Drive Up Worship - Message: Church is Essential

Romans 13 on Governing Authorities and Love of Neighbor

Brother Mike's going to come now and he's going to begin today by reading to us in Romans chapter 13. If you'll remember, we've been reading through books of the Bible one chapter at a time, and he's going to read Romans 13.

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which is given by God and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive their condemnation upon themselves, for rulers are not to cause fear for good behavior, but for evil.

Do you want to have any fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same, for it is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing, for it is the minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon all those who practice evil.

Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this, you also will pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.

Render to all what is due, tax to whom taxes do, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor. O, nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

For this reason, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. For if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Love does not do wrong to its neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Do this knowing this, that it is already the hour in which you to awaken from your sleep. For now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed, and the night is almost gone and the day is near.

Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not carousing, not in drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity or sensuality, not in strife or jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision to carry out the lust of the flesh.

Amen. Amen. What a powerful, powerful passage that is. I want to remind you that I sent out the words for the songs. They were in an email. Hopefully you got them. If you didn't, these are pretty common old southern gospel hymns that we're doing today.

We're doing a collection of southern gospel hymns. So even if you didn't get the words, maybe you know them by heart already. So we're going to begin with, have a little talk with Jesus. I once was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in.

Then a little light from heaven filled my soul. He bathed my heart in love and wrote my name above. Just a little talk with Jesus made me whole. Now let us have a little talk with Jesus. Let us tell him all about our troubles.

He will hear our faintest cry. He will answer my end by. Now when you feel a little prayer wheel turning, you know a little fire is burning. You find a little talk with Jesus makes it right. I may have doubts and fears.

My eyes be filled with tears. Jesus is a friend who watches day and night. I go to him in prayer. He knows my every care. Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right. Now let us have a little talk with Jesus.

Let us tell him all about our troubles. He will hear our faintest cry. He will answer my end by. Now when you feel a little prayer wheel turning, you know a little fire is burning. You find a little talk with Jesus makes it right.

Now let us have a little talk with Jesus. Let us tell him all about our troubles. He will hear our faintest cry. He will answer my end by. Now when you feel a little prayer wheel turning, you know a little fire is burning.

You find a little talk with Jesus makes it right. You find a little talk with Jesus makes it right. Amen. All right. Now during this next song, which is actually two songs together. It's a medley of are you washed and I'll fly away during this song.

If you have an offering that you have brought today. You'll notice our very elaborate and fancy offering setup that we have here. This nice five gallon bucket. Which has been very graciously donated by prodigal son painting and drywall.

This is our offering during this song. If you've brought your offering today. You may come up and deposit it in the bucket as we sing. You've been to Jesus for the cleansing power. Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

Are you fully trusting in his grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Are you washed in the blood? In the soul cleansing blood of the lamb. Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?

Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin. And be washed in the blood of the lamb. There's a fountain flowing for the soul. Unclean, oh be washed in the blood of the lamb.

Are you washed in the blood? In the soul cleansing blood of the lamb. Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? I'm glad morning when this life is over.

I'll fly away to the celestial shore. Warning when I die. Just a few more weary days and then. Joy will never die. This is so out of order in the sense of what's normal. But we're trying our best. So I appreciate everyone's consideration this morning.

And there is a lot that we need to pray for. We need to pray for our body. I am thankful that we see all of you here this morning. I'm thankful that you have decided to come out of your homes. And to gather as the church.

And what we're going to see in my message today is that this is church. Church is not what we do when we're alone. Church is what we do when we are together. And I'll explain that more when we get to actually look at the text today.

But before we do that, I want to just remind you that. There are people among us who need prayer. We need to continue to pray for the Artesani family. And all that is happening with them. And we need to pray for the Berglund family.

That is young Jake who is one of Adam's Boy Scouts. He had leukemia. And he did pass away. And so their family is hurting. And so we need to pray for them. I want to ask that you pray for my son. He has been quarantined at his base.

He does have a very high fever. And is coughing and having a lot of the signs of the coronavirus. So he has been sequestered for two weeks in his dorm. Which means he's going to be by himself. Without anyone really there to care for him.

And so that is really hard for his mother and I. Not being able to be there to care for him. We pray that his test will come back negative. And his quarantine will be lessened. So I ask that you would pray along with us for that end.

And I know that you also have things that you want us to pray for. And I'm sorry if you've told me something that I'm failing to mention. Because I sometimes do allow things to slip my mind when I step up here.

Because my mind is mainly focused on preaching. So if I've forgotten to mention something. Please forgive me and know that my heart is with you. And all of us are praying for you. And I know you all have probably requests that you would say are unspoken.

So we'll ask the Lord to bless those as well. Let us bow our heads and go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father and our God, we come to you in Jesus' name. For Lord, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

And at the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, every knee will bow. In heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so we know that Lord, no matter what struggles we face.

There will be victory in the end. The Lord Jesus will put His enemies under His feet as a footstool. And He will deliver over the kingdom to the Father that God may be all in all. And Lord, we know that this kingdom which has been won by the blood of the Lamb.

Will never suffer loss. The Word of God tells us that Christ will build His church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Though we see at times where it seems as if Satan is making headway.

Where it seems as times where lost men are not struggling. And saved men are struggling. Where the church is being persecuted. We know Lord, that that is not Satan winning. But Lord, that is you being patient until that day.

When you will put all of your enemies under your feet. And Lord, on that great and terrible day. Men will cry out in their disaster. Men will cry out in pain and fear. But Lord, for the blessed. Those who have been called by your name.

Those who are written on your hand. They will not cry out in fear. But they will cry out in triumph. Glory to the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. And glory be to the Father and to the Son.

And to the Holy Ghost. The Triune God who lives forevermore. Father, thank you for this time of worship. I thank you for the elders who have sought to lead this church. With wisdom and grace and mercy.

I pray that in the days and in the weeks ahead. As we are constantly being faced with new trials and decisions. That you would give us the mind of Christ. That you would give us the wisdom that is needed to lead as you have so commanded.

I pray, oh God, for our deacons. I pray that each one of them would be blessed by you to continue to love the church. To lift up the church and be the servant examples that they have been called to be.

I pray for every church member, Father. For those who are suffering and for those who are not suffering. Lord, for some this time has been relatively unchanged in their life. But for others there have been great changes and great pains.

Some have lost great deals and some are suffering sickness. And Father, we pray that you would be merciful to them. We pray, oh God, that you would encourage them. And we pray that we as a church when we come together.

Would encourage one another to look to you. And find in you all of the joy. And find in you all of the necessary hope. And find in you all of the comfort. Father, help us to find all of our all in all in all of you.

I pray now, Lord, as we turn to the word of God. That you would keep me from error. For Lord, I am a fallible man and I am capable of preaching error. And Lord, I do not desire to preach error for the sake of your name.

For the sake of these people and for the sake of my own conscience. So I pray that you would keep me from sin, keep me from error. And my mind keep me focused on what I've come to say. And Lord, may your Holy Spirit apply the truths to the heart.

For if the Holy Spirit be not the teacher, then the teaching will be in vain. Lord, I pray all of this and ask it all. In Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to the book of Acts chapter 2.

And go with me to just one verse. Acts chapter 2 verse 42. Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. This is the word of the Lord. And they devoted themselves. To the apostles teachings. And to the fellowship. To the breaking of bread.

And the prayers. May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word. And may he write its eternal truths upon our heart. A while back. In fact, I know exactly when it was. It was Jennifer's birthday last year.

She and I went to dinner for her birthday. And we were sitting at the restaurant. And the young man who was our server came. And he was a very kindly young man. And we began to have a conversation. Every time he would stop to refill our drinks or to bring us our food.

We would have a few minutes of interaction. And the conversation inevitably turned to the things of God. And at one point I said, Well, young man, I forget his name now. But I said, whatever his name was.

I said, where do you go to church? And he said, oh, I don't go to church. I am the church. In case you've never heard that before. That is a very common sentiment. That is being popularized in the last several years.

It's a way of saying I can be devoid of a relationship. With the local gathered body of Christ. It's a way of saying I don't need the church. I can be the church on my own. Church isn't where I go. Church is who I am.

And therefore, it's a way of saying I really don't need the gathered assembly. But when that young man said to me, I don't go to church. I am the church. I looked him straight in the eye. And I said, no, you're not.

And he looked rather surprised. Probably never had anyone challenge him on that before. I said, young man, I said, there is no possible way that you are the church. Because the church is the assembly.

And you cannot be the assembly by yourself. The word church is translated 114 times in the King James Bible. It's translated 106 times in the ESV. The Greek word ekklesia is a combination of ek, which means out of, and kleo, which means to be called.

And Thayer's expository Greek lexicon says this. It says that the word ekklesia properly means the gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place. It is an assembly. Laonita, another lexicon, says this.

Ekklesia is a congregation of Christians. It implies interactive membership. Strong's Concordance, probably something many of you have at home, one of the most common Greek lexicons that people have, says this.

Ekklesia concretely means a popular meeting, a religious congregation, or an assembly. In fact, when the ESV doesn't translate the word ekklesia as church, it always translates it as an assembly. The church is an assembly.

We are Christians when we are part. And we are members of the church when we are apart. But the church is the assembly. Church happens when we gather. It is not about the individual. It is about the community of faith.

Since the coronavirus began, many churches have been forced to change the way they interact with one another. And this has led to very popular new attitudes and statements coming out. Some have tried to be real positive.

They've said, oh, the church has left the building. And another popular meme or thing that we see going around is, don't go to church, be the church. And those sound really positive. And they've tried to maintain some sense of normalcy.

We're going to church online. We're worshiping virtually. Now, I want to add a note here. We are among the churches which agreed to the necessity of closing our building. And even now, our building is essentially closed, which is why we are meeting outside.

But I want you to note something that we did not do. And I want you to note something that I pray that we never do. We never tried to pretend that what we were doing online is an adequate replacement for what happens when we come together.

You will notice that we never, ever once called what we were doing online church. We didn't call it online church. We didn't even call it online worship. At best, we called it a live stream event. Because it's not church.

It's not church if we're not together. There is no substitute for the assembly. And I'm not here to make other churches or stomp on anybody else or say anything negative. What I'm saying is this. The danger, the danger in all of this that I see is that people are going to be so convinced that what they do online is an adequate replacement for what happens when they gather that after this is over, they're going to think that that's an adequate way to continue to be the church.

And it is not. Some people have said, well, this pandemic shows that church was never about the building. Beloved, nobody who knows what the church is about ever thought it was about the building. Nobody with any sense of ecclesiastical historical knowledge would say the church is about the building.

But I will tell you this. The church is about the people. We could have church in a field. We could have church in a cave. We could have church in a house. And in fact, that's what the early church did was they met in houses.

But I will tell you this. You can't have church alone. That's the point. Yes, you can be anywhere. But you've got to be anywhere together. That is the whole point of today's message. I believe churches were already filled with people who were putting on a mask and playing a role when they got together.

And my fear is that virtual assembling is simply going to compound that problem. Likewise, I fear that when and if life gets back to normal, there will be those who now see their online experience as a replacement for the assembly and will choose to remain disconnected because it's safer and more convenient.

And isn't that what we've tried to do with church over the last 50 years? We've tried to make it more convenient. And what is more convenient than the church being another stream on your Netflix queue?

What is more convenient than the church being another tab on your internet window? And some of you may think I'm exaggerating this issue. I can guarantee you I am not. Look how many churches are extolling the idea.

Come to church in your pajamas. Go to church in your living room. For years, the church has been trying to make the experience of the church more and more consumer-driven. Well, we have found the consumer mindset.

Eat your Cheerios, in your jammies, and be in the church. That's the attitude. And you say nobody thinks that. Brothers and sisters, you are not paying attention. If you don't think that that is the attitude of many, you are not watching and you are not examining the times.

This morning, I've chosen a text from the book of Acts to be our focus. And in this passage, you need to understand a little bit of the context. This is right after Peter has preached and he has seen thousands of people respond to his preaching of the gospel.

Three thousand souls were saved on the day of Pentecost. And the church, it says in this same passage, is growing daily. God is adding to their number daily those who are being saved. And in the midst of this, Luke, who is the writer of Acts, gives a glimpse of what their churches looked like.

And by that, I mean what their assemblies looked like. I want to show you four essential practices of the early church which demanded that they meet together. Four essential practices. By the way, the title of today's sermon, Church is Essential.

And I want to show you four essential practices that demanded that the early church meet together. I can't imagine anybody in the first century saying, I'm a Christian, but I don't need to be a part of the church.

You realize most of the New Testament is written to churches? The idea that the church is unnecessary is hogwash. And I'll say it to anybody, because I know many people who would claim to be Christians have no interest in being a part of the church.

That is absolutely not what the Bible teaches. And there are four things that demand the assembling together. If you look at the text, Acts 242, you know what the four things are. It's outlined for you.

This is one of the simplest verses to preach. It literally gives you your four points. It says the church was devoted to four things. It was devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers.

That's the four things that the church was devoted to. Devoted means they gave themselves to it. It was the focus of their life. It was the focus of their church. And by the way, might I say this, when we start our gathering back together in that building, maybe we need to rethink some things.

Maybe we're not being as focused as we ought to be on the things that really matter. Because you know what really matters? The apostles' doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

Those are the things that we ought to be focused on. I pray it's what we have been focused on. But after this is over, and we're back to quote unquote normal, if that ever, if normal ever comes again, these are the things to which and of which we must be focused.

The Apostles' Teaching as the First Priority of the Gathered Church

The first is the apostles' teaching. If you have a King James Bible, it says the apostles' doctrine. Ooh, ugly word. Doctrine. No, it's not. It's a beautiful word. Doctrine means truth. Doctrine means learning.

Doctrine means what you are being educated in. The doctrine is the teaching. And this is the first priority of the gathered church, is to make sure that we are rightly teaching the Word of God. You know what happens when you don't come, and you don't have an assembly, and you don't have a pastor, and you don't have elders, and you don't have other men.

You have no stone upon which to sharpen your iron. And you will go from this teacher to that teacher, and to another teacher, and you will be blown around by every wind of doctrine. And no one will be there to rebuke you.

And no one will be there to correct you. And no one will be there to disciple you. And you will find yourself satisfied with your own education, and your own knowledge. And you'll be one of the ones who say, I don't need a preacher.

I have the Holy Spirit. Well, tell that to the early church. Tell the early church they didn't need elders. You know what the apostles did when they went out and created churches, when they planted churches?

They raised up elders in the church to teach. They raised up men who were educated in the church to ensure that the people of God did not get off track. Beloved, one of the reasons why we gather is for discipleship.

And discipleship begins in the pulpit, but it doesn't end there. Discipleship continues when brothers like Brother Gary calls you on the phone and wants to talk to you about Jesus. It's when one of the elders invites you to lunch and wants to talk to you about your soul.

It's when we gather at the back of the church after the service, and you say to me, Pastor, I don't understand what you were talking about. Can you explain it to me? Yes, I can. Pastor, I don't agree with you.

Well, you can be wrong. Just kidding. But the point is, that's the gathering. You don't get that by yourself. And might I say this, one of the things over the years that hasn't happened a lot here, but has a few precious times, is that people would come to me confused and broken over something I had preached.

And the Lord gives me an opportunity to take them aside and explain it better to them because they didn't understand what I was saying. That's a lovely thing. There was a pastor years ago, and I can't remember his name right off, but he was a pastor of a larger church, and every Sunday after church, he made himself available in his office, and his office would have a line of people because his preaching was so convicting and so powerful that people would line up at his door to come and talk to him about Jesus.

And he would spend his whole afternoon talking to one after the other after that. I want you to know, my door and the door of our elders is always open. Our phones don't work. They don't go off. We are never having a do not disturb sign on our door.

When it comes to the things of God, you can disturb us. You must disturb us. Please disturb us. There is no such thing as a stupid question except the one that is unasked. Please know that that's part of our job, and it doesn't have to be the elders.

We're called to disciple one another. The elders are to equip the saints for the work of ministry, and you can be discipling one another. Look around. There are people who've been in Christ 50 years, and there are people that haven't been alive for 10 years in this same group.

Are you discipling and being discipled today? Because that's one of the reasons why we gather. Now, I spent a little more time on that one than I wanted to, and I know it's a little muggy out here, so let me go through the next three.

The Fellowship of the Saints in the Assembly

The second one is the fellowship, and I want you to notice the word the. Oftentimes, we miss the, but the word the is a definite article. A definite article means it's separated from other things. If I said, Brian, you're a man, you'd say, yes, sir, I'm a man.

But if I said, you're the man, you'd be worried because you'd wonder what you did. Because the man is the man out of all the other men. And when he says they gathered for the apostle's doctrine and the fellowship, he's talking about a specific type of fellowship.

He's talking about fellowship around the Lord. He's talking about fellowship in the Lord. And this happens in the assembly first. When we come together, we are fellowshipping in the Lord. I want to read to you a quote from Charles Spurgeon.

Listen to this quote. I'll read it slow. Satan hates Christian fellowship. It is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another, he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do.

Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation. Hear that again. Since union is strength, Satan does his best to promote separation. Beloved, has there ever been a time in your life where separation within the church was as promoted as it is right now?

Has there ever been a time in your life's history where the church was so encouraged to not come together? Depot is full and the churches are empty. Many people wanted an excuse not to come and they've got it.

The Breaking of Bread and the Holiness of the Lord's Supper

The breaking of bread is the third thing. The breaking of bread. Now, there's some debate about the meaning of this, but I really don't think there should be a debate when it says the breaking of bread.

Like I said, the definite article here. This is not talking about just a meal. This is talking about the Lord's Supper, in my opinion. Even though we could say that in the early church, the Lord's Supper was always attached to a meal.

So it could be referring to the agape feast, the meal that they had together. But it's referring specifically within that meal to when they gather around the Lord's table. And let me tell you this. I want to tell you something.

I miss more than anything. I miss picking up that bread and that cup with you all. And as soon as it is safe to do so, we will do it again. We have already talked about the best ways and the safest ways to do it.

But I want to tell you this. We're not going to do it virtually and we're not going to do it individually. We're going to do it as a body. There is no such thing as separated communion. The very word communion has the idea of unity and being together and being within the assembly.

The idea that we can do communion by ourselves is not biblical. We don't see that. In fact, the only time in my personal life where if someone were to ask me for communion, it would be if they were in the hospital, unable to be in the church, and I would take a delegation from the church with me.

I would take either a few elders or some deacons or some church members so that we could be a gathered body in that hotel room and have that supper. It is not something that we do by ourselves. And I've seen these pastors on the internet and they'll say, okay, grab your bread, grab your water or your juice.

If you don't have any bread, go grab a cookie. Are you kidding? Say, pastor, you're being mean. I am not being mean. I'm concerned with the holiness of God here. Do you care about the holiness of God?

Because that communion is holy. You don't believe it's holy. You go home and read 1 Corinthians 11 and you see that people who mistreat that table have died as a result. And you come back and you don't tell me it's holy.

You say, I don't believe that ever happened. And the apostle Paul is a liar. He didn't say some may have died. He said some have died. The table is something that happens in the assembly. Finally, the prayers.

Corporate Prayer in the Gathered Body

Now, again, somebody might say, well, we can pray on our own and you're not wrong. You can pray on your own. But notice it doesn't say prayers. It says the prayers. Did you notice that? Did you notice everything in this line of four things has the definite article?

And I went back in the Greek and in the Greek, it does have the definite article, which means this isn't talking about your personal prayer time. This isn't talking about you in your closet. That is an important time.

That is an indispensable time. That is a time you must have. You must have your private prayer time in your own time before God. But that's not what's being talked about here. The prayers which are being talked about here are the prayers of the gathered assembly, the prayers of the saints.

This is the prayers that happen in community. I love to hear our elders pray. I feel like a heel because I robbed Brother Mike of praying this morning. He's going to pray the benediction. He just don't know it yet.

Because I love to hear him pray. And I love to hear Brother Andy pray. And Brother Jack and Brother Richard. I love to hear them pray. And I love to hear our deacons pray. And I love to hear all of you pray.

And when we come together, we come together for prayer. We come together for the prayers. What prayers is he referring to? How about this? How about the prayer of confession? The prayer of repentance?

The prayer. And I'm talking about the corporate prayer. We as a church have failed this week. Amen? We as a church failed today. Amen? And we come to God and we confess our sins as a church. The prayer of repentance.

We repent to God. The prayer that we pray over the table. And how about this? In James chapter 5, it says, If one of you be sick, you come to the elders of the church, and they will anoint you with oil, and they will pray over you.

And the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So the prayers here are not individual prayers, but they are corporate prayers in the body. One of the most precious things we do is pray with and for one another.

Church Is Essential and Must Not Be Reduced to Convenience

For years, I have been using the phrase, theology matters. I've made shirts that say it. I put it on our website. I put it on our Facebook page. It's become our unofficial motto. Theology matters. But for 2020, I want to change something.

I think we should have a new motto. Church matters. Assembly matters. Gathering matters. Church is essential. We've heard the debates, haven't we? What's an essential thing? Isn't that a new word that's become so popular in the American dialect?

What's essential? The people handing out groceries is essential because we have to eat. The people protecting us, the firemen and the police officers, they're essential, and certainly they are. The Home Depot is essential because if your light bulbs go out, you've got to have a place to go buy light bulbs.

And you look around and you see how many things that are essential to people. And in some situations, fast food's essential. That's right, because we all still need a hamburger once in a while. But look what else is essential.

The abortion clinics have not closed. Is that essential? Well, to some, because it's the sacrament of death. Abortion is the greatest idol in our land. And they have not closed. Beloved, I'm here to tell you, if we're willing to say abortion clinics are essential and the church is not, we have failed.

We have failed. I hope you leave on your mind today with this as the primary point of the message. Church is the gathering, and that is essential. We are not the church alone. We are the church together.

Satan's desire is to separate us, and God calls us to unify. Now, do we do it safely? Do we do it smartly? Do we do it in accord with the standards that our authorities have set? Yes, but we do not forsake the assembling of ourselves.

No more. We continue to stand, and we stand together. May God be with us. Let us pray. Father, may we stand, and may we stand firm, not in pride or arrogance, but may we stand with the conviction that we are not the church by ourselves.

The church is the assembly, and we have been called to assemble. And Lord, we try to do that safely. We don't want anyone to become sick. We don't want anyone to be hurt by our pride or arrogance. So, Lord, I pray that we would follow the guidelines put in place by those who you have set an authority over our land.

But, Lord, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for a governor who understands that church is essential. Because, Lord, there are states in our union where that is not so. And I want to thank you that you have put in his mind, whether he be a believer or not, I don't know, but you have put it into his mind that the gathering of the saints, the gathering of believers, the gathering for church is essential.

Lord, may it be that this sits upon our heart, and we understand the value. Lord, I know there are some who cannot come because of health reasons. Lord, I know that that's the case anytime within the church.

And I pray for them. And I pray that they would know that we love them. And I pray that they would know that we are with them in spirit and in heart. But, Lord, I pray that we would never, never, ever conclude that being apart is the natural position of the church.

It is not. Lord, give us the conviction that unity is our strength. And may we not give in to the devil who would want to keep us separated. Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. We're going to close out with a song. And I want to say this before we play this song, two quick thoughts about this song. Number one, it's easy right now to feel defeated with all that's going on.