9.19.21 Leave God Out Of It

[Music] so [Music] study at 10 am you may register on the church's website join us on wednesday september 22nd for virtual bible study at 7 pm you may register on the church's website all youth grades 7 through 12 and college students are invited to join our virtual freestyle friday on friday september 24th we will discuss i'm not perfect i'm a christian for more information see the church's website new members who have not completed new member orientation are encouraged to attend our virtual class on saturday september 25th at 9 00 a.m you may register on the church's website [Music] praise the lord mount enan the bible declares the o give thanks unto the lord for he is good and his mercy endures forever david said when i think of the goodness of jesus and all that he's done for me my soul cries out hallelujah i thank god for saving me so right where you are why don't you begin to think of the goodness of jesus think about how he has kept you think about how he has protected you think about his goodness and his mercy that he gives you every day oh come on and bless the lord come on and love on him think about his unconditional love think about how he picture he cleans you up he turns you around and he placed your feet on a solid ground oh come on and bless the lord somebody because he is worthy he is worthy he is worthy of all the praise hallelujah hallelujah oh god we thank you on this morning god we come before you god with grateful hearts we come before you god expecting you to do a new thing god we pray that you would be in the midst of this worship experience have your way god do whatever it is you want to do god anoint everyone from the crown of their heads to the soul of their feet god and we'll forever give you all the praise the glory and the honor it is in your precious son jesus name that we do pray and we say amen hallelujah hallelujah oh come on and bless the lord with me hallelujah [Music] praise the lord now even come on put your hands together [Music] [Music] is [Music] jesus christ [Music] thank you [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] is [Music] foreign [Music] i [Music] forgive me [Music] my [Music] oh [Music] [Music] open up your mouth clap your hands give him rain give him praise he's deserving he's serving heaven he deserves [Music] come on open up your mouth and give him worship and give him praise come on church give him free come on the song says i owe god a pray come on somebody you owe god of praise today come on he's been good to you owe him afraid uh come on give him praise right in your kitchen right at home in your bed right in your office give god a praise hallelujah come on where the spirit of the lord is there's liberty come on open up your mouth lift up your hands lift up your voice and give him a praise hallelujah glory glory glory glory come open up your mouth give him praise some of you don't even deserve to be here but look at you you're still here and if you're still here you want to give our great god a great praise hallelujah hallelujah i owe him a praise hallelujah hallelujah god has been so good to us amen he continues to keep to sustain to provide lead and guide i owe god a praise amen come on i want you to type in the chat room on whatever platform you i want you to type one thing that you thank god for amen come on life health strength the activity of your limbs family job shelter food on your table come on type right now something in the chat that you are thankful to god for amen well we bless god for each and every one of you and to all of you who are visiting with us today from around the country across the metropolitan dc area even if you're worshiping with us from around the who around the country around the world we bless god for you i learned the other day when i met with some of our media company who do some of our analytics they say some of our great our largest audience is in nigeria so come on church help me to welcome nigeria they are online listening to us receiving the word of god it is such a blessing to be able to touch people all around the world and we bless the lord for each and every one of you i just want to share by way of announcements to all of our young people all of our youth grades 7 through 12 and our college students you're invited to join our youth ministry on friday september the 24th they're gonna discuss uh the theme i'm not perfect but i am christian amen it's a freestyle friday uh conversation you can get more information about that on our church's website that next day saturday september the 25th will be our new members orientation is for all of our new disciples who have connected with us in ministry to learn about all of the rights and responsibilities and of partnering with us in ministry there might be some of you who are checking us out and maybe if you've yet to formally join but but you'd like to attend the new member orientation you can sign up for that on our church website as well that's on saturday september the 25th at 9 00 am praise god amen well we bless the lord for you we bless god for all of our members our friends and partners who've stayed connected we bless the lord for continuing to keep us for continuing to cover us amen uh even in this pandemic even as new variants of this corona virus continue to come out god continues to provide the lord continues to sustain us amen praise the lord and so we're going to prepare our hearts to give unto the lord now it's giving time church amen given it shall be given unto you good measure press down shaken together will the lord put into your lap so i want to appeal to you right now if you have been blessed by the outreach by the word by the ministry of music and worship uh of our church i want to appeal to you right now to sow uh into this ministry i bless the lord for all of our friends all of our partners and uh i want to encourage you to sow right now uh it's giving time you can do that you can mail your tithes and offerings i bless the lord for all of you each and every week who've been mailing your checks your tithes and offerings to the church others of you who can who have given online you can literally click give online on our church's website uh you can get safely and securely there are others of you who have been texting to give that's how i'm going to give as soon as i go over to the to my seat i'm going to text to give you can do that by texting the amount of your giving to the number on the screen it's quite simple you just put the amount of your giving in the body of the text and text it to that number if it's 50 just put the number 50 in the body of the text if it's 50 and 50 cents put 50.50 in the body of the text if it's a hundred dollars if it's 250 just put the amount of you're giving in the body of the text and uh the first time you do it it takes about uh one or two minutes to put in all your information but after that after it's locked in you can literally give in a matter of seconds anytime anywhere amen well let's prepare our hearts to give unto the lord now as we continue to go higher in worship let us pray heavenly father we love and adore you today god i pray lord that you would bless every person every house under the sound of my voice god we pray that you would meet every need according to your riches in glory god we pray that you would raise a provision employment promotion opportunity right now god we thank you that you are a debt canceling god and god we pray right now in jesus name that you would cancel debt meet needs right now and god we believe you can do it because you have done it before god you have provided you have protected before god do it again make a way again open a door again thank you lord we even say a word to pray for those who desire to give but had it not at this time may they experience the joy of giving at a later date and god will be careful to give your name the praise the glory and the honor in jesus name we pray amen and amen praise god well look we're going to be blessed by ministry and song once again and i'll be right back to preach the word of god [Music] come on lift your hands unto your father he's a great guy and we worship you oh god in spirit and in truth [Music] [Music] is [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] you are my god [Music] [Music] no [Applause] [Music] worship [Music] [Applause] oh we are forever oh [Applause] [Music] is i was created to worship the holy days [Applause] [Music] just to give your god worship just to give him praise just to honor who he is just to give him glory he's been so good to us he's been so kind to us he's been so merciful to us he deserves our best praise we worship and praise you woke up [Music] [Music] you are my god and i just want to take a few seconds just a word so we praise you you are my girl and i'll watch that come on honor him come on make her alter right where you are it's been good we watch a man enjoy your day [Applause] we watch them in a day a day not for the things that you've done but just being god alone in our lives [Music] you are [Music] [Music] you are god [Music] [Music] come on take a few more seconds he's just been too kind he's been too merciful he's been too faithful not to give him what he's doing [Music] [Music] and we're [Music] come on say something sweet to him [Music] [Music] and we honor you and we honor you we adore you we worship your love and we honor you and we adore you and we of your [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] praise the lord hallelujah amen praise the lord well i hope you've been blessed today by this experience of worship and as we continue our series through the life of abraham as we focus on this theme of becoming a person of power i want to consider a word from a passage of scripture that is familiar to most of you and to many whether you are in the church or not you are familiar with this story that is recorded in the 19th chapter of the book of genesis we're there we are told that god destroys the twin cities of sodom and gomorrah it is a story that is relevant in many ways for the times that we are in but not for the reasons that are often associated with this text and i want to talk to you today about that about the relevance of this 19th division of the first book of the bible it is relevant for the way in which our perspective on this passage often times prevents us from understanding the true point of the passage you know sometimes you can come to a text with a predetermined understanding of what the scripture is about and you can totally miss what the passage is trying to underscore that often happens with this 19th chapter of the book of genesis so today's sermon is entitled leave god out of it and the life lesson today has to do with not misusing the bible as we seek to apply the bible to the various issues of life for those unfamiliar with the story i want to encourage you to read verses 1 through 29 of this 19th chapter on your own where after the residents of sodom and gomorrah seek to violate the guests of lot god decides that he has had enough god decides that he's going to destroy these twin cities of sodom and gomorrah here's what the text says in verses 24 and 25 it says then the lord rained on sodom and gomorrah sulfur and fire from the lord out of heaven and he overthrew those cities and all of the plane and all of the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground leave god out of it amen amen come on put your hands together bless the lord today it is estimated that over 225 000 people die every year from some form of medical malpractice in which a doctor or some health care provider administers the wrong medication performs some incorrect surgical procedure or provides a wrong diagnosis that causes someone to become ill experience an injury and in the most extreme cases dies medical malpractice is the third most common reason for death in the united states costing insurance companies and the public anywhere from 19 to 31 billion dollars every year the reason malpractice medical malpractice is so important is because doctors take what's called the hippocratic oath which is a promise to do good and not to do harm it is similar to the oath that lawyers take when they pass the bar to do justice and to uphold the legal protections of the constitution there are many different types of malpractice medical malpractice there's legal malpractice there's even malpractice for engineers that provide mathematical and structural recommendations that result in a building collapsing when an error occurs due to negligence or when a mistake occurs that could otherwise have been avoided the practitioner is guilty of malpractice now while malpractice cases can be brought against people in various professions there's unfortunately no such option when it comes to the spiritual malpractice that occurs in pulpits all across america each and every week tragically there is no theological analog to the hippocratic oath that requires preachers and those who promulgate the veritable truths of god to take such an oath which is unfortunate because millions of people past and present have been hurt harmed and injured by the toxic theologies and poisonous preaching that is promulgated in pulpits television programs and on christian publications all around the world and as people of faith we are called upon to encourage people by equipping them to detect religious malpractice that's what this sermon is designed to help you it's designed to help you to detect religious and theological malpractice whenever it rears its ugly head whether from the taliban in afghanistan or from what one commentator here calls the christian taliban or right-wingers right here in america my calling as a pastor and a bible scholar is to empower people with the tools to protect themselves from being spiritually wounded and emotionally maimed by the predatory preaching that is going around today masquerading as the gospel of jesus christ and there's probably no text wherein a case can be made for biblical malpractice that in this 19th chapter of the book of genesis you know the story it is a story of how god decides to destroy the ancient cities of sodom and gomorrah after the inhabitants of the city form a mob outside of lot's house and demand to rape his guests these two visitors these two men these two angels who have come to visit lot there at his house and if you have been in church for any period of time or if you have heard religious leaders christian jewish or muslim comment on this passage then you have certainly heard them say that god destroys the cities of sodom and gomorrah because of homosexuality religious leaders from the late jerry falwell to rabbi shmuel kaminetsky to minister louis farrakhan and many others perhaps even some of you yourselves your revered family members or some of the barbershop gurus who have stood the test of time have said that sodom and gomorrah was destroyed for the so-called sin or abomination of homosexuality we're familiar with interpreters who have associated the downfall of these two cities with things like sexual perversion or what they call same-sex promiscuity but i want to suggest to you today that this view is an instance of biblical malpractice for the cities of sodom and gomorrah look i've already concluded i'm not going to get too many amens today but i'd rather educate you than just emotionally stimulate you that these there's probably no passage of scripture where biblical malpractice is found more than in this story related to sodom and gomorrah and the claim that they were destroyed because of homosexuality i say this church not just to be provocative i i say this not to promote some liberal agenda as some say i say this because i believe in the authority of scripture and there are several indications in this check text if you read the bible carefully that do not support the claim that the cities were destroyed because of homosexuality first i want you to notice that the mob that assembles outside of lot's house is not an all-male crowd the idea that the city was brought down because of male homosexuality rests upon the idea that there were just males or just men who were outside of that city but i want to suggest to you that in many languages that grammatical gender does not equal actual gender how many times have we called women who preside as chairs over an organization the chairman but that grammatical gender does not equal actual gender how how many times have we referred to a group of women or to a mixed group as guys like where are you guys going for dinner tonight so just because the text says the men of the city a better translation should be the people of the city are y'all listening to me here today so first there's no reason to assume that there are just men outside of lot's house we do it in the new testament where the bible says i beseech you therefore brethren or brothers by the mercies of god that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is not a reference just to men or male christians i beseech you therefore brothers and sisters it's a mixed body so grammatical gender does not refer to actual gender so so one this is not an all-male crowd secondly church the mob demands to rape lot's guests last time i checked homosexuality is not about committing sexual violence it is about consensual same-gender relationships and so the mob is not a requesting consensual relations with the inhabitants of lot's house i'm a teacher i'll preach it in a moment just hold on with me relationships whether they are same gender loving or heterosexual are about consensual activity there is nothing in this text that is consensual this text is about sexual violence about sexual rape and it is about abuse it is this text then is a part of a broader critique of rape in the ancient world that we find not just in this text but in several other passages of the old testament like the story in judges chapter 19 when the men of the tribe of benjamin raped that woman so this is about rape it is not about two people deciding that they desire to live their lives together or that they desire to express their affection and love for one another so it is biblically inaccurate to apply that on this text like y'all still with me today and thirdly in order to appease the mob when you read the story you will discover that lot offers the mob his daughters and while this act this suggestion is problematic in and of itself and i don't have time to go into this idea the point that i want to make is is that if the mob was a group of men and they were male homosexuals as all of the commentators claim then why would lot offer them his daughters are y'all listening to me last time i checked male homosexual homosexuals aren't interested in that kind of fun so when people falsely claim that god hates homosexuality and use this text as a proof text leave god out of it it is biblically inaccurate to claim this story is about our same gender loving sisters and brothers and any religious leader any family member of yours any friend of ours any clergy leader any person in the barber shop or the hair salon who says that is absolutely wrong and i know that's what we've been told i i know this goes against the grain and against everything that has been passed down from one generation to another about the story of sodom and gomorrah but it is wrong church and if we believe in the authority of scripture let us not be guilty of biblical malpractice therefore the next time you're asked about your views on gay people or lgbtq rights or what does god think about gays and lesbians leave god out of it if you are going to base your opinion on genesis chapter 19 don't try to justify your bias and bigotry based upon this story and the word of god and for that matter don't even try to use the other six passages of scripture that are oftentimes quoted to condemn lgbtq folks either because despite what you've been told i want to suggest to you that those are passages of scripture are not about same gender-loving people either and so you can keep your emails don't send me your letters as i often get often times quoting paraphraser english translations of the bible out of context see you've got to understand that a lot of these colloquial english translations are written by committees who don't read greek who don't read hebrew who don't read the aramaic and while it might help you to get a better understanding of the text there are places where they distort the text and a pretext that's taken out of context distorts the word of god and so you can keep your emails you can keep your letters where they use uh colloquial translations that put the word homosexuals in in genesis chapter 19 because oftentimes these miss what the word of god is about and just because you're sincere about something you can be sincerely wrong let us not assume that because we learn something a certain way that it is the right way let us not be so narrow in our thinking about god the word of god and who can be included in the family of god that we become religious bigots thinking that we have a monopoly on god and we have excluded everyone else from god jesus gave this command he gave this command to his disciples in john chapter 19 verse 34 he said a new command i give you to love one another as i have loved you so you must love one another by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another and when you think about the admonition of the lord jesus christ there is no delimitation around the love command you cannot be for love for some if you are not for love for everyone regardless of race and sex and gender and class and color and creed and sexual orientation no the commander is to love one another not just baptists not just christians not just democrats not just republicans not just those in your sorority or fraternity we are to love all of god's children have a got a witness here love them jesus says as i have loved you this text has been twisted into being about homosexuality when it's not god's wrath against sodom and gomorrah had nothing to do with who people chose to love or against who they were attracted to it wasn't until the first century jewish philosopher philo that this text came to be associated with such ideas which were fraught with his own issues and had nothing to do with what's going on in the passage so rather than being about homosexuality i want to suggest to you today that this text is about ancient rules of hospitality not homosexuality but hospitality the request to rape lot's guests was a violation of ancient near eastern cultural norms about how people ought to treat those who were strangers and guests in town and foreigners and aliens and how we ought to treat those who are the most vulnerable among us such people are those who have no access to the resources and the accommodations that those on the inside have this text is about the obligation we have to help those who are new in town and the closest analog that i have is whenever we used to drive down to lawndale north carolina i don't care whose house you came into as soon as you walked into the house they were going to offer you something to eat have i got a yes that's just a part of the norm that's just a part of the protocol that when someone is a guest in your house and when someone is a guest in your town they are unfamiliar with the way of doing things they may not know where the restaurants are they may be tired after their journey they may not have the money and so your obligation is to welcome them and to accept them to include them and to show them fair treatment when guests came to town when new people moved in you were to bring them some pie you are you were to welcome them to town and you were to make sure that they felt at home they they ought to keep them from being felt feel feel as if they're outcasts and they ought to be made to feel as if they are a part of the community church like they are part of the family church that is how the ancient writers of antiquity understood the depravity of sodom and gomorrah when you read the other books of the bible particularly the old testament texts none of them name homosexuality as why the two cities were destroyed you don't believe me just think about how the prophet ezekiel understood the sin of sodom in ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49 where he says quote she and her daughters were arrogant they were overfed and unconcerned they did not help the poor and the needy amos in amos chapter 4 verses 1 and 11 the prophet amos prophesied the destruction of israel for following sodom's example of get this oppressing the needy and crushing the floor i'm trying to help some bible thumpers here isaiah chapter 1 verses 10 through 17 referred to israel going the way of sodom and gomorrah for failing to reprove the oppressor and beings for failing to be just to orphans and widows that's in the bible no reference to same-sex relationships and so the sin of sodom and gomorrah according to the witness of the bible itself was about a lack of justice done in the name of society's dispossessed says scholar de la tour it is about god's anger consuming the city because of the dominant cultures refusal to show hospitality to those residing on the margins of society i'm trying to help the religious right here god destroys the cities because he stands in opposition to those who seek to oppress and to dehumanize the other in the name of god this text should not be used as a weapon against our lgbtq sisters and brothers instead it ought to prompt us to welcome and to include and to streak the strange of the alien and the most vulnerable among us with fairness and equity and inclusion and we should not get in our pulpits pontificating and abusing the bible to misuse those who are in our pulpits and the reason god commands his children then and the reason god commands his children now to love the stranger to welcome the stranger to include the stranger is because they themselves know what it's like to be the other the reason god admonishes israel uh to welcome the stranger is because at one time in their past they understood what it was like to be a stranger in a new land are y'all listening in leviticus chapter 19 verses 33 and 34 scripture says when a stranger resides with you in your land you shall not wrong him the stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens you shall love him get this church as yourself and here's why for you we're strangers in the land of egypt are you listening to me here today that is the refrain that we see time and time again in the word of god in leviticus in exodus in numbers that you should treat others with kindness and inclusion and you should welcome others you should include the strangers for you yourself were strangers at one time in the past and god destroyed sodom and gomorrah for their inhospitality towards those who are different to those who are strangers and the reason it angered god so much is because inhospitality is a sign of ingratitude on the part of the recipient of god's favor when you are a beneficiary of god's grace and when you are a beneficiary of god's love and when you yourself are a beneficiary of god's favor and welcoming and you do not include somebody else [Music] god is saying you can't be rude and mean and nasty to strangers because you yourself ought to know what it's like to be a new person in the classroom i dare you to be inhospitable to others when god protected you and shielded you and was a refuge to you to be inhospitable was to say to god god what you did for me i got mine now let them get theirs i got my job to let them figure it out themselves to be inhospitable was to develop spiritual amnesia as if god did not save you as if god did not clothe you as if god did not pick you up and turn you around as if god did not deliver you and heal you and make a way for you and open a door for you [Music] and so god destroyed sodom and gomorrah for their arrogance and for their pride god's judgment did not come to the cities because the men of the city were same gender loving it was because god commanded his people then and god commands his people now to treat the stranger with the same care the same compassion and the same equity that god showed you yourself so the next time you are confronted with how to treat someone who is different who is other you want to receive them you want to let them in you want to look for ways to include them to give them access to accommodations and if you have to decide whether to treat them fairly or to not treat them fairly don't justify your hatred and your bigotry by hiding behind the bible leave a god out of that don't use the bible as a cover for your bigotry towards mexicans and muslims and trans of people leave god out of your hatred towards those who look different believe different and act differently so what does all of this suggest well it suggests that we must be careful church about the platitudes and the claims that we make based upon the bible yeah because we've heard it for decades and centuries that this story is about condemning homosexuals and same loving people this this teaching suggests that you better be careful about the claims you make about the bible or it suggests that we ought to be uh careful about the authority which with with which we speak or else we ourselves could be guilty of biblical malpractice we must be careful that we don't misuse the text that we don't unknowingly marshal the bible in defense of harming others that that we don't use the bible to advance ideas that have nothing to do with god and have everything to do with furthering our own narrow beliefs and biases and bigotry i was just on a panel the other day i was just on this panel and uh there was someone on the panel who talked about denying uh same gender loving people wedding cakes and they were gonna deny same gender loving people rights and opportunities because they were just defending their beliefs they were just defending their faith they said and i said okay are you going to defend are you going to deny people cakes if they've been divorced are you going to deny cakes to people if they uh are guilty of gluttony yeah they eat too much are you gonna deny people cakes because they lie because you think that all of these things are no you're not defending your belief you're defending your biases and god is not on the side of defending your biases the same way the bible was used to justify slavery to defend jim crow to deny rights to women and blacks and gays so it has been used to cast dispersion on the the divorced against christian singles seeking to live a responsible sexual life this story is one example of how you can go your entire life thinking the bible says one thing and you can be completely wrong some of you are listening to me right now and you are wondering how in the world can a black baptist preacher stand in a church and say what he is saying because it goes against everything i learned in sunday school everything my granddaddy told me everything my mama my great just because you learned it a certain way does not mean it's the right way therefore therefore this story and how it has been used and misused ought to challenge us to be a little less dogmatic about what we claim about god it ought to cause us to be a little less rigid and to be more open when it comes to our faith claims about god because i've discovered that faith in god is not about certainty certainty is involves the scientific methodology and then it involves a repeatability and the scientific method of proving something but faith is not a closed system that assumes that i know all there is to know about life and about god and about god's children and about god's creation faith in god is not about putting god in a box faith in god is about trusting god with what we don't know oh i i thank god i thank the old saints because we used to sing this song growing up and it has become a badge that applies to my fake journey with god they used to sing will understand it better glory to god by and by there's some things that i may not understand right now but one of these old days when this life is over we'll understand it better by and by faith in god is not static faith in god is dynamic and a genuine faith is is open to new insights genuine faith is open to new data and new interpretations that enable us to look into a glass dimly and to think oh i understand it better have a got a wit this sermon is designed to get us to think outside of the spiritual and moral and cultural boxes that we have been in and that we have put god in this sermon is designed to help us to make space for the other for those who are knocking on our doors who are begging an entrance to our land it is designed to help politicians and preachers and people on the street corner welcome all of god's children regardless of their color regardless of their race so the next time you are tempted to exclude people and base it on the bible leave god out of it the next time you are tempted to deny people equal treatment under the law and use genesis 19 as justification leave god out of it because in the eyes of god we are all god's children red and yellow black and white we are all a precious in the lord's sight have i got a witness here i i believe that this text is the analog to the new testament story of the good samaritan where the priest and the levite on their way to church looked past and they stepped over the man who was robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road half dead because they had more important things to do this text genesis 19 far from being about excluding people is an admonition to the body of christ to include all of god's children have i got a witness here the rich the poor the white the black the christian the buddhist the hindu the atheists for that matter because we are all accepted and loved in the eyesight of god so leave god out of it the next time you are tempted to look down on the ex-con or the drug addict or the pregnant teenager leave god out of that because god is fundamentally a god of inclusion not a god of exclusion come on put your hands together and give the lord some praise today amen listen i know that this message is going to challenge some of you and i just want to ask you to just let it sink in your hearts just ask the lord to minister to you and the same way that the lord told israel the reason you ought to include others is because you yourselves were strangers and each and every one of us listening right now were without were outside of the household of faith when we were in sin and god let us in and so if god did it for us we ought to be able to do the same for the least of god's children i i want to i want to ask you before you resist the message i want you to pray and and ask the lord to reveal new things and reveal new vistas and new horizons for you when you walk with god and then others of you i hope it's blessed you because so many people today are turned off by the bigotry the the narrowness the intolerance that they're hearing from so many christian pulpits today i believe that god has a big tent and that god will leave the 99 and go after the one god calls us to to be a house for all of god's people and so when you're tempted to hate when you're tempted to distance yourself from something or someone that's different don't base it on the bible don't use the bible to hide your bigotry leave god out of that and ask god to work on you and to to speak to your heart to help you to just try to learn about those who are different from your background and your understanding and i think you'll discover that really we all want the same thing amen we all want to live in safe neighborhoods we all want to have strong families we want to have decent education for our children we want to have quality health care so we have more in common than we have that distinguishes us that i believe is the witness of the church and the witness of the gospel if you're listening and you want to join this church i want to appeal to you right now don't wait send us an email to join at mount enin.org let us know that you want to get connected to this church you want to give your life to christ even we will follow up with reaching out to you if you tell us to email you or call you and help you pray the prayer of salvation and we'll help you get connected to join mount inan baptist church now listen before we dismiss if you have yet to give i want to appeal to you right now my sister my brother make a decision today to give unto the lord let us not forsake our responsibility to sow into the kingdom of god and so i want to appeal to someone listening right now to sow a special seed a sacrificial seed go to your checkbook write out the check put it in the envelope put the stamp on it get it ready for the mailbox tomorrow others if you take out your phone right now and sow a seed to the number on the screen right now take out your cell phone come on let's do that let's do that right now you are my strength come on take out your cell phone and sew a special seat right now we're going to pause i'm going to give you that chance to sow a seed right now take out your phone text the amount of you're giving to the number some of you can give ten dollars some a hundred somebody a thousand right now god is going to speak to you right now to give let's do it and i'm so excited about our journey to becoming debt free i updated you last sunday we're going to be debt-free as a church not by the end of next year now by the middle of next year by the end of june of next year we're going to be debt-free and i prayed to god the other day and i said lord by the time we have the pastor's 18th anniversary in may of next year let us be debt free i want to be able to stand before you uh on my 18th pastoral anniversary and announce that we are debt-free that we paid off our 30-year mortgage in 18 years amen i'm a pr i promise you i'ma run around the church on that day amen so let's do that so so so right now others of you go to online giving click click give online and give right now some of you need to make it recurring amen i'm so are you excited come on are you excited about what god is doing in this branch of zion amen amen well praise the lord we thank the lord from ministry of music and worship you've heard all of the notices and announcements let us pray father we thank and praise you for this day this worship experience lord ground our faith in you so much that we trust you with that which we don't understand keep us lord from being guilty of biblical malpractice keep us forgive us if we have used the bible to berate people to exclude people to mislead people even in our sincerity forgive us and then lord help us to be ambassadors of love and freedom and inclusion all in jesus name be with us this week god we pray for our nation we pray for our world our communities our homes now may the grace of our lord and the sweet communion of the holy spirit rest rule and abide with us henceforth and forevermore let all of god's people say amen amen and amen you'll be blessed go in peace i'll see y'all next time god bless have you downloaded our app just visit your apple or google play store via your mobile device type mount in baptist church and hit download for all the latest information visit our website at www.mounteen.org and for those who are local to the dc metropolitan area you can catch up on previously aired sermons you can tune into channel 8 at 4 pm on sunday all are welcome to join us on wednesday september 22nd for virtual morning bible study at 10 a.m you may register on the church's website join us on wednesday september 22nd for virtual bible study at 7 pm you may register on the church's website all youth grades 7 through 12 and college students are invited to join our virtual freestyle friday on friday september 24th we will discuss i'm not perfect i'm a christian for more information see the church's website new members who have not completed new member orientation are encouraged to attend our virtual class on saturday september 25th at 9 00 am you may register on the church's website [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Mt. Ennon Baptist

Views: 641

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: FYfLMQdP018

Length: 66min 57sec (4017 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021