Market Street SDA Church - Week of Prayer - September 3, 2021

[Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening good evening and happy almost sabbath amen the sun is almost set almost set we're almost there we're so close y'all but welcome to our third night of the week of prayer where we have been focusing on the theme of restoration on monday night we focused on what circumstance monday we talked about circumstance wednesday we talked about exile exile and tonight we will be talking about return the return and so um i just want to thank you all once again for tuning in for coming out i really appreciate it the youth appreciate your support wholeheartedly um and i just pray that you all will just continue to be blessed as you tune in as you show up uh we will be back here tomorrow on sabbath at 11 am for service and we will close out in this week of prayer um so before we get started tonight let us just say a word of prayer dearly father we thank you for this day we thank you for allowing us to make it to the end of another week god um we're tired we've [Music] worked this week we've worshipped this week we've been through a lot just in the workplace in school in life but i'm just so grateful that we're almost at the time where we can just take a minute and just stop or we can just pause and we can just say thank you for bringing us through where we can lay all of our issues lay all of our worries all of our anxieties at your feet god and we can rest from everything that we've been through and so tonight i'm asking that your spirit will just continue to be in this place that will continue to be in the homes of those watching online lord that you would speak that hearts will be moved that minds will be changed and acts that your spirit would just go throughout this service hope for us to learn hope for us to have fun and hope for us to be just a little bit closer to you at the end of it all we thank you we praise you we love you and we lift you up in jesus name we pray amen and at this time i would like to invite up anaya and elijah for our game tonight hi i'm elijah and i'm anaya and tonight we're going to be playing charades in the bible so team up two to a pair and the rules are you just have to no talking no making noises no weird movements you just have to act out what you picked from the plate so the plate is going around right now and elijah and i will be demonstrating what's going to be happening so to the viewers online just put your guesses of what we're doing down in the comments um was yours fruit of the spirit yes okay so my turn praise the lord yeah okay so now we're going to be choosing another one uh ocean or sea house i have no idea i know it's c but what's the next one how many words you can't speak six first word not letters words three words okay what's the first you have to go first word okay c house is it a box a square a temple i have no idea can we can i have a hint or something it starts with the g okay it starts at the g see it was she of galilee i was supposed to guess that one okay five words one word first word bible scroll tablets 10 commandments writing writing the bible writing scrolls writing a box is writing the book of luke getting married reception no what's it called a wedding there you go okay so riding people eating the last supper no people eating at a wedding [Music] people eating a buffet at the wedding sure sure it's wedding banquet parable of the wedding penguins all right let's give our young people a hand our young people a hand they definitely pulled some hard ones the pair the parable of the wedding banquet amen please amen we'll take that too the buffet at the wedding eat as much as you want all right um next up on our program we have special music by an oakwoodite named arlivia so let's give her a hand um [Music] the name of jesus say the name of jesus say [Music] there's no other name i know [Music] say the name of jesus say the name of jesus [Music] say the name so precious there's no other name i know that can calm your on fears tears and wipe away your pain when you don't know what else to pray and when you can't find the words to say say the name oh help me say [Music] jesus [Music] there's no other name i know oh say the name say the name it's so precious there's no other name i know that can calm your fears and dry all your tears and wipe away your pain when you don't know what else to pray and when you can't find the words to say say the name oh oh jesus there's something about the name of jesus there's healing in the name of jesus oh what a friend what a friend we have in jesus [Music] oh he's gonna make way when you say oh jesus oh jesus oh yeah [Music] when you don't know what else to break [Music] and when you can't find the words to say [Music] and when you can't make it through another day [Music] [Music] and just say the name [Applause] [Music] amen amen sister are levia say the name of jesus when you have nothing else to pray say the name all right everybody it's time to get into our word for tonight but before we do that let's just go ahead and um do another review so monday what do we talk about we talked about what circumstance we talked about what our current circumstance is that calls for the need for restoration we talked about how did i get here who am i following how am i going to move forward from this place and on wednesday we talked about i need some umph wednesday we talked about exile we talked about how exile is not just punishment it's the means god uses to open our eyes and uncover our true condition while still looking out for us and keeping us to show that he is still god and tonight does anybody remember what we're going to talk about tonight return tonight we are talking about return and once again i had to go back to bishop google return means to come or go back to a place or person but it also means a profit from an investment but we'll come back to that a little bit later so let's go back to jeremiah because tonight we're skipping ahead a little bit tonight we're in the book of ezra but before we go to ezra let's go back to jeremiah jeremiah was a prophet right right when i say right you say right jeremiah was a prophet right and he was tasked with going to tell israel look you're acting a fool right now and god needs y'all to make a 180 real quick like just change our lives go back to him and it's all good and they're like no so god was like keep going back keep trying jeremiah tried for 52 chapters 52 chapters now i don't know what the timeline is but that's a lot of chapters he tried for 52 chapters and they still couldn't get it together so they were sent into they were sent into exile but when god was telling jeremiah about the condition of the israelites he also told jeremiah what was going to happen in the future jeremiah is a prophet he says what's going to happen in the future so in jeremiah 33 verse 7 god says and i quote i will bring judah and israel back from captivity and i will rebuild them as they were before i will bring judah and israel back from captivity that's their return and will rebuild them as they were before and so now we are in the book of ezra all the things that jeremiah has prophesied the exile being in babylon for 70 years all of that has now come to pass the 70 years is coming to an end and so we're in ezra chapter one verses two through four ezra chapter one verses two through four and i'll read it in your hearing this is what cyrus king of persia says the lord the god of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at jerusalem in judah any of his people among you may go up to jerusalem in judah and built the temple of the lord the god of israel the god who is in jerusalem and may their god be with them and any in any locality where survivors may now be living the people are to provide them with silver gold goods and livestock and with free will offerings for the temple of god in jerusalem this is what king cyrus is saying in the book of ezra chapter one so let me just give you a little context all right so when we went into exile we were with king nebuchadnezzar of babylon but somehow now we're in ezra and we're under king cyrus of persia so what happened all in between there king nebuchadnezzar was the king when the exile started babylon was like the big boss at that time like nobody was bigger and better than babylon nebuchadnezzar had the greatest kingdom the world had seen yet but nebuchadnezzar kind of acted a fool lost his mind a little bit god had to bring him back then his grandson became king grandson acted a fool go back and read it and all the rulers after him they just was acting a fool acting fool acting fool per usual nothing new there but when nebuchadnezzar was king he actually gave god actually gave nebuchadnezzar a dream a dream that he could not understand so that's why our boy daniel comes in he's like you got a dream i can interpret let me go pray real quick and ask the lord so daniel goes he prays he's like god what does his dream mean and so basically the dream meant nebuchadnezzar yes your kingdom is the kingdom of all kingdoms right now but i want you to know that your kingdom will come to an end and there's going to be another kingdom in power after your kingdom falls but their kingdoms will never be as strong as your kingdom and so there's like this whole statue this whole breakdown of the dream and all of that and it's a whole other story go read the book of daniel it's a good story so this kingdom that came after babylon that overtook babylon was persia and that was by god's hand that persia overcame babylon because when you remember in the dream god told nebuchadnezzar the kingdoms that come after you will be weaker than you now how you the biggest baddest thing but you get whooped by somebody weaker because god was on their side so now here we are with king cyrus the king of persia so before we go any further let's just pray hey dad i asked that you would open up our eyes to see the vision of restoration i said you open up our minds and our hearts as we listen to your word ask that our hearts would just be drawn a little bit closer to you that our minds will be trained a little bit more on you after tonight lord i ask that you would hope for us to return to you and be restored speak through me and allow your spirit to reign in jesus and i pray amen amen so we are with king cyrus the king of persia the king of persia right and so in this verse to deform we see that king cyrus seems a little bit different from the kings of babylon right nebuchadnezzar was like i am the biggest and the baddest and what you gonna do about it but king cyrus has a little bit of a different disposition king cyrus says the lord the god of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at jerusalem in judah king cyrus realizes that it's not it's it's not his own power it's not his his own intelligence it's not his military force that has gotten him to where he is king cyrus realizes that the god of israel is the one true god he's the god that has given him the kingdom that he has now the kingdom that was weaker than their enemy but still overcame them king cyrus knows who god is and so he says i'm gonna follow the word of god and god told me to tell you that y'all free to go y'all can return back to the land from which you came and build the temple of your god so this is king cyrus remember how i said when that when we're in exile it's not like god has stepped away from us in exile god is showing us that he's still there that he is still god that he's still good so how ironic is it that the king of persia a kingdom a king that has no regard for israel whatsoever doesn't even care he acknowledges god as the one true god and says i'm gonna follow what god says god was watching out for his people because he didn't allow kings who were too big-headed to stay in power so god tell cyrus yo send my people back and let them rebuild my temple and this is the beginning of the work that they do on their restoration journey so the first thing we're talking about is return talk about what return so the israelites obviously when i say return they're returning back to their homeland which is jerusalem but just because they're going back physically to their homeland it doesn't mean that they're going back to their same attitude and demeanor towards god in the bible it says in ezra it says that when they heard the word of king cyrus his decree his law saying that they could go back and rebuild their temple when they were on their way they didn't say what is this man talking about they say yo we going back we about to gamble we about to worship our idols again no they went back praising god they said god you are so worthy you are so mighty you were so awesome they were no longer so caught up in the things of the world they were now their attention was back on god by now their attitude and demeanor towards god was different even though they were going back to the same place physically and so coming out of exile for us coming out of this tremendous experience doesn't mean that we can go back to our old ways it doesn't mean that we can go back to our old selves or we'll be right back where we started we'll be back in that same circumstance where we were sad where we were unfulfilled where we had no purpose we'll be right back in that same spot if while we're in exile our mind doesn't change yes we're going back to the same spot physically but i promise you it will be different when you come out when you show back up to that place it says that the israelites were able to see the destruction of the temple they saw that their city their homeland was in ruins they were it reminded them of what it used to be and just the same for us when we go back when we return we're going to see the destruction of our souls we're going to see all that was wrong with us we're going to see our filth and what we used to be but when we look at that we shouldn't say man i'm just terrible no we need to go back and look at it and say yo i'ma do better i'mma stay this course that god has chosen for me because obviously he's a good god so he knows something that i don't if he said that all this was gonna happen and it's happening i'm living in it right now then i'm gonna follow him but when you look at that destruction when you look at that ruin that you are in and you see that that's where the hard work kicks in so what do we have to do we have to trust the process i know how i get when things take too long i'm actually a very patient person like i don't know maybe because i just don't have a sense of urgency for a lot of things so i'm just like automatically patient i'm like maybe they don't have the urgency that i do it's fine like we're gonna be patient we're gonna we're gonna wait young people the spirit of the fruit of the spirit is patience but sometimes oh jesus sometimes it just be taking too long like after after a while i just start to lose steam like my passion just starts to leave me and i get lazy i'm like do i even want to do this do i want to keep pushing and then sometimes i get anxious like what if it never happens i get doubtful when it's taking too long i get anxious i start to doubt and sometimes i just i just plain want to give up i'm annoyed i'm over it like it doesn't even matter at this point just let it go i'll do something else but no we have to trust the process for the israelites rebuilding the temple didn't happen overnight when i say they were rebuilding the temple this is not metaphorical like they literally had to go back to the pile of ashes and say all right well grab the hammers grab the saws grab grab everything grab the mortar grab the brick we got to start over we got to do this thing it didn't happen overnight but it's not just that the building took a long time there were roadblocks there were distractions they lost steam they got annoyed they wanted to give up so many things happened and so let me just say this people will try to turn you back i don't know like for some reason when you change your life when you change something about yourself what you were doing before seems easier it seems so much easier it's like a car wreck it's so easy to lose control of the car but it takes so much work to fix that car after the wreck there are gonna people they're gonna be people that just say you know just total the car out just let it be like you can get a new car maybe that's not your story maybe you don't have that money maybe you don't have the gap insurance i don't know but going back to who you used to be is not easy well it is easy going forward with restoration is not easy because you have to continually change you have to continually keep striving to be better but you have to think about the end result see with the israelites it took upwards 20 years 20 years that's about as long as i've been alive to rebuild the temple because of all the distraction and all the people that were against them rebuilding and when you're building something like i don't know if i've ever like built stuff like last year um was that last year i think last summer uh we were redoing my sister's room we're redoing sinai's room like the whole thing like painting new furniture but the thing is the furniture my mom ordered had to be built like it didn't come it wasn't shipped prepared like i'm talking a whole bed like the headboard the drawers the little thingies that go under the mattress to hold it up what is that called all right yeah the little thingy to hold up the mattress like we had to build that thing from scratch yes they they sent us the screws they sent us the wood they sent the instructions but we had to do the work and put it together see y'all need to go to ikea and order something and re and build it in your home and you'll see what i'm talking about when you're building something there's a lot that you have to keep in mind especially if you're starting from scratch the thing that you're building are you building it for it to be temporary or are you building it for the long run see now if you're building something temporary see when you make this decision it affects the materials you use if you're building something temporary you don't have to use something so expensive you don't have to use something that's going to have a long warranty you don't have to use something that's super nice you can just do something quick something easy and you you pay less the cheaper materials don't last as long that's just how it is and then you have to think about it is this a diy project or are you contracting the professionals are you going to do everything yourself are you going to look and say hey they know what they're doing i'ma ask them and then i was on zillow y'all i was on zillow i love looking at houses but on zillow they even have this little pamphlet thingy that you can look at that tells you all the steps to building your house and it does that so you can know okay do i need to keep looking on zillow for a home or do i really want to go through this and do it myself but if it says that if you decide to do it yourself you can't just go to a piece of land and start building you have to purchase that land but when you purchase that land you have to have somebody come in and assess the land and say is this good enough for something to be built on that will be sturdy and can be a home see now sometimes you're gonna do a little digging you gotta dig up what's already there dig up the dirt you gotta clear it out now who about to who about to go with a shovel you bought an acre of land to build your house who gonna go out there with a shovel pick up the dirt go get a truck put it on the truck for a whole eight hour land who gonna do that for the record everybody's hand is down amen you got to clear all that stuff up that's already in the land it might be weeds growing out there you don't know the situation might not be good for plumbing so now you got to call somebody in to to do deployment you have to prep the land when you're building something it's not an easy project you have to make sure that everything is mapped out correctly you have to have a vision of what that thing is going to look like in the end because if you don't it is havoc and chaos on your mind you have to have a design you have to have heavy materials you can't just go up in there with a hammer and a screwdriver and be like i'm gonna do this because now when that will start blowing you're going to be like them little piggies and your house is going to blow down when you're building something you have to trust the process it's not going to happen overnight and there's so much that goes into it these israelites when they went back to rebuild the temple they had to trust the process and it cost a lot of money like in ezra it says well you see in this verse um king cyrus told the neighbors he said you look if you live near somebody that's going back to jerusalem i need you to provide them with something i need you to give them some silver if you got it give them some gold if you got it give them some good some food give them some lifestyle that they can sacrifice once it's up give them some stuff to go back with when you return you're not coming back empty-handed god is gonna provide things for you that you need tools so that you can be successful in where you're going it even says that all the tax money that the people were sending into the king he was sending that to the israelites he said rebuilding this temple is not cheap y'all are going to need all the help that you can get so let me just send this your way it even says that god had to send prophets ezra the guy who wrote all this he was a prophet that god had to send to the israelites to keep them encouraged because there was so much against them even now as they came out of exile their neighbors were snitching on them their neighbors were snitching on this okay i gotta stop here i gotta stop here let me just tell you a little bit about their neighbors right so they back in jerusalem and it's a river over there now the people on the other side of the river must not have got the message about king cyrus's decree to them for them to go back and rebuild the temple right so people cross the river they said are there people over there there ain't been people there for seven years those those are people oh okay i wonder what they're doing so every day they come back and check they're like what are these folk doing over there these folks is rebuilding the temple of jerusalem i can't believe we gotta go town write a letter to the king and let that man know that they over here rebuilding the temple they rebuilding the city we gotta we gotta stop them their neighbors wrote a whole letter to the king to tell the king yo they over there rebuilding they're over there rebuilding and king cyrus was like i told them to go rebuild the temple like why are you contacting me like this has nothing to do with you mind your business neighbors mind your business mind your business stay in your lane thank you very much and if you're going to get over please use a blinker please make sure that there's a room for you just a a side note from a side note their neighbors were snitching on them kings of persia were even trying to stop them because they were jealous so let me tell you a little bit about just a little tiny bit about jerusalem before it got wrecked jerusalem was one of those places that you just don't mess with you just don't mess with them like you want land okay you go everywhere you go around them you don't step to them you don't talk crazy you don't run your mouth you don't do none of that because they got some type of weird god on they side he'd be wiping folk out like you just you just don't go up against jerusalem that's not what we do here some of the kings are like yo they're about to start rebuilding their land they're about to start rebuilding their city and their kingdom is going to be better than mine kings were jealous so they were like you know what we're going to put a limit on how much they can do and when they can do it we're going to stop sending them money we're going to stop sending materials there was so much that was still going against the israelites as they were trying to rebuild after their return and then the israelites were just lazy but i think it's a i think it's a genetic thing because you know when they were when they left egypt they were like being in egypt being in slavery was easier than this you got a fire by night you got a cloud by day to keep you from burning up you got food falling from the sky what about breaking your back every day 12 hours a day is easier than that all you gotta do is walk they were just lazy but that's that's the story for another time building something is not easy there's a lot that goes into it but i want you to know that you aren't in this thing alone see now even though jerusalem was wiped out israel was wiped out when king cyrus sent the decree for all the people to return when everybody showed up they was like yo it's a party [Music] see now if you know anything about a party well i don't know this is a special type of people but like you can't have a party with two people you can but that's not really a party that's more of like a get-together you know like a party you need at least like a good 25 people you feel me well not in covet season but you know when everybody's back to normal you need at least 25 people for it to be a party they came out of exile they start showing up they say hey then benjamin kids it was 42 000 people that came out of exile 42 000 and they were a family when they got over there they didn't just be like yeah i'm on my own here no there was 39 999 other people there and they all banded together and became a family when you were coming out of exile i promise you you are not the only person so if you feel lonely if you feel alone i'ma just throw this in there come to the church it might only be 12 people in there it don't matter two or three that's all you need somebody in the church has experienced what you're going through someone there might be in the same exact boat as you you didn't even you just didn't see them you were not in this thing alone of the rebuilding process if you come to the church there's a church family waiting for you we're going to encourage you and we're going to help you get back on your feet as you return we're going to hold you up until you feel strong enough to do this on your own but we're going to be by your side as you start the work of rebuilding your relationship with christ there are always going to be people there that support you even though you feel alone there is people to support you see now the israelites their neighbors literally gave them materials they said oh friend you're leaving i got you here's some gold take it with you their neighbors supported them in their journey gave them the materials that they needed there are people out there to support you folk that you met on the way that kind of reminded you that god is still good even though you're going through what you're going through the people that reminded you well hey you're living to see another day hey you have clothes on your back hey you have food on your table hey you still have a job hey you still gotta check hitting your account next week those same people will walk by your side even if they aren't believers because you believe they will come alongside you the people of persia were not god worshipers they were doing their own thing but because they saw the god that the israelites served they said i will come alongside you and help you out those folk that you meet on the way will be there to support you now if you are not a seasoned saint this is not for you if you have not been in the church for a while i'ma just let you know this next portion is not for you but i need you to listen because it's going to impact you too right so remember how i said that there were those neighbors across the river snitching they went to the king and were like they're rebuilding oh my gosh stop them those neighbors across the river weren't the only people that came against the israelites in this rebuilding process so if you remember there were two kingdoms of judah or of israel there was judah and then there was israel so the first kingdom that got wiped out when they got wiped out 10 tribes were lost 10 tribes and so when king cyrus made the decree for them to go back they might have said hey yo are those benjamins kids but they also saw some people that they didn't recognize they saw some people that they had never seen before they had some people come to them and say hey we're healed we're here to rebuild god's temple we're from this tribe they looked at them and said where your papers at you got proof for your genealogy can you prove to me that you are a child of benjamin and they said well since we have no record of you you can't stay here you can't participate in the rebuilding of god's temple now let me just say this the israelites the hard-headed israelites who have to spend 40 years in the wilderness because they wanted to complain every step of the way to the promised land the same israelites who were just exiled for 70 years because they forsook their god and did what they wanted to do and acted a fool and were hard-headed these same israelites yes it might be the next generation or two these same israelites are telling people that they can't be a part of something when all they wanted was to be a part of the world who are the israelites to say that somebody who doesn't have papers who doesn't look like them who they can't prove that they grew up in the church can't be a part of god's kingdom-building business and see what happened when those people came and said hey we want to help this is our god too they said no go somewhere else those same people said go somewhere else you're supposed to be our family you're supposed to welcome me with open arms okay that's how you want to play it we can be petty we can be petty petty now let me tell you about these folks these folk went to the king and put all these secrets in the king's ear and the king the next king after king cyrus was like they doing what they trying to do what i don't know all it is because we're one of them we got the inside scoop ah okay so tomorrow yeah you i'm secretary yes i need you to go down there tomorrow and i need you to let them know that this whole thing has to stop it's stopping they can't continue it's done just leave it alone go back i don't care where you go just go the rebuilding of temple it's not happening because they chose not to accept someone who didn't look like them their rebuilding their own personal rebuilding process came to a halt so now church family when people come into our doors when people come into our lives and they look at us and they say hey what is it like to be a christian how do i fit in i know i know i don't dress like you i know i don't have the vernacular of the holy spirit i know i don't know what justification and sanctification is but how do i get there who is this god that you serve when people come to us like that who are we to turn them away who are we to judge them we are nobody we are hard-headed sinners just like them we're just a little bit further along in our journey than they are but that does not make us better than them and so if this if we as a church are building the kingdom of god right but we're turning folk away from joining us what does it say about the god we serve if we're judging folk instead of loving folk when they walk through that door whether they're a part of the church or not what does this say about the god that we serve now there was that was just a commercial big commercial break from a commercial break if you or someone who has been who has felt excluded by the christian community i'm sorry i apologize on behalf of all of us because that's not who god is we should have learned from the israelites mistakes that's not who god is god is loving god is caring god is comforting god gives peace he gives joy and if you want to try again god is still there waiting he hasn't given up on you god will never turn you away and we will do better pastors tell y'all members we will do better that's just a sign though but yeah rebuilding takes a lot of work they're going to be people that want you to go back to your old ways they're going to be people who who don't want to see you succeed but you have to stick with it because you know in your heart and in your mind that this is better than where you came from but how do we do that we have to start at the foundation we have to start with our own personal relationship with jesus christ see now if you notice king cyrus told them to go rebuild the temple he didn't say go build your homes go rebuild the city walls go rebuild the temple because i think god told him that because god knew that the temple was the most important part of the city the temple was the heart of the city see now king cyrus was okay with telling them to just go rebuild the temple and not the city but this is why so like i said jerusalem was one of those kingdoms you just don't mess with you just you don't buck up you don't look at them funny you don't do none of that because you will be wiped out you will be smited off the face of the earth but the thing about jerusalem was they had city walls and that's what kept their enemies from coming into the city and destroying them king cyrus says i'm okay with them going to rebuild the temple because it's not their city walls if they go rebuilt their city walls we're in trouble our kingdom will fall they will attack us their god is going to smite us out and i don't want that king cyrus thought that the strength of the city was in the walls that protected it but god knew that the heart of the city was actually the temple the place where he dwelt the place where he met his people the place where they sacrificed to him where they worshiped him where they told them that he he was mighty that he was awesome that he was amazing that he was beyond their every thought because god knew that once their relationship with him was restored that's where the strength of the city came from he knew that when his people were his people and he was their god he would do anything to step in and protect them from the wills of the enemy and so for us our relationships with christ is that temple our relationship with christ is the foundation to being restored if there is no relationship we can't go any further nothing when our relationship is restored with him everything else will flow out of that now at the beginning of the week we talked about needing to be restored to purpose needing to be restored in our health needing to be restored with our finances all of that comes from our relationship with god and just like rebuilding the temple took a lot of money and materials thought and time building our relationships with christ will cost just the same we gonna have to sacrifice some time we might have to get up a little bit earlier before the alarm so that we can just take that time to say thank you jesus for waking me up i know i recognize that it was nothing but you that opened up my eyes and put breath in my body this morning that might mean that we watch a little less tv so we can go to bed a little bit earlier so that we can get up a little bit earlier to spend that time with him before our day starts and when he convicts us of certain things and tells us hey i want you to grow i want you to be better i don't want you to do that thing anymore it's going to cost to give those things up [Music] and we need materials if we're going to build something we need materials we can't just it's not just going to materialize right in front of us we have to have materials god gave us his word he gave us his bible and it is full of promises you can just read one chapter a day or if you have the bible app they'll give you a verse a day and it comes with a whole devotion you can watch the video you can listen to it it has an illustration it's really cool we need tools our bible is our number one tool in fact when god was saying like i want to dress you in my armor the bible was the sword it is our defensive weapon and then we come to church on sabbath and we hear the preached word that is to feed us that is to grow us and keep us going we'll try was supposed to keep us going until the next week when we can get back to the church house but still having personal prayer just having that conversation with god every day that's how you grow a relationship if you have any type of relationship a friendship if you have a sister or a brother if you have a parent if you have a kid if you have a significant other we all know that relationships take effort they take time you don't just become best friends with somebody all of a sudden you have to put in that work to say hey let's hang out let's plan something let's do something y'all find common ground hey this is what i like what do you like you have to do that same thing with christ and let me tell you once your temple is rebuilt that is the strongest foundation you could ever have [Music] and once that thing is built your temple becomes your city walls you don't need a military defense you don't need anything other than god in your heart and on your side to get through every single day you will overcome anything that the enemy throws at you anything that this life throws at you when people try you god will be like hold on now this my kid you talking about you better chill on them for i step in he will give you that peace that passes all understanding when your anxiety your heart is pumping and you can't control it when it feels like the walls are closing in on you god will give you peace but that peace flows from being in close proximity with him when you're feeling down and you're feeling sad when things are just not going your way god will give you joy you'll be sitting there looking like wow things are trash right now but somehow i still have a smile on my face thank you god we have to return and rebuild our relationships with christ that is that is the path to restoration our relationship with christ it opens up that door it was only after the restoration of the temple that jerusalem was able to build up the rest of the city it's the most important part in all of this everything that i've said this week has come down to this your relationship with christ and just know that when hardship comes god will stand for you when king darius he was one of the kings after king cyrus he put a stop like people were threatening the israelites because they didn't want them to rebuild the city they were hating they were like they'll never get it done king darius literally made a law because god told him he said yo protect my people at all costs king darius said i got you god anybody who says a bad word who even thinks a bad thought about them will be destroyed there will be destruction upon them their family their land their cow i don't care that was god standing for his people because he knew the importance of that rebuilding of their path to restoration [Music] and so this return is not only a return from your exile remember at the beginning when i was when i went to bishop google and google told me what return meant it also said the profit from your investment in the time you're in exile you're allowing your eyes to be opened you're allowing your eyes to be uncovered your faults to be uncovered your wrongs to be uncovered those are things that needed to change in you and so you're in exile you say god work on me god remind me that you are the one true god and you were still my god that time that you spent in exile was an investment and coming out returning from exile is your profit restoration rebuilding your relationship with god is an investment restoration is the profit from your investment and so tonight as a song is being sung i want you to think about your return i want you to think about what rebuilding your relationship with christ looks like and before you sit there and say my relationship with christ is fine what more could i do i have devotion every day i pray every day i read his word every day what more could i do in any relationship things get stale things get stagnant and when things get stale and stagnant that's when you want to give up that's when you want to throw in the towel relationships there's always room to grow there's always more things that you can do instead of having devotion to one day say god let's go on a date set up some fruit set up some cheese or something you might be vegetarian um they have the veggie cheese you can get that at sprouts set up a little day for you and god and y'all just sit there and y'all talk like best friends because that's what y'all are supposed to be with friendships you don't just hang out at school you have to hang out outside of school there's always room to grow in your relationship with christ so what steps are you going to take to rebuild that relationship so [Music] [Music] lord [Music] rebuild me oh lord rebuild me for i've taken what you made and thrown this value away oh lord rebuild me [Music] oh lord rebuild me lord me [Music] for i've taken what you made and thrown this value away oh lord rebuild me there's that peace of love there's that peace of joy there's that peace of righteousness oh my soul make me [Music] rebuilt lord revealed me oh lord rebuild [Music] me [Music] for i've taken what you made and thrown its value away oh lord rebuild me [Music] there's that peace of love there's no peace [Music] righteousness oh my soul make me hope there's that peace faith there's that peace of happiness [Music] rebuild me [Music] oh lord refilled me [Music] for i've taken what you made and thrown this value away oh lord rebuild me [Music] so [Music] do [Music] ryan peterson youth pastor beacon light richmond and uh i have the honor of praying with you guys making sure the spirit of the living god is present so that he can move so that he can do his thing so that we can leave change and more in love with him so let's uh let's pray let's pray father god uh we just want to give you this space and this place to have your way father god um we've been speaking about restoration we've been learning about what it means in our lives and for us lord father god that sometimes in order for a restoration to happen we need to be removed from certain situations certain places certain circumstances certain people and father god that is where you mold us and shape us and and we know that the restoration is coming now and father god we just pray that through all this this through this process um that we will glorify you that we would not be the same and that as we return to your love we return into your loving arms that we would never take it for granted that we would embrace it every day father god we just pray that you would just move in our hearts that you would rewire our mind that you would reshape our hearts and that you would bend our will towards you that you would bend our desires towards you and that you would increase our love for you father god we thank you for loving us we thank you for the sacrifice that you made we thank you for leading us and guiding us we thank you for protecting us from things seen and unseen that we will never know about but father god as we seek restoration we we lean on the promises of your word that you are a restorer that you do bring back things you do bring dead things to life and father god we pray that you just breathe into these dry bones and that we may develop a deep deep deep affection and intimate relationship with you because at the end of the day to know you is turn is eternal life father god that's our prayer in jesus name amen all right jog blessing let's put our hands together tonight we were blessed tonight by says the costume on hodges again on return on restoration we've been blessed this week and on tomorrow we will come together again and celebrate at 11 o'clock tomorrow for 11 o'clock service we have been blessed this week and we thank god for sister kai simone hodge also we want to thank uh her sister um shania for for for coming up and doing the hand signs while her mother was singing oh lord reveal me what a powerful song what a powerful song i don't know about you but i was blessed by that song tonight come on show some love let's show some love for the family as they were working together tonight and so now it's time that you and everyone all those of you that are on live stream you can go to uh as the there's time to give this is giving time amen and so you can go to marketstreetsdachurch.com you can go to adventistgiving.org or you can mail it in at 934th street oakland california you're offering as the deacons come at this time as we lift up the offering at this time we've been blessed this week and we thank god uh for our week of prayer thank god for our week of prayers the dickens goals and pick up the offering we want to thank also all of those who are participating tonight in our service we want to thank uh brother derek that's on the piano tonight and also re uh deshawn that's playing the drums i want to thank elder monk and elder um bobby moore and also dr marilyn salisbury and also otis and them that are running our sound team our av team and also our camera we've been blessed tonight and i know you have been blessed tonight and so if you've been blessed or not i want you to stand with me right now as we get ready to have our closing prayer as we get ready to go home and then we see you tomorrow at 10 o'clock for salvage school and then at 11 o'clock for our worship service let us pray father god tonight we want to thank you again oh lord reveal me rebuild us lord that we can have a closer relationship with you those lord that have left you lord we realize tonight as as cars simone hodges have challenged us to return return back to where we have left you from lord give us a new relationship with you create within us a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit within you as the bible workers are by the phone lord and waiting for those individuals who have made their minds up they want to go down into the watery grave in the next baptism uh you can call the number that is on the screen right now right now you can call that number and so god we thank you for the challenge thank you for the message and the messenger thank you for this week of prayer that we have been able to come together monday night on circumstance wednesday night and then tonight lord and then tomorrow as we close out this week of prayer fill us with your holy spirit allow your angels to go before us behind us above us and beneath us keep us in the palm of your hand give a safe travel home and then wake us up early in the morning we can come out and join again together through our sabbath school class and then through 11 o'clock bless us keep us guide us and protect us and then bring it back together again on your holy sabbath day in jesus name we pray amen god bless you god keep you god sustain you and we'll see you again in the morning [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Market Street SDA Church

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Length: 76min 25sec (4585 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021