Adam Durso | “Pad The Ropes” | Christian Cultural Center

[Music] i'm free from lying i'm free from cheating i'm free from any addiction i am free my breakthrough is here lord i give you the very thing that was holding me in bondage lord i i trade you from my burden to your burden lord i pray that you give me the strength to let go of the things that are hindering me to become a better father a better mother a brother a better husband a better wife a better son a better daughter lord i ask for freedom right here right now lord empower me to succeed in his very prayer and request but i pray for strength i pray for the courage to do right over wrong i pray for the wisdom to understand and watch looking for the principles in the situation the patterns in the situation so lord touch my eyes touch our eyes to see the breakthrough not just ask for the breakthrough but see the breakthrough see ourselves in a better condition so lord i ask that you have your way as you prepare us for a word in season from the man of god lord you are a great god a good god and we know that no matter how bad it looks if you are involved in it only goodness is inevitable so we stand an expectation for the move of the holy spirit freedom breakthrough in jesus precious name amen and amen and amen oh good morning and grace and peace i bring you greetings on behalf of dr bernard dr not is not with us today he is now being used by god to minister to some people out in jersey i'm excited though because we have a great message coming uh today but just a little bit of housekeeping don't forget next sunday we're gonna be in the building people in the building we have a special guest you know uh sinatra she's the one who sings way make a miracle work okay i can't sing i know i can't sing but i'm so excited about next sunday and then we're gonna start being in the building twice a month and based on the way the month lays out please listen up for announcements please look up look uh at our social media uh instagram facebook twitter our website just to make sure that you stay current and up to date go to the app the app is the most current uh aspect of the ministry right now we try to update that as much as possible so please make sure that you're intentional about finding out information of what the church is providing for our people once again i'm excited uh so i was talking to pastor adam and pastor adam was like you know i asked him i was gonna say you know pastor actually i'm gonna preach last minute again so we were going back and forth and i said pastor adam what would you preach and he started talking about what he would preach i said man i'm going to have to humble myself because god is giving you a word and season for our people and i want to introduce my brother pastor adam to the stage to bring a word in season for you thank you pastor jamal my brother my best friend i am so privileged and honored uh to preach this morning behind this pulpit this sacred desk as it has been called i honor my spiritual father and pastor pastor a.r bernard and so let me get right to the text colossians chapter four and beginning with verse two devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful and pray for us too that god may open a door for our ministry so that we may proclaim the mystery of christ for which i am in chains pray that i may proclaim it clearly as i should be wise in the way you act toward others make the most of every opportunity let your conversation be always full of grace seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone i am excited this morning to bring a message to you the apostle paul had never met the church at colossae he is writing this portion of scripture from his first time in a roman jail and he's writing to come against the false teaching that has begun to pervade the church where christ is just another god he's like everybody else and he wants to make sure he emphasizes the supremacy of christ he's not just everybody else he is the visible image of the invisible god he is the firstborn from among creation and so we get this portion of scripture as he's about to wrap up his letter he says devote yourselves to prayer this is not necessarily a call to a modastic lifestyle this is not necessarily a call so that you live on your knees with your laundry list of just stuff that you want to ask god for devoting yourselves to prayer is not being the weird person at starbucks that has to pray for their drink order can i just say that to you starbucks is hard enough to order all by itself you don't need to pray and ask him whether or not you should get a caramel macchiato it's already hard it's not small medium and large they went with a whole different system this is what the bible says devoting yourself to prayer is the posture it's the understanding the omnipotence and omnipresence of almighty god the supremacy of christ christ the hope of glory god the omnipotent one the all-powerful one and yet he's omnipresent he's everywhere he's in the midst of everything that i'm going through in the midst of every circumstance in the midst of every family decision be watchful be aware and be thankful he couples it be aware of the omnipotence and on the presence and all sufficiency of christ and be thankful you see the easiest way to turn off the faucet of god's blessing is to simply not be thankful whatever you don't celebrate eventually you will forfeit in your life and so we come to a place they say god i want to give thanks a matter of fact the other thing that's great about thanksgiving is that when you are giving thanks to god you know it's not coming out of your mouth complaining in the middle of whatever you're going through when you can say god i want to thank you for what you brought me through i want to thank you god for where i am i want to thank you for my marriage i want to thank you for my children they may not be what i want them to be i may not my marriage may not be where i want it to be but i'm thankful god that you've kept me and my wife this far last weekend uh we uh we're we're gonna get a a hurricane and and and so i i was supposed to preach in the in the bronx and and and so i i we wound up canceling that and and and i was trying to get my son up to school and it was all types of complexities and we had to get home before the weather was going to hit and i don't know about how it is in your house but in my house uh uh preparations for a hurricane mean uh cold cuts i i don't know how that works in your home but in my home it's bread it's ham it's cheese and it's barbecue barbecued potato chips because my wife of 21 years she loves some barbecued potato chips and so i went out i was the person with with everybody in the grocery store with the line around the store trying to get all my stuff together and and and so i i got it oh my i i we we got everything ready and then the storm didn't really hit if y'all remember seemed like it passed over i don't know about y'all i felt a little bit gypped in that moment but whatever and so i i'm dealing with it and the sun starts coming out by by sunday afternoon and uh and then my my son uh daniel says uh dad you know the sun's out it's not raining it's not there's no flooding we can can can i take the car now he had gotten his license literally five days earlier i'm like okay uh you wanna take the car out he's like yes i wanna i wanna make a run to the dollar store i don't know if y'all have been to dollar tree i'm surprised every time i walk in there i don't know why i'm surprised i should just believe the title of the store but everything is under a dollar it's absolutely amazing and so he's gonna go into dollar tree and so i'm like okay son go ahead you take the car and go do it he takes the car five minutes later i get a phone call dad i got into a car accident you could hear the trembling in his voice you could hear he was shaken up quite a bit i asked the first question son are you hurt is everything okay are you are you in pain anybody goes no i'm i'm just i'm just shaking dad i just i'm just shaking i said okay here's what i need to do i need you i'm gonna come meet you exactly where you are uh i need you to pick up the phone i need you to dial 9-1-1 call the police don't get out of the car until the police come i'll meet you i'll meet you right there i don't know if that's ever happening it was my first time as a dad my middle son you show up and on the scene are three police cars with their sirens and lights on you've got two ambulances with their lights on and it is a scene and all of a sudden worry and anxiety try to settle in but that's when you need to remember this portion of scripture in the midst of your crisis devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful and then at that moment i i saw the i saw my my suv that had been had been crushed it was totaled it was uh the airbags deployed and then i saw my son and i thought how much worse it could have been he walked away from the accident he didn't have to go to the hospital somehow something was someone was watching over him i came to tell you this morning that there are times there are things that you haven't even seen or known where god stepped in the middle of what tried to come and kill you and you need to be thankful this morning if you are still standing if god has brought you thus far it is time to be thank thank you lord could have been wiped out it could have been me god i'm thankful god i may not have everything i want but i have everything that i need he said devote yourselves to prayer being both watchful and thankful and then the apostle paul says and pray also for me the apostle paul prayed also for me i mean he's the apostle paul but the apostle paul understands that prayer is fostered in community we pray one for another it's the place where we can be vulnerable when we can we can share our deepest needs and allow somebody else to engage with us where two or three where where we come into agreement where we share what's going on and yet the church of jesus christ is suffering a problem because we've gotten used to doing church in isolation and that's not healthy my brother my sister take advantage of the opportunities that our church provides prayer in the morning prayer on friday night men's bible studies times for our marriage and our single people to get together in community because it's in community where prayer and faith are fostered pray also for me i'd like to stop here for a moment and say this too this is why it is so imperative that we pray for our leaders because you have no idea what they're going through you have no idea you you look at our leaders we look every week pastor bernard and pastor jamal and they sit up here and they deliver a word you have no idea what they're dealing with what they've been going through you've got no idea what what has brought up to that moment and let me tell you it is imperative that is a church we pray for the matter of fact i'm a stop right now and i'm going to say wherever you're watching this i want you to stretch out your hands toward that screen we're going to come into agreement father god i thank you for pastor bernard i thank you for our pastor i thank you for pastor karen i thank you god today for pastor jamal and for lady rita i thank you god for every brother every sister every child every grandchild i pray god your blessing on them i pray a hedge of protection around them i pray that every weapon that has been formed it shall not prosper we declare finances we declare wholeness we declare health we declare joy we declare peace watch out over every one of our pastors our elders our ministers this day every leader god every one god who has given to us and shepherded lord and help shepherd the flock here at ccc bless them lord i pray in the name of jesus would you say amen right where you are you see the apostle paul he understood pray also for me but listen to what he prays for he doesn't pray he doesn't pray an exit he prays for an opportunity the apostle paul says pray also for me for us so that god may open the door not to the prison cell that god may open a door for our message what this is the problem so many of us every time we're in the midst of difficulty and pain we're praying for an exit but what you don't realize is your pain has a purpose the reason god hasn't allowed you to exit where you've been is because god's trying to teach you a lesson and open up a door for opportunity what you need is not necessarily an exit or deliverance what you need is an opportunity for the gospel often times where your pain is and where the comfort of the gospel intersects that is the ministry god has called you to that's the place where god's gonna call you to minister comfort that's the place with the comfort we ourselves have received from god we comfort others how else would you know what they need how else could you effectively minister the gospel lest you could resonate unless you could have empathy for somebody else i understand that oftentimes in my life before they understand or resonate with my truth they resonate with my pain many times i've shared this i don't know how many of you know but my wife and i we've been married 21 years and i'm married to an incredible puerto rican woman and we're going to be 22 years in december and we had three kids under three at one point i i don't know what we were thinking i'm not sure what was going through our minds but we had three under three and then uh i mean we got out of pampers and formula it was like it was like the red sea closing up you don't go back to egypt and so we we we we we had three justin is my oldest daniel is my middle son and and and and nicolette and she's my baby girl she's going to run a small country one day and so i'm excited uh to tell you that uh we saw god in our family and so as a result we began to minister and we're ministering in the church and we're ministering we've got this big youth group at the time in brooklyn and queens and my son is now three and he's not talking and the doctors start to let us know that some things are behind some things are not right there's something that's happening that's just not we walk into the doctor's office it was almost 19 years ago now my son they said he'd never be in a regular classroom he'd never play on a regular sports team and he'd never travel more than a couple of miles away from the home and it was devastating to us it was devastating because in the midst of ministry in the midst of seeing god move in the midst of god doing something great we just god was god how could you let this happen it felt like a punch in the gut that david had ziklag he the bible says and he prayed until there were no more tears to wheat we were devastated here's what's interesting as we began to deal and go through what we were going through with our son we started to run into other families who also had children with special needs we started to begin to minister to families because we resonated with what they were going through we started to pray one with another encourage one another and i i realized that there was something that was happening beyond just the typical church deal it was people in a real situation resonating one with another we uh we opened a room in the church that we created for kids with special needs we had all the sensory devices we got some of the best educators to volunteer the time because we realized there were families whose kids couldn't go to the children's ministry and otherwise they they would be they couldn't handle them and they couldn't sit in church because the music would stimulate them and they would have to be asked to leave and it was it was really a horrific situation and and so to to to let the neighborhood know that we were going to provide this for kids with special needs um we just said we're going to host a christmas party and we brought into the sanctuary frank snow and we we brought in santa claus and we brought in a whole bunch of things and and 120 families showed up 90 of these families had never darkened the doorstep of our church before kids with adhd and down syndrome and autism and others they began to walk in and we were able to minister to them and be able to share the comfort of the gospel my wife and i were able to share the comfort that we had received not because it had all been over not because the the destination had been complete not because everything was fine and justin got healed in one moment no no no because we were walking through the journey with others pray also for me i'm glad to tell you that it didn't happen necessarily in one moment it wasn't one altar call it wasn't one service it was a journey it was a progression but now my oldest boy he is a sophomore in university in fact he's been national honor society member four years in a row my old my oldest boy that they said would never play in a regular sports team played varsity tennis four years in a row and my son who they said would never travel more than a couple of miles away from the house has been with me to africa three times tokyo thailand and all around the globe what am i telling you what i'm telling you is in the midst of your pain in the midst of your difficulty god wants to give you a message so that you would take the gospel of comfort that you have received and minister to other people with it the apostle paul says pray also for me not for an exit but for a door of opportunity that our message might be proclaimed about christ for which i am in chains proclaimed that i pray that i'll proclaim it clearly making the most of every opportunity and then he gives us the spirit he said look your your conversation the way you present it make sure it's full of grace seasoned with salt full of grace seasoned with salt i my family from multiple generations comes out of the food business and i'm not sure you're aware or not but often times when you uh when you when you come into um uh uh uh uh a restaurant sometimes they'll put uh salty peanuts or they'll put uh they'll put some uh they'll put some salty pretzels on the table or sometimes it'll be uh cheese or things that will engage your your your your thirst it'll it'll it'll cause uh you to salivate you'll all of a sudden begin to um you you'll begin to get thirsty i think i think some of you thought that that was just the the restaurant being uh really really gracious and and that that's awesome that's that's that that's great no no let me let me be clear it has nothing to do with the restaurant just being generous and wanting to give you free food what they want you to do is order another drink they want you to order something more so that the the thirst that's been uh cultivated in your mouth based on the salty things that they gave you what would cause you to get more thirsty it's interesting because too much salt will make you choke if it's over salted it'll make you choke but just the right amount of salt creates an appetite could it be that the apostle paul was trying to get us to think about engaging people in such a way so that we might create a thirst for the gospel full of grace seasoned with salt there's a portion of scripture in the book of jeremiah the prophet has been thrown into a well a cistern a well without water as he falls to the bottom of the cistern i'm not sure maybe it was wet at the bottom but it was clear that at this moment jeremiah felt the sting of hopelessness i don't know if you've ever been around darkness that is so dark it's no longer simply the absence of light it actually has a tangible feeling about it he's in the cistern by himself he calls he cries he shouts nobody can hear him it feels like the heavens are like brass in the midst of his pain and difficulty he's left there for dead just like joseph's brothers did they didn't quite want the blood to be on their hands but it will just leave him for dead they leave the prophet jeremiah is all alone cold nights heat during the day dark and hopeless and then the bible says that a man named ebed melech hears about what's happened to jeremiah this guy ebed melek he's he's an interesting person in the bible because we don't really hear about him before or after but his name literally means servant of the king servant of the king he's an ethiopian a cushite the bible says an african matter he's not part of the chosen people he's not necessarily regarded as as one of the chosen that would be used and yet he's got enough bandwidth in his life to be able to hear about the plight and the need and the difficulty and the crisis and the trial of somebody else this is why the apostle paul links the two right there's devote yourself to prayer make sure you've got enough bandwidth in your life because if your life is only filled if your prayer life is only filled with the laundry list of needs you have you'll never listen for the need of somebody else and yet god wants to use you not just for your stuff but you have no idea that the deliverance for somebody else might be on the tip of your tongue we overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony and because we're so consumed with us we don't have the bandwidth and the margin to say god let me hear the need of my brother my sister and what they're going through their difficulty what they're facing what's going on in their marriage or their children eben melek we don't know a whole lot about him we know he's his name means servant of the king we know he's an outsider and not necessarily included as one of the ones that that should be used by god and we know this he's got enough margin in his life to hear about the plight and the need of somebody else so ebed melech servant of the king says we got to do something about it we've got to make sure jeremiah gets out of this pit out of this hole out of the darkness out of the hopelessness out of what he's facing and what he's going through and so he gathers some men and they say we're going to go and we're going to pull him up we're going to pull him up out he takes 30 men and they go to where jeremiah is and i began to think to myself why would you need 30 men to lift a half starved prophet out of this pity there's no way you need that many guys and here's what i began to realize they needed to protect the deliverance process from those that wanted to keep jeremiah in that pit you see there are some people who like it better that you're in bondage there are some people who like it better because your freedom reminds them of their bondage there were people who threw jeremiah into that pit that wanted him to stay where he was and these men formed a wall they were going to protect the deliverance process sometimes when you are in the act of wanting to see somebody else delivered you've got to call some people so they create a hedge of protection and prayer that says god we are going to believe you for deliverance and no enemy no demon in hell no principality or power is going to keep them there those other men weren't there to lift jeremiah those other men were there to create a wall of protection that's why whether it's a gathering on wednesday nights from orlando and the bible study that's going on icb or the other times when we gather in prayer in the mornings or on friday night they're so important why we need a wall of prayer we need somebody to say pray also for me you don't know what i'm dealing with my son you don't know what i'm dealing with my daughter you don't know what my marriage is like you don't know what i'm dealing with what i'm going through you need people in your life you can say i pray also for me amen melek takes those men they form a wall around the pit that jeremiah is in and they begin to lower the ropes and as they begin to lower the ropes they say jeremiah you're going to put the ropes under your arms and we're going to lift you up out of the pit that you've been in i think i think the ropes they they represent the gospel and the ropes we're going to see god pull some people up out of their pit today but as a jeremiah as they're about to begin to pull as they're about to begin to lift all of a sudden jeremiah e ben melik says wait don't pull them up yet i wonder the confusion of the men around him this is what we came to do we we came to see jeremiah lifted up out of the pennies and he just says wait you don't understand if we lift them up like this the ropes are going to dig in to the half-starved prophet we've got to pad the ropes all of a sudden ibed melech starts to take out old rags or towels and says no no jeremiah you've got to put this in between the ropes and your flesh because in the process of your deliverance we might actually injure you further there are people who are well-meaning who want to see other people delivered but because they don't do it with empathy they injure the injured and they wound the wounded we actually could put ourselves in a position where we injure further those who have been dropped into a pit one commentator wrote it this way he said it's instructive that eben malek went about his work of deliverance in a thoughtful compassionate way knowing how the naked ropes would cut into the limbs of a half-starved jeremiah in other words when we're ministering to others let us lead with empathy let us lead full of grace season with salt because it could very well be that in our attempt to see somebody lifted up out of their darkness and their hopelessness and our attempt to want to see them freed from the circumstance and situation therein we might actually injure further those who have already been wounded and injured by life i want to encourage you devote yourselves to prayer be watchful and thankful have have enough margin in your life so that you could hear the needs of others not just yours i want to encourage you have a group of people in your life that you can say pray also from me that's one of the things i love about pastor jamal i have a relationship with my brother where i could text him i could call him at the end of my day and say look just pray also for me and sometimes i don't even have to be specific because i'm in the middle of it and i can just say hey just whatever god puts on your heart i want you to know just pray for me too because we need each other number three in the process of deliverance make sure you lead with empathy make sure before you point out all their wrongs you remember where the pit god took you from where was the place he brought you up out of what was the place where you know that only god could have found you because when you weren't looking for him he came looking for you and so you pad the ropes full of grace seasoned with soul let me help you up why because we understand where god took us from but this week maybe you're the one who felt like you've been in a pit maybe you're the one who feels like you've been in a whole week long maybe you're the one who feels like i've been calling and that feels like the heavens are like brass and the hopelessness and the darkness is so tangible i could feel it i can sense it it's all around me and i need god to show up on this day today god today i need you to show up i'm glad that the word says today is the day of salvation today is the day of deliverance today is the day we're in the midst of your darkness in the midst of your difficulty in the midst of the whole that you feel like you've been in god could be your deliverer he's the one who's close to the brokenhearted underneath are the everlasting arms of god and every time i read that scripture i remind myself it's not so much that i hold on to him as much as he holds on to me wherever you're watching this on an iphone or an ipad on a television screen on a laptop i want you to bow your heads right now and i want to pray for you i want to pray that today you would be the one you see you can't minister to somebody else without god first not ministering to you with the comfort you yourself have received you comfort others i want to pray that the comforter will come to you right where you're at today what your head's about and your eyes closed father god you know every single person that's watching this right now you know every difficulty you know every trouble you know marriages that are in difficult places god you know children that have spun out of control grandchildren you know those who are facing financial difficulties difficulties in their health you know those that have feel like they're in a in a hole of anxiety and fear that cripples them matter of fact i'm believing god right now somebody is watching this and you have felt like the attack of anxiety god wants to deliver you from that hole today every difficult place every place of torment and hopelessness today is the day that god wants to meet you where you are god show up in their life show up right where they are show up right where they're watching this even right now god and be their comforter be their salvation be their deliverer be the one who parts red seas and dries up jordan rivers be the one who is jehovah jireh their provider god be the one who is their peace be the one god who casts out all fear for perfect love casts out all fear be everything they need today so that they could put their hope and trust in you and father i pray for all of us that as a congregation wherever we are across the world wide web and the globe that god we would be those who lead with empathy that we wouldn't simply look for the exit but we would look for the opportunity that in the midst of our pain it would resonate with other people who are suffering and going through what we're going through so that we might deliver the gospel the gospel of salvation the gospel of comfort and peace that we might be those who lead full of grace season with salt creating a thirst and an appetite for somebody else to want this god we love so much not leading in a way that would cause people to choke on the message we want to deliver help us to remember to pad the ropes lord so that we might be ministers of reconciliation we believe all of this for in the name of jesus we pray would you say amen wherever you're watching that now we're going to go to minister sharon where she's going to share with you if you don't know about this jesus what an amazing word that we've just heard now at this point you may or may not have a personal relationship with jesus christ if you're not giving your life to christ i'm going to lead you in a very simple prayer and if you do have a relationship but feel it needs to be renewed this is the moment as well so just and use my words use your faith and repeat after me father god in the name of jesus i believe that jesus christ is your son and that he died for my sins and that you raised him from the dead and by this statement alone i am saved i thank you for renewing my faith in you i thank you god for this renewed experience we would love to support you in your your christian journey if you don't have a church home we'd love for you to be a member of ccc on the screen below you'll find a telephone number that's where you can connect with us we look forward to hearing from you be blessed [Music] what an amazing word that we've just heard amen wow first of all i want to say welcome if you prayed that prayer welcome to the family of believers welcome to the body of believing like i always say the journey is not easy but it is possible like minister adam adams said pastor adam said he said not only camp yourself around people that will pray for you but camp yourself around people that will help hold you up through the journey of with christianity wow was that a good decision tell me that i was looking to the chat and the chat was going wild and and pastor adam you did your thing thank you so much and for those who don't know pastor adam's a pastor here at ccc he's not a special guest he's just a good brother a brother of mine and i just want to say thank you wow wow wow that was that was like four different messages in one and when he was telling me i said yeah you got to minister that tomorrow i got a good message but you got to minister tomorrow somebody needs to hear that and as as i was looking in the chat you could see how it was resonating with so many people but don't just chat about it live it out make the decision pad the ropes help somebody lead with empathy pray through your pain look for the solution and stop praying for the pain one of the things i see and as he was ministering i saw was you know too often we hear the scripture the text where you know elijah asks he said what's in your hands or you know what do you have your house and and sometimes all we have is pain in our hands but don't forget that we serve a mighty god and he can use that to deliver you and deliver others through your pain so once again thank you so much pastor adam amazing word i'm excited for what god is doing through ccc uh keep your ministers your pastors in prayer maintain a good prayer life for your pastors as you pray for yourself um man that was a good prayer to hand it so i'm gonna end with this as we leave this place but never god's presence jesus is lord period we believe it we proclaim it and we're seeing it come to pass god bless and enjoy the rest of your week

Channel: Christian Cultural Center - Brooklyn Campus

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Length: 42min 4sec (2524 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021