Happy Sabbath! 9/11/2021

oh uh oh wow um [Music] yeah because it's all it's always um a teacher that was safe exactly it does feel like it's right over here yeah uh um all right all right all right good morning good morning good morning good morning i am your host pastor rashid taylor and it is my pleasure and my privilege to welcome you to the first word i am not by myself today i came with some good company as always i am joined by pastor al lampkin byron shea crockett pastor anthony adams byron shea crockett like i know my name i've heard it before [Laughter] today we are dealing with longing for more we're looking at rest this entire quarter and today we're looking at longing for more there's this ache there's this need for something greater than what we already have and we can only find that in the loving arms of jesus christ and the rest that he truly provides so today we're not going to delay we're going to go right into this lesson let us pray and it will jump start this journey with jesus this morning blessed father in heaven we we appreciate the opportunity we look back over this week and lord there were times where we may have fallen or we may have faltered but you still trusted us to come and deliver this word today so father we pray that your holy spirit is in front of us that every insight every bit of information that is shared is holy spirit given and delivered and the only thing we are are just megaphones for your majesty lord i pray that you will take your hand and guide us upon each precept and principle so that we understand you clearer and we crave the rest that only you can provide forgive us for our sins and our shurikens bless those under the sound of our voices in christ mighty name we pray amen did you say megaphone for your majesty yeah man that was good i appreciate that i appreciate that i appreciate that i try you know if i can do it for my wife i got to do it for jesus amen you know i got i got it i got at least i got at least offer up my best all right so so anthony as we're looking for looking at learning from others examples and if we if we're really practical about our our bible and the word of god is that's really all it is it's looking at other people's examples and other people's relationship with jesus so what are some positive lessons that you may have learned in your journey uh from other people well yeah that's good good morning happy sabbath you know you all like share subscribe thank you so much for tuning in um as we remember today is uh the 20th anniversary of 9 11 we thank god for uh the first responders and we pray for those families still to every morning because some are still in the morning man positive things that i've learned man um of course i love my wife let me give a shout out to you man of course um and i'll be honest with you uh there's a lot of things that i've picked up over the years um her grandmother exemplifies what it is to be a christian not just a christian but a seventh-day adventist christian she exemplifies those things for me uh but also my wife man i remember in the darkest hour of our lives she asked god if she could walk away every right every intention to and the lord said no you have to stay not my words her words that she said the lord spoke to her you have to stay because he's going to learn what love is through your example and so i thank god for uh his loving kindness towards my wife to be able to speak that in that season where we could not see where we were going but we were destined for something greater so i appreciate that man and you know it's just even in this season right here being around other pastors that have walked this journey um i'm going through a difficult time this week you know and there are other people who also are have been on the brink of loss and also have lost and they're able to speak into my life and so man there if you look around god said i'll never leave you nor forsake you and he has placed people in the vineyard in the valley with you that are either on the mountaintop and have been where you're going or they're in the valley with you and they're going through at the same time and we are able to glean from just the experience that they have given us man and you know my senior pastor pastor snell teaches us how to study the word he teaches us how to break down the word he teaches us how to apply the word in everyday practical life and then i get around my brothers up here and you all don't cut me any slack and you keep me accountable so there's always a lesson that you can learn we have not come to know everything like i was talking with a another senior brother of mine we haven't we always have to be open to learn and listen so i just thank god if you look i don't care what situation you're in if you look around you'll find some type of positivity and that's where god says i'll always give you a way of escape so amen great great great great great answer yes truly beautiful um so let as anthony has learned from the example of others the loving example or this is the leading example of others what to do we can also look at other's example and learn what not to do so um how has watching the example of others help you to avoid certain pitfalls or maybe drop certain habits or or just just shape your behavior in the positive direction certainly certainly certainly it's interesting uh because we've heard that cliche so many times the very fact that uh we can learn what to do and what not to do from individuals so in other words uh we can learn from everybody there you go you know so we can never think that uh and of course another cliche that we're used to you're never too old uh to learn and never too young to teach you know so so we can learn something well you know as i think about the question i reflected on the question i know that most people would perhaps expect me to say well i learned not to go to bed late i learned not to over snack i've learned not to complain i've learned uh to ign not to ignore uh financial health you would think that i would perhaps choose one of those uh topics that i've just some topics that i just mentioned but those tops are topics are actually just sub topics they're just sub topics um i spent a little time this past week in my devotional i was reading uh peter and of course you know he's written two books he wrote the book first peter as well the second peter and as i was reading uh peter uh and uh his first chapter and it was verses five through eight it was interesting he was said he said that it's a god who gives us a measure of faith and so what we do is add to our faith um uh of virtue and to our virtue godliness and to our godliness patience and to our patience temperance now it goes on but i wanted to stop there at the temperance because when you ask what is it that uh you know that we want to avoid and that where we want to be careful as far as uh the habits that we pick up this is essential this is where peter picks this up and gives us some good counseling good advice and he talks about adding temperance another word for temperance is discipline i'm one who likes uh uh you know reading a thesaurus i want to see how many different ways i can say the same word so i could see why jack adams uh uh uh enjoyed your prayer and then also appreciated the fact that you may mention of uh of of uh what did you call it magnificent uh megaphone mega yeah a megaphone of majesty i could appreciate that so so so we all uh uh listen with our ear and we we like so like that ring and like that sound so i i too uh kind of like to do that so the thing is temperance another word for temperance is discipline so one of the things that i've learned and as i've observed i realize i encounter quite a few people who who who actually are undisciplined and have undisciplined lives so neglecting my health is a sign of an undisciplined life mistreating others is a sign of an undisciplined life let me just give you an example what i mean when i talk about mistreating others now think about it let's just say that i was the type of person that everything came that come to my mind i let it out we encounter people like that and perhaps there have been times perhaps there have been times that we have behaved in such a manner well the problem with always letting everything go that's in your mind you're going to have run-ins with your spouse you're going to have run-ins with your employer you're going to have run-ins with your siblings you're going to constantly have run-ins because what you have to do those thoughts come to your mind you have to dial it back think it through and realize okay if i were to have said the first thing that had come out of my mind perhaps instead of me having five friends i would have none you see because people people would have been uh offended and hurt by what i've what i've said so an undisciplined life and yet i didn't uh yet the very fact of of dialing back and and and not allowing whatever comes to my mind to come out of my head or out of my mouth is a is is the is what we call a disciplined life you know and so there are those i've encountered in life who have lost nice jobs uh 50 60 70 000 a year jobs because of undiscipline you know because they said something they shouldn't have said uh they did something they shouldn't have done so that's so all of that is a sign of undiscipline and the christian virtue is a disciplined life in fact think about it when we think about a disciple of christ we actually hear implied in the word disciple discipline and vice versa discipline the very fact that christ has so ordained and outlined how we ought to live now yes i am a person who uh god has given the power uh to think and to do and i can do as i please and so you figure that uh when i'm 15 16 17 years of age which of course those days are long gone uh 15 16 70 years of age that i began to kind of feel a little you know a little confident in fact it was a little surprise when i started to discover that i'm a little taller than mom now and i'm a little taller than that you know you start to feel yourself a little bit and i can move faster than they are and all of those kind of things and they're still trying to give me counsel and they're still trying to give me a direction and to show me which way to go and how how how to live and their counsel is intended to keep me on a roll call straight rather than to stray off the path because when i stray off the path uh and that path of course is going to be a path of undiscipline uh then i will reap the consequences that at the time of 15 16 17 years of age that i am completely oblivious and completely unaware of what is down the road and as only as we look back at 35 years of age and say man i wish 15 i had done this rather than what i would have done but it was because i exercised that power that i have within me i can do whatever i want to do when i want to do it how i want to do it ain't nobody gonna tell me anything i could do that yeah you know but that's a spirit of not uh of this of discipline it's undisciplined and also a lack of maturity amen all right appreciate that thank you sir uh so shay the bible is is is a real book about real people who serve a real god who make yeah real real and they make real mistakes so why do you think the bible makes sure that it doesn't gloss over these people and their mistakes these people and their in their flaws sure uh let's let's begin with romans 15 and 4. it says man when i said my whole name my voice got a little deeper y'all i need to try that more often it says for whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope i think when we look throughout scripture we see the good the bad and we even see people at their ugliest moments um and i think the good is there to model and i think too often i mean i don't say too often it's a beautiful thing that we can look at the mistakes of individuals and say if god used them he can use me all right one of the things that gives me great hope great assurance is if david was considered to be a man after god's heart oh i i know i'm gonna make it in right yeah but i think above that or next to it because i don't want to diminish god's grace and his mercy but next to that is the reality that we should learn from their mistakes and not use it as a crutch for our transgressions like i just think we can abuse the grace of god and say if a prostitute can make it in i know i'ma make it in instead of saying he or she may have made those mistakes let me learn from those it's kind of like our children right and my children are still in the toddler and debate but i'm thinking about myself and there were things that my parents told me not to do there were things that they shared with me the mistakes that they made i could have learned from their mistakes instead of making the same mistakes so as we're looking through scripture we need to model the good and we ought to get to a point in our walk with the lord where we are learning from the mistakes of the men and women in the bible and not just saying if god forgave them he could forgive me yes he can and he will that is for sure um but we can learn we don't have to um the bone chick crocker were off right there the voice went out we went back to we don't have to make the same mistakes we can learn and we can grow from what they have done that's good and we don't we don't know where the game clock is in our lives you know we say that again we don't we don't know where the game clock is in our lives see we look at we look at it says uh samson judged for 20 years and and this foolishness was in there but we don't know if we got 20. we're musical chairs yeah yeah yeah music can stop it stop at any moment and where you are is where you are and so so i appreciate you saying that because we we do kind of use that as a barometer for our ability to mess up yeah as opposed to saying today is all i got yeah yeah yeah yeah i passed lump you said something did you say that again no no that's right i'm better than him i'm better than her yeah yeah yeah yeah we we yeah yeah yeah we do i'm not i'm not as bad or or or if this if the prostitute can get in i i definitely ain't that or the womanizer or the womanizer the king with however many concubines yeah yeah yeah so but i want to just echo what you said you know i'm better than them too often we're judging our walk with the lord based upon the people around us yep yep um and that's easy to do we can find somebody who is not in church today we can find somebody who perhaps is struggling in the area that we are not um but what should humble us is when we compare our walk with the walk of the lord each of us should just be able to say if it was not for the grace and the mercy of god i really don't know where i would be man that's that's that's real uh and we catch ourselves i i almost speak for everybody i catch myself reading people's story line and i say man bro he he's the same age as me or he blankety blank agent he's still acting like that but they don't know who i know they haven't been who i've been so i can't judge where they are and they walk right now and and then i have to ask myself have i even had the conversation with this person about the god i know however sat down my you know so i catch myself doing that like hey bro we we too old for that but i haven't had that conversation with that man i haven't introduced him to the reason i'm not still there and so it's so it's it's real i appreciate i appreciate the insight pastor shea so this one is is for whoever shall come and will come uh but what lessons can we learn be [Laughter] but what as we look at the children of israel um and not just in the wilderness but but the wilderness is a great as a great place to start as they they took the the long way around the 40-year journey from egypt to the promised land what lessons can we kind of grab to hold on for us as people who've come out of oppression ourselves in 2021 what lessons can we learn maybe from the children of israel in this story one of the things that certainly comes to my mind is the very fact that in first corinthians chapter 10 they talked about different rituals one of the things that had happened that they had passed under the sea that brought about their salvation but then later on uh in the new testament it would pick up that theme and say well that's how they were baptized and that's how they entered into the church and so today we know that people entered into the church through baptism then of course uh it brought out the other ordinance that is followed and that's communion and yet here's the thing that got my attention in the book of first corinthians and yet those things did not save them that's what that that's what was expected of them to to to participate in those rituals but it didn't say them why would it say it did not save it well the thing is if i'm just going through a ritual and there's no relationship with the god of the ritual then of course is of no none effect and that was the message for the for the children of israel because those individuals look forward to going into the promised land and as you know the first generation didn't make it into the promised land but of course uh the the descendants would enter into the promised land but uh that which they desired that which they wanted to do that which they were going through the motion doing uh uh became of none effect because they had lost their relationship with god they had fallen into idolatry they had fallen into different things like that so what's the message there's an application for us today that if it happened we were talking about the thing about david that hey listen i praise god that if david can make it i can make it but the same is true that just like somebody can be lost i likewise can be lost so we want to continue to keep that balance in view and to realize uh that uh it's not salvation by works see and that's the message so even though i get baptized and even though i go through the ordinance of uh communion it's not salvation of my works but the reason i do those things is because i have a love relationship with god so i walk down the aisle with him and i get wedded uh in matrimony with the great god of heaven and i feel and i follow the covenant not rules but the covenant relationship isn't it interesting how the bible never uses the word rules we use we use the word rules you know oh you're supposed to do this and you're supposed to do that and listen you went 30 feet on sabbath and you were only supposed to go 25. you have created the sin of your life you know so we we we do that but it's a covenant relationship the very fact that uh what can i do to to you know we were talking about we love our wives and and we need to be clear all of us on the channel we love you man and one of the things about loving our wives is bringing that smile upon our face so so so when you come with those smooth words say hey baby if buffing you is wrong i don't want to be wrong so whatever whatever line that may be whatever it does that bring about that smile that bring about that that that that glow that beam uh uh uh you know we we do that well hey listen that's because we're in a loving relationship with uh with our our spouse and so the the nice gift that we give to our children that just cause them to say hey thank you daddy i appreciate that ah well listen there's a higher being that deserves our our uh acknowledgement as well our our spouse deserves our acknowledgement our children deserve our acknowledgement our what do we say our boys our buddies you know they deserve right now but our god deserves our acknowledgement as well that we ought to give him our greatest of respect and deference that's good first corinthians 10 verse 11 says now these things happen to them as an example i like that yes but they were not written down for our instruction or whom the end of ages has come therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man god is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape i had to put some shea cracking in there yeah the way of escape that you may be able to endure it i like that because the temptations will arise but you don't have to fall to them the temptations will come but you don't have to be overtaken by them like we were speaking earlier he provides a way of escape and you know the the lesson learned for me is that even though you're in the wilderness you're not alone even though you're going through you're not alone god is if he brought you out he can bring you through and he'll bring you to the final destination so that's what i learned from that it's good that's good uh just real quick for me is looking back will always make us miss where god is leading us to looking looking back as you said there was a pillar of cloud in the in the pillar of fire and and that that was god ever present with them but they s they constantly had a grumbling spirit because of what was missing maybe sandwiches and lunch meat this weekend maybe it may be you know this or that the next weekend and and it made them miss the daily miracle of god's presence with them and that and that he hadn't left them even though they had a steadily complaining spirit and so i think that just the the thing that because i because we all we all wish for oh man and it was a time i i used to play ball but now looking back robs us of seeing where god is leading us to and oh i'm sorry go ahead i was just going to say pastor snell said this and i'm gonna leave you alone here we go there pastor snell said that there's a reason why the windshield is larger than the rear view rear view come on now because the windshield is for you to continue looking forward yeah as opposed of glancing backwards to where you should occasionally glance backwards that's that's the testimony portion of it but we're pressing toward the mark that's good that's good you're going to say something pastor said i want to let it out go ahead oh i was going to say as it comes back to me y'all keep living man i'm 40. now y'all [Laughter] um but as you know when i was beginning to to drive and one of the mistakes i'm impatient yeah and um i was always trying to look for a shortcut now this is before gps right now you plug in ways and it's going to give you the shortest route don't please don't think you're smarter than waze believe all right because you're not right so i was always trying to cut through a neighborhood get this shortcut and i remember my dad telling me son there's no such thing as a shortcut and i and and circling back to this wilderness journey god's way is his way you can't circumvent it you can't detour you can't shortcut it um doing so most likely will result in either delay or your life right delay or your life um and so one of the lessons i think the takeaway is let's be faithful let's trust the process and what god says do [Music] do especially when you agree to it right if god lays it out before you you say i can do that then do what you what you have agreed to do and do what god has instructed us to do that's good that's good and you brought up the windshield and the rear view and it's a little writing at the bottom says objects in the mirror are closer than they appear and and it's always a little confusion when we're looking in the rearview a difference of perspective and and but what's in the what's in the windshield it's in the windshield it's clear as day yeah yeah i mean um i know we can't do this all the time um but uh our pr yeah extraordinaire yeah phyllis she did send in a question okay all right um and it says this is from ricardo i'm viewing from charlotte north carolina how do i stop judging others and instead share the word of god through those weak moments it gonna i want to use we can use the the the windshield in the front and and the reverse but also if you just look in that rear view mirror i think it's important that each day we take a deep look at ourselves look at our struggles that's right and even if we're at a place where we're walking really close with the lord then what did god bring us out of and what if you've been journeying with him a long time right yeah then what did god protect you from we should always have that spirit of of humility and resist the urge because we talked about it earlier you're not the only one who's tempted to judge we all attempted there it all pops into our minds what we're talking about doing is how we prevent ourselves from staying in that judgmental state and that is by constantly reflecting on ourselves and realizing even at my best i still need the lord yeah it still is considered as filthy rags so that's that's my thought on that comparison to take you out man yeah comparison i compared my i was comparing my kids excuse me was i was doing that comparing my kids to somebody else well and you know it starts off early yeah well my baby spoke of first words in six weeks well my baby yeah was walking in two days yeah baby wasn't walking in two days yeah she wouldn't yeah she was you know and we always do that comparison because we feel like ours is the best there you go and like you said you know when it come when it boils down to it who are we really supposed to be compared against if not jesus christ are we living up to the standards because at the end of the day man this week again at the end of the day your destination we never know when the shot clock on your life is gonna run out that's right some of us are down to one right now yeah yeah and we're still playing as if we have five minutes left in the game and we don't so that's why they say preach as hard as you can teach as hard as you can learn as hard as you can be diligent with that thing and like pastor said when you look in that mirror the first set of eyes you catch are yourselves do you see jesus in that mirror there you go or are you still seeing the judgmental anthony that's that stares back it's good yeah that's good the other thing i would remind us all in the fact that what paul said that we see through a glass darkly yep um the very fact that we do not have eyes behind our bed all right behind our heads is an indication that we can only see but so much you know uh we can see that which is in front of us our peripheral so once we recognize ourselves and that's that's that's what we're trying to say once we recognize ourselves then we realize that hey we are prone to weakness we're just prone to weakness because we're limited in our scope and our in our abilities and those kinds of things and so this draws us back to the one who is infinite and who's great and that's god and so uh for all of us as we begin to slip into things we don't want to so whether it's a judgmental spirit or whether it's a habit or this any other realize lord by myself i can't i can't i can't even i can't do it i can't i can't handle the situation but i'm willing to give myself and then we claim the promise in philippians chapter 4 13 that i can do all things but don't forget the rest of the statement through christ who strengthens me so it's it's it's his strength that that does it so the fact that the question was raised we we applaud you we applaud you for raising that question and want to let you know that's a good start so now the next step is lord i'm going to claim philippians chapter 4 first thing and i want to do this through your your strength because uh the outcome my experience in the past and our experience in the past the outcome is never good you know once i think negative about uh atoms or think negative about shea or think negative about taylor it's hard to get that negative thoughts out of your mind you see so so now you have to ask god lord this is what this is what david said purge me purging purge me of fat so once we set the goal and there's a and i'm close on this there's a reason why the bible says that jesus rose early you know before it was dead because that day that was going to unfold he was about to encounter so much he was going to encounter sickness suffering death he was going to encounter those who were trying to convict him of a crime that he uh did not convict uh they said that he had blasphemed so he's about to face all those things and listen my friends if you're not on guard i've been in those positions where i'm not on guard and when you're not on guard you tend to snap you tend to lose it you tend to do all the things you don't want to do but when you spend that time with the lord then uh for whatever day uh whatever comes that day god has now fortified you insulated you it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt but it just simply means that now i'm in better control because i'm putting my uh trust uh completely in in the lord so i think all that we said certainly is helpful yeah i i i would i would touch and agree on all of that and just just simply add um as a christian we're in the bridge building business not the wall building yes yes and so we we build a bridge to go back and connect those because if this person is in your sphere of influence this person is in your circle they're still there for a reason and so who brought that thing to your attention and why did they bring that that thing to your attention was it to build a wall then that's probably of the devil or was it to build a bridge then it's definitely of god and so uh look at at who brought this satan or christ who brought that to your attention and then what are they expecting you to do with that bitter information that would be my my last little tidbit on that so let's look at types and symbols for a second the the greatest example of of the work of christ is found in the sanctuary system so say uh just it briefly just described the earthly sanctuary system uh that that the constructed after the pattern given to moses by the lord sure very very briefly very briefly all right um verse 8 says and let them make me a sanctuary that i may dwell among them according to all that i show you that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings just so you shall make it all right what speaks to me the loudest is let them make me a sanctuary that i may dwell among them god desires to be with us to hang out with us to tabernacle with us it is the garden all over again is god's best way of restoring the garden yeah when our when our first parents they disobeyed humanity was driven out of the garden had to happen and so when sin comes into existence we can't even be in the presence of god without perishing it's why moses had to take off his feet for the ground he was his shoes i'd take off his neck his whole foot he was he was mr potato head he had to take his feet okay that's a that's some reference i'm going to take over i think he took off his his uh clatters his hands sandals um because the ground he was standing on was holy holy right and so because god has this infinite love towards us because he desires the tabernacle with us because he intended to always be with us the best he could do without destroying us was for us to make a sanctuary so that his glory could tabernacle there and so he put in place a system to where we can be as close as possible to him without perishing i mean that's how much god loves us he could have just said hey y'all y'all didn't choose me go have your way yeah right i'll just watch from afar but no that's not what he did he made sure that he was with us every step of the way um and so it just speaks volumes of god to me and in 2021 he's still saying we still our testimony should be lord prepare me to be a sanctuary yes pure and holy tried and true and with thanksgiving i'll be a living thanksgiving i'll be a living i'll be your living sanctuary sanctuary lord for you oh [Music] and so that should be our testimony and i we should he went from a building made out of brick or made out of mortar and made out of wood to saying let your flesh let your heart become the sanctuary where i dwell and he's still wanting to dwell with us as pastor said today and we look at that in 2021 we actually have the ability to carry the word of god wherever we go i mean we have that access but how many of us are accessing it and more importantly applying it on the daily if you got a pocket you can carry the entire bible with you but how many of us are accessing and applying that word and that's that's the sad part is that he does everything he can to constantly reconnect when our very sinful nature are like cancer in the face of radiation be repealed but he's doing everything he can to still connect with us even though we are the cancers of his universe my lord my lord so lamb okay what was the lord excuse me what was the lord wanting to teach the children of israel through symbols like the sanctuary and these types that that that he he shared as evidences of heavenly realities certainly in the bible we have two big themes and one is judgment and the other is uh grace judgment we see judgment in the day of the antediluvians with noah's a day judgment came we see judgment in the time of sodom and gomorrah we see judgment came and then of course judgment is coming at the end of the world but uh we would be amiss of course if we didn't share that other theme and that is grace and so the very fact that even with noah in noah's day noah found grace in the eyes of the lord and so with sodom and gomorrh if there be at least 10 people we will not destroy the city and yet uh there were not 10 found but those who were faithful were taken out of the city and then of course in the last days when jesus comes and of course uh those who will be saved who will be in the kingdom of god will be there not because of their works or their righteousness but because of grace you know and i want to be in that number but i trust that all of us want to be there as well but let me just share a quick illustration that comes to my mind when i think about the mosaic system i say the mosaic system because uh that's what we're accustomed to when we talk about the sanctuary uh when we talk about the lambs that were brought to the altar when we talk about the knowledge of of a being called a priest or a high priest uh but this uh uh this what we have is only a copy and it was only a type of what god wanted to illustrate to the people of god and to help the people of god to understand what it takes for their salvation see think about it i've heard someone and we've heard this before the illustration that uh if there were no sin there'd be no need of a preacher there'd be no need of a church and so on and so forth yes so we've heard that go down so because we have a church and because we have a preacher that means sin exists and unfortunately not only does it exist it abounds but you know and we got churches on every corner along with like you know that's unfortunate you know so so so so we have that uh uh taking place but but but but but uh uh the thing the illustration i wanted to bring uh to mine is we've heard of a person by the name of pablo he said pablo i don't know him picasso you've heard of picasso you know if you heard was his broke cousin michelangelo so these are individuals of course sistine uh chapel with this great painting that's up on the ceiling but it's not just of that painting but all the other uh works that he had done now his work would be over 500 years old and if you were able to get a hold of the original you know you could not afford it right at all yeah you could not afford it so even if you were rich you couldn't afford it you would have to be in the company of the super rich to even be able to afford it uh but you can get a copy you possibly get a copy for 20 bucks you could possibly get a copy for 10 you know so you can get a copy but that copy is not the original yeah point of the illustration is to help us to understand if that is true for a mortal like us michelangelo was no better than you and no better than me and we're no better than he is the gift that god gave him was the gift of artistry and painting the gift that god has given you and given you and given you and given all of us maybe michelangelo could not duplicate so we have to respect the fact god gives gifts as he desires and as he thinks best so with with that gift uh this man was a great artist he is remembered by people generations from his time who did not exist 500 years ago when he existed but because of his great artistry work so so to duplicate his work we need to understand it may look alike and it may seem like that but it's not the same if that's true of a human we need to understand that all that was taking place with the mosaic system was just to serve as a type to serve as a symbol of what's going on in the sanctuary and the going up in heaven and all of that had to begin to take place because of the of the of of of of adam and eve when they had partaken of the forbidden fruit from that point on a system had to be set in place but humanity could not understand what needed to take place because the reason we said because it doesn't make sense say think about it this way you get baptized uh this morning and then this evening go right back and sin yep and that's because we treat it that's because we treat it lightly and this afternoon that's because we treat that's because we treat it lightly and the same with uh with uh during the mosaic system uh as well but see now here's now this is where i want to really kind of uh uh help us understand but when christ actually took on the cross see as long as it was a lamb yeah you know it was it was just a lamb you know that spilled blood you know that's one reason why even in a person's lifetime of living 60 70 years they might have killed hundreds of lamps but when the true lamb died on a cross and when we truly reflect on the fact that all we like sheep have gone astray and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all when we begin to really think about that and really begin to think that he was numbered with the transgressor he who knew no sin was numbered with when we began to reflect on that we're not as quick to sin as we would be thinking well hey listen i went through the ritual and i and i slaughtered the lamb since we're here i was just going to talk about the lamb you know as far as that sacrifice and this is dealing with the next question as far as the sacrifice was concerned you know i watch a lot of uh discovery channel stuff i watch a lot of stuff about csi and different things like that and whenever blood has been shed and they try to clean it up it doesn't matter what they do yeah they're able to come in there and find some forensic type stuff that will have blood they can see where blood was smeared and it was cleaned up so that means that you can't get it out and that's one thing i want to say about the lamb come on come on come on the lamb of god when that blood is on you i'm always talking about the blood y'all like giving me blood questions so since the there has been a crime scene of spirituality that's been going on with you and when that blood has been shed for you and has been applied to you like he said a lamb's blood you could get out but when you have the cracked blood of jesus christ all over your life when you walk into a room somebody should know that there's been a dna spot when you go into the grocery store somebody should know that there's been a blood stained banner shed for you when he came it said behold for in john 1 verse 29 it says behold the lamb of god the sacrifice of god walking down the street behold the lamb of god who has come to take away the sins of the world so when you walk down the street he came to take away your sins as well all i want to know is is there a blood stain that we can still identify with your body is there still a blood stain some of us just need to get bloody in here on today some of us just need to be applied the blood has to be applied to us so that we can walk in the power and the forgiveness and the anointing of jesus christ i don't know about you but i've been through enough in my life yeah that i need the blood applied to me not he said you can get baptized one moment and then you sin the very next i need that blood to sustain me all the way through it's been over 20 plus years that i've been baptized and then i got rebaptized here as well but right after i needed the blood the blood the blood that forgives the blood that transcends the blood that covers the blood that heals the blood that sets free the blood that breaks chains the blood that sets your mind free when you think you lose i need the blood some of y'all need to get bloody on today somebody some some of your mom i don't see any blood stain on you we need to be bloody when we come up in here did y'all did you say two chains no i said keep clean i thought he said dude we need to be bloody in here when we come in here the sabbath day y'all come with something come come what's your sacrifice my sacrifice is praise my sacrifice cause i'm dirty i'm bloody i'm filthy god make me whole again because you're talking about the blood the blood the blood the blood the blood all right mercy i know it was the blood so so i'm going to try one day when i was lost yeah you died upon the cross and i knew it was the blood the blood for me for me yeah yeah yeah come on oh my we having too much fun uh so i'm gonna try to put two questions because we had a good question that came in in the text and i'll try to combine these two and feel free to answer it uh so sometimes we we kind of lose sight uh just like the children of israel did had the pillar fire had had had the cloud the presence of god they saw that that miracle day in and day out sometimes we have been redeemed we have been uh saved by the blood of the lamb and we forget what was paid for us so how do we remember how do we keep that in our mind's eye and how do we avoid making commitments in our hearts that we never manifest in our life how do we avoid breaking promises that we've committed to god in our fervor in our in our joy and in our shouting of our release and our salvation but then when we hit the streets when real life comes we sometimes back away from those promises so how do we do that how do we remember but also how do we keep the the promises that we made in those times and do good by them i think it's important for us to realize that uh that uh our thoughts are not his thoughts and our ways are not his ways why did i share that text it's a text that's found in the word of god and that is we oftentimes do beat up ourselves part part of our sinning experience is the fact that uh you know we have committed an offense but in an effort to try to kind of make it right or fix it ourselves we we actually don't make it better we kind of make it worse you know i make it more more more compounded and we got to remember that our thoughts are not uh uh our our ways are not his ways and our thoughts so in other words god is much more patient with us than we can ever begin to imagine we know that we lose patient quick you know but i love what the word of god said the bible says that god is not slack concerning his promises as some count slackness but he's long suffering so he's putting up with us when we aren't even putting up with ourselves when we have when we have just given up and thinking that hey listen you know what i'm i'm a sinner and i mean i'm the salvation is not for me it's maybe for the for the good guy who goes to church but it's not for me and it's a lie of the devil because uh god is not slack concerning his promise or his promises as some men counsel acne this is found in the book of peter but is long-suffering not catch this my friend not willing that any should paris not even pharaoh not even uh not even nebuchadnezzar not even not anyone should perish but that all would come so we're all at different places in life and god works with us where we are so now the question comes up when we look back in the bible how is it that some of these people can have a thousand spouses you know god works with us where we are and he's not willing that any should perish and so he's leading a david and he's leading a solomon and he's leading a lampkin and he's leading you and so that's why we don't want to compare ourselves with other people and say well hey listen if he can make it i can make it or uh if he's not gonna make it and he's better than i am then i know i can't make it no no you have a relationship with christ take the attitude and i'm gonna finish with this take the attitude of the thief on the cross and the thief on the cross it was clear the reason he was on the cross because he was a criminal that's that's clear somebody may look at lanky and say hey listen this guy's wearing a suit a tie he's working with the church as a minister he's a good clean fella i don't have anything on him criminal yeah yeah i don't have anything on it yeah i pass away and all of a sudden all this stuff comes out to the surface you know but but with this thief on the cross it was clear there was no question about it criminal in every respect or else he wouldn't be on the cross the only person that was on the cross that wasn't a criminal was the one who came to save us you know and and and so i think that uh if we just uh uh uh put our complete and this is what we're asked to do from the word of god to just trust the lord what does it mean to trust him even when i don't feel like trusting him trust them even when i don't feel like i'm right trust him even when i'm not sure if i can put another one foot in front of the other trust him and trust him just like that thief on the cross believe and and and wait on his reply and i say unto you today i say unto you today that you shall be with me i would just like to say to answer that when we walk with the lord come on in the light of his word yeah what a glory he sheds on our way yeah come on let me stop [Music] he abides with us still and with all who will trust it's a journey and as we're walking with the lord he literally will strengthen us he will open our eyes we will see things we will anticipate things that still subtle voice will get louder and louder um but it takes trust and obedience amen can i just say one last name no no no no go ahead and by one last day he gonna close the program y'all leave my buddy alone man go ahead go ahead one last thing yeah i know the real quick comment it's interesting that when i got married to my wife we've been married now 29 years but of course i know it better now than i did 29 years ago ah same thing happens when we walk with the lord yeah so something's awesome and for that question um in matthew chapter 5 verse 33 it says you have also heard the ancestors were told you must not break your vows you must not carry out your vows you must make them to the lord but i say do not carry do not make any vows do not say by heaven because heaven is god's and not in in god's throne excuse me and do not say by earth because the earth is his footstool and do not save by jerusalem for jerusalem is a city of the great king do not even say by my head for your you can't turn one white hair or black just simply say yes i will or no i won't anything beyond that is from the evil one let your yes be yes and you're nobody no amen my grandmother used to say um are you coming over to see me and i said yes ma'am i'm on my way and she said no by the lord's will if it's the lord's will i'll be over there and that was her way of saying that you don't want to swear by anything or give somebody your word unless god's grace will abound so and and i'll just i'll just simply add um psalm 16 8 uh says i have set the lord always before me because he is at my right hand i shall not be moved therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices and my flesh also will rest in hope i was watching a a talk show host talk about the first time he met jay-z and beyonce it was at the naacp image awards and they had given beyonce a lifetime award and jay-z and beyonce were leaving right after they received the award and so how you give a lifetime award to somebody that's 26. they were so they were walking out and the two big security guards broke off because it's a crowd of people trying to rush them because everybody know they not staying on so it's a crowd of people trying to rush them so they break off the two guards break off there's two in front they got beyonce there's one behind that's behind beyonce and she and if they're in front of jay-z so they break off and go this way and somehow jay-z gets separated and this little talk show host is behind jay-z he now turns into de facto security guard and so the big security guard is going before jay-z jay-z is in the middle and the talk-show host is behind him and so the security guard realizes that he's without help okay so jesus says just keep going oh and so he's the talk show says i'm i'm i'm still here i'm still here and jj said don't let go now and so they kept they kept going and that's what that's that's really the the the example i saw as you were reading and as you were talking is that that we got to have something bigger than us before something greater than us before us and that security guard even though the rest of the team had broken off he stayed with jay-z and he blocked all those people that were coming but the man that had joined that fight that had joined in with them even though he wasn't really supposed to be there the admonishment given to him was don't let go now so keep god before you first and foremost and secondly don't let go even though you may have let down god the day before even though you may have broken a promise the day before don't let go now even though you are a disappointment at times don't let go now even though you have been unfaithful in the past don't let go now and keep god always before you and you will be all right let us let us look we have six minutes six minutes i was but so so um let's skip down to a little bit just a little bit just a little bit so uh let's let's try to get some practical applications uh how would you respond if a friend says to you and and we'll start with and but this can be open to anybody how would you respond if a friend says to you i want to find rest for my soul from god and god but somehow someway i don't seem to have enough faith i don't have enough faith to find that rest that the bible promises over and over again what would you say to that person who comes to you and asked that that loving first church member oh that loving very okay i had to switch roles because i was gone no if you would speak in your industry whoever asked no do you know and the crazy part about it is i have an aunt right now who has double pneumonia and covet and they put her on her they put her in they they intubated her and so she's an icu now and i got sad and i began to weep because this woman is like a mother to me and somebody had to remind me that my faith is not built based upon me feeling hurt my faith is not based upon me crying or i'm no longer a super christian because my faith doesn't seem like it's intact right there god's grace and his mercy he knows what we need when we need it and so all i'm saying is it was never about you anyway that's good it was never about what you were able to hold on to it was never about whether you could sustain it was never about that it was that god could become god to you in your walk so wherever you are right now and your faith is shaken like you said about the the little guy with jay-z hold on now because and you're holding on right now going through these things faith doesn't become faith unless you're able to take a whole foot off or until it's uh faith doesn't be able to become faith until you walk through it until you're able to go through these and so that's when faith muscles are built so you don't have the faith to deal with it now hold on to god and trust me those faith muscles will develop but you can't give up don't give up not now not now i would say the only thing that's getting in your way is yourself that there are countless promises that god has left for us in his word there are countless times when god has shown up shone out blown your mind he did it before he can do it again the thing that's in the way is our lack of faith there's not a sin that cannot be forgiven there's not a transgression that the blood cannot subdue cannot wipe away the only thing that can hinder the blood of god being applied to our lives is when we don't believe that his blood is powerful enough that's it so we just got to get out of the way we got to get out of our heads we got to get out of the way and we just got to stand on what the lord our god has said that's good that's it nobody i'm against this ooh excuse me sorry shall prosper sometimes doubt is indeed that weapon that is formed against us and that's the text and the other text i was going to give just what you had said uh we got to believe that he is he is and that he's a rewarder of amen t-shirts coming soon that was my line that was july 2020 2020 that was that was it that was it uh shea crockett uh shade rocket so let's buy uh as we close why is it dangerous to put off accepting christ's invitation of rest to put off christ's invitation of salvation to put off you know we grew up here in that song tomorrow tomorrow why is it dangerous especially now to put off that invitation i was just going to say the shot clock again i go back to the shot clock of life you never know when you're going to take your last breath and you want you want your your final words i don't know if we were given a time frame of when we were going to expire we knew that tomorrow was our day we would be trying to get it right with jesus and everybody else around us right now we should treat every moment just like that don't burn bridges we weren't called to be bridge burners like you said the mason work our father was a carpenter so the masonry that we do should be one of rebuilding restoring that hope in that faith towards god remember it's about his glory not our own so that's what we should be trying to resurrect amen also god wants to help us and so what happened with pharaoh in egypt was the fact when he hardened his heart now god he put himself in a position where god can't help you because god has to accept your decision your choice so you may think about it i mean the person who chooses to take drugs god doesn't stop him you know the person who chooses uh to to take their life perhaps you know god doesn't stop him and so because he honors our choice not that he wants to not that he desires to but since he has given us that gift he doesn't take it away from us yeah i mean there's no gray it's black or white rest or unrest peace or no peace i don't know why we would choose no peace i don't know why we would choose no rest god is offering this to us he's gifting it to us walk into it walking to it i would just add to that we we look at the shot clock of our life and we don't know how much time we have we also don't know what's coming down the pike um and the promise with christ at least is come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest you're facing an obstacle right now in your family but it's easier because you're not alone he promised he would never leave you nor forsake you but he also promised that he would give you rest i had a i got to go to a funeral today for a student of mine whose father is young but he lost his life to covey um and this young man is 17 years old and he's now the man of the house and it's an impossible scenario sure but it's easier because this young man has a faith like i've never seen in young people he calls me he doesn't want to tell me that his father's past because my father passed three months ago he's like it made what i have to tell you may be triggering which already means i know what's going on and so he says but even though he's gone it's not too late for god he can still work a miracle this is a 17 year old so it's it's you're going to face unbearable obstacles you're going to face challenges that are sure to come to all of us but they are easier to confront they are easier to overcome when you have the blessed peace of christ rest and that's what he promised he says take my yoke so everything that is weighing us down just like a good baggage handler he'll take it he'll carry it and what he gives you back is way lighter than what he's taken from you so if if there's anything we'd like to leave with you today today is the day that you can hand over your baggage you can hand over your problems you can hand over your burdens your cares your woes and you can give them to god and the is that he will give you his yoke and it's easy and he will give you the rest for your soul so we thank you for joining us today we now turn our program over to our announcements so that you can be informed and enlightened about what's going on here at first church i thank you for coming out i have just a few announcements and i will be out of your way just a few announcements and i will be out of your way we have aym this afternoon ayms this afternoon 7 p.m aym at 7 pm yes we still have ministry for our young people yes we are still here and yes we are still aiming to meet the needs of our young people in these days and time so we have a ayn at 7 p.m then tomorrow morning we have our first watch program that's right we're still looking at lessons and blessings from the book of exodus and so we'll be here with you at 8 00 a.m tomorrow morning and 8 a.m wednesday morning and 8 a.m friday morning looking at chapters 12 13 and 14 in the book of exodus so show up each morning with us 8 a.m and be blessed tomorrow right after turn over to your local cw at 8 30 and get a word of encouragement and inspiration from pastor deblie airsnail because in these days and times he's telling us that doctrine is not a dirty word so at 8 30 turn over to your local cw channel 19.2 for most of us here in the area but turn over to your local cw and see pastor devli air snail in action breaking down the word of god then at 9am for those who want to get in and get a good seat go ahead and get online and reserve your seat for next week's service so if you like to sit up front so you can see the beads of sweat on pastor snails brown then get in get online and get your seat if you like to sit further back so that you can be comfortably socially distant from your fellow members then you can do that as well all right so get online at 9am and reserve your seat september 19th we're having our grocery giveaway that's right bring your id wear a mask stay in your car pull up and we'll fill your trunk up all right so if you are in need or you know someone else in need september 19th pull up and we'll fill your trunk up all right id mask stay in your car and you will be blessed at the grocery giveaway but because we are a church where the wounded are made whole we are here for you for such a time as this so for those who are grieving those who are bereaved in the season for whatever laws that they may have experienced we have our grief counseling ministry on september 25th we'll meet at 5 pm central 6 p.m eastern time for all of those who are in need of a blessing and comfort in these times so tune in check our facebook page for further details and you will be blessed this is a church where we are invested and interested in making the wounded whole all right so now we turn our program over to our pastor so that he can ignite our service and then we'll have praise and worship then we'll have prayer and then we'll go into our offering may god bless and keep you i'll see you at the end of the service good morning first church family good morning pastor snow we have several second readings this morning charisse barnes leaving detroit northwest sca church in detroit michigan rashida dawsman leaving relove sca church in garden cove california cheryl marshall leaving shalom sca church in bronx new york and justin a rogers leaving bethany sca church in memphis tennessee and all joining first sda church in huntsville alabama amen church family we're grateful uh for those who have made it up in their minds to partner with the first seventh-day adventist church at this time we want to receive them into church fellowship is there such a motion it's a mood is there a second all in favor please say aye all opposed it is carried we welcome all of those individuals who have made that decision to join themselves with the first church family let's give our clerk a hearty amen today at this time uh we also just want to make another uh brief introduction uh as many of you all are aware each year uh we have a number of young men and young women uh who are studying for the ministry at oakwood university and they make it a point um to begin or to make a part of their study to do an internship with us here at the first seventh-day adventist church and i want to introduce to you all our intern for this semester or perhaps this school year uh pastor chris dorsey i'm going to invite him to come forward let's give him a hearty amanda this time so i want you all to know that chris hails from the uh the great state of southern california um he is on the basketball team at oakwood university uh he is a senior uh and a tremendous young person to be around so chris i just want to have you just maybe share with the church family a little bit about what your ministry passions are um before we just offer a brief word of prayer for you thank you patrick snell happy sabbath everyone uh it's definitely exciting and a great opportunity to be here um one of my passions is honestly just being able to connect with people my age um you know right now people are in the mix of like what they want to do like where they want to go and i just want to be able just to help them as much as possible and just lead them to christ honestly because you know once uh you know once this generation passes on it's going to be up to us to keep going the church keep going amen so i just want to be able to be uh you know a tool for christ and just help him as much as i can so all right amen well listen chris i want you to know that we're glad to have you a part of the first church fellowship and so when you see chris around sometimes he'll be on the program sometimes he'll be joining uh the pastoral staff on visitation and bible studies or various capacities make sure you show chris some love and make sure that he feels welcome here at the first church family we just want to say a brief prayer a blessing over him as he kind of begins his ministry journey so do me a favor first church stretch your hand in christ's direction just so that he knows that you're praying with him and for him today father we just ask for your hand to remain upon chris as he grows as he matures as he develops into the man that you have ordained him to be father we pray for a fresh infilling of your spirit inwardly we pray that your spirit would rest upon him outwardly dear god we ask that he will be a part of this generation of young men and women that you are raising up to reach the world with your good news in these dark and evil days would you bless him would you order each and every step he shall ever take we pray these things in the wonderful name of jesus our lord let god's people say together amen and amen god bless you christ greetings first church family and friends we've missed you during our time apart after 15 months we are ready to begin phase one of our return to the building on july 17th but before we see you there are a few changes that we want you to be aware of if you are planning to attend our worship service in person we ask that you visit firstsdachurch.com [Music] and click on the church reserve link there you will be taken through various steps that will allow us to accommodate and reserve proper seating whether you are attending church alone or with your family during phase one we will not be having sabbath school classes in the building instead they will remain online via our facebook and youtube pages we encourage you to continue to join us there however if you want to join us for in-person service know that our building doors will open properly at 11am upon your arrival every person no matter their vaccination status we'll go through our temperature check and health screening we ask that you answer all questions honestly once you've been approved at our health station you will proceed with your mask on to the next checkpoint in order to ensure that everyone is properly socially distanced in the sanctuary you will be asked to go directly to your reserve seat don't worry if you didn't reserve a seat through our app our amazing team will be able to direct you to seating that can accommodate you and your family we ask that you allow our ushers to open and close all doors for you as you enter and leave the sanctuary once inside we will ask that you keep your mask on over your nose and your mouth while you engage in service during our phase one while we won't be incorporating our large choirs or full praise teams we can assure you that our service will still be a worship experience you will never forget during your time with us we would like to direct your attention to our sanitation stations spread throughout our hallway use them freely as you enter and exit the sanctuary our hallway attendance are in place to assure that we do not exceed the number of individuals allowed in the restroom they are also there to direct you to any available facility so that you or the person you're with can be accommodated while waves are welcome during our phase one we are incorporating a strict no contact policy regardless of vaccination status please be mindful of this request during your time in the building at the end of service we're asking that everyone exit the building and refrain from congregating in large groups indoors as difficult as this may sound we are confident that such measures encourage healthy practices during these times our phase one process has been in the works for several months all with the safety of you in mind we ask for your continued patience as we look forward to being able to worship together safely for more information about our phase one return or to reserve your seat please visit our website at firstsdachurch.com or call our front office at 256-852-8360 [Music] first church where we are safely assuring that broken lives are made whole [Music] happy sabbath once again everyone just a few additional remarks uh that i want to share with you uh the the body of christ has kind of gone through a great deal this week and there's some individuals in our church family we want to ask that you keep in prayer would you please keep in prayer sister melinda allen who lost her brother uh in the middle portion of this week and also we want to ask that you would remember sister ann jones who who lost one of her sisters on last week we simply failed to share that announcement on last week also some of our former members uh who have moved away um sheila king keep her in prayer many of us know her husband uh larry one of our committed deacons in the past he passed suddenly and tragically uh this week and we ask that you will please keep their family in your prayers and also within just the larger body of christ we've had a number of losses many of us are aware that elder charles bradford passed away i believe it was on thursday and so we ask that you will continue to keep the entire bradford and um and and the entire bradford family in your prayers and also sister carolyn wright uh the wife of pastor henry wright she passed away this week as well and so there are many losses great grief uh but with god's help and the prayers of god's people we hope to be able to wrap our arms around them and help them work through this season of loss in this season of grief but even in the midst of all of life's despairs worries and sorrows we are grateful for the opportunity to come into the house of the lord one more time what do you say church amen so do me a favor as we start today's service then to your feet this morning as we get ready to ignite our worship service this morning and as you stand to your feet uh go ahead and just do me a favor turn to your neighbor give them an air pound amen give the neighbor on the other side an air hug let them know that you're glad to see them in the house of the lord and we say a special word of welcome to the majority of our audience who is still watching online god bless you glad to have you with us today as well uh we want to begin our service by repeating our sabbath covenant which is found in exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 11 it's on the screen let's repeat that together today remember the sabbath day to keep it holy six days shall thy labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy men servant nor thy maidservant nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that is within thy gates for in six days the lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in the midst and rested the seventh day wherefore the lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it the bible says in psalm 100 make a joyful noise unto the lord lord serve the lord with gladness the bible says come before his presence with singing know ye that the lord he is god it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pastor and the bible says enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his name for the lord is good his mercy is everlasting and his truth endures to all generations notice that the bible didn't say when something good happens praise the lord but the bible says you should have entered into his gates with thanksgiving and enjoy sports with praise and if you're thankful for god's goodness today let's just put our hands together giving the king of kings the lord of lords a standing ovation giving him the glory and honor that is due to his great name in this place so right now we just lift holy hands to the lord as we seek his face father in heaven we just ask for your anointing over today's service and not just over the playing of instruments or the articulation of words lord we pray for your blessing over every person that is in the building for your touch of encouragement to be upon every heart that is tuning in online and lord we ask that as our praises go up we pray that your presence and your blessing would come down lord would you receive these offerings of worship presented to you and we offer them today in the great name of jesus our lord let god's people say together amen and amen do we favor saints we invite you to remain standing as we sing a few songs of thanksgiving and praise to our god today praise the lord everyone praise the lord everyone if god's been all right to you give him an all-right praise if god's been good to you give him a good praise but if god's been great to anybody in this place will you go ahead and lift up a great praise to your god if you know that that if it wasn't for the lord on your side you would be here today will you go ahead and just lift up the name of jesus we came to praise the lord we came to celebrate who he is we came to let him know how grateful we are hallelujah we just came to tell you god that we love you thank you lord [Music] we're gonna praise god for who he is [Music] [Music] i am your son you are my father you given me i need is that your testimony in this place that you want to just celebrate and tell them how much you love them come on his first nuke [Music] when i'm in need you're my provider i my am [Music] [Music] i just really [Music] i need you everybody [Music] you are my you are [Music] foreign hey [Music] come on think about the goodness of jesus and all that he's brought you through think about how he raised you think about how we saved you think about how we come through time and time again and lift up the sound of christ you're my wife me again yeah [Music] [Music] if god has brought you from a mighty long way will you lift up with pound of wash up in between [Music] you're mine [Applause] [Music] you're my everything [Music] we're in a season where we have to be reminded that whatever you need gotta steal that god is still healing he's still making ways he's still performing he's still good he's still great he's still healing he's still lifting up people he's still providing if that is your testimony will you lift up a sound of praise [Applause] [Music] you're you're my me [Music] is that good news for anybody else in this place whether god says that he is our refuge he is our refuge and our present help in our time of trouble a present help in our time of trouble that means that you can depend on him even now he's not just a god of your forefathers he's not just a god of your parents he's not just a god of yesterday but he's a god of today and whatever you need if you need that strength he will be it for you he is that safe place for you is that anybody else's declaration in this place that you are our strength great is our god hallelujah [Music] you know you can sing with us you are my friends [Music] come on let's sing that little bit louder you are mine [Music] and it reaches [Music] [Music] he's [Music] come on let's say this one you are my hope you are you are hopeful me come on is [Music] foreign come on think about how good he is [Music] not lift up a sound we bless you with this place [Music] like [Music] you are my strength [Music] [Music] and every day [Music] me [Music] [Music] me [Music] reaches me [Music] is [Music] blood and righteousness [Music] on jesus [Music] us [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the solid rock i stand come on come on [Applause] [Music] on christmas the solid rock come on come on [Music] come on is is the solid [Music] [Applause] real big eyes [Music] [Music] come on lift up the name of jesus in this place all of the ground is seeking sin we're gonna ask you to remain standing and we're going to offer our morning prayer our god and our father lord we thank you on this day we appreciate and we love you lord we want to just praise you and thank you and we want to just extend adoration and thanksgiving from our lips and we want to place them upon the throne of god lord as we've gathered here today we recognize our need of you we ask for forgiveness of our sins we realize we are sinners and we cannot save ourselves but lord we are grateful because you said jesus and jesus came and died and has turned our lives around and if we would only give our lives to jesus we can move from this world of sin and experience eternity lord this weekend is a weekend that as americans we are commemorating the memorial of 9 11. when because of senseless killing that more of 3 000 individuals perished there in on in new york and pennsylvania washington dc and thousands in afghanistan but father god we're thankful for the people who were willing and who allowed themselves to lay down their lies for friends and for friend so we want to commemorate and we want to recognize that we want to ask you to continue to put your comforting care upon them heavenly father we bring before you the sick and the suffering we as lord that that you will guide the physicians and that you will continue to equip the medical world with cures and with prescriptions to provide healing and lord let your healing touch heal where there's suffering heal where there's sickness father god as we call out to you today we pray for those lord who have been saddened by loss losing a loved one and losing those that are near and dear but father we know you are a comforter you're a divine comforter and we praise play pray lord that you will comfort those who are experiencing laws and bereavement even at this time lord father god as we call out upon your name we present before you the speaker of the hour pastor deblie airsnell we ask lord that once again that your anointing will fall afresh upon him lord we pray that you will just give him that assurance to speak your word with boldness and with confidence and to know that the treasures will be not only for this world but for the world to come as the trophies that will stand as human individuals who have once a part of a world of sin have been transformed and translated into the place of eternal rest and salvation in glory lord we look forward to that day and lord as we've gathered here and as we are worshiping together we pray that you will continue to grow your people by grace and knowledge and lord we give you the honor we give you the glory we give you the power this day and forever in the blessed name of jesus amen [Music] happy sabbath once again church we will this time want to just take a moment uh to make a a special presentation i'm going to invite the pastoral staff to join me here on the platform today i think many of us are aware that 20 years ago this day there was a very direct attack on our democracy and many of the liberties and freedoms that we hold very dear as there was an attack on the twin towers in new york city and on the pentagon and one of the things that we saw on that particular day september 11th is we saw the courage and bravery of men and women who do something very unique because most of us when we sense danger or threat what we do is we move in the opposite direction but god still has men and women that have been dedicated and trained that when there is danger or threat they don't run away from it but they run toward it and so today no it's okay let's go ahead and affirm those who do that it is appropriate for us to do that today and so today we want to recognize some in our city uh that do a heroic work of serving keeping our community safe and pouring into this immun immediate community where our church ministers and serves and so i want to call forth a couple of delegations i want to first call forth uh officer timothy sergeant timothy richard richards um and i want to acknowledge sergeant rosalind white from the north precinct i want to invite them to come forward at this time and any others from their delegation who would like to come forward let's put our hands together as they come god bless it's okay she's worried about how she's dressed let's give her some love let her know she's all right today [Music] and also i want to call for it on this side uh pete bryant who is the district chief of fire engine or station number 12 and the delegation from the fire department would you come as well [Applause] i want you to know church [Music] that many of these faces look familiar because whenever we've had challenges at this church whether we needed police aid or aid from the fire department some who are in the building today were the ones to respond to our call and so we're grateful and thankful for their dedication for their service for their courage and in a time where the actions have so of some have caused the reputation of the many to come under siege we want to say to our police we want to say to our fire department that we ought to say thank you more frequently but simply on this day we want to take the opportunity to express it in a more direct way and so we have some plaques that we want to present at this time [Music] all right and so first i want to present this flag to the huntsville police department the north precinct this is done in appreciation of your dedicated service to keeping our community safe presented here on september 11 2021 first seventh day at venice church deadly air snell senior pastor [Music] i want to present this to the huntsville fire department station 12 in appreciation of your dedicated service to keeping our community safe again presented on september 11 2021 on behalf of the first seventh-day adventist church family right here in huntsville alabama and also we have some additional gifts that we're going to give to the men and women of both the fire station and our police precinct what we did was we kind of ascertained a roundabout number of how many men and women serve in each station and each man or woman is going to get a gift certificate where we're sending them to lunch on behalf of the first seventh-day adventist church family and so we want to first have officer richards come forward just to say a few words on behalf of the police department and mr savage is going to come forward no no i'm sorry officer richards will say a few words on behalf of the police department and then we're going to ask if pete if you would say a few words on behalf of the fire department [Music] behalf of the huntsville police department the executive staff north precinct district commander captain sumlin and the bureau operations commander deputy chief brooks as sergeant richards humbly accept this token of appreciation from the first 70 adventist church on behalf of the department and north precinct i stopped by to let the saints know that our department is committed to change and is constantly seeking to find innovative ways to address the cares and concerns of the community we hear your cries we hear your groans and most importantly we hear the discontent and how we as a department have failed in the performance of our duty nationwide i'm here to tell you huntsville is committed to change and refining the level of customer service rendered to the community we are committed to evolving from a department of just existence to a department of substance understanding that the prevalence of mental health issues are real and a present issue in our community the department is adjusting the ways in which the rank and file deal with and interact with those in our community who need help versus just the traditional approach of locking them up on this day [Applause] on this day september 11th we pause to remember the sacrifice given by our brothers and sisters who lost their lives on this horrible day in new york while holding and defending the line against those who would seek to disrupt and do us harm as a nation in remembering sacrifice given by our public servants on this day i send forth the call to the first church community and all able-bodied men under the sound of my voice and women under the sound of my voice to stand with us and those who have a passion for service to join our ranks we want you to join us to provide to help us provide quality care and service to those in need and quite frankly our community needs to see more men like myself and women like myself like sergeant rosalind on the ranks [Music] but i want us to keep in mind we just don't want individuals that want a job understand we want individuals who have a passion for service [Applause] you know when i started on my journey in life i was confused at a point and it was only until i found what to me what true ministry meant and that meant when i got it from the pews and i strapped on the armor and i started to get in the trenches with men and women who were having drug overdoses and i was their last voice of hope and caring concern that's when my light bulb went off so i appeal to those men and women in the audience who want to join our ranks to provide service come on we need you the department is the department is going towards a place where we're innovating and changing and i'm telling you now we are changing the culture here in our police department from enforcer to guardian and we are getting back to our basics and our roots to serve and to protect continue to support us in our reconstruction period and anything that we can do for you as a department please feel free to reach out many of you know uh cro community resource officer michael joseph whatever your cares and concerns are holla at joe and just know that when you tell him consider it done thank you [Applause] good morning good morning we really appreciate y'all letting us come and be a part of your remembrance service here at the church and we are humbled by that and we appreciate you letting us become a part of that i had to write a few notes down talking about remembering this time [Music] the sacrifice and loss uh that this day brought should be remembered uh it's just hard to comprehend what some people went through on this day it's fitting for us to do that however the compassion that was shown after that those tragic events should be remembered too and compassion that went out spontaneously to others where people sought to help immediately the needs that were met not just on the behalf of the police department the fire department individual compassion directed toward others was exemplified on that day and should be remembered it should be carried out each and every day beyond that day and remembered and carried out as jesus taught in the good samaritan he had compassion for the man that was that was beaten and left by the wayside and then he gave the charge go out and do likewise and that charges to everyone we can express it through our job but everyone can express that every day and we encourage that and we're happy that you you invited us to be a part of that and we do appreciate it um you're an encouragement to us and uh we appreciate that and it also reminds me of all those things that christ represents sacrifice compassion and encouragement thank you [Applause] and so to those who have come to join us today we want you to know that our europe our appreciation for you is not just for those who are in the building but there are there are scores hundreds of others who are watching online and sending their love and their appreciation for the work and the service and the courage that it takes to do what you do to make our neighborhoods and our communities safe god bless you let's put our hands together one more time for our fire department and our police department god bless you i know some of them are still on duty so those that need to leave we release you at this time and those who would like to say you're you're more than welcome to stay and continue in our worship service god bless you at this time [Applause] [Music] today is also a special reason special day i want to make you aware of something really powerful that's happening on the campus of oakwood university um they are having a special week of prayer for all of their student athletes their soccer team basketball team volleyball and as a result of that week of prayer on the campus which is led by one of our members brother simon jacob who is not just interested in wins and losses but he is concerned about the salvation of our young people we have a number of young men or young women for exact who have taken their stand to be baptized this week and we're excited that they have been given some direction to come and begin their spiritual journey here at the first seventh-day adventist church i think a number of our student athletes are there in the balcony so i invite all of our student athletes to go ahead and stand from oakwood university so we can recognize you today let's give them a hearty amen all of our student athletes praise god for you [Applause] and this week was led uh by pastor taurus montgomery uh who pastors in benton harbor michigan formerly here at the south central conference god used them in a tremendous way we thank you pastor and we pray god's richest blessing upon you as we bring these young young people into uh their relationship with god so first up today we have a freshman uh michaela ryan for baptism [Music] [Applause] michaela because of your profession of faith in the lord jesus christ because you've heard the voice of your savior calling and you've responded to his fleet it is with great joy that we now baptize you in the name of the father in the name of the son and in the name of the holy ghost [Applause] [Music] [Music] next up we have miss kia dancing who is a junior for baptism [Music] and so kia because you have acknowledged the lordship of jesus christ because you've made the decision to put the cross before you and the world forever behind you it is with great joy that we baptize you in the name of the father in the name of the son and in the name of the holy ghost [Music] take me [Music] next up we have mr takari rogers for baptism today and i failed to do this earlier innova takari's friends family supporters would you stand at this time in support of his decision just so he knows that he has some who support him in this endeavor takari because of your profession of faith in the lord jesus christ because you recognize that without him you can do nothing and it is through your shed blood that you are saved it is a great joy that we baptize you in the name of the father in the name of the son and in the name of the holy ghost [Music] take me [Music] and lastly today we have mr jaquavious horton who is a freshman for baptism we invite brother horton's family friends supporters to stand at this time just as a visible show or demonstration of your support for his decision to follow after jesus brother horton because of your profession of faith in the lord jesus christ because you've not despised your creator in the days of your youth but rather decided to align yourself with his will and desire for your life it is with great joy that we now baptize you in the name of the father in the name of the son and in the name of the holy ghost [Applause] take me to the water [Music] [Music] [Music] at this time we will entertain a motion to accept these young men and women into church fellowship is there such a motion uh is there a second all in favor please say amen it is carried it is curry and again we just want to just make a brief appeal maybe there is somebody in the building maybe there is somebody online by seeing the courage and the dedication of these men and women to jesus christ maybe maybe you want to make it up in your mind you've been inspired you've been thinking about it and considering it you just never decided on it and you want to make it up in your mind and say i want to be in one of the next baptisms here at first church if you're in the building just raise your hand wherever you are to just signify that you want to go all the way with jesus christ you're going to be in one of the next baptisms at this church we'll begin studying the word of god with you or maybe you're watching online you can email us at prayer first sdachurch.com prayer at first sdachurch.com maybe you're in another city or state we can get you connected with a church in your area uh so that you can continue to make your discipleship to follow all the way through with your discipleship journey is there one today god bless you may god's hand rest upon us as we continue do we have a hand over here god bless you amen as we continue to worship the lord and bless is there another amen may god's hand rest upon our servants today as we continue to worship the lord in spirit adventure [Music] praise the lord everybody okay that's somebody praise the lord everybody amen i was glad when they said unto me let us go let us go into the house of the lord so we praise god for being here it is tithe and offering time come on that you should be excited about that it is offering time it's time to give back to god what's due to him amen amen let me tell you a brief story if i can please there was a young man who had um fifty dollars and he'd never seen his father his father would always be at work and one day the father came home and the little boy said to the father he said daddy how much does it cost for them to pay you per hour at work and the father said well i make about a hundred dollars an hour that's that's good money and the little boy got excited but was disappointed at the same time and he said well daddy can i borrow 50 and the father was like i don't work all hard and long and you got i don't even know what you need fifty dollars here's fifty dollars so he lends the little boy fifty dollars the little boy gets excited and he runs in the room and he says daddy daddy i need you to come in here and dad was tired he was like boy what you want he said daddy here's a hundred dollars to the 50 that he had in the 50 that he borrowed from his father and he said now will you spend time with me [Music] the father was heartbroken and disappointed and he had to repent because he noticed that money became his passion and he was neglecting his kids aren't we glad that we don't serve a god who is like that [Music] so when they say bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that they have meat in my house it's not just for the house it's to bless others that need help so as you give your tithing your offering today i pray that we are not as stingy with our time with god as we are with our money many deacons come forth as we pray don't judge me i see y'all conviction is something thank you holy spirit amen [Music] family if you're here in the area you can still drop off your ties at 1303 evangel drive and if you're online there's still ways that you can do that online as well let us pray father we thank you god we give you praise honor and glory god for the conviction that comes through the holy spirit god let us not let us not god be stingy with what you've given us oh god but god let us freely open our hand god to give it back to you god we bless you for the gifts god we bless you for the talents and what you've given us demonstrated here today but god we want to spend more time with you god they say where our our money is that's where our heart is but god where our heart is we want to put our money there god we say that we love you we want to give back unto you oh god press down god shaken together and running over god will you give and god i thank you so much for for the liberty and the freedom of giving god god i pray that you would set your people free god in their giving god right now god god i pray right now god that you would loosen hands oh god and loosen while it's god so that we may press this ministry for god would you do it god and then god those that are in need god would you give them a hundred fold oh god god would you bless them right now god may we pour into them right now as a community god we bless you we honor you for what you're doing in this giving moment god in this blessed sacred moment with you send our precious son jesus the christ and we do pray amen and amen [Music] [Music] i with power and majesty [Music] [Music] if that's good news why don't you sneak into my heart [Music] let's take it up a little bit [Music] come on talk to your father my [Music] with power and majesty let's take it up a little bit higher come on everybody lift it up oh last time real big over my circumstances [Music] our god still reigns you still praise the lord in this place you still reign over our circumstances he's giving us chance after chance after chance he reigns our god reigns i found myself in a season or a low place focusing on all the things that i've lost anybody's been to that place where you've been surrounded with so much loss that you get consumed by it and you sometimes can't really see your way out of it and god reminded me in that in that low place that i was so focused on what i didn't have or what i was losing and i forgot about what i had i forgot that i still had a god who was greater than anything that i could ever face forgot that i had a god who's still performing miracles who's still making ways who's still opening doors my god is still working things out that's our god that we serve and he let me know that whatever i needed he will be that for me whatever i needed he will be that for me if i need peace he is peace if i need love he is love if i need forgiveness he is forgiveness but needed healing he is healing whatever you need you can find it in god so next time is situations next time you're faced with a situation of loss remind yourself that if you have god you have all that you need is that anybody else's testimony [Music] the song just says everything [Music] you're my life [Music] [Applause] everything he'll be [Music] oh [Music] oh come on let's testify about who he is he's still opening doors my province [Music] whatever you need you'll be here my favorite part my delivery [Applause] jesus when i call on the name of the lord jesus [Applause] [Music] everything [Music] for you to lift up the name of jesus and declare who he is in your life everything that you need everything that you need you can find it in your master praise the lord [Music] if he's everything to you won't you put your hands together for jesus christ one more time no y'all clapping like he may be something but if he's everything let's give him an everything kind of phrase in this place today [Music] the old folk would say use food when i'm hungry and he's a word of when i'm thirsty my friend when i'm friendless he's my help when the world's on fire he's my everything amen amen let's give our praise to another hearty amen [Music] for their ministry and if you don't mind we just want to just say a word of encouragement to all of our youth deaconess and deacons and ushers our young people that are serving let's give them a hearty amen as well we thank god for the opportunity to worship him today in spirit and in truth and and so as the hour is late we want to go ahead and jump right on into the word of god is that all right so um we're going to follow up on last week or last week we talked to you under the subject uh this is not your fight and we talked specifically about the church in the context of the great controversy the battle between christ and satan and then this week i told you we wanted to spend a little time talking about some of the characteristics of god's remnant church as we continue in our series doctrine is not a dirty word and so do me a favor stand to your feet as we get ready go to the word today take your bibles go to john chapter 10 john chapter 10 but go ahead and leave your finger over in revelation chapter 12. starting at john chapter 10 and we're going to look together at verse number 14 and and for those of you who are watching online do me a favor i need you to still be an apple a apostle needs you to be an internet evangelist if you're on facebook i need you to share this message a couple of times if you're on youtube just copy and send the link to at least three or four people that need to hear what it is god is saying to the church today john chapter 10 and we're going to begin together in verse number 14. when you get there say pastor i'm ready john chapter 10 and verse 14 and then we're going to slip over to revelation chapter 12. jesus says i am the good shepherd i want you to pay attention to what's being said i know my sheep and am known by my own as the father knows me even so i know the father and i lay down my life for the sheep and notice what he says and the sheep i have which are not of this fold them also i must bring and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock and there will be one shepherd did y'all catch that church by the time we get to the end there's going to be one flock going to be one shepherd the lord jesus christ so go back over with you if you don't mind to revelation chapter 12 last book of the bible revelation chapter 12 and we'll begin with verse number one and we'll skip throughout the chapter revelation 12 and verse number one again when you get there say pastor amen let's just say amen revelation 12 verse one the bible says now a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head was a garland of 12 stars then in verse 2 it says and she being with child cry travailing in birth and pain to be delivered and there appeared another wonder in heaven behold the great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head and his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered to devour her child as soon it was as it was born and she brought forth a man-child who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to god and unto his throne and the woman was spled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of god that he should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days then look with me at verse number 13. in verse number eight we talk about the battle in heaven we talked about that last week but verse 13 the bible says and when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth he persecuted the what the woman which brought forth the man child he persecuted her and to the woman were given two wings of a great what eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place that she is nourished for a time a time and half a time from the face of the serpent and the serpent cast out of its mouth what water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood and the earth helped the woman and the earth opened up her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth and the dragon was roth with the woman and went to make war with the what remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of god and have the testimony of jesus christ today saints i want to talk to you for a little while under the subject how to find the right woman how to find the right woman let's pray together father i pray to god that you would in this message make complex things simple i pray that you would make the word digestible from those who are the oldest even down to those who are the the youngest father i ask that in the hearing of the word that faith would be multiplied exponentially so lord once again would you please hide me in the shadows of the cross that jesus alone might be seen that christ alone will be heard and at the end of our time together may jesus alone be praised lord allow heaven and earth to be connected at this place and may the glory of the risen savior fill our souls is our prayer in the name of jesus christ let god's people say together amen and amen you may be seated again in the house of the lord again saints we're talking to you under the subject how to find how to identify the right woman while i was at seminary i was doing house to house bible studies while i was working with a revival there in south bend indiana and as i came to the end of a particular street i ran up upon an older very intoxicated man who was giving counsel and wisdom to everybody who passed his way and so as i began to engage him in conversation he began to espouse his vow his views on race and religion on sports and he eventually gave his viewpoints on love he he asked me he says young man are you married and i made the mistake of telling him no i'm not merry i'm still looking and i need you to know that this brother blocked off my path and he began to lecture me on the nature of women and i need you to know that at first he began to share some unsettling experiences that he had had with women in his past and as i'm trying to filter through the conversation so that i can make my exit he eventually shares something that has some merit in fact he gave me some counsel that is applicable both to men and to women he says son if you're going to find the right woman you've got to do three things he says the first thing you gotta do is know the difference between a female and a woman the second thing he said is that when you're choosing the right woman sometimes as men we focus so much on their parts but the right woman is going to have the right heart and in addition he said understand this that if you're going to find the right mate you've got to identify the correct traits are you with me today in other words he's trying to get me to understand that if you're going to find the right person you cannot just examine the outside you've got to have some traits that help you identify if she's the right person on the inside in other words if you're going to find the right woman you've got to know what to look for now on last week we talked about the fact that in scripture or prophecy a woman is symbolic of church or religious groups and it is critical at the end of time that you know how to identify or find the right woman or church and to be clear friends of mine there are a lot of female counter counterfeits around but jesus is only coming back for one woman or church and like all females all churches have the same parts in other words we all have choirs and we all have preachers we all read from the same bible but in order to find the right church you've got to know what characteristics you ought to be looking for and for many of us when we're trying to evaluate the right church we tend to focus on things that can be seen with the external see some of us choose a church based upon the charisma of the pastor some choose a church based upon the sound of the choir some choose churches based upon the type of coffee they serve in the lobby some won't come to a church because they require you to wear masks before you show up and see there are some in our time that have chosen the non-denominational woman who does not commit to any particular truth there are some that have chosen the woman of islam because black muslims tend to minister or speak to our ethnic pain there are some that have gone back to the ex-girlfriend trying to connect lineage to hebrew lineage because we don't realize that if i am of faith i am already abraham's sea there are some that have had bad experience with women and so they avoid church altogether and i guess what i'm saying today saints that if you want to find a good woman one of the best ways i found is you've got to have a good mama are y'all with me today in fact let me suggest saints i need you to know that my mother i want you to understand something about her my mother is peace can i get a witness in other words she knows how to bring order out of chaos she can bring peace to every situation she knows what to pray and and what to say and so when i was looking for the right woman i didn't realize that just by being the right woman she showed me how to find the right woman and say i need you to know that whenever i've met somebody and she had chaos inside of her i knew she wasn't the right woman if she had conflict inside i knew she wasn't the right woman but when i met gianna and she knew how to pray and she knew what to say i see you need you to know that i'm chaos but gianna is my peace but because i saw peace in an older woman i knew it was the right trait when i saw a younger woman and i guess what i'm saying saints and when you read revelation 12 you got to know the traits of the woman that went into the wilderness in order to understand what you ought to be looking for in the woman that comes out are y'all hearing me today saints so if y'all don't mind go back with me in your bible to revelation chapter 12 and verse 13 and let's unpack this a little further revelation 12 and verse 13 the bible says and when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth the bible says he persecuted the woman which were brought forth the man child and to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness where she is nourished for a time and a time and a half a time from the presence of the serpent so now today's saints i want to have with you somewhat of an introductory conversation about the principle or ideology of the remnant now i need you to be clear that the word remnant what it literally means is this the word remnant means those that remain or it means those that are left and the distinction i want to make is i want you to know that god has already established remnant beliefs there are already a criminal theology but i need you to know god has yet to reveal a remnant people in other words we will not really know who's on the lord's side until the smoke settles and until the dust clears we won't really know who belongs to the lord until all the apocalyptic events have come to pass in other words you realize that there were a lot of people that helped noah build the ark but there was only a remnant of eight that got on and survived the flood you realize there were a lot of hebrews in babylon that believed that only jehovah was to be worshipped but there was only a remnant of three that stood once the music started you realize that there were a lot of folk that cried hosanna when jesus entered in jerusalem but there was only a remnant that stood by his side by the time he got to the cross and i guess what i'm saying beloved is that there are all in all these situations a crisis or a test that filters between those that profess god and those that actually love god and the truth is in our time there are a lot of folk that profess god but it is not until we go through a test that is going to make a filtering sifting process between those who love god and those that are actually in relationship with him are y'all hearing me today sex all right let me say it this way uh y'all know how it is uh like like like when you're trying to put ketchup on your french fries anybody ever tried to get that last bit of ketchup out of the bottle and you know how it is when you try to get that last bit of ketchup out of the bottle you can try to squeeze it but there is still a remnant that won't come out you can try and shake it but there's still a remnant that won't come out you can try to use a spoon but there's still a stubborn remnant that will not come out in other words it doesn't matter how hard you push or press there is a remnant that is going to stay stuck in the back of that bottle and i just need to know do i have any heinz 57 saints that says i want to be like the stubborn remnant that no matter how much you shake me i'm not coming out no matter how much i'm squeezed i'm not coming out no matter how bad it gets i'm gonna stay true to my lord and savior are y'all with me today church and so i want you to see this thing here in revelation chapter 12. i need you to know that the remnant the bible says that the remnant they are the offspring of the woman who is chaste into the wilderness in other words the thing you got to understand about the remnant is that she is the offspring of that first woman who went into the wilderness and as a result she's going to share in there he the remnant is going to have her dna and so in order to understand some stuff about the remnant i've got to understand the character of the woman are y'all still with me today church you see the one thing i like about the woman who goes into the wilderness is that her growth is relational it is not circumstantial let me say it again the one thing i like about the woman is that her growth is relational it is not circumstantial let me say it again her growth is relational it is not what it is not circumstantial you see the bible lets us know that this woman is chased into the wilderness by the dragon to a place that has been prepared for her by god and see what god is doing is creating an allusion to the time of jesus was he when he was here on earth where the dragon would work through a pagan rome to try to attack the man-child jesus but god preserved him to the time of his ascension but then through the works of the holy spirit the christian church would be born and guess what the dragon would work through the government of rome to look to take down or annihilate the christian church and i need you to know saints that in the earliest centuries the church would go through an escalating scale of persecution i need you to know beloved that they were in a time where it was not popular to come into a church and lift holy hands unto the lord i need you to know that in the early centuries that believers would be jailed for the faith they would be imprisoned for the faith they would be beaten for their faith do you realize that there was times as we got under the rulership of nero and diocletian that the christians would go through inhumane tortures because of their profession to the lord jesus christ you realize friends that there will be times where believers would be staked where they would tie one arm to a horse and another arm to another horse and they would make them run in different directions so that the limbs can be pulled out of their sockets do you realize that there was a time where in the roman coliseum there were cover believers in the skins of dead animals and sick packs of wild dogs upon them do you realize that believers would be boiled in cauldrons of boiling oil while they sang praises unto the name of their god do you realize that disciples would actually be crucified to the point that the apostle peter said crucify me upside down because i'm not worthy to be crucified in the same manner that my lord and savior was but i love the way the christian writer tertullian wrote it he says christians are the more you kill us the more we grow because the blood of christians is like sea in other words whenever the blood of a christian fell to the ground five or six more believers would stand up in their place are you hearing me to work today saints and see the thing that i like about the woman is that she is committed to the bridegroom in other words she takes her vows very seriously she's not just there in the good times she stays with him in the bad times she's not just there for the richer but she stays with him in the poor she doesn't just stand with him in health she stays with him in sickness and she's willing to die for the bridegroom because she knows that even death can't do them parts are you hearing the word today's saints but i need you to know that even though this persecution is serious and intense the bible says that god begins to protect the woman i need you to know that he keeps her from annihilation and what he does the bible says stay with me church is he gives her wings like a great eagle where she can go into the wilderness that has been prepared by god and the bible says there in the wilderness the woman is going to be nourished so i need you to get that even though she's in the wilderness the wilderness is not a retreat center the wilderness is still an uncomfortable place i need you to know that at times the christians literally had to move out of public square and they had to function in the caves and the catacombs of the earth where they would be fed and nurtured and preserved by the hand of god are y'all still with me today church so i need to get this that the wilderness is not a comfortable place the wilderness is not an ideal place the wilderness is not a preferred place the wilderness is a place that you would normally want to avoid and even though it's difficult to negotiate or navigate in the wilderness the thing that i love about the text is that the bible says that the woman was nourished in the wilderness the word says that she is replenished in the wilderness the bible says that she waxes strong in the wilderness the woman is revived in the wilderness the woman gets her second wind in the wilderness in other words this woman is so special that she teaches us that you can thrive even when you're in your wilderness and see can i suggest friends of mine that the offspring of the woman those who share in her dna the remnant are going to be a people that do not faint in the wilderness we're going to be a people that don't give up in the wilderness we're going to be a folk that don't go back the way we came because we are in the wilderness in other words we're going to be a people that can thrive in the wilderness why because our connection is not circumstantial our connection is relational are you hearing me today saints in other words see the thing i like about this woman stay with me is that she married the groom because she loved him not because of what he could do for her okay let me say it to you all on this side he he she's married the groom because of who he was not because of what he could provide for her and see the problem with the church in our time is that we are not a ride or die kind of woman in other words we are that woman that's really in it to see what we are able to get in other words the problem with the last day church is we got too many gold diggers in the church in other words a gold digger doesn't really love the groom she just loves what he is able to give he just she just loves what he's able to provide and as soon as he stops providing it guess what her loyalty is out the door and i need you to know friends of mine that this is not a new thing remember they're in john chapter six there was a lot of folk who loved jesus as long as he was giving away free fish sandwiches but as soon as he said you're gonna have to eat my flesh and drink my blood john 6 66 says that not many followed him any much longer after that remember when he came into jerusalem they threw palm branches at his feet and said hosanna to god in the highest but when he did not improve their earthly situation they began to cry give us barabbas and guess what the spirit of gold diggers is going to be revealed more and more the closer we get to the apocalypse because the truth is there is going to be a doctrinal falling away but guess what there's going to be a circumstantial falling away in other words those that get with the groom because of what we can get are going to be sifted before the time of the end and see i need us to understand this is why i need you to get that the prosperity gospel is so strong because what it promises is that god is going to spoil the bride when ephesians 5 says that he's going to sanctify the bride and i need us to understand that there are some of us that are committed to god in church as long as there is money in the bank and a car in the driveway and letters behind our name but as soon as our circumstance shifts just a little bit guess what we ain't got no more commitment to god but i need you to know today's saints that if your religious status is connected to your job status you're a gold digger i i need you to know that if your spiritual life is connected to your love life you're a gold digger if your commitment to giving is based upon how much you're getting then you're a gold digger i need you to understand that if your willingness to serve is based upon how much god is serving your situation then you're a gold digger and let me make the clarification because guess what we all get discouraged we all go through seasons in life but what i'm talking about are those types of believers whose inward condition always reflects their outward situation and see the true descendants of the woman will function in a space and a commitment to god where what's happening on the outside then dictate who you are and your commitment to the inside can the church say amen and see i need somebody to get this because he as descendants of the woman i need you to get this that you should be able to thrive in wilderness see i want to talk to somebody who is in a wilderness place today i see i want to make this announcement and i pray that it spreads far and wide see the issue with some of us is that we've been trying to survive the wilderness but god says i can nourish you and grow you and strengthen you so that you don't just survive the wilderness but you can thrive in your wilderness in other words i need somebody to understand that the bible says that she was nourished in the wilderness that she went strong in the wilderness that she began to be revived in the wilderness why because this was the space that was prepared for her by god and i guess what i need somebody to know is that you can thrive spiritually no matter what wilderness you are in you can experi financial wilderness you can thrive spiritually when you're in a relational wilderness you can thrive spiritually when you're in a friendship crisis in other words stop waiting to survive it and recognize that god wants you to thrive in it see in other words say see the problem with some of us is that when you're in a survival mode you're just waiting for it to be over you're just waiting for it to come to an end but how many of us understand that sometimes it does not come to an end as quickly as we like it to come but i need you to know friends of mine that until it comes to an end i'm going to make a decision to thrive where i am to grow where i'm planted to recognize that god can feed me no matter what predicament i find myself into are y'all hearing what i'm saying say search see i need y'all to understand beloved that i haven't gone through everything you've gone through and you haven't gone through everything i've gone through but the only situations that i regret going through are the situations i didn't get nothing from in other words as long as i got something from it guess what i don't mind necessarily going through it now i need you to be clear that i don't like when things take too long i don't like being in uncomfortable situations i don't like when there is pain or agony in my life but guess what i don't mind going through it as long as i'm going to get something from it and is there anybody that has gone through some things in life that pressed you and stressed you and you had to cry sometimes but now that you look back on that thing that you went through you realize that it was not for naught but you got some faith and you got some patience and you got some perseverance and you learn how to pray and you learn how to believe in other words god never wastes a trial god never wastes a hurt don't curse that you had to go through it you want to just thank god for what you got from it are y'all hearing the word today saints you see i need you to know that the word says that the woman was given two wings like a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness i need you to know that the imagery of eagles wings is intentional now there are some people scholars that believe say that the two eagles wings one represents the old testament that the other represents the new testament some believe that the eagles wings represent the eastern and western empires of rome where the persecution was not as strong but the reason god uses the image of an eagle's wings is because of how eagles use their wings in other words friends of mine you know that eagles are able to travel great distances but they get long distances not because they're flapping the entire time the the reason they're able to travel great distances is eagles know how to recognize the presence of of heat pockets or turbulence it is a process called formal soaring in other words that turbulence that shakes a plane the eagle doesn't try to avoid turbulence but he simply soars into the turbulence and guess what the turbulence boost him the heat boosts him and raises him and it gets him to go further than he can get if he flapped oh by him oh y'all not with me today church that's why the bible says they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength they'll mount up with wings as eagles they'll run and not be weary they'll walk and not faint and the reason he says you're mad up with wings of eagles is not because you ain't got nowhere to go but it's cause you learn how to use your turbulence is there anybody that's gonna learn how to use your adversity i'm gonna learn how to use your criticism i'm gonna learn how to use your jealousy because the more you give it you just pushing me a little bit higher and you pushing me a little bit further and you pushing me further than i can get by myself is there anybody that wants to stop cursing your trials and start thanking god for the boost thank god for the lift thank you for the experiences that took you higher then you're able to get by yourself are you hearing the word today saints second thing i need you to know about the women's saints is this i need you to know this about the woman that that god only has one woman in other words god ain't into threesomes come on say amen he ain't down with polygamy he he married himself to one woman or one church come on say amen now the bible says here in verse six that that the bible says that she fled into the woman for 1260 days now now stay with me as i can kind of geek it out for a little bit we'll shout at the end the bible says that she's sent in for 1260 days now now you guys know that in prophecy that a a day equals a year it equals a what a year so this 1260 days represents 1260 years where god is going to protect and preserve the woman now i need you to get that this 1260 days represents a prophetic time period from 5 38 a.d to 1798 a.d where the church is going to go from outward persecution to living under a season of papal oppression if you're still with me let me hear you say amen in other words at the first the devil is going to try and attack the church with outward persecution he's going to try to annihilate the church but then after a while he's going to attack the church in a different way he's going to try to corrupt the church so where do you see that at pastor notice what the bible says the bible says that the dragon pursues the woman into the wilderness in other words you realize that in greek mythology when a dragon opened up his mouth he was supposed to spit out what fire but notice in the text the dragon does not send fire because guess what fire when it spews out it attacks or destroys from the outside but notice that the word says that he sends out of his mouth water or a flood why because what water does water dilutes water separates water infiltrates water will corrupt and cause a molding effect in other words he's saying if i can't destroy the church i'm going to dilute the church i'm going to corrupt the church i'm going to destroy it from the inside out are y'all hearing me today church in other words i need you to know that the church goes from being persecuted by pagan or government of rome all the way up to the time of the 300s where constantine comes into power somebody say constantine constantine essentially experiences a a partial or somewhat artificial conversion but constantine says i'm gonna bring an end to the outward persecution but realize that in a political maneuver it is his design to try to unify the government of rome and i need you to know the only way he can do that is by merging pagan beliefs with the doctrines of the christian church are y'all with me today saints and i need you to know that as pagan rome falls and it experiences a deadly wound i need you to know what happens is it takes on or it exerts an even more dangerous power that is greater than military might it is literally when he exercises control through the use of religion and so what the dragon does is during this 1260 time our day time period known to us as the middle ages what he literally does is he floods the woman with a series of doctrines false beliefs and errors that were designed to corrupt the woman from the inside out are y'all hearing me today saints in other words we see a list of some of these harry's heresies that flow through in our time now heresies like gnosticism or arianism which invalidated uh the deity uh the divinity of christ or the macedonian heresy which took away the deity of the holy ghost or the pelagian heresy which destroyed the grace of god and even as this church of rome emerged we begin to see other heresies like the change of the sabbath the supremacy of the pope the watering down of the use of scripture or literally the altering of how many commandments there are are y'all with me now you see these heresies that begin to try to dilute and infiltrate and wash away the woman but the bible literally says that the earth come on somebody the earth opened up his mouth and preserved the woman in the wilderness so that it did not get swept away so what he does is he raises up men and women through a reformation called the protestant reformation y'all still with me saints protestant reformation in other words there are a number of phases to the protestant reformation you had the reformation in germany which gave birth to the lutheran group you have the reformation in switzerland by by swingly and calvinism that arose in france you have the church of uh the reformation in england and the middle way and ultimately the counter-reformation but i need you to know that even though god's design was to put some men and women in place to resist the flood of errors that was going to overwhelm the church the enemy still snuck something in because the different reformers instead of functioning on with a with an appetite for the entire truth what they did was place emphasis on a particular truth and what happens is you have a fracturing or a splintering of the woman and so out of the protestant reformation you have a whole bunch of belief systems that emerge so you got now the eastern orthodoxy you got roman catholicism and even out of the protestant church you've got lutheranism you've got anglicanism under which you've got episcopalian baptist methodists out of which the seven-day adventists come out of calvinism you got presbyterian and reform now now again this is a very watered down simplified overview of church history but guess what this is the issue saints that you had one woman that went into the wilderness but now you got a hundred different women that came out of the wilderness and they all read from the same bible they all got on church clothes they all say we believe in jesus from the outside they all look the exact same and now it's hard for us to know how to find the right woman are you hearing what i'm saying today saints and if you're going to understand and find the right woman guess what states you got to know her characteristics or her traits can the church say amen today so i want to talk for a moment about about um some of the traits of the woman that i want you to look at because see i need you to get something saints because the enemy i need you to know that if he cannot kill something his next goal is going to always be to imitate that thing because he couldn't destroy the trinity guess what he created a counterfeit trinity with the beast the prophet and the false prophet now y'all hear what i'm saying see i need you to understand that whenever he can't destroy something he's going to imitate it so now what he's done is he has flooded the world with counterfeit women or counterfeit beliefs in other words it makes it hard for you to know which one is the right one because now he's fractured the church where we go against each other based on our denominational differences or doctrinal beliefs but i need you to know that a part of the work of the loud cry it is literally designed through the word of god to bring the church back into consolidation remember jesus said other sheep i have that are not of this foe he says my sheep hear my voice and when they hear it they come running and by the time we get to the end there's gonna be one fold and one shepherd the lord jesus that's why in revelation 18 the cry is given come out of babylon my people in other words he's got those in babylon that when they hear truth they're going to respond to the truth of the word and what i'm saying is some of us uppity adventist folk stop saying us versus them they are god's children they are his sheep they know his voice and when some of y'all get shaken out god is gonna send someone in to take your place he's gonna knock down sectarianism and denominationalism and it's simply gonna be those that love him and follow after his ways are y'all hearing what i'm saying today saints so i want you to look real quick at two of the identifying marks of the remnant church the bible says here in revelation 12 verse the bible says that the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the what which keep the commandments of god and have the testimony of what to to testimony of jesus christ so the first thing you need to know about the remnant number one is that they are a commandment keeping people somebody no you can say amen the first thing you ought to know about the remnant is that they are a commandment keeping people now let me just pause and give a quick clarification because see sometimes it is our misunderstanding of what it means to keep the commandments that actually nullifies our belief of how we are saved by righteousness by faith because we think the remnant because the bible says the remnant are those that keep the what commandments are y'all with me today church now i want to make a quick clarification i need you to know that commandment keeping doesn't make you remnant commandment keeping identifies you as remnant i'll see some of y'all sit and get it in other words what john in revelation 12 doing is he is giving us the characteristics to make an id he's not giving you the formula for how you supposed to be saved in other words obedience or keeping commandments does not save me it simply identifies me as being connected with god are y'all hearing me today saints in other words i need you to know that commandment keeping is fruit not see it is the fruit that identifies the tree it is not the seed that produces the tree in other words remember jesus said in matthew chapter 7 by their fruits by their fruit you're going to know them are y'all hearing what i'm saying in these things now how many of us who are lay folk you ain't grow up on no farm like to me all trees look about the same they all got limbs they all got true our roots they all got trunks i only know what kind of tree it is if it's got fruit on it in other words the purpose of the fruit is for identification not production or y'all hear me today saints so i need somebody to understand this help me holy spirit that obedience or commandment keeping it is the symptom not the virus it's gonna get good even if it's just all to me by myself uh first john chapter five and verse three look at it look at it stay in the book stay in the book stay in the book first john chapter five and verse three see let's see this is how you know friends of mine whether or not you've been converted first john chapter five and and verse number three when you have it let me hear you say amen first john chapter five and verse verse number three this is what the word says for the bible says for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments the his commandments are not what they're not grievous the bible says they are not burdensome in another version are y'all hear what i'm saying saints and the reason the commandments all help me holy spirit the reason they are not hard is because they are symptom not virus in other words when you've got a virus the cold the coughing doesn't create the virus the fever doesn't cause the virus uh the sneezing doesn't cause the virus the sneezing is simply how i am able to detect the presence of the virus in other words it is simply how i identify what's going on inside of the person so it's crazy like this like in my house like my daughter man like she loves school she hates getting sick but she gets sick all the time and every now and then she has to miss school so guess what her brothers do is when they see she gonna be out of school they start trying to fake they start trying to fake some of the symptoms now i need to know you can always tell somebody that's faking symptoms because that cough come from they from their throat it don't come from their chest and in other words they they can't maintain their fever the temperature always keeps going down why because they're trying to replicate symptoms when they've not been infected by the virus and the reason keeping the commandments is so hard for some of us is because we're trying to replicate the symptoms when we ain't been infected by jesus and what i'm saying is i want my christianity to be contagious i want to give the virus to as many people as i can and guess what the symptoms become automatic are y'all hearing me today saints and the reason we're powerless is because we're just trying to replicate the symptoms but you got to get the virus so let me just say this because i want to say this because the symptoms are important because they help us assess where we are on our journey now i'm just going to make some of y'all mad right the bible says that they keep the commandments now that makes some of us feel very secure wrongly so because notice the bible doesn't say they acknowledge the commandments well i knew you're going to get quiet the bible says they actually keep the commandments okay because see there are a lot of us that don't really keep the commandments we just acknowledge them as a spiritual truth so we say oh yeah yeah i believe in the commandment that says thou shalt have no other gods before me no idols and you think you're safe because you don't create blocks of wood and worship them but you realize the bible says thou shall have no other gods before me but your devices are before him your phone is before him your tv is before him your playstation is before him yeah you've acknowledged the commandment but have you kept the commandment acknowledge the fourth commandment but do we really keep that commandment come on truth is for most of us sabbath is not really a different day we acknowledge it but it's just a day that we watch or come to church we acknowledge it but do we keep y'all hear what i'm saying things like do you realize friends of mine that even even the bible says you know god should not kill you said i hadn't killed anybody but do you realize in the book of james god says hate if you hate you you might listen or the only difference between a murderer and somebody who has hate is time and opportunity you just hadn't had the right confluence of circumstances that come about in other words what god is saying is that if you in james if you break one commandment you've broken all of them are y'all hear what i'm saying today saints and what i'm saying is is that remnant is not just going to be those that hold the commandments as a theological truth but the real remnant are going to be those that keep not just the letter of the law but the spirit of the law are y'all hearing what i'm saying today search third thing about remnant watch this it's gonna make us a little bit more set is the third thing about remnant watch this is that they ought to be the most loving people on the face of the earth [Applause] that was very weak the remnant anthony are going to be the most loving people on the planet well i didn't really see that in the scripture scripture says just keep the commandments what does that have to do with love okay let's go in the book luke 10 verse 27 okay y'all tired you better get yourself together i'm gonna be here for a second luke chapter 10 luke 10 verse 27 why should the remnant be the most loving people on the planet luke 10 and verse number 27. see i need you to understand how the commandments function luke chapter 10 and verse 27 when you get there let me hear you say man excuse me luke chapter 10 excuse me actually let me go to john 13 and verse 35 john 13. well no luke 10 verse 27 i'm sorry i'm sorry luke 10 verse 27 i'm trying to cut some stuff out i just got to take my time all right all right can somebody give me five minutes raise your hand if you give me five more minutes all right 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40. amen i didn't even see it coming amen luke 10 verse 27 all right so what does it mean to keep the commandments luke 10 27 and answering thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy strength and all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself and he said unto them thou has answered right uh thou do this and thou shalt live in other words i need you to know what it means to keep the commandments of god hear me on this young people is to love god with all your heart all your mind all your soul and all your strength but the second and greatest commandment is likened unto it it is to love your neighbor just like you love oh y'all not hearing me on this thing to love them in the same way i love me all right so y'all still not with me go with me in your bibles john 13 and verse 35 john 13 and verse 35 the real remnant i want the real remnant to stand up today the real remnant are going to be most loving folk on the face of the earth the bible says in john 13 verse 35 by this shall all men know that you are my disciples are y'all here in this church if you have love one for another y'all not done john romans 13 and verse 8 romans chapter 13 and verse number eight please stay with me for just a second because see i need us to change the whole way we are looking at the concept of remnant john 13 and verse number eight when you get there let me hear you say amen john 13 and verse number eight hear what the apostle says john 13 and verse eight he says this oh no man anything but what to love one another for he that loveth has what ah did y'all read that church he that loves fulfills the whole law for this thou shall not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet if there be any other commanded it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself love worketh no ill toward his neighbor therefore love is fulfilling the law of god see the problem is you've been walking around with a checklist saying don't do this and don't do that but the way to be perfected the way to keep the whole law is simply to have the love of jesus swelling on the inside of your soul are y'all hearing the word today saints can i take you one more place go over with me to first corinthians chapter 13 and verse number one first corinthians chapter 13 and verse number one we talked about it just probably about a month ago uh first corinthians chapter 13 and verse one again i'm talking to those of us who kind of are identifying remnant through other things that christ is not expressing first corinthians 13 and verse one when you get this amen he says though i speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love i become as sounding brass and tinkling symbols and though i have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and have all knowledge and though i have faith as though i could remove mountains and have not love i am nothing though i give all my goods to feed the poor and i give my body to be burned and have not love i have nothing are y'all hearing what the spirit is saying to the church what god is saying to us is that the identifying mark of my people is not just how they dress it is not just whether or not they sing hymns or gospel the way you will know those who belong to me is by their love what i'm saying church is we need to redefine what it means to be remnant in other words to be remnant doesn't mean to be vegetarian it means to be loving to be remnant doesn't mean to be vegan it means to be loving to be remnant is not just keeping the day it means to be loving to be rendered the mean of just seeing hymns it means to be loving in other words i'm looking for a church that's going to not identify somebody's walk with god by their earrings by their jewelry by their music by their diet by their tattoos but how they love how they love one another are you hearing the word of god and what i'm saying is that any religion any group what i'm saying friends of mine let's take remnant back from the fanatics what i'm saying is whether real will the real remnants stand up and say i'm gonna love my neighbor i'm gonna bless those that curse me i'm gonna pray for those that use me when you take my coat imma give you my shirt too when you ask me to go one mile imma go two with you because the true measure of my walk with god is not just how much i give how often i come to church but how i love [Applause] the unlovable in my life and see the problem with fanatic church is we put love over here and obedience over here as if they're enemies when the truth is they are twins because guess what my love is what produces obedience my commandment be keeping grows out of my love for jesus that's why jesus says if you love me you're gonna keep my commandments or y'all hear me today saints and see see the problem is see i need somebody to understand this you realize that just keeping the ten commandments that standard is too low you realize even a pagan can keep the ten commandments most do by just not breaking the law are y'all hear what i'm saying says but god calls us to a higher law with much higher and loftier aims it is to function with a complete love that is not based upon obligation but it's rooted in relationship with the savior how y'all hearing today saints last thing about the remnant listen i'm almost done is the remnant you know what they have see the true remnant are those that have inexperienced what do you mean pastor notice what the bible says the bible says they are they that keep the commandments of god and they have the what they have the testimony of jesus christ now i need you to know that when we hear the word testimony we automatically think church but when john's people heard testimony what they thought was court scene in other words a testimony somebody that gave testimony was a person that had to be a witness that had to testify to what they had seen or hurt oh you're not with me today in other words i need you to know that in order to testify like even in legal terminology you have what they call the hearsay rule which means you can't testify about what somebody else heard you can't testify about what somebody else say you can only testify about what you saw about what you heard and about what you experienced and those that have the testimony of jesus are those that have seen them for themselves you've heard them for yourself you've experienced christ for yourself and they testify to the goodness of god all the way down to the end of time are y'all hearing what i'm saying and what i'm saying today go ahead i'm closing i'm done i'm done is god is looking forward for looking for people and i'm gonna have to tie it up and clear it up a little bit more listen my time has gotten away from me but i need you to know that god is looking for people first of all they have the dna of the woman what would it mean see god is calling us god is calling us god is calling us out of gold digging prosperity christianity see this is this issue with the church you realize that the contemporary church we bend too much [Music] because we're in it for what we can get not because of our love for the bridegroom and what i'm saying to us today saints is we got to get to a place in our relationship we got to get to a place in our literal walk with god where we love god so much that our relationship with him is not shaken by circumstance but it is fulfilled through our living relationship with the lord y'all hear me today saints god has grown to people that don't just survive trouble but they know how to even thrive when there is trouble i need you to know that god has given you the wings of an ego so that you don't just run from trouble or hide from it but you actually learn how to use it and manipulate it so that it gets you further than you're able to get by yourself [Music] and see god is trying to raise up a church that does not yield that does not compromise that does not go back the way it came that does not fold when there is adversity but he is looking for a church of people that are so committed to god who love him so much that they will stand for what's right even when the heavens fall and i just need to know do i still have any descendants of the woman who have the dna of the church who have the dna of that woman who says listen it the way and always been easy who can testify that i've had to cry sometimes who can testify that i've seen a million midnights but when i stood for jesus he nurtured me and he sheltered me and he allowed me to thrive even when i was in my wilderness god is looking for some folk who don't fold for some folks who don't go back the way they came but he's looking for people that will stand i want you to meditate on the word of the song and i'ma come back and give you some brief closing remarks god bless you hey through don't give up god will come true and it won't be [Music] after you've done [Music] after you've gone through the rain [Music] after you've gone through the world [Music] [Music] [Applause] you just [Music] the appeal is simple it's simple it's simple it is it is it is this simple i told you beginning of this message you know what the word remnant means [Music] it just means those who are left wherever in scripture whether it was in noah's time on the three hebrew man or even those who stayed with jesus to the cross there was there was always a large group who said i'm down with god but it was testing that filtered them down to those who remained and i need you to understand friends of mine that we are not coming upon times of testing we already in it and every gold digging believe it that's just in it for what you can get [Music] god is about to smoke you out god is trying to raise up young people aged people that are so committed so stubbornly committed to god that no matter how life tries to shake you like the remains in the bottle you will not be moved when life squeezes you you won't be moved when you're shaking you won't be removed you're saying lord i'm here ain't going nowhere ain't gonna let nothing turn me around that that's why i'm always saying to young people and young adults like man all this stuff about you know who who judge you in the church who says something you in the church and that's why i ain't come no no no remnant remain well i don't go cause my husband don't go no no remnant remain [Music] well you know ever since depending no the remnant remain [Music] what i want you to commit to today is saying i need because see there are certain decisions you can't make in the midst of the tribe there are certain things you got to make up on your mind about right now you got to make it up in your mind right now to say come what may i'm going to be so stubbornly committed to god that no matter how much life squeezes me i'm gonna remain and abide in him that's the commitment that you're making you're saying gonna let nothing turn me around i'm not gonna cast off my confidence i'm not going back the way that i can god has been too good he's been too good been too kind [Music] he's been to faith because see this is the thing i need somebody to get beloved that this 70 years psalm 34 17 says many are the afflictions of the righteous but the lord is going to deliver them from them all i need you to get this saint that this life it is going to be hard you know what jesus said in this world you shall have tribulation but he says don't fear because i've overcome the world and guess what i'll take the 70 years of trial because you know how much this represents it represents about this much of your existence you know i'll take the 70 years it's this much but you know what eternal life is [Music] come on praising for eternal life praising for eternal life praising for eternal life no it's still going it's still going it's still going it's still going it's still going [Applause] it's still going it's still going it's still going it's still going it's still going it's still going it's still going it's still going forever and never endeavor amen is what paul says that these light afflictions which are but for a moment are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us [Music] since this pandemic he came back i would love to just kind of preach he's going to make a way and shout and all that stuff but like we got to get ready saints it's time to go home and in order to understand the right woman how to find the right woman you got to know her traits or even better yet in order to be the right woman you got to have the right traits so i'm making it up in my mind from here on out my relationship with god is going to be relational not circumstantial i realize that that i want to keep my ears attuned to truth so that i'm not swept away by the flood of errors that shall come upon the body of christ listen friends of mine i want to be not a commandment acknowledging believer i want to be a commandment keeping person but i need you to know that the fulfillment of the law comes through robust love for god an unconditional love for mankind saints listen you can eat as much vegan cheese as you want and then no and you should it is not bad like i'm not against that but what i'm saying is if you can't love your neighbor you're gonna be regular but you're gonna be lost [Music] i'm talking about church using different metrics so we've been looking at the wrong metrics oh you know what's he wearing and oh over that church they use drums and oh you know that you'll love one for another that's the identifying mark [Music] and you got to testify to his goodness two two brief questions if you already believe are you making it up in your mind to say i'm gonna remain in him if that's you just put your hand up put it back down maybe there's somebody else today you need to make it up in your mind you've never really made that decision you never made that covenant to go all the way with jesus christ to say i want to be born again i want to be baptized i want to go all the way in a committed relationship with the savior you want to make that decision say i'll take these 70 years of some adversity some struggle so i can have that eternal life you want to make that decision today will you just raise your hand wherever you are man woman boy or girl teenager young child young adult to say i want to go all the way with jesus christ through baptism i want to be born again i want to start a relationship with christ i want to start a relationship that remains that abides if you're online you can email us at prayer at firstchurch.com but if you're in this building today and you want to go all the way with christ to say i want to stand in him and with him and for him would you just go all the way with jesus and make that decision would you signify by just raising your hand wherever you are wherever you are man woman boy or girl would you receive the lord jesus christ the raising of the hand is just a signal one of our clerks want to get your information so we can get you in some bible studies and you begin your discipleship journey if that's you today just raise your hand wherever you are when you receive the lord right now we're praying father in heaven lord for anything that is good that comes out of the word all glory belongs to you for any missteps misstatements or arab things only the errors are mine father i'm praying today for the first church community i pray for the general body of christ i pray for your work going forward that you would help us to be a part of the declaration declaring of the loud cry that calls your children out of babylon and out of confusion so that you create a merger of those that worship you in spirit and in truth so that at the end of time what you said will come to pass that there will be one fold and one shepherd which is the lord jesus christ father i pray that you to help us as remnant to be a people that testify to your goodness but more than that i'm praying that we will keep your commandments not as those take checking off a check box or a checklist but as those who just have so much love for you because we love you we cast away idols because love we love you we don't put anything before you because we love you we make time for you each and every sabbath because we love our fellow man we don't just go to the bare minimums of not lying or bearing false witness or or not killing or stealing but lord we go out of our way to be a blessing we go out of our way to sacrifice we go out of our way in compassion lord we take back what it means to be remnant from fanatical views and we put it in the context of scripture oh god so lord help us to remain help us to abide help us to know not just how to find the right woman but help us to know how to be the right kind of believer sustain us steady us if we're in the palm of your hand we know nothing can pluck us out and i pray for that person as in a wilderness would you give them eagles wings [Music] so they can learn how to reuse their adversity so that it pushes them further than they can get by themselves bless and keep your people seal us set your seal upon us god set your seal upon us god that we can endure to the very end this is our prayer we ask it in jesus name let god's people stay together amen amen you may be seated in the house of the lord if god has been good just give him praise one more time today [Music] just a quick reminder ays is going to be online at our facebook page at 5 30 p.m i'm going to ask briefly uh if you remain seated so our ushers can dismiss us in an orderly and distant way and if you're online do me a favor man if this message brought any benefit or value to your life if you're on facebook do me a favor and share it at least five times if you're on youtube or even if you're in the building copy the link to the message send it to each five people at least five people we need the word to go forward and i just ask if you would just if we would be still cease our movement in the sanctuary until we receive our prayer of benediction at this time [Music] ladies borrow us for closing prayer uh dylan father well thank you for the state thank you for allowing us to be here this afternoon with you lord and be able to receive a word from you uh please lord help us to apply everything that we heard to the message to our everyday lives now as we leave help us to get to our destination safely and bring us back here next week and to continue to watch over our all the sick and shutting members please be with them and we love you and we thank you and has helped us to be more like you each and every day jesus never amen amen when your pastor is full of the holy spirit what flows out of him can be nothing but the holy spirit so i thank pastor snell for being a man of faith and allowing himself to be molded and shaped by god so that he can inspire us to be molded and shaped by god pastor snail i thank you for that message i'm just back for a few reminder uh notes so that you can be blessed and complete in this sabbath all right so aym at 7 pm aym at 7 pm we have something for our young people tonight so tune in on our facebook page and our zoom page 4 a.y.m at 7 p.m then tomorrow morning at 8 a.m wednesday morning 8 a.m and friday at 8 a.m we'll be looking at the book of exodus yep you heard it i said it lessons and blessings from the book of exodus so we'll be looking at exodus chapter 12 tomorrow exodus chapter 13 on wednesday in the exodus chapter 14 on friday all right so you have three chances to walk with god talk with him through his word and experience the love of god as he delivers his people of israel out of egypt all right so for those of us who are experiencing uh oppression in whatever way shape fashion and form it does our heart good to look at what god has done in the past because he is god and he will change not so 8 a.m sunday 8 a.m uh wednesday 8 a.m friday you too can experience the deliverance that god boasts of in the book of exodus all right so aym first watch and then after you watch first watch tomorrow at eight o'clock turn over to local cw at 8 30 and join us for pastor w snail to give a mighty word on doctrine is not a dirty word all right so you will definitely be blessed there at night am again go online reserve your seats on our church website and you can go ahead and have the spot that you enjoy sitting in next week all right then september 19th what did i say september 19th you can pull up and we'll fill your trunk up at the grocery giveaway pull up we'll fill your trunk up at your grocery giveaway all you need is id a mask and to stay in your car and we will do the rest then september 25th because we are a church where the wounded or made whole we have our grief counseling ministry and we will be helping all of those who are grieving lost in whatever way shape fashion or form it has hit you in 2020 and 2021 all right so dr edith frazier and the incomparable donna scott are blessing us with the counseling ministry 5 pm central 6 pm eastern time on september 25th we'll remind you again next week so that you can be prepared to show up and allow god to start the healing process or continue the healing process through this event all right may god bless and keep you tune in for our local kids first service and then stick around for our no cap devotionals again we are we are happy that you joined us may god bless and keep you i am your host pastor rasheed taylor [Music] [Music] hey this is pastor anthony adams here at first sda church and the reason why i know my steps are ordered by god have you ever seen a rose split out of the concrete or a weed split out of the concrete i've done all this weed eating because i love being in the yard and i've cut so many things away and i'm thinking that my yard is just the way it needs to be a couple of days later i'll come back outside and there will be a weed growing out of the concrete how in the world does that happen well i look at my own life i was that stony person i was that one who just would not listen i was the one with the hard head i was the one who had to do it my way my way in no way and don't judge me some of you all are just the same way it's your way or no way but out of that stony place i look at ezekiel 37. and the spirit of god is talking to the prophet and he said there was a valley of dry bones and he said can these bones live and the prophet responded to the lord and said god only you know and he said speak to the bones speak to the bones and when he spoke to the bones they came back to life the tissues and the marrows and things like that some of you all feel as though your heart has been so stoned because you've gone through so many things just like i have but in the midst of going through them god still sends you a glimmer of hope you'll see that rose split that concrete and begin to grow and blossom right where it is you would think it would grow with all the other roses but no sometimes that seed falls in a place and god meets you right where you are in spite of where you think you should be and you're not there god meets you right there right there where you are right there where your city right there where you're listening at today god is meeting you right where you are just like he met me and he said you know what you're going to live and not die so i know my steps are ordered because i'm still here i'm still moving forward hey i'm not everything that i should be but i'm not where i should be to be honest with you i have come such a long way and i'm still growing and that's the thing about god he will still allow you to grow and he will grow within you if you give him the opportunity again i know my steps are ordered by god this is god's word no cap pastor anthony adams we love you during the pandemic some of the most affected were our young people we faced a time where education had to revamp and restructure this caused some of our students to become uninspired and others to underperform that's why we'd like to introduce you to the prepared leaders under grace youth leadership academy at the plug we have created a program that helps students in retaining a better grade point average helps them outline future goals and eventually provides financial help for their professional aspirations whether it be college trade school or starting a business because we are invested in every student our two-year program which only meets twice a month works closely with your student school is involved with local businesses as they shadow professionals and even takes motivation and educational field trips so they are exposed to everything the world has to offer eligible students must be entering their junior year in high school with a gpa that doesn't exceed 2.25 spaces are limited so we encourage any interested parent to visit our website to fill out the application or visit our office to fill it out in person applications are due september first our goal is to get your students in the class of 2023 back on track we see your struggling students and we want to help them plug back in for more information or to fill out an application please visit our website at firstsdachurch.com or call us at 256-852-0731 the prepare leaders under grace first church youth leadership academy helping to inspire students to plug back in [Music] hey family we are so excited about this initiative we believe it's going to be a game changer and i need you to know that we're not just looking at 12 individual young people we believe this is going to be so radical and so powerful that it's going to impact 12 generations i need you to know we can't do this without you so we're looking for your financial partnership to help underfund the club again one of the things that we're going to do in 2023 we're going to put 12 students into college vocational school beauty school whatever is going to facilitate their dreams and so you can give in one of two ways you can give money towards scholarship or you can actually give toward the program the resourcing that goes on from week to week and the field trips so just go to firstsdachurch.com go to our ministries tab and give scroll down to where you see the plug mentorship program give your gift of any size and i need you to know it's going to be greatly appreciated and every dime is going to be poured into the future of a young person that's going to affect the world for the glory of god where they are thank you so much for your partnership and we look forward to making waves in our community you

Channel: First Seventh-day Adventist Church

Views: 7,570

Rating: 4.9448276 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: GI4qz0vYtwA

Length: 234min 21sec (14061 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021