Maggie Street Virtual Service 8.23.20

welcome to maggie street missionary baptist church where pastor ezekiel pettway senior is the senior pastor our mission statement our mission is to take the whole gospel to the whole city to be a loving caring and sharing church with christ as our model to train evangelize and make disciples of men to be expressive with our praise and to worship christ the savior in spirit and in truth and to minister to the whole man body soul and spirit [Music] maggie street missionary baptist church worship with us virtually morning worship service at 10 a.m each sunday sunday school at 9 00 a.m each sunday and each thursday evening bible study at 6 00 pm giving just got easier you can give online online giving is available now for members friends and family check out our website for more information at [Music] www.maggiestreetchurch.org follow us on twitter at maggiemsbc happy birthday to everyone celebrating in the month of august and happy anniversary to everyone celebrating in the month of august let's stay together connect with us online via facebook twitter instagram youtube or email join us for our morning devotion prayer call monday through saturday at 6 30 a.m and on sunday at 8 30 a.m the number to call is 978-990-5408 access code 265 [Music] let us now receive our praise team [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] will you help me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] thank you keeping me know [Music] [Music] [Music] only for [Music] [Music] thank you i could have been dead i think [Music] i'm [Music] when i woke up this morning [Applause] i think [Music] one more day [Music] still [Music] [Music] me [Music] is let us now receive pastor ezekiel pettway senior good morning my brothers and sisters what a great day it is in the lord i'm so happy to be here for the word of god said i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord and i am indeed happy to be here this morning i pray that god will bless you beyond your wildest dream i pray that god will continue to keep you and bless you in all that you do let us go to the lord in prayer father in heaven we thank you for this day for we declare with our mouth that this is the day that the lord has made and we are rejoicing and we are glad in it we thank you lord that you allowed us to be on the wake up call list this morning that you allowed us to see another day that we've never seen before and for that god we give you thanks we love you we appreciate and adore you i pray now in the name of jesus that you would allow the word of god to touch our hearts in ways that have never touched us before that you would cause us to see your goodness and to rejoice at what you have already done now father i pray that you would hide self behind the cross don't allow him to be seen or heard but allow the word of god to be preached today with power boldness and conviction to the end that our lives may be better we ask all of these prayers and supplications in the only name that matters in jesus name we do pray amen well god bless you again it's good to be in the house of the lord to worship him once again may i encourage all of you as we worship this morning your worship opportunity to give you can give online by simply going on maggot street website and pressing the green button and giving that way you can also give a man by giving through the mail you can mail it to 642 maggie street montgomery alabama 36106 or you can come by the church we will be here for one hour today from 10 to 11. may i encourage you amen as we have our church anniversary coming up you can still give your 122 dollars for the church anniversary it will air or it will be online on the fifth sunday in this month so may i encourage you if you have not given your 122 dollars you can give that and twenty 122 dollars in on from now until the fifth sunday may i encourage you to do that i know many of you have already given but we wanted to encourage you to let you know that our church anniversary will still take place not only will our church anniversary take place we're going to have three nights of revival that will be coming forth i will let you know uh next week the exact days that we are going to have those three nights of preaching uh preacher will be none other than pastor paul gordon from the engaged christian church so we're looking forward to the revival that's upcoming and we are theme in this revival in times like these and my brothers and sisters in times like these we need jesus if ever there was a time that we needed the lord in our lives and that's been all the time that we need him we sure do need him right now well my brothers and sisters i'm going to go ahead and get right into the word of god this morning i want to call your attention to luke chapter number 15 beginning with verse number 11 all the way down to verse number 24. little lengthy reading but i think it's necessary for us to get all of it so that we can contextualize what it is that we will talk about and put it in context today and he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me and he divided them his living unto them his living and not many days after the younger gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living [Music] and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into the field to feed swine and he would feign have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him and when he came to himself he said how many hired servant of my fathers have bred enough despair and i perish with hunger i will arise and go to my father i will say unto him father i've sinned against heaven and before thee and i'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy higher servants and he arose and came to his father but when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him and the son said unto him father i have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son but the father said to his servant bring forth the best road and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be merry my brothers and sisters today i want to share with you this thought as the spirit of god shall lead i want to talk about how do we get closer to god or how to get closer to god you can even say how can i get closer to god today my brothers and sisters we would consider how we might grow in spiritual health and get closer to god now one might think uh might not think we need a reason to understand why getting closer to god is crucial in growing in spiritual health but let us just sum it up as follow the further away we get from god the more your life is troubled but the closer you get to god the more your life is transformed and i believe that today that sometimes we get too far away from god and we begin to live a life that is filled with trouble now that does not mean because you're in christ and you're transformed that you would not experience trouble but we do know that when we are away from god we tend to experience a greater level of trouble i do believe that in my in my life amen i am assuming we all want to be close to god because we a man are listening online today or we're listening somewhere because we feel like we need a word from the lord during this pandemic it is causing us to deepen our relationship with god because we are not able to come together like we used to it is amazing how we took it for granted that we would always be able to assemble and come to the church you know the bible did tell us over in the book of hebrews amen chapter number nine amen forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as some has forsaken that and now where we find ourselves in a time that we cannot come together we are seeking in what i call a man in some kind of new way of learning to get closer to god because we can't come together so we have to use zoom conference we have to use prayer lines to try to come together so that we can get closer to one another and closer to god so i'm assuming amen that all of us are trying to get closer to god but the bible says in isaiah chapter number 53 and verse number six the new living translation he says all of us like sheep have strayed away we have left god's path to follow our own yet the lord has laid on him the sins of all of us and my brothers and sisters if we would be honest today if we would be truthful with ourselves and truthful to god many of us have strayed off the path of god we've decided because we are grown because we are old enough and we make our own decision we've decided we would do it our way and not god's way we have taken so many things for granted that we feel like just because i'm grown and i'm big enough i can do what i want to do we find out that some of the choices and mistakes that we have made in our life has led us down a path that we never expected we will find ourselves in we found ourselves in places where we where we we realize now that i need god more than i ever needed him in my life we've enjoyed our life we've enjoyed the things that we've done in our life and are doing in our life and we find out that sometimes the stuff that we do it causes us to grieve and to grieve others can you imagine how this father felt when his son came to him asking him for his inheritance here is the part that i believe that rub the father amen but yet he did it anyway here it is the father is still alive and the son is requesting his inheritance amen most of us know that when you are in the family the inheritance normally don't come until after the will has been read but really what this young brother is doing he's saying father i need mine right now i want it now and so what he doesn't realize is that he falls into sin or the trap of sin can i tell you sometimes sin is enjoyable but sin will take you further than you want to go and it'll keep you there a whole lot longer than you want to stay you don't understand the consequences of your action it cost us to sin it cost us to live a life of sin and sometimes you end up losing everything that you have trying to enjoy what we call life amen so today we are going to talk about how to get close to god how to stay close to god and if we have fallen away from god how to get back in close relationship with god i believe there's a word for somebody today that when church was open you would not come you had an opportunity to come and you wouldn't come and you kind of fallen away from god now you're trying to figure out god how can i get closer to you when i had the opportunity to come i did not come well fortunately we have this story in the bible on how to get close to god and stay close to him in in this story it is the story of the prodigal son that we've just read about in luke 15. from this story we will learn four things we need to do to get close to god and this is the pathway to our spiritual transformation i don't know about you but i need a transformation in my life i need a metamorphosis in my life i need god to transform my attitude transform my ways transform my life well first of all you've got to get fed up or let me just use some better english you have to get fed up amen what does that really mean when when when we came amen when he came to his senses look at the text this young brother he's getting fed up and he came to his senses nothing is going to happen in your life until you first get dissatisfied with things as they are in your life currently if you think you are fine then you can sit out there and wait around for the next few weeks or months and you will find out because nothing is going to happen until you recognize you need to change you have got to get hungry you have to get hungry for something to change in your life you have got to get anxious for change nothing happens until you get fed up once you get fed up you're going to start to make some moves in your life the reason why you're not making moves right now the reason why you're not doing anything is because you're not fed up the bible says in in matthew five and six that know that the niv version i want to read it this way blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled that's what the text says when you hunger and thirst after righteousness god will feel you are you there yet are you hungering for the things of god if not just give it a little time god will work will go to work to develop a holy dissatisfaction in you god will begin to work on you to cause you to become dissatisfied with some things in your life what will he do well he'll let a little rain come in your life and if that does not work he'll let a little bit more come in your life and if that does not work he will send a storm in your life why why does god allow storms to come in out in our life because though listen now though god loves you just the way you are he loves you too much to let you stay the way that you are he will do what he can to keep you from wasting your life and can i tell you today that god don't want you to waste your life god wants you to know that he has a purpose for your life that's what he said amen in jeremiah 29 and 11. i know the thoughts that i think towards you the thoughts of good and not of evil to give you an expected in and can i tell you my brothers and sisters there is an old cliche i don't know who came up with it but they said something like this you can lead a horse to water but you can't not make him drink but you can salt put salt in his oats and make him thirsty y'all help me if you get some salt in your oats i guarantee you you'll become thirsty and what god does sometimes he just allow your oats to become salty amen god often makes us thirsty by putting salt in our oats amen whether it is to bring you to him or to bring you back to him god will work to make you aware that you are headed in the wrong direction this is what i like to tell young people no matter how far down the road you go going in the wrong direction you can always make a u-turn that's a word for somebody that you need to understand that no matter where you are how far you have gone wrong you can still make a u-turn can i talk to somebody today that might be productive in their life may have walked out of your mom and daddy's house and you walked out the wrong way you walked out disrespectful but all you have to do is turn and come to your senses you know your mama and dad raise you better than that they didn't raise you to act the way you're acting they didn't raise you to do the things that you are doing all you have to do is make a u-turn and come to your senses amen he really does not have to do much amen to cause us to change because you will be doing most of the work yourself when you are going away from god you will be your own worst enemy sometimes we are our own worst enemy we often like to say people are doing this to me now all my brothers and sisters you are doing it to yourself the bible says watch this amen to obey your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the lord thy god giveth thee brothers and sisters my heart break today for the number of young people who are dying in the street can i tell y'all why they are dying they are dying because they are hard headed they won't listen to their parents they're 16 and 17 years old they can't even get a driver's license harley but they can find a gun amen we've got to talk to our young people to let them know it pays to obey your parents i know you want to be out on your own i know you want to be grown i know you want to do what your friends are doing but at the end of the day as long as your mother and your father are paying your bills putting clothes on your back food in the refrigerator and on the table for you you need to obey your parents listen to me young folk i'm i'm saying this to you because this is what god promised in his word it is the only commandment that has a promise attached to it when it talks about children can i talk to the parents for a moment you have got to stop your children from disrespecting you you got to do that yourself some of the things that we do for our children we go out of our way we buy stuff that we can't afford spend money we don't have trying to a man impress our children or trying to bless them when you are struggling in your life and yet they disrespect you you buy them all kind of games all of this fortnight stuff i know that kids play it but you can't play it 24 7 seven days a week all day long it strikes up something inside of us where you see children playing violent games all day long learning how to shoot guns and kill folks why don't we learn and teach them how to read the bible how to quote scriptures how to love god and how to sit down and read the bible and learn how to quote the 23rd psalm learn how to quote psalm number one learn how to quote psalm 34 learn how to quote first corinthians 13 learn the bible rather than learn violence amen and so my brothers and sisters just like the young man in this parable but just know that when you get fed up when you decide you're sick and tired of being sick and tired that's god knocking at your heart that's god knocking at your door he's telling you that you don't have to stay where you are you don't have to keep doing what you're doing what god is doing he's pulling on your heart and all you have to do is submit to god my brothers and sister well the second thing you have to own up you have to own up and admit i have sinned i own up to my own sins my brothers and sisters i realize i have sinned and i've come short of the glory of god this is the second thing that this young man did and nothing is going to happen in your life until you own up you've got to own up my brothers and sisters and this is important a lot of people today are fed up but they want to blame something or someone else for their dissatisfaction so they look everywhere but to god to fulfill them can you imagine how people are looking for satisfaction in their life they're looking for fulfillment in their life but they look everywhere but to god they look to a man they look to a woman they look to a job they look to drug they look to alcohol they look to sex and none of that fulfills them you've got to look to god for fulfillment they blame others for their troubles they blame god for their troubles they look everywhere else but to themselves for someone or something to blame for their trouble i want you to notice how you spelled the word blame if we put a b and a dash between that b and the l a m e it is being lame when you blame other people or things for your spiritual condition don't be lame stop blaming other people for your condition what is it that you are doing to get closer to god and so you can't blame someone else for you not growing spiritually with god you can't get mad at your sunday school teacher you can't get mad at your pastor you can't get mad at your deacons you have to get mad at yourself you have your own bible how much time do you spend reading your bible how much time do you spend in prayer talking to god rather than on your cell phone rather than on facebook rather than on twitter rather than on instagram you got to spend some time in the presence of god the reason your life is a mess is because you're living life your way and news flash when it comes to life you don't know what you are doing in the first place only the author of life can guide you in living life to the full we need jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the shame amen and despised all of that he endured the cross of suffering and he sat down at the right hand of god the father that is why he has been in your oats as i mentioned earlier he is calling you to get fed up and to own up to the fact that your problem is going your own way instead of his way i believe it's proverb 14 and 12 that says there's a way that seems right unto a man so in other words we do things our own way there's a path before each person that seemed right but it ends in death so so your way and god's way is contrary and when you choose the way you want to go you have to understand there's an end result of your choice and their consequences to your action so the end thereof is the way of death so god is calling us to own up to the fact that your problem is going your way instead of his way and the bible calls this sin and sin is what separates us from god isaiah said it is your sins that have cut you off from god you ever feel like sometimes you're not in relationship with god and the truth of the matter is when you begin to examine yourself you know what it is that have you feeling the way you feel because you know sin is operated in your life and it puts a barrier between you and god and because of your sin listen he has turned away and will not listen to you anymore why should god listen to us if we won't listen to him it's our sin and it was a sin what this young man did there's nothing wrong with god the wrong is in you there's nothing wrong with god the wrong is in you your wrong headed lives caused the split between you and god your sins got between you so that you and that god don't even hear you wow our sin has gotten between us now god don't even hear us whether i'm coming to god for the first time are returning back to god i need to own up to the fact that my problem is i have been going my own way rather than god's way i need to admit my sin and recognize that forgiveness is available because god paid the penalty for my sin by christ's sacrifice on the cross i need to admit my sin and turn away from them and turn back to god the problem with too many people is that they are not fed up but once you are sufficiently fed up you own up you'll say i've been going my way too long i have to turn to god when i do that what is god's response what is god's response when i face up to my sin he freely forgives us the bible says if we confess our sin john first john 1 and 19 that god is faithful and he's just to forgive us of our sin and that he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness listen as psalm 51 verses 1 through 4 and he says this is the psalm of david okay and and he says it this way he says have mercy on me oh god because of your unfailing love because of your great compassion blot out the stain of my sins the next verse if we can get there wash me clean me from my guilt purify me from my sin listen to what david said lord clean me up for now listen to what he said i recognize my rebellion and it haunts me day and night this is called godly sorrow against you listen to what david says now against you and you alone have our sin i've done what is evil in your sight you will prove we will be proved right in what you say and your judgment against me is just david said god the way you've judged me and what you're doing is just because i've sinned i've done the evil even though i thought i was hiding from you because of your judgments you're right you see everything that i do brothers and sisters we can't hide from god even if it's dark we can't hide from it we cannot so when you recognize when you own up to your sin you recognize that your problem is that you are in rebellion and sometimes we don't want to admit that we are rebellious going our own way as opposed to god's way which leads you to cleanse and forgive you and he will cleanse you and he will forgive you the third thing i want to tell you in verse number 19 as we look at luke 15 and 19 and i'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of the higher servants you have to offer up something now not only my brothers and sisters do you have to get fed up not only do you my brothers and sisters have to own up but you have to now offer up something if you want to draw close to god as one coming to him for the very first time or as one returning to him you need to offer up your life to him this is the third thing that we find this young man did first he got fed up came to his senses second he owned up he said i've sinned against god now he is offering up he's offering up his life notice how in verse 12 jesus said the son drifted away this is what he said in verse 12 give me but here in verse 19 he comes back to the father and he says make me like one of your hired hand or a servant brothers and sisters that's transformation when your heart moves from self-centeredness to god-centeredness and brothers and sisters if we ever needed god-centeredness in our church we need it today because there's too much self-centeredness in the body of christ now this transformation does not happen overnight but there is a decision that starts this process you have to make up your mind that you want to change when we look at the greek word uh transform it is a it's a word called metamorpho but it actually it means we get the word metamorphosis from it and so what it what's a metamorphosis when you think about a caterpillar a man becoming a a crusaders and then it goes from their chrysalis into a butterfly that is a metamorphosis my brothers and sisters and it does not happen overnight it does not there's a stage when it forms a little cocoon and then it breaks out as a butterfly and that is so amazing to see that happen we go through a process of changing god made us not a butterfly he didn't make us to be a butterfly but he did make us to soar you have to get through this transformation process transformation is a process but the starting point is what the prodigal son says this is the starting point make me that is offer up make me transform me change me god i do not want to live the rest of my life the way i'm living it right now i need you to change me and i'm offering up my life for you to change me he's saying to the father father i i need change if you if you forgive me i will change romans 12 and 2 says be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god parker can you can you put that in the uh the message translation he says don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking instead fix your attention on god and you'll be changed and we allow the culture around us to change us we allow the culture to change us from what it is we know is right so here's what paul says in verse one so here here's what i want you to do god helping you take your everyday ordinary life you're sleeping eating going to work and walking around life and place it before god as an offering embracing what god does for you is the best thing you can do for him that's what god wants us to do to give ourselves to him i often say this to people god wants to borrow our body for the rest of the time that we are on planet earth and i promise you when he give it back to you he's going to give you a new body one that has been changed like unto his own so no transformation my brothers and sisters will happen until you offer up your life to god so i want to conclude by reading verses 22 23 when we get through this this is the father's response to what the son has done thus far notice now the father did not wait for the son to come home he's he's not waiting for him to come home while he was still a distant away from the father the father ran out to where he was god is waiting for this moment in your life listen what i know about god is that he'll meet you where you are and whatever you're in he'll meet you there and he loves you so much that he'll meet you in your mess but he won't leave you in your mess what he's done with you he's going to clean you up he's going to brush you off he's gonna put you on a new robe he's gonna put shoes in your on your feet and he's gonna celebrate you when you come back to him the bible says when one center repents the angels in heaven rejoice over that one lost soul so he's waiting on you to get fed up my brothers and sisters with your life as it is to own up to your sins and to offer up your life to him and when you do he is ready to receive you but notice he invites you to when you come into him he invites you to come to a party he invites you to come to a celebration how do i get close to god whether i need to come to him or return to him the path is basically the same i get fed up then i own up i offer up but if i'm going to remain close to god if i'm going to remain close to him this is what i have to do i have to lift up now so they began to celebrate look at verse 24. let me read it for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be married so thank you lord thank god for his grace thank him for his love and his mercy thank him for his goodness we need to lift up our praise to god you've got to lift up your praise to him through lifting up our praise and thanksgiving to god we stay close to god that's why the psalm writer says i will bless the lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth my soul should make his boast in the lord the humble shall heal thereof and be glad oh magnify the lord with me and let us exalt his name together listen at the message bible in thessalonians first thessalonians 5 16-18 he says be cheerful no matter what pray all the time god no matter what happens this is the way god wants you who belong to christ jesus to live this is what god wants us to do he wants us to celebrate i know we are in lockdown i know we are in a pandemic but we can still bless the lord we are not able to gather together but we can come together in our home if you live by yourself you are to shout with a voice of triumph your neighbors are the thing that you are having church in your house because you know that god is good and if god has been good to us we are the sing hymns instead of drinking amen and instead of doing all this so crazy stuff sing hymns unto god sing songs from your heart to christ that's what ephesians said ephesians 5 and 19 sing songs from your heart to christ sing praises over everything any excuse for a song to god the father in the name of our master jesus the christ that's what we should do are you fed up if you are then own up are you willing to own up if you are then offer up are you willing to offer up then accept the father's invitation to life and lift up your praise and thanksgiving to him and watch the difference god will make and free you in your life when you lift up a praise unto him brothers and sisters if we are going to get closer to god there are four things we need to do and i've told you you got to get fed up you have to own up amen and i'm i'm guilty i have to own up uh you gotta offer up something that is your life and then you have to lift up a praise unto the god who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you could ever ask or think according to the power that works in us but my brothers and sisters i pray that the word of god has touched you i pray that you want to get close to god and if you want to get close to god you can all you got to do is say lord this is my first time i've never acknowledged you as lord of my life but i want to acknowledge your lord i want you to come into my heart come into my life be my lord and be my god i confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that you have raised jesus from the dead and i want to be saved i want you to be lord of my life and if you're saved and you just drifted away from god and you know you need to get closer to god all you have to do is repent confess your sin because he's just and faithful to forgive you of your sin and then offer up thanksgiving that he didn't take you out while you were away from him so if you're willing to admit that today you can be saved if you're looking for a church home we invite you to call the maggot street baptist church 334-263-3215 you can leave us a message you can send us an email we're looking for members we look forward to hearing from you i want to encourage you once again to continue to practice social distancing continue to wear your mask in public if not for anyone else do it for yourself and keep others safe along the way may i encourage you a man to read luke chapter number eight i may have told you that once before but it's a powerful chapter i want you to read luke chapter number eight uh for your uh daily devotional for your weekly reading until we come together in our bible study as you continue to pray daily well god bless you we love you once again i want to encourage you about our church anniversary and revival coming up i just wanted to reiterate that those things are forthcoming our church anniversary will be the 30th of august it will be in the ten o'clock hour so that's what you're going to see the reverend charles franklin from pleasant hill uh missionary baptist church in yantly alabama will deliver that message well god bless you god keep us our prayer let us pray father we thank you for this day we thank you for the lord jesus christ pray your blessing upon us throughout the rest of the week that you will keep your hand of mercy upon us until we meet again in jesus name amen we'll see you online next time thank you for being a part of our virtual service maggie street missionary baptist church is located at 642 maggie street montgomery alabama

Channel: Maggie Street

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Length: 51min 30sec (3090 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 23 2020