We have come out of a Pandemic with another kind of sickness.  We are a divided people, a fractured nation.  One that finds ways to demonize and ostracize each other.  More people today are lonely and isolated than ever before.  More alone with their phones than ever before.  We have isolated even further,  as a nation of Us vs. Them. Pro lockdown, anti lockdown, pro science, anti science, pro mask, anti mask, pro vaccine anti vaccine, etc.  Our divisions have multiplied and the author is the Devil.  Whenever there is a breakdown of a relationship, there is a spirit of this age at work creating the division.  The enemy loves segregating us from others.  We are not to be ignorant.  We came out of a virus and have embraced another: the virus of individuality.   Jesus joined us together, He has brought strangers together under the banner of the love of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  The precious blood of Jesus binds us together.  Without community we will get sick and die a spiritual death.  Technology tends to isolate us,  Suicide, anxiety, and depression are up.

We were dead in our sins, but God has made us alive!  Christianity is turning dead people into living people.  It is not just to plop us into a waiting room for heaven, but to join us to the Church.  We cannot follow Jesus and not be united in fellowship with His Church.  We cannot do Christianity without Christians.

Having a “PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Jesus” is not the GOAL of the Gospel. The GOAL of the Gospel is to BRING you into the FAMILY of GOD.

We take sides, we say those people are bad and we are good.  It is the human condition we are jealous of each other.

‘Uncircumcised’ was a derogatory term Jews used toward Gentiles. They would thank God they were not Gentile and look down at non-Jews.  They did this because the Gentiles hated the Jews.  It is still going on today.

God is in perfect community and sin has come in and separated us and made us anti-God.  We are born with a sinful nature.  God is one God three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is so united that the Three are One.  It is that pure of a fellowship, that strong of a bond they are One and Three at the same time.  We divide because we have sin. Whatever God does we do the opposite. He loves good we love evil.

We were strangers with no hope and without God. When we don’t have God we get antagonistic with each other. God is the author of harmony. Love and unity are the answer, the blood of Christ, the grace of God, the fellowship, and communion of the Holy Spirit. It is the human condition to separate because humans are separated from God. We make our church (Waters Church) as welcoming as possible for those who are far from God. Christians are people of peace no matter what. Every baby is made in the image of our Father and we have to love them.

The death of Christ unites people, even His enemies.  The Pharisees and Sadducees were divided.  They hated each other and ostracized each other.

However, they worked together with the Roman government which they both hated and put Jesus to death.  Jesus unites people that are either for Him or against Him.

Ephesians 2:14–17 (ESV)

We can vote different than other Christians,  we can see things differently.

He has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. Christ has torn it down because He bore our sins on the cross. He bore our hostility on the cross. We cannot say we love God and hate our brother. We are the salt of the earth. We have to keep the decay away by loving our neighbor because Jesus became our friend.

Denominations no longer matter. There used to be denomination wars.

Christ is the end of the law. There are three Old Testament laws. Two stop at the cross and one goes through the cross.

A. We do NOT practice the CIVIL law of Israel. – stops at the cross.

Example: Stoning under the civil law

B. We do NOT practice the SACRAMENTAL law. – stops at the cross.

Example: sacrifices of goats and birds etc.   Jesus is the final offering for all our sins.

C. We DO practice a HIGHER MORAL law.  – this does not stop at the cross goes but goes through the cross and goes up.

Example: ‘You shall not murder’ becomes “everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:21).

We can pick and choose but we pick and choose what Jesus taught us not what we pick and choose ourselves. We are to be doing what God wants us to do and that is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

We are sinners who need grace every single day.

He personally saves us and plops us in the family of God.  We are born to a family the first time and then we are born again. The second time we are born into the family of God.

He gives us new birth and puts us in his family to be nourished and fed. Older Christians need to have grace with baby Christians.