Holy Spirit V: Keep It Together | Pastor Nicole Sweetman

Join us in this enlightening message as we delve into the profound message of unity and reconciliation within the Body of Christ. As we prepare for the upcoming Holy Spirit Conference, we explore the concept of being the living temple of God, filled with His Spirit and built on the foundation of unity in Christ.

Drawing from passages in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians, our speaker unpacks the significance of coming together as a spiritual family, transcending individualism, and embracing our shared identity in Christ. Discover how Jesus, as the chief cornerstone, holds us together, and learn practical ways to cultivate peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation within our spiritual family.

Through personal anecdotes and biblical insights, we are reminded that being part of God’s household is not always easy—it can be messy, but it is essential for experiencing the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This episode challenges us to move beyond surface-level community, break down walls of division, and strive for the unity that is dear to Christ's heart.

Whether you are new to faith or a long-standing member of your church community, this conversation offers valuable perspectives on building deeper, meaningful connections in your spiritual journey. Tune in for a transformative discussion on keeping God’s family strong, welcoming, and united. 

Perfect for those seeking encouragement, growth, and a renewed dedication to the unity of the body of Christ.

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Transcript

 So, you know, if you've been here for a minute, you've heard me say something as I get up here to share.

I say, hey, welcome to the best living room in Los Angeles.

And that is a bit of a sentiment that the church has grabbed a hold of over the last few years, the sentiment of welcome home.

Yeah, have you heard that phrasing?

And we talk about how we're family and we're better together and all that good stuff.

And I know that can feel a bit kitschy.

 Maybe a bit choogy, I don't know, do we still say that word?

Now I have your attention.

Great, praise God.

But at the basis of that sentiment is foundational truth.

 And Jake began to talk to us about that last Sunday.

He read out of 1 Corinthians 3.16.

He said, Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in your midst?

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person.

For God's temple is sacred and you...

 Together are that temple.

You together are that temple.

See, as we approach Holy Spirit Conference, I want to come around this idea of how we, the temple, are going to keep it together.

We got to learn how to keep it together.

And so I'm coming to you really as a mom.

I'm coming to you as a mother of this house who wants to speak and gather the babes together and be like, hey guys, we got to know how to keep this thing together.

 And so this message is a bit of a comma moment to what Jake left on last Sunday when he was talking about how God is building a spirit-built house.

And that you and I together are the New Testament temple where the Holy Spirit fills us, where his presence dwells here on earth, that we are God's holy habitation.

 See, I tend to find that we look at ourselves as like, I am a vessel.

I am a vessel for God's spirit.

And yes, that is true.

You are a vessel.

But you can't lose sight of the fact that we are also a temple when we come together as the body of Christ.

Amen?

 And so we're going to have a family conversation.

Are you ready?

Awesome.

We're going to jump into the book of Ephesians here this morning.

If you want to open up your Bible, we're going to jump into chapter 2.

And Paul is writing this letter in Ephesus.

It's to God's holy people in Ephesus.

 So this letter is not to just a single church, but rather it would have been a letter that is circulated throughout the vast metropolitan center intended for readers that would span a wide radius that held dozens of churches.

 And these churches would have been filled with Gentile converts.

And so unity is a major focus.

And Paul starts his letter in Ephesus kind of just laying the foundational common ground that they all stand on, their identity in Christ, their common faith in Christ, that we were once dead, right?

We were once...

 controlled by the evil influences of the world, of our flesh, of demonic powers.

But now, when you put your faith in Christ by grace, through faith you are saved.

It is a gift.

We are made alive.

We become a new creation, raised up, seated with him in the heavenly places.

And so, as Paul is laying this foundation of commonality we all share, he wants you to know that your walk, your Christianity, is not a solo act.

 but we are called to be united in Christ.

That we are called to be united, therefore, together.

So we're going to read what that togetherness looks like.

Here he's kind of picking it up.

He's talking to the Gentiles, and he's reminding them, hey, remember back in the day before Christ, you were without hope.

You were not partaking in the promises and in the covenant.

But in verse 13, he says this, but now...

 In Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

You've been brought near for he himself is our peace who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law of

 With its commands and regulations, his purpose, catch this, was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace.

And in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross.

 by which you put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away, peace to you who are near.

For through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also...

 This is where it gets cozy.

Members of the household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone.

In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

 And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.

What is Paul painting for us?

He is showing us a picture that when we come into union with Christ.

 As the local body, we are a family.

He is giving us a picture of what it looks like to be family unto one another.

And so we can't talk about how we keep it together as a family until we first acknowledge who holds the family together.

 And we know that Jesus holds the family together.

It tells us that he is the chief cornerstone.

And that's important because in the building, that was the most significant part of the foundation that would bear much of the weight.

Hello, his burdens are light.

And the cornerstone is what tied the walls firmly together.

 So yes, you and I are called the living stones, but we're not just scattered across some pebbled beach, but rather we are being joined together, we are being built together.

And I love that verbiage that he uses, verbiage, that verbiage.

I might just start singing up here.

We're being built together, being, which means this, the local body, is always under construction.

 We're always under construction.

It's constantly being added unto.

When I went to Lima, Peru earlier this year, I learned that the international sign there for house is not this, but it's this.

It's this.

It's a very densely populated city and they literally have just like cinder block square homes stacked on top of each other.

And so the top roof looks like this.

There's no roof.

 because they just know eventually they're going to need to add another layer.

That's the kind of expectation we need to live with, Cathedral, that we are an expanding family, that God is building us together, that we're always making room for the new person, the new son and daughter walking in, that we don't get too comfortable in our place.

 Our title, our seat, our leader, our position, because we're called to move around, to make room and be an expanding building.

How else does Jesus hold the family together?

Well, it tells us in Colossians 1.17 that in him all things hold together.

Verse 18, he is the head of the body of the church.

He is the beginning and the firstborn.

 born he's the firstborn of the family and that's really exciting for us because guess what that automatically makes us siblings you and I are siblings to one another

 In 1984, when I was born to Robert and Suzanne Tronley in Lawrenceville, Georgia, they had a firstborn named Michelle, and then I came along.

And as I was born, there was an irrevocable condition that I was not just born as a daughter, but I was also born as a sister.

 There's no choice in the matter.

My sister didn't have a choice, I didn't have a choice.

When my little sister came along, I got bumped from the youngest child spot, prized position for just a few years, not even old enough to understand the glory of that moment.

 We don't have a choice.

When you and I go from being dead to made alive in Christ, what Jesus calls being born again, guess what, buddies?

We are born as siblings in the kingdom of God.

And so we have to fight against our tendencies to carry in a solo child mindset in the kingdom of God.

I'm coming for you only, children.

Watch out.

 It's all in love.

Hey, but seriously, but seriously, there was only one only child in God's family.

And that was Jesus.

And he laid that position down so that you and I could share in his sonship.

So we need to value and understand what Christ has fully given us for one another to share.

Because the truth is unity is really dear to Christ's heart.

 He shares in John 17, 20 when he's praying to God in his final days before he's arrested and persecuted.

He says, my prayer is not for them alone, speaking of the disciples, but I pray also for those who will believe in me, building the house, for their message that all of them may be one.

This is his desire as he went to the cross that we all may be one.

Father, just as you were in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.

 Unity is so dear to him.

So what does the siblingship of the kingdom look like?

We just read it in Ephesians 2.14.

He is our peace.

He made the two groups one, destroying the barrier.

Verse 15, he says, his purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two.

 One new humanity out of the two.

So as siblings, we are one new humanity that Christ has established a new covenant by his flesh.

He abolished the law that once divided Jews and Gentiles and brought them together.

 So too for us, this applies that through his death, he has reconciled us to the Father, which means he has reconciled us to one another.

He killed enmity between us and God, and guess what?

He killed enmity between each other.

See, in Christ, together, we are forming a new society cathedral.

So alienation, the only child mindset, must yield to the unity that we have received.

 That we are being built together.

I love that Paul uses this language that we are members of the household.

Like he doesn't just stop at citizen.

Like citizen, I can kind of be like, yeah, I got the passport, check.

I don't need to know all of you.

 I can just hide it in the safe and pull it out when I need to use the benefits of it.

That's how some of us use our membership.

Um, we are members of the household members for all of our introverts and our lone Rangers out there.

This really ignites a sense of intimacy, right?

It's like we're all up in each other's business.

 all up in each other's grill.

It's like having kids when they're little and they have no spatial awareness, and they're just always on your feet, stepping on your white shoes, and you're really trying not to get mad at them.

Because that's what happens when we do life together, when we're members of the same household.

Here's the tricky thing.

Togetherness, it's messy.

Can we talk about it?

 Being a family is messy.

Being a sibling, hello, it's messy.

And you are kidding yourself if you think I'm going to come to church, I'm going to make friends, and we're just going to be hunky-dory, kumbaya, always getting along.

No, we are a family, which means mess is going to happen.

So let me encourage you, if you've been encountering some sibling squabbles,

 Take that as an encouragement that you're not part of a dysfunctional family, but rather you're doing your role correctly as a sibling.

You're doing it close.

You're doing it together.

 My daughter had Captain Carl come do a tide pool little demonstration in kindergarten, and he pulled out of his cooler, he was a really great guy, Christian man, he's like, God made all the creation, it's all good.

So he pulls out, you know, we kind of start small with like a hermit crab, we're like, okay, buddy.

So then he pulls out a bunch of mussels, and they're all just, I think they were mussels or oysters, I clearly wasn't paying attention.

 But, you know, they're all joined together.

And you know how they were being held together?

These tiny, almost looked like silk strings.

And there was just hundreds of them.

And it was just gluing them together.

It wasn't orderly.

Like, it was just a big ball almost of muscle stuck together.

That is the picture of you and I when we choose to be part of God's household.

But some of us here today, we're more of a neighbor.

 We're more of the neighbor.

Can I encourage you that if you haven't experienced your toes being stepped on, if you haven't had a sibling squabble, tuffle, or anything like that yet, it could be an indicator that you have yet to make God's household your home.

You're like Wilson in Tim the Toolman Taylor, Home Improvement.

Do you guys remember him?

 on the side of the on the one side of the fence and we only ever saw this much of him with his bucket hat until i think the very last episode ever didn't they show his face or something no did they maybe well tim and wilson they shared a lot of great conversations together they had a lot of heart to hearts

 But the problem is, is that Wilson never got to experience the full benefit of being part of the Taylor family.

He never sat at their table.

He never played with their children.

And so I just want to encourage you, stop being a nosy neighbor.

Come jump in.

Come be part of the household of God.

Go to Essentials.

If you've gone to Essentials, take your next step.

Join a team.

Get up next to...

 A member, a brother and sister in Christ, come out from around your fence and come to conference not as a neighbor, but come as a member of the household and watch as your heart expands and deepens to experience more of what God has.

 this house because can I tell you Holy Spirit conference isn't just being put on for a bunch of outsiders I love that we have our extended family from around the region coming but don't get mistaken this conference is for you Cathedral so I need you to lead the way I need you to be a sibling and a member and lead the way

 see we hear together and we don't always have the right picture like you hear family togetherness and you think of your family reunion where you see that distant cousin every three years and the great aunties put off the feud for just that one afternoon and they go back to hating each other afterwards you know what i'm talking about you hear family togetherness and you think of your friends who are rich in the 90s and they all had tube tvs in each bedroom of the house

 So they're all sitting under the same roof, but one person's watching 90210, the other person is watching Unsolved Mysteries, the other person is watching 911.

That's how we think of togetherness.

We think of togetherness and we see the family at Cheesecake Factory all sitting around the table, but they're all like this in their devices.

 So Paul here in Ephesians is writing to the Jews and the Gentiles who are under the same roof, so to speak.

And he's like, I need you to hang up and hang out and step into this one new humanity that Christ has made you.

So the first way we're going to keep it together is don't build a fence.

 Don't build fences.

In Ephesians 2, he said that Christ destroyed the barrier and the dividing wall of hostility.

See, in the new, in the temple, the Israelites' temple, there was actually a dividing wall.

And it would divide the court of the Gentiles from the court of the Israelites, and it kept them out from ever coming close to the sanctuary where the presence of God dwelled.

And in that wall, there were 13 stones

 two of them have been pulled and this is what was the inscription written on these stones on this dividing wall it would say no foreigner is to enter within the forecourt in the balustrade around the sanctuary whoever is caught will himself be blamed for his own death

 Talk about hostility.

Talk about a wall of division.

In fact, in Acts 21, you can read this story where Paul is falsely accused for bringing a Gentile beyond that wall.

And as a result, the Israelites get so offended, they go on a manhunt that leads to his four-year imprisonment in Rome, which is the reason why he's writing this letter in captivity.

 So as he writes, Jesus Christ has dealt with the wall of hostility.

He took it down.

He very well knows the power of division in the new humanity that Christ has made.

And he's saying it's time to take it down and be one.

 I can't help but to see this picture of the temple with this dividing wall, a picture of how you and I walk in here as a sibling when we have walls up in our hearts towards one another.

You know that they're there when that person brings up that touchy topic and you're like, put them up.

You know that they're there when you see that person in the corner and you're like, nope, nope, no thank you.

You know they're there.

 And it's on us to understand that whatever the world, whatever our own flesh, whatever the devil wants to use to divide and to fragment us, it holds no power.

It should have no place in God's household.

Why?

 Because in Christ, we're one new humanity.

We're a new heart filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Come on, Jake talked about it last Sunday.

Shaking is going to happen.

It's going to get messy.

You're going to get triggered.

And what do we do when it happens?

We stand on the unshakable truth that is his word of God.

And we say, I will not give up my spot as a sibling.

Amen.

 We stick together when we don't build fences.

Rather, we must be peacemakers.

Now, I know that word has a lot of context around it, but let's talk about it from the Christian point of view.

Paul says in Ephesians 4, 3, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.

 Make every effort.

Well, I thought family is where I just let my hair down.

I take off my shoes.

I get real comfortable.

You just have to embrace me.

Whatever I'm feeling, whatever I walked in with, whatever trouble I dealt with, you just got to embrace me.

This is who I am.

It's like a sweat pants mentality.

 Sweat pant mentality is an only child mindset here for my own pleasure My own comfort.

No.

No, we're gonna take off the sweatpants put on our big girl big boy sibling pants Because making every effort will require something from us to be God's holy habitation We have to make the effort.

We have to be a peacemaker

 You have to hold your peace.

Who is your peace?

Well, he told us in Ephesians, Jesus is our peace.

That bond of peace, that's Christ.

When we're bonded to him, we are then bonded to one another.

And peace must be the effort we strive for.

We have to strive for peace.

It doesn't just come.

It's not just a state of neutrality.

Is that a word?

Thank you.

 Can I remind you that you're either at odds, you're at rivalry, you're in a state of fighting, or you're striving for peace.

There's no gray zone.

I'm either pursuing peace in the family of God, or I'm at odds with the family of God.

It's kind of like when you talk to a couple that's been married for a couple years, and you're like, so are you guys trying for a baby yet?

 They kind of like, I mean, you know, we're not like actively trying, but we're not preventing it.

And you're like, it doesn't work that way.

There's either a goalie or there's not.

And if you take the goalie out, guess what?

Congratulations, you are now trying to have a baby.

That's how striving for peace in the kingdom of God is.

You're either pursuing peace or you're not.

 God bless all of you out there pursuing peace.

I pray for you every day.

I do.

I do.

You're on my prayer sheet.

Hebrews 12, 12 gives us this picture.

This is of us running our race.

It says, therefore, lift your droopy hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

 strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without it, no one will see the Lord.

Listen, we are all going to have our turn as being the lame sibling in the family.

 We will all go through a season where we feel beaten up, we feel weary, we feel droopy, and we have to be the brothers and sisters who come around them, and we are sowing peace.

We are pursuing peace so that those who come in fragile and vulnerable don't get dislodged from the family.

James 3.18 says that if we sow peace, we reap a harvest of righteousness.

 Come on, what are you sowing here today?

Are you striving for peace?

Are you sowing discord or unity?

Are you sowing words of encouragement or judgment?

Are you sowing pride or humility?

What are you striving for?

Does it add to that picture of being the sacred temple, set apart, holy-hearted, devoted to God?

If we are his holy habitation here on earth, then let me ask you,

 What type of habitat are you carrying into the family?

Is it a petri dish?

Remember in science class where you take the Q-tip and you rub it on the bottom of your shoe and under the table where the gum is to see what grows?

What's growing in your heart?

Are you striving for peace?

What kind of habitat?

 Are you at peace or are you building a fence?

We protect the unity of this family cathedral.

Listen up, sons and daughters of the Lord.

You pursue peace when we choose to forgive quickly and come to the table of reconciliation.

 Let's talk about these fundamentals because forgiveness and reconciliation are like the ABCs of our Christianity.

And I feel like sometimes we're out there and we're so busy and focused on working out the long division algebra equation of our Christianity that we have lost sight of the fundamentals.

 Listen, I have our son Winston just graduated from elementary school.

He's going into sixth grade.

Oh my gosh, you think turning 40 makes you feel old?

Wait till they're graduating into middle school.

And so, oh my goodness, so he's, what I've learned, his math is already beyond me, but what I've learned is that if he doesn't know his multiplication table by heart, he's not going to know, he's going to really struggle with like long division and the more complicated stuff.

We can't skip out on the fundamentals.

 Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, he says, I could talk about tongues of angels.

Come on, we could have all the prophetic powers, know all the mysteries and knowledge of all.

I could have all the faith that literally moves mountains.

But what does he say?

If I don't have love...

 then i have nothing if i don't have love i have nothing god gave me this picture last sunday and it was of an orchard and frost had fallen on the fruit and when frost hits the fruit it makes it a little funky it spoils it and that's a picture of what happens when the house of god loses their love for one another

 Come on forgiveness and reconciliation.

They are tools that we need to sharpen.

So allow me to sharpen them for you this morning.

Siblings of Christ.

We forgive the forgiveness of our sins is what brought down that wall of history of the hostility between us and God and one another.

Forgiveness is what's going to keep us together.

Can we talk about it?

Cause I feel like sometimes we're like, I know, I know I need to forgive.

 But we're kind of like dragging our feet.

I know, I know, I know, I know.

I know, I know, I know.

I need to forgive.

And when we drag our feet in it, guess what?

That happens.

The devil comes up.

He grabs a hold of that foot.

It's called a foothold.

And he will... Out of the family.

Here we go.

Listen, when you choose to forgive, it's like you on the court dribbling past the devil, breaking his ankles.

Come on.

Come on.

 That one was for Winston.

To make... Can somebody open this for me?

God bless you.

Thank you.

To make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit, we can't become fatigued in forgiving.

That's one for you married couples.

 Guess what?

You might be married, but you're still a brother and sister in Christ in here, which means the same principles apply.

We can't become fatigued in our forgiving.

And let's not lose sight that we are brought together by the Holy Spirit.

So guess what?

Forgiveness is a work of the Holy Spirit.

And that's good news because we're never going to feel like it.

In Matthew 18, 21, God bless Peter for asking this question.

 Jesus, he asks, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother and sister who sins against me?

Seven times?

And we know Jesus' answer.

I tell you, not seven, but 77.

In other words, unlimited.

When you and I are members of this household, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called, listen to me,

 called to have unlimited forgiveness for each other.

Which means we have to take Jake's word and say that we are not going to be a well that runs dry.

When our well runs dry, when the oil runs out, guess what runs out with it?

Our ability to release forgiveness.

 See, Jesus goes on to show how important this message of forgiveness is within his house when he tells us the parable of the unmerciful servant.

There is this unmerciful, see there's this servant and he owns, it says 10,000 bags of gold to the master.

Now that word 10,000 is a term that means an unimaginable amount of debt, an unimaginable amount of debt.

 And he's pleading with the master.

Oh, please be patient.

I'll pay it back.

And the master says that he takes pity.

He cancels the debt.

He lets him go.

And then the servant goes and does the wildest of things.

He picks a fight.

He goes out.

He finds another peer, a fellow servant that owes just a hundred silver coins to him.

And he strangles him.

He's like, you need to pay me back.

 And he's like, please, be patient, I'll pay you back.

Well, no, the servant throws him in jail.

And when the master finds out about the unmerciful servant, he calls him wicked.

And he throws him in jail to be tortured.

And in Matthew 18, 35, it says, this is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother and sister from your heart.

 come on as members of the body as brothers and sisters of christ we need to have a forgiveness that is sincere that is genuine that is a work of the spirit in our own lives the master forgiving the unimaginable amount of debt is that picture in ephesians 2 4 out of his great love and mercy for us he made us alive when we were still dead in our transgressions

 We become forgiveness fatigued when we lose sight of our first love.

When we lose sight, we look to build walls of offense.

We go picking fights like the servant did.

Some of you are picking fights, and you need to stop it.

Stop it right now.

Because that guy could have just quietly, in his own heart, forgiven the hundred silver coins.

He could have forgiven that debt.

 There will be times as a mature sibling in God's house that we need to quietly just let things go.

Not every offense requires a three hour coffee to talk about it.

Like you can just choose to let it go versus holding onto it and letting it to become a root of bitterness in your heart.

See, he demands a hundred silver coins when he just got forgiven an unimaginable amount.

He was picking fights over small potatoes.

 Stop picking fights over small potatoes.

Don't lose sight of the miracle of your own salvation.

I tend to find, especially in marriage, if I'm picking fights over small potatoes, he didn't make the bed.

They didn't invite me to the shower.

I didn't get asked to be on the worship team for conference.

 Am I stepping on toes?

Welcome to the family.

That generally means it's a me issue and I need more oil.

If my gears are getting grind, I need more oil.

I think sometimes we fail to really realize how offensive our unforgiveness in the family is towards God.

 He calls the servant wicked.

Listen, forgiveness is the constant breaking down of walls, the clearing of the temple to keep us together.

And last, I'm going to have the band come.

Siblings of Christ, we reconcile.

 We reconcile.

We come to the table of reconciliation.

Can I just tell you, a few, a couple months ago, I had a friend come and sit down with me and she said, hey, I just need a few minutes of your time.

I was like, okay, sure.

She looks at me and she goes, I need to repent.

I was like, oh, not what I was expecting?

Great.

 And she just began to share with me how she had been harboring just an ill will, just hard feelings towards me.

And she repented and she was humble.

And I was like, whoa, thank you, Lord, for this moment.

Thank you for her willingness to put the unity of our relationship and of this house before her own offenses.

 And I went the next step, and I said, hey, can we actually, can we go out to lunch?

I would love to hear more about this.

I would love to know my part, what I played in this role to get you here.

And after that moment, and we got to really talk about it, and I was able to say I'm sorry.

She was able to say I'm sorry.

We got to understand one another's point of view.

It was like circulation back in the body.

 It was like all that limb had maybe gone numb and I hadn't realized it.

And now there was circulation back in the body and it's been warm and now we're bonded even closer together to strive for peace.

It looks like taking that next step of reconciliation.

And I understand that there will be moments

 where reconciliation is impossible for us.

I've been there, I know that feeling.

But if you're sitting here, you're a member of this household, come on, seize the opportunity to go to the table of reconciliation with each other.

It's just the restoring of a relationship.

It's closing the cracks in the wall that have been formed before the enemy gets in there with his crowbar and starts breaking down and breaking in.

You know that picture of the lame sibling?

 Remember that one in Hebrews we read?

Remember, it tells us to clear a level path.

Some of us, we need to take accountability, and you might have had the private moment of forgiving here, but you've left some comments out there that other siblings can trip over.

You've maybe shaded someone's point of view of someone.

You might have casted or dishonored someone, and you need to go back and clean up your mess as a sibling.

 Because often reconciliation, it feels like it's a nice to have, but not a must have.

Like I said, I'm the middle of three girls, so I was always sharing a bedroom growing up.

And at one point I was sharing it with my little sister, and I was frustrated and fed up.

Stop touching my stuff, you know?

So I did what every good sibling would do, and I got a tape, and I drew a line down the middle of the room.

 And I threatened her like the stones in the wall that divided the temple threatened the Gentiles.

Don't step a toe over that line.

Well, time goes by, she's sitting there in her bed.

See, the issue is that the door was on my side of the room.

My mom comes in, my sister's crying.

She really needed to go to the bathroom.

 You know, some of us, did someone just call me a Jezebel?

Gigi!

I have been set free in the name of Jesus.

I love Gigi.

Gigi and Andrew are amazing.

We love you.

 Talk about siblings.

You guys have been so faithful to Jake and I. And we are so grateful for the way that you stand beside us for over a decade next to us.

You've seen me have my babies and you've just been so consistent, so faithful.

You've been that sibling that to just see you and Andrew in the room, it brings us peace.

And we just honor and thank you.

Thank you so much.

We love you.

 Let's not be little Nicoles that just cut people out of our lives because it's more convenient in the moment.

We can't lose sight that we keep it together because we are called to do partnership of ministry together.

That's where the Holy Spirit moves is in partnership.

We see this in 1 Corinthians 2 where...

 paul it says that there was a door opened for me to go minister but my spirit was not at rest because i didn't find my brother titus there his partner in crime was mia so he went to macedonia instead see paul understood it wasn't about my solo ministry it was about partnership that god's

 plan is togetherness so church we have to keep it together stop cutting people out don't justify one less partnership in this house because you refuse to reconcile because you refuse to forgive eventually God will stop working through a heart that refuses to reconcile

 And many times it'll be like me where I had no idea I had offended someone.

So if you are the one on the side of offense, it is your responsibility as a sibling to take a seat at the table with love and the Spirit filling you so that you can take that moment and bring that wall back together.

Let me show you just how important reconciliation is in the house of God.

Jesus says this in Matthew 5, 23.

 And we're ending.

It says, therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother or sister has something against you.

 leave your gift there in front of the altar first go and be reconciled then come and offer before you come and worship at holy spirit conference before you come and lay your life down to be a vessel to be a minister of the lord at holy spirit conference church first go and be reconciled god puts reconciliation at the top of his priority list and our responsibilities as siblings

 We're about to go to a huge altar moment in just a couple weeks' time.

I'm asking you, brothers and sisters, who do you need to be reconciled with so that you can come freely and openly?

Why don't we stand here?

 Jake last Sunday gave us the charge that we're not coming to conference as vessels that are empty to be filled, but we're coming filled.

So let me ask you here right now, what are you full of?

Is it love?

Is it peace?

Is it joy?

Is it repentance?

What are you full of?

What are you overflowing?

And are you coming together?

Is your heart divided?

Or is it open?

Is it sacred?

 As we close this service, I understand that there are a lot of prickles maybe throughout this message.

None of this work can be done without the Holy Spirit partnership with him.

It's by him.

And so I want to give us an opportunity as we close here today for a fresh filling.

I want to have every person walking out of here.

 with fresh oil to do the work of repentance, with fresh oil to do the work of forgiveness.

So if you want a fresh infilling, why don't you just raise your hands unto the Lord here this morning.

Thank you, God.

Holy Spirit, I thank you right now that you are in this room, that you know the condition of every heart.

You know the thoughts.

You know our words.

 Holy Spirit come and just begin to minister right now.

Come, come, come Holy Spirit.

Thank you Lord.