Help For The Hurting | Pastor Ken Claytor

hey what's up everybody so glad you're tuning in to a live at home we love you guys so much and man you're in for a special treat today we really believe that if you lean into this there's going to be some hope in healing that is gonna come through your screen and hopefully flood your heart I'm here with a bunch of friends of mine a bunch of our pastors and leaders here at a Life Church and as you can see we're a huge diverse group I'm talking about we come from different sides of the track we vote differently we think differently we've had different kinds of discrimination but we are of the same mind and of the same family and so I'm gonna introduce them just a little bit in a minute but I just want to say for those of you all who are having a watch party today congratulations of course we want you to be a part of a watch party host a watch party make sure that you're tagged take a picture of your party and tag it tag us in it because we're gonna be giving away some some prizes and gifts to those of you all who are having I want to give away something to somebody who has the most diverse watch party somebody who has the most the most fun at your watch party and maybe the biggest watch party something like that and so over the weeks we'll just be honoring you so make sure that you tag us but we're starting a new series today most of you guys know that we have been in the middle of the series called stronger than ever everybody say stronger than ever and the point of the series is that we were going to come out of the pandemic stronger than ever physically emotionally financially mentally in every area of our life that the pandemic was going to do nothing but push us into into purpose we believe with all our hearts romans 8 that says that all things are working together for our good because we love God and we've been called according to his purpose but it's amazing sometimes how man plans but God directs our path and in the middle of our series you know we've had another kind of pandemic so to say late at least here in this nation with a lot of the racial tension that's been happening of course the injustice --is that's been happening and on the response to the in justices and there's been this spiritual tensity that we've all been filling and I just believe that the the church has the answer I believe that the local church is the hope of the world I believe that Jesus is the answer for the problem that we see whether it's the evil with in any area is relates to a prejudice racists sin in any area Jesus is the answer to that and so we're hoping to bring you some hope and healing a matter of fact that's what we're calling the next three weeks that's right you better share this right now hit us in the chat section and let us know because over the next three weeks we're starting a new series right here right now called hope and healing and here's the premise we want to give you hope for your tomorrow and we want to give us healing from the past we want to talk about overcoming the racial divide that is in our nation and walking together as as humanity okay and so we got a bunch of great people with us of course pastor tab is here you want to say hello to everybody of course hello everyone I'm so excited about today you are in for a treat we have some amazing people on the stage with us today and I just believe that we can all use a little hope a little more hope and a little more healing in our lives so I'm so excited to do this so part one actually is called help for the hurting because we just realized that there are some of you all who are really hurting you know I've had the opportunity and the privilege to speak to so many pastors I'm especially on pastors that are a different race than I they've been calling and saying hey Ken what can I do how can i address this and I've heard story after story about someone who I'm pastor friends of mine that says somebody on my team were just crushed and they've just been crying on my shoulder or this person won't even call me back and we've been best friends and this person is in my church and they're lashing out and here's the thing we're human beings and when we see the death of someone and in the way that we did and it was all on our screens that should hurt us that should crush us no matter what color you are this is not a race thing this is a humanity thing and our heart breaks with those who hearts are breaking and so I want to give you a human moment and say it's okay it's okay for you to be angry it's okay for you to be frustrated it's okay for you to be hurt I don't think it's okay for us to stay there too long but it's okay for us to process that emotion together and that's why we're here we're here as pastors and leaders of this church of course our family is tuning in with us and we want you to know that we got your back we want you to know that heaven got your back we want you to know that there is help for the hurting and so we're just going to have a huge we've actually like inviting you into our living room alright you know kind of painted a little bit and get a big a big you know see who's and the crazy thing is it's that this is our church like I love that show this is us this is us this is us some of us are tall like pastor Weill some of us are short like me some of us have curly hair straight hair some of us are dark some of us are light but we all have been washed with one blood and we call them one name we have one mind and we're on one accord and why the narrative is so divisive in the land we at least wanted to give you a picture that there is something different that's brewing there are people that don't believe in multiple races but one race which is the human race and we happen to be different colors and ethnicities of being human beings and so we want to just provide this platform please send over your questions your comments make this a dialogue talk with us and we simply want to invite you to be a part of our family and have this family meeting with us and let's just talk this thing out I think we grow when we talk I think we hurt when we keep it all inside and so let's just open up the conversation hey let's do this I want to hear from somebody who's just been discriminated against before if you've experienced racism in any any kind I'll start with maybe I'm someone who's of african-american descent yeah um thank you pass again yes I experienced that in the corporate world I trained a white brother and to think about it and I trained another one and they moved on to upper management and when I desire to move up I continue to be looked over passed over so it got to a point where my managers pretty much like start making jokes and things like that so basically letting me know well you can keep trying but we just letting you know that your time will come so basically I experienced that what I did I made up in my mind that I'm not gonna let that stop me and when I made up my mind to do that and I prayed about it is that when God allowed me to go through it it that it's letting me know it making me stronger yeah so what it did I ended up exiting out of the company and then I got rehired as a bigger manager and making more money and I was able to give more it not only ties but help people as well yeah that's so good and I think that's important because you took it out of the context that it's me against the man and you said God is gonna promote me and I think that's a word for somebody who's watching because you think that people can take something from you and it might look like they're taking something from you but God will actually use that to promote you and I think it's so important that we understand that all promotion comes from God and so even if you lose a job I believe God has something better for you but what would you guys say to the people that would hear that and say well it wasn't because he was black that he was discriminated against maybe it was because of his competency or something some other matter what would be your response to that I think it does take a level of understanding of walking in the shoes of that person of course that you might be able to argue both points and some people might have that perspective or point of view but as you hear his story he trained those other individuals and they kept going and then he leaves and comes back and comes back to an even higher level and so I know pastor Johnny I know his competence and and how confident he is and who he is as a person and it would be hard for me to believe that being on the inside of this situation yeah I think that's why I talk about walking in that person's shoes like to know Pastor Johnny is to know that that doesn't apply to this situation yeah I think the key word is empathy and I think we should really talk a lot about empathy you know empathy is the ability to walk in another person's shoes empathy is the ability to hurt and to feel what another person's going through and so some of the narratives that we see when there's n justices or people are posting black lives matter black out Tuesday and then all of a sudden you'll get a comment where blue lives matter and it's almost like when people say hey this is an injustice I need to say something else and the only reason that people say something else is because they haven't been empathetic towards what somebody else was going through so the stand for injustice is not a stand against something else when of what people hear is that okay I need to stand up because you're standing against me but that's not empathetic empathy is the ability to say you know what I can have all kinds of different excuses and we can say well there was a white police a black police officer that killed some white men why don't we say anything about that but you're missing the point the point is to lean in to when to someone who is broken and somebody who is hurting and empathy actually has to go all the way around this is so important because sometimes were empathetic towards George Floyd and we our hearts we just had a situation where I was talking to some leaders and there was a leader who had a problem with another leader on our team and they was basically just upset by some comments as it relates to protests and different things and they just heard it wrong but they was like weren't you more empathetic towards what has happened but that person didn't even realize to weigh in the conversations that they wasn't being empathetic towards that other leader and so it's like you don't know why they didn't respond maybe they have some health problems in their family maybe they they don't have internet connection to be able to respond like you responded and sometimes what we do is we have empathy for the person who has experienced an injustice but not empathy to someone else that didn't post and say what you wanted them to say and you don't know what's going on in their life and so empathy has to go all the way around but I would love to hear from somebody who's white who said face discrimination as well have you guys ever faced any sort of discrimination or racism yeah I have actually in middle school in high school I was bullied most of my friends growing up were Hispanic or black and so hanging out with them wanting to be like them I got bullied people would say hey why are you trying to act black and so I actually got picked on and an outcast by white people because my friends were of a different race Wow Wow and so it's so this is an evil you know and unfortunately in this nation it has a very racist roots of the discrimination towards blacks and but there's discrimination in sexes there's discrimination with disabilities there's discrimination in so few socio-economic conditions we acknowledge that but the thing that we got us all is this is is the nation's history concerning specifically black man and I think we have to park there until we begin to find an answer and so I will say this why do you guys think that like this is the season where everything erupted maybe it was the the quarantine that's like we ain't got nothin else to do let's go off you know what I mean but um there is there something special that maybe God wants to do or God is wanting us to figure out in this season because there's been a lot of in Justices I mean you have Brianna Taylor I believe it's her name where the police comes into her apartment and they went into the wrong apartment and that didn't get as much press you know even the army didn't get as much press until people jumped on it and over the years there's been so many injustice is happening but why has this one brought our nation to the place where even the majority I see all of my white friends posting something about it it's got up to something or is this just what is it about this that's what I think one of the things that I'm seeing is that during the quarantine there's a lot of opportunity for things that quiet down and we're focusing we're hearing we're seeing things that we would otherwise not pay attention to when we're going through the busyness of our day we're running back and forth to the grocery store to work yeah I think but now God has quieted a lot of things down for all of us slow things down yeah that we're seeing a lot of things not just things that happened on national note also the things that are happening in our homes and on in our personal lives yeah and all around us I think that plays a big part in that I like what Will Smith said he said and everybody started to you know tweeting and you said that it's not the racism is on the rise it's just being recorded but I'm thinking I think God then it's being recorded because now we can acknowledge that this exists and I believe that there's so many people that believe that this doesn't exist and it does exist and I think it's not until they acknowledge it can we have progress Jay I think to you since this pandemic has started people have come together in unity to pray and I think we've been praying the second Chronicles 7:14 heal our land and not just in our nation but across the world and we've been praying that for weeks now and then I feel like the Lord is is turning hearts is softening hearts through that because we're not just healing our land from a virus we're healing our land from the root of things that have been going on for years and I do I feel like the Lord has used that prayer to begin to open people's eyes and so when this did happen people's eyes and hearts were softened were opened and the Lord is beguiling beginning to heal something that we desperately need healing for that's so good and that's a prophetic insight you know people might even I hear that on Fox are seeing in but Janice she's actually on our prayer call every every day we pray as a church at 8 a.m. every single day and there's a whole lot of us that are praying and what she's saying is that we are sensing that God is moving and he's using our pain to push us more into purpose and he's revealing things and that's what we've been talking about that all things can work together for our good but you know I want to talk to those who are hurting today and I really want you all to be able to speak into their life because I know that there is a black woman there's a black man there's Hispanic there's somebody who's white that feels like I don't know what to do they feel guilty they feel bad there's a lot of hurting people that are watching this and I believe we have a word of the Lord for you because God doesn't want you to stay stuck in your hurt can anybody speak to that person I mean I'll just start off by saying in general I think that you know I think all of us hear this and if we have had our hearts broken for the you know the recent events and even for history I think that we all feel like what can I do I want to do something and I feel like we say this and that's actually gonna be part three the Lord gave me a title what can we do well so we're gonna talk about today next week and by the third we're gonna give all of the answers because people want to know what can I do straight up practical things that we can do yeah I would start off by just okay just knowing that you can do your part it's a small it may be a small part for me the biggest thing that I can do just in my to take me I have a platform obviously because I'm a pastor of a church but that platform away from me the best thing I could do as a mother is teach my children how the love every single person regardless of their color or where they come from and so I think you know there are things that a business owner can do there are things that school teachers can do there are things that community leaders can do but every person depending on what your position is in life or where you are in life you can do a small thing and those small things are what makes a difference so good so good to the hurting people anyone else that's taken out I would add to that that something you touched on a minute ago empathy yeah empathy can bring about unity and in order for us to empathize with people we have to first listen in order to even be understood I have to listen to what you're saying so that I can take into consideration what you're feeling I can't relate to what Pastor Johnny went through but what I can do is say hey tell me how I can work on this how I can fix it yeah and then take that information and process it and see what I can do every day it's the little things we do each day that make a big difference in our life so good and so you know empathy will bring unity and in order to get the empathy or the unity that we need we need to just listen and let people talk people who are in pain they need to talk to somebody they don't need to keep it inside yes oh keep that mic for just one second you know I've been looking at the words racism to properly define so that we can fulfill and move away from bigotry bias stereotypes everything that you can get that has a racial tone to it I've been looking at systemic racism institutional racism and I've just been doing a lot of study of course I'm writing a book right now that's about to be released probably in the next 60 days or so and it's just been the topic of my heart not just for this moment but actually the last 10 to 20 years of my life even before Jesus this was something that was very important to me from middle school in high school and then I felt like it was an assignment of ours to be able to address as a church and to make sure that we play our part to bring forth unity and healing and as I'm kind of looking through these words the word bias I'm talking to our chief of police and he was talking about the word bias and how officers need training because we all have biases biases are simply lenses it's not based upon race he says my grandson has dreadlocks and I have a bias and my bias was like bro if you get dreadlocks you're probably doing this and I had to re-educate myself to remove the lenses of my bias to say that not everybody who has dreadlocks behaved this way the truth is is that we all have biases we have lenses tall people can play basketball white people this Mexicans that you know we have biases but we got to make sure that our biases are correct if I was to look at pastor Jimmy here behind me I would say a little bit older white man and if I could make prejudgment prejudice where I prejudge him based upon his appearance and I could think that he was one way and he could actually be a completely different way and the problem with that is that some of you all who have experienced people prejudging you that turn around and prejudge other people and if I was to look at him through my bias I would say oh there's another white man he has white privilege and he probably doesn't like black people etc etc but I would love for you just to kind of share your heart like where you were where you come from how you view race etc etc just from a older white man's perspective yeah I am I grew up in little rural part of Kentucky translation ad in a country on a farm the closest kids I had to play with were a mile down the road and they were black kids and there were people who would look at us because we were playing together we were we would walk down the road and pick up the pop bottles and go sell them for candy that kind of stuff and and we grew up as friends all through high school as we got graduated from high school we got separated those kinds of things and but there were times when just like Joshua saying people judge me because of who I hung out with but then I moved on into a corporate world as I you know started to run business for other people and things of that nature and incidentally that's the restaurant business and you want to talk about diversity you've got every walk of life every race every belief and there would be people who would that would prejudge me because one because the car drove or because of where I lived or because of the way I dressed when I came in and my thinking was I'm gonna dress nice because I'm gonna show you where you can be yeah if you get to my position my level and in turn it was misunderstood and said oh he thinks he's all that because look at the jewelry or look at the shirt or this that and the other and there would be times now where people would look at me and say that guy's racist and now well let me say this that if it depends on the perspective right if I let all of these things go by that we see in our country that are going on and I don't step up and say something to somebody am i unconsciously racist you know if I don't defend my brother he was being tormented and tortured am I really yeah so just think about that you can put that on the backburner stew on that for a minute self reflecting but as I as I learned that there were people in the business world that that were different nationalities some black some Hispanic that I learned that if I could convince a few of those people yeah show them that that there is a deeper me that I that I have compassion that I am in pathetic and that I'm willing to listen yeah when it doesn't seem right right that those people would come to my corner and they would help me relay the message to the people who formed an opinion because of the way I looked yeah and I have to be honest there have been times in my life when I would look at somebody go yeah you know they don't fit at my table yeah but what God has taught me through the years when I've gone from having much to nothing and I'm sure I'll be everywhere in between to the rest of my life but that we're all people yeah and I have tried to teach my kids that people are people accept them for who they are do your best to support them and love them Jesus loved them he didn't ask where they came from he loved him he loved me enough that he reached down and pulled me hey and now you have a beautiful mixed-race granddaughter I do as she says prettiest she wants to be yes she is and and every day I remind her of how she's blessed she's chosen she's a gift from God she's a strong she is intelligent yeah because I know that somewhere and not only that but when Pastor Tabb takes the stage or any other woman if color takes the stage we let her know hey this is for you yeah she follows my wife who is a businesswoman and a ministry and she wants to do everything that she redoes she wants to sit at that computer she wants to read the scripture and those kinds of things we're raising up what we call our mocha baby because she's got a beautiful color to her yeah and so you know what yeah God made us all the same and let me just address that for a second people say well well what about mix enter what is it mixed-race marriage there's no such thing as mixed-race marriage because in God's eyes there's one race and I'm gonna have to preach this from the mountaintop that as long as you are a homo sapien there is no such thing as a mixed-race now if you go and marry a dog or a cat we got problems because you have switched species what is that that is the racist roots that comes from the devil's camp that will keep us divided trying to create a superior race or a pure race when we're all of the human race and from the dust we came to the dust we're going to return we will not divide over the dirt I want to talk to those who are hurting a little bit more the people that are frustrated by the narrative pastor we'll do you have a word that you could just board of encouragement for the time we live in what is God saying I mean a lot of times with everything going on in a narrative that the media is putting out there we as people can get drawn into that and lose sight can lose focus and lose our bearings and that's what the enemy wants to do if he can keep you in that fall when that confusion then he can have his way with you and direct you any kind of way but we as believers are rooted in the Word of God none of that wind none of that Torah moil none of those words none of those that hatred that's coming out shouldn't move us because we're planted in love and I truly believe that everything that goal is going on it's just a stage to be set for the church to step up and I believe if we step up as a ministry as a whole not as a live church but as a whole a body of Christ in one movement and one flow we can eradicate a lot of this hate a lot of this this tour mall and this hurt that people are feeling but first before the hurt can be removed we got to be rooted yeah I think that's a word of the Lord for somebody who's out there is that you're allowing the winds of circumstances and situations to blow you out of the will of God and there's something about this summer and that's why we call it a God first summer where there has to be a deep rooting and the deeper the roots I believe the bigger the tree and the more the more the fruit and sometimes we're blown around from church to church we're blown around from relationship to relationship from dream to dream and we never produced anything because we just won't stay still long enough to be rooted and it's this is a season for you to be rooted in the Word of God and so we had a pandemic and it was amazing to me that I did see some people that just they didn't even tuned in very much consistently to our small groups and a prayer time and it was like you have a season where everything is still get rooted this rooting is producing fruiting that's I know that you know I'm rhyming but what I'm saying is that you gotta let stuff stop moving you there's something about just being set in the house of God and in the things of God so that you're flourished in his court and so I want a black woman's perspective Ronnie cook could you just speak to a black woman maybe that's hurting maybe that feels overlooked what would be the word of the Lord you feel honestly I think about me as a black woman and I think about just like the stories that we hear I have a marital black man and I can easily get afraid I literally felt afraid when I saw the case of Ahmad Arbour I felt afraid when I saw Brianna Taylor I felt afraid on when I saw George Floyd and I had to literally just encourage myself and I love what pastor will was saying about being rooted because I can fear my husband going out but I have to trust God's protection to be around him I literally have to there's no other there's no other way and so I think that you just have to be rooted you have to be planted and God you have to go to war with the word because that's what's gonna give you the peace that you need to go to sleep and not have thoughts of someone breaking into my home or have thoughts of being taken or my husband being taken away from me I have to literally have peace in God's Word I know that's a word for somebody you know I've listened to a lot of my colleagues and my friends and I think people are doing a great job and not about a specific individual but just in general I do hear on social media and then some of the dialog that's happening this this this this tone of fear like my son's I have black sons and I'm gonna be afraid and I'm afraid for my daughter I'm afraid for my husband and I'm not sure if they're just letting us know that the temptation is there because we are tempted to fear but I want to encourage you that we were not given to that temptation I think it's good for us to talk about it so that all of our whites and browns and yellow brothers and sister can know that this is a real thing that we are being tempted with this fear because of what we see happening in our community but I want to remind you of the word of the Lord that God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power of love and of sound mind and it's the same way that I cannot be afraid to get into a car accident because I know people that have died in one be afraid to get on a plane just because I've seen a plane come down I will not be afraid to jog around my neighborhood just because somebody's life was ended that way I will not live my life in the bondage and I just want you to be free from fear to know that no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper and you don't have to give in to the narratives of this day I believe that faith comes by hearing but fear does as well and if you ever come to the place where you fear feel fear rising you need to turn off your social media you need to turn off the news listen they saying that it's the same thing you seen one protest you seen them all come on you seen one right you seen them all you see what you've seen it all okay so now we need to see Jesus we need to see the Word of God and we need to build our ourself up in the Word of God so that we can walk by faith not by sight anyone else want to speak to those who are hurting those who are frustrated those who feel stuck Pastor Scott yes so in this season you know there's been some fear within me because of what to say and what to do and how to do it I'm afraid to speak up because if I speak up well he didn't speak up before he didn't say something before so is this just because of the season of the climate and is it not really because of his heart and so because of that what that does is it puts me in a place of almost just feeling handcuffed and feeling stuck and you want to support and you want to do something but oh my my silence is almost stronger than me doing something at that point so people are looking and going what you gonna do there and I feel like there's a pressure there and there's a pressure on me and there's a pressure on just a white folk you know white people and to do something and sometimes we don't know what to do because if we do something it's not good enough and if we don't do something it's not good enough and so my encouragement is just like do what you've done before but now keep an awareness and start using your voice to speak to the next generation start using your voice to speak to people start introspection and understanding what your biases are and what some bigotry that might be in your heart and then start taking steps to move out of that there and if we can start doing that on a smaller scale in our heart we'll start seeing a movement across the globe yeah that's so good hold that for a minute I think it's so important that we drop our rocks you might want to put that in the chat right now you got to drop your rocks some people are so quick to demonize and villainize and criticize somebody else they are so quick to pick up these stones when they don't understand that they've sinned as well let he who is without sin cast the first stone it's amazing the amount of judgment and here's the thing I not been saying this I've been saying we cannot be judgmental now I understand that people say that silence is like betrayal I want us to continue to say that because we don't see power has to speak to power it's one thing that a black person is like I've been wronged but what people would look at it is that well that's just another black person here we go again we need the majority to speak up and so I think it's important that power speaks to power that we have the majority that is just as passionate about the injustice is so it's not a we vs. them it's just us it's humanity versus evil you know what I'm saying but at the same time here's the balance and this is what I've been saying is that you cannot make another person use their voice the way that you would use your voice you cannot look at another person's social media and go through their profile and then make a judgment about who they are as an individual and about the temperature of their heart because they didn't say what you wanted them to say how you wanted him to say it when you wanted him to say it that is judgment that is the route don't judge others so that you don't be judged this is what you can do you can encourage people man I encourage you guys to use your voice I encourage you to speak out and the reason that we need people to speak out is because if they don't then there wouldn't have been the arrest of those who with Ahmad are buried when you speak out it brings attention but then when you place a demand and you make it if we don't speak out then we're sinners or we're evil you don't know what other people are doing behind the scenes you don't have empathy you don't know what they're going through in their life maybe they don't put all of their life on social media like me the social media part of my life is a very small portion people will act like I'm on social media all the time I have an assistant and a social media manager and I'm getting on there here and there but I'm net not letting media rule my life I let God's Word rule my life and so don't judge me because I'm putting you out the 2% of the highlight-reel to encourage you I have an assignment for my social media to encourage the world Africa Brazil etc etc but at the same time I am a black man and I'm a proud black man and I understand my responsibility is to create this the best thing that I could do is to do what other people wouldn't do what to be say you know what I'm not gonna build up Church of white church I'm a bill to kingdom church and so I will never come on Airways and have a black perspective necessarily even though I am a black man I will have a kingdom perspective first and a black perspective secondly I identify with my black my blackness because that's all I've been that's all I know and I don't want to be nothing else but more than that when I got born again I'm not a black man I'm a man of God that happens to be in a black earth suit so my assignment and what I do is right now I'm writing a book I've talked to governors and mayors and cities officials and I ain't giving you the long list but what I'm saying is that it's so sad to see other people put their passion and their judgment on another person and I do want my white my white family to fill a level of freedom but I do want to call you to action the bible does not tell us thou shalt post over an injustice thou shall speak this way thou shalt protest all of those things are good and they're fine the Bible says that we should stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves and that we should fight for in justices so it calls us to action and how you use that action is between you and the Lord and I encourage you to do something whether it's vote whether it's pray whether it's build a small group that's diverse join a diverse church you can do something speak to your relatives somebody talk out they Saturday neck you need to talk to them about that that's not that's not right why did you say that those are all the actions in a little bit by a little bit we will be who God's called us to be if we have love one for another and so man I thank you for saying that because it needs to be saying man what else you guys got anything else that you you really want people to know in this hour what do you feel like God has placed on your heart I know I kind of just went there and preached that thing I'm very passionate I know a lot of you may be thinking you don't know exactly what to do you don't know how to be involved and I'll tell you what if you are having conversations with people on a regular basis and you can show the love of Christ by as fasters gonna say empathizing with him but having good conversations not being afraid and have conversations about who you are yeah at my job where I work I'm a superintendent in a construction industry I had a young black man yesterday tell me he thought it was the most racist industry out there so the way I took that was he and I were having this conversation I was saying we're here we're thriving let's make sure that as we grow as black men that we are imparting to other the men that we work with the white men that we work with the kind of person the kind of hearts that we have I say because when they come in contact with you and I and we show that we are men just like them that we don't harbor any ill will to them then they will treat other men like us and that same with that same mindset yeah so we come in contact with those men on a regular basis and because of that we have an opportunity and part love peace friendship to those men and a lot of them receive it generously you know I think it's just a part of our opportunity in the environment that you're in here yeah just to have those conversations not to be afraid to have those conversations I'll end with this scripture that is gonna be our springboard scripture that my hope is that God's Word will get into your heart and that you will remember the scripture you will talk to the scripture with people that are in your family people that are on your team people in your group and it's found in first Peter chapter 3 and I'm gonna read verse 8 through 9 in the New Living Translation and it says this finally finally like almost like a conclusion all of you should be of one mind and that's what we see here there's a similarity of thought sympathize with each other the word sympathy and empathy are very closely related okay hurt when people hurt laugh when they laugh celebrate when they celebrate we're not going to do life alone we're gonna do life together love each other as brothers and sisters and so what we see here is we see family family with different flavors colors backgrounds thank God we need all the same there's such a power that's in diversity and we are brothers and sisters and this says be tender-hearted and the opposite of that is to be hard-hearted the narrative wants to harden your heart the devil would love for you to get hard-hearted in the whites of this and the blacks of that and he loves them but the Bible says that we are to remain tender-hearted and to keep a humble added and sometimes humility you can tell if you're humble because you will make you ask questions instead of make statements and this is a season not for you to say what you think and make these statements but just to begin to ask questions what can I do how can I do it what don't what do I not understand and Anna says watch this don't repay evil for evil I know there are people out there that are filled with the devil if you take one of our lives we'll take two of yours you know where that comes from the devil himself the Bible says this we will never repay evil for evil the opposite is that when people do wrong to us we gonna do right to them the Bible says it's like dumping coals of fire on their head my question for you is do you want to do the word because if you do the Bible you'll be blessed it says don't retaliate with insults when people insult you instead pay them back with a blessing you're telling me that we should be blessing the officer that took George Floyd's life yeah we want justice to be served we want you to be locked up and then we want to pray for you to get saved and your family it's a crazy the economy but that's what I'm talking about I want justice but I want you to be saved I want to be with you in heaven because you're just deceived because your father was deceiving his grandfather was deceived and it's just systematic ignorance that's just been passed down to a broken individual don't make it about that person and so it says this is what God has called you to do and he will grant you a blessing that when you do it God's Way and not your way he will bless you because of it and that is the word of the Lord I want to pray for you today father we thank you for every person that is watching today that this has been helped for the hurting that you take out the hurting the hurt part the heart and heart right now and you replace it with a heart of faith the father you begin to disconnect us from our past our racist past our hurt past our broken past the things that we've seen and we've made these these biases on the inside of us I thank you that you're shining a light right now on incorrect prejudices the things that we the racism that we've experienced but then the racism that we've given back because racism we've experienced we asked for you to remove it from our hearts and I pray against the spirit of fear we bind it in its in its operation and we declare that you shall walk by faith and not by sight we release the spirit of faith because we believe that we have the same spirit of faith we believe therefore we speak and we declare that your best days are out in front of you that racism can't hold you down and justices can't hold you down that no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper but your best days and your blessed days are still out in front of you that God is singing over you that no matter what color you are you were made in the image and the likeness of God and God made no mistakes when he made you to be and look like him and we bless you in the name of Jesus and we call you healed and I want to pray for those of you all who are watching that maybe you're not Christian maybe you haven't put your faith in the Lord and maybe you walked away from Christianity maybe you've been deceived and you walked away because of the white Jesus I think if Jesus wanted to know really what color he was he would have put his picture in the book and we don't serve a white Jesus a black Jesus and I don't care about the color of Jesus I care about the color of his blood and he died so that you could be alive He gave His life so that you could have an abundant one and if you're sitting where you're sitting or watching this and you say I want to put my faith in Christ I want to have a relationship with God I want to be forgiven of my sins I want to pray for you just say this with me say Lord Jesus come into my heart today forgive me of my sins from this day forward I choose you be my Lord be my savior help me be more like you in Jesus name say man we believe you got born again we believe that your name is now found in the book of life if you prayed that prayer for the first time or if you prayed it again let us know in the chat there's gonna be a number that you can text we just want you to text the word saved to the number that's below and we want to get you some more information we would love for you to grow be a part of our family be a part of one of our campuses when our church opens back up we want to help you grow we have this thing called growth that's actually meeting today step number one you can do it online no matter where you are around the world you want to go through our growth track if you give us two weeks we can help you know God better discover your purpose and then make a difference and so you can put in the chat growth track somebody will give you information send you a zoom link that is happening on this Sunday at 12 o'clock online and we love you so very much hey next week we're gonna be into part two you need to share this this was rich there is healing in this you need to put out you see there's all kinds of news this is good news make sure that you share it with somebody else we love you we'll see you next week I pray that that message bless you today I know for me God's Word changed me it changed me it helped me overcome years of depression sexual abuse even poverty and I just know that God's Word is changing something for the better inside of you yeah if this message today has blessed you in any way you know the greatest compliment that you could ever give us will be to share this with someone else you know when I go out to a great restaurant I don't want to keep it to myself I want the world to know you gotta go here to get that fried chicken and sweet potatoes man and so this has been good groceries for you if it's been good food if it's been life transformation for you do what's the favor share it with a friend comment below make sure that you subscribe to our channel today and we hope we'll see you again real soon god bless you

Channel: Alive Church

Views: 631

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: PtPPre9eKNs

Length: 43min 20sec (2600 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 08 2020