Robert Smith, Jr. - May I Have This Dance? The Dynamics of Doctrinal Preaching

even now Lord Jesus even now even now before I ask this in your name amen god be praised thank you dr. Aiken I am his David he is my Jonathan and I love him with all of my heart it's been a wonderful journey I cannot even think of the quality of life without recognizing that you have made a major major factor in my life in that regard thank you for having me it's been it's been fun representing Christ here the 12th chapter of Acts I'm gonna read verses 1 through 17 and then verse 24 I want to talk about the Christian as a Pheo musicologists the Christian as a field musicologists hear these words from the word acts 12 verses 1 through 17 and also verse 24 it was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belong to the church intending to persecute them he had James above John put to death with the sword when he saw that this pleased the Jews he proceeded to seize Peter also this happened during the feast of unleavened bread after resting him he put him in prison handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each Herod intending to bring him out for public trial after the Passover so Peter was kept in prison but the church was earnestly praying to God him the night before heroin was to bring him to trial Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound the two chains and century stood guard at the entrance suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell he struck Peter on the side and woke him up quick get up he said and the chains fell off Peter's risk then the angel said to him but on your clothes and sandals Peter did so wrap your cloak around me you and follow me the angel told him Peter followed him out of the prison but he had no idea what the angel was doing was really happening he thought he was seeing a vision they passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city it opened for them by itself and they went through it where they had walked a length of one Street suddenly the angel left him Peter came to himself and said now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything that Jewish people were anticipating with this ax dawned on him he went to the house of Mary the mother of John also called mark where many people had gathered and were praying peter knocked at the ILA interest and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door when she recognized Peter's voice she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and explained Peters at the door you're out of your mind they told her when she kept insisting that it was so they said it must be his angel but Peter kept on knocking and when they opened the door and saw him they were astonished Peter motion with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison tell James and the brothers about this he said and then he left for another place in the morning there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter after Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him he cross-examined the and ordered that they be executed verse 24 but the word of God come tenured to increase and spray it Yaroslav telecon that renowned and celebrated church historian has said that what the Church of Jesus Christ believes teaches and confesses on the basis of the Word of God this is Christian doctrine what the Church of Jesus Christ believes teaches and confesses on the basis of the Word of God this is Christian doctrine the Church Fathers confessed their beliefs generations following them or believing their confessions and now here we are confessing their confessions in other words we're getting farther and farther away from what they really believe so that we are just merely parroting what they said we know what they believe but we don't know why we believe it so that there is not a transference of what they believe to us so that we can articulate that I think today in singing that's why I come in the musicologists and people here do music I think we are singing more heresies than the church articulated in the first five centuries singing heresies it's really hard to get up and preach in some places when the singing has been so anthropocentric human-centered and so many heresies have been song that you have to get up and before you can preach to the people you have to give them an exegetical X lakhs to clean them out so that you can now preach the Word of God and have room for truth to be there I won't deposit this morning that's when the worship takes place in the spirit of Christ we overcome tribulation participate in celebration for the glory of God when worship really takes place in the spirit of Christ we overcome tribulation participate in celebration to the glory of God there is an artist named Wolfgang Mozart Jurgen Moltmann a German theologian said I can barely stand and listen to the music of Wolfgang Mozart for more than an hour because there is no tension there's no conflict in his music he preferred the music of Ludwig von Beethoven because it was filled with dissonance and conflict and tension chapter various Titian there is conflict and there is dissonance the musical rendition that signals in the army are in armed forces signals the end of the day is that it also signals the end of life taps twenty four notes four tones three breasts and one minute it's played in touch the end of the day to come to the barracks and the end of life at the graveyard when taps is played by the musical rendition that signals the beginning of the day in the Armed Forces is the rendition revelry is time to get up it's time to get up it's time to get up in the morning it's the beginning of the day it's played with twenty four notes four tones three breaths in one minute once signals morning mo you are in ing the other signals morning mo are in ing they are pronounced exactly in life but the spelling is different mo you are ing and mo are in ing and the only difference between morning and morning is you and what god wants to do is to take to you out to move you you don't deny the morning but he can take and remove it so that you can have morning even when you're morning and you can sing revelry even when you're going through our taps existence this was revealed to me so wonderfully at the funeral of Winston Churchill January 29th 1965 because you have the reality of Courts according to consist of three notes the beginning note the middle note and the end note and when there's equal distance between the end note big the beginning or the end note with the middle note you have a major chord you have happiness harmony and hope but when there is not equidistance of the beginning note and the end note with the middle note even if it's just half a step you have the minor chord blue toe and despair when Churchill had his funeral he wrote it out the songs he wanted to be sung the eulogies he wanted to be delivered by the persons he had put on the program scriptures that he wanted to be rare in fact if you want your funeral to be a certain way you'd better write it before you die and make sure you do that that's the way you can ensure that if it go the way it's supposed to go and if it doesn't then you talk to that person in heaven it is if they get there but at the end of the service up in the vaulted dome someone pray taps the end of the day but on the other side they bought the dog someone played revelry it's time to get up in the morning as if to say death is not the end resurrection is coming I will rise again come on up here Grayson and help me to preach this would you there are scriptural selections as well as liturgical selections that demonstrate and teach for us taps and revelry Scripture why's there are minor chords and major chords in the same verses like Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 you minute on me for evil minor chord black God meant to be for good to save many people alive Psalm 30 verse 5 weeping may endure for a night minor chord that joy comes in the morning major chord psalm 34:19 many of the afflictions of the righteous minor chord but the Lord delivers them from the ball major chord John 16:33 in this world you will have tribulation minor chord but be of good cheer I have already overcome the world major chord Romans 6:23 thank God for this I'm glad for the major chord here the wages of sin is death by the call thank you for not putting a period there but the gift of God is eternal life there souls that integrate and major and minor chords and their songs that only have the map the minor chord in it for instance friendship ons the funeral dirge all minor chord blue doom and despair [Music] gloom do dis bad [Music] [Music] [Music] do you know that sound in your life but there are also songs in which the major chord is featured by itself when the saints go marching in Grayson played son [Music] and their songs that integrate major and minor chord within that one song Amazing Grace [Music] minor chord I once was lost but now I'm found magical I once was blind minor chord but major Gordon now I see let's thank God for brother Jason thank you buddy this chapter era now this chapter starts off on a minor chord note the Bible says that King Herod Agrippa the first had arrested some of the disciples and had killed James with a sword that's minor and then arrested Peter intending to have him killed after the Passover for the church doom and despair the Bible says that James has been beheaded this is James the brother of John remember those two asked Jesus for the preferential treaties can we sit on the left hand and on the right of you Jesus says are you able to drink the cup yes he's going to drink the cup and he does in there and he's gonna be baptized and be careful for what you asked for it happened with James he is healed and Bible says that disciples are arrested and 2/3 of the inner circle Peter James and John they went to the Mount of Transfiguration when the other nine didn't go they were in the home of Jairus who was the rule of the synagogue when the other nine were not there and they were in the innermost recesses of the Garden of Gethsemane when the other nine were not there two-thirds of the inner circle is just about gone and what's the church don't do tell you what the church is gonna do the church is going to verse 24 major chord increase and grow in spite of what has happened that God has not built his church on Robert Smith and on Danny akin and on anyone else the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ the Lord persecution blesses the church so to be in the second century church a church father was right when he says the blood of the martyrs is the seed is feed the seed of the church and now Peter is put on death row and Herod see that this please the Jews had increased his popularity writings he doesn't intends to have Peter executed once the Jewish feast of the Passover is over the church does something that's extraordinary they do not have a lawyer they do not hire our bails bondsman to get Peter out they do not concoct a jail break they pray they know that if God can open up the Red Sea and the Jordan River and bring water out of a rock that doesn't have any plumbing system God can deliver Peter they pray I say to you because God said to myself as Carolyn Custis James has said to us in her book when life and beliefs july when faith is stripped to the bone and all our props and crutches are gone and knowledge of God that he is good and is still on the throne is the only thing that will keep you going when faith just stripped to the bone you don't have anything but faith the bone no matter no fat no tendons no ligaments no mic and all your props and crutches are gone your health breaks down your relationships break down you lose your job your knowledge of God that he is good and it's still on the throne is the only thing that will keep you going you will never really know that His grace is sufficient until everything else you have you recognize is insufficient and you never know that Jesus is enough until all you have left is Jesus titles can't get you everywhere but the Lord will sustain you the mystery that God would deliver Peter the Bible says that the law dispatched an angel who came to the jailhouse probably after hours after visitation I was well over didn't have to sign anything and he got in there without being noticed I need you I struggle with this where was James's angel James was an apostle just like Peter had a wife James's angel was it that all the angels had already been dispensed and doing other things and there were no angelic messengers available for James how about James his wife if he was married feel sitting next to mrs. Peter because mrs. Peter still has her husband because God delivered him yes it because God loved Peter because he would be to speak of the house more than he loved James I struggled with them the same thing I'm own life October the 30th 2010 when four young men came into Ritchie's restaurant where my son was working and went to rob the store and of course jam to register and jam the calves the safe didn't get any money three of them left out of frustration one out of frustration still in time to counter and fired one shot in Tony's heart and at 34 years of age he made the transition 20 years earlier than that I had been working at a grocery store actually about 30 about 30 years yeah it was 30 years later I've been working at a king quick grocery store at the same time on a Saturday night and a man came into the store and put a gun right into my face and threatened to kill me I turned my back he said go in the back room he didn't kill me why is it that I was spared but Tony wasn't I would have given my life that Tony would have live it's because I was a preacher and I was gonna be the Charles T Carter Baptist child is that what no I'll never know all I know is whether we live we're Christ whether we die we're priced whether we live or die we're steel Christ therefore the mystery must not be something that we tried to demystify don't try to be mr. father mister don't try to unscrew the inscrutability and don't try to figure out there and figure out ability that's not in the dictionary anyway just know that God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform and William Cooper says in his last lyric God is his own interpreter and she will make it Flint so I praise God and wait upon the day when Tony and I will be gathered again here comes the angel and it says to Peter we're between two soldiers chained on either side that soldiers in front of him for quaternions four squads of soldiers to keep him because he has been serving a lord who did some funny things wake up I'm going to sleep I slept at the wrong time before I was in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Lord told me you watch while I pray any time he came back the third time I'm still sleep I step at the wrong time then now I must sleep at the right time in fact when I'm sleeping now is this I read Psalm 121 verses 8 and 9 he giveth the Hitmen law of sleep and that God who keeps Israel has never slumbered nor slept in fact God has never battered as I since the day of creation and since his eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me there is no sense of both of us staying away I'm going to sleep because I'm going to sleep I'm gonna wake up either with him or down here where I continue my work he's too many things we worry about and worry is the interest paid on trouble before it falls due and sometimes it never falls due and we become like those women who are on their way to the tomb on Resurrection Sunday morning and they're asking who's gonna roll back to stone for us but when they get there the stone has already been rolled away wake up and he not to change off of him the man didn't even know anybody because they were connected with the divine source you know you can be sitting next to people in church and you get the word and they don't get it you feel the spirit and they don't feel it you sit right next to because the spirit doesn't work by row the spirit works by relationship so when you bring him into the church since he's in you there's a special connection that you have because you never lose it you walk with him you walk talk with him and you tell him that he is your own his chains fell off and then you said now you can't not to change off I have to do that but you can put your clothes on you can wrap your garment around you and you can put on your shoes it's known as divine human instrumentality God does what only God can do and we have to do what we can do you want the walls to fall down around them one time for six days and seven times on the seventh day and they're still not gonna fall then I want you to shop and when you shop without a plane or bulldozer I bring them down you say you won't line up the waterpots when they filled up the waterpots and Jesus looked into the water box the water looked back at Jesus and said I crater is looking at us and blushed in the wine you won't lavish to come from the tomb rolled back to stone and I'll say loose him and let him go and you were waiting for him to do it all and he's saying to you do what you can do as an act of faith and how to do what you cannot do so you will know that I'm the one who receives the glory he got up and followed the angel and the Bible says they came to the iron gate and the gate opened of his own now we think we're doing something because we got these gates these doors that have some kind of magnetic I you come to them and they just open without battery without electricity and then the angel led him one Street down and disappeared I listen to Charles Wesley because great hymns are born out of the womb of the techs antennae be long by imprisoned spirit lay fast bound by seeing in nature's night that I diffuse a crimson ray I walk the dungeon frame with the chains fell off my heart was free our roles wind forth and followed thee amazing love how can it be that thou my god should die for me and Wesley is right this him I'm sure in conversation with Acts chapter 12 he comes to Mary house where the prayer meeting is going on and he's knocking on the door and they're praying for his deliverance Rhoda comes at the door and she see she hears his voice she knows his voice and she says she's astonish she's been praying for she goes back to tell the prayer meeting group and they say no you're out of your mind it's not logical for a person to be chained between two people with soldiers in front of the gate and soldiers distributed throughout the prison and now that individual is knocking on the door it doesn't make sense and God doesn't make sense God is not logical God is spre logical God defines logic I don't understand it that in Genesis chapter one God says let there be light and there was light and light came running at 160 thousand miles per second and God made on the very first day the Sun and on the fourth day all rather he spoke and like Cape but on the fourth day he made the Sun do you have light on the first day but you don't have the Sun until the fourth day I thought the Sun produced light came from the Sun but one of these days revelation 20:2 reminds us there be no Sun there but he will be the light of the city that's right it doesn't come from the Sun light comes from the Sun the S o n that gives the SU in light that fits it to the moon that reflects like so much so that don't try to figure God out God is found in the midst of the mist of mystery trust him and walk with him by faith the tip says Peter kept on knocking because there's something doors you'll never get through until you keep on doing this don't try to pry open the door if it doesn't open open the door because if you keep on the door by God's permissive will he may allow it to open and you'll get what you want but you won't want what you get and it's hard to UM get what you got and you find yourself stuck with something that was not in God's will in fact that's the Greek sense of the kids of Matthew 7:7 keep on asking keep on seeking keep on knocking and Peter kept on knocking they said well if you're not out of your mind it must be his angel and Peter kept on knocking it was easier for Peter to get out of jail than to get into a prayer meeting and here are people who are praying about us we prayed but do we really believe that God is able you've got a terminal disease you have a financial reversal you're in an estranged relationship any rivers that you think are uncrossable do you have any mountains that you cannot through God specializes in things that seem to be impossible and he will do what no other doctor can do have you ever been on your bed of affliction and the doctors have done all that they can do God specializes in healing all manner of diseases and he will do what no other power can do he steps in right on time romans five and six says when we were powerless at the right time the word is not promised the word is chiron it's his time that God in the person of the son died for us according to history we say in our tradition he may not come when you want him is that what we're saying but he's always on time not only is he on time he comes before there is time because carry itself is not playing seeing behind the altar in Revelation 13 and 8 the Bible says John looked behind the altar and he saw a lamb that looked as if it had been slain from the foundation of the world before man fell the lamb had been slain in the mind of God according to the predetermined counsel of God Calvary was not a surprise God had already planned an eternity executed it in history and brought of the past in our own time kept all knocking and finally Peter is let in there's commotion there I'm running across the field and Peter did this the Lord has sent his angel and set me free the preacher needs to recapture your story we do a lot of personal address you you you you you we've got to recapture without preaching ourselves because Paul could never get tired of talking about the Damascus Road experience did you say I mean this is what the Lord has done in my life do you want to know more then about Daniel in the lion's den incidentally Daniel was never in the Lions Den the Lions Lions were in Daniels death but people want to know have you been in the Lions Den do you know what it's like for God to send an angel to lock the lion's mouth and you use the lion's den as a sleeping place and use the lion that body as a pillow they want to know have you been through this has got to live a Jew because you become the wounded healer in the words of Henri Nouwen people will let you deal with that wounds if they know you've been wounded and they know that you have been there it really is incarnation all and then he says before he leaves go and tell James and the others what the Lord has done James James will speak in verse 1 or 2 yeah but there's another change not James the brother of John but James the brother of our Lord because there's always another James God has my replacement and I will tell you something God has your replacement so don't feel like you're indispensable you are acceptable I tell people the more you can see it particular professional bit shot people in the upper echelon of society in the church you ain't necessarily like mama said you ain't necessary but they're not mess around and die someone will have your position before your body gets cold mess around and die somebody's don't live in the house you just paid off mess around and die somebody's gonna drive the car that you just got miss around and die somebody's gonna have the arms around someone that you love for 35 years your ain't necessary but God is and so therefore we ought to thank God for the privilege of serving him James and the others what the Lord has done well I'm a run across the field because what happens in the very end is that King Herod Agrippa the first has come from Jerusalem down to Caesarea by the sea and he's gonna have an opportunity to speak to the sirenians and and the turians from tyre and sidon because there's some conflict there and when he stands up in his regal robe he speaks they say this is not the voice of a man this is the voice of God and he does not give God glory and the Bible says that the angel struck him with worms and he died now there's a lot of talk about this did he die suddenly what kind of disease it was say what you want to say about that read all the commentaries you won't read but he died he didn't give God glory what angel delivers Peter it was probably the same angel that destroyed hair to give the first deliverance and destruction and even though this chapter opens up with a minor note the death of James and the arrest of Peter with the intention of having Peter executed after the Passover was over it ends up on a minor chord a major chord but the church verse 24 continued to increase thanks be to God that as the old musicologists we know how to live between the minor and the major chord because God Himself is the maestro I remember a year ago I celebrated it was in January of 2019 our oldest son Robert Smith the third who had suffered with cancer in 2010 the cancer came back he had been undergoing several treatments having various cells in his body harvested for a year didn't he had to go through the scans on this particular day in January and when he had these tests he was hoping to be admitted into the hospital that same day and have a surgery the next day which would have been Saturday but to his surprise and to his frustration he was told by the doctors we're waiting on the results but we can tell you that you can go back home because we don't have a bed in the hospital for you there was no room for him in the end but Bobby got in his car with his wife and they headed home frustrated because he wanted to get it all over with his doctor called him before he got home and said that mr. Smith I've got some good news for you and I also have some bad news for you well give me the good news he said he said we've looked at your tests we've examined you radiologically speaking and we can't find any cancer in your body we don't understand it we're gonna have to have a meeting with your radiologists because this defies medical science Bobby said well I can tell you I know what happened my great physician has done something that you can't understand and he said what didn't give me the bad news is the bad news is we still can't find a room for you well Bobby was excited about this and Bobby began to dial my number he said that is Sheree and I his wife want to come over and tell you something we didn't know what he had to say we we feared the worst he said stay there until we have arrived oh yeah when Bobby and Sheree arrived at our house he said that daddy and Mama oh yeah he said God has stopped by and visited my body anything the moan about for God has not played the minor chord but now he's playing the major chord no longer do gloom and despair happiness harmony and hope oh yeah we stood up and rejoice and we serve and worship yeah we stood up and gave God pray for what God had done well that's a good story and I'm glad to report that to you but 2,000 years ago there was a minor chord rendition yes Lord Friday Jesus died he died until there's real and rock like a drunken man oh yeah he died until two sons couldn't shine at the same time and 12:00 noon look like 12:00 midnight he died until the shepherd was smitten and the Sheep started scattering and they put him in a tomb it was all over for the disciples seven of them wit fishing on the next day and two on Resurrection Sunday had their heads down going from Jerusalem to Emmaus er yes Lord but Sunday morning Sunday morning whatever men may say I see his hands of Mercia I hear his voice of cheer and every time I need him he's always near he lives he lives Christ Jesus live today he walks with me he talks with me along life's narrow way he lives he lives salvation to impart you asked me how I know he lives he lives within my keyboard participating in the old musicology live between your minor and your major chord and know that God is able to sustain you so that you can worship even in the midst of a strong and he'll give you peace in the midst of the song and one of these days when it's all over in the eschaton doctor he can and I were talking about that in the eschaton one of these days there would be no minor chord no blue no sadness no tears no death no sorrow no nights and we shall worship our Savior Oh [Applause]

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Id: _VhztgMkp5I

Length: 41min 24sec (2484 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 06 2020