BRINKLOW BROADCAST :This Is Us

happy happy sabbath everyone oh come on you can speak back to me let's try that again good morning and happy sabbath everyone oh i heard you thank you pastor and sister pastor happy 7th we are here to worship and praise and give adoration to our most high god so please stand with me as we magnify the lord and praise him together father god we welcome you we thank you for your blessings [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] ah [Music] fly hey in the present [Music] won't you won't you tell them [Music] we used to sing everybody song every sap when we came to welcome our members that we hadn't seen all week or visitors who we were reading for the first time but since we are unable to do that anymore but it doesn't mean that we're not smiling under our mess and we are vaccinated but we want you to also stand up come on everybody stand up because we're in the house of the lord and just because we can't embrace like we used to doesn't mean we can't stand up and sway to everybody wave wave to our online viewers welcome into the house of the lord today [Music] as well as the people in the congregation we are in the house of the lord and he said where we come we should be praising his name so let's praise the lord today have a wonderful sabbath from our family to burnett family to yours happy sabbath [Music] [Music] hey what's going on church family listen i'm on location i told you you never know where i'm going to show up listen if you're a friendship if you're owen's meal if you're in baltimore wherever you want we might be watching from i don't know alabama texas out of the country send me a ticket and i'm on my way listen i'm about to get in this house we're about to knock on somebody's voice show up but before we get in there i've got to pause i've got to take some time to wish a special shout out to some special people this is september i know i'm partial but i want to start celebrating those who god has blessed with another year of life you're celebrating a birthday in october november december whenever the lord has graced and bless you to celebrate a birthday i want you to let us know send your birthday to this link right here even if you have a picture let us know so we can shout you out especially our beloved seniors we want to make sure that we celebrate you we let you know how much you care as we celebrate another year of life i want you to come with me we're about to go in this house we're about to knock on this door and see who is in there come on not for real come on let me ring this doorbell see who's home see what's going on i know hey it's pastor washington come on now and uh we got a little surprise for you oh okay hold on all right it's about to be something good [Music] let me get my man oh okay all right we're staying safe she went to get her mask you know what i'm saying what's going on what's up what's up what's up we just going around uh you know seeing the members see what's going on and uh we wanted to come by and say what's up let me let me start here we're just gonna say what's up what's going on how [Music] he's protecting my business wow i'm just i'm grateful that's a blessing yeah we had some losses for our family but you know god is faithful we're just grateful shout out shout out say god's been faithful anybody else know guys they're faithful but let me let me help me give some of these announcements to the people wanted to let you know next friday at 7 30 heather we have communion so we're asking those that you can go do foot washing at your house and get the bread the grape juice unfermented you know i got i gotta say you know um we're asking you all to do that we're gonna have a wonderful time next friday 7 30 it'll be virtual okay but starting now every first and third sabbath we're inviting you to be in the building with us so every first and third sabbath will be our regular hybrid schedule moving forward okay and the other sabbath of course we'll continue to record from the building every first and third sabbath sign up be a part of the wonderful worship experience i'm telling you it's it's it's different being in the building hearing the music uh just fellowshipping i know we social distance and we have our mask on but it hits a little different when you're in the building and so man uh have you been to any yet i haven't but i registered and i'm gonna be there tomorrow okay well she here today really that's that's really she she here today she's in the building today how does it matter the fact everybody waving at heather i don't know where she's gonna be sitting but way better you know what i'm saying yeah let me let me ask you this we're in this series called this is us um that's my show that's your show that's what listen so we had i mean i'm talking about the series and she bringing up the show they come on nbc nbc we talk about ebc right emmanuel break low church not nbc but you named it after this year that's all i'm saying oh okay so so okay you got me all right but but this is us that's our show but this is uh ebc version has it been a blessing to you have you learned something give me your take on the series so far yes i have appreciated i think it's very uh you know creative how you have tied it you know that's your show it is such great writings excellent writing anyway i digress um yes it has been a blessing i have enjoyed um the services and i recall one of the points about prayer yes you know our prayer lives and so uh you know praying the scripture yes you know and and talking about spiritual warfare yeah i was in there when he was talking about that that was a good one listen encourage them today to praise god encourage them look this is what i'm saying if god woke you up if you physically have breath if you physically are in the building then praise him hey you heard it from sweet treat heather you heard it from her if you've got breath in your body you got a reason to praise we're going to have a wonderful time in the lord today as we continue to grow young and grow out god bless you guys oh oh wait all right um you got the cup hey wait hold on hold on hold on all right stay right there hold on listen i hope she bringing me something because i came over here with a sweet tooth i want some sweet potato pie some uh whatever kind of pie i want some carrot cake i want some coke oh snot oh hey let me get my praise on what you got in here you know listen i don't care what's in it i just i just like to hide it i am [Music] everybody we're not just talking to those online but happy sabbath to those that are in the building would you just put your hands together for jesus come on y'all don't do it don't do me like that again don't do me like that again like you all were last week we praise god for his blessings and favor in each and every one of our lives we wanted to just come real quick and dialogue about the series this amazing series this journey that the lord has a song right now with this is us and just to recap just give us one thing that sticks out in your mind over the last several weeks of what we've been doing what's what is one phrase or one word that describes this series so far i would describe the series as a personal look at who we are with god wow that's great doug esman this is practical godliness okay nothing i like what you have on by the way i like your burgundy and gold you look amazing but doesn't our pastor look amazing yeah church family hey man we'll talk about that a little later um i would say that this is radical practical christianity wow wow claudia what would you say i would say it's deeply personal christianity wow being personal christianity and so last week like you preached last week i must i must say that um the sermon was almost as great as the burgundy gold that you have on today and i want to kind of recap and kind of bridge the gap between prayer were you all blessed by last week's sermon those online put something in the chat the blessing of just praying and dr williams is going to come today and present on it's not just a favorite subject of mine but it's a difficult subject of mine this whole idea of and wave at me if you have struggled with this how to have or strengthen your faith in god yeah never been there am i talking to myself wow they're yes and i know you you're bridging between last sabbath and this happened yes but on wednesday evening yes where claudia took us with a radical reading yes of how to approach the word of god man man she did something extraordinary for the body of christ and helping us to approach scripture in a brand new way it was absolutely amazing in fact that's an even better bridge because scripture says um that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of god and so um i just think all of these things that we've struggled with probably even more as we've been in this covet season let's go down as we finish up this dialogue and i'll start with you this time what is so difficult about having faith in god yeah uh i would say the pains trials frustrations of life yes i'm experiencing all of this hurt and frustration how am i supposed to have faith in god wow anybody there with her online hurt frustration that's difficult all right y'all don't want to say not to me okay yes uh believing the unseen before it happens and acting like it already happened [Music] wow okay can i can i ditto those two i would add only that serving god is a faith-based initiative that's the first thing yeah so one of the challenges is to get my faith out of other things and put it in god but i grew accustomed to putting it in other things that's the challenge the good doctor for me it's the waiting game because a lot of things that we do that we ask for that we require that we think we need and must have we ask in faith hoping that it'll happen we've got to wait we've got to wait on god until it's the right time and i guess my thing is man christianity is something that has to be lived in order to be understood like you you gotta you gotta live it you gotta go through the crucible of life in order to understand it so i'm anticipating i'm in expectation with what god has for us today as we talk about faith can we just push our hands together in anticipation of what god is going to do with today's message and today's topic of how to have faith in god well we're excited to be here today but i want documentary if you would share with the congregation um what we want them to do tomorrow just in support of one of our fellow pastoral families tomorrow uh yes there are a couple things as you know the browns are away in bermuda and um in preparation for the funeral service for patty jean brown's mother tomorrow doc brown will be doing the eulogy we have information on how to stream the service and we want you to keep the family in prayer and also if you can look at the information that tells you how to connect by zoom for the service tomorrow it is taking place at the southampton church in bermuda and we just want you to keep the brown family in prayer thank you so much we have someone we want to introduce to our church maybe introduce the sun present to others but before we do that would you just kind of set the stage of what we've been doing here at the church yes and i want to thank you let me also start by just making this one little glitch correction um you know some of us have 14 hours and i discovered there was a question uh we talk about prayer does god answer the prayers for your sport team that answer is no he doesn't he doesn't and i'm living proof of that so some of us have this little internal thing that whoever the opposing team that wins then we have to wear that team's color doc you look good so so i can't wait to get home to get out of this you look good uh these colors here but let me just say hey thank you and i say this with all sincerity thank you for being a church that steps out of the box of traditional pastoral assignments and allow us to grow and to include other pastors as a part of our team this is the only church that i know in allegheny east that welcomes other colleagues who serve the larger bodies of the church the division general conference each united states you allow those pastors not only to belong here but you embrace them as pastors also and we praise god to the emanuel brinkleo church for having hearts that are large enough and vision that's broad enough to allow that to take place in our church we started it with dr ivan williams who you're here from today and since he has been a part of us these are volunteer pastors who give of themselves for the benefit of our local church context and so we're so grateful to you uh to the church and to our conference for allowing this to take place in a unique way at the immanuel brinkle church well today we want to present to you uh the newest member of our pastoral team and as he come forward pastor washington will introduce him i just wanted to start by thanking you for having hearts big enough broad enough to allow our team to continue to grow pastor yes we want to welcome for the first time officially this is pastor dr van dijon griffin uh would you just put your hands together in affirmation and affirm this dark-skinned brother he said dark skin is in and pastor will be joining our team and helping out primarily in pastoral care and visitation so if he sees you at your home or showing up this is not uh he's not selling cookies come on say amen but he's coming to take care of the people of god so just by way of introduction pastor would you just uh tell the people here at church as well as online where are you coming from and where are you currently serving um well i'm coming from the north american division of seventh-day adventists and i serve as the associate director for youth ministries in the area of senior youth ministries yes pastor you were pastoring in south central conference for many years and then served as the youth director there for many years and so we have a wealth of knowledge here we are blessed really to be quite honest with you come on put your hands together we are blessed this is not someone just coming from seminary but he has years of experience in ministry and we're so excited and elated and happy for him to join the team so if you see him here for our in-person services online many of you have already experienced him on wednesday night and sharing uh with the team this is uh now a part of our church family his wife kim is she here with you today she's not here yet but she's in route i just got word and their daughter um kaelin is a freshman at oakwood university and so we praise god for the griffin family and i just feel like can we just pause and pray uh as we welcome him here can we ask for our pastoral team to join us up here our first elder our pastoral team if you are on our team just just join us uh of course dr brown is not here we understand um that he isn't here as they're coming pastor what time does that funeral begin i don't have the time i know the time is that somebody can look it up um have the team i want to say it begins at 11 yeah i think that service house at 11. so yeah let's just circle him so emmanuel brinkle those online those are here uh if you bring pastor brown here this is the emmanuel bringlow pastoral team and we want to praise god for that now we recognize that claudia allen is not an official pastor but she's an official part of our pastoral team i want to make that absolutely clear she she works she ministers with us and so forth but she does not assume to take on the other pastoral responsibilities that we do but she is a part of us and i want to make that very clear okay we are we good with that uh you heard it officially here this is the team and our newest member uh we got two people from the north american division lord have mercy yeah so that's that that's all right we got we got nad we have gc and at the top of the pyramid we have the e.g white e.g white state teach you why this thing so let's pray now would you just pray in your hearts now god we thank you for the addition of dr griffin to our family and we are just thankful that even before the foundations of the world you knew this moment in time would happen and so what an amazing god we serve that we are now able to catch up what you have thought in your mind for years and so we pray now for he his wife kim his daughter caitlin that you would bless them exceedingly and abundantly all above they ever ask a thing we trust you god and we thank you for this gift yes you told us in your word to cherish the good gifts so as he serves i pray god that you would bless him with wisdom knowledge and understanding that we would all receive what you are planting in our lives today so that when you come you will recognize us as the people that you forget thank you for dr griffin his family and this church that we might go to higher heights and deer deeper depths in jesus name amen amen amen praise god for him it's the only of all the pastors who came to bring glow elder to shay he said that his passion is visitation that's what he wants to do he wants to visit praise god for that god bless you god bless you as we continue to worship together today stories of the bible the fiery furnace there once were three jewish men named shadrach meshach and abednego hey when they were very young they were taken from israel to live in a place called babylon at that time the king of babylon was a man named nebuchadnezzar that's it almost there and he made a gold statue that was 90 feet tall perfect the king sent a message for everyone to come to the dedication of this statue when everyone had assembled it was declared that people of all races nations and languages would bow before the statue and worship king nebuchadnezzar's statue when they heard the sound of musical instruments if anyone refused they would be thrown into a fiery furnace so at the sound of the musical instruments all the people bowed to the ground and worshiped but shadrach meshach and abednego did not because they were jewish and would only bow to the one true god some of the wise men of babylon went to the king and told him that shadrach meshach and bendigo refused to bow to the statue what this made the king very angry and he asked shadrach meshach and abednego if it was true that they would not bow to the statue then he said he would give them one more chance to bow down and if they did not bow they will be thrown into the fire shadrach meshach and abednego replied that they didn't need to defend themselves against the king they said if we are thrown into the blazing furnace the god whom we serve is able to save us he will rescue us from your power your majesty but even if he doesn't we want to make it clear to you your majesty that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up the king was so angry with shadrach meshach and abednego that he commanded the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual then he ordered shadrach meshach and the bendigo to be bound and thrown in the fire the fire was so hot that it killed the soldiers that threw them in so shadrach meshach the bendigo fell into the flames but suddenly the king jumped up and said to his advisors didn't we tie up three men and throw him in the furnace the advisor said yes but the king said look i see four men walking around the fire and the fourth looks like a god then the king shouted to shadrach meshach and abednego come out so shadrach meshach and abednego stepped out of the fire and everyone saw that the fire had not touched them they didn't even smell of smoke then nebuchadnezzar praised the one true god of shadrach meshach and abednego who had rescued them from the fire and the king made a new command that anyone who spoke a word against the god of shadrach meshach and abednego would be greatly punished then he promoted shadrach meshach and abednego in his court shadrach meshach and abednego trusted in god and were willing to die rather than worship any god but their own god [Music] to die for christ are you willing to have your faith be strong and steadfast in christ unmovable oh come on let's worship god we are going to just worship in song we invite you to sing with us this is our small portion of praise and worship where you participate in praising god through song anybody want more of god today anybody wants to chase after god you know even if you're not chasing him he's chasing you and we need him more and more in our lives you know no matter what i have to do [Music] oh more and more [Music] oh me [Music] yeah no matter what i'm praising oh [Applause] my way through [Applause] [Music] is [Music] anybody want to praise god more and more [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh if you want more of him come on and just say this give me more [Music] oh come on energy oh hallelujah do you desire more of him more of his love who died for you and me it's that time where we come to the altar give god more give him more of your time more of your love [Music] it's prayer time this morning you may be aware there's a way for you to actually make your prayer request known we want to give you an opportunity to make those prayer requests known today here's what we want you to do just simply text 9900 this is us series and then put your prayer request right behind the text 9900 this is a series and then you can make your prayer request known we love to have those requests so that we can take them before the throne of the great god of this universe there are so many requests so many hearts that are in need and we need god to actually not only hear our requests but we need him to answer can i get a witness in the house and i've just received a few this morning we want to remember just the iris kitchens and family we want to remember the wright family and the bradford family at this time we want to also remember the brown family as sister patty jean and her husband as they deal with the loss of sister patty jean's mother and even though that service is taking place on tomorrow we want to keep them in our prayers and there are so many other requests that we have there are times where we can't even make them audible but they're on our hearts and that's you today you may be like me you have some requests that you have not articulated out loud but they're on your hearts that's you today just lift your hand where you are we we believe that we believe that god still ends this prayer who believes that today i mean i wish i had just one real witness i'm looking not looking for pretense but anybody believe that he still answers prayers come on let me hear you in this house today he still answers prayer let's talk to jesus today heavenly father we pause this afternoon to first of all before we ask you for anything we just want to pause and thank you for everything you have been good to us in spite of the issues and in spite of the challenges and in spite of the grief and in spite of all of the things that have gone on in our lives we can still say thank you and so father we thank you for all that you have done for us we thank you for what you are willing to do for us and we thank you lord for what you're going to do for us in the near future [Music] today we have these requests that have been made audible we have these requests that are on our hearts we even have the requests that have been texted in and text and requests that have been placed in the chats father we're not putting them there just because we feel like writing we're putting them there because we need you to answer them we're asking in the name of jesus that you would answer those requests and we will have enough sense father to respond thank you for doing it and as we move throughout this worship experience today we're praying that as your manservant speaks to our hearts today may the word of god find its residence in our hearts but may it not just live there may we be willing to live it out this coming week so bless your servant today dr williams as he shares the word of god bless the remaining portion of this worship experience and we're going to trust you that not only did you hear our request today but you're going to answer them according to your holy will we thank you in jesus name amen and amen we are blessed and honored today to be favored with a musical selection by one of our very own mr leighton kennedy as he worships in saxophone giving praise and honor to god amen [Music] [Music] um [Music] hey [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] find favor in your sighs [Music] please [Music] to be where you are [Music] me [Music] tell me [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i gotta be way [Music] [Music] [Applause] hey [Music] [Applause] gotta be where you are [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] hey [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] for your glory that's why we do this can you say amen for god's glory it's good to see you in god's house and it's good to see everybody online today that's worshiping with us we're continuing our series this morning this is us can you say that with me everybody this is us and i've been asked today to deal with a subject that man i've had a rich experience with how to strengthen your faith or how to grow your faith how to strengthen your faith and how to grow your faith and since the word tells us faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of god i want to encourage you today about being a steward of faith stewards of faith shall we pray father today [Music] so many reasons for our faith to be weak there's a lot of noise and we're distracted on every hand but today i pray that you will refocus our faith renew our faith and give us the tools that we need to finish strong to have strong faith bless us now as we open your word in jesus name amen please go with me we're going to get right to it because there is sabbath school today amen somebody at 1 30 they'll announce the details i'm sure at the end of service stewards of faith in the book of matthew a story helps us to understand this whole meaning of faith matthew chapter 8 and let's look together at verses 5 through 10. matthew chapter 8 verses 5 through 10. now when jesus had entered capernaum a centurion came to him pleading with him saying lord my servant is lying home paralyzed dreadfully tormented and jesus said to him i will come and heal him the centurion answered and said lord i'm not worthy that you should come under my roof but only speak a word and my servant will be healed for i also am a man under authority having soldiers under me and i say to this one go and he goes and to another come and he comes and to my servant do this and he does it when jesus heard it he marveled and said to those who followed assuredly i say to you that i have not found such great faith not even in israel i have not found such great faith not even in israel that ought to arrest your attention that jesus was moved by this person's faith who was not even a part of the house of israel so goes your denominational purity if the bible were a fabric faith would be the thread woven throughout it because the scripture is filled with faith to faith and the bible in it we actually see case studies this is us case studies of real life examples of people who had strong faith and weak faith shaky faith and steady faith moody faith and muddy faith help my unbelief faith and mustard seed faith people who struggled in faith and others who persevered through faith the bible is filled with people with who had life challenges in faith brothers and sisters faith lies at the heart of what it means to be a christian can i say that again faith lies at the heart of what it means to be a christian but we take faith for granted and i want to share with you that there will be no faithless people in heaven abraham in genesis begins with us and he had faith the bible says he believed and god counted it as righteousness in the middle of the bible paul in romans chapter 1 verse 17 declared the just shall live by what everybody by faith john the revelator wrote the book of revelation said that the lord's last day people would not lose but keep their faith in jesus from the beginning to the end of scripture it is tied together in faith and it appears that faith is pretty important to god so why isn't it more important to us i believe we are stewards of faith today because romans chapter 12 verse 3 tells us that god has given every one of us in this room and online a measure of faith and then when he returns he's going to ask is there any faith in the earth stay with me he gives everyone a piece of faith and then when he returns he's going to ask what did you do with that faith that's why we are stewards of faith so from the outset what is faith it is more than what you can see with the natural eye are you with me it goes way beyond your mental ascent or acknowledgement that there is a higher power my wife just yesterday told me that her hairdresser i think that's the current name sweetheart i don't know the person who does her hair she declared that she believes that somebody's up there but she just doesn't know who it is and she doesn't want to pray to him faith is more than just a mental ascent that there is a higher power stay with me faith is the substance the what everybody yeah you you you may not be able to see it with the natural eye but it's there it is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen it's like a child you must have blind trust and blind belief in god and in his word that's what faith is all about as if your life depended on it and you knew that you couldn't eat unless you had faith you knew that you couldn't provide for anybody else unless you believed in the one who can provide for you it has nothing to do with your performance and that's the thing that separates abraham's belief from the demon's belief well you hear me you see abraham believed and god counted it as righteousness romans 4 3 but the bible also says that demons believe james 2 19 and tremble so what's the difference between abraham's belief and demonic belief here it is demons believe because they cannot deny the existence of god after all god created them when they were perfect angels in glory they know he is creator but that's where they draw the line they stop there they don't yield to god they don't acknowledge god anymore they don't depend on god they don't trust in god and they no longer worship god they believe but they are afraid to know their end agnostics believe in a higher power they believe somebody started something somewhere bigger than them but agnostics don't count on that power in their life abraham believed however and trusted and acknowledged and worshiped god for instruction for direction for righteousness it was imparted to him you see this is important and i've discovered that there are a lot of people who operate in america on what i call generic faith generic faith and hopeful faith in people places and things there are a whole lot of people who walk on planes who believe and have faith in the faa that they're going to keep the planes mechanically prepared there are a lot of people who get on planes who believe that the pilots behind the wheel of the airplane have trained and they trust that the pilots will keep the plane in the air that's generic faith because you need to look a little higher somebody may be trained the faa may make the rules and keep the planes flying but it is god who keeps the plane in the air i will never get on a plane if i only had faith in the pilot some have faith in the democracy of america against all odds foreign and domestic as the white supremacists who are marching today at the nation's capital but that's generic faith i'm not going to trust in a country i'm going to trust in the god who runs the country we practice generic faith every day a lot of people say keep the faith but my question to you today is who are you keeping faith in here in matthew chapter 8 jesus marveled at the centurion's faith i love this story the centurion ruled about a hundred soldiers and he was not selfish and he recognized jesus's authority and he called him lord twice read it in the scripture he accepted his healing power and by faith acknowledged that his word was strong enough that he didn't even have to take steps towards his house he could just speak the word and the man would be healed how many times have we prayed and zoom and prayed in youtube and prayed in facebook and god moves beyond the technology faith in god causes god to act somebody ought to say amen about that how do i have great faith like the centurion you see in the midst of all of this loss during covet how do i maintain my faith towards a meter that's growing and is strong if i live in haiti and i'm sleeping outside afraid that there's another earthquake going to happen and rubble may fall on me how do i maintain my faith how do i as a female living in afghanistan maintain my faith when all i want to do is go to school and at the threat of my own life people are ready to take me out just because i want to be educated how do you maintain your faith when systematic racism constantly gets in your way how do i move beyond grandmama's faith hear me y'all how do i move beyond my parents faith and have my own faith and believe god myself so i can stop going to grandmamma and stop going to the pastor and yes i understand the community can pray and it's good to have praying people whose faith prevails with god but you've got to have faith yourself [Applause] i want to help you today because there were some points of discovery for me about faith that i've missed in my biblical study journey and i simply want to give you not going to preach long today three simple responses to the question how can i grow my faith and how can my faith be strong i'm going to go back to where pastor washington took us at the start of this series this is us i'm going to go back to enoch is that all right in the bible in hebrews chapter 11. i think they may have it on the screen hebrews chapter 11 and verse 5. i want to read this scripture with you the bible says by faith enoch who everybody you remember what pastor washington said over and over he was taken he said god took him he was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because god had taken him for before he was taken oh you don't need to miss this before he was taken he had the testimony that he pleased god he didn't please god after he was taken he pleased god before he was taken we're going to have to please god before we get out of planet earth come on and say amen enoch was a god pleaser and god took him in order to grow our faith in order to have faith the first thing i want us to know this morning is we must become god pleasers the bible says we cannot even come to god unless we believe hebrews 11 6 that he is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him but that's not i'll confess that's not in my natural flesh how many can testify that the natural inclination is to please yourself first i better take care of me then i can take care of everybody else as if it were like being on the plane when the masks come down you put the mask on first and then you put it on your child the natural inclination is to take care of me like paul says the good that i want to do the right that i plan to do i find myself not doing and that's when i do wrong and maybe somebody is watching and listening today and your mantra is that you can't do it unless you do it for yourself first because you've succumbed to the belief that nobody will take care of you like you lord teach me how to have great faith in you and i don't know where to begin this morning but i want you all to understand that my prayers should be lord increase my faith help me to learn how to please you how many of you would confess with me and you don't have to raise your hand that you're still learning how to please god you're still learning how to please god remember enoch pleased god and god took him help me like the centurion help me and believe that you can do anything but fail when it comes to god i want you to know today that we go out of our way to please people come on and say amen we want people's approval and approvation and we will yield our morals just to please people we will p please our jobs and we will please our relatives and we will please our children but the real pleaser should be pleasing gods in order to be stewards of faith we must be god pleasers how many want to be a god please the lord help me number two i'll have three and i'm done number three the centurion pressed through you see here in matthew chapter eight it begins with begins with a crowd following jesus and i'm sure they walked with him on their way to capernaum and this man who was not jewish he was a career soldier who came to jesus and he said lord just speak the word and the lord gives us this story so that we can have resilient persistent faith the second thing i want you to know in order to have great faith in order to grow your faith is we must be persistent in faith make me like jacob who will tell god wrestling with him i'm not gonna let you go until you bless me help me like the woman in the book of mark and in the book of luke who pressed through the crowd and all she wanted to do was touch the hymn of his garment she was persistent in faith give me the courage of esther who believed that unless she went before the king and made a petition that all of her people would be put to death give me the persistence of job that though i lose my family i'm still gonna trust god give me the faith of daniel thrown down in a place where there were lions all by himself and he persisted in faith give me the faith of joshua whose faith was so strong in battle that he prayed and the son stop moving faith moves god to act and he will act come on and say amen but persist with god don't give up on god ask god that even though your faith is weak to give you what you need to believe that you he will come through for you and you see faith is not just about answered prayer faith is knowing that whatever god decides you're going to still believe that he knows what's best for you oh i gotta stop right there for a moment it's hard to say that when your fiance breaks up with you it's hard to say i'm gonna trust in god through this difficult situation of being fired on my job and yet we must persist in faith to believe like the centurion lord your word is powerful enough to handle this situation can i tell you all something god can handle your mean boss and god can fix those people around you being promoted who are less qualified than you the problem is with our faith we feel like we have to fight for ourselves instead of allowing god to fight this fight for us he began the work in you and he promised to fulfill the work to finish the work that he started in us brothers and sisters let's stop practicing microwave religion let's persist with god let's stay in the pot let it stew around us like the three hebrew boys they were willing to go in with god knowing that whether he decided to deliver them or not they would still trust him in order to be stewards of faith in order to grow our faith in order to have great faith like the centurion we must hold god to his promises first of all be god pleasers second of all persist with god in faith and then lastly today hold god to his promises i believe pastor esmen said a little something about this a few weeks ago we must trust god's word like the centurion the bible says in second chronicles 16 9 for the eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him can you imagine god looking for faithful people can you imagine god searching planet earth to see who he can show up for in the life of those who are faithful and everything in the spirit world is by faith can you say that with me everything in the spirit world is by what not by works the test of getting out of here is not the works test it's your faith test you see faith empowers your works not vice versa we are saved by grace through faith we are made righteous like abraham by faith we are justified like the thief on the cross in faith and all of us understand that god has made promises to us oh god to his promises they clung to faith and died believing god's word in hebrews 11. you got to read this because i re-read it the last two weeks and it just blew me away that they had this kind of faith hebrews 11 verse 33-39 who through faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtain promises stop the mouths of lions quench the violence of fire escape the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong wax valiant in sword out of weakness were made strong and turned to flight the armies of the aliens keep reading with me verse 35 women received their dead to life again and others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a what kind of resurrection everybody a better resurrection verse 36 and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sauna some sundered they were tempted and slain with the sword they wondered about in sheepskins and goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and these all having attained a good report through faith receive not the promise can i tell y'all something people died but it didn't separate them from their faith and if you go down in faith guess what you're going to come up in faith these people did not allow the circumstances of life to separate them from their faith they wanted to be god pleasers they persisted with god they believed god and held god to his promises and even though they died having not received the promise they believed in god so much so that they allowed people to take their lives you see i used to think i used to think that faith would cease and hope would end in the earth made new stay with me now i used to think why would we have need for faith in heaven why would we have the need to hope when everything we will have realized will be ours we won't have need for faith in heaven i used to think but let me tell you i've got a new revelation come on now you see from the moment we discover that god is love and we understand that god is just and god is fair and he delivered those who should have been delivered and he cast those into out of darkness who should have been cast in the outer darkness we will understand that we must trust god through the eons of eternity and i must have faith to know that my provision in heaven will be taken care of i must hope for the future because there's so much we don't know down here and we will have the scales removed from our eyes and we will have faith in god even in perfection did adam and eve need faith before sin yes they did they needed faith to trust that what god told them was true and they had to understand that in order for them to have a strong finish and have strong faith that they must trust god even though they can't trace god that they must trust god even though they couldn't see what god fully meant and as we think about it today the simple faith of a child is all jesus is asking us to have can i say something with you if it takes a mustard seed faith to move mountains what kind of faith of wheat do we have if we're not moving mountains god has called us to be pleasers of him to be persistent and to hold on to his promises and i'll close with this in order for us to have strong finish and strong faith we must come through the understanding that it is god who is working for our good all along the thing about life is is that it's a part of missouri we live in a show me state world people spend eight hours a day on tick-tock and young people are are are logged in constantly and old people on facebook spend eight hours also come on and say man somebody and the thing that we must understand is faith is not in the sight realm faith is not moved by a photo of someone who is gifting a car to someone else on social media faith is not moved or deterred by what someone says and accepts it as the truth because it was said faith in god goes beyond what i can see and faith is about trusting in god's word which can be sightless so here it is come on albert how do we have faith in a sightless journey as we're moving up the king's highway towards glory we're gonna be distracted we're gonna be discouraged we're gonna be disappointed we're gonna be detoured but if your faith gets weak [Music] i know someone who will empty heaven just to help to shore up your faith maybe you don't even have a register of faith in your consciousness pastor i'm numb i don't open the word i don't listen to christian music and you asking me to come to church on the first and third sabbath i barely make it up to even turn on social media to watch church service maybe right now [Music] the spirit is pricking your heart to understand that the place you are is not the place that you have to end up i know a lot of people who had dead faith baptized a guy there in southern california and i've told you this story he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory when the police came for him as a part of a gang that is where his faith was until a woman knocked on his door one day and left some bible studies at the foot of his door here this hardened gang member in fontana california he he had sense enough to say what is this [Music] and he started reading and on the back of the bible study there was a name of the lady and her phone number and he had sense enough to call it and he did and his faith was dead and he didn't know god in that state but god cracked through his faithless consciousness and began to rise the meter in him because he god gave him a measure of faith he just never used that faith and the measure of faith began to grow baptized that brotherhood like a baby he was crying in the baptismal pool i'm here to tell you that if your faith is weak god can make it strong if you don't even know how to begin to please god ask him lord help me to understand how to please you help me to guard the avenues of my soul i i i can't watch everything i can't listen to everything i can go everywhere lord help me to please you then lord help me to press and be persistent sometimes my own family god help me to be persistent sometimes my my co-workers sometimes my best friend betrays my confidence help me to persist god and then lord i'm gonna hold you to your promises i'm going to hold you to your promises because god i want to see you face to face i want to believe that what you said you're going to keep and you're going to follow through and i want you to know today that your faith doesn't have to stand where it is or stay in this place you are a steward of grace and a steward of faith and today today lord help my unbelief today you know you need strong faith you need faith to withstand the trials of the enemy shooting darts at us every single day when we're sleeping he's plotting and planning when we are awake he sends the demons that believe but don't worship god our way and we must ask god lord help me to persist in faith it's not about what i see but it's about what you said is that your desire [Music] lord help me to be a better steward of the faith you've given me because when you come you're gonna say is there any faith in the earth if your sh if your faith has ever been shaky in the church i'm going to ask you to stand if your faith has ever been shaky i'm standing if you're at home if your faith has ever gotten shaky raise your hand with me right now if your faith has ever been weak would you stand with me would you just raise your other hand at home my faith has been weak at times master but today you want your faith to be strong you want to grow that faith in god you want resilient faith faith that will keep you standing though others fall faith that will hold you and i love what jesus said to peter he said peter you're going to deny me but i have prayed that your faith will not fail god's praying for us he's rooting for us he's sending angels to keep our faith strong when i lost my mother my faith was weak [Music] when i lost my father-in-law it it rocked our family but god can show you up in this cove at loss in this environment of this odorless colorless tasteless sightless virus we don't know where it's coming from but god is my protector and even if i go down i'm going down with the promise of faith that he's gonna rise me up again how about you father today [Music] we acknowledge you have made us stewards of this faith in god you have given us a measure of it it makes us righteous we simply believe and you count it as righteousness we don't understand it it is a spiritual miraculous thing that the just shall live by faith but walk by here today and bless those people who are standing bless those people at home who raised their hand lord we've had weak faith we've had shaky faith [Music] and today we want to experience at least that mountain moving faith increase our faith [Music] give us joy in this faith journey and help us oh god to be faithful to you forgive us for worshiping other gods forgive us for putting our faith in people places and things help us to simply have the faith to please you and to know that you are a rewarder [Music] the people who seek you seal the decisions today put a hedge around us and may our faith be strong in jesus name amen you may be seated [Music] is [Applause] [Music] one more time [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] your blessing is not suppressed because the third party and secondly small giving is legendary our points for today are how do we give more because we focus on mark 12 42 jesus says to his disciples she gave more to everybody else doesn't mean that she gave more individually than all these people individually or collectively all that she gave is more than everybody put together interesting thoughts so how do you get more first if i told you that one person gave a million dollars the person gave two million dollars you would say a person who gave two million dollars gave more but in jesus competition it's not because the mode of forgiving was it sacrificial is what counts and so jesus is saying your motive and your sacrifice counts more than anything else some people gave the most last year because of copenhagen 19 because they were grateful and they giving they give more because they're guilty from sacrifice because i pray that what happened second point about how you give more is jesus is more concerned with the percentage of your possessions that you give away than the total number amount and so you think of giving as affordability i can't afford to give i'm sure there were montanans and millionaires back then but jesus is concerned about the motive and or that value of your assets is concerned about that moment so how you give more your motive and your thoughts and your sacrifice counts more that's just [Music] if you were blessed would you put your hands together for god's humble powerful servant today pastor ivan preached i believe one of the best messages that i have ever heard on faith it's one of those you need to watch a second time and whether you were online or in person the spirit of god was with us today he was here and we want to thank him so much for that wonderful wonderful word from the lord you all remember the three things we must be god pleasers number two what come on talk to me we must persist with god and then number three we got to do what it doesn't it doesn't work if you don't hold on to the promises is that right amen would you stand with me at home would you bow with me as we see god in prayer we want to say a word of appreciation to our av team there's so many people that make sabbath happen and we want to thank god so much for those who work behind the scenes every mic is white before you touch it all kinds of stuff is happening our our stage manager manager sister denise has just been a blessing to us today our praise and worship team our musicians we just thank god for the entire service team that brings us this service amen our next worship service in person is october 2. our greeters i don't want to leave our greeters out they put the they put the beautiful face on this thing when people come thank you to our greeters and those who have been making sure we stay safe today would you bow with me as we as we prayed our gracious loving heavenly father god we thank you so much for the awesome blessing and privilege lord of being able to worship you in spirit and in truth we thank you lord for the gift of faith we learn today father that it is one of those things that can survive death that even if we go down with it lord we will come up with it again thank you lord for reminding us that we can put our faith and our trust in a sure foundation called god and that we need not be afraid in these troubles time so take us lord from this place but not from your presence help us to use our faith this week to draw one step closer to you as you are one step closer to coming this is our humble prayer in the mighty and matchless name of jesus that all of god's people say amen just a few quick reminders you may be seated in the house of god just a quick few quick reminders before dr craig the query comes and dismisses us uh our oh okay all right yes sir sabbath school [Music] okay all right i'm being told to do something else all right come on come come on up y'all come on up all right y'all got it church today did you enjoy church i did did you enjoy it it was good being in the house of the lord today so we want to give a quick shout out to uh some of the people that joined us online today so we have ernest bryant yvette douglas face faith medley debbie dudley lucy james veronica valeria richardson and teresa brown and there were so many more we thank you for joining us and worshiping with us today and also we want to do a couple of quick reminders communion will be held next friday september 24th it'll be virtually at 7 30. next the church picnic next sunday is cancelled instead brinkler will be showing our support to the wright family as the funeral for sister wright will be held during that time also please register for the next in-person service which will be held on october the second don't forget today at 1 30 pm is the adult sabbath school please join us for that and we also want to announce to you that we will be having a vespers bonfire fall festival combination on october 30th at 5 30. it's going to be lots of fun we want you to bring your families there will be lots of special activities for kids there will be a hike led by our senior pastor anthony medley there will be um a campfire sing-along light refreshments and our pastors all of our pastors all of our people will be joining in a friendly competition of bobbing for apples don't want to miss this oh yeah which might come as a slight surprise to them today as it's their first time hearing it but we want to bless the lord anyway amen amen so continue to stay blessed as we continue to grow young and grow out in jesus have a blessed sabbath everyone [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] is somewhat problematic right now we're trying to get it together so we have our sabbath school starting at 1 30 the online 130 sabbath school time and so we need the transition taking place it's important for us to understand that as significant as our worship services are it does not diminish the importance of our sabbath school for our adults for our children and sometimes they do not get the attention that they need because there's such an emphasis on our hybrid worship so we want to make sure that we are mindful that the sabbath schools the online sabbath schools for our children for young adults for adults are equally important for sabbath experience and that we have them and they are all virtual still they're not in person they're continued to be virtual we're grateful for our sabbath school superintendents for their work their diligent work throughout this entire covet experience and um that is not diminished because we're having the hybrid worship time so we just have to pause to make sure that we all understand that and we work together we navigate through any hiccups we have moving forward we'll be able to successfully without any issues have our hybrid experiences and our sabbath schools take place thank you dreary and i just had to say that to you because it's important for all of us god bless you is your faith increased now next time y'all get on a plane i bet you're gonna get on there with faith i know that [Music] [Music] bye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] huh [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] i [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] bye [Music] [Music] um [Music] now [Music] back [Applause] [Music] you

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Length: 103min 31sec (6211 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021