Harold Hoffman - Fireside Chat #1| Church ONLINE

[Music] good evening everybody we're so glad that you're tuning in with us here on live we're just going to just do some worship and have pastor come up and preach and I'm super excited to be able to do this this is a great opportunity for us to worship together as a church family all over across the world so if you tuned in wants to just join in with us and we're just going to worship and sing some songs amen [Music] we want you [Music] [Music] season two crazy [Music] [Music] you see [Music] we was [Music] like presents [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we need you [Music] you are asking our nation [Music] by faith I see a miracle then my god he made me a promise [Music] you made us a promise and it won't stop now I made a promise that he'd never leave us or forsake us [Music] he's not a man that he should lie thank you for your promises good stand thank you for your word that's worth [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you have chosen me [Music] popping born-again [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I want to encourage somebody [Music] I heard this during this time a father was it was mentioning to his children what is when he saw that his son came home with somebody else's they he came home with wearing somebody else's shoes from school one of his friends let him wear his shoes his dad saw him and he said give you those shoes I need you to go give those shoes back to whoever they want and he made the parallel that that we are the children of God he's our Father and there are just some things that he didn't give us the scripture in Timothy says for he has not given us a spirit and of a sound mind so if we have anything that he did not give us I believe this is a good time for us to give that back to whomever it belongs to [Music] to fear [Music] [Music] just be grateful for the presence of [Music] thank you all who are live with us right now from the bottom of my heart from First Church we're so grateful that you have taken the time out of your schedule to join us online Matthew 18:20 says where two or three are gathered in his name there he would be in the midst and if you take a look around in your living rooms wherever you are right now we don't need to have a building to have Church you can do that right from the living room from the vehicle right where you are the presence of God can just come into your room and just touch you right where you are and I'm so grateful if you would have asked me 10 or 15 years ago that we would be facing a crisis like we are and as a body of believers that we would not be able to gather together I wouldn't have seen this day possible but I believe that God has given us technology I believe he has given us the right people in place to create things that we can partake of and enjoy and so we're using something that God ordains to begin with just to reach into your home into your life and I don't think we have to limit God in a box that he has to be in four walls under a steeple but that he could be right where you are so I'd like to thank pastor Dreiling and this worship team and the production team for everything that they're doing to make this happen and for everyone there that's taking the time to support us not just by being online but also supporting us with partnering with us financially you have been so faithful through all of the ups and downs and through a lot of the samos say they're just operating out of fears some out of concern but through all of what we're facing you have been faithful in staying partnered with us and I would like to thank you from the bottom of our heart from first church and pastor and the team we're grateful for amazing people like yourselves that call this home and if you're watching online and maybe this isn't your home and you're looking for a place I'd ask you to us to continue following us on social media and when we're able to gather again to just give us a shot but right now it gives me no greater honor and pleasure than to introduce to you our senior pastor I believe God's got something timely now that he has given him and and that will reach us and will challenge us and also encourage us pastor were so grateful and we love you it is an honor to greet you this evening and two weeks ago when these limitations were being placed on us it was very fluid and it wasn't just changing sometimes every day but sometimes it was changing multiple times during the day and I found myself humming an old song and I couldn't lay my hands on the words I just remembered the melody of it and I was humming it in my vehicle driving from place to place and then I realized and remembered what I was singing to myself so before I begin my Bible class tonight I have asked two amazing people I have asked a millennial Minister and a senior Saint to give us a duet to a song that I think is very very appropriate listen to this song and then we'll go into the word [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening to all of you and I am coming to you from the platform pulpit of First Church Sterling Heights this lectern is usually placed in front of my Wednesday Bible class and you know what nothing has changed because of the magnificent team that surrounds me and serves this church I am still in front of my Bible class so I'm grateful for the diligent digital duties that these men and women work to provide this congregation I was quite impressed with that phrase diligent digital duties try and say that three times as fast as you can I've always believed that the automobile was invented to put wheels on the gospel and this being the Motor City were so famous at one time over 90% of all the vehicles in the world were made in this city we played a big role in that then the airplane came along it is my personal opinion that the airplane was invented to put wings on the gospel and the Romans were given a great historical compliment because of their ability to build paved roads and the phrase was coined all roads lead to Rome but that's not entirely accurate I've got another way of looking at that road building empire you're familiar with the second chapter of the book of Acts and of course one through four gives the amazing account of the Holy Spirit being manifest on the day of Pentecost but let me read to you what comes in the very next verse in verse five and they were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven when this was noised abroad the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language they were all amazed saying one to another are not all these which speak galilaeans how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born parth ian's Medes Elamites dwellers in Mesopotamia Judea Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphylia in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene strangers of Rome Jews and proselytes Crete's and Arabians we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God 16 different areas of the world were represented in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost they were Jews or Jewish proselytes who had come to celebrate the Feast of the Lord that we so often refer to as Pentecost and so I want to thank the Roman Road builders for not just making it convenient for people to come to Rome but made it much more convenient for people to make it to Jerusalem to be there to celebrate Pentecost and to be there in that incredible moment when I guess Pentecost was premiered and the spirit the world of the Spirit was changed forever years ago I read something by a fabulous minister a black man from Indianapolis Indiana his name was GT Haywood he was the first one that I ever saw this I've seen it in several variations and varieties after that but Haywood wrote this in the late 20s he said history is actually two words his story and I have said that as a preamble to thank the Lord once again for giving us the tools that we have tonight to allow me the convenience of being able to address you in your home all over this city families and Bible students are watching me through the internet we have been given the most powerful tool to not just take the gospel to the whole world but to take the gospel immediately to the whole world Paul one time said in acts 20 and verse 26 he said I am pure from the blood of all men and there of course several ways to look at that but one of the things he obviously meant was that he had done his best to preach the gospel to the civilized world but it took him most of his life to do that the fact is that tonight I have no idea who's listening to me and so I want to thank the Lord for the great blessing of being able to speak not just to this flock of hungry sheep that called first church home but the listeners at large around the world this has been an amazing week we have been doing our best to manage a situation that's very fluid and it's changing rapidly we're doing our best balance the dual duties of being good citizens by obeying our elected leaders and yet doing our best also not to shirk our duties to minister to the spiritual needs of those who look to us for direction in these times I've always loved history and biographies and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I am sharing a week and quite possibly a day with a deeply loved leader from the past no one was more respected in America than Franklin Roosevelt he is the only president to ever have been elected three times he came to office during the most difficult time in the history of this nation it's known as the Great Depression my father will soon be 93 years old he went through that he told me nobody that went through the Great Depression came out of it without being scarred and he would correct me at times because I would spend money very freely and I would buy things without caring really for what the cost of it was and he would say if you had gone through the depression he wouldn't have done that Franklin Roosevelt became president in the middle of the Great Depression and if that wasn't enough during his first year in office the Midwest was ravaged by what is known as the Great Dust Bowl in one day this this will be very hard for you to wrap your mind around this in one day 300 million cubic yards of dirt simply blew away to put that in perspective when they built the Panama Canal it took him five years and they dug out 270 million yards of Earth took him five years to do that but when Roosevelt became president in one day they lost over 300 million yards of dirt it was a double whammy it's kind of like one of those old 50 radio stations that says and the hits just keep on coming and on this day as near as I can tell 87 years ago franklin roosevelt sat down for the first of what would be 30 of something he simply called a fireside chat he would just sit down behind a desk and he would talk to america to do his best to calm them and to help them understand what was going on and what was being done and implemented to help and giving them hope that they would come out of this it is my hope that these times with you for the next several weeks or however long will be times that you will look forward to hearing just like those frightened folks did almost 90 years ago let's tune in to pastor Hoffman and let's see what he's got to say I want to begin by saying how wonderful it is to remind everyone of you how wonderful it is to live a life that's faith-based the song said in times like these you're gonna need a rock that won't move something that you can hook your anchor up to ten years ago in this city we went through a horrible time that's been commonly referred to as the crunch there was the crash but we had the crunch and what a crunch it was I got a call during the middle of that crunch with all of the foreclosures and all of the terrible things that were going on economically then I got a call from the man who handled our bank accounts for the church and he said I'd like you to just come down here and and I want to see you for a moment and so I went down to his office and we just began to talk and I did my best just to encourage him and make him laugh as I usually do and I got up to leave and I was getting up to leave he stopped me and he said don't don't don't don't leave you and so I I said okay why why why do you want me to stay and he he just looked at me so forlorn and he said pastor I am responsible for 222 different accounts of businesses in this city and he said the church that you Pastor is the only account that I am managing that's in the black and I guess I just wanted to talk to somebody that didn't need interest-only payments or who was asking me for six months of not being able to have to pay a payment at all he said and I guess I've got a question for you what in the name of God are you doing in that church that I don't see happening in so many other places and I said well I've got a scripture for you it's in the book of Exodus and it said there was darkness over all the land of Egypt it said it was even darkness that could be felt but in verse 23 it said it was so dark they couldn't see one another and nobody even moved they never left where they were for three days and then as I was getting ready to throw my punch line my banker friend said let me finish the rest of the verse pastor Hoffman he said but all of Israel had light and their dwellings and I said yes sir that's what it says and we had a word of Prayer and I left and not long after that I was asked to write an article for a magazine and I told the editor I'd be proud and happy to write an article but then he added well you're not going we want to tell you what to write about pastor Hoffman we are going to put out an issue about pastoring depressed people in a depressed City and I just said well I'm not your guy and and he began to quote all of the terrible things that were being said about Detroit and my response to him was simple I said sir when everything that can be shaken starts shaking people start looking for something that won't shake and I said this economic world is shaking right now and I'm privileged to live in a city where people are looking for something that won't move and that is the rock called Jesus Christ and I said this is the perfect time for he said you've got more foreclosures in your head you're missing a point this is the perfect time for a great harvest and we found out that it was and there were lots of folks that had to move away during that time but they've all been replaced and the church is flourished and we're so grateful for all of that and I strongly believe in the return of Jesus Christ when he left the angel told those disciples why are you staring up into the clouds this same Jesus who went away is coming back and I believe that very strongly what you and I are experiencing right now is nothing compared to what is going to happen after what the word calls the catching away I don't want to be on this earth after the Lord takes the one thing out of it that means more to him than anything else and that's the church you do not want to be here after the church is taken and so I found these verses that have always resonated with me in times like this it's in the 17th chapter of the Book of Luke and in verse 20 Jesus is trying to explain to these religious leaders what the kingdom really was because these people were so Vince they were the children of God they were convinced they had all of the truth they were convinced that it was their temple that you had to attend in order to find the one true God and Jesus starts his discourse listen to this first in verse 22 he said unto his disciples the days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you shall not see it now that's sometimes too much stained-glass scripture for most people so let me give you another translation it says the arrival of the Son of Man is not something you go out to see he simply comes what that means is you got to be ready you got to be ready he's coming and and he followed this by this verse he said the kingdom of God is not here or there it's within you it's within you so this is an inside job this is not about geography now Jesus spoke to large crowds there were several times in the Bible that he spoke to crowds we know of that we're in addition to 5,000 people but he also spoke to a woman at a well just him and her he spoke to Nicodemus a leader a ruler possibly what we would call a Supreme Court justice many times in the Bible it was just Jesus and one person so what you've got to understand ladies and gentlemen that the church is not where you are the church is who you are and Jesus told the woman at the well he said the hour is gonna come when you're not gonna worship in this mountain or in Jerusalem in other words it it's not going to be limited to one geographical location and there are people that could just meltdown right now I've I've got to go to the church I've got a gutting and to them the church is this building in Sterling Heights but that's not accurate this is just the place where the church means you are the church and you need to understand that right now where you are in your living room in your kitchen either by yourself or possibly with family members you have to understand what the kingdom is and what it isn't one group said you could find God there another group said you could find him here jesus said the day is coming when you're not going to be able to limit him to simply one location read these verses where he talks about the days of Noah he said they were eating they were drinking they were marrying divorcing getting married again divorcing getting married again sound for me it's a culture way it said and they knew not until the day the flood came and took him all the way then he talks about a guy by the name of lot Abraham's nephew this famous verse is found there in the Book of Luke remember Lot's wife we don't know what she looked like we're not told to remember her because of her economic status we're not told to remember her because of how much education she accomplished we are to remember her because according to the word somewhere out in that arid desert tonight there's a there's a bump on the ground it doesn't look like much it's a not dirt it's worn with time but according to the word it's still there it used to be a woman a woman that got out of Sodom but never really ever got sawed him out of her and Jesus used that example about fleeing Sodom with this catching away thing that is presenting itself to you and me I was going to do it it just became so overwhelming I didn't but I was going to fill stands around me tonight with books I've got dozens and dozens of books in my library that I've collected over the years about prophecy without exception every one of those books attempt to answer the same question when is Jesus coming back but when you read the discourse in Luke 17 Jesus talks about two people going to sleep and only one of them waking up in the morning because the other one the other side of the bed is empty he talked about two people that were working in a field and one of them just turned around to talk to his coworker and there's a rake just lying lifelessly between a row of beans where a worker was just moments ago he talked about two people that would be working side-by-side one would turn to her friend but she wasn't there the disciples asked this question when Jesus said that where where Oh Lord and Jesus said something amazing he said wherever the carcasses or wherever the body is that's where the eagle is going to gather the disciples did not ask the question then everybody's asking when is Jesus coming the disciples had enough insight to ask the most critical question where where should I be when the Lord comes and the answer is simple in the body in the body I have gone fishing for some years in July with a group of men from this church I went there because it was time I could spend with my dad and I don't know if I'll ever have that experience again with my dad I knew the day was coming when it would probably be my last chance to be with him I'm very glad that I had that experience and I deeply dearly love my dad but what always amazed me is we would catch these fish and because there were lots of bears around us they they had advices don't leave the intros of your fish by your cabin because the Bears will find it so when we'd catch fish we would we would dress them out and take the entrails hundreds of yards away across the water to a rock that was out in the middle of this Bay and you have to understand we we would drive over twelve hours north from Detroit and then we'd get into a boat and we drive over an hour and most of the time for one week we never saw anybody we were as far away from civilization as you could possibly get and yet when we would put the innards of those fish on one of those deserted rocks in a matter of moments there would be an eagle there and just sticking his head in that goo and just havin a big old buffet and stuff that was very repulsive to me and when I saw that I remember this verse I do not know how that Eagle figured it out they have told us about their amazing eyesight and I've been witness to that but Jesus used that analogy he said I'm telling you if you put a carcass out there Eagles are gonna find it and just as sure as an eagle can find a carcass I'm gonna find my church which is referred to in the scripture as the body so my question tonight is not when is Jesus coming my question to myself and to the rest of us is where are we right now because the Bible said in Corinthians twelve and thirteen by one spirit are we all baptized into one body into one body in Ephesians 4 you know said there's one Lord one faith one baptism but right before it it says there is one body and one spirit and I I'm here to remind you you got to get it be a part of the body of Christ and right now that's not going to be about coming into a building and what are you going to do about that because the hard cold truth ladies and gentlemen is this we have become so attached to these buildings that we have adopted a model that's really not biblical I'm grateful for a building because I really strongly believe where the scripture talks about enter into your prayer closet there are some things you can only get when you're by yourself where you're totally free from distraction but there are some things you're only going to be able to get when you're with other brothers and sisters and right now we are not permitted to be together corporately as we have been for many many many years I'm grateful for a building I'm grateful for a place where we have come and I'm very confident very soon we'll be able to come back together and when we do my wife we had a series of events happen to us this past year and she was traveling a lot and then my daughter was carrying a child and she lives in Texas and it was a very very difficult time of carrying this precious little baby so my wife went they're to be with her daughter as soon as she came back we went away as we do every February we went away on a trip and so when we added it all up my wife had been gone almost five months now I've lived with this woman for 40 years this year it'll be 40 years I've never known a morning when she doesn't get up at five o'clock in the morning and read her Bible every morning she reads her Bible and she prays she told me that while we were apart she never missed a podcast she never missed times of auditing our services online but she said when she walked into church for the first time after almost five months of being away she immediately began to smile and begin to cry because she said I sensed the presence of God in a way that I hadn't felt she said I had struggled with despair I had wrestled with depression even though I read my Bible and I prayed regularly she said I was just so relieved to be back with the body again and when we are able to come back together again brothers and sisters you're gonna be grateful for this thing that maybe we've taken for granted for quite a while now it's just such a delight when we can be together corporately but until that time comes back to us what are we going to do you're going to have to learn the value number one of being able to be with your family enjoy this time with your family enjoy your time enjoy your time of having dinner together with another couple when you talk let your words be seasoned with salt it's one thing for people that don't serve the Lord to freak out and be melting down right now but it's a really sad scenario when someone who claims to serve the Lord lives in terror and fear right now and that's why I said to you I'm so grateful to live a faith-based life I I personally feel very very sad for folks right now who don't serve Jesus Christ or I guess even worse people that used to serve Him and walked away because it's hard to remember something you never tasted but when you have had a valid walk with Him and you chose to walk away I'm convinced there's some extra special fear that gets attached with that so the Bible said fear is the beginning of wisdom it's where real wisdom starts so are we going to learn from this or not because this is an amazing opportunity for you to witness everywhere I've been for the last couple weeks I've done my best to smile I you don't have to coach Scripture right now all you have to do is smile because people are terrified treat people with deference I remember when 9/11 happened we opened up this church and for weeks people that I never knew just came in to this building and prayed and then they would get up and leave but it quickly faded it is my personal opinion that we missed as a nation a perfect opportunity to repent because when 9/11 happened it was my generations equivalent of the bombing of Pearl Harbor this whole country came together for just a few short weeks we came together and we were pulling for one another and we were doing our best to encourage one another and then it faded so here we are again two weeks ago 90% of America said they were happy with their life I would be interested to know what that percentage is today the political world was as ugly as ever two weeks ago but look how quickly things have changed we have a chance as a nation to repent they have a chance right now to see just how frail and how fragile and how precious life really is we'll go through this but don't come out of this the same way that you went into it come out of this thing thankful come out of this thing with a grateful heart there's a verse that's always intrigued me as I close it's in Philippians and and in Philippians 1 and 3 this is what Paul said I thank God upon every remembrance of you or every memory every time I think about Philip I I thank God for it and and and you could just pass that scripture over but what you need to do is go back to acts 16 acts 16 is the account of Paul and his fellow minister being in this place called Philippi and they ended up in jail they had been beaten the Bible said there they were tied up in bonds but there's this great scripture says then at midnight Paul and Silas began to sing you know there's a Bible verse that says joy comes in the morning but if you really want to get technical about it the morning doesn't begin when the Sun comes up a.m. starts 1 minute after midnight that's when the morning technically begins so to me sometimes when its darkest that's when you got to sing you gotta sing Paul and Silas began to sing there was an earthquake now I've been in several regions of the world and I've been in earthquakes before and let me tell you what my experience is in most third world countries the roof falls first then the walls collapse there this is way before building codes you're none of those buildings very few of them from that air or even a they've all fallen down when you had an earthquake back then the roof was supposed to fall in and then the walls come in on top of but guess what the only thing that happened was the doors were opened so you've got two kinds of people in this prison you've got bound people that don't know God and you've got bound people that do know God and when the bound people that do know did know the Lord began to praise and worship God send earthquake everybody got free so there's something you learned from that bound freedom is never going to come to our bound brothers and sisters that don't know God until freedom first of all comes to bound brothers and sisters who do know him we have to be free right now and you got to keep saying because your singing is the key to their deliverance you got to understand that and I you know Paul said I thank God for every memory of Phillip I and if you read the scripture he's in the middle of a great harvest and all of a sudden has a vision of a man in Macedonia saying come over here and help us and he leaves this harvest they see experiencing and goes to this city and he meets a group of women that are praying one of them is a wealthy lady a business woman named Lydia she is moved by this man and what he has to say and invites him to stay in her house and it was Lydia's home that began Paul's ministry in the city of Philippi in time that harvest and that remove of the Spirit became so large that it started putting the idol makers out of business and they caused a riot Paul ends up in prison with Barnabas and versus Silas I think it may be Silas either way they began to sing God sent an earthquake everybody you got to realize you're talking about convicts here people who are probably under the term of the death penalty nobody leaves why because I think they felt they were safer with the preachers in the middle of that earthquake than they were because the building should have fallen in but it didn't they stayed there and all of a sudden this jailer runs in because according to Roman law if you as an officer of the law lost one of your charges you had to suffer the penalty you had to pay the penalty for the person you were responsible for overseeing so this guy's going to lose his life because of the prison all these people that have left and in the midst of this darkness Paul says don't hurt yourself we're all here and as they do the torches and the lanterns - that guy's amazement all these doors are opened and everybody's sitting in their cell it's so moved him and he took Paul to his house washed his wounds and began to listen to this preacher and the Bible said the jailer and all of his house believed and were baptized it is my personal opinion this is probable but it's not provable I believe the guy and the vision was the jailer because you could Paul said I thank God for every memory and I'm saying wait a minute wait a minute is it that the place where the business owners turned against you isn't that the place where you were arrested isn't that the place where you were beaten isn't that the place where you were shackled and handcuffed and thrown in prison but he could also use a yeah but that's also the place where I met my man and I thank God for the prison and I thank God for the earthquake because if I would have never gone through that I would have never met my man so ladies and gentlemen who are you and I supposed to come in contact with in the next couple of weeks if we're permitted that months and years from now we look back on this scenario and we say I thank God for the coronavirus and you say but isn't that the time when there was terror didn't they shut down all the stores was it yeah yeah but that's when I met this man or if that's when I met this woman or that's when God gave me favor with these people that's how see see we're either gonna be self focused consumers or were either gonna be self-sacrificing servants and my fear is and what really I'm grateful for is too much of church has become entertainment and whoever has the best show has the biggest crowd and I live in a religious world where the emphasis is on attendance not on the moving of the Holy Ghost we need a move of the Holy Ghost we need a manifestation of the presence of God and for years I have said too many things go on in church that we can explain we need things to go on now that nobody can explain so I appeal to you my brother and sister this is a great time for you to be a great witness in front of your wife in front of your children in front of your friends and neighbors if you who claim to God meltdown if you claim to serve God right now and you're full of fear just like everybody else your witness is gone but if you right now well everything else is shaking your stable you need to tell them in times like these you need a rock that you can hook your anchor to and hook your life to I'm looking forward to our times together follow us on social media we will keep you informed and updated of what our intentions are and I've told the team I want this to be an opportunity and not an obstacle I was on the phone today with another pastor in the city and he said what do you let's have a revival Harold and I said okay what he said let's have an old-time revival so we began to talk and said okay this is what we're planning and we'll let you know as the days go on we're gonna have an old-fashioned revival in the Detroit metro area see old-time revivals were seven days a week he didn't take a night off it was Monday through Sunday every night you had Church so we're gonna have an old-time revival meeting on the internet in Detroit and for seven nights in a row we're gonna have various ministers preach and teach to you and every night you can turn into something and tune into something and listen to something that will be relevant something that'll encourage you something that will feed you and you know we want to know everything where are we going to be five this is what the Lord told Moses as thy days are so shall thy strength be its daily bread so you can't gobble up a week's worth of spiritual manner right now you're gonna have to serve Him every day we're gonna do our best in this church leadership team to be able to give you something that every day you can take advantage of I love you and I'm looking forward to coming out on the other side of it the Bible said it came to pass trust me this is going to pass we're gonna go through it but what's important is in what shape are we gonna be when we come out on the other side because the word says they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and while we're waiting right now we're supposed to be getting stronger not weaker I love you good night amen

Channel: First Church Sterling Heights

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Length: 62min 23sec (3743 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020