Market Street SDA Church - September 18, 2021

[Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so yeah [Music] i will [Music] [Music] no is [Music] in time [Music] the source of my strength [Music] you are the strength of i lift my hands in [Applause] [Music] our heavenly father you are our strength you are the source of everything we've come to you this morning just thanking you so much for your many blessings we thank you for giving us the opportunity to worship you on this your sabbath day as we lift up our holy hands and praise for bringing us throughout the week so we ask that that you would be with this us today as we worship you we bow down before you we ask for your holy spirit to be with us as he walks up and down the aisles giving us the strength and the courage to make the right decisions we thank you oh god for being such a wonderful god and today we worship you and invite you into this is our sanctuary for this we pray in the blessed name of jesus and forsake amen [Music] you are the source of my strength [Music] you are the strength of my life [Music] [Applause] to you again [Music] amen [Music] oh man yes one thing have i desired of the lord that one thing will i seek for that i may dwell within his house and inquire in his temple and behold the beauty of the lord for him of worship this morning let us turn to page 100 great is thy faithfulness the power in which the song was written let's sing with that power great is thy faithfulness [Music] together [Music] will is [Music] is [Music] summer and winter time springtime [Music] [Applause] is [Music] oh [Music] that [Music] oh 10 000. [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] hey man you may be seated great is our faithfulness lord unto thee we want to welcome you this morning to the market street seventh-day adventist church 934th street oakland california what a blessing it is to be able to be in the house of the lord and give god praise this morning for what he has done for us let's show god some praise this morning great is his faithfulness we thank him for what he has done for us we want to welcome those who are tuning in through live stream around the world we want to welcome you this morning to our market street church family today is personal ministry day and we're so grateful to be here with our personal ministry team led out by our sister evangeline mcneil our personal ministry leader and we're grateful as we have uh special guests in the house today and we're so grateful for the ba to give god praise for that we thank god for his mercy and we thank him for his grace uh this morning uh we have um several names that we have for birthday that is this week we got uh jacqueline uh chancellor dawson and almost also jeremiah uh chancellor birthday is today we want to sing happy birthday to them but i got the person today with me that wrote our birthday song and i'm going to ask her to come and join me at this time that's my sister-in-law sonia sampson come on y'all give her a hand this morning give her a hand and uh join with me as we sing the birthday song now since she wrote the song i'm gonna let her do the she gonna do not only the course like we normally do i'ma let her do the whole song is that okay everybody get the whole song all right so it goes like this the verse growing like an evergreen tree time moves faster than the eye can see a sunrise sunset another day's coming on life keeps moving on and on but today we stop to celebrate your day your life your birthday and you know it so happy birthday to you happy birthday to you today we celebrate the day god gave the gift of life to one more time happy birthday happy birthday to you happy birthday to you today we celebrate the day god gave the gift of life to you today we celebrate today we celebrate the day god gave the gift of life to you [Music] [Applause] at this time we have some announcements uh that we're going to share from this from the screen at this time uh brother jeff as you load those up um as we share our announcement thank again my sister-in-law uh sister sonia sampson um since uh she's been here all week helping me uh taking care of my father-in-law where i took care of my wife some of you know she had a uh operation on monday a surgery on monday and everything went well we were able to keep upstairs for at least two days for two days the next thing i know she was downstairs down them steps and from that day on we couldn't con couldn't keep her down from that point amen but for two days and she's doing well so let's go with the announcements uh brother jeff all right on uh this is our african-american uh ministry uh virtual con conference this year we are not having in-house you know market street was the host host uh location for friday night and grand advent was for sabbath but we're going to do virtual because of the pandemic that is the delta that has increased and these are speakers dr wesley knight will be our keynote speaker and these are all the speakers that we will have during that time um our next one please okay also pastor williams is going to join me because we have one announcement uh for our youth uh that he's gonna share with you at this time as well yes good morning happy sabbath church good to see you this morning the media team should be posting a flyer but last year during the pandemic we have an annual junior senior and freshman sophomore for all of our high school students across our conference led by our youth pastors on the direction of our youth director this year we are back in person at the mount gilead christian camp because we usually have it at leone meadows but that's not operational right now so we will be at the mount gilead christian camp so please if you have high school juniors or seniors that are interested in a retreat a spiritual retreat where we will talk about surge surging the kingdom forward please reach out to me and we will get you signed up and ready to go thank you all right all right also um today on our personal ministry uh we have dr kendall guy always from new york new york amen they said the city so nice you had to name it twice amen last night his flight was delayed i think we got home around about 11 30 by the time we got through talking it was about one o'clock and but we here amen amen and i had him up early this morning so he could get here i told him i had to go to cyber school amen amen so i got him and so i thank him for being here with us also this evening at three o'clock what time i said what time did i say everybody three o'clock there's a special presentation that dr king of god is going to give in regards to personal ministry and we the person ministry team has put together a meal for those who plan to stand by and stay for the three o'clock meeting and so make sure if you stand for the meeting the meal is for those who are standing by and i think they have at least about 50 slots uh available am i correct amen and so you'll hear more about that at the end of the service uh next week next sabbath is the sabbath that we will have uh baby blessing and baptism um we have four babies that are being blessed next sabbath and we have um i know over four the bible workers are working with several individuals that they have already gotten ready for baptism so we'll have a baptism next saturday also and then the following sabbath the first sabbath in october which is october the 2nd we will have our first in-house communion our first in-house communion it'd be a little different we would not have any foot washing here so we're asking you to do your foot watching at home with your family but we will have uh sealed containers for the bread and the wine like we did when we was up at golden gate academy and the deacons the elders and the deaconess we will be meeting that friday night before at seven o'clock and so um keep those things in mind there are several names that um that are on our list for prayer and the prayer team uh would will present those at that given time thought for today if i can't do great things then i can't do small things in a great way i'll say it again if i can't do great things then i can do small things in a great way as the as uh judah stands to lead us in our praise and worship and also our theme song if i can get you to stand with me at this time as we get ready to move into our service god bless you and god keep you god sustain you do we go through the service today good morning and happy sabbath as our senior pastor just stated we are about to do our theme song after which we are going to go immediately into praise and worship happy sabbath again and have a blessed day [Music] let's go outside these walls and be a witness let's tell those who are lost that jesus said each one of reach one let's spread the love of jesus let's be a witness for the lord let's go outside these walls and be a witness let's tell those who are lost that jesus says [Music] let's tell those who are lost where jesus says each one preached one let's pray the love of jesus each one reach one let's spread the love he [Music] a is for the lord [Music] [Music] [Music] trust it [Music] [Music] this and i'm trusting in his [Music] yes [Music] we come this far [Music] in the lord i will trust in the lord until i die i will trust in the lord i will trust in the lord i will trust i'm gonna treat everybody right i'm gonna treat everybody right until i i'm gonna treat everybody right i'm gonna treat everybody right now i'm gonna treat everybody right [Music] [Music] i'm gonna stay on the battlefield [Music] until i [Music] in the lord i will trust [Music] [Music] in the lord i will trust in the lord [Music] [Music] [Music] i love you lord and i lift my voice [Music] to worship [Music] rejoice [Music] you need it be a sweet sweet sounds [Music] i love you lord [Music] [Music] my god [Music] let it be a sweet sweet is [Music] [Music] we thee [Music] we [Music] me [Music] [Music] we well we are [Music] well [Music] [Music] please [Music] right [Music] [Music] oh [Music] hallelujah [Music] good morning to each of you we are happy to be in god's house today the song said we have come this far by faith could we beat that faith in the one who is leading us from there today it goes on to say we will treat everybody right let's do that don't just say it let's act it out by god's grace yes and we will stay on the battlefield until our savior takes us home glory hallelujah i'm i'm supposed to be doing the season of prayer i hope you don't mind because we all are the family of god and we are not strangers i don't care how we look at it we are not strangers i'm not a stranger to you you are not a stranger to me so we are thankful there are names that were spoken of that need to be remembered in prayer we have names that we pray for each time we meet with our heavenly father let's remember them those online we thank you for being on line and we pray that the blessings that we receive today will be given to you just as well we can stand we can kneel we can just bow our heads as we decide to so let's pray gracious heavenly father we are here in your presence we know that you love us and you care about us and you are willing to bless us today our week may have been a rough one but we are thankful that you brought us here to your house of worship so that we can give you the praise the honor and the glory that is due to you we pray o lord that you will forgive me of my sins cleanse me of all unrighteousness yes and then fill me lord with your holy spirit power so that as i talk to you on behalf of our congregation you will hear and answer the need and the desire of everyone we thank you for our past guide who is here you brought him safely and you brought him with a message from you to us and we pray that our hearts and minds will be uplifted and that we will hear every word that he has to say and that we will take heed and be not like jonah running away but we will deliver he will deliver the message that you gave to him for us father god we pray that he would bless our families wherever they are there are sick ones among them and we lift them up lord we know that you can do for us the far exceeding above that which we can think ask or desire so we acknowledge you as lord and savior of our lives we acknowledge you as leading us each day that you give us life we ask that you would work in us and work through us so that we can touch a life lord we need to touch lies all around us because you are you have acknowledged them as your children you died on calvary's cross to save us all from sin and one day one blessed day you will be returning for us let us not be weary in well doing but let us be submissive to your call let us walk by faith and not by sight and keep our eyes focused on you further strengthen us market streets strengthen each one of us and help us that we will be determined come what may to be ready for you when you come so that we can go home to live with you forever along with our families our friends our neighbors everyone whose life we have touched in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit may you continue to bless us in jesus name amen [Music] [Music] happy sabbath market street amen it is so good to be in the house of the lord amen it's so good to look out and see people in the pews i am so glad to see my dear brother ro and the family we're praying for you been looking forward to this day because we know god answers prayers uh well it's the one of my favorite parts of our worship service today it is tithe and offering time and you say well why is it your favorite elder well i'll share that with you once i get the deacons to work if i can ask the deacons to stand as they pick up our tithe and offer great god in heaven lord we thank you so much lord for the giver and the gift we thank you for your blessings we thank you for keeping us bless us lord this is my prayer the mighty wonderful name of jesus amen or the reason why it's my favorite is because it causes me to look back and count the blessings that god has given me just that week [Music] and it's amazing when you look back the number of blessings are multiplied and god asks us pretty plainly to return a faithful tithe and he also says you know and and give me return to me a good will good faith offering to show just how thankful you are so we have a chance to be faithful so i i have to commend our church that during this pandemic we have been faithful now yes we've had some ups and some downs how many of you would like to know before months end where do we stand in terms of uh a church expense well we had an elder's meeting and we talked about it and that was one thing we would like to provide you so in concert with our treasury we're going to sort of get like a third week sort of notice to see where we stand uh because we have a budget how many of you know we have a church budget uh we have a church budget and we like to meet those budgets uh and we've met some and we've not met others uh and so i thought we thought it would be a good idea to give you a heads up to see where we are in the third quarter you know so that you can rally in the fourth quarter and get that win amen so we will start that uh to give you guys give us all a notice of where we stand so that at the end of the month we can be on track amen because god loves a cheerful giver he also loves a faithful giver thank you so much for your time and attention [Music] [Music] good morning boys and girls good morning boys and girls wave at me if you're in the house let me see you online wave back at me let's sing the bible are you ready all right we're gonna get ready here we go the b-i-b-l-e yes that's the book for me i stand alone on the word of god the b-i-b-l-e let me hear you sounds good [Music] i stand alone on the word of god the b-i-b-l-e great job boys and girls up downstairs upstairs and online all right we have our msc news alert followed by our story but before we get there what day is it it is the sabbath but what are we celebrating on this sabbath what ministry specifically personal ministries and personal ministries is a ministry where we interact with people on a personal level so today we're going to hear a story about the god who lives in us to connect with people on a personal level but right before that our news alert are you ready all right we're gonna count down in five four three two [Music] hello i'm renee and this is mac new zealand welcome back to our children's corner news segment thank you for your support for children's ministry your giving helps keep anchors like me involved in our virtual and physical church service to continue to give just select or write churches ministry on your thai envelope thank you for your commitment to the children of this church now for some msc news alert kids you are invited to our next jam program jesus and me is every friday at 7 pm we play games laugh share testimonies and pray for each other pastor willis has been leading us in a series on identity remember kids identity is about who you choose to be who god made you to be so join us next week at 7 00 pm or resume see you next friday [Music] [Music] kids tomorrow youth ministry is inviting us to top golf in san jose make sure your parents have signed you up by reaching out to pastor willis we'll have food fun and fellowship today is personal ministry day so kids let's learn our personal nursery can guide us in serving the lord with the gifts he's given us that's all the time i have tune in next week for another msc news 11. now for our story stories of the bible god sends the holy spirit these are the apostles they followed jesus during his time on earth before jesus went to heaven he told them to stay in jerusalem until god sent the gift he promised see yah so after jesus went to heaven the apostles stayed in jerusalem along with the other people who believed in jesus one day they were all gathered together when there was a sound from heaven like a mighty windstorm then what looked like flames appeared and settled on each of them and everyone was filled with the holy spirit the holy spirit gave them the ability to speak in other languages and so they started speaking at that time there were devout jews from every nation living in jerusalem when they heard the loud noise they came running to see what it was what's going on when they saw the believers speaking in their own languages they were shocked and amazed they wondered how can this be these people are from galilee and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages about the wonderful things god has done what can this mean but others in the crowd didn't believe that it was really a miracle and thought the believers were just acting oddly then peter stepped forward and shouted to the crowd hey all you listen carefully all you he told them that they were not acting strangely but that this was from god he reminded them that god said this would happen long ago then peter told them about how jesus was crucified but then raised to life again just as god had said he would be he told them that jesus was now in heaven and that god had given the holy spirit to them as he had promised peter's words changed what the people thought and felt and they asked brothers what should we do peter told them each of you must repent of your sins and turn to god and be baptized in the name of jesus christ for the forgiveness of your sins then you will receive the gift of the holy spirit wow peter continued to preach to the crowd for a long time and those who believed what peter said were baptized 3 000 people were baptized and added to the church that day then all the believers listened to the apostles teaching and practiced what they taught they met together in fellowship shared meals and pray together they were amazed as the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders [Music] all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had here you go ah thank you they help those in need that's for you thank you worship together at the temple every day met in homes for the lord's supper and shared their meals with great joy all while praising god and enjoying each other and each day god added to their fellowship those who were being saved [Music] amen amen all right kids i hope you learned something today that the holy spirit came to live in our hearts before we go we're going to pray and then we're going to continue with our service let's pray father thank you for opening our eyes and ears help us lord to receive your holy spirit by praying for it every day to enter our hearts so that we can help people just like you would in jesus name we pray amen all right boys and girls we'll see you next week bye [Music] happy sabbath everyone welcome to personal ministry i have the pleasure of introducing our speaker for today dr pastor guy born in the windy city of chicago illinois and raised in new york city dr kendall guy is the eldest of three children born to mrs evelyn guy and the late pastor john f guy dr guy has ministered on both the east and west coast including here in market street i spoke to him um earlier last week and he mentioned how much he liked marcus street's praise and worship and i asked him this morning do they still have it he said yes they still have it in 2009 he returned to his home city and conference since returning to the northeastern conference dr guy has been serving as the pastor of the bronx seven-day adventist church where his father also served in addition to his church responsibility he provides chaplain service to the valley hospital in ridgewood new jersey in october of 2013 the northeastern conference executive committee asked him to serve as the conference personal ministry director in harmony with the spirit of prophecy dr guy believes that is it is the laity of the church that will finish the work therefore he is endeavoring to train the laity to be effective witness for christ dr guy's formal education includes a ba in social work and a ba in theology from oakwood college a master of divinity in theology from andrews university and a doctor of ministry from united methodist theology theological seminary married for 36 years to his wife ann the two have four adult children and seven grandchildren his favorite bible character is nehemiah because of his perseverance commitment and dedication to his work his favorite bible text is roman 8 28 8 which says and we know that all things work together for good to them that love the lord to them who are called according to his perfect his purpose after the musical selection the next voice you will hear will be that of dr kendall guy [Music] good morning church you know it's difficult for me to uh stay down in my seat during praise and worship i'm accustomed to being up in my church breath of life in inglewood california so we bring you greetings from there this morning [Music] the song just says i was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore very deeply stained within sinking to rise no more but the master of the sea heard my despairing cry and from the lifted me now safe am i his love lifted me love lifted me when nothing else could help love lifted me love lifted me his love lifted me and when nothing else could help love lifted me [Music] god gave his son o god gave his son when nothing else could help god gave his son oh god gave his song god gave his son when nothing else could help god gave his son then his son his life his son gave his life when nothing else could help his son gave his life his son gave his life his son gave [Music] his son gave his life his life set me free his life set me free when nothing else [Music] his life set me free his life set me free oh his life set me [Music] [Music] set free free indeed yes i'm [Music] [Music] god [Music] then his son gave his life and his life set me free when nothing else [Music] [Music] it was [Music] and you thought i was worth saving so you came and changed my life you thought i was worth keeping so you cleaned me up inside you thought i was to die for so you sacrificed your life so i could be free [Music] so [Music] church say man again amen amen i'm i'm still stuck on that part about his son set me free amen his son set me free his son set me free [Music] when nothing else could help his son set me free oh his son [Music] set me free his son set me free [Music] when nothing else could help his son set me [Music] his son said me oh his son set me free amen somebody amen amen amen amen giving honor to jesus christ who still leads out in my life each and every day it is indeed an honor a privilege a pleasure to be back at market street thank you thank you i gotta confess that when i received the call to come from to market street from your pastor and i thank god for your pastor amen pastor brown associate pastor pastor willis you're blessed to have these gentlemen leading out especially during these times during these times but when i got the call to come i got to tell you i was somewhat surprised pastor we talked periodically but uh i i didn't expect that call and and and your pastor he did not tell me what the occasion was he just said i want you to come preach i said all right i'll come if that's what you want and i kept scratching my head why why just come priest it must be a reason it must be a reason and when my members learned that i was coming back out this way they started questioning is everything all right i said everything's fine uh yeah real good everything's good um what you're going out there for i'm just going to preach is that all you're going for i said yeah i'm just going to preach they invited me to come back to my former church there in oakland to preach well make sure that's all you're there for that's what they told me make sure that's all you're there for and and so forth i said yeah well you know the pastor asked me come and i'm i'm going amen and i got to tell you pastor i was excited amen i got excited about what two months ago i i've been i've been waiting for this day for two months amen but let let's go back i've been waiting for this day for like 10 years amen amen so i i'm thrilled to be here uh my wife took me to the airport yesterday and um i called her up around noon time i said honey you're on your way i got to be at the airport a certain time are you on your way she says yes i'm i'm on my way i'm stuck in traffic you know that new york city traffic and i started getting nervous because you know i got to go to market street amen and so she finally arrived and she went in the house for something and when she finished whatever she was doing my bag was already in her car ready to go and she says you're ready to go aren't you i said yeah i'm ready to go let's go what's the holdup i i'm going to market street amen so i'm just glad to be here with you all today and uh god is is good amen uh god is good all the time and all the time god is good now i i know a lot has happened over the last what 10 12 almost 12 years a lot has happened the children i know you won't know about the children the boys are married amen thank god those boys are married amen the boys are married uh my daughter alicia is getting married she's engaged to be married next year amen uh so you pray pray for me i'm struggling a little bit with that one god you know gotta let my little girl go brother you know gotta let it go but uh we getting there so i had the young man i was doing some work around my house the other day and i had her fiance at the house helping me out got to make sure he's worthy amen you know that's that's my girl you know gotta make sure he's worthy and make sure he can lift make sure he got a good strong back and he goes neither back hey help me holy ghost uh and i had him out there moving rocks um because they want to do the wedding at the house so i had to fix up my yard a little bit so i had him moving rocks i had him with a wheelbarrow moving dirt and everything i mean i'm going to make sure the boy is strong amen cause he marry my daughter you know you gotta have a good back [Laughter] so he he passed the test he passed the test he's okay so you you pray for them they are counseling right now not with me because i'm too close to the situation so then they're in counseling with somebody they're doing all right just pray everything works out oh okay and that i i have the courage the nerve to walk her down the aisle so to speak there next year just you know and and let her go amen pray for me amen because uh you know it's my little girl amen you know and i tell everybody if i get to the kingdom because she's my conscience if i get to the kingdom it's because of her and if i don't get to the kingdom it's still because of her amen but i'm planning on being in in the kingdom amen amen uh as you heard in the introduction thank you sister uh evangelist for your kind words and your introduction there thank you for that i told you don't say everything there's a lot that i cut out because the folk here in mark street know me amen you know so uh you didn't have to say everything but you did a good job amen but um you heard me say i had seven grandchildren now and um like like every good grandparent i just happen to have a few pictures so you know maybe after church i can show you a few pictures of my grandchildren the truth of the matter is uh i had grandchildren when i was here at market street they had three grandchildren that uh and so forth you all just didn't know that because we didn't talk about it that much but but they were around amen they were alive and well my oldest granddaughter is 25 years old amen and and and so forth but god has blessed them they're doing all right too amen and when they live in uh somewhere in some way carolina amen i got to remember where everybody is and and so forth uh marcus when he got married he put us on a fast track and so he we had three grandchildren out the gate with him and his wife amen you figured that one out amen uh and then they they were blessed with a little boy uh my little man he's six years old now my grandson there and um we have great time together uh and and so forth so you know i go around a lot of places and and and speak in the country out of the country and it's nice when people uh appreciate you and respect you and uh they they have all these nice titles for you and uh and and so forth they give you your academic background and make you sound important amen that's what they do that's what they do but i learned over the last few years that uh one of the greatest titles i have pastor brown is uh the title of papa amen that's that's good that's a good title amen papa is that right old child is that right i think you're familiar with that a little bit you know is that all right and and so forth so i i i get great joy when my little man said hey papa and now he's learning how to take me to the store and and and and when i go to the store with him you know i'm looking for something that's small somewhat inexpensive you know he's looking at the biggest thing on the shelf the most expensive thing on the show and it's a little hard to say no to this little guy because he expects papa to look after him and to take care of him so pray for me amen pray for me i'm i'm still growing i'm still growing in many ways so you just pray for me but i'm i'm thrilled uh to be back uh sister felix was so excited uh she was praying getting ready to pray oh she forgot she was up here to pray that's what your your assignment was to pray and and and so forth i'm so excited i i need to remember i'm here to give a message amen i'm i'm here to give a message today and thank you all for uh uh uh your invitation to bring me back uh here to market street god has blessed us in personal ministries in northeastern conference over the last eight years that i've served and i'm glad you got me today because this week and next week is an election for our conference so i'll probably be doing something else and so forth but god has blessed us over the last um eight eight eight years or so in personal ministries uh hundreds if not thousands of souls have been baptized into our conference as a result of personal ministries amen last year our our lame our lay people uh in the fall we organized our laity across the conference to to do um uh evangelism virtually virtually and we did it for two three weeks everybody we tried to do it simultaneously throughout the conference and so forth and at the end of the uh evangelistic program over 300 souls were baptized somebody would say amen and that was just in the fall that didn't account what took place all before uh throughout throughout the year but even through the pandemic we've seen how god has has worked in the lives of individuals and we've seen how our churches are still thriving even during a pandemic things are different church amen and and more than likely they'll never be what we are accustomed to but you know something god saw this thing coming god saw this pandemic coming and and and god made a way for us to still worship technology has been good amen technology has been good and and we've been able to worship together virtually and and truth be told we are reaching we are doing what the bible said to to go and preach to every nation kindred we are preaching all over the world there are people perhaps watching this service today from other countries other cities and so forth we are reaching the masses through social media god saw this coming so the devil thought that he was going to shut our churches down you know churches were closed for for months some are still closed thank god marcus street is open amen and and so forth we opened up our doors last october and and god has been blessing every month this year we've had at least one baptism every month god has been blessing because the doors of the church are open and people still want to know about your god i tell that everywhere i go people want to know about your god so never stop witnessing about jesus christ never stop thank you sister sonia for leading us setting the table for us into worship you know that song was on my mind believe it or not uh and i was sitting here when you started saying i said praise god praise god i always enjoyed worshiping here at market street judah still has it judah is still judah amen in my eyes i don't know what's been going on but judah is still jews as far as i can see and i thank god for their ministry uh through through through the years my wife wanted to be here of course but she is a principal at one of our schools there and very busy always have something to do someplace to go and she said i just don't have time to take off so i'll try to convince her because everybody's been asking me about her and so far i went somewhere one time and and and and they were a little nervous sonia about asking me about my wife so they started the conversation like our art are you and and still [Laughter] i said yo yeah we are still together amen it's been 36 years we celebrated our anniversary september 2nd amen we are still together we're still having fun with each other amen and and as soon as alicia gets out of the house we'll have more fun amen all right we do it we're doing five we're doing fine then but i'll let her know uh that you all inquired about her and and and so forth i'm sure she'll appreciate knowing that you all were thinking about about her she did say to send her regards to you all as as as well personal ministries day we're going to get right into our message at this time there's so much i could share say to you at this time but we're going to uh stand at this time if you don't mind and read the scripture reading for for today those of you who are physically able to stand we invite you to do so as we reverence the word the word of god the word of god today comes from matthew chapter 6 i'm sorry mark chapter 6 and we want to begin reading at verse 30. matthew chapter 6 mark i keep saying matthew i don't know why matthew's on my mind mark chapter six beginning at verse 30. and uh i'm going to read it from a different translation if you don't mind so just follow along with me at at this time all right bible reads and the apostles assembled themselves to jesus and told him all things both what they had done and what they had taught and he said and he said to them you come apart into the desert place and rest a while for there were many coming and going and they had no leisure so much as to eat and verse 32 says they went away in a boat to a desert place by themselves they saw them going and many recognized him and ran there afoot from all the cities they arrived before them and came together to him jesus came out and saw the great multitude and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things and when it was late in the day his disciples came to him and said this place is a desert and it's late in the day send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and villages to buy themselves bread for they have nothing to eat but verse 37 says jesus answered them you give them something to eat they asked him shall we go and buy 200 dinara worth of bread to give them something to eat he said unto them how many loaves do you have go see and when they knew they said five and two fish he commanded those that he commanded those that all stood should sit by in companies on the green grass they sat in ranks by hundreds and fifties i want us to hang out for a little while if you will in verse 37 where it says but he answered them and he said you you give them something to eat i haven't tied today's message you feed the people let's pray father in heaven thank you for the opportunity to share a word with your people the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be accepted in thy sight o lord our strength and our redeemer let the people of god say amen amen you may be seated in the presence of god you feed my people we're talking around the theme of addressing the needs of people both spiritually as well as physically the bible records numerous miracles in the old testament there was the miracle where god parted the red sea you recall that see there was the miracle where god caused a bush to burn without being consumed another miracle isaac was born to sarah who was well into her 90s the three hebrew boys were thrown in the fiery furnace but they were not cremated then there was the restoration of samson's strength you recall these miracles there was also a time where god caused water to flow from a rock in the new testament there were miracles the changing of water to wine the healing of blind man bartimaeus the raising of the dead uh lazarus and the daughter of jarius the birth of christ through a virgin woman what a miracle that was and then of course the miracle of feeding the five thousand hmm this particular miracle happens to be found in all four gospels matthew chapter 14 luke chapter nine and john chapter six and mark chapter six and the prevalence of this recording in all four gospels ought not escape you today as all four gospels present this miracle of feeding the five thousand they also reveal that this this event takes place in a remote place that you and i will call a wilderness the fact that all four gospels record this event should be important to you it's god's way of reminding us that he cares about his people it should be stated at this point in the message that the ministry of jesus is not always just about convicting and converting souls for the kingdom stay with me sometimes it's simply about meeting basic human needs somebody to say amen uh sometimes a person just simply needs a sandwich a drink of water that's all they need i call it you ought to call it personal ministries when we meet basic needs then the holy spirit will do the work of convicting and converting and the kingdom of god will be built up but it starts out with meeting basic needs meet needs make friends with people i've discovered something in these years that god has given me and i've reached that that state of the child's where i'm i'm i'm i'm at least three score amen yeah amen so i'm about to say amen because we're supposed to get three score and and and 10 is that what the bible talks about so i'm almost there i'm not there yet but i'm i'm marching amen i'm getting there and i've been in the church long enough like you sister sonja we grew up in this thing i've been in the church long enough to understand the mentality of the seventh they have in his church and the seventh-day adventist church has seemingly stay with me i know some of you not gonna like what i'm about to say but i'm gonna say it anyway uh the mentality of the seventh day adventist church seemingly was let's make more seventh-day adventists and and it dawned on me some time ago god is not looking for any more seventh-day adventist but god is looking for some christians to build up his kingdom with somebody saying man now don't get me wrong i'm a seventh-day adventist i will be a seventh-day adventist until the day i die i was born in this church i'll die in this church but i've discovered something it's more than than than making a a a people a people who just simply go to church on the seventh day sabbath which is the bible sabbath it's more than that sometimes some people need something to eat sometimes some people need some food on their table sometimes some people need a place to to stay what about preparing people not just to be on the church road but preparing people to have a genuine a real a sincere encounter with jesus and when they have that encounter with jesus guess what will happen they will become a part of the church and when they become a part of the church they have a chance to become part of the kingdom of god you see jesus mingled with people he met he made friends he met their basic human needs first as one comes to understand the message that this miracle offers you also come to understand it's not only about a miracle it's understanding that we have a mission and a mandate that we as a people who call ourselves christians better still some of the adventist christians we have a mandate a mission to feed the people of god for those of you who have carefully studied this miracle the feeding of the five thousand i know you've heard this message this this this passage of scripture preached all kind of different ways through the years i i confess i've i've preached this several times in different ways because every time you open up the word of god god shows you something different but for those of you who've had some time to study this miracle of the feeling of the five thousand you will note that in each gospel the context is somewhat different so jesus finds himself in a situation in john after working so many miracles jesus got tired and needed to rest a while he just simply got tired in luke jesus gave authority to the to the disciples to do some great things and after some time jesus realized that they the disciples the church if you will they got tired and they needed a break that happened sometimes to churches in matthew and mark john the baptist the one that jesus loved the one that is dearest to jesus he has been executed and jesus needs some time to grieve his friend the beloved john has been executed jesus needs time to to mourn if you will mark ties it all together showing that jesus has worked great miracles and and as a result he is so popular everywhere his disciples have worked tirelessly with him and and so the human side of jesus says it's time to rest so jesus says let's find a little boat and let's take if you will and an evening dinner cruise to the other side of galilee where we can get away from all those church folk uh oh huh we need to get away you know you know church folk they're all right for the most part but if you know church folks like i know church folk uh uh uh there's some church for folk that that can work your last ah they can work your last nerve you fill in the blank huh y'all ain't all that saved amen yeah yeah yeah i know some folk that can work your last nurse so so so jesus has a problem but jesus also has a good problem you see there are some good problems and some bad problems jesus has a good problem he is well known for his good works that's that's a good problem and he's so well known that everybody wants to be where where he is that's a good problem so the people see him leaving and according to the bible they run along the sidelines as it were to where he is going and they arrive where he's going before he gets there and watch this watch this whenever i say watch this my people know it bronx church you better watch out for something i'm about to say something as a matter of fact i have a uh online uh a bible study course a class called watch this amen it's on youtube amen anyhow watch this jesus in in verse 34 he doesn't get angry he doesn't say here come them church folk that worked our nerves all day he doesn't say that he doesn't say let's let's hide from the people of god he doesn't say that the bible says that he comes ashore and he has compassion on them because he sees them as sheep without a shepherd and he begins to teach them some things and while jesus is teaching the people his disciples come beside him and start whispering in his ear as it were and say jesus we've got some problems here what's the problem well one it's getting late and this ain't the time for us to be in our power jesus it's getting late out here uh it's already late we thought we were here to rest we thought we were here to get away from all those good loving church folk secondly we haven't eaten all day and we're hungry but more to the point there are 5 000 hungry church folk you ever seen church folk get hungry i heard the preachers say they don't get hungry they get hangry huh angry that's kind of a combination of being angry and hungry all at the same time so that you got 5 000 hangry people out there and the third problem that they have is we're out here in a wilderness a place where there's there's no food no supermarkets are open can't find in and out y'all still got in and out of here let me be quiet i can't tell you all the places i used to go hey man huh i still got chevy's i know i know there's a brother out there like chevy's amen won't call his name amen ah but there's no chevy's mexican restaurant out there there's no there's no there's no supermarket out here there's no food we're we're we're we're hungry we're we're hangry there's no there's no food here now you gotta understand that pastor a church that that's filled with caribbeans amen thank god amen the good folk amen i got them all over i got 32 different groups in my church amen and and and the dominant groups are jamaicans and antigens amen and if you know anything about the caribbean culture you know they love their rice and peas huh you know they love that jerk chicken amen they're brown stew chicken they met and you got to have what they call ground provisions well there's no ground provisions out here there's no rice and peas out here there's certainly no jerk chicken out here huh we're in the wilderness and you know you're in the wilderness when there's no supermarket after six o'clock amen you know you're in the wilderness when the resources are not equal uh uh uh equally accessible to everybody you know you're in a wilderness when the food is in short supply you know you're in a wilderness when when when when you are not protected from the elements in the wilderness public schools are not equally funded or equipped because they are in the minority communities the wilderness in the wilderness sex trafficking goes unpolice because little girls don't match the color of the officers hyatt to protect and serve in the wilderness in the wilderness things are treated differently because uh sometimes of who you are in the wilderness certain crimes go unpunished because of this color of one's skin in the wilderness in the home of the brave and the land of the free we are in a wilderness when you've got to put a fence around the seat of power in washington dc because you are afraid of your own people they call it domestic terrorism you know you're in the wilderness you know you're in the wilderness because life is not always fair and you know in the church you're in the wilderness when you can't find sister evangel anybody to go out and give a bible study you're in the wilderness ah we know something about wilderness when you go to sleep at night having heard of one mass killing only to wake up to another we know something about wilderness when you hear about a young boy who kills his entire family including just a one-year-old baby what did the baby do to you we know something about wilderness when you have a republican-led congress that is still beholden to a former president who has no problem inciting riots or even just flat out breaking the law we know something about being in the wilderness when you have a republican leadership who can change the voting rights to secure their own seats in government uh uh where they're supposed to be protecting your rights they're just trying to protect their own rights and what they think of their rights are not really their rights we give them the right to serve by our vote that's why it's important that you and i get out to vote when we can vote because we give them the right to lead you know you're in the wilderness when you have a person like larry elder you all know him huh i don't think i need to say too much about that one huh we know something about wildernesses when you want to conduct evangelistic meetings and you told sister mcneil that we ain't got no money huh we mean we don't have no money this church is a rich church god's church never is broke huh i heard somebody say he owns a cow in a thousand hills why is god's church always looking for handouts um i'll come back to that one a little later the pm leader attempts to rally the troops and the troops say we're praying for you that's cold language church we're praying for you we're praying for you that's cold language for saying uh i'm not going to be in the battle with you i'm not going to be on the battle i heard the jew to talk about i'm on the battlefield for my lord today huh i heard you sing i'm on the battlefield but then when it comes time to get on the battlefield all the warriors say we're praying for you maybe i should have invited somebody else to come here huh when the church of the living god ceases to feed the people of god literally spiritually physically emotionally we have found ourselves in a wilderness state so the question that i raised to you when you find yourself in the wilderness when all things are not equal when evil seems to dominate a look at what the disciples did might give you some insights as to what to do when you find yourself in the wilderness the disciples told jesus all about their situation let me repeat that i think that you missed that that went right over your head i'll say it again the disciples told jesus all about their situation amen lights huh in case you missed it i'm going to say it one more time the disciples told jesus all about their situation uh and if and whenever you find yourself in a wilderness situation the first thing you ought to do is drop to your knees lift up holy hands and and have a conversation with jesus christ and tell jesus all about your problems you see sometimes sometimes the problem you find yourself in is yourself think about that sometimes the problem that you find yourself in is yourself and you and i must do something we must cry out to the lord like the old song used to say father it's me it's me it's me oh god i'm standing in the need of prayer you see i believe there's somebody here today who knows that when you have a little talk with jesus christ somebody say amen some uh when you cry out to the lord huh i heard somebody say that when you cry out to jesus christ he will hear your fetus cry amen he will hear your humble cry he will hear and answer you by and by he'll talk back to you just a little talk with jesus does what makes it right all right he'll make a way he'll open doors but you gotta have a little talk with jesus christ i've discovered something that happens when people start uh uh uh start praying to god amen when the people of god start praying to god the devil starts trembling huh when god's people start praying to god the devil starts running when god's people start praying to god your enemies become your friends when god's people start praying something else happens it's called tmi and in case you don't know what tmi means stands for it simply stands for total membership involvement that's what tmi is all about that's what personal ministries is all about it's about everybody getting in place to do the will the work of god when the people of god start praying the work of conviction and converting will happen when the people of god start praying the kingdom of god will be built up if my people the bible says which are called by my name would do what would humble themselves would humble themselves and do what else would humble themselves and pray and do what else and seek my face then god says i will take care of all your needs but you got to get on your knees first church glad you shouted on the prayer part huh because the answer that you're going to get in the next line might disturb you huh they go to jesus jesus we got a problem we got a problem out here in the wilderness jesus says what's your problem they said it's it's late all the restaurants are closed we have nothing to give to people five thousand church folk are hungry we got a problem i hear jesus christ in his own way saying i understand i understand your problem but what's your problem huh what's your problem i i i understand that that that that that there's a need but what are you really trying to say to me i understand what's going on so here's my answer for you you you feed the people you feed them in in other words you find something and you give them something to eat they were trying to throw their problem on jesus he's still with me jesus they present their problem to jesus and what does jesus do he throws it right back at them you see the answer to their prayers and sometimes ours is not always what we want to hear they didn't want to hear that they've been walking around with jesus for days now for months maybe for years and they've seen jesus work miracles so they knew that feeding 5000 was really no big task for jesus christ but jesus turns it around and says you feed the people you feed them you take care of those people in the wilderness you'll be the spokespersons for those who cannot always speak for themselves you'll be the one to to to lift them up you'll be the one to take care of their needs you do for those who cannot do for themselves you find the money that they don't have better still you give the money that they don't have well we're supposed to give up our whole year's earnings let me say parenthetically right here again been around this church for a long time and being in the conference office you see and you hear a whole lot of stuff and and and and one of the things that people always complain about brother pastor they said we don't have no money we mean you don't have no money you got a thousand members over there your tithe is over a million dollars and you telling the conference you don't have no money something wrong with that picture but that but that's what we hear all the time and so i want to say to you today is stop waiting for the conference to do what you can do stop waiting for the conference to do what you can do the answer to your prayer watch this watch this the answer to your prayer is you ah the answer to your prayer is you you feed the people the response that jesus gave his disciples was not just for them at that time but it's for us even today please understand today that while the bible says go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father son and holy ghost our christian mandate is not just about discipleship our mandate is about it's not just about planting and filling up churches sometimes it's simply about meeting the basic human needs of people when you meet the needs of people it leads to discipleship when you meet the needs of people discipleship leads to relationships relationships lead to friendships friendships lead to planting and filling up new churches and ultimately it leads to giving glory to jesus christ because with all that we do guess what jesus still gets the glory ellen white reminds us that jesus mingled with people as one who just desired they're good she went on to say christ's message alone you know this quotation christ's methods alone will give true success reaching the reaching of the people the the savior mingled with them as one who desired their good he showed sympathy to them ministered to their to their needs he won their confidence and then he said follow me we got it backwards we march into somebody's home with our big bibles you know how we do it huh that's what we used to do we march into somebody's home and open up the scriptures and we tell them the seventh day is the sabbath and it is then we move on to some other things called the testing truths you know that's what we do and after we do all of that we expect them to join market street in the next hour and we go around and we say you know what you ought to be here and we will even get indignant sometimes what do you mean you're not coming to church what do you mean what's wrong didn't i just show you the truth yeah yeah you showed me the truth but you ain't show me no love huh you got to show me love i remember one time i was talking to a pentecostal preacher some years ago i was about 20 something years of age just starting my ministry i thought i was doing the right thing i marched into his office we were renting their their church and i was trying to establish a relationship with him but i was trying to do two things all at one time i'm trying to establish a relationship and i'm trying to get him to be an adventist minister because i'm hired to to to bring souls into the church i'm hired to baptize some people and so forth to preach the gospel to people so i go in there and he's about 45 at the time i'm in my my mid-20s or whatever early 20s and so forth so he's got a little more experience on me and i start sharing some stuff i start talking we having a good time oh man i like your car you got a nice car you know they give the preacher a car every year in that church amen somebody don't worry y'all ain't got to get your pass no pretty no car he doing all right hey man he doing just fine you know amen yeah yeah you know but but but but here we are we're talking about things we're talking about stuff that goes on in the church we're having a nice conversation and and you know how we good adventists are at some point we find a way to enter and to get our message across the truth remember that and and and in the preacher he stopped me dead in my tracks he said young man i i i see what you're trying to do i i understand where where you're going with this uh with this conversation but before you can convert me this is the preacher talking to me oh henry reverend henry seymour amen before you can convert me you got to be my friend that's what he said to me i'll never forget it and every time i take a trip up to massachusetts there in boston i i go and i see reverend henry seymour my friend see we got to learn some things before we can convert some people we got to be friends with them and then maybe on down the line we can get them to see what what's really in the word of god to them to for them to accept the word of god as it is now for the next little while watch how this story unfolds itself the one on one side you have a response of jesus who says you give them something to eat you give them something to eat you feed my people then you have on the other side the disciples response but there's a third person i call this person the x factor in this story in john's gospel watch this in john's gospel there is a disciple by the name of andrew just so happens that's my grandson's name andrew and by the way i told my children whenever they start having children if they have a male child they got to name them after me you know this is something you know my first name is john so they got a name they got to be a john in there we got all kind of john my dad was john i'm john i got uncles out of john i got cousins that i got nephews out of john so i told my son you got to name your son john has to be in there somewhere so he's he's john andrew amen so so so so so so here we are in john's gospel there's this x factor his name is andrew and he's one of jesus's disciple he and he identifies a little boy a lad the bible calls them and and allowed me to make the comparison between the disciples and the young boy you'll be surprised to know that the disciples you thought you knew are not the disciples you thought you knew huh you know i'll tell you something i want to tell you that to be careful of who you listen to and even who you follow and i would argue that the main character or the main hero if you will in this in this story is the little lads the little boy whose name we don't know we don't know who he is we just know according to simon to to andrew rather that there's a little lad out there and this lad has come with some food you know what the bible says watch this there's a problem in the wilderness the people are hungry they have no resources and perhaps because of the conditions of the day some are even getting sick so the disciples come together unlike the united states congress can come together because you know they can't get together on anything these days huh and they agree on a plan to solve watch this they are willed in this situation the disciples come to jesus and say we figured this thing out jesus since it's late in the day you're tired you're grieving we're tired and we're hungry as well but but but here's the thing uh here's what we can do why don't we just send them away that's good that's a good solution that's what they thought after all their problem is not really our problem they're the ones that's hungry we'll we'll manage through the night just send them away they they they should have come you know how we are sometimes they should have bought their own food they should have knew it was hot out here huh they should have known that we are here in the wilderness they should have bought a sandwich so that problem is not really our problem so let's just send them away now you remember what the bible says the lord was compassionate the lord showed compassion he saw these people as sheep without a shepherd okay lord okay compassionate god if you don't like that plan we got another plan a second plan we got we got plan a and we got plan b plan b is simply tell them to go out and find a supermarket for themselves and and and tell them if they want to eat they can go buy the food and if they want to they can come back but when they come back at least their bellies will be full now in other words let them go out and take care of themselves isn't that what we have to do huh we got to take care of ourselves so why can't they take care of themselves it's interesting how somebody will fall down on the concrete sometimes and we'll see them all scarred up all screams they might even be bleeding and and some of us will have the nerve to say well they should have saw that dip in the sidewalk had they seen that dip in the sidewalk they would have never fallen they would have they ever seen it and they would not be down there uh scratching and and bleeding and all that stuff it's their fault where's the empathy in that ah what kind of church does that to people go by for yourself go take care of yourself take care of your own needs don't don't tell us to look for uh to find any food around here let them take care of themselves see the problem is we tired talking about the church now we tired of giving out handouts to people who always want handouts huh we're tired of doing that just tell them keep on keeping on let them take care of themselves like the rest of us do i got a job they need to go get their own job huh that's what we do sometimes you know that we don't say it like that but but that's what we do after all we're tired watch this one we're tired we're tired of feeding the community on thursday afternoon with no returns and what do i mean by that i got a feeding program in my church there they've been doing it long before i got there for 35 years and on a thursday you can't even get in the front door there might be 500 people coming through that place and during the pandemic it reached the 800 on some days as a matter of fact the city cited our church as having one of the largest pantries still open because everybody else was closing down because they had no volunteers no people to help give the food out well thank god we were blessed with over 30 people who committed themselves to coming every thursday to feed the people are you listening to me huh but we're tired of feeding the community and and we feed all these hundreds of people and guess what none of them ever join our church no returns it's a waste the time send them away let them buy their own food this is a group of people in the church that see somebody in need and blames them for their own situation this group of people don't want to spend any extra time or money on things that really matter why should we do for them they don't seem to do anything but just stick out their hand to us there's certain countries now i don't like to travel to because every time i get off the boat or off the plane before i get to the street people got their hand in my face looking for my money it cost me too much to get here just to give it all to you amen yeah just send them away friends of mine market street today these are those individuals talking about those who say just send them away these are those individuals who they worship on the right day they walk the church with the biggest bibles they they look the part every sabbath day when their eyes are closed and you can't see when your eyes are closed and you can't see what they're doing they are different people when the sun goes down they don't even care about the people they sat with in church and worship with what was so bad about this group of people is that jesus had given them the authority to preach the good news and even to cast out demons the church they just came out perhaps of an evangelistic meet and now they're in the wilderness and they don't even care about the people they're trying to baptize they just want to baptize people we got to be careful about that one church ah how can you preach the church to me and not care how can you preach the gospel to me and not care about my basic needs or how do you go about telling me who i can and cannot sleep with but you don't even care that i have a place to sleep there's something wrong with a christian church a christian organization who finds it easy to send people away something wrong with the church that adheres to the letter of the law huh you know we got churches that have their own constitution and bylaws their own policies their own guidelines i guess there's some merit to some of that it's good you got to have order bible declares that things must be done how decently and in order but but while we got all of our policies constitutional bylaw i was in a meeting not long ago with my federation officers personal ministries officers and and for two hours they sat there discussing constitution and bylaw issues i don't know about you but i'll get a little impatient with that and i have time to be splitting verbs pausing two words you know let's use may instead of will well let's use will instead of could would and while they're doing all that i i had to stop had to stop him brother larry and i had to say wait a minute wait a minute it is now january the third okay and so many hours have passed by in this new year and i broke it down i had thank god i had my ipad with me and you know you can get all the information you want all you gotta do is google it amen so i was able to say listen so many hours you know uh uh uh 72 hours have passed by 72 hours and 52 seconds and have passed by and and and here you guys are sitting in a meeting talking about constitution and bylaw and then let me ask you a question within the last 72 hours who got saved nobody but they in there splitting verbs pausing phrases and so forth you know and nobody getting saved so the disciples want to send them away but the young boy comes by and he has as the bible says five loaves of bread and two fish the boy understands something on a different level than that that his people they need to understand nobody has to persuade him convince him to satisfy the needs of the people nobody has to remind him that watch this he is a member of the jesus movement nobody has to remind him sister uh a personal mysteries leader nobody has to mind him uh who that he is on the personal ministries council and just in case you didn't know it let me just remind every church member is really a part of the personal ministries council amen somebody and as such we have a responsibility we have a personal ministry responsibility to the community no better still to god himself so this little boy realizes that he has a god-given responsibility to meet the needs of the people of god he doesn't just take the position of sending them away uh what kind of church are we when we send people away at some point there ought to be a little boy in you a little girl in you if you will that wakes up and say it's time for me to feed somebody the disciples want nothing to do with the people i told you you might not know these disciples as good as you thought you knew them huh they want nothing to do with the people the little boy says i'm part of the solution i don't know about you but don't you get tired of coming to church meetings and everybody just brings up problems but nobody has a solution but they can critique you criticize you point the finger at you and they don't have a solution for nothing the little boy says i'm part of the solution in verse 38 after disciples have laid out their so-called plan to jesus uh he asks a question jesus that is what do you have what do you have after planning such a negative picture and showing very little sympathy for the people in need jesus asked them again what do you have let me let me let me try it again jesus asked the question what do you have okay uh it'll come to you in a minute they come to jesus complaining about about these hand out looking people remember that they come to jesus complaining and say well what do you want us to do we don't have anything jesus says i need you to go back and check to see what you have it'll be coming to you huh go back check to see what you have because you came in here complaining to me about what you can't do and about what you don't have because you don't you you can't do anything because you say you don't have anything the problem is you really don't understand jesus trying to tell them something you don't understand that you have something in your possession that can satisfy your situation you have it when you find yourself the second thing when you find yourself in the wild in this situation you need to and you need to address a need you need to see what god has already given you to use to satisfy your situation did you get that see what you have go and see what what what you have in your in your possession stop talking about what you don't have stop acting like you are in need start seeing what you have start realizing that god has blessed you with something the reason why god asked them to go and check to see what they had is because he knew that that they had more than they thought they had you have more than you think you have you need to remember that because while in the wilderness the devil seeks to blind you from the blessings that god has already given you but by keeping up keeping focused of what god has given you you will be all right but you got to see what god has given to you let me try you out again jesus says what do you have nothing so they take inventory finally somebody gets it they take inventory and they come back and they say you know what jesus we got five loaves and two fish five loaves and two small fish [Laughter] ah in a very real sense we have more than we realize when you look at your life and see what you have you'll be surprised to know that you have some things and some other things look at what the bible said the bible says they had five loaves of bread and two fish you'll be surprised to know that in your life there are what we call some ends in your life are you with me church thank god you have some peace and joy somebody to say amen you've got grace and mercy you've got life and strength you've got a birth family and a church family you've got some hands in your life thank god i've got some children and some grandchildren huh i've got a place to live and i got some furniture in it amen i got a life and a purpose for living because god says i have plans for you plans for you to prosper and not fail you've got some hands in your life church you've got a prayer and you've got a prayer answering god somebody you've got jesus and you got his love is there anybody here today who can think of and praise god for all the ends in your life now look how disrespectful and ungrateful these disciples are church folk remember that they discover they have more than they thought they had and listen to how they respond to jesus question when he says what do you have well we've been thinking about what we have jesus we got five loaves and just two fish that's all we got all right i'll say it again um what do you have we have just five loaves and a couple little fish you see the problem going on here huh the problem is they have all that they need and they don't appreciate what god has given them but on the other hand you have a little boy who doesn't regard the five loaves and the two fish as just a little thing because he shows up and he says listen i got five loaves and two fish i'm ready i bought the solution to the problem today everything that that boy had was wrapped up in them five loaves and two fish they represent everything that he had the bible says something happened so watch what happens next the bible says he lifts up i'm almost done he lifts up the bread and the fish to heaven to give thanks and when he gives thanks the multiplication process begins i came to let you know today that when you find yourself in a wilderness situation the third and final thing you need to do is take what you have amen it may not be all that you think it is but take what you have lift it up to jesus christ amen and give god some glory for what you have and watch what god can do with what you bring to him somebody will just say amen you see when you give thanks to god no man can close the door that god has opened amen when you give thanks to god somebody said that weeping may endure what for a night but thank god some joy comes in the morning when you give thanks to god no weapon formed against you shall prosper when you give thanks to god his mercy endures forever and ever when you give mercy when you give thanks to god you don't have to fret about anything or anybody your program will go forth why because it's not your program it's the program of jesus christ when you give thanks to god then you can say the lord is my shepherd i shall not want when you give thanks to god he that keeps israel will not slumber nor sleep he'll watch over you for he is a keeping god somebody to say amen now when you give thanks to god the bible says and we know that all things work together for my good all because i gave a little thanks to god i gave a little praise to god all things will work together for god so maybe your bread and your fish isn't doing anything because you have not given thanks to god think about that i'm bout through the disciples want nothing to do with these people the little boy says these are my people i've got a divine responsibility church we have a divine responsibility to god's people well let's finish it let me skip a few things here i don't know about you but every time i i read this story i see something different how many souls are being lost because we are not giving god what we have our time our talent our resources huh our dedication our commitment ah i must confess every time i look at this situation i got problems with that number five thousand i got serious issues with that number you see that number only pertains to the men that's just men but their men weren't not the only people there that day you see during that time only men were counted now what i'm about to tell you cannot be biblically proven so don't go trying to nail me on this one adventist people you have venice huh i'm just letting you know right now i can't prove i'm about to say but you'll get the gist of what i'm saying let's assume that of the 5 000 men at least 3 500 of them are married let's just assume that and add those two together that's 7 000 people is that right okay let's keep going let's keep it simple of the married couples have at least two children add that number that's that's going to come up to about 7 000 children now we up to children and parents about 14 000 people huh but remember i started out with 3 500 men so what happened to the other 1500 let's add them in there so now we're up to 15 500. all right of the married 15 unmarried 1500 you know that at least at least 500 of them bought their girlfriends i mean come on now you got a girlfriend you ain't leaving her behind i know i wouldn't leave my girlfriend by a man somebody huh so so so so so we got we got another few hundred people here that just that showed up we up to we're up to about 16 000 people now and and here's where things get really complicated because you know that those 3 500 wives they they if they have a mother still living they're not leaving their mother and if they got a little sister around they want their sister to come so we can't even begin to understand those kind of numbers but uh we could easily add if we want to at least another 5 000 to the number so now we're up to about 21 000 people and and you know that those sisters watch this one you know that some of those sisters that were unmarried you know they had some children huh you know they have some children because everybody they ain't married but they got some children and that's just part of life it's part of life so so so we don't know how many other children there are but one thing we can maybe be safe in saying this we know that there's over 20 000 people there oh yeah oh yeah but but here's the question you mean to tell me other childs that 20 some thousand people came and nobody bought a sandwich for their little babies nobody bought some some water on a hot day out there in the middle east somewhere huh no you you mean to tell nobody brought something now now now okay nobody bought anything and we've got five loaves and two fish now i know god can do anything with everything and i heard that he can take nothing and turn it into something but my god over 20 000 people how are you gonna do that with just five loaves and two fish and the bible says your bible says that he lifted it up gave thanks broke it and at the end of the day there was 12 baskets left over amen somebody why were there 12 some baskets left over so here's my theory about what's going on in some cultures it's an offense to eat when others around you are hungry so even if you have something you keep it to yourself you don't tell anybody you don't bring it out because you don't have enough to feed everybody um but here's what happened uh you keep it to yourself but this young boy he did something unusual this young little boy this little lad he broke tradition are you listening to me he broke the the cultural rules amen wait let me let me break it down to you another way he went against the constitution and bylaws he didn't care what the church board said he didn't care what the church would say but talk about him in business look at him who he think he is with his five loaves and two he didn't care he broke tradition and he pulled out what he had and he gave what he had to jesus i submit to you today that the real work the real miracle here was in the giving of what he had and then jesus worked the miracle of multiplication what am i trying to say to you as i take my seat the real miracle is in sharing the real miracle is in making available what god has given to you it's not that we don't have it we just haven't made it available to jesus christ god has given you some talent some gifts make it available to god god has given you some resources make it available to god break contradiction break the cultural rules don't worry about what boards and committees will say about you when you're doing the work for god god will bless it god will bless it and when sharing happens caring happens when caring happens feeding happens when feeding happens a friendships happen when friendships happen thanksgiving happens when thanksgiving happens blessings happen when blessings happen multiplying happens when multiplication happens participation happens when participation happens teaching happens when teaching happens preaching happens when preaching happens conviction happens when conviction happens converting happens when converting happens thank god baptisms happen when baptisms happen somebody is saved when saving happens somebody is saved and praise god when praising happens guess what eternal living happens but it all starts with sharing it all starts with carry it all starts with going to jesus christ have a little talk with jesus christ and everything will be all right make yourself available to god be the person that breaks tradition god will bless you is there anybody here today who says i'll be that little boy i'll be just like that little boy i'll give my loaves my fish is there anybody here who stand up with me today and say lord i'm available i'm available now don't stand if you don't mean it because god can't use you if it's not in your heart to do today god is looking for little lads god is looking for just two loaves and five five loaves and two fish if you got it you can give it you see sometimes we think we gotta give so much god doesn't say you gotta give me a lot god just says give me what you got just give me what you have ow i'll do the rest but you gotta give me what you have is there anybody who can give what you have well i don't have much you got yourself amen you have yourself and maybe there's somebody here today who is not in the ark of safety who's not a part of the family of god whether you're here listening a a live stream but virtually worshiping us wherever you are get in touch with the church let the pastors know that that that i want to give my life to jesus christ i want to give my soul to jesus i want to give what i have and something it just starts with me me i want to give myself god i remember some years ago i went out i saw a car that i wanted to buy it was a used car but i wanted that car it's a nice little car it was called one of them cars that your passenger drives a mercedes benz amen it was a nice little car and i wouldn't bought that car it had some miles on it let me tell you what i did i said lord if you give me that car i'll dedicate that car to your service if you give me that car i saw this car in october it's just sitting on the lot i wasn't ready to buy it i wasn't convinced i should buy it prayed about it and i said lord if that car is there the months were moving on now we're in november december i said if that car's there january 1 i'll know that car is for me and i'll dedicate it to you lord sure enough you know me early january 1. i woke up i couldn't sleep december 31st i got up got my old car that i was driving around i went to where the car was and lo and behold it was still there october november december january 1. it's still there i said it's for me i knew nobody could buy it that day because it was new year's day the business was closed so i wasn't worried about somebody coming and getting it as a matter of fact i was never worried because i had already prayed about it um january 2nd i go in there bright and early and i say sir i want to buy this car can we negotiate we negotiated we worked on the price i got the car the very good price i gave him a deposit i said i'll be back in two days with the rest of the money i went back gave him all the money drove off with the car drove off with the car remember i said it was an old mercedes huh anybody know anything about mercedes you know you know you need some you need you know you got to have a good mechanic huh is that right pastor bro yeah he's shaking it he know what i'm talking about even with a new one you need a mechanic amen amen amen and and and but i prayed about that car i said lord i'm dedicated to your service the car had 200 000 miles on it it looked nice it was still a mercedes it was gold amen i was so happy to have the car and when i pulled up to the church my members thought i had a brand new car it was a used car but the members were so excited our pastor got a mercedes they liked the car so much i went out and got a license plate that had the name of the church on the car amen somebody i'm riding good now i dedicated the car to god and you know that car never broke down it never broke down on me with all the miles that it came with i jump in that car get in the car drive from new york to florida and back no problem wow you see what happens when you dedicate what you have to god i don't care how new it is how old it is how much it is how little it is just give it to god give it to god father in heaven thank you for blessing us today thank you for showing us how to care for your people all we got to do is lift it up to you god and and pray over it give it to you make ourselves available to you god lord i pray for this church the leadership of this church i pray for the personal ministries team in this church use them oh god and may the church rally behind them and and come together and may market street be the church that you want them to be may market street be a beacon light in this community may there be a line standing outside the door people waiting to get into market even during the cove edge lord bless bless each and every person here meet the needs and dear god for those who want a closer walk with you those who want to join up with the movement of jesus christ lord lord hasten their footsteps to those who can help them to to the pastors to the clerks to the elders of this church the lord and let them say listen i want to be a part of the movement of god send the email to the church's website let just let somebody know i want to be a part i want to be a part of the work of god the army of god lord continue to go with us continue to bless us keep us in thy name let all god's people say amen amen god bless you [Music] lord i'm available to you my will i give to you i'll do what you say do use me lord to show someone the way and enable me to say my storage is empty and i am available to you sing that with me [Music] lord i'm available to you you know this my will i give to you i'll do what you say do use me lord to show someone the way [Music] and enable me to say my storage is empty and i am available to you one more time [Music] lord i'm available to you [Music] oh my will i give to you and i'll do what you say do use me lord to show someone the way and enable me to say my storage is empty my storage my storage is empty all my storage is empty and i am available to you [Music] let's put our hands together we've been blessed today by dr guy you feed the people what a message i want to thank also sister sonia sampson for our music and also judah come on let's put our hands together fun music today i want to thank our musicians also our ev team and outside man we've been blessed today we want to thank god and we want to thank him for you what we have experienced today now at three o'clock again at three o'clock what time did i say everyone three o'clock again dr guy will come back and do an evening program uh food have been prepared for in the parking lot outside and they have food already ready for at least 50 individuals and so keep yourself a committee of one cross the street take your time and be careful because it's across the street and then we will gather together and we'll come back together at three o'clock let us all stand for benediction father god we thank you for the message and the messenger thank you lord for letting us know that what we have is all that we need when we give it to you and so today lord we ask you to create within us a clean heart oh god and renew our right spirit within us help us lord as we continue to encourage one another and be a witness for you lord empty as a self lord and fill us with your spirit now lord as we come to the close of another program we ask lord you continue to keep us keep our minds fixed on you in spite of ourselves lord help us lord to continue to depend on you until we see you coming in the clouds of glory for all your angels we ask now you bless the food that we're about to receive bless the hands that prepared it bless the friendship the fellowship in the name of jesus we do pray and let us all say amen you may be seated [Music] so [Music] [Music] do [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Market Street SDA Church

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Id: DTPOUdzXZLU

Length: 159min 40sec (9580 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021