Fellowship: Hold onto the Gospel, Albert Tate

welcome fellowship at home my name is rachel cebios i'm one of the pastors here with you and just so glad you're here my name is brandon i am also one of the pastors here on staff yes and we want to let you know a little bit more about us here at fellowship we are a gospel-centered multi-ethnic intergenerational church and we exist to make disciples that's right y'all listen and it doesn't matter whether this is your very first time joining us or whether you're regular here we want you to know that god has something in store for you something very very special we always start off our services with amazing worship we're super excited that we get a chance to lean in with that but then right after that we have our very own pastor albert tate he is back with us he is excited he is ready to lean in and we are starting a brand new sermon series today called hold on i want y'all to say it with me real quick say hold on all right there you go listen we're excited we're going to come back at the end of the service we're going to close it and we're also going to give you some faithful next steps yes and if you're watching right now online we just want to say welcome i mean we want to meet you our pastors are online in the chat ready to be here to meet you and to pray for you so type away if you're also on social media share we would love for everybody to see this incredible powerful sermon today so right now we're gonna get together as a church and we're gonna worship so stand up in your house grab everybody and let's worship the lord let's go [Music] there's nobody like you love there's no one it's coming on the clouds kings and kingdoms we're bound [Music] who can stop the lord [Music] is [Music] come on [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] who can starve the lord almighty who can stop the lord almighty when he shows up who can stop the lord [Music] you know [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you got a way of showing up [Music] need [Music] you're so good you're so good [Music] hey father of kindness you have poured out grace you brought me from the darkness you have filled me with peace giver mercy you're my help in time of need lord i can't help [Music] faithful forever [Music] [Music] beautiful sailor beautiful savior you have brought me you pulled me from the ashes you have broken every cast [Music] yes [Music] yes you are [Music] yes [Music] you you're right there jesus yes you are all [Music] high will rest and your promises my confidence is in your faithfulness i will [Music] i will [Music] it's in your faithfulness one more time [Music] we will serve faithfully [Applause] [Music] [Music] all your promises hey fellowship family it is so good to be back i um i've so enjoyed the summer speaker series and thank you so much for y'all y'all been tuning in you've been supporting you i've been amen and in the comments and it's just been great i've gotten several notes of people who have been encouraged throughout the summer speaker series so i just want to thank all of our friends and our fellowship team that filled in and brought god's word today we start a new series called hold on hold on i just simply want to encourage you i want to inspire you in god's word and in a time when there are so many challenges so many difficult things that many of us are facing anxiety about the school anxiety about unemployment anxiety about being at home with going into a new season with such little clarity i was praying i was like lord what would you have us say to the church family as we come back and as we start this new season this new series and i feel like i heard the lord so so clearly he said albert encouraged my children to hold on to hold on so for the next few weeks i'll be teaching from the series hold on hold on let's pray together and ask god's blessing on our time and his word god thank you so much for our dear church thank you for our community thank you for [Music] all that you're doing in this season god we thank you for the things that we understand clearly of what you're up to and we we thank you even for the things that lord we we ain't got no idea what you're doing but father we fix our hearts and our minds and our mouths to say thank you but in the midst of times that are this uncertain father we need to hear what is for certain and that is your word so would you speak o lord like only you can father would you tune our ear to your voice so that we might hear you ever so clearly turn our hearts toward you so that we might experience the fullness of all that you have for us god it's to that end that i ask that you stand in my body think through my mind speak through my vocal cords those things that you would have us say know and do may the words of my mouth the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight o lord you are my strength you are my redeemer get glory in this place time is filled with swift transition none on earth unmoved can stand [Music] build your hopes on things he turns oh oh to god's son changing hand give me a little base and a good time come on hold to his hand oh [Music] god's unchanging hand build your [Music] change you would be hard-pressed to have a sunday night service at my old church where we didn't sing that song one of the best parts about that song is not just the the old school mississippi churchiness of it but but the line that says build your hopes on things eternal ah i i love it it starts by saying time is filled with swift transitions with translation things are changing all the time time is filled things change and then they change and then guess what they change again and in the midst of all the swift transitions you better hold on to something and it says hold to god's unchanging hand and while you're holding this and it's almost as if he's saying while you're holding his hand with this hand on this hand as you walk into this world you better build your hopes build your expectation build your anticipation build your expected end build your hopes on eternal things and not temporal things laced in is a message for us here as we navigate pandemic as we navigate a a polarized society as we navigate uh video after video of racial injustice as we as we as we navigate cultural unrest we better know where to find hope and we would better know where to where to invest in hope and we better know where to build hope and that's on things eternal translation news flash believer christian this world is not your home you got to hold on to god's unchanging hand this this week i want to talk about holding on and every week i'm going to give you something new to hold on to this week i want you to hold on to your belief in god's unchanging hand your belief in god's hope and the expected end that we have in his kingdom the belief in the good news of the gospel of jesus christ because in the midst of all the bad news i need you to know i still believe the good news of the gospel of jesus christ the reason why i want to target your belief today the reason why i need you to focus and i need you to hold on to your belief the reason why i need you to grab your belief and hold on to it because your belief is the first thing that the enemy tries to take in the time of a storm i'll say that again your belief is the first thing that the enemy will try to take in the time of a storm he attacks your belief because once he gets your belief then he can get everything else well once you let go of belief then you really let go of it all belief belief belief belief has a direct impact on how you live you live from a place of belief inevitably we all live from a place of a belief we make decisions about our life how we live based off of what we believe if you don't believe it you ain't gonna live it it's it's fundamental you may say you believe it you may talk about how you believe it but there are things that you say you believe that you don't live out you believe you you say you believe eating healthy is the way that you should live but you don't eat healthy why because you don't really believe it you don't you believe that this wendy's double stack will bless your life more than it will hurt your life i'm so i'm sorry i'm testifying about my own self i'll just talk about me but but but once you really believe it shapes then how you live i'm just saying be really careful in our in this cultural moment it's really easy to say you believe stuff that you never live which means you really never believed it ah i'm gonna say that again it's really easy to say that you believe something but you never live it which means you never believe it in the first place i'm sorry it's fundamental if i believe a chair can hold me i'll sit in it but let me tell you something if i go to somebody's house and i know i'm a big dude and this chair don't look all that you know because you know i'm sitting up here i'm 200 and something jesus pounds i'm not gonna sit in the chair that you you have come on honest true story you have to go to somebody's house and and and you don't want to be rude you don't be not like but you see the chair they want you to sit in this is a big person thing yeah little people i find the illustration for you later on in the service but for big people you ever see a chair and you look at the chair and you sit down in it and the chair look back at you and be like like like the chair is like i i i'm not gonna say nothing but i don't i don't you don't think this is a good idea and the chair looking back at me saying i don't think it's a good idea either oh while you got your guests your host oh sit down make yourself a home the chair is like don't you sit on me don't we ain't gonna make it this ain't gonna end well i'm telling you that you don't try to be nice to them be nice to me don't sit on me come on can i get a witness in here if i don't believe it i ain't gonna sit in it can i tell you if you ain't if you don't believe it you ain't gonna live it you live from a place of belief and some of you if you learn to live from a place that you don't believe then you're really not you're not even capturing the fullness of what god wants to do i i guess i guess what i'm saying is today i want to encourage you hold on to what you believe don't let go of your belief the good news is still good news jesus is still on the throne he's still sovereign he's still all powerful do you still believe in the midst of hard times in the midst of storm in the midst of crisis in the midst of pandemic in the midst of anxiety do you still believe in the midst of fear even in the midst of doubt now i know i just lost some of you because you think how can you believe and have doubt at the same time child the very fact that you've got doubt is a testament of your belief come on in here somebody we're not that kind of church we're not a church we'd be like no you can't have doubts no everybody up in here got doubts i got doubts if you're atheist you don't have no doubts in god because you don't believe nothing about him anyway so in many ways brothers and sisters your doubt is a testament of a genuine true faith your doubts your questions their testament that you actually have real belief so even if you got doubts come on hold on to the good news that's still good news whenever i think about the gospel whenever i think about the good news of the gospel i feel like it synthesizes in what i call a life anchor text for me and it's john chapter 3 verse 16. it's a life anchor text and in many ways it's the anchor text for our church my goal is to try to preach this thing as many times as possible you can't go wrong preaching john 3 16. if you mess up john 3 16 lord have mercy you in trouble you you should not be able it's like messing up rice in in hey some of us can mess up right so let me not say that i've had some rough rights in my time but but john 3 16 is like an anchor text you want to hear the greatest story ever told synthesized in just a few sentences come on home to john 3 16. so today our anchor our passage is john 3 16 as i talk about what does it mean to believe to hold on to your belief in this time of difficulty and pandemic for god to love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life the first thing in order for us to hold on to belief let's be honest there's some things that we got to let go of in order for us to hold on to belief there are some things that we have to let go of i want to give you three things that you got to let go of in order to hold on to belief number one you got to let go of the things of this world you got to let go of the things of this world if you're going to believe and rest in the things of god you've got to let go of the things of this world for god so loved the world watch this that he gave his only begotten son to deliver us from that world he loved the world but he didn't love the things of the world so he actually sent his son listen to he says for god so loved the world you hear that line and the next line says that he sent his only begotten son and why did he send his son to deliver us from the world deliver us from the things of this world because he knows that if we fall in love with the things of this world we will miss the eternal hope that he's calling us to live in some of us in this time of crisis in this time of pandemic in this time of uncertainty what god's been doing in your life if we were to be honest he's been pulling things of this world off your plate you've been having to let go of some things in this world there are moments like this that really force us to decide what really matters that they're moments like this i don't know about you but my calendar has gotten freed up and i was so busy i had so many things going on so much stuff to do had so much so so consumed and i couldn't i never had the time to do the things that really matter to me i would i wish i had time to go to coffee with you i wish i had time to spend more time with my kids i wish i could spend more time with my wife i wish i could spend more time at home and less time and traffic i didn't have time for anything but then all of a sudden everything falls off the calendar and i've got a lot of time and it's forcing me to really sit and think albert what really matters what what really matters the other day in azusa where our home is there was a fire that broke out in the mountain and uh this has only happened one time before but i got a call from a friend and they said hey we we may have to evacuate i just want to let you know he's one of our neighbors so i just want you to be prepared so i'm on my way home i called my wife and i said hey babe we may have to evacuate um and then i called my friend back i said hey um when you evacuate what do you what do you take and he says i don't know so it was amazing moment to be honest it was a crystallizing moment it was a moment when we looked around at all at our house where we we spent all this money buying furniture and paying for this home and all these things and all these clothes and shoes and groceries and and we got all this stuff in our house the tv that i got from chrysalis the big screen that i love you know i got all this stuff but in the moment of crisis when you got to grab your valuables and leave you find out really quickly what really matters you know what that was it's the amazing woman that's been beside my standing by my side for 20 years my wife it's my four kids 14 12 soon-to-be eight and two my sister who lives with us it helps us care for our little two-year-old once we got all of them in the car nothing else really mattered i think god is saying this season is about identifying the things that really matter and holding on tight to those and letting everything else go letting everything else go what are the things of this world that you might still be holding on to that you need to let go what what are the things that you've put to hire pedal salon and to be honest the things that really really matter well as the songwriter said build your hopes on things eternal what are the eternal things that matter who are the people that matter and what does it mean in the season to let go of everything else to let go of everything else consider the question what do you need to let go in this season so that you might hold on to your beliefs some of you need to let go of fear some of you need to let go of anxiety and hold on to trust and belief what do you need to let go second thing i think you need to let go in order to hold on to belief you need to you need to let go of the things of this world and you need to i think you need to let go of the glitter on the cross i'll say that again you need to let go of the glitter on the cross for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son then that sounds so sweet it sounds so beautiful he gave his only begotten son it's like a gift we even referred to it as a gift like it was like a little bowl with a with a nice gift wrap package and he gave his son i don't know sometimes i think we've got an unhealthy view of what it meant when he gave his son he gave his son to be crucified to be crushed to be sacrificed for our sins he gave his son to die for us he gave his son to die but i think we live in a time and we live in a world where we hear those words and we think it's just this christianity is a beautiful gift and everything's so beautiful and nice and we and then let me let me here's the line some things weren't meant to be to be bedazzled some things are not meant to be bedazzled when you get your glitter off the cross will you stop bedazzling the cross of jesus christ because this follow to follow jesus christ and to hold on to belief friends this journey is marked with sacrifice not glitter there's some gold in the story but you don't get that to the other side there's some rubies there's some jewelry but that don't come to the other side the other side of here it is the crucifixion some of us are so quick to bedazzle the resurrection we don't want to sit in the suffering of the crucifixion as we're navigating this season the word that you need to embrace as far as you being a follower of jesus christ going through a hard time here are the two words suffering and sacrifice this is the kind of stuff they don't make t-shirts out of this the kind of stuff that don't grow churches but friends can i tell you following jesus christ is not this glittery bedazzled experience it's marked with suffering it's marked with sacrifice it's marked with loss yeah yeah yeah there's an ultimate win and there's the ultimate joy that we have but i think we do ourselves a disservice if we don't keep it real with one another and talk about yes there will be days where you will have tears you will be marked with sacrifice and suffering and you will feel like you're losing in a world that looks like their wedding but he says many are the afflictions psalm 34 many are the afflictions of the righteous but the lord shall deliver us from them all i can shout right there ah many are the afflictions of the righteous but this is why you can hold your head up this is why you can be encouraged and this is why you still hold on because the lord the lord the lord the lord shall deliver us from them all it ain't one thing you going through that the lord ain't going to deliver you out of i wish i had a witness in here i said there ain't one thing you're going through that the lord ain't going to deliver you out of many are the afflictions of the righteous but the lord three words that'll change your day but the lord three words that ought to change your weak but the lord three words that ought to change your living room right now but the lord but the lord but the lord the lord shall deliver us from them all can i tell you everything everything's gonna be okay he's gonna deliver us from them oh let go of the things of this world let go of the glitter off the cross we don't need to bedazzle it we need to trust it trust that in the sacrifice of following jesus there will be resurrection there will be gold he ain't gonna give you no cheap glitter or badass no he don't give you the real thing boo it's gonna be gold because you know what's different between gold and glitter gold is tried and purified in fire glitter wouldn't stand a second in fire he didn't die on a cross to call you to a place of glitter he died on a cross to call you to a place of gold tried by fire let go of the things of this world let go of the glitter of the cross and let go of thirdly and finally let go of perishable items perishable items for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe on him would not perish perish perish parish is the is the slow process simply simply put it's the slow proc slow process of things going bad it's a slow process of things going bad and the idea of perishing means it's a process it ain't gonna happen it's not like good bad no no it's a slow process and what happens to our soul is it's a slow process of us perishing perishing perishing living outside of god's purpose our god outside of god's plan outside of god's promise for our life but we don't get outside overnight satan wants to put us on a slow burn of perishing slow burn to perishing as we surrender as we live a life sacrificially unto god and as we let go of the things of this world we got to let go of perishing items i don't know about your house at my house expiration dates are recommendations and suggestions not declarations it's a recommendation not a declaration i'll look at the mayonnaise and say oh this went bad a week ago and i'd smell it i do a little taste test i'm like oh they recommend we throw it away but i suggest we eat it today you know what i'm saying like i will hold on to something that date is a recommendation now to my wife oh it's a declaration she'll throw it away oh this is gonna go bad in three weeks i'm throwing it away today what are you doing we have three weeks to leverage that really four because how how do they know exactly the right date like like come on this we got some wiggle room you know give or take a couple of months either way you know what i'm saying my wife don't play that if it's looking like it's thinking about going bad she get it out the house god says that's how you need to consider your soul and that's how you need to look at the perishable things of this world if it looks like it's thinking about going bad if it looks like it's thinking about living outside of god's purpose god's plan you need to get rid of it don't you hold on to perishable items don't you hold on to perishable items some things you just gotta you gotta get rid of you gotta let go you gotta say goodbye to because of studying at home in classrooms now being at home we're rearranging our house so all of our kids are going to sleep in one room and we're going to take my sun's room and we're going to turn it into a classroom so we order in desk and stuff to put in there so it's a big thing the kids are excited because they get new beds in this room so we we're trying to make a thing of it you know we're trying to make it the best way we can so we we're trying to get them a classroom so that way they can just have their own place to go and do their schoolwork um we come home the other day and my son isaac has a video camera and he is in his room and we we see all this stuff out we say he's like isaac what are you doing and his sister says oh oh he was having a funeral he's like what he's like yeah he had a funeral for his room my son recognizing that the time for him having his room has come to an end so he decided to have a funeral with his room oh and it was something else you go in the room he had mickey lined up mickey mickey mouse gave a eulogy uh is a blessing the black panther had words um mr elephant shared some thoughts and they talked that it's a whole video it's a whole video they talked about the good times in the room and the memories that they had together and um and he just captured mickey one eulogy after another and how they had to say goodbye to what once was i think isaac could teach us all a little something in this season some of us we need to have funerals for some things that will be no more some of us we need to let go of some things let go of the hopes and the dreams of things being like they once were so that we might receive the provision of what god is going to do back in the 90s one of the regular songs whenever you lost somebody was you would sing uh it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday [Music] you got to do that little last part but but the song was always so sad but you love singing it because they made a moment out of saying goodbye they created a soundtrack goodbye should sound like something and it sounds like that song but one of the most key key lines is it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday but the reality is sometimes we got to say goodbye to yesterday because tomorrow's coming some of us it's time to say goodbye yesterday bishop kenneth ulmer he says this he says it this way he says one place you don't want to be is where god was isn't that good he says you don't want to be where god was you want to be where he is and i'm speaking about god in seasons there he he's moving in this season but now he's he's changing seasons and you don't want to be living in yesterday where god was when god is saying oh tomorrow i'm over here doing something new some of us we need to say goodbye to yesterday because when you hold on to perishing when when you hold on to perishing things it forces you to have a perishing life i'll say that again when you hold on to perishing things it causes you to have a perishing life roman torture uh back in the day what they would do when they would want to torture someone they would take a dead body and put it on the back of someone who's living and they'd make him walking around with that dead body because what would happen is the rigor mortis the death that is in the dead body eventually will begin to enter into the body of the one that was living death would literally travel in the in and the perishing in this body would literally begin to affect the skin and the life of the living body you got to let go of perishing items because if you keep carrying around perishing things it's going to cause you to have a perishing life for god so love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish would not perish but have everlasting life one of the most powerful words in that whole passage friends is believe god does everything else in the passage but all you got to do is believe he says i loved you i'm providing the son i'm providing eternal life i'm delivering you from perishing all i need you to do is believe my brother my sister during this time of crisis during this time of pandemic during this time of uncertainty i need you to believe i need you to hold on to your belief that god is good that god is sovereign that god is still on the throne the good news is still good news and i don't know about you but i'm telling you i'm encouraging you to hold on to god's unchanging hand hold on because as i look at the news as i look at the reports as i look at all that's happening i still believe i i still believe in god the father i still believe in god the son i i still believe that he's sovereign i i still believe no weapon formed against me will be able to prosper i still believe that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world i i still believe that he's a rose of sharon i i still believe that he's the bright morning star i still believe he marched up a hill called calvary i still believe that they whipped him from this from the sixth to the ninth hour i i still believe that they they hung him high they stretched him wide i i still believe he bowed his head for me he died i still believe he was in the ground all night friday oh i wish i had a witness in here i still believe they had him in the ground all night saturday and i still believe that early sunday morning he rose with all power in his hands i still believe so hold on keep believing don't allow yourself to be bound by the strongholds of this world but hold strong to the promise of god did you see what i did there don't be bound by the strongholds of this world but hold strong to the promise we'll get to on the other side god may we hold on may we still believe we're holding on to the promise and yes we will get to the other side for your glory amen [Music] i'm holding on to the promise on the other side i'm looking through the storm to the promise on the other side i'm not letting go father you are my hope i'm home on to the promise on the other side i'm holding on to the promise on the other side i'm looking through the storm to the promise on the other side said i'm not letting go cause father you are my hope i'm holding on to the promise on the other side i'm holding [Music] i'm holding i'm holding on and i'm trusting and i won't let go [Music] to promised [Music] to the promise on the other side to the promise to the promise to the promise on the other side [Music] oh [Music] on the other [Music] to the promise on the other side to the promise on the other side [Music] wow fellowship family uh what a powerful powerful message we just heard right now and that song i pray that you are holding on to the promises of god on the other side man we we want to be here with you right now in this moment i pray that something is stirring in your soul that as you listen to pastor albert challenge you challenge us about what it means to hold on in this season and all of the unknown things in the midst of all the uncertainty is something stirring in your soul right now then we want to ask you to take a courageous next step call us text us we have a team that's ready right now to process with you to pray over you and to encourage you spiritually so the numbers on the screen right now we want you to reach out to us so that we can stand with you and whatever it is that god is doing in your heart right now and listen in addition to that we know that in these uncertain times now more than any other time we believe that the church and those who are in this community should be showing up for one another we don't want you there trying to figure out how to do this on your own remove that from your thought this is not a time to try to figure it out by yourself there are people there are resources and as a church we want to show up for you so if you are in any way in need of help then listen click the button call us so that we can stand with you and we can get you the help that you need yeah church you have been so faithful during this time and we know that when you give it's not just giving to fellowship it's giving through fellowship and so we are so thankful for you we're so thankful for your faithfulness and so to continue your giving please check the screen put the info in and be able to take that next step of faith by giving we also let you know that we are in an intergenerational church we believe in the next generation we have a ton of resources for our kids and for our youth go to our page made for fellowship.com find out more information we also want to let you know that with our youth who meet on tuesday nights junior high and high school students that we have a break all the way through till august 25th but we want you to go online find out more information because we're going to be doing incredible boxes that allow our students to be interactive in this next season so go online sign up and get more information in addition to that we also have our mid-week service pastor michael field is going to be closing out the very last message on the book of philippians on august 12th we want you to join us for that it's going to be amazing and listen we're going to be taking a break after that as well some amazing things are going to be coming in the future but join us for the last one on august 12th and then don't forget you could also go back and listen to some of the other messages at any time on our fellowship app and on youtube as well now church we're going to take a time to pray to end this incredible service we want to make sure that as god's people that we are coming together to believe that the god is still moving that our prayers for our church for our cities for our kids for our nation and for our world that they're coming together right now that god is moving and so we want to pray god's mercy his hope and that he will continue to do a mighty work in your life so let's pray together church right now lord god we just thank you so much for the powerful word that you spoke through pastor albert the ways that you are moving through our youth through our kids through just the congregation through the people who are watching and i asked lord that you would continue to show your mercy to show your grace to bring healing and hope to those who who really need it right now and i pray for whoever is watching on this screen right now that they would know that they are loved that you see them and that you are for them we love you lord jesus we love your church and all of god's people said amen amen

Channel: Fellowship

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Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

Keywords: weekend services, Albert tate, midweek service, worship, fellowship, fellowship church, fellowship monrovia, midweek message, weekly service, fellowship worship, fellowship music, jesus

Id: eJdIsJBgE80

Length: 48min 53sec (2933 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020