Sabbath || #PUSH - Pray Until Something Happens || JA Online || EJC Virtual Church || APR 3, 2021

[Music] [Music] as we our first name is number 382 or day of rest and gladness [Music] oh day o crest and gladness all day all joy and light obama care and sadness most beautiful [Music] sing holy [Music] that's [Music] a garden intersected with streams of paradise the water cooling [Music] our promised land our day of sweet reflection the water day of love a day to raise the faction from earth to things above new grace is ever gaining from this lord [Music] and our next team is number 15 my maker and my king my maker and my king to thee my all i owe [Music] the creatures [Music] than i can give my god i better fit [Music] lord what can i impart when all [Music] [Music] all my days [Music] number 88 i sing the mighty power of god i sing the mighty power of god that made the mountains rise that spread the flowing seas abroad and fill the lofty skies i sing the wisdom that ordained [Music] of the lord that fill the earth with food we form the creatures with his word and then pronounce them good lord of thy wonders [Music] upon the sky [Music] [Music] [Music] there's not a place where we can and now we'll sing joyful joyful we adore thee to the tune of come thou fount joyful joyful we adore thee god of glory lord of love hearts [Music] [Applause] [Music] fill us with the light of day all that works with joy all thy work [Music] [Music] rejoice in thee [Music] the joy of living ocean depth of happy rest god the father christ our brother all who live in love are thy teach us how to love [Music] and our last song is hymn number one praise to the lord praise through the lord the almighty the king of creation oh my soul praise him for he [Music] is praise to the lord is [Music] [Music] [Music] the almighty can do if with his love he [Music] befriends thee testing one two three testing one two three testing oh god our father we come to you this morning asking for your grace to cover us we come to you this morning because we are in need of you we can't do anything oh god without you this morning as we look into your word we are encouraged by the stories of faith and the stories of those who have given their all to you we humbly surrender ourselves through our prayers and our petitions today we ask lord for a breakthrough we cannot do it without you we are in pandemic times we are in new times we are in untried times lord we are in unprecedented times and but for you but for you we would have given up and so this morning our prayers to you come because we're encouraged by your word all prayers in your word are powerful god you don't look at the length of our prayers you don't even look at why we pray you look at the fact that we pray because prayer is our talking with you and so today as we are here in this garden in your garden in this virtual space we raise our petitions to you this morning because only god only you can help us and so today we are going to talk with you lord about the seven things that are on our hearts the seven needs with which we are plagued the seven desires of our soul and lord we start this morning as jabez started asking you for a blessing jabez came to you lord and asked you to bless him he asked you to help him in his work he asked you to look at him and to expand his territory lord like jabez we need a blessing and so today we turn to first chronicles 4 verse 10 in your word where jabez cried out to you and said oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory let your hand be with me and keep me from harm that i will be free from pain lord somebody in our audience today needs a blessing somebody in our virtual space needs a blessing somebody right now is writing in that chat and asking you for a blessing lord we need a blessing today and that's why we have come into this garden that's why we have come into this courts that's why we have given up everything to come before you this morning bless us lord renew us lord reveal in us today your will and show us your way lord jesus bless our hearts bless our families enlarge our territories bless the things we do bless us lord we pray in jesus name amen happy sabbath saying god happy sabbath what do you do when you have done all you can and it seems like it is never enough and what do you say when your friends turn away and you're all alone tell me what do you give when you have given your all and it seems like you can't make it through well you just push when there's nothing left to do you just push when you watch watch and see the lord work you just push what am i talking about pray until something happens today our emphasis is on prayer and we believe that king jesus is a listening when we pray waiting and hearing comfort and cheering king jesus is a listening when we pray we are gonna talk to god in prayer today we are gonna pray about our land pray for our nation pray for our family so at this time i'm gonna invite you to put your prayer request in the in the chat i want you to place all those requests all the things that are troubling you all those things that make you can't sleep at night place them in the chat at this time and as we will pray in a little while turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and i pray that the things of this earth will grow strangely them in the light of his glory and grace welcome to virtual church today may god bless you i come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses and the voices i hear falling on my air the sun of god he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me [Music] as ever known [Music] he speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet [Music] within my [Music] and he walks with me and he talks with [Music] is [Music] i'd say [Music] before [Music] is [Music] we is no good morning good morning good morning pastor phillips it is so good to have you with us in our garden this morning god be praised god be praised and our scripture reading this morning for those of you in our virtual audience today comes from isaiah 58 verse 11. and this is what it says pastor the lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought he will strengthen your bones and you will be like a watered garden and like a spring of water which waters do not fail not do not fail this is god's garden and this is where we are meeting him today you know pastor when i think about how it all began god created a garden for man and in that garden he demonstrated his beauty his wonderful care his precision his exactness he is an amazing god yes and and we want to thank god for you because today we are talking about prayer and what it means to push until god answers yes and today pastor you are going to tell us some reasons some reasons why we should pray you are the prayer coordinator of the east jamaica conference give us a few reasons why we should pray okay i am very happy to join you and to join the audience all across the world no prayer is the breath of the christians life prayer sustains christianity prayer sustains us in our christian work and prayer as we look at the bible in fact when i think of prayer i have to think of jesus and just as we are in this garden he was in gethsemane praying for strength what does prayer do pastor prayer is a connection between god and man it links us with god and in prayer we talk to god as to a friend ellen white says how does it work well faith is very important you just like how you talk to your friend yes especially when you were in love yes and you glimpsed that little lady we're in love pastor still in love after 27 years very good very good very good and you glimpse a little lady yes and you say something to her that's how it is your art is light when you meet god and you talk to god he hears you as a friend you tell him your joys you tell him your sorrows and he listens to you so but pasta when i talk to paula she talks back to me is that the same thing with god that's where the faith comes in you have to believe that god is hearing you and he will answer you in his own way and if you have some time and you talk to god in fact let me wipe out that you don't have to have some time you always have time for god always have time for god and you talk to him and he listens to you and you hears from god you hear from god so pastor when i'm driving down the street and that child just drops in front of my car and i just say oh god is that a prayer yes any time you utter the name of the lord he hears you whether your eyes are open or closed he hears you and that is what you need the connection to know that when i call and god is there so so pastor okay so i hear all the theology and and all the the nice things that you have said but has it worked for you yes it does indeed tell us how it worked for you all right i can remember one one day i was driving my family and i were driving and i saw a bus stopped along the road and the first thing something came to my mind and he said look there's always a child the possibility of a child coming out of that bus and as i approach the bus we're going opposite directions oh hold on pastor you mean something whispered to you and told you that yes yes and that was god yes i i i know that's the god yes and as they as i the thought came to me i i slowed down yes just in time to see a young girl about eight years old dash across the road and all i could do i just served the car to the left and allowed her to hit in the side of the car so god whispered in your consciousness and say manly remember yes that whenever there's a boss there may be a child yes because he saw that child he saw the child and that's all he worked for me that morning so when i she hit in the car everyone say i hit her she eat in the side of the car she got up and run and i stopped the car i came out i looked at where she ran to and i went over there and i called the person in the yard the mother came out and i said your daughter ran in this yard a while ago and she said yes i said call her and check her for me and i told her what happened and she held her head and i said thank you lord so so pastor that seemed to have been something that happened some time ago tell me something more recent okay more recent yes uh what has god done for you recently as a result of prayer well i went to bed last night and i said lord i am depending on you to keep me alive because i have an appointment at church this morning at the virtual church and here i am wait wait pastor hold on now so so you're saying is not the alarm clock that woke here no no no no no alarm clock had nothing to do with it and it's not your dear wife who shook you away this morning i got up before her so so so how did you get up this morning pastor well the lord provided breath of life and he provided muscles and strength in the muscles so i could wake so even in the simple joys of life waking walking talking just us being here in this garden yes is evidence of the manifold power of god through prayer and not only that or brothers and sisters all across the world are listening to us yes they got up this morning yes by the mercies of god and for this we're grateful we have to learn to be grateful in the simple little things it's not always in the big things that we must give god thanks for in the simple little things that happens in our lives amazing and you know pastor somebody is in virtual land this morning somebody this morning needs to know that god answers prayer somebody this morning needs a blessing just before you came on pastor we were talking about the fact that a blessing is what many of us need and we talked about jabez somebody this morning needs to know is that person you do you need to know that god is here do you need to know that he answers prayer do you need to know that your god is able do you need to know that he cares if you do put that prayer need in the chat because just now pastor brown is going to pray that god will hear your prayer we are monitoring the chat we are taking your messages we're taking your requests they're persons who are giving those messages right now to pastor brown and he is preparing on his needs to intercede for you do you need a blessing do you need a miracle do you need something special in your life do you need answered prayer if you do here is the place to be because today we're gonna push until something happens pastor brown is now going to intercede with our god from our garden of prayer on your behalf or not mine won't you close your eyes now as he does so the first adam began life in a garden christ the last adam came at the end of his life to our garden in etham adam sin in gets enemy the savior overcame sin in eden adam fell in gets enemy jesus conquered in eden adam hid himself in get's enemy our lord boldly presented himself and it's because of what christ has done for us at calvary it is because of his spilled blood we have this assurance that we can come boldly to his throne of grace and receive mercy and as i go through i'm seeing several prayer quests i've seen parachrist from vivine hall pray for my son my two granddaughters seen prayer requests from charming williams pray for my children my family my friends and pray for my special friend for a stronger walk with god i'm seeing prayer christ from donald pray for my son that he will know god for himself and serve god i'm seeing progress from otis brian pray for me i am ill won't you heal me god sing prayer christ for marie parchment pray for my children to come to the lord especially my son that has cancer there's so many other prayer quests but at this time won't we talk to god in prayer almighty father thou who rules and super rules this world the one who hang the world in space and place all the stars in the rightful place the great i am we come to you lord this morning knowing that burdens are lifted at calvary and you have promised to be very near father lord we come confessing of our sins that we have come short of your glory lord we come lord confessing that we can't even walk without you holding our hands lord we come upon the invitation that you have given us in your words you have said you have said in your words if we just ax knock seek that we shall receive the answer the door shall be open and we shall find so lord as i kneel in this capacity of divinity and fall in humanity standing in the gap for your people who have placed their prayer requests in the chat lord there are some who have acts for spiritual healing lord the devil has placed his hand upon many of your children but today in the name of jesus we're lifting a standard against the enemy in the name of jesus christ lord i pray that the strongholds that the devil have planted upon your people will be broken in the name of jesus lord there are some who are sick some lord not just spiritually sick but physically sick today you are the bombing gilead today i want to the lord i will act of you to to stretch your healing hands touch someone today move by their bedside even now there are many lord who have contacted this virus covey 19 we can have within our nation within our world but mighty god want to magnify your presence in their life today lord there are families who feel like giving up the devil has launched out a direct attack on them but lord we are coming against every single principalities and powers and rulers of darkness that is seeking to destroy the families lord and we are decreed and declared in the name of jesus christ and no weapon that form against your people it won't work it won't prosper in the name of jesus lord won't you save your people today save that young man in the chat who's asking for deliverance save that young lady who is asking for a breakthrough won't you do for them what they can do for themselves lord lord i do not know all the names here but just move through the virtual space touch every single one who's watching on this platform who is listening at this time who who feels right now they can't make it lord want to give them strength and father as we continue to worship lord we are saying today lord that we are not gonna leave this place we're not gonna leave your presence until we have this assurance lord that you will do for us what we can do for ourselves so lead and direct lord to you we give all thanks to you we give all praise for what you will do and what you have already done in jesus blessed name amen in jesus name and lord we just continue this morning to pray because verona smith has asked that we pray for her son oh lord who morris spalling has asked that we pray for her friend garisha davidson lord i am praying for my friend stefan clark who is in the hospital now on oxygen asking that you will just come down and touch his body and restore to him his normalcy and take away this dreaded virus lord nathania davis has said i'm in but renee clark irene clark has asked for us to continue to pray for her family donna may morgan has asked for us to pray for her and her two children that they will be faithful oh lord nelsonia miller has asked that we pray for miss dawkins safe return because our god is able to do impossible and extraordinary things oh god hear our prayers this morning your people are petitioning you because we know that you can lord we need a blessing today and we're not going to stop until you come down in glory amen and amen pastor yes we are continuing this prayer because this morning this morning as we got up we saw and heard and read the news that four of our brothers and sisters in haiti while in church online were kidnapped i don't know if it's early this morning or late yesterday or sometime yesterday but four of them are now kidnapped and the whole haitian conference is in prayer we must join as seventh-day adventists in east jamaica to pray as well but we're not just praying for them we have people in jamaica who are being abducted and taken away against their own will we need a blessing in our country so pastor as the prayer coordinator yes will you pray for our brethren in haiti and pray for our nation now all right please let's just just continue the word of prayer heavenly father we pause a little longer in your presence amen we approach your throne because we know that you're god we approach your throne because we know that you are ready to listen to us we approach your throne because you are worthy of all praise and glory and honor as you heard lord today we are petitioning your throne on behalf of our brothers in haiti lord the devil is working he is at wrath with god's people and with god's church but we know that he is a loser we know that you have the victory over him but just no lord we pray that you will reach out to our brothers and sisters in haiti and in especially that conference lord i appeal to you this morning on behalf of your servants that you lord will protect them you have promised us lord that even though we walk through the valley of the shadows of death we should fear no evil because you are with us so just now lord i'm asking you to give them that peace that they need to know that you will protect them lord and replace them in your care and in your arms oh lord the church is praying there answer their prayer lord let them know that you're god and you hear oh god we are burdened down we are tired of these conditions but we know that it won't be long we know that you're coming lord to take control of this earth again when sin will reign no more over your people but until then lord give us the courage to stand firm so lord we wait upon you to deliver them according to your will then we come back to our own little island here in jamaica we're having similar problems lord women are being kidnapped men are being kidnapped children most of all are being kidnapped the devil is let loose so father i pray that your holy spirit will take control of the situation and that these families who are mourning and grieving that you will stand by their side and that you will place your arm around them and lord help them to know that you are still god and you will protect this morning lord i present to you the men of our country and of the world the boys of our country and of the world i pray lord that you will instill in us as men your greatest desire so that we can know that you have called us to a great calling you have called us to be priests and prophets and to stand up and lead our families according to your will you have called us lord as men to stand firm in this gap and to protect our women and to protect our families and especially be role model for our boys lord we have failed in many instances but today we humbly ask for forgiveness we ask o lord that you will hear us as we cry we rejoice lord because when we even think of the covet situation that we are experiencing when we think of your church and its impact on the world lord we see many of the young men who have committed their lives to you oh lord we have seen them coming out of the woods and standing firm in technology and because of this your messages are being preached across the world we thank you lord for these men and boys who are standing in this gap lord keep them faithful keep them strong nourish them lord for this purpose lord we we we we wait upon you and we call upon you no to deliver us and father for our men who are fathers we're husbands lord i present them to you and ask that you will take them by the hand you will lead them and that you will help them to set the right examples so that this world can be a better world we know that only as you enter the arts of men and boys that we can be better so today lord hear us as we cry to you we present to you even those men and boys who have sent messages in this in this chat lord hear them today as we focus on the men today we act so low that you will hear them when they cry to you many have become discouraged because of covet 19. reach out to them no lord and whisper words of hope in their heirs and may they today be closer drawn to you and lord today we claim that promise we ask and we believe and we are going to claim the promises that you have left for us so as we push and as we ask and as we claim oh god hear us today bless us and strengthen us we ask in the name of jesus christ our savior and king amen amen amen amen and as i walk around our garden today pastor and i'm just enjoying the serenity and the beauty i'm reminded of a song someone is praying for you yes at this time we're just going to pause and listen to that sweet angelic voice of ramona mitchell as she sings for us someone is praying for you enjoy [Music] god have the crowds round you gather in the midst of the storm is your ship tossed and battered are you weary and worn don't lose hope someone's praying for you this very day and peace be still is already on the way someone is praying for you [Music] someone is for you so when it sings you're all alone and your heart will break into someone's praying for you someone is praying for you [Music] someone is praying [Music] remember someone's praying for you [Music] but you felt that you pray till your strength is all gone and your tears fall like rain drops day long he cares and he knows just how much you can bear he'll speak your name to someone in prayer [Music] someone is praying for you [Music] someone is praying for you [Music] so when you see you're all alone and your heart will break into remember someone's praying for you someone is praying for you someone is praying for you [Music] so when you see you're alone and your heart will break into remember someone's praying for you [Music] remember someone's praying for and jesus maxine james has asked us to pray for her husband and jesus myrtle walters is asking you to answer our prayers as we pray for jamaica navlet coleman lord is being like you she is in fact asking us to pray for the kidnappers that god will convict them oh god oh jesus yvonne fullerton is thanking her family for being in worship with her today and she's asking us to pray for sister evelyn duhaney from the mount horeb 70 adventist church oh jesus your people are praying claudia anderson jesus is asking us to pray for her backslidden children and her family members to return to you god are you hearing are you hearing lord are you hearing sharon robinson is asking us to pray for her son-in-law that he may get a job and for her son who is preparing for exams that he may trust you to help him to be successful and lord we want to pause right here to pray for all those young people who are facing exams in this current period it has been a rough pandemic time some of them are doing exams in their bedrooms lord some of them are doing chemistry labs in their bathrooms not the whole world is topsy-turvy some don't even have computers lord and they're expected to pass their exams oh god only you can make this happen help us lord help us lord help us lord help us lord i i saw in the chat i'm trying to find it lord somebody is praying for her fiance and herself that things will get better you know her name i wanted to call her name but but i'm not seeing her name right now but you know her name lord mark the spot where she put her prayer request in the chat and touch that situation right now lord oh jesus ramona just reminded us that someone is praying and lord we we oh jesus we we we remember that even if nobody else is praying for us you on the cross prayed for us you went on that cross and throughout the eons of time you saw us you saw everybody in the chat today you saw all 12 of us here in this studio today you saw the situation and whispered to pastor phillips that a little eight-year-old child was behind that bus you swerved that car and saved that child only you and so today is a day of prayer we're not rushing it today lord we're talking to you today today pastor said your pastor you're a pastor so if anything wrong you have to blame him he said that prayer is like music to your soul he said that prayer is like the bread line between us and you that's what he said lord so we're trusting him today that what he said is true we need you to come through for us today and so the virtual church today is all about you and us and prayer we need a blessing we need your help we need your intervention we ask for your conversion of our spirits as we give our hearts to you today in jesus name we thank you let the church say amen amen pastor thank you yes for taking us through this first moment of prayer thank you brother holmes thank you and we pray that god will continue to anoint you yes because as the prayer coordinator for our church in this part of the world you are the model of prayer and you are teaching us about this bloodline yes may god keep you good and also those churches that are in prayer now we just want them to know that we are with them yes many of our churches are involved in prayer today and fasting and we want to thank them for this effort to be drawn closer to the lord and my prayer is that we will leave here very soon yes leave this earth yes very soon we can only pray amen and it will happen amen so as we see push pray until something happens god bless you god bless you in church my friends my brothers all of you in virtual land today god is going to answer your prayer we thank you for joining us keep those prayer requests coming a part of worship is also to listen to god through the spoken word and every quarter in our church is dentist we study what is called the sabbath school lesson and for those of you who may not be adventists this is our biblical strategy among the entire world church to have everybody studying a particular doctrinal truth a particular aspect of the life of christ so that we all can come into the unity of god we have it for the children the juniors we have it for the early teens we have it for the youth we have it for the primary we have it for the adult and now for the next several moments we're going to listen to a summary of the lesson for this week the first week of the second quarter of 2021 we'll be listening first to the primary review and then the junior review and then the early teen the youth and the adult the next 10 15 minutes stay with us as we take a travel through god's word and listen to the sabbath school lesson review may you be blessed as we listen happy sabbath everyone my name is iowan london from the bath sda church today i will be presenting to you the primary lesson the topic of the lesson is seven times seven remember verse is taken from matthew 18 verse 35 forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart the message god wants me to forgive others from my heart one day peter asked jesus how many times shall i forgive someone who sins against me seven times no not seven times jesus answered but seventh time seven the story is aboard a man a king who had a servant but the servant was millions in depth so the kingpin or by checking his account the king was so angry so he called for the servant the servant said he was sorry and begged for forgiveness the king was so sorry for the man that he let him free and counsel the death the servant was so shocked that he ran away immediately on his way out he saw another servant that hold him money too but it was just a one day's wage he grabbed the man by choking him at the neck the mind begged for forgiveness and mercy but that that one did not wanted to show any he got the man thrown in prison other servant who was watching they saw the old thing and they reported it to the king the king was so angry so he called for the man again and said to him you wicked man i showed forgiveness and mercies to you but you are unwilling to show to others god has forgiven us our sins and since god has forgiven us he wants us to treat other mercy kindness and forgiveness have a blessed sabbath happy sabbath everyone today i'll be doing the poor today's lesson is staying awake power text bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of christ galatians six verse two politics powerpoint jesus's love leads us to support one another in times of need have you ever been on a long courtroom and wanted to stay awake to help the person driving not to get sleepy if you had a hard time staying awake then perhaps you understand the experience of jesus disciples when he needed him the most the 12 friends of jesus were quiet listening carefully to the master's words all of you will be meant to stumble because of me this night he said with sorrow the disciples were taken by surprise by giving affirmation this group had been friends now for more than two years they had shared incredible life-changing experiences surely they would be loyal to their master jesus continued talking for it is real for it is yours i will strike the shepherd and the sheep shall run away but after i have been raped i will go before you to gallery peter could not keep silence even if all are made to double because of you i will never be made to stop people jesus looked at peterson even if i have to die with you i will not deny you the rest of yourself supported this affirmation along with people all the disciples taught themselves loyal friends jesus was leading the way for all his role then get [Music] then jesus walked a little farther ahead he fell down to the ground it was this it was as a time could still for jesus the time that would determine the future of the human race were near because in the beginning adam and eve yielded a certain whole world became included satan's dominion but in his great mercy god devised the plan of salvation even before the creation of our world but jesus the son of god had accepted to be our substitute disabled with the human race ever followed this was why jesus came he knew that to satisfy the requirements of godzilla and to save each believer from the penalty of sins he would have to sacrifice his own life according to the law almost all things are purified is blood and without the shedding of blood there is no remission so christ was offered we want to bear the sins of men to those who eagerly wait for him he will appear a second time apart from faith for salvation god is a pure idol before jesus because jesus identified himself with sinful humanity in order to save us he felt the terrible weight of god's condemnation of sin the devil tried to deter jesus from his mission suggesting that if jesus became a substitute to save sinners he would eternally be separated from his heaven before them as jesus could not feel the reassuring presence of his father's glory the terrible anguish was crushing his soul he cried out in despair oh my father if it is possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as i will but as you would in those moments of distress jesus longs for words of comfort and encouragement from his friends but he found peter james and john sleep his disciples in difference filled jesus with deep sorry he asked him what could you not watch with me one hour and pray watch and pray lest you enter the temptation the spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak peter james and jonah were briefly from their sculpture jesus returned to his place of prayer and pleaded in anguish the destiny of the whole world was in the conflict would jesus drink the cup of suffering and humiliation would he the innocent one sacrifice his own life to save those who were truly guilty of sin then jesus contemplated the effects of sin upon humanity he recognized that without his sacrifice there would be no hope for human beings they'll be eternally lost if they were left to the consequences of their sins jesus continued talking to his father in prayer then he made the ultimate decision he would surrender his life to save us he prayed oh my father if this cup cannot pass away from me unless i drink it then your will be done if only the disciples had watched and prayed for their master jesus longs for comfort he staggered back to his disciples three times and found them sleeping each time his best friends on earth could not stay awake when he needed them the father did not leave his son alone in this hour of trial he sent an angel from heaven to comfort jesus and give him strength for what was ahead the angel assured jesus that by sacrificing his life for sinful humanity a multitude of believers who would accept his sacrifice would be saved and inherit eternal life isaiah with prophetic insect recorded about jesus he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied jesus was ready for the ultimate sacrifice he would pour out his life to save you what amazing evidence of god's infinite love purpose happy sabbath my name is avani stewart and today i'll be reviewing the cornerstone lesson entitled come and see so jesus was in samaria and at a well and he was thirsty he saw a samaritan woman with a water jar and asked her if he could have a drink of water she said to him but you're a jew and i'm a samaritan and he said to her if you knew the gift of god and who it was who spoke to you you would ask of him and he would give you living water and she said but you don't have anything to draw water from how can you get water he said to her the water you drink you will thirst from the water i give you you will never thirst from she said sir give me this water so i don't have to come to this this well to draw water and he said to her call your husband she says i do not have a husband indeed you are correct but the man you are with is not your husband but you've had five husbands before so she said to him i can see that you're a prophet now we worship in this mountain but the jews say the place to worship is in jerusalem and he said to her there will come a time where you will worship neither in this mountain not in jerusalem but the goddess of spirit and they that worshipping must worship in spirit and in truth and so she said i must when a messiah comes he will tell us everything we need to know and he says i am here so she dropped her water drawer and went to the city and told people come and see a man that told me everything i did and so the people of the city came out of the town to meet him and now they asked him to stay with them for a few days and after his stay they said to they said to him we believed not because not only because what the woman has said but because we have seen with our own eyes and so in reviewing the lesson um the living water jesus talked about represents the holy spirit because when you have the holy spirit and jesus comes you will go to heaven and you have eternal life and that eternal life is is what he refers to as never thirsting again now jesus showed that he was truly the messiah he showed the character of god when he asked her for a drink of water because with this humility no jew that would possess he was showing that the character of god has no bias happy sabbath tomorrow happy sabbath pastor brown happy sabbath to those joining in for a lesson review and so we are at a new quarter and the theme for this quarter is what tomorrow the promise the promise god's everlasting covenant god's everlasting covenant so before we jump right into this week's lesson i'm going to ask you to pray for us all right let us pray most kind and compassionate father i thank you this morning for allowing us dear god to come before your presence once more dear god to share in this another segment of sabbath school yes if any father as we are about to enter into your words i pray dear god that you'll send your holy spirit to dwell with us and be our great teacher as we learn of you dear god the great truths that exist only in your words in jesus name i pray amen amen amen so the promise god's everlasting covenant have you ever received a promise before most definitely yes yes and was the promise fulfilled did you receive that which was promised to you i think so all right okay okay and so and so this week we looked at the promise and before we go into this week's lesson just want to share with you that the quartus emphasis for this week look at the covenant of god what the covenant of god is and it promises to be pretty much interesting and deep as we examine the covenant of god and in the old testament where we see god instituting his covenant with his people we find that god is a god of covenant and a god who has made several promises to his people and throughout his strength throughout our studies we will see that god has kept those promises and so we will be going into our memory text our memory text won't you share with us some memory text taken from genesis 1 verse 26 our memory text for this week is and god said let us make man in or image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fall of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth so god created man in his own image in his image god created he him male and female created he them i love mistakes created male and female and we're going to talk more about that later on in our lesson and so what happened what happened samara what happened what happened well what happened started out in in a similar place as where we are no you know okay in the garden yes right so what happened started in the garden when god created the world right yes and it was created so perfect yeah in comparison to anything that we are seeing around us today it was so perfect because when he created all of it he looked at it and he burst and said that it was very good yes also he created mankind right and then there was a loyalty test yes he tested their loyalty and as a result of that loyalty test well what happened what happened this is where we are no loyalty test oh all right um and we find that after the test and the feeling of the test that hope was given right um there was a separation and hope was given so we're gonna go through and we want to share your vip points in the chat you know discuss with us as we go through um day by day and so we're gonna start jumping out at creation right creation um what happened there in creation creation no it's a very big question the question of our own existence everybody at some point in life must ask themselves who am i yeah why am i here how did i get there who placed me here right and this section of our study today seeks to answer those questions no scientists have postulated and they have hypothesized many reasons as to how we could be here for example the big bang theory and and the evolution theory yes many of them they they they had given us right yes but none have been able to really really answer the question as to who so so you're saying that we did not evolve right we did not just evolve we did not evolve we did not just exist out of mere coincidence but there is an intelligent being behind our creation right and the bible we are found to make some bold statements right and what is that bold statement that the bible has made in genesis one first one well that bold statement is that in the beginning yes god created the heaven and the earth and this we must accept by faith right no one was here to see when the world began right but when we examine both views the creationist views from the bible and the evolution theory and the big bang theory we find that by faith as we accept what god has said that there must be an intelligent uh being behind the creation of the world when you look at the trees um you you there's a song that says who told the the the who taught the sun yes where to stand in the morning that's that song right and for the ocean to come this far and no more it just cannot happen by chance there must be an intelligent being and so how much how important his faith is in all of this process well faith as the bible says faith is a substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen so you might not be seeing the things that you have faith in but once you have faith then it is proof enough proof enough it's the evidence yes that these things are real and it makes the impossibilities that god does possible most definitely and so even in this world where a lot of questions have been asked so where am i from and you know we must accept god's word by faith and we and without faith it is as you mentioned impossible to please god and so we accept that god has god is the creator of this world and and and this is a bold statement and this is what the lord has said and you know we need to go back to the time when christians will say god says it i settles it for me right for this is what the lord has said so let us continue throughout so we are now looking at um creation of mankind creation of mankind and so the bible says that god has created mankind god created mankind but how did he do so did he call us into existence what what did he do he formed us he formed us into his own image yes and lightness so we are formed in the image and the lightness of an intelligent being god so so what does that mean for me it means that i because i'm created in the lightness and the image of god when we look into the whole understanding of what it means to be made in the image of god it means that we have received that that that god-given uh responsibility because which we look at later on that he gives gave us dominion but means that we're able to think we're able to reason and we're even where we're even able to create we may not be able to create out of what the scholars call excellent out of nothing because god created out of nothing but we're able to create create yes and most definitely the very first commandment given to us right and so how is how important is it for us to believe and to accept that god is the one who fashioned us and maul us and and you know as i examine the hebrew text before i answer that question we find that god used a different word when he was speaking about the creation of humanity and and the creation of the world how important is it that we understand that we are special and we are different than the other created things that god has created it's very important to know because if we don't take that to heart and hold on to it we will be aimless we will have no purpose in life it would seem as if we are worthless but since god created us and and he he not only created us he formed us because compared to all the other things he had created he had spoken and those things came into being but god himself went into the dirt and he formed us into his own image so that shows that we have great value yes and because we have great value it means that we have purpose most definitely yes so we are fearfully and wonderfully made and and so we must understand that we're faithful and wonderfully made and so we will transition into of god and humanity so god created humanity and he did not just create humanity in his image there and left it like that what did he do he gave dominion he gave dominion yes he gave us the meaning he allowed us to share with the responsibility that he has remember know that he is creator remember he is owner of everything and god has created us and has given us some of these responsibilities and not only that pastor he blessed us hmm what did he bless us with pastor he blessed us with the privilege to procreate you mentioned before right um he blessed us with the ability to rule over and everything man was given charge to to see to the attending of the garden and we see other gardens wonderful here and so it is important for us to understand that god had intended for his creation to depend on him and with all those privileges that we have we know that we are we are we are required to have responsibility we are required to have duty we are required to to to preside over these things that that god have placed us um in dominion over and protect them take care of them even ourselves because he he informed us of of the things that we should eat yes right he had created the plants for our bodies right so so he he wanted us he wanted for us to protect all of these things and to protect ourselves take care of ourselves as well yes and you know as i look into this that you can see the type of relationship that god wants with his people right if you have created something that is there and special to you and you're going to share the responsibility for somebody to look over your property you're not going to give it to any any person you're gonna be very deliberate and selective in who you choose to watch over your property and we can see that god has prized us right and has given us this responsibility i just want to go back a little bit on the blessing that god blessed adam and eve and he declared it was very good they were very good and so we are blessed we are blessed and even though sin came to the world we are still blessed the blessing continues and every time we see a new a baby being born it's a part of the blessing that was pronounced from genesis right and so blessings definitely so the loyal test there was a loyal test right in every relationship there always has to be a test of trust so pastor tell us about that loyalty test god placed a tree in the midst of the garden and said to adam and eve well you can partake of everything in the garden but here is this string you don't touch it don't eat of it less you will surely die and so we see where within this loyalty test been presented to god we see that it's important for our relationship to be built upon trust they are to trust the words of god that if they would have part taken of the tree they would have surely died and every relationship needs trust if the relationship is not based upon trust somebody says it is like a vehicle with no engine you can go in it and it will not move right and so we saw unfortunately that the trust factor didn't work out well with our four parents because eve right um decided to trust and believe the words of the devil more than the words of god and that's a big big big thing so many people within our community within our nation seeking to believe the words of the devil more than the words of god god's word says remember the someday to keep it holy right and others are saying well not so you know um god's word says that before you take the honey out of the moon you should be married and and and folks are saying not so we are to trust and believe the word of god so unfortunately the test was failed they failed that loyal test and what happened since they failed at loyal tests well what happened was that the trust was broken there was a broken relationship between them and god right because eve allowed the devil to step in and deceive her yeah and if we go further into the lesson we see how accordingly the devil approached eve yes so he approached eve in the form of a serpent yes not in any normal regular form that she would have been used to so so he approached her in that form and then he he asked her a question yes pretending as if you know he's our friend and asked her simple question yes and then that question is somehow inserted dot yes mix truth with errol right mix truth with errol insert a doubt in her mind and from there on then we see where she started to yearn after the ways of the devil and you know you know the word of god says if you eat you will surely die the serpent right at this time um the devil came in the form of a serpent said you will not surely die but there's something very interesting in this lesson that really grabbed me and the fact that as i read the story of redemption i'm written by lindy white and we see it in our listener that adam was not deceived adam was not deceived adam chose he made a conscious decision and and and i paraphrased ellie white says in the sword of redemption that that that when he saw his wife coming with the fruits and he saw her beauty and he saw how innocent she was he realized what had happened and he decided everyone says he did not seek to put his trust he decided consciously and we can see where some folks consciously decide to go in the pathway of sin and not to trust the words of god because yeah and somehow pastor that seem as if you're you're committing suicide because imagine adam chose to die my word he literally chose to die wow and many folks by siding and listening and not trusting god are choosing to die and this is sad but in the midst of all of the gloom they were separated from god um they are lost at direct communion we are praying today it's a day of prayer and they lost that but in the midst of that god gave them hope genesis 3 15. right this is 3 15. that is the messianic promise the promise of hope and what is this text saying to us today let's read the text for us this text and i will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed and it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel so the promise is that jesus would come and he would take away the sin of the world right the devil will crush will bruise his heel and but jesus will crush his head that word bruise in hebrew can also mean crush and we saw at calvary jesus made that crush right and so much so we are given this promise and we are to believe the promise i also read in the story of redemption that eve when she had cain she believed the promise so much that she thought that cain was the messiah and so sister shamara want to summarize give us a final take as we seek to wrap up this lesson well pastor what i can say is that we have seen the doings of our forefathers we have seen what they've done we have seen how they they lacked trust in god it is up to us not to make the same mistakes but to trust god and trust him completely so that he might fulfill the promise that he had made to save us from our sins and therefore we can take god's promises to the bank and cash it if he says your bread and water shall be sure it is coming he has given us a promise and this promise actually the down payment has been made at the cross and we are waiting for the full payment when he comes may god bless you as we continue to study the word of god in jesus name so [Music] the oceans give up all the dead that are in them graves open wide to set captives free and those who are roaming the earth rise to meet them abraham's seed as the sands of the sea these are they who have come out of great tribulation they have washed [Music] in [Music] very by the blood [Music] their voices are ringing oh the great cloud of witnesses they sing freedom song as they enter that country built by their own father the promised homeland they've looked for so long [Music] and all the strangers and all the pilgrims they'll be no longer strangers [Music] all the tired and the weary wanderers they will wonder no more and the will come home [Music] [Music] oh [Music] by the blood [Music] the love amen amen amen i wish you could have been here with us oh i wish we didn't have a pandemic i wish we didn't have uh social restrictions because in this church today we are praising god is there anybody in the chat today who has been blessed by that song god will redeem you i'm telling you oh i'm just dancing up a storm well anyway anyway there is a girl in the chat her name is narisha rhoden i want the cameras to follow me because narisha said we notice that but no what is she saying she's saying she likes our jamaican fruits and and i want the camera to focus on these fruits because i get the impression that narissa is a jamaican who is not in jamaica and somehow she is loving these luscious fruits in our garden and she wishes she could be here where narisha girlfriend let me show you what i'm going to do just for you this is just for you and arisha and i want you to know how much we love you and how much we appreciate you and and just because it's you narisha let me show you what it feels like there is a that is a jamaican apple [Music] i hope the camera can can can see the juice in my mouth a sweet bad girl and just because you're not here and i don't want you to miss out let me show you again [Music] oh lord nurisha a good bad and then and then not just the russia there's another young lady by the name of gahesha smith i don't know if i got it right but gahesha says it looked like the church people tempting her with the apple well smith girl is it's weird [Music] i was really bad it's good well this is what we do in the virtual church i'm going it right now all right [Music] it's all gone now it's good oh my goodness the fruits are wonderful well we are now going to be entering another segment of our discussion today there are people in the chat there are people in our church there are people in our audience there are people in our world who are suffering abuse and emotional need there are issues going on in our homes we're in lockdown mode in jamaica our government has said no movement for this weekend we're trying to deal with the spike in the virus for some people that's wonderful being in lockdown with our families for some persons that's horrendous because the abuse and the emotional attacks go on and we want you to know that you are not alone and we want you to know that there is hope and that hope begins with prayer we want you to know that everything that happens to you there is an example and a word in god's word and for all the women and all the children and some of our men who are suffering abuse this is your time because we're going to take your situation to god in prayer we also know that at this time many of our women around our church are all dressed in purple today because purple is the is the color of our women and we're asking you now just look ladies open your cameras and let's look at you and we applaud you for joining us on this particular aspect of our spiritual journey we thank you for your prayers we thank you for your commitment we thank you for your hard work on behalf of our women and children and we praise god for you we want to remind you that this thing about abuse and emotional need is not new there was a woman in the bible her name is hannah and hannah was blessed to have a husband by the name of elkanah but in her circumstance she was one of two wives she was in a very badly codependent marriage and one wife the other wife abused her because she couldn't have children she was abused because she was a favorite and she was abused because she couldn't have children and in that situation she balled out to god because to not have a child in those days was as if you were the worst of society and she took her abuse pennine or just listened to that her name the name just sounds like a naga she just nagged her nagged her nagged her every day and the more elina loved is the more nagging she got aha and kane i love you and you can't even give him a child look how many i've given him she made her life hell until one day just like many of you she couldn't handle it anymore but instead of jumping off a cliff or running in front of a car or doing something to herself she went to church she took it to church sister manly phillips and she went to god and she agonized with god and she told god some things that are not quite in the bible but those things that could be repeated in fact she said to god i need you to help me i am being abused i can do nothing if you will help me and give me a child i will give him back to you well it's amazing i tell you what happened god answered her prayer and as soon as god answered her prayer this is what she said in first psalms 2 1 to 2 and verse 10. my heart rejoices in the lord in the god of my salvation my horn is lifted up my mouth boasts over my enemies benigno for i delight in your deliverance my god there is no one holy like you there is no one beside you even the birds are singing this morning there is no god like my god i want to say one more thing to those of you who are in abusive situations and who are having emotional problems not only did god bless hannah with samwell but god then gave her three more sons and two daughters what am i saying your situation is rough your situation is tough your situation is difficult but there is a god there is a god i'm joined on the stage with sister manly phillips sister winsome phillips sister winsome how wonderful to see you you use your mic so that the virtual church can hear such a pleasure good morning and it's it's really a happy sabbath and to be in your presence and the presence of those who are here and the millions across the world it's really a pleasure it's a wonderful time to be worshipping god yes and i want you as the wife of our prayer coordinator to do a special prayer on behalf of our people but before you do there is someone in our audience our virtual space sister carlin bachelor i think she's on zoom somewhere sister bachelor you're on zoom i want you to open your camera and open your mic and we're going to give you a moment to share your own experience with us just before sister winston phillip prays carnet are you there i am here happy sabbath everyone good to have you wonderful to have you please the mic is yours um my experience well i can say i have been a little bit depressed over the past couple of days especially when i hear of the different incidents that have been taking place around the island across the world even with my very own colleague which recently took place um where she is missing i don't know her but it does pain my heart knowing that it could be me it could be someone that i love you know it could be me you know when i hear of the different things taking place it really makes me sad as a female as a human when i hear of things happening to my students many of my students have lost their parents their grandparents caregivers it is really saddening and when i think back at my own children too and i say lord what if i should die and leave them you know i was i saw something on facebook last night which spoke about some church service in mexico i believe where the the participants who were actually in the service were kidnapped and for some strange reason i thought to myself when i remembered that i was supposed to be at church today for praise team and i said to myself lord i wonder if the devil is trying to put this in my head so that i won't be able to go to church especially because last night i was so sick both my husband and i were not feeling well at all didn't even sleep but then i got up we came to church this morning and even while i was up there singing i thought to myself lord what if and these are some of the things that the devil continues to put in our minds and in our hearts so that we can choose to not trust god you know and if we don't stand strong all these things that are trying to and to stifle our faith will in fact just come in and do that if we don't continue to reach out in faith and just believe that god will keep his promises no matter what is happening around us no matter how things seem he will always be there and will always come through for us and i've been trying to encourage myself and to just remind myself that god is indeed faithful and you know sometimes i cry when i think about you know the possibilities that that come with life but then i still have to stand strong and believe that he has been faithful and he will continue to be faithful until the end thank you so much for sharing that testimony and just for your transparency god is good and he will take care of you and everybody else and just now because it is so important sister winsome we ask you to take us to the throne of grace there are women in the chat there are men in the chat there are children in the chat there are people in the chat who are going through abuse and going through emotional distress they need an answer today take us to god would you please yes shall we bow our heads where we are those who are watching virtually i ask you to just close your eyes where you are if it is not possible to close your eyes just be meditative and let us just put our cares to the lord let us pray what a friend we have in jesus all our sins and griefs to bear what a privilege it is to carry everything to god in prayer and so this morning lord we are taking you up on upon your words to leave all your cares and or troubles at your feet and this morning in a very particular way lord we are praying for the families we are praying to you lord because you are the god who says that there's nothing too hard that you will not do for us and there is no hill that we cannot climb once you are there with us and so we are trusting you this morning to hear our petition and to do for us and our families far more than we are able to ask or imagine heavenly father in this time of crisis in this time of pandemic you see your children around the world those who are here those who are abroad those who are having challenges one way or the other those families lord who are losing loved ones those who have lost parents those who have lost children i just asked of you this morning that you will be very near and dear to them and them to recognize that even through this circumstance lord that you are still there you are still the god who will provide you're still the god who will help them through this rough patch then lord we have some of our women who like hannah in the bible have had to build to mulches relationships in so much so that they are suffering abuse mentally physically and otherwise i ask you this morning lord that you will provide for them you will strengthen their faith so that they will recognize that even though they are going through these hard patches there is still the god who promises that he will never leave his children nor forsake them and so we present them to you and we we are begging of you lord that you will encircle them and you will make the way out for them so that their circumstances can be different then father we ask you that you will put your loving arms around the children especially those in the young adults and teenage years you know what the trials are lord you know the the many obstacles that they have to face those who are at universities and and preparing for their exams those who are in high schools and law schools you know the challenges as a result of this pandemic but you have made a way lord and we ask you that you will strengthen their faith so that they can recognize that even though things may seem impossible to them you are the god of possibilities so bless them bless their efforts help them that they will succeed even though it seems impossible from our side just be with them then father there are the men the head of the whole souls that you have blessed around the world we ask you lord that you will continue to bless the men strengthen them help them to recognize that they are the priests of the household and as a result of that they will order their household according to your will so just strengthen them lord continue to provide for them give them your blessings and help them that they will lead their household according to your will so that they too will make it to your kingdom bless your church dear lord bless the leadership of it bless the women again lord you have you have created us with such level of intuition as women and we ask you that you will continue to grant us the opportunity to provide for the nurturing of our families and help us that we will lead them in the path where we can at your return we can say lord this is the little flock that you have blessed me with and as a result of that here they are making it to your kingdom father we thank you for hearing our prayers we thank you for spreading your arms across the world and for blessing your children and lord help us to at the end of this all we can give you the glory we can give you the honor for in your dear namesake we pray amen amen and lord we just pause just a little longer because in the chat florence hayes asked for her children and grandchildren to be prayed for and she specifically asked that we pray for ordain and mikala to come back to god then carlene lowelin she prayed lord because she has a lower back problem in a right knee problem we ask that you come in and heal lord and then otis brian shared with us that he is having periodic seizures he needs you lord to touch his body and then florence bailey lord asks for prayer for martial jones who has a heart problem and beverly brown who has a back and a foot problem oh lord all of these needs come up to you today as we push against you today asking for healing thank you for hearing thank you for blessing thank you for healing we claim it now in jesus name amen amen you know sister sister winston we want to thank you for coming and praying on behalf of our women and those who are abused and our men and our children god bless you thank you for your ministry blessings to all thank you and i want i want the camera to just focusing on our ladies on zoom ladies we want to thank you so much for coming we want to just wave to you and let you know that our prayers are with you would you just wave to us too so that we know that you're hearing and that together before god we're going to pledge that we're going to keep pushing until god answers thank you ladies thank you for your prayers thank you for your blessing thank you for interceding for us listen now to some wonderful music as we again come before god and ask him to bless us [Music] i pray you'll be your [Music] eyes and watch us where we go [Music] and help us to be wise in times when we don't know let this be our prayer [Music] when we lose [Music] guide us with your grace give us faith so we'll be [Music] safely when stars go [Music] when shadows fill our days give us a world where pain and sorrow will be ended and every heart that's broken we'll remind it and we'll remember we are all good reaching out to touch you reaching to the sky [Music] [Music] oh [Music] just like every child needs to find a with place grace give [Music] us us with your grace [Applause] [Music] give us faith so we'll be [Applause] [Music] amen amen i i wish let the music go i i wish you could be here i just wish you could be here to listen to the music oh god thank you thank you thank you for hearing our prayer thank you for the ministry of music thank you for the opportunity for surrender to we want to i want to bring to your attention another important aspect of prayer pastor phillips talked this morning about the fact that prayer is a part of god's bloodline it's it's critical for the christian and do you know in prayer what it means is that you are surrendering who you are to god psalms 139 is an amazing psalm it's one of david's special ones and in psalms 139 he declared his understanding of how god knew him personally he realized that god is relational we were made for relationships he cares for everything and so in caring for him david asked god to search his heart to find out if there was anything there that would prevent him from having full sway he allowed god to be his judge he prayed that god would search out his sin and to point out his sin and to test his thoughts and in this way david asked for god to forgive him because he repented and he surrendered his life to god because he knew that god knew him better than anyone else even himself why am i saying this today somebody in the chat needs to surrender somebody in the chat is going through a problem and that problem is perennial it has happened yesterday it happened today and it's going to happen tomorrow it happened last year it happened last week it happened last month and it's going to be there tomorrow and it's not going to stop happening until you surrender god has put that there as your what did paul call it a thorn in the flesh god wants somebody today to surrender search me o god and know my heart today try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me to the place everlasting search me oh god [Music] and know my heart today try me o save your know my thoughts i pray see if there be [Music] me from every sin and set me free jesus we pause in this moment of quietude right here in this garden because someone is struggling with surrender oh god there is something about us that makes us always want to be in control and we can't make it to see your face if we don't surrender all to jesus mothers are praying for their children wives are praying for their husbands spouses are praying for their siblings people are praying for each other we need to surrender and lord we know we can trust you because you have proven that if we put our hands in you and if we trust you with our souls you will take it because you have said you have said that you have seen the travail of your soul and you will be satisfied you have said that that which you have purposed you will do so that heart today that is struggling with surrender that child who knows that he needs to give you his life that husband who needs to come back home that child who needs to understand and learn obedience that employer who is being abusive in his situation at work we all need to surrender come into our homes today come into our hearts today and teach us what it is to surrender and as david says search me oh god oh to jesus i surrender oh to him i freely give i will ever love and trust him in his treasures i will daily live surrendered i surrendered [Music] my [Music] surrendered kind of gets me teary-eyed because i need to surrender as well and i pray that as i give my life a new to god that you will do the same it's worth it to surrender to jesus [Music] let's have some music before i start crying in this place at this time it is time to ask the lord to open our eyes so that we can see him as we worship let us worship knowing that unless god revealed himself to us then we can't see him open the eyes of my heart lord so it's time to sing along with us as we forget about all the stresses and all the pains of life and we focus on jesus is [Music] one more time [Applause] i want to see anybody want to see jesus today i want to see you sing open the eyes of my heart lord open the eyes of my heart [Music] to see you high and lifted up [Music] i want to see you [Music] to [Music] the light of see glory pour out your power and love as we sing holy holy holy [Music] shining in the light of your glory pour out your power and love as we sing [Music] holy holy [Applause] don't you want to see jesus when he come in his presence he's gonna forget about all the struggles of life forget about all of the pain the pressures and the predicaments and just look turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of this earth will grow strangely in the light of his glory and grace say i want to see you i want to see you the song says as the dare panted for the water so my soul my soul longing after thee it says you alone you alone no other one on my strength my my shield and anyone can just testify out there that that no one else can give full protection but god no one else can give full deliverance by god and so as we sing this song won't you turn your eyes upon jesus giving him thanks that he alone is your shelter and your shield as a dare the water [Music] is [Music] little voice as we see you you are [Music] he [Music] to [Music] my brother [Music] i love you more [Music] you alone [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] it is definitely a a a joy to worship the king of kings and lord of lords it's definitely a privilege to know that there's none like him we can search we can look all over and you can testify that there's none like god can he testify that nobody does the best nobody does it better than jesus christ [Music] and i can search eternity and i'll find hallelujah [Music] testify there is [Music] no one else can touch my heart like you do i can search for all eternity lord and find there is none like you listen one more time there is none like you there is not like you [Music] sing no one else no one else can touch my heart like you do and i can search i can search for all eternity lord [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] this is [Applause] [Music] to the where you started the process [Music] [Laughter] [Music] inside [Music] amen there is nothing like drawing close to god on a day of prayer and one of the things that makes god so amazing is his ability to take care of our needs and so for the next few moments we're going to shift gears having spoken about blessing having spoken about abuse and emotional need having spoken about being able and willing to surrender we're now going to talk about thanksgiving god just loves to be thanked but but it's not because he's an egomaniac he really is somebody who deserves to be thanked because he is so wonderful to us and i have a friend who we're going to be putting on momentarily who knows what it is to give god thanks because he just came through a near-death experience and had the whole world all of his friends praying for him he is a minister of music he is a soldier of the cross he is a child of god but more than importantly he has surrendered his all to jesus and in return god has blessed healed and restored him and just like you many of you you know what it is to give god thanks and before i bring my friend claude edwards on i want to bring your attention turn your attention rather to the book of psalms chapter 107. keep playing that music in the background there or they'll because psalms 107 is a thanksgiving psalm to god and when david wrote this he must have been in a rapture he must have been in a garden just like this he must have been inspired by the soft sounds of the stream running in the background by the beautiful bird singing he must have been enraptured as he saw those fruits over there those sumptuous fruits the one i just ate for you a few moments ago and some of you are teasing me in the chat he must have been so amazed and thrilled as his toes managed to manicure the lawns of the garden of eden and and walked on it he must have been amazed when he said oh give thanks to the lord for he is good for his mercy endures forever let the redeemed of the lord say so whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands from the east and from the west from the north and from the south all give thanks unto the lord if you have something for which you need to give god thanks put it in the chat right now just say thanks thanks thanks if god has been good to you if god has been there for you if god has delivered if god has blessed if god has answered your prayer put it in the chat and say thanks in big bold capitals let all the world and all of heaven see let the entire chat call somebody who is not on the chat tell them to log on to our space and if god is worthy of their thanks put it in the chat just the word thanks let the chap go wild today with thanksgiving to god you know why because this is just preparatory time because in heaven we can be doing it 24 7 and wanting to do it because he's worthy to be praised thanks thanks thanks oh dale you know that thanks yeah yeah thanks thanks i give oh i think that's too too high for me i'm been talking too much thanks thanks i give you thanks for all you've done i am so blessed my soul is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] my friend claude are you there we want to talk with you now claude about what god has done in your life it's so good to see you my brother and my friend i have been on my knees just like so many of your other friends around the world praying for your ministry praying for your health praying for your restoration and there you are smiling for the whole world to see because of what god has done for you claude tell the world why you give god thanks well i am happy to be alive god has been good to me in spite of the all the challenges and the struggles god is still my refuge and my strength is still my present health in times of trouble uh a lot of us did not learn to pray in church eldo holmes i will tell you this a lot of us didn't learn to pray in church a lot of us learn to pray in trouble yes uh you see in spite of where you are god will meet you at your corner store man you meet you coming out of your bathroom on your bed driving in your car in the supermarket when everything looks dim and grim just remember we serve a god who promises anything he promises he'll deliver he's a promised keeper he's a light in the darkness he is just awesome he's just a god all by himself chances are you would have you'd have missed uh a particular story in the scripture with ten men who had leprosy like kovid yeah ten of them yeah and then jesus and they called him and god just answered and god said go show yourself to the priest i don't know if the priest was a pharmacist or he was another doctor but whatever their healing came when they obeyed god amen noah obey god god said you'll never see rain you don't see it in the clouds but i'm gonna rain and he believed and he and his family went in the ark and in spite of the animals that were there god delivered can somebody say amen he is a deliverer and if you haven't seen it yet keep on living because the truth is eyes have not seen our ears i've heard what uh god decides he's gonna do to those who trust him amen i i know what's happening in jamaica i've seen the tears i've watched the news i'm seeing what's happening around the world and i can tell you god is about to reign some blessing on somebody today somebody could be watching right now that's right you're next in line for a blessing can somebody say amen praise the lord praise the lord you know elder holmes recently uh i i started doing an ambassador work for east jamaica conference virtual church okay i have a little youtube channel claude h edwards and i sent people i said um like share and subscribe in fact i had a lady who like shared and subscribed to my channel and when she did she mentioned to me that she was a sunday worshiper she she's a sunday worshiper she's a leader in her church and i kept telling her watch east jc watch it jc watch is jc and she watched to each jc when i was doing my recent evangelistic series in my down time i was still praising the lord i i invited her to join us for a program i did in manitoba and lo and behold when everything was all said and done the sunday worshiper now is a seventh day adventist tell me about it now isn't god lord jesus christ i can tell you i could tell you a whole lot but if i had time i would tell you about time but nevertheless i'm here today to pray for somebody yes yes i want to thank the east jamaica conference on the the leadership of your your esteemed the president the asi the andrew 7 the adventist church and so many other persons was prayed for me oh my goodness i'm walking and walking in favor and walking in the miracle of god i can tell you there's nothing like god's favor over your life nothing nothing but you know claude we remember the people we saw just showed up and saw thousands of people and god just zeroed in on him and said man i came for you today do you want to be blessed he says nobody is able to put me in the police i didn't ask you that do you want to be blessed the man said yes and in the midst of all of that god gave him favor i want to thank uh those persons who have invited to to watch east jc who have given their lives to the lord recently one more before i go one lady out to send vincent to the grenadines i invited her to watch east jc she wouldn't know about his jc virtual church unless somebody told her and i told her about it and guess what she was watching and she saw a little boy being featured on the east jc platform and when she realized he needed help she says i'm gonna put help together because if his help he wants he's gonna get it and we call elder philip castell and i told him about it and elder made contact with her and guess what whatever she wanted was in the hands of the little boy let me tell you something today the the god that we serve the pandemic is serving its own purpose and this is the gospel of jesus christ it shall be preached in all the world as a witness and then will the end come bow your heads will be today as we pray father in the name of jesus christ this man was at the gate called beautiful and peter and john showed up and and they didn't have no money no silver and no gold they had to offer him but but the the preacher said such as i have i'll give unto thee in the name of jesus christ rise up and walk i want to say there are so many persons watching right now around the globe who needs to rise up out of their degradation rise up out of their weaknesses and rise up out of your situations and walk walk in the name of jesus christ their their people right now were down and want to be lifted and lord we thank you for this east jc virtual church we thank you because millions of people around the globe have come to know jesus christ whom to know is life eternal there's somebody watching right now who is sick and wants to be healed there is healing i pray today in the name of jesus christ be healed in the name of jesus somebody got a bad news somebody got a sad news somebody don't even know who they are they have lost so much that they have lost count i pray today on the authority of god's word that somebody will receive the healing somebody will receive the blessing somebody will receive exactly what god intends for you today every viewer you won't leave here today like you came in jesus name you won't be bound oppressed tormented secretly for the holy ghost with us it's still the same we won't leave here like we came in jesus name i've experienced god for myself and i know the god who i serve everybody ought to know who jesus is everybody ought to know he's a lily of the valley he's the bright and the morning star he's the fairest of ten thousand everybody ought to know jesus is a winner man oh wait about all the time we thank you and we praise you for this platform do for us today more than we can think or imagine in jesus name we pray amen may the blessing of the lord be upon you may he cause his face to shine upon you on the gracious unto you may he lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and forever i salute you in the name of jesus christ amen thank you so much claude and because you said that song we're just going to do that now everybody ought to know everybody ought to know everybody ought to know [Music] he is the brightest [Music] everybody [Music] everybody has to know who jesus is everybody ought to know everybody ought to know everybody ought to know who jesus is one more time now [Music] of the valley he's the brightest morning [Music] everybody ought to know my god is a good god it's now time for us to go to the word we have been praying all morning we've been singing all morning we've been sharing all morning we've eaten a couple of fruits from the garden of eden and now it's time to hear the word of god i am going to do our scripture reading now and it is taken from revelation 5 verses 1 to i'm going to give you a moment to find it in your bibles in your instruments wherever the word of god is found this is one of those times we're going to read together if you're on zoom turn on your video and turn on your mic we're going to read this together i'm reading from the new international version revelation 5 1-9 and it says and i saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back sealed with seven seals then i saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals and no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look at it so i wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll and to look at it but one of the elders said to me do not weep behold the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david had prevailed to open the scroll and to loose the seven seas praise the lord and i looked and beheld in the midst of the throne of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of god sent out into all the earth then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne verse 8 and now when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures under 24 elders fell down before the lamb each having a harp and golden boughs full of incense which are the prayers of the saints which are what the prayers of the saints in that instance in that golden bowl was your prayer today in that bowl have been your petitions before the god of heaven i'm telling you virtual church god answers prayers verse 9 and they sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to god by your blood out of the tribe and the tongue of all people and all nations today right here in the virtual church you are represented here verse 9 says out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation you want your prayers heard you want your prayers answered you want to get before god and make sure that they are in that bowl of instant incense put your prayer need in the chat don't let today go by without you putting it in the chat because once you put it in the chat it tips over and goes into god's bowl and anything in god's bowl he answers listen [Music] [Music] here's the same god who fights your battles he is the same god who comes your fears [Music] he is your refuge and when you're abiding he is your peace i will forever sing of his praises cause he's been that same god [Music] to me he's been that same [Music] he is your comfort and when you're crying he tries your tears i will [Music] of forever praises cause he's been that same god [Music] to me is been that same god to me i lift my voice in inadoration [Music] i will forever sing over [Music] [Music] oh your faithful lord oh because of you lord you're faithful to me now wake up in the morning brand new mercies i see you're faithful to me so faithful when i need someone to talk to [Music] oh [Music] foreign of his praises cause he's been that same god to me he's been that same god to me has god been faithful to you do he do you know what it is to agonize with him and then for him to just deliver do you know what it is to struggle with what we're talking about today prayer have you ever been in a situation where it just made no sense i mean come on god you you you caused this i i know what i'm talking about i i was i was i was fourth in line to be head of the organization where god had put me i had been trained i'd been prepared i got married we got pregnant we had a car everything was working well [Music] and then my boss told me that i needed to come in on sabbath to do some non-mission critical work and i reminded my boss that we had talked about this when i started the company started working with the company and that sabbath was special time worship time non-critical work could not be done an emergency but non-critical work no and he said errol it's immaterial that you're fourth in line to be head of the company or at the very top if you don't come in on sabbath you don't have a job and i said sir you've got to be kidding we've talked about this he said i don't think you heard me earl you must come in so i went home to darling i told her and we reminded god what he had told me so i went to church [Music] on monday morning they gave me a check and about eight nine months later everything ran out and our little son who was in my wife's tummy started reminding her that he needed food and nine months later there was nothing in the cupboards the enfamil was finished my wife was stressed she couldn't breastfeed i couldn't breastfeed nothing could happen and i reminded i said to god but you are the one who said that the sabbath was sacred you are the one who brought me to this company you are the one who trained me to get to where i am and you are the one who fired me you have a problem god [Music] i didn't feel like talking to god well come back next week and i'll tell you how it ended what i want you to know is that there comes a time when talking to god doesn't seem to make sense but that's the time to talk with him in our garden today he's a friend he's a technical director here at the ejc virtual church but more than that he's a struggling godly young man who has been there and who has had his challenges with god and today leon i want to thank you for joining me in the garden because you have a story that somebody in the virtual church needs to hear i'll tell my story another time today is your story time talk to us leon ella this story began um year 2020 not for most person they can agree that 2020 was really trying here tell me about it it was the birth of virtual church and we were working day and night to produce this content for our viewers and i'm always energetic always running up and down always moving don't we know first of all so we find the energy from we find the strength but as it came down to week off in november i would wake up in the mornings and i would feel tired i i never felt rested and as i continue each day i go home and sleep i wake up i'm still tired which i remember for a week of prayer um pastor joel jump came to record something and i ran downstairs to get a plant for the set when i came up back i was out of breath i took a while for me to catch my return pastor john came out to french you have asthma i said no i'm saying no man you sound like you're wheezing i said well if i'm using i don't know what that sounds like because i don't have asthma yeah so no man friends you're not so good i said no i just ran downstairs i'm a fan it was december 26 the final sabbath of 2020 and we had our summit service here and um i remember brandon and the rest of the team doing everything because i could not even look at the camera i was just so exhausted but i thought to myself well it's been a long year and i've been going at it non-stop when we go on our break i'll get enough rest and i'll be fine that was a sabbat but tuesday night i was at home and i woke up to excruciating pain in my chest and i could not breathe okay i was struggling my breathing was extremely late but it was and i was struggling that's some serious breath here no i was so weak i could not even stretch for the phone to make a call and i remember scooping off the bed and i was at the just leaning back on the bed on my i was on the ground and i began to speak to god but it wasn't so much a prayer because i'm gonna be honest with you as i said to you before i was afraid to pray because i felt if i prayed it would be my final prayer yes yes i started to think at that moment that this might just be the end of me and so if i pray i needed to really ask god for forgiveness i needed to ask him to protect my family and friends i need him to bless the team here at virtual church because at that time i thought maybe i had contracted covid because of the pain i was feeling and i i was mimicking some of the symptoms i eventually fell asleep when i got to thank god for friends thank god for adis ashley rutan who three young ladies made it their effort to get me to the hospital okay and on the way there we stopped and we did an emergency covey test an antigen test and the test came back positive i was they then rushed me to the university hospital for west indies and i was treated on the covet ward when i got there the doctors weren't satisfied with the antigen test and thought that a pcr test needed to be done and so they did a pcr test now while that is happening and it takes 24 hours for the result to come back the church began to pray yes i remember my production team members or president and the conference um the washington 7 district my family and while i was at the hospital i started to feel a little better though i was still struggling to breathe and i remember a zoo meeting was called with the production team members and they prayed and as they pray i began to feel better i wasn't praying for myself let me let me just i was not as i was still very much afraid that i was going to die moments while the meeting was going on the doctor came back and said mr french your results came back and you are negative you don't have kobe are you serious you don't have covet but remember i was on the covered ward yeah so i could have been exposed to covid being on that word so they don't transfer me to an isolation word and on that word i was treated and they discovered that i i had pneumonia so what happened is i was one of those lucky children who never got sick when i was young i never caught the floor cold anything like that when i was young so the first time in my adult life catching the cold my body was shocked didn't know how to deal with it and i probably i maybe missed the symptoms and thus it morphed into pneumonia but what was amazing was how the doctors keep coming in and because of the cover restriction and everything they had to come in on specific times every six hours or so and every time they come i was progressing faster than they were expecting so they gave me a full dose of antibiotics and all of those things and they come back in six hours to give them another set and they will check my stats my oxygen saturation everything was improving and what was common common among all of that was prayer every every text message i got every whatsapp group i was in we are praying for you we're praying for your praying for your old father's asleep some of the drugs made me i'm very tired so when i wake up to get another dose they were reducing the dose yes so where i should get 10 cc's i would be getting five and two one and at the end of the day i am here today not because of how god has used those doctors to treat me but because of the intercessory prayers from those i love amen and so this morning as we get ready to pray i want to remind somebody how important it is to pray to pray yes and even when you can't pray the prayer of your loved ones the prayer of your mother i can't stress that enough i pray mother the prayer of a father a prayer of a pastor a leader god hears those prayer and so i know in the chat persons are pouring in their prayer they're seeking someone to intercede on their behalf i am here as a testimony of god's amazing grace through intercessory prayer so as we pray elder let us open our hearts to receive the blessing that god has in store and will be pouring out in our lives today odell i need the prayer of those i love we're going to do one verse and a chorus and everybody in the chat this is your time leon is going to pray for you he's not praying for himself he's praying for you he asks me to pray but i'm asking him to pray we prayed for him he's gonna pray for you put your prayer knees in the chat now i need the prayers i need the prayers of those i love [Music] while traveling or life's rugged way that i may true and faithful be and live for jesus every day want my friends to pray for me to bear my tempted soul above and intercede with god for me i need the present of those i love heavenly father it is not easy for me to kneel here to pray for your people because lord i am weak and i need their purpose but i'm thankful lord that having received their prayers i'm here in full health thankful heavenly father there is a mother who is crying for her daughters her son there's a father calling no his son asking him to just pray with him also a father who's holding on to his daughter there's a husband holding on to his wife a wife hugging her husband there is a couple not yet married but they're joined joining hands and hearts and they're praying that you will be with them there's a grandmother a grandfather their health might not be at its best but their heart is in the right place and they're praying for their grandchildren they're praying for their children there is a pastor praying for his flock at this time heavenly father we need you we have troubles in our hearts troubles in our life father we know that you are the god who can restore and renew lord there is a young man right now struggling because he fears lord that he is not worthy enough to serve you he feels that the way he carries himself or conducts himself is not enough to serve you heavenly father remind him lord that even him you have come to save him there's a young lady lord who's going astray she has been doing the same thing over and over again lord and she's tired lord but she the good she tried to do she don't do with them lord but the evil thing she does there is someone suffering from an abuse there's someone suffering because they're hungry there's someone lord who's just tired of being locked in there's someone lord who's alone at this time and they miss the fellowship of the church brethren they are home and they are alone and lord they are scared but i pray lord that you'll come for them there's someone lord who's crying they don't know why but the tears are flowing light this phone to know so lord remind them lord that there is a fountain filled with blood and that blood lord will wash them that blood lord will cover them that blood lord will sustain them that blood lord will heal them that blood lord will forgive them o father we give you thanks we thank you o lord for hearing we thank you o lord for answering lord we are sinners we know this and we are begging you lord to save us we're begging you lord to forgive us hear our humble prayers oh lord and comfort all those who are in need comfort all those who are seeking prayer at this time i pray in jesus name [Music] amen know my heart i pray [Music] me [Music] know my thoughts i pray see if there be somewhere me [Music] from [Music] me [Music] [Music] i looked at him and saw a simple man a carpenter with healing in his hands they saw him come a sea and heal the dying man they saw him but could they really understand they could not they could not though they tried they could not he was just a simple carpenter with healing in his hands but could they really understand they could not [Music] they listened to the teaching that they heard they wondered at the mystery of his word they wondered what he meant about a father's plan they wondered but could they really understand they could not they could not though they tried they could not they listen to the teaching about the father's plan but could they really understand they could not they killed a man who would not suffer loss [Music] and when at least they took what willingly he gave he died but could they keep unless [Music] could they keep here in the frame [Music] [Applause] no no no no no they couldn't i am not going to miss heaven because if music on earth can be so good and heaven is a place where we'll be doing this 24 7. i am not missing heaven jesus we just take a moment right now there's one of your special children far away from the shores of jamaica her name is tanya scarlett she's having her exams coming up and she's asking for a special function of your power on her mind lord we want to ask you that when she goes into that exam room wherever it is she's doing this exam that she will write so brilliantly that her professors will be shocked not because it's her but because you already know the answers and you will so bless her mind that when she puts pen to paper and you have already marked that paper that all they will do is to give her straight a's because when you do a paper it's perfect on her behalf we pray this prayer but not for her only but for every other student who will be doing exams coming up we pray in jesus name amen our president dr eric nathan is going to come on now to greet you in jesus name would you please make him welcome dr nathan thank you thank you my friend and i must commend you men for doing a good job and i i am blessed today as i feel in the presence of prayer i want to commend the virtual church this morning for making that atmosphere of prayer be really in our midst and so i greet you my brothers and sisters every week it is a pleasure to greet you in the name of jesus on behalf of the administrators pastor linton williams our executive secretary and the michael porteous who is our treasurer all our pastors all our directors all the members of staff we greet you each week in the name of jesus and we continue to give praises to the ministry of the virtual church today is a day of prayer and the virtual church is doing a good job of making prayer the important ingredient in today's service thank you for the testimonies and thank you for the prayers and may god continue to bless us i must commend you director pastor brian shaw and his team for joining this special youth camp this weekend put on by the jamaica union conference of seventh-day adventists and so we are grateful this morning that the cybere is going on right now and we'll continue through today till tomorrow and we want to make our youth understand that we are in support of the ministry to our youth and we know that our youth department has a tremendous responsibility in taking on the button and to move forward in the race to help men and women to get a glimpse of what the ministry and mission is all about and so today the advent message to all the world in my generation and if we are going to go we need from time to time to so sharpen our sword to sharpen our swords and axes so that we can do a greater job with a sharpened ass so we want to bless them this weekend as they continue to share the inspiration of this cybere camp meeting so congratulations pastor shaw i also want to commend sister fowler and the ministry to those who are in need the community service department stands ready to minister to the individuals who are special needs less fortunate and have needs i was blessed this week when i was asked by the mayor of kingston and also we are very happy to know that they understand that the same that this church is always willing to assist the government they have been challenged this week about what happened last week when when we had locked down and and many people they believe and you know the media was saying that many people were not fed well you heard them news this week that they are partnering with the adventist church and today we are proud to know that the community service department led by pastor lorenza brown and sister fowler who is our local community service director who is in charge she has decided to work with the government into pro in providing 600 meals two days of the lockdown so that as a church we will play our part in helping those who are in need of health and her team of community service directors i just want to let you know that we are grateful to the ministries of the church i just also want to say today on virtual church we we begin another round of engaging our zone leaders and ask his own leaders to bring with them their zones to make ownership of the virtual church be a reality and so again we're starting from the far east and we're happy to know that zone four again will be taking charge of virtual church it is good to know that virtual church today is also sharing a platform with jamaica online seventh events online and so i want to recognize all my counterparts in the local conferences as we share this platform jamaica online and virtual church we are here to to let the world know that we are coming close to the end of time and we will do everything within our powers to let the gospel commission be taken to the ends of the world i also want to ask you to be with us on the bible class session or bible class and virtual church is going growing in leaps and bounds and we are making a really good impression on the rest of the world thank you pastor who and elder joe as you continue to engage the world in our largest virtual um bible class online the the covid crisis is going to be with with us for a little while and because of that i want to commend the departmental directors of east jamaica conference for not allowing they covered to shut us down and so i am happy to know that all our departmental directors are in touch with the counterpart in the local churches and we continue to let ministry will continue to shine forth and people will understand that the directors are a part of ministry and i'm happy to know that the the departmental directors have gone way ahead of putting on programs and now we are in ministry and what we're talking about is collaborative evangelism and for 2021 every department has a commission and that is in 100 churches we're hoping that through the summer school department through the health department through the family department through the education department in all the churches with all the different ministries that are taking place through these departmental directors that will see one new seven diabetes born in 21 so our mantra is one in 21 and so we commend the directors for engaging your counterparts and we will be checking as soon as that middlevale and and that andrews and that washington gardens church would have seen one baptized through the different departments we want to keep at all a check on all of that as the covet crisis increases and the lockdown is more demanding it is more important now than ever before that the jutsu program the jetro ministry is being coordinated by all our pastors no seventh adventist should fall through the crux nobody should be left behind because god has given us a ministry that is very important in keeping a tag on all the members of our church so the jethro principle we still ask our department of directors or elders or pastors or some school teachers to keep in touch with the members of our church i also want to commend the technical team for doing a good job with less men on board and so we continue to congratulate them i also want to continue to express appreciation for the donation that we are getting from our friends and families across the world in helping us to keep the virtual church alive virtual church is here to stay i also want to say i know there are many people who would want to make a contribution but you feel that your little contribution is too small i want to say to you give even one dollar a dollar can make a difference if you contribute that in the name of jesus when he was out on the mountain side he said to the disciple what do you have one lord with his lunch was prepared to share his lunch with jesus and so many thousand people are filled it's not the amount that you give is the fact that you're willing to let jesus multiply that over and over so that the ministry can continue to grow from strength to strength today today is a day of prayer congratulations to pastor manley phillips and his team of prayer warriors across every 7th adventist church we're having prayer today and i'm happy to know that the virtual church is keeping that prayer focused and keeping us engaged in prayers and testimonies pray support of the goodness of god and so i would not want to leave my platform this morning without doing my duty i was asked to pray for the nation because it is true that without vision the people perish according to the scriptures and so i invite you to bow with me now as we have a special season of prayer prayer that jamaica land we love will be protected and kept under the watchful eyes of the great great creator and sustainer of life pray with me as we lift up jamaica land we love and not only jamaica but our friends and father and family across the world shall we pray oh god our heavenly father we pause this morning in your presence to say thanks to you for your goodness and your mercy and for your care and watchfulness over your people we thank you lord that you are still a prayer here in god and we thank you lord that we have only one challenge is that our sins can separate us between us and the heavenly throne room and so this morning we pause and laura asked that you will come the violin near and even as a petition on behalf of your people that you will allow your grace and mercy to reach over cover my sinful self and allow justification to take place so that my prayers can reach the portals of glory we thank you lord that you are still the god who answers prayer and you are the one who says if we call on you that he will hear and answer and as we emphasize this acronym push pray until something happens we pray this morning that will take over and that you'll let something happen our great concern lord now is that he will reach down from heaven and stand beside the prime minister of jamaica land below and with his team with his cabinet and we ask lord that they will understand that they are your servants and we ask that they will understand oh god that they will find a greater success in seeking divine favor so that what they do on behalf of the citizens of jamaica will come up before you as sweet incense we want to pray for the opposition and his team as we continue to look on what happens in jamaica and that will do everything possible to remember that you are watching every move that we make and they will be conscious of your abiding presence lord we pray for every minister of government and we want to focus now lord on the minister of health and the health ministry in jamaica we pray for the medical team and the front-line workers as they continue to grapple with the reality of this pandemic give them strength and vision cover them protect them lord from this dangerous virus recovery crisis we want to pray also lord for the the ministry of national security and his team and all the security forces of jamaica we pray lord that in a time when crime and violence is taking over our country that you will stretch forward your hand and that you will allow your people to be protected by your divine presence lord we ask that you touch the hearts of the men who are perpetrating crime and violence and that they will understand that you're a god who will one day ask everyone to give account of his stewardship lord we hear you and you have said that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and who will seek my face and to put away their sinfulness that you god will hear from him from your dwelling place and you will heal our land heal jamaica land we pray and ask oh god that today you will be there for your people who are asking for prayers we pray lord for those who are sick and those in the hospital we pray for the family members who are grieving for the loss of loved ones we pray oh lord that you will reach down for your own name's sake and be with those individuals who are homeless for one reason or another and even as we seek to enhance the government's ability to minister to those who are in need as we seek to help those who are hungry and those who are in need of whatever help that they will understand that there's still a god in heaven who understands we pray for the education department and we are asking that as our teachers deal with the crisis of teaching online and relating to the young minds the minds that are seeking information so that they can be a part of the solution of the problem of jamaica land they love reach down from heaven give oh lord your people give us that which we ask for and far more than we can think or imagine may your holy spirit continue to reach out and bless your people you are the one who said we can convolute the throne of grace where we can find mercy and help in times of need because you can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities we call on you today and ask lord that you will fill in the gap where we have left out where we have made mistake we have failed to call forth for your divine assistance lord we depend on your omnipotence and your omniscience to give more than we have asked for and we thank you for hearing us we continue to leave our people in your care all those who stand in need of ministry in whatever form are shaped we ask lord that you the god of heaven who understand what we need will continue to supply all our needs according to your riches in glory and so we say thank you thank you lord for everything and answer our prayers thank you for the ministry of the virtual church thank you for the different departments of the church that is willing to give off their time and effort to minister to your people be with our neighbors far and wide we pray for those members who were kidnapped over there in 80. lord you are the great god of the universe and you are not surprised when things happen and you have a solution to every problem we are leaving our concerns at the foot of the cross and thank you for hearing thank you for answering our prayers and thank you lord that you are there and when we have received the praise and the the healing we will come before you again with our prayer support give us today again another good day on the virtual church platform lord when it pleases you to come may we hear from your lips well done good and faithful servant and this is our ask him in the name of jesus christ our lord our savior and soon coming king let us all say amen and amen amen if you haven't yet told anybody about what's happening on the virtual church go tell them now and for those of you who don't remember especially the overseas jamaicans if you don't quite remember what this is anybody what this is thinking my lips is going to tell you that this is a jamaican julie mango and for those of you in connecticut and washington for those of you who are in connecticut and washington and the uk this is a julie mango the program gets sweeter we're just getting to the main part now and for those of you who don't remember this is small but it's sweet pot anyway let me tell you something you are in for a treat now if you thought the first part of the program was good think about a succulent julie mango and a nice succulent ethiopian apple and hotter things anyway anyway let me let me get back my focus so we're talking about prayer there are some persons in the chat there are some of us in this space are doing the right things you're like stephen in the early church good people you're doing the right things you're saying the right things you're acting the right ways and then as they say in jamaica there's some people who just bad mind you know them the people there bad mind can't turn you and they will do anything to unseat you disrupt you and if they can they might kill you too stephen understood this in fact he experienced it stephen had such a good reputation in the early church that when they needed to organize the church and god gave the message to the apostles to find seven good strong sensible men to lead the church stephen was one of the first he was a man of great reputation but stephen had a problem he was so good that he made other people jealous and they killed him they stoned him to death some of you are being ridiculed for being right some of you are being criticized for doing the right thing some of you are being whispered about for speaking out some of you are being like jesus righteous man killed for good things why am i saying this because some of us who have done nothing wrong and have been hurt by wagging tongues and jealous lies have a difficulty forgiving some of us have had bad fathers horrendous mothers bad situations were bypassed for the correct promotion were discriminated against and we carry that hurt with us and we don't know how to forgive as bad as the things are that were done to you you have a choice and your choice is how you respond or react to the bad that's done to you and one of the things jesus says to us in his word is take my yoke upon you leave them to me vengeance is mine say the lord don't take it upon yourself some of us have a difficulty forgiving when stephen was having his problem and they killed him in acts 7 verse 59 and 60 it reads and they stoned stephen as he was calling on god saying lord receive my spirit then he knelt down and cried with a loud voice lord do not lay this charge to them and when he had done this he died stephen was the type of christ because in luke 23 verse 34 jesus when he was on the cross the man who is god who came to save you and me when he was on the cross he said father forgive them then they really don't know what i'm gonna do somebody in this audience today needs a spirit of forgiveness somebody needs us to pray for them to have a spirit of forgiveness and i've asked my pastor pastor andrew brown to include in his prayer just now a prayer for us to forgive ourselves and to ask god for a spirit so that we can forgive others don't forget you can't receive forgiveness if you don't ask for it and you need it to move on some of you are carrying some serious pains some of you have been dealt some horrendous blows some of you have been killed like jesus and stephen if not literally your reputation your marriage whatever it is forgive and let jesus help you pastor brown i need you to pray for our brethren for a spirit of forgiveness that god will heal and restore and remove that burden so they can be light again and let jesus take over if you need a spirit of forgiveness put it now in the chat just put the word forgiveness please jesus forgiveness forgive me help me to forgive my brother help me to forgive my sister help me to forgive my husband help me to forgive my wife help me to forgive my boss help me to forgive my child help me pastor let's pray almighty father the great i am the one who sent jesus christ to this earth to cancel the debt that we owed you have taught us through descending of your son what it means to forgive in fact your words have declared in psalm 103 that you have not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities but oh lord we come confessing that it is easier said than done we come confessing father that we on our own we can't do it we do not have that nature to turn the other cheek we do not have that indwelling nature to easily say i forgive you so my prayer right now lord is it to the power of your holy spirit that he will teach us how to forgive and lord there are some of us lord who we are bitter but i pray through the power of the holy spirit even now you will melt our hearts and lord help us to realize that when we forgive our brothers and sisters that lord we will be set free so lord we pray for everyone in chat who might be suffering from the spirit of unforgiveness we just ask you in the name of jesus to search us cleanse us and create in us lord with that renewed spirit that we can forgive those who have hurt us forgive those who have done bad to us this is my prayer in christ's basic name amen amen the bible says in psalm 116 read verse 12 what shall i render unto the lord for his benefits towards me what shall i render god has been so good to us and i can testify that jesus answers prayer i remember while i was at university and i needed some textbooks so i decided that i didn't want to rent any textbooks i wanted my own textbooks that i could write and make my notation and so i decided to put all these books on a piece of paper i decided that i'm going to pray and ask the lord to grant me these books audacious faith i will call it well i started my brand fasting and i remember my my paper fell on the floor and i was a student worker working at westin's college prep school and the lady was working with mrs garden said to me um you you dropped a paper here mr brown and what is this all about and i said well um these are some books that i needed for class and she went in a position and she gave me sufficient funds to get the books that i needed and so i know that jesus is a prior answering god when you pray to him and when he asks of him he will grant it the question is when you would have received such what would be your response what is your response you and i have a responsibility to be faithful stewards to god i challenge you as the information is on the screen where you can share and give to the cause of god i challenge you that you are to render total service in time talent and your treasure to god for he has been so faithful to you i want to pray at this time for those who have been struggling covey 19 has caused great problems in your life financially and your money is funny but we serve a god who has promised to supply all your needs and as he supplies your needs want to be faithful in returning that which belongs to him let's pray father we give you thanks that you are a god who provides in fact you own the cattle upon a thousand hills and we can place our full confidence and trust in you knowing that your words are true and you have said that we can ask so lord today we're asking on behalf those who are unemployed those who are finding it difficult to make ends meet lord won't you open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon them i pray lord i will taste and see that indeed you are a good god this is my prayer in jesus blessed name amen amen amen we want to thank god for his goodness thank him for the prayer of forgiveness and thank him for the answer of forgiveness and i also want to pray for those of you who have been saying not nice things in the chat about this thing um i will pray for you as well that the lord will give you a spirit of love and not of harm towards me because i'm showing you this beautiful fruit but i'm just teasing you it's time for the real food not just the wonderful fruits that we've been looking at all morning but the word of god jesus has said that he wants to give water that will help us never to thirst again and this morning i have the wonderful privilege of sharing the stage with a brother and a friend a pastor and a soldier of the lord an evangelist and a shepherd a husband and a father a leader and a visionary a man who knows god he is a good friend of mine his name is pastor melvin francis he's the senior pastor for the moran bay church and the chairman for zone four here in the east jamaica conference he has a passion for god's word and a message to share with us this morning and the title of his message is the real battle for our soul his message is predicated on those nine verses in revelation chapter five where god ends in verse nine by describing a bowl and in that bowl rising with incense are the prayers of the saints i want you to remember today that as pastor francis comes and preaches the word and shares the word the essence of the world is the battle for your soul and more importantly that god wants to answer your prayer before he comes to again water our souls is our fabulous wonderful praise team who is preparing us for heavenly things enjoy their music and then feast on the word [Music] the blood of jesus christ and if you can testify that the blood has saved you the blood has washed you want to worship right here with us yes yes the blood that gives me strength today it will never [Music] lose [Music] the blood that gives me strength [Music] [Music] is that gives me strength [Music] [Music] [Laughter] oh no and it flows [Music] that gives me strength [Music] is [Music] to the lord [Music] that gives me strength is [Music] [Music] is there somebody out there who can testify that even after 2000 years the blood is still powerful the blood is still efficacious the blood that jesus shed way back on calvary the blood will never lose its power would somebody just lift your hand and magnify the lord with me we thank god for this wonderful rendition today and i don't know about you brothers and sisters but i was taken to heavenly places as the sweet singers of israel delivered that wonderful spirit-filled rendition we praise the lord and i say to you happy sabbath my brothers and sisters happy sabbath from all over the world from all over this conference from all over jamaica we have come this afternoon to worship the lord god of hosts it's a day of prayer pastor brown and i feel the presence of god in this place and i know that as he continues to speak to us heaven will come down and glory will fill our souls today i want to thank in a special way all who have joined us and i pray that as we worship god despite the barriers that may be between us we will feel the presence and the power of the almighty god in a big way i welcome you thank you elder holmes for your kind words of introduction so much a pleasure to be here today the sermon is entitled the real battle for our souls the real battle for our souls our scripture reading which was so ably read led out by elder holmes and read by all of us revelation chapter 5 verses 1 to 9 permit me again for emphasis to read the word of god from which we derive our power today and i saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals and i saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice as you read with me who is worthy to open the book and to lose the sales thereof and no man in heaven nor in earth neither under the earth was able to open the book neither to look thereon and i wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book neither to look there and thereon and one of the elders saith unto me we've not behold the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david hath prevailed to open the book and to lose the seven seals thereof and i beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders to the lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of god sent forth into all the earth he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne and when he had taken the book the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb would somebody praise the lord today having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of the saints and they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou were slain and has redeemed us to god by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation the real battle for our souls would you pray with me beloved father in the name of jesus we come before you now these are unusual times but god is all right this preacher stands today to declare the thus saith the lord we ask for a fresh anointing from the pulpit to the pews may no barrier prevent the holy spirit for moving up and down in our homes and in all places of abode as the word is delivered may somebody cry truly the lord is god and i am resolved to be fully on his side thanks lord for hearing an answer we pray in jesus name all of god's people say amen the real battle for our souls today's sarmonic portion pastor andrew brown is situated in a scene of the apocalypse known as the throne room scene the visions in chapters 4 and 5 of the book of revelation introduce the seven seals it is not by chance that in the midst of a turbulent first century god gave john a vision of the heavenly throne room it was by divine design that the apostle saw a door opened in heaven and god the father seated on his throne that was in chapter four in chapter five what we notice is that god the son joins the father on the throne would somebody say amen god the son joins the father on his throne this after his battle with the forces of evil his overcoming of them and his victorious ascension to heaven in hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2 the apostle tells us that jesus endured the cross despised the shame and now is set down at the right hand of power on high is somebody listening to the word of god today revelation 4 and five beloved brothers and sisters cement the throne room scenes of god god seated upon his throne what this does for me and what it tells me is that whenever things get tough god is still on his throne i want to tell somebody in the very outset of this message that these are not the only throne room scenes of god in isaiah chapter six you remember the story well king uzziah is dead the young prophet isaiah is perturbed the times were fraught with peculiar failures and perils for the people of god in isaiah's dismay he runs to the temple what better place for a troubled child of god to run when troubles come you see one writer declares that there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of god a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of god and so in his dismay isaiah runs to the temple as he approaches the portico of the temple god drew back the curtains and when isaiah looked in vision in the heavenly sanctuary what did he see he saw god the father seated on his throne and brothers and sisters he was high and lifted up and the train of his glory filled the temple in solemn invocation you could hear the seraphim's crying holy holy holy lord god almighty the whole earth is full of his glory can i tell somebody that when the place gets dark and when all around you seem falling god is still on the throne i used to listen to a song that said have you started for glory and heaven have you left this old world far behind in your heart is a comforted dwelling can you say praise the lord he is mine have the ones that once walked on the highway gone back and you see him all alone keep your eyes on the prize for the home in the skies god is still on the throne god is still on the throne and he will remember his own though trials may press us burdens distress us he never will leave us alone god is still on the throne he never forsaketh his own is promise is true he will not forget you god is still on the throne i don't know what's happening in your life today but burden soul is your heart heart-growing weary with a toil and the heat of the day is there somebody out there who is troubled today does it seem that your path is more thorny as you journey along last way will go away and in secret before him tell your grief to the savior alone he will light on your care for he still answers prayer my god is still on the throne watch this now it is in the context of god on his throne that the preaching passage comes to us and the patmos prisoner paints a beautiful picture of a magnificent worship service taking place in glory come on somebody it was a beautiful worship service being conducted in the very throne room of god as worship goes on all of a sudden for a moment worship is interrupted yes worship is interrupted and every eye begins to gaze on the throne there was a scroll a book in the right hand of god the father permit me to tell you that in ancient israel thrones were large enough for more than one persons to sit on them better yet to sit at the right side of the king was the highest place of honor it was a place of prominence a place of preeminence a special place the bible describes the scroll as an apistograph a document written on both sides inside and outside the bible tells us clearly that it was sealed with seven seals which means that it was a legal document beloved brothers and sisters it could not be opened nor its content disclosed until all seven were broken what was in it in it was contained the destiny of the human race come on and say amen in it was contained the will and testament of jesus and it was god's purpose to solve the sin problem to save fallen humanity and to establish his eternal kingdom in it was the history of god's providences how he intervenes to save and to deliver to set free and to break prison houses in it was the prophetic history of nations and the church that no matter how bleak things get god is still in control in it was the divine utterances his authority his commandments if the scroll beloved is not broken if the scroll is not broken we are in trouble if it is sealed the prophetic destiny of salvation history remains unrealized it had to be opened because if it is not opened there is no hope for the remnant people of god and so i'm going to suggest that in this moment of despair when worship is stopped a crisis loomed in heaven before the very throne of god to make matters worse mighty angel interrupts with a challenge who is worthy to take the book out of the right hand of him that sits on the throne and to lose the seven seals thereof who is worthy to take the book out of the right hand of him that sits on the throne to take the scroll beloved and to open it and read its content one had to be worthy consequently the angel asked who is worthy who is worthy it was at that moment that in john's view the crisis became more pronounced it was quite disconcerting that john did not see a solution to the dilemma he looked in heaven he didn't see any being who could open the book he looked on earth he did not see any person who could do it he looked beyond the realms of heaven and earth and the prognosis looked bleak past the brown but i ask the question today where was jesus where was jesus and why did john not see jesus can i tell god's church that if jesus does not show up we are in trouble where is jesus if it doesn't show up the saints have no hope is it that his sacrifice is not enough i said no no no because it is enough but where is jesus why did john not see him will he show up bible tells us that in a moment of despair the apostle began to weep i wept much he wept till his eyes turned red he cried till he couldn't cry anymore if tears were river the streets of glory would be flooded yes it's a throne room scene but john does not see jesus the atmosphere was gloomy and sad sad emotions took the place of joyful praises am i talking to somebody and as the matter looked bleak beloved it was then that one of the elders in the worshipping throng signaled to john and gave him words that did not fail to give him hope to give us hope to give all of god's people hope watch the word weep not try your tears behold the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david have prevailed to open the book and to lose the seven seals thereof wow the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david had prevailed you see beloved when john looked he saw a lamb as it had been slain ah john the elder told him the lion of the tribe of judah hath prevailed you know something today the lion is the king of the jungle the figure of the lion refers to what jesus did elder holmes he prevailed what did i say church come on somebody talk to me he what he prevailed he conquered he overcame he won the battle he defeated the enemy he was victorious the king from the lineage of judah defeated the enemy jacob was right when on his dying bath bed he said to judah in genesis 49 verse 10 the scepter shall not depart from judah nor a lord giver from between his feet until shiloh comes when jesus left the splendor of heaven came down here and conquered he defeated the enemy he prevailed oh beloved the lion refers to what he did and the lamb refers to how he did it to what how he did it not with clash of steering drums but with deeds of love and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes he died a sacrificial death he accomplished the victory of a lion by dying the death of allah let me tell the church that again i said jesus accomplished the victory of a lion by dying the death of a lamb o church of god listen to the gospel prophet in chapter 53 who have believed our report and to whom is the arm of the lord revealed he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows do you know whom i'm talking about i'm talking about jesus and acquainted with grief we hid as it were our faces from him the bible says he was despised and we esteemed him not surely he had borne our grace carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken submitting of god and afflicted but he was wounded for all transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement that brought us peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed i feel like giving god praise today for when majority of christendom has been fooled i a long time that we don't just celebrate the death the burial and resurrection of jesus around this time but we celebrate it every time because every morning when we get up we get up because he gives us hope every day when we venture out we venture out because he lived he died he rose and he is in heaven ministering for his people he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth sometimes when the devil comes at you and tests you with trials saw you just need to remain humble and watch god work in your life he opened on his mouth he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before i share his islam so he opened all his mud he died as a lamb but i'm glad to tell somebody in lockdown today it gave us the victory of a lion victory in jesus my savior forever let the devil do his work but one of these days every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that jesus is lord he is a lion lamb little wonder we can look back to calvary and be glad for just about 000 years ago the real battle for our souls took place come on talk to me church you're not talking to me today you're not talking to me today i'm not seeing you in the chat but but i know that somebody knows what i'm talking about just about 2 000 years ago the real battle for our souls was contested by the lion lamb jesus christ himself and i'm here to tell the church he did not lose he won he won every time jesus meets the devil jesus wins and the devil loses can i talk to somebody out there who is fighting a battle you feel like giving up you feel like throwing in the towels i tell you every time jesus meets the devil jesus wins and the devil loses jesus defeated the enemy on the enemy's turf did you hear that he defeated the enemy on the enemy's turf and he also defeated the stronghold of the enemy which is death you don't understand what i'm talking about but in the book desire of ages page 114 the servant of the lord tells us this listen to this church after tempting man to sin satan claimed the earth as is oh you miss that you'll miss that you'll miss that listen to it again i'm coming to you deserve ages page 114 after tempting man to sin satan claimed the earth as his hold on hold on hold on i'm not done yet and styled himself the prince of this world and style himself the prince of this world through his control of men he held dominion over the world and this is why when god in job summoned his created order to a meeting satan turned up to represent earth god said to him why have you come from walking to and fro in the earth he styled himself as the prince of this earth and claim that he is in control but i'm not done yet for instance matthew chapter 4 in the third temptation the bible says it took jesus on a great mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said to jesus all these will i give you you missed it all these will i give you all these will i give you can you imagine satan is talking to the creator of the heavens and the earth the one who created everything out of nothing all these will i give you if you fall down and worship me satan claim this disease so when i tell you that jesus conquered the devil an enemy's turf but not only that he conquered the stronghold of the devil he conquered death and he gives god's people victory can i tell god's people today again if you fight in a battle jesus defeated the enemy on the enemy staff oh church and he also conquered the stronghold of the enemy with his dead but where was this battle fought i suggest to you that even though calvary represents the place we're on an old crooked cross they crucified my lord it was at gethsemane the garden called gethsemane that the real battle for our souls was fought not in the garden of eden in the garden of eden yes satan received the promise i will put enmity but can i suggest to the church of the living god that it is in this garden the garden called gethsemane that the real battle for our souls was fought it's not in the wilderness of temptation you see in the wilderness of temptation jesus faced the devil head on face to face elder holmes he stood up with the devil the forces of hell surrounded him when the devil came to him in the first temptation he says if you are the son of god turn these thoughts into bread but by his own power jesus met the tempter with the word of god it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of god and then he took him on the pinnacle of the temple and showed him the beauty of it and to fall down and off this place for he will give his angels tied jesus said to him thou shalt not tempt the lord thy god and then he did the third temptation where we showed him all the kingdoms of the world say all these will i give you if you will fall down and worship me but jesus says get thee and satan get behind me devil for it is written thou shalt worship the lord thy god and him only shalt thou serve the battle thou he won it in the wilderness gethsemane was where the real battle for our souls was fought so walk with me now matthew 26 35-45 walk with me now to a beautiful garden the garden of gethsemane as you walk with me behold jesus the son of god as he walks with his disciples to this garden remember now that the passover moon broad and full sun from a cloudless sky jesus had been to this garden times and again but never with such sadness as he walked to the gun he left nine disciples younger and carried with him the three closest followers peter james and john he left them a little place at the entrance of the garden and he declared watch and pray while i go further as we went to the deep recesses of the garden jesus encountered the final great temptation helen white tells us in the book desire of ages that this was where the legions of hell the demons from hell turned up the heat jesus came down here to drink the bitter cup to give you and me salvation and victory satan realized if i lose it here i've lost it forever and so he turns up and he gave him what we call the last final great temptation he showed him everything can i tell you something somebody the bible says as he made his way to the garden two times he almost fainted his disciples had to hold him up as he made his way watch jesus now as he goes the cup was bitter satan brings up everything before him he did not at this point see himself coming forth from the grave akankara darkness encircled him and as he was there satan says hey why are you wasting your time to die for people of east to make a conference and people of jamaica and people of the world all over don't you see everyone will forsake you and run don't you see one of the most trusted will deny you don't you see the one who keeps the bag will betray you why waste your time and in the midst of it jesus could not see himself a conqueror coming from the grave the bible tells us that as the night dew fell upon him and as a cedar and the surprise tree witnessed this agony jesus fell to the cold ground as if he needed some support as he struggled there in the garden he couldn't bear it anymore he cried out my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me let me tell you something if jesus did it in the garden god's people better learn to pray there comes a time when we're gonna have to face our own death ceremony there comes a time when god himself will need us to pray like never before one time two times by the third time he prayed he says father if this cup will not pass from me except i drink it thy will be done that was submission that was submission sometimes you will not see what god is doing but if you only hold to the unchanging hands of god that was submission and as jesus was there the end of it all gabriel the one who stood in the place from which satan fell was sent to tell jesus despite the temptation the father loves you your sacrifice will be accepted and oh beloved from gethsemane the battle was easy after gethsemane he could face anas after gethsemane he could face caiaphas come on somebody after gethsemane he could face the saneedrin council i'm talking to god's people after gethsemane he could face pilate they tried him by night but he was still powerful after gethsemane he could face herod and all through jesus remained humble but all the way to calvary he went for me and though i had so many many sins jesus washed them all away and he pardoned me he struggled to the place called calvary and the bible says there on the cross they crucified him joseph begged his body and they buried it you see jesus rested in the grave on the sabbath come on and say man somebody he rested in the grave on sabbath and the devil decided i'm gonna lock him down or ever come on and say amen some of you in your locked down wondering when will i come out of this but if god is god don't lose hope better days are coming the devil decided to lock him down i was listening to one of my favorite preachers and he said when jesus said it is finished satan thought he said i am finished but satan did not realize that jesus didn't say i am finished for if jesus had said that we would be in trouble he declared it is finished and so he rested in the tomb on sabbath and the angels of glory wanted to see their redeemer alive they put down their hearts because the god of the thread is in the grave but i can tell god's people something that early sunday morning there was an excitement in the atmosphere and gabriel the one who stood in the very place from which satan fell god gave him the command god called my son and as gabriel passed through the atmosphere there was this excitement and as he comes down to jerusalem where the place was you see the soldiers were on guard god in the tomb but can i tell somebody that that sunday morning god broke up satan's disaster risk management order and when gabriel came he called by the power of god jesus son of god thy father called it thee there was some rumbling in the tomb and jesus gets up and jesus made a declaration i am alpha and the maker the beginning and the end the first and the last i am he who liveth and was dead but behold i'm alive forevermore and i have the keys of death of hell and of the grave or there is victory in jesus so listen to me i come to the garden alone pastor while the dew is still on the roses and the voice i hear falling on my ear the son of god discloses and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me i am his own i'm the joy we share it's here somebody who can testify that god is good the joy we share as we carry here none other has ever known he speaks what did i say he speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet the birds of their singing oh glory to god and the melody that he gave to me within my heart is ringing and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me the night is dark but guess what the night is dark but i say in the garden with him is there somebody at home who wants to stay in the garden with him i stay in the garden with him though the night around me be falling but he beats me go elder holmes he makes me go to the night of war his voice to me is calling and he walks with me he talks with me tells me i am his own let's praise the lord today as my praise team sings by god's grace i come to the garden [Music] and the voice i hear falling on my hair the sun of god and he walks with me and he talks with me and [Music] as [Music] [Music] no i don't know what struggles you're faced with today but prayer moves the hand of the god who rules the world i don't know if like jesus your suffering suffering pain suffering heartache suffering like his gethsemane experience he can give you the victory today i don't know who you are but there is power in prayer get so many proof to us that if jesus submitted himself to the will of god we through our struggles can also submit to the will of god what are you going through today what are you going through today in this time of lockdown are you lonely are you feeling depressed are you feeling discouraged i come to tell somebody god is able gethsemane is proof of it i don't know if there is somebody out there watching listening worshipping god today perhaps you once walked with the lord but somehow some way something happened and you're no longer walking with him and today you want to say i'm a backslider or i've never accepted jesus but because of what he did for me in the garden of gethsemane and on calvary i want to surrender my life to him and i want you to pray for me is that you today i don't know if that is you just put pray for me in the chat you could be a backslider perhaps you've never walked with jesus oh yes but let's i forget gethsemane let's i forget thine agony let's i forget lead me to calvary that's call number one call number two you've been walking with him god knows that the road gets tough at times it's not a joke it's a reality you want to say i want to remain with jesus just write that in the chat i want to remain with jesus i want to remain with jesus i want to walk with him not just for time but for eternity today as we sing the next song i invite you to make your decision make a commitment in the name of jesus [Music] [Music] so [Music] the savior is waiting to enter your heart why won't you let him come in there's nothing in this world to keep you up hearts what is your answer to him [Music] before and now [Music] how he wants to come [Music] here [Music] um [Music] oh [Music] if you take one step towards the save you're my friend you'll find his arms receive him and all of your darkness will [Music] oh [Music] us [Music] oh how he wants [Music] he has lighted before and now he's waiting [Applause] [Music] again [Applause] oh how he wants to come here oh how he wants to [Music] come [Music] father in the name of jesus we thank you for gethsemane the place where your sweat as it were became like drops of blood where you suffered super human agony will you clung to the cold ground as if for support but thank you for the garden of solitude because you overcame we too can overcome thank you for everyone today who responded to the call those who have said pray for me i've once walked with you but somehow i've turned back or i've never walked with you when i want to thank you for them lord thank you for those who have said i want to remain with jesus bless all of your people together and hasten that glad day when we will see face to face the one who fought that real battle for us in the garden of gethsemane until then keep us we pray and bless all of your people in jesus name let god's people say amen amen and we thank god for today and for his word i trust you have been blessed and whatever happens in your life remember the blood that he shed for us will never ever lose its power because he fought for us and he won the victory we have this great hope what a mighty god we serve thank you and god bless you richly today thing we've had today in god's house we've talked about prayer we've talked about witness we've talked about god's intercession for us we've had wonderful music we've had great testimonies god has been good if you have been blessed just put it in the chat and say blessed just say blessed i've noticed 3600 instruments were registered today and if we're going to use that as any indication we had about seven eight thousand people in church today worshiping have you been blessed then put the word blessed in the chat i have been blessed my prayers have been answered and i know god is interceding we don't want you to go anywhere church has just begun in jamaica we have church all day and you know that lockdown is not our problem in fact we are locked down with jesus and today we're going to have a wonderful time just in the presence of god listening to his word being warmed by his ministry and our hearts being blessed we hope that you have been blessed as we have been blessed serving you today and the menu is just continuing because right after this the largest bible class in virtual space is about to begin we have our host with us and they're going to be taking us through the word of god if you want to know how god's word sounds if you want to taste what god's word is like if you want to feel the power of god's word open your bible and be with us now because in short order the largest bible class ever is going to begin and you know the fun that we have here in the world so take a moment perhaps you want to go and and get some of that fruit that i was talking about if you can find some east indian or some jewelry mangoes or some good ethiopia apples or some tamarind or some cane or some gazada or some whatever it is find some of that and bring it but it just before you go we want you to remember to like our page to share our page and to subscribe to our page we need more of you to come on board and to let the world know that jesus is here and he's ministering to others so just before you go make sure that you share the word with a friend bible class is coming up soon get prepared go and find something to just put down and water your mouth and come right back and we're going to go out now with some wonderful music and then in a few moments bible class will be here enjoy the beautiful singing of our virtual church praise group as we share together in god's ministry today what an assurance we have that jesus is our victory and our life this is the blessed assurance and i pray that you will worship with us as we give thanks for the victory we have in jesus [Music] [Music] purchase [Music] this is my story this is my song praising myself this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long justifying [Music] is [Music] filled with [Music] my story this is my song [Music] this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long [Music] perfection [Music] whispers of love this is my story this is my song praising myself [Music] this is my song praising my savior [Music] you might have been to the rough times you might have been too difficult times but you have this blessed assurance that jesus is yours and all you need to do is to put your trust in him knowing that he will and he can deliver you from the struggles of life so if this is your blessed assurance want to sing with us as we are praising our savior all the day long see this is my story this is my story [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is my song raising my savior all the day long let's pray father we bless your name for the assurance that we have that indeed you are the king of kings and lord of lords you have never lost a battle before and you will not lose this battle lord so we bless your name as we continue to worship with you and give you praise and honor as we seek to dig a little deeper in your words won't you guide and want to lead in jesus blessed name amen so we are happy to know that we can dig a little deeper in the words of god and as we dig into the words of god i just invited you to [Music] go for your word go for the bible whatever virgins you have and get your concordance get your people and get everything ready as we dig dig deep in the word of god you know pastor we're talking about digging deeply in the word of god and as we prepare for our bible class i'm going through the chat and i'm just touched by some of the prayer needs that are still being registered jodianne robinson has asked that we pray for her neighbor who has lost her mother and is having a hard time jordan we're going to pray for your neighbor if you can give me your neighbor's name that'll be wonderful but it doesn't matter god knows then robert mcknight has asked that we pray for him that he will never let go of jesus jacqueline napier says i want to continue to walk with jesus these are just some of the prayer needs that are in our group today and you know my pastor as you prepare to spread the word of god through bible class today i'm going to ask you to open bible class with a prayer there are folk in the chat today as we pray as we push who want god's grace who want god's forgiveness who wants god's assurance who want god's blessing today is a day of prayer and just before you open the word where you will be talking about what the wonderful things that are in god's word i want you to pray all right no problem can i invite you to join me right here in the garden and we're going to pray at this time lift up those prayer requests with our which are in the chat heavenly father your creator your god your sovereign you did not meet this earth and then leave us by ourselves you're not a runaway landlord you're not an absentee god you're present in the midst of the dark times of human experience you are there in the midst of our valley experiences you're there with us in the midst of our lion's den experiences and so you who have come through for your children in times past we ask of you once more to show your mighty power your mighty hand your mighty healing as we pray today for the requests that have been placed in this chat you can move instantaneously at the same time across the length and breadth of this entire island across the length and breadth of this world you're able to respond individually to each and every single cry and need of each and every individual so thou who are still the seas thou almighty god who alone knows how to weather the storms of life and to teach men and women how to so do go by the bedside of each grieving individual each hurting individual each person whose body is filled with pain and sickness and illness at this hour and through your mighty hand of healing first touch the souls of men taught first touch the minds of men and allow them to see and to know that there is a god in israel who is not just concerned about their healing but is concerned also about their spiritual health we pray for the spiritual victories of those in this chat those almighty father who have been fighting for years and those who are coming upon great hurdles those almighty father who are in the valley of spiritual battles and are seeking help seeking deliverance and crying out to you we know that you hear from heaven and according to your suffering will we pray that you may hear from heaven and answer their cries we commit each individual into your care it's unique situation bless guide keep protect provide and do for them exceedingly abundantly above that which they're able to ask to think or to imagine in jesus name we pray amen and lord we just just pause a little longer as i open my eyes to look at the prayer needs for your brethren nadibu is asking that we pray for the bernard family herma graham is asking that we pray for gwendolyn muttermore janice mary is asking that we pray for her son anthony and also for her siblings and their children claudette and chenia carolyn barnett phillips is asking that we pray for her son lamont beckford to return to god before it is too late sandra ferguson is asking that we pray for sharon sinclair angela mills is asking that we pray for the junior's daughter whose name is moria oh lord ami renin is asking that we pray for natalie dawkins the missing teacher from four past clarendon whose colleagues are out looking for her this morning oh lord camille ferguson mcpherson is asking that we lift up her family in prayer mergina wetterburn is asking that we pray for her brother michael wetterburn dimar pinock is asking that we pray for her little sister and her mother who has leukemia oh jesus your people need you to work a miracle on their behalf raquel facey is asking for special prayer for her brothers andrew and david for protection over their life and to be a deliverer and a savior to them oh jesus we pause just a moment more because there's so many prayers we're so happy that you never get tired of hearing your people reach out to you we thank you that you're a god who is always able and that you will apply your blessing according to our need i place my phone in front of you this morning i pray that you will put it in that bowl that is described in revelation chapter 5 verse 9. we pray that as my prayers go up they will ascend with sweet incense from on high and that lord you will look through my phone and you will apply your grace towards every request in this phone today every person who has written in the chat every heart that is seeking you today make yourself be felt make your presence be known may your blessings be experienced we claim it now in jesus name amen amen pastor thank you for sharing this moment with us i turn over to you thank you very much ella holmes thank you so very much welcome to ejc virtual church bible class it's a different look it's a new set and it's all about prayer today we're praying until something happens push and we want to thank god for that word that was given to us today by pastor melvin francis well today at bible class we will be starting a brand new series you should be aware we're looking on the dead and you questions relating to the dead questions that relating to the afterlife questions relating to the very nature of man and so we will be delving into our presentation today but i want you to join me um with this presentation you're actually going to be able to interact with me throughout aspects of the presentation so as we get that up for the screen today we'll be looking on the nature of man the nature of man how what would you say is the nature of man we're going to be looking on uh the the doctrine of the soul this is where it is anchored and so as we go today i want you to prepare for that get your bibles with me we're here in the garden here at 74 constant spring road and we're going to be taking you through the first up the first in four parts relating to the doctrine relate of the state of the dead so let's go um as we get going today i want you to go to www.menti.com that's www.menti.com that's m-e-n-t-i as we get that up on screen for you you'll be able to go to mentee and when you go to mente you're going to punch in that number that you see at the top as i'm waiting for that to come on the screen so that you can be able to see it uh right so it's there the number is at the code is at the top 42 8 0 7 1 8 that's 4 2 8 0 7 1 8 i want you to punch in that number when you go to mentee and i need you to answer two questions for me the first question is we're going to have the answer to that a little bit later in the presentation but the first question is was man immortal before the fall that's the first question we're going to answer was man immortal before the fall now you you can simply click yes or no um or you can select not sure and we're going to go through the study in relation to the immortality the soul man and how it looks there we have one individual already on it say no i want more of you to join in i want to get a picture as to what your view is before we actually commence bible class today something one individual or two individuals say i am not sure well fine you can be not sure but just give us an answer so you go to www.menti.com and i want you to just punch in that code 4280718 and you're able to join us here in our bible class all right so as we proceed you're you're going to see the graph there at the bottom as we press on so i'm going to ask you also to answer the second question because there are two questions um in this early part for answering and the the second one is what is your top question about death death what is your top question about death and so let's see exactly what is your questions as soon as you type that in we'll be able to see come up on the cloud uh no god all right uh i don't get that one uh all right we're gonna get in some questions there but as you come up it's gonna create a cloud so that you're able to see for yourself the kind of questions that individuals have in relation to god and death and life and we know that um somebody asks is there death in heaven all right no problem someone says no questions all right we can take that and you can continue to interact with us as we go on so let's move to the next slide and let's look on a fundamental concept in relation to the the topic that we've been looking on today which is the making of man now in genesis chapter 1 we get a unique perspective into the creation of god and in genesis chapter 2 we see that specifically worked out in genesis 1 we have a text that is in verse 26 genesis 1 and verse 26 genesis 1 verse 26 says no backtrack genesis 1 verse 26 you've mixed one um that's the issue when i don't have control of the slides but we're working with what right genesis 1 26 and it says and god said let us make man in our image after our lightness so when god was creating man he used himself as the pattern he used himself as the guide he used himself as the object from which he would be making assemblance now that semblance is not just in terms of spirituality it's also in terms of mental capacities also in terms of physical attributes and god indeed is a spirit so when we say that god makes man in his image after his likeness is not we are not reflecting the the the fullness of god but in who we are we are actually able to have characteristics which represent god and that's important for us to understand genesis 1 verse 27 let's look on that so god created man in his own image in the image of god created he him male and female created he them so we see from the very get-go that god is creating after his image after his lightness now let's move on and let's look on what the rest of the bible says in relation to this image paul in first corinthians chapter 11 states that man is the image and the glory of god so man is the word the image and the glory of god and that's paul writing in to the church in corinth and he says that man is the image and the glory of god listen to how james puts it in james chapter 3 and verse 9. james says that man is made after the similitude of god so in the bible when you look with the genesis account you you look on paul the apostle and you look on james and you're able to put together you see that man is created in the image after the similitude after the likeness of god and that's a biblical concept but let's go back to what that means literally in bible times the kings used to put images of themselves wherever they ruled as a representation of the authority they possess in those places so imprinting his image on us the creator is reminding us that we are his representatives on earth and you see that for example in the new testament when you see jesus referring to the coin and he says when they were asking him about authority divine authority etc he says whose inscription is on it and he and they responded and said caesar and jesus says give unto caesar that which is caesar and to god that which is god's so you see the connection that in the kingdom the representatives the the the lightness of the king's power and authority would actually be showcased in imprinting his lightness in various forms including the coins in genesis 1 verse 24 21 24 and 25 we see an interesting language let's look on it we see this language coming up in genesis chapter 1 21 24 and 25 and god created and god created great whales and every living creature that moves which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged wind were fall after his kind and god saw that it was good so notice the concept that is coming out in genesis chapter one the animals are created after their kind and they are given the reproductive ability to do so so the animals are able to reproduce in their own image after their own likeness in genesis 1 verse 26 and 27 we see that humankind however let's look on that so animals after their kind but human beings are created after his likeness so in the whole imagery of of creation in the o in the entire unfolding of creation what we see is that god gives the creative ability for reproduction in the very things that he create let's for example take the orange and and fruit trees for example but let's use the orange the orange has within it even though it is a fruit it has within it seeds so even though it is a fruit it has reproductive capacity it is able to reproduce based on the seed if you take the seed and you plant the seed and nurture it etc it will produce after its kind and you can see that with the rest of our god he does it with a number of fruits he does it with a number of things within creation you can see the reproductive ability capacity that god is giving to his own creation so yes god has created and yes god is creator but what god does is that he allows the he gives to the creation aspects of the creation the the ability to reproduce to reproduce after its kind so animals are able to do that after their kind and human beings are able to do that in the likeness of god now let's look on the entire creation model then there are going to be three models that i'm going to be sharing with you today and i'm going to be sharing with you the models so that you're able to understand the structure of creation and how creation actually works with the issue of the creation of man the nature of man because the doctrine relating to the state of the dead covers the nature of man now let's look on the six day creation week um on day one god created light correct on day two god separated the firmament from the heavens etc created the firmament day three god created the dry land separated it from the the the waters now let's look on day four day four he created sun moon stars day five he created the creatures in the waters and then he created the creatures in the sky on day six we see that god created animals as well other animals as well as human beings now let's put up that again i don't want to lose it now the concept that i want you to see clearly from this is that the six days of creation has a particular model what god does in the first day he feels in the fourth day what he does in the second day he fails in the fifth day and what he does on the third day he fails on the sixth day let's watch that so day one god created light he steps out and he says let there be what light and boom light came but on day four which is its parallel we see that there is the creation of other lights the sun the moon the stars that aligns with day four so day one and day four has a direct correlation let's go to day two we look on the firmaments and we look on the separation of the waters from the earth from the sky et cetera day five we see that god feels that so god created the creatures in the sea and on on and also the birds in the air right so you see on day two what is created the permanent separated the heavens from the earth yes and you see that on day five what god does is that he feels it when you come to day three you see that god sepa does the dry land right and what he does on day six is to do the population of that dry land so he comes and he creates those animals but also on day six he creates man now we're going to be coming to that because day seven is set all by itself as you see it right there so let's look that's the first model that we're looking on when it comes on to creation let's look on the second model let's look on the second model the second model you see is focused more on the ascendancy of creation so on day one there is a build up in day two from day one there is a build up from day two in day three and there's a build up from day three to day four five six and then you see that the creation what god is doing is multiplying he is expanding he is ascending in his creation so yes light is fundamental to human life yes they too yes they they um the firmament in the heavens is fundamental to the human life correct day three the dry land is fundamental to human life day four the sun the moon stars yes fundamental to human life day five he does the filling with the animals the creatures in the sea which relate to human life so what god does up to day five and even on day six is that he is feeling the creation he's creating the world yes and he's feeling it but on day six he does something on day six he not just creates lights things right um the the firmament the the trees uh the the earth yeah he doesn't do that but on day six he creates man and that is where we learn a little a lot about the nature of man so let's look on the third model and let's see if we can get that up on the screen let's look on the third model which was more into a pyramid rather than ascendancy so at the very base there is light then you have the heavens separated from the earth then you have on the third layer the sun the moon and the stars then you have the creatures in the waters and on day six which is the sixth layer you have human beings and animals and at the top you have the sabbath rest which draws attention to the fact that god himself is the creator and the sabbath day is given as a memorial of all the creation so everything else that exists exists because god himself has put himself as the object the focus of worship so even though he has created these wonderful things light the heavens and the earth the sun the moons and the stars the creatures in the sea the creatures on dry land they are not to be worshipped they are all to bring glory and honor to him as creator so man in either of the models that you look on man is at the highest part of the creation model right it which indicates the rationale for god's blessing and ruling and giving blessing and giving rulership to man in genesis 1 verse 28. so let's look on the next slide because genesis 1 verse 28 after god has done all the creation he now says to adam and god bless the scripture says and god blessed them and god said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fall of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth so you see that even with the creation model why god would have placed the um the creation of man at the very end it's the ascendancy sixth day yeah god is showing that he's giving man rulership yeah dominion he's the subdue he is the rule and the entire earth is to conquer but not only does god do that give dominion over all things but that god also gives man the authority to name all things so look at genesis 2 and verse 19. genesis 2 and verse 19 and the lord god formed every beast of the field and every foul of the air and brought them unto adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever adam called every living creature that was the name thereof so we are seeing that god placing man at the head of the creation is for him to have dominion for him to have rulership but we also see that god gives man the creative capacity and this is why biblically speaking it cannot be that humankind as some scientists would want to put it and human human kind and animals are on the same level the creation model shows that what is necessary for human life what is necessary even for animal life is actually created prior to the advent or the arrival of human beings and that is why later on in mark when jesus comes jesus says what in relation to the sabbath the sabbath was not made for man but man for the sabbath right so the the the sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath what god was here saying is that you must not be a slave to the sabbath the sabbath is there to serve you so in the creation model we see that man is given a very unique position man is placed above all the creation that the animals were to be subject to him that he was to have dominion over them and then we see that god even goes as far as to say that in relation to uh creative ability whatever it is that adam chooses to call the animals that is what their names are and he even went further because adam didn't just name the animals he also named woman and he called her eve so man is given in the creation aspect of things man is given a very unique position man is not equal to animals yes in the sense that they have mental capacity like we like humans do no they don't have the mental capacity in the way that humans have it of course we do know that animals can be very smart um dogs are a show of that dolphins animals can be very smart but the capacity that was given to man is not commensurate with the capacity that was given also to the capacity that animals have and so the nature of man in in speaking about man we must make the clear distinction be between man and the other aspects of creation and even man and animals as created beings things whatever you want to call them animals right so the scientific view that some individuals have that human beings are just a higher form of uh higher form of animal life is just something that doesn't bear itself out based on the scriptural narrative man is made in the image of god and also in his likeness however that being said it brings us to another interesting aspect of man what is that interesting aspect let's look on it because there is a language there man you know when you go to funeral services well we don't go to federal services now but in times past when we do funeral services and you put the body down to the ground what do we say earth to earth eh dust dust and ashes the ashes and that brings us to our second aspect of the creation uh revelation of the nature of man and it tells us that man was created from the dust let's look on genesis chapter 2 and verse 7. genesis chapter 2 and verse 7. what does it say the lord god formed man off the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul so fundamental to ho to our understanding of the nature of man is yes how god creates and speaks about man but also where god created man from god created man from the dust let's let's notice some key facts from that text in genesis let's look on some key facts from that text number one no next slide let's look on some key facts so man is made from the dust of the ground right so that should be a humbling thing god created a majority of creation by the word of his mouth and after he created the earth the scripture is telling us that he used the very dust that is made or that he made and he used that to create man now man is 80 gas most of which is oxygen some 10 hydrogen which is a trifle of nitrogen of the of the heavier elements carbon is up there calcium then phosphorus potassium sodium chlorine sulfur magnesium iron and traces of iron iodine and other um elements so we are seeing that god decided that in the creation of man he was going to be using elements of that which he has already created and that's very significant god also formed animals from out of the dust of the ground because if you look in genesis chapter 2 and verse 19 you will actually see that as well the difference is that you will note is that god himself breathed into adam's nostril the breath of life so where does breath comes from the breath comes from god himself which shows to us once more that it's god who is the giver of life it is god who initiates life it is god who continues or promulgates life because the breath is given to us and that is why job was able to say naked came i in naked will i go out blessed be the name of the lord because it is the lord who gives life god determines yes um all of that so genesis 2 and verse 7 gives us now a formula a formula we see now in genesis 2 and verse 7 a formula for how life exists and what is that formula that we notice about life the body remember god created man out of the dust off the ground yeah so the body was existent it was there it lay dead on the lid on the floor but then god came and god breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the scriptures say in verse 7 of genesis chapter 2 that man then became a living soul so what do we get the body plus the breath equals a living soul body plus the breath equal a living soul as we go further into the series we're actually going to be uh looking on that formula a little bit more and we might do the the the addition this this time but the next time we might be very well be doing the subtraction so does man alone have this breath does man alone have this breath well genesis chapter 7 and verse 15 says they went in unto noah into the ark two and two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life so what are we noticing here that even with the animals even with the animals we see that the breath of god is actually there right so we are we are uh yes humans are unique we are you know that's our way we're unique to the whole of the creation we're unique to the plants we're unique to the fruits we're unique to the very animals yes we're unique to all of that but we are also you even though we are unique we have some elements that the animal world also has the breath of life that is given by god is actually in man now i'm seeing a question that karen has in in the chat since man has given dominion over animals is that why we can do what we want with them like kill them and eat them well the reality is that when god created man the diet that was given to man was not the eating of animals no it was not animals when you look in genesis you see that god gave unto man the fruits the nuts the grains natural things to actually eat the eating of animals was only permitted after the flood because naturally the flood destroyed the entire earth and they were only animals in the in the ark and so when they came out man was given the opportunity to actually eat the animal it was not the eat some of the animals by the way because leviticus chapter 11 does tell us which ones of the animals that we ought to eat and that's another study altogether but you can read leviticus chapter 11 and if some individuals say it does not apply no it still does apply because even in the new testament in the book of acts we see that when uh jesus comes to peter and tell him to rise peter kill and eat that peter said no lord i've never you know i've never eaten anything common or unclean all of my life based off the vision that was given of course he was referring to and uh god was giving him a vision not of eating of animals but all spot of calling other men other gentiles for example common or unclean god was changing changing that he was bringing the message from the jews now to the entire gentile nation and that's how we now get into the story and that's how we are part of of of it so that was one question that i saw so uh man wasn't to eat all types of animals that's number one and number two man was not to be eating animals forever that was not god's intention the intention was that man would go back to eden and that man would continue to replenish himself with the fruits the grains the nuts that are actually there like our hote apple mango yes all of those things that's what god actually had in mind and you will notice that even though it's years or no that doctors and nurses and all these medical people know are calling individuals back to actually have a actually to have to eat a more plant-based organic type of diet and that's very important right so let's go on to our next slide so that was um our slide relating to genesis 2 and verse 7. so god man was not alone with the concept of breath of life so we are saying that yes man is different from animals but god is the one who breathes into man's nostril breath of life and god created man in his lightness and in his image so even though animals have the breath too we are you know we are higher class to the animals so animals and human beings are not on the same level let's listen to what the scripture says in respect to man the nature of man job chapter 4 and verse 17 what does it say shall mortal man be more just than god shall a man be more than his maker the word there that is used is mortal mortal means what subject to what death mortal means that you are not immortal let's look on again let's look on what another um passage actually says in the bible when it comes on to that paul in romans 1 verse 23 says and change the glory of the incorruptible god into an image made like to what corruptable man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things so here we are seeing two things now see number one that god is incorruptible yeah and number two we are seeing that man has a corruptable nation nature sorry all right so let's move on we're looking at the nature of man this week we're setting the foundation for the rest that is coming paul in first corinthians chapter 15 verse 53 and 54 says for this corruptable must put on what incorruption and this mortal must put on what immortality so when this corruptable shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory so right here in first corinthians 15 we are seeing that jesus is paul is saying sorry that man up to the time of the second coming of christ has a corruptible nature nature he is not incorruptible and not only does he have a corruptable nature we see also that it is telling us that he has a mortal nature right because immortality if um put it back the text there right at the beginning it tells us for this corruptable must put on it corruption and this mortal must put on immortality when clearly at this particular time man does not have it man is not immortal and man does not possess immortality so we're going to look a little bit more on that romans chapter 6 and verse 23 what does it say romans 6 and verse 23 tells us that the wages of sin is death let's look again go on again what does roman romans tell us further romans 3 and verse 23 tells us for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god so if the wages of sin is death and if all has sinned it means that all are subject to death mortal right so all human beings are sinners and on the basis of all human beings being sinners all all are subject to death and i say subject to death because paul in thessalonians does in fact say we shall not all sleep so not all individuals shall die there are some individuals who are the second coming of christ they will be not resurrected they will they would not have passed through death much like the example of elijah but that the fact that they are they have not passed through the death experience does not mean that they are not mortal they are in fact mortal but indeed god will have a special group of people who are actually um not subjected who don't die but at his appearance they will be changed from mortal to immortality after um those who are asleep in christ are resurrected and we did that study on the second coming of christ already so let's look on the distinctions between god and man therefore because god and man are not the same the distinction number one god is the creator and man is the creation part of the creation god is incorruptible but man is corruptable god is immortal man is immortal god is eternal but man is subject to death so there is a clear distinction between that between the two groups right there all right so let's move on so we look on the concept the differentiation between man and animals we look on the differentiation between man and god and now we're going to be looking on some of the differences i want you to um go back to mentee and i want you to tell us what are some of the differences between god and man so i've highlighted some of them but i want you to join in the conversation share with us what are some of the things that you see are different between god and man of course um there are many more things that could have been said but in the context of our um study i decide that i'm going to be focusing on mortality immortality corruption and incorruption right so some of you are responding and you're saying god is sinless and man is sinful correct yes man um god is sinless god has never sinned in so he is not subject to death at all god is immortal correct god is loved and man is loved yeah i think i like that one god is love and man is loved god is immortal and man is mortal god is perfect and man is not and that's a very critical thing um important uh critical because many individuals uh still believe there are some individuals who hold that school of thought god is obligant but man is uh i'm not seeing that part god is more immortal and man is mortal god is a spirit and man is human um man is hateful and god is love god is omnipresent and omnipresent means that he's present everywhere man is not perfect god forgives genuinely humans hold on to the past god is love man is evil god is creator man is creature god is immortal while man is mortal man is corruptable god is not god is impartial man is partial god is all-powerful indeed but man is not god is all-knowing man has limited knowledge god is all powerful man is powerless god is omniscient god can give life and man cannot god is spiritual and i think that should be man is not god is super natural god is just so just as how we are defining the difference between god man and human beings in this discussion in relation to the nature of man we must also make the distinction between man and god there are some individuals who hold a viewpoint that we are gods yes there are eckists um believe that and there uh there are some new world new age the um theology that is going around that god is god is not just in you but that you are god and we want to make sure that we understand that god is god and man not on the same level so just as how man and animals are not on the same level in an infinitely greater way man and god is not on the same level so the distinction between god and man is very key because if man possesses what god has then it means that man and god are one and the same right and and we have no need for god let me see those other responses there that you have up there some other responses god is pure man is impure god is good man is sinful god is sinless man is a sinner man is to worship man or man is to worship i think that i think what you mean to say is that man should worship and god is to be worshipped um god is just and man is unjust so there's a big difference between us and the creator just as how there is a difference between us and animals but of course with us and the creator is infinitely higher than us and animals right all right so let's look on the next slide uh the soul that sins um i'm not sure if you could back up i want to see before i get there what the responses were to the first question that that was on mentee you just have to go back um i want to see what the responses are what the bar graph is actually saying how many of you think that man was created with immortality yeah this there go yeah man you're right there so 40 okay so uh 41 individuals that is say yes man was immortal before the fall okay um 32 individuals say no man was not immortal before the fall and 10 individuals say no well i'm seeing the bar graph no some of you are actually changing as i am going along that's what some of you are doing right now all right i'm seeing it changing was man immortal before the fall okay some of you are saying yes some of you are saying no and this is the the answers that are there are showing us the reason for um showing us the reason for the study because there is a great divide in how individuals see death and in the concept of death there are some individuals who believe that when you die you go to heaven others who hold to the viewpoint that you go to hell so we're going to be looking on that can i say the answers to the second slide the second uh mentee response i want to see okay i think i have to go get up and come a little bit closer and then come back down and sit what is your top question about death is there life after death what happens to the soul how many resurrections are there how many deaths are there um is there death in heaven does the dead have power does the spirit live on yes and if you look on those questions you will see some persons are asking where is the where where is the body children who would die before i would really like to know what that was what happens to dead baby right the body versus the spirit you see a number of questions there that individuals are asking and if you look um somebody else asked is the final when you look on those kind of questions you understand why the study on on on death and life after death is so important you realize why the conversation is so real and as we go on over the over the next three weeks we will be able to have more conversations in respect to life and death people have questions about it and we want to actually help you so let's go back to this slide with the soul that sinneth the soul that's in it let me see what you're saying in the chat if there is any um question that i can respond to uh y'all are asking where's ella joe man yes ella joe is at home um um taking care of baby joanna um getting used to his new daughter so yes ella joe is all right um yes um somebody say pastor your presentation is so clear and interesting well we would like to make the bible plain here and very clear so thank you so very much for sticking and staying with us um and so we can go there somebody was saying you want to see that the the models oh um all right i can show you about the models that they closer to the end of the program so for this week and because ella joe has leave me you won't get a quiz this week you're going to get a quiz on this next week though yeah you're getting a quiz on this next week so stick and stay with us um everyone so let me go on now so let's now look on the other aspect of the presentation which relates to the soul that sins because um you know let's look on this let's let me not jump ahead of myself so the hebrew and greek words from which we translate uh our words soul and spirit are found some 1700 times in the bible in fact the word soul as used in the bible listen to this does not always have exactly the same meaning and this is where a number of persons get confused because the bible speaks about the soul in so many different contexts and verses in the bible that what we do we think every time it is speaking about soul it is referring to the same thing and i'm going to keep on saying it that when we're studying the bible we must be faithful to the bible we must understand the bible from the bible standpoint and not from our standpoint so every time when you see the word soul in the bible it is not saying the same thing it is not referring to the same thing we did a presentation elijah and i think on soul already and the different ways in which the word is used in the bible and how it actually um differs so it's used many times in the bible and it's not always referring to the same thing so that is why many individuals get confused when they are actually reading the english version of the bible because the only word that we have there is soul soul soul soul but in the original language the word soul has multiple meanings all right so i want you to be aware of that and we did do a bible study on that i don't know if karen can tell you which one of the the studies what that was some last year uh we did yeah i think i think it was last year we did a study on it so however i want you to notice that nobody where in which it is actually referred to in the bible there's 700 times it is referred in the bible does it have the meaning of immortal soul immortal no it's not there so it's never saying that a person never dies it's never speaking about being imperishable indestructible everlasting eternal or impossession of immortality so when we are speaking about the nature of man and i want to make sure it's clear we are we have to understand the nature of man from creation we have to understand the nature of man in relation to god's uh when god said create in in his image and after his likeness we have to understand the nature of man as against the nature of animals or in relation to the nature of animals and we must understand the nature of man in relation to god when we mix up those things when we don't have a clear understanding we end up with a false theology and a false theology can lead us to the wrong place let's go to the next slide ezekiel chapter 12 and sorry 18 and verse 20 what does it say the soul that sinneth it shall die and remember we already look on romans chapter 3 and verse 23 telling us that all have sinned and romans 6 and verse 23 which tells us that the wages of sin is dead so everybody deserves death because everyone has sin even daniel that we boast about which was a beautiful character sinner in commit sin even joseph committed sin so the fact that the bible does not tell us what their sins are or were does not mean that they are sin less in the sense that they have never sinned all have sinned and all have come short of the glory of god and therefore all are subject to death yeah first timothy chapter 6 and verse 15 and 16. what does it say show them on the screen it says it very clearly the blessed and only potentate the king of kings and lord of lords listen to the last part who only has immortality so god alone has immortality god alone is immortal god alone possesses immortality man does not possess immortality man is not immortal man is not a mini god man is not a creator man is a created being man is not in as much as he was given power over the um the world man is not in any way at all equal with god so let's move on so this now brings us back to genesis genesis account man even in his perfect state was not immortal genesis 2 verse 17 tells us what of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eat of it that should be eaten thereof thou shalt surely die now let's let's look on this a little what did satan come and challenge eve what did what what did satan say satan said you shall not what you shall not surely die so there were two trees there was the tree of life yes and then you have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the focus is normally placed upon the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a test and we know what happened with that and we're going to see at the end of the presentation how it is if man it's in his sinful state from the tree of life after he sinned what would have happened and then you and i can have another conversation so let's look let's look on it genesis chapter 22 verse 22 to 24 i didn't even realize i reached the end yes i'm at the end satan challenged eve and satan said when god gave the clear directive you shall surely die so if you eat of the knowledge of the if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall surely die satan came and challenged eve and said to eve no boss you shall not surely die i don't want to pause right here do you notice that the very first temptation relates to the doctrine of the state of the dead the first false doctrine that was taught by the devil was the doctrine relating to the state of the dead today the devil does in fact want to fool people about death the first false doctrine that was instigated to mankind is the doctrine in relation to his nature and in relation to death satan said even before he got to the nature he says you shall not surely die death and then afterwards he says sir god knows that in the day that you eat of it that you shall become like gods like him so this is why the doctrine in relation to the nature of man must be clearly understood so we can understand the state of the dead we cannot understand the state of the dead if we do not understand the nature of man and the nature of man is distinct is different from the nature of god man is not equal to god the fact that we are made in his image does not make us god we are not some mini gods like what the the the new age theology is trying to teach in we are not we are subject to death we do not know half of it we don't even know a quarter of the things that god knows i don't even think a quarter is a good way to put it we don't and that is part of the problem when individuals are unable to give an answer to something when they are unable to explain some difficult aspects of the bible and theology of the faith let's start to question god the fact that you can't understand doesn't mean god come on somebody your your incapacity to understand shows your mortality and you could spend the rest of your life studying you could spend the rest of your life in books mortality means that we are limited we are limited in human capacity mentally we're limited physically because i am seated right here i can't be anywhere else god is right here with me over there with you elsewhere with everybody else so man must seek the doctrine relating to the nature of man is the foundation pillar on which we are going to have a lens to view the aspect of death let me see let me see let me see let me join you [Music] let me see what is happening in the chat let me make sure that you're with me so satan knew god meant a spiritual death satan was aware because remember satan is cast out of heaven and he well that was not at the time when he comes to eve in the garden of um in the in the garden of eden almost in the garden here at ejc when he comes to eve in the garden remember he is already kicked out of heaven that kicking out is the first kickout so the second one comes later at the cross yeah but the first kick out when he's kicked out of heaven he is aware of the consequences so he comes with knowledge he is aware of evil and everybody else is being tested the other worlds don't fall um don't fall to the test but he comes to eve he makes the fruit um seem delight um you know delicious he makes it appear as though oh god is restricting you from being like him god doesn't want you to enjoy the knowledge that he has i don't know why we would want the knowledge of evil but anyway so he comes and he makes the thing look good to eve deceives if he buys into it and he says listen you know um he says you know god you know yeah and so she she takes it um and take it where do angels stand when it comes on to mortality versus immortality all right we can look on the question relate into angels and mortality and i'm going to actually see how best we can relate to that next week all right so i'll start off with that because i'm right up to the closer and i want to answer that very important point that was actually um raised um cecile jones asked where is the garden of eden present day well i i have an answer but it's not in the bible it's not in the bible and you know i like to give biblical answers so um karen could you just mark that question for me and you can send it to me and next week i'll come with the answer so that you're able to prepare for it right all right so you have a lot of questions in here today um what kind of death did jesus die a very good question um the wages of sin is death um it was christ died the death that we should die so we're going to be coming to death next week yes let me leave it for next week next week already with lazarus i'm going to dissect for you clearly the aspect of the debts the two debts and which of them christ indeed died so i'm i'm going to i'm going to leave that for you for next week all right so let's go to that final slide let's go to that final slide genesis chapter 2 verse 22 through to 24 states quote and the lord god said behold and this is after man has sinned the man is become as one of us pause right there let's look on this now when god is saying the man has become like one of us is it that god is saying man wasn't like us before no no you have to again understand the biblical context remember in genesis 1 verse 26 and 27 man is created in the image of god and in his likeness but remember i said we are not the sum total of the image and likeness of god no no we're not but the good that is in us there are dimensions of the character the personhood the the the nature of god in us dimensions but we are not all we are not the the in fact um paul tells us that jesus alone is the express image of his person we are not so jesus is the express image we are not um so god is there and he creates man in his image after his likeness but we remember we are not the express image we are not the sum total we are just a little speck right and he gives us mental capacity he gives us spiritual dynamic he give us emotion all of those things right however after man sinned well before man sinned god they did not have the knowledge of evil they were not aware of of sin being in existence the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was placed in the garden of eden as a test of allegiance to god would they be able to pass the test if they are able to pass the test you're good but they were they failed the test so what did god do after man now got to find out the evil and about sin what did god do let's go to it let's go back to that final test so the man is become as one of us and then god qualifies exactly what he means to know good and evil and so the lord says and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever so notice right there that god says less is able now remember the two trees the tree of knowledge of good and evil and then the tree of life the tree of life was the tree that perpetuated their life the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the tree from which they would receive knowledge of evil there is a distinction between the two trees so even when god created man he did not create man immortality with immortality because god alone has immortality man had to be eaten from the tree of life so lest in his sinful state watch this now lest when he is a sinner he now goes and take from the tree of life and perpetuate sin hallelujah feel like preaching come on somebody stay with me now stay with the preacher i said man after he has sinned would still have access to the tree of life so the moment god sees that man sins what god does he put up a block for man because any whole aftermath sin adam and eve went and ate from the tree of life it don't for me on you we would be immortalized as sinners which would go back to what satan wanted he wanted us to fail he wanted us to be cast out forever he wanted us to be doomed with him forever but god says no even though i create man in my image even though i create man after my likeness even though he has failed i am gonna give him opportunity to make it again i am not going to make man immortalize sin hallelujah praise god somebody should praise the name of the lord god block him out so some of you really some of you read genesis chapter two and and and and and they're thinking that the the the that when god locked them out of the garden of eden he was being wicked god was not being wicked god was being merciful god was being graced god was giving them grace hallelujah after man's sin god blocked them off from the tree of life and god said listen to me i'm not going to make a mess of this story more than oh you'll mess it up hallelujah god says god blot them out and the bible says brothers and sisters bring up the text man bring out the text man the text is sweet therefore the lord's god sent him forth from the garden of god run him out to the garden um lyanna can't sit down anymore man i have to stand up a little man yo they'll lock me up in a casita therefore the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden brothers and sisters that was their home it was a home of perfection it was a home of grace it was a home of love it was a home brothers and sisters where they could actually taste and eat of any tree they could eat of mango tree they could eat of gineb they could eat of sour sap they couldn't eat of any kind of tree but watch this brothers and sisters because god wanted to put in place a plan for the redemption of man because god wanted man to be saved yes he is he was created in his image yes he was created after his likeness but man messed up the story man sinned man fall god says lock him out of the garden because anyhow adam and eve in their sinful state took off the tree or eat from the tree of life they would have immortalized sin and thus god would not be able to save us from our sinful state what a wonderful god what a wonderful savior what a wonderful hope that even when we think that god is not working for us he is working beyond what we are able to understand look at the text again look at the text look at the text look at the text and the bible says that the bible says therefore the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden to till the ground from whence he was taken man was to go back to live a humble life man was to go back to understand that he came from dust that he must leave at home god brought him back to till the very ground of the field so the bible says so he drove out man out of the ground and he placed at the east of the garden of eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep them off the tree of life brothers and sisters this is the message that i wanted to get from today's bible study i wanted to get that man on god not upon the same level we might be created in the image of god we might be created in the likeness of god but god is way superior to us god is way bigger than us his intellect fire out seeds ours we cannot comprehend the vast nature of god we are not able to comprehend it and so what god did with the very nature of man is that god preserved the sinful nature of man so that he could come and what redeem man from himself so right now there is hope for me because adam and eve were not given the opportunity to eat from the tree of life oh brothers and sisters i wish we had more time but this is the end of my bible class for today my time is up my time is up i want you to know brothers and sisters that the nature of man yes the nature of man is linked to god but man and god are not the same thing it is his breath that is keeping us alive and god in order to redeem man preserved man in his sinful state so that you and i could be redeemed that is the message for today that is bible class for today that is what i wanted you to see that the nature of man was preserved so man was not made immortal man is not immortal man is not going to be mortal tomorrow when the trumpet of the lord shall sown and the dead in christ shall rise we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruptible shall put on incorruption then our nature shall be changed and we shall become a brand new individual in jesus christ ladies and gentlemen that's the end of my bible class for this week i want to thank you so very much for joining us remember you're no quiz today but next week i am actually going to post the quiz in the chat you're going to see the quiz based on this week's story as we pick up on next week so all those who are looking for the quiz hold on go back and watch over the thing make sure you get the nature of man and just bring up my final slide as i close so this week we looked on four as four things four things we looked on today summary three things sorry the nature of man before the fall the nature of man at his creation and then the nature of man post his fall so that's it gonna invite you to join me now as we pray to close eternal father we thank you so very much for the truths in your word truths to preserve us in our journey here on earth truths that give us insights hope meaning and perspective to life may you continue to water our hearts may you continue to bless us in jesus name so guys that's it next week we'll pick up next week we're going to be dissecting the dead man lazarus if there's anybody who should be able to tell us something about death it is lazarus the man who died lived again was resurrected and then he died again so we're gonna be getting some insights next week from lazarus in relation to the state of the dead i'm pastor oh on behalf of myself and ella joe and the entire team see you next week for bible class and until then well i think um oh and until then i'm going to pick up my mango hold on ella what what are you doing over here you've come to the garden for something yeah i'm going to come to garden for my mango for your mango yes you would like to ask quietly nicely for it oh and and to ask quietly yes nicely yes because remember now yeah i run the garden oh it's you in charge of the garden yes i don't want to throw you all to the garden like how other persons were throwing it if i come nicely because on behalf of the folk in the chat yes especially those like pat who lives in chicago yes and verna who lives in evanston yes and and mary who lives over there in canada uh since they can't get one look look look look look at that manga behind you over here you want me to look over look over there why do you want me to look just look look at look at the mango over there look at the mango [Laughter] now you see the man is stealing in the garden in the garden i'm just thinking what is mine you know but it's okay it was a wonderful bless your heart it's it's it's really blessed today yes and you know so amazing elder the very things you talked about today yes my boys and i my family and i with my wife we we were talking about the very same things and my son my eldest son said but daddy why why would they why do they have to eat from the tree to get life correct and i had to remind him that if god had given them eternal life yeah with the possibility of sinning we'd have eternal damnation and you know as i speak about that you know ella um you look on uh if you look on the first question that was asked you would have seen that majority of the person i don't know if you can bring up about the first questions majority of the person's rightfully so all um i mean not rightfully so understandably so felt that mortality immortality was given in the guard if they could just pull that up i think you will be able to see the bar and you'll be able to see exactly how the thinking was because i noticed it was going up and up and up and it shows that we we there it is 71 individuals majority of the individuals actually feel that are felt before the study that um immortality was there before the fall only 42 individuals failed to know and then you see 11 persons are not sure and that's out of 124 individuals who are actually on mentee at this time and i think if you look at the stats that way you can add the 11 to the 71. well that oh oh i get to know you yes yeah a lot of people felt that so yeah i'm so glad that you made that clear today and it is really out of god's love for us why he did not perpetuate sin by giving us immortality before the test yes because many people have questioned the way in which god responded to adam and eve they thought it was a very high-handed yes harsh and capricious but when you look on the overall picture when you consider the effect that it would have for god to step in and to bring the redemption god's saying you know what adam go go go loot boat got illegal for me to come and it was while doing that that he gained insights and perspective into how he himself ought to be as a human being and you know pastor it's not unlike if you think about it how you and i are as parents there are going to be some times when you have to step in and put your foot down as a parent and provide some discomfort for your children in order for them to grow so god had to move them away from this home so they could understand the the to share oh what was the word i wouldn't call it the wickedness of sin but just that yeah in order for him to come now and show what he had to do to bring us back right um and the the the way in which god is teaching is the way in which as you said we as parents for those who have children either biological or otherwise we as children have to actually do it if you're not if you're not a parent then our teacher does deals with um classroom testing and management and and whole principle deals with management of the school but i think the concept of death is shrouded with a lot of emotion yes and um that's why we we decided that we were going to take a different a surgical approach so next week we'll be building on this going a little deeper in terms of death the state of death etc and some of the questions that we see in the chat they'll be coming out so we really hope that you are at home um i will be reviewing the questions in the chat because while i was doing this study i was not clearly able to see everything some of them would have missed me and then we have others on mentee that we can look on but you did a great job thank you so much we were blessed god god continue to bless you and you can now go with your mango in fact i will do a little bit better i will give you i think there is this yes so i am going to give you an apple for your wife yes and for yourself yes honey if these don't come if these don't make it home then um now now sister elephant i sent one for you if and i'm doing it on national television so if your husband does not bring it home please don't break one brother i can't go home with one mango though no don't start that elder don't don't ever go there so you sh no no you and your wife are one you share the one mango you are giving her two we can share mango we don't share mango elder elder no my sister all right so my sister this one is for my wife your wife or my wife this one my sister is for you hallelujah so you take this home from your wife yes god bless you now and i know i'm going to give you a little bit of oil and you're kind yes yes you're kind you're being gracious into god you're you're being you're being kind we're very great god bless you have a wonderful evening my fasting so how was church today did you enjoy our worship service i hope that you were blessed because today we wanted to take you through an avenue of prayer we wanted to share with you the wonder of what it means to be in god's presence and to talk with him in an intimate open transparent way about our needs we talked about jabez and blessing we talked about david and repentance we talked about hannah and abuse and emotional need we talked about thankfulness we have been so grateful to god and we have also talked about forgiveness and all of you in the chat helped us to appreciate just where you are and we asked god to take care of your needs and ours many hearts were blessed and if you were blessed well i know you were blessed because you said it in the chat but we want to make sure that you share the word and tell somebody next week because we're going to do it again all over again next week sabbath as we are here talking about our spiritual journey god has really been good to us and i hope you realize that the uh the fruits are going down during the time that many of you were trying to get your lunch in preparation for the bible study some folk came in here and and took some of your fruits but since i know you don't want any of the fruits to spoil we have two julie mangos and on your behalf i will take this one home for my wife although she loves east indians so i'm the julie person so uh but i will take it home because i've learnt after 27 years that it's very important to offer her a piece of my mango whether she likes it or not i have to offer her a piece so she says no so i'm taking this home and hopefully she will say well i'm going to take it home and i'm going to offer her a piece and if she says no i will enjoy all of it if she says she wants a piece i will smile and give her a piece and hope she doesn't take a big piece and then i will take home the other fruits and we have some folk here who would like to have them so we're going to share them for those of you in virtual land if you would like to have some of our fruits come and visit us next week the place is open we'll be happy to have you or we can send it to you by virtual mail we are looking forward to the rest of the sabbath we're going to have to close out here in a few moments because of the lockdown in jamaica but just before we do so we're going to have a special song and then we're going to come right back to share with you our closing moments may god continue to bless you as you listen to the wonderful artistry of adel on the keyboard [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so as we close out today having just listened to a stirring by the class where we asked the question what happened our lesson this week talked about the fact that god created man in his image and in making god in his image he made a perfect group set of individuals a perfect couple but something went wrong and god had to go to plan b to make sure that plan a would actually work so i didn't get a chance to work this out with odell and i'm not sure if he knows this song it's a song that i grew up listening to many years ago in the bahamas and it speaks beautifully about god's desire for us i think it's a fitting way to end our worship session today it's called in the image of god as i said i didn't get a chance to rehearse it so i may just have to do it acapella but the words of this song speak to what god has done for us in the image of god we were made long ago with a purpose divine hear his glory to show but we failed him one day and like sheep went astray thinking not off the coast with likeness of lost but from eternity had in mind the work of calvary the lost to find from his heaven so broad christ came down earth to trod so that men might live again in the image of god know that i have believed and the save you're received now that i from the cry of my guilt i'm relieved i will live for my lord not for again [Music] thinking of what his grace [Music] i'll never comprehend [Music] redemption [Music] how christ could condescend to die for man [Laughter] such a savior i'll praise days as i upward on one in the image oh [Music] god i have a song that song since i was about 14 years old it just came back to my mind odile thank you for backing me up it might not have been perfect but is a perfect song about what god has done for you you want to live in his image give him your life and he will in turn grant you salvation god bless you god bless you god bless you see you next week right here on the virtual church let us pray or they'll play something nice in the background while we talk to jesus heavenly father we want to live in your image we are so grateful for what you have done for us we are grateful that you came to die for us we are careful we are so grateful that you lived for us we are grateful that you have gone back to plead for us and we are so happy and looking forward to the fact that one day you will return for us help us to be ready help us to give you our lives help us to give you our hearts help us to witness and testify about the fact that salvation is offered to everyone if we would only give you our hearts and our lives so lord as we prayed this morning and as we just sang just now we thank you for this image that you have rebuilt for us help us to take all that you have to give us and allow it to get into our systems and turn us into what you want us to be as we seek to live in the image of god thank you for hearing thank you for blessing thank you for answering our prayer in jesus name amen god bless you remember to like share subscribe to our page tell somebody else that jesus loves them and then you go and demonstrate that love as we all seek to live in the image of god god bless you [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: East Jamaica Conference

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Length: 382min 40sec (22960 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 03 2021