That They May All Be One

Message Transcription

Karl: It is good to be here. Amen. What a beautiful morning. What a wonderful morning. Thank you for being with us. I'm excited to get to visit some with my brother, Leonard Bishop. Leonard Chatham here, Full Armor Ministries. He and I, as we have said many times, are kind of like brothers from another mother. Amazing commonalities and opportunities where we have just seen God's work in our lives and has brought us together. And, you know, Leonard, you said the first, you said this first, but I'm going to steal it. You pointed us to Proverbs 1717, which says, What a friend.

Leonard: Love it that all times. But a brother is born in adversity.

Karl: Absolutely. And man, you have been through adversity. We have been through adversity together. Yes. Leonard and I both have lost our moms in the last month.

Leonard: Yes. I think it was almost two weeks apart.

Karl: Yep. I'm almost to the day. And yet God has brought us in, our families and our churches together and done some pretty amazing things. And so we wanted to share a little bit about what's happening right now. And given the concert tonight, in fact, just a second, Leonard is going to tell us about some of the things we can expect to hear tonight as we gather in this place and get to worship and prays together. But then we also want to talk some about the heart of why we're doing that in the first place. But before we get down that road too far, Leonard, let me ask you what what's going to happen at the concert tonight? What can we expect? What's in store for us?

Leonard: Well, you you gave me a loaded question. I think that when you start talking about expectation, you you talk about how things can be brought together in a way to make something happen. And I'm just so excited about tonight and about this morning that I get to come and share with my other family. Yes. And. When you talk about expectation, I'm expecting God to do miracles. That's the first thing. I was walking down the the corridors of E.R. and I was praying for my mother. And and I heard a voice speak to me and say. Every day holds the possibility of a miracle. Because God is in it. My mother recovered from that first bout through the power of God. She got well enough to come out of the E.R. and medical ICU, and then she came out of that and we placed in a facility for rehab. And then she she went on to be with the Lord. But what I want to say about tonight is, is that those sacrifices that were made by our parent. I believe that God is going to use that to give us the extra strength that we need in order to help facilitate a need for the whole city of Lubbock. I know you have a hard work. You all unleashed passion, and I memorized that from Gary and I. We're doing some stuff and and then we say where we are, we live and we change lives in the places that we live, one person at a time. And, you know, I'm so excited about bringing these things together in order to make things happen for tonight. We got special guests that's coming in. These these people that's in here for me, they owe me favors.

Karl: It's pay up time.

Leonard: It's payoff time. And I called every last one of them. I said, okay, you owe me. Yeah. And they said, Well, just give me the date and time. They move stuff around just to get here.

Karl: So just to be here tonight.

Leonard: To be here tonight? Absolutely. So, City Broadway, Don't miss it. Whatever you do, if you thought this morning was something you come back this evening, you're going to get a whole menu of stuff. And I'm so happy to have Brother Gary and his group that is going to be a part of it as well. City worship. Yeah, man.

Karl: We're excited. Yes, absolutely. Well, you know, your mom placed in you these seeds of faith, my mom and me, these seeds of faith. And even though we grew up in different cities and different places, God's brought us together. And now we're doing our best to live out those seeds of faith that were planted in us. And so thinking about this concert and we've alluded to it, in fact, Sharon just read for a moment ago the theme kind of the heart of this work we're doing together at a John 17. And so I want to take just a few minutes to to visit back and forth about what are some of the themes out of that beautiful prayer that Jesus prays and behalf on behalf of his disciples, both those immediately with Him and us today, those who would come following in their line. And so out of that, just wanted to ask you what what's what's a theme that has stood out to you about that prayer that as you were thinking about tonight in the work we're doing?

Leonard: Well, when you look at John, chapter 17, this is the last and final prayer that he talks about to his disciples. But in the previous verses of John Chapter 17, he says that he called unto them himself those whom he would call and lead as his disciples. And so he has drawn all of us right now in this hour to bring about unity in his body. And I think about that and the the hope that I have. And what he has prayed is that we can live this out. I'm I'm so excited about it because John was the disciple that loved him. And Peter got so upset with Jesus and about John that he said, well, you telling me how I'm going to die. But what about old John over there? Who's hanging on your breast? Yeah, yeah. And he says, Now, Peter, he said, If I want John to live forever. He said, That has nothing to do with what I'm asking you. Do you love me? So that brings me to this point in that scripture of John Chapter 17. It is the love that we have for God that draws us to the point to where that we must unify. It's a it's a must in order for the world to see what God is like. He doesn't he doesn't expect any gifts from us, and he does not receive anything from us until we love each other. It is a must.

Karl: Even Jesus said in John 13, just a couple of chapters before this that the world around would recognize that we're his disciples by how we love each other.

Leonard: How we love.

Karl: That that would be this physical manifestation to the world of God's power in and through us in the world. His presence.

Leonard: Amen. Amen. Everything has significance when it comes to this scripture. When you talk about expectation, you talk about you talk about how the thoughts has to come together. The ideas have to come together. All of the things that that we we were led up to Gary and I one day. For those who don't know, Gary does all of the recordings that we we do for online stuff for me. And we were told we're going to have to get together again. We're going to have to get together again. I said, Well, make it happen. And I'm there. And so he come back. He said, What do you think about us getting together and doing something? I said, Well, you just say the word. And so this is something that you along with the with the elders and brother Gary brought to me, and I accept it. That's right. And so when I think about this, I think about all of the thoughts, all of the ideas, all of the plans. That God had in motion. We had no idea. That a storm would come. We had no idea that practically every pipe in the church would burst. We had no idea that the storm would would ruin the ceilings and and all that stuff.

Leonard: We had no idea. And to be honest, I was at the point of almost giving up. And. And then I met you at a at a habitat banquet. And you told me then and I walked away. And I never really thought about it other than the fact I knew you were sincere. This is what your lead minister said. He said to me, he said, Brother, we want to come over and help you. And that was before the last tragedy. And so what made me think was. Is that he heard about a tragic break in of our building. It was a smash and grab type of situation that that. And it's kind of hard for me to talk about it because. It was a desecration of God's place. And it broke the unity in a lot of ways and what we were doing. And and and I heard this voice coming through. You bring Hey, Brother Leonard, I heard you had a break in. I said, Yes, sir, we did. Well, I'm bringing about a group of people over. I said, Really? We're going to help you clean that up. I said, Really? So I galvanised our people and I said, You better show up.

Karl: So.

Leonard: And. And the next thing I know, it was both churches coming together for a common goal. It was like unifying the heavyweight championship belt from the WBC and the World Federation of Boxing. And we were all in there. Everybody stood a chance of getting cut by broken glass. Everybody stood a chance of fighting off all the elements and all of the things that were going on. And here we were together and I was riding on my grandfather's little electric cart. And and here comes Brother Carl in the congregation, which many had taught in the elementary school that we purchased. And they were crying just as hard as I was. And it unified this body with our body. And therefore, I know this is from God.

Karl: Absolutely. It's amazing to see this one little moment opportunity has has grown now and to this relationship, to this kindred heart and spirit, to this pursuit of unity. And I love how as we were talking even just a day or two ago about this and a couple of the lines that Sharon read for a couple of verses she read for us a moment ago that have stood out to me so much in verse 21, Jesus prayed that all of them may be one father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me that even in that prayer, the invitation for us to partner with God, that He is working through us, that somehow our relationship and our unity mirrors the father and the son and the spirit. And that as we give to you and you back to us, that that models to the world like that. That's a testimony, a witness to the world's power, a God's power in the world, rather. Yes. And how how special it can be to know that something as simple as coming and picking up some broken glass, we saw it as an opportunity to serve. And yet it was doing way more than that. It was creating a bond and a unity of heart within us.

Leonard: Yes. And, you know, you you you hit you hit it right on the head when you said that, because I'm thinking of one step further is not only do we get to mirror that, but I remember one sentence prayer in the word of God and the gospel of John. There was two men on the cross with Jesus. And one was living in the life of a lie. And never, never really acknowledged God didn't want to acknowledge God even in its death. But there was one man there that said, You know what, Lord, I know you didn't do anything to deserve what you had. Go on. But when you come into your kingdom. Will you remember me? I thought. I thought about this heart and lung when I. When I was thinking about this. And. And. And I was thinking about John. Chapter 17. You know, I actually see God. Remembering his body. This man gave himself to God, and Jesus said, okay, you're going to be with me. And so he started pulling all of the pieces from the world. Every piece that was gone. And now he's set at Liberty, those who were held captive. And when he got up out of the grave. Every person. Who would believe on him would be remembered. And this is what we're doing tonight. We are remembering the body that was broken. Everything about your life that is broken. If you could get here tonight and even this morning, let him reattach you to the body. Some people have given up and quit. Just walked away and just said, I'm through with it. I'm through with church. Life is is so hard. I'm not ready to live it. I don't want to live it. But if you could just ask God to remember you, He will put you back in the body and he will make you a significant part of what's going to take place for the last and evil days that are ahead of.

Karl: Us in this pursuit of unity. Like you said, it's it is enacting God's will as it's being expressed through remembering and drawing people back in to the body and Jesus on prayer. He prays that his joy would be complete, that this pursuit of unity now we get to live in a joy and in a love. In fact, in verse 23, he says, I and them and you and me, he's Jesus is praying to the Father so that they may be brought to complete unity. Yes. Then the world will know that you sent me. Yes. And have loved them even as you have loved me. That that this pursuit of unity is also a testimony to the world. And it's this opportunity for us to live in a deeper love like we experience a greater love. And how true has that been for me in our unity, Just the people that you have brought into my life now, just because I'm your friend and you said, Carl, I want you to meet this person.

Leonard: And same here. And I. I had the privilege and the honor. And I want to tell you, tell your father. Thank you. Tell your siblings. Thank you. When I walked in the funeral home and you got to know this about Brother Carl, when we stepped in the funeral home, my wife and I. We didn't we didn't feel out of place. We didn't we didn't feel like we were looked at. We felt like we were drawn in. And I waited a moment to get to meet your dad because he had so many people loving on him. But when he finally got to me, he grabs me and hugs me and he tells me I'm your brother.

Karl: Absolutely.

Leonard: Now, in that, isn't that amazing? A man that had never met me. No, nothing about me. Would tell me. Thank you, sir, for loving me enough to come and be here and loving my son. And he said, I saw you on the video.

Karl: He watches every word you say.

Leonard: So, Dad, if you watch it.

Karl: He watch him. Yeah, absolutely. Well, so tonight we get a chance to celebrate and worship and live into the unity and to the love that we share. We're going to get a chance to raise a little bit of money to try to get this campaign going, to get you guys back in your space to to provide that little lighthouse in your community that you guys have been that outpost. And we want to try to help make that happen. But I also know tonight it's just not about getting you back in your building. That's important. Yes. But but I know you have vision for what God wants to do and then through full armor as we move into the future. So as we kind of start to land the plane here this morning, let me ask you share with us about OC wear has got calling full armor into the future.

Leonard: Well we have a we have a liturgy that we we have based our ministry on, and it's the church of the 21st century. And in this liturgy, we talk about, first of all, restoring the family and bringing our communities back together through the family unit and how important it was that we start with the family and then we work our way down to bring up, not down to look on, but down to bring up those who were dis enfranchised, who does not feel that they are a part of that we can reach and have resources that are available to them in various ways. One is, is that we promise that we'll leave no one behind who does not want to be left behind in various ways. First of all, spiritually, we want to bring them back together spiritually with God. Second of all, if there's any way that we can help bridge the gap between the digital divide in our community, to bring it up in some kind of way, to make it significant with information, not necessarily to hand out money, but to make it available to where that they will know how to go and get the resources, know what the resources are about, and then have a strategic plan about how they can live this out. We've we've found ourselves with several different ministries that are already in place. One Sister Kelly already knows about it.

Leonard: And then also we have others that we're already in full force with in the school system. My brother's keepers and sisters keeper there, they was founded and started out of full armor ministries to go and reach out to kids on every level to help give them. It's kind of like Big brothers, Big Sisters, but in our community. And so we want to make sure that we go to those schools and do what we need to do in the schools. And that is active. We also have the ability to help facilitate and train and do some different stuff about teaching young people how to change a tire. You know, that's what we want to do. Give them some some trade skills and stuff like that. And so we we're in contact with some stuff that is going on through other programs to help, you know, get them into some trade schools. Not everybody is fit to go to college or want to go to college. Right. And so we want to give them some life sources and skills that they can develop themselves with. And most of all, most importantly, is to develop housing, some type of housing that we already partnered with Habitat to do. But we want to do something on a on a greater scale to where that the church can grow and mature in a way that it can be significant in the community.

Karl: Absolutely. You know, one of the the other blessing, so many one of the richest blessings of our friendship and our partnership has seen is seeing how God has continued to demonstrate his faithfulness to us and opportunities to to partner with like minded brothers and sisters in Christ where our elders, a number of years ago said, we're not just going to give money somewhere. We want to be a part of something where we can roll our sleeves up and actually get connected, that we want to be a good neighbor in our community. We want to be good community members, we want to make a difference, and not just getting people to heaven when they die. That's important. But there's a lot of life between that day and this. And we believe Jesus prayer also contains this, this calling to help the kingdom come on Earth as it is in heaven. Right? And so to come alongside full armor and see you're already doing that, that is. Your goal. That's your vision, that's your mission. And so our hearts have grown even closer over that, saying we want to be a part of that. We want to help volunteer and resource and be connected and be good neighbors because we believe in the work that you're doing, that as the community of right around full armor thrives, that it's a blessing to all of our city, to all of us, and vice versa as our community thrives. It's a blessing to you guys. We want to continue that work moving forward.

Leonard: Thank you. I believe God has put us in partnership in various ways. And and I know that his word is true. God will will give us a man to work alongside of us to make things happen and to make things work. And they are all working to our good. It doesn't matter. He makes it all work towards our good. So the the tragedies and all of the things that happen to us in our community and in our church, God is turning it around to make it work out. Good.

Karl: Bringing out the good. Amen. Amen. Well, church tonight we invite you. Come worship with us. Come be here. It's at 630. It's going to be incredible. You've gotten just a small taste of that through Sister Carolyn's song. Going to have so many beautiful songs and music to hear, to listen, to participate in. But church, we also want us to recommit to redouble our efforts to unleashing compassion in our city, to being good neighbors, to partnering with our friends like Leonard and Sharon, and all of our friends at full armor to making a difference in our community. And second, we're going to gather and Winnie will lead us in our song of response. We know there are some here today who need that immediately, who need that kind of support and help. And we want you to know we're here for you. We'd love to help you in any way that we can. Let me say a prayer and then we'll worship together. And I'm so thankful for my friend Leonard, who has become my brother. I'm thankful for the life that you have been living through him. The difference you have been making in our city in plain view, in in West Texas, through his ministry. And I'm so thankful for his wife, Sharon and the team, the partnership that they are, the way that you have been working in and through them to inspire change and difference and a new life in this place.

Karl: God, would you bless them? Would you bless our full armor friends? Father? We want to see them get back into their building to to take back that that position, that lighthouse, that outpost there and continue to breathe new life, to cast light into the dark places that they could invite young people and older people to come and to know and to love and to follow you, Jesus, that they would be about helping build families back, that they would be about helping build education and opportunities and and training and resources into our young people, God, that they would continue to be about creating housing opportunities for folks to have a home, a place to build a life, to put down roots. God, So many incredible things are happening right now and we can't wait to see how you are going to do even greater things in the days and the weeks and the months and years to come. So, God, we ask a special blessing on our partnership, on our unity. And so, Jesus, we echo your words that you prayed.

Karl: And John 17 may they be true of us, God, that we would be brought to complete unity, that the world would. No. That, Jesus, you were sent by the Father and that he loved you and he loves us just like he loves you. Oh, Father, may those words be true of us. Would you help us, Father? To take our next step on that journey, whatever it may be. And so, God, if there's someone here today that wants to take that journey with us. Lord. Would you inspire them just to step out of faith, to. To grab one of us and staff either at Full Armor or Broadway, to grab one of our elders, or maybe just a trusted friend and just come. Come and find us. Lord, help us to find them. Lord, we want to make a difference in our world. Father, thank you for the difference that you have made in our lives. Thank you for the ways that you continue to bring good even out of really hard, tragic, difficult, overwhelming sometimes circumstances. Thank you that you're continuing to pour new life into us. And may we be conduits for you into our city. We pray In Jesus name. Amen.