"It's Our Fault Pt.2 " September 11th, 2021 Speaker: Pastor Wesley Knight

[Music] [Music] [Music] good morning good morning everybody welcome to revision church atlanta online worship experience we are so glad that you're with us on this morning we are just delighted you dropped by we missed you all week we're glad we are reconnecting today we pray your work week was eventful and productive but if it wasn't it could start next week that's right that's right this is the day the lord has made and we're going to rejoice we're going to be glad we're going to be happy in it this is a day of rest a day of reflecting on the week a day of re reinvigoration and kind of rejuvenation getting ready for a new week so we're looking forward to what god is going to do with us today in this experience if this is your first time with us we're glad that you are here and we want you to know that we are here for you we would love for you to interact with us on your device both on youtube or facebook whichever one you're watching from just get active in the chat and for those of you who are uh usually here you're either a member or you usually view us we're going to give our shout outs at this time so we want you to say hello good morning where you are and also where you are watching from all right yes all right so if you if this is your first time this is what we do we want everyone to know where we're watching from and we just want to put your name up on the screen and say good morning to you okay so good morning everybody good morning morning juliana all right from ghana yes wonderful welcome welcome welcome nola okay all right good morning good morning nola okay denise denise tobago trinidad and tobago you gotta be in one or the other which one is it well well it is set as trinidad and they're one you know yeah i felt like i was in tobago you weren't tobago flew into trinidad you flew in the trinidad and you flew it to tobago yes but turn that into vehicle that's how we do okay tanisha that's right welcome back to this morning all right welcome back neskins yes all right toronto representing my hometown god bless you guys all right then we've got first time visiting all right welcome to i've never been to stafford virginia i don't know if that's in the dmv area but welcome because we're glad you joined welcome tyrese he said true today coming back from trinidad okay he said specifically he's there i'm not in tobago he said i'm intrigued by that judah newton yeah welcome back our uk family welcome back i'm glad you're here with us all right g eugene is coming to us from highland new york all right good morning good morning new york well joy we're so glad you stopped joy look at you it was good to see you at the picnic up under your own little tent that's right you're telling us she's kind of like the godmother everybody kept came in there yeah you had to come to you we had to pay homage praise god all right good morning velma thomas okay from humble welcome back from humble text remember that we will never forget that yeah hector welcome back representing nyc hello all right maria boston massachusetts good stuff okay natalie welcome back yes from newport rhode island i love that little child picture there that's cute what's up michael drummond oh yeah right welcome back tallahassee glad you're with us good morning yes yes oh thank you thank you for the birthday wishes thank you mama good morning all right all right maxine yes welcome back maxine from barbados yes it's a beautiful day there today i can't wait maxine to get back to barbados yeah last time i was there was about five i think five years old i barely remember anything hello from turkey turkey yes yes yes okay jamie all right so good somebody from turkey that's great that's one that's great all right kudlow let's go back hold on just a moment uh i missed okay watching from malawi god bless you god bless you we love this all right now with my sister next you can go back yes yes our sisters good morning this time last week we were together that's right yeah we're worshiping all the couch ones yeah and the family come on back more of madison alabama representing madison y'all going to see morning good morning keisha all right how are you doing this morning okay you moving quite quickly yeah i'll be talking to people you just you just you just talk right all over it next friday girl next friday all right kisha all right okay dickerson family oh hey los angeles oh okay l.a all right la's in the building it's early out there it is y'all up and in service kelly hi callie oh that's curious what's up kelly how are you from maryland love to you and the family love it i love it all right andrea gibbel watson from lawrenceville all right down the road right down the street you down the street rita good morning welcome back sunny arizona arizona yeah remember welcome worshipping with us before all right all right cleopatra from bronx oh you're coming from what do you call it the boogie all right east gun hill those who know no all right quit you you so wish you were born in new york oh my goodness no kayla duncan okay from grenada all right yes i know some good people all right yes yeah beautiful people from grenada that's the spice island okay see i i've just given you yes history i appreciate you that's right all right serena just finished last week's sermon thank you so much oh god bless you serena fort meals fort mill south carolina all right wonderful thank you i'm glad you joined in today for part two yeah all right chandra mableton yes you know yeah yes yes these are our people these are our people our members all right auntie you're not in huntsville you're in toronto this weekend that's right yes travel safely say hello to all the family there all the family there love you family all right naomi alexander from st lucia yes now that's we got to get there drop we're trying to get there whoo we get this it's going to be between barbados and st lucia yeah might have to hit my um my home place barbados first all right lucia all right denise roswell welcome back from jersey oh good all right dmv christelle that's right represent the dmv yeah good morning to everybody everybody good morning they're coming along that's right anthony from coates coltsville pennsylvania okay good stuff all right good good good and then shawna b hey what's up to all my toronto massive all my people hello i love it i was just telling my family this week uh some family members from toronto miss miss home so god bless you all now that you're here so so we like to get a little bit more active in the chat there on facebook and on youtube so we always have a question an interesting interactive question we want to get your answers put it up on the screen what's the answer today i mean what's the question what's the question and you know i'm gonna get your answer all right okay um what are you afraid of what's your greatest fear you know what is it let's just put that in the chat okay what's your greatest feeling it's your greatest fear something that you feel comfortable sharing you might have more than one yeah remember it's public you're right it is possible sometimes we take to the lord in prayer and others we can bring to the chat that's right that's right exactly so what's your what's one of your greatest fears one of your greatest fears that you don't mind sharing i see you looking at me while i'm looking at camera i feel you i feel your presence i think yours has something to do with bugs yes okay all right my greatest fear there's several bugs that i'm very afraid of but probably the worst it's not the one that you think it's spiders i would share spiders spiders i cannot take it but small or big i don't want to deal with any smart spiders what's that phobia is that arachnophobia yeah arachnophobia yes but i know you truly love me because when you were dating me yes you came to my house if we had styles yes and you brought it to my attention i sure did and i share with you that i do keep a few around yes because they take care of the mosquitoes right right yeah they serve a purpose so i had to push through that because i loved you to be to deal with one of my greatest fears yes and we're still married today god is good god is good see that's a lesson please push past your fear for the ones you love all right we already preached any fears any fear any fears any fears uh fears all right yeah oh wow you you went straight to the yeah you got the hum dinger all right you got wet straight for the big one okay i guess snakes okay yeah now you sure something can come with natalie you're a little afraid of snakes no i just bind them i have dominion we'll have to explain with that i tread on them okay go ahead i tread on them all right shot of b says oh afraid of heights yes and you also share okay oh i'm sorry i'm not supposed to share all your yeah thank you yes yes all right i know the unknown yeah that gives me some time well tracy you going philosophical on yesterday neskin says fear failure yes oh yeah okay a lot of us a lot of us deal with that right the plane crashing wow oh lord yeah so people are afraid of that i'm getting on the plane afraid of flying and what could happen spiders no joke i hear you stepping you're not alone i'm not alone i get you i get you all right gina rejection yeah that's real that's real that is real yeah star uh star girl says rodents rodents in any form all of them right okay all of them rats possums all of it all right chelsea what's up chelsea snakes and bugs yes but the snakes they need some of the bugs i think yeah but i don't know i i don't like snakes i'm with you chelsea you remember that snake tried to come up in our house yes and we remember what you did well we'll have to tell them that i know he didn't want me to get into the story y'all but that's okay i'll not get into it but one day i will not getting into heaven come on annette wow and that oh you're in that girl you on the book there's a lot of people there's a lot of people who have that fear we're actually going to address some of that today all right all right um ned spiders come on man spiders no mighty man of valor that doesn't mean we're not strong man we don't like those furry legs but you are a million times larger it doesn't matter i fear you shamroy i got it i'm not bringing nobody down i'm just letting you know we have dominion okay we got dominion all right js the depth of the ocean when i can't see the bottom even though you can swim yeah i got you that's not overwhelming yes it is you can't see the bottom and you don't know what i'm not gonna add to your fear by saying you don't know what's up under there but all right oh okay uncle d all right claustrophobia yeah yeah yeah afraid of being tight spaces well i did not know that yeah until i went to get an mri several years back yeah it was like oh jesus yeah and you have me holding your hand almost all the way into the machine yeah that's right and all i need is a touch because when you weren't there the next time yes this i asked the technician i said ma'am i'm sorry you're gonna have to just touch my knee just touch my knee you touch my knee and i was fine look at god just one touch y'all just gonna touch okay i do not believe that god created spiders no the spiders are nose boat you know what you know what i i i that might be true listen spiders even though they do serve a purpose for all of you you know ecologists and animal lovers out there they do some purpose but maybe just maybe a spider just snuck onto the boat i think they drown what you think that so what are they doing here then they they came later on i don't know but that brings me to those roaches yes those palmetto bugs yes i know the lord is kim kim jacob says what's up lizards are we afraid them because of what they do or because how they look yeah they look and you know they're creepy i get it kim they're creepy and the way that they move you certainly don't want them on your skin uh we get people a few more a few more few more a few more just a couple more all right dale blake says dirty battery oh my goodness i was waiting for somebody to say something like that that's right dale dirty bathroom i ain't gonna use no dirty bathroom i thought somebody had to say roaches yeah but i gotta go back to them dirty bathroom well sometimes dirty bathrooms and roaches go together it's just kind of rough it is rough it is right and i like to teach a class and how to clean a bathroom yeah there's an art to it that's right deborah b says needles and you're a nurse [Laughter] so you you're not afraid of giving the needles yeah she probably likes that yeah you just you're just afraid of receiving the needles i i get you i get you that is that's good that's good well whatever your fears are we do hope and pray that you're working on them that you're getting sometimes if they're serious enough you need to get help to kind of think through that and process that for other things maybe it's just lack of exposure yeah right or you need somebody to kind of hold your hand as you deal with it but uh we do hope that you are facing your fears all right and that uh in some way that you are able to overcome them and today as we talk about these fears we know that whatever is bothering us concerns us whatever we're fearful of we can take to god in prayer and so today as we get ready to pray and begin this worship experience together we want to ask that god will help us with all of our fears and all the issues that we are facing today today is september 11. this is the day when america remembers uh the great tragic events that happened in 2001 on this fateful day on this day there are many who lost their lives and some of those in fact not some all of those families and most of the country still feels the pain and the hurt and the loss of that day and so on this day we take a moment as we get ready to pray to remember those whom we lost and remember the families that are still suffering in the communities that are still reeling 20 years later let's remember them in prayer our brothers and sisters all those who lost loved ones we don't have to know their names or their stories but these are human beings who are no longer with us these are families that still struggle we remember them in prayer today we also want to remember not just the tragedy that happens here on this soil but what's happening all over the world so as you know we continue to pray for those in afghanistan those in haiti those in syria and yemen we remember the struggles going on in the congo and in other places of the mother continent in africa let's continue to pray that god will have his way protect his people and heal the land whatever your prayer requests are if you feel comfortable sharing them today in the chat please do so now because we've got people we've got prayer team members who are watching and who are waiting to pray for you by name and with your particular issue and then there are others who are in the comments section who are in the chat who want to pray for you so wherever you are whatever it is let's take all of who we are and what we face to god in prayer today do you believe that he's able yes i believe it we believe it let's go to god in prayer as stephanie leads us before we pray though i'd like to just take a moment and wish my husband a happy happy birthday on wednesday he celebrated another birthday and i met this dude um in the 10th grade and i had no idea that being um at a camp and holding his hand and him flirting with me just a little bit telling me i had soft hands i had no idea see he's in sermon mode so he's trying to take this all in right now um he had no uh we had no idea that we had met the person we were going to spend the rest of our lives with in the 10th grade and i just want you to know publicly how much i love and adore you thank you one of the greatest highlights of my life is to go to bed with you each night and to wake up with you each morning yeah thank you baby thank you so we just celebrated we had an awesome week just a good time uh just celebrating him all of the love the family the calls um and i just wanted your church family to know uh that we celebrate you and they celebrate you as well pastor houston is gonna come on and he's gonna do our prayer today i won't be praying okay all right okay okay hi listen i just wanted to wish you a happy birthday um on a personal level i really appreciate you i appreciate our friendship that's just continued to grow since the time i've been here in atlanta and also i just appreciate you as a colleague and on behalf of revision church atlanta we just want to wish you a happy birthday we're super blessed to have you as our senior pastor you're such an inspiration you're a motivator you're a storyteller and you just always just have a way of just connecting with each and every single one of us even though we're virtual so we're just so blessed to have you so today along with our intercessory prayer as we pray over many things we also want to lift you up in prayer as well thank you thank you no problem let's pray god we are so grateful for your grace and your love towards us god we're just so grateful that you are a god that is accessible god we don't have to go before a secretary god we don't have to go before the administrative assistant but we can talk directly to you god we're so grateful here this morning because we serve a god that's not perplexed by our issues in our circle god lord you're not weighed down by what we go through the lord's word says god that you would even help us alleviate the weight that we're experiencing in our lives yes lord this this morning god we just want to just say thank you for you just being the god who you are you're a god who sits high and looks low god you're a god who holds the whole world in the palm of his hands yes we just continue to pray that despite what we face may we continue to trust you god lord even though sometimes your promises don't align with our reality god we would just continue to keep your promises on the front of our mind may we continue to hold on to the promise that you will never leave us nor forsake us hold on to the promise that no weapon formed against hallelujah jesus maybe continue to hold on to the promise that if you are for us who can be against us and god may we know that you are the real and true god so in those moments of weaknesses when we lack in faith god we just pray that you reveal yourself to us reveal yourself to us like you did moses when he walked on when uh after burning bush when peter when he walked on water yeah we know that you are the real and true god we pray that as a church and as a community that we would just continue to be light in the midst of darkness yes now we pray that we will continue to just spread the gospel to those who eat it god we pray that we wouldn't just hold on to it as some exclusive uh thing but gallo we pray that we would spread it god we pray that this worship experience would just not be a program but god we pray that this would be a transformational experience god we pray that this worship experience would transform us in such a way that we would talk to our spouses differently that we have our children differently that we interact with our co-workers differently yeah we pray that this worship experience will have so much influence and power over us that when we leave this space people would can testify that we have a relationship with you yes lord we just want to lift up our senior pastor god we're just so grateful for his ministry now we're just so grateful for how each and every single week he brings the word yes we act right now that you continue to lift him up even in those moments where he may be singing down where he may be singing tired galo we pray that you may be his strength yes are you gonna be the motivator may you continue to be the inspirer that is and god we pray that he would just continue to be the man that you have destined him to be god we pray that you would expand his territory y'all know that you have so much in store for him we pray that you will continue to prepare the pathway for him yes you continue to walk in purpose god you continue to be with his family as well yes we know that as a servant of the living god that the enemy is always busy my god we pray that you just put a hedge of protection around your family galo we pray that you would just anoint his household from the roof all the way down to the foundation and god so god we hold on to that promise today and so lord we pray that as he begins to prepare for the sermon that's going to be preached here today yes god god we pray that you would give him strength but more importantly god we pray that you would give us the word may you prepare our minds and our hearts here what you have in store for us yeah we have all these things in your son's name amen hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you pastor houston appreciate you man birthday doc thank you man appreciate it appreciate it thank you baby you're welcome all right i will kiss you but you got all that okay all right all right that's right well we praise god i gotta find the trap transition all right you're trying to get as you can tell we love to have uh bring levity we love to have a good time and worship and i want to thank you all for your birthday wishes throughout this week and even today thank you so much for your kindness your generosity i absolutely love revision church and love those who watch us i see you say happy birthday on the screen thank you so much thank you so much and in the chat i appreciate it and i receive the love and admonition and encouragement today and we want to encourage you as we get ready to um think about and as we continue to think about public health and the fact that we are still in a pandemic remember i shared with you last week that i felt it was my responsibility as a faith leader as a spiritual leader as a pastor um to be able to give you the best information about what's going on so that you can be armed to make the best and the healthiest choices so last week we had dr rainey andrews who was with us and helped us to understand how we can best take care of ourselves today we have another special guest that we are excited to bring on we've got dr dina do mercy mchenry and she is the director of pharmacy services at the miami cancer institute at baptist health south florida in miami florida she's also a good friend an old friend classmate of my lovely wife so dr dina would you join us today we're so grateful that you're with us good morning good morning well how are you here oh we're we're just glad to have you so um i am older than dina so she was she was younger than me we grew up at the same home church and um we sang in the choir and then we met back up at famu and uh we go to church now do you remember that dina yeah but we're just i just want you to know how proud we are of you and what god is doing through and in you and thank you for taking some time aside um to just share with us today so we can make the best decisions in regards to being healthy and safe during this pandemic that's right that's right so uh we just wanted to ask some questions that we felt that you know a lot of our viewers and worshipers and members are asking um first thing is why should i get the vaccine because a lot of people are wondering that right so why should i get the vaccine if it's not fda approved you know some people are saying it was created too quickly you hear that a lot so they don't trust it because it was created too quickly could you help people understand as you know one who has a doctor of pharmacology you're a pharmacist you understand both sides of it what what's going on with that yes absolutely um so i think it's really important for people to understand the background of the coronavirus and so the coronavirus has been around for a very long time i mean it's been around in animals um and then there's been the human coronaviruses and actually the common cold that most people experience that you get you get sick for a few days and you get over it is actually a coronavirus right so um the first outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome or sars um coronavirus associated um pandemic happened in 2002. so almost 20 years ago we had our first pandemic um it was um very limited compared to what we're experiencing today um about 8 000 infections worldwide about 800 700 to 800 death worldwide with that first pandemic or first outbreak and so when you think about now 20 years later almost 20 years later we're now experiencing sars kovi 2 right or coronavirus 19. so it's important to know that this is not the first time that this has happened oh okay 20 years ago they started developing you know how do we fight this you know because 8 000 infections we didn't know how big this was going to be and so a lot of the scientists in the mechanism of action for the virus um the vaccines that we have today was developed way back then and even the technology mrna vaccines have been studied even in the cancer space even much longer than that but from back in the 70s and 80s and so i think it's important to understand that so while it was developed or approved pretty quickly the mechanism of action the identification of targets for this particular virus has been developed for a very long time and so now when you think about over 223 cases worldwide over 4 million death you have every country in the world coming together pooling resources together to fight something simultaneously then it makes sense that the development is going to be a lot faster than normal status quo of things where you might have the us developing something the uk developing something else china and other countries you know trying to develop things you know independently and not collaborating on data ah thank you for that that's big so it's nothing new so it didn't start in 2019. well this is sars kobe 2. and so starts kobe 1 was back in 2002 and then even before that coronaviruses are the common cold so you think about like but most you know and back then when the virus where the pandemic went away you know a lot of the research specific towards coronavirus had halted some had continued going on but we at least had something to start with when this next pandemic happened the other thing to note is fda approval yes there's a request for fda approval but the food and drug administration or the fda can do an early approval right an emergency use authorization and what that means is that when you have a crisis or public health emergency they will look at the evidence of you know the known benefits right and then the known risk of a particular product looking at the state of affairs what's the disease that's pretty much uncontrolled at this time and if the benefits outweigh the risk they can approve something emergently and so um a lot of times people are like oh my god i'm surprised and it's an emergency use authorization but it is still an approval from the fda and so actually now the pfizer vaccine the company did you know continue to submit all the paperwork and thing that they needed to do to get the fda approval so in august a few weeks ago the five year vaccine is fda approved i expect the others to also go ahead and get the normal fda approval but it's also important that people understand especially in my field in oncology drugs get approved preliminarily all the time you know you'll see oh my goodness breakout news you know this drug company x and drug company y this new drug for breast cancer it was approved based on you know early markers or early outcomes and it's a contingent approval that once the rest of the study data's um come out that they'll keep that approval or they may remove it you'll see okay this was approved but then it's no longer so this is not something that's like conspiracy theory that this happening just because of covid this is a normal process that happened with drug approvals all the time gotcha oh my goodness you don't know how grateful we are to have someone yeah who knows the science informing us you know of this and who's done the work that's right she's a real person i've known her since childhood so right right by the government no she's not from the government don't worry another question is if you can still get covid with the vaccine then why should i get it yeah well with any vaccine none of the vaccines that are approved right is a hundred percent effective and so what we know based on for example the first two vaccines that were approved the moderna and the pfizer it was approved based on like 93 effectiveness of preventing the severe infection so what that means is that seven eight percent of individuals would still get severe coronavirus infection they still may go into the hospital and they still may die so it's 93 of um effectiveness and that was based on the data with the initial variant or the alpha variant that we started with now a few months later a year later we're dealing with variations because as we all know viruses do change they do mutate that's why every year you go and get your flu shot um and the flu shot again or the flu vaccine is not 100 effective it's usually effective against the most virulent strain that they're anticipating will cause problems for that year right and so right now we're dealing with a new strain one of the newer strains the delta variant which is a lot more aggressive a lot more transmissive and so while the vaccine is still effective against it it's lower effectiveness so it went from about 93 um against alpha variant to about 85 88 percent um effectiveness with the delta variant the other thing to note is that sometimes people say well you know what 99 of people with covet will survive or you know so why are people really stressing us out to try to get this vaccine and so when you think about 99 98 percent effectiveness right or um risk for death that's like one or two in a hundred so are you willing to say you know what you know yeah i'll take my chances you know only one or two people will die but that's not one or two people that will get sick or end up in the hospital and or have to deal with long-term complications of the coronal virus right right um and so then you know the other thing is people talk about oh my goodness but there's so many unknowns there's a lot of unknowns we don't know the long-term effects of coronavirus and so the thing i think about you know and again also understanding as a pharmacist um and my perspective is going to be a little different because of the knowledge that i have and you know um and working in oncology i'm used to viruses that cause long-term problems right so we think about like human papilloma virus or hpv you know most young people are um you know vaccinated against that yeah virus causes cancers of reproductive organs it causes cancers of the head and neck that's a long-term effect of the virus not the vitamin what we've seen since vaccines have been available for that um virus right we've seen a lot less hpv associated types of cancers and a lot less hpv infections gotcha well that's what we also have to think about because why you might say there's so many things unknown about the vaccine what about the unknowns of this virus right and so you have to think about the things that you know acutely right and i think my personal experience you know um i've never in my 20 year or 40 plus years of living on this earth have lived through anything like this where entire families are being eliminated from a virus where not something i'm watching on the news i can tell you um last week i lost one of my nurses um the week before one of my co-workers in my telecommunication department so this is real i've lost friends i've had friends lose family members and so it's not something that i'm watching from the news and say you know what that's over there you know because sometimes you know as individuals we watch things on the news you know even you know the things happening in the middle east it's shocking and it's scary but we think it's far away it's over there but you also think this is something that we are dealing with here today and what can i do to make this better you know and so that's the reason why you know i do promote getting the vaccine because i do want us to get back to a state of you know post cove normalcy i don't think we'll ever get back to normal um but to be able to get rid of this infection yes yes yes wow that's great i think the last thing we'd ask you is in addition to the vaccine because we we do really believe that people should get it what else do you recommend to prevent um covid19 what else can we do so i recommend everything else i still recommend wearing the mask so even when they say oh you don't have to wear the mask if you're not vaccinated i still recommend it because we are seeing that they're in variance right so we're dealing with the delta variants there's a gamma variant out there they're talking about lambda variant we don't we're hoping that you know enough people get vaccinated we can develop herd immunity and we don't have to deal with it but still recommend wearing the mask being socially distant um i still believe in boosting your immune system so i do recommend and i personally do take vitamin d vitamin b12 b6 because those things help build the building block for your the like nucleic acids and things that your body need in order to be able to fight infection so i think it's still important that you take vitamin c you take zinc zinc has been associated with decreasing the length of the um time that a person is sick um and it helps your body to be able to fight infections so um so even though you're doing the vaccine the vaccine is going to help you fight coronavirus specifically because it's turning the spike protein that's associated with that virus but your body still needs to be strong enough to be able to mount an immune response to be able to fight it and so i think that that's um still very important and that can be a whole nother conversation with all the things that's out there to protect your immune system and then the other thing that you know i think the other perspective that i see that a lot of people don't necessarily think about is that while there's a lot of fear about the vaccine my reality the phone calls that i get that absolutely break my heart is the people when now they're texting me and calling me dean i have this person in the hospital can you help them you know what can we do to give you know what medication can they get everything else is new everything else that we're giving people for covid in the hospital is emergency use authorization they're not full fda approved drugs these are things that what we were recommending in january we're no longer recommending it's a new cocktail now that we're recommending so that's the reality um unfortunately you know now what i see is in the hospital people come in and then they're like begging for the vaccine but at that point it's too late you know um and so hopefully you can respond to one of the like antibody cocktails or medications that we have but the reality right now is my recommendation is do whatever you can to not go to the hospital and not covet or anything else right now like right now i tell my friends family you can't afford to have a heart attack right now and have to go to the hospital you know when my friend was saying oh i'm gonna get my daughter a skateboard i said girlfriend no i said you can't afford for her to break a leg and have to go to the hospital in the children's hospital there's no beds you know so right now our whole system is overwhelmed it's in a crisis and so you want to make sure that you do anything in your power to protect yourself to protect your family members to try to stay as healthy as you can to not have to go into the hospitals right now wow that's amazing wow wow thank you for that insight that's that's very helpful folks i think what's helpful is that you see you don't have to be afraid i think the right information equips us yeah to be able to get over our fears and do the very best we can do yeah god gives us knowledge for a reason he does so let's be wise and use it and uh we just want to thank you doctor thank you so much for your time and thank you for sharing your expertise uh with us today it's really helped a lot of people and i can just tell you're a mentor because you're an awesome teacher yes you're an awesome team it's good to see you for this opportunity um i enjoy doing things like this so anytime and remember my background is oncology so anytime you need me to come back i am willing okay wonderful and um dr um do mercy can re sent us a brochure so what we're going to do is it's going to go out in the newsletter talking about this and other facts and busting many myths so if you haven't subscribed um to our newsletter right right please do so and you can obtain that pamphlet with the next newsletter and inform equip yourself and help to save your families that's right that's right god bless you dr dina blessings happy sabbath thank wonderful sabbath to you god bless you that was amazing that was great and um i know that you were blessed by that in a sense that we received good information i saw a few people say this is the best explanation of covet 19 you've ever heard right yeah and uh it's from one of our people right speaking to our people right so let's trust that god has given this for a reason yes let's use it we now have the information let's act on it do our best to keep our families and our communities safe all right well god bless you as we get ready to go to praise and worship we know that you're ready to sing you're ready to put your hands together our praise team is gonna lead us today as we worship our god and then we are getting ready to hear part two of the message that we started last week so we look forward to sharing that with you let's worship god together with our praise team good morning good morning good morning so nice to be here with you today we're going to worship god together and just saying lord you're worthy you're worthy of all the praise how many want to give god praise today we want you to stay with us very simple song very simple song [Music] and we give you the grace and go ahead put your hands together now you know the song down the next part says lords are holy and we give you lord your holy put your hands together now always take it away [Applause] [Music] and we give you [Music] lord you're worthy and we give you and we give you the prayers yes praise god [Music] we serve a worthy god we serve a holy god we serve a righteous god and lord i'm just thankful for your love your reckless love your reckless love for me [Music] before i spoke a word you were singing over me [Music] you have been so so good to me [Music] or i took a breath you breathe your life in me [Music] you have been so so kind to me all the overwhelming never-ending reckless love of god oh it chases me down fights till i'm found leaves the 99 i couldn't earn it i don't deserve it still you give yourself away all the overwhelming never-ending reckless love of god [Music] [Music] holy overwhelming [Music] holy [Music] [Music] i don't deserve it still you give yourself away holy [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] 99 [Music] never ending [Applause] [Music] [Music] coming [Music] coming after me [Music] after me [Music] oh [Music] thank you praise team we praise god for his reckless love amen shown in and through the ministry and person of jesus christ we experience the reckless love of god through jesus today and we're grateful we're grateful for that love it's that love that makes life worth the living it's that love that wakes us up in the morning that keeps us going when we don't feel like going we thank god for his reckless unconditional love today hallelujah today i want to as we jump into the word i want to just thank god i want to thank god for our praise team thank god for our for denise leading our praise team today and for our musicians who play so skillfully unto the lord we're grateful for all of you thankful for pastor jordan houston our assistant pastor who led us and helped to organize our church picnic last week which was amazing i want to publicly thank him for his hard work along with joy walker our administrator chris joseph ministry director and richardson bellevois and his team thank you for all of you um who sacrificed who did what you need to do so we can get together it was really the first time that we had a large amount of our members uh not everyone was there but a good representation of our membership and those who were joining it was a joy to meet some of you who just made up your mind in the last week or two to join revision church and you came out to the picnic we're grateful for you it was my honor to meet you and uh we're looking forward to being your community and we just thank god for all of you as we're talking about ministry though we have the small groups ministry leader sign up that begins now begins now we need people to sign up uh to lead small groups yes you will go through a vetting process you will go through training and all of that but if you've led before or if you thought of leading a small group our next semester of virtual small groups begins soon so we do want you to sign up for that i believe we're dropping that in the chat how you'll be able to sign up for that and as well uh pay attention to the information that pastor houston will give you specifically at the end of this message we want to make sure that we're building community and the way that we do that one of the ways we do that is through our virtual small groups so we hope that uh if the lord's tapping you on the shoulder you'll answer that call uh and we're looking forward to that if you are a revision member and you want to do this please listen to pastor houston at the end of this message well today we want to continue what god began to speak to us last week i shared with you that it was going to be important for us to lean into what god was saying that i was going to say something and share something that was absolutely necessary i cannot stress to you how important it is for you to follow me on this journey last week was the beginning and for some it was startling for others it was liberating and freeing but this week we continue and i would argue that this week's message is really just as important as last week's so as a preamble as preface especially if you're just joining us i want you to understand that for some this message will be liberating for others this message will be frustrating and for another group of people it's going to be as i said last week excruciating and as i speak through it you'll understand why because we're all in different places and we're all going to hear this truth a different way but i want you to know my intent is that this is not simply liberating not simply frustrating or excruciating but that it is healing that's the purpose for which i share this that it heals the community heals people who have been hurt heals the church so today they i want you to understand that the first message that we shared last week in this what is now become a series spoke primarily to those who have been hurt abandoned neglected traumatized abused and misused by the church last week i want us to be clear we spoke to what has been done and what is still being done to people in the name of religion specifically christianity today i want to move from the what and move to the why okay why is it that we continue to hurt and traumatize people in this way in the name of christianity if last week we specifically pointed out some of the what's and i know that it was not expansive and exhaustive we couldn't enumerate all of them but we talked about the what today i want to talk about the why we will endeavor to move from what to why this sabbath this day i want to speak primarily to the church in the presence of those who have been hurt hear me today i i want to speak to everybody but this is just specifically directed towards those of us who have done the damage those of us who have perpetuated the abuse those of us who enabled and manipulated and cajoled and controlled i want to talk to us today in the presence of our victims in the presence of those whom we have hurt and judged and condemned so today i want you to go with me to first john 4 18. first john chapter 4 verse 18. last week we dealt with just one text today we'll deal with one text and today like last week i do not necessarily seek to preach in a traditional homiletical fashion i just simply want to share and have this holy conversation first john 4 verse 18 is where we're going to root this necessary conversation it says and i want you to read this with intention with with new eyes there is no fear in love jesus but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out all fear today i want to speak to you it's our fault part two it's our fault father i ask in the name of jesus that you do what you did last week but in an even greater fashion yes comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable so that our true nature will be revealed yes and our church can be healed in jesus name amen september 11 2001 changed our country and the world and every september 11th since the year 2001 america remembers the horrible terrorist attacks visited on this country we recall the traumatic images of seeing planes flying into the world trade twin towers thousands of people lost their lives and the loss of life was felt by their families their friends co-workers first responders and the entire country not to mention the long-haul effects as communities have been changed psychologically economically and even spiritually in many ways september 11 changed the political and existential reality of this country and arguably the world but there is something about september 11 that i want us to remember today because it is directly connected to what we are talking about today when we found out back then the ethnicity and religion of those who hijacked the planes america turned on muslims people who practice islam and people from the middle east regardless of their religious affiliation you see september 11 not only revealed to us the existence of terror in the world but it revealed also to us the existence of terror in us hear me today i'm going somewhere americans became suspicious of immigrants from specific countries like iraq and iran and syria and afghanistan americans began to harass people with quote-unquote middle eastern accents we started to profile them at the airport we profiled people who wore hijabs and those men who wore turbans not realizing the turbans are worn by both muslims and sikhs but we saw no difference between the two because the reality is all of them became terrorists in our eyes we turned on fellow americans i'm going somewhere today we turned on fellow americans because we didn't understand them or their practices or their religion so we alienated whole sections and community communities because they were not like us this fear of islam this fear of people who have been kissed by nature's son who come from the middle east even went into our political ideology and practice so that one of the the insults that we didn't know that it wasn't an insult but one of the insults that conservatives hurled against barack obama was that he had a muslim name and thus because he had a muslim name he must be a practicing secret or closet muslim my god you gotta understand america began to hate yes our middle eastern brothers and sisters our brothers and sisters from iran and iraq and afghanistan and syria not because we knew them or their families or their sacrifices or their stories but we hated them because we did not understand their faith and their beliefs the legacy of september 11 must not be romanticized by american exceptionalism we can't paint september 11 in red white and blue to call us to a collective a collective patriotism oh i'm saying something today we can't paint it in red white and blue and ignore the fact that september 11 yes it's not only hatred visited on america but the legacy of september 11 also includes the hatred of america visited upon people who simply believed different than us and what america did to muslims and sikhs and people from different faith traditions religions and places is what the church still does today do i see you in the chat you're with me the christian church still treats people with hate because they do not believe as we do we don't understand their beliefs and practices and we treat them with suspicion and distrust and like america we do this to people in the church and those who are not in the church we harass people who have tats and inks on their body because we don't understand them we profile people because they wear things around their neck or in their ears or piercings in places we could never imagine we would pierce and we profile them as worldly and unchristian they could not know jesus and do that to their body we look down at people who are gay and lesbian or polyamorous and we terrorize them with our words of hatred and venomous disdain profile people and we look down at them based on their behavior while never understanding their background childhood experiences and the details of their stories some victorious and most painful and because we don't understand them give it a day because we don't understand them we label them dangerous and thus we are we give ourselves the excuse to mistreat them because they are other they are different and because they are other and they are different they are innately wrong because we don't understand them we label them dangerous here it is and give ourselves excuses as believers to hate in the name of one who is loved i truly believe i want you to hear this today both those of you who have been hurt and those who have perpetrated the hurt yes i truly truly believe that most church people actually believe that their maltreatment of people is justified i hope y'all taking notes today i told you this message is just as important as what you heard last week i'm going to say it again so you get it i am convinced that most church people actually believe that their maltreatment of people is justified this is why you're so defensive this is why you squirmed in your seat last week as i apologize on your behalf because some of you have the audacity to believe i had no right to apologize on your behalf because you didn't do anything wrong when you yelled you you did nothing wrong when you condemned you did nothing wrong when you put them out the church you did nothing wrong when you told them they were wrong for that you did nothing wrong and i believe that you believe that you were justified and today i want to talk about why we do what we do because it is tied directly to why americans turned on their own citizens because they didn't understand them because they wouldn't go beyond the obvious to go into relationship hear me today because as i've had conversations all week and last week's message was was was a conversation starter for a lot of people it was healing for a lot of people but it was a conversation starter for a lot of people and i had some great conversations throughout the week and one of the things that i know has come up is so what do we do well today we're not going to get to what what we do but i do want to kind of debunk some of the suggestions for solution because you see some of you are very very disturbed by the fact that i i left last week's message i ended it with a dissonant chord that i didn't end it with tying a nice neat bow around it and just declaring well jesus loves us all that i left it there by simply apologizing and owning the fact that it's our fault but what you must understand is is that there is a process to healing yes and if we always rush past the confession the owning of wrong to jump to solutions we then we then circumnavigate what god is trying to do in the process some of y'all are stuck on the product when god is trying to focus you on the process i wish somebody was with me today please understand this we can't rush to solutions i've heard some interesting solutions um one possible solution that some people have been talking about to me is is that we should just in a real sense start enforcing what we truly believe so to stop the duplicity and hypocrisy that i talked about last week uh some have suggested and some of you are already thinking we should enforce the rules and practices of religion so in order to deal with the inequities and injustices that we talked about last week when certain people are treated a certain way when they sin your answer is we just need to say what we mean and mean what we say if we are going to believe and teach something then let's simply uh hold everyone to the same standard let's just make sure that the rules are followed by everybody and therefore there'll be no need or room for hypocrisy or duplicity there is a fatal flaw in this kind of thinking can i just teach this today the flaw is the assumption that all the rules and restrictions of christianity or of any denomination are biblical or even helpful yeah the assumption is you would just double down on the rules and make sure everybody's treated the same but the flaw in that is in this approach is that it still puts emphasis on rules and restrictions over relationships it places an over emphasis on the law and minimizes the necessity of love so if the church says no jewelry or no divorce for unbiblical reasons or certain dress codes then simply enforce it more consistently and everyone will be fine that's not true rule enforcement has never caused any institution or organization to treat its people better oh i just said something restriction enforcement has never been the hallmark of a loving community we don't change the minds and hearts of people by simply reinforcing the rules all we accomplish is that we make people dig in their heels and rebel even more so let's throw out that solution the other solution that i've heard in conversations this week is well let's just change the system of governance or beliefs and let's do it from the top so so so some people have said what we need to do then is um what we need to do is just change it from the top down okay this idea is that we need to change the system of beliefs or the system of practices because the idea behind this is if we change some of the way our standards are or our beliefs it could come in alignment with people and then we can be more loving the idea is that if we change the system that will somehow stop hurting people in the church this idea suggests that we demand change from denominational leaders those who lead church fellowships conferences and conventions in this solution we would appeal to archbishops and prelates and priests conference presidents and overseers to change policies practices in order to make the church more welcoming and safe stay with me this solution is also flawed oh god help me help me to tell it holy ghost this solution is also flawed because it assumes the power structure actually wants to change it is flawed because it assumes that all of these leaders are concerned with the pain and trauma of everyday people let's make this very clear i hope you know that there are people who serve in these high level positions in church who are deeply compassionate who are considerate and selfless they are spiritual people who love jesus certainly we are not suggesting that every high-level church leader is callous and cold when it comes to people i'm not speaking about every individual leader as much as i'm speaking about watch this the power structure and power culture that is very hard to enact change are y'all still with me today the truth is let me say it plainly you cannot stop the church from hurting people by mandating change from the top down the people at the top are often too removed from what happens in the local churches and communities the people at the top are often too busy with executive functions and fiduciary concerns to deal with the trauma caused by church people okay and some people at the top can i just tell the truth are sometimes so morally compromise themselves that they don't have the spiritual ethical or moral authority to mandate any change because they need change many top level leaders in christianity regardless of denomination did not get that position because of their compassion for people they got there because some of them had an ability to manipulate and control and fool people and you want to write letters to people you want to ask people to change when they have not even changed themselves so even if you have great people in high positions they are also imprisoned by the power culture they are imprisoned and incarcerated by their own need to be validated and accepted i'm telling you something today i'm trying to help you to understand why why does change not happen from the top why doesn't my conference or my convention or or my overseer or my bishop or the general conference president why don't they change things don't they see the pain they don't see the pain so many of them are in their own personal pain or so many of them are caught up in their own personal gain that they can't see the pain being done on the ground level so can i tell you these solutions of changing i know some of you are systems people so you're just saying pastor what's the system we need to change so we can stop hurting people you can't stop hurting people by simply changing a system you can't change it by changing or editing beliefs standards or restrictions because that's not the problem so what is the problem i'm glad you asked the reason why the church mistreats and hurts people write this down is deep wipe us down the reason why the church does all the things we talked about last week and if you didn't see it you got to go back to get this the reason why the church hurts people is because of fear [Music] i told you i told you that was deep some of y'all were waiting on something you disappointed you you waiting on something deeper but it's deep lean into this the reason why we abuse why we mistreat why we say things to people we shouldn't say the reason why we hurt people why we look down on people the reason why we judge people and condemn people the reason why we ostracize people and marginalize people the reason why we put them aside because of what they've done is because of fear we are afraid because the opposite of love is not hate the opposite of love is fear you thought it was the four-letter word h-a-t-e it is a four-letter word but it's not hate it's fear fear is the reason why we mistreat people and i'm gonna help you in the next few minutes to understand that if you're still with me say yes in the chat what are we afraid of first thing is we fear that the beliefs of those who make different decisions will rub off on other people i'm gonna go there today our fear the reason we mistreat people in church and in the community the reason why the church hurts people is because our fear is if we love this person while they're wrong jesus if we love them in their sin it will somehow their sin becomes contagious and it will co our love will be a co-sign so that people i'm telling something today so that other people in the church because they see this person receiving love will do the same thing we are afraid that if we show if we show love for people in their mistakes or during their alternate lifestyle decisions we will encourage other people to do the same thing this is why this is why we we oftentimes the church wouldn't do baby showers for women who had children out of wedlock because the the crazy notion for us was that if we show this girl love and bring her the necessities to take care of her child then other young people will look at that and say i want a party too i want a baby shower too i want love too so let me go out and have sex and have a baby so that i can have a shower do you hear how ridiculous that sounds do you hear how illogical that is that people would see that because the church had a baby shower for a woman who had a vet who had a baby out of wedlock that somehow yeah others would then pick up on that and say i want that same love this is the same crazy reason why we would i grew up and there are other denominations who do that i realize it's not just mine who has done this where you would take children who were born out of wedlock and dedicate them to jesus in secret oh god and we would do it in secret we couldn't do it in front of the church we would do it back in the office or at the home y'all know what i'm talking about because the idea was we were fearful that if we did it in front of the church somehow in some strange crazy way that would make young people say oh if i go out and have children out of wedlock i get to stand in front of the church and dedicate my child jesus it makes no sense but fear doesn't make sense fear is illogical fear is not based on fact fear is the taking of one possible outcome and magnifying it so it becomes the only option i just said something i just said something we are fearful because we thought if we showed love to people who did different things if we showed love yeah i'ma go there today if we showed love to those who lived alternate lifestyles and those who were gay or those who are lesbian those who are part of the lgbtqia community that if we showed love to them and not conditional love uh not not if you change then i love you but if we just love them as they were and welcome them as they were and let god love on them as he does that if we did that somehow it would become contagious and everybody in the church would be gay now because we're loving on gay people it's illogical it is it doesn't make sense but that's why we did it and it's our fault it's our fault because we let our fear talk us out of loving people because we were afraid that sin would spread like a virus so although we have problems social distancing from people who have the corona virus we never had a problem church social distancing ourselves from people who really needed us but we distanced ourselves because we didn't want to catch the virus of sin it's our fault because we gave into fear but there's another reason okay there's another fear it was fear watch this we mistreated people the church mistreated people because we feared their freedom [Music] i'm telling you today i'm telling you today today is just as important as last week you got to get this you got to understand we have a fear of people's freedom yes we do if a person in the church gets to practice their lifestyle in their own way or make their own decisions the church gets afraid that watch this that the uniformity of the church will be compromised so we start saying to ourselves if we all start doing what we want to do then we won't be the same and if we're not all doing the same thing how can we be one and the issue is we have mistaken uniformity with unity teach this holy ghost god so we're afraid that if we didn't all dress the same and eat the same and do the same things and not do the same things that we would not be united in christ you get to understand your fear makes you judge someone else because you were taught that if someone does certain things they can't be part of the club or the clique or the community that we call the church the fear comes from thinking watch this that individuality leads to corruptability but god has not called us to all be alike in all of our beliefs and all of our decisions there is room in the kingdom of god there is room in the community called the church for disagreement but the church fears the very gift of god given to humanity in the garden it's called choice the gift of choice is a god-given right to every human being reserve and it was received and given to us not by a nation but by our god but we fear that if a person exercises their god-given choice then it will destroy the fabric of the church but you weren't complaining when you made your own decisions you were complaining when you made your dumb decisions when you let when you went left instead of right when you went right when god told you to go left when you did things your own way you didn't want nobody telling you what to do but now that you think you found your way now all of a sudden you've got the right to tell others what they need to do the devil is a liar so why not let someone else watch this why not let someone else make their mistakes and find their own way and love them in the meantime the church hurts people because we are afraid of people's choice hear me today this is why the texas abortion law that was just passed is so problematic and dangerous okay the proponents of this draconian and dangerous texas abortion law are mainly conservative christians and the reason that they pass and push for this law in texas is because it actually seeks to control personal choice by penalty of law and i understand we can have that conversation about abortion another day you know i don't shy away from any hard conversation so we're gonna deal with that one day but let me tell you please don't be fooled into thinking that the vast majority of anti-abortion christians in texas uh care about unborn children in the womb please don't be fooled to think that they pass this law because they care about life because many of these same conservative christians don't care about the lives of black and brown kids in houston and dallas and east texas yeah who are hurting starving and being killed by police come on you mean to tell me so it's okay it's not okay to end an unwanted pregnancy but it's okay for the child to be born so that white police can kill them in the streets please don't tell me you're pro-life you are not pro-life until you care about all lives before birth and after birth thank you the church is afraid of choice because the church thinks choice erodes unity number three another reason why we are why we've done this because it's one thing to talk about the what but we can't heal and change until we understand the why another reason why we've hurt people like this is fear that people will be lost if they wonder oh lord hold on i i hope you hear this the reason the reason why your church board was so mean to you the reason why that person said that thing to you that they had no business saying the reason the reason that we're so judgmental and we mistreat people and use people and hurt people with our words is because we fear that if that people will be lost if they wonder okay okay the church hurts people and offends people because we think that every person who wonders is lost oh huh don't miss this we don't understand that the wandering is a form of discovery [Music] we don't understand that what we see as rebellion against our beliefs and our practices and traditions is sometimes a form of personal investigation which can lead to a deeper relationship with jesus yes oh god yes holy ghost helping to get this today helping to get past their biases and prefaces and their prejudice and help them to get this today i want you to understand this today because if you don't understand the why the yoke will not be broken and generations will not be here you won't talk about a church there won't be no church if we don't get this right if we don't understand that just because people ask questions doesn't mean they're rebelling just because they try stuff doesn't mean that's their destination just because they took and watch this just because they took an off ramp doesn't mean they're not going to get back on the road just because they pulled off to the side doesn't mean they're not going to take the whole journey but you and i freak out because they're doing something we don't want them to do and i'm not talking down to you i'm talking about me too i remember as a i'm a i've been a proponent of this in the past i remember as a young theology major at oakwood me and my very good friend ever he was here with me last weekend for labor day weekend he and his family and and i remember one day one of our church leaders older man older gentleman elder in the church he was my sabbath school teacher he was our our youth ministry leader he was one who mentored us and showed us different things about the bible and took us on mission trips local and and and did all kinds of powerful things i remember one day i heard that he was leaving the church my boy everett uh picked me up he said wes let's go see about him everett's intention was to go and just let him know we care about him ever didn't know i had another intention when we got there to see this man who was old enough to be my grandfather this man he stood at the door and and everett said well we're just here to check on you and hear that you know you're you're stepped away from your duties at the church and that you're leaving the church and not just leaving this congregation but he was leaving the church he was leaving the denomination and everett was there to show love and i remember ever remembers this i lit into this man who was old enough to be my grandfather i threw out respect for your elders and i told them you are wrong you are wrong how are you going to lead the church you're setting a bad example what about all the young people that you brought to church god's going to judge you i told him for doing this my god and i continued to go off on him and everett stood there and wondering because he didn't know that that's what i came to do i'm not talking down to y'all today because i did it myself and the reason i was doing that was because i was afraid that if he did this he would be lost now please understand the illogical and crazy part of what i was doing i a finite human being was stepping into the place of judgment to tell this man who was stepping away from the church that he was going to be lost when hear this i didn't know the end of his story jesus me a finite being who didn't understand the trajectory the journey he was on stopped him and said you are going to be lost as if i knew the end from the beginning oh my god and this what i did that day and thank god i've learned from that day thank god i've come a long way but that is a perfect example of how we will throw out respect we will throw out we will throw out protocol you don't talk to an elder like that we will throw out everything because we got to be right and because we're right and they're wrong one of us is going to be saved and the other will be lost i know what i'm talking about because i've been in this church from birth i know what i'm talking about because i've been pastoring for over 23 years i know what i'm talking about because i've been in small congregations to large congregations and the truth is we don't like people to do differently because we are afraid they'll be lost but we don't understand sometimes they're just digging for jesus let me share this example um we were at the beach one day and i remember it was years and years ago i think was in brunswick georgia the beach there on st simon's island we were uh playing around just kind of hanging out um and and i remember seeing a mother with two children i wasn't paying that much attention but i did remember that one of the boys started digging and digging and digging he was making an absolute mess there was sand flying everywhere the mother was complaining that he was making a mess he was digging this hole digging hole he went over to another place just right up that hole dug another hole he went over to the left of the first hole like another hole he was making all kinds of holes in the sand by the time the boy was gunned by the mother by the time the mother stopped him he had dug five holes in the ground it was a mess sand flying everywhere he's you know people walking by he's almost hitting them with the sand and until until as i leaned in to understand the mother came over and said why'd you make this mess you dug all these holes she said he said i'm looking for my action hero figure i'm looking for my from for my figure i put it down here what he didn't understand was that the brother had placed it in the sand the brother had hid it in the sand what the boy was doing don't miss this is he was making a mess because he was looking for something he loved oh god the mother was judging the mess when she didn't understand the boy was digging for his action figure hero come here you better understand what i'm saying that we keep judging the messes people are making when we don't realize that their mess is really only a process of discovery to find jesus for themselves so we sit up there judging their mess and judging their decisions and judging their lifestyle where they're just digging for jesus and guess who hit jesus in the ground guess who what brother kid jesus down in the ground that they digging for it was our fault it was the church we hid him under practices and traditions that are cultural but not biblical we kept jesus under rules and regulations that have nothing to do with salvation we kid jesus deep down in the ground so that people know ten commandments but they don't know grace people know memory verses but they haven't understood that they are loved unconditionally the reason they're making a mess is it's our fault we kid jesus and their mess only shows they're digging for the one they want we are so fearful of being personally lost hear this that we actually end up projecting our fear of being lost on other people and then we mistreat them because our fear makes us treat them like we've lost our minds so fourth and finally because it's all fear jesus the reason we do that i want you to get this today the reason we do it is not because church people are meaner than everybody else it's not that the church just attracts the meanest people on the earth that's too simple it's not the fact please don't mistake the symptom with the sickness it is not we don't mistreat people because we just mad because we just we just mean we will mistreat people because of fear see here's the the final fear i'll share with you today because i know we can't handle all of this at one time fear we mistreat people because of the fear that we will be held accountable by god for not stopping people in their journey let me say it differently we have a fear that we will be held accountable by god for not stopping them from sinning or making a mistake and so this fear that if we don't say something to people if we don't do something to make them stop and if they continue to go along with doing things we don't agree with we will be held accountable to god y'all better get this jesus we act as if god has deputized us yeah to police people and if we don't tell them how they are wrong then we will be written up in heaven for being disobedient we act like people's salvation not only depends on how they act or behave but it also depends on watch this our ability to tell them what to do or what not to do in reality the church has a savior complex yes we do well we've got it wrong the church has a savior but the church should not have a savior complex correct so if we don't say anything we believe that we will be held accountable because we think watch this we have to help jesus save people oh my god i don't know i don't know i hope i hope y'all leaning into this today we think that we got to help jesus save people because obviously jesus doesn't have the strength jesus doesn't have the power jesus doesn't have the draw jesus doesn't have uh the influence jesus can't so we gotta help jesus save people this fear of accountability watch this mixed with our own religious brand of arrogance makes us believe that we can say anything to anyone at any time anyway because jesus expects us to do that in preparation for this message and for last week's message i had a crucial and intimate conversation with one of my closest friends who grew up in the church even in my same denomination we worshiped together we went to school together but now he has left the church and he is now a professed agnostic [Music] i asked his permission to share bits and pieces of our conversation because it was enlightening and informing okay one of the things he told me is a few years back he ran into a mutual friend of ours who had not seen him in many years this young lady had not seen him for many many years and in running into him they were catching up and she was talking with him in the conversation she asked him she said so what church are you going to now you know i know you're there living in that city what church do you go to and he responded very casually very confidently i don't go to church anymore i left the church i left christianity he said the trajectory of the conversation changed from that moment he said he could see that she was physically disturbed he said in fact wesley she was biting literally biting her tongue hurt her lip she was biting her lips she was wincing as if she was in physical personal pain he said i had to take her out of her misery and simply say it's okay say to me what you want to say i can see you're biting your lip i can see you look like you're in pain you gotta say something just say it she said god wants you back in church you you shouldn't be injured you shouldn't be out of the church god wants you back in church right now god wants you back in church she said and she and he said ha don't you feel better because you finally got that off your chest what was interesting is that she never asked why did he leave she never asked how are you doing with all of that she never inquired how she could support him on his new journey oh wow she just told him what she felt she had to tell him because if not his blood would be on her hands yeah yeah and i grew up hearing about this in the church if you don't tell them they're wrong if you don't tell them about jesus if you don't tell them their blood will be on your hands but what they didn't teach me is that it's not about how i correct people it's about how i love people that matter yes so this young lady thought that she told my friend to go back to church because she didn't because she said i got to do this because because his blood will be on my hands when in reality because she did not show him love in that moment she still ended up with blood on her hand and church it's our fault because there is a whole lot of blood on our hands not hear me today not because you didn't say something but because you opened your mouth and said the wrong thing and all they needed to hear from you was i understand but because of your fear that if i don't say something they'll be lost they'll be hurt you actually ironically did the exact same thing you were trying to circumnavigate you actually hurt them in the process so the bloodshed you were trying to prevent you actually caused because you said the wrong thing at the wrong time you didn't ask how they doing you didn't ask how they're feeling you didn't tell them and what you got to understand is all they needed to hear was i get it all they needed to hear was you know i still love you come here parents come here parents come here parents in the black community come here parents in the uk hear me come their parents down in the caribbean come here parents all they needed to hear from you when they were going the wrong way is you steal my child they didn't need you to put them out to put them out on the street because you caught them smoking or because you caught them having sex or because you found out their hiv aids positive they didn't need you to put them out they needed you to bring them in all they needed to hear was nothing has changed between you and me all they needed to hear was i will always be there no matter what you do all they needed to hear was you still my baby girl you still my baby boy but because you were so fearful some of you have shattered and fractured relationships with your own children with your own family with your own loved ones because you can't get over you because no matter their choices behavior and lifestyle they will always need your love but we act like we can only love people when we agree with their decisions their beliefs and their lifestyle yeah my friend who that woman who's biting her lip when she just blurted out you got to go back to church my friend and he said i could i could tell y'all this my boy remy he says this he says this if and i had to write it down because it's a beautiful it's a beautiful and precise understanding of this mindset he says if the only way we can have camaraderie and community is through my conversion to your beliefs then i don't want to know you and you you wondering why folk don't come back to church jesus you you wondering why there are people intergenerationally who have walked away from the institution and the community called the church because we have made our love conditional we have made our love conditional on compliance and that's how a lot of people in the church feel they feel i can only be there if i do what they do and agree with them it's fear and our problem church is not that we're so hateful it's that we're so fearful and fear leads to hate that's why we look at people the way we do that's why we judge them that's why we condemn them that's why we ostracize them that's why we don't want nothing to do with them that's why we marginalize them that's why we abuse them or sit back and watch them be abused that's why we neglect them that's why we abandon them because we are afraid but perfect and the reason the church keeps hurting people is because we have not been perfected by love we're too busy trying to perfect rather than be perfected by love jesus [Music] and so we are hateful the text you wrote in the beginning says whoever fears has not been perfected in love the reason we do it is because we have not been perfected in love oh my god the church is not loving because we have not yet understood understood god's love i'll tell you one last thing remy said to me he says even if what i'm doing is not in keeping with what your beliefs and principles are am i not still worthy of your love oh god this is a person who has walked away from the church who is near and dear to my heart like a brother and i that hit me to my heart because what he was saying is am i not still worthy of your love he wasn't saying it to me he was asking a rhetorical question to y'all to to the church am i not still worthy of your love or do you just have to tell me before you ask me how i'm doing i better get back to church that's our issue yes we don't know how to love people as they are no lord we don't know how to show love with people who disagree with us we don't know how to love because we are trained taught conditioned and raised in fear yes next week i was gonna stop here today but next week we're gonna do part three because i know y'all itching what about the how what about the how what about the how well you got to get this why first okay you gotta own this why you gotta confess this why you gotta take this to god and you've got to not only confess but repent that is turn and next week we're gonna talk about how we repent how we walk the other direction towards love because that's the problem not systems not doctrines some beliefs yes that are not biblical yeah but that's not what changes people what changes is love we don't know how to love people because we are afraid and when you are afraid you will hate and that's our fault it's not on god and watch this it's not on the devil it's not on the devil no so i'm tired of hearing church people say well so many people are leaving the church the devil is busy no he's not that busy who's busy is we are busy getting in other people's business okay judging people treating them anyway and we want to put that on the devil that is not the devil it's fear this ain't on god and it ain't on the enemy the enemy wants to see people leave yes the enemy wants to see people hurt but he's not the one who's doing it it's us we apologize for the technical difficulty but i want to just end with this when we are afraid that's when we hate and that's our fault and jesus made it very clear that god is love but the church has often chosen fear over love and that's because we have not fully accepted the transforming power yes and the unconditional nature of god's love how can you offer something you have not yet received yes so it's here today i want to simply ask you this question what are you afraid of why are you so afraid of loving people as they are and letting god love them into who they shall be what is it that causes us why are we so afraid that people's freedom will always lead to corruption when in reality their freedom to choose as they will and we trust the power and presence and influence of the holy spirit can lead them to a greater understanding of jesus not a lesser one maybe it's because we have created a god in our own image rather than understanding the love of jesus next week i want to tell you how we can embrace love so that we can start showing love amen but today i want to pray for you i want to pray for us that god will deliver us from our fear yes so that we can stop the hate and trust god to win and save people in spite of us i want to pray that god lifts fear yes and gives us freedom to love as he first loved us amen would you pray with me father we thank you we thank you for this challenging and in some ways comforting and changing message because we own the fact that it's our fault that we have been hateful because we've been fearful we've hurt people because we were afraid and lord while we might try to excuse our behavior by saying our intentions were good the reality is the impact was bad and god i pray not only for the victims of our fear and hate but also for those of us in several ways who have perpetuated it father we confess yes and we ask for your forgiveness forgive us from mistreating people because they did not believe like us forgive us for judging people because they did not live like us forgive us for looking at people in ways that you don't look at them oh jesus forgive us god for climbing into your chair of judgment pushing you aside and judging people when we didn't know their story their origin and we don't know their destination forgive us and god i pray that you teach us to humble ourselves so that we see every person as a human being yes worthy of our love yes because jesus died while we were all yet sinned while we were sinners if your perfect love could be shown to us in the midst of our sin then god please teach us how to love others this is our prayer and we ask it in jesus name amen amen amen god bless you and thank you for staying with us even through the technical difficulty in hearing this message next week will be our final part of this series i didn't plan for it to be a series but it is i'm just following the uh moving of the holy spirit the influence of the spirit next week we'll have part three when we talk about the how how we begin to turn this around and i hope that you'll join us share this message with your friends and family members pastor houston is about to come in lead us in worship through giving as we get ready to release you for this day so pastor houston will join us at this time god bless you god bless wow can we just just praise god for just how the lord just moved in this virtual space again just another just very inspiring and very convicting word something for us to ponder and i'm just so excited to hear part three next week we're just so grateful for how the lord just moved here today listen this is an opportunity for us to worship through giving we encourage you to give a tithe and an offering and you can do so by going the first way to our website at revisionchurchatlanta.org and you can click give your tithe and your offering there at revision church atlanta.org click on the give tab and then you can give your tithe an offering there through adventist online giving we have another way that you can give and that's through our paypal accounts very easy all you have to do is just text rev paypal to the number there on the screen we just asked that please please please that you give your donation as if you're giving it to a friend or a family member and not a business and we also ask that you let us know within the memo section or the notes section how much that you would like to allocate towards your tithe and how much of that donation you would like to allocate towards your offering we also have another way that you can give and that's through our um cash app we just simply ask that you simply just type um dollar sign revision church with the dollar amount that you would like to donate and then you give that way and again in the notes section we please we just ask that you let us know how much of that you would like to allocate towards your tithe and how much of that you would like to allocate towards your offering and again we just want to say thank you so much for just your continual giving none of this would have been possible if it was not for your faithfulness so we we're just so appreciative of you listen we're looking to start small groups back up and listen right now we are recruiting small group leaders that's right small group leaders for our fall semester so if you're interested in being a small group leader we ask that you go to our website and our media team is also going to drop the application link into the chat here as well but you can go on to our website click on the grow tab and then just scroll down and then you'll see sign up to be a small group leader listen to be a small group leader you have to be a revision a member of revision church atlanta so we're asking for any members who are interested in being a small group leader please sign up today but not only that we want to let you all know that the shift is back the shift is back this upcoming wednesday is going to be awesome we're going to be talking about career goals are you where you want to be we're kicking off a goal series so career goals are you where you want to be we have some special guests with us paula blackwell uh some familiar faces gabrielle carter and christelle beecher listen i'm so excited for this conversation this will take place this upcoming wednesday at our new time that's right our new time so please write it down seven o'clock that's our new time seven o'clock this upcoming wednesday we're so excited so please be sure to write that on your calendars and we look forward to you tuning in we also want to remind everyone about our scholarship we have a scholarship for our young people if you are interested in signing up for our scholarship we actually have the application on the website this week so you can go onto the website you can download the application you can fill it out and once you fill it out you can email it to our church administrator joy walker and her email address is right there below all this information is on our website as well and it's for our first year full-time college students so if you're a first-year college student and you would like to receive a scholarship we just ask that you go online that you fill out the application the date on the website is incorrect we will get that fixed it says the 17th but it is the 24th it is the 24th that is the deadline so again we encourage our young people to fill out so that you can receive some assistance as you continue your educational endeavors listen again we're just so excited that you decided to tune in with us thank you for inviting us into your homes to worship with you here today but before we dismiss let's just close with a quick word of prayer let's pray god we're just so grateful for the word that was received here today um god lord it's not a celebratory word but it's something for us to really think about um god lord may we at the end of the day take responsibility for our actions and the pain that we have caused but god lord may we also be a part of the healing process as well and so god we pray that you would help us in that may you prepare our hearts for that and god lord we pray lord that we can be a part of the process of bending the brokenhearted god lord we're just so thankful for all that you just did here today and god we pray that this experience that we wouldn't keep it to ourselves but god that we would share it with someone this is our prayer in jesus name amen again thank you so much for tuning in with us we hope that you share today's message with a friend maybe a family member is going to be on our youtube channel archive so please be sure to share it and listen we look forward to seeing you this upcoming wednesday at our new time seven o'clock for the shift and then next sabbath at 11 30. listen we hope you have a wonderful week take care and please continue to stay safe [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Revision Church Atlanta

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Length: 123min 53sec (7433 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021