at the back [Music] I me [Music] see right [Music]

02:13:01 before [Music] J [Music] there’s there’s some open lines up front if anybody’s still waiting in the back [Music] oo [Music] amen amen for I received from the Lord what I also passed to [Music] you the Lord Jesus on the night that he was betrayed he took bread and when he gave thanks he broke it and said this is my body for which for you just broken for you do this in remembrance of me Lord we thank you for the price that you paid for your body that was broken Lord we remember what you did on the cross God we

02:17:27 remember the price that you paid so as we take this bread God we remember the stripes that you B the pain that you suffered so that we could have life amen [Music] thank you Lord and in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this is the this cup is the New Covenant in my blood and do this whenever you drink in remembrance for me for whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup proclaims the Lord’s death until he comes Lord we thank you for your blood Lord we thank you for the power and the victory that we have

02:18:34 because of the blood that you spilled that you have forgiven our sins that you’ve washed us clean though we were like Scarlet we will be white as snow through the blood of Jesus Lord we remember what you did and we walk in the power and the authority that you proclaimed and provided for us amen [Music] seated above enthroned in the far’s love destined to die Pour Out For All Mankind God’s only son God’s only son per perfect and spotless one he never sinned but suffered as if he did all authority all

02:20:11 [Music] authority every victory is your all [Music] author every [Music] victory is [Music] yours savior worthy of honor and Glory worthy of all of our praise for you over the King Jesus Jesus awesome and power forever awesome and great is your [Applause] name for you overcame let’s declare this and we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of Our Testimony everyone overcome we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimon everyone overcome sing that one more time and we will oh

02:22:22 overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of Our [Music] Testimony everyone overcome saor worthy of honor and Glory wor worthy of all of our praise for you all Jesus Jesus awesome and power forever awesome and great is your name for you over amen father we thank you for your love we thank you for the work of the Cross and God today as we have remembered what you have done we have lifted your name High we have recognized Lord our need to pay attention to one another Lord we ask that you would go with us

02:23:54 this week father God and continue the work that we need in our hearts father to glorify your name and to overcome every situation Lord that is may be plaguing our families or plaguing Our Lives Lord every situation that is causing distress father it’s in your hands and again we’ve lifted your name high so Lord we expect we expect testimony of your wonderwork power Lord we praise you and we thank you in Jesus name amen and Charlotte says amen we’ll see you guys at chch or Fellowship