Sabbath Worship Experience - 9/18/21

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] good morning and happy sabbath this is renee nixon simmons coming to you today and i am joined by two very godly men pastor marshall good morning would you like to greet everyone yes ma'am good morning and happy sabbath blessed to be here with you today and elder stewart you're joining us at the table as well how are you doing this fine sabbath i am fine i just want to say good morning to everyone and as we enter into this lesson i just want us to learn so that we can be transformed thank you pastor marshall can you offer us our opening prayer sure let's bow our heads for prayer as we enter god's word this morning holy ghost we just ask that you will help us that you will guide us into all truth may we be transformed by your word through this conversation in christ's name we do pray amen amen this week we anxiously study the restless prophet but before we delve into this study let's just take a quick look and a review of what we studied on last week longing for more there are important lessons for us to learn from our past and we can use symbols or models to help us understand where we come from and navigate where we're going a wise king once said there is nothing new under the sun but despite all of man's advances human nature remains the same the mistakes we have made throughout history seem to repeat themselves over and over again there are lessons for us to learn from the past that can help us learn how to have a better future god gives us stories and symbols to reveal the plan of salvation to us in a way to help us comprehend spiritual things more effectively after moses led the israelites into freedom god gave him the blueprints for a model for our salvation that was filled with symbols that was called the sanctuary and the tabernacle everything they did in the sanctuary was only a reminder of what god was already doing for them god gave them the instructions to remind them of the fact that he was there doing the work of salvation for them later jesus instructed his disciples in a similar way we don't keep god's commandments to get saved we try to keep them because we love him and because he has already saved us as wonderful as the sabbath is we can't keep it to be saved we remember it because god gave us the sabbath as a gift in ev in the at very beginning to help us better understand what life will be like with jesus in heaven now gentlemen are we ready to break bread and see what we can learn from this week's lesson entitled the restless prophet yes yes the story of jonah is a mission story let's see how the mission story ties in with the 11 lessons we have studied thus far in the quarter entitled rest in christ a memory text is taken from the story of jonah in chapter 4 verse 11 where god asked and should i not pity nineveh that great city in which are more than 120 000 persons who cannot discern between their right and their left and much livestock our lesson starts off at the very end of the jonah mission story his story is one that is told in both jewish and christian scripture it's about a prophet sent by god to deliver a message to the people of nineveh you ready gentlemen let's get it fantastic we start out seeing that god tells the prophet jonah to go warn the people of nineveh jonah does not want to go was disobedient with what god told him to do he meets god's response to his disobedience head on he encounters pagan sailors along the way rather than go to nineveh he tells the sailors to cast him overboard so he could die god intervenes and gives him a three day forced rest he complies to go preach a one-sentence sermon to the ninevites he sees their repentance he gets angry at god for their salvation and then we see this awesome lesson god gives his restless prophet as an example for us today as we open our lesson and break the bread today you are reminded to join us in this feast by sending us your questions to sabbath schooltable ephesus.org as we discuss today's lesson sunday running away throughout this quarter we see at least two men of god running away we saw joseph running from mrs potiphar and elijah running from another woman sister jezebel but here there is no woman or man involved there was a man who was running because he was not at peace elder stewart can you share with everyone why was jonah running why might he have been afraid to go to nineveh and could it have anything to do with the political unrest at that time i think it's it's twofold okay uh i know the lesson did not delve into this but i'm gonna kind of bring it out a little bit on the one hand when we when you study especially uh what was happening in that time and right before then you what you would see is is that the assyrians they were oppressing god's people and not only were they oppressing god's people we see what they did to uh to to [Music] those that were in rebellion against them they they slaughtered uh so many uh of those that were loyal to the king at the time in zika they were that was uh loyal to him they slaughtered them they impaled them they did all kind of evil against them and then they took others and put them in slavery and now here you are a prophet of god and god is telling you i want you to go tell the very nation that is oppressing our people from a nationalistic standpoint that would not go over well with many of us right and then not only that you have to have had some kind of fear of going in there am i i'm going to go and i'm going to tell them that god is going to destroy them what if they destroy me and so he did not want to go i believe for two reasons he did not want to go because you know i think if you see a nation oppressing your people and god says i'm going to destroy them in 40 days what you would probably say that's just justice coming to them and the last thing that i think many of us will probably want to do is to do what go tell them so that they could escape god's punishment when i would have wanted as a prophet of god wanted god to bring a punishment upon them for what they have done and so therefore jonah did not want to go for that reason i think some of it's prejudiced some of it is you know of the fact that he wanted to see them destroyed and so he decided to go literally in the opposite direction from where god has sent them i mean you could not have been more uh direct with god that you were you did not want to go there and so he did he went west when god said to go east and so as a result of that i think that when you look at it uh in a human perspective you could kind of understand a little bit why probably didn't want to go but he was disobeying god and god is trying to teach us and him a lesson and that lesson that god is trying to teach us is that we cannot look at anyone no matter how oppressive they may be and believe that god does not love them just like he loves us and and so as a result of that i think what we see here is prejudice could be racism in there you know i don't know if this racism is the right word to use in this particular cultural uh issues going on and also god wanted to do something for your enemy that you believe shouldn't be done for them which is the assyrians well we do see a spirit of running away here oh yeah absolutely and and he may have had all kinds of thoughts running through his head but pastor marshall can you see a spirit of running away or fleeing from god in people today and how effective is that for those who may never hear what god wants us to share that's a great question sister renee um i think it is definitely something that we need to consider and the answer to that question is yes i can speak to my own life personally feeling impressed to do god's work and not wanting to do it simply because i didn't think it paid enough so when it is all said and done in many different instances we do see people running from the call of god but not being at rest when when when they receive that call and they run from it fantastic let's look to monday's lesson a three day rest now many of us or at least those of you who are still working rejoice for a three day weekend because we figure we get a nice long rest but this was a three-day rest that was forced and it was different so here we're taking a critical look at jonah and his first three days of rest while on the ship trying to get as far away as he could he ends up on a ship with pagan sailors during this storm they had figured out that this storm might have been different than any other storm they had encountered and they prayed to their gods plural the sailors were praying to their gods and they saw no relief in sight they cast some lots woke up jonah from his sleep and asked him to pray to his god because surely he was the reason for this violent storm elder stewart tell us what occurred next that led jonah having his three day rest what was so interesting about his prayer and how did it change him well before i get to that part of it i just want to say this jonah was so determined not to go that he asked the sailors on board they were more righteous than jonah at that moment in time because they were hesitant of throwing him overboard so he wanted to be thrown overboard because he would rather have to have died than to go to nineveh to let them know that god was going to destroy an enemy now what happens is this when jonah you know when the lord says he prepared a fish i have to believe what the lord says right here he prepared a fish because he was kept alive in the belly of that fish but when you are at your lowest in your in the rock bottom of your of of your life or in your journey and all you can do you're going to draw the resources that you have had in the past and that resource that he had was that he had a relationship with the lord and all of a sudden now jonah now realized that you know what god is in the temple and i will not see him again and you're going to come you know you're going to come face to face with what you have done and the fact that you now are running from god and you can't run from him anymore and so what jonah did was he now he prayed to god and that's a lesson for us that it doesn't matter how far you may feel that you have fallen god is always there waiting for you and what jonah did was jonah prayed to god and like he his mind go because you know in the jewish um thinking back in those days is that where does god reside he resides in the temple where the temple in jerusalem that's where god is and he he longed to see now god's face and his prayer was to see god's face again and as a result of that as a result of that his prayer god now allowed him because he was in a doomed condition god now gave him one more chance right and we see what he did with the opportunity that god gave him was jonah 100 converted no he was not i think that the lesson would bring that out he was not 100 converted and that tells me something when i you know when i look and i i look at ourselves today sometimes we have unreal expectation from those who god has called to ministry and we believe that they must be perfect because if they're not perfect then they are lacking and god should not use him and what we're seeing in this in in this lesson right here is god will use us even when we are imperfect to do the things that he wants we just have to have a willing heart and god will use us and god doesn't throw us away because of that so i want this three-day rest was to give jonah pause so he could think but it also has a messianic purpose to it because jesus was going to come he was going to come here and he was going to die and he was going to rest and we were going to be redeemed because of what he has done and what he did for us and so when i look at that i i see god bringing jonah through this experience as an example to us of what he is going to do for us and what he did for us on on on with sending jesus christ into the world and also what we as imperfect individuals can do when god when we allow god to use us amen amen that's powerful pastor marshall now i hope you have on your spiritual boots because i need you to march through this this is a two-part question was there anything left out in jonah's prayer that was significant and what can we draw from jonah when he said i have been banished from your sight yet i will look again toward your holy temple what if anything does this tell us to answer the first part of your question i think jonah uh didn't leave anything out it was his desire to not be in it was his desire to not lose contact with god so essentially in looking at that prayer we see that desire which is a desire that we should all possess to never lose contact with god it reminds me of when david said to god please don't take your holy spirit away from me and in looking at this i think elder stewart brought it up a little bit as well in looking at his desire to see jerusalem to know where god to to go where god is it it puts everything into a closer connection and it connects those dots that brings us to this realization so i don't think he left anything out and to that point i think it's just that desire to be with god and one recognizing that i cannot be with god if i'm dead and had he died on his way to tarshish right which we don't some people would say that spain right that he was headed toward spain but if he was to die on his way toward tarshish when it's all said and done he would have died in his sin because he would have failed to deliver the message that god wanted him to deliver because of his own abstinence and disobedience thank you ella stewart this pandemic has forced us into a certain type of rest would you agree absolutely so let's look at how our ministry looks after this pandemic we know jonah stepped out of his three-day rest deciding to definitely go preach to nineveh but what do you see for us today regarding how we can minister to the unsaved you know sometimes we look at um situations that come up you know if you were to have asked or said to to me or to even to the pastors uh in march of last year when the pandemic was just about to take full effect that we would not be in church for uh a year and a half plus and that somehow when you look at the conditions then and what we were going through and think of and you try to now look to the future we would have probably said that we were going to be in a very bad bad situation if not almost unrecoverable from that perspective but what we see just like with jonah uh god's grace is something that allows us to to it gives us new perspective jonah was in the belly of the the fish for three days he got a new perspective when he wanted to see god for like the past like the pastor marshall just stated right he wanted to see god he did not want to be out of god's grace when we went into this pandemic you know uh we may have been concerned about whatever momentum we thought we may have been building towards but god took though this particular pandemic and gave us a new perspective and how we can reach others for christ and i believe it if that energy and that vision that we we are now developing and having would not have come about had it not been for us getting that pause that was needed to give us well you know ministry you know church is not just coming in here and doing the same thing over and over and over again and feeling good about ourselves there are others out there that would never have been able to uh to to to be introduced to christ in a way that we can impact them now so we have a new perspective we we're developing a new perspective we're seeing what this changed environment can bring about and so we have to now position ourselves just like jonah when he was spat out of that fish he had a new perspective he had a new view of ministry it took him in short order to get to nineveh and he was the greatest evangelist that ever absent christ that ever lived when you can go into a city of a hundred and twenty thousand with a king and preach a sermon that says in 40 days now remember now the sermon he did not preach 40 days he said in 40 days it was going to be destroyed and not only did the inhabitants but the very king repented and god stayed what he did now it tells me that he had a new energy a new impetus to go out and do the things that god wants him to do i think that if we were to look at this granted this is nowhere near um you know this pandemic has really taught us and the church in general what we can do in ministry i believe that we need to as i say seize the moment and don't let this die down once we go back to that whatever that new normal is going to be because i think that god is wrapping things up and he wants us to be that jonah to that nineveh and that nineveh is the world and if we're going to be that jonah as imperfect as we are as jonah was if we allow god to use us and we have that desire and we push it and do what god wants us to do the very same thing can happen to the nineveh of this world as it did back then five four thousand years ago absolutely it's so important for us to be able to look at our lessons to look at our prophets to look at our scripture and see how it applies to us see how we can have an understanding of looking at examples as the script as a lesson keeps telling us to look at examples and see how it applies to us how we can transform us each and every one of us to then go ahead and follow through on god's mission let's look at tuesday's lesson mission accomplished we see throughout scripture men of god and prophets who declared the word of god noah he preached to people of his day that the world was going to be destroyed was it successful in saving anyone other than his family no not at all not one person we look at jeremiah and his years of preaching ezekiel elijah and so many more preached that we're not always or immediately successful then comes jonah as elder steward said what a message he gave that one sentence sermon an entire nation repents pastor marshall when we read that the king of nineveh stepped down from his throne and sat in the dust of the ground why is this seen as such a symbolic act that would that was an impact on his nation i think it's important because it shows the head of the nation exhibiting humility humility that trickled down to the entire nation as a whole that caused not only them but the animals as the scriptures say to repent from their sins in the case of jonah in comparison to all the other people that you just mentioned jonah would have appeared to be have been the most successful of the prophets um but when it's all said and done as it relates to the king and his message it shows that there is reverence that there is an acknowledgement of people of god from people that we would consider to be heathen but it also shows us that it is possible for people who do not subscribe to the same system of beliefs that we do to subscribe to them once they hear the message and sometimes it causes me to think that jonah's message wasn't really for the ninevites the message that god gave jonah to give to the ninevites was for jonah himself even though the ninevites and their king and the animals are the one that respond to it fabulous one of our readers added i truly hope the sda people did not get stuck and continue to grow outside of the ritual the pandemic forced you and many others to be refreshed and renewed do not be like the jews and get stuck on ritual seek new ways to share the word of god we thank you for that comment elder stewart yes the lesson points out that the people of nineveh may not have had all the stories of god and his people of israel but they might have been at work that led them what might have been at work that led them to their repentance what was going on where we see that they repented well you know we were all made in the image of god all of us regardless of where we are in our journey with with the lord and the heathen knows that knows right from wrong and you want to ask your question how how can someone who doesn't know god understand that murder is not right understands that stealing is not right you don't have to that's something that is just it seems like it's inbred in human nature to understand those things right and it's because we were made in god's image the fact that they may have been worshiping idols and and so on god through the holy spirit was still working through them and and and so you when you see uh people in this world today will look around and see the the the evil that is going on they may not believe in god but they know something is wrong and so when someone begins when someone comes and begins to crystallize the fact that hey god there is a god that's really is in charge and that guy says if you don't stop what you're doing because they knew that what they were doing was not right but if everybody is doing wrong then sometimes what you want to do is you want to just continue to do go along and do all the things that is being done that is wrong but you're looking for that check that needs to come and when jonah came and jonah begins to tell them that listen the path that you're traveling now you know it's wrong and god is saying you have to stop you have to don't do that anymore which is repentance and it begins to resonate now i also want to think this is just and and this is not scriptural this is just my thinking remember when jonah was on that boat and they cast lot and jonah's solution to the problem was to throw me overboard and the sailors they did not believe in god because they went to their gods when they said no we're not going to throw you overboard they they tried their best not to throw them overboard and they try to roll as hard as they can to try to get to shore but it was not going to happen and jonah says throw me overboard because i'm running from my god i would want to believe that even though they were heading in this direction i also want to believe that somewhere down the line some of those people that was on that boat that got saved may have gone back to nineveh and when they see jonah there he may have been bleached from the from the the violence inside the belly of that fish and they see him preaching and and they realize that you know what the sea became calm once he was thrown overboard so that's that god is the real god that word could have gotten back to nineveh also and that can cause another individual believe that okay you know i need to trust this god there were also slaves that were probably brought from israel into to be slaves in in nineveh and so on that may have given them a view of the true and living god but the scripture doesn't tell us that in particular but i want to believe that when the holy spirit begins to work on people's heart and you are receptive to it and you begin to make changes to your life things begin to happen and so it is just like here when we allow god to use us and people begin to respond that will happen you know what you don't got me hot thinking about the holy spirit i tell you the holy spirit is so it's so impactful to see how he moves in people's lives towards repentance pastor marshall in looking at jonah's prayer while in the belly of the fish we saw his gratefulness to god for not abandoning him but we did not see the repentance we've seen such as with david is repentance a crucial part of our christian experience today it absolutely it absolutely is in looking at jonah he may not have said i am sorry but his desire and his confession conveys to us that he wants to be in the presence of god and one of the things that stands out to me as elder stuart was speaking was the fact that when jonah is spit out of the belly out of the whale itself it's ironic that he's at nineveh which means that that fish had to be traveling toward the destination the entire time that was the space and the room that god was was giving jonah to come to the realization that this is what i really need to do and again this mission was not solely for the ninevites this mission was for jonah and god wanting to lead jonah toward that repentance which is so critical to reveal to god that we are in need of forgiveness in order to stand in right relationship with him preacher man you just you just spit out another nugget where that fish was pointed in the direction of nineveh even though and in spite of jonah's desire to go in the whole opposite direction god had worked it out that three days of rest where jonah was now able to say yes i need to do the will of god and that fish spit him out in the direction of nineveh powerful powerful let's look at wednesday an angry restless missionary our study of jonah does not end in chapter 3 after the people repented of their sins and are delivered the message of jonah hits its true impact in the lesson of jonah we see in chapter 4 that not once not twice not three times but jonah asked even a fourth time to die he was so angry that god had spared the people of nineveh that a plant providing him shade from the heat and his anger about that and god about his decision he wanted to die like other men of the bible we see that he too was a runner he ran when god told him to go preach and he ran to the east to sit back and watch the destruction of nineveh the lesson of jonah in chapter four is indeed a lesson we cannot overlook elder stewart tell us just the facts of chapter four what happened when jonah left nineveh after he preached that 40 day warning and the people have repented what happened to jonah i think jonah expected that the ninja vice would not repent okay so that in of itself is a shocker the next thing that i think happened with jonah and the lesson kind of alludes to it is that now he wanted them to see that he was really telling the truth that we're going to repent they're going to be destroyed i told you so right that did not happen and then the other part to this story here is that jonah understood who god was he knew that because in his discourse i would i call it a discourse retort to god was that you know i know that you are a gracious compassionate loving slow to anger god and you were you would look for any excuse not to destroy nineveh and i knew you were going to do that i know that if they just would show a little bit of compassion or a little bit of well maybe we should not you would find it's like i'm looking for any little thing that you can give me that you're going to change and i won't do what i'm going to do jonah saying that about god because he said i know you are slow to anger i know that you're compassionate and in jonah's jonah's prejudice and so on towards the uh the the assyrians and ninevites is that he wanted them was to be destroyed and then he did not want to lose his reputation because when you start to turn the spotlight from out to others to self that will begin to to cloud your vision cloud your perspective cloud how you approach and how you you will minister to others and that's what jonah was doing jonah was doing it and he because he didn't believe that the ninevites were worthy of god's compassion he did not want to go and when god demonstrated that he was so compassionate that he would look for any like almost for any excuse not to destroy them no jonah was angry you know i i'm reminded of the story of sodom and gomorrah if you remember when the when the angels the angels of the lord and the other two angels were on their way to sodom and they stopped by abraham if you remember what abraham did abraham said if there are 50 people righteous in the name would you destroy the god says no and then okay okay i gotta look at my i'm thinking i gotta look at my my my nephew's household okay if they're 40 30 20 then he gets down to 10 now 10 got to be jonah his wife his kids and maybe the you know their husbands or whatever it is and when god says if there are ten righteous i would not do it he couldn't go any further because if their if jonah's families if ten of them in there is not righteous then no one is what we're seeing is the kind of god that we serve it's a god that is looking for a reason to do what to redeem us and he's looking and since we are saved by grace none of us can ever earn what god is going to give us god is saying to each and every the minute you turn to me i'll give you what you can earn and in this particular case jonah was restless and angry because god was so compassionate towards the ninevites he did not want to be as compassionate towards them as he believed that god was to be compassionate with the israelites and because of that and his shortcoming that's the case okay so we we see that jonah was pretty upset and we also note that he told god not only were you compassionate but i i told you that before i even left the house pastor marshall we see that this entire story of jonah he asked to die at least four times then face what god asked him to do tell us more about the response god gave to jonah and interpret what god is trying to show children that is an awesome question sister renee the god that made jonah is the god that made the fish and the god that made jonah and the fish is the god who created the ninevites and the god that created jonah the fish the ninevites is the god that created the gourd he is the god that also allowed the gourd to be eaten but at the same time he is the god that made the worm that ate the gourd and what god is trying to show these individuals what comes out shows jonah which comes out in the first chapter and jonah says it my god is the god who made the sea and the dry land is that god is responsible for creating all things including all people the only thing that separates jonah from the people that he ascend to is nationality so therefore the point that god is trying to make to jonah is why should i destroy people that i created shouldn't i give them a chance to respond to my grace the way that i gave you an opportunity to respond to my grace you should have been consumed by the waters before you were swallowed by the fish but god extended his grace and pointed you in the direction that you needed to go the god that is our creator is the god that is also our savior and if we allow our anger to blind us if we allow what we don't understand to prevent us from seeing who god is and what god is trying to accomplish then there is a possibility that we will lose sight of his saving grace in our own life and that's what he was trying to teach to jonah okay see you soon over there we don't put the holy spirit on this table now we're putting grace on this table elder stewart yes if jonah was preaching what god had told him to say why should he think he would be seen as a false prophet rather than what god was being merciful and spare the people of of nineveh do you think that it had anything to do with his prophecy to king jeroboam only to have his prophecy reversed by god through amos because this doesn't seem like it was the first time that it happened with jonah jonah had a prophecy uh gave a prophecy god overturned it so now jonah's sitting out there on the rock waiting for the ninja vice to be destroyed and he's looking no destruction what was going through his head at that time well maybe i'm over two i could be over two right you know uh and and his his answer to god is very revealing he says i know that you are a gracious and compassionate slow to anger and what an abounding in love right you know and i know you are a god who relents i know you're gonna you know and now i'm gonna be you know i may be looked at as a false prophet you know and what happens is that when you now take the focus off of god to you things begin to happen that is always going to go contrary to who to you and then you begin to lose your focus that is not about you it's about god's love for his creatures and that's what jonah was missing and i love what the pastor said when he talked about that you know this is the guy that created everything he created even the worms that ate the gourd and he created you he created the ninevites why would he not want to save them just like he saved you you don't deserve to be saved but i'm saving i'm giving you grace the same grace that he's offered you he's offering it to the device and that was it was so apparent you know man so beautiful let's reflect on the real reason for the inclusion of this book in both the jewish and christian scripture it is a warning to many two who have the wrong perception of the big picture israel was more concerned about their own image amongst the other nations rather than making a difference to those nations pastor marshall what warning is it to us as christians today from the old testament standpoint it shows us that ultimately god can use anybody secondly from the new testament standpoint it shows us that the people that we don't think will be saved will be saved and not only that when jesus makes reference to that he expresses that they will serve as a witness of righteousness and a lot of time we can look down our nose a lot of times we can look down our nose at other people because of what we assume about them but in the judgment it will reveal be revealed to us that sometimes the people who we look at as less than are more righteous in the eyes of god or are righteous in the eyes of god when we did not assume them to be so again in the from the old testament standpoint it demonstrates that god can withdraw his judgment and dispense grace but from the new testament standpoint we see that god can use people who we look down as less than to show us what the standard of righteousness is very good i'm learning so much as we break this bread you know jonah's actions remind us that man is not like god jonah is a perfect example of privileged hypocrisy and merciless pride and in reading this book we see ourselves in the prophet we are like jonah everyone is a sinner no matter what god has called us to do jonah was a prophet and yet in the same need of grace as the ninevites there is no righteous one none not at all we see the worst side of jonah in chapter four jonah wanted the people of nineveh to get what they deserve instead of the kindness and mercy of god it's pretty clear that jonah did not understand grace very well he did not understand that they deserved the same judgment the ninevites deserved that he was just as deep a sinner as the people he reluctantly called to repentance sister white some of us call her auntie ellen she points out even further that jealous of his reputation jonah lost sight of the infinitely greater value of the souls in that wretched city because jonah was blinded we saw similar behavior in the church leaders who lost sight of the healing of a man at the pool of bethesda and can only see him carrying his bed on the sabbath while walking because they were blinded these are stories and reminders for us today let's look at our thursday lesson a two-way street it opens by reminding us that jonah's story is a mission story and it appears from what we have studied thus far that jonah needed the missionary trip as much as the ninevites a lesson asked us to read the book of jude in the new testament as there are golden nuggets contained in this one single chapter book that helps us to see the lesson we can learn about jonah and his mission story jude warns us about the sin and doom of ungodly people but he ends with a call to persevere elder stewart can you give us a synopsis of what jude is telling us and what we are to do to preserve persevere jude 1 verse 20 and 23 then i'll read it for you it says by building yourselves up in your most high faith and praying in the holy spirit keep yourselves in god's love as you wait for the mercy of our lord jesus christ to bring us to eternal life and jude gives us the following study from the message bible says go easy for those who hesitate in faith go after those who take the wrong way be tender with sinners but not soft on sin because sin stinks die heaven so tell us what is the message jude is telling us and how does it relate to jonah sitting out in the sun being angry with god i think that the uh the issue for every one of us uh on our journey in life and in our relationship with christ is to take the focus off of ourselves because your greatest enemy is not the person who you think is your enemy your greatest enemy is yourself and because your greatest enemy is yourself you need to be very careful and and judas telling us basically if you want to stay in god's love you have to have the love for others it has to be not me centric it has to be other century and if we if you want to grow in god you have to be god-centric and other-centric give love to others because god says that will pour it into you what you need and if you want to grow in grace you have to not focus on self thank you you know we've read this doxology so many times from jude as our ending to a worship experience and it has so much more power when we see that it is not simply a prayer that dismisses us but jude is sharing so much more what is jude saying pastor marshall when he tells us to him who is able to keep you from stumbling to present you before the glorious present without fault and with great joy to the only god our savior be glory majesty power and authority through jesus christ our lord before all ages what is this message and how does it relate to what jonah could have learned from his mission experience to answer this question let me start off by just saying really quickly what it's not saying it's not saying let me say this way without him that you willful without god you willful but god possesses the power to keep you from falling therefore we should constantly align ourselves with his agenda instead of our own jonah subscribed to his own agenda because as it says in the final portion of the book that he knew that god was kind and compassionate so he didn't even want to be bothered and in that moment through his actions he demonstrated that his agenda was not aligned with god therefore he fell but god was able to keep him from falling once he had those three days to rest inside of the belly of the fish therefore once we come to that place where we realize that god is the only one that can keep us from falling then we are going to be in an okay and an alright place amen one of our listeners says god works with both christians and gentiles jonah's finally letting god speak through him is an example of why we need to let his light shine through us our lives may be the only example of christ people will see that's right as we draw our final thoughts and seeing the whole story of jonah as a prophet of god who was upset that the people of god called him to minister and indeed repent and accept salvation what examples can we draw here are questions everyone might need to re to ponder what example for you does jonah's reaction to minister to people to whom you may not like what example for you does the jonas story bring to light about your true thoughts on god's grace to others particularly to those who have wronged you one example for you have you seen wherein you have run away from something god wants you to do one example for you does jonah's prayer when in the belly of the fish he acknowledged his gratefulness of not being abandoned but there was no mention of his repentance but we saw how he did repent what example for you can you see from the story of jonah in anything in your life that may compromise your true rest in christ elder stewart in one minute would you like to share any final words on what was the essential message of the book of jonah in our rest in christ the thing that the lesson that i take from it is is that god can use anyone even a reluctant prophet to do his will we must show our willingness at some point to be used by god and god can use us and what i get from that is is that because of god's great love for mankind for the creatures that he has made he will go to the ends of the earth to save each and every one of us regardless of where we are in our journey you may have never known about god but god is always reaching out to you and just like he did with jonah he was long-suffering and patient with jonah and using him to reach others and so he will do with us today and i i'm encouraged by it because i know that he's not finished with me and i and anyone else out there can be used by god to do great things for him and it's never too late to be used by god so give god your life and let him use you to do great things for him thank you pastor marshall you have 45 seconds what would you like to share on any final thoughts on what was the essential message of the book of jude in our rest in christ first of all god is not willing that any should perish and in jude the formula is present to show us how we prevent ourselves from perishing which is by staying connected to god who is able to keep us from falling god bless you thank you thank you gentlemen and everyone who has participated today you are again invited to send in your sabbath school questions during the week as you study daily remember you can send them to sabbath school table at ephesus.org your challenge this week is to consider what attitude you might have towards others that could reflect the same wrong attitude that jonah displayed and let god work it out within you thank you and have a blessed sabbath day and remember there's always a seat for you here at the sabbath school table thank you and have a blessed sabbath day let us pray father in heaven we just want to thank you and praise your name for this lesson that we have studied may we o god be used by you to win others for your kingdom in jesus precious name amen amen [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] welcome to the ephesus seventh-day adventist church here in the heart of harlem today is world path under day world pathfinder day is a special sabbath in which we celebrate what it means to be a pathfinder every year a different theme is chosen and it is a day full of singing preaching smiles and path on the spirit this event takes place on the 3rd sabbath of september each year this year the theme is i will go which sums up the path on the spirit if you've never heard of the pathfinders before you are in a you are in for a treat if you know about pathfinders already remember we are the pathfinder strong okay let's get ready to worship [Music] mr [Music] us [Music] so [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Applause] um [Music] [Music] let us pray dear heavenly father thank you for bringing us into another week thank you for protecting our families and providing for us we invite you into our worship service and ask you to bless every household watching this service as well thank you for the pathfinder ministry please save us in your kingdom in the loving name of jesus we pray amen [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Laughter] is [Music] him this morning is for the beauty of the earth let us sing together [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] the is of god the praise of god [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] is [Music] beloved i greet you in jesus name and i welcome you into the fine fellowship of the ephesus 7 adventist church now the first thing that i'd like to say to you is sign me up sign me up what am i talking about well we have been talking about getting our signed situation straight here at church for a long time some of you began to even despair if it would ever get done some no doubt we're been asking is there even such a thing as a new sign does it exist or is it a figment of my imagination well i've got wonderful news for you standing out in front of the ephesus seventh adventist church is a brand new sanctified dignified hoping to be glorified new church sign and the only reason i do not have a shot of it today is because we have not programmed it yet the day we were going to do it the internet went down and we needed the internet to get it programmed however as you drive by the church that sign will wink at you it will wave at you it will greet you it will let you know what church this is who we are and why we are here i want to thank you for your support and i want to encourage you as we tackle some of the other building projects that are before us in the next couple of weeks in the next couple of months hang in there church we want to get it all done to the honoring glory of god by god's grace next week we will have the dedication for the sign but stay tuned we'll give you more information about that however i want you to know that your prayers have been answered and your patience has been rewarded you no longer have to walk past this beautiful building wondering whose house is this we praise god also for those celebrating birthdays you know we're going to get back on the birthday track we really are you know the pandemic disrupted a lot of things however as we're attempting to do that i did receive word that a couple of folks either have or had birthdays in the last little bit sister christiana garrison one of our online watchers we greet you in jesus name and we say all you make 71 look good god bless you sis in the kingdom back has a birthday coming up god bless you my dear one of our faithful online viewers sister piola small has a birthday coming up and there are other birthdays out there we want to give all of you shout outs so we're going to get our birthday act together in jesus name now in a couple of weeks we have a big event coming up the health fair yes the health fair don't you just feel healthier hearing me say those two words health fair oh beloved we need your help we need your help we need your help oh and by the way did i mention we need your help if you have not signed up to volunteer as of yet please do so we're going to be set we're going to be set up on the first sunday in october october 3rd and we're going to have all of 123rd street blocked off we'll have the tables out they'll be scans and there'll be opportunities there'll be speakers and there'll be games and there'll be food listen it's just gonna be a blessed time i want you to market on your calendar i want you to plan to be there and above all i want you to sign up sign up sign up so that you can volunteer and help us get the word out that god wants a healthy harlem finally dr marshall for some time has been asking the church and i've been joining with him and asking the church to pray to pray to pray to pray to pray for the conference as we are in the election season now last sunday the organizing committee met your prayers were answered the meeting went smoothly and we praise god for that tomorrow the conference uh nominating committee will meet to begin the process of nominating new leadership for the northeastern conference i need you to pray i need you to pray i need you to pray if you're watching football tomorrow pray while you watch football if you got something else to do tomorrow pray while you do whatever something else that is that you have to do we want god to be in charge we want god to be in control we want god to lead to god to instruct to uphold and to see to it that the outcome is to his name's honor and glory so pray pray pray pray don't stray but pray amen amen amen after service is over today after ephesus tv has concluded today when the broadcast shuts down i'm inviting ephesians everywhere to switch over to zoom we do need to have a conversation together so when service is over uh don't don't switch to east jamaica don't switch to oakwood i need you to switch to zoom amen we have to have a little conversation together now you know i'm allergic to long meetings i have no interest in keeping you from your lunch amen so service is over switch right over to zoom let's do what we got to do and in jesus name we will keep it moving on behalf of myself on behalf of dr marshall on behalf of the entire staff here at the ephesus seventh avenue church fasten your seat belt god has a blessing with your name on it get it get it get it get it get it and praise the lord with us amen thank you dr marshall i mean dr brown sorry although we have been separated and our physical building has been closed there are still several ways that we can continue to return our tithes and give a liberal offering that goes to support ministries that spread god's word throughout the world one of those ministries is the pathfinders the pathfinders are worldwide organization of young people sponsored by the seventh-day adventist church let's look at a brief video that shows you how you can donate how can you give to ephesus seventh-day adventist church at the heart of harlem well there are four ways you can go to ephesus.org donate scroll down and click to give online it will take you to adventist giving where you can enter your tithes and offerings remember to click more offering categories to see additional departments once you are done click continue you will have three options log into your existing account create an account or make a one-time donation as a guest you can also use cash app dollar sign emphasis s-d-a-n-y-c however please use this method for offering only and the last two ways you can give are by mailing it in or dropping it off to 101 west 123rd street new york new york 10027 these are the four ways to give your love donation happy giving let us pray loving heavenly father we are just so grateful for how you've blessed us lord we're asking a special blessing on what will be given what will be returned and we ask that it does go to spread the gospel throughout the world and to hasten the coming of your son in his name the mighty name of jesus we pray amen [Music] we [Music] are good [Music] [Laughter] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] in matthew chapter 23 the bible says jesus spake to the multitude and to his disciples and in verse 11 the word of jesus neither be called masters or for one is your master even christ but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant today we are here we are celebrating pathfinder day and for a lot of us we recognize pathfinders because of the uniform but today is a different kind of pathfinder day because we've been away from active service inside the ministry inside the church for a while some of us our uniforms are in varying degrees of snugness so today we are focusing not on the outward appearance of what a pathfinder is but a pathfinder in your heart in your mind in your life you have found the path and you want to show others the path to christ because we all want to be great in the kingdom of god and jesus said he that is greatest among you shall be your servant and so today as we prepare to pray i'm asking you i'm inviting you to be a pathfinder to be that person who shares the path shares your life share your experience share what you know of jesus christ with others and today as we prepare to serve as we prepare to give back to our community as we prepare to invite those in our lives to a closer relationship with the lord i invite you to rededicate your life as well we're going to be praying publicly but we're also going to be talking to god inviting god to give us that strength to show us that path help us to find the path if we haven't already found that close walk with god i invite you now as we bow our heads and ask god into our hearts i invite you to become a pathfinder let us pray heavenly father lord god we thank you for your love we thank you for being love we thank you lord for creating this world and everything that is in it that sustains our life and brings us into knowledge and experience of you we thank you heavenly father for this wonderful day that you've allowed us to be whole to be present to be in sound mind and body and being able to experience the call from you to be pathfinders we thank you lord for preparing that path for us that leads us to you and we claim your promise we claim your strength today lord knowing that as much as we invite you lord you are willing to keep us on that path to you keep us close to you and also lord give us the strength to lead others to you as pathfinders we thank you heavenly father for the servant leadership of jesus christ we thank you for the rich teachings of jesus showing us how to lead showing us how to serve showing us how to minister teaching us how to pray teaching us how to communicate with you and to communicate with others lord and we thank you we thank you for everything that you are and we thank you for everything that we are because of you we thank you heavenly father for the pathfinder ministry for all the young people all the older people all the people around the world who have committed their lives to serving you to be servants in this world to leading others to the path that leads to salvation lord we thank you and we praise you and we lift up the ministry today lord asking you to bless each and every person who is a servant or a recipient of service in the pathfinder ministry today we thank you dear lord for this church we thank you for ephesus we thank you for everything that ephesus means to each of us individually and as corporately we thank you heavenly father for this day and this moment in this prayer we thank you heavenly father for the power that comes in this prayer lord you've given us you've given us the promise that if we pray you have heard and that you've already answered and so today as we prepare to take our petitions to you as we prepare to open up our hearts and on burden ourselves to you lord we thank you in advance for hearing and for answering there are those among us today lord who have asked for special prayer and i call the name of sister massey but there are so many lord that you know their names even if we don't call them out loud because you know our hearts and so you know those among us who may not be as well as they'd like to be physically or spiritually or emotionally or in any way in any in any aspect of life lord that we may feel a little down a little away a little further from where we'd like to be lord we thank you for knowing and for the experience of wholeness that allows us to acknowledge that we are not where we wanted to be we're not where we used to be but lord we also thank you for the privilege and the power that comes through this prayer because lord we can smile knowing that we have said those names we have fought those names we have thought those burdens and in so doing we have commissioned them to you lord knowing that you the great healer the great physician the great author and finisher has taken that burden away and so now we can move away from that space knowing lord that you've already answered you've said yes you've heard our prayers and you have answered we thank you heavenly father for that today lord i lift up all the members of this church whole and not so whole happy and not so happy those who are feeling fulfilled and those who feel as though there is still a space and we ask lord that you fill it we ask lord that you will take each and every person individually today as we have [Music] come before you today that you will heal that you will restore that you will comfort as only you can we pray lord for the rest of this day we pray for the speaker lord we thank you so much for him we thank you for his ministry that extended through the northeastern conference and is now even in even further and wider fields in atlantic union and we thank you for the ministry and we thank you for the words that he will speak because we know lord that you have prepared a message for us to take us from where we were this morning to where we will be this afternoon we thank you for everything that you have already done for us lord we thank you and we praise you and we lift up your name lord we come from this prayer today knowing that we have found a closer communion with you lord and asking you to help us to show that path to someone else bless us even now as we move forward into the day and into the rest of your promises and to the rest of your blessings is our prayer in jesus name amen [Music] good morning today's scripture can be found in 1 samuel 30 6. i'll be reading in the king james version and david was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters but david encouraged himself in the lord his god good afternoon everyone or should i say good morning today as you already know we celebrate world pathfinder day and the privilege is mine to introduce the speaker for today the speaker is the person of none other than dr david mckenzie my first introduction to him revealed to me that dr mckenzie is a man that fears the lord he demonstrated that he fears the lord in my first recognizing of who he is in encouraging the conference constituency to pray during a very difficult moment so he's not only a man that fears god he is also a man of prayer dr mckenzie is or was the youth director of our conference until receiving the call through the atlantic union conference to serve as the youth director there he has served as a pastor he has received many educational accolades from andrews university and the university of the southern caribbean and he is a father to two children he is the husband of one wife and we know that god is going to use him in a very remarkable and in a miraculous way the lord has used him to witness to young people time and time again and we know that today will not be any different we know for a fact that he is a man of prayers i've already stated but we're asking you to pray for him as he presents the word today for our world pathfinder day which is under the theme i will go remember that praying in the pews empowers preaching in the pulpit may i be with dr mckenzie as he presents and may he be with you as you listen and pray for his manservant today [Music] ups and downs times when there was no one around god came and spoke these words to me praise will confuse the [Music] no one around [Music] these words to me praise will confuse so i started singing i started [Music] people were laughing but they knew my problems and they knew my pain oh [Music] times [Music] oh [Music] that's [Music] oh [Music] he's given me [Music] he's given me [Music] when things he's given me [Music] happy sabbath church happy sabbath wherever you are our viewers it's a joy to be here on this the holy sabbath day at this not only beautiful ephesus but also to know that the folks of ephesus is the wonderful body of jesus christ thank you for having me dr brown your beloved pastor doing an amazing job here at the ephesus church as i drove the number of hours to get here he stayed in contact with me to ensure that i arrived safely so i want to thank you pastor brown dr brown for the invitation along with pastor marshall an amazing ordained recently your day in the past i was so happy to be at his ordination to view it may the lord continue to bless his ministry as he moves forward preaching the good news of salvation and the pathfinder director of ephesus church elder brown thank you so much not only for your leadership of our young people in this part of the vineyard but for the example you continue to set as a leader of god's youth may god bless you and your family my brothers and sisters i will not keep you long but happy path find the day world pathfinder day i bring you greetings from the atlantic union conference of which i serve as the youth director six conferences across seven states and the beautiful country of bermuda may the lord continue to bless us on this pathfinder day we will move into the word will not hold you longer the message today is entitled i will go i will go why not bow your heads with me as we talk to the lord father we invite your presence into our midst bless your people and bless your word today bless every part finder every youth leader bless every viewer on the social web i pray god that you would bless every person gather here in this sanctuary bring us closer to thee in jesus name we pray amen today's world is part find the day the world part find the day last evening i was in massachusetts at the southern new england conference path find the campari and the pathfinders are having an amazing time as they fellowship at their campery pathfinders around the world are celebrating this day in their class a uniform and we just want to let our pathfinders know wherever you are that we support this great ministry the message i will go why not turn with me to the book of first samuel first samuel chapter 30 the 30th chapter of the book of first samuel and we're reading from verse one this is what it says and it came to pass when david and his men were come to ziklag on the third day that the amalekites had invaded the south and ziklag and smitten ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken the woman captives that were therein they slew not any either great or small but carried them away and went on their way so david and his men came to the city and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives then david and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep verse six and david was greatly distressed for the people spake of stone in him because the soul of all the people were grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters but david pathfinders read this with me but david encouraged himself in the lord his god the message today i will go i will go pathfinders as we embrace this theme let us go let us encourage ourselves and move forward in the lord's work ladies and gentlemen brothers and sisters discouragement is one of the weapons the devil he uses to prevent god's people from going on the lord's mission a woman had moments of ups and down in her life and one day she became so discouraged that she went into her bed and refused to come out in the middle of the night she reported she had a dream and in the dream she said she saw this marketplace and she was moving from store to store in the marketplace and suddenly she saw to her amazement the store marked the devil's shop she approached the shopkeeper and she said i never knew the devil has a shop she said what is the most expensive item in the devil's shop the shopkeeper she said in her dream pulled out an item marked discouragement the shopkeeper said the devil is at his best when god's people are discouraged young people will leave the church when they are discouraged folks will give up on god when they are discouraged and so the devil does everything in his strength to discourage god's people our brothers and sisters in the midst of this pandemic discouragement is everywhere but i stopped by to tell somebody encourage yourself in first samuel david was in such a situation david was discouraged you see david and his men left their wives and children at home and went out went out and fought the philistines it was a heated battle ephesus i said it was a heated battle but god gave them the victory on their way home david's men praised him they shouted david you are the best david you are a mighty warrior david we are happy to be your soldiers and you our leader they were filled with excitement they won the battle but when they got to their camp i said when they got to their camp they had the greatest surprise ever while they were away fighting the philistines the amalekites invaded their camp burnt their tents took their livestock kidnapped their wives and children david was now in a terrible situation i said david was now in a terrible situation his men were bitter and were now planning to stone him the same men that just praised him were now planning to stone him sometimes i wonder how folks can praise you one moment and turn against you the next moment but i've learned that folks praise you when you are on the mountaintop but will turn against you when you are in the valley some folks will love you when you have status and position but will no longer be your friend when you have nothing this is why i've discovered my brothers and sisters you never know your friends until you know your enemy but i know a friend who's taken closer than a brother somebody say hallelujah his name is jesus my brothers and sisters david's men were now planning to stone him and kill him david was broken his heart was crushed david was in a state of discouragement but the bible tells us david refused to remain in that state david refused to remain discouraged david refused to remain stressed and so the bible tells us that david encouraged himself in the lord somebody say hallelujah my brothers and sisters i come by here they'll tell somebody god sent me to tell you the time has come in the midst of this pandemic to encourage yourself in the lord somebody you may be going through a stressful situation god sent me to tell you encourage yourself in the lord the bible tells us david encouraged himself in the lord the hebrew says he strengthened himself in the lord in other words the hebrew is conveying that david's ability to strengthen himself to encourage himself was as a result of being in the lord it means my brothers and sisters that the hebrew is saying our source of strength in discouragement our source of strength when everything has gone wrong our source of strength is not in people is not in things is not in ourselves our source of strength is in the lord and so i want to tell somebody here today if you're going to receive supernatural strength to go through your trials to go through this pandemic to go through your discouragement you've got to fasten yourself to the lord hallelujah you know i know these are tough times folks are discouraged only a few days ago i lost my aunt to coronavirus a number of months ago i went to visit my mom with my sister because they told me she was not doing well then i got there i rushed into my mom hugged or kissed her i said mom you've got to go to the hospital and see what's wrong call the ambulance took her to the hospital while home waiting to find out what what is the problem they called me and said your mom is tested positive for covet my mom has numerous preconditions our brothers and sisters those who are discouraging moments are you listening to me my brothers and sisters somebody somebody i don't know what you're going through but this is your moment where you're going through some form of discouragement but god sent me to tell you my brothers and sisters that the time has come in these moments to fasten yourself not to things not to people but to the lord jacob as he was going through his moment of trial the bible tells us that god came in the form of an angel god man and jacob held on to him and wrestled with him he said i won't let you go until you bless me in these moments of trials we've got to hold on to the lord and say lord i wouldn't let you go until you encourage me until you strengthen me until you bless me so the first point to encourage yourself as you go pathfinders is to ensure that you are fastened to the lord point number two if you're going to encourage yourself as you go you've got to remember the lord and so point number one fasten yourself to the lord point number two remember the lord the hebrew tells us that the reason david could have encouraged himself in the lord was because he remembered his past experiences with the lord somebody say amen my brothers and sisters we have nothing to fear for the future except we forget the way the lord led in the past we've got to remember you know it is said if you have no memory you are just adrift for memory anchors us to the past interprets the present and charts of course for the future i'll say that again it is said if you have no memory you are just adrift because memory anchors us to the past interprets the present and charts of course for the future this is why the bible says remember the sabbath day to keep it holy because memory when we remember the sabbath it anchors us to the past we remember that we did not come from monkeys we remember that we did not come from baboons we remember that we were created by the god of heaven and earth it anchors us to the past it interprets the present it tells us why god wants to get rid of the sabbath is because he wants to discredit god as creator and it it changes a course for the future when we get to heaven from one sabbath to another we will come and worship the lord church we've got to remember so the reason david could have encouraged himself in the lord was because he remembered he remembered his past experiences with the lord now i want to tell somebody when you remember you've got to remember in the context of when how and why come on pathfinders i said when you remember you've got to remember in the context of when remember when god came through for you in the past david felt discouraged but then he remembered when god delivered him from a lion he remembered when god delivered him from a bear he remembered when god delivered him from goliath and he said god is the same god yesterday he's the same god today and he's the same god forever i want to tell somebody here today you've got to remember when god placed food on your table remember when he mended up your broken heart remember when you were discouraged how he lift you from the very and place you on the mountain remember when the world was against you how he stood with you you remember that nothing is impossible with god you've got to remember david remembered when god came true for him in the past and don't only remember when you've got to remember how i said remember how david remembered how god delivered him through supernatural power now i want to say that one more time david remembered how god delivered him through supernatural power because david knew what he had to fight his battles were insignificant for the task it had to be supernatural power david remembered when he had a sling how god defeated a giant he knew it had nothing to do with the sleep he knew it had nothing to do with him it had to do with god somebody say hallelujah he remembered what he had was insignificant for the task but then he took it and he placed it in god's hands can i tell somebody it's not what you have but whose hands it is in i'll say that one more time it's not what you have but whose hand it is in if you take a tennis rocket and you place it in my hands it's just a rocket but if you place it in in serena williams hands you will have championships it's not what you have but whose hands it is in if you take a basketball come on pat finders and place it in my hands it's just a basketball but if you place it in lebron james hands you will have championships if you take a running shoes and place it in my hands it's just a running shoes but if you place it on houston ball's feet you have gold medals can i take it to another level if you take clay and place it in my hands it's just clay but if you place it in god's hands he will form a human race if you take water and place it in my hands it is just water but if you place it in god's hands he will turn it into wine if you take a staff and place it in my hands it's just the staff but if you place it in god's hands he will part a red sea if you take nails and place them in my hands they are just nails but if you place them in the hands of jesus he will save the human race somebody say hallelujah it's not what you have but whose hands it is in david remembered that what he had they were insignificant for the task but when he placed them in god's hands listen to this you come to me with swords and stains but i come to you in the name of the lord it's not what you have but whose hands they are in and so you've got to remember when god delivered you in the past remember how he delivered you in the past and never forget remember why i said remember why my brothers and sisters god doesn't bless us just to bless us there's a reason remember why i can tell you why it's to just give god the glory somebody saved me i said it's the god has blessed you and he deserves the glory to god be the glory you know the other day i read a story about a woodpecker the woodpecker flew on a tree and he had all his friends the other woodpeckers on nearby trees looking at him he flew on a tree and he gave the tree three picks and he recognized that the tree was solid like a rock the tree would not move he was discouraged because the other woodpeckers looked over at him and started to laugh at him he bowed his head he flew on another tree disappointed ashamed and then suddenly lightning flashed turned the road a lightning bolt struck the tree and brought the tree down all the way woodpeckers were startled and then that woodpecker looked at the others and he said who would have thought that that three of my picks would bring this tree down he took the glory he had it wrong can i tell somebody here today god alone deserves the glory because had it not been for god where would we be is anybody listening to me jesus said to peter satan wants to sift you out like wheat but i am praying for you in other words peter the only reason you are still here is because of my grace and mercy could you tell your neighbor i'm still here because of god's grace my boss is on my back but i'm still here i have troubles on every side but i'm still here my bills are high but i'm still here oh my family is in turmoil but i'm still here i've been knocked down but not knocked out i am still here had it not been for the lord on my side where would i be i want to tell ephesus today i want to tell pathfinders today the only reason we are still here is because of god's grace and mercy he deserves the glory you've got to remember when he delivered how he delivered and why he delivered and so the first point as you encourage yourself to go point number one fasten yourself to the lord point number two remember the lord and i'm gonna close now point number three go with the lord is anybody listening to me i said go with the lord david was now discouraged david was now broken because his men were planning to stone him but something said to david you better consult the lord is anybody listening to me i said something said to david you better consult the lord the camp was in distress the camp was broken and david did something that i like david went to the lord to talk with the lord can i tell somebody here today to talk to the lord means to pray somebody say hallelujah i said to talk to the lord means to pray you've got to understand that there is power in prayer somebody say hallelujah come on ephesus i said this power in prayer david was stressed david was broken and david went to the lord for the power to enjoy what he was going through you know pastor brown when i was pastoring in brooklyn new york a church named lighthouse uh-huh i had i had the habit of going home on sabbath evening i love after ey i love to rush home before dark so that i can pray with my children but that particular sabbath evening we had church bored uh you better thank the lord for pastor brown he doesn't like these long boots i had a church board and my brothers and sisters the church board ran late into the night i was so broken because i had an appointment with my kids i promised them i would be home early i promised them we would we would eat pizza together i promised them we would pray together ladies and gentlemen brothers and sisters the church board went into the night i jumped into my car with a broken heart because i knew it was past their bedtime i jumped into my car and i drove home when i pulled up into the driveway i saw the lights off i knew they were fast asleep i pulled out my bag and i was broken walked up the step pushed in my keys opened the door when i opened the door to my surprise my son and daughter heard the doorknob and they rushed out of their rooms they came running towards me i thought they were coming to give me a hug and a kiss but when they got close this is what they said daddy the light in the fish tank is not working ah i said what do you mean they said daddy the light in the fish tank is not working and daddy the fishes will die they need light in the fish tank i pulled aside the sofa i did not go to the tank i went straight to the outlet and i pulled aside the sofa with my son and daughter behind me and my son looked and he saw that the cord was out of the socket he said daddy it's not that they have no power it's just that the fish tank is not plugged in i want to tell somebody here today that power is available is anybody listening to me i said power is available for you to go through what you are going through and come out victorious but you've got to plug in and to plug into jesus christ is to talk to him in prayer because this power in prayer i read how prayer or fall the flowing rivers i read how prayer caused the sun to stand still i read how prayers opened prison doors set prisoners free i read how prayers caused the dead to live again i read how prayers brought a man from the bottom of the sea in a belly of a whale and took another to paradise in a chariot of fire i stopped by to tell somebody there's power in prayer david went to the lord in prayer he said god i'm broken god i'm discouraged god the camp is in disarray our wives are gone our children are gone we are here alone is there a word from the lord uh my brothers and sisters god responded read first samuel i said god responded and this is what god said david all hope is not gone you go and take back what belongs to you is anybody listening to me because the message today is entitled you've got to go with the lord my brothers and sisters with that command david gathered his men jumped on their horses and went after the amalekites when david caught up with the amalekites he got back their wives he got back their children he got back their possession because he went in the name of the lord i want to tell every part finder we are called to go and preach this gospel into all the world and take back what belongs to god what belongs to god humanity men and women who are dying in sin they belong to god we've got to go and bring them back into the fold of safety somebody say hallelujah and i want to say to you anti-clues don't be discouraged don't be discouraged with what you're going through it's only for a time you move forward don't give up keep your eyes on jesus and you will receive what belongs to you and to the lord but you can't give up but find us we are living in the last days don't give up don't give up on your salvation don't give up on your god thank god david did not give up you went to the lord talked to the lord and the lord returned what belonged to him my brothers and sisters winston churchill during world war ii i said winston churchill during world war ii was called to give the commence the commencement address at oxford university and winston churchill pulled up in his motorcade when the motorcade pulled up his bodyguards opened the door he stepped out and walked into the graduation ceremony the crowd stood in appreciative applause winston churchill walked up to the podium with his stick and his top hat he braced his stick on the podium he took off his top hat placed it on the podium and he reached and then speaking to these graduates who are about to go he said he bent over and he said never give up he fixed his top hat fix the stick then back over to the graduates and he said never give up he then grabbed his stick grabbed his top hat and started to walk off of the podium walk off of stage the crowd was amazed his message three words never give up winston churchill ended his commencement address with just three words never give up i closed this sermon today by telling every part finder as you go you will encounter battles as you go with the lord you will encounter hard times you then come to trials but never give up never give up on the lord jesus christ our viewers whatever you're going through remember one thing never give up this god is the same god yesterday he's the same god today he's the same god forever he will take care of you and he will bring you through i want to pray for somebody here today in the hearing of my voice you want to say pastor pray for me you want to say pastor pray that the lord will keep me focused on him that i will never give up on him and i will go on his errand and never give up if you want me to pray for you why not adopt an appropriate prey posture wherever you are whether you're a viewer or you're present here with us at ephesus just adopt an appropriate pray posture as we pray father we thank you for your word to us this morning reminded us through the story of david that we will have trying times like the times we are living in but we are still to go on your mission we'll have trying times but we must never give up on you we must enjoy with you and therefore i ask that you will touch every person in the hearing of my voice strengthen our faith surround us with your angels watch over us night and day and keep us faithful with our part finders lord the pathfinders of this church ephesus bless every part find and keep them focused on you be the director director brown and her team keep these young people and these youth leaders keep them under the shadow of the almighty so when you come they'll be able to go home with you be pastor brown and pastor martial as they leave this wonderful congregation continue to give them wisdom and knowledge with all our elders and every member and oh father help us to remain in you and never to give up on you thank you for hearing and answering our prayer in jesus name amen and amen god bless you ephesus and special thanks also to the technician who's leading out here and ensuring that i hook up well in everything god bless you god bless the team love you all [Music] [Music] welcome to another episode of ephesus tv my name is warren jefferson and i'm your host this week welcome what a powerful service we had today and we were talking about our beloved pathfinders listen now that you know you're going to see them everywhere so today what we go before we get started i just have to make special mention of our media team today we have a chief that's been running things and things have been going so smoothly so i just want to say thank you to amoy harris she is doing her thing behind the camera they never come on this side but believe me they are making sure that everything flows smoothly okay back to our program so we have some special things coming up in the month of october we're winding down we're still in september but we have some special things coming up in october the first thing that's going to be happening is a month-long celebration for the ephesus youth church heritage the entire month of october is going to be dedicated to all the years that the youth church has been in existence and highlighting the pastors many pastors that you know that have gotten their start right here at the ephesus seventh-day adventist youth church but also in october on the third what day did i say october 3rd from 11 o'clock until 5 we are having our community health fair and we want to give you some more information so i'm joined today with melissa pretty she is her office here is the church treasurer but she is a part of the committee that is putting together a fantastic and outstanding event the community health fair that's going to be happening october the 3rd 2021 not that far so i want to welcome melissa to the show welcome melissa and yes it's my first time on emphasis tv thank you thank you for asking oh you're quite welcome i noticed that you are in a pathfinder uniform you look very nice why thank you i was supposed to be in a pathfinding uniform as well but due to some covet challenges i was not able to wear my uniform today but we're going to get back to what we're here to talk about and that is the health fair so melissa tell us a little bit about the health fair and what's planned so the ephesus community health fair like you said is on october 3rd and we are using this opportunity to engage with the community and really share a message that we have had for decades a message about healthy eating healthy exercise air sunshine all the things that are in that whole new start program we want to get that message out to the community so not only are we having the typical standard um screenings that we have we invite the different vans to come through and we have different vendors who talk about the different areas of their specialty and health we want to also emphasize that there are things that you and i the community can do to improve our health and especially in this cova pandemic we've noticed that those who've had pre-existing conditions such as diabetes hypertension have had a more severe outcome if they did get infected by covet and we want to help people to be able to make their standard quality of life better but they can fight these diseases if they encounter them so we want to try to elevate everyone's health gains getting on our message that we've known for decades well you know that is a that's a huge task you know that's that's not easy to do and we're talking about an event that's going to be free to the public absolutely so that we're talking about vendors we're talking about health screenings and different things like that that's going to be big have you been running into some challenges trying to pull all this together so it actually mentioned that actually i have so historically the medical corps and the health have put together this health fair and last year because of the coronavirus we weren't able to do that because of safety reasons we wanted to make sure the community as well as our members were safe so we didn't have a health fair but we didn't want another year to go by without having the health fair so i kind of stepped in and helping to do all the logistic work as far as with the city getting approvals and it's been quite a challenge i didn't quite realize the undertaking that we go through every year to pull the health fair off so with our shortened time period we've had some challenges for example we have to get a letter from the street block association saying that it's okay for us to do it that was a bit of a challenge because there wasn't one there's not a sitting one he moved to another part of the city and so we had to figure out who the acting one was and so right when i was getting discouraged i pray and then she gave me a call and so i got the letter that same day so god blessed with that situation um just trying to figure out what vendors we were i remember i had to come back to the church because someone needed a check that day so i was coming back i saw this table that said black health and so i stopped by and there's a gentleman who helps other organizations run health fairs so i got his name and information down and i got information about different vendors that could come so the lawyers was just dropping little kernels along the way um that enabled us to keep moving forward so it might feel discouraged the lord just kind of says okay i got this but i have to make that step just like the children of israel into the red sea before the sea parts so i have to keep pressing forward but keep us all in prayer it's been it's been a faith walk actually playing this thing so um i feel like the lord has a work that's here for this harlem community he has us here to do it and i just need the help of everyone to be involved this is our one of our premier events which we engage with the community they come to us because we're outside to serve them and so i invite you all to come and be blessed and service as we put together this health fair now that was a lot and i'm so glad to know that the lord has been doing what the lord does he shows up and he takes care of things when we can one thing i'd like to share with everyone that i was a part of and i saw happen we were having challenges trying to get a banner for the health fair yes indeed so melissa and the team were talking to the printer and they said they couldn't do it it needed to be a certain thing and we they were trying to do everything and just when we just gave up that we would not have a banner not only did we get the ephesus church sign which you need to come by linux avenue to see this beautiful sign out there that was put up and completed and also they were able to get the banner the banner is out on the front of the church and it is outstanding it really i have to give all accolades to pastor marshall he i'm surprised he still accepted my phone calls because i kept on bothering him throughout this process but he was so patient and he was so diligent and he was just i was inspired by his patience with me and he worked and he tried different ways in order to get this banner to be what i was hoping it would be and the mission that you see out there is all because of the effort and the work of pastor marshall so i owe a tremendous amount of debt to him for his his work and his effort he put in there so if you see the banner please give pastor marshall a shout out and a thank you it's beautiful it's colorful it's eye-catching it captures information it feels it feels um relevant current feels you know modern it feels you know right with the times well that's fantastic and um during this process you know today is world pathfinder day um in order for us to be able to close off the street on 123rd we had to go out and get signatures well our pathfinders were out there canvassing helping us to get enough signatures so that we could get the street closed so that we'd be able to present this community fair to our community as a gesture of love because um we need those folks to know that even though we're here on the corner we love our neighbors and the pathfinders once again they came through i have another story about oh yeah please so avril had volunteered to be go out there on the street and get signatures and she was out there one evening she was supposed to be there on a tuesday that day her phone broke and her computer died and so the whole day was shot and then she went out there i think the next evening and for an hour and a half she went to get signatures right out there on lennox and 123. for the whole hour and a half period she got a whole total of eight signatures wow i said well with that wait we're going to be i'm like lord hops what happens so then the whole team rallied together we put on our ephesus t-shirts and we went out there and in a matter of two hours two and a half hours we were able to glean 150 signatures amen so god is good god is still working and moving so that's it another another blessing story listen the lord is putting this thing together so you guys need to tell somebody about this you need to come out and support us speaking of support we need volunteers we still need volunteers right now volunteers physical volunteers donations are good too if you can't make it here in person we are more than happy to accept your donation we're not going to turn that away but we would like some people to come down and help us as we are because we know when the lord wants something done he's going to do it so they're going to be people here and the people need to see church members out here not necessarily church members but people that are affiliated with us so if you go to our website there is a link right on the beginning slider where you can click and fill out a volunteer form so that you could come down and help us out and we would really appreciate that and just so everybody knows we are taking into account what's going on we're still in a pandemic there's still the delta variant out there so we are going to be extremely socially distanced normally we take out about take up a third we're trying to stretch to take up almost the whole block so we'll be spread out so that everyone has plenty of space and distance to be able to navigate so we want everyone to be safe so just make sure we just know people are keeping in mind safety precautions and we're working with the reopening team to make sure we do everything by the book and dot our eyes and cross all of our t's well i'm very excited about it it is the 18th of september we still have a couple of weeks before we're going to be talking about it some more and i'm just really looking forward so melissa i want to thank you for coming on thank you for having me today that's really all we have for this week next we're going to once we sign off we're going to have our business meeting so members sign on to our zoom uh the wednesday night prayer meeting zoom that is on the information that is on the website and and uh join us on our uh church business meeting so until next week we'll see you back here have a good week [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Ephesus, At the Heart of Harlem

Views: 518

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: AD-5zKCFTpc

Length: 161min 42sec (9702 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021