FBCLG Worship Service 10.3.21

is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] who is to be praised i will call on the name of the lord [Music] who is worthy to be prayed i will call on the name of the lord who [Music] [Music] who is [Music] [Music] [Music] i know he responds to this [Music] to me [Music] who is worse [Music] i will come [Music] [Music] he always [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah he's gotta respond he's gonna respond to his work [Music] praise the lord church the word of god reminds us that we ought to make a joyful noise unto the lord all the earth hallelujah worship the lord it says with gladness come into his presence with sin know that the lord is god it is he that has made us and not we ourselves we are his people the sheep of his pastors enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful to him and bless his name for the lord is good his setback love endures forever and his faithfulness is to all generations praise the lord church make a joyful noise worship the lord with gladness enter into his presence with singing lift up your voice and give god free holidays [Music] hallelujah let us pray gracious god we give you thanks for today it is a new day god one that we have never seen we are grateful and we pray today lord that you will lead us and make us your disciples who overcome the world through christ our lord amen someone give him praise right now because he's worthy of it give him praise right now because he is worthy of it come on we're going to sing this song and it simply asks the lord to prepare us to be a sanctuary pure and holy tried and come on if you know the song i need you to help us put your hands together like this come on everybody [Music] lord prepare me to be a sanctuary pure and holy tried and true and with thanksgiving i'll be a living sanctuary oh my for you everybody say lord [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Applause] one more time everybody [Applause] [Music] our sanctuary try [Music] [Applause] everybody [Music] [Applause] i will [Applause] right [Music] listen i know that god's will is the best way for me that's why every time i come into this place i yield my will to his because i want him to mold me i want him to make me i want him to change me i want him to rearrange me and make me a vessel for his presence so that his kingdom can be enlarged everywhere i go so this is what i want him to do mold me like you want me to [Music] like you want me to be [Applause] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] like you want me to be [Music] how you want me to go [Music] [Applause] [Applause] every day [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] is that anybody's testimony today come on i wanna say it again listen i just wanna do your will whatever you want from me lord that's what i want whatever you wanna do in me that's what i want for me i just want to do your well you said i just wanna do your well help me out [Music] everybody [Applause] [Applause] [Music] now yeah [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] every day [Applause] i see us every day [Music] oh lord prepare me to be a sanctuary pure and holy tried and true tried and true and weird thanksgiving how me are living oh sanctuary come on give him praise right now he's great he's worthy to be praised [Applause] [Music] amen [Music] we were created in god's image and in god's likeness for god's good pleasure so we were created beloved to say yes to the lord every day amen i just want to welcome you today to our worship service and there is something here for you where for wherever the presence of the lord is there is liberty there is freedom and there is joy and it's all here for you and you're welcome today so drink up eat up and live in the fullness of our lord and savior jesus the christ those who are worshiping online we welcome you god bless you heaven smile on you and beloved always keep the faith amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] yay [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we [Applause] glory to glory to glory to glory to glory to god [Music] glory to us [Music] [Music] majesty [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] your yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] up [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] come on put your hands together [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it seems like you ain't hearing what we're talking about [Music] it doesn't matter if you have trouble [Applause] we might have many problems [Music] [Applause] [Music] that family that you can't trust [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] glory to glory to god [Music] oh [Music] god [Music] amen it is now prayer time church if you're able please stand one writer says that the soul's sincere desire is to commune with god [Music] and we commune with god through prayer and prayer really should not be about consumption [Music] we live in a consumerist society and we're so tuned into god give me this and god give me that but when we come into the presence of god our first order is to commune with the creator god amen let us pray the psalmist reminds us god where shall i go from your spirit [Music] or where shall i flee from your presence if i ascend to heaven you are there if i make my bed in jail you are there if i take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea even there your hand leads me and your right hand holds me fast god in all of the the midst of the troubles in the world god we can have peace and tranquility lord if we remind ourselves that you are here you promise never to leave us always to be with us and it's only that god we are mindful of your presence that is all about us psalmist says be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the heathen that will be exalted in the earth for you are with us and so god some of us need healing in our lives god all we need to do is be mindful of your presence healing is ours healing is the children's bread [Music] you'll never deny us healing god some of us are troubled by the by the trauma that we experience in the world god remind us of your presence you're right here and god when when you're with us when we know that your presence is with us god we can sail through the storms [Music] and everything will be all right [Music] because god will take care god will heal our wounds god will bind up our broken hearts god will regulate our troubled minds god will give us bread when we're hungry god will give us water when we're thirsty god will be with us and god will never forsake us [Music] only that we be mindful of your presence so now lord let your presence envelope us reassure us that we're more than conquerors that lord before the battle is over we have already won because your presence rules and super rules overall so we give you thanks we say hallelujah god we bless your name for the spirit of the lord is upon us [Music] has liberated us has set us free through christ our lord amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh girl [Applause] you can put your faith in knowing that god [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning family i'm brandi and this is the bulletin your weekly fpclg announcements let's take a look at this week's announcements join us this month for pastor quick's october sermon series i gotta do better if you wish to join us live you must register to attend registration will be open tomorrow october 4th for service on sunday october 10th the fbclg caregiver support group will be hosting session via zoom every second saturday of the month at 10 am if you're caring for a loved one and need assistance we want to help you contact minister burt mcallister at kbird at fbcsomerset.com for more information join us for our wednesday night prayer call at our new time 6 p.m here's a look at the dial in information then join us at 7 p.m for our wednesday bible class led by pastor dante quick dive deep into the word visit the church website and register today fvc lg in partnership with the new jersey department of health is offering free coba 19 testing on saturday october 16th from 11am to 2pm right here at fpclg the fvclg scholarship ministry virtual college fair workshop is taking place this coming saturday october 9th from 11am to 1pm via zoom juniors rising seniors and parents are welcome to join some of the topics include admissions financial aid and much more head over to the church website and register today the fbclg missionary and media ministry will be collecting fall accessories for the homeless if you wish to donate we are asking for socks hats scarves and gloves donations will be collected this saturday october 9th from 10 am to 2 pm please drive to the front of the church open your trunk and a volunteer will remove your donations the academic excellence ministry is looking for tutors for grades k through 12. adults college students high school seniors and juniors we invite you to be a volunteer just head over to the website to register and students in need of a tutor be sure to register on the church website tutoring sessions begin october 12th the academic excellence ministry sunday school and the scholarship ministry are planning a three-day virtual event career spotlight explore your possibilities from november 9th to november 11th from 7 30 pm to 8 30 pm different careers will be highlighted each evening for our youth to learn about various professions if you wish to share your career path register on the church website to participate be sure to follow us on facebook instagram twitter so you can learn the latest and interact with us and don't forget to sign up for our weekly e-blast newsletter have a great week and i'll see you next time on the bulletin if you're worshiping with us in person please drop your offering in the bins located at the back doors while exiting now here's our offertory prayer and a list of all the ways you can give [Music] let us pray our offertory prayer generous god thank you that all things were created through you and for you we give willingly and joyously these tithes and offerings amen [Music] i just wanna praise you forever [Music] [Applause] you've done for me [Music] [Music] they all belong to you blessing them [Music] they all belong to you thank you jesus [Music] [Applause] me [Music] sing alexis [Music] i lift my hands in total laugh duration [Music] because of you my cloudy days are gone i can sing to you this song i just wanna say that i [Music] [Music] more than anything [Music] [Music] because of you my cloudy days [Music] [Applause] [Music] from when all my [Music] i've friends known a love like this before [Music] yes just won't tell you lord i love you more [Music] [Music] [Music] just [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you just want the lord [Applause] [Music] just one to tell you lord [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] i love you [Applause] [Music] i need you jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] um everybody [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] i need you [Music] [Applause] hey [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] i love you i love you i love you today because you care for me in such a special way that's i [Music] i just want to say that i love you more than anything [Music] come on and bless his name bless his name hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] me [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] would you just give god some praise and say lord i love you more than anything i love you more than houses and cars i i love you more than the shoes i have on the clothes on my back i love you just because you're god all by yourself i love you because you woke me up this morning started me on my way i love you because i'm in my right mind my legs work i love you i love you jesus we praise god from whom all blessings flow i love you jesus [Applause] the lord is good and worthy of all of our praise the lord is good and worthy of all of our praise from the rising of the sun to the going down of the saints his tender mercies are everlasting his power is ever present [Music] his peace roses in our lives and carries us forward i love the lord he heard my cry and pitied my every groan the lord is a savior a waymaker healing when i'm sick joy when i'm down food when i'm hungry water when i'm thirsty i love the lord carries me through brings me out beloved i praise god for the ministry of music let's praise the lord for them to all of you watching online we praise god for your presence we invite you to share us with friends and family before i start i want to celebrate all of you and i want to celebrate the hard work that has been done by our deacons and our trustees and all who've been working we have a group of doctors who are consulting us to make sure we make the safest environment possible and we've been doing this now i believe about two months and in that two-month period of people coming and going i want to celebrate you for honoring the guidelines and for loving each other to keep each other safe and for two months with thousands of people there has not been one case of covet reported around this institution from our worship so i celebrate you for coming to worship the lord and loving each other to keep each other safe we're figuring it out as we go along [Applause] covet is not going away it is with us and as our young people get vaccinated in the future i look forward to them joining us and for them being a part of who we are in our worship together so thank you all for honoring for registering for keeping your mask on for being socially physically distant and for loving each other i miss the opportunity to greet you personally i look forward to the day that we can do that until then we will continue to love each other from six feet or further amen but let us continue to walk safely in our worship so would you join me in celebrating all the amazing people who've been planning and keeping this who greet you and the ushers who seat you [Music] it is a lot of people who put in a lot of amazing work and it's easy for me to stand here as the pastor but it would be arrogant of me not to honor the fact that it's us who is doing this amen we are doing this and i praise god for that [Music] we end today are how do we get here series and i thought i would end this series with an inquiry an inquiry from the apostle paul we prepare to read the scripture we will come from his second epistle to timothy second timothy verse chapter four we'll read verses 9 through 18 out of the new revised standard version of the text i understand that some of you have been asking about the text and we are going to make sure our bookstore has copies of the new revised standard version bible it will be the bible we use officially it is the most accurate translation of the scripture and as you join me for bible study i will explain to you the different versions of the bible i will explain to you a little bit about how king james put his together and why we should be weary about allowing anyone to dictate to us what the word says we got to learn how to read it for ourselves because someone can tell you the word they can manipulate the word so join me in ii timothy if you are physically able and so inclined would you please stand for the reading of the word second timothy chapter 4 verses 9 through 18. we're going to get a little scholarly today i hope you don't mind god we seek you now and we honor you for your grace and your mercy your presence and your power i ask you lord to stand with us in this moment this dire moment of history as we wrestle with social problems with viruses with political ignorance with weather with cancer and diabetes with divorce and bankruptcy we come god seeking you for all that vexes our spirits for we know you are able you are sustainer waymaker turn around when we need it now use this word to provide us a road map hide me behind the cross for i have nothing to say but your word has endured for centuries let me give you the glory and the honor amen second timothy chapter 4 verse 9 through 18 reads as follows do your best to come to me as soon for demas in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to thessalonia christians has gone to galatia and titus to domitia only luke is with me get mark and bring him with you for he is useful to my ministry i have centos to ephesus when you come bring the cloak that i left in corpus at trouse also bring the books and above all the parchments alexander the coppersmith did me great harm the lord will pay him back for his deeds you also must be aware of him for he strongly opposed our message at my first offense no one came to my support but all deserted me may it be counted against him but the lord stood by me and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed to all the gentiles to hear it so i was rescued from the lion's mouth the lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom to him be the glory forever and ever amen pray with me on this thought there's glory in my story there's glory in my story this one no okay we praise god my brothers and sisters that there is ever glory in our stories we've been asking the question how did we get here all of us have looked up at some point in our lives and wondered how our situation ended up like it is it's not always a bad thing as we've learned sometimes god is so good you ask how did i get here the lord blesses you so richly so finally but at the end of the day there are some internal things that must go on today i want to talk about the relationship between confession and testimony here paul is at the end of his ministry indeed he's at the end of his life he finds himself in prison and he can see the hand writing on the wall i suspect as we all get older there will come a moment i don't know what age it happens at 20 you're invincible at 25 you're still running and jumping and avoiding at 30 you you still got enough energy to do what you got to do to get into some real trouble at 40 you begin to rethink it all trouble begins to be less appealing though you still probably in your trouble from your 30s by 50 you got enough wisdom to know what trouble not to get into in a little drive to still tip your toe in the water i don't know what point in life it happens but there comes a point in life where you begin to look back over your life and think about where you've been and what god has done for you there comes a point in life where you begin to think about all that you could have been in and how god picked you up out of some stuff and there comes a point in life where you begin to thank god for doors god closed for you you begin to thank god for some people god sent out of your life anybody get to that point in life where you say lord [Applause] social media helps us you you wonder what happened to that young man you were so in love with at 25 and there goes his profile you thought she was the one then you came across her instagram page and quickly kept on scrolling up god helped you avoid some bullets but there are some bullets that you couldn't avoid because the bullet was you there's some stuff about you that that you can look at and say how did i get here and maturity maturity should give you the ability to do two things that are theologically critical to your advancement as a human being confession confession lies at the heart of the christian faith and yet we rarely do it as protestants see if you are catholic there is an organized and structured system for confession you go into a little booth and the priest is on the other side and you say forgive me father for i have sinned and the priest says tell me how you have sinned and you lay out your sin and the priest says you shall do x for penance say ten hail mary's five lord's prayer and god will absolve you of your sins and you walk out the booth some of you with rosaries and you say hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed out down amongst women blessed are the fruit of thy room jesus holy mary mother of god you learn how to say the prayer that moves you from confession but as protestants where do we go to get some stuff off our chest could it be that our faith has truncated the major ritualistic systems that allow us to say we ain't been the best we could be and many of us mistake confession for testimony see what we have that our catholic brothers and sisters don't have is testimonies see they have confession but we know how to throw a praise party we know how to come to a revival and tell the story about what god has done for us the problem is testimony without confession can be a lie because we could be falsifying our faith as the young people may say sometimes we got to keep it gucci sometimes we got to tell somebody exactly where we've been what we did and how we the human mind cannot control it all there has to be some place that we can dump our frailties give our foibles for we all fall short of the glory of god and there are times in which we need to say out loud i have sinned but who do you tell it to who can you trust with your deepest vulnerabilities who can you give your crises to and and depend on them not to judge you and look at you differently and this came to me because there are times where i can find myself in places and people know not that i'm a pastor i i was at the airport the other day and a gentleman sat next to me and he began to talk to me i moved over two seats this covet i don't know you but he still talked to me picked up a book and started reading i was trying to give him the signal that i ain't trying to be bothered with you but he felt the need to get something off his chest so after a while i said well let me go and be christian and he began to tell me and as he talked i could see his eyes water and i realized this was a man traveling somewhere to see somebody that was causing him pain perhaps he was going to court perhaps he was going to the funeral of a parent but he began to tell me about his family i realized he needed to confess something before he got on the plane what is confession well uh michelle foucault is a french existentialist philosopher whom i study uh allow me to explain those words for you quickly i said we're going to be going to school a little bit today we are first baptist we should not be afraid of education i do not believe in preaching down to people whether you got a ged or phd you should be able to encounter the concepts that undergird your face foucault was a brilliant man a troubled man he was from france and he he studied under jean-paul sartre you see french existentialist philosophy is just a fancy way of studying what it means to be human in all that we are and allowing our humanity to be seen before the judgments of other people fall on it it is truly exploring your internal matrix who are you and what do you believe and how does it make you who you are foucault believed that we were designed and toured around sexuality that sexuality and power underlied who we were that as a child we were told we were male or female we weren't born with those concepts somebody explained to us and gave us a doll if we're a girl that gave us a barbie doll if we were a boy they gave us a ken doll they told us that we were to do this and to do that our sexuality was structured for us early then as we grow older and we begin to explore things as freud and the other psychologists talk to us we begin to discover ourselves and become truly involved in our own bodies we begin to form agency we begin to have strange dreams and become attracted to people we experiment and unfortunately as christians we don't like to talk about that but unless your name is mary and the holy spirit fell upon you you had a relationship with somebody if you have a child you experimented and explored a part of your body and oh if you didn't have a child and you want to be honest we're not asexual people we grow with cravings and urges and foucault is saying that all of those things have agency and power and impact how we operate he says true living involves confessional living in other words he uses this term called the technology of the self how do i explore myself and manipulate who i think i am in order to introduce myself to other people in other words nobody knows who you really are unless you show them and we spend so much time trying not to show them you perfectly organize your image some of you are so well dressed today everything is covered from head to toe was it like that last night [Applause] i i have people who will not friend the pastor and i say why won't you friend me because i don't want you to see what i'm doing we introduce ourselves and craft our images so neatly and tightly and so we have sunday sales and we have monday selves and we got thursday night cocktail party sales and we got friday ooh he looks so good cells and each self is organized and presented in such a way for an audience with a particularity i have a robe today i fulfill my priestly function you see me but you don't know me you have curiosities i wonder what the pastor's house looks like pastor's single i wonder if he's dating and if he is how much does he date but all you see is the road we spend so much time bound up unable to live fully who god made us to be because more often than not we are living not for ourselves not for god but for the show we must present to other people but there comes a time in life where the show no longer matters that we become important only to god and there becomes moments those moments and when death comes knocking at our door perhaps it's that moment where the doctor says you have cancer or that moment in which you are burying your mama or that moment where your heart begins to swell you grab your chest you hit the floor you go into cardiac arrest that moment you are calling for a god who is there to save you and nobody else matters have you gotten to your moment yet and the question is before you get to your moment what story are you telling who are you living for paul is in the grips of his moment paul is now telling his story and he's been telling it over and over again and and i just wanted to give you some insight on what it means to confess what does it mean to live a life of telling the truth about who you are and not really caring what other people say i've had to tailor my sermons a little bit i had to tell them my sermons because i began to tell stuff about my life that my mama didn't know that my family didn't know and so after i would preach my mama would say why didn't you tell me that and i began to realize it would be unfair for me to reveal something to you that i did not reveal to my family even today my cousin is sitting here wondering what he about to say beloved true freedom true internal integrity is about the ability to be who you are and to reveal the deepest things that disturb you about you and know that they will not be used as weapons against you howard thurman says love real love is the exposure of one's interior life to another who they recognize will not use it to destroy them or hurt you that to be in love is to be open what my grandma used to say your nose wide open y'all ever hear that it means that you're allowing the very place where the life force comes in and out to be exposed to someone else the choir is saying about loving jesus but do we love jesus enough to reveal who we really are are we living a fraudulent faith are you so holy that you know earthly good and does that allow you to feel safe in your judgments of other people paul is about to die and as he's about to die he gives us some insight on how to die with dignity but as we go into that hermeneutically follow me for a second because it's also a leadership lesson to be good leaders we must create teams that are critically self-reflective and that's what i'm encouraging you to be today whatever you are in life i'm encouraging you to develop a system of being critically internally reflective learn how to look at yourself in such a way where you can see the reality of who you are without other people having to point it out to you learn to look at yourself in such a way where you know your weaknesses your strengths you know what button they can push you know what turns you on you know what turns you off you know where you should go and where you should not go i have addiction in my family and because i have addiction in my family i don't engage in certain activities because i know addiction can not only be generational it can also be biological so i don't critique anybody else for what they do i just know me and i know me enough that when i was in college i would drink bartles and james because i was a lightweight my boys would drink mad dog 2020. we were in college we couldn't afford cavazier xo and all this other stuff i know this is disturbing because y'all don't drink you baptist you christians you don't want to hear your pastor say truth i mean talk about this but addiction is killing our communities because the church is not talking about it sex addictions drug addictions alcohol addictions shopping addictions we are broke because we are broke spiritually but when you know who you are and you know your triggers you can create boundaries that allow you not to be set off when you know that that x when he calls in his silky voice at 1 30 there's something about him that if i answer that phone he gonna end up at my door and i'm gonna unlock it just that one the rest can call because i ain't stutting him as they say in the south but but him there's something about him you got to know who you are and confession allows you to see your weaknesses and turn them into strengths there are a couple of keys to success in confession first technically keep some running log of your thoughts learn how to journal keep it written or keep a voice journal record yourself on the phone every now and then you got to say some stuff out loud or read some stuff to help you understand your own thought processes journaling is a way in which you can understand where you are and when you are and then you can go back and reflect on your own sense of growth where was i five years ago and what was i going through i ain't the same person anymore your confession allows you to look at your progress and secondly ask yourself some key questions why does he set me off so much could it be that he is just like me my son is my little twin and when he talks to me sometimes it gets on my nerves because he's trying to use logic with me and i realize it's because he's talking like me i'm i'm looking at my own reflection have you ever had that issue that child you love and raise is now talking just like you back to you and it's getting on your nerves because now you can see you in that child and you don't always like what you see because what you see look like you sometimes and now you know why they don't like you sometimes you gotta ask key questions thirdly you gotta discuss the experience black households keep too many secrets and we tell our kids don't tell nobody what's going on in this house y'all laughing cause you guilty we got that uncle that comes to the family reunion that you don't let any of the kids hang around we keep secrets and in our secrets we damage our communities our families we allow child abuse because we're protecting somebody that needs to get help we allow thievery to go on because we don't want to turn in junior we're just setting junior up for a life of destruction we got to learn to talk about our experiences and to work it out and to move them in a way that they don't control us in which we can control them well lastly we got to have some reflective group activities you need a small group of friends that you can use to bounce some off ideas off of people who want to grow like you want to grow people who want to seek like you want to seek people who will pray for you and pray with you you need accountability partners who won't let you stay where you are who'll tell you girl get up wash your hair we're going out tonight i know you upset i know you miss him but you got to get out the house you need some people who will drive you to be better than where you are who'll push you to be stronger than you want to be who'll wake you up when all you want to do is sleep with life you need accountability partners paul is about to die and he writes a letter and there are three things that i want to give you before i take my seat confession says something about your commitments listen to what paul says do your best to come to me soon demons in love with this world has deserted me and gone to thessalonica christians has gone to galatia titus has gone somewhere else only luke is with me get john mark and bring him to me he's going to be useful to my ministry you see paul is talking about commitments and there are times in life when you've got to reflect on the people who've always been there for you all the time because not everybody who's in your life now would have been in your life if you didn't have anything not everybody who's trying to ride with you now would have written through you with you through the divorce some people are only with you for a season and for a reason and you got to stop trying to make temporary permanent sometimes you've got to be willing to let some people go so you can go where god wants you to go stop holding on to people who don't really want to be in your life grab hold and appreciate the people who've always been present for you [Applause] live in commitments commitments to yourself and commitments to the people around you i have six friends we've been rolling together for more than 30 years from morehouse we've gotten married together we've gotten divorced together we've had children together we know where we've been were 19 together and now we're older together we tried to be invincible together we struggled through phds and medical school we've cried together and though they are major figures in society it means nothing when they go behind closed doors you got to have people in your life who love you if you ain't got a nickel to your name you got to have people in your life who care for you when you can't take care of yourself when you grow old enough and you need those depends who going to change your depend that's a real question does he love you while you young and beautiful and if you had a stroke tomorrow would he pick you up and carry you to the toilet you got to learn to be with people who have real commitment to you and you got to learn to be committed to them and confession says i'm all right that they left me it hurts but i'm still going to do what i got to do because i know who god has called me to be and i don't need nobody else to be me all i got to do is walk correctly live humbly serve my god well the second thing confessions teaches us to do is to live in the moment confessions help us to say something about our community you see your commitments and your community match who you are committed to and what you are committed to says something about you listen to what he says he has fallen away because of his love for this world paul has preached against the love for this world over and over again in galatians 1 paul says christ died to take us away from the ugliness of this world paul says be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind too many of us can't have community because we're so committed to stuff we won't talk to people who are not of our social station if you want to learn what power looks like y'all need not talk to the pastor you talk to robin because you can't get to me unless you go through robin and robin tells me where to go she sends me a text every morning and says you're supposed to be here and the young people are saying who's robin she's my executive assistant and robin is the person who organizes my calendar and because she organizes my calendar she's the one with power but if you think i already want to deal with robin i want to talk to the pastor you've already missed where the power is you see because of superficialities we judge people and we make decisions about people and we lose where real power could be i was in martha's vineyard a couple weeks ago a couple of months ago i was there to present with mark moriel the ceo of the urban league we were presenting together on critical race theory i was at the reception the night before and in the kitchen there was an emergency the chef needed another pair of hands to help with hors d'oeuvres i walked into the kitchen he said hey you i said me yeah yeah you what what you doing i said well i'm i obviously came in at the wrong time he said can you just grab that knife and start cutting that meat i said you talking to me he said yeah i said okay so i i grabbed a knife and after a while his assistant said you need an apron i said okay they gave me an apron they said no no you need some gloves that gave me a glove so now i'm sitting there cutting hors d'oeuvres and tomorrow i'm supposed to be on the program so then another older lady said hey you i said yes she said we need you to take out the trash i said who me she said boy did you not hear what i said i said yes ma'am i heard what you said i took out the trash i came back they say hey you i said yeah you're talking to me we need you to serve these hors d'oeuvres i went around and i served the hors d'oeuvres nobody knew who i was they wouldn't even talk to me i bumped into somebody they wouldn't say excuse me the next morning the the the mistress of ceremony says we'd like to introduce to you the president and ceo of the national urban league and mark morial came out then they said we'd like to introduce to you the reverend dr dante r quick the pastor of the first baptist church of lincoln gardens in another set new jersey pastor quick holds a phd from california a master's from princeton uh a ba for morehouse college when i sat down the people in the audience looked at me like ain't that the waiter [Applause] the bible says be careful how you treat somebody because you never know when you're talking to an angel you never know when the person you snub is the person who can get you out of jail be careful because the first will be last and the last will be first walk in humility cause god may be doing something [Applause] oh when i came off the stage i said we didn't know who you were we you know it didn't matter if i got a master's from princeton it doesn't matter if i have a phd from berkeley what matters is i'm a child of god i'm made in his image and likeness i am black and beautiful you better treat me like i'm a child of the king you don't know who my daddy is my daddy owns a cattle on a thousand hill my daddy can make ways out of nowhere i'm a child of the king i can walk on water i can climb mountains i can say mountain move and it'll get out my way i'm a child of jehovah [Applause] [Music] well i'm gonna get out the way but there's one more thing that confession does confession says something about clarity it says something about your commitments it says something about your community but it should also give you a certain sense of clarity see as you get older there should be certain things that you clear about certain things you're not gonna put up with certain things you're gonna be okay with certain things you like certain things you don't like i don't like burger king i am mad at y'all if y'all like burger king i just don't do it and at this point if you say pastor you want to go to burger king and say no you're going to say well i just want to take you to lunch you can but you just can't take me to burger king well what if i what if that's all you i can afford well then i'll take you somewhere we still going to accomplish it but we ain't going to burger king i'm old enough in tune with myself enough that i don't eat places i don't want to eat just because i'm eating with you now if you want to go to popeyes it's on me see you should you should hang out with the old saints the seasoned saints tell you what's what season saints they have no filter they go it's like twice a child once a man season saints will tell you what they don't like what they baby no you can't bring that up in here baby there's some ugly shoes you got on somebody need to tell you seasoned saints will tell you everything they thinking when they thinking because they free at this point i ain't got to invest impress nobody i ain't trying to hook up with nobody i i can tell you when i don't like you or what i do like season saints i i got my own money i got my own coffee i got my own bedroom you only i don't need a season saint so just keep it 100 with you you should have clarity he says alexander the coppersmith did me dirty but god will deal with that he said now watch out for alexander now we we we know that alexander has several names in the bible this alexander we believe is in ephesus we believe this alexander may have come to rome some scholars believe that alexander may have testified against paul at his trial therefore alexander is a snitch at one point alexander and paul were roaning together because paul mentions alexander in other parts of the bible we don't know if it's the same alexander but we do know that god will give you clarity about people who are rolling with you but they're not rolling for you that sometimes confession will allow you to understand who's in your circle and about your circle and who's in your circle just because they want to know what's going on in your circle alexander did paul dirty and paul is clear don't trust that dude cause he did me dirty he'll do you dirty i've learned something about people who gossip to me if they gossip into me they gossiping about me i've been in church a long term you can learn a lot from church folk i learn more from the meeting after the meeting than i learned in the meeting and believe it or not there are a whole lot of alexander's in every church and they come tell the pastor on you well his clarity leads paul to my last point paul says i'm about to die i'd known who abandoned me now come see me timothy because i trust you and i need you to be by my side before i go there's some things i need to tell you in person he says bring me my cloak because it's cold here in prison he says bring me my papers because i got to write a few letters he says bring john mark that ought to cause you pause because remember john mark is barnabas cousin and paul banished john mark paul said john mark can't go with me nowhere but when you get clarity you learn not to judge people who could be you you learn that the mistakes they made are the mistakes you can make when you learn not to judge people you learn that by the grace of god they go out and as i get a little older and i do this job a little more and i begin to look at younger people in ministry and i begin to look at the things they do and the mistakes they make i realize that was me so i stopped to pour into them like somebody poured into me and i don't know what stage you are in life but somebody you wrote off five years ago somebody got on your nerves two years ago you may want to go back and say i'm sorry i made a mistake i judged you too quickly there was something about you that i saw in myself that upset me you get maturity and you get clarity and you learn to ask for forgiveness from people you did wrong don't die with guilt on your heart live free say i'm sorry and move on have you ever been in the presence of someone who's never said they're sorry have you ever dated or been married to somebody who never did anything wrong it's called narcissism everything is your fault everything is your mistake everything you did they can take no responsibility for anything but when you got clarity you free enough to say i made a mistake lord forgive me let me walk with you and when you get that free y'all you can see the glory in your story because paul began to say he did me wrong but god does me right the lord will fight my battles how do i know cause he's already done it he's pulling me out of situation after situation i ain't got time to wallow in my sadness there's glory in my story everywhere i've been everything i've done every tear i cried was preparing me for now and i don't know who i'm talking to but i came by to tell somebody every bump you rolled over every time you fell everybody who betrayed you every door that was closed every mistake you made adds to the glory of your story god is about to elevate you god is about to take you where you've never been before god is about to open doors for you don't worry about where you've been because where you've been had to be so that you can go where you got to go do what you got to do there's glory in your story learn to look back over your life learn to thank god for your ex learn to thank god for that door that closed learn to thank god for that boss who fired you learn to thank god for that teacher who wanted more from you there's glory in your story walk in the future and trust god we invite you to see the glory in your story to look back over your life and as i open the doors of the church i want you to look back and see what god has done for you how many battles god has fought for you how many ways god made in spite of yourself you tried to mess up every blessing god placed before you you were intentional about being a fool you dated every knucklehead in the world you had kids with somebody you don't even like but there's glory in your story you lost jobs you should be promoted in but there's glory in your story and so as we invite you to become a part of a life in christ you can just point your phone at the qr code i'm inviting you to find the glory in your story to trust god in a way you've never trusted god before to seek god in fullness and in truth now that means you can be a member of first baptist i'm not really interested in that i'm interested in your relationship with christ because ain't nothing worse than somebody who's a member of a church but doesn't have a relationship with christ do you know there's glory to your story do you know god ain't done with you yet if you're at home we invite you to take part in this moment to walk present with christ now it's your time the doors of the church are open i'm going to invite my ministers and the deacons to come forward [Music] nice [Music] let's go [Music] [Applause] [Music] my brothers and my sisters is there anyone who did not receive their communion yet does everyone have their communion amen [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] strength from day [Music] to day [Applause] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] [Music] beloved if you're at home i invite you to go quickly if you do not have it to your refrigerator and grab anything you can put in your mouth anything that you'd like to drink on the reason i stress anything as i explained last week last month is as baptist we believe in memorialism that means that i am not going to pick this element up and transform it into the literal body and blood of christ if i was a catholic priest i would believe that but as a baptist i believe these are signs and symbols the second thing that means is that first baptist practices an open communion table that means you do not have to be a member of first baptist it means you simply have to be a proclaiming baptized believer in our lord and savior jesus christ and we welcome you to this table there's a difference between that and what we call closed communion you practice closed communion if you believe in transfiguration we don't believe in that therefore the elements we have are just symbols because we believe that it's not what you put in your body is what you let out of your mouth it's about how you live now i wore a black robe today intentionally you will notice our ministers are wearing right robes we wear right as a sign and a symbol of purity i will never let blackness be associated with negativity my blackness is pure because god made it so i roar a black robe just to demonstrate to you that white don't mean you clean the choir will learn if they ever sing that song he washed me white as snow i'm gonna get up and stop it european religion taught us that blackness meant sin that's a lie from the pit of hell the writer solomon says i am black and comely [Music] learn to embrace who you are and the beauty of your people and because european religion said that they can keep haitians like slaves at the border but to be free whom the sun set free is to know that you are black beautiful bold and proud so we come to this table jesus said this is my body broken and torn [Music] for the abuses that we bring to the faith i do this as a living sacrifice and then he says this is my blood i release it for every tear you cry and when you feel dehydrated i will be living water i will supply your every need according to you my riches in glory i bled so that you can live and i am good to the last drop let us eat and drink together [Music] let us say the lord's prayer together our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name my brothers and my sisters we have just engaged in the holy supper the symbol that christ died for us i praise god that we commune together i praise god for each and every one of you and i give god the glory the honor and the praise next time i will explain to you why i wear gloves and why i take them off at certain points remember never practice a faith that you don't understand always know exactly why you do what you do that makes you in relationship with god you don't need me the curtain was rent that means you can go to christ by yourself we all trying to get there together amen so i want y'all to pray for the pastor pray that sin doesn't consume me and i'll pray for you that sin doesn't consume you and together we'll make this march onto the heavenly journey one by one please stand [Music] join us for bible study on wednesday we had a great time and i want to thank more than 400 households for joining us on our first bible study i look forward to our next opportunity may god bless you and keep you now unto the one who is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all we can ask and or expect the god who puts glory in all of our stories now and forevermore amen amen amen may god bless you and keep [Music] every praise is to [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] every prayer [Applause] [Music] thank you for worshiping with us at first baptist church of lincoln gardens for more information on our services and ministries please visit us at fbcsummerset.com [Music]

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Length: 107min 43sec (6463 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021