A.R. & Jamaal Bernard | “What or Who Informs Your Values?” | Christian Cultural Center

yes lord okay we're live we're live yes wait but i just got in the chair well i i listen to the song and um the song says you always provide and i think sometimes the conflict is not in the fact that god will always provide but the methodology in which he provides uh because we tend to set us a way that we feel that god should provide when responding to our prayers and we're telling god what he should do and how yeah right so like and that i'm thinking about this um you know and i'm battling should i go into prayer i should go into the statement first but um there's a a uh i was listening to this rapper uh but i listened to rap music yeah so listen to rap music but you're a christian oh you know it's not christian rap music no no but i listen to the rap music good morning everyone welcome morning it is so good to have you with us from wherever you are locally or somewhere across the country the united states or around the world yeah actually so thank you from everywhere on the globe that you're participating with our sunday morning service praise the lord you jump in your seat mess up the whole thing i'm sorry uh just you know because look all right i can't i got to get rid of these yeah you can't no no we're not getting you're not getting anything yeah you can't promote you still could see that right so okay it's a arb coffee shop yes yeah right so you were saying what he's a rapper yeah so he's a rapper and every year his name is uncle murder and um if you don't know who murder is ask your kids and they can help help you understand i don't you know it does he does use profanity and stuff like that but um he does a year-round review you know for the past couple of years he in the gym you just listen to that to stay in touch with pop culture so that you can preach about it right that and to understand my kids huh okay because they use some words i'm like what you're not profanity but just no oh man but just construction of words yes the construction words and new uh phrases and new slangs okay you know some of these things are repeating what i was i had to do now yes i mean you have to do now what i had to do back then yes but you really didn't listen to rap music so the the gap was a lot a lot different generation gap yes so but he he goes and he starts out talking about uh as he does his video review so he talks about everything that happened in 2020 and he talks about how bad the year is and he refers to the death of kobe of how the year started you know january 26 last year kobe died and he made this statement because he's in the church uh as the video starts off with him in the church and he makes a statement he said come on god you must do better hmm right and i think that's a sentiment that's represented for some of the culture not all of the culture not all of the individuals so when i hear that song it speaks to the the the misconception on how we feel god should work right so if you're saying you must do better there must be a standard that you're comparing what better is right in order to make that statement so he must feel that there's a standard of operation that god hasn't met yet okay a guy's not meeting well you know it's funny because i was in a board meeting with major organization christian organization that i'm on the board of directors with and some of the conversation was about the culture and where we are we're going to get into that as we continue the voice four voices of the church and it was this notion the question was about millennials and their disposition and their feelings and i as i thought about it one word came to me and that is disappointment yeah that they are what they represent some 80 million uh american citizens right uh part of the population which is one of the largest since my population the baby boomers and they're the most educated you know a large percentage of them have college degrees but that has not translated into uh the kind of income in the marketplace that they would like to see or the kind of world that they would like to live in so they're they're they're disappointed with the establishment and everything that's represented and included in the establishment the church is a part and the church is a part of the establishment because the church is one of the social institutions by which we judge a culture so yeah i could i could hear that i can understand where it's coming from i don't agree but no i don't i understand where this person may be coming but when i listen to that i don't get offended i said okay uh what role will the church play to reshape that thinking and that's it and that's important because look we believe we've got the greatest message yes and the problem is we have not communicated that message well and we've allowed other things to hijack yeah the message that's what this what we've been talking about for the past couple weeks about the great commission proclamation right discipleship getting maybe making people's followers of christ not of a political party not of a a particular person or or or cultural you know idea but followers of christ and humanitarianism showing the love the life the light of christ to those in need the poor yep you know and those are the things and we have not done a good job in our proclamation because proclamation is not just what you say but how you live yes and how you practice your faith and we we really haven't done a great job uh with that and i think that this is a time of reckoning for the church that god is judging the church uh the body of christ in terms of how we have done with that great commission of proclaiming not just the life death and resurrection of jesus but the implications of that life death and resurrection uh what does that mean to culture to society to morality to the things that we're wrestling through and part of that is understanding the christian etiquette right so so so how do i respond and act as a christian where i still get my point across express my disappointment express my frustration even express my anger but yet do it in a manner that um speaks to the template written in the scriptures yeah yeah right and and we wrestle with that because you got pastors you got the custom pastor you know this guy wait wait yes and and he had some valid arguments because they said he's not going to heaven he said what does romans 10 9 say what does john 3 16 say you know does my cussing eliminate me from going to church i mean going to heaven and i said these are good conversations that we as christians need to be able to have um you know and then even for those who were um tossed and tangled uh detention came up when you heard me talk about the uh law of attraction and i'm not you know and we're gonna get into it yeah that's more faster than i taught back in the early 90s but i'm not going to the extreme of the you know the new era the new a new age christianity or the agnosticism and stuff like that i don't believe we're we're gods you know to be able to create this reality you know because my question is in my reality i create my reality and you create your reality and create two realities come into conflict those realities supersedes right so you know i i i believe that there's a certain way of thinking that makes pushes you towards and by creating reality you're you're you're talking about new age thinking new ways thinking believes that you can create your own reality whatever you believe and manifest it and and live in it which means that you're god yeah all right because only god can can manipulate the material existence and we just believe as christians that god is the only one he supersedes everything and you know we're here for particular purpose and reason part of that purpose and reason is not to create a reality that manifests that supersedes god's desires and will yeah god created the material existence especially humanity to have an object of his love and affection yep so his grace yes and and you know god's presence touches every human being and every aspect of humanity that's what it really means when it says in him we live and move and have our being that's that's what paul was saying whether you believe in him or not his presence touches your life his presence relates to who you are as a person and how you're living out your life yes whether that presence is is bringing a conviction because you're living life outside of his standard of morality you know a set of values but uh you know god's presence is everywhere yes and he touches every human life so the problem of suffering uh chaos disorder violence oppression as we look around and we see all of these manifestations of things and see that that goes back to the reality that that that there was a universal moral law we talked about moral and ethics morality and ethics last week oh yeah people had um attention with the way you articulated um they had a tension with it yes we articulated ethics and bringing up our slavery into it uh so we will i'll bring up that question and we're going to talk about that yes but there's a difference so when we think about morality when we think about what's moral we're thinking about a transcendent universal law paul refers to it in romans chapter 2 when he says in comparing the gentiles to to the jews who have been given the written law of moses right he says when the gentiles do by nature by nature the things written in the law they demonstrate that there is a law written on the human heart on their hearts so there is a universal moral code that you know pricks our conscience in terms of right and wrong conduct so morality is about what's right and wrong conduct outside of any culturally devised rule and regulation and that's the thing morality it transcends ethics it's outside of them so okay but you're you're gonna you're gonna ask me that question yeah we're gonna talk about that because i i kind of went in on [Laughter] but uh i just want to say thank you for all those um who blessed me for my birthday i truly appreciate it i got a card this morning uh and i meant to bring it with me but we had to rush in here from shila and sean and it was just an amazing message uh just it was it was amazing i wish i had it to to read the message but i just want to say thank you for all those who blessed me i truly appreciate it um and uh it came in a good time yeah yeah i was like won't he do it won't he do it you're in church on it yes yeah i did you know and why why we're thanking you thank you for your continued support not just in prayer but financially for this ministry it takes a lot to do what we do and if that continues to expand we've got to buy new equipment in order to maintain our digital presence etc we're thinking about when we go back into the building so thank you for your faithfulness your obedience to god especially when it comes to your giving you know tithe and offering we we appreciate that god not like the government who takes it out of our pay he he allows us to voluntarily surrender in obedience to his word and promises blessing i was talking to someone this person was pretty pretty well off and they brought up the whole tithing and they were talking about remembering you know things that would happen in their favor financially because they consistently tied you know and they told me they decided to just do it automatic i said that's that's the way to do it i've been automatic for many many years just they didn't forget it you know but thank you yeah for your love and your support of the ministry i i i believe was rockefeller he said i'm glad that i created the discipline to tithe on my first dollar wait rockefeller the the rich yes rockefeller okay he tied he tied and he said he said because i that discipline i created on tithing the first dollar was the same discipline i used to tie it on the first million ah yeah because it becomes part of who you are uh a lifestyle and that's that's a whole another right we'll fight against that yes you know it's the old testament rule yeah and if you've got to find some theology to keep so that you don't have to tithe or give off don't yeah do it that's all don't try to justify yourself before god and human beings just don't do it so we redempt the voice because people you know they want they want they want they want uh there's a final one so redemptive voice um right so you know voice you got the um moral voice prophetic voice your humanitarian voice right yeah right oh yeah so redemptive yes all right which is about reconciliation and healing ii corinthians 5 19. god was in christ reconciling the world to himself and he's given us the ministry and word of reconciliation whereas he has sent us sent us as ambassadors all right so that's essentially what they're saying so redemptive voice we we look to redeem humanity not throw it away so we go the extra mile you know and that's the power of the say that again please let the church hit us we we look to redeem humanity not throw it away and we go the extra mile exactly extra mile too often the church can be quite judgmental and condemning because they're struggling to have a standard of righteousness but it often manifests as as legal legalism you know and codes that that you know they insist on with no grace grace and truth work together yeah so the church cannot be the the place of refuge as god intended you know and yet too often become judgmental and and um you know uh condemn people you know instead of helping them understanding look you say look you messed up you did this you made the choice but here's god's grace on it yes let's walk through this together exactly you know with your consequences helping you walk through it you know um yeah so people think of disability that's the place of change that's that's a pivotal point uh repentance yeah change yep so uh moral so redemptive voice yes right which is about healing reconciliation then there's a moral voice which is about a moral standard yes and we hold society especially those in power accountable to a moral standard which is important because you know we bring and we're going to talk about this in greater detail we bring the as a church of a moral value consensus in society and that's important for concord and justice because those issues are not necessarily taken up in the legal codes of a society because you can have unjust laws yes right laws that actually reinforce injustice all right and they'll say so because there's a moral standard and that moral standard is objective right correct right supposed to be it's supposed to be objective well no the god-given the god of the most standard yes objective and we tend to become objective and we try to say because of the whole idea of consistence theory yeah because this is theory just says if the larger masses says this is okay then it's okay yeah right and that's the problem because then we land back at slavery larger i like that good stuff because it relates to what i want to talk about yeah so the larger masses says it's okay therefore it's accepted as uh and that's code and that's cultural interests the cultures yeah and look children say but yeah but so-and-so is doing everybody's doing it yes which is not true but they say that to justify engaging in some activity that may be inconsistent the creator said objective moral code that uh responds to the guilt say it again consistent no consensus consensus yes theory yeah consensus okay so whatever the consensus that should be okay which makes sense because those who want to change the present consensus will try to do so to make it acceptable to the broader society and we can't get the majority to do it we legislate it through the law yeah wow that's good stuff man so we've got the church for voice of proclamation it's a redemptive voice yep uh moral voice and humanitarian voice yes which is simple i mean that's that's clearly understood it's it's us reaching out to the poor the disenfranchised the oppressed those who are marginalized uh within the society what jesus called the least of thee yes you know um he made it clear i was hungry you fed me i was i was naked you clothed me i was in prison you visited me you know um all of those things relate to those in society who are less fortunate you know and we have a responsibility to be our brother's keeper that the stronger bear the infirmities of the weak and that's the common good that's how we come together and that's what's so beautiful about the kingdom of god and his way of doing things um so so yeah so the prophetic voice is actually lost i last rather i got into it because of all this stuff that's been going on in our society for the last several months yes around the election etc but but let me talk more go into the prophetic voice because i have a question uh that was asked to me about the prophetic voice because people say well the the person who prophesied that trump was going to win and be the next president for the next four year wasn't wrong because they felt it was stolen so therefore he still won but my thing is if it was a prophetic voice given by god uh he would currently be the president it wouldn't have been sworn in right by the because you can't change the rules yeah it has to be holistic so if this is what you said you can't just take parts of it and say i'm justified in my prophetic voice there are people who are doubling down yes and look we're not bashing you we're not saying you're not a prophet we're saying you must you miss that's it you missed this one so you know you can double down and dig in you know to try to justify yourself but then it's the question is is that out of your pride or is that because you know you're standing up for god because that's the way people want to make it seem look uh daniel chapter 2 verses 21 beginning at 20 21 22 but 21 it says god is the one who changes times and seasons he sets up kings and he removes kings if we believe that god is in control and he determines who's in power no matter what nations of society no matter what governmental system that god makes that determination for a much broader purpose because he's working everything according to his eternal purposes which he purposed in christ and ultimately everything is to become subject to christ's rulership right then we have to say okay god did that now you can't say that god is the one who puts people in power and then say the devil stole it because that makes the devil greater and more powerful than god so we've got to be consistent in in what we think so there's a redemptive voice the moral voice to uphold the standard of right and wrong conduct especially amongst those in power you know we talked about more morality being guiding principles universal and transcendent guiding principles you know we talked about dr king holding america accountable for issues of race and discrimination right that it was immoral yes essentially and the prophetic voice and again the prophetic voice is not about fortune telling it's not about you know predicting elections and things like that um because remember there's public revelation and there's private revelation and private revelation is open to discussion and judgment public revelation which is the authoritative body of truth in scripture all right that we hold as the authority yes okay public revelation is the body of truth which is in scripture right that we hold as the highest that's the authority that's the authority of the bible the authority of scripture private revelation that's something that we have a responsibility to judge you know some people say you know i went to heaven i went to hell and here's my story i i can't i don't know i can't do that i mean if you talk about what happened in that experience and i can relate some of that to scripture you know what i mean then i can judge the experience but whether you went or didn't go i i don't know you can make a movie about it and all that i mean it's wonderful in terms of the effect that it may have making someone say wow that's amazing beautiful you know but that's good but again we have to be careful when it comes to private revelation and remember the prophetic is predictive to the future all right but primarily analytical to the present because the prophets of old would look at the spiritual moral uh conditions the political and social conditions of society and then speak a word from god because the prophet hears from god and then speaks to the people that's so important the prophet hears from god and then speaks to the people so the prophet becomes responsible for what they think they heard yes because out of what they think they heard they're going to speak so they're responsible all right so uh in luke 21 luke 12 56 uh jesus beautifully says i love this in luke 12 56 he says um and you know backing up we read this last week beginning at verse 54 then jesus turned to the crowd and said when you see clouds beginning reading from the new living translation when you see clouds beginning to form in the west you say here comes a shower and you are right when the south wind blows you say today will be a scorcher and it is verse 56 you fools you know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky but you don't know how to interpret the present times all right the signs of the time is king james language so signs of the times are are prophetic indicators got it prophetic indicators why because they are telling us something about the condition of the culture these prophetic indicators emanate from the character of the culture because whatever the character of the culture is is going to determine the direction that that culture is going to go in the decisions that they're going to make the choices they're going to make the rules the policies that they're going to make the systems and structures that they're going to create all comes out of the character of their culture because essentially your character is your moral and ethical response to everything that's going to the external world everything that's going on again your moral ethical response to everything that's going on around you to the world in which you live right so here's the thing so the prophetic and most importantly as the church's voice the prophetic voice most importantly is the spirit of discernment our ability to look at the spiritual moral social political conditions of the culture and discern patterns trends directions that it's all going in patterns principles because it all reveals patterns everything that god does he does according to a pattern and based upon a principle or precept yep because a precept is a rule that god has the commandment that god has established right so uh the the signs of the times all right reveals patterns principles and trends that are shaping the present and future of the society they're indicators of where things are going spiritually morally ethically legally in terms of law and policy because they're going to be creating out of the character of the culture certain laws or changing laws yeah you see and that's why it is so important that we discern these things so the prophet like i said becomes the radar yes you know the the radar of the society watching you know the the the society's moral direction so it becomes a moral radar system so the prophet through the gift of discernment right is a nation spiritual and moral radar system so instead of trying to predict the future right we should be speaking uh dr billy graham you know in in in in in his career and and and you know i watched his evolution which i respect all right um you know he appealed as a moral voice he appealed to the conscience of america and you look at his old messages and he was saying look this is what's going to happen this is what's going to happen and there are others who are unliked by many in this culture and yet they had a prophetic voice in terms of crying out against what was happening morally in the society you know so there is something as we speak about the prophetic and and let's go to the board because i was thinking about this and our need to understand uh this so importantly there is something in our society called the culture wars now you you've had to have heard of this by now the culture wars and it's really the tension that is taking place and this has been happening in american society for for a long time some look back to the 1960s some look back to the 1920s because the term culture wars actually come from europe where the catholic church came into conflict with what was happening within the society there but culture wars is when there's a tension between what's influencing the culture all right so it's it's traditional and i'm careful with these words because everybody has their definition traditional and conservative values versus progressive and liberal so right here is the tension because politically socially people identify themselves as traditionalists or conservatives people identify themselves as progressive or liberal and you know right and left because essentially this is considered right okay and left you know and and look you may say well what does this have to do with jesus okay all right we're gonna get to you but but definitely there is a tension between these two different ways of looking at life looking at society looking at the way things should be should be organized this is two different ways of thinking and remember romans 12 2 you'll be transformed by the renewing of your what mine mine so jesus expects you to change the way you think the question is how does he want you to think yes all right and the bible doesn't say he wants you to think traditionally conservatively right the bible doesn't say he wants you to think progressive liberal and left so what you have to do is understand okay what are the values morality and lifestyle that's being expressed by these different points of view that's why the conflict is a different way of looking at the world a different way of thinking how the world should be or society should be organized or ordered and a different way of thinking how we should live in it yes very so you have hot button issues so we're going to take some of it on can we all right yes can we take it on yep all right so the hot let me go i'm gonna write this down hot button issues all right so if you're in the chat let's be mature and um and christian like okay notice i i i said conservative tradition i didn't put christians because they're christians who are progressives yes who identify as progress they're christians who identify uh as liberal they're christians who identify as traditionalists as conservatives so this is not about you know your christianity yet yeah it will be it will be all right but what are the hot button issues that are creating conflicts of opinion in response to these issues i'm gonna put it on there abortion yep that's one of the hot button issues another hot button issues oh yeah gun control the politics around gun control uh privacy people feel that their privacy is being invaded as the government gets more reach into you know people's personal lives um how about how about this recreational recreational drug use what are we talking about yeah because a lot of people ask me is it a sin to smoke marijuana if you have that recreational drug use so you have medicinal drug use and laws are being passed and policies right and people are asking is it okay as a christian to smoke to smoke marijuana yeah uh is it okay as a christian to uh grow a platform we're not answering those questions right now generation z is tuning in and telling the millennials all right uh censorship you know what i can say and what i can't say yep and there's been so much hypocrisy from both sides concerning censorship because people want to censor things when it's to their benefits and won't be able to freely speak when it's to their benefits and that's why i tell people i said if you allow them to attack one amendment all other amendments are up for grabs so they say that you know for our the second amendment was dealt with guns they said well the technology of guns weren't there and and uh you know there was um you know the musket you know one shot you know stuff like that now you have uh you can shoot a whole bunch of people real quick they've changed i said well then that's the case and when it comes to the first amendment the freedom of speech the technology wasn't there there was no social media there was no instagram there was no you know all right cell phones you know it was you know so they can use the same argument to go against both of them and if you are okay with one you got to be okay with the other what where did you use arguments yes hold on to that word okay very important word all right how about how about this one sexual orientation yes this gets into the whole lgbtq movement yeah because i have a worldview because so they're being so one-minded you know so nancy pelosi said that we're not going to use uh he she uh you know the whole female thing but she still said she was the best grandmother you know she was talking about her i know you know what it is but the problem is when you look at certain languages they lean heavily on masculine and feminine identity in order to talk about that word to make distinctions yes and make the statements what's going to happen to that language you know so i people come up with ideas and all of a sudden they want to apply those ideas without thinking it through yes you know to accommodate a constituency or a group of voters or something like that i'm looking at spanish italian you know and you look at the the the words and okay well i can't say that you know well like that that and that's what it is so big one a big one um separation of church and you know state so these are the hot button issues you have people for and against yep each one of these items or determining you know what's what's the best way how do we respond and and for me the bigger issue is this because this this has certain implications to it as we think but essentially when you think about culture all right you're talking about values morality and lifestyle what's informing your values so you think about what values valuable morality and lifestyle what's informing or who's informing your values your values are what you stand for what's most important to you right who or what is informing your values who or what is informing your morality who or what is informing the lifestyle that you choose and then we get into choosing because so this is this is what the culture wars is all about and these are very serious issues because you're talking about public policy laws regulations structures systems law enforcement right the judicial system all comes into play with these things and you're talking about people's private lives when you're talking about the issue of abortion or or issue of sexual uh orientation and what people feel about you know who they are physically sexually and all of that all of this stuff comes into play he said well what does that have to do with the church are you serious the the whole idea of separation of church and state which the first amendment all right was written to protect the church from the government so government can can't come in and tell the church what to do how to believe what to believe because when this country was founded it came out of europe who witnessed 70 years of bloodshed and violence happening with the church disagreements within the church people were dying and america did not want to continue that so they made sure there's no uh state religion all right it was against state religion that's the first amendment so it was to protect the the church from being infiltrated by the government controlled by the government but now people want to protect the culture from the church yep so they're going to they're pointing to this whole thing of separation in church and state all right because they want to now protect the culture from the church why because the church brings a moral value consensus that's what we bring and that's necessary for peace for concord for justice those are things that are moral issues the church weighs in on that so now the church is also you know brings a a particular morality and value system that affects all of these things so the church weighs in on the issue of abortion and there's some force some again the church weighs in on sexual orientation so we're saying well you know uh we don't want the church telling us what to do and see that's what the fight is really about let me get you christians in on this so you understand all right all right because the war is not about all this stuff this is what the war is all about who or what determines my values my morality my lifestyle does the government have the right to determine my value system my values or does god have the right to tell me what my value should be to tell to hold me to a set of you know moral standards rules of right around conduct does god have the right to tell me my lifestyle what it should be what it shouldn't be does the government have the right to tell me or do i have the right can i determine what my values should be what my morality should be i should have the right to determine what lifestyle i want to live nobody should have that right but me yep and the problem with that is if there's not a objective standard that we operate with then we're left to judging based on the ebbs and flows of society the shifting mood of society and what what also comes out of that is a there will always be a conflict of values morality and lifestyle that doesn't speak to everybody else's absolutely right it becomes so subjective yep so personal that you'll have chaos and therefore we cannot judge if somebody's going around killing because that's what they feel that's what they feel they do you know i felt like slapping them in the face felt like doing this you can't so there has to be some standard so the question who or what all right tells us how we should live yep and that's the war that's the fight that's really going on it's a war all right to deter it's a war over who determines what's right and what's wrong that's what the war is really about i mean we boil it down to issues like abortion sexual orientation gun control privacy and all that but really it's a war that that's really about what's right yep what's wrong who tells us who determines what's right what's wrong who determines how i should live all right because if that's the case the hitler is not wrong right basically you know the absolute flows no matter what i'm saying but if in that thinking that frame of thinking you know then then you know how do you even judge slavery right because it's not just an american thing it was a global thing slavery didn't you know wasn't just something that happened in america so from a consensus theory right uh on a global scale a lot more people were okay with that until the uprising and the voices saying that started challenging that that theory that slavery was okay and and that's it it becomes subjective to the society and that's a distinction between morality and ethics yep all right excuse me within this society it can be okay those are the rules that's how we live here but there has to be something transcendental i hope i ask you to hold that word argument yes let's look at second uh second mathematicians chapter 10 verse 3 all right reading from the new living translation we are human but we don't wage war as humans do human thinking human philosophy remember all right the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through god in james language we use verse 4 god's mighty weapons not worldly weapons to knock down the what are we warring against what are we fighting against folks here it is for you when you think about spiritual warfare it you know you could spend 24 hours spitting and foaming and screaming and yelling at the demons and pulling down strong yeah what do you think pulling down strongholds but what what is a stronghold it is they're strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments these are arguments that the society is having over those hot button issues and there's much more those are just a hot button one society has its own way of thinking all right so what are we pulling down what is the spiritual warfare that we're engaged in we're engaged in warfare against the way people are thinking and society's presenting their rationalization their logic all right which is against what the scripture says society should be ordered how society should be ordered and the way we should live in it so to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments we destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing god because the knowledge of god is what's critical because once you really know god you begin to reorganize your life you begin to think differently you have a new set of values a heightened sense of morality your lifestyle is affected by it right we capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey christ christ is bringing the mind of god yes the mind of god is in christ and we are being we've been introduced to that mind so it's really uh we we got to look at this this is just so beautiful to understand and ergo that's why truth matters truth matters jesus said i am the way the truth and the life all right so the the way you you live your life matters yes truth matters yes right yeah the light you shine when you're living the truth and the right and the life yeah all that life matters yes the life and dignity of the human person all that matters let's go to psalm 2 the second psalm psalm 2. and this is this is beautiful especially in the new living translation go to it turn to it come on you're studying with us today why verse 1 psalm 2 why are the nations angry why do they waste their time with feudal plans the kings of the earth prepare for battle the rulers plot together against the lord and against his anointed one that's jesus verse 3 let us break their chains they cry and free ourselves from slavery to god stop there this the rest of the psalm is powerful because you know it's it's it's it's a prophetic psalm all right but what is society saying we don't want god to rule over us we don't want god to inform our values to inform our morality to inform our lifestyle so that's why separation of church of state in america has become a big issue because they're saying no no we don't want you to put your religious values and ideas on us all right because we want to be able to choose it's my right america is about rights right it's my right to choose the set of values that i hold the morality that i live by by or don't live by all right and and the lifestyle that i choose i don't want any outside interference or influence that's why the prophetic discerns the character of the culture and then speaks into it from god the prophet hears from god and then speaks to the culture and i will tell you that is the kind of prophetic that we need that is the kind of of of moral radar that we need in our nation and in our society look history shows what happens to a society when there is moral decay and that society declines we could just look at history great empires and great nations that fell not from the outside but from the inside and boy we're way over time yes i know and i think at the core of this is you have to resolve who is at the center of your worldview come on because that will determine how you respond to those hot button issues if self is at the center of your world view then you'll have that tension but if god is at the center of your world view you'll look at it differently yeah you want god to inform me yes and you don't want to argue with god because you believe he's right yeah what he says what if i don't believe in god it doesn't change the impact that these things have on your life remember i said in him paul said it beautifully in him we live and move and have our being so the presence of god affects all human life those who believe in him those who don't believe in him yes but we want you to be a believer because god knows the best way that society should be ordered and the best way to live in it wow that was a lot there was i was i don't know we say that every single day it was good i think this is once again informing uh and teaching and giving words to articulate the conversation because i i you know we can't tell them that they're gonna be challenged and not help them with the challenge yeah right and too often the churches you know church has said okay x y and z but don't tell me how to live in xyz how to operate in xyz so they give us the overall but they don't give us the nuts and bolts yeah right and i think today was the nuts and bolts of that whole idea of the concept of the prophetic voice well i'm glad because people tune in you know i want a word from the lord pasta i want i need to pay my rent you you want to pay your rent get a get a financial plan yes all right you want a word get a financial plan start looking at how you handle your money how you handle your finances look and you got to look back at your whole life you know so look um the the word of god what informs your values who informs your values your morality your lifestyle if it's god if it's the scripture which is the authority that public revelation that we spoke about then it's about aligning your life with the lord and not trying to fit the lord into how you think life should be yep and going back to where we started uh you know that whole provider and how they feel god should provide yeah absolutely good well we hope you've been blessed by it and you're the prayer warrior man people love your prayers i get so many uh compliments and so much feedback from the passion with which you pray that's that's beautiful i just believe there's power in prayer it sure is yeah and i one of the things i have um settled in my spirit is that prayer is powerful prayer is an amazing thing prayer is is i just love to have a conversation with god but i don't create and put god in this box and how he should respond to me while i'm praying or how he should respond to my prayer requests this freedom and liberation and that yeah absolutely absolutely people have to discover that freedom and when you pray here it's intercessory because you you're you're you're you're listening to the holy spirit who is sensitizing you to the needs of the people so people listen say man yeah i can that resonates with me i can feel that i can i relate to that yeah i needed that kind of prayer so that's that's the whole prayer thing and our umbrella theme is prayer and so now when you see the weapons of our warfare are not callable right we've got to pull down we've got to change the way people think that is part of the warfare the scripture says in second corinthians chapter 2 verse 4 i'm sorry chapter 4 verse 4 that the god of this world has blinded the minds of men so people become blinded it's not that they can't think or see it's that the way they're thinking all right is apart from the mind of god so i got a challenge for you saints before we close and we move on to the minister that's going to pray surrender your mind to god 20 21 just to render total surrender of your mind to god and watch how things change in your life that's a boom bam we'll be back yes we close every service by declaring that jesus is lord but we can't do that without giving everyone the opportunity to make him lord throughout this service god has been calling and today we can respond to the gospel the good news the gospel says that a holy god so loved a rebellious world that he sent his only begotten son to live a sinless life die in our place and rise from the grave conquering death and in doing so he paid the price for our sin and gives us a right to everlasting life now you may say i'm a pretty good person i think i'm doing all right but romans 3 23 says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god you may say my life has been pretty hard surely god understands but romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord so how can we be saved romans 10 9 says that if you confess with your mouth the lord jesus and believe in your heart that god has raised him from the dead you will be saved so now we call on jesus repeat after me father i repent of my sin i believe christ died on the cross and rose again to pay the price for my sin i confess him as lord and savior and your word says i'm born again i will never be perfect but i am forever changed i pray in jesus name amen so what now now the journey in christ begins we have some information we'd like to give you so text or call the number on the screen may god continue to bless you your life will never be the same welcome welcome welcome to the family of believers i'm so excited for you i'm so excited for this next journey and this next walk with you so if you receive jesus christ as your lord and savior we just want to say welcome right amen i'm so excited yeah and this is important because what we're talking about today goes back to matthew 6 33 where jesus said seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you but the first part seek first the kingdom of god and the kingdom of god you know i remember the first guy said i thought it was heaven where you go to after you die no but the kingdom of god is much more than that it is a comprehensive way of seeing life that informs our words our thoughts our motives our actions our attitudes and our choices so it says seek first the kingdom of god in his righteous way of doing and being and you become a magnet for the things that others have to pursue often in the wrong way yeah hallelujah hallelujah that's good stuff man all right let's have a prosperity right there that's that's the inspirational aspect so they can okay seek first the kingdom of god let's pray father god thank you so much for this opportunity to learn and understanding uh you know the the voices that we operate in and we understand that the voices don't operate independent of each other but they flow together so lord i pray for us to be able to give us the words at the tip of our tongue as we move in that redemptive voice being seasoned with our talk our speech remembering that while we are responding that there needs to be a redemptive nature and not even our responses so lord i pray for that i pray also for the moral voice that we operate and that you would just bless us with the understanding of of the standard of morality in which you operate hallelujah lord so that will supersede any of our own personal agenda our personal uh desires our personal views on the hot button topics lord i pray that you just touch us in our humanitarian voice give us the desire to go out of the way to respond to the needs of others yes yes we are our brothers and sisters keeper we are there to be one with each other thank you helping our neighbor out and lord our neighbor we understand there's anybody that we're next to so i pray for that lord i also pray for that understanding a clearer understanding of that prophetic voice but right now i pray for the church i pray for the group of individuals that are are unwilling to really apologize and and resolve the fact that they've got this one wrong but i pray also for the ones that are sitting in anger towards those who prophesied and got it wrong i pray that we have a spirit of unity that will just sweep through the christian body of believers yes lord i pray that you just anoint this afresh to do what it is that you have called us to do right now is a time for us to operate and understand the urgency behind how we live our life so pray that you just have your way lord you're a good god a wonderful god thank you lord thank you lord and right now we're just praying ask that you guide god in government our paths pray for protection throughout this week but i prayed that you touch our ears and hear your voice as we meditate on this word yes lord in jesus precious name jesus name amen hallelujah amen hallelujah wow i don't want it to end i want to keep going but we will yes amen amen amen so until next time as we leave this placement of 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: 55min 50sec (3350 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021