OUC Worship Experience - 9/11/21

lord the lord um uh oh so ah oh so ah [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] hello good morning and welcome to another edition of sabbath school here at the oakwood university church my name is dr toussaint williams and again i have the privilege of sharing the word of god with you today before we get started let's bow our heads with prayer lord we are so thankful that you gave us another opportunity to trust you an opportunity to dig into the word and see what you have for us and so our goal our desire our plan for today is to be in your will to fill us with your spirit so we can learn what you have for us so guide us to that end in jesus name we pray amen good morning good morning good morning so good to see each and every one of you and those who are watching virtually it is an honor to be with you today we're focusing on a topic longing for more as we're studying our sabbath school lesson looking at how we can truly find rest in jesus christ but before we go any further i want to let you know that on monday we have a bible study called bible 101 and we would like to invite each and every one of you to come out and join us and if you have not had an opportunity to do so send us an email at info ouc sda.org and we will be sure to give you to send you the link so you can be ready for our study this coming monday as we're looking at the book of acts all right now today we're talking about longing for more but before we go any further i have a little confession my confession is i enjoy playing with toys i like race cars i like you know different events different different toys of that but one of my favorite toys i enjoyed was legos any lego lovers in here anybody had uh legos or somebody just had the blocks i i didn't always have enough money to actually play with legos sometimes you have to get the blocks and make men out of different figurines but the idea was it is i enjoyed playing and the idea of playing indicated i wanted to create a small whether it be city whether it be a car whether it be model car whatever it was i just enjoyed spending time but one thing that did as i got older i realized a toy car a toy city a toy house was good but it wasn't as good as the real thing in fact i learned that these are simple simply models they function only to give us a glimpse of what those real themes could be but our lesson brings out something even more interesting that the bible identifies that the bible uses models just like we do with legos or just like model cars to share with us truths about real things and those things actually should desire for us to long for more to long for the original and that's exactly what we're going to look at today out looking at or focusing on how we can grasp the original intent our anchor text comes from first corinthians chapter 10 in verse 16. first corinthians chapter 6 excuse me chapter 10 and verse 6. and here the word of god says now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did these things took place as examples and i want to let you know that the bible talks about examples so that we can learn from them as much as a great teacher as experience is someone else's experience is even better because especially if something happened bad now let me just ask you this how many of you had brothers or sisters anybody anybody had brothers or sisters you remember i know none of you had any tussles or fights or none of your children i know sister battle none of your kids have fights or they never argue but but every now and again my brothers and i used to have little fights or do different things and one of the things i learned and of course it wasn't me it was always my brothers that were getting into the fight i learned to watch what my older brother did and if he got into trouble i said i'm not going to do that i got to do something a little bit different and he was we identify as an example and here the bible gives us opportunities to see that there are examples that are found in the word of god so that as we prayer prepare for the second coming we can be sure that we learn from their mistakes if they were mistakes or if there were things that went well we can learn from those as well now an example in most english translated english word dictionaries is translated from the hebrew called typos in english the word type is based on this greek noun a type or example is never the original but some kind of symbol or representation for it it is a model of something else today we're going to look at several types we're going to look at the example a type of rest a type of blood and a type of a lamb and these in the bible were examples for something else and so putting on my teacher cap here we might have a quiz before we leave so i want to make sure that you are ready to go so first corinthians chapter 10 and verse 9 and 11. first corinthians chapter 10 verses 9 through 11 says this i'll read in your hearing we should not test christ as some of them did and were killed by snakes and do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warning to us on whom the culmination of the ages has come here we see in the old testament paul the bible writer begins to share with the church of corinth the things that the israelites did while they were journeying through his through egypt through adjourning to the promised land they've just been freed from egypt and one of the things we learned in the story that paul begins to share is that there were moments for the children of israel after they experienced the ten plagues after they saw great miracles of deliverance of the red sea and finally get to the point where when they realized that god did not act or move as fast as god they expected god to move they began to murmur and complain they began to say god do you want us to die in the wilderness they began to say god you should have left us in egypt and in those moments there were times where god literally took their lives other times he allowed snakes to come and one of the things that we can learn about god that even if it happens where god does not move the way we think he should or he does not move in the timing that we want him to it does not mean that god is not going to come through it does not mean that god is not preparing something for us sometimes it means that we have to learn to wait on god's plan the book of hebrews gives us another example of this idea or concept of symbols the bible says they or the priests of the old testament temple service serve as a copy or shadow of heavenly things now bible scholars i know you've many of you understand this already for those who are looking at this for the first time who want to make sure that we're clear though some of the things that god created in the old testament journeying the israelites as they journeyed outside of egypt he began to give them ser serve models of the services that he wanted to share with them that would let them have further eternal realities and what hebrews the bride of hebrews is reminding them of what these things meant so let's keep on reading it says these things were a copy in a shadow of heavenly things for when moses was about to erect the tent he was instructed by god see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain in this passage hebrews highlights the direct link between heavenly and earthly realities and then he quotes exodus chapter 25 and verse nine those you have your bibles turn with me there exodus chapter 25 and verse number nine exodus 25 verse number nine and here the word of god says exodus 25 verse number 9 according to all that i show thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof even so shall ye make of it god was sharing with moses after he had opportunity to share with the um ten commandments he began to let him know about the sanctuary and the sanctuary that god was sharing with moses was a small model just like those of us who played with toy cars and model cars or model trains those were not the real thing but it was an a small microcosm of what god wanted to do or what god had placed and prepared in heaven and so when god revealed the sanctuary service and those instruments those were the things that god wanted to let moses know were the same things that were happening in heaven these things god said to moses were a pattern of things that were happening moving forward at this point the point is that the earthly sanctuary and all of its rituals and procedures were examples symbols or models of what was going on in heaven with jesus as our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary so i want to make sure before we go any further the bible gives us very clearly an understanding that when god gave symbols about the sanctuary service when god gave examples about the different events and elements that happened there they were models of what god was doing or god was preparing in or similar to what was happening in the heavenly sanctuary now pop quiz when god delivered the children of israel out of bondage of in egypt what was the location of their first test anybody know the location of the first test after they came out of egypt the very low first location of their first test could they be could god be trusted does anybody know the location of that first test i'm going to give you a hint had to deal with the body of water the red what the red sea all right you got it you got it now this is not the picture of the actual red sea but i want to let you know that this was a type or an example of where god led the children of israel can you imagine over a million people being led by a god that they could not see to a place where they got to the the mountain on one side the red sea on another and behind them was pharaoh's army charging after them and they were literally afraid and one of the things that blew my mind when i read this story was the response of the israelites when they realized pharaoh was following them they said to moses and said with their finger out in front of god god it would have been better for you to leave us in egypt to die than to leave us out here in the wilderness to be killed by pharaoh there are a number of lessons that we can learn from the israelites during this experience number one first lesson we can learn is that we can trust god even when life seems like it's going in the wrong direction have you ever had a situation where you just knew your life was not going the way you thought it was or did not go the way you thought it should and it seemed like everything was out of control and our nature our natural person or i don't know about you my natural experience and say god are you sure you know what you're doing this was not the plan we're supposed to exit down exit 75. why are we getting off on exit 73. i'm just when any time things get outside of my control i'm like lord are you sure but one thing we learn from the children of israel is that god's thoughts his ways and his plans are not always our thoughts our ways nor our plans but we know that god can be trusted we also can learn that we can believe god to provide even when it does not appear that he's doing so that when things seem to be going out of control and out of direction it does not mean that god is doing something crazy in fact we can look at the story of joseph that we looked at a couple of weeks ago where joseph after everything happened that his brothers and and the different experiences that he had he at the end of his father's life was able to look to his brothers and said what you meant for evil god turned around and made it for good going back to the new testament the lesson brings out this unique point it's as paul considers these important stations of the wilderness journey as a type or an example of individual baptism remember god was doing something the god opened the red sea allowed his children to walk through on dry land and paul uses that as an example of individual baptism in the footsteps of paul's logic the reference to spiritual food must refer to manna as we identified in exodus 16 and israel drank from the rock which paul identifies as christ based on first corinthians chapter 10 and verse number four over and over again the bible is replete with different examples or models of things that represented other things think of jesus for example paul is i mean he's written in john as identified as the bread of life and the living water in john chapter 4. these things make perfect sense in that we see paul's use of the old testament history as an example of revealing spiritual truths that can be applied to the interval individual christian experience as well now one of the most um common examples or models is the idea of a lamb the bible the old testament identifies as a system of ritual sacrifices such as found in leviticus offers more examples of this idea of a lamb the old testament symbols are pointing to new testament truths remember these were models or symbols or examples of things that we can learn as we move forward in studying the word of god notice what leviticus says when it's talking about a lamb now one of the things i found very interesting come come come here come here come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on now tell us your name miss anaya is 12 years old in the seventh grade yes can you imagine for an example this beautiful young lady all of a sudden turned around and turned around and is now transformed into a lamb all right so this is anaya the lamb what would happen if come here sir come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on what would happen when tell us your name sir roderick all right roger any relation to this young lady all right so you're the father of a lamb all right it's a lamb now right yeah all right all right so can you imagine for roderick if he let's say right all right roger if he made a mistake throughout the week stubbed his toe and did not say bless the name of the lord stole tax money or something else that he did he sinned and realized i did something against the will of god what roger would have to do was go grab a lamb grab a shoulder take the lamb bring the lamb to the priest and together hold this your knife roger would have to cut the throat of the lamb and the priest would take the blood and the lamb into the sanctuary and what happens now is the sin that roger committed is transferred from him the sinner to the lamb to the priest to the sanctuary everybody understand the process it went from roger who made the mistake found an innocent lamb had to slit the lamb's throat the lamb now holds the sin now transferred to the blood to the priest to the sanctuary everybody understand the process all right so what happens to roderick after the blood the lamb was slain where did your sin go to the lamb that means you are sin what sin free so is that good news for roger is that good news for the lamb no why not because the lamb dies thank you so much roger take your lamb beautiful you lamb the idea here is that what god did in the story and the example of leviticus is that we see two things number one our sin impacts someone or something that had no connection to sin but also it did it allows us to see that even though we sin there is a consequence even when it does not impact us and that's one of the challenges that the devil does a phenomenal job with and sometimes when we do things that we don't feel like it's not going to make a big difference that sin has a ripple effect sin is almost like i guess we can use a covid 19 where you can be walking in a room and somebody sneezed and walked out even though they chose not to wear a mask and you even though you did not know anything was going on could be impacted even though you just walked into a room and when we were born we were walked we walked into the room called sin and suffering and death but notice what the bible says it says if someone were to bring brother roderick a lamb as their sin offering they were to bring a female without defect they were to lay their hands on the on the head and slaughter it as a sin offering in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered and then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar upon the burnt offering and pour on the rest on the blood at the base of the altar it goes on to say it's i'm sorry now look at john chapter 1 and verse 29 what the bible is doing in john chapter 1 and verse 29 john the baptist is outside baptizing and people are being connected to the kingdom and their sins are being forgiven but when he sees jesus he says hey hey hey hey check this out behold the lamb of god which takes away the sins of the world what john is doing now is showing that roger every sabbath that you come and you bring this lamb you don't have to do that anymore because the one we've been looking for has already showed up the one that we've been praying about is the one that is here the bible says behold the lamb of god which takes away not just roderick's sin not just brother lavender's sin now not just my sin the sins of the world and that is the good news that's the excitement and the joy that john wanted to show with the rest of the world that the one that we've been looking for the one that we've been praying about is here the one who was a been we've been talking about as an example or a model with every sacrifice that was slain is now been fulfilled in the life and in the presence of jesus christ first peter chapter 1 verse 18 through 20 says for you know that it is not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you will redeem from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors but with the precious blood of christ a lamb without blemish or without defect he was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last days and times for your sake i want to do two things for you number one i want to let you see that there is a connection between the old testament and in the new testament there's no division the ideas or the symbols are are literally going to be fulfilled in the life and ministry of jesus christ the rituals that were shown were an excellent communicator of important values and information and it needs to be understood in context it usually requires a specific time a particular location and a pre predetermined sacrifice sequence of actions to be efficacious indeed when we read through biblical injunctions in the old testament regarding sacrifice it becomes clear that god gave very specific details about what could be sacrificed when where and what ritual and procedure should follow what we see in the old testament was a reminder that these are the things that point to our relationship with jesus christ the point and parcel of all those sacrificial systems and and days of worship pointed to our relationship being restored to the life ministry death and resurrection of jesus christ the bible also uses another symbol the idea of blood leviticus chapter 17 verse 11 says for the life of the flesh is in the blood and i have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul that lets us know that if jesus were to come just to come and live a sinless life but was not crucified we would not truly have a atonement for our sins the blood is what needed to be shed the blood that was shed from calvary the blood that reap never loses his power that was the blood that was necessary that was necessary to be shed so that we could have eternal life we don't have a good connection with blood here we praise god we have to bring can you imagine if you came today with your nice suit or with your fancy mask and your beautiful shoes that you had to come along with you in addition to your tie that you had to bring a lamb with you can you imagine instead of wearing a suit i would have to wear some type of smock or outfit to where every time we came into worship we would sing songs and an animal would be slaughtered it would be a pretty messy process it would be a pretty stinky process it would be a pretty challenging even grow test process some people say i i don't want to do that but i praise god that the bible identifies that that sin no longer that process needs to happen no no more why because the sin has been taken care of by the blood of jesus christ and we can enter into the rest of god the hebrews identified identified excuse me in hebrews chapter four in verse number three we who have believed do enter into that rest as he said so i swore to my in my wrath that they will not enter my rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world here we see that christ jesus christ our lord and savior same way the early christian church understood it he was the example fulfilled of all the models all of the ideas that were placed in the old testament jesus was the lamb of god the sacrifice for our sins and by faith in the sacrifice they could experience salvation in jesus and the rest that we are offered in him one of the things that we need to make sure that we're prepared for as we're living truly in the last days is that we are able to understand the truths that are found in god's word and allow them to see how they point to our relationship with jesus christ signs of time says this particular page i mean march 17 19 1887 says this we are not always willing to come to jesus with our trials and difficulties sometimes we pour out our trials or troubles to human ears and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us and neglect to confide all to jesus christ who is able to change the sorrow way to pathways of joy and peace self-denying self-sacrificing gives glory and victory to the cross the promises of god are very precious we must study his will to know study his word to know his will the words of inspiration carefully studied and practically obeyed will lead our feet to a plain path where we may walk without stumbling oh that all ministers and people would take their burdens and perplexities to jesus who is waiting to receive them to give them peace and rest he will never forsake these who put their trust in him peter reminds us that we are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation god's special people that we may declare the praise of him who called us out of darkness and into this wonderful light i i don't know about you but i enjoy spending time with models but even better is being able to spend time with the real thing we have an opportunity this sabbath to spend time with the real thing prayerfully we see him as we worship him in spirit and in truth [Music] hello oakwood university church family and friends welcome to this week at the ouc i'm isaiah goodridge and i'm simone vaughn we're happy that you joined us today for our worship experience please tell us where you're joining from in the chat we're also excited that the church is open for in-person worship if you would like to join us in person next week please register through the church website and click the link on the main page or you can call 256 837 1255 or you can stop by the church office this week during office hours we look forward to worshiping together in person we hope that you will be richly blessed by today's service through our preaching teaching music and children's ministry today we continue our sermon series kingdom principles the speaker is our very own dr toussaint williams it promises to be a great service while we're excited about worship today we also want to remember the families who lost loved ones and the horrific terrorist attacks on 9 11 20 years ago today let's keep them in our prayers join us at 5 p.m today for our zoom sabbath afterglow program that will take place as we review the sabbath school lesson with elder ronald lang if you would like to join us please use the meeting id 248-004 three three one six and the password is four three two one like that song says prayer opens special treasures and we believe in the power of prayer and so if you would like special prayer please feel free to fill out our virtual connect card or you can join our special prayer call at 6pm at the number 605-475-4120 and enter the access code number 848-3381 our church office is open monday through thursday from 9am to 5pm and on friday from 9am to 12 noon however we ask that you continue to wear a mask and maintain social distancing when visiting the church office join us this monday for our bible 101 study with dr tucson williams for the zoom information please email info oucsda.org calling all young adults we invite you to join us for our weekly young adult zoom bible study which will also take place this friday september 17th at 8 pm for more information please email yam ouc-sda.org saturday night september 25th at 7 30 pm we will have a special social event for all youth ouc's amazing race teams of four to six people including at least one adult 18 years or older race to find clues to locations across oakwood university's campus prizes will be awarded to the top three teams to register go to www.ouc forward slash youth dash ministry or scan the qr code on the screen refreshments will be on sale the oakwood university church market located in the oakland university church family life center is open monday through thursday from 9am to 5pm and on friday from 9am to 2pm we invite you to drop by and pick up your vegetarian food products at a very reasonable price you can also purchase your oaktown merchandise speaking of old town merchandise not only can you stop by the oakwood university church market to get your oaktown merchandise but you can also get it by ordering online at www.oucsda.org forward slash shop we are currently running a back to school sale where you can get 25 percent off all hoodies and beanies hurry up while supplies last this is the last week of the sale our ouc adventures club season begins sunday september 19th because of cover 19 it will be virtual to register go to www.ouc forward slash club dash ministries or scan the qr code on the screen you can stop by the church next sunday september 19th between 10 a.m and 12 30 p.m to pick up your adventurer books and supplies for those families who register before the 19th you will receive a special gift there will also be an opportunity for families to register on site our ouc pathfinder club season also begins sunday september 19th it will also be virtual due to covet 19. to register go to www.oucsda.org forward slash club dash ministries or scan the qr code on the screen next sabbas september 18th the oka university office of spiritual life will present a power packed weekend the speaker will be pastor jonathan henderson you can register to attend this in-person service by going to www.oucsda.org and clicking on the church registration link starting at 6 pm this evening we also want to remember those who are sick and shut in in our church family due to the covet 19 pandemic we request that you not visit any of these individuals but instead keep them in your prayers send them an encouraging card or give them a telephone call to check on them that's all for this week at the ouc if there are any other church events that you would like to have mentioned in this announcement segment please feel free to email us at info ouc oucsda.org now i know that was a lot of information to throw at you but in case you ever get lost please remember to stay connected with us by visiting our website at oucsda.org or by following our social media platforms to know what is happening at our church and if you want to subscribe to our weekly newsletter you can scan the qr code on your screen or go to www.tinyua forward slash ouc newsletter may god continue to bless you and have a very happy sabbath [Music] but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching welcome to the oakwood university church in huntsville alabama on the campus of oakwood university welcome to the oakwood worship experiment if you're happy and you know it say amen let's try one more time if you're happy and you know it's saying man we welcome you to our service today and hopefully we look forward to a powerful worship experience everyone's singing welcome into this is the place [Music] [Music] in anticipation we look forward to the service [Music] in spite of the week [Music] so we've come here this morning so enter [Music] why but the lord is good [Music] [Music] and wherever you are with friends [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] quotes with praise [Music] for the lord is good for the lord let's take it out now the house of the lord so i come today with thanksgiving with thanksgiving in spite of the week i've had thanks if you want to give him thanks this morning just raise your hands right there we look forward to a powerful worship experience let's give him everything we have enters gates with thanksgiving i hear you with thanksgiving [Music] i hear you singing now all the sopranos all the outdoors [Music] oh yeah it feels good in here let's see that's wrong one more time [Music] it's quite of the week you've had we look forward to service today [Music] oh give thanks unto the lord for his mercy endures forever who binds us all with love's strong cord for his mercy endures forever who gives us comfort in our grief for his mercy endures forever and helps us find a sweet relief yes his mercy endures forever who knows how much that we can bear for his mercy endures forever and bids us come to him in prayer since his mercy endures forever who gives us more than we can take for his mercy endures forever and blesses us for his name's sake for his mercy endures forever who makes sure that his voice is heard because his mercy endures forever and brings a message with his word for his mercy endures forever who pardons us from all our sins for his mercy endures forever but wants to change us from within for his mercy endures forever so let us worship him today for his mercy endures forever and let the spirit have its way while his mercy endures forever and as our worship has begun and his mercy endures forever let's magnify god's only son for his mercy and yours forever let us pray definitely father i ask that you will bless this service let your holy spirit um run through the aisles and to each person that we may receive a blessing from your service today thank you for giving us safe traveling mercies here bringing us to another sabbath bless us and keep us i pray in jesus name amen amen amen and amen good morning ladies and gentlemen oh you can do better than that the god woke you up this morning don't count that as we count that as a privilege that's not expected but we praise god for waking up one more time allowing us to be here it is a sunny day here in huntsville alabama and we take that we don't take that for granted we are excited about what god is doing so we want to say welcome to those who are watching virtually we praise god for you being with us and everyone that is here today we praise god because god is going to do something great we believe today now it is our custom and our privilege to acknowledge what god has done and bringing us together and allowing our our families to have one more year of life and so we want to acknowledge all of our birthdays today i want to say happy birthday to mr andre walker we praise god that you god allowed you to see one more year of life i want to say happy birthday to suzanne bernice we praise god for your birthday we are excited about what he has done and is going to continue to do i want to say happy birthday to one of our special ladies here at the church she serves in our media team miss ava matt we are excited about you want to give you a big hug as soon as we see you praise god and happy birthday one of our ou students turned 19 this year this this year um melana goodrich we praise god for you melania happy happy birthday one of our young ladies she moved here from indianapolis usually sits right over here she's on her way today we praise god for her miss pamela hugger brooke i got word and it is your birthday praise god i want to say happy birthday to you this young man is so crazy how life happens um he and his wife are very instrumental in helping us my wife and i plan our wedding in december it will be 18 years we have been married and so i tease he and his wife because that just means that they are getting older mr craig called on we want to say happy birthday to you your wife told me to sneak that in there happy birthday brother craig i also want to say happy birthday to dr dawn turner happy birthday dr dawn we are so excited about what god is doing your husband made sure to shout you out on facebook and on social media so we just want to jump in and say happy birthday to you and also we want to say happy birthday to a very um powerful of how a man who's made a major impact oakwood university for many many decades we want to say happy birthday to dr oliver davis senior he turned 91 years old september 9th so we want to praise god for again another year of life we have just a few announcements we want to share with you as we continue our worship service um next sabbath we are the privilege to have the oakwood university students they are going to come in it is their power packed weekend that is very similar to those some of us who remember week of prayer it is now power pack weekend and next week we will be blessed um the chat office of osl off student office of spiritual life will be leading out next week under the direction of chaplain pledging so we praise god for them we're asked to continue to keep them in prayer in addition next week we have something also special for our young people in nashville it will be a joint youth federation in nashville tennessee so please if you would like to register please look at on the screen or on the website ouc oucsda.org for more information and also if you would like to register pathfinders or adventures the time is now please take a moment to go on the website www.oucsda.org so that you can register and make sure your young people are apart now while we have a number of events and transitions that are going on we also want to have something special for our young people our young those who are young or young at heart in a few weeks we are going to have oakwood university church's amazing race we are going to have an amazing race and this is going to be a phenomenal time i'll talk to the team who are preparing and planning for it there's going to be a number of adventures that happen and there's going to be a prize somebody said it maybe even be a cash prize for those who want to participate so you have to have a team of four to six and one at least one adult that's at least 18 years old to find clues and find a number of different events and happenings that here at the oakwood university church we'll give you a little bit more information as we move forward but we want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to participate in what we have moving forward lastly please make sure that you go to the website and sign up some people are saying how can i get more information about what's happening at the church to identify the newsletter or to identify or sign up for the text message please and you can even use your qrc code to look online even right now if you open up your camera those of you with a smartphone you can just put your camera to um that box right there and you'll have opportunity to direct take you directly to the link for the information to sign up for the events that are happening thank you so much i just want to say you guys have been a blessing to me my family and so many others god is richly blessing so i just need you to help me out put a smile on your face if you can do that through your mask don't take your mask off can't do that but through the mask i want to see cheekbones touching your eyes just letting god know excited about being in the house of god i'm richly excited about what god is going to prepare for us on today now right now we also have a special privilege of having a baby dedication marcus valentine who's one of our young people you're not young anymore now a father um he wants to he and his family want to bring their child to the lord and we're going to invite the valentine family to come at this time and as they're coming i want parents for you to think about your child the one god has blessed you to birth or be the auntie for uncle four and think about what god is doing is going to do for this young child being born in this particular time i i talked to a parent this week and he was saying you know he was telling us his daughter i'm going to church and daughter's like well what's church only to realize that this as a growing up in the pandemic doesn't understand the journey of coming to sabbath school or the blessing of being able to come to church on a regular basis but but we're going to see that one day soon god's going to remove all of this drama all of these challenges and we won't have to worry about not being able to be together but when he comes we'll never have to say goodbye i never have to wear a mask again but in spite of all the different challenges and dilemmas god has called us to still raise our children the fear and admonition of the lord and as a valentine family is assembled behind me and this pastor raphael is going to share the charge for the family continue to keep them in prayer because we know god is going to do some great things as we're living in the last days and pouring out his spirit on all flesh pastor phil share with us at this time good morning church can we just say man a hearty amen for the valentine family and praise of thanksgiving well it's so good to see you here assembled uh marcus said uh i was just trying to remember how i met you personally formally and that was in walmart yes and you said hey are you pastor passing yeah and so it was hard to really tell who you were because we were massed up and all that but uh it's been good getting to know you a little better and of course we did introduce markets to the oaktown neighborhood earlier this year so we're grateful for that um we're so happy for your family assembled here we have parents and family here and so we're so grateful marcus is your first child and because he is your first child you're going to get a lot of advice from parents and grandparents and cousins and strangers even they're going to tell you what to do they're going to say marcus is he he's hot he's cold put up put a blanket on him and then someone else gonna come right along and say marcus is hot take that blanket off then someone's gonna say oh he's sick give him plenty of fruit juice and someone else gonna say no don't give him fruit juice only water put a little honey in it someone's gonna say hey you know marcus is starting to walk so you need to get a walker for him and then someone else is going to say no that's going to blow his legs out you need to let him walk on his own and then someone's going to say you know what let marcus sleep in bed with mommy and daddy that's how i'm going to say oh no you don't you better let marcus be in his own bed so he can get used to it now you're gonna get all kind of advice from people and some of that advice will be good you're gonna get all kind of advice uh can we be honest to have a transparent moment on google but and some of that will be good but some of that's not gonna be so good and that's okay because that's what baby dedications are all about right they're about us realizing we can't do it they're about us saying god is the only one who really knows how we need to raise marcus and so because god really knows then we are going to come and train and bring him to god and i commend you for doing that but i also want to say that while it's commendable to bring marcus here to be dedicated a baby dedication is for the baby but it's most truly for the parents the parents are the ones who are being dedicated because god is going to be looking to you and using you to dedicate marcus to him so what do you have to do well it is important for you because you are maka's parents to make sure you have a relationship with jesus christ you have to get as close to jesus as you can because jesus is the only one who knows the road from beginning to end jesus says i am the way the truth and the life no one gets to the father but by me so you have to spend time with jesus in prayer time with jesus and bible study time with jesus in meditation time with jesus in church sometimes time with jesus yes in virtual church because marcus may not want to get up and he may not want to cooperate while you're putting his onesie on but you will still need to spend time with jesus so that the time will come and very soon and even now when you will hear like isaiah 30 21 says this is the way train marcus in it when you turn to the right and when you turn to the left and if you listen to that voice which will be the holy spirit speaking to you you'll be able to to discern the good advice and the not so good advice you'll be able to discern whether that's good information on google or bad information on google but what you will see is machus growing up in christ and christ growing up in marcus ryan valentine jr at this time we're so happy to have the prayer of dedication done by grandfather i'm not sure grandpa let us know what's your name already going to be do you know what's your name going to be to marcus is it going to be grandpa papa do you know yet papa papa all right we're going to have papa pastor maurice valentine to give the baby dedicatory prayer so [Music] let us pray thank you father for the gift of life who are we lord that trust to us the creative ability to bring life into this world angels don't have this capacity in this sense in this way humankind is more like god than even the angels what is man that thou art mindful of him the son of man that thou visiteth him thank you lord for creating us in your image and then giving us the ability to recreate in our own we're so grateful lord for the charge that pastor rafael has given us because it's all about jesus in fact if it's not about jesus then it's not even worth being bothered with so lord please bless moccasin kiana and and of course the rest of us that are assembled here today that as we have the privileged lord of giving advice to them that by god's grace because they have studied your word because they have spent time seeking you in prayer and sharing their faith with others with the whole world that jesus is soon to come and we want to be ready to meet him and go home and live eternally with him that lord as they share their faith with the broad world around them that the greatest blessing they have is to teach this young man when they walk by the way to teach him when they go out teach him when they come in teach him of the goodness of god and lord we pray that you'll separate him even now lord sanctify his life crown his head with wisdom lord make him your servant and lord we pray he'll be a chosen vessel to go on and do greater things for you than we could ever ask imagine or think please lord in this moment set these parents aside sanctify their lives bless them lord bless these grandparents and aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces and cousins that are all here assembled today we're so grateful lord for this wonderful group of people who are going to do our best lord to point this little baby boy through his entire life that he grows to the lord jesus christ this we ask in the blessed most powerful most honorable most praiseworthy name of jesus we pray let all god's people say amen amen and amen we praise god thank you so much pastor valentine for that awesome and uh inspiring a prayer uh marcus we're so glad uh marcus ryan valentine jr we're so glad that you're here but i'm also glad that you're moving right down the street from me i was walking and i saw i a car stopped and i'm like oh wait a minute i started remembering when i lived in urban areas and i said oh wait a minute maybe i need to run or what do i need to do and then the window went down it was moccasin kiana and they were just welcoming me telling me their home was being built right down the street from me so we're so happy for that so we'll be neighbors and church members together we have a bible for marcus we also have a baby dedication card for him inside here and we know that it will get plenty good use that bible god bless you in the family let's put our hands together again for the valentine family thank you so much [Music] [Music] it is always a privilege to witness baby dedications i can attest i'm excited that for marcus and his wife they have the joy of raising that beautiful young boy but i'm sitting there just praising god that my baby rearing days are over i don't worry about waking up at night or trying to get a full night's sleep praise god for that that raising kids are for young people come on somebody say amen but we praise god for that just one other announcements i want to let you know um for all of our church members church board members and our elders we have an emergency board meeting tonight at 7 15. just want to make sure that you're aware of that we'll share a little bit more details later thank you so much for your prompt attention now we're going to have a praise team come at this time they continue leading us in our worship for the morning come on our happy sabbath everybody come on one more time happy sabbath everybody listen if you're blessed to be in the house of the lord this morning i just needed to see some hands some folks were just so excited not only because we're just here but it's about why we're here this morning we're here to serve an amazing god how many all know that we serve an amazing god this morning who will continually do and this is what we're gonna sing this morning it's a beautiful song and i know that you know it and so whatever you're going through we're here to let you know that the lord that we serve is simply amazing hallelujah [Music] it's so amazing [Music] given to me [Music] i don't deserve your [Music] this morning because she's an amazing god oh i say it's so amazing say it's so [Music] you've given to [Music] you strengthen me if not for your grace [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh we worship your jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we bless your names [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we know [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he's [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus you're amazing [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's amazing [Music] [Music] we bless you lord [Music] it's been amazing [Music] you can't help us [Applause] [Music] [Music] everybody [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i stand amazed it's your power so amazing he's amazing [Music] [Music] come on worship with me right there say sauce [Music] so amazing [Music] it's been so good he's so amazing [Music] it's your glory [Music] [Applause] so amazing hallelujah bless his name in this place if you believe it he's been too good of a god he has been too great of a god we think of all the great things he has done hallelujah [Music] thank you david and thank you price team he is amazing isn't he know in in the midst of a tragedy humanity always seems to elevate to levels of heroism that are simply beyond our day-to-day imagination and today on 9 11 the heart of our nation is on full display do you remember where you were 20 years ago [Music] on this day and today this week we've lost so many loved ones so many giants of our church and i'm sure during the prayer time we like knowledge those and sometimes as a performer as our artist as a conductor we do songs hundreds thousands of times and each time i have to think about the space of the building the size of the ensemble what's going on in the room and today i just feel impressed to sing this old song maybe a tad slower than we normally would so that we could think of these words we've had loved ones who've gone to rest now they're just watching well they can't watch we are watching and they are waiting for him to crack to that sky and we all have this blessed assurance that he is mine so stand to your feet if you're here sing with us out there bless it [Music] and think about these words [Music] we have so many different stories [Music] [Music] this is my story this is my song [Music] let's go straight to verse 2. remember think of the words perfect submissions [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] echoes of mercy this is my story this is my story this is my song oh yeah that feels good right there [Music] [Music] this is [Music] is this your story today praising my savior [Music] [Music] oh yeah that feels real good [Music] [Applause] [Music] think of all the loved ones that we've lost as we sing this third verse perfect and upper is [Music] [Applause] i'm filled with this goodness [Music] this is my story this is my story this is my song praising our savior praising my sins [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] this is my story this is [Music] [Music] up this is my story [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] stay right there praising my savior praising it [Music] one more time praising [Music] every day each day long [Music] that's your story this morning put your hands in it right there [Music] blessed assurance jesus is ours but it's incumbent upon us not only to believe that jesus is ours but it's also encumbered upon us to accept him it's not enough just to know that he's there that he exists it's not enough to believe that he's the savior but we have to accept him as our savior and lord because he's the only one that can save us from the mess of this world [Music] today the world reflects upon how much satan hates god they they may not recognize that's what they are observing [Music] but the reality is satan hates god so much that he is hell-bent [Music] on destroying god's creation and he's using human beings to destroy human beings he's using human beings to kill other human beings [Music] but satan believes is he can wipe us out that is less individuals who will serve god [Music] and so as we reflect upon the horrific attacks of 9 11 20 years ago today and yes dr ferdinand i remember where i was i was living in new york [Music] but as we remember the lives lost [Music] and i lost a good friend in the twin towers we have the assurance that death is not the end no matter what satan tries to do to us death is not the end but we have assurance in the resurrection of jesus christ there are a number of individuals who are mourning the loss of family members and we want to keep them in prayer we want to remember the legate family and the bodhi family we want to remember the right family we want to remember the ortiz family we want to remember the shepherd family we want to remember the wade family and there are countless others who we want to lift up in prayer those we'll name and those who remain unnamed there are individuals who are sick and are suffering and i need our prayers we lift up bruce merritt we lift up david mcelhaney who was recently baptized we asked for healing on their behalf and there are those of you in the chat who you need prayer and we're inviting you now to just place your prayer request in the chat we have a tremendous prayer warrior team here at the oakwood university church and each and every day at 6 pm come rain come shine whatever day it is even a holiday they pray and they take the prayer request they take your request they take our requests and they lift them up in prayer and so as we beseech the lord and as we prepare our hearts for prayer and as we recommit ourselves to trusting god and as dr washington johnson prays for us on our behalf let's remember we have the assurance that jesus hears us that he knows what we're going through and that he will answer our prayers and that he's coming again to come and save us will you trust him [Music] will you trust him let's trust him now come on right here say you are my refuge [Music] when it says that you are my fortress [Music] and you i can trust [Music] for angels they're all around [Music] come on if you have no fear this morning this is your moment to open up your mouth in faith and shout to the lord for we know that when i call you [Music] [Music] say when i [Applause] [Music] my jesus i know you will deliver [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] come on [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] i will not fear hallelujah join me in prayer almighty father [Music] it is with grateful hearts that we acknowledge your divine presence on this holy and blessed sabbath morning today we worship you in spirit and in truth and are grateful for your creative and redemptive power we humbly ask forgiveness of our sins and for the indwelling power of your holy spirit we pray your blessings upon this church family the pastor and the pastoral staff our needs are great this morning heavenly father we pray your blessings upon those who are facing illness and have received diagnosis that are not encouraging may they find in you hope courage and healing today and every day and then our hearts are heavy today for the loss we experience within our church family and beyond we need we need your comfort and peace as we cling to the blessed hope that you have promised through the death and yes the triumphant resurrection of jesus your son we look forward to that day that great day when the last enemy is destroyed death and we will be reunited with our family and friends again until then help us through these trying and difficult days ahead and eternal father today we commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9 11 when our nation faced a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3 000 citizens and forever changed our world we pray for the families of the victims of that horrific event as well as those who continue to serve in the global war against terrorism your word has made us aware that satan satan is the instigator behind all the evil in our world today as he continues to use every imaginable force against humanity mass shootings natural disasters fires wars earthquakes tornadoes and yes kovac 19. but father we look forward to that great day that great day when jesus shall come again and as isaiah that lyrical poet wrote centuries ago and you shall settle disputes and shall judge between the nations and we shall study war no more may that day come soon for this is my humble prayer in the worthy name of our lord and savior jesus christ amen come on we can worship from knowing that our prayers have already been answered and we know that when we call him no matter what he will continue to answer so from whatever space that you're in whatever space that you're watching us we just want to let you know that he will continue to deliver and so because of that we have nothing to fear so we're gonna sing this one more time this time with a little bit more triumph in our voice so if you believe it this morning open up your mouth just call out to them and your answer back safe when i call i know [Music] [Music] i know [Music] open up your mind [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] jesus i trust [Music] jesus christ [Music] so all i can do is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] say i will [Music] say i will not fear [Music] hallelujah [Music] is good to be in the house of the lord today amen it is offering time and in reflecting on this moment my thoughts were drawn to memories of my grandfather you see when i was younger i would spend every moment with him in the garden we grew everything vegetables squash strawberries all the good delights that you can grow and when everything was ripe and ready he would send me out to harvest in everything from the garden i'd bring on everything that we had worked so hard to grow and then my grandfather did something strange that at the time i did not understand he would take a portion of what we harvested and lay it aside he would leave it there to dry up and i would always think what a waste why is he taking a portion of our harvest and leaving it there to dry up you see my grandfather was one of those organic farmers and in order to have seeds for the next harvest he had to lay aside a portion of this to dry up so that he could plant the seeds that remained you see me in my youth i thought let's eat it all right now let's enjoy it while it's here let us delight in what we produced for ourselves but see my grandfather was thinking of the future he laid aside a portion of the harvest so that a greater harvest would be ahead in proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 and 10 it says honor the lord with your possessions and the first fruits of your increase so that your barns may be filled with plenty and your vats overflow with new wine we come so that we can offer what we have earned back to god and receive his blessings in our life we glorify god with our offerings please bow your heads with me that we may pray to dedicate the offerings dear lord i thank you for this day and i thank you for the blessings that you bestow in our lives and lord i simply ask that you would remind us constantly to give back what you have given to us that we may trust in your blessings that as we rely on you you will always come through i pray lord bless us now and where the offerings will go in jesus name amen in a world that's constantly changing it's a blessing and a comfort to know that god is still in control and that he is still touching the lives of people everywhere here at the oakwood university church we are committed to reaching all people with the good news of the gospel of jesus christ and responding to the needs in our community and beyond we work diligently to ensure that you are blessed through our preaching teaching music children's youth and community ministries we praise god that we have been able to provide weekly food giveaways covet 19 testing and vaccinations help during disasters health services through the oakwood university church health services center healthy food alternatives through our oakwood university church market our online support through griefshare and divorce care ministries and daily prayer through our prayer ministry just to name a few but there is so much more that god is calling us to do and we need your help as people return to worship in person with your prayers and support we can continue to create additional online content to reach people with the good news and cover the production costs associated with providing a quality meaningful virtual worship experience please know that you can faithfully return your tithe and combine budget offerings in several ways you can give in person by visiting our church office on mondays through thursdays from 9am to 5pm and on fridays from 9am to 12 noon or you can mail your gifts to the church at 5500 adventist boulevard northwest huntsville alabama 35896 you can share your gifts online through our church website at [Music] slash www.oucsda.org or you can cash at us by utilizing our cash app handle dollar sign ouc sda you can also use the adventist giving app and donate under oakwood university church may god continue to bless you as we engage in meaningful relevant and life-changing ministry hi kids i'm maeve and i live in michigan hi i'm victoria and i live in indiana welcome to oaktown live next up our news team bye kids hi kids i'm brother k hellotail news team well uh i'm happy to announce uh i have a new invention i'm working on i have the design right here uh it's a prayer launcher and how it works is uh you write your bread down uh then you put in the prayer launcher and then you shoot it up to uh where it can be answered that's not how prayer works well i don't see why not uh because our father's in heaven and we're on earth so i don't know how else we supposed to get our prayers up there well we are beginning a new series on prayer today and each week we will learn something new about prayer oh well okay uh well kids uh stay tuned for that uh well anyway uh i have another announcement for the news uh anaya will be leading out uh in our formal welcome uh congratulations tonight uh well next up one of our neighbors singing don't count song and remember oakland is indeed the place to be unless uh you come from a tree [Music] okay [Music] okay [Music] jesus [Music] good morning boys and girls i'm anaya sorry anaya i think my brother idk said and i will be leading out he met me no i'm sure he meant me because he said anaya well actually he could have met you and he could have met you so why don't we both do it good morning boys and girls i'm anaya welcome to old town live where we come to know jesus and go to that's right live jesus well let's see we had maven and victoria to do the welcome and brother idk to the news and we had rain to do our oaktown song didn't they all do an awesome job they really did let's put our hands together for them when next up we'll have some announcements some kids videos and our children's story by pastor rafael and we'll see you after the story hi kids i have one major announcement about baptism but first let's see which children registered in oaktown have a birthday today or who will have a birthday by friday vincent rielle daniel savion alana james ellie zeppu samari jonathan dj grayson jake andre melody maya god [Music] i also want to take the time it was my sister laurie's birthday it was on august 28th happy birthday and thank you for sharing your fdi that is fearless bible investigator program with us and we're looking forward to your fbi app that will be coming out soon and happy birthday to each of you praise god god bless you with another one well kids some of you will remember that we're starting our online baptismal and discipleship class this month they will begin september 29th and since they are around the corner and since they are so important we have been showing videos of children sharing why they got baptized and i don't know about you but i've been truly blessed and inspired by their stories if you have been inspired by the stories and you too want to get baptized or join join our discipleship classes if you've already been baptized please have your parents email us at oaktownlive gmail.com finally if you are part of oaktown or have just joined the neighborhood and have already been baptized and you would like to share your story please let us know by emailing us at oaktownlive gmail.com and we will arrange to share your testimony next up children sharing why they got baptized and then our story oh i must not forget college students next sabbath september 18th is part of oakwood university's power packed weekend themed rooted for old town live that sabbath we would like to get ou students and any other college students involved by asking you to send in a short video of you sharing one thing you were taught about prayer as a kid or one way you were taught to pray as a kid the video should start like this when i was a kid i was taught and then you would say what you were taught about prayer or how you were taught to pray please send video right away by text to 951-347-6638 with first and last name and college you attend or email to oaktownlive gmail.com with first and last name and college you attend deadline is this monday september 13th sorry no exceptions and thank you in advance oakwood university students and our other college students who will participate because by participating you are helping our kids learn about prayer through your life experience and now before our story two children will share why they got baptized hi my name is kimura hi my name is kimberly and i chose to get baptized because i know it was going to make me feel closer to god and have a better connection with him i chose to get baptized because without god nothing is possible didn't kimura and kimberly do an awesome job of sharing how why they got baptized let's put our hands together for them thank you to so very much well they are youth now but they were your age when they actually got baptized so i hope some of you will be inspired by them and others who have spoken before in previous weeks to get baptized and give your life to jesus well we're starting a new series and our new series is on prayer and it's simply called prayer yes and that's why we are next to our post box because in oaktown our post box our post office helps to remind us that when we send prayers up to god god will send back answers to our prayers in fact a letter and prayer are quite a bit alike in fact let me ask you have you ever mailed a letter before written a letter and mailed it did you do that put it in the box oh maybe you received a letter you ever received a letter before and then you opened it up and and how did it get started yeah yeah it had different parts to the letter right so it had an opening or a greeting that's right and and what was that greeting well maybe that greeting was dear maybe that greeting was dear did you start it off with deer did did you start it off with deer or maybe you started it off with hi did you start it off with hi or maybe you started off your your email or your text with hi well that's a greeting well did you know that prayer has a greeting or opening to jesus taught his disciples in luke chapter 11 to actually greet our father and it says our father who is in heaven that's right that's the greeting to prayer well in prayer there is a greeting there's also the middle part or the purpose of our letter we'll talk about that in a few weeks and then finally there's the closing to our prayer and i think our closing decided to go bye-bye so why don't i get it can i go get it it went bye-bye yes it did sometimes our closing is what it's buy and sometimes our closing might be see you later and sometimes the closing to our letter might be uh peace out oh no we don't say that but anyway somehow you made sure people knew you were closing your letter right well in prayer there is also a closing jesus taught us in john 14 and in other places that the closing to our prayer should be in jesus name right and then we say amen now of course every prayer doesn't have to end that way but jesus wanted us to know something about when we say in jesus name do you know what that means well actually it means a lot of things and we'll talk about that throughout our series but one of the things i want to end with when we say in jesus name we are saying everything i prayed i believe jesus can do everything i prayed i believe can happen because i believe in jesus how many of you kids believe in jesus wonderful i believe in jesus too well we have so much more to learn about prayers in the coming weeks but for now let's sing our prayer song prayer open special treasure rain will be singing it and did you know that even in our prayer song there are things we can learn about prayer well there is well after the prayer song the ananias will be back [Music] treasure that comes from [Music] is [Music] the tragedy [Music] is [Music] how many of you want to spend special time with god in prayer me too and me three i mean i want to as well because prayer opens special treasures well next up it's time for you to get your sermon notes if you're here or download them if you're at home at oucsda.org oaktown next up our muse kit in our post kit and we'll see you at the old town welcome booth yes to get some prizes for your sermon notes and that's nike if you didn't do the sermon notes well let's have prayer by post kid and we'll see you later hi kids let's pray dear lord i pray that we will remember that we cannot come to you without obeying jesus and i pray that we will be more faithful onto you and just name my play amen well kids stay tuned for the next week where we will learn more about prayer bye [Music] [Music] is the face that i see in the mirror the one i want others to see do i show in the way that i walk in my life the love that you've given to me [Music] my heart's desires to be like you in all that i do all i am do they see jesus in me do they recognize your face do i communicate your love and your grace do i reflect [Music] [Music] do they see jesus jesus in [Music] me well it's amazing that you'd ever use me but use me the way you will help me to hold out a heart of compassion and grace a heart that your spirit fears may i show forgiveness and mercy that same way you've shown it to me do they see jesus in me do they recognize your face do i communicate your love and your grace do i reflect who you are in the way i choose to be do they see jesus jesus in me and i wanna show the world that you are the reason i live and breathe so that you'll be the one that they see when they see me do they see jesus in me do they recognize your face do i communicate your love and your grace do i communicate who you are in the way i choose to be do they see jesus jesus [Music] in me [Music] oh [Music] in me [Music] do they see jesus in me what a loaded question for the people of god do people see jesus in you do you know jesus for yourself i want to thank sister wanda lot and every time she shares the gift that god has given her we see a little bit more of jesus i also want to ask that as a church family we continue to keep each other in prayer we want to lift up the bradford and lewis family and so many others that have been impacted by this thing we call sin but i am reminded that in the midst of chaos and calamity that god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble wherefore we not fear though the earth be removed or the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea that the waters there of rome be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof there is a river whose streams are out shall make glad the city of god the dwelling place of the tabernacle of the most high god he is in the midst of her she shall not be moved he will help her in that right earlier but the hair is psalms 46 and verse 10 says be still and know that i am god i'll be exalted among the heathen i'll be exalted in the earth why because the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is still our refuge past few weeks we've been talking about kingdom principles today my assignment is focusing on preparing for the kingdom preparing for the kingdom go with me to the old testament book of daniel chapter 3 where we find ourselves in a very familiar story daniel chapter 3 daniel chapter 3 meet me in verse 13 daniel chapter 3 and verse 13 old testament book of daniel chapter 3 verse 13. the word of god reads then nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring shadrach meshach and abednego then they brought these men before the king nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them is it true oh shadrach meshach and abednego do ye not serve my gods nor worship the golden image which i have set up now if you are ready at the time that she shall hear the coronet the flute the harp the sackbutt the sultry the dulcimer and all kinds of music then ye shall fall down and worship the image which i have made well but if you worship not you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of the burning fiery furnace and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands and who and who and who is that guy that can deliver you out of my hand somebody's asking the question who is that guy that can deliver us out of you out of this out of my hands tied on that question the subject of our sermon today we're still standing your head's about and your eyes are closed god this is your word and these are your people fill us with your spirits prepare us for your presence in jesus name we pray amen we're still standing it was at 5 47 a.m early that tuesday morning that two nefarious individuals boarded a plane american airlines flight 11 from boston to los angeles it was with their actions that the world was forever changed for those of you who were old enough to remember 20 years ago today it was a moment that we will never forget sitting in class marion springs michigan at andrews university basement floor first classroom on the right i'll never forget the cry of a friend of mine who i thought was watching espn while we were in class but this was not a cry of joy it was a cry a shriek of fear and trepidation as he called us to his computer and we watched that first plane plow into the twin towers building do you remember that moment do you remember where you were when you realized it was not a joke or a game where we the united states were under attack do you remember not just the first plane but the second came a few moments later where the entire world looked in awe and amazement trying to figure out what was going on the question was is this real class was immediately dismissed and we ran over to his house and and i'll never forget we're watching and he from philadelphia is trying to call friends and loved ones but all of the lines were busy and all you would hear is [Music] modes of transportation were closed every plane in the air in the united states was immediately grounded president bush at the time reading just reading to elementary school was whisked away to a private bunker and the world literally proclaimed the united states is being attacked he watched horror as slowly as if it was by hand the buildings literally imploded and fell to the ground like a deck of cards it was a tragedy one that transformed the world and still has impact to this day dr ferdinand mentioned it's in moments like this that heroes rise up almost out of the ashes and and i remember and recall the videos and pictures of the firemen and and the military personnel that rushed into the building while everyone else was running out and they grabbed people as much as they could and tried to help them to safety until it became too much and they had to pull back and everything fell to the ground and people were trying to figure out what in the world is going on it was an intentional attack not just on the airline industry or on the finances of the united states not even world relations this impacted everyone and everything even till this day when you decide to ride on an airplane you have to take your shoes off and take your belt off and no longer can you walk to the to the to the gate with your loved one and watch them fly away no you have to stand far far away in order to allow your per your friend your loved one to get on the gate and go through security our lives were forever changed but i dare say in spite of the impact on the finances of the united states in spite of the the challenge of the calamity that occurred or the the entire world marketed and every other thing that was impacted as a result of this there was another major impact that not many people saw there say that the hardest hit elements of 9 11 was the impact to the church community you see that tuesday when the entire world watched every element of those twin towers and the subs the buildings around them fell down that next wednesday scores of people who had not graced doors of the church in years flocked into the building i'll never forget at andrews university the church their pioneer memorial was packed you could not find a seat in fact there was overflow and people were trying to get into church because they said i don't want to be lost do you remember where you were that tuesday of 9 11. but i didn't want to share this with you because one of the biggest challenges that occurred in this moment was not just the twin towers as catastrophic as that was the challenge was is what it did for the people of god in their focus and attention on getting to the kingdom you remember the kingdom the place where jesus said i'm going to prepare a place for you i'm coming back again you remember the kingdom the place where we used to sing uh the slaves just sing i got shoes and you got shoes and all god's children got shoes and when i get to heaven i'm gonna put all my shoes and i'm gonna walk all over heaven you remember heaven where where we said i'm gonna sit at the welcome table i'm gonna sing and never get tired i'm gonna be able to eat grits with jesus you remember the kingdom don't you you still want to go to the kingdom right your house can't be that good your your shoes can't be that comfortable there's a place where god says that even the place where we walk on is going to be made with streets of gold the kingdom is still a real place for god's people but the challenge with 9 11 is that people ran and flocked to god for the wrong reason you see there's something about this four-letter word called fear and one thing i learned marcus about the journey of the christian experience is that you can't love god and be afraid at the same time you see there's something i want to teach a mature christian is that fear became the motivating factor for kingdom preparation let me let me break it down the idea is the day before tuesday intramurals were going on the day before people were planning to go to walmart and target but as soon as a calamity came people began running into the church and they came because they were afraid not because they wanted to connect with jesus see one thing i've learned is that fear is actually a good motivator you remember when you didn't have your bed made and your mom said when you she got home everything needed to be right and all of a sudden you hear the garage door open and and and life began all of a sudden to go slow and you could hear the door began to open slowly and you begin to dive into the room and try and speedily make your bed or wash the dishes as mom comes in the room and you know it's too late you know about fear that moment when you get that bad report card and you realize you have to go home and your teacher calls your parent and somebody on the other line says just wait until you get home you know about fear this i'm talking to folks who weren't a part of the timeout generation where in just a few few seconds here your dad would pull out a belt almost looking like zorro i'm dating myself now and he would be he would hit or your mom would hit in precision places you would move and she would hit and you would move the other side and it would it would be as if she knew exactly where you're going to move you know about fear [Music] fear is an excellent short-term motivator but for those of us who understand biblical principles you know jesus said that there's no man knows the day nor the hour that the son of man is going to return you remember the story of the ten versions where the bible says they were all waiting for the king for the for the bridegroom to come and they waited and everybody slept and when it became time for him to come those foolish verses weren't the ones that slept the few foolish verses were the ones who did not prepare for the bridegroom coming when they did not expect it so we see fear is limited in its ability to create motivation over the long term warts and university of pennsylvania says this when fear becomes an entrenched marker of an individual's relationship with god it can have toxic effects over the long term it can ultimately lead to burnout let me say one more time if fear is your motivating factor to connecting with god ultimately god will no longer be a priority because you can't be scared all your life at some point you'll realize you'll say you know what forget it i can't live like this anymore it's almost as if somebody living in a in a relationship a toxic relationship where they they getting beaten finally somebody says you know i forget it if it means like i got to do all this i'm tired you can have it god i don't feel like being bothered and this is what happens with every major event for the christian that says oh this is going to occur i got to get myself ready this is going to happen oh this was happening i'm going to get myself ready pope is doing this or are there major events are happening in the world and we miss out on the point that christ wants to have relations with you today so that you can prepare for forever this idea of fear when it comes to our relationship with god is is toxic so much so that remember when we said when that wednesday after prayer meeting all of many all of churches across the united states look like this wednesday night prayer meeting tuesday morning bible study if the janitor happened to see him come to my house come out of church just to vacuum somebody like i'm ready i want to be there no matter what happens i got to make sure i'm in the house of god but time happens moments turn into minutes minutes turn into days hours weeks months now 20 years later and no one as is as as concerned about the second coming why because time has passed and if we are honest with ourselves many churches look like the pandemic before the pandemic occurred because if there's not a major event going on if there's not a special music that's happening if there's not a major convocation church is like but what do you do when life places you in a situation where you have to answer that question who's going to deliver you out of my hand you remember the story shadrach meshach and abednego or store or are people that we all know that we've learned about from a long time ago we remember the story the fact that just a chapter before the bible identifies that god had given daniel the the vision uh gave daniel the ability to interpret nebuchadnezzar's dream and the dream was it was a head of gold and gold silver bronze iron and iron mixed with clay and then one day soon what i mean in that dream there was a stone that was cut out without man's hand and completely destroyed the image and god gave that to nebuchadnezzar to let him know that god was in charge that god was going to rule the world that yes he was good and yes he was the head of gold but god had something bigger something more in in plan he wanted to let nebuchadnezzar know that one day soon his kingdom would come and i want to let you know family that we're literally living in the toenails of time babylon is fallen medo-persian empire is gone rome is gone greece is gone rome is gone the idea of the iron and mixed with clay is right at the place where we're literally living at the toenails of time and my question to you is how are we preparing for the kingdom you remember the kingdom right place where jesus said he has a place prepared for you remember the kingdom the place we said we're gonna uh sit and never sing and never get tired you remember the kingdom the place the bible says he has something specific just for you you remember the kingdom right you didn't just come to here to see and to hang out remember that god has placed specifically prepared for you and so my challenge is if we don't if we miss this idea the lesson that we're going to learn from the three hebrew boys chadwick meshach and bendigo we can literally miss out on the kingdom and so here it is on daniel chapter 3 the bible identifies on the plane of door there was an image that was 90 feet high literally nine stories high and nine feet wide the bible says that you can see this from uh miles away the plane of door it was no longer the head of gold um silver bronze iron and iron mixed with clay no never you could never said i'm gonna take this thing a step further and so for nine stories straight up and down there was an image of gold that looked just like him he hired the the best uh craftsman he got the best gold and he he burned it and brandished it to make sure all the imperfections were out so as soon as the sun hit this special image it would be like now if you did just you doubt did yourself today never can after that thing look just like you i can see it man nebuchadnezzar it is smooth but there was a challenge in the kingdom you see nebuchadnezzar was a politician he was a businessman he understood that if everybody wasn't always on the same page then things would be messed up and so he said i got a good plan now i'm just gonna i see the vision i got in daniel chapter two but i'm gonna take this a step further not everybody's going to come and look at this particular image everybody's going to come and bow down and worship and that's how we're going to get everybody on the same page but never know you understood it that everybody that was anybody everybody he had put in place and in power he brought them to the plane of doors so that they could spend time and have a moment of worship it was the first not the first it was one of the major moments of church and state coming together this is where church the the idea of worship is now combined with the state the ability to force you to worship and here's the challenge with church and state when the church and state come together to force worship it always leads to false worship in fact any type of worship that is not produced out of a out of a love experience is going to go against the will and the purposes of god and here's the challenge why would god create human beings with the ability to turn their back on him but not just turn their back brother david but to turn their back to the point where they can willingly put nails in his hands they can take the phlegm that he allowed them to have and hawk it up and spit in his face they can take the energy that he gave with their right and left hand and pull out their beards how in the world could god allow something like this but you see this is the god of love the god who gives a choice and anybody who does not allow anyone else to have a choice is not of god let me say that one more time because it may have gone over your head any time you don't not give if you take away someone's ability of choice you no longer represent or replicate what god has given to us and that's the ability that free will even if it means they make the wrong decision every parent understands that challenge how do you give your child the ability to make their own decisions knowing that they're going to make a decision that's going to hurt them then negatively but yet and still you have to allow them to make their decisions i will never forget my my mom used to say a hard head some of y'all know my mom hard head makes us soft behind and again for those who are part of timeout generation i apologize i'll have another sermon for you but notice what happens in daniel 3 we're talking about preparation for the kingdom daniel chapter 3 the bible says this in the story verse 13 nebuchadnezzar in his race excuse me verse i'll start verse 10 it says o king there made a decree that every man shall wear the sound of the corner the flute the sack but the sultry the dulcimer all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image and whosoever shall fall down not and worship thee shall be cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace picture in your mind the plane of dora everywhere you can see a mile miles long and everything is flat almost like you live in texas nine stories high there's this huge golden image but right next to the image was the furnace that burnt and burned all of the gold and melted it down for the image they left it up just in case it was intensely there it was helped to make the image but but just in case somebody needed a little bit of motivation to help them worship this image they left it up in it and decided to keep the fires burning and so what they did they brought the orchestra out all the the the social the the piano all of the great things the harp and the lyric all of those beautiful downs of music and they began to play a beautiful melody and the idea was hey as long as the music is going let's allow them to bow and remember everything is flat and the bible says that when the music begins to play when the music begins to play when the music begins to play there we go got my musician ready when the music begins to play and it gets loud and louder and louder and they begin to begin to think about all the great things king nebuchadnezzar does the bible says they should get down and worship everybody at the sound of the music should fall down and worship the image [Music] but something happens brother white that caused pique my curiosity the bible says somebody went to the king and said king there are three guys that you put in place that are no longer bowing and my question was if they're supposed to bow how could they be looking at the same time you ever thought about that like if you're supposed to be bowed how in the world you looking at me and i want to let you know christian there's always somebody watching always somebody looking to see are you really a christian are you really going to trust god when things get rough or you really believe that god's going to do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask within and so they rushed immediately to the key and they said king grab these guys and they grab these three guys and they bring them to the center of the king if you understand the story king nebuchadnezzar had given these guys in daniel chapter two and daniel chapter one more and more responsibility to the place where now public publicly uh bringing nebuchad these guys in front of nebuchadnezzar literally meant king the people that you set up the guys you put ahead of us these foreigners are now have our position these are the guys that are publicly playing you but notice what happens to shadrach meshach and abednego when they get to the face of the king what they say gives us an understanding of what it means to really have faith in a god you cannot see and you know the story but i want to make sure you understand the syntax of the story understand what's about to happen here you see the bible identifies in daniel chapter 3 in verse number 16 they're in front of king and they said the bible says excuse me verse number i'll read verse 15. but now be ready at the time they give him another opportunity the coronet the flute the heart the sack but the dulcimer all kinds of music you shall fall down and worship the image that i've made well but if you worship not if you choose not to worship you will be cast in the same hour into the midst of the burning fiery furnace and who is that god that should be able to deliver you out of that my hand here's the reason why daniel shadrach meshach and abednego and the rest of the gods people were allowed to be taken into uh babylon because the question was who is the god that you serve there's a reason why god allowed you to be a part of the media ministry of the valentine there's a reason brother harris while god placed you in that part of huntsville to you to have the blessing that god has given you there's a reason why god has placed you in your specific areas because somebody's going to ask the question who is the god that you serve and how god allows you to answer that question is going to come through trial oh you thought when you decided to come to god everything was going to be good oh you thought that everything was going to be fine and everything's going to be hunky-dory no here we see god allowing his most trusted servants to go through fire for those of us who are preparing for the kingdom have to understand that god does not save us from the fire god does not show up outside of the furnace sometimes he allows his most trusted and faithful servants to go in the fire and god meets them there oh come on come on come on somebody have you ever seen the power of god move when you are in a situation that does not make sense the situation we're trying to figure out god save me out of this thing but it's in that very midst of the struggle somebody asked a question who's that god that's going to be able to deliver you out of your hands i i can only imagine if if i were god i'd be like oh oh oh who am i let me let me just introduce myself i'm the one when i spoke the sun showed up i'm the one when i caught that's when lightning happened i'm the one that gave you breath in the morning i'm the one that allows you i set up kings and set them down you want to know who i am hold on just a second i'm going to allow shadrach meshach and introduce introduce me notice the response of these young boys i love it the bible says shadrach meshach and abednego answered to the king o nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter here shadrach meshach and abednego are literally saying king i'm about to tell you how it's about go down i don't care about your little degree i'm not worried about you little fire i'm not worried about this this image i know notice notice notice we're talking about preparing for the kingdom don't get lost in the story what shadrach meshach and abednego are doing is they're now standing on the promises that are found in the word of god oh come on come on you remember what god told joshua that every place that you put your foot on is gonna you're gonna be able to prosper every place i'm gonna give you wherever you put the soul of your feet i'm gonna give you as long as you be strong enough good courage and you meditate on the law day and night part of the law says you shall not have any other gods before me you want god to show up in your life you ever want to experience the power of god in the outpouring of his holy spirit before you get into trial stand on the word in fact the only way you're going to stand in trial is to stand on the word here we have to understand that shadrach meshach and abednego realize that in spite of my circumstances it does not mean it does not mitigate or minimize the power that is found in the word of god they go on to say but it be it no i love this text it says if it be someone for verse 17 if it be so our god whom we serve is able fam check this out what they said while the fire is burning while they're talking they can hear the crackling of the fire they can see the sun reflecting on the image and what their response is is that our god who we serve is able do you know is the god that you serve able or is he limited by your paycheck is he able or is he confined by the diagnosis of your doctor is he able or can he do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask think or imagine the bible identifies that when god shows up he shows up on people who knows that god is able before you ask a question the question was how do you know that god is able if you go back to one chapter they they tested god in little things first it was just food i i know my body's a temple of god and so i can't just put any and everything in it so they decided to be tested in small things and god gradually gave them victory over and over again in daniel chapter 2 they began to pray and god revealed visions and dreams they realized that god was present and active even though family checked this out these guys were slaves in babylon their mother and father were literally impaled by a poland what nebuchadnezzar would do he would put poles of conquered people they would literally impale them from the front all the way to the back and he would have to walk under your slaying loved ones all the way to babylon and these guys were still willing to trust god even when they couldn't trace him they found in god a safe refuge they found in god someone that they could trust but notice what it says we know that god is able to deliver us and he will deliver us out of thine hand but 18 says these three words but if not i know dr white that he can do it i've seen him do it i've experienced him do great things in my life but if not what this does and what i love about this where we're talking about people who are preparing for the kingdom they understand and know the power and the presence of god but what they also do is they understand that god sometimes does not move when we think he should and here's the difference for somebody that's trying to get to the kingdom and somebody's just playing games with church the difference is they believe that god has all authority and autonomy in their life and they trust god in the good times and in the bad oh man it's good to shout when i look and i get a refund check oh man i can jump up and down when i get a i get a grade that i did not deserve or my teacher grades on a curve i can rejoice about things but can i trust god when when my father-in-law's on his deathbed can i trust god when it seems like i don't have any money in my account can i trust god when it seems like my health is failing can i trust god when it seems like everything is lost david said i will bless the lord at all times and his praise shall continually be in my mouth my soul shall make her boast in the lord and the humble shall hear the robin be glad oh magnify the lord me let us exalt his name together because i sought the lord and he heard me and delivered me from all of my fears these guys understood god that they serve has power they understood that the god that they serve has the ability to deliver but they also understood family sometimes god says no sometimes god saves your father but doesn't save mine sometimes god allows my loved one to get cancer but delivers yours sometimes god allows me to go through class after class and i still fail and while somebody else is over there cheating and they get straight a's sometimes god does not allow life to be fair but these guys understood that if god has allowed me to go to it then i can go through it and if he chooses not to i will trust him anyway hey look nebuchadnezzar square in the face and said we're still standing and here's the beauty about the story fam they take the fire and nebuchadnezzar gets so angry and says heat it up seven times more they bring some type of accelerant for the fire accelerated and it gets so hot that the guys the strongest men of the army are literally destroyed by just the flames the ones who began to throw them in were the ones who died the bible says they get inside the flames inside the furnace they go inbound nebuchadnezzar watching and looking waiting for screams waiting for somebody crying for their mama waiting for somebody to say i know they really wasn't serious looks inside yo yo bro come here yo yo come here come here how many people did we throw in there we threw in three sir no no no look look look we threw in three but look there's four in there and one of them looks like the son of god [Applause] he asked the question he asked the wrong question he said who's the guy that can deliver you guys hold up hold up jesus is like oh you asked for me come on i'm gonna show up hold on you want to be like i can imagine brother harry's y'all hold up hold up you you want to mess with my boys hold on hold on you asked for this let me let me give you all of this let me show you who i am and what i can do let me you want to know who i am my name is emmanuel my name is prince of peace mighty god everlasting father king of kings lord of lords if you want to know who i am you better ask somebody [Music] i can imagine the conversation in there the bible says they threw in three bound nebuchadnezzar said i saw four and one looked like the son of man how did he know what he looked like you know what's so funny about the story is that god allows shadrach meshach and abednego to get in the fire family i want to i want to help somebody because this week your fire is coming this month your furnace is going to be there and you're going to have a temptation to run away the very place that god's gonna reveal himself to you and so here we see god now revealing himself to his people in the furnace but what if i told you that's not the miracle in the story here's the miracle nebuchadnezzar says i'm ready nebuchadnezzar says hey come out the one that tried to kill them now wants to pull them out the fire and where is jesus where is jesus in the furnace nebuchadnezzar says y'all come out but jesus is in the fire i'm gonna show you the miracle in just a second jesus is in the fire nebuchadnezzar is outside and says y'all come out when they threw them in they were bound while they're inside they're loose in the fire is where jesus is the enemy is on the outside saying come on out and here's the miracle they left the fire why is that a miracle because fire is where jesus is i'm safe in the fire i don't know what's going to happen outside the fire but what i have to do is trust get this now i got to believe that the god that kept me in the fire is the same god that can keep me outside the fire i got to believe that the same god that was crazy enough to allow me to stand face to face to the greatest enemy of the unknown world in my imagination it had to be shadrach jesus yo i thought it was over man but you showed up man you were my boy my man ah come on can you imagine like me shack saying yo yo he calling for us like jesus chill he's asking him to come out and hit me saying like yo jesus can we just hang up a little bit i mean we we know i mean we know you were coming but we ain't thinking you're gonna show up like this i mean you are a man can you imagine jesus looking at these boys and say y'all i got to work for you to do i need you to leave me here and we'll catch up in a little bit [Music] i can't tell you when but i promise you it's not the last time we're gonna hang out next time we won't be in the fire we're going to be in heaven together we have to worry about separating we have to worry about any challenges or issues in fact here's the miracle the reason why i need you to go out is because nebuchadnezzar asks a question that you can't answer on the inside he asked the question who's the god that can deliver you out of my hands here's the miracle the miracle is i'm not going to give you a miracle i'm going to give him you he asked a question who is the guy that can deliver you out of my hands the answer was shadrach meshach and abednego come out and reveal that there's a god that we can trust even when we cannot see they reveal to this despot a god who loves even when we make dumb decisions they reveal that god is willing to save any and everybody how do we know because the bible says in deuteronomy in matthew excuse me daniel chapter 6. sorry daniel chapter 4. at the end of daniel 4 in verse number 37 now i nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven [Music] no no no it gets better it gets better let's get it it says all whose works are true and his ways judge waste judgment and who that walk in pride he is able to abase [Music] do you realize that nebuchadnezzar is the only gentile that wrote a book in the old testament wrote a chapter the entire daniel chapter 4 was written by the dude that tried to kill the people god sent him to save nebuchadnezzar was transformed by that moment and still didn't get it but god still trusted why because three guys looked at him and said we're still standing he said we're not gonna bow we're not gonna bend come hell or high water god we're gonna trust you and as a result of that family get this get this get this get this the kingdom of heaven was expanded because these guys said i'm going to trust god [Music] before the trial showed up they said we are not going to bow we're not going to bend we're still standing i don't i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know what trial you're experiencing i don't know what you're going through but i need to pray for somebody today i need to pray for somebody that's going through something that does not make sense you're not sure of how things are going to work out and i want you to trust that god can do it that that's my appeal today that even if it does not make sense that you simply believe that god can do it it may be a loved one that you lost you're saying god how am i going to get through this it may be your health challenge that you're literally saying god i am scared to death it seems like every time i get a phone call it's more bad news and i want you to trust the god and simply say i'm still going to say it in spite of that what happens i believe that god can do it you guys realize there was another situation in the garden of gethsemane that one situation that jesus did not want to face he said god take this cup for me i don't want to do it i don't want to die i don't have to go to the cross but nevertheless not my will but i will be done are you here today i want to remind somebody man if you stand for god god will stand for you if you stand for god he'll stand for you i promise you i promise you it may not make sense right now you may not understand it i want to tell you student i want to tell you parent that if you stand for god he will show up and not just show up for you but for other people who are asking who is that god that can deliver who's the god that can save who's the god of oakwood university church who's the god that can still keep when everything is going a wraith is awry this this is the god that still shows up for his people [Music] somebody's saying god i i want you i need to trust you one more appeal and i'm not gonna be long but somebody else today needs to say yes to his will and yes to his way you want to make his connection with him not out of fear he's not trying to kill you he's not trying to allow things to go he's simply trying to get your attention it's not always going to be this bad it's not going to be this challenging but somebody today needs to make a decision for jesus are you here today i'm saying i should slide down slide down you're simply saying i'm still standing i'm going to be here pastor i want to accept jesus christ and my lord and savior if you're if you're watching on the chat room i want you to slide in on and just identify hey this is i want to follow jesus is you here if you're here today come on come on family this is the reason why we're here we're trying to get to the kingdom y'all we're trying to get to the kingdom y'all we're trying to get to the kingdom and god will do whatever it takes to get your attention he will do whatever it takes to allow us to pause long enough to know that he can do it anybody else are you here for him this is why i woke you up this morning 20 years ago somebody didn't have this opportunity somebody thought that they were going to go to lunch and have a great time somebody thought they were going to come home and somebody thought that they were getting married and a few minutes later the planes came crashing into the building they didn't have another opportunity if you hear his voice heart not your hearts fam this is what god is doing this is how he is literally creating events so that you can see him in peace it's the reason why we're here so that somebody can say yes to his will and yes to his way are you here today somebody right now that's watching you're typing and i i need i need to connect with him www.oucsea.org i want to identify connect i want to be baptized i want to have an opportunity to have bible studies i need jesus i don't know how he's going to do it in your life but i firmly believe that he'll do it it may not make sense but if you trust him he'll change your life how he doesn't i don't know but i just believe he's able your head's about your eyes are closed and the sound of my voice if you still want to move the door is still open god thank you for showing up somebody's on the brink of the furnace and not sure if you're going to meet them on the inside god right now i rebuke the enemy in the name of jesus [Music] that your spirit can fall full and free that god today that you can show up and give somebody the ability to still stand as the decisions for you are being made people are making eternal decisions right now you are taking that pin in writing their names in the lamb's book of life god today i'm giving you the authority to help somebody stand today they've been broken god they've been beaten god they are tired they're trying to figure out how you're going to work this thing out and god i'm simply asking one more time that you show up in somebody's life that you make this christianity thing real [Music] god our prayer today is the same prayer that jesus prayed in gethsemane god not i will but thy will be done mark today as a day where lives were changed as a day where people had an opportunity to see jesus in the furnace and god is we are called out i pray that you give us the courage to let somebody know that the same god that delivered us is the same god that can deliver them this god is our prayer and this is our plea in jesus name we pray amen amen praise god for what he's done [Applause] what he's going to continue to do family i firmly believe that jesus is coming again and he's going to raise up an army of people that are going to trust them even when they can't trace him that know that when they stand up for god god stands up for them aren't you glad you're in the house of god today she didn't allow something to distract you we're going to make it we're going to be all right it's going to be difficult but we're going to make it we're going to stand it it may get challenging but i firmly believe that our best days are ahead of us i firmly believe that god's still going to show up and show out i firmly believe that lives are going to be transformed and people are going to see jesus i'm crazy enough to believe that our best days are ahead of us and god is still on the throne [Music] i know you got grillers on the on on the stove y'all got to go i'm just excited to be in the house of god you may got mac and cheese in the oven i'm just i'm just excited to be here i don't know about you but i may not be here next week but i'm glad i'm glad to see you i see i'm glad you're feeling better i don't know about you but there's something about being in the house of god cause this is still the oakwood university church i don't know what god's going to do but i want him to be ready when he does it is that all right with you come on sanchez i can be here all day i got another sermon i can preach right now come on stand up for your feet let's have a benediction so we can get out of here god we are thankful we are thankful we are thankful that you allowed us one more opportunity we are thankful that you do not allow the devil to take us out in our sleep god we are thankful that you gave us one more opportunity to hear your voice to say yes to your will and yes to your way god somebody right now is waving trying to figure out how they're going to work it out god right now in the name of jesus by the power that you have given me by the laying on of hands god i pray somebody free right now free from discouragement free from despondency lord let somebody move free in jesus today and we'll be careful to give you all the praise all the honor and all the glory we thank you god and we love you in jesus name we pray amen thank you so much this is the oakwood university church thank you for tuning in we are excited about what god is going to do our best days are ahead of us praise god for you if you have not already please take an opportunity to see pastor raphael in oaktown for all of us with our young people everyone else look forward to seeing you next sabbath you can consider yourselves dismissed god bless you and we will connect soon thank you so much for showing up this evening [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Oakwood University Church

Views: 13,622

Rating: 4.8913045 out of 5

Keywords: ouc, worship, prayer, faith, love, hope

Id: N_tu5idi-aY

Length: 181min 35sec (10895 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021