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[0:00] Yeah, now I'm one. All right. Good morning. All right, Alana and Josie. Y'all got to pay attention today.

[0:11] That's my granddaughters. Because I'm coming to your house later. I'll be asking you some questions. Do we have any Spanish speakers here today?

[0:27] Una. Yay. Que bueno. Excelente. Buenos dias. My wife and I were, for those that are visiting today, my wife and I just finished 36 years of missionary service in Latin America.

[0:41] So, yeah. So, it's good to be able to be with you this morning. I want to ask Pastor Jimmy Davis one question before I get started. I wanted to use some of your material from your blog on relational cancer.

[0:57] Is that all right? Now, if you say no, I'll just not use it. All right. Thank you. I don't want to, since he's, well, anyway. Since he's really here, I should ask permission, I think.

[1:09] I'm going to, we're going to look at Psalm 133 in a minute. It's just three verses. So, I'll have you stand when it's time to, when I want to read the scripture. But I want to start this morning with the idea of conflict.

[1:23] Conflict in the church. I'm sure none of you have ever experienced any of that. Right? Right. Okay. Wow. You know, it can be really bad.

[1:35] It can bring a real scandal to the church, to the name of Christ. Christ. Dishonoring him. Of course, it results in sometimes in churches splitting, dividing.

[1:50] Sometimes it even may cause a professing believer to stop going to a local church. To maybe even deny their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2:02] Of course, it creates hurt feelings. It creates broken relationships. And although sometimes these conflicts are over really serious issues.

[2:16] We can think of Paul and Barnabas. They decided eventually just, they had to go separate ways. But sometimes they're just foolish. They're just over foolish.

[2:29] I'll call them. You don't use this word in Latin America, for those that don't know this. Stupid. They don't use that word in Spanish. It's a very offensive word. But it's stupid.

[2:41] They're just silly arguments. That don't amount to anything. I'm thinking of one that occurred when we lived in Peru. A lady, a widow, and her teenage son at that time were coming to church.

[2:55] And one of the elders in the church and his wife had to pass by their apartments. And so they had an arrangement where they would come by on Sunday morning and pick them up.

[3:09] To save them bus fare, whatever, getting to the church. She didn't drive. They didn't have a car. So I get to church one Sunday and starting going out.

[3:19] She's talking with someone and she's mad. And what's wrong? Well, they didn't pick me up this morning. What do you mean they didn't? Well, obviously they didn't pick me up. What do you mean?

[3:32] What happened? They didn't wait for me. Well, how do you know they didn't wait for you? Well, they didn't wait for me. How do you know?

[3:43] So then I go and talk to the other family. What happened? Well, we went by her house and waited. She never came. So we finally left.

[3:57] And she was very mad. The other lady was very mad. They didn't wait for me. Well, how do you know they didn't wait for you? They never saw each other. They didn't have cell phones.

[4:08] They couldn't call each other. They were anyway, I mean, it was a foolish argument. Just foolish. Because both sides were saying the other person is at fault.

[4:18] How do you know? You can't know because you didn't see each other. But that's the foolishness sometimes that comes out in our relationships between people in the church.

[4:31] Just, if both sides had just humbly said, you know, well, we're sorry. We didn't. Maybe we should have waited a little bit longer.

[4:42] And if she could just have admitted, well, maybe I was a little late. Whatever. But there was no resolving for her the conflict at that point.

[4:52] So conflict is real. In his book, Eugene Peterson, in his book on the log obedience in the same direction, has a chapter based on this psalm.

[5:04] Actually, the book's based on the songs of ascent. But he says this in this chapter. He says, living together in a way that evokes the glad song of Psalm 133 is one of the great and arduous tasks before Christ's people.

[5:22] Nothing requires more attention and energy. It is easier to do almost anything else. That's true, isn't it?

[5:32] It's not easy living together. It's not easy living together in unity. We all know that.

[5:44] If you've got any age on you, you know that. You've been married for any length of time. You know that. So today, let's stand and look at the scripture.

[5:55] It's just three short verses. Psalm 133. We'll read verses one through three, which is the whole psalm. Okay. It says in Psalm 133, Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

[6:12] It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls in the mountains of Zion.

[6:26] For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life evermore. Father, we ask that you would help us to understand what it is to live in unity with one with another, to experience the blessing of life evermore now, the richness of what it is to be in Jesus Christ as a community.

[6:50] I ask that you will give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and that your grace will be made evident in us through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

[7:04] Amen. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God. So, the theme of unity obviously brings up the theme of conflict.

[7:17] But this psalm really describes what this unity is in many ways. Okay. But it's something that's wonderful.

[7:29] It's majestic. It's beautiful. It results in as a result of the unity between God's people, brothers and sisters in Christ.

[7:40] And note that the psalm starts with an exclamation in the first verse. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. Behold, look, see, examine how good and pleasant it is.

[7:58] And those two words, good and pleasant, describing a situation of peace and joy in the kingdom of God. In the Spanish translation, I thought this was very interesting, for me anyway, they don't use the word pleasant.

[8:12] They use the word delicioso, which you can guess what that means, right? Delicioso? Yeah, you got that. You all speak Spanish. Yeah, delicious.

[8:23] How delicious it is when brothers dwell together in unity. How wonderful it is. What a rich, deep experience it is. In Romans 14, excuse me, in verses 17 through 19, Paul says that the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

[8:52] Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. And so then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Because the kingdom that we may be part of is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Lord Jesus.

[9:11] And that's what I think that first verse is describing for us in Psalm 133. Behold, how good and pleasant it is. What a richness, what a joy we experience in that when we are living in unity, when we're living together in closeness.

[9:34] And then in verses 2 and 3, he begins to paint a picture for us. He's using two similes. The first one is in verse 2. It says, it's like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes.

[9:50] Now remember, this is that anointing oil that was specially blended for anointing the priest. So it's not just any, every day, go to your grocery store and buy a jar of olive oil.

[10:04] This was very fine olive oil and there were certain spices, certain fragrances mixed into this oil. And it was only used for this one specific purpose.

[10:17] And note the description. It's running down, poured on the head, running down into his hair, down into his beard, onto the collar of his robes.

[10:33] It's this idea of an abundance, an abundance of oil. It's not, is it next Sunday we do the prayers for the sick? Yeah.

[10:43] So it's not just a little bit of oil on the forehead. This is an abundance of oil. An abundance of oil that's being poured out. And because this speaks of the consecration of Aaron and his sons and the future priest, I think here the picture also is our consecration.

[11:07] The outflowing of the Holy Spirit on his people. In 1 Peter 2.9 it says, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light.

[11:26] So we are, through the Holy Spirit, consecrated. It's been poured out on us in abundance. Then the second similitude or simile that is used here is the idea of dew on Mount Hermon.

[11:42] Now, what I could investigate a little bit here is that Mount Hermon, first of all, is the tallest mountain in the area of Palestine.

[11:55] It's actually in Lebanon. In today's Lebanon. It's a little over 9,000 feet. So at that altitude, dews are particularly heavy.

[12:08] And they're necessary. Remember, Palestine, the area of Palestine, is semi-desert. Southern Palestine, you're going down into the Sahara Desert, actually.

[12:19] So northern Palestine becomes greener. There's more rain. But it's still semi-desert area. So in those areas of the world, dew is a very, I would say, important aspect of life.

[12:36] The dew that comes night after night. Refreshing and nurturing the plants. Nurturing wildlife.

[12:46] And so, again, this idea. This is their heavy dews that are falling. Now, he says they're falling down on Mount Zion, Jerusalem. But it's not clear why there's a connection.

[12:59] Because Mount Hermon and Jerusalem are not that close together. But I think it's the figure of a heavy dew that falls at the higher altitude. It's coming down on the mountains of Zion.

[13:10] And, again, it's an idea of fruitfulness. Of abundance. Something that is nourishing. Something that is bringing life.

[13:21] Another little aspect here is that both of these similes are depicting the idea of something coming down.

[13:35] Descending from above. And flowing down. Again, in abundance. Bringing life. Bringing blessing. Okay?

[13:46] And that leads us to the very last part of verse 3. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing.

[13:57] Life evermore. The blessing. And notice that it's not any blessing. There's a definite article there. The word the.

[14:09] The blessing. Think about that for a minute. The blessing. The Lord commands the blessing. Which is life evermore. So this is the blessing that incorporates all the blessings that God has for us.

[14:27] Okay? Yeah. All of his blessings are incorporated into this blessing. Life evermore. We know. We know. I'm sure most of you know that Galatians chapter 3.

[14:40] Paul talks about how through Jesus Christ the blessing of Abraham has come to the Gentiles. And he says that that blessing in verse 14, 314.

[14:56] That you might receive the promise Holy Spirit through faith. That blessing is brought to us by the Holy Spirit. That is the blessing.

[15:07] It's newness of life. It's newness of purpose. Newness of everything that we are. And so when we are living in unity.

[15:17] When the church is able to experience a greater sense of unity. I think what this psalm is telling us. This is the way I'm looking at it.

[15:29] Is that's where we're going to encounter the blessing. The fruit of the blessing. The richness of the blessing. The fullness of the blessing if you will.

[15:41] It's the idea in the Old Testament in the Hebrew mindset of shalom. Which incorporates so many aspects. From health to prosperity.

[15:54] Well being. So the blessing then is this shalom. This peace with God and peace with others. And it's going to be seen in our fellowship as we love one another.

[16:07] It's going to be seen in this in our fellowship. When we find a shelter for our souls. For our being. A healing place from the battering of life.

[16:21] And the troubles of life. When we have sinned against others. And when we've been sinned against. It's where we're going to find encouragement. In our walk with God.

[16:33] And renewal for our hearts and minds and spirits. And ultimately I think that this unity in the body of Christ. Is going to be. It's like a foretaste of our future resurrection.

[16:46] The full blessing of what eternal life means. But now. Of course not perfectly now. But now. And we can know it. Remember that this blessing.

[17:00] Has an objective truth. That is. It's what God has said. This is. This is the blessing I'm putting upon you. But it also has a subjective truth.

[17:12] What do we experience? And we can experience. Greater and greater depths. Of this blessing. It helps us. To know what it means.

[17:23] To more fully walk with God. And to love him with all our hearts. Soul and mind. And strength. And to love our neighbors. Ourselves. Something that.

[17:33] Carl Ellis. Brought to us last week. Remember. It's for the sake of his name. His name has been put upon us. Yeah. Not for our. Not because we deserved it.

[17:43] Not because we. Did something to. To earn it. But for his glory. Now. Here's the problem. Isn't it?

[17:54] There's a problem with all this. You all know what it is. Just go look in the mirror. I mean.

[18:04] It's us. It's me. It's not. I mean. It's you too. But I mean. You know what I mean. You right. You got me.

[18:15] You got me. Uh huh. This is where. The. The. The major obstacle comes from. That. That limits our unity. In our fellowship. In Christ. It is.

[18:26] We know that. Uh. James. In chapter four. Says this. What causes quarrels. And what causes fights among you. Is it not this.

[18:36] That your passions. Are at war within you. You desire. And do not have. So you murder. You covet. And cannot obtain. So you fight. And quarrel. You do not have.

[18:47] Because you do not ask. You ask. And do not receive. Because. Let me. Sorry. Because you ask wrongly.

[18:59] To spend it on your own passions. Now this is where I like to quote some stuff from Jimmy Davis. He says. There are two types of passions or desires that we can have.

[19:11] First of all. There are legitimate. God given desires. That we want too much. Okay. These get out of balance.

[19:22] Too much. We want love. That's a legitimate. We want respect. We want belonging. We want affirmation. We want appreciation. We want safety. We want significance. And we even want glory.

[19:35] But all of those belong to me in their purest form in Jesus Christ. But I turn away from the giver. And turn his good gifts into gods.

[19:46] That's something else that Carl brought forward last week. The idols. These desires are promised to me in Christ. But I often sinfully demand them from others.

[19:57] So. That's the first aspect. We. We have legitimate desires. But they become distorted. When we start demanding.

[20:08] That the other person. Provide them. And then there are other. Desires that are out of bounds. Because they are illegitimate.

[20:20] And that he. He describes it this way. Me first driven desires. That God forbids me to have. Things like self control. I'm sorry. Complete control.

[20:31] Getting my own way. Comfort and ease. My own record of righteousness. None of these desires are promised to me.

[20:42] And yet at times I demand them from others. And when I don't get them. I pout. I get inwardly angry. And outwardly defensive. I become conflict avoidant.

[20:53] Talk poorly about others. Avoid people. Point out the good things I do. Or the good things others say about me. Which is boasting. Okay. So this me first.

[21:07] Mentality. Is what we face. And it. And it. Creates disunity. It brings. Conflict. It brings disruption.

[21:18] In our relationships. As Jimmy. Puts it. It's like a. Cancer. A ravenous cancer. Cancer. So what's the answer.

[21:32] We need to go to God with our desires. He says when we go to God with our desires. We resect the root of the spiritual cancer. That causes relational brokenness.

[21:43] Brokenness. So when we. Go to God. With our desires. We resect. Cut out. The root of the spiritual cancer.

[21:54] That causes relational brokenness. No one likes to hear the bad news. You have relational cancer. But there's good news. Jesus. Our great physician. Has come in the flesh to perfectly love God.

[22:06] And people. In our place. Amen. Yes. He has also died the death that our relational cancer deserves. His you first heart.

[22:17] Is the cure for. Our. Me first. Hearts. So we need to go to the gospel. We need to go to Jesus Christ. That's the beginning of the answer.

[22:31] But that brings us also to some other. Truths. Or applications. Out of Psalm 133. The first one is simply this.

[22:42] We have been called to live in community. With other believers. And that's not an option. Okay. It's not an option. It's not. I know. Pastor Rev Kev.

[22:53] And others have mentioned this before. So it's not that we can. Choose to be an isolated. Christian. And be a good Christian. You will never.

[23:08] Well. We'll come back to this. You. You. You cannot. You cannot. Be incorporated. Into the body of Christ. If you are. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've been regenerated.

[23:20] By the Holy Spirit. You've been. Brought in. To. A body. So if you separate yourself. In some way from that body. You're killing yourself.

[23:31] Paul tells us that we are the temple. God's temple. First Corinthians 316. You are God's temple. And that. God's temple dwells in you.

[23:44] Anyone who destroys God's temple. God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy. And you are that temple. Now what we miss in the English translations. At this verse.

[23:56] Is that this you. Is not a singular you. Many of you know this. This is not singular. This is the plural you all. For those of northerners.

[24:07] You know. You guys. Whatever. We have a way in English to express. A plural you. But. It's. It's. This.

[24:18] We are the temple of God. We are one example. One. A manifestation. Of God's temple. At New City Fellowship. And God doesn't have.

[24:29] He has one church. One. Grand temple. If you will. Composed of all believers. So. If we don't understand that.

[24:40] We're going to miss. The blessing. We're going to hurt ourselves. And I think here. At this point. It's important. It's important. To realize.

[24:51] That this is not just talking about. Being here on Sunday morning. Certainly it is. Because. What did Jesus say? Where two or three are gathered in my name.

[25:02] I am in your midst. We are the temple. Jesus is here. The Holy Spirit is here. The Father is here. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. The church. crusade. but this also, I think, speaks more fully of the idea of being in a community, and we can't just do that on Sunday mornings.

[25:23] So that's why small groups are important. Times of prayer with other believers are important. Bible studies are important. You know, there are multiple ways in the church to connect with other believers, to get closer, if you will, to be closer, to be more in community.

[25:43] And that brings me to the second application, the second point here, is that if we're really going to know what it is to grow in Christ, if we're going to experience sanctification in all of its beautiful directions and ways, it can only be realized in the fellowship of the community.

[26:03] So, again, you can't grow and mature as a disciple of Christ without being in a community. We often have an idea of a lone ranger Christian, hero Christian, who can go it alone and do it alone, and is just super saint, and they don't exist.

[26:30] Those people always get in trouble somewhere. They either alienate everybody else around them, or they go off the rails somehow. But, obviously, rubbing shoulders with other people is not easy.

[26:45] Right? Right? Y'all are with me? Am I making sense? It's dirty business sometimes. There can be some really sharp disagreements at times.

[26:56] Again, because of our relational cancer. That person's not meeting my needs. And I'm mad about it. That man didn't wait for me to take me to church.

[27:11] How do you know he didn't wait for you? You can't know. But that's the internal issue that's going on in us.

[27:22] And we need to submit ourselves to God. We have to realize that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble in James and in 1 Peter.

[27:32] Both quote the same text. So, seeking to live in unity with one another is going to help us grow in grace.

[27:42] It's going to help us grow as a Christian. It's going to strengthen us. It's where the fruit of the Spirit is going to become manifest. As I remember some brothers in Peru talking one time about how easy it is to love the Christians and the people in Africa.

[28:00] Well, they've never been to Africa. They never lived there. They never rubbed shoulders. And I could say the same thing. It's easy for us, in a sense, to love the people in Peru until we went there.

[28:11] And by and large, we did love them. But they're always somebody that, wow, it's not so easy to love that person.

[28:22] Not so easy to get along with that person. They rubbed me the wrong way. And it couldn't be me. It's got to be them. You know, the New Testament is filled with numerous references.

[28:36] I counted at least 19 references throughout the New Testament where it talks about loving one another. Now, there may be some more. I missed some. But there were at least 19.

[28:49] And then you have other phrases in the New Testament like this. Esteem one another. Honor one another. Bear with one another. Being of the same mind.

[28:59] Being in one accord and of one mind. So we're always struggling with this. But this is where our growth comes. It's as we're interacting with others and we're rubbing each other.

[29:12] We're sharpening each other. We're finding out, seeing our sin more fully. They're seeing theirs more fully. It brings us to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[29:25] To renewal. And then I think that's the very, out of all of that then, the last point of application is this.

[29:35] We're going to experience the full blessing. Now. This life evermore. Now. Yes, there's life evermore coming. There's that future hope, future glory.

[29:48] Future esperanza. Future esperanza. Sorry, that's hope in Spanish. Just, it's waiting for us out there. And we can look forward to it.

[30:00] But it can be experienced now. To some degree. In some measure. And of course, that's because who dwells in our midst? The Holy Spirit.

[30:12] God the Father. God the Son. God the Spirit. And that's not just true on Sunday mornings. So today we're going to be coming to the Lord's Supper. And we want to reflect upon the wonderful truth that Jesus Christ, God eternal, became man.

[30:33] And gave himself for us. This is a sacrament that calls us to reflect upon the truth that you individually were purchased, are purchased, by the blood of the Lamb.

[30:45] But that we corporately have been brought into one body. One temple. So I want to encourage us to heed the scriptures and the admonition that we find in 1 Corinthians 5.

[31:01] Paul says this about the Lord's Supper. He says, cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

[31:14] Let us therefore celebrate the feast or festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

[31:29] God help us. Let's pray. Lord, we give you the praise and the honor and the glory forever and ever that you called us not to an individual salvation, but you've called us to a corporate reality, a corporate experience of our salvation, a living out of the life of Christ in us with other believers, with other brothers and sisters.

[32:00] Help us, Lord. Help us. We need your help. We need you to correct us. We need you to to work in us for the glory and the praise and the honor of your name.

[32:18]  We ask in Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.