Rev. Terry K. Anderson - How To Act In Church!

First Timothy chapter number three 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14 and verse number 15 these things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly but if i tar long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the Church of the Living God the pillar and ground of truth thank you you may have you seats the grass withers and the flower of th wild fadeth away but the word of our God shall stand forever I want to talk tonight about how to act in church how to act how to conduct yourself how to behave how to act in church I'm privileged to serve on a commission on Baptist Baptist Heritage and identity in the Baptist World Alliance and I received a newsletter periodically from Dr Neville Callum who is the General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance and he shared in his NE his last newsletter that in Amsterdam the Netherlands some 400 years of Baptist tradition was commemorated celebrated with lur iCal dance and celebration and they Nam the names of Baptists who have meant much in our heritage across the years and I recognized none of those names for as a denomination Baptists have been about 400 years uh as a denominational sect and Dr Callum who is General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance mention mentioned many names of Baptists around the world who has who have meant much to our history and to our heritage but I didn't see any of the names that I recognized names like deine rooper who would get up on Sunday morning at True Light Church where I was baptized and when Reverend Wilkerson would get in the middle of his sermon she'd stand up and run from the front of the church all the way to the back and then come back to the front and wind her hand getting ready to throw her pocketbook at him her name was not on that list I didn't see the name of Annie cross whose wig was Baptist and backwards every Sunday morning and she would sing you may be high and you may be low you may be rich and you may be poor but when the Lord gets ready you got to move I didn't see the name of Richard Walker who would get down on his knees and said Lord here we are once more and again knee bent and body already bowed with our heads bowed to the mother's dust and our hearts lifted to the throne of grace thank you that when we laid down last night our bed was not our cooling board and our covers were not our winding sheep we want to thank you for a reasonable portion of health and strength I didn't see those names in that list so I want to call the names of those persons tonight and remind those of us who were raised in the church that we ought not forsake the old landmark and forget where we came from because church is taking a funny shift and a strange turn the church used to be a hospital for crippled Souls but it's becoming now a museum for Frozen Saints it used to be a clinic for Wounded Spirits but we are turning it into a theator of Performing Arts because a whole lot of stuff that passes for church is just smoking mirror sounding brass tinkling symbols and church don't sound like church used to sound I need somebody here who was raised in the church like I was raised who can remember when you were chewing gum and the Usher would take her program and and go tap you on the back and say put that gum right here I wish I had somebody to help me here you remember when your mama would fall out and the ushers would get some smelling sauce out of her pocket and put it under her nose and she'd go on then she'd come back through and start shouting again because they knew that God had to bring them out they knew that God had to carry them through cuz there were nobody everywhere else but on Sunday morning a strange dignity caught them and a sense of grandeur overwhelmed them because they were called out of their names all week but Sunday morning there were brothers so and so and sister so and so Deacon and chairman and superintendent of the Sunday school they love the Lord because he heard that cry pitted every groan long as I live while trouble rise I'm going hasten to his throne something something's happening in the church the pastor West and I have been crying in our um coffee I almost said beer but we've been crying in our [Applause] coffee because I I don't I don't know if we have Americanized the gospel or spiritualized the American dream I haven't figured it out yet have we have we Americanized europeanize the gospel or spiritualize the American dream to the degree that church no longer sounds like church used to sound our music is just r andb with Jesus sprinkled in every now and then it's starting to sound like that mess I heard on 97.9 when this guy this rapper had a song I ain't worried about nothing I ain't worried about nothing I ain't worried about nothing I ain't worried about nothing I ain't worried about nothing I ain't worried about nothing I ain't worried about nothing I ain't worried about nothing I ain't worried about nothing and and I want to pull my car over and say what are you not worried about you ignorant but but but in many of our churches the music has that same hip hop beat with Jesus thrown in every now and then and the reason you got to sing it 30 minutes is because it has no theology in it what's wrong with what a fellowship what a joy divine leaning on the Everlasting Arms what's wrong with Blessed assurance Jesus Is Mine young folk are calling that old school but that's not old school that's the music that brought us to where we are right now and there's a sound that the church ought to still have cuz God's been good to us we are where we are we have what we have because it was no body but [Applause] Jesus Paul after giving the qualifications of the bishop and the Deacon in this letter first and second Timothy Titus and philimon belong to the Pauline Corpus or body of Doctrine known as the Pauline pastoral letters and he's writing to them as a father in the ministry as a pastor as an overseer to give them instructions of how they ought to act in church Gnostic judaizers have gotten into the fellowship to dilute and to weaken what Paul has established and uh young Timothy is pastor of the church in Ephesus and Paul writes to him to give him some instructions of how we ought to act how we ought to conduct ourselves how we ought to behave in the house of God it's right here in verse 14 these things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly but if I tellar it long that thou mayest know how thou ought to behave thyself in the house of God which is the Church of the Living God the pillar and ground of the truth uh we we ought to act with reverence for God reverence for God there ought to be a holy all when we come into the Lord's House uh God is not the man upstairs I I I wouldn't go to sleep tonight if there was a man upstairs God is not a Supreme Being or a higher power God in the language of the Latins is mysterium tremendum he's he's the awful mystery he's the dread Sovereign of the universe he's the event in eternity that made its Advent in the context of time he's Divinity with dust painted on him he is awesome other he is God very God he's the ground of being he's the source and Center he's the subject and the verb of the Christian religion he's the center and the circumference he's the first and the last he's Alpha and Omega he's the beginning and the end and we ought to reverence him we ought to resp we ought to have reverence so much for God that when we come in his house we don't play church again those of you who like myself was raised in church we' go to church and we would come back home and Shout like like anti cross I would preach and and Johnny would be Miss deine roer and I have two sisters they were ushers they would catch Johnny when he was running and then uh I drank some water and start holling again and Johnny would just fall all out on the floor and my sisters had to grab and we were playing church we were acting like what we saw we were mimicking and mocking what we were around because we had no reverence for God we had no experience we hadn't been through anything we were just we were just mocking what we saw other people do but I've been walking with the Lord now over 40 years and I've been through enough in my life already some that you know about and some that you don't know about that God has brought me through so I don't have to play church anymore I don't have to shout like I used to see them shout at our church I don't act like I saw them act in our church I got my own story I got my own testimony I've got my own witness of what God has done in my life and I respect and reverence God so much that every time I hear his name it humbles me reverence uh reverence for God fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom that's what reverence is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge reverence for God helps you to differentiate between the sacred and the profane between the holy and the common reverence for God fear of the Lord Isaiah said it was in the year that King oziah died that I saw also the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple seraphim with six wings with two they covered their face and with two they did fly and with two uh they cover their feet he said smoke filled the house uh because his presence was in the house and Isaiah said I saw the doorposts were moved at his presence inanimate wooden objects shouted in the presence of the Living God now if a piece of wood can shout in the presence and have reverence for God who woke you up this morning who put food on your table who helped you raise your children children by yourself who open doors that were closed in your face that have reverence for God that was a time brothers and sisters and I'm not trying to wax nostalgic and trying to get back to the good old days of when gas was 25 cents a gallon and I'm I'm not talking about that I'm talking about they used to read the scripture and they start shouting my old preacher Reverend Wilkerson didn't go to Seminary Ralph he didn't know anything about uh uh Bruner and boner uh bugman and Bot he know nothing about James con and Harvey Cox he knew not a thing about Systematic Theology or or dogmatic rhetoric he he could not explain exting a passage or isoing a passage of scripture he just started preaching when he stood up and quit when he sat down but before my feet could touch the floor I heard him say he died and then he would say didn't he die and he wouldn't stop until he said but bright early Sunday morning he rose from the dead that used to get people excited that used to make people shout that used to make people praise the Lord but we've gotten so sophisticated now and we are so tight now and we are so uy now that we come to the church the black church especially and we don't like to carry on because the preacher makes too much noise and it don't take all of that and that's too ignorant and that's too old timey but when you get in trouble you know how to leave 59 over there where oin is and come on back over here to meet us who know that everything we got come from the Lord reverence of God and then we ought to have respect for God's people reverence for God that's how you ought to act in church a respect for God's people I I don't know how y'all do it over here at The Church Without Walls but at Lily Grove where I preach I'm having a difficult time teaching the members of our church to just be loving and respectful of each other because they won't even let you sit [Applause] down they they they'll put a Bible in the seat and they'll put a i y'all don't y'all don't do that on the North side I'm talking about the Negroes on the on the Southeast side and they'll put a Bible on on the seat and we got to almost have security to get you to get your stuff out the way so somebody can sit down and then some politician will come to church who comes every two years or every four years to lie to us about what they going to do for us and we Usher them down to the front and the man or the woman who needs to hear about Jesus who's been smoking weed and got tattoos everywhere and pants hanging down we make them sit in the back as if they are not important as those folk who lie to us but I've come to tell you that Jesus died for the crackhead he died for the homosexual he died for the girl with tattoos on her neck he died for the boy who's still smoking weed and you ought not be so sanctimonious looking down your nose at them cuz you just put your weed down last week you just wash the club stamp off of your hand all have sinned have a got a witness and have come short of the glory of God and if it were not for God's mercy we'd be in hell right now yeah I want [Applause] to I want to get over to us that when you come in this [Applause] church you're not in control this is the Lord's House and when people have been beaten and crushed and knocked about all the week long you don't know who you sitting next to tonight you don't know how much of hell they went through in their family just to be able to get to church tonight I wish I had a witness here you don't know how much they had to go through on their job to get here tonight to praise the Lord to have you looking at them like they smell or like they're not as good as you who Do You Think You Are you ain't nobody if the Lord pulled a cover off you tonight you'd be in the crack house just like that person you criticizing but grace mercy forgiveness he looked beyond my [Applause] faults be be kind to one another you you're not at the Reliance Stadium you're not at the Toyota Center right you're at the house of God I'm trying to move our church away from this we're getting ready to to build a new Sanctuary at the church and I told the Architects that I don't want it to look like a stadium because stadiums are for fans and and many of our churches look like stadiums and it's appro because it's full of fans people who admire Jesus but they're not true disciples wish I had a witness right here if you will be my disciple you've got to deny yourself take up a cross and follow me have I got a witness here does not matter who comes in this church to join the Bible says not whosoever feels but whosoever Wills let him come and drink from the Fountain of Life freely and more people would join if the church would get out the way sir see how quad you got right there you paid for that seat you a tither you teach a Sunday school class I've been here 26 years there's no seniority there's no click there's no class in the house of God there's no social Strat there is no economic background that gives you an upper hand over anybody all of us come here on the same level lost and on our way to hell and once we meet Jesus Christ and get saved we are just Sinners saved by grace you going to help me preach this won't you we are just nobodies trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody and I know he can SA anybody cuz he saved me he saved you and just because you're saved now don't look down your nose at that brother or sister who needs to be in the house of God respect him because he's made in the image and the likeness of God this is how you ought to behave yourself in the church in the house of God which is the pillar and the ground of Truth there needs to be a holy reverence for God there needs to be a respect for God's people as I go to my seat there's a responsibility that we ought to have towards God's word the word of God is Truth uh it's not uh subjective truth it's eternal truth and uh I I'm I'm sick of folk getting their truth outside the Bible I'm talking about folk who come to church reading their horoscope talk back to me if you can talking about uh you don't know me I'm a Sagittarius you better watch how you talk to me I'm a cancer no you're a sinner and the reason for your ugly ways and your nasty disposition is because you have no responsibility toward the word of God come on help me preach if you can you're ugly acting old because you didn't have fun when you were young the only old people who don't like young people is old old people who didn't have fun when they were young people stop criticizing that girl stop criticizing her talking about look at that little old fast G you used to be fast with that little old short dreess your dress used to be short come on help me if you can don't hate cuz your dress no longer goes side to side it's going from from front to back all of us are headed that [Applause] way church folk are so ugly and mean and nasty to people because they have no responsibility to the word of God you sit down and act like this word is not affecting you but I never heard a sermon that didn't hit me it was either commending me for some good I was trying to do or reprimanding me for some good I was failing to do but when I come to the house of God I'm learning to humble myself cuz I'm in charge but I'm not in control God is in control I said God is in control and you know how you can tell at a church when God is in control you don't need a choir director to get you all jined up you don't need a a worship leader to tell you let's put some hands together and and praise the Lord you just start thinking about where God brought you from how many doors God has opened for you how many ways God has made for you and you don't need nobody to tell you give God a hand of Praise or Let's Just Praise when you think about the goodness of the Lord of how he brought you not only from a mighty long way but how he brought you all the way I need somebody here who can remember Church The Way Church used to be we would come out of those shotgun houses to you folk here on the North side you you Suburban Christians over here at The Church Without Walls who don't know what a shotgun house is a shotgun house if you don't know is a house you can look in the front door and see all the way to the back door Come on talk back to me if you can and when it got cold in the winter time my mama would put some rags in the cracks and then she would walk around in the house and light the heater before we got up in the morning I wish I had a witness here then my grandmother would come over to the house and we had that heater with those little bricks on the inside of it and my grandmother would stand up over that heater and raise a dress up and and let the heat get under a dress and then we had to gather around and pray before we went to school I wish I had somebody to help me here when the wind was in our face they put some Vaseline on our face so that we can walk in the Wind come on talk back to me here some of you sisters here who got a perm and some weave now you got some extensions now but you remember that hot comb they used to have in the kitchen they put that hot comb on the stove and your mama say hold your ear down and you would hold your ear down and go to school with your forehead all burned up but then we had some school clothes and we had some play clothes and then we had some church clothes and then when we put on our church clothes we knew we were going to church and then we knew how to act in church my mama didn't bring coloring books and and sippy cups to church Come on talk back to me here they didn't bring baby dolls to church my mama was sitting in the choir stand and we were in the back some of y'all remember how church used to be and she would look at us and all she had to do was look at us and we knew how to act in the house of God and then if she did like this that me come on meet me outside because they didn't wait till we got home to chastise us they got us straight right there in the church and made us go back in the church I think Ralph we ought to go back to BTU y'all know what BTU is we ought to go back real far to bypu baptist young people's Union Baptist training Union when people knew how to act in church but they sure enough knew how to shout in the church and how to praise God at the church the Bible says let everything that has breath praise the Lord if the Lord open doors for you come on help me show these young folk how to act in church if the Lord been good to you come on let me show these you Christians how to act in church in is there anybody here know God's been good to you if the Lord open doors for you then you don't need nobody to tell you give God some praise if God has made a way for you you don't need nobody to tell you say Amen if the Lord been your keeper help me praise His name if he's open doors for you help me magnify his name if he's been good to you help me give him the glory now you don't have to do it if you don't feel like it but some of us know in our soul that if it had not been for the Lord on our side some of us ain't playing Church no more some of us are real in here tonight because the Lord has been good to me why don't you grab somebody Shake somebody's hand tell him you don't know like I know what the Lord has done for me I'm not playing no more I'm not playing right now you don't know like I know what the Lord has done for me did he bring you out did he save your soul why don't you hug somebody why don't you grab somebody tell them I'm glad to be in the service know he's [Music] all yeah thank you he brought me he kept me he saved me say yeah yeah I know he's all right

Channel: The Theology Network

Views: 139,490

Keywords: rev Terry k anderson, Lilly grove baptist church, dr marcus cosby, wheeler ave baptist church, Freddy haynes, Frederick Haynes III, Reginald sharpe, fellowship chicago, dewey smith, cogic praise break, Charles jenkins, jamal bryant, newbirth cathedral, td jakes, potters house dallas, dorinda clark cole, gardner c taylor, Jeremiah wright, Samuel dewitt proctor, new birth cathdral, theology, howard john wesley, frank e ray, church without walls, the black church

Id: ejFYUp-BYbo

Length: 34min 12sec (2052 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023