 I've been asking the Holy Spirit, what are you saying in this season? What's one of the things you want to communicate to your church? And I'm telling you, I heard very clearly the Holy Spirit speak. It's time to gather again. It's time to gather again. There's a very dangerous trend, and I hope you're not caught up in it, a very, very dangerous trend that really has been catching on in many parts of the church. This idea that we don't need to gather, this idea that we can have a superficial connection with the body of Christ and expect to thrive spiritually. I understand that Christ is our source. I understand that we all have the Holy Spirit. 1 John 2, 27 tells us we all have the anointing, but the truth of the matter is this, God always intended for his church to gather together. That's the design. That's how he created his church. That's what he intended for his church, that we gather together. You cannot replace the gathering of the saints with an online connection. Now, this is coming from someone who has an online ministry. If I didn't love you, if I didn't care about you, if I just wanted to be self-serving, I would say, you know what, yeah, you don't need your pastor. You don't need those people. You know what, you're probably more anointed. You probably know better. They're probably all religious and compromised. They're probably all dry spiritually. And I would tell you lies like you're the only one who gets it. You're the only one in the group who truly is anointed. You're the only one who actually wants the deeper things of God. And I would tell you those lies to flatter you so that I could benefit from it. Look, as I said, I'm in online ministry and we are seeing a fruitful season, a very fruitful season. So this isn't coming from an old wine skin who's complaining about change and who doesn't like the way things are going. I believe in online ministry. I believe this new wave of communicating is powerful. It's useful. It's a great tool, but it is by no means a replacement for gathering with one another. You can't replace that personal touch. Only in gathering can we find true accountability. Only in gathering can we find true relationship. You see, if we just connect online, then we get to know one another's personas. But if we truly gather in life, then we get to truly know each other. People can't hold you accountable if all they know is that projection that you created online. People can't truly connect with you if you're at a distance. The physical gathering together of the saints, that is needed. Let me show you something in scripture. This is found in Hebrews chapter 10. I'm going to read verse number 25. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. That is scripture. How are we supposed to lay hands on those who are sick if we're not gathering in person? How are we supposed to together feed the hungry, clothe the naked, how's the homeless if we're not gathering together? It's the gathering of the saints that makes the difference. Now, we've all heard the clever sounding excuses like, well, I am the body of Christ. Well, no, you're not. You are not the body until you gather. It's only in our gathering that we become the body. It's only in our gathering that we experience the union that God intended for us to experience. You need a pastor. You need fellow believers. You need people who can connect with you, who can know you, who can laugh with you and weep with you and celebrate with you and fellowship with you and eat with you. You need personal connection. That's how God intended it to be. Now, when this pandemic first started to affect the church as a whole, what began to happen is people started to isolate themselves. Now, isolation is the breeding ground for fear, for strange doctrine and for bitterness. And so, as people start to isolate, they start to get bitter. They start to get weird. They start to become confused. They start to become fearful and cold. That's just a reality, even prideful. In fact, the enemy can use flattery to make you isolate. And he does that often. People will tell you things, as I mentioned earlier, like, you're the anointed remnant and you're the only one who gets it. And later with that religious system, come out of them and we kind of get this idea in our head, yeah, the people in my church, they're all cold. They don't get it. They don't understand it like I do. My pastor is not as powerful as this guy or this girl online. My pastor doesn't do it like the online people or all these things that sound like good reasons to disconnect. But the truth of the matter is those people online, those people on television, those people on radio are most likely not going to share a meal with you. If you go to the hospital, they're most likely not going to be able to come and visit you. You experience a family tragedy. They're most likely not going to call you. So we have to get this out of our minds that the more spiritual we become, that the more isolated we become from the body of Christ. Now, I understand sanctification. I understand being set apart. But being set apart and sanctified is not the same as being isolated. And we can't confuse the two. We have to stop pretending or acting like fellowship with other believers is somehow a contamination to our great spirituality. I mean, if we are really supposed to isolate from those who are not as mature as us in the faith, then how is anyone else supposed to grow if we're hiding that gift? You see, I've seen it happen to where people come into a church. They want expression right away. They want their gifts to be used right away. They want to be put on the platform right away. When people insist on them being known before they're platformed, they say, oh, that's religious. And then they'll go to some ministry online or television or radio or some online group that will tell them, yeah, you're gifted. They're religious. You should start now. And really what's happening is people who want to skip the process are finding a platform and they're able to do it because of online ministry, because of the way online ministry works, because of the way online connection works. Anyone can have a platform, whether they've gone through the process or not. Anyone can have a platform, whether they're accountable or not. Anyone can have a platform, whether they have a spiritual covering or not. And spiritual covering is biblical, not for control, but for guidance and protection and accountability and strength. And so what's happening is the enemy is telling people, you're the remnant. That's why you're isolated. And while thinking themselves the remnant, they actually become the rebellious because they're disobeying God's command to connect, to fellowship, to gather. They're using clever sounding, spiritual sounding excuses like, well, I'm just so anointed. I'm so gifted or nobody understands my anointing. And these are not healthy excuses. People online will even tell you, your pastor's not anointed like me. Your pastor doesn't do it like me. Your pastor doesn't flow on the gifts like I do. Your pastor can't take you to levels I can take you. That's dangerous. The moment people start talking like that, run the other direction because that is not the spirit of God. That is not of the Holy Spirit. Now I understand that many of us have experienced church hurt. So we call it church hurt or offense. And I want to speak to that a little bit because I think that's important too, because I don't want to be dismissive of the fact that there is such a thing as spiritual abuse. There is such a thing as leadership being too controlling and legalistic. There is such a thing as emotional pain that we experience as a result of relationships in the church. That's a fact. In fact, I did a whole message on how to identify a cult, how to know you're in a cult and not a church. So I believe that that's a reality and I don't want to be dismissive of anyone's experience or negative encounters. But we have to really process this from a biblical perspective. I'm not saying that you weren't legitimately hurt. I'm not saying that you weren't abused or emotionally wounded. That happens. What I am saying is the fact that people hurt you is not a good reason to dismiss God's design that will help you to fulfill your destiny. Now I don't want to condemn you, but I do want to bring some truth to light that will help you to process some things. Yes, people say things. Yes, maybe you went to a church, they all gossiped about you. Maybe you went to a church and the pastor was controlling, manipulative. Maybe the pastor abused you in one way or another. Maybe someone on leadership abused you in one way or another and nobody did anything about it. Maybe you didn't quite connect. Maybe you felt like an outcast. Now, there's two ways we have to look at this. One, we have to acknowledge that it's possible. I'm not saying this is definitely the case with you, but at least process it to where it's a question in your mind. At least let it be a question in your mind. The question being, did they really do something that was so horrible that I had the right to leave or I had the need to leave? Or was I reacting poorly to a somewhat negative situation? Was it their actions that caused me to leave and disconnect? Or was it my perception of their actions? Were they really religious and controlling or did I just not like the fact that they wanted me to go through the biblical process to be proven before I had a platform? And that's a big one because a lot of new believers, a lot of young believers, a lot of believers who never matured do use that as a point of accusation against leadership. In other words, they'll say, I have the gift of prophecy or I want to flow in deliverance or I want to flow in the gift of healing or I want to flow in this or that. And they haven't proven themselves. Nobody knows who they are. They're not accountable to anyone. No one knows their lifestyle. Nobody knows if they're living clean. And they expect to just come into the church and just be allowed to do whatever they want, pray for people during the altar call, pray for people during the worship, go up and give words to people while the pastor is preaching and so forth. And maybe it's not even that disruptive necessarily. But the idea is, biblically speaking, that a leader or someone who ministers in that way should be known and publicly proven before they are released to do so. Now this has nothing to do with evangelism. This has nothing to do with witnessing to your friends and neighbors. This has to do with ministry and edification and leadership and influence within the church. And the Bible does give a set of criteria for that. Now, sometimes people will look at that situation and because they weren't platformed when they want it to be platformed or because things in the service didn't happen the way they wanted it to happen, they dismiss that church and say, oh, that church is religious. They'll say things like, wow, they don't do deliverance enough. And I'm thinking, okay, they don't do deliverance enough or they don't do deliverance as often as you want to see it. Or they don't do healing enough. Okay. They don't do healing enough or they don't run a healing service like you want to see it. Oh, they don't, they don't allow prophecy to flow. They don't allow prophecy to flow or they didn't allow you to prophesy. See, there's a major difference here. And so we have to ask ourselves, why did we leave? Why did we disconnect? Why do we feel hurt? And we have to have the maturity to at least assess ourselves to see if in fact maybe we didn't quite process things correctly. Maybe it was ego that made us leave because we weren't platformed or released in the way we wanted to or as quickly as we wanted to be released. Or maybe someone did say something offensive, but they didn't mean to. Or maybe things were a little stuffy. Maybe you were a little rejected. Consider possibly, I know this is going to sound harsh, but consider possibly maybe you did come off a little weird. Maybe you were a little odd. And that's why maybe who were uncomfortable to connect with you? Maybe you weren't being relatable. Maybe they caught on to something that maybe you didn't. That's a possibility. I'm not saying that's definitely it, but at least consider that as a possibility. Now, once you've considered those possibilities that it could be on you, then we move into the other possibilities that maybe it was a bad situation. Maybe someone was mean. Maybe someone was inappropriate, but maybe it wasn't to the level to where you should have disconnected from either that church or even the body of Christ as a whole. And of course, we should never disconnect from the body of Christ as a whole. Ask yourself, was I maybe being too sensitive? That's a tough one. I know this is not easy. This is not easy. And there's nothing wrong with being sensitive. Nothing at all. People talk about the fact that sensitivity is a part of who they are. And that is a fact. You know, there are some things about you that God doesn't want to change. Rather, he wants to capture. For example, I'm an overthinker by nature. And because I'm an overthinker, I see the details in everything. And if I'm not careful, that can make me anxious and stressed out. I can feel pressure that no one's putting on me. And I'm looking at all these little details and I'm processing them. Sometimes that can be a negative thing. I over think or I think in great detail, I should say. Now, in some settings, that's good. When I'm writing a book, that's great. When I'm studying the word to deliver a message to you, that works out great because I see all the little details and I see all the ways that I can simplify it and present it in a very sequential way. You know, one, two, three here it is, right? That works great. But when I'm driving, that doesn't work so great because I see all the details. I see all the possible car accidents waiting to happen. So I get all tensed up, Steve, you can testify to this. And I get all tensed up and he could cut me off. Maybe he's going to miss his exit and try to cut across traffic. That person might slam on their brakes. That person's tire looks a little weird. That guy's on his phone. That person behind me keeps coming too close. It doesn't look like they're stopping in time. Right? I'm aware of all these things. And that can make me very tense. Right? And so in life, there are things about you that God doesn't necessarily want to change, but he wants to capture. So my attention to detail, God doesn't want to change that. He wants to capture it. So you may be a very sensitive person. Good. That means you're compassionate. That means you notice when other people are hurting and nobody else notices them. You notice when people look like they're being left out. You notice when people look like they're being rejected. You notice when people look uncomfortable or sick or tired or disturbed in any way. And because you're so sensitive, not only do you notice the pain of people, but you're drawn to be a loving guide to them. You're drawn to pray for them. You're drawn to talk to them. You're drawn to make them feel welcome. Right? That is your gift. So your sensitivity is not a curse. It's a gift that God doesn't want to change. He wants to capture. So the way it works against you is sometimes when people offend you, it does go a little bit too deep. You do allow it to go a little bit too deep in the heart. So maybe the people were a little unwelcoming, but maybe they perceived you as maybe just a little odd or maybe you're putting off signs that you don't want to be talked to. That could be one thing too. So it doesn't always all fall on the other individuals. Sometimes it falls on us too. And we have to ask ourselves, did I take that too harshly? Did I take that too close to the heart? Was I being unreasonable by cutting everyone off because of the circumstance? I mean, we are the family of God. And in families, there is tension. The closer you get to people, the more tension you'll experience. The closer you get to people, the more of the negative you start to see in them. That is a part of growing together that happens in marriages, business relationships, friendships, any relationship where you're drawing closer to someone, you begin to see flaws no one else gets to see. And they are positioned now to hurt you in ways no one else can hurt you. But that's where grace comes in, isn't it? That's where love and forgiveness and understanding love covers a multitude of sins. And in that way, you can capture that sensitivity, not change it, because you can't change how sensitive you are. You are who God made you. But you can capture that sensitivity now and say, okay, Lord, I acknowledge that what they said to me was wrong or hurtful or the way they left me out was wrong or hurtful or how they tried to control me or maybe pressure me that was wrong and hurtful. But you know what? I'm going to forgive them. I'm not going to look for an apology. I'm not going to wait for them to come to me. That may never happen. They may not even know they offended you. And you allow to some degree, some level of leeway for these people who will hurt you, because everyone will hurt you. Now, I am not advocating for abuse. I'm not saying you should allow people to abuse you. But I am saying that we should make room for people's mistakes, because there will be mistakes. People will hurt you. And those who love you the most and know you the most will hurt you the most. Why? Because you're connected. It's a deeper connection. But realize, tension comes when you begin to draw nearer to people. That is why no marriage, no friendship, no business partnership can survive without grace, because you get to see the uglier side of people, the closer you get. You get to see the really dark stuff that nobody else even knew was there. And that's why it's a privilege to know someone, because we have the privilege to offer grace for those areas. Again, let me stress this. I'm not talking about abuse, but I am saying there's a spectrum to these things. Not every offense is a reason to say, that's it. I'm leaving. And if you have a pattern of leaving churches, if you have a pattern of leaving ministries, if there is a consistent sequence of you going to a place, loving it, finding a few flaws, getting a little bitter, allowing someone to offend you, and then leaving, if that's a pattern and you've repeated it two, three, four, five times, then that goes to show you that you're not approaching this properly. And I say that again, because I love you. I'm not condemning you. I'm not trying to attack you, but this is important that it's brought to your attention for your own good. Otherwise, you're going to go through that cycle again and again and again. You'll never find the perfect church. I heard one preacher say it was a little mean, but he said it and it was true. He said, if you ever find the perfect church, don't go there because you'll ruin it. And I thought, oh, that's true. If I found the perfect church and I went there, I would totally ruin it because I'm flawed. And that's just the reality. You're not going to find the perfect church. You're not going to find the perfect body of believers. You may not even agree doctrinally with everything the church believes. So you may go to a church and the pastor believes, maybe there's like nine out of 10 things you all agree on. And there's one doctrine that's not a major central tenet of the faith. And okay, maybe there's some disagreement. Let it be. But find people who can connect with you. By the way, you're not even supposed to be leaving the responsibility of your own spiritual growth in the hands of another individual. That's between you and the Lord, your spiritual growth. You go to church for accountability. You go to church for encouragement. You go to church to serve. You go to church to be the church to affect the world around you. So that is why you gather. And as long as you have the right perspective on that, that you have a spiritual leader to guide you and to counsel you and to give you wisdom, not to control you, but to guide. Once you understand these perspectives, then because you put fewer expectations on others, you're disappointed less often. And that is how it should work. Grace, grace, grace, covering one another, because people will hurt you. Let me just break the news to you. I've been preaching for several years and I'll be preaching for several years more. Eventually I'm going to say something that you're going to go, hmm, I don't know how I feel about what he just said. I don't know if I like that. I don't know if I agree. I just ask you to give me grace. Eventually I may see one of your posts where I go, that was a little odd, but you know what? Grace. And again, I'm not talking about abuse, nor am I talking about allowing someone to be in your fellowship that doesn't hold one of the primary tenants of the faith. Of course, we all have to agree on the deity of Christ, his bodily resurrection, his heavenly ascension, the basics, the tenants, the foundational truths. We all have to agree on those, but beyond those, there's room for grace. There's room for forgiveness. Let me show you this portion of Scripture. Matthew 18, I'll start at verse 21. Then Peter came to him and asked, Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me seven times? No, not seven times, Jesus replied, but 70 times seven. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn't pay, so his master ordered that he be sold, along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned to pay the debt. But the man fell down before his master and begged him, please be patient with me, and I will pay it. Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. What a wonderful thing. Verse 28, watch this now. But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time, be patient with me, and I will pay it, he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn't wait, and had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, you evil servant, I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you? Wow. Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. That's what my heavenly father will do to you. If you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart, whoa, convicting, convicting, forgive as we've been forgiven. I'm not talking about allowing abuse. I'm not talking about having fellowship with people who are in heresy and denying the fundamentals of the faith. I'm talking about grace for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm talking about grace even for your leaders, your spiritual leaders, who we all need. We all need spiritual leaders. I think sometimes we look at preachers and we don't see the behind the scenes. We don't see that the preachers we follow, at least the ones who are biblically sound, also have spiritual leaders. That's the way God designed it. It's the body. It's togetherness. It's union. The scripture talks about making allowance for one another's mistakes. What does that mean? It means being prepared to forgive before you're even offended. Forgiveness is not something that you do when someone offends you. Forgiveness is the condition of your heart long before you're offended. Forgiveness, you give before it's even happened. It's living in that state where you're ready to let things go. Not compiling a list. Not compiling criticisms. Not putting everyone through a system to see if they passed the test and allowing them to be connected with you based upon whether or not they passed that test that's going on in your head. But being ready to forgive, which means we will be offended. Jesus said 70 times seven. That means again and again and again. Why do you have to forgive someone more than once for one offense? That's because sometimes it's not the offense but the memory of the offense that reoffends us. And then we have to forgive them again once we've remembered it. We forgive them. We move on. It comes to memory. Seeds of bitterness start being sown and we have to remember in that moment, 70 times seven, not just for what they did, but for the memory of what they did. That's the choice. So again, I say this because I love you and I care. I'm glad you watch us online. I'm glad you enjoy this ministry. But start gathering again. Get back to church. Connect with the body of Christ. Connect with a spiritual leader. You need a pastor. You need leaders. You need fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And you need to be leading others. We all need those connections. We all need mentorship, friendship and discipleship. I have mentorship pastors, leaders who pour into me, who hold me accountable, who rebuke me, who correct me in a loving, gentle, but necessary way. I have my friendships, people like Steve, people all around me who are my friends who can be real with me and tell me when I'm getting odd or getting out of line or becoming moody and mean. These are people who love me, who I can go to for prayer. We all need that. And I have people I'm discipling, discipleship, people who I can bring the word to and train and guide and pray with. And yes, even lovingly, though I don't enjoy doing it, but lovingly correct sometimes, we all need that. Don't listen to people who try to pull you away from that. That's a spirit. That's a spirit. And you'll notice that people who try to pull you away. And I'm not talking about anyone in particular. So don't think I'm talking about your former pastor or that church used to go to down the street or the person who's at your work. Because sometimes I think people take what I say and they use it as ammo to attack the people in their lives. I'm not saying this so you can attack. I'm saying this just so you can be aware. Don't listen to people who tell you things like, well, I'm more anointed than your pastor. Or I'm more gifted in this area than your leaders. Or your leadership, your church doesn't do it like I do it. They don't have power like I have. They don't know what I know. They just don't get it. We're the spiritually elite. They're not. Again, that's not the remnant. That's the rebellious. It's trying to pull you into isolation through flattery. Wonderful thing. I'm glad you enjoy this ministry. I'm glad you receive our content online, but this isn't going to cut it. You have got to gather with believers. And I know it's scary. Look, I'm not trying to be dismissive of the pain you've felt. That's real pain, especially if you're a sensitive person. And remember, that's not an insult. That's just who God made you to be. That can be difficult. That can be painful. That can be scary, but you have to do it. You've got to take that leap. Will you be hurt again? Absolutely. It's going to happen again. You're going to get hurt again. You're going to be disappointed again. Why? Because we're all human. We're all flawed. We all disappoint each other. And you've disappointed others too. That's not an attack. That's just to bring things into perspective. That's human. Isn't it amazing that when people offend us, we want justice and retribution. But when we offend others, we want grace and forgiveness and understanding. Let's extend that grace and forgiveness that we might be the body of Christ. Let's gather again. Let's hear what the Spirit is saying. Let's gather again. Father, help us do it. Help us to do it, Lord. We ask you this in the mighty name of Jesus. Heal our hearts, give us wisdom, perspective, strength, and peace. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. Amen. It's time to forgive. It's time to gather.