"Questions That Need Answers", Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley

[Music] [Applause] um [Applause] what you about and be in prayer with me jesus sought me when a stranger i was wandering from the fold of god and he to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood [Music] we are saved by the blood and god we thank you that you have kept us what the saints call danger seen and unseen [Music] and we are indebted to your grace god i thank you for this moment i thank you for this day i thank you for these my brothers and sisters in christ jesus holy spirit invade this moment in our preaching our hearing and more importantly are living of your word [Music] in the name of the one who was before there was a was and shall be when was ain't no more in the name that is above all names in the name of jesus we pray amen beloved i don't want to belabor the moment i know that it is not customary for a pastor to preach during his or her own anniversary but i wanted this to be more than just a celebration of a pastoral journey i wanted it to be an opportunity for us to hear a word from the lord and what may be our last opportunity to gather in this year in a venue like this as the weather begins to change and i thank the lord for granting us a beautiful day to be in this space to work i'm going to ask your prayers because i want to do something a little different today not because i'm physically not able to lift my hands the way i want but being obedient to the holy spirit there's a foundational scripture i want to read in your hearing that will then complement with a few others along this journey one reading you're hearing from the book of judges in the old testament chapter six you need not pull out a bible if you don't have one or on your device it'll show up on the screens judges chapter six i want to begin reading in verse number 11 what sets the foundation for what i believe god desires to speak into our living on this day in the sixth chapter of judges according to the new revised standard version of god's word verse 11 begins like this now the angel of the lord came and sat under the oak at oprah which belonged to joash the ibizarite as his son gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the midianites the angel of the lord appeared to him and said to him the lord is with you you mighty warrior gideon answered him but sir if the lord is with us why then has all this happened to us now that's enough right there if the lord is with us why has all this happened to us if you would pray with me today i want to raise some questions that need some answers i want to raise some questions that need some answers i believe i can say without fear of contradiction that i'm not the only one who during seasons of life especially this pandemic we've held on tight to certain scriptures that have held our lives together judy one scripture that continues to resonate in my heart almost every day in my prayer it's something paul wrote to us in romans chapter 8 that we preached a few weeks ago where paul declares these words you know them well for we know that all things work together for the good of them that love the lord and are called according to his purpose that scripture has helped me because mark it is foundational to my understanding of what faith really is faith is not some empty hope faith is not a denial of the reality in which you live faith does not excuse foolishness and say that you can defy science and data and laws of nature but faith is the incessant ability to look in every situation and declare with all your heart something good has got to come out of this faith my brother my sister is when you can look it in the eye and no matter what the statistics no matter what the stereotype you can still believe in your heart that because our god reigns on high something good has to come out of this that god would not carry me through this if there wasn't something good god was going to do through it hear me i don't believe that everything that happens to us is the will of god but i do believe this that whatever happens to us god can transform it for our good i don't know the origins of this pandemic but it definitely has challenged and changed our lives it is challenged and changed the way we do church i've seen this pandemic rob us of gathering in our sacred space called the sanctuary because of the pandemic we've not been able to hear the variety of the musical choirs that sing the praises to god because of the pandemic we've not been able to pass the peace because the pandemic we have said goodbye to loved ones without the ability to have a proper funeral and grieve them and support their friends and their family this pandemic has changed and challenged us but y'all some good has come out of it in spite of all that we've suffered through and struggled with some good has come out of this and part of that good is that in this pandemic god has given us new vision and opportunity to increase and enlarge ministry and do church in some new and exciting ways that we never would have tried had we just been confined to what we'd always done some new things have happened one of those new things is a new way of bible study called verses i hope some of you all watched it as we complimented can i push it and otog with now this bible study competition of who knows the bible best and i want to pause and acknowledge our winners of the associate ministers numa who are now holding the title of the bible versus champion until next year in in our production meetings as we were prayerfully considering how to do verses one of the things we struggle with is what game show can we mimic can we make it look like family feud how do we do are you smarter than fifth grader how do we do verses and make it look like who wants to be a millionaire and we finally landed on trying to mimic a game show you're familiar with called jeopardy and if you're familiar with jeopardy you know that jeopardy is very different than any other game show because in jeopardy it's not the answer that brings you through it's the question that in order to play jeopardy correctly you know that you win when you're able to ask the right questions because sometimes victory is found and knowing how to ask the right set of questions i'm not just talking about jeopardy i remember going to a parent-teacher conference once in fourth grade and i was there and the teacher was beginning to explain that the students were going to learn some new math concepts and knowing that my children at that time struggled with math i asked the teacher well how do you know if they're really getting it and here's what she said to me that i will never forget she said i know they're learning when they can ask the right questions for you see beloved is not always the ability to have the answer that determines victory or progress it's the ability to look at a situation and ask the right question and when you ask the right question you're on your way to growing and that's not just jeopardy that's not just fourth grade math that's also in your walk with god that god sometimes looks at us and declares that the way i can tell you're growing the way i can tell you're developing as a disciple that you are maturing in ministry are by the questions that you ask now i know there's a little hesitancy right there because many of us were raised in traditional backgrounds that taught us you don't ask god questions some of you all remember your third grade sunday school teacher said that to ask god a question is a sin it's to live in doubt and to faith and and not have faith and act like you don't trust god but some of us have lived long enough now to declare that life will put you in situations where you can't help but to ask god questions listen i know some of you are more saved and sanctified than i am and your neighbor is trying to act like they got it all together so don't call them out right now let me just be honest on their behalf life has put me in some places where i was wondering what god was doing life has delivered me to some situations where i was frustrated and i needed god to give an account of what god had let is there anybody here who's ever had some questions for god and the good thing beloved is that god is not offended by our questions god does not stop being god because you don't understand him and god does not give up the throne because you want god to explain why god allowed that to go down in your life as a matter of fact if you read through scripture you will find that there are really two realities we learn about questions from the bible number one is that there are some moments when god asks us questions and garcia i have read in scripture and found out that that god asks us questions not because god doesn't know the answer but rather than whenever god asks us a question it is literally an invitation for us to participate in what god is about to do don't you miss this when god asks questions it's an invitation somebody say invitation so we see that when jesus shows up at the pool of bethesda and there's a brother that's been there 38 years and jesus asked him do you want to be made well it's not because jesus doesn't know but rather he wants him to participate in his own healing god finds ezekiel in the valley of dry bones and asks him can these bones live not because god doesn't know but because ezekiel has to be part of what god is about to do when god asks moses what's in your hand it's not because god doesn't know but he wants moses to learn the value of using what the lord has already blessed him with when god asks martha where have you laid lazarus it's not because he doesn't know but he wants martha to watch what god is about to do and when jesus asks peter who do men say that i am it's not because he doesn't know but wants peter to be part of declaring thou art the christ the son of the living god god's questions are invitations but there are moments when it's not god asking the question it's us and hear me when you search through scripture if you ever reach the place where you are asking god a question that is god creating an opportunity to reveal his will in a new way please don't miss this when god asks us it's an invitation when we ask god god sees it as an opportunity that when we reach that place where we need to understand what god is doing and we come questioning the lord that's god's prime time of revealing and i've lived long enough now to tell you that every now and then god will release you into an orchestrated and an ordained struggle to create a question in you that then allows you to be open for god's opportunity to reveal himself in a new way every now and then god will release you into an orchestrated and an ordained struggle because god knows without the struggle you won't ask the question and without the question you won't be open to the revelation so the storm has come to cause you to question so god can show you what you would not have asked if you'd not been in the storm in the first place i hope i ain't lost you yet the storm creates the question which prepares the revelation the pandemic causes questions that open our eyes to the will of god in new ways something good is coming out of this pandemic god is putting us in a place to ask some critical questions that need to be answered i believe beloved i want to tell you that i believe in the depth of my heart that god is transforming us as a people as a nation as a body of christ and the pandemic has triggered at least three critical questions that the body of christ must wrestle with to see ourselves through this pandemic i want to today lift up three critical questions that you and i have to wrestle with that this pandemic has brought to our vision and to our lives and they're not unique to me they come out of other places in scripture so that you can follow me i want to take you into three different scenarios of scripture where humanity has asked god a question only for god to use the question to reveal his will in a new way are you with me three questions that open the door for god to reveal his will in a new way the very first question comes to us in the first book of the bible in the book of genesis in chapter four we find ourselves right outside of the garden of eden and in chapter four a crime has been committed homicide cain in a fit of jealousy has murdered his brother abel and the deeper crime is that he thinks he's gotten away with it and then the lord shows up and asks where's your brother cain tries to figure out how does god know that i've killed abel and that's what the bible says the reason god knows abel has been killed god says because your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground because when innocent has been killed its blood cries out to god the blood of emmett teal [Music] cried out to god the blood of four little girls in birmingham alabama cried out to god the blood of mississippi freedom wrote writers in in in the south cried out to god the blood of brianna taylor and tamir rice and trayvon martin and sandra bland and mike brown and george floyd and too many others that should not have to be named cries out from this nation into the ears of god [Music] where's your brother cain and cain looks back at god and asks a question that our nation must wrestle with today cain looks back at god and here's his question am i my brother's keeper lord you're holding me accountable for his life i have to give an answer for how my life affected his life beloved i came by tell you that one of the most pressing questions this pandemic has raised for us as a nation and as a people of god is simply this are you your brother and your sister's keeper how accountable are you to god for how your decisions impact and affect the lives of other people [Music] how much does god require you to consider the well-being and safety of others as you live out the own dreams and desires of your life the lord wants to know do you consider yourself responsible for what happens to other people [Music] this pandemic has raised some debates among us as a people about vaccinations and wearing masks but there's a deeper question should i live my life in concern for how my life might impact the lives of other people around me beloved i've come by to tell you that within american society there is a deep spirit of cain this belief that i can live my life as i choose to live it and if it affects you that's your problem i have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and i'm gonna do what i want to do and if my life threatens yours that's your problem it is a spirit of cain that affects america that has adopted this euro caucasian ideology of renee descartes go on teach pastor kogito ergo soon i think therefore i am i i i me myself and i that's euro caucasian but our ancestors from zulu had another principle called umbutu where they declared i am because we are that there is no me if there ain't no us then i cannot detach myself from my connection and commitment to your well-being how can i be well if i'm killing you it is the spirit of cain that exists within capitalism that says that everyone should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps it is the spirit of cain that dominates a free market declaring i got mine now you go get yours it is a spirit of cain that argues against universal health care because i shouldn't have to give any of my hard-earned money in taxes so that the poor and those who are sick could get adequate health care like the wealthy and those who are affluent it is a spirit of cain that says every man for himself and i say that because it didn't mean women because the playing field is still tilted against sisters being able to fight equally and getting paid what they deserve it is a spirit of cain they're stereotypes the recipients of welfare as lazy immoral single black mamas it is the spirit of cain that says i ought to be able to live my life the way i choose to live it and if i don't want to wear a mask that's my choice and if you get covered from me that's your problem beloved this is about so much more than vaccines and masks it is about trying to understand where is the line that separates my personal freedom and my communal responsibility i knew there wouldn't be a lot of shouting today that's all right i've been here 13 years y'all ain't voting me out no way listen it there there's a line between what i can do that i want to do and how much my liberty ought to be restrained by my communal responsibility to my brother and my sister i came by to ask you where is that line in your life have you ever sacrificed personal liberty for communal responsibility while you're trying to figure that out may i remind you of something and that is that the kingdom of god operates on principles much different than capitalism the spirit of god and the kingdom of god is not built on the same principles of the founding of the united states of america in god's eyes you are your brother and your sister's keeper in god's eyes community rises above individuality in god's eyes you don't know how to operate if you don't know how to sacrifice [Applause] you are not a growing christian if you've never said no to yourself some of y'all are real good at telling other folk no [Applause] but to be a child of god means i've got to learn to look at the man in the mirror and tell him no because god values community god looks at adam and says it ain't good for you to be alone because god values community when he gives us the ten commandments six of them the majority are not about how to relate to god about how to relate to each other because god values community jesus tells us in matthew 25 if you see someone hungry and you walk over them don't tell me you're a christian because you just walked over jesus because god values community paul tells a church in corinth nobody has every gift of the holy spirit because you ain't a church all by yourself because god values community jesus tells peter when you restore yourself go strengthen your brethren because god values community john says you can't say you love god whom you've never seen and you fail to love your brother and sister who you see every day you are a liar because if all you think about is me myself and i you're not growing in christ and judy i know this is controversial my job is not to make people think what i think but just to make sure they think that my decision to get vaccinated was not simply because i don't want to get covered decision to get vaccinated was because i am connected to a community and i want to be certain that we put this thing down as soon as we can and i'm willing to sacrifice for my community hey i had i was talking to that with somebody who came to me and said well reverend you don't know what's in that vaccine and you don't know what's in them chicken nuggets you ate yesterday either and you still don't know what's in the long island iced tea but you order it someone said reverend reverend reverend you know you don't know what the long-term effects of the vaccine will be but here's what i do know that if i am trying to follow the command of god to be my brother and my sister's keeper how do i doubt that god will keep me and protect me from whatever it will be i trust god too much and i have a commitment to your well-being and i want you to have a commitment to my well-being are you your brother and your sister's keeper or do you only live for yourself it's a question you've got to answer the second question i want to lift up this is a different kind of sermon the second question comes during the trial of jesus we go home i want you to read john chapter 18 and you'll find that jesus is on trial and you'll remember he goes back and forth and finally he winds up with pilate the bible says that pilate decides to have a little question and answer session with jesus in private so pilate takes him out of the presence of the jews and into the palace and while they're sitting there pilate asks jesus a question he says are you king of the jews jesus flips it back on him and says you didn't just come up with that yourself somebody must have told you that pilate flips it back and says hold on i'm not the one on trial here you are your people brought you to me what have you done jesus responds read it my kingdom is not of this earth i've come to testify of the truth and whoever listens to truth stands with me and then pilate asks the second question of today when pilate hears jesus say i am the truth here's what pilate asks what is truth i told you all this different kind of sermon the first question are you your brother and your sister's keeper pilate then wonders in the second question what is truth is truth really absolute or is truth relative to who you are and where you are the second question i believe this pandemic has brought to our forefront that we must wrestle with is not only an understanding of where that line is between personal freedom and communal responsibility but this question what are your sources of truth where do you go to find information you believe who's in your ear whose report do you believe where do you find truth and before you get all baptist and religious on me and talk about scripture i'm not talking about godly truth i'm done by truth of the reality of the world and which we live who do you listen to to make decisions for your life and zena i would suggest to you that that question is not as easily answered as people would think it's not easily answered number one because there are so many sources of information these days if you were raised like i was in the 70s you remember that tv was much different than it is now we had three maybe four stations and they went off at 11 30 12 o'clock we had abc nbc cbs and maybe pbs and that were the only sources of information we had news media but now we live in the midst of social media and there's a generation coming up under us that don't even watch television don't even have cable because for them the truest source of information is not what they see on the news that's what they see on social media they believe your personal cell phone and what you capture on video more than what the news reports you ain't woke if you ain't on twitter twitter will capture something days before the news media even hears about it and there's a generation that believes what you get on social media is what is true how many of you all are familiar with the name darnella frazier darnell frazier is a bold black sister who had the courage while she was watching the police kill george floyd to pull out her phone and record it and had it not been for darnella frazier you cannot tell me that derek chauvin would not be in jail right now he's in jail because a sister recorded it and posted it to twitter and because there's so many sources and social media out now the question you have to ask is well who do i believe what source of information is true donald trump convinced a large segment of this society that everything that was against him was fake news that what cnn was reporting was fake you can't trust msnbc the only news source you can trust is fox and then they put out lies that because others thought was true they acted on it so he convinced folk that voter fraud was killing america without any evidence and now more than 21 states are passing laws to suppress the vote of minority communities because donald trump convinced folk that that story was fake but his was true thousands of folk stormed the u.s capitol because donald trump convinced them he won the election which was a bold face lie but because they believed it was true they acted on it your source of truth is critical to how you act who do you believe do you believe the fda that the vaccine is safe or do you believe nicki minaj's tweet [Applause] nicki minaj posted that a friend of hers had swollen genitalia from taking the vaccine brother that ain't what swole you up that wasn't a vaccine [Applause] whose report do you believe it's not easy because sources we used to trust we don't trust no more beloved if you were raised in the era of barbara walters and walter cronkite you believed reporters i don't trust tucker carlson i don't believe anything he says there's a generation that doesn't trust science we remember tuskegee we know henrietta we woke we know that science has lied to black folk the church is entrusted there's a generation coming up now that does not trust the church your hypocrisy your embezzlement your homophobia your mistreatment of women has put them in a place where they don't trust the church all preachers are guilty and there are folks that don't even trust your interpretation of bible anymore because your bible has been used to hurt more than it's been used to help and with all the sources and the conflicting data and the question of who to trust and the loss of trust in our or the sources it now has been raised what is your source of truth that's a pandemic question and allow me to get deep for a moment someone's like pastor what you've been doing in order to get deep for a moment notice what jesus says to pilate about truth he says anyone who sides with me knows truth why watch this bible folk because i am the way i wish i had a bible reader in here i am the truth and i am the life i am the truth beloved here is the real test of truth it is not what you believe it's how what you believe either causes you to align or misalign with the life of jesus hear me hear me the the this ain't a twitter quote this is too deep the real test of truth is does what i believe cause me to mimic the life of jesus in a way that the world sees more of christ in me it's not whether i believe nicki minaj or the fda it's not whether i believe cnn or fox it's not whether i voted for trump or biden it says how what you believe allowed the world to see christ living in you because if what i believe does not allow the christ in me to be seen by those around me it is not truth so yes you can believe trump won the election but if that causes you to act in violence that is contrary to the life of jesus it ain't true [Applause] you can believe that the vaccine is not safe but if it causes you to then be reckless and not wear mass and not social distance it ain't true you can believe that the united states of america is the greatest nation in the world but if it causes you to support locking up latino children in cages and beating haitian refugees like slaves then it ain't true here's the question does my truth reveal christ in me because the one thing you cannot excuse yourself from is living out christ i read something this morning before church that deeply disturbed me and hear me beloved i'm not trying to preach about the vaccine but it's vaccine related there are now mandates coming out for mandatory vaccination and as a result people are looking for both medical and religious exemption the highest applications for religious exemption in the body of christ have come from evangelicals conservatives and southern baptists go and teach pastor the highest application rate for religious exemption are from evangelicals southern baptists and the conservatives they believe that they ought to be religiously exempt from the vaccine i'm not here to argue that but i would suggest that the body of christ would fare better if some of them also ask for religious exemption from racism because you can't be racist and look like jesus i wish they'd ask for religious exemption from homophobia because you can't be homophobic and live out the love of jesus i wish they would ask for religious exemption from being a misogynist because you can't oppress women and look like jesus where were your applications for religious exemption when they were taking away the vote from black folk in your state where was your exemption i better get out of here we i'm not going to make it to 14. [Applause] you know who i am you knew what you was going to get when you came here am i my brother's keeper what is your truth and here's the last question i want to lift up it was raised in the first passage we read in judges chapter 6. in judges chapter 6 israel has disobeyed god and have now fallen under midianite oppression and the midianite oppression is so bad the children of israel have to hide while they harvest and that's where we find brother gideon in judges six he's hiding in the wine press while he's harvesting wheat and the bible says an angel is dispatched from god to come to gideon and say to him god has an assignment on your life god is with you you mighty warrior gideon looks around at his situation and circumstance and this is the question he asks if god is with us why is all this happening beloved the cain question is am i your keeper the pilot question what is my truth but the gideon question where is god listen you may not ask the question of cain and you may want to be exempt from the question of pilate but nobody in here is going to escape a gideon moment at some moment in your life as saved as you are as sanctified as you are as big as your bible is you're going to look around the scope of the problems and the pandemic and the trouble and the tragedy and the sickness and the struggle of your life and you're going to have a if god moment if god loves me why this if god is omnipotent didn't god stop this if god is sovereign why is there a delta variant the number of atheists that are being trained by the pandemic has yet to be discovered because as a generation they will wonder how can there be a god if there is this you ever had a gideon moment you ever had a moment when you couldn't understand where god was and all this [Music] where is god somebody maybe today you've come to this sunday service and this pandemic you won't wave a hand cause you're a church and you want folk to think you got it all together but there's some of us that have had some gideon in us when mama died where was god when the doctor said stage four where was god when they laid me off that job and kept that brother that didn't do half of what i did where was god when the one that loved me don't love me no more where is god when my child lay sick where was god where is god and he answers right there with gideon and i'm done with the sermon today we get out your way but watch what happens i'm gonna have to do it a couple of times because it's so simple it's complex gideon looks at the angel that god has sent and asks where is god gideon looks in the eyes of the angel god has sent and asks where is god gideon looks in the eye of what the lord has sent and has the audacity to ask where is god where is god right in front of you in what the lord has sent to you i don't know who i can't preach today but you saw the hand of god this morning you saw the blessing of god this morning you saw god at work this morning when you opened up your refrigerator you were looking at god when you chose your outfit you were looking at god when you parked your car all the way down the street you were looking at god when you sat yourself down with all your sins in the presence of the lord you were looking at god give me faith tell somebody tell me he's right in front of you he's in what he has sent don't let the pandemic blind you to the blessings god has sent can i push it he says gideon is right in front of you and watch this you are thrashing wheat in the wine press you're harvesting in the wine press now the wine press ain't where you want it to be but even in a place you don't want to be god is still giving you a harvest [Music] it may not look the way you want it to look but you still have a harvest it may not go down the way you thought it was going to go down but to still have a harvest goodbye alpha tree may the lord bless you mighty good but i came by to find about five folk that can declare right now pastor not only am i making it but it's better than i thought it would be is there anybody here who's got a harvest in the midst of the pandemic got a blessing in the midst of the pandemic that god's been good in the midst of the pandemic bills paid arms moving family blessed in my right mind somebody praise god for the harvest in the pandemic yeah yeah yeah goodbye but i'm so glad he's not just keeping me he's blessing me he's prospering me he's enlarging me he's favoring me i need some gideons to shout right now god's blessing me in this thing in this thing listen if you can don't run out yet it's time for the table but here's the question how accountable are you for the well-being of those around you what is your source of truth is your life bearing fruit that looks like the life of jesus and where is god right in front of you what the lord has sent to you and how the lord is blessing you in spite of this is proof that god is still with you lord i thank you today for giving me a call to care about my sister and my brother lord i pray that you would break the spirit of cain that that our society breeds within us [Music] and remind us that i am called to care about your life and lord whatever my truth is wherever i find it whatever i believe if it does not bear christ's likeness in me remind me that it is not true and finally oh god don't allow me to miss that you're right in front of me [Music] this day you've given is a sign of your presence the strength i had to make it to merryweather is a sign you're with me the fact that i'm not here alone is a sign that you're with me thank you god for allowing me to prosper in the midst of this pandemic [Music] in jesus name

Channel: Alfred Street Baptist Church

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Length: 54min 45sec (3285 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021