Kingstown Methodist Church Bible Study Session, Tuesday October 05, 2021

okay [Music] [Music] a blessed good afternoon to everyone the hour has arrived for our bible study so we're going to commence at this time i trust you had a good day as we journey through this day october the 5th tuesday october 5th and i pray that you were able to experience god's blessing sister zinzi horn will lead us in our devotions good afternoon everyone i sincerely hope that all is well in spite of everything that's happening around us we want to remember that we can find refuge in the most high god that he is our protection he's our shield he's our guide and he will bear us safely over we can't trust in him for that so as we begin with devotions today i want us to read from psalm 91 we'll read the entire chapter 16 verses and i want us to really pay attention to the words that david was saying in this chapter about god and to god and he was just encouraging himself in the lord that he can be assured of god's protection in spite of everything that's happening okay so i want us to also be assured that once we live in the shelter of the most high you know all will be will so i will read psalm 91 assurance of god's protection [Applause] you who live in the shelter of the most high who abide in the shadow of the almighty will say to the lord my refuge and my fortress my god in whom i trust for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence he will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge his faithfulness is a shield and buckler you will not fear the terror of the night or the arrow that flies by day or the pestilence that stalks in darkness or the destruction that wastes at noonday a thousand may fall at your side ten thousand at your right hand but it will not come near you you will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked because you have made the lord your refuge the most high your dwelling place no evil shall befall you no scourge come near your tent for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways on their hands they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a stone you will tread on the lion and the adult the young lion and the serpent you will trample on the foot those who love me i will deliver i will protect those who know my name when they call to me i will answer them i will be with them in trouble i will rescue them and honor them with long life i will satisfy them and show them my salvation glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is know and ever shall be world without end amen be assured of those words that as they held the truth for david they also hold true for you believers in christ as well and as we come to the end of this devotional time just want us to join together in encouraging ourselves in the lord once more by singing him 189 be still my soul be still my soul the lord is on your side they're patiently leave to your god to water and [Applause] in every change god faithful will remain be still my soul your best your heavenly friend through thorny way leads to a joyful land be still my soul your god will undertake to guide the future as in ages past [Music] let nothing shake all mysterious shall be bright at last be still my soul waves and winds still know the cries to ruled them while he dwelled is when we shall be forever with the lord [Applause] again love's purest joys restored be still my soul when change and tears are passed all safe and blessed said we shall meet at last amen let us bow our heads in pray oh heavenly father you are our father you are our friend you are our god you are our guide our comforter or peace and god even though we acknowledge that you are the god who hems us in about and before you are the god who protects us from harm and danger seen and unseen you are all refuge and god we will hold fast to you though the storms may blow though the winds may pick up though the waves may get choppy we will hold on to you because we are assured of god that you have our best interest at heart and that you are holding our hands even in times of darkness god as your sheep we acknowledge that you are our shepherd and without your god we will have no guide so god even though we are leaning on to you we are leaning into you we are throwing ourselves onto you god because we know that your arm will not fail but the arm of flesh will feel us so god even though i pray that your word will sanctify us that your word will renew our strength that your words will transform us that your word will encourage us in you so god even though i pray a special blessing on every single person here today present in the chapel and those who will tune in online god we thank you for the opportunity to gather to study your word and as we sit here and as we discuss and as we ponder on your word god i pray that it will touch us in a very deep place that when we hear the word we will not be the same ever again god i thank you for all that you have done in our lives we thank you for all that you are doing even now and we thank you for what you will do we commend ourselves to you individually and collectively as a society as a nation god we know that you sit high but you look low so even though a lot is going wrong or seems to be difficult right now we thank you that you are our light and we thank you that we can trust in you and that we can be assured of your protection and it is in no other name but in the wonderful and mighty name of jesus christ your son our lord that we pray amen [Music] i just wanted to say a word of welcome again to everyone who is here in the chapel i know eyes will be joining us shortly as well as those who are on youtube as well as our members who are unable to attend and who are on zoom today we are going to be doing our first part of two parts entitled purpose and ministry and this first part deals with john the baptist over the last two weeks we would have dealt with the family circle and particularly in those two families we talk about the intimacy of the family and we talk about the family and the community and out of those two situations we had john the baptist and jesus being born and so we are going to have the study now on john the baptist he has grown up and there is a scripture that describes him verse 80 of chapter one [Music] the child grew and became strong in spirit and he was in the willingness until the day he appeared publicly to israel so here was someone who from a very young age was spirit filled spirit laid and here was someone that lived a strict and ordered life and so the whole question of the wilderness represented a type of lifestyle that he lived almost a life where he was set apart he pulled himself apart as he prepared for that which god had purpose for his life i know that there are situations in the environment in in the community where we can belongs to groups that can help us to be set apart so to speak and even as we grow into adult life they are situations where you can be set apart and so we are going to be looking at some of those this evening the reading for this evening is luke chapter 3 verses 1 to 20. and this is the reading that really focuses on john the baptist what the community was like and also his ministry we're going to ask zinzi to wait for us that pass the scripture the reading is from luke 3 from 1 to 20. it's titled the proclamation of john the baptist in the 15th year of the reign of emperor tiberius when pontius pilate was governor of judea and herod was ruler of galilee and his brother philip ruler of the region of ethereal and tracheonitis and lysenius ruler of abilene during the high priesthood of anas and caiaphas the word of god came to john son of zechariah in the wilderness he went into all the region around the jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet isaiah the voice of one crying out in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord make his path straight every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth and all flesh shall see the salvation of god john said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruits worthy of repentance do not begin to say to yourselves we have abraham as our ancestor for i tell you god is able from these stones to raise up children to abraham even though the ax is lying at the roots of the trees every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the file and the crowds asked him what then should we do in reply he said to them whoever has two courts must share with anyone who has none and whoever has food must do likewise even tax collectors came to be baptized and they asked him teacher what should we do he said to them collect no more than the amount prescribed for you soldiers also asked him and we what should we do he said to them do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation and be satisfied with your wages as the people were filled with expectation and all will questioning in their hearts concerning john whether he might be the messiah john answered all of them by saying i baptize you with water but one who is more powerful than i is coming i am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals he will baptize you with the holy spirit and file his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the weed into his granary but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire so with many other exhortations he proclaimed the good news to the people but herod the ruler who had been rebuked by him because of herodias his brother's wife and because of all the evil things that herod had done added to them all by shutting up john in prison this is the word of the lord we have a very important reading there and it points out a number of things just to help you get a perspective if you can see the screen we're going to bring up the map showing the river jordan and some of the areas around the river jordan and just to give you an idea that john would have been proclaiming his message in a fairly wide area so therefore you can you can agree that he would have been traveling from place to place as he proclaimed the good news repentance and forgiveness of sins [Music] those of you with bibles with maps at the back of the bibles you you'll be able to pick up [Music] um a map dealing with the lifetime of jesus the life and ministry of jesus and that will give you an idea as well okay not all the bibles will have mass but most of them do okay okay as we pursue um through this passage we are going to be talking a little bit the first two verses highlight a point in history so the look is very particular remember i said at the very beginning three weeks ago that luke had written this book to bring truth to bear on the situation he wanted the one who he wrote about the theophilus as well as other persons to have the truth about jesus and part of the truth is to place the event in history and this is what he has done here so let's look at it a little bit we're not going to go through in all detail but we're going to pick up some very important things that will help us first of all the roman empire was the government the roman empire was the government now we have been trying in the caribbean the east the english-speaking caribbean to have a state of caricom that will have an element of free movement and we have not been able to achieve that i know the eastern cabin islands have done that and so in the ec once you are citizen in the ec you're able to move freely living and working the roman empire was similar from asia minor all the way back to spain which of course would have included great britain and france the people were able because they were all part of this roman government system they were able to move freely to travel freely and to work freely across that entire landscape there were no barriers so you can say that something good what's happening in the community in terms of the having that freedom of movement freedom to associate freedom to live um essential freedom to work okay but there were some things that we need to lift up for you emperor tiberius and the emperor was like the head in the commonwealth for example we talked about the queen being the head of the king and the emperor was the one who headed the roman government emperor e-m-p-e-r-o-r and he was would have been head of the roman empire and [Applause] tiberius was known to be a very cruel and severe person pontius pilate and princess pilate would have come as one of those persons before whom jesus was strayed and he was known to be brutal and insensitive and we need to be aware these are the leaders of the community coming to the fore okay functions pilot for example would have been and the the governor as they indicated here over a particular region herod was corrupt and cruel [Music] campus was the high priest and his father-in-law announced and these are names that are mentioned in those two verses was very influential among the priests and you will remember that when we were going through chapter one that we would have heard and read that zechariah the father of john was one of the priests so we had a situation where on one hand there was this kind of cruel behavior insensitive behavior brutal and corrupt behavior and then on the other hand we had things happening under um great influence by persons like anus okay and as you know when some person is very instrument and very influential that person can either lead you the right path or your sphere quite easily if you're not strong enough to stand up against it let's talk a little bit how do leaders and partner societies so we read about these leaders we have a sense of what these leaders were like how do you think that they would have impacted their society and even today how do you see our leaders in part in our society community whatever phrase you want to use we have the mic so once you raise your hand they might be brought to you how do leaders impact their society their community any idea anybody want to share thought [Music] no [Music] authority yeah um we said that again from the beginning authoritarian they they are in authority and they use that to impact the people within the states right so they use they can use the authority to do that which they want to do and based on the kind of person then maybe you recognize what can happen okay even in terms of past and laws and whatnot it all depends on this person but definitely they can use the authority okay anybody else how do leaders impact their society their community one good answer they use the authority okay do you think that leaders use their influence as well yes leaders do use their influence as well so we're not not just about anus who was a priest but also members of the governmental system can also use the influence of people in order to impact them and therefore we really have to prayer all the time that the persons who are in government the person who have some rule over us at any level of society because we must not think of rule as being only in civil society um employers for example have tremendous weight and influence over us in the places of employment the um churches um have a system of governments and things of that sort and we really have to pray that all of those persons who are in positions of rule and authority are persons who are being guided by god and who are living by the principles of christianity principles of love principles of forgiveness principles of generosity and caring and sharing okay we have to pray that because if they are not and if they are brutal and cruel then we can really suffer at their hands okay anybody else want to see anything no one [Music] okay we have another response coming up shortly um you name a number of areas where um the influence and the impact of the leaders can be seen i would want to hold up in the area of justice we would want leaders who are proponents and not only by saying the word justice but who by their rule the the principles of their rule are just and that's very important justice is very important and when we are talking about justice we're not only talking about people feeling that what is happening to them is fear but we're also talking about the leaders acting in a way that may even be unbiased okay um so therefore we have to take seriously the whole question of justice particularly against the background of the laws that are being set okay [Music] now in the verse that i read from chapter 1 verse 80 we would have read about john being in the wilderness and i mentioned how it represented a particular lifestyle it represented him being apart from society he also represented him being prepared and because he said that he was there until the time when he started his ministry so john heard and answered the call of god while in the wilderness and the willingness then must not be seen only as a location that is lonely a location that is bare a location where they have stones and things of that sort but we must see it as a place where he was preparing himself he prepared himself for god to use him he prepared himself for god to use him a question that we can answer is how do we prepare ourselves or how do we help younger persons to prepare themselves they are younger persons and of a miss in our homes in our communities who might be preparing for a particular career path of particular vocation such as ministry how do you think that they can prepare themselves and how have we in the past prepared ourselves for whatever path we were on because we are coming to something that is very important and that is purpose and we're going to come there shortly so what do you think how can we prepare ourselves what are some of the things that we can do john prepared himself to hear god speaking to him and so he was able to answer the call of god upon his life how can we prepare ourselves even even now as christians as leaders in the church as members of the church how can we prepare ourselves to even live a more effective christian life [Music] no one okay all right so let me see if i can kick off the discussion this way let's talk about ourselves trying to walk a closer walk with god a more deliberate christian life in the first place our scheduling of life and the things that we're involved in will be ordered and managed managed from the point of view that there are some things that we will toss aside and there are other things that we get involved in depending on what it is you want to get what it is you want to achieve okay and it is very important that we have the discipline [Applause] to order our lives in a particular way that we are not just moving from pillar to post as they were saying because other people are doing it but we but we know what it is we want to achieve you know what god wants us to do and so you're preparing yourself for it and even in terms of studying that we have to spend time in studying we have to spend time and personal reflection and and setting ourselves apart so to speak okay so the things that we will be engaged in in the society we can put a dividing line and said these are the things that i will be involved in and these are the things that i will discover so that even when our friends and particularly the young ones come and say but come and do a particular thing you're able to say no no no that is not beneficial to me that kind of thing that is one important way in which we can order our lives as well and prepare ourselves to hear from god now if we are talking here about preparing ourselves to hear from god then we have to be listening to god and therefore the whole idea of setting aside pacific times when and quiet we can hear god we remove ourselves from the noise and the hustle and bustle and just quietly we can spend time listening to god and hearing him speaking to us because we must have that connection with god okay can we have somebody add one okay there's an online contribution [Music] prayer study the word and songs so definitely prayer that set aside time i remember that as we set aside time to pray it is not enough for us just to be talking to god it is important also that we be quiet in the presence of god and allow ourselves to hear what god is saying to us even by the things among us because god is able to speak to us even by the things that we are able to see around us okay but definitely very important [Music] studying god's word as we do here on on tuesday evenings and and it's very important that we see this theme of studying god's word has tremendous benefit to us one of the things that i really must commend you for is that almost every single person comes with a notebook and they're taking their notes and that is commendable because it shows that you're serious about about grasping the information so studying god's word is not just a matter of reading and going along but taking time to understand and to study god's word and then the whole idea of the atmosphere making sure that you live within that atmosphere um by singing the kind of songs that you engage in singing okay to help you and that is why the whole emphasis about john and the willingness was so important that he did not allow what was happening in the community to distract him but rather he took the time to start to prepare himself so that god can use him at the right time okay [Music] john fulfilled his purpose by pushing and by being a forerunner for jesus john fulfilled his purpose by pushing and being a forerunner for jesus and the question that we need to be able to answer what is our purpose for living what is our purpose for living thomas scala says that a life before the purpose is like a ship before the weather that means that is nothing guiding it it's going all over the place and if it's going all over the place then you can understand that what can happen to you is that you can jump from one thing to the next just just moving but no no real direction or no real objective in why you're doing what you're doing and sometimes no will feel within you either and and that can happen to us and therefore we have to keep asking god god show me what is my purpose in life help me god to understand my purpose and to live that purpose okay um for me just working and doing things earning a dollar as you will see was good until one day i was able to connect with what was my purpose in life i remember as a young man in my early adult life being a member of the army the babylonian regiment and also being one involved in playing second division cricket and those things those two things were two things that i loved very much and they dominated a lot of my time but at the same time i was connected with the church and things like sunday school etc then it suddenly dawned on me that there was a special love and a drawing on my spirit to work in the church among the people whether there were people who were members of the church or people from the community rather than just going to the army or going and playing quickly and while i continued doing that those two things were no longer dominant [Music] working among people serving people became dominant and in every area of my life after that even my career path it was about people and serving people that was the dominant thing okay so that even my training as a customer service specialist and whatnot was about people and when you and i connect to our purpose the purpose that god has put us here for you know it you know it because number one your spirit speaks it yo it comes from deep down inside the satisfaction it's that's not satisfaction that comes because you're earning money only by satisfaction that comes whether you're earning money or not in deep satisfaction there's an awareness that that is what god wants you to do and it's very important that all of us reach the point where we can say i am living out my purpose people may start at different ages okay but the point is can we say that can we look back and see that we have deliberately prostrate other things in order to live our purpose and for john the baptist he his purpose was to preach against what he was happening in the community and also to be the forerunner for jesus okay that was his purpose he was not the messiah and he made up quite clear for those who asked him can we have some responses from the youngsters [Music] my young friend here where you know with your job and life and whatnot we're talking about the purpose are we talking about the purpose the purpose it's like life first of all i understand life as a journey for every christian so there is a mission we are coming to accomplish on earth so now the issue is to discover in which area you need to to work on because many people have not been able to discover their their real mission on earth they are rather in the right place but at the wrong time or they are the wrong time but the right place so we need to know the right time and the right place so we could serve the lord and where does god want us to be so that's all right and that's that's an important thing that you just mentioned that is not only knowing the purpose but also acting in the right time and being in the right place that god can fully use you thank you for sharing that with us anybody else since they're going to share thought with us [Music] um i think about it i think about purpose a lot because i don't believe that we should just live you know haphazardly just doing things because i guess either they are pleasurable or you're being paid to do it it's more about as you know he said your mission what is your mission what did god bring you on earth to do you know we all have a purpose god brought us here for a reason um and i could say currently i am trying to discern the will of god for my life and discover what my purpose is what is the reason that god has brought me here and i do believe it is somewhere in service of other people serving person serving you know creation um in my in my previous job it was also about service service to the younger persons in society are students i was a teacher um and currently i'm trying to discern what else what what other way i am to be of service to others now growing up in my life i have always been afraid of natural hazards meaning hurricanes earthquakes volcanic eruptions all of those things i'm afraid of those things i was still am kind of so i decided the best way is probably to learn about them so i started learning about hazards um and over the years i became more passionate about the science you know how they how they come about what do they do how can we walk around living with them and i do believe from that from that fair um came my passion and i believe also that my purpose lies in that realm of hazards and disaster risk management so currently i'm trying to find out what it is that where god wants me to go in terms of that direction what particular area in the overall field and ultimately it is to serve others because we know here in the caribbean we are plagued by many of these hazards and we will be until jesus comes back so um it's helpful to be able to have persons who can help you know lessen the effect that they would have on earth preserve life and property and these things so purpose is very important it doesn't only have to be in terms of church it can be in any way you can serve the lord through many different ways you know so that's just what i have to say thank you very much for sharing that and it is a journey right it's a journey trying to really figure out what is what it stays and really getting into it anybody on this side sister nell [Music] i i have i agree with sister cindy but i i would share a little bit about my latter years um sometimes when you get promotion and you're not spiritually oriented you at a you're at a point where you're wondering should i or shouldn't i and i would say in my latter years when that point came i just kind of took it you know i prayed and for me it was more important what god wanted me to do um stay true to his word be honest do things righteously and just serve others so even though early on you mentioned you know leaders and government and all of that i think we too as leaders wherever we planted have a responsibility on the god to do what is right so had i gone in on that different realm with this pumper saw this um herald attitude well i am there and i am there then god could not use me so i had to humble myself always and i've been praying about that most of my life i had to humble myself to literally point okay god this is where you planted me and regardless to what happens this is where you're gonna use me so i didn't have any qualms or whatever this was where god planted me and whether or not it was where he was gonna leave me that was up to him so if i used to say i i am happy to say that him by his grace and his mercy he planted me and he used me and i still remain humble i still remain humble and i did what he had called me to do so again your purpose it must be you it must be prayerfully you must um find out if this is where god and justice even in our class we were discussing that you must find out if this is god's will for your life and if it will if it is you will blossom and you will grow thank you well saved um it's very important that we really discover what is god's word for us and the truth is that if it is not god's will for us many times we can phosphate ourselves and and it's better for us to move and allow god to really guide our lives that is very important word that you shared with us [Music] john's ministry was one of calling people to turn from the wicked ways and to do good and you recognize that not only the leaders as we indicated were persons that had some questionable behavior attached to them but also when a group of persons came to john he said but who won you build up vipers now that was a very harsh description because vipers are snakes dangerous and a brood means a group of them and what he was in fact pointing to is a lot of behaviors that we will associate with vipers you know on the ground sneaking that kind of thing and so that the society was we can say what a wicked society a society that our persons were unfilled and things of that sort in fact if we look at some of the things that were highlighted in the passage or that has been highlighted we'll read a couple of them so here the close asking john in verse 10 what must we do and he says to them whoever has two corks two courts must share if anyone who has none and whoever has food must do likewise so right away he's talking about a society that was obviously selfish and self-centered and he was calling them to be a caring and sharing society and as i read um the three things and the four things that we're going to talk about you you can see that it comes back to our everyday living remember i said to you that as we go through this book of luke we're not simply going to be talking about biblical things and leaving it there but we need to ask ourselves how are those things related to us how how can we identify with what is happening and clearly um we can identify even in this covered environment with persons perhaps leaving losing their job and and in need how can we help how can we share or can we care for them okay even task collectors came to be baptized and they asked him what shall we do and he said collect no more than the amount prescribed to you so it's speaking here of honesty and revenge on a spoke of fair play program justice so honesty and fair play of greatness because the tax collectors were persons who unfilled others by taking more than a jew in order that they themselves would become rich and so he pointed them to the whole question of honesty and of greatness and justice and again it goes beyond tax collectors all of us can we can identify with that he goes on and another group of persons soldiers ask him and what about us do not extort money from anyone by trust or false accusations and be satisfied with your wages and you know i don't know about the police service here but in many in many countries it is alleged that many persons are brought before the court by and by being forced okay you get confessions and they're forced to give certain types of confession and so much so that in some country they have introduced the video taking of information from accused persons so that they're able to see everything on what's going on i'm so that you can see that in every walks of life even in the church we have to ensure that we are treating persons fairly that we're not unfair in them that we're not trying to twist their hand for them to respond but whether we are being fear and open and sensitive to them and so that you can see that the wickedness that prevailing sincerity was not something foreign that we cannot identify with there are clearly things there that we can relate to okay and it's very important therefore that we that we recognize what john was calling people to and he's calling them to turn from these ways and to do good the word repent is to turn around okay first of all to feel sorry for that which you're doing and to turn around for example if i'm going in this direction and i recognize that i'm going the wrong way the only way to get on the right track if i turn around and move in the other direction and the same thing you cannot talk about repenting of your sins and then the very things are that which keeps happening all the time so we have to turn our lives around and john was pointing that if person really felt sorry for what they are doing they will repent of it and that god will forgive them okay and that is the message of john the baptist of course when we come to jesus we're going to see more than that being added okay significantly more than that because i i always say that these people having made their confession etc then had to go back and live their lives in their own strength and this is where jesus comes to the fore and john was right john pointed out that someone will come greater than me and that someone will baptize you with the holy spirit because it is the holy spirit that we really need to help us to do what is right and to go the right way now one of the accompanying religious godhead sister [Music] given that we spoke earlier um that we have leaders not necessarily in government alone leaders across the board and they are persons of influence how do we as christians are not even christians how do we remain faithful to faith in the faith of these ungodly leaders who may be bringing in legislation the lg btq that we know is ungodly how do we remain faithful when we have ungodly leaders especially if you look in countries [Music] like the u.s and the uk where all these laws are coming out and sooner or later they will come to our region who do how can we these saints and encourage others to how can we remain faithful to god um in light of these ungodly legislations and other things where people are influencing us [Music] um you asked a very important question sister and we actually gonna come to an aspect there where john the baptist is going to be thrown into jail for standing up for principle and the same thing threatens us and we have to be very guarded that we are not silenced but that we continue to be militant in fighting for what is right if all of us kept quiet and don't say anything don't object anything that is being done going wrong wrong will prevail you know it is said that that um good man evil evil strive when good men keep fired so we can decide to keep quiet be nice and respectable and orderly don't do anything and evil can prevail all around or we can be militant but remember that being militant sometimes is going to cause us even or lays one of the issues that the question faced um i need to go back and say to you and that would have come up when we were doing when we began to do the one later down in law that the question were persecuted but the christians were not persecuted certainly because they represented a religion the christians were persecuted because they refused to worship the emperor they stood for something that they knew was wrong they stood against it they stood for the principle of worshiping god and him only and they become enemy number one in society and they were persecuted and a very interesting thing is that they continue to talk about jesus they continue to worship jesus and even though they had to run away because of the persecution wherever they went they took jesus with them and so christianity continued to spread and spread and spread and therefore the answer to the question sister is that we have to stand up for what is right we have to speak up for what is right we have to keep fighting even an orderly manner for what is right [Music] our godly leaders now because you have priests ordained who know the truth the naughty word but you have priests or whatever they may be called who um are a part of a soul lgbtq god say a man from a man was created for a woman but then you have them you know interpreting the word differently and then these are our leaders on the pulpit who are um they interpret the bible in their own way and now we're marrying man and marion you know woman marrying woman so how how do we remain faithful you know do we uproot well thank god we don't have that problem in st vincent but then again it's also affecting our methodist persons who are also overseas our young students who will go because they will study and come into contact with these beliefs it's something that we can that we have to deal with because um sooner rather than later they're going to be facing us square on and we can't run away from it we have to face up to it i i know that in the united states the the church there might very well be split into those who are poor and those who are against and we just have to keep on keeping the right side okay anybody um john if you want to say anything um sister one of the first things we need to do is make sure that we are informed so that we are not fighting the wrong battles because sometimes we can exude a lot of energy use a lot of time but we're fighting the wrong battles or we're using the wrong armor so one they have to make sure that they're informed so that we choose the right battles to fight and of course one of the things that as christians we have to remember that ephesians tells us that it is not flesh and blood battles that we are fighting but principalities are powers it might resemble flesh and blood but it is not flesh and blood and earlier uh prayer was one of the disciplines or practices spiritual practices which um we were told that we should use to find our purpose and of when we embrace and practice that spiritual discipline of prayer even such issues as the one that you highlighted god through the power of the holy spirit will show us how to respond and learn to respond the brothers spoke about doing the right thing at the wrong time so that's another thing a lot of energy we can use we can use a lot of words but if it's not in the right place or at the right time then it just as the young people will say it's just another hot here that they're blowing so we need to be informed and we need to always remember it's a spiritual battle sometimes we're fighting each other as human beings then it is not the human it is the spirit behind the human or the spirit inside of the human that we should be wrestling against okay thank you um we can we can move to anybody else want to say anything come i understand what you saying rev but my concern is god has given us his word and you have leaders ungodly leaders who may be interpreting the word to suit their own thoughts or their own purpose now how do we as saints who go by the world who read and who pray and who have a a relationship with god and who when we really got the word he pulls into us and he guides us and he reveals his truth now we know what reward is and i say the this is not just the lgbtq it's other things because we have our own issues here where there is a pending case um where two persons are looking at our constitution they act we actually have a case here how do we as christians godly people who were brought of any faith and the admission of the lord we know our purpose you know how do we remain faithful to the world when you have persons who use god's pulpit to proclaim ungodly truths yes i understand what you're saying where we we have to be persecuted and you know this test would prove whether or not we remain faithful or whether we because they have leaders in the church if you listen world news who decide okay i'm going to interpret this part of scripture differently and who join on the bandwagon and all of these you know they are powerful persons they impact aid to the caribbean and the impact ultimately what would happen to our economy so i mean we how do we as a people in the methodist church as a people in san francisco how do we remain faithful and i know webb says we pray but ultimately you're prosecuted you want to be persecuted yeah it has to go beyond praying and and you're pointing ready to a very serious cabin issue because with the cabin people depending so much on air from developed country and many times tied on to the air is that you have to accept certain things and we have to stand up against it even in the face of not getting the aid it is a serious issue and it's not something that we can just brush on the table sister the nelly has given the answer that is the answer to it that's the answer to what she said how we deal with it yes it is yeah all right but but it's something that i'm going to during the study of look i'm sure something isn't going to come up that we can raise this issue again um the whole question though is that john despite the number of persons who were coming to him despite how persons was so impressed that they began they began to wonder is this the messiah and with his feet you talk about cincinnati talked about being humble remaining humble on his feet to the ground he did not tear the glory unto himself but he pointed to jesus and he indicated clearly that while he was calling persons to repent etc there was some and while he was going to be baptized in person there was someone mightier than him who will come and who will baptize not with water but with the holy spirit and one of the lessons that we can learn from that is that we really need to recognize who is the ultimate and point persons there we need to point persons to christ at all times we need to make sure that the glory is not ours but the glory goes to god we need to make sure that happens in every area of our lives can we point persons to jesus okay and quite interestingly as we go through this book we will see that apart from this chapter that is dedicated to john the baptist from here on we're going to be talking about jesus and jesus's ministry all the way up to the very end because ultimately it is about jesus it's not about us it's not about john the baptist it's not about any of the great religious leaders it's about jesus [Music] the one through whom we are saved um any particular noise from the online that we want us to look at whether kevin okay there's a quick there's one here marry my first son there is nothing new under the sun though we walk in the valley of the shadow of death god is with us we must keep talking to god sister she unless she was addressing that to you and the true faith we have to remain faithful we have to remain faithful we have to each of us individually must be strong in the lord we have to keep being strong in the lord individually and when each of us [Music] is able to do that individually then the collective will be strong it cannot be a case where everybody turn weak and then one person supposed to be strong each of us might be strong in the lord may be grounded in the lord our faith my standing test of time and history will show that humanity went through situations over the years and the people had to fight the holiness movement the holiness movement that was in many ways led by the lutherans the moravians the methodists in particular a whole lot of denominations holiness denominations came out of the methodist church it's because we stood up against the might of the catholic church that took the priest and burn them at the state in the space and what not right but the people prevail and you know we are called the protestants church protestant the protestant the protestant because we protested we protested and while it is true that that had to do with doctrine in terms of salvation the point is we have to stand up for something as well right and we have to be firm in doing that [Music] now as they say that john was in prison even though he did wait [Music] and perhaps you can ask yourself how does that make us feel cincinnati how did that make you feel to see that somebody like john the baptist was thrown into jail because he did wait it's the truth and righteousness and i would make that stance too because even while he was in jail he was doing god's work as long as you stand for truth and it comes back again to my own small testimony if i if i was absorbed with not you know fame or whatever but i as long as you doing god's purpose you have to be mindful that nobody should be able to influence you or bribe you or do anything that would distract you from god's purpose and god's will right so i i agree with what john the baptist and a chapter that we can identify with axe the broker box chapter when he was thrown into jail chapter 16 paul and paul and silas thrown into jail and what was what was the claim that they had proclaimed jesus and the the gangs and the hooligans and everybody um was encouraged to attack them to beat them to treat them badly and also after being bitten beaten and all of that they were thrown into jail and but god's word prevailed they kept the faith they kept the faith and the scripture says that at midnight they were singing praises unto god and midnight midnight must not be seen as just the hour of the clock but it must be seen as the darkest hour in their lives and at that darkest hour they were singing praises to god and god delivered them and so the whole struggle of doing what is right in the face of opposition and the opposition is going to come from different angles the opposition may come from different persons uh different areas of society but we have to stand for what is right okay um and and this is a very important point that you raise sister and you can see that how this process ends off that despite all that john did in calling the people to a life of righteousness something that should have been good for the society herod threw him into prison because heaven didn't like the judgment of john upon his own life because john had stood up to herod and told him that what he was doing was wrong what he wanted to do in terms of his brother was wrong okay and there are times when we have to stand up okay so do not think for one minute that because we are doing weight because we are in the church because our faith is strong that life is going to be a better roses that is not true that is not true but we can hold on to the fact that god is able and with god we are still in the majority and we have to hold on to our faith in god you can't give up you can't give up and as janice corelli said just make sure that we are fighting the right battles and not just fighting for the sake of fighting now just standing up for the circumstance let's make sure that we have the facts and that we are fighting the correct battle okay [Music] okay we're going to we're going to close here but before we close anybody has any question whatsoever no matter what it is now they want to ask any questions or comments about anything [Music] anything at all okay let's spend some time let's stand um sisters lindsay common you have your own microphone right you have a microphone okay let's come and sing some courses let's have a wonderful time of praise and the lord we will sing for the next 10 minutes and then we'll close [Music] if you raise the pores we'll sing it um brother is going to help us on the drums we are together again let's praise the lord [Music] let's free up ourselves perhaps you would have had a a tyrant there today i know everybody is worried about corvette and we're very careful even the numbers are being restricted because of prophet let's praise the lord that we worship a living god and that he gonna see us through any situation that we may be faced with where's the course my dear we are together again praising the lord we are together again something good is going to happen something good is in store we are together again [Music] we are together again something good is going to happen something good isn't so we are together again praising the lord [Music] this god [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] miracle working god he is a miracle working god my god is a wonder he is a miracle my god is a miracle working god my god is miracle working god my god is a miracle working good my god is a wonder he is tell me [Music] he tell me who has the finest he makes foreign father will give you hearty thanks and praise for the journey through this day thus far we thank you god for that which you were able to do for good the hours just pass we thank you god for our work the areas of employment be being able to use our skills we thank you god for your claim upon our lives and your guidance of us in every way we thank you for enabling us to know our purpose and to live our purpose according to your will we thank god for our homes for our loved ones for all those associated with us and the ways that we can be good examples to them we thank you mighty god for your hand upon our study this evening and that which you were able to learn and discuss continue to draw us closer to you continue god to use your word to open our understanding and help us how to know how to live life meaningfully according to your will for us as we leave and go to our homes we pray that you will take us home safely those of us who will have to travel we pray oh god that you will help us to have a deep and renewing sleep in jesus and if it is your will that we will raise tomorrow to a new and glorious day to live for your honor unto your glory for those who are sick we pray god for your healing touch upon their lives even as we join them in releasing faith for those who are mourning god we pray that you will strengthen and undergird them as they go through this challenging stage of their lives for those who are fierce with life's challenges and are perplexed and worried and frustrated we pray god that you'll be afraid to them ministering to them at their point of need that we will give assistance by being kind and considerate and caring so our blessing we ascribe to you god our honored glory in the name of jesus christ our lord and savior amen and the grace of our lord and savior jesus christ the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with us all now and forevermore are men and amen a pleasant night to everyone get home safely everybody and take good care of yourself [Music] remember you

Channel: Kingstown Methodist

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Id: F-0a-FBvD6Y

Length: 88min 16sec (5296 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 05 2021