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There is freedom waiting for you on the other side of tough times. I’m praying that you begin to identify the blessings in your life and focus on them until you breakthrough into a new, anointed light. PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out to me if you need someone to walk through the process with you.

Make sure to get connected at Five Stones Church – we have an incredible community and small groups.

Blessings and Honor,
Scott

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Growing Together as One Body in Christ: A Sermon on Strengthening Our Christian Walk 

Transcript

uh what I want to do is just take a minute and we want to share the vision and re-share

the vision of this church uh you know the last time we did it was our one year anniversary in January and and so much

has changed and in just the last couple months that that it is it’s important to

know that what we’re doing is bigger than any one of us what we’re doing is not the idea of the notion or the

business plan of anybody else we are doing the work that God called us to do so I asked Leah to be with me and

because it is it’s our vision um to share that vision and just to give you an update so you know when 2015 when

I was four years away from a full 30-year retirement full 30-year fat cat pension as a chief of police God said

retire and I’m like no you don’t understand pension and he’s like no you don’t

understand obedience and I’m like I dig it I dig it okay so I did I walked away with four years shy of a full 30-year

pension Health Care everything because the vision that God gave was so

Crystal Clear I had no choice but but to be obedient now I didn’t know what it looked like I just knew that the

Lord had called and I said yes Leah can you imagine going home to your wife and saying or your spouse and saying hey I’m

quitting my job of 26 years like I’ve got a made in the shade job I’m about to quit it I’ve suffered for 26 years

you’ve suffered with me and I’m gonna quit because God said quit

and you know what she said okay I trust you I didn’t get the vision but

I trust that you heard from the Lord in a vision and I’m going to support you because we stand as a marriage in Genesis 2 24 that 2 is 1. and the vision

that God gave us when we planted this church was he said keep it simple plan an Apostolic five-fold Ministry

Church I want you to focus on the evangelists and the prophets and the Apostle the Shepherds and the preachers and the teachers I mean and he said I

want you to preach complete books of the Bible Don’t force your agenda by proof texting

here or there you start from page one you stop when I tell you to stop when the cloud moves you move I want you to

teach the word of the Lord I want you to teach meat I want you to serve meat to God’s people because

they’re starving they’re starving for the word he said don’t advertise don’t ask don’t

compel anybody to come to this church I’m going to stir the hearts of the people he said in your first year equip

and simply pray for the workers to come pray for the workers he said in the

second year I’ll bring the Harvest he said in your second year I will give

you a new home to house this Harvest and he said be different

be different and it’s like I’ve been different my whole life I’ve always been an outcast I’ve always

been the margins even in the world of law enforcement I couldn’t wear a uniform like everybody else I had to be

on the outskirts I had to put myself in the margins of society because I was called to be different so we’re like

well that’s what we do anyway so let’s just be different but you know you find yourself in church and then the

pressures sometimes to not be different becomes stressful

but the word of the Lord to be different is always going to be our shiny light so I want to share with you is what we’re

experiencing now I say we not just we we as the body like this church is equipping Saints to

do the work of the ministry this church is growing leaders to take over Ministry positions

there is no hard cap glass ceiling unbreakable lid that that says you’re

not allowed we’ve created a click and this is the club we are growing up leaders to take over if any organization

if you’re not training your replacement then you’re not healthy

this church preaches and teaches the word of the Lord if you haven’t come to a Thursday night

bible study then you’ve not eaten the meat of the word on Thursday night

and you know when God said don’t ask compel or invite like for me it’s hard it’s

hard for me to shut up when I’m in the gym or when I’m chasing down people at Walmart I love to talk to people and I

want to invite them to what God’s doing but God said don’t do it you let me stir

Hearts because I want the only people in this house to be the people that know that they’ve been called by me to be

here like honestly how many of you people even knew this place existed

this is an old building off of Highway 67 Tidwell exit

I didn’t even know you all existed I don’t take it as a criticism if we were marketing majors and had flashy signs

well me I mean the marketing don’t work we wasted money we didn’t waste nothing we saved our breath so the so the breath

of the Holy Spirit could compel and Inspire and invite you to be here what I want to tell you is that if you’re here today you’re here because the Holy

Spirit wants you here you’re not here because of slick marketing or campaign or advertising we

don’t do that what I want to tell you is that that we invested our first year growing the body

equipping the Saints to do the work of ministry this year God’s bringing the Harvest

if you’ve been here for more than more than a week you see you see that God’s bringing the Harvest and I don’t mean

the Harvest just in new people but always ask yourself am I more am I better off today than I was a year ago I

mean more spiritually mature are your marriage is stronger are your families coming to Restoration to Renewal or

prodigal relationships being restored do I know more about the word of the Lord today than I did a year ago am I

speaking in tongues when I didn’t does speaking in tongues make sense to me am I operating in the Supernatural gifts of

the holy spirit if you can say yes to even half of those you’re so much more spiritually mature than we were just a

year ago you know we’re standing firm on God’s promise of a new home this year you know

why because God gave us that promise can you imagine the audacity the insanity

the the irresponsibility for us to walk into this building the second day we signed

the lease and God say in your second year I’m going to give you a new home like do you know the market in the DFW

area there ain’t nothing you can’t get an outhouse that’s available in the DFW if you’ve

got an empty Outhouse it becomes medical billing space and for the Lord to say on day two we

walk in this building we hadn’t even preached this Army yet in your second year I’m going to give you a new home

that’s the Lord that ain’t got nothing to do with us so we’re standing firm on that and I want to tell you because

God’s good to his word we had to go to a second service like before y’all all

came about we’ve already done this before we had that we had to go to a nine and

an 11 o’clock service practical reasons Fire Marshal safety

Comfort accessibility but on the spiritual side I think back to when Byron was teaching about faith

about mustard seeds and you take those mustard seeds and you plant them 15 feet apart

and you’re like why in the world am I going to waste all that acreage you know how many more seeds I could plant if I planted them two feet apart the problem

is when you don’t plant them in faith and get 15 feet apart the space in between those seats is where God’s going

to operate so if we’re not listening to the Lord and we’re not doing a nine o’clock and 11 o’clock service we’re not

creating that space for God’s people to grow and God’s people to be comfortable but we’re standing on a temporary

solution for a permanent promise that came from God that he’s going to deliver our new home in this year where we can

all come back together as the body and I want to assure you that we don’t like I don’t like being up at 7 30 to do a nine

o’clock service but you know what is what the Lord said to do and and if you’re worried about well

we’re splitting the body and we’re not going to get to see each other you need to be here on Thursday night you want some meat you come here on Thursday

night there ain’t no two services on Thursday it is full-fledged Bible teaching Bible preaching Thursday night

serving me so I want to encourage you to do that so you know on the on the other thing I

wanted to share is I want to thank my wife Leah like when God gave me that calling years

ago you know just to think I mean here’s here’s a she’s my wife she’s my uh the

mother of our kids we’ve got like Health Care we’ve got pension we’ve got everything and for your husband to say

I’m out of here because the word because God said so and she stood by that and

she supported that and then when God said I want you to leave your the comfort of Home Ministry I want you to plan a church you know what she did we

have been living off of look a cop makes minimum wage and Leah’s successful career she was making more than minimum

wage she quit her career for this last year to support the vision that God gave

me she has put her life on hold for this last year

because we believe in Genesis 2 24. we are two is one the vision for me is the

vision for her even though she didn’t hear the vision she trusts that I received a vision and she’s going to

stand by me because God has lifted up anointed leaders and Elders in this church Leah has been released to go back

to doing her number one ministry that’s being my wife and the full-time mother of our kids

and so I want to thank you I want to honor you I want to spiritually release

you from the the position and the responsibility of being

the admin for this church I I bless you I honor you I cover you in returning to

be my wife and full-time mom of our kids so I do I am so thankful that you were

willing to put everything aside uh to to get this church on Solid Ground

and and I and I I know our kids are anxious I know Ava and Keaton are getting married in less than a month and

uh and she’s been mothering and mentoring our daughter into their marriage and uh so thank you for that

so

thank you

thank you well we’re going to continue our walk through the book of Ephesians

you know I want to share real quick you know sometimes churches they talk about DNA they talk about their identity

and and their vision and this and that and and you know sometimes we forget so after this morning’s service a little

girl handed me this she’d been taking she’d been taking sermon notes and I know she was paying attention

because they’re they’re right and I’m like oh that’s what I was saying but you know the most important thing you see

this picture and what she wrote love I don’t care what the identity and the

culture and the DNA and this is the house that love built this is the house that love built God

can take a 26-year career law enforcement officer who worked 12 years

undercover most of the time with the DNA DEA 16 years as a SWAT Commander to have

gone through the violence and the trauma and the death and and just living in the

the drags of society if God can take a hard-hearted guy like me

and teach them how to Love Like Jesus Christ this was a house that love built

this is a house that love built and it’s in that love that I want to share this word from Ephesians 4. and I

want to pray for this word before we start and Lord father thank you thank you thank you for today

oh thank you Lord we are so grateful to be here we are thankful to be to be

coheirs with King Jesus we’re so thankful to be brothers and sisters in the unity of Christ

we’re so thankful father God for you we love you we praise you we recognize the

special season that we’re in Lord we praise you we want to walk in Integrity in honor That season in Jesus name amen

you know have you ever been told to act your age like the guys are like because their

wives are like if you say anything I’m going to punch you listen admit it we’ve all been told act your age and we’ve

told our kids act your age well I figured out the best way to respond to Leah when she says act your age is like

well I don’t know how to act my age I’ve never been this age at any moment in my life

so how in the world am I supposed to act my age well you know what so Paul we’ve been going through the first three

chapters of Ephesians Paul’s been laying down the the wealth of being in the Kingdom the riches you’re a co-heir

you’re a co-heir with the King nowhere on this planet when you enter into a citizen of a kingdom do you get what the

king gets counter-cultural Kingdom citizenship means everything that God the Father gave the son you’re entitled

to and it don’t happen the day you die it happens the day you receive Jesus Christ and you start walking everlasting

life with him so those first three chapters that Paul’s giving to the church in Ephesus he’s laying down

doctrinal Foundation he’s laying down the Trinity he’s laying down y’all don’t make no mistake that Jesus the son his

father is God he’s laying down that you’re once you’re saved you’re sealed by the Holy Spirit he is laying down

Doctrine he is laying down a solid foundation in the first three chapters now we come to chapter four and it’s the

walk like this is how you walk in Christ and if there wasn’t a foundation Lane then

there’d be nothing to walk upon so then we say that’s cool and all but how do I walk

well guess who got the answer the Bible the word of the Lord is going to show you what the Walk of looks like

but I want to share the one thing that God put on my heart for us today and it’s if your walk is not God’s walk then

you’re walking alone you’re walking alone we have been called to walk in unity as one and the only way

to walk in unity is one is to walk with the Lord and why is that important well we’ve

been called to walk as one body we’ve been called to walk in unity not not uniformity but in unity God doesn’t want

you to lose who you are and what makes you special he just wants you to see the specialness number one comes because of whose you

are not who you are and I want to I want us to stand as the body to read the anchor

scripture for today and it is it is about unity in the body

and if we’ll stand in reverence of the word of the Lord we’ll read together as the body and we’ll start and unity in the body will begin therefore I a

prisoner for serving the lord beg you to leave a life worthy of your calling for you have been called by God always be

humble and gentle be patient with each other making allowance for each other’s faults because you have your love

make every effort to keep yourselves United in the spirit binding yourselves together with peace for there is one

body one Spirit just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future

thank you thank you Jesus for that word thank you for that word you know Paul’s going to give us instructions for what

walking looks like and we’re going to walk through this anchor scripture Ephesians 4 1 and it

says I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which

you were called like Paul’s going to tell you how to walk like how helpful would that be when

you tell act your age and if you had a little what does it mean to Act My Age like I’m almost 60. like how am I supposed to act

at almost 60 right but but Paul’s going to give us those answers and what does it look like to walk with the Lord and

you know the first thing Paul makes it very clear so he uses the word therefore therefore what therefore is signaling is

he was teaching Doctrine therefore now we transition to duty I have laid the

doctrine I’ve laid the ground rules I want you to understand the foundation upon what you’re going to walk now

therefore your duty as a Believer is to Walk This Way I beseech you to walk

worthy of the calling for which you were called you know the first part of walking

Worthy is Paul’s I’m a prisoner of the Lord you know being a prisoner of the Lord

does not mean that you’re being punished it means that you you submit to someone who has the legal supreme authority with

which to stand and provide care custody and control over your life Jesus is the only person with the

supreme authority for which you can come into as a prisoner not to be Shackled In

Your freedoms uh taken away but to be giving care custody and control in the

natural world when you take someone into custody that’s what it’s called care custody and control

now you come into the natural if it’s in a rebellious State as a law breaker then it’s going to look different when we

come into the kingdom and we come into Unity when we come into submission becoming a prisoner for Christ is the

only way that we’re going to come into Unity with the body you know so what does a Christian walk

look like let’s continue Ephesians 4 2 3. with all lowliness and gentleness with

long-suffering bearing with one another in love endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace like it

starts with being humble it starts with humility you know back in Paul’s day there was nothing in the Greek or Latin

the word the word humble they actually humility they actually believe that the Christians coined this term and it means

the noble Grace of Christ just like the word crucifixion was not a term at the time it was so horrifically

excruciatingly terrible that they had to coin a term and you know the word humility is so

beautiful and I want to read you from first Peter 5. because this is this is an example this is a cultural portrait

of what a healthy church should look like it reads the elders who are among you I

absorb I who am a fellow Elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and

also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed Shepherd the flock of God which is among

you serving as overseers not by compulsion but willingly not for dishonest gain but eagerly

nor as being Lords over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock when the

chief Shepherd appears you will receive the Crown of Glory that does not fade away

likewise you younger people submit yourself to your elders yes all of you

be submissive to one another be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives

grace to the humble therefore humble yourselves under the

mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time casting all your cares upon

Him for he cares for you everything in the Kingdom starts with

humility if you feel like this is not an accurate portrait of a healthy church then I want

to suggest that maybe you pray more about it because there may be areas of Pride that are that are you’re being

resisted if you feel like you can’t break through and your ministry is not starting or whatever the case is your

family your finances and there’s just struggle there might be an issue of Pride there

might be an issue of rebellion God’s never going to take the pride for the haughty and Elevate him in the

Kingdom he’s going to take the humble and he’s going to elevate you you know what I’ve learned and I’ve learned so much oh my

gosh I’ve learned so much is that God shows me that he can only

use me to the level with which I respond appropriately to what was done to me

you see as a as an alpha male if you hurt me I’m coming after you and Jesus

is like we don’t do that in the Kingdom you see it’s not what they’ve done to you it’s how you respond to them

and that starts with humility you know when Paul’s telling us that we’ve got to bind ourselves together

with peace like Unity doesn’t just happen it doesn’t just happen I mean think

about your families is there disunity in your family is there just Harmony in your family is there disagreement in

your family yeah you know what two people meet Lee and I we do a lot of marriage counseling and then they’re

like Oh I thought when I got married they were going to change well what intentional efforts did you

make to bring about change nothing I just thought when I got married to be better that don’t happen

when you come into the body of Christ if you’re not willing to change then everything’s going to remain the same

like Unity doesn’t just happen you’ve got to decide to be unified you’re got

to decide to put your wants aside you’ve got to put your wants

beneath God’s will until your will becomes God’s wants you see

only through Unity through the bond of Peace you know why because Christ is our

peace Christ made peace Christ preached peace Christ gives unity and peace and

Christ offers a gospel of peace it’s only through peace that we’re going to come into Unity it’s only through making

that conscious decision every day to submit yourself with humility binding

yourself with the unity of peace that we’re going to stay United as one body it’s not just a magical place or some

magical message that brings you into Unity it is a constant daily decision that you get to make

that you get to make and you know so Paul is walking us through the Walk of Christ and then he gets to the point

where it’s for uh 414 and he goes it’s time to grow up like it’s time to grow up

and he says that we should no longer be children toss to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the

trickery of men and The Cutting craftiness of deceitful plotting like Paul’s not talking about some some blurb

for a movie or or a mystery novel like Paul’s talking to the church Paul’s talking to the church

deceitful trickery plots when you come in humility and submission

you’re not focused on trickery and deceitfulness and plots and gossip and

rumor your focus is submitting yourself in humility to Unity in Christ so when

Paul talks about his time to grow up stop being children we go to First Corinthians 13 11. when I was a child I

used to speak as a child think like a child reason like a child when I became a man I did away with childish things

let me tell you something adolescence is not found in the Bible Paul says you’re a child then you become

a man or you become an adult there’s no adolescence you see what we did in society the world this woke

culture they said oh no no that’s cool like like I don’t want you to go from child to adult you can be an adolescent

you can extend your childhood you know the problem with this woke World demonic

World adolescence goes into the mid to late 30s and sometimes further than that

you know the results of that look as a parent we all like that’s cool like we don’t want our babies to leave we tell

Anova and keep y’all get married in May y’all can live in a house it’s good

but you know what it’s not good what’s happened by extending natural adolescence is now people are getting

married in their mid to late 30s but what they’re doing is they’re leaving their mom and dad’s house and

then they’re going into their spouse’s house and they’re realizing that their spouse is not their mom and dad and

they’re not getting a little poopoo diapers change and a little bottle fed to them and what do they do

they divorce they quit they leave they split the unity and they go back home to

Mama do you know today that 52 of all young adults living with their parents

that’s more than any other time in this nation’s history even the Great Depression

and you know the majority of the parents homes that they’re moving back to is their mom’s house because that

generation the divorce rate has been astronomical can you imagine the pressure that’s

being put on Single Moms now having to raise their 30 and 40 something year old kids because of

extended adolescence and that’s not just for the natural world that happens in the spiritual world you see we get into

this world of adolescent Christians who don’t want to grow up they don’t want to they don’t want to mature they want to

stay on the little milk because the milk don’t make them feel bad you see the milk of the word that don’t bring

conviction that don’t bring change the little milk allows you to compromise but when you start coming for the meat of

the word listen I said this morning I laughed and I thought maybe it was inappropriate but it ain’t when I think of Byron Hamilton on Thursday nights I

see them in this white chef’s hat with a with a with a chef’s coat and these knives like cutting a fillet cutting a

fillet cutting a filet and serving the meat of the word and you know what not everybody comes on

Thursday you know why because that ain’t for everybody and that’s okay if you’re a new believer in your sip of milk but

if you’ve moved from putting away childish things and you become an adult but you want to live in a state of

spiritual adolescence why ain’t gonna go on Thursday because what he said I ain’t comfortable with or what he does in the

word or the meat of the word is you got to kill sacred cows and sometimes we don’t want them sacred

cows I don’t want to move out of my bedroom I like my NFL blanket and pillows I don’t want to move over there

that new wife that I married she wants something like like with Paisley on it I’m going back to Mama that’s what we do

in the world that’s what we do with spiritual adolescence there comes a time to get off the bottle

and get onto the meat you’re never gonna mature as long as you’re sipping and I

just want to share that that this is a word to the Christians Paul’s talking to

the Christian church and he’s telling us if we don’t submit in humility with a

conscious purposeful decision to walk in one in the body there’s never going to be Unity but you

see the problem which you’re missing by trying to by trying to cause the strife and destruction and and division is that

the God’s Gonna Move God’s this thing is on a track this track don’t move this train goes forward

God’s God’s plan is going to come Jesus is coming back and it don’t matter what

you try to do to derail it it don’t matter if you want to go to a different denomination every week God’s plan is

Unity based in love grounded in truth and on the word of the Lord and it’s going to move forward it’s whether or

not you want to ride that train you want to be in unity and if and if the whole idea of

spiritual adolescence the beauty is God loves us and he’s like I get where you

were but I want you to come where we are because there’s Unity here there’s love

here but you got to come with humility you got to come with submission you got to come understanding this is a house

that love built I’m gonna tell you a child is cute but a childish adult is not

God’s vision for this church is to equip his people into maturity as well as

correct the behavior for those who need correcting and let’s be honest we all need correcting

but that’s the beauty of the word the word don’t condemn the word convicts for correction

thank God for this church I want to give you an example we’re

going to finish up Ephesians 4 15-16 this is a healthy this is what a

healthy mature Walk In Christ looks like Paul says now remember he just talked

about deceitful trickery plotting division gossip rumors and Paul says

instead instead of doing this

how about we speak the truth in love growing in every way more and more like

Christ who is the head of his body the church he makes the whole body fit together

perfectly as each part does its own special work it helps the other parts

grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love

does that sound like an atmosphere a body of Believers that you want to be a

part of then everybody has a role to play everybody matters everybody counts

when you’re when you were planting an Apostolic fivefold Ministry Church the idea is not just to gather a bunch of

people and listen to one guy talk every Sunday the idea is to raise up leaders raise up the body due to the work of the

ministry so they can get out there and start doing the ministry when I hear brothers and sisters that are doing that

are doing baptisms on their own and that they’re marrying people and they’re doing things listen that’s Apostolic that’s Apostolic

you’re out there doing the work of the ministry if there’s one number on your phone that you got to call to marry somebody to

bury somebody to baptize somebody to be somebody in the Holy Spirit lead them in the baptism of the Holy Spirit then that’s not a healthy Church

when you can swing a cat by the tail and you can and you can claw somebody that can do these things that’s an Apostolic

equipped Church everybody’s ready to step up to the battle line that’s what a healthy Church

looks like so I want to share again the one word that the Lord the one thing you put on my heart this week if your walk is not

God’s walk then you’re walking alone I want to challenge you this week I want

to challenge you this week to pray about where you are in your walk with Christ I

want to assure you the foundation is solid the word of the Lord is solid we

don’t have to worry about that shifting beneath our feet focus on your walk where you are in your

walk you know if there’s places where where maybe you’re feeling resistance in your

personal life or with your church body or in your profession or with your spouse or your kids maybe maybe give

some time to prayer and see if maybe there’s something um that you’re walking outside of alignment that’s causing this desire to

divide if you’re finding that there’s areas of submission that are drawing you even

closer to your walk with Christ then focus on that

but make no mistake God wants Unity God wants love God sent his son to die on

the cross so we can know this everlasting life so we can know Salvation and salvation

again it’s not just your get out of hell free card God wants you to have the whole atoning

package of Salvation he wants you to be delivered he wants you to have provision he wants you to have a health

he wants you to walk in unity and he wants you to know that you’re loved that’s why he sent his son to the

cross you’ve got to make a decision you’ve got to be purposeful you’ve got to be intentional

if you think showing up in a building is going to make a difference in your life in your spiritual life it isn’t

you’ve got to be willing to come under submission come under Authority come under the care custody and control of

the Supreme the one who has the supreme authority over your life and that’s King Jesus