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The River ChurchSermons

REACH, GATHER, GROW

Gather

Ryan Story · Sunday, 14 September 2025 · Romans 1:12; 14:19; 15:2 · 43:13 · 8,382 words

Romans S21 · 1:12; 14:19; 15:2

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The sermon examines the Great Commission from Matthew 28, explaining that Jesus commands his people to reach the lost, publicly profess him through baptism and service, and grow in his word. Listeners are encouraged to see every gathering as a chance to love others, serve faithfully, and stir one another toward love and good deeds. The speaker stresses that Jesus’s authority and presence assure the church of success, inviting the tired and uncertain to draw near to him for endurance and hope.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

realness 12 river 20 endurance 16 gather 27 source 11 davidson 7 church 59 muster 6 encouragement 16 profess 9 hey 33 voice 13

Topics

Prayer 6 Unity 3 The Gospel 2 Hope 2 The Holy Spirit 1 Baptism 1

Scripture referenced 31

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Matthew 28:18 6:03 Matthew 28:18 6:13 Hebrews 10:24 14:07 Hebrews 10:24 14:48 Romans 14 16:06 Romans 15 16:16 Romans 14 16:21 Romans 14 17:23 Romans 14 17:46 Romans 14 18:08 Romans 14 20:23 Romans 14 20:41 Romans 14 20:47 Romans 15 20:47 Romans 14 20:53 Romans 15 20:58 Romans 15 21:11 Romans 15:5 21:16 Romans 15 22:58 Romans 15:5-7 22:58 Romans 15 23:04 Romans 15:5 23:04 Romans 15:6 23:39 Romans 15:7 23:47 Romans 15:5 23:57 Romans 5 29:05 Romans 5:6 29:05 Romans 15 32:47 Romans 15:7 32:47 Matthew 28:18 36:55 Hebrews 10 40:18

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

started going off with that bass line. That was great. But weird way to intro, but my name is

Ryan. So I'm actually the family pastor here at the River Church. So what does that really mean?

That means anything zero to 28, I get the privilege to be able to kind of lead that

within all nine locations. So anything from River Nursery, our River Kids, our River Students,

and our River Young Adults. I get the privilege to be able to work with a great team around all

of our locations just to see God be glorified. And River Davidson, I do want to take a moment

to be able to recognize something. Something really, really cool happened here this week.

We had 21 people involved in our River Students here on Wednesday. That's worth giving it up for.

That's worth clapping for. So I texted with Pastor Keaton. He's actually, he's our Goodrich

student pastor, but also he oversees like all of our locations, student ministry. So I texted him.

We got a new young man by the name of Brady, who's kind of like step forward. He's like,

hey, I really want to like serve the Lord. And we're like, hey, we got an awesome place where we'd

love for you to be able to kind of grow. And so I text Keaton on Wednesday night and I'm like, hey,

like, dude, how'd students go? He's like, I was like, I saw like 11 students checked in. I was

like, praise God. That's absolutely awesome. He's like, no, no, no. He's like, we didn't have 11.

He's like, we had 18. And I'm like, oh my goodness. And he's like, and then we had three leaders there.

So again, just to be able to praise God for what God is doing here with our student ministries.

But also I was texting Mark and I'm like, man, how do I want to go? And he's like, man, we had like

close to 30 with leaders and kids were excited and they're learning about God's word. And they're

really, really amped up on whatever sugar they got before here. But he's like, it was super

exciting. Because again, like a lot of our elementary kids learn the simple truth of John

316. And I'm like, praise God for that. So honestly, like being here is such an encouragement

to know what is going on. And honestly, like looking around, seeing some young adults and

seeing some students and seeing some young families, like my joy is to just,

kind of watch that next generation kind of take the church. So again, I love the foundation that

a lot of people have been able to set. But to just be able to see a multi-generational church,

even watching what was going on here a couple seconds ago, we had two young people with their

gifts and their talents, praising and worshiping God. So River Davidson, like again, thank you for

blessing me to be able to be here. But thank you for just being able to see the faithfulness of

God. But for us today, as we kind of jump in, I wanted to be able to quickly address something

I don't want to go too much into it. But we live in a world where there's darkness. And I want to

make sure that I use wise words here, because we have young people sitting in the crowd. But

for us, we know that we live in a broken world. But we know the gospel is so good. We know that

the hope, love, unity, we know that the work of Jesus Christ is the ever forthright thing that

we put in front of us as the church. And we focus on that. And for me, wherever you're

at today, whatever political view, whatever opinions you might have, for us to be able to

be here to gather and grow closer to Jesus Christ, because we know where our hope is found. We know

where life is found. But we also know who is the healer of this world. So for us, let's make sure

that we pray boldly in his name. We pray for people who are hurting across the world. But for

us as the church, let's continue to be a light for Jesus. So let's pray. Let's see what God has

for us this morning. So Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. Lord, and Lord,

we know that there's brokenness and darkness. Lord, we know that there are those who will come

against us because they came against you. But Lord, thank you so much for your church. Thank

you so much for giving us your spirit to just kind of live in us. Lord, it can empower us. Lord,

it gives us strength. It gives us boldness. Lord, it gives us the ability just to come back to you

and find hope. Lord, for us today, Lord, just thank you so much for what you're doing here

at the River Davidson, Lord, because Lord, what you're doing is a mighty work here.

I pray that you continue to work that work out, Lord, because we know that you'll bring it to

completion. But Lord, allow us to be your church, not to be caught up in ideologies or opinions,

Lord, but allow us to just be full focused, fully committed to growing in your word, Lord,

and ultimately making sure that people know you. So Christ, be with me today, Lord. I pray that

nothing comes out of my mouth that is not from you, Lord. But I pray today that the River Davidson

leaves encouraged and steadfast and wanting to run after you.

So Christ, we love you. And Lord, we pray this all in your beautiful and powerful name. Amen.

So here at the River Church, every fall, every January, I say for the most part, because if I

turn around and say every fall and every January, it's recorded and somebody will come to me like,

you said every fall and every January, because if you know anything about the river, sometimes we

change the plan. But for us, we really try to make sure we take time to really focus on the vision

of the church.

So for us, you'll see it kind of like, again, I'm looking at a giant, beautiful piece of art that

somebody put where they put reach, gather and grow. And they kind of put like arrows behind it

because we believe what Jesus has called us to do is to reach the world, to gather with the saints

and to grow in God's word. So this wasn't just something that like a bunch of pastors got

together and we're like, hey, let's figure out a easier and more clean way to explain Jesus's words.

That's not the point.

What a church should ever do for a group of people to be like, hey, let me really tell you what Jesus

is saying. Like, just let Jesus's words be Jesus's words. Amen. Thank you for that. But for us, like,

I don't know what truth was just learned at that moment, but I think we could end the day

for the moment. But yeah, we should never be in a point where we turn around and we're like, hey,

I know this is what Jesus said. Let me make it easier. Let me make it simpler. Like we can

explain it. But for us as a church to ever get in a place where we're going to say, hey, Jesus,

this is how your church should lead.

That's not what we do. So what do we do here at the River Church? We take Matthew 28 verses 18

to 20, and we put it into practice. We put it into principle. We put it into

priority. So in Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, it reads, and Jesus came to them. He was talking to

the disciples and said to them, he said, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to

me. And I love that. Jesus is rightly saying, hey, like everything, I'm in completely in control.

I sit on the throne and there is nobody who has authority

except for me. And praise God for that absolute truth right there. But Jesus says, go therefore

and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the

Holy Spirit. And he says, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am

always, and I am with you always to the end of the age. I love that. All the authority of Jesus.

Jesus has established an authority. And at the very end of the Great Commission, he says, don't

worry, I'm always with you. For those of you who are perfectionists, you can't mess up God's church

because he says he's with you. He said he had authority. He said, I'm always with you. I'm always

with you. And I love that. So for us, what do we do on this side of eternity? What do we do

as the church? We need to take Jesus's command here in the Great Commission. We need to put it

into practice. And I think every church puts this into practice in some different way. But what do

you see? You see, go therefore and make disciples. That's a call to reach. So when we do things like

our Trunk or Treat, that's coming up very soon. What do we want to do? We want to invite the

entire neighborhood. We want to invite every person that we possibly know to come to the River Church

Davidson. For what? Well, it's not for candy. It's not for prizes. It's not to see how awesome our

trunks are. Now, those are wins. But that's not the point. The point is because we get to stuff

this auditorium from wall to wall. If we could go ceiling to ceiling or ceiling to floor, we would.

But we want to have as many people as we possibly can. Why? To hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. To

hear Jesus Christ, God's perfect son, died on a cross for our sins, for the world's sins. And he

reclaimed us. He brought us back. He repurposed us. He bought us at such a high price. And we want to

be able to tell every single person that they can have a relationship with the living God. That's why

we reach. That's why we do things evangelism. That's why we want to be a group of people that's

shining a light into darkness. That's why we want to love the lost. So for us, when we read that

command that Jesus says, go therefore.

We do that. It's not just go therefore by events. Let's go therefore and make disciples. It means

when somebody shows up, we actually got to start a relationship with them. I love Name Pack Sunday.

It's the biggest cheat in the world because I get to know people's names. Because I don't remember

people's names, but it's really easy for people to remember my name. But we go therefore and make

disciples. We actually know somebody. We actually know their name. We know their story. We know what

brought them here. And we want to be able to say, hey, God loves you. We want to reach more than

just the people who are coming to a church gathering. We want to go there and make disciples.

We want to go find those who don't know Christ. And I love that Jesus starts with that. He doesn't

say, hey, get together and let's grow in God's word and let's gather together. No, he starts with,

hey, let's go reach the lost. Let's go reach those who really, really, really need this truth.

Because we live in a rough world. We live in a broken world. But for us, we believe this as the

River Church. We want to be able to reach the lost because they're the ones who need the message of

Jesus so much. But then we go on to that baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy

Spirit. Now, a lot of times people are like, oh, we just baptized. But we're not baptized. We're just

baptized. When you baptize, you baptize in kind of public assembly. You baptize in front of

everybody. So with us, when we look at when Jesus says baptizing them in the name of the Father,

Son, and the Holy Spirit, what is baptism? It's public profession of Jesus. So what are we doing

here right now in our gathering? We're publicly professing Jesus. We do that by serving. I don't

think anybody wakes up on a Sunday and been like, you know what? It's 10 o'clock. I gotta go make

coffee for somebody else. We do that in the name of Jesus. Hey, I got up and I want to play on a

computer. We do that in the name of Jesus. We do that in the name of Jesus. Hey, I got up and I want

to sing. Now, some people really like singing. I mean, I probably was rocking out some Disney

tunes on my way here. May or may not have been doing that. But again, I love singing as well.

But what do I love to do? I love singing. Why? Professing who Jesus is. Now, let's not even talk

about the nursery ministry, because those are some long-suffering individuals. Because again,

who gets up and be like, you know what I want to do? I want to go watch somebody else's kids.

This is a great time for a JTT push. If y'all ain't serving, the nursery needs you. But it's

one of those things. It's a great time for a JTT push. If y'all ain't serving, the nursery needs you.

It's one of those things. Why do people, why are they willing to wake up early? They show up. Why

are they willing to go be in the nursery? It's not just to watch kids. It's because we get to

profess who Jesus is to the youngest of believers. We get to build building blocks. We get to start

stages. Like one of my favorite things is my youngest son, he's four. He walks up to my wife

this week and I have no idea what prompted it. He just like walks up to my wife. My wife's doing

the dishes and he's like, hey mom, did you know that Jesus died on a cross for us? She's like,

I, I, I did know that Jed. Thank you. And he's like, did you know he rose three days later? She's

like, yeah, I did that. And he's like, okay, love you mom. And he just like scooted off. And for me,

like I, I thank every single nursery worker ever, because again, why are we doing what we do here

on a Sunday? Because we're publicly professing Jesus and all that we do from song to preaching

everything. And then we got the last thing where he says, and then teaching them all that I observed

and I have commanded you. And we'll talk more about this next week, but to grow in God's word.

Just talking to somebody today, like again, like not just like, Hey, I came to church and man,

what the pastor kind of like cooked up was really good. Like actually taking the Bible and reading

it when you go home. It's one of the most beautiful thing about the word of God is you literally can

go read God's word. When you go home, you can find a truth for yourself and you can grow in your

likeness. You can grow in your knowledge. You can grow in your sanctification. So for me, when I

read reach, gather, grow, I love all levels of reach, gather, grow, because it's found in the

great commission. But to me, when I read reach, gather, grow, I love all levels of reach,

today, we're going to be focusing on that second thing. That's gather and river Davis. And I'll be

completely honest. Whenever I get the opportunity to preach, reach, gather, grow. I love preaching

reach. I love the ability to challenge the church to actually leave the comfort zone and go talk to

those who are lost because at one point in my life, I was lost and I needed people to teach me,

to show me, to love me, to kind of walk with me. I love teaching grow because I love watching what

God does when people grow in their walks with God. But then there's always gather,

and gather is always difficult to me, uh, strictly because it's more about a target audience because

those who are here who are gathering right now with the saints, you're already here. You already

value what is going on here. You already value the public professing of Jesus. You already value

the public and the corporate worship of Jesus. So when we look at, uh, again, gather, uh, the

target audience isn't necessarily you because you came here this morning. Even if you got drugged

here. And if you got drug here, turn around and look at the person who said, Hey, we need to go

to church and say, thank you because it's great that you're here. But for us, even if you're here,

even if you got pushed a little bit out the door, praise God, because this is the best thing you

could do this week because you came to worship the living savior. But for us, the easy grab is

always Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24. And this is, and let us consider how to stir up one another

and love and good works, not neglecting to meet together. It's always the easy one. The borderline,

public shaming of this verse that happens like, Oh, you skipped a gathering. Oh, you're neglecting

to meet together. Sometimes life happens. Sometimes we can't make it, but that neglecting to meet

together, we're never supposed to neglect meeting together, but he says, and then the habit of some,

again, the most passive aggressive thing for us to like read to people when they, we haven't seen

them in a couple of ways. I go, some of you have the habit of missing, like, what are you doing?

Like encourage somebody when you see him talk to them, like, Hey, life could be rough. It's okay

to be like, Hey, what's going on? Don't turn around and drop Hebrews 10, 24 on them.

Just ask what's going on. But we do have to look at God's word. It says, don't neglect,

but I love this, but encourage one another as we all the more as the day drawing near,

what's that day that we're talking about the day that Jesus comes back. So for us,

when we look at this, again, if you're here, you value gathering. If you're a young person,

and again, you got brought by your parents, praise God, you got good parents to bring you to a

gathering. If you're here and you got pushed by your husband or your wife, praise God, you got a

that, that, that, that, that struggle for me has always been like that, that, that, that moment where

you're like, okay, well, what, what do we preach on here? Because I can't go talk to the person

who's neglecting because I, Hey, what's going on, man? Why aren't you coming in? Life rough.

You're afraid of something. There's a spirit inside of you. Just kind of like, it gets like

a little bristly around people who are actually worshiping God. But today I get the opportunity

to talk to people who value gathering because you're here. So what is it that I can really

land on? And I started praying this prayer to God over and over. And I kept reading the book of

Romans. And as I kind of like kept pressing in, I kind of landed in Romans chapter 14 and Romans

chapter 50. Now I'm not going to preach through two chapters of the Bible, but to set the kind

of the stage, if you want to go to Romans chapter 15, let me kind of like set up what Romans chapter

14 was. So in Romans chapter 14, God's word moreover through Paul starts writing and discussing about

the importance of a united church. Now, when I say united church, like again, we could look at this

locationally. I'm going to kind of like go in between both of them. When I talk about a united

church, what do I talk about? I talk about those who profess Jesus Christ as savior, those who have

been baptized. You're the church. Now I'm not going to get into denominational lines. I'm not

going to say this denomination is better than this denomination or this translation is better

than this translation. I'm talking about us as believers, us as that royal priesthood,

us as those who've been redeemed and saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We are

his church. We are a part of his bride. And what are we meant to be? We're meant to be united. We're

meant to walk with each other. We're meant to be with each other and walk in unison. But the reality

is in Romans chapter 14, go figure, Paul illuminates a truth that existed in Paul's day. And go figure,

people didn't always see eye to eye, even back in Paul's day. Shocker. Sometimes the church, people

disagree with people. Sometimes people view things that other people are doing and they say, guess

what? Wrong. So in Romans chapter 14, Paul kind of illuminates like people were judging.

People were actually causing other people to stumble. People were turning in, turning the

kingdom of God into more matters of conscious and preference rather than actual gospel. They're

taking like pet peeves that they had and they're, they're, they're elevating them. So in Romans

chapter 14, like it's, it's, it's tough because you start seeing Paul say like, Hey, you guys are

not united. They're looking down on each other. You're stumbling over people. You're, you're

being important into things that are important. Let's be real here. Churching is hard. You walk

into a place, you're worshiping, you love the Lord, you're passionate about it. And then somebody

might agree or disagree with something that you do for the Lord. That's tough because the reality is

we all have differences. We have different personalities. We have different preferences.

We have different passions that can create kind of some tension. We're all unique. I'm not an

individual who sings, not an individual who gets up and plays a musical instrument. I don't have

that skill. I don't have that ability, but we're all unique. You're unique. God, God literally said

fearfully and wonderfully made greater as works. Like he made you the way he made you like it or

that. Again, everybody, life would be so much easier as everybody thought like you, right?

Everybody was so much easier if everybody responded like you, but the beauty is that's not how Christ

made us. That's not how Christ made the church, but we have different gifts. We have different

talents. The reality is also the thing that makes us different is the sum of your life experiences,

whether they be triumphant or whether they be tragic, they're different. So the way that you

might be different. I respond to like high level stressful situations. Like it's, it's the most

smooth level. I'm great. My wife, not so much. Something goes bump in the night. She's freaking

out. I hear something go bump in the night. I wake up and I'm like analyzing the situation,

like walking around the house. Cause I'm calm. I'm good. But through the differences of our life

experiences, we're different. Not one's better. Not one's less, but we're different. And the

reality is also with all of this, with all of our differences, with all of our uniquenesses,

with all of our, again, trying to be united. The reality is there's also this thing called

sin. There's also an enemy that's trying to destroy into fame and twist every good thing

that the Lord Jesus is trying to do. So let's go back to that truth. Churching is hard. It's

difficult. It's one of those things where in Romans chapter 14, when Paul's kind of like hitting this,

like, Hey, here's all the things that are going on. Like, Hey, we, we, we gotta be united in this.

And I think we all can feel that in a little bit. We can all think that in a little bit. So what do

we do? And as Paul's going in Romans chapter 14, he kind of, again, I don't love the, Hey,

chapter 14 is one subject. Chapter 15 is one subject. Like you've

got to read the Bible and it's like entirety. So don't just stop at chapters. Don't just stop

at the margins. You got to keep reading. But in Romans chapter 14, and then Paul goes into

Romans chapter 15 and he's, he's kind of wrapping up his topic about unity. And then Paul just

breaks out like into a prayer in the middle of this conversation about unity. In my heart, my,

my eyes, like everything has been like just fixated on these verses. So in Romans chapter 15,

starting in verse five, if you've got your Bibles, feel free to join us. If not, it will be on the

Paul's prayer. He says, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony

with one another. And according with Jesus, according with Christ Jesus, that together you

may with one voice glorify the God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one

another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory. I love this. Cause again, Paul, if you're ever

reading Paul and you're like, Hey, why are we here? Paul would literally like you'd be writing

people. And then all of a sudden he's just like bust out. It's called doxology. It's like

worship. Like you just bust out prayer. He just bust out like a worship song in the middle of

him writing. So he's talking to the church. Like don't look down on each other. You're the younger

brother. You're the younger, you're the older brother. Hey, make sure you don't turn the gospel

into something that you don't want. And then he's just like, all of a sudden just praying

one of the best writers ever, because you can just tell he's just like in the spirit in that

moment. But in this moment, while Paul's talking about, Hey, being united as a church, he breaks

out this prayer. And I've been breaking this apart, putting this back together. And I've been

looking at this through the lens of a gathering, again, a gathering. It's a group of people

publicly professing the realness of Jesus Christ. And this is something that I hope everybody who

knows Christ can push into today. Something that I hope that you could leave with it. This is

something for this season that can kind of change your behavior or change your frequency or change

your eyes and just being able to look at different people. But when you look at these three verses,

verses five through seven, I felt that there were three truths that came out of it. So the first

truth was in Romans chapter 15, verse five, it says, may the God of endurance and encouragement

grant you to live in such harmony with one another and according with Christ Jesus. So one of the

things that we got to understand is where unity, where does that come from? Where does harmony come

from? Where does, where does that tight knit church, where does it come from? The second truth

I really looked in as the purpose of unity. When we have unity, what do we turn around and do?

And I love this verse more and more this week, that together you may with one voice glorify the

God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I've been living in verse six for a long time this week,

but then there's verse seven. I love it. And therefore, and again, you start seeing the results

of this unity. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

So the first thing, what do we see is where unity comes from? In verse five, it reads again,

may the God of endurance.

See steadfastness. If you had a different translation. So may the God of endurance and

encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another and according in accord with

Jesus. So for me, I love this verse because so often when we read in the Bible, words like

endurance or encouragement or love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control, like we start reading these attributes and what do, what is our first

response? We just try harder to be those things. So if we're going to read these attributes,

we read something like, Hey, I know I got to be more steadfast. I got to have more endurance. I

got to keep going. I got to push myself. Like, what do we do? We just, we just muster ourselves to try

harder. Oh, the verse is saying, Hey, if we wake up one day and we're a little bit down, we're,

we're, we're, we're a little bit mopey. We're, we're, we're a little bit downtrodden. We,

we read the news and we just feel like nothing good is happening. So why do I keep doing good

in this world? So instead of actually looking at that verse, what do we do? Like, yeah, I gotta,

I've got to be encouraged, so we dig deep and we try to encourage ourselves.

That's not what this verse is saying.

We can't just walk around and have in our churches a mentality

that we're just going to try harder to be more like Christ.

I'm just going to work harder. I'm going to think better.

That's going to bring about a change.

Those of you who are married, you know this.

If you just had that fight with your spouse and you're like,

I'm going to love you more.

It doesn't work.

Your kids just broke that toy that they just wanted,

and you're like, I'm going to have patience.

The Lord gives patience to those who ask for it.

No, that's not what it is.

You can't just avoid situations.

You can't just try harder.

I absolutely love this verse because, again, the truth that we see in this verse

is that God is the giver of steadfastness.

He's the giver of endurance.

He's the giver of encouragement to believers.

It's not something that we can muster on our own power,

and it's not something that we can muster on our own power.

It's not something that we can muster on our own power.

It's not something that we can muster on our own power.

It's not something that we can muster on our own power.

Even if it is like, hey, I mustered it on your own power,

that means that the limit of your endurance,

the limit of your encouragement is only found in you.

Or we go to the one who's unlimited, the one who is infinite,

the one who is infinite in power,

and we rely on him to give us that encouragement.

We give us that endurance because Paul is not telling believers

just to pull themselves together and work towards these qualities,

but he's rather saying like, hey, you need to begin rejoicing in God.

You need to be focused on God.

And focused on the one who gives you everything.

And I think so often we forget this as Christians.

We just try to do it ourselves.

We're going to muscle it up.

We're going to get through.

We're going to grit.

We're going to bear it.

We're going to do these things.

That's not what the verse says.

In Christian understanding in the church,

we need to understand that encouragement and steadfastness

are always gifts of God.

So often we don't go to them.

We don't go to him.

You might not be encouraged right now.

You might be a little tired right now.

But just being like, hey, I'm...

The program's got to be better.

The pastor's got to be better.

The building's got to be better.

Like that doesn't bring encouragement to the church.

The thing that brings encouragement,

the thing that brings endurance is nothing more than Jesus Christ.

But so often, what do we do?

We emphasize, I'm going to do this.

It's not human achievement that we're shooting for here.

As a church, we fully and wholly give ourselves over to him

and we rely on him to be the good and perfect gift giver.

But so often when we look at this, again, we overlook,

the God of endurance and encouragement

grant you to live in such harmony.

We forget that, like grant you.

He's the one who gives you.

He's the one who supplies to you.

So we as Jesus's church, what do we got to do?

We got to stick close to the source.

If you might not be encouraged during a gathering,

you might not be encouraged

with where the direction of church is going.

I'm not saying like the River Davidson.

I'm saying the church of Jesus Christ,

again, making sure that we're getting out in the world

and sharing his love and shining his light

and making disciples.

Like you can't just turn around and say,

I'm going to be encouraged.

I'm going to be encouraged on my own power.

We have to stick close to the source.

We got to stick close to what he's doing.

We got to go to the source.

Lord, I'm feeling downtrodden.

Lord, I'm feeling less than encouraged.

Lord, I don't like the way this is playing out.

So what do you do?

Dear Jesus, give me eyes.

Give me a heart to see.

He's like, please help me with these things.

So first thing we see is, again,

we got to stay to the source.

And if we're continually seeking Christ

for steadfastness and encouragement,

that source, what does it do?

If everybody's seeking that, what does it do?

It produces something.

It produces unity.

Romans chapter five, verse six.

And that together, after we've sought the source,

we've stuck close to the source,

we've gone after Jesus,

that together you may with one voice

glorify the God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I love this because again,

the purpose is the goal of having one mind, one mouth.

Philippians two talks about that.

By unifying our thinking, our speech, our actions,

all that we do that we're just so in love with Jesus

that it's just pouring out on us

that all we want to do is live for him and know him

and continue that.

And we do that process over and over again.

Then what do we do?

We audibly, we audibly glorify him.

We can't stop helping ourselves,

but to talk about his goodness.

We can't stop talking about his glory.

We can't stop talking about his love.

And there's something that unity does

when it brings us to a place

where we're focused on Jesus, man,

that's a momentum thing you can't stop.

But the reality is sometimes we don't always get united

under seeking Jesus.

We get united under other things.

Our time, our tithe, our talents, our ministry.

No, with one voice, what are we doing?

We're glorifying God, the father.

We're glorifying Christ.

Why?

Because what do we start seeing

is when we're seeking him out audibly

in word, in deed, in one voice,

in one ravenous loud thing,

we're turning around and praising

that Jesus Christ is God,

that God is good,

that all things work out for those who love him.

We recognize the fact that God rescued us

when we were still sinners.

What else is there to glorify?

It's not pain, it's not program, it's not buildings.

It's the work of Jesus Christ.

And in one voice, I've been praying this over and over,

in one voice, even looking at what's going on

in the world right now, I pray in one voice.

What is the church doing

and how is the church responding right now?

They're praising Christ as Lord.

I've loved this verse for like the entire week.

And then again, the united church that keeps Jesus

at the source of our endurance and our encouragement.

What do we start seeing?

What do we start doing?

We start talking about it.

We start singing about it.

We start discussing him.

We start praising him.

Don't grumble.

Don't complain.

Don't start speaking ill of somebody

who's sitting like 25 feet behind us.

What do we do?

We glorify what Christ is doing,

that together, that you with one voice,

glorify the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yeah, we have differences.

Churching is hard.

Unity is difficult.

How much better is what Jesus has done for you?

Looking out and seeing some young people

sitting in the audience and praying,

praise God, love it.

Knowing that there's 20-something kids over there,

even if they're being loud, praise God.

Because what God is doing here,

what God is doing around the world,

with one voice, we should be glorifying our Father.

And then what happens when we start doing that?

We stick close to the source.

We're getting our endurance.

We're getting our encouragement from Christ and Christ alone.

We turn around with one voice because we're so encouraged,

because we so want to run after Jesus.

We start glorifying him with everything that we have.

And then what happens?

I love the word therefore in scripture.

Because therefore is always therefore for a reason.

Therefore is always the result.

If you're doing this, this is what you should see.

And in verse 7 in Romans chapter 15, it says,

Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you

for the glory of God.

Now, I love this.

What does this mean?

I looked at it in two ways.

One, people will feel loved and welcomed by your actions

because you're reflecting Christ.

Now, it's one of those hard things.

You're going to love people the way that Jesus loved you.

Man, is that a standard none of us can hold.

You know you're thinking about that person

that you're like, oh, I don't know.

You're like, oh, I got to love them like Jesus.

Yes, it's difficult.

Because man, was he there for you

when you were saying the craziest things?

Man, was he there for you when you were acting a fool?

Man, was he there for you when you were acting far away?

And Jesus still was there.

That's the standard.

And I can look at this and again, people will feel loved.

Again, when people feel loved, what do you start seeing?

You start seeing the church grow.

You start seeing it grow numerically.

You start seeing it grow in Christ.

You start seeing like, again, little ones

who are like in your kid's ministry.

You're like, what in the world are you doing?

One day they become like the pastors.

Like that's what you start seeing.

But I also thought about this in another way

while I was praying about it.

Well, yes, seeing the church grow

and people being welcomed and coming in the doors

and they're feeling like they can connect

with what God is doing.

The one thing that really got to me

is that therefore, welcome one another

as Christ has welcomed you.

We're sticking close to the source.

We're glorifying him in one voice

and we're striving for unity.

Our actions start reflecting the realness of the gospel.

What is the most important thing about a gathering?

Should be that pep talk.

Should be that beginning of the week thing

that you talk about, that you start talking about

and you stir one another on for faith and good works,

that you talk about how real is the gospel for you.

Because if people are showing up to this location,

this church, and they're feeling welcomed

in the same way that Christ welcomed them,

we can get into a whole thing about welcoming,

guest services, and I don't think that's what this is saying.

What I think this is saying is that your actions

begin to reflect the realness of the gospel.

Your actions begin to reflect the realness of Jesus.

Your actions begin to reflect the realness

of the gospel.

The living hope that we have

because Jesus has finished work on the cross.

Because if somebody shows up,

I've never seen somebody turn around and be like,

I'm not gonna connect into a church,

they loved me too much.

Doesn't happen.

Man, I've never seen somebody leave a church

because they walk that sin out with me,

they walk that difficult situation out with me

and my family.

I've never heard somebody leave because of that.

I've never heard somebody turn around

and look at Christianity and be like,

you know what, I don't like them

because they're reflecting Jesus.

For us, we get the opportunity

when we keep our faith,

when we keep close to the source,

when we glorify him with one voice,

we get to reflect the realness of Jesus.

So why do we focus on gatherings here at the River Church?

Why do we wanna focus and why do we wanna make sure

that people understand what they're doing

when they show up here?

Because on this side of eternity,

we are Jesus's plan A on how people will come to know

that Jesus Christ is real.

You could be the person who gives somebody a handshake

in a gathering and says, hey, I'm blessed to see you

and that could be the thing that changes you.

It changes everything for them

because they got to encounter the realness

and the love of Jesus.

You could turn around and be that person

who's willing to work in the pre-K ministry.

And again, you're giving parents the opportunity

to live in a spot where they can continue to grow in Jesus

so one day they get to teach their little one who Jesus is.

Why do we have people who show up

and they work with tech and sound?

Why do we have preachers who turn around

and they study endless hours

to make sure that we can preach well?

There's nothing to do with the program.

It has everything to do with everything that happens

in a gathering is to reflect the realness

of Jesus Christ in church.

I'm challenging you, do you?

Because you're a part of this too.

Because we are his plan A.

Because in Matthew chapter 28 verse 18,

it says Jesus came to them and said.

He doesn't say came to staff, came to the pastors,

came to them, he came to the followers

of who was following Jesus and he says,

with all authority in heaven and on earth.

And given to me, go therefore and make disciples

of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And I love this.

And behold, I am with you always to the end, the age.

Church, we can't mess this up.

Jesus won't allow it.

Hey, all authority is mine.

And God has put you in the exact seat

that God put you this morning.

It is not an accident that you're here.

You didn't psych God out this morning.

You didn't turn around and throw off his sovereignty.

You're here for a reason.

So if you're here and you don't know the Lord Jesus,

you're hearing the gospel is not true

and you're hearing about, man,

I actually can be encouraged.

I actually can have endurance.

Because man, it's really tough right now.

Because the reality is continually to work this world out

on this side of eternity on your own strength,

it's going to get exhausting really quick.

But if you don't know the Lord,

if you don't know the realness of the gospel,

if you don't know why people are putting their hands up in praise,

if you don't know why people are putting their hands up in praise,

if you don't know why kids are coming out with a memory verse,

if you don't know why there's a grown man

who's willing to get a Gatorade bucket dumped on his head,

if kids know their memory verse by the end of the month,

if you don't know the realness of who Christ is,

you can know him right now.

It's as simple as confessing that you have sinned.

It's confessing that you've walked away.

It's confessing that you've rebelled.

And it's as simple as saying, forgive me.

And professing that Jesus is Lord

and professing that his work on the cross

was proficient enough to bring us back to him.

And if you don't know him,

it'd be my joy to be able to help you be introduced to him.

You can meet him right now in your seats.

But for those of you who are, I'm a believer.

You know what? I know him.

Maybe the reality is you're just a little tired.

You're a little discouraged.

Because while churching is hard, life is equally as hard.

Jesus says, I will yoke with you.

I will walk with you.

I will lift the heavy burden with you.

But living for the Lord is hard

because it's not meant to be done on our own endurance.

It's not meant to be done by our own abilities,

our own tenacities, our own moralities,

our own preferences.

It's not done by us.

Churching is hard if you're doing it on your own merit,

morality, I had to add this one,

or your own moxie.

I needed three M's on that one.

But with it, if you're tired, if you're discouraged,

if you're just waiting on God to do something amazing in your life

and you haven't seen it,

let me go back to Hebrews chapter 10.

It says, let us consider how to stir up one another

for love and good works.

Because I'm leaving here today and you stirred me up.

I'm blessed to be able to see what I saw today.

I'm blessed to be able to know what I saw on Wednesday.

I'm blessed to be able to know that we had close to 50-some-odd

students and children here learning about Jesus Christ.

I'm blessed to see a row of young people sitting up there.

I'm blessed to see that we have so many young parents in the room.

I'm blessed to see that we had little children going to the nursery.

I'm blessed to see Mark have like 15 boys last I checked

and they're running around and he was trying to make sure

he was taken care of.

I'm blessed to see that people who help the foundation

of this church continue.

I'm blessed because the realness of the gospel is here.

So maybe we just need to stir each other up a little bit

and remind each other exactly how good

Jesus has been.

Dear Heavenly Father, we love you.

Lord, thank you for who you are.

Lord, we go back to this truth over and over again.

That, Lord, when we see you, Lord, you draw us closer to you.

Lord, when we know you, you reflect the deepest of thoughts

and the deepest of intentions, Lord,

and you bring it to light, Lord,

but you're so forgiving for those moments

when we make things about ourselves and our merits,

our own preferences, Lord.

Lord, thank you so much that you designed the church

to have you at the center, you ahead,

making sure that you're fighting out all the battles,

Lord, as you, as the foundation, Lord,

because we know as a foundation you will never break.

But Lord, thank you so much that you called us all out

to know you.

But Lord, today, as we focused on gathering, Lord,

I pray that if there's anybody here who's struggling

with endurance, Lord, they're not seeing that encouragement

of what you're doing, Lord.

I pray that they seek you now in worship, Lord,

and they just see the glory that you have for the world, Lord.

Thank you so much for your majesty.

Thank you so much for your beauty.

But Lord, for us here at the river,

our church, us as a church here in the River Davidson, Lord,

stir us up to want to make sure that we love each other well,

we are united with each other in the cause

that you have set before us, to go, therefore,

and tell people about your goodness and your realness.

Jesus, thank you so much for who you are.

Thank you so much for your love, Lord.

But allow us all to join you in worshiping just your greatness.

Lord, thank you so much for the joy of heaven

that is in your Son, Lord.

And I pray that we're all just able to draw close to him

right now.

thank you. We love you. We pray this all in your beautiful, powerful name.

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