"A Message of Unity" By Brother Parrish Lee October 5th,
2014
What
kind of God is this that showers down blessings time after time? You
know, it’s
easy to take Jesus for granted. Let
me
say that again: it’s easy to take Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty,
the
maker of heaven and earth, He who speaks and the stars obey, it’s easy
to take
that great God in heaven, Lord over the Angels, it is easy to take Him
for
granted. Truly, He
has been good. Amen?
I don’t need a little good—this ain’t
part of the message--but I don’t mean a little good, effective matter
is, if
you just think about it for just a second, how many of you know that
God has
truly been good to you? I mean, you don’t even have to ask, or check in
with
somebody else, you know for a fact that God has been good, and is
being, to
you? Let’s give him a praise. Let’s
just
thank Him this morning. I
thank God
because I don’t even know what season it is outside, today. I was gone for nine days
in September; I
think that’s all the spring you guys had.
I know there wasn’t much of the summer, and I know
winter went until
June second or something. I
think we’re
back to winter, or something. It's
hard to tell: I don't know, I guess I'll
have to watch my prayers.
One
thing that we meant to do, but we forgot.
We forgot to bring the baskets.
Could
we have one of the ushers bring up the baskets? Please bring up the
baskets,
those two baskets in the back. Bring
them up, please. During
our time of
sanctification, we have two baskets, we set them in the back for us,
and in one
basket is things that we’re praying for, seeking for, hoping for, and
the other
basket is things that we are thanking God for.
Things
we’re praying for during time of sanctification: To
be stronger spiritually. Pray
for my health, benefits and health. Blessings: Sharing
with a friend Knowing
God to getting strong and walk with Him. I’m
blessed to have a good job. Thank
God. We
had to face the problem with my mother and my dad.
Terry, and Gloria, and I have been praying
about it. Sunday,
Jesse, Sonya, my mom,
and I prayed about it. On
Monday, when
we had the meeting concerning the problem, the problem was solved, as
if it
wasn’t really a problem at all. Praise
the Lord for answering our prayers.
Before
we put those away, this is our time of sanctification;
we want to read these requests.
If you all could see what I see, that is a mighty praying force out there.
When we—let me tell you something, when Christians
pray, and bow their
knees, and go before Almighty God, I’m telling you, it will move
mountains. When we
offer up praises, let me tell you, it
shuts the devil’s mouth, and puts him on the run.
So, while were having this time, Saints, if
you have any requests, and let’s face it, we all have some requests. If we’re feeling
wonderful, we can get a
little greedy, we can get a little aggressive about this. I don’t have the spiritual
gifts that I know
I need to have in God,
and
there’s many things that I need to see her here, and I know that I’m
not alone. We
should fill these baskets up, bombard this
whole area around us, and let people know that God’s people must be
praying,
because something is happening. Amen?
Before
I get to the message, I just wanted to say that, as the prayer said
earlier,
there are many that are out sick this morning.
We do want to keep our brothers and sisters prayer
that are sick. We
have seen so many times where, you want to
say, “Well, it really ain’t that bad,” but prayer can make it that much
less
bad. There’s some
people, like Brother
Jason, He and his wife are visiting—they have a marriage in their
family, one
of their cousins, I believe. They’re
up
attending to that. Brother
Andy, I was
looking up here, and I saw you strumming, and I remember when you
picked up
that the guitar. I
remember. I was
like, “Hmmm. I
wonder what’s going to become of that.” I
saw Sister Linda and Sonya over there, and I saw Brother Kirk and
Malcolm over
there, and I thought, “Man, it’s a little skimpy up there! There’s not
a lot of
people up there. We
ought to have it
filled, because we love singing the praises of God.” While I was
thinking
that—I have, I have, I have to confess—while I was sitting there, in
that
little chair, thinking that, God brought to mind the servant of Elisha,
when he
turned to the prophet, and he said—no, this ain’t part of the message,
this is
just something for us — when he turned to the prophet and he said, “Oh,
there
are so many more out there; what are we going to do, we’re just a small
number!” It was such a big task. The
prophet turned to the Lord, and said, “Open his eyes, open his eyes,
and let
him see that the mountains the roundabout are filled with the Angels.”
Because,
see, when God’s people start praising, and lifting Him up, we have a
lot of
company. The
Angels, yes they do join
in, they join in on every song except the song the redemption. When we sing about what
it’s like to be
saved, I’m going to fly away to be with Him, my God, my Savior, they
don’t join
in that song. They
are spectators; we
are the ones that come through the blood of the Lamb.
That’s why that song is so precious. When you talk about, “I’m
marked. I’m
marked,” I remember, I remember. When
you talk about, “All the way, Lord,”—one
of my favorite songs— just to know, I’ve got a guarantee, if I keep
myself in
the hand of God, I’m going to be there.
I’m
going to make it. It’s
going to be a
guarantee that I’m going to open my eyes in the land of glory, and hear
those
words, those wonderful words, “Well done, My good and faithful
servant.” I’m
looking forward to that; I’m looking forward to that.
I’m not so crazy about that dying part. I don’t know about all
that. I’m not all
that crazy about that, you know,
that dirt on the ground, you know, whatever way you go, I ain’t crazy
about
that. But I am
crazy about being caught
up! That part I’m really excited about! I’m excited about— you know, it
describes it. It
says that the heavens
will be rolled away like a scroll, and it says he comes like lightning
from the
East to the West. You
don’t have time to
think about, and he gathers up his beloved, ever to be with the Lord,
it says. That ain’t
even the message; I’m sorry. You
just
I
said all of that to give honor to that same God who is the head of my
life
, and our lives here this morning.
He who is our maker, our Creator, our
Redeemer, our Savior. He
who knows no
defeat! He who we can put our trust in, and who never fails. I give honor to that God.
Giving honor to
all those who have been in this pulpit, or Christian Fellowship’s
pulpit, from
our founding pastor, and the times when he would walk the street, he
and his
family, in seeing this ministry brought about.
Giving honor to him on whose shoulder the ministry
rides right now,
Pastor Paine, our general pastor down in Virginia, he and his family. It was wonderful to see
them, they were so
excited, they’re looking forward to coming back.
He said he definitely wants to bring his wife
and Sis; they’re just bristling with excitement to come. They got called into and
giving honor to all
those that have labored, who have labored and been faithful to the call
that
God called them to, to stand in the gap, and to make up
the hedge. Giving
honor to all of you, who have said,
“Lord, let it be. Let
it be to feed my
soul. I come to
worship You, and You alone. Amen.
As
we have talked, we have been talking about the Book of Ephesians. Last month, of course, we
went through
Ephesians chapters 1, 2, and 3
, and this month we're
going to be going over chapters 4, 5, and 6 .
Our Scripture theme for
the month is from the book of second Chronicles: 2
Chronicles 7:16 For
now have I
chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever:
and mine eyes and mine heart shall be
there perpetually.
“…mine
eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.”
Ephesians 4:1-7
I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of
the
vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the
unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There
is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling;
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, unselect
that
select is above all, and through all, and in you all.
But unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Could
you bow your heads with me for just a moment? Lord, we
do come before You so graciously, and sincerely, and we thank
You, Lord. We don’t
even know how to
thank You enough for all Your goodness, and all the wonderful things
that You
have done, that You are doing now, and that You will do for us in time
to come. You are
none other than God Himself, and we
thank You for that. We
thank you for our
time of praise and worship, that we can come and bless your name, and
none
other than you, and your name alone.
Truly
you are that same God. Lord,
we ask for
a blessing on the going over of your Word at this time, God, that we
might
glean from it that which you would have for us today that it would be
as it
says in the book of Isaiah, that it would not return unto you void, but
would
surely accomplish that for which you said it.
This we do, as we pray and claim, in Jesus name,
and everyone said,
amen.
So,
we have gone through Ephesians, chapters 1, 2, and 3.
We talked about how the message in Ephesians
chapter
1 was to be comforted. The
message in
chapter 2 was about that grace, and the message in chapter 3, there was
a
highlight about that name and how he was able to do exceeding
abundantly above
all that we ask or think
. So much was
setting the stage of what Apostle
Paul was sharing with the people in
Now
we come to chapter 4, and we see here that Apostle Paul has message,
specifically, of unity. A
message of
unity and this message is in stressing that, in this walk that we have,
we are
not to be alone. We
are not to be alone;
if you want to withdraw yourself, if you want to pull yourself off to
the side,
that is not what God has for us. Surely
it says here, in verse number three, “Endeavouring to keep the unity of
the
Spirit in the bond of peace.” “There is one body,” it says in verse
number
four, “and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling;” so
here we see that God has given each individual a calling. How marvelous. Nobody is left out. He’s given everybody a
calling. And he
goes on he talks in verse number five,
“One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” One Lord, that’s who we follow, one
faith,
that’s how we follow, one baptism, that’s how we get into his favor. That is the purpose of
being born again, that
is being buried with Him, raised again to walk in newness of life with
none
other than the Lord Himself. “One
Lord,
one faith, one baptism, (6) One God and Father of all, who is above
all, and
through all, and in you all.” All directed to that one God, but, we are
endeavoring
to keep that unity of
the Spirit. That
unity of the Spirit. This
had to be good news for those at
You
know, some time ago, I learned something about this time of
sanctification. Last
year, it was really poignant, the first
time we had done it, I really learned something.
The first—we had 61 days then—the first 30
days, they went pretty good. The
time of
sanctification, he kind of lock yourself in, you get prayed up, you’ve
got your
accountability team, and you’re working with each other, and things are
going
Well for 30 days. But
the next 31 days ,
it was like, “Wow!” Not
so much. It was
kind of like, well, I got a lot
of interruptions. Things
kept going
wrong, and no matter what I tried to do, something else kept coming up. I went to pray-- I went to
fast, “Oh, don’t
you know? We’re having the big work party today, and they’re making
your
favorite cake. They’re
making your favorite cake. The hummingbird cake,
Parrish.” Yeah, yeah,
yeah. I wanted to
read, and it seemed
like the phone would ring, or I would get distracted and I couldn’t get
the
focus in my mind. Something
else would
come up, things kept coming up. I
asked
the Lord, “You know, Lord, I am just trying to have my time of
sanctification. Why
is it that now I keep getting so
interrupted? Why? Why? Why? I am just trying to get better for You,
Lord.” Tell
you what, the Lord answered me pretty quickly.
He said, “That’s part of it.
That
is part of it. Every
phone call, that’s
part of it. Every
visit, that’s part of
it. Of your sanctification.” “Oh, but God, I’m
trying to press through in
my mind, and I keep getting distracted!” “That’s part of it. You being sanctified, is
you pushing
distractions out of the way.” “Oh.” Well, I learned me a lesson; it's
not just
about me. Well,
praise God; praise God.
So,
I was a little armed this time. This
time you that other people are part of it.
Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Some
of the first 30 days was—whew—uphill this time.
God, I have accountability brothers that will hold
your feet to the
fire, as they send messages and words, “I will fast with you.” I thank
the
brother that—I was trying to pray for, and I said, “I can’t get my mind
straight. I’m
trying to find the right
Scripture; I’m asking God, I haven’t gotten the right answer yet. I wonder, what could it
be?” Without me even
asking him, he sent the message out, “Back to basics; seek ye first the
Ephesians 4:11-13
And
he gave
some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors
and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ: TiII we all come in the unity
of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Let’s
look at apostles; let’s just start right there.
The Bible says that He specifically gave some, He
gave them apostles. If
we were to look it up in a concordance, it
means: Apostles
1. a delegate,
messenger, one sent forth with orders.
a. specifically
applied to the twelve apostles of Christ b. but, also to them
who God called to start works.
To
establish works in God; that’s who He calls first.
And from there, it goes on to say that He
calls prophets, and prophets were: Prophets
e. an interpreter of
oracles or of other hidden things
The
mysteries. Those
who listened to God,
and share exactly what God says The
true
prophets in the ministry of God. He
sets
up and order, or a structure, if you will.
It says next that He called the evangelists. Evangelist
the
name given to the NT heralds of salvation through Christ who are not
apostles
The
evangelists are those who herald the salvation of the Lord. They herald—they go
places, and they herald
the salvation of the Lord. A
lot of
those places is with one another.
They
herald, “I’m here just to tell you:
You
know Jesus saves? You
know He really
loves you. I know
you want me to listen
to this dirty joke, but let me put my hand over your mouth and let you
know, He
loves you, anyway.” I
tell you what, you
do that a time or two, things change.
Things
change. You live a
Christian life, and
you don’t laugh at their dirty jokes, I tell you, all of the sudden,
they get a
little more reluctant about telling them in front of you. If you’re not ashamed to
be a Christian, and
you’re about to tell them, “Hey, you know what? I’m a Christian, if I
walk away
while you’re telling jokes, because that’s not what I do…” All of the sudden, wow!
the conviction of the
Lord takes over in their lives. Then,
pretty soon, when somebody else wants to tell a joke, they’ll be
interrupting
for you, “Hey, you know what? he doesn’t like hearing that kind of
stuff. Leave him
alone. I said,
Leave him alone!” I’m
a witness.
Then
it goes on to talk about pastors. Pastors
1. a herdsman, esp. a shepherd a. in the parable,
he to whose care and control others have committed themselves, and
whose
precepts they follow 2. metaph.
a. the presiding
officer, manager, director, of any assembly: so of Christ the Head of
the
church
Pastors
are the herdsmen, or the shepherds, of the flock.
Pastors give the care and the nurturing to
the flock. The
pastors. Then, of
course, the teachers. Teachers
1. in the NT one who teaches
concerning the
things of God, and the duties of man
When
I first came—when somebody first shared that scripture with me, I
thought,
“Hey, I don’t fit in there. They
rattled
off five things in the church, and I ain’t none of them. Well, I guess I need to
slip on in, and slip
on out. I don’t
really have a place; I
don’t stand out.” That
is a lie of the
devil. I’m just
going to tell it like it
is. That is a lie
of the devil. The
Bible says that each of us is called with
one hope of our calling. Specifically. Specifically.
God didn’t make any mistakes when He made you. He knew who you were, what
you were, what you
were doing when he called you. And
he’s
calling us, yet. So,
the Lord shows that
He sets a certain structure over the flock, or over His ministry, and
that is
specifically for the needs to be et.
He
called them. But,
those aren’t the only
ones that he calls in the ministry, for truly the Spirit of the Lord—it
says in
the latter days, he will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28). We are all to be—yes—we
are all to be
recipients of that prize. Ephesians 4:16 From whom the whole
body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint
supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. From
whom the whole body fitly
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies,
according to
the effectual working in the measure of every single part. When you look at the body
of Christ, it is huge.
We are but a limb, here.
We are—I
don’t even know how big of a branch we are, but I know that when John
turned
over and he looked, and the angel asked, “Who are these?” He said, “Thou knowest.” The angel said, “These are
they which have
come out of great tribulation,” and it says there was a number which
was above
every number. The
angel said, “I will
show you these, for they are the Lamb’s bride.”
So, the bride of the Lamb is enormously huge, and
each one of us—each
one of us—makes up part of the bride of the Lamb.
The key is that every one of us, every
measure, every part, has a calling, has an unction of the Spirit, has a
blessing in our life. Has,
truly, a
calling and a responsibility. Every
one
of us is measured out peace, and is measured out joy, and is measured
out
comfort, and it’s ours for the taking.
It’s
ours for the taking. Be
renewed in the spirit of your
mind. Now, I don’t
know this for a
fact—I’m not much of a gardener, or even a guy with plants—but, they
tell me
that a tree can feel it when we break off just one leaf. I don’t know that for a
fact, but that’s what
they tell people who work with that kind of stuff.
I don’t know; I never heard a tree come back
and talk about it. I
don’t know; maybe
it has some merit, you know? I
know for
a fact, Brother Jeff Lynch, he was a paramedic, and he said, “You know,
when
you lose a toe [a toe!], you have to learn how to walk all over again.” I said, “really?” and he
said, “Yeah.” I’m a
mechanic, and I know that when you lose
a finger, you have to learn how to handle a hammer, again. I know if you get a
scrape—if you get a good
enough scrape, you might have to learn how to drive all over again. In other words, one part
of the body affects
the other parts of the body. So,
each
one of us has that part, and here he says, “…be renewed in the spirit
of your
mind…” Now this
must have been a
challenge, because I’m sure, back in the time of Ephesians 1:19 And what is the
exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward [the power of
the Lord to
us-ward—the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward]
who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Be
renewed in your mind. “How?
How?”
Tap into that tremendous, exceeding, awesome,
great power of God for
everything that we need. Yes,
for the
renewing of our mind. “You
mean to tell
me that I have access? I
can tap into
that?” Absolutely! Absolutely!
In fact, if we don’t we’re in error!
It’s like not receiving a gift from your dad. “Dad, thanks, but no
thanks.” He has
made it so. So, the
exceeding greatness of His power to
us who believe. Power,
power, wonder
working power in the blood of the lamb.
Yes,
there is power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of
the Lamb. Ephesians 4:26-27
Be ye
angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither
give place
to the devil. Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake
hath forgiven you. “Be
ye angry, and sin not: let not
the sun go down upon your wrath:”
The
first time I read this Scripture—honest confession is good for the
soul—the
first time I read this Scripture, I said, “There ain’t no way I’m ever
going to
be able to keep that one. I
know how to
stay angry day after day. Matter
of
fact, I can be glad about getting angry.
I can make a challenge out of it; I can stay angry
longer than anybody
else. Anybody want
to challenge me
out?” Then the Word
of God just comes
over and, wooo! “Be
ye angry, and sin
not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:” and then, “Neither give
place to
the devil.” When we
were at men’s
fellowship, one of the brothers was talking about this Scripture in
particular;
he said, “’Neither give place to the devil.’
It’s really been going on in his heart and his
mind and you know…” and I
was like, “Man, that guy has been looking at my notes.
“Neither give place to the devil.” And He
says it in a way to let us know that we have the power on that. That is a choice not to
give power to the
devil on this. Amen. Then, “And be ye kind one
to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake
hath
forgiven you.” So,
the Lord was showing
us that His ministry, His kingdom, is not an 'I" place.
“I” this, “I” that, “I am,” “I will,” “I do,”
“I can,” “I might, “I won’t.” It’s
not
an “I” place. It's
a place full of
"we's" and "us's" and “let,” and “please,” “Lord,” “help,”
“bring,” “cure,” “heal,” “touch.”
It’s a
place where we, us and the Lord, It’s a place where we, us,
tender-hearted,
loving and forgiving one another.
It’s a
“we” place; an “us” place, because, when the Lord and sees, yes, He
sees how we
are as individuals, but also, how we are as individuals to each other. Because we all come
together and we pick up
that vibe. So, as
one of my favorite
sisters said, “Hey, I don’t want to abide by that; I want to do my own
thing.” That would
be a little crooked
finger, wouldn’t it? God
has called us
that we might have that whole unity of the Spirit thing in that bond of
peace. Why else
would He take a little boy—I’m
closing here—why else would He take a little boy, take his food, take
his
fishes and his loaves, take that little boy, and then spread that
blessing out
to five thousand people? Why
else but
that we would all be the recipient of the blessing?
And why else would He raise one from the dead
and then bring him to the feast, so that others might see him all
around? Can you
imagine the stories that he must have
told? That had to
be one person that
actually believe in being raised from the dead.
He brought him out that all could see, that all
could be partakers of
the same blessing. So,
when the Lord
pours out a blessing, it is for us to continue to pour out, so that
others
might be able to receive and partake of that blessing.
As
we said, being able to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, that's how it benefitted the
Ephesians back in the first century, and that’s how it benefits the
Christians
here in the 21st-century. Amen? Give the Lord a praise.
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