Shift || Dr Myron Edmonds - Scattered

[Music] too [Music] my i am yourself i am [Music] foreign good morning and happy sabbath we just want you on to our stream we're so excited that you've came here you have come here to join us um listen we just wanna welcome all those that are on our youtube channel all those that are following us on the reddit central channel and all those here that are live in our chat um and we're just going to wait for a few moments for more of us to to jump on but we just want to say happy sabbath welcome how you doing hope you're doing well listen it is in lamentations that it says that um it's only by his grace that we are not consumed that is it says it is the lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion fail not and and i don't know about you but i am just glad that um because jesus loves us because god loves us that we are still here um many of us may be looking for a testimony or a word even in this pandemic moment and and and this is it right here you are still here you are still alive you are still functioning that life life is trying to get you to throw in a towel but you are still continuing you are still um i'm going about your day you are still here and i don't know about you but i'm a little bit hyped this morning i don't know why a little bit excited this morning and and and and and i'm just wanting to give god praise i am just i don't know i just woke up this morning and i couldn't wait to get on to um this dream um because i knew that god was going to do something great um i said i prayed this morning i said lord i just don't want another good sermon i don't want just another good time i don't want just another good anything but lord i want your spirit to be here i want your spirit to be transforming and to do a mighty thing so listen we are glad that you are joining us to our regular members uh thank you for joining us to our our visitors um welcome to this virtual space welcome to this virtual worship um you know i i will say this we um in this season in this story series for this month and we have changed a little bit by about the way that we've done a few things um first of all we have invited people to come on to the zoom because we want to encourage more interaction we want to encourage more dialogue and and and this is the first time this is happening on our virtual space but after the preacher is finished preaching um there will be a few moments that we can ask the preacher a few questions so what i want you to do what i want you to do as he's speaking as uh your minds and your hearts are being pricked i want if you have any questions i want you to just type it into the chat i want you to to type it onto the youtube comment um so that we can pick it up and so that we can um um challenge the preacher more on the content that he is sharing with us this series is titled shift ah this series is entitled shift and we are looking forward to the way that god is going to move through this series move uh through this time and we already know that colvin has has literally just changed the way that we have we do things from simply i'm going shopping or using the gym or or simply um just you know going to school many people have gone back to school and and and they've been trickling year by year and and it's not been the same and literally covered is prompting us even the church even the people of god to do things a little bit different and this month we just want to think about that this morning in our sabbath school we have been talking about small groups and and and small um um ways that we can connect with each other so we this culvert is prompting us to to think a little bit differently to do things differently and in this series we want to see uh where god wants us to be uh we want to see where we are right now and to see where truly and wants the church to be so again as more and more people just paul run we just want to say thank you welcome we want you to jump on the camera jump on um um so we can see your faces so that we can interact with you so that we can see your smiles and and everything uh so listen we again we just want to say thank you to welcome welcome to this stream well listen in this moment we're just going to ask our our team to to to present uh just a short video for your consideration in this moment [Music] while playing tennis with a friend ricardo came across the tithing subject his friend who attended an evangelical church told how things were done in his church well in my church all money collected is retained and administrated locally oh really yes isn't that how you do it in your church no we actually use the storehouse system storehouse system what do you mean well resembling the biblical storehouse principle the adventist church brings some of the funds collected by each local church to a common bucket and then distributes them equitably in that way all local regional and global financial necessities are supplied oh wow sounds interesting yeah then all the tithes are used exclusively to support authorized missionaries while offerings are mainly used to support the local church other regional and global evangelistic projects and ministries and if we identify ourselves on the envelope we even receive receipts from what is given so there's basically an auditing system exactly and we may have access to all financial information of the church but do you trust this system i trust god i know the system is managed by fallible human beings trying to do their best like me but no incidental human failure will affect my practice because i actually give it to god as an act of worship and he is in full control of his own business you know ricardo was right with the representative system adopted by the adventist church no individual or interest group is the owner or controls all the funds local church and regional representatives elect regional and world leaders for limited terms and they are regularly audited on how they use the church's resources besides that all pastors and leaders are paid on the basis of a common salary scale 21 million members worldwide contribute to the same pot with tithes and promise or regular systematic offerings and the church is now present in 213 out of the 235 countries and areas recognized by the united nations they do that because united they are stronger and are able to do more and go farther as you return your tithe and give your promise pray for those who haven't received the message of salvation so that through this act of worship they can be reached may we put our desires last and god first awesome awesome awesome well listen um again we just want to say thank you um to all of our members to all of our members that have been um faithfully given um in this pandemic time uh we we see that you have continued to be faithful um even um through just hardship and even through um just this this downturn economically um thank you to dolls rehearing jobs losses and we're hearing um those who have been placed on further law all of it and we are grateful that you are still a faithful in your giving and i just want to just reassure you and just reiterate that you know the tides is something that helps our um the the global church there too when we when we read things about like the mission spotlight we we we that's what the ties help us to do but it's really um that helps locally is the offering that helps our local church what we do here in reading central and red and bread and pasta but listen i am super stoked i am super hype i am just just just ready to see what god is is going to do um in this moment on on this stream in this virtual space literally man we since we have begun we have since i i have joined this church and joined this new assignment we have begun with our series on in moments like these and we have been just super super blessed and then we moved into um and then we moved into this too shall pass series and and now uh is leading us into a moment of shift in a moment of of shifting and to and and this month we have been we are going to be by many uh our brilliant uh thought leaders and and and and and brilliant speakers who would be he will be leading us in this shift um this week we are joined and we'll hear a little bit about uh dr myron edmonds um but this week we'll have dr edmunds and the next week we'll have pastor roger hernandez uh following by dr jaiveth williams and pastor marquis johns um that will be leading us into this shift um as i said earlier um we will have a chance to ask a few questions um towards our speaker um we probably we are going to hear some challenging things some new things and um we we we would want to give the opportunity all who are on this virtual space to just be able to ask some questions and ask our our preacher a few things about the the content and and and about what he is sharing and i'm sure the preacher is glad and is able to do that and we're super uh looking forward to that well literally man i i it is it is it is it is a bit past moment and um it is time to it is time for for the priest last week we were blessed by pastor michael the preacher on our stream um dr murray edmonds um is is is is a prolific preacher and he's a great voice in seventh day dentist uh denomination um he's no stranger to us in england um i many of you may have have attended the goal uk um that we had led out i'm sure in in 2000 and uh pastor myron edmonds was um the keynote speaker um for for for that weekend just reading just a little bit about him on his on his um um paige uh pastor edmunds is is is pastoring currently the the grace community sda church uh that's formerly the glenville uh seventh-day adventist church that's in cleveland ohio he has his master of divinity and doctor of ministry from the andrews uh university and i believe he he also attended uh oakwood university um he has two children um a daughter taylor and a son camden and his wife who also is a doctor dr shanae edmunds who he is married to um but again dr edmunds for me and many of the younger guys in ministry uh dr edmunds is one of the guys that we um look up to [Music] the guys that we would tune into and we would listen to what he is he's doing national authentic transparent a creature and he's something that i have learned a lot from in terms of communication and presenting and i don't remember many years ago i said how do you do what you do and um when you came over to and i said how do you do what you do and you had you had given me a recommendation of a book to go and read by um by andy stanley and that is something that that had touched my life and that had changed the way that i communicated so listen i just want to thank you for just your your your voice in our denomination thank you for being you thank you for being transparent thank you for for stepping outside of the box thank you for taking all the criticism that you get for doing what you do and we are grateful that uh we have somebody to to look out to to look up to and to say man well listen let's let's try and aim to be uh uh something close to who to dr uh myron edmonds well listen um without further ado we're just going to have a a short meditational clip and then the next voice that you would hear and then we will hand over the speaker view i have over to uh dr dr edmunds um before before that you'd hear a short meditational in times like this especially with what's going on now this song just simply speaks a sentiment to my life and to yours i hope i need you to survive i pray for you each and every day just giving you hope encouragement you're important to me and i've each just been here still so i hope this song encourages you simply say i need you to survive and i hope you sing with me where you are [Music] i need you you need me we're all a part of god's body stand with me agree with me we're all a part of god's body it is his will that every [Music] i need you to survive you are important to me i need you to survive [Music] boys it is his wealth i need you i need [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] agree with me you are important to me [Applause] i need i need you to survive [Music] [Applause] [Music] i pray for you you pray for me i love you i need you to survive i won't hurt you with words from my mouth [Music] [Applause] i [Music] [Music] i need you to survive [Music] i wanna [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] from [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] i love you i need you to oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] i love you i need you to know [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] is i need you to survive [Music] hallelujah hallelujah amen ah praise god can you hear me now can you hear me now testing one two three can you hear me now if you can hear me just wave okay it's the pastor okay i was looking for him it looks like he is well praise the lord everybody uh happy sabbath blessed sabbath to you all uh it is a blessing to be with you even though it is 7 30 a.m in the morning here in cleveland ohio only for pastor gillen when i get up this early to preach this morning um but it is it is indeed an honor and a privilege to be with you i mean honestly if we're all honest it's it's a blessing to be alive this pandemic has has touched so many lives here in america and i'm sure it is the same there as a matter of fact we have family members that live there in in london and um many of them have have been sharing with us just how this pandemic has affected things there and so we don't take it for granted at all do we even though we're in a different space and uh you know everybody's trying to get used to this um i definitely desire one day to be back amongst the congregation of the saints but uh i'm not willing to put my life on the line to do it right now i think all of us recognize the importance of social distancing and the importance of uh of safety uh just because this thing has ravaged so many lives and uh and not only are we facing this this physical pandemic of brothers and sisters uh but we're also we're also dealing with uh i would say racial pandemics and uh pandemics of injustice um and violence in our streets and so these are very these are very um very very very difficult and perilous times in which we're living in none of which we can say we were not informed about these things all right uh we knew these things were going to happen the bible prophesies these things to us and we as seventh-day adventist believers believe in the prophetic word and and understand that these are the realities that will take place as we get closer and closer to the coming of the lord i do want to say thank you for the invitation to be here to uh pastor thank you very much uh you're looking good my brother the saints are looking good and uh i see you guys are you yet holding on despite all that's going on uh i i'm getting a little bit of a an echo are you are you experiencing the same on your end do you guys hear an echo okay um i'm going to uh let me see if it's anything on my end these are these of course these are some of the challenges that come with the virtual space i don't hear it now it seems like it's worked itself out if if if you if you feel like it sounds a little bit better just wave your hand at me because i know you're muted it's a little bit better now no echo we're good to go all right thank you thumbs up nice okay cool um again just just very glad that you're here good to see families together uh sitting together worshiping together you're doing a fine job pastor uh gillan and we just uh we're just glad to to be here to serve with you i have a word that i want to share this morning i know you're anxious to get into the word um the only disappointment that i have pastor gillian is that that i cannot be physically there with you guys to enjoy some good food uh and fellowship after church that's what i miss i mean listen i miss the word i miss i miss the music but i missed potluck too i missed i missed the church coming together and i especially missed being being there in the uk because i know if i were there i would get some some very good west indian food uh post the service so so i i have to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich i have to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich after this is over so you guys pray pray for me pray for me all right let's go to the book of acts would you go join me in the book of acts chapter one acts chapter 1 is where i want to go today and i want to share uh what i believe the lord has to say to the church uh uh concerning not only us here uh where we are but we're globally i believe that there is something that god is trying to say to the church right now i don't claim to have all the answers but i do believe that there is an answer in the word of god and i'm going to go here today let's go acts chapter 8 acts chapter 8 verses 1 through 4 acts chapter eight uh verses one through four acts chapter eight verses one through four and i'm going to be reading from the english standard version of the bible the english standard version of the bible is uh what i'm going to be working with the esv all right acts chapter eight verses one through four if you have any bibles go there and uh that's exactly where we're going to uh where we're going to uh try to try to build a foundation for what i believe the lord wants to say to the church today the bible says this it says and saul approved of his execution and we know this to be a connection from acts 7 where he is speaking specifically of the persecution of the execution rather the execution of stephen uh the deacon the mighty man the spirit-filled man of god that was preaching the word of god and while he was being stoned the scripture said he began to pray for those that were stoning him and the scripture says saul who became paul the mighty the mighty preacher of the new testament i don't know if there's anybody on the level of paul on the level of paul other than christ himself paul the most prolific writer of the scriptures the scripture says he was giving he was giving approval of of stephen's death the bible says and those and their roles and their roles and this is really what i want you to see and there arose on that day of great persecution against the church in jerusalem and they were scattered they were scattered they were scattered typed that word in the comments they were scattered that's critical as a matter of fact that's the title of my message they were scattered they were scattered throughout the regions now closer to a place play close attention to this they were scattered throughout the regions of judea and samaria except the apostles except the apostles very important part to to to to to recognize there in the passage verse two devout men buried stephen and made great lamentation over him verse three but saul saw was ravaging obviously this is the apostle paul before he was converted the bible says he was ravaging the church and entering house after house lord have mercy he was on the rampage he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison now do you see the picture of what's happening here very clearly the bible says that the church is under severe persecution and it just so happens that the church is under persecution by someone who eventually is going to be the leader of the church lord have mercy now this ain't my sermon but i just do want to say this real quick don't ever give up on anybody if god can take saul and and convert him to the apostle paul lord have mercy then surely there is hope for anybody and i want to say this to somebody this morning i know this ain't my sermon notes i ain't really come here to preach this and listen this is i i'm saying this because somebody here is concerned about a child somebody here is concerned about a spouse somebody here is concerned about a loved one or relative that you've been praying for that you've been agonizing uh concerning the good news concerning the word of god is if saul can turn to paul and listen we talking about somebody not only that one attending church listen we worried about folks not coming to church listen paul was trying to destroy the church and the word says that god turned him around and so we praise god for the hope that he has in us i praise god for his patience i praise god for his long suffering i don't know what your story is this morning but i know everybody that's on this virtual church conversation this morning has a testimony of god's faithfulness a testimony that god would not let you go a testimony that god saw you before you saw yourself and proved himself to be faithful in spite of yourself come on and give god some praise this morning for that and nevertheless paul was the one trying to kill the church y'all the bible says he was going from house to house trying to tear the church up and the scripture says a large size a massive size persecution broke out amongst the church and notice what the scripture says people were being thrown in prison hear me now people were being thrown in prison people were being killed y'all the comfort zone of which the church had found itself in was no more now why because persecution began to rip through the church under the leadership of of the soon-to-be apostle paul verse four here's my last text the bible says now those now those who were scattered about when preaching the word you know i i'm getting so excited already uh persecution is happening in the church the church is being scattered now keep that in mind and the bible says and then those who were scattered who were displaced began to preach the word of god father i just pray right now that you will just bless us as we share this word holy spirit take charge it's my prayer in jesus name we pray amen the subject matter for today is simply scattered scattered and so i have been monitoring and watching and been prayerful i don't know about you i've been prayerful i've been praying i think it's time for all of us to be prayerful given the fact that church as we know it is no more get that in your minds right now brothers and sisters i mean literally literally uh a virus that broke out somewhere i don't know china i don't know what your thoughts are conspiracy theorists i don't know if you believe uh the world health organization cdc i don't it doesn't even matter we know that there was a virus here that is taking the lives of millions and did we ever foresee that this thing would literally shut church down as we know it shut it down shut it down we were we were in in church on one sabbath and the next sabbath we were at home trying to figure out what to do next trying to get our bearing so to speak trying to figure out how to continue to do ministry and i've asked myself this question and and i pray that you would indulge me and i said maybe some of you have asked the same question it could have been that god in his sovereign in his uh in his his wisdom uh i believe god is always in control how many of you believe that if you believe that just raise your hands if you if you know that god is always in control god is never caught he's not caught off guard by this stuff hear me off it's not like god was like oh my goodness we we're in the middle of a pandemic what what am i going to do about the church now i believe god saw this coming i believe it i believe god saw this coming matter of fact i know god saw this coming we know that god is always going where he's coming from to get to where he is to find out he's already there he's not surprised or caught off guard by circumstances he ain't caught off guard by what's happening in your life we serve a god that is flat out in charge period he's always running things he's always in the proper position he never relinquishes the throne and so we ask ourselves god why would you allow that's what we have to ask ourselves why would you have to allow this now we could easily say well we understand why this is happening in the world there's mass wickedness and injustice i don't know maybe god i mean there's so many answers that we could suggest to these questions but the question i want to ask is why would he allow the church to be put in the position that it's currently in why why would you take away all the stuff that we enjoy doing as a church literally if god wanted us to continue doing business as usual he could have allowed it to do it if he wanted it to happen it would happen tell me i'm not telling the truth come on some of y'all smelling what i'm cooking this morning and you have to i'm wrestling with it if god was happy with the way that we were doing church he would have left it in place if it was if if it was effective come on somebody if it was of of of his desire in this hour he would have preserved it he would have kept it in place for years we have been going about attending our services come on say amen enjoying ourselves come on receiving the word enjoy them potlucks and i was talking about y'all y'all clearly can see i love to eat right doing doing all of the things and our pathfinders and our personal ministries our women's ministries our men's ministries the all the things that make up what we do our sabbath school courses and and classes and and all the various things our praise and worship our choirs and and our music and all of the things that made up what made uh what we would call our church experience but could it be that god is trying to shift our thinking away from what we have previously thought was the way the church should go and has now allowed us to be put in a position where we have to consider church in a completely different way and y'all let's be honest i don't know how long this is gonna last now uh before before you come for my life before you come to my life let me tell you that i am a fourth generation seventh-day adventist and i'm proud of it let me tell you something right now um listen nobody ain't nobody at more adventists than me listen my daddy wasn't having this preacher my mother was uh it was legal counsel for the general conference come on somebody listen every school i've ever attended was an advocate school i went to athens school in elementary school i went to avenue school in middle school i went to athens school in high school i went to adventist school in university i went to adventist school when i got my doctorate all i know is athleticism y'all better pray for the preacher here listen i love this church i love our message i believe that we have a unique assignment that god has not given anybody else but could it be that god because we are special could it be because we have a unique assignment that god literally has allowed this thing to happen in order to get our attention to recognize that perhaps we have been stuck on some things that we need to get unstuck from perhaps we had made things idols we had made things more important than than they should have been important could it be that god wants us now in this space where we're at home come on somebody we're not depending on preachers anymore we're not depending we're not depending on sabbath school teachers anymore come on somebody we are now in a position where we've got to lead ourselves to worship we've got to lead ourselves into the presence of god we can't wait for the evangelistic meeting in order to win people to christ could it be that god is literally positioning the church so the church recognizes finally that we are a priesthood of all believers there are no special people more special people than others that there are no stars and then there are some average folk no could it be that god is saying i'm tired of your services have you ever read isaiah chapter one in isaiah of the first chapter uh going all the way through through through chapter seven as jeremiah seven as well the the children of israel just a little bit the children of israel had gotten so caught up in the temple they had gotten so caught up in their worship services at the temple and god was tired of it because god said in in isaiah the first chapter he says i'm sick of your sacrifices i'm sick of your worship he says i am no longer hearing your prayers he says because you come inside this building and you come inside this temple and you offer your sacrifices and you offer your worship and you sing your songs and you go through your ceremonies and you go through your of the rut and the routine of your worship experiences he says yet the oppressed are still oppressed he says yet the motherless uh and the fatherless are still without homes the orphans still have no place to go the widows are still not being taken care of he says and injustice is raining in the streets he was concerned he says y'all worshipping he says but i don't see you in the communities he says you're worshiping he says but i don't see you ministering to those that are in need you're worshiping he says but you're treating ministry like a program instead of treating it like a lifestyle and he says listen he says it brings he says it makes me sick this is what the lord said to israel he says and one day i'm going to send my son and your temple is coming down lord have mercy he said jesus said when he came here did he not he said he says he says he says in three days he he says i'm going to tear it down he says i'm gonna build up a new temple and we know that the temple he was describing was concerning himself and i'm telling y'all y'all we've been saying this for a while but it has not hit me like it has hit me until recently that we are literally in a season where god has literally stripped away all the comforts of church as we know it and could it be that god did it on purpose to get us into a different space of ministry where we recognize we don't go to church that we are the church lord god help me today the only thing about this i can't hear nobody talk back to me but i know i'm preaching the word of god today i feel the lord making us on uncomfortable on purpose i feel god displacing us on purpose i feel god stripping away things that we have depended on on purpose because i believe that god is really trying to get us to a place where we're no longer going to church come on somebody but we are the church that we recognize that church is not someplace i show up to church is not something i have the church is something that i am as i'm even looking in these homes i look at the lindo family they're sitting there that's the church as i see brother warren in his home he is the church as i see others brother andrew and others but i see your faces you are the church and the organization of the church the institution of the church the real estate of the church the buildings of the church all of that stuff is gonna burn when jesus christ comes back but the thing that will stand forever the thing that the bible says that the gates of hell will not prevail against he ain't talking about buildings and structures and booklets and guides he's talking about a people that are going to be faithful to him come with me a people that are going to serve him despite the challenges of people that are going to catch help but they're going to give it back to the enemy because they recognize that their assignment and their call is not is not contingent upon them attending a building one day out of the week for ceremonies and for traditions but in fact that their responsibility and their call is to preach the gospel come on y'all adventist matthew 24 14 and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a witness then the end will come who's gonna do the preaching the question is you're gonna do the preaching can i show it to you in the text can i show you real quick and then we're gonna get out of the way because i know we have discussion right but i'm getting excited in here i'm about to wake up the house it's early in the morning y'all pray for me i'm trying to i'm trying to tone it down but my wife might get up and get mad at me oh this is good though yo i can't hold i can't i can't contain myself can i show it to you in the text watch what happens here watch what happens here now now it is quite obvious it is quite obvious from the text that the scripture says that a persecution broke out in the church now i really don't have time but what i can tell you is if you look at if you look at a survey of the book of acts especially from chapters one through eight now stay with me everybody from chapters one what happens in chapter one the promise is given of the holy spirit the bible says that the holy spirit was gonna be given unto them and watch watch what it says in acts acts 1 and verse 8 i want you to look at that scripture i want you to look at that acts 1 and verse 8. this is good y'all this is good this is good oh lord help me help me help me holy ghost acts chapter 1 let me get there myself i'm so excited i can't even find the verse actually acts chapter one and verse eight all right there i am there i am there i am now now watch this the promise is given right somebody somebody just leaned that into the comments the promise is given watch what is the promise here it is the bible says jesus speaking to the disciples he said he says but you will receive power you will receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you now watch this watch the people that are paying attention go catch you go catch it here he says you will receive power when the holy spirit is come upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and the end of the earth did you catch that there the promise was made by jesus to the apostles that you're going to receive power holy ghost power demon chasing power stronghold uh-huh breaking power i mean and we see it in the text i mean come on the church to the early church man folks were walking these are average folk they're walking and their shadow is healing people y'all come the handkerchiefs they're laying it on the sick and the sick of being healed they're preaching the word of god and thousands are coming to him in a day no no no watch this now but notice what the promise says it says you're going to receive this power he says and watch this you will be witnesses there's no option here we're not going to have a church full of dead people we have to have a church full of people following after one person we're not gonna have a church full of people sitting around doing nothing taking up sermons listening in sabbath school classes going home doing nothing this is not his plan for the church his church was that you will be witnesses follow me now where everywhere he says first in jerusalem notice the strategy start in jerusalem then judea then samaria then the whole world that was always god's desire is that the message would go global always somebody type that in the comics global global global it's critical his message his desire was that the message would go global can i tell you why because christ said it himself he says i'm not willing that any should perish any he don't want anybody in the parish he said but that all should come to repentance it is the heart's desire of god and i want to tell you this right now if there are churches and their desire their number one desire is not to see folks saved then those churches are going to be moved out of the way i'm telling you now we are living in the last days and god is not putting up with lazy churches lukewarm churches churches stuck on themselves churches that are caught up in tradition churches that are caught up in foolishness backbiting fussing power struggles the holy ghost is saying time is out for that people are dying in the streets the coming of the lord is even yet at hand and i'm telling you now if there are churches that are not committed and concerned about those in the communities that are in need of food and clothing and shelter and justice and deliverance and salvation and mentorship he said churches that are not concerned about these things the word of god tells us in revelation the candlestick will be removed out of its place i'm telling you now god is not loyal to denomination god is loyal to relationship trust me on that and this evidence that's going to hell believe it believe it brothers and sisters don't think cause your name is on the road that you have some advantage i'm telling you now if he told the jews i'm going to find gentiles you don't think he'll tell some seventh-day adventists i'm gonna leave y'all right here and go find somebody that'll stand on this word somebody that'll live for god go to heaven's fault somebody that will believe me and i'm telling you right now there is no loyalty to you simply because your name is on the road god is looking for people that possess a heart like yours what does ellen white say ellen white says that christ will come when his character is fully reproduced in his people now who are his people well the word tells us that his people are going to be called out of babylon he says come out of babylon my people and i'm telling you right now island read from ellen white where she said that many of our churches hear me now are holding grounds she's like holding grounds she says god is not going to send his people into many of our churches because if they came into our churches they would leave christ lord have mercy lord have mercy and if you want to make god angry well uh the word says if you if you if you were to cause one of these little ones to be lost it would be better for millstone to be hung around your neck and for you to be thrown in the depths of the sea and i believe that this pandemic has revealed something about god that god has gotten fed up with church that has been about us that god has been fed up with church where we high-five one another congratulate one another recognize one another in our services pat one another on the back with plaques and applause when we got whole neighborhoods that don't know christ where we got whole communities where there are people with kids there with no daddies in their lives and our churches are full of men that will not mention them are you hearing me now where people are being abused and mistreated and there's social injustice and the church is silent god says shut it down he says shut them down shut them down make them stay at home until they can think about what their purpose is so they can reconsider why i died for them do you think that the lord died for us come on somebody went back to glory sent the holy ghost to us so we could be lukewarm so that we could be arguing about theological doctrine so that we can be fussing and fighting about foolishness immature you think the lord sent the holy ghost for our churches to be anemic and powerless and for our churches not to be strongholds and you think that the lord did all of that for our churches to look the way they look right now the lord said enough is enough he says i'll even allow a pandemic to come in and shut them down make them stay at home make them reconsider what the mission of the church is all about and right here in this text i got to go right here in this text we see something very similar what happened in the early church now listen we talk about holy spirit field church y'all spirit-filled church but even spirit-filled people can get comfortable notice what happened here let me just break it down i'm just going to say the most simplest things you know what happened the scripture says i'm sending you the holy spirit and i want you to be witnesses in jerusalem judea samaria and the uttermost parts and y'all know what happened the scripture says they got stuck in jerusalem that's exactly what happened they got stuck in jerusalem they got stuck amongst their own people they got stuck amongst their own culture let's talk about it they were excited about spreading the gospel when they first came into the church but over time they they began to just enjoy the inner circle and they began to enjoy uh the relationships the people they know and sooner or later it became us and them sooner at some point it became the church in jerusalem and nobody else and that's this now the apostles were all a part of it do you realize that god had to send the apostle paul a dude straight from the streets i do trying to kill the church god had to turn his life around because if god did not get paul out of the hell he was in and bring him to the church the church would have never started evangelizing outside of the four walls of jerusalem it would have never happened and i'm telling you now listen let me just throw this out here y'all i believe that god is going to start bringing folks from the outside to come in to help the church to do what it should have always done and they're gonna have different ideas they're gonna be doing stuff differently they're gonna they're gonna make some of us uncomfortable because they're not gonna be doing stuff that we used to doing that's what exactly what paul was paul was like hold on this dude was trying to kill the church now now we don't let the guy in the church and the lord began to favor him to grow the church to what he said he said you will be my witnesses in jerusalem judea samaria and the uttermost part but the scripture says they got comfortable in jerusalem so what did god have to do here it goes i got to end it now you know what god did he allowed persecution in our case he allowed a pandemic in their case he allowed persecution and you know what persecution did i'm getting so excited i can hardly contain myself the bible says look there in the text y'all go back to acts chapter eight verse one go back to acts chapter eight verse one lord have mercy jesus look at what persecution did y'all the bible says and there arose verse one and there are rules on that day a great persecution against the church where in jerusalem why are they in jerusalem because they got stuck in jerusalem they got stuck in jerusalem they got insular they got myopic they it was all about them it was all about them and their children and and they were they wasn't sending nobody else to new bold it was just the adventist kid they got caught up in adventism y'all excuse me they got caught up in judaism y'all they got caught up god was trying to do a new thing and they and they got caught up and they stayed put and so god says all right i gotta move them because they're not gonna go willingly if i don't allow them to be pushed out lord have mercy i'm speaking to somebody today if i don't allow persecution to come they're going to stay here and they'll die he says so i'm going to allow persecution for the good of the church he said the persecution will come some people will die some people will be will be persecuted the lord have mercy uh people will be displaced church as it had been will no longer be but guess what will happen when the church scatters look at look at now in verse four look at verse four look at verse four now those who were scattered went about preaching lord have mercy listen they weren't preaching before this because they were too busy chilling in jerusalem enjoying jerusalem enjoying cyber school in the divine hour come on now in the ay programs and doing all this stuff but the question was why didn't you go out why aren't you being pushed out why aren't you spreading the gospel why aren't you raising up a standard and speaking to the issues in the community and pulling people out of struggle and pulling them out of difficulty and telling your story and lifting the brokenhearted and and releasing those that are oppressed and and visiting the imprisoned lord have mercy jesus could it be that the lord pushed the church out on purpose that he first he allowed persecution on purpose for the fact for the express purpose that they would live on purpose lord thank you jesus somebody ought to bless him right now you thought all the heartache that you've been through was god trying to god trying to hurt you god was just trying to push you thank you jesus all the hell that you've been through god allowed this stuff because you were too comfortable in your position and god had purpose for your life thank you jesus somebody ought to rejoice right now that god did not that god did not allow you to stay in your mess that god didn't allow you to rot in your comfort but sometimes we got to be pushed out lord have mercy sometimes we've got to be pushed out because you know you wouldn't go you would not go on your own sometimes god's got to make your current situation so uninhabitable that you are willing to leave it and when you leave the bible says they went out preaching oh y'all got to pray for me now let me illustrate like this god is playing checkers he's playing chess not checkers now i don't know how many y'all out there play chess or i'll check but listen there's a big difference between checkers and chess that i play checkers i don't play no chess feel me now listen this illustration god is playing chess with your life and with the church he's not playing checkers y'all know checkers checkers real simple come on somebody you know it's all about taking your little pieces and just jumping over somebody and taking their pieces and then you're the winner of the game that's it no strategy really i'm just gonna hop over all your pieces and then you're gonna take mine and then whoever takes the most pieces is the winner and so it's a very selfish mindset it's all about taking the other person's pieces and then you're the winner no real strategy involved those of you who think there's a strategy involved in checker you're just you're just looking at on how good checkers is but those of you who play checks and i'm not a chess player but those of y'all who play judge you don't tell the truth chess is about strategy and chess is not about jumping over the other person but what is it about y'all it's about getting the other players king in checkmate and see you can't get him in checkmate without thinking several moves ahead i feel the holy ghost i believe what we are in right now is god checkmating your church checkmating your attitude checkmating your purpose see for too long you've been in charge for too long you've been leaving for too long we've been and making the decisions and god said no i'm allowed some stuff where i'm gonna put you in checkmate i'm i'm gonna put you under control why because that's how victory is won and what i'm really doing is i'm thinking steps ahead i'm not only considering you i'm considering the next generation i'm only concerned the next generation i'm concerned the generation after that i'm not even considering them i'm considering the neighborhoods and the other neighborhoods and the people that don't even know they're going to be saved because i allowed some stuff to happen to push you out of your comfort zone i want to rejoice right now and give god praise y'all excuse me while i praise him by myself i want to thank you god that you pushed me out of my foolishness i want to thank you that you pushed me out of my comfort zone i want to thank you that you allowed me to be persecuted out of stuff it was painful but it was worth it it was difficult but i needed it it was necessary but it was but it was about my growth and my development and i'm telling y'all right now you need to listen to the voice of god speaking to you is he trying to push you out so you can preach now i'm talking about preaching like a preacher but i'm talking about using your life to be a testimony it's ministry time y'all it ain't time to sit around and be afraid of coronavirus be careful be safe but is there somebody that you can bless use this computer use your phone come on somebody we got options now to be able to reach people like we've never reached them before you can reach more people sitting at home and you can't sitting in your building y'all better hear me right now and god has given us a space to do it and i don't want you to miss this opportunity because the lord says i see things you don't see i'm thinking moves ahead i see you not only in 2020 but i see 20 21. how many can't wait till 2020 is over bless the horde oh my soul he said but i see 2025 and he says and i see the coming of the lord and i see the time of trouble such as never was and i and i see uh the final events and that there will be rapid ones and i and i see blue laws being passed and i see persecution breaking out now before all that happens i'm already seeing that stuff but i'll also see you right now on the present and i'm not cool with it ah i'm not satisfied with your current condition so i'm gonna allow some stuff in your life to shake you up personally it ain't just about the church corporately but god's trying to shake us up personally why because god says ah i wanna push you out for your purpose i wanna move you out for my glory and if you stay here you're gonna die if you stay here i'll be displeased but if i give you a little dodge somebody ought to praise him right now for the little nudge that he gives you you would have never asked for it you would have never prayed for it but thank god god saw that you needed the push thank you jesus in order to do what god called you to do lord i just pray right now that the message was clear but i pray most importantly that somebody was impacted somebody was convicted that the church was edified now fathers we shall discuss and consider the themes that we have discussed in this message i just pray that the spirit of god will continue to bless us as we continue to consider the conversation about where we're going as a church is our prayer in jesus name we pray amen and amen my my my my my my wow wow um i have been totally blessed i have been totally inspired um that that there is just divine purpose behind what what is going on right now and and god playing checkers um so god playing chess um he is thinking ahead he is he is he has moves ahead and we're grateful for that listen if you have um um any questions uh like i said earlier if you're on youtube just just write into youtube and we'll pick it up if you're watching via our website just just just there should be a comment section there if you're on the zoom then again just put your questions in here but i know after hearing such a message such challenging message um people may have stinks to say to comment and i'm just gonna fire um on one of these one of these questions here and and and preach you could just jump in um listen man um you know we always kind of hear and see in acts about the holy spirit moving and the holy spirit just doing great things chris why is it that that it seems that the spirit is only common in acts but he's not common right now why is it that i'll mute yourself though oh you have to unmute somebody unmute him please okay there we go yeah uh you know it's a very good question you know one of just a good survey of the study of the book of acts is instructive for the church man i'm telling you it it's it it's not only edifying it's entertaining to just read what happened in the book of acts one of the things that we know to be sure is that as the church began to grow there was a need for the church to be organized when the church got organized the church started wanting to emulate and to be accepted by the society we know that constantine uh somewhere around 300 a.d uh came into the church became converted and started and started this shift from the language and the definition of church being seen as a people on assignment a movement of people to the church now being uh con simultaneous with a building and so that understand this y'all remember the early day in the in the in the in the old testament god's god god said let them make me a sanctuary that i might dwell among them you remember that right and so this sanctuary that we're talking about in the old testament was a it was a tent it literally was a tent and the tent was mobile it was portable it would literally move as the cloud by day or the fire by night would move however david wanted to build a temple now now y'all go fact check me on this it was never god's intentional intention that they built a stationary temple never it was never his intention never as a matter of fact when david if you look at i believe it's first samuel i believe the seventh chapter or maybe second samuel seven it pleases me right now but david basically says to the lord lord i want to build you a temple and the lord says to him listen he says that's your idea it's not my idea in summary he said if you want to build it he's like but he said here's what my idea is he says i will do something better than that i'm going to send you a temple person he was prophesying about christ see see dave was interested in building a structure god was interested in sending his son have mercy and so and so what we see now even amongst our churches and the theology where we uh synonymously see church and building as the same thing and what that does is that begins to limit our perspective on what our assignment is and so that most of what happens in the church even from constantine all the way down catholicism has impacted our view of church to such an extent that most of what we do happens on saturday most of what in our buildings and that everything is is about our buildings we even see our buildings as holy like this is not biblical y'all i hope i'm challenging somebody's thinking the idea of a holy building do you remember when christ died my brother uh the bible says that the veil was torn into do you remember that the veil was torn from top to bottom meaning that no human being had done this that god was literally saying this system of holy structures is over he says now i'm going to have holy people i want holy people because the mission would not be confined to buildings and you can even read in insanity and in acts where when stephen was preaching the bible says that when they when they they decided to stone stephen when stephen said that the presence of god does not dwell in buildings but it dwells in people it was at that moment the bible says that they took off their cloaks and they began to stone him because the jews could not conceive of an idea of god outside of a building but you know what the word says it says you are the temples of the holy spirit and the spirit of god dwells in you and so to answer your question in a large sense that that those those those events began to move us to this place where we got sedimentary where we got sort of stagnant and and and the church building and church became synonymous instead of us seeing ourselves as the mission of the church wow that makes sense wow but you have been challenging us um and i guess we have been so fixated upon the building we have been so just we have concentrated so much on the building and and i guess the challenge that we see in acts and even in 2020 is that the spirit is not working because the spirit is not dwelling in us um um to to go and to do his thing i like the the the the fact that you talked about us as a seventh-day adventist and how as through our the time that we have organized and and we had made ourselves this this system that that may have slowed down um some some of the ministry work that that we have been doing now apart i guess sometimes institutionalization that that that can be the case um sometimes and and what are some of the biggest challenges we see what you've done in for the grace community and and is it the euclid um um plum that you have been doing what would you say is the biggest challenge um for for us what is the biggest resistance that you get when it comes to um just shifting when it comes to shifting honestly you know i could say a lot of things but at the end of the day i think it's conversion this is you know one of the things that uh the pen of inspiration says is is that the first impulse of a person who is converted like when they've been born again when when their life has been transformed is that they have a immediate desire to bring others to faith in christ honestly brother that is the essence of adventism the essence of advertising has always been jesus is coming soon let's spread the gospel so that we can get as many people saved as possible for whatever reason the biggest challenge i've discovered is that we will fuss and fight and y'all know i'm in a building project multi-million dollar building project and of course we're not trying to build a traditional church we're trying to build a ministry center we're trying to build a high school one of the things we've discovered is that people uh that young people are leaving the church uh in our city in particular because there's no christian education opportunities for them and so they leave they go to the public uh schools and universities and uh they don't have that grounding many of them come from single-parent homes i mean this is the hood here in cleveland many of black men are locked up they're incarcerated so there's a need for them to experience the christian education experience experience the love to be taught of the lord and to know that they have a purpose and so we're building a hybrid of a school and a ministry facility that operates seven days a week where there's mental health opportunities and there's opportunities for for leadership growth and development for there's opportunities to build and strengthen families counseling um they're i mean just a hangout space for the elderly a hangout space for kids in the community a safe space that's what's needed and it's not just needed on sabbath it's needed every day of the week however i i think that the hardest thing that we have had to struggle with is sometimes my people want the building more than they want souls you see and and and the problem with that mindset is it's idolatry it's idolatry of the highest order what happened to the temple in 70 a.d y'all read great controversy come on i told you get out adventist to me regret what did the lord allow to happen he allowed he allowed the romans to come in there and they burned that thing to the ground nero and then burned into the ground god what god wasn't loyal to that temple he loyal to all buildings see that all that stuff that stuff is not holy you are holy the mission of the church is holy and we need to start seeing our facilities as places for for ministry and service to the community and not simply houses of worship where we eat and then we we have church and then we eat and we go home and we play uh dominoes all night come on somebody i know what i'm talking about listen all that stuff is good but but but is it ministry connected is it involving community does it just happen on one day of the week i think god has other other plans in mind wow wow wow wow challenging and um and i would add you know you know we have been for for a large part of our congregation not just this congregation but generally speaking we have been um you know just kind of i don't want to say indoctrinated but socialized um into the traditions and and that we have and obviously we know that not every tradition is is great and not every tradition is not so great that's right how do we i mean for you and i we've been through schooling we've been through the seminary and we know that we get challenged there from a theological sense and just a personal sense now for for people that have been in church for a long time that's been in in in this process of this system and this kind of tradition how how do we move from what we have been taught to where god wants us to be right now how do we move from this is what i've always known to what god wants to do a new thing what does it how do we move from there to there from where we are right now to where god wants us to be well two things two things listen let me say this it is it is natural for a human to enjoy a routine uh listen nobody likes change including me listen nobody listen nobody just willingly wants to change be upset you know somebody came to you today and say move out of your house you have to move out of your house and moving to you know no i mean we we like comfort we understand that however uh everything is subservient to the mission period when we look at the life of christ i think adventists need to pay attention to this jesus was an enemy to any and all traditions that stood in the way of people coming to christ was he not i mean just i'm just look at jesus look at his life the church hated him because he did not follow the scripture saying the traditions of the elders why didn't he follow them because they were obtrusive they they stood in the way of people coming to christ and everything that stands in the way of people coming to christ needs to be reevaluated let me give you an illustration of this this is let me show you how easily people will be willing to change their traditions when they see that they're not working let me give you an illustration so when now we have the coronavirus out here right coronavirus is out before the tradition was and when you leave your house you leave without a mask you come and go as you please hey listen y'all there's some people i don't know about over there in the uk but i know here in the state there's some people they've refuse to follow the wearing of masks and social distancing and listen there is social pressure on people now in the grocery stores you see some of these videos some of these people that are more fair-skinned than us who feel like they can walk around and do whatever they want the karens of our society they're coming to this they have no they have no masks on and they dare you who are you to tell me i should not wear a mask but do you know why all of us are wearing masks now and who enjoys wearing a mask i mean you can't breathe come on you got to smell your own breath i mean y'all forgive me i'm a little bit of a jokester but i'm saying it i mean it's just but we are willing to change what we've always done for the sake of our safety and the sake of others one of the reasons why i do it is because i have my father-in-law who lives with us he has high risk i'm willing to make the adjustments necessary for the preservation of his life are you father are you following what i'm saying what i'm saying is is we've put aside our tradition we've pulled aside our normal way of doing things because there's a greater need for the preservation for the salvation if you please of other people's lives the same should be in the church the church should be looking around and everything that that's that in our church that is making it difficult for people to come to faith in christ i've told churches why is your sabbath school uh designed simply for church members i mean the average non-adventist who walks into your church and sits in sabbath school is going to be grossly discouraged because they don't understand what you're talking about they don't understand these things like so many pathfinder programs talk about pathfinder programs are not loaded with people from the community and let me ask you a question how are you going to do pathfinders now in a pandemic what you going to do see we got to start thinking in terms of outside the box understand now that pathfinders is not in the bible women's ministries not in the bible men's ministries not in the bible all those things are good there's nothing evil about them the point is is that they are designed by necessity in order to accomplish a mission and if we need to adjust and adapt them as the world adjusts and adapts then we are willing to do that even if we have to give up stuff that we enjoy because our main desire is to see people say and so whatever it takes if young people are speaking a different language then we need to speak a different language if they're looking at tick tock y'all better have a tick tock ministry i'm serious like like we have got to and and you look at christ you look at the early church in evans afghanistan would kick you out of the early church more for inactivity than they would for adultery fact-check me look at the early days of the adventist church one thing that was just intolerable was that you would get stuck in a tradition and stuck in inactivity and not do anything it would be they would kick folk out of the church for for not being engaged for being lukewarm and indifferent but somehow over the years we have we have reversed that trend and we have bought into a very catholic mindset of worshiping traditions and things being done as we did them where we came from before we came to the uk or what we did when we was growing up that down south somewhere and all this thing does not matter if it is not bringing souls to the kingdom at the end of the day that's the stuff that's gonna matter right right and that's it i like what you said when you said uh design by necessity and and and i think that is the importance um that things are being birthed out of necessity and until we see it as a necessity then things uh will continue in the form and and the fashion listen uh we just want to thank you again for delivering a word uh from acts 8. um i don't know about you but if you've been blessed just raise your hand just put a hand clap in there in the chat just just put a smiley face just just do whatever just so you that's all i know that you have been totally inspired and blessed listen we are super grateful that you have broken up woken up so early pastor uh edmunds uh hopefully you did await your family up and your wife your children up um hopefully you're ready i woke up the dog the dog the dog the dog woke up man i heard the dog howling the dog saving this are you gonna darkness listen grateful we're super grateful hopefully we've warmed you up for your service at grace this this this this afternoon hopefully we you you're you're ready to go for for your own service this afternoon um but listen we wanna my name is pastor gillian we wanna connect with you we wanna we wanna connect with you through this pandemic if you you know the ways that you can connect with me go on to our website we want to pray with you our pastorality want to connect with you so that we can really just break through from tradition and just to be able to connect with somebody to pray with somebody through this pandemic time you ain't got to do this alone you ain't got to do this by yourself we are here in a community both at ready central and our parkside and we want to connect with you so reach out drop a message in the comments i will be looking at it drop a message um wherever you are so that we can connect listening last questions doc um where can we find you where can we connect with you what are you doing um ministry-wise um what's going on how can we how can we get in touch with you sure well there's a lot going on you can go to my website myronedmins.com and sign up to be a part of the email list and we just did about two conferences one we did this major men's conference virtually we had about 1200 men that participated in that uh we see that there is an outcry for men to uh connect with each other spiritually and to find accountability and so we're always doing stuff to build and strengthen men and families but if you go to my website for that we just did a leadership conference called the frustrated leader helping to strengthen church leaders uh on really how to pivot uh during this pandemic and how to how to leverage the influence that god has given them for ministry uh you can go to the frustrated leader.com and you can sign up to get resources uh uh on leadership uh and there's a bunch of other stuff coming up you can obviously find me on facebook um it's myron live i put it there in the comments uh same thing with instagram it's myron live uh i'm also on uh twitter it's myron live tick tock it's my live uh without all i mean you know everything listen i'm everywhere everywhere i have to be there we gotta do everything so we can win some people man so thank you for having me it's been an honor and a blessing blessings blessings listen uh we just bow your head wherever you are right now as we just pray uh heavenly father we are just super grateful uh that you are the head and of this church lord we are grateful that you didn't place it in the hands of us you didn't place it in the hands of finite leaders but you are the head and not i pray that we will be so in tune with you that your spirit will pour out firstly in our lives so that we are able just like acts 1 to go out to samara go out to the different worlds and different parts of the world and to bring you lord we just want to lift you up lord we just want to bring your name to reading and to to the neighbor to bracknell and to walk in them and to to all of these neighboring areas and to the world and i pray that you will just instruct us and guide us to do that lord you said if you be lifted up you will draw all men to us and lord we just want to lift you up not only on this virtual stream but i pray as we leave and we go out and we we go and do our various things that your beauty of you will be seen in and through us lord i pray that your spirit will just fill our homes fill our lives fill this space do you fill our bedrooms and our living rooms and and wherever we are lord we just want to see your name high and lifted up we can't wait to see you and and we want to tell people more about you so lord i pray whatever is hindering us whatever is stopping us whatever is getting in the way of of you jesus that you would break down that you would remove if it's us if it's our hearts if it's our mindset that you will break that up that you will transform it that you would just do a miracle on our lives personally and lord i pray that that as we read in acts and we see the spirit being poured out and the spirit doing marvelous things lord i pray that that will be the testimony that when we gather on our streams that we can say that we have had a shift that the spirit has come into our lives and have done a mighty and a great thing in all these things i ask in your name amen amen well listen guys we just want to thank you for joining our stream our virtual space we we were super excited to see what god is continuing to do and to prompt us to shift even in this very moment uh for reading central there as there's announcements and and and various things if you continue to watch the stream i know there is a health walk happening this afternoon so watch out for that for for parkside i i know again there is a another walk going on in in this afternoon so look out for that continue to watch the stream if you're on youtube the various uh flyers and stuff will be showing so that we can that you can stay connected my name is pastor gillen god bless you and have a happy sabbath thank you for joining parkside's midday service that's aired live on our youtube channel every saturday at 12 noon bst time but wait online church isn't over yet continue watching to see some highlights of previous programs which you can find on our youtube channel and the lineup for the rest of this weekend all right let's dig it out because he's what he's a good [Music] sometimes a relationship is too expensive for where you are in your life and you've got to be honest with yourself and be able to keep track of your budget and say you know what wait a second where i am in my life i literally don't have the time i don't have the emotional energy to pour into this relationship and so you know what it looks good it looks nice it might even fit well but this costs too much some of us who are in medical school a person that is firmly grounded in their beliefs and in tune with who they truly are they hold steadfast regardless of how strong the winds knock on the boats of this life they believe in their values a person who's been through difficult and hard times a tumultuous past the anchor represents their safe place i want to leave you with this that songs [Music] [Music] bye

Channel: Parkside Community SDA Church

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Length: 84min 56sec (5096 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 05 2020