September 4, 2021 Service (Covid Style)

good morning everyone we are so thankful that you are taking time out of your busy labor day weekend i'm sure or hopefully restful labor day weekend to be with us as we continue to bring you programming during the last week of our two-week shutdown just for safety precautions in this covid season we wanted to make sure that our church did not become a super spreader event and just wanted to make sure that we were not the source of some potential infections are the source of some potential exposure to our members especially at a time when our numbers are rising both across the state and the upstate particularly but across the nation so we really appreciate your cooperation and understanding during this time as such i'm happy to report that those that we have known have come down with coven 19 we are pretty certain just in the reports we've gotten in the last couple weeks and just checking on people i am pretty certain that either they were not contagious while they were at the church in other words or that the church was not the source of that infection which is good and we're thankful for that though that doesn't lessen their pain and suffering dealing with covenant 19 or the countless others that i know are connected to the church that have contracted it elsewhere are just out and about in life right now so we do want to keep them in prayer but again i really appreciate everyone's cooperation i'm very happy to report that there's no evidence now that there's been any sort of spread event at the church as a result of one of our services and so as such we're going to be continuing with our original plan and that is next saturday september 11th at 11 a.m we will be resuming in-person services at the church at the old sanctuary up front so that is not today which is september 4 but obviously the next saturday a week from today september 11th at 11 we will be resuming our services we're going to meet one more week up in the old sanctuary building up front children's church will also resume and in our children's ministries building at 11 for ages four to ten so you do want to make sure that the kiddos come back uh there's going to be a new theme that beginning i guess and there's some fire engines and some cool stuff i saw being decorated up in there you're not going to want to miss it for our children but anyway we will be resuming our in-person services next week to that end just a reminder that the church business meeting that we had to delay is being happening sunday september 19th so not this coming sunday but the following at 3 p.m is going to be the church business meeting so that is sunday september 19th at 3 p.m that'll be held up in the church sanctuary and then the agape feast that we delayed that's going to be taking place september 17th okay at 7 00 pm so that's not this coming friday but the following one and we will make announcements about that again next week but wanted to put that on your radar that those two important dates are coming up speaking of putting some things on your radar we do want to also thank you for your continued faithfulness in supporting the ministries of the church and a lot of the renovations and work that are taking place right now in the family life center to that end so we'd like to thank you that we met budget this last month even being closed a week and we're expecting good things again because you all are just so faithful and supporting the work that we are doing here in greenville but i did want to remind you there are multiple ways you can give you don't have to be physically present to drop something in our box like he's usually at the door and we'll continue to be there you can also give through the giving tab on our website ww that's www.greenvillesda.org or of course you can do our text to give number which would mean you would text give g-i-v-e gvl so that's give greenville but shortened give gvl all one word and you can text that to 864-777-4933 that's 864-770 that's our text to give our online options that will be available to you speaking of those that are already giving sacrificially and i'm not talking about just financially as you know we are now in full possession of our own campus and for those of you don't know what i'm meaning by that we were sharing the campus with another church they have since completed their lease and left the campus so the next time you come back to campus you might know that the sign see that the signage is gone and different and it's just us but there's a lot of work to do to get back into the family life center for those of you who have been looking at our facebook page we've been trying to start giving you updates there's just several people i want to thank profusely for the work and sacrificial work they've done this last week and of course safe uh ways i want to especially thank the hurt for not only painting but primarily they helped assemble in eight hours one day during this week over 200 of the chairs that you're going to be happily sitting on in the new family life center and to that end i also want to thank my wife who was assisting with that and i want to thank my mother who drove all the way down from the state of ohio to try and help with this because you might remember our original move-in date was going to be this sabbath but we've delayed everything obviously because of the covet shutdown that we underwent just as a precaution so it's brought us a couple more weeks but i do appreciate her coming all the way down it really is a family effort also i want to thank particularly the dubusk family red and kay of course they've not only been instrumental in working through a lot of this transition k serving on the transition committee that we have here but also red the general contractor that he is has been working tirelessly on the sound booth and now the stage that needs to be in there the platform that we will be using in there and he has done a phenomenal job and so i mean i can't bribe him with enough donuts to keep working he has done a great job and so i just wanted to thank them particularly and then last but definitely not least i want to thank the corbett family who has been involved in coming down and helping paint and helping to transition little chairs and working on cleaning up and getting everything ready also in the gym i mean that it's just going to be beautiful guys i cannot tell you how excited i am to see both the avl teams which is a company that's working with our audio visual equipment and putting the wiring in this past week i'm also very excited to say you're going to see some great things when you move in there the whole floor is going to be carpeted yes for those of you who remember being in there no more kneeling and breaking your knees on the hard gym floor you will have nice carpet it's going to be wonderful it's not going to feel like a gym we're very excited about the things that you're going to be able to see in just a couple weeks when we get in there to continue ministering to each other but obviously to our wider greenville community so i just want to thank you so much for those that have been coming by there's countless other names i haven't mentioned specifically that have been dropping by to either help paint or move chairs once they were assembled there's those that are working also on the lawn and trimming out some of these hedges and old bushes that kind of just were let loose to go over the last several years i'm just really excited uh that the campus is going to start reflecting the hard work i believe god has done in the last couple of years in our community in our faith family but now we're seeing it expand into the physical buildings itself and that's just really exciting so i just wanted to bring that all to your attention we'll talk about it again more next week if you are interested in assisting we still need some help with painting and i'm sure with some lawn issues and some other things so if you have a couple hours to give at any point please reach out to us through our facebook page read out to us through the website we will be happy to connect with you and it takes all hands to make this work and i just again really thank those that have been involved just one or two more announcements and then i will be done with the announcements today uh speaking of faith family they probably thought they got away with this because they told me only after i made another announcement the last week we were physically meeting before this shutdown john and paige who have been a part of our faith family you may recall right after we were celebrating the engagement of another couple in our faith family they informed me that they just celebrated their two-year anniversary of being married and so that's a big deal we want to say thank you we're applauding through the screens yay but i wanted to make sure you were not forgotten we want to thank you so much for being part of our faith family and for those of you who don't know not only have they been with us for a while not only was paige brought into the church recently obviously but they also work in our children's church right they work with our children's church and they give a saturday a month that they're working in there so they're also instrumental in working in the ministries of the church and we're just so thankful for you too so thank you john and paige let me make sure that i'm not missing any other announcements i'm still looking like normal on my phone to get that i think that up yes there is one last announcement so obviously next saturday when we resume our in-person services strangely enough i am not going to be there that is a chaplaincy weekend for myself so i will be off serving in a ministry capacity for others but during that week i'm happy to say our first week back pastor anthony carter which some of you may remember from a few weeks ago weeks back he came he is going to be returning one last sabbath to be with you in my stead so i know that's going to be a great privilege to all of you you're not going to want to miss that but pastor anthony carter will be there and i know we're also looking back forward to our musicians being back with us although we do especially want to thank southern adventist university and engage ministries also now known as engage worship i believe southern adventist university is rebranding that right now but for recording our music again for this worship time together online so when i'm done having a word of prayer here you're going to see our southern adventist university students bringing us a couple of songs and i just do want to thank you for that but we also look forward to seeing jordan and kayla back with us as we meet again in person next saturday so that's all the announcements that i have yes we will be continuing the genesis series this morning so after prayer the next thing you're going to see is our southern students leading us in some music and then when they are complete i will pop back up on the screen and we will be continuing in our genesis series so again thank you so much exciting times here at the church again exciting times that we have made it through this two-week precautionary shutdown very thankful again for everyone's cooperation and willingness to extend grace to everyone to keep us all safe and healthy let's continue to pray for those who might be suffering with covet 19 either in our faith family or in the wider community and again we look very much forward to having you in person so our live stream will continue but in person from the church this next saturday so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you for the opportunity through technology to be back together again we thank you for the exciting things you're doing in our faith family both in wedding anniversaries both in continued health in recovering our health for those of us who have been sick not just either with cover 19 or flus or anything that for those of us who are struggling in any way we thank you for being there with us we thank you for all the sacrificial giving both financially but also and primarily of our time and efforts to get our family life center ready for our great transition coming up september 18th and i just pray you continue to help all of that come together and that we would create a campus environment and a facility that's best used to service not just us like a club but to serve the community around us in more efficient and better ways just continue to bless this transition and our time and bring us back safely to be with each other again next sabbath in person and guide the rest of this service today for we ask it in christ's name amen [Music] i saw darkness run for cover but the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven [Music] [Music] still the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven my praise belongs to you forever this is my testimony [Music] the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] and daughters sing the praises of the spirit son and father our god will finish what he started yes our god will finish what he started [Music] this is my testimony from death [Music] this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] if i'm not dead you're not done greater things are still to come oh i believe if i'm not dead you're not done greater things are still to come oh i believe if i'm not dead you're not done greater things are still to come oh i believe if i'm not dead you're not done [Music] greater things [Music] jesus this is my testimony oh i'm alive this is [Music] this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] in the morning when i rise in the morning when i rise in the morning when i rise give me jesus give me jesus give me jesus you can have all this world give me jesus oh [Music] and when i am alone give me jesus [Music] give me jesus give me jesus [Music] all this [Music] give me jesus [Music] give me jesus [Music] jesus give me jesus [Music] give me jesus [Music] you can have all this world you can have all this world give me jesus i want to thank southern adventist university and engage ministries now known as engage worship for supplying our music again today thank you so much for helping us get through this time and providing this service to the wider family of churches and i really hope that that is our prayer today that we would have jesus that jesus would be given to us as he has always given himself to us but that we would embrace him today and every day so as i said before we're continuing our genesis series today i'm going to do my best to do that while sitting obviously in front of this camera it's hard for me i i talk by moving for those of you who know my hands are probably going to still be swinging around but we're going to take an effort to keep going in our genesis series i think again ryan becker for filling in last saturday but we're going to be picking it up in genesis 14 this morning now genesis 14 i was hoping to get done the last sermon that we did but we ran out of time so we're going to pick up on the tail end we're still dealing with a lot of problems that abram had we're taking a family member with him that he was not instructed to do so and we left off last time in the end of genesis 13 with him finally getting lot to park company part ways with him and then as he was faithful to the original commands that god had given him he gets a bit more information about where god is going to lead him where he's going to continue remember we got to see all those interesting issues with abram not fully trusting the lord lying about his wife being his sister all of that interesting thing if you don't know what i'm talking about or you go wait a minute you're in chapter 14 and i've missed the 13 chapters ahead of that you are free to continue to just scroll down and look at other episodes of genesis right here on our youtube channel or you can go to our website and go to the sermon message tab and you can catch up to your heart's content on all of the genesis messages that we have done up to this point but before i begin i want to take a moment and invite you to just bow your heads where you are and ask the lord to speak to your heart individually that your heart would be open that your mind would be receptive to the message god has tailored prepared for you today in the spirit pray for those who are also watching across the internet or who will watch after this live performance well not really performance but you know what i mean all of those who will be watching pray that they would also receive a blessing also spend a few moments to pray that i would be hidden behind the text and it would be god's words and not mine and after a few moments of silence i'll bring us together out loud in a close of that prayer and we will continue with our message this morning which i'm just gonna title a lot of problems part two because we didn't finish that so let's just take a moment and go before the lord in prayer father we thank you for the opportunity to study your word and we thank you for the technology that as much as it frustrates it sometimes can also help bridge the gap of distance between us but father just as technology is bridging the gap between the speaker and the hearers we now pray that you through your spirit would bridge the gap between our hearts and your heart may we see jesus clearly today may we fall more in love with you spirit as you inspired these words before we ask that you would also instruct us to their meaning draw us close to you for we ask it in christ's name amen feel free to take your physical bibles or your digital versions and turn with me as i said to genesis the 14th chapter genesis chapter 14 and we're just going to look at 14 today it might be a little shorter than normal some of you are laughing because you know with me that's probably not going to happen but here we're just going to spend time going through genesis 14 today we're going to pick up in genesis 15 next time we are together and i am with you because there's too much in 15 for me to cram in with 14. so we're just going to look at 14 today and as i said this is really part two of where we left off last time abram up to this point we've seen we reiterated the call we've seen him leave with lot we've seen himself get in trouble even without lot they're in right calling his wife his sister god had to bail him out of that then we see that there's a lot of commotion there's a lot of issues that start happening between him and lot and his herdsmen both of their sets of herdsmen and it's always interesting how conflict seems to arise once you're starting to endeavor to be faithful to what god has called you to do so now that abram is going back into the land that god never told him to leave at that point because of that famine he comes back all these issues arise something comes up in abram's mind and he goes i need to really be faithful to this he asks lot to finally depart he tells him go choose wherever you're going to go lot chooses the valley that sodom and gomorrah are in which is a story that we'll get a few chapters from now lot's still going to get sucked back into this story but they finally part ways and then god reiterates to abram that he's got this that he's going to lead that he's going to guide that he is going to fulfill the promises that he made to abram guaranteed and he would think excellent now we're done with lot well they may have parted company but lot is still going to get sucked back into this story and that's what chapter 14 is there's going to be some events that transpire that cause abram to have to get right back involved with lot and that's what we're looking at today so genesis 14 and we're going to just pick it up starting in verse 1. genesis 14 starting in verse 1. and it came about in the days of amphreyel king of shinar ariak king of elisar cherodomiler king of ilam and title king of now pause i do not know 100 if i am pronouncing these names correctly some of you are probably thankful you're not having to read it but i just want to be fair if somebody does know how to pronounce this correctly and they just heard me butcher these names which i will probably butcher again please have grace on me just know these individuals are involved verse two they made war with bera king of sodom and with birsha king of gomorrah in shenab king of admah and shimabur king of zaboyam and the king of bella that is zoar pause how bad must that king's name have been to not even get his name they just said oh yeah and the king of that city but anyway verse 3 all these came as allies to the valley of sodom that is the salt sea now for those of you who want a kind of geographic area of where we're talking about here the salt sea this might not shock anybody this is the dead sea what we call the dead sea nowadays so southern israel at this point heading down towards the red sea uh that's what it means by the salt sea so they're down there verse four okay twelve years they had served cherlammer but the thirteenth year they rebelled okay so this is getting very interesting so apparently all these kings right they had come about and they had a war and it went miserable for them and so they were kind of under subjugation of this main king here and after it's very interesting after 13 years well in the 13th year they decided enough is enough i think we're strong enough again we're going to rebel against this guy we're going to throw him back out and regain our our full authority our full thrones right so here we go verse five in the fourteenth year of chelamer and the kings that were with him they came and defeated the rephaim in asherath karanim and the zuzimin ham and the emin in shaveth curalathem aren't you really loving me going through these names here okay verse six and the horites in their mount sir as far as el peron which is by the wilderness then they turned back and came to in mishpat that is kadesh and they conquered all the country of the amalekites and also the amorites who lived in hezazon tamir and the king of sodom and the king of gomorrah and the king of admah and the king of zaboyem and the king of bella that is zoar came out and they arraigned for battle against them in the valley of sidom against chetta lammer king of elam entitled king of goyam and amraphrel king of shinar and aryak king of elasar four kings against five now the valley of sidon was full of tar pits and the kings of sodom and gomorrah fled and they fell into them but those who survived fled into the hill country okay all those names aside basically you're like why is the bible getting into all of this they're trying to say that a big political event is going to be impacting our major characters in this story so apparently you have all you need to remember if you can't remember these names and you don't want to butcher them like i'm doing there's four kings against five kings right four against five and they lost the first time they did that now they've tried again and apparently they have lost again and forgive my pun but they've gotten themselves into a real sticky situation the second time around and by sticky if you didn't catch it i'm talking about the tar pits you get this idea that maybe this valley that had all these tar pits in it maybe the four kings thought hey you know this is going to be advantageous to us maybe the five did right because maybe it offered some sort of natural barriers and some sort of protection against the flanks for those of you who know anything about kind of military tactics and methodology but in whatever the case if they thought the thing was going to help them it apparently backfired on them because not only are they routed but then they start falling into these pits trying to get away so you get the idea that the whole thing is just a complete disaster of a withdrawal um you know some of us might be having that on our minds with things going on in afghanistan recently we didn't have tar pits there but anyway that being said it's just just no imagine a military disaster a political issue that has gone haywire and as happens in all military disasters and political problems other people get caught in the middle of this than just the political forces or the military forces at bay and that's going to be no different in our story because if you jump down into verse 11 here's where it starts to intersect with why the bible's talking about this verse 11. so they lose then the victors then they took all the goods of sodom and gomorrah and all their food supply and departed okay you've lost so the victors are taking everything they're taking food they're taking the goods they're taking whatever they want but they didn't just stop at food verse 12. they also took lot oh here we go abram's nephew and his possessions and departed for he was living in sodom now pause this is very interesting you might remember at the end of chapter 13 when lot made his choice to go into this valley because he wasn't using heavenly vision right he was just using his own eyes and just coming up with his own plan he was following what made sense to him without all the knowledge that god possesses without going to god without calling on the name of the lord like abram his relative was doing when making a choice right he goes in there and remember how we talked about he got a taste right he got a taste of evil in famine and then he just couldn't break the habit he wanted more and more and in first in chapter 13 it said that he started camping in the valley and then kept moving his tents further and further and further even unto sodom and so by the time you get to 14 i want you to notice lot was living in sodom he's already moved all the way in town he might be downtown i don't know but he's already moved into town and so now he's here when this war goes down and it goes poorly and so now it really is true he's being affected because he's in the wrong place at the wrong time and their problem is now his problem it's become very personal and this is a truism about life that i'm sure i don't have to bring up but we've all been in some way shape or form exposed to and that is this right we are affected by those we choose to associate with we are whether now or later and probably in ways that you can't even foresee i don't think lot foresaw i'm going to get in the middle of some sort of humongous war and be affected but he is now being impacted by the decisions of those he has decided to live with by the decisions of those he's decided to hang around and i say this both to young people and older young people as much as i'm not saying to hate anybody and i'm not saying that anybody doesn't have value just know who you choose as friends who you choose to hang out with even if they're not your friends those you choose to be around they do have an impact on your life so this is a call to make wise decisions about who we associate with right because you will be impacted some way shape or form and lots in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and he gets the wrong result because he's getting carried along for the ride now verse 13. so now he gets captured and all of his stuff and he's now spoils of war he's now a captive and off he gets carded with everything from sodom and gomorrah off he goes all right so verse 13. then a fugitive came that's a fancy way of not saying like a criminal possibly but most likely somebody that escaped from this battle someone that escaped from the city when it's being captured right so this fugitive right came and told abram the hebrew now he was living by the oaks of mamrie the amorite brother of eskel brother of anar and these were allies with abram okay pause i don't i don't want to miss this because this verse is actually important in a unique way this is actually the first use of the word hebrew in the bible we don't see it prior to this is the first time anybody any follower of god is referred to as a hebrew and what i find fascinating about that is this word hebrew it right it means to pass over to traverse so you get the idea that abram gets this title of hebrew simply because people can't figure out why he's not staying stationary anywhere they know he's just always on the move he's always moving he's always transverse traversing he's always passing over some piece of land he's he's a nomad he's on the move and i really do like that because i love the symbolism that this is going to imply through the rest of scripture the idea that the hebrews are these followers of god at this point right i didn't say jews i said hebrews okay because that's what they were originally that's what they're being called they're a group of people who seem to almost be transient that they're they're waiting for another land they're waiting for some sort of permanence they're passing over where they are now they're moving through where they are now and by the way i love the term passover because of those of you who know exodus is coming up this is going to be another theme that comes up but this passing over this traversing it's a people waiting on god to show them their final resting place waiting on god to provide for them waiting on god to sustain and all of that i think that's a beautiful term and abram gets it right here this is the first time we get this usage so they run up to abram because somehow they must have known about lot or they knew that lot was related to abram and they somehow knew where he was so they run off and they tell them hey some things went down with lot your relative it's bad right and that's exactly where they go verse 14. when abram heard that his relative had been taken captive he let out his trained men born in his house 318 and went in pursuit as far as dan now okay this story is just just pause and think about this for a minute okay 318 guys including abram so abram hears the news and he's like oh my goodness like ra find every able-bodied man in my family my servants my you know any extended family uh family of the servants whatever get anybody that can fight together let's gather what few stick stones few swords we might have i mean they're not equipped like a modern army right they they don't have all the training they don't have any of that they gather up all of their stuff and there's 318 of them and i love how the bible's kind of optimistic here they say trained men well i mean trained maybe enough to know which side of the sword to use maybe that's the pointy end that goes towards the enemy right but these are not going to be anyone that would have been reading this would have thought okay those kings that just wiped out entire battle armies in formation these kings that have battle hardened soldiers and armies and chariots and horses and right the equivalent of tanks and aircraft and all that stuff that we would think of today in an army they that have not these 318 are now going to ride off and go try and attack these people who just butchered a whole bunch of armies twice right i mean 13 years in between apparently but both times it didn't go well and i love how abram's got the audacity to be like yep get all these people and let's go and that begs the question why is abram confident to launch an attack with 318 losers that barely know which direction the sword goes and go after a whole bunch of armies that are just victorious off a battlefield has he lost his mind i mean has this guy gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs has he frosted his flakes and flipped out i i don't i mean what's going on here well remember the context of 13 god has reiterated a promise to him at the departure of lot right and we see that abram calling upon the lord is beginning to to trust in that again he's beginning to see that god's going to get him through things because god bailed him out with the whole thing with his wife calling her sister to where he didn't get killed right as the pharaoh would have had every right in egypt to do he's doing this you get the idea that the promise is finally sinking in because god said i will bless those who bless you and i will curse those who curse you and i'm sure as far as abram's concerned many of us would do this someone's messing with his family now god said that he shouldn't bring his family along his extended family like that but it's still family and that's impacting him and you get the idea that abram's like uh they're cursing me through my family they're attacking my family i mean we can all relate to this i'm just i've said this before but it's a good chance to say this again now my family is first priority right and somebody goes oh but pastor you're you're the pastor right your first priority should be the church okay well hold the phone yes my priority is working for the church okay but i'm gonna just tell you something that a wise mentor once told me he said in the church for those of you who understand this reference good if you don't come talk to me later right the church in the bible is often called the bride of christ that's one of the illustrations that the bible uses to refer to the church so here's the thing the church is god's spouse if you will now here's the thing and i and i don't mean this to attack anyone who's lived this way because i i've even had found times where i have lived this way and i'm not excusing it i know a lot of pastors right that people think well they you know their first priority should be the church and they should work for the church i've seen pastors sacrifice their own families all in the name of looking holy or all in the name of doing all this work or doing you know that every they miss kids games because there's a business meeting or they miss this because there's a prayer meeting or they miss this because there's another thing they have to do at the church and i'm not saying that as a pastor obviously i shouldn't work right i'm very thankful for the sacrifices that people make to allow me to do ministry full-time so i'm not saying i shouldn't work or that i shouldn't make sacrifices here and there but what i'm saying is for that workaholic tendency i find in myself and for others i had a wise mentor once say if you sacrifice your family for the church what you're doing is having an affair on your family with god's wife and the moment he said that they really dawned on me i'm telling you now if some guy had an affair with my wife you don't want to see what i would do and my point is if i'm having an affair on god's wife what do you think he would do anyway so all of that was an aside just to say right my first priority is my family i'm not gonna sacrifice it for the church i love the church we will be sacrificial my wife has sacrificed a lot even in this last week with me basically living at the church trying to help our volunteers and get everything ready but but i'm just saying now my first priority is my family and if you mess with my wife that's just a warning to all of you in love christian love obviously if you mess with my wife in that moment i'm not your pastor i'm her husband and you just don't want to go there okay that's not a threat i'm just saying don't do that and that was whoo that was that was quite an aside just to make the point abram's like you messing with me because you're messing with my family but he's also got the promise of god in the back of his head that says i will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you and you get the idea that abram's like i'm going to just trust in that promise these people done cursed me and god said he'd be with me so us 318 losers i know this shouldn't work but god made a promise and i'm going to trust that and boom they go riding out or marching out or whatever it is they did they're on the war path out they go right but this also brings up another point i don't want to miss and that is you know love isn't passive now what i mean by that is as christians i know and especially in light of the new testament that not that it's new information i believe the first testament speaks these same principles but but jesus more clearly articulates it maybe for those of us who are a little more dense not to see it in the first testament and he goes right we we know love your neighbor as yourself and jesus used illustrations where he's like if they strike you on the cheek turn the other cheek and this kind of thing and so i know a lot of that has come about to where christians now think love is this kind of mamby pamby cotton candy you can't do anything and before you're like well that's not true well how many churches allow a lot of unhealthy and damaging behavior to continue in our ranks i'm not even talking about society i'm talking about in our ranks we get ourselves in a lot of trouble immediately and over the years by indulging a lot of behaviors and every time i hear people that don't want to confront individuals every time i hear people that don't want to deal with problems i usually hear some iteration of but we're supposed to love them pastor and and let's just be honest when we say that i don't think we're really talking about loving these individuals because right first corinthians 13 which is our definition of love verses four to eight if you haven't read that before you should go back and read that and when the bible talks about love that's what it means and one of the attributes of love is it does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth right true love doesn't stick its head in the sand right because as my grandfather used to say boy sticking your head in the sand leaves other parts of you very exposed right and we always get a swift kick there when we ignore problems right but but my right my point is i'm on a roll today that you know that problem is is we tend to take this passive thing that's an excuse for loving ourselves through other people because i want them to still like me i don't value them more than their liking of me but in any case we just avoid things we think love is passive and i'm not trying to advocate for a moment that we go to the other extreme and that somehow christians now you know everybody should be strapping a 45 or a 9 mil to their sides or everyone should have a sword somewhere or someone should everyone should have an apc and an armored personnel carrier or whatnot and we should just go to war anytime there's you know even in the church and not even with a weapon but sometimes our our words our actions sometimes we're immediately quick to go to war when we see somebody not acting the way we think or whatever i'm not saying go to that extreme where we're just immediately snapping off and fighting everybody okay that's another extreme but what i am trying to say is is that love often it often includes conflict and confrontation in some way shape or form i'm not saying it comes to blows i'm not saying you murder your neighbor over it or you murder your fellow church member over it or your family member i'm not saying you try and assassinate their character or any other number iteration of this example i could give i'm not saying it goes there and i don't think christians always have to immediately resort to violence to solve anything in a broken world but what i am saying is that love is not passive love is not cowardice right love does stand up and fight when necessary now that's for the spirit to show us exactly how to do that and again as i said please don't misunderstand i'm not always saying violence physical violence is what god is going to ask you to do to stand up for the right but i'm just saying don't remove the possibility that love could in some cases do that all right we have plenty of examples and this is another one in the bible where here is a follower of god and he is going to resort to a form of violence right to stand up for the right okay i hope you're getting the balance of what i'm i'm trying to say here but i just want to point that out here love is not passive it's just it's willing to sacrifice for others and so abram is going to literally put his neck on the line he's going to put them and the 317 with him right if he's part of the 318 or the 318 with him right there they're he's they're putting it on the line they're willing to sacrifice for the betterment of lot who's already caused him problems and that's another point here is a follower of god who is willing to put his neck on the line to be sacrificial to put the necks of others on the line to help someone that's been a complete loser and a problem and doesn't really deserve if we're honest when we read the stories of lot he doesn't deserve to get help i mean it'd be easy to say well he made his choice he moved all the way into sodom he shouldn't have been there he shouldn't have been on those drugs he shouldn't have been hanging out with that person he shouldn't have been with that person right whatever we we do that too we justify we go well i don't really have to help them because you know i tried before and they still made a stupid decision and that's where they're at friends this is sacrificial love right here that abram is putting his neck on the line not just for somebody else but for someone else that doesn't really deserve help in fact he deserves what came to him right and that's also god right because we see the spirit working in abram here because right god loved us when we were still his enemies the bible says so so here is the spirit working through them and that's another effort to say you got to make sure you have the spirit in you before you do any confrontation or conflict right because you're gonna have to be very careful to make sure it's the spirit telling you to do something or the other to to stand up or the other and maybe even in a rare case with some sort of physical violence again i'm not advocating that right but anyway i think you get the point so all right so these 318 versus four battle hardened kings and their armies off they go verse 15. now it gets even crazier he that being abram divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and he defeated them what he i mean he divides them up there's even smaller groups of them now he divides them we're not told how and he defeats them and he pursues them as far as hoba which is north of damascus and he brought back all the goods and also brought back his relative lot with his possessions and also the women and the people this is just great this is just amazing undefeated armies versus an untrained nobody and they win they win you see this over and over again in the bible and this again goes to proof a point right god is more than enough god is more than enough he can do the seemingly impossible if you leave it to god what armies will be defeated in your life and i'm not trying to just be philosophical right but i'm just saying when you give it to god god can do the impossible and nobody would have looked at this lineup and said abram and the 318 losers are going to win right but they did somehow we're not told and i think the bible doesn't tell us because it doesn't matter really in the end because i don't think it takes a rocket scientist to know god had to be involved in this there's no other way they would have won there's just there's just no way but they win right god gets him through verse 17. oh and by the way he doesn't just get him through he doesn't just scrape them by it says not only does he get lot he gets all lot stuff i mean this is just god right always going above and beyond stuff doesn't matter i've often thought this even when thinking about food right i know this sounds random but be with me here all god would have had to do to be a good god is hook us up to some sort of divine iv bag to sustain us right well you're alive you're getting nutrients what do you need but god gave us taste buds he gave us varieties of food right i mean why does he do that because god's not just interested in giving you the bare minimum he goes above and beyond the abundant life he always wants to give you variety and enjoyment and remember in the beginning of genesis he made eden it means pleasure god's intent was pleasure he's not just interested in sustaining you and providing your needs he gives you your wants the desires of your heart he goes beyond that he rescues lot which would have been more than enough of a miracle but he also gets him back all of his stuff and abram also rescues everybody else he's like he breaks lot out and his family and his stuff and apparently everybody else that was caught so this is crazy to think about too god's people right rescue the sodomites because some of you are thinking ahead to sodom and gomorrah and a story about destruction but i just want you to think even ahead of that story all these people done been bailed out by the hebrew by abram the nobody and his nobody band of ragtag misfits because that's just who god is he's always looking to save he's always looking for his blessings to spell out we talked about that last time in chapters 12 and 13 right that just like we're not an island unto ourselves and us not living the way we should can impact other people like pharaoh and his household were negatively impacted we see that blessings can also spill out into other people's lives when we're being faithful and with god right when lot got all these herds and these possessions and stuff to begin with because he was hanging out with abram who's being blessed of god so it's just another reminder how we live does impact other people just like we just said before lot's impacted by the poor choice of people he hung around well have we ever bothered to think that we might be a poor choice for people to hang around just saying right let's ask god to make us a positive influence to be around that we're a blessing and not a curse to those around us but anyway abram and the misfit band through god's power they rescue them all verse 17. then after his return from the defeat at cheta lemur and the kings who were with him the king of sodom went out to meet him at the valley of sheva that is the king's valley so you get this idea that abram's done the rescuing and audi comes and you get the idea by the way because the king of sodom is coming out to meet him that the king saved his own neck all right all these people were caught but remember i said they were fleeing earlier somehow the king like a lot of politicians today right they looked out for their own neck he come out didn't fall in the tar pit or if he did he got out and he apparently wasn't in town when they ransacked it i don't know what happened but he he escaped but now he's found out all his people are free and that this nobody has rescued them so he comes probably with what little pomp and circumstance he has left he comes to the valley of the kings right you know you get this idea of he's riding in probably on whatever one chariot's left of his army right be like aha mighty king coming to congratulate the citizens army of what you know again maybe i'm a little cynical this week because some things lately but you know what i mean yeah so here they go so he rides out verse 18 and now an interesting figure shows up and some of you may have heard of before verse 18. and melchizedek king of salem brought out bread and wine now he was a priest of god most high okay pause who in the world is this guy like salem was not involved in this conflict not that we were told we've never seen this name up to this point all those hard to pronounce names of all these kings melchizedek was not one of them and yet all of a sudden randomly says the king of sodom's going out oh and then here comes this king of this place melchizedek first time we've ever heard of him oh and although also he's a priest of god most high which then also begs the question first of all who is this dude second of all where'd he come from and third how in the world do you know he's a priest and i didn't know god had priests at that time like i thought he was just dealing with abram over here it's like like what's going on pause we'll come back to that verse 19 he that being melchizedek blessed him and said blessed be abram of god most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and he that not being melchizedek but abram he gave him a tenth of all okay pause because this story is just getting weirder but we got to follow this on so abram comes with all this litany of rescued prisoners and stuff in tow all their stuff all the women everything the king of sodom comes out and it's almost like he gets interrupted before the king can do some sort of you know made for tv moment of like aha maybe i enabled this man to rescue our people or i give you the congressional medal of honor or what whatever you know before the king can do anything this other king shows up melchizedek and he immediately starts pronouncing a blessing on abram and on god it's like all of a sudden everybody's attention in that valley is directed to the real source of how this victory took place it was not abram in his in his losers it was god through abram and his losers right and melchizedek knows that and he goes blessed be abram of god but also be blessed god who who delivered them into his hands so if there was any wonder if abram was a brilliant military tactician that's not it at all even melchizedek said and abram doesn't disagree with it he goes yeah god did this he got you through he gave you the victory praise be and and and it's interesting also that he brings bread and wine and like gifts it's almost like he comes to abram and starts showering him with gifts showering him with praise and showering god with praise and then just before your head can you know get back on straight wondering what in the world is going on it says abram now gives this melchizedek guy which again we don't know who mikel's the dick is where he's come from how is he a priest and now it begs the other question how does abram know who this guy is and how does abram you know not ask what the whole part of this is weird for a reason you're supposed to be asking what gives but abram at the end of verse 20 starts lavishing stuff on melchizedek it says he gives him a tenth of everything now we have a fancy term for that that comes later in leviticus it's called tithe it's just a fancy word for tenth and no it's not just meaning money because i know a lot of people hear the preacher oh here's a part in the sermon where he's going to talk about money no no no this is beyond money i'm just saying a tenth just means a tithe that's just from the hebrew that's just all it means and apparently abram's now giving a tenth of everything to this melchizedek guy you almost get the idea that these two are trying to like out bless the other one so now you've got this like big blessing festival taking place they've all come to the valley of the kings everyone has questions and now this melchizedek and abram are out blessing one another oh let me bless you let me give you bread and wine let me give you praise let me give you prayer let me get and then abram's like no no no let me bless you let me bless god let me give you a tenth of everything i got you know take these camels and these sheep and this money and this stuff and they're they're just fighting over out blessing one another is anyone like this story's crazy all right but that's that's what they do they're gonna out bless one another and by the way this brings up something else when god's got you you don't have to worry about yourself we've talked about this you can worry about others and you get the idea abram's not in the least bit now worried about his resources or what he gets out of this or what anything he's just so busy i'm gonna out bless this guy can you imagine what would happen if we had a church filled with people that their main concern was how can i out bless the person next to me or the person i just interacted with no no no i'm gonna out give you if we were obsessed not with getting but giving what would happen right i mean this is just i think it would shock as many people as we're shocked in the valley but in good ways right i mean at first they'll think we're insane but then they want to why are you doing this right because there's some sort of connection now let me back up and let's deal with the big well not elephant but king in the room melchizedek because i've heard all sorts of explanations that people are like who is this guy that just randomly appears and and what's going on and believe it or not this is not the last time melchizedek gets brought up in the scriptures okay so this is the first time we see this individual but he's actually brought up a couple more times so for those of you who are making notes if you were just curious in psalm 110 verses 1 to 4 so that's the 110th psalm it says that jesus is like melchizedek versus aaron and the earthly priesthood so it's the psalmist talking about a difference saying right that the savior that the messiah is going to be like melchizedek he's not going to be like aaron the earthly priest this is a brother not abram but aaron the brother of moses another big character we would see when we get into an exodus series one day right and so there's that comparison there when the kiss that gets brought back up seemingly random uses an illustration of contrast saying well there's these earthly priests but then there's this melchizedek priest and the messiah is more like that and everybody else is more like aaron and that's all you get on that right okay the other place melchizedek gets brought up actually rather substantially as far i mean we get him more there than we do right here in genesis is in hebrews chapter 7 verses 1 to 10 where the writer of hebrews which many people think is the apostle paul but we don't know 100 for sure i tend to lean more towards that it's probably a sermon paul gave and it was written by someone else just because of a lot of the pauline structure and language but again that's in material exactly who wrote it but the writer of hebrews right comes out and brings up this story with abram and melchizedek and starts saying things like well mechizedek had no beginning or end we don't know where he came from and he also goes in to explain a few details about melchizedek forest that we don't initially get first of all the name right melchizedek apparently means king of righteousness it's interesting that's what it means secondly he's from salem okay he's the prince of salem well salem means peace hebrew right so you have the king of righteousness the king of peace okay so righteousness and peace a king of righteousness and peace just randomly shows up and it's very interesting again that he brings bread and wine that should be two things that should be ding ding ding throwing some things out in your brain if you've read anywhere around the scriptures so now bread and wine almost like we might call communion the eucharist whatever your particular tradition is used to this shows up to be lavished on abram and then interestingly enough this individual accepts tithe he accepts gifts that are supposed to go to god they're being distributed to him and he's called obviously a priest of god now when i say that people think i'm doing a big lead up to saying this is the pre-incarnate jesus okay one thing i would say against that and it's this we know god has met with abram already at this point and he's gonna meet with him again spoiler alert and some other stories here that are coming up we know he was meeting with him not just speaking with him that was back in chapter 12 it was escalating okay their relationship is deepening and we know in the gospel of john right in the new testament and other places that no one's seen god at any time only jesus has declared him so when there was ever any physical interaction with god it was jesus it was god in the person of jesus that was interacting with them okay that's just if you don't understand that come talk to me later send me an email i'll be happy to explain that to you but in any case so jesus has already interacted with abram we don't know how many times but at least one time that scripture has told us ahead of this not just verbally nowhere in this story or at least not no details are given does abram recognize him as that we don't see him dropping down in worshiping milk as a deck right so he's not giving him worship which is worthy of god alone right and we don't see them having any sort of conversation to to recognize any sort of past knowledge of one another although again it doesn't preclude that they may have known one another because abram seems to be just fine knowing he's a priest of god and you know is fine with that and i i have no clue okay but some people think well he just built this up to tell me it's jesus well here's the thing i don't know that it's jesus i can't prove that i don't think the evidence proves that some people say i've heard scholars say well maybe this is job because job and abram we most scholars believe were contemporaries or they lived in the same area about the same time well there's nothing again to evidence that this is job and if it was job why wouldn't they just say it was job job isn't the king of anything right some people say the king of suffering but that means we need a job series by the way because that's another book that's totally misunderstood but so much to cover but the thing is i don't think that supports it either i think if we're going to be honest to the text and the bible is all i can go off of or at least all i want to go off of as an individual it's up to you what you do but for me i'm personally persuaded i can't go beyond what the text says the point is from genesis 14 i cannot tell you with any certainty who the world melchizedek is except that he is a king he of salem he is named melchizedek and that he is a priest of god and that he brings bread and wine and receives tithe that is the only thing i can confirm but i don't think it matters and not that it doesn't matter i mean it's curious to know but as far as the story is concerned they don't give us those details because i think the author of genesis doesn't think it matters as much all i know for sure is that though we don't know who this melchizedek is he is going to become a type and a foreshadowing of jesus there are lessons through this melchizedek guy whoever he was and wherever he came from originally and whatever we don't know and hebrews kind of gave me this spoiler alert to say he becomes a foreshadowing of jesus it becomes evidence i think it's a big hint again of god's involvement in this story i think it's a big reminder to abram so that abram doesn't go cuckoo for cocoa puffs and think that he's just some swell military genius or what i think it's a reminder immediately that god says i was with you i kept my promise i would curse those that cursed you and bless those that blessed you and i'm involved and i'm intimately you know concerned about the dealings in your life and all these other people and and i'm here to also show you that my thoughts towards you are still to bless you to out bless you to out praise you to out give to you and i think it's great to also give us an illustration about how we as christians should treat the lord but also should treat others abram's trying to out bless melchizedek back it's just a big bless fist right and they're not blessing out as we might say in the south but they are blessing out each other right abraham and melchizedek try to out bless one another and here's the thing abram's doing right for right's sake in fact let me let me build on that because that comes right here at the end as we begin to end this after they try and out bless one another verse 21 the king of sodom said to abram give the people to me and take the goods for yourself so the king is so excited he kind of follows tradition at the time he's like well you deserve some pay you got all these people back so you just keep all the money you keep all the livestock and whatever else you got just give me all the people back okay just give me my citizens okay although if i was king i don't know if i'd want them back after they realized i failed them miserably in this rebellious war i started but anyway that's beside the point verse 22 abram said to the king of sodom i have sworn to the lord god most high possessor of heaven and earth again he doesn't say i've sworn to melchizedek over here so again i don't think that the text says it's jesus but i could be wrong again it doesn't that doesn't matter as much here we go verse 23 what did he swear that i will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours for fear that you would say i have made abram rich i will take nothing except what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me anner eskol and mom ray let them take their share now this is an interesting point you almost get the hint that these two allies that got mentioned earlier of abram neighbors of his other kind of general leader figures in the area that he was camped at that point i don't know again the bible isn't clear we know 318 came from abram's household now we hear there might have been some friends of his that got involved and brought their little armies or their little trained servants trained servants whatever there's other people that went with him but now let me since that was the end of the text let me start to wrap this thing up and where i'm going with this abram basically declares to the king of sodom and to us who are reading he says no i'm doing the right thing for right's sake i didn't do it for reward i didn't go out there and go cool i can get rich off of this he goes no i did it because they messed with my bro i got my family member back and if i had family that was caught i'd want him back and it's not my stuff to begin with and they didn't voluntarily give this stuff up it was stolen from him so i'm giving it back i'm not going to benefit off of other people's misery i'm not going to take advantage of other people's pain right so he goes no i don't want to keep it because then you're going to say you made me rich not god so abram's also aware about how what he does reflects upon god not just himself but he goes that's just not who i am i'm just worried about doing the right thing i did the right thing and praise god it worked out god got us through it i i don't want it but then he does a caveat that i think is important he says i don't want the stuff but the people that went with me the the servants these allies of his and however many people came with them we don't know i don't assume it a big group but again i don't know the text doesn't give me that detail he goes but those people let them take what they want or what they think is fair right let them take food that they had to eat on this journey and sustain themselves after the battle and whatever let them take the stuff they need and then you take the rest and all the people right and and take all the people so here's the thing i find interesting not only is abram interested in doing right for wright's sake he doesn't impose his beliefs his particular beliefs his particular set of living right on those around him now i know this one's going to be a little tough especially nowadays when let's be honest christians are a little too involved in politics in all the wrong ways i'm not saying don't be involved but some of us worship party more than jesus okay and and here's the thing we have a tendency as christians especially in north america especially in the united states i see more and more we feel quite confident in imposing our beliefs no matter how right or wrong they are on those around us because we say well they're gods and they're right and they're true so everybody should follow it and i'm not saying that i don't wish everybody followed the lord and i don't wish that everybody right would do the right thing for right's sake or live the certain way or not do certain things i'm not saying you can't feel that way or pray for that or whatever but i find it fascinating that a follower of god this hebrew this abram even then while he stood and said no this is my character this is what i believe i i won't do anything other than what i believe i'm going to be consistent i'm going to trust the lord he didn't force that on the non-believers around him or people that might be quote believers but just see things a little bit differently than him he didn't impose his moral code on his allies on his servants he didn't impose on those around him and i think again i could go off on a whole big side tangent here i already kind of am but i would just alert you you do the right thing for right's sake you trust god yes live for him i think your witness can hopefully encourage other people to do that i think abram's witness was going to encourage other people to follow his god to follow our god to follow things but he didn't impose that belief on others that doesn't mean you don't witness that's not a different that's not imposing unless you're witnessing is forcing somebody to do something but the true religion of god is not a religion that can be forced on anybody the idea of force and love going together doesn't work that's an oxymoron it's just incompatible abram did not force god on others abram did not force right living on others and i know he wanted them to live that way i'm sure i said we want them to live but if you find yourself tempted to force other people to do what you do to believe as you believe i'm just telling you that is not spirit-led that is not biblical religion and what good is it if you do if you get somebody to do the right thing but you do it in an anti-god an anti-love and a in a wrong way i think that's counterproductive i think this story wouldn't have half the power it does i don't think the king of sodom would have listened the way he does or any of the people there we don't know what all this crowd of all the prisoners freed prisoners whatever what they thought about this but i just didn't want to pass over this we live in an age where let's be honest even some of us in our own church here we have a tendency when push comes to shove to try and force somebody else to do it our way force somebody to do it the way we think and i i somewhat get the motive behind that but i'm just warning you that's not of god it's not biblical it's just not don't do it just do not do it it makes me sick when i see christians doing it nowadays even for good things if you force it it ceases to i mean it's still a good thing but you doing it ain't good at all not that way anyway okay i gotta land this plane but here here's the point of the story because now the story's ended with this praise fest and with abram out giving and with abram saying no i'm just gonna do the right because it's right and rescuing lot and all of these people and just i mean it's just it's just a great ending to a story that didn't have to happen that most of us been like not my problem here's the thing when god's got you when you're trusting in god when you're calling on the name of the lord when you're being obedient to the things god's called you to do remember abram's just been obedient and getting lot not to live with him anymore prior to this story again see it doesn't mean you don't care about your family you just he didn't say don't care about your family abram just don't live with them um your extended family that is and don't abandon your families okay point is when you're being faithful and stuff like that when you're worried about others it causes you love causes you to be courageous to do courageous things for others because you're not worried about how it impacts you you're worried about how it impacts others primarily i'm not saying abram didn't think about how it may have impacted him but his primary focus was how do i do right by god how do i do right by others how did i just do right that's right right and it allowed him to live courageously for others and the only way you can live courageously the only way you can do courageous things for god is simply first of all to understand that it's not about your promises and faithfulness it's about god's promises and faithfulness we saw that in 12 and in 13 and now again in 14 abram had to learn it's not about him it's not about him lying about his sister it's not about him dragging a lot along or getting rid of a lot or whatever it's not about his inability and unfaithfulness it's about god's ability and god's faithfulness of which melchizedek admittedly is a foreshadowing of showing us again to trust not melchizedek whoever that is but to trust in jesus to trust in god it also begs the question like we saw last time who are you making decisions for are you making them for you all right lot looked and he made one for him i want the valley i want sodom i'm going to go and zoar and then keep moving moving moving he ended up are you making decisions for you are you making them for others are you making them for god are you making them for the right right are we living courageously for others are you just living for yourself which by the way it's hard to be courageous just for yourself or if you do something that seems courageous it's not really courage it's just selfishness but are you doing that and here's the here's the point again we made last time and a good point to end here trusting in god letting god take care of you being obedient to his word trusting in his promises and faithfulness right living courageously for others doing the right because it's right all of those things but primarily doing them in the spirit doing them in god that sure solves a lot of problems a lot of problems let's pray father we thank you for the illustrations of abram in your word and the illustration of melchizedek and even the illustration of lot for what it is father thank you that you call us to live courageously for others and that we can live courageously for others if we know that you've got us that we're trusting in you to take care of us that we trust in your promise that you will bless those that bless us and curse those that curse us that the covenant is your deal that you've got this we don't have to lie we don't have to be afraid of our lives we don't have to eat you will take care of whatever you will do the impossible you'll take 318 nobodies and defeat the mightiest in the world if if it's us trusting in you if it's letting your spirit lead father we really pray that you would help us do the right things for the right reason i don't even like the word help us just you live the right through us father if left ourselves we're just selfish we just do things for ourselves but help us live the right for right's sake help us look out for others and not ourselves and father heaven forbid forgive us when we've done this but don't have us force those around us to live as we live don't have us force anybody to do anything don't have us impose our moral imperatives and our beliefs on people help us live in such a way help us be so in love with you and sold out to you that when people look at us they go you know what i might try that it works for them maybe i want to do that maybe father help us see people want to do the right for right's sake because we want to do the right for right's sake help them trust in god as we trust in you help us live courageously for others and father as we trust in you solve a lot of problems but most importantly solve us solve our hearts make us like jesus help us live trying to out bless one another and not just looking out for ourselves for we ask it in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit amen i want to thank you all again for taking part with us on our online coveted edition of church week two a reminder that next saturday september 11th starting at 11 a.m we will be resuming in-person services back up at the front sanctuary children's church will also be resuming at 11 and i'd also like to remind you that the following week right the 18th we will be meeting and by then our newly renovated family life center for worship and before i forget it because my brains is kind of all over the place at the moment uh just another quick reminder we could use your help for those of you who are interested in assisting reach out to us through the website through facebook let us know that you're willing to help as we get some of these things nailed down i also want to issue one more thank you and an apology at the same time that i forgot at the beginning i want to thank especially dean our av director for showing up at the church last saturday to make sure we had signs on the door because it was a last minute thing in kind of chaos and staying there to help direct some people that somehow fell off the communication grid to let them know what was going on and that segues into my apology again big apologies to any of you who did not get the announcement about this shutdown i know it happened with less than 24 hours to go before church again we wanted to be especially safe and and sometimes things just don't get communicated the way they need or you know the phone you know trees so to speak of us calling somehow gets missed i want you to know that we're learning from this event we hope we don't have to repeat it but we are learning we're going to try and get some better ways to communicate with everyone to make sure that no one falls through the cracks that no one's left behind so to speak on anything that we're doing i know that we should be able to get a big system going i know we paid for it we just need to get it underway we're going to start collecting people's cell phone numbers not to spam you but to put into an emergency communication system so that something like this happened we wouldn't spam call you but you could get a quick text telling you the kinds of things that i was announcing on facebook and here the last couple of weeks and we won't use that all the time but so just be on the lookout the next couple weeks if we start asking for emails or cell phone numbers so that we have a way to make sure that our church family and our wider church family that you can stay in the know and know what's going on and we don't have to have any of that confusion of oh no we're at church and nobody's here and for those of you that that might have happened i know of at least one case i apologize again profusely thank you for being gracious to us in this time of transition thank you for being gracious to us in the time of covet 19 where we're all trying to figure some things out and that's all for me i hope you have a blessed rest of your holiday weekend and we look forward to seeing you in person or seeing you again through the technologies that we have in our live stream next saturday september 11th starting at 11 a.m eastern standard time so may god bless you stay safe and may he keep you until we meet company again bye-bye

Channel: Greenville SC SDA Church

Views: 178

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Greenville, SC, South Carolina, Seventh Day Adventist, Church, SDA

Id: vhtnTdgCIps

Length: 78min 47sec (4727 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021