Dr. C.B. Akins, Sr. - "Don't Count Me Out" - Sunday, August 6, 2017

[Music] thank God for music ministry this morning pray with me God how grateful we are the words of our ancestors if we bother to stop and count our blessings to name them one by one then we will be able perhaps to see what the Lord has truly done thank you father for blessing us even when we didn't know we were being blessed thank you for being such a loving God that you look beyond our faults and seeing supply our needs no God you choose to use us today not because we're so worthy not because we're so evil for reasons beyond our comprehension reasons beyond our understanding you choose to give us a place on your program so we didn't come today God thinking that we're doing you a favor but we acknowledge that we're being honored by you to be used in your service so right now God save me from me use me in spite of me speak to me and through me to the end that your word might go forth and accomplish what you have ordained it to do that sinners will be saved and that Christians will behave for what Evers accomplished will give you praise honor and glory and will be satisfied with the blessing in Jesus name Amen hands together you've got some praise for this music ministry today thank God for the fellas in the band a man a man turn with me in your Bibles look of 2nd Kings chapter 7 now let me caution us just because we've moved from down the street we got all these big screens and your scripture appears on screen please don't stop bringing your Bibles amen please don't stop bringing your Bibles I used to shoot a little pool I used to go to the pool hall and I always knew brother Sigma that they had pool sticks at the pool hall but those of us that were show enough pool players we took our own stick I'm just suggesting that if you sho enough Christians you ought to bring your own word when you come amen amen might be something you want to mark in you can't mark on these screens amen amen all right second Kings chapter 7 want to begin in verse 3 and read through verse 9 and I invite you to just leave your Bibles open today second King 7 beginning at verse 3 this is what it says and there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate and they said one to another why is it we here until we die if we say we will enter into the city then the famine is in the city and we shall die there and if we sit still here we die also now therefore come and let us fall into the hosts of the Syrians if they save us alive we shall live and if they kill us we shall but died and they rose up in the Twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria behold there was no man for the Lord had made the hosts of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses even the noise of a great host and they said one to another lo the king of Israel have hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us wherefore their roles and fled in the Twilight and left their tents and their horses and their asses even the camp as it was and fled for their life and when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp they went into one tent and did eat and drink and carried thence silver and gold and raiment and went and hid it and came again and into another ten and carried thence also and went and hid it then they said one to another we do not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace if we tarry till the morning light some mischief will come up on us now therefore come that we may go and tell the Kings household I want to talk for the next few moments from the thought don't count me out I wish somebody to help me with this don't don't just look at your neighbor and tell them don't don't count me out there are many things we can do without in this life but one of the things that all of us desperately need is hope we can make it without a lot of the stuff we so sincerely chase after but it is impossible to successfully navigate this journey without a certain measure of hope resting in our bosom what is hope hope is possessing the ability to trust the power within you more than you trust the situation around you hope gives us motive and reason to keep on living you're going to help me heard the account of an incident that happened in Los Angeles some times ago after many days of torrential rain a mother and her small child hydroplaned in their car when over an embankment hit it hit a tree and landed in a ravine the accident wasn't even discovered until the next day by the time this mother was deceased but the five-year-old little girl was alive and barely hurt strapped in her car seat in the backseat of the car when she was asked how she managed to survive she simply said after we ran off the road and in the ditch my mama just kept telling me to hold on help is on the way I began to think about that in the privacy of my own praying ground as I worked on this message because every now and then the car of my life seems to run off the road hit a tree and ends up in a ravine and the only thing that keeps me going is the hope that tells me to hold on because help is on the way am I by myself everybody needs hope everybody needs to be able to see beyond your present and get a glimpse of your promising future hope is having confident expectation it's not about what God might do is not about what might happen it is the conviction of expectancy in the face of contextual contradiction it is when your circumstances say you ought to act one way but you do something totally opposite anyway your sir CIM stances say you ought to be crying your eyes out but hope puts a smile on your face your circumstances say it's all over for you but you just keep believing that God's got something better for you hope is knowing the facts but not accepting the verdicts and when you have hope in life regardless to who you are or where you are you can look at everybody who tries to disqualify you and tell them no matter what it looks like baby no matter what you heard no matter how bad it seems don't count me out and the reason you cannot count me out is because there's someone in my life you fail to calculate in and he figures prominently in my equation have I got a witness that's what happens in our text today here are four men who by every calculation should have been counted out a long time ago they they suffer from the dreaded disease of leprosy which has caused them to be relegated to a life of misery in a place of no expectation of ever getting better they've been put out of the city forced to live in a leper colony with others that suffer from the same disease and result in a fate they were on the outskirts of the city and the outskirts of society that there were special rules and regulations for them because they were no longer of value to society because of their condition nobody wanted them around nobody would touch or interact with them everywhere they went they had to keep their distance from good ordinary folk they were compelled by law to announce their presence by crying out unclean unclean this was society's way of forcing these leprous people to come into agreement with the limiting label of their dysfunction labels placed on them by persons whose own dysfunction was perhaps not so readily apparent lepers were made to agree and announce that they were indeed at what society said they were such a neighbor tell them don't miss this leprosy was a skin condition that turned the scan from various shades of tan to blotches of white without continuity you missed it people that lived in that area in that region were of color and when you had leprosy it took the color out of your skin and made it come out in blotches of white they were treated differently because of the color of their scheme they were disenfranchised marginalized and restricted to living in a colony for lepers outside the city all because there was something different about their skin most of us in here today yeah we know about that experience most of us so they were forced to live in a colony where everybody was afflicted with the same problem and was not allowed to participate in the mainstream of society are you with me and to exacerbate this already disastrous dilemma we must note that having a skin problem is to have a problem that you can hi can I talk it's one thing when we can hide our problem when we can have a drink and take a tic-tac I have one thing it's okay when we can come to church and sing so well shouts aloud a preach so hard that nobody would guess that you have a problem but what do you do when your problem is always on display how do you handle it when you can't hide what you're going through can I preach it like I feel it not not only that but but the Bible never tells us the names of these four men but it does mention their condition and it's bad when folks don't know your name but they know your condition but they don't know your name is Mike but they do know you can't keep a job they don't know your name is Sue but they do know you've been married four times they don't know your name is Joe but they do know that you're well past grown and still living and home off of your parents they don't know your name is Cindy but they know you got three kids and you ain't never been married what do you do when folk don't know your name but they know your condition these men had their destiny determined by their dysfunction are you praying with me somebody here today has a problem to which others have attached to predetermine like a worth in society the enemy has almost convinced you that things will never change for you but the devil is a lot he did not plan on you being at church this morning in fact he tried his best to get you not to come but here you sitting because you came your whole life is about to change right today you gonna here today with the ability to look at devil in eye and tell him in spite of my problem in spite of my condition in spite of my dysfunction do not count me out why are you ready for this it is these four leper said in essence let us rise up and get what God has for us that's what we got to do today we got to rise up and go get what God has for us maybe it hasn't happened to you but I've had folk count me out yet can I just say you shut store when I when I go back to Bath Springs I was down there last summer my brother took me out for breakfast we we had to drive and let miles to get breakfast and when we got up in an indicator Ville stopped and ate breakfast at a little little restaurant you know also had a had a filling station you know restaurant in the filling station and we were there then it's fine dining facility and some fellas were with another another table and and and they got up to leave and my brother stopped what I'm sorry to talk to him then he said do you know who this isn't pointed at me he said that's that's Robert Lee's boy Robert Lee Aikens and the guy looked and then he kind of jumped I didn't know what that meant but I knew it wasn't good and when he walked out my brother's probably older your dad is some money and he looked at me and remembered what my daddy was and wondered what I'm doing sitting at about halfway clean acting like I got some scene come on now I ain't the only one that's been accused because of what children listen but I came by the tea that I'm still here because I refuse to give up in spite of my circumstance talk to me somebody yeah your problem didn't come to destroy you it came to develop you you got to rise up your condition did not come to kill you it came to cultivate you you've got to rise up your burden is not designed to bury you but to buff it you you got to rise up your dysfunction is not given for your downfall but your discipline you've got to rise up the last thing the devil wants to see it's somebody else rising up because he still having flashbacks of one that was down and done on Calvary but he got up and declared that all power was in his hands that devil didn't want any more of that well three things we learn from the text and I'm out of here been messing with y'all long enough three things that you must do in order to tell the devil don't count me out first thing is you got to remember that everybody you can count you can't count on I think I just said something just it's right here in the text some of the best preaching of brother Farris is not what's in the text is what's between the text people with me if you will these lepers did not dwell in a private setting each colony of lepers was known to have have hundreds if not thousands of residents all afflicted with the same disease the Bible never wastes words verse three does not say some lepers it says for more than four lived in the colony but only for show up in the text I don't know for sure but my exegetical imagination leads me to believe that these four singled out because no one else in the colony thought like they thought maybe these four mentioned because they were the only ones who would not content stay where they had been placed others looked like them but did not think like them because everybody you can tell you can't count on listen everybody your color is not your kind just because they have the same skin does not mean they got the same conscience I wish I had a witness too often we think because we have folk around us we're in good company but we fail to understand that loneliness is not defined as being alone but rather as not having suitable folk in your space you can have company and still be alone you can have other folk around you and still be all by your there were four who said let's get out of here you do see that in your text don't you all four had the same condition which is suggests that their encouragement did not come from folk who were not going through what they were going through you don't get it yet sometimes you need a word from folk who who are walking where you're walking there are no non-alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous everybody in there got a liquor problem and they're struggling together okay can I just just be honest every now and then I don't need to talk to a super saint or a johnny-come-lately who hadn't been through anything now sometimes I need to hear from somebody who has been or is now going through what I'm dealing with right now that's the one I want to tell me come on let's pray together let's share together we're going to get through this thing together I don't need overcoming testimonies all the time sometimes I need to hear somebody say preacher I've been coming to church every Sunday but I still can't get a job pastor I've been paying my Taizo but I still can't trying to wipe all good husband I'm tired of sleeping single in a double bed but I am a witness that God is still God and God is still good and I will get through this in spite of my weary days and my lonely night cause everybody you can tell can't count on second thing it's in the text it teaches us that God will initiate interference based on our initiative you see it don't you God is always active even when he seems to be absent the tension it's caused by the fact that we do not always see what God is up to and most of us are not mature enough to not ask God for a fine so we struggle with trusting when we can't trace and believing without evidence to back it up pre-vet revelation comfort comes with a relationship that reminds us God is working even when we don't know where this is for my periscope crowd right here God does not always move where we are often he moves where we need him to be and it is our initiative that initiates his interference verse five of the text says for lepers rose up in the Twilight they took the initiative at somebody say Twilight they didn't just talk about doing something they got up and did it at then in verse six we see there was an obstacle of the Syrian army standing in opposition to their opportunity I know you are sharp enough to notice that there was no mission of a Syrian army as long as the leopard stayed where they'd been place settle and life will be simple try to better your situation and our position will come your way these for lepers do not know what will happen when they get down where they're going but they get up and go at Twilight that's verse six but verse seven says God interfered in the issue cause the Syrians to hear what sounded like an approaching army they ran off and left everything they had and guess when they left prior life you missed it the for lepers got up and moved at Twilight and God made the Syrian army to run at Twilight you still didn't get it the for lepers moved at Twilight and God said when you move I'll move I may not move where you are but I'll move where you need me to move God did not wait to move the obstacle when the lepers got to it but they moved and he moved that suggests to me that the minute we get off our can and do what we can God will right then start to move obstacles out of our way we may not know he's moving because he's not moving where we are he's moving where we're going have I got a witness you remember on Resurrection morning when some brave women moved from their house and God moved in a graveyard not where the women were but where they were going touching neighbor and tell'em at Twilight baby Twilight that's what happened at Twilight and when you get where you're going you we'll be able to figure it out but God will have already worked it out don't waste time trying to figure it I just praise God that the opposition you thought was going to hinder you has already been handled God honors faithful initiatives by moving obstacles when we move towards opportunities the lepers would never have known that God had moved if they had not moved in that right they were not sitting down naming and claiming they got up and did something to help themselves and when they moved God moved it is when you make the move to go back to school God will move the obstacles when you make the move to change jobs God will move the obstacles when you make the move to stand on your own two feet and stop being a kept woman or man on a leash God will move the obstacles somebody's got a job right now you know you weren't qualified to get but you prayed and you're moved and when you moved at home God moved at the office somebody's living in a house you thought you could not afford but you prayed and your mood and when you moved at home God moved at the bank we move one place and God moves somewhere else at the same time won't he do it notice this the Lepus went down looking for food verse 4 says because there was a famine that's all they really wanted Hobson was some food but when they arrived the text says they got food and clothes and jewelry and horses why because God is not only omnipresent omnipotent and omniscient he's also I'm not benevolent that when we show enough faith to move he'll give us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask I think I wish I had one witness who'll testify you ask God for one thing but he gave you that and threw in something else I know I'm right now here's the kicker that holier-than-thou folk will not like these four men got all this stuff and they were still lepers let that sink in for minute God is so awesome that he does not have to change your condition to change your status I feel like running man take that prosperity preacher who wants to suggest that I got to get out of my condition to be blessed the text teaches us that God can change your status without changing your condition because we're not blessed based on how we look nowhere in the text does it ever say these men were healed of their leprosy but it does tell us they move from being cursed to being blessed songwriter said having you in my life makes a difference something about Jesus if I will hook up with a holy that moves us from curse to bless forget about stuff you have but don't have is there anybody here who can testify I got the same old condition but I got a new status I'm still battling familiar demons but I'm absolutely blessed I got to close this down everybody you can count and you can I think you got that one God will initiate interference based on our initiative now this last point is so simple I'm almost embarrassed to offer it up but it does have a twist it is be a blessing when you get a blessing can I just fill this in on the top one caution in had breakfast with some friends yesterday I got out of the car put what I thought was a twenty five dollar gift card in my pocket I was at that high class restaurant on Newtown Pike Cracker Barrel have some breakfast by myself some friends came in sit down I got his $25 gift certificate figure my breakfast gonna cost me ten eleven twelve dollars I'll throw in the $3.00 tip I still got ten to spend on the friends but when I got to the cash register the lady said she ran it through $34 tickets you said you got fifteen dollars left I said how can that be on a $25 gift card she said Oh enormous it's worth fifteen I dare you to be a blessing when you get a blessing [Applause] because God does not bless us for us to keep it but he blesses us for us to share it the lepers are down there in Syria in the Syrian camp and join all the stuff that they didn't work for but the Syrians ran off and left behind and all of a sudden one of them says this ain't right y'all if we just hang out here and keep this all to ourselves we will be punished you missed it the lepers for one of them said we've been taking stuff out of the camp that we didn't even work for we've been hiding it and if we keep on doing that we don't get punished you didn't understand it can i contemporize it for you if you get the raise and don't increase your ties you will be punished if you get the promotion but don't help anybody else get a job you will be punished we know that but here comes two twists I could have understood it if the lepers have said let's go back to the colony and tell some other lepers what we have found Kosar nah I'd have been down with that but there any what happened what they said in verse nine literally messed me up they said let's go tell the key and the reason that messes me up is because it was the King that put them out of the city in the first place but God is teaching us that when he blesses us he will not check our maturity by how we treat folk who treat us well but he checks our maturity by how we bless folk who been dogging us have I got a witness he will not check your maturity by how you bless folk in your family my four and no more he'll they'll check your spiritual maturity by how you bless folk that have been trying to keep you from getting blessed in the first place he will not bless you for you being nice to folk that have been encouraging you along the way he'll bless you when you bless folk who told you to your face you'll never amount to anything I came by to tell somebody that's joy in hiring folk that wouldn't give you a job that there's a new level of peace and helping someone who wouldn't help you when you needed it have I got a witness you just thought invite somebody over to dinner at your house you know the one that told you you'd never own a home and tell them look at what God has done because God specializes and letting your enemy have his day and then causing you to be able to bless them because of what they did to you have I got a witness you do know that Jesus's enemies tried to take him out don't you they tried to stop his movements God even let them put Jesus down on a cross watch this don't read it too fast he let them put him down on a cross but then he made them lift him up have I got a witness and Jesus said and I if I be lifted up from the earth I'll draw me in under me now heard him say while he was on the cross he said Father forgive them for they know not what they do ain't God all right you do know that Jesus died on Calvary that it was buried in a borrowed tomb but early Sunday morning he got up just like he said he would while we were yet sinners he died in our place and because of what he did when I was where I was I better my mind I'm gonna try to bless folk that I know would not bless me ain't God all right I still got issues still got conditions are still dealing with circumstances but I got a new status and my status is I'm saved I'm sanctified I feel with the Holy Ghost and fire that either that's my status I came to shout about it today ain't shouting about my sickness something about my status I not shouting about myself Cummings I'm chatting about my status I'm not shouting over my seeing I'm selling over my status I don't shout about what I Drive I shout about what drives me ain't God alright I'm blessed not because of what I have but because God who walks with me I talk he talked with me because he tell me I am his own that is there anybody in the house knows you're blessed blessed enough to shout over your status still gots a disease but you're able to shout anyhow I'm still working on your bills but able to shout anyhow he walked out on you but you're able to shout in how she ran away from you but you can shout anyhow I know you lost your job but can you shout anyhow I know you've been on your seat bed but can you sound anyhow [Music] I can make it up with God all Masada I got all I need but I got Jesus many all right all right yeah yeah don't count me out baby I know what you heard about me but don't count me out I know I don't look like what I've been through but don't you count me out amen amen amen I'm doing invitation time invitation invitation turn don't count I heard you had a heart attack right I heard it was the second law and Ryan said I heard you were back in the hospital Gail I've been praying for you all week long troubling the Lord about you walked in this morning and there you were teaching Sunday school all because you said really if folks knew your story if they knew what you had to go through to get your PA baby you look at somebody tell don't count me out other folk gave up on me but I had God on my side when I made up my mind to move God moved and I'm standing here today all because of God's grace

Channel: First Baptist Bracktown

Views: 1,051

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Id: PyZr334XT8E

Length: 40min 45sec (2445 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 07 2017