IMPACT Generation Leadership Retreat

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IMPACT Germany

Shaina Strimbu

Division In the Home- A Divided House Is Not Able to Stand

I'm happy to share with you a few thoughts for the closing of the Sabbath day today.

And I want to begin with a story from my summer 6 years ago.

Someone else took me in the car, and I was driving, there was a path, and we turned around the corner and stopped the car.

This was our home to be for the next few weeks.

I was doing a literature evangelism program in Austria, in Syria, and we were working at a church, or we were staying at a church, which had a very, very bad condition.

And then they told us that the girls will sleep here and the guys there and the house was cracked.

It looked like there was a big what is it in English?

Yeah, and I was standing there outside of this building.

I was like Are they sure we should sleep there?

I mean, I don't know if the foundation is, you know, if it's a good foundation at all.

I mean, maybe, maybe there will be a problem if there's too many people out there and something will fall down and yeah, we will, we will have injuries or whatever.

And what I want to talk about tonight is about this message.

If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

These are Jesus' words, and I will elaborate with you together what he was giving in this teaching, the full meaning of what it means to be united, to be together.

And that's why we also sang this song, because we are here to press together, to unite with 1 another, to move forward together and not individually and yeah the scene where this took place is actually in a house surprise so Jesus is in a house and he is teaching in this house.

And while he sits in this house, his mother and brothers, the siblings of Jesus, sister, They are coming and they are walking towards the house and they want to go and get him.

This is told in Mark, Mark 3, if you want to see the verses for yourself.

35 And it says, and his mother and his brother came and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.

And a crowd was sitting around him And they said to him, your mother and your brother are outside seeking you.

And he answered them, who are my brother and who are my mother?

We always think that Jesus is the polite and the very, very, as you heard in the sermon, a perfect example, right?

And don't we know that in scripture it says you should honor your parents and Jesus he's saying who who is out there then looking about at those who sat around him he said there are my mother and there are my brother For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.

So Jesus is inside, and there is a big crowd.

The crowd is as big that they cannot pass, they cannot just go there, they cannot just go there and talk to him and whisper in his ear.

Actually it says a few verses before then, verse 20 to 21, if you want to follow along.

It says that he went in a home and the crowd gathered again So that they could not even eat We taking shifts up there because we cannot eat all together in that small room You know what took place there?

There was something going on and it says, And when his family heard it, they went out to save him.

In the Gospel of John, John 3, we learn, oh, John 7, verse 3, we learn that not even his brothers believed in him.

So here's the family of Jesus, and here's the house where Jesus is inside.

The family comes to grab him because they think he's insane.

They think What he is doing there is nonsense.

And Jesus says, if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

Jesus' own family was divided during the time when he was living on this earth.

And I'm not sure how many of you come from a home that is broken, where the household is actually not this happy, healthy family setting.

Jesus knows how this is like, because he has been in that same situation throughout his life, while he was on this earth, His house was basically not united.

He had a mission that his brothers didn't understood, that they didn't appreciate, because he wasn't like them.

He wasn't doing the silly things they were doing, as you heard.

So I want to emphasize again verse 35 says, for whoever does the will of God he is my brother he is my sister he's my mother house that is divided won't be able to stand While Jesus was about the will of his father, while he was starting to build up the house, which is basically that also later, he built the church, right?

We are also the temple of God, it's like a house, it's like a building.

And Jesus starts to build this house while he was on this earth.

He laid the foundation and he said, the foundation is doing the will of God.

Well, I wonder why is Jesus sitting in this house anyway?

Wasn't he used to teach outside in nature?

He was at the seashore, he was maybe on the mountain or at the mountain somewhere, so they were gathering, sitting up somewhere on the mountain, he was standing down there because to reach everyone it's good like this or he was in the boat maybe and everyone was on the shore right?

He's speaking about someone entering another's house.

Verse 27, No 1 can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first finds the strong man.

It's impossible to enter any house if it doesn't belong to you and if the person was strong, needs to be overcome first.

In another gospel, which is Matthew, he speaks about the same.

Matthew 12, 25 and verse 30, there again, Jesus is saying, every kingdom that is divided against itself is like waste.

And no city or house divided against itself will stand.

Then it says in verse 30 whoever is not with me it's against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters so he's giving the foundation says those who are with me they are united with the foundation of the house right?

Those who are not, they scatter, they destroy.

Or another gospel which is also giving us more insight.

In Luke 11 there is a longer description, this is Luke 11 21 to 23, Giving us a better picture of what takes place with this strong man.

So imagine not just a strong man but someone who is in full armor.

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Division In the Home- A Divided House Is Not Able to Stand

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