A.R. & Jamaal Bernard | "Prayer & Spiritual Warfare: Part 6” | Christian Cultural Center

man that is such an amazing song think about this we're not going back 2020 has redefined a reshape how we do life you know so we're moving forward and we have to step into the future with a positive attitude looking for hope so that song speaks volumes you know we're not going back we're moving forward and that this doesn't speak spiritually but physically mentally emotionally so people they stay focused on our path he just broke right into a sermon man that was a that song went that's one of the songs that israel wrote that really speaks to me you know always staying focused uh like you you preach the message you know uh a man without a vision for the future will always return to their past and uh whenever we are as humans are faced with difficult times we want to retreat back to somewhere comfortable something from somewhere familiar and 2021 is not going to be any anything familiar you know people posting you know oh i can't wait for 2021 like the coronavirus has an expiration date december 31st 2020 it expires you know so so to looking forward into the vision uh the future of what we're doing especially you know 20 20 vision you know it still speaks to us having the necessity for vision in our lives in order to move forward you're talking about change yes something we're going to get into but before we get there questions yes we have questions and thank you uh first of all the remarks they really enjoyed the whole idea of praying and fasting and and somebody asked you know there's a couple of questions one uh rita b which i was like i had to do a double check double checking and she had asked you know how do we approach fasting you know because we spoke about fasting and a need for fasting but you know and i think that's a legit question because uh not only how do we approach fasting is certain fast done for a particular result uh what do we fast how are we fast like that i think they're very good questions let me let me say and i'll speak to the audience on this um when you think of fasting you approach it first of all with humility and asking for god's help because if you try to initiate a fast on your own you're just starving yourself don't do that you want it to be genuinely a fast this is where you and god come into agreement that you are now about to engage in a period of time that you're going to deny your flesh and denying the flesh is not just from food and drink it's about things that you may have an attachment to that is unhealthy so it could be television movies internet people people social uh media platforms you know anything like that um so when you think about fasting it's stepping away from the material world yes so it's not just food and drink all right it it it is really separating itself sort of what quarantine did put us in a situation where we didn't have access to a lot of things that you know we're used to so um fasting is not magical it's a discipline a spiritual discipline that you engage in to bring your flesh under subjection i like what you said it's not magical because some people approach fasting like i'm a fast and then xyz is going to happen they have a whole plan of what's going to happen they're coming out of the fast well it brings your flesh under subjections so that the spiritual you can gain ascendancy so again remember the elevation of the heart and your mind now you're bringing the body into play with that elevation by bringing the appetites of the flesh under subjection you know some people need fast from anger some people need to they use fast from sarcasm you know they're sarcastic some people need to fast from negativism because they're just pessimistic everything that comes out of their mouth is negative and these are christians and the kingdom of god is nate is is positive yes the kingdom of satan is negative so you haven't made the conversion you know from the negative to the positive so fasting is not to be confined to just i'm you know turning down my plate and not eating food it's also making sure that it doesn't become legalistic so if you make a mistake and forget because interestingly enough when you start fasting everybody's inviting you to dinner for lunch and they're going to pay for it and you know it's like picking a cake yeah restaurant exactly everything has to pay attention when you decide what's going on around you uh but also look for a heightened spiritual sensitivity discernment spiritual awareness you look for that to be heightened as a result of your fast because you're moving away from this realm and you're moving into a realm that is spiritual so you become more spiritually conscious yes so that's what you should look forward to so when people think i want to fast so that i can get an answer from god all right usually they want god to answer in the way that they've already determined he should answer yep that's not what it is when you elevate the mind to god and you open your heart all right your perspective changes and maybe you won't get the answer you were looking for because god has a better way than you came up with so prayer is not trying to get god to agree with us it is us coming into agreement with god and that's very very important that we understand that and and so because somebody had said that you know i'm not i feel like i'm not hearing from god and you know going through the process of fasting i i think like you said elevate your discernment and you know then you start hearing or searching to hear god's voice in other areas and not just in one specific way uh you know that's why i appreciate about fasting that synthesize you when you say i'm not hearing from god a beautiful passage in the book of job while he was being afflicted i mean he lost his portion of his great portion of his wealth his family uh physical belongings his wife he turned against him you know and and he said in one of his complaints of the lord he said i i searched for you where you should be and you weren't there you know what i mean so what that indicated is that joe felt job fell into a ritualism in his relationship with god yes and that whole experience adjusted his theology yeah he began to see god and think of god in a totally different way yes a lot of us would come around a lot of people with corona it has readjusted you know the ritualism you know taking us out of the building uh is one of the things learning how to and and and enter into the presence of god without jossie or kelvin or kim on stage you know you know the atmosphere is not said we have to actually have to set the atmosphere at home with you know participating but it heavily relies on us in our house to set the atmosphere for praise as well the church is where the the building rather is where the church meets yes we're the church we're the temple of god we come together to gather in corporate anointing because the whole idea of the ecclesia is a gathering yes an assembly of people that god has pulled out through christ out of the world i'm so excited about the message because you and i we were talking this weekend uh but somebody asked and i know we're going to the message why did jesus go with fast why did he go fast why was jesus fasting well remember he was in all points tempted as we are so in our attempts to draw closer to god fasting is a denial of the flesh so he denied himself going out into the wilderness which was preparation for him to begin his ministry yes 40 days is a long time right and and at the end of that 40 days he was hungry not thirsty he was drinking water likely but you know it was a matter of denying himself from the physical need for food yeah so um he did it to identify with us no that's good yeah he fasted in his humanity yep you know and of course you know people are talking about the spiritual warfare you got to stop teasing us when we're going to have it because somebody reached out and they said you know talked about astrology and uh the enoch uh cipher and things like that and yeah well yeah that's why and and when are we gonna stop teasing about it when the class begins so we're gonna keep teasing right up to the glass i'm sorry i'm sorry but but we're going to get into what is called the pseudopigrapher the apocrypha the apocryphal writings the second temple writings the writings that were not canonized but mentioned in the canonized scripture you know canonization was a process of you know accepting that these books are legitimately inspired by god but there are other writings that were inspired by god but not part of the canon yeah you know and and it depends catholics they have the apocryphal books right as part of their bible so their bible is a little thicker than our bible you know the protestants we we cut those out saying saying that they were they were yeah questionable yeah but i think it's important that we pull from all of these sources because it expresses common beliefs of that particular time period and but that's what makes the bible so unique is that we have substantial extra biblical sources that speak to what the bible speaks to so it actually that's one of the tests they put old books through in order to talk about the validity of the text of the book so it's a i think it's a good tool so when people like oh wow this cannot it's still a good tool to uh read and that's why the work of the early church fathers is important yes because you know protestants we kind of taking it to the extreme and want to just you know push away all of the work of the early church fathers to wrestle through issues like the divinity of jesus you know the trinity you know doctrines of sin the holy spirit hypothetical union all yeah all of that just you know comes together and that was very important so thank god that these individuals were there used by god to really solidify what is core to our belief system as christians today so i told one of the individuals that responded i said well look let's put it this way let's hit the foundation if there's anything that comes into competition with god conflict with what god's teaching us you know or competing with you know the place of god in our hearts did i stay away from it yeah it's idolatry yeah i mean first commandment yes you'll have no other gods before you and and what that means you know idolatry has to do with what you give your devotion yes what you're devoted to your time your talent your treasury your your skills your talents your abilities so it speaks of devotion and if you're devoted to something more than god speak first the kingdom of god and his righteousness all right if you're devoted to something more than god then what you're devoted to is going to shape fashion inform and influence your words your thoughts your motives your actions your attitudes your choices or if you allow the thing that you devote to to supersede what god has already spoken in your life yeah then you know it it competes and that's that's yeah you get torn between two gods yep yep big g one little can't serve two guys that went down come on that's it yes yes all right so pastor you know we've been talking about um fasting and and and looking at you know the brokenness and willingness of the individuals and uh you know the whole sin factor where we we went to it earlier uh we spoke about it earlier a little bit about you know when we were in psalms and you know uh david was talking about you know sin being there and uh some of the issues with sin you know i was i was in a meeting uh last week um part of an organization that i'm now working with and and through and we did a conversation about race and racial tensions and racial issues in america and one of the individuals in the in in the conversation uh they made a comment the question came up about the church's role in moving things forward socially as well as spiritually in our nation and [Music] they asked me you know what do i think the church needs to do and the first thing that i said was the church needs to repent so you know there was a little pushback to that and they said well ah well you know we don't need to have another repentance and forgiveness and all that we keep doing that over and over again and i realized that they were giving a religious meaning to the word repent and jesus never presented it religiously yeah all right yep so repentance in the bible and we talked a little bit about this last week so let's dig a little deeper repentance the word repent so when jesus walked around saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand or the kingdom of god is at hand when john talked about john the baptist talked about repentance all right the the word in in greek is metaneo all right and it means to think differently so it starts off with the thinking yeah yeah because that's where everything begins you know you where you think all right you translate into an action yes it begins you know because that's why when someone does something what do we what do we say to him who were you what were you thinking a lot to me yeah you know what were you thinking so so and i and i have a text here beautiful text in the gospel of luke chapter three that we're gonna go to but when you think of repent a lot of people think of it religiously you know the religious well yeah it's like a ceremony all right um for confession a religious confession and forgiveness ceremony got it so when i said the church needs to repent all right there were individuals in that particular conversation who immediately translated that into a religious context and the 90s was filled with repentance yes you know national leaders the prime minister of of of of the uk prime minister of of uh australia uh bill clinton was president of the united states as you mentioned uh the week before he almost said you know apologize for slavery but we had this whole ten years of of repentance and forgiveness and confession and all that but i understood that this individual and some of the other individuals in conversation translated it religiously yes into like a religious term but that's not how the bible presents the word repent so that's people who don't understand what i'm about to say very very important because if you think it's it's it's a it's a religious ceremony of confession and forgiveness all right then when god says repent you get down on your knees you cry i'm sorry please forgive me watch me cleanse me oh good david you know yeah and then you get up and go do the same thing yes no repent means change when jesus said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand he was saying change so it means to metaneo thing means to think differently and here this is what's important and it's evidenced by a change in actions you got that yes it's not just thinking about different notes just taking notes take a note take notes man you've been trying to take notes no take notes it means you think differently which is evidenced by a change in actions so when i said the church needs to repent it means the church needs to think differently because part of the racism that we experienced all right was theologically justified by the christian church in america predominantly the white evangelical christian church so they came up with theological justification yes for slavery for segregation all right for for for for uh jim crow you know all of that and that thinking has to change so they had a hermeneutic of segregation and hermeneutic has to do with the principles of interpreting right interpreting things so when i said the church needs to repent what i was saying is the church needs to change the way it thinks about issues of race about ethnicity about the doctrine of sin because not only did the white evangelical church have a problem with a hermeneutic of segregation but they also had a problem with their doctrine of sin it was deficient it didn't go beyond the individual you see and we're going to probably get to that so so the church needs to change it's hermeneutic when it comes to race yes that's what i was saying but i realized that this individual these individuals translated that into something religious so i'm not saying when i say the church needs to repent i'm not saying we have to have another meeting where church leaders get together drop on a knee we cry we weep and move the nucleus from our noses and and forgive i forgive you you forgive me i love you brother no no no it means that we have to change things another thing that came up in the meeting was um let's can't we just move on that annoys me so much you know because because they want to move on from the bad you know attachments yeah but still from the the positive attachments of what they receive you can't be selective so if you can you know if you can reap from the the negative fruit i mean if you're from the positive food you have to be able to root for that negative consequences but you're gonna have to deal with yep yep yep so you can't just forget about the past because the past instructs us concerning the future yes because unless we understand the failures of the past how do we gain wisdom to invest that wisdom in the future yes so the statement is we must remember the past while we change the future yes i'm going to say that again yes all right got that out there we must remember the past while we change the future don't get trapped in the people please because some people go to the extreme yeah anything taken to the stream becomes even true don't get trapped in the past you have to have a vision for the future you started out with the principle without a vision for the future we'll always return to the past we have to remember the past because if you don't understand yesterday you'll be confused about it tomorrow day yep right yes that's right and you're going to totally mess up yes tomorrow by repeating the past yes so the past is critical again and again all right we just set over celebrated uh 911 yes in in new york right and what does it say remember never forget never forget what did god tell the nation of israel uh and establish a a festival all right call the paso he said rehearse this in the ears of your children all right remember never forget the jews when they think about the holocaust what do they say never forget all right but slavery in america makes america feel uncomfortable so they don't want to revisit it quite like the germans not wanting to revisit again and again the holocaust yeah the holocaust and and the nazi regime i get it i understand but that discomfort should lead us into making positive changes down into the future so remember we remember the the the past right yeah and we while we change the future those things work together so with that said let's go to luke chapter 3 verse 7. luke is a powerful chapter chapter 3 because it introduces the social and political order of things that existed when jesus began his ministry and when john the baptist was called and the word of god went to him in the wilderness so he spent some time on the first three verses but right now we're going to go to verse 7 because the crowds gather all right john has a reputation he's baptizing people calling them to repentance calling the nation of israel and he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness that the old testament prophet said would be the forerunner of messiah so first would come the announcement who would come in the spirit of elijah and he would announce that messiah is coming and that was the role of john the baptist right so he's there and he's speaking to the crowds and the crowds respond to him now in verse 7 all right so he began saying i'm reading the newest new american standard bible so he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him you brewed a vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance in other words bring evidence and this was really targeting the religious leaders scribes and pharisees who came to his baptism right therefore bear fruits in other words give evidence of your repentance all right that's why i said it's a change in thinking evidenced by a change in actions all right therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves we have abraham for our father for i say to you that abraham that from these stones god is able to raise up children to abraham so what are you saying don't feel justified by your jewish identity just because you are a cultural jew a blood jew don't feel you get a pass yeah you have to repent as well that's why in the second chapter of romans paul uh holds the jewish community accountable he said you who who receive the law and give the law you're responsible by accountable to that same law so so here john is saying bring evidence that you've repented so it's not just a change in thinking it's a change evidence by a change in action all right continues verse 9 indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire and this was prophetic because he was talking about the nation of israel as a tree and jesus would address the nation as a tree verse 10 very important to what we're saying and the crowds were questioning him saying then what shall we do and he would answer and say to them the man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none and he who has food is to do likewise and some tax collectors also came to be baptized and they said to him teacher what shall we do and he said to them collect no more than what you have been off-order to some soldiers were questioning him saying and what about us what shall we do and he said to them do not take money from anyone by force accuse anyone falsely and be content with your wages so what was john doing wow all right he was number one saying repentance is evidenced by social responsibility if you have more than the next person and you see that that person in need you have a responsibility to share your wealth with them repentance is evident through social change social responsibility to feed and clothe the poor and the underserved this is what jesus called the least of these yeah so don't tell me you repent james said this beautifully he said what good is it to tell a man all right give a man the gospel and and to see him naked and hungry and tell him be close be warm be fed and don't do anything to respond to his situation that's very very important so repentance all right here speaks of a social responsibility when we change in our thinking so the church to repent it means we have to change in terms of our social responsibility or failure to respond to what's happening within our society yeah all right he also talked about you know systemic burdening of the the poor working and even middle class through heavy taxation and exploitation so the tax collectors were told were ordered by the roman government to collect a certain amount of taxes but they were allowed to collect more than was due so they were exploiting the people they were taking advantage of their own people and putting a heavy tax burden on them so it gets into systems and structures and legal codes when you repent yes got it i mean this is really good you got me excited hey don't you don't you put it in a religious context we just gather we pray no no no repentance means a change a change personally and to change societally which we'll get to all right the soldiers what did they represent all right what he he he said this is institutionalized policing system that's what the soldiers were they they didn't have the temple police right who protected the temple right and they had police who protected the culture in terms of any disruptions in the law all right but essentially it was the roman soldiers who kept law yeah so they represented the institutional policing systems of their day and john addresses the abuse of power and exploitation of the masses by law enforcement through intimidation false charges trumped up does that sound like today that sounds very familiar today and that's globally that's not just here in america that's globally he challenges them about they're engaging in bribery corruption fueled by greed yes so this is all the evidence of repentance john you asked me i'm gonna tell you you want to know where apprentice means yeah show me the fruit bring me the evidence of change don't just have them come by our moment and we're gonna just move along no we need address the systems the structures this is this is you know one of the this you hear this a lot in married couples or couples your period you know yeah you know show me you know okay i'll take you you know at your word but i have to see fruit after your word you know i have confident word but if there's no fruit in this this this there's a conflict yeah you know and you got to be careful there because too often women tend to forgive after they see the fruit no that's good that's a good one forgiveness is a gift yes that follows the act of contrition and repentance right and then you look for the evidence of that repentance yep all right so that's important on uh repentance on a personal level uh john says repent means uh i it means an individual needs to think differently about the way he or she is living their life and the choices they are making so john is calling the nation to national repentance and he's saying there are it's on a personal issues that are involved societal issues that are involved and we're going to get to that all right because here's why too often our our christian community in america right oversimplifies sin it's an oversimplification of sin you gotta break that down because i know what you mean it's so true there is an oversimplification of sentences yeah and it it it's sometimes um disheartening it is especially to people who have been on the short end of the stick socially you know if i've been struggling and everybody else the dominant culture is you know becoming more and more upwardly mobile and well-off and experiencing full participation in the social and political life of the society all right and i'm i'm left behind you know i i'm gonna be agitated i should be agitated when you try to oversimplify sin and this is what they say this is what i say and and i'm pointing you all out there who are saying this all right it's not a race problem it's a sin problem we got to get rid of sin no i didn't mean to give that accent but we got to get rid of sin but that's an over simplification of the problem so when we think of sin all right we have to first define it all right because sin is a principle it's a law paul said i find a law it's a principle and it's cosmic it is first and foremost a cosmic principle of lawlessness disorder can we talk about chaos lawlessness disorder anarchy and chaos that is most often veiled by the culture we repeat all that say that again all right my notes here all right it's a cosmic principle yes ghazal of lawlessness disorder yep anarchy and chaos that is most often veiled by the culture so you can walk into a culture and sin is at work to oppress to marginalize to disenfranchise but you don't see it right because there's what's overt and there's what's covert and that's running rampant here in america it is so sad the way it is happening you know somebody asked me said well you know what what do you what do you think is the option i said well i said when we look at morality right morality has to be something that transcends humankind it has to transcend it if it doesn't then it'll be a problem because we know that we are dealing with broken wounded individuals so if you have a system that's governed by broken women to individuals trying to govern broken wounded individuals you run into a whole bunch of chaos you know so it has to be something or someone that transcends the brokenness and woundedness of the individual that sets the morality but it doesn't happen just out external it's an internal you know uh addressing of the brokenness of the individual and then just the external well that's why we talked about institutional policing systems versus community policing systems what do you get you're still human beings yeah because zimmerman he was community policing right yes trayvon martin yes community policing yeah so you where you still have broken and wounded individuals you're still going to have some people abusing their power even in the context of a community policing system as opposed to an institutionalized or institutional policing system so that's that's that's real so it's a cosmic principle right often veiled by the culture because we build into the culture uh laws and processes and legal codes you know uh um and and and systems and structures to to kind of hide it yes so it's not there but behind the scene once you begin to peel off the pretty mm-hmm and you get down into the culture you realize well wait a minute here they treat certain people differently yep you know either based on race ethnicity language class it's not just race in america you know and not only is it a a cosmic principle but it's a hidden influence um that's good it's a hidden influence sin is a hidden influence towards rebellion against constituted authority against boundaries this is power against natural order against transcendent morality you gotta go back hidden influence against come on a hidden influence towards the rebellion towards the rebellion against constituted authority constituted authorities boundaries boundaries right natural order natural order oh man we could come back that yeah transcendent morality transcended morality yes not cultural but transcendental morality that's universal yeah that's that's it so again it is cosmic a cosmic principle right and it is a hidden influence towards rebellion this is good you know and that's that's that's real and and you don't over simplify that no because that manifests itself on four levels and we don't have the time to go through that level we're we're at the end of our time and that goes back to what you always say you can't heal the problem by saying that it's not there exactly you've got to address it head-on so when we talk about acts of charity because remember we said prayer fasting fasting yep but we didn't get into almsgiving acts of charity and acts of charity go hand in hand with dealing with sin that is expressed in discrimination disenfranchisement in in marginalization yeah that's good so we're gonna have to come back to that wow that was good that was good ah wait wait i can't finish without this this is this okay this is so important all right because when we talk about hidden influence right towards rebellion against constituted authority right boundaries boundaries are important natural order and transcendent morality um i want to look at ephesians chapter 2 ephesians 2 so beautiful and i i don't want to end chapter 2 verse 1 again reading from the nasb right and you paul says and he's talking about being made alive in christ but from what alive from what and you were dead in your trespasses and sins all right which means that you were insensitive to righteousness and to god yeah right you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world and the course of this world in the original in the greek is the word eon in other words the character of this age this period of human history and the prominent item within that culture so within this culture that has available civilization human civilization really all right there there are certain prominent things and what's prominent paul continues in which you formally walked according to the course of this world influenced by this world its values its loves its counterfeit values counterfeit loves right course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the god of this world which is satan right and that speaks of influence because this is really talking about the rulers and principalities of this world and the head principality which is satan the god of this world in all right the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience in other words this is an influence that's at work hidden influencing people towards rebellion against constituted authority against boundaries got it against natural order yes against these things universal moral principles right and look at verse three among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest and that really describes that state of sinfulness that we came from that god pulled us out of yes all right but when we were in that state we were part of that which created these systems and structures that give birth to more sin and it has to be dealt with all right i know that's a lot i i know that's a lot more it was ever we could think about it it wasn't it actually it wasn't a lot it was just profound uh when you just look at looking at sin at that you know in that manner you know from a cosmic level because you didn't talk about the other three levels right and that's the cosmic is last because we want to talk about the four levels of impact of sin which we'll have to pick up on next week yes you know and then we'll get into almsgiving and why that's important so prayer all right elevates the mind elevates the heart puts you in communion with god fasting now brings the flesh under subjection all right now you have to translate that into actions yes and arms giving is where the action comes in the evidence that you've been with god the evidence yes you truly denied your flesh hallelujah that's good that's good man that's good stuff yeah come on come on man come on i gotta know you hate this but boom boom yes i gotta get it to you yes no no no oh my god my team my team yes sir until next week i love you you got to wrap this up i i i can't after that you're gonna have to close out of prayer that was just really really really inspiring uh thank you because like i said consistently giving us uh the words articulate i know a lot of people are out there having conversations and you have been bolding a lot of individuals it's okay no we need to have the conversations but now i had the language uh you know so so you had a group that was already you know having a conversation with and now i got better in the language and then now you have a new group that's coming up and saying wow now i gotta talk about this you know and and there's some good um good information good content uh and yes please marinate on this go throughout your week and look at this stuff understanding you know the sin the nature of sin and what it is doing you know on behind the scenes and what's going on so please don't miss the opportunity to become better in your articulation of why you believe what you believe and this is a part of it yeah and please understand the oversimplification of sin allows for the justification of denying the existence of things problems within our society like white privilege some say it's a myth yeah all right and i've gone through the last hundred years in america in fact 150 year 135 years in america specific systems that were put in place to keep black people out and keep peop black folks from moving up in life say well that was then this is now no no i got you covered don't worry i got something for you now those systems still happen please yeah it's still happening institutional cultures develop over time and the policies and support that culture develop with them and they have to be dismantled because right now just in banking equality now headlining and yeah yeah yeah and you know what what's happening now in our society um is is with all the the protests and and again we do not subscribe to the violence uh the unlawfulness no we don't subscribe to that at all but we do subscribe to protest using your voice using the numbers to bring attention to the seriousness of something yes and demanding repentance which means change yes so that's very very very important in our society so these disruptions are necessary you know that lead to change they become the catalyst yes for change yep that's good it's good stuff man yep wow i know you're processing holy i will tell you again you're doing a great job because you're a thinker you've been taught to think in the process and to listen so when you hear truth your spirit leaps yes you want to just grab that and then the you know the dots start connecting yeah i've been an affirmation from the stuff i've been studying this week you know yeah and and let that's how god speaks to you he brings witnesses to the things that he's sharing with you the bible says two to three witnesses every word shall be confirmed so the things that god is speaking to you you can tune into a program like this right a service a ministry like this and all of a sudden you hear something like boom that bears is that word boom it bears witness in your heart that this is what god is saying to you and someone else unrelated not knowing what you're going through and they speak a word and you hear that and it bears witness inside your heart i just you're thinking about the christians and say this is why it's so difficult to say you're a christian without bearing the proper fruit yeah you know and that changed life you know so yep which we'll we're going to get into i know i know because i was in colossians this week reading you know that's good and the conversation your paul was having with detroit corsia yep is um good stuff yes oh father god thank you so so much um lord we pray that you just allow our minds to increase in capacity really touch us in a place where we can comprehend and and and and not just comprehend but now take it where we can apply it let it marinate let it just you know go to a place where it is not just a good idea but a thought so even when as these thoughts starts translating into actions lord you will be one that will make you look good yeah yeah uh yeah we're not we're not looking to to learn to to look sophisticated and to sound smart but lord so that we can witness to the people that you have called us to witness yeah so lord i pray and actually just touch our minds and our hearts as we approach these topics that we're not doing it out of anger but we're doing it where we want to see real change we want to see real fruit come out of this one that benefits everybody not just a minority lord reacts as you just have your way anoint us afresh to move and do what you have called us to do lord you have called us to witness it and spread the gospel yes lord spread your word and the gospel is the good news lord so lord we actually just have your way we thank you for today thank you for the message and since we're talking about sin lord we repent together for anything that we have committed any sin of uh knowingly unknowingly sin that that was overt a covert sins that we have we have committed out of commission since that we have committed out of old mission lord right now we present ourselves to you naked and unashamed where you can wash us clean asking for forgiveness or looking for change in our mind our thinking that will bear fruit in our actions so we ask that you have your way right now we submit our lives to you truly to you here lord we pray and as we are praying right now we ask you to elevate our mind yes lord hallelujah elevate our hearts yes lord hallelujah thank you lord lord anybody who's thinking about fasting through this time that just needs to hear from you lord we we come in and support them in their fast and we start praying for them not knowing who they are but lord you know what needs to be done so we come under the power of agreement we ask that you have your way in their lives and we say thank you for dr bernard and the message that you have been sharing through him to us we say thank you for all of this in jesus precious name jesus name amen amen amen good every day every every every week for it keeps getting elevated man you know i thought about something because when we talk about change um the question is why don't people change and there are several reasons and i think we should go over that no i think so too why people don't change because then we'll go into but i just remember you talking to us as we younger you're not you don't change because of this and i'm like so i'm hearing your voice as a young kid remembering hearing why yeah you didn't enjoy the reasons for saying there's reasons why people don't change and we need to look at that so we'll understand if you're guilty of one of those reasons if you're not changing all right dr cole taught us change has not changed until this change change yes yes that changes reality has changed yeah so if you're still struggling through you know you ask god for help and then change like it goes back to that message you preached back in the days with p defender uh yeah you remember that yes but that was some good nuggets in that we're gonna revisit some of that yes well we're closing out yes until next time yes until next time as we leave this place for another god's presence jesus is lord period we believe it we've proclaimed it god bless and enjoy the rest yes sunday that's my sign boom

Channel: Christian Cultural Center - Brooklyn Campus

Views: 12,024

Rating: 4.9298244 out of 5

Keywords: #church, #A.R. Bernard, #Jamaaal Bernard, #Christian Cultural Center, #church online, #love, #Bible, #fatherandson, #heaven, #God, #Kingdom of Heaven

Id: yZpN3su0wGc

Length: 47min 32sec (2852 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020