Sunday Worship Service | 9.12.21 | First Responders Appreciation Sunday

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hallelujah come on can we welcome the presence of god hallelujah jesus [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the presence of god in this place today come on won't you lift up your voice the king is in here [Music] my praise is pouring out my praise is pouring out come on lift up your hands thank you jesus lord we praise you in this place today [Music] come on is anybody thankful for the freedom of god [Music] of glory divine air of sounding his blood i got [Music] [Music] [Music] come on if you know what's singing [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] did [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] we respond to your presence today god hallelujah hallelujah he's a mighty guy amen i wonder if you can lift up your voice lift up your hands in the presence of the lord come on let's worship the king of kings he's in this place today we've come to lift him up to worship him to honor him today man it feels good in the presence of the lord who's excited to be at grace life on a sunday afternoon in memphis you've chosen the best place to be we're so excited to have each and every one of you here today and we are a spirit-filled church if you are a guest with us that means there is energy expressive worship excitement and we're just happy to serve god and be together and lift up his name and so i wonder if one more time you could clap your hands [Applause] unto the lord [Music] amen because he's worthy of all praise amen amen thank you so much for all of you that are here today thank you so much for all of our guests that are here you are at grace life a place where grace changes lives and we're so honored that each of you have chosen to worship with us this afternoon and it's going to be a special day amen amen god bless you you may be seated please direct your attention to the screen welcome to grace life pentecostal church a place where grace changes lives we are so glad that you have chosen to worship with us today whether in person or online if you are a first time guest we would love the opportunity to meet and connect with you following this service in our pastor's office now please listen up for some exciting things happening here at gracelife we are excited to announce that grace groups will be starting up on wednesday october 6 and will continue in lieu of midweek service throughout the entire month of october more details will follow soon youth service will be friday night september 24th at 7 30. guest worship leaders simon and kristen sangeri will be here leading us in worship and special speaker kay shock will be here to bring the word you do not want to miss it all grace life men are invited to join us for a fish fry and marksman contest this will be held on saturday october 16th from 11 to 4 here on campus this is open to all boys ages 11 and up we hope to see you there there are four ways you can give here at gracelife aside from bringing your ties and offering up to the front you can also give by visiting us online at my grace dot live giving texting the word gracelife to 73256 or by debit card using our card readers in the back of the sanctuary we appreciate your giving i'm just excited to be one of you that are here and as you know this is our first responder appreciation sunday and we're so thankful for all of our representatives from all of our uh fire and police departments from across our city and our let's give them a hand today we want to say thank you to you for all that you do we honor you we appreciate you that's all right that's what today's about we want them to know we love them we're thankful for them for all that they do and how they serve and protect our community you may be seated and we're honored today we're going to have several guests that will come and greet you and uh some of them for the first time some have been here before when we had our clergy uh or actually the citizens academy graduation that was hosted here but we're thankful to have lee harris shelby county mayor is with us for the first time and we're so thankful that he agreed to come we want you to come and greet us at this time come on let's give it up for mayor harrison [Applause] well i am uh really uh pleased uh to be here we uh usually go to catholic church in my family and [Music] all uh i don't don't tell them i said it but our church is a little more stiff than this one but it's great to be in fellowship with you all and see you living your faith and praising the lord i am honored to be here on behalf of shelby county which is one of the greatest counties in our state [Applause] which by the way is located in the greatest country on the face of the earth [Applause] so thanks to your senior pastor for inviting me to bring some remarks uh to thank our first responders who i am extraordinarily grateful for we know we have had a really tough 18 months but the good news is that we have plenty of people making a difference in our community we have plenty of folks who are willing to put service over self we have the first responders the sheriff police the ems and all of those that we celebrate this afternoon because when the world shut down because of covet 19 all of those stood up each of them continue the work and so we appreciate their service we also thank them for being good examples to all of us and being good examples to the next generation whether they know it or not you have all been role models to countless young men and women many of whom are impressed when you walk in the room when you put on that uniform when you show up in an emergency every time each of these men and women do what they do our girls and our boys get to see what service look like and finally i want to thank them for their courage and let me put it this way and we know that animals don't like the rain but animals just like people take a different approach when they see a rain storm forming on the horizon and moving toward them consider the goat and consider the sheep when the rain starts to fall the goat tries to run away from the storm that's probably the worst thing you can do the storm moves with the goat as it runs and the goat ends up prolonging its agony by contrast the sheep doesn't run when the rain hits the sheep stays in place the sheep lets the storm gradually slowly pass overhead but there is a third approach to the coming storm it's the approach of the men and women we celebrate in this room this afternoon it's the approach of our bravest our first responders when ems when our fire when our police see danger approaching they don't run as the storm forms on the horizon they don't stand idle and wait for the storm to gradually slowly pass when these brave men and women see the proverbial storm brewing on the horizon they charge they run into the storm they run toward the emergency and they help those in need and that has made all the difference for all of us yours is a life of courage yours is a life of service you are the individuals who run toward the storm and for that you deserve our thanks and we are thankful thank you very much tremendous so good so good we are honored also today and we uh did not know that she was going to be able to be with us but through a change of plans and venues and we're excited that they changed we have with us chief davis our new memphis chief of police is with us today so would you greet her and give her a warm welcome [Applause] thank you thank you thank you so much it is so nice to be in church again oh my god it's so nice to be in church again and i tell you i almost came out to the middle of the floor and started jumping with all the young people that were out here i'm not kidding yeah i praise like that so i had to keep my composure a little bit so that i didn't scare my command staff over there they would have been yanking the back of my shirt like calm down to you but i was so excited to be here today thank you pastor so much for having us and for recognizing the men and women that represent public safety not just the men and women of the memphis police department all of the men and women that get up every morning and are out late at night patrolling the streets when everybody else is this is a noble profession this is a noble profession yes it is yes it is and we are not perfect we're absolutely not perfect but officers get up every day wanting to serve they get up every day and they go out and get in those cars wanting to serve and help somebody and unfortunately sometimes we have very very precarious situations that turn out to be tragic but officers love community officers love people so first lady thank you for having us thank you for your warm greeting and to all the pastors of this church thank you for giving us an opportunity and of course mayor harris thank you for your words i didn't prepare a speech but i'm at home at church i'm at home at church y'all want me to sing a solo no thank you [Applause] will you come back when you're out of uniform and we'll let you shout around here praise god amen and uh we would like our memphis assistant chief don crowe to come at this time and he was scheduled to be here and so we want to hear from him what a wonderful man what a blessing to our police department would you give him a hand assistant chief don crowe good afternoon and thank you everyone thank you pastor it is joy to be here so chief davis when i look across the audience let me tell you what i see future recruits [Applause] and so no matter your age take your cell phone out after the service and go to the website joinmpd.com [Applause] absolutely so yesterday the memphis police department memphis fire department did hold a remembering ceremony for 901 911 so it was 20 years ago yesterday that america was under attack and here's what we know in new york the firefighters and police officers did run to the sound 71 new york police officers died in one day 343 new york firefighters died in one day so to kind of put that in perspective in history the memphis police department has lost 75 officers in the line of duty since we were created so new york lost more in one day than we've lost in our entire history same for the fire department memphis fire department has lost 60 firefighters in the line of duty new york 343 in one day but here's what we know and here's what we talked about yesterday if that attack occurred in memphis our police officers our firefighters would respond the same way new york police and fire responded we know that we absolutely know it i want to leave you with this thought satan is alive satan preaches loves causes hate destruction violence and death there's no question about that so it's up to all of us especially up to you for revival we are in need of a revival [Applause] [Applause] so we should all pray that the revival starts right here right now in this city in this county in this state and in this country it is what we need to combat satan absolutely and so i'm going to close with this and i'm sorry i've talked so long but think back to september the 12th 2011 september 12th in the days the weeks the months after 9 11 this country was united united in purpose commonality goals we put aside all of our petty differences that's what we have to return to we have to get back to how it was in those days and weeks and months afterwards and remember that we are the united states of america thank you very good oh i think that deserves a better hand clap than that that's good good stuff well now we come to a time in our presentations that we've been looking forward to and uh several years ago and sister amanda bowen who is a lieutenant with the memphis fire department came to me about some ideas and that's all right you give amanda a hand and she was part of a pilot program and they got a service animal his name is wilson i've met him and i was able to walk around the training facility and watch how those firemen and fire ladies got to respond and how it perked them up and brought a smile to their face and see the energy that it brought into the room and so i had the opportunity to sit down with deputy chief robert franks and we discussed the possibilities of our church being a part of donating another service animal to the memphis fire department and so today after almost probably over two years of this thought this idea uh it's a reality today so before we make the presentation i do want deputy chief robert franks to come and just greet us and we have many of the memphis fire department collierville fire department other departments that are here today and so would you give him a big welcome and a big hand and i want him just to address us and then we will make our presentation today thank you appreciate it thank y'all i tell you i had like a 30 minute speech and then brother marcus told me i only had two so that really messed up this whole thing so if you would rather listen to my whole spiel raise your hand i didn't think so on a serious note we really are very appreciative on behalf of chief sweat and the entire command staff and uh in life and in all aspects of life mental wellness is an issue that we don't like to talk about it's extremely powerful in police and fire services first responders i don't know how many are aware but we lose an average of 20 military first responders a day due to suicide in the last roughly three years we've lost four of our own members of the memphis fire department through suicide so when you're sitting out there it doesn't matter if you're police fire medicine banker construction worker don't be afraid talk to somebody find you a friend and neighbor one of your church members we're here to help we're easy to speak about our physical fitness we're great to talk about the knee surgery we had but we don't want to talk about the stigmatism of mental wellness and mental illness so i implore you to please reach out if you know you're dealing with stressors from all walks of life there's somebody there willing to listen and and on the fire department side we have tried in the last three to five years putting a lot of group programs and and trying to provide for our members and in grace life and the church and and doing the things y'all have done to provide grace i can't thank you enough i think it's short-sighted not to give lieutenant bowen another round of applause because i will be honest with you [Applause] i'll close with why i asked for that in the fire service in particular we're not good with change and we don't like to talk about things such as mental illness we like to hide it so for her to have the courage to pursue this when she knew would be an uphill battle that it would be something that would slowly take on at first when you come into a station with a dog thank you lieutenant bowen we appreciate it we now have three dogs this program continues to grow thank you grace life stay up here with me [Music] i want him just introduce some of his deputies that are here today also oh thank you uh with us is deputy chief marcus smith chief of operations division chief todd grant battalion chief steve do and then we also have the crew members of engine 25 and truck 27 and then of course y'all know lieutenant bowen but as important as having grace as having a handler for grace and that would be battalion chief pete crawford awesome all right we'd like for uh crawford handler crawford and also amanda to come at this time and uh pete's mom is here and she is in the building somewhere and she has claimed the distinction of being the grandmother to grace so we're glad to have her here today okay all right all right well this is wilson and he has already been serving and this is the dog that amanda works with handles and goes to fire stations goes to schools goes to anywhere that it can bring encouragement and joy and today for the first time it's my honor to introduce you to grace who is seven months old [Applause] and is still figuring all of this out [Applause] but uh somebody come and help me brother marcus come and help me it's my privilege i'm going to pin her badge on her today and we're officially don't get weepy on me because i'll get weepy too all right we're going to pin this on her and put her into service today and this is our way of saying thank you to our memphis fire department for all that you do drum roll please [Music] would you like to say something you're good you're good all right good job would you like to say something you're good all right thank you let's give him a hand this has been awesome [Applause] she's gonna go meet everybody she's still a little shy she's still getting used to people but she's gonna be awesome and everywhere grace goes grace life goes all right amen all right well we're going to ask our worship team to come back we're going to have a few worship songs and then i'm going to have a short word and then we're going to give gifts to all of our first responders that are here we're going to be praying over them so for the rest of this time just join us in worship as we just enjoy the presence of god and what he's done in our city but before we do that we're going to receive an offering who's excited to give today amen thank you to our ushers if they can make their way to the front and uh we believe in giving we like to invest in things that matter and the kingdom of god is a great place to invest our resources because we can have an impact when we invest in the kingdom of god and god can multiply everything that we give to him and at grace life we have a declaration that we share and declare it together over our lives and this is not just a a ritual or just something that we do out of habit but it's something that we declare in faith together and so if you would if you have an offering in hand maybe you have a physical offering or you give electronically however you give if you have a phone maybe hold it up in faith or an offering of a physical nature and faith hold it up and let's declare this together by the authority of your word i have given it will be given back press down shake it together and running over i am a tither i bring my tithe into your storehouse therefore the enemy is rebuked the curse is broken the windows of heaven are open you pour out on me such a blessing there is not room to receive it we receive jobs and better jobs raises and bonuses sales and commissions benefits and settlements estates and inheritances interest and income rebates and returns checks in the mail gifts and surprises bills paid off debts demolished royalties received my whole family saved and walking with god perfect health and abundance to walk in divine favor and blessing i am blessed going in i am blessed going out all that i do will prosper in jesus name and everyone say amen amen god bless you as you give let's continue to worship together [Music] is anybody thankful that we have a god that goes before us he fights our battles [Applause] [Music] falls it won't breathe cause the god i serve knows only how to triumph my god will never fail oh my god we'll never fail i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see a victory [Music] belongs to you [Music] [Music] there's power in the mighty name of jesus everywhere he wages he will win i'm not backing down from any giants [Music] i know how this story is [Music] [Music] a victory for the battle belongs to you lord [Music] i'm gonna worship my way [Music] and you take what the enemy meant for free and you turn it for good you turn it for good you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good you turn it for good you take you take what the enemy meant for it and you turn it for my god [Music] [Music] [Music] you take what the enemy meant foreign [Applause] victory [Music] right [Music] victory victory [Music] this is [Music] this is this is [Music] we worship you god it's in our worship in our praise that we fight oh you go before us jesus you go behind us you go beside us there is nothing low that we will face that we cannot get through with you jesus hallelujah i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to you can we sing that out together one more time i'm gonna see a victory i'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to you lord [Music] oh yeah amen amen this is how i fight my battles right here in the presence of god i was reading yesterday where several [Music] battle ships i guess they would be classified as that are in the u.s navy one the uss new york was made from portions of the world trade center the medal that was recovered from the world trade center and what was a tragedy has been turned back into a triumph to say you meant it for evil but we're gonna use it for good this is how i fight my battles come on you got the victory today you need to take whatever's come against you and turn it into a victory in jesus name you may be seated and just before i go into the word of the lord and i promise i am not going to preach a long time but i want to just give something from the word of god that just goes along with today but before i do i want sergeant to dario holmes and also pastor apostle bishop tadario homes to come and we've been connected many of our ministers have gone through the clergy police academy and he stays in constant contact with us and blesses us with information and uh did he slip out of the building all right all right come on come up here and greet us amen this is my friend he's a pastor in our city but he's also a member of the memphis police department since he was 19 years old he's been working for the memphis police department doing a tremendous job and i want him to greet us today amen praise the lord people of god we give all glory and honor to our creator the maker and sustain of all universe and mankind we are so thankful for being here amen we definitely want to thank god for this amazing shepherd that you all have over here the angel of this house pastor parque come on bless the lord for your pastor amen thank you so much amen we certainly thank god because you know you meet some people and they say i will pray for you and and they leave and you don't hear from them uh but when i met pastor apartheid he said let me pray for you let me pray for you and he did not let me leave the precinct until we prayed amen so i bless the lord for him and another story real quick um he he touched me a little while ago when y'all you all had your conference and my son had just broken his leg and i told him i was shuffling a lot of stuff but he sent me a link and told me to look at that link and then the lord would bless us and we'd open that link up and i was telling first lady here i felt such power on that phone that i we dropped everything we called the babysitter and he looked back there and we were back there praising the lord in that corner over there so we bless the lord for your grace life you all are doing an amazing job thank you for praying for us uh this is how we fight our battle here we bless the lord for you keep praying for us and we will have victory in this city amen god bless you we love you and there's nothing you can do about it thank you so much pastor thank you i love you amen if you would stand we're going to go to the word of the lord just quickly today and again i will not take a long time and at the conclusion we're going to be giving gifts to all of our first responders and then just having a time of prayer over them mark chapter two begin reading with verse number one the bible says and again he entered into capernaum after some days and it was noise that he was in the house how many is glad jesus is in the house today amen and straightway many were gathered together in so much that there was no room to receive them no not so much as about the door and he preached the word unto them turn to somebody beside you and say he preached the word unto them and they came unto him bringing one sick of the palsy which was born of four first responders and when they could not come nigh unto him for the press they uncovered the roof where he was and when they had broken it up they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay when jesus saw their faith some i say their faith it wasn't the man's faith it was their faith he said unto the sick of the palsy son thy sins be forgiven thee but there were certain scribes sitting there reasoning in their hearts why did this man speak blasphemies who can forgive sins but god only and immediately when jesus perceived in a spirit that they so reason within themselves he said unto them why reason these things in your heart what's easier to say to the sick of the palsy thy sins be forgiven thee or say arise take up thy bed and walk and i'll just stop to say today whatever your need is whether it's physical or whether it's spiritual i have a god that's able to do both i said i have a god that's able to do both amen but that you may know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins he saith to the sick of the palsy i say unto thee arise take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house and immediately he arose took up the bed and went forth before them all in so much that they were all amazed and glorified god saying we never saw it on this fashion i would like to be in a church service like that where we leave and say man i've never been to a church service quite like that i've never seen something happen quite like that and the assistant was saying we need a revival in memphis and i believe that he was on point today because i think something's getting ready to happen in memphis and we're going to be able to say i've never seen a revival like that i've never seen god move like that come on why not let memphis be the epicenter of revival for a nation that needs to come back to god that needs to find god again and i believe that it can be a start even here today and so i want to just speak for just a few moments on jesus is still the answer jesus is still the answer amen you may be seated we've already mentioned it we love our city appreciate those that work so hard to keep us safe i looked up a definition for a first responder is a person which speci with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance at the scene of an emergency such as an accident natural disaster terrorism first responders typically include law enforcement officers paramedics emts and fire fighters so today we honor these brave men and women who serve and protect i've already mentioned it that this weekend is the 20th anniversary of a terrible time in our in our nation's history when we were unprovoked and attacked but i have watched as our country has emerged from that and in those moments immediately following we saw the heroes emerge from the police and fire as has been mentioned and so but they they still continue to stand on the wall and they continue to stay and serve and we appreciate it i was thinking about first responders that god responds to first responders bible says seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you and i thought as these people respond to the call of people's needs and circumstances and i wanted to actually research the advent of 9-1-1 and how that had come into fruition how that had been perfected and what an amazing i think uh they have response times and they have benchmarks of what how many minutes four minutes eight minutes whatever it is and hopefully they're able to get on scene from the time someone calls to the time someone responds and i thought of that in our own personal life there are so many needs that are in our city and there are so many people that are in need of god to do something in their life and there's got to be people that are not so much concerned about themselves but they'll say i'll be a first responder and i'll pay attention to those that are around me that if god would help me that god would help me to reach these kinds of people andre crouch wrote a song and it was entitled jesus is the answer for the world today above him there's no other jesus is the way jesus is the answer for the world today and so today i want to propose that jesus is still the answer i said jesus is still the answer amen and as pastor today i want to say that we must have a compassionate concern for our city the word compassion is a sympathetic pity or concern for the suffering or misfortune of others when i read the story that we have read today from mark chapter 2 i see men who were not concerned about themselves but they were concerned about the needs of others very simply i i just thought just in the last few weeks as i was preparing this is not profound but i thought about what a first responder is they put the needs of others above their own and then they will use any means necessary to help those in need these firemen have equipment that will break through walls and will jaws of life that will get into a vehicle that seems impossible to get someone out of that vehicle but a first responder will use any means necessary to help those in need and then they will take that person and i have this and for time's sake i'm not going to example or illustrate too much but it might have been something similar to this that those men in mark chapter 2 said we can't get this man to jesus through normal means and so they said we're going to tear the roof off and we're going to put him down to where jesus is and as a pastor i'm concerned about my community i'm concerned about people you see someone with palsy it was a paralysis it was a condition that they were not able to get anywhere on their own but they didn't have the mess the medical advantages that we have now and the the ada laws and things that make things accessible and so this man was dependent on someone to get him to jesus you see a first responder not only do they put the needs of others above their own and not only are they willing to do whatever is necessary to get someone that needs help to the place that that they can get them to but they will do what they can but they will take this person to someone that can do more for them than what they're able to do for them [Music] and i'm amazed at the talents and the abilities and in the field and ivs and triage and all the things that someone is able and someone has trained but the first thing they're going to do is they're going to get them to a hospital and they're going to get them to a place that is going to be able to do something more for them than what they're able to do for them and then at the end of the day what a first responder does they put the needs of others above their own they use any means necessary to help those in need and then they take that person to someone that can do more for them than they can themselves and then at the end of the day everybody celebrates and everybody is thankful because there was somebody that was a first responder and so as i look at this scripture there are different people that represent different things in this scripture number one there was the the man that was paralyzed and he needed help and as i look at our city of memphis i see many that are crippled by addictions and abuse and the effects of sin on their lives and many times things that happen to people are of no fault of their own but nonetheless it's affected them and they find themselves in a place that really on their own they're uncapable or incapable of really finding the help that they need but i'm preaching to us today and i'm thankful for these people but i'm preaching to all of us today that everybody could be a first responder you see as i look around this room today i see people that god has picked you up out of sin and i've seen people that god's picked you up out of brokenness and most people do not come to god by themselves but it's a friend it's a family member it's somebody that said hey i know somebody jesus is still the answer and i know somebody that can do more for you than what i can do for you and so what i'm going to do is i'm going to put my hands with somebody else's hands and one by one and sometimes we can be overwhelmed by the mass of people that need help and i'm reminded of a story of starfish that during a storm were pushed onto a shore and if they did not get back into the water they were going to die and there was a man walking along this shoreline and he was one by one throwing them back and someone challenged him and said man that's that's an overwhelming task you'll never make a difference and you'll never be able to get all of those he said no but i can make a difference for that one [Music] and i can make a difference for that one and sometimes and i i feel just a ministry spirit even to minister to our first responders i want to say thank you you may not have been able to save everybody but the one that you did save there's a family at home saying thank you for being [Music] there thank you for taking the call thank you for sacrificing time with your family to save our families and a first responder they put the needs of others before their own they use any means necessary to get to those in need and then they take that person to someone that can do more for them than they can do themselves and at the end of the day everybody celebrates one of the characters in this story or the people that are in this story is the one that troubles me the most [Music] because it was the people that were sitting around listening to jesus teach i call them the careless they're happy that they're with jesus but they have no clue that they're in the way of the man who really needs jesus the very people that were there worshipping jesus the very people who were there listening to jesus were the roadblock that kept the man from coming to jesus see somebody's got to say it's not always about me and it's not always about what i'm going to get we have churches on every corner in this city but we need to make a bigger difference [Applause] and i don't want while i'm being blessed and while i'm hearing what jesus says i don't want my structure you see they had to they had to break through the structure to get to jesus because it was the crowd it was the people that kept them from getting the man's need you see sometimes we think and we structure and it's not it's not an evil intent it's just it's just the way it is and we all are consumed with what we need we're all consumed with what we want and that's why we would take time and that's why we would spend resources from our church to say we want to be a giver not a taker and we want to be a blessing and not just be blessed because the reason you are blessed is to be a blessing and when god has picked you up and when god has done something in your life i would just say this way that god has marked you to be a another first responder you see god loves first responders he said seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all of these other things are going to be added unto you and sometimes we're seeking the other things and we're caught up in our success we're caught up in our business we're caught up in our future we're caught up in our retirement while we're watching abstractly people go to hell and people who are paralyzed by life and paralyzed by their upbringing paralyzed by by where they've been but you know what all it takes is one person to say i'm gonna make a difference marshawn i hate to pick on you all the time but buddy come here i'm proud of you [Music] [Applause] our church knows but my son and his wife just moved to nashville to become a youth pastor of a church there we love them we miss them when they moved to memphis they moved to orange mound and a lot of people questioned why'd you move to orangebound but they just felt like that was where they need to be and that's where the harvest field was and that was where people that needed help was they moved in a house that happened to be a former pastor's home and they took on the identity of being the pastor's home in that community and this young man lived across the street he's an athlete he plays baseball he plays football he runs track he has a golf cage out in the front yard of his house if you make millions buddy pay your tithes praise god amen amen that's all i'm saying amen that's all i'm saying but i've watched marshawn from the first day he came here not knowing what to expect or how he's going to be treated but now he owns a place it feels like and he just runs around here like [Music] you see they may not have made a difference to everybody but they made a difference to marshawn and you know what marshawn's going to make a difference i heard that recruiter saying i need people to sign up this might be one of them right here because this is a good one [Applause] the other two people that were there and i won't spend a lot of time on this but one was the critic isn't it amazing that when good is happening there's always people that are going to say well are you doing it that way and why i think you could do it better and they they they contribute nothing to the solution but they sure have a a big mouth to criticize what's going on and i just want to say it in the advent of people that are against police and against the government and guess all the things that are going on and trying to defund this and defund that i'm saying we appreciate you and we are we love you and we're thankful for you and please do not listen to all that noise because there's a bunch of people that say thank you today for all that you do and all that you are and for keeping us safe and standing on the wall we appreciate it we appreciate it just stay standing i'm coming to a close [Music] so you had the you had the careless who didn't really care about the man's need and were in the way actually then you had the critics but then you had that compassionate person those four men that it wasn't their need but it was for somebody else that they said i'm going to make a difference for him and that's what today is all about the compassionate were the ones who said it's not about me but this man needs to get to jesus and the bible says that when jesus saw their faith wasn't the man's faith it was their faith when he saw their faith he said to the man thy sins be forgiven thee and take up your bed and that man was healed because jesus is still the answer and when we've done all we can do and we've gone as far as we can go i want to tell you there's a place that you can take people i've watched in this church as people from all different walks of life rich young poor old several services ago we had 17 nationalities represented in our church because we are a multi-cultural multi-generational church because that's what heaven's going to be like [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and so there's a lot of people that have their issues and have their problems and sometimes let me just say this sometimes our own backgrounds and upbringings and we see people that are different than us it can cause us to maybe not not respond to them in the correct way but sometimes when you see somebody i was on an airplane saturday there was a young man behind us intoxicated loud rude and others were very annoyed with him but there was something inside of me said what's happened to him who hurt him what what is he what has he been through so let me just help us instead of recoiling from people who are not like you you see a first responder can't say well i'm going to help them or i'm not going to help them they have to help everybody am i right you have to help everybody and i can't say because they come from here or they come from there because they're a certain color or they're whatever you want to classify people no a first responder says i don't care who you are because that's what jesus said come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and i will give you rest and so today is about saying thank you but today is also about saying yes and saying god i'm going to be somebody that's going to put other people's needs above my own and i'm going to do whatever it takes to get them to where they need to go and god when i've done all that i can do i'm going to take them to somebody that can do more than i can do for them and then at the end of the day the bible says they were all amazed you know what will help memphis is if wall be concerned about the need of others instead of the need of ourselves if we'll say we're willing to look at things differently in our box that we've built in our institutions that we've built that have almost become so [Music] obsolete that nothing can get done we're willing to look at things a different way we're willing to bust through the roof i pray for you chief as you make changes and adjustments but i think they're needed and i think god's going to give you wisdom and we're going to pray for that that whatever roof has to be torn off to get people the help that they need we're going to do it [Music] and at the end of the day you're going to do all you can do i'm going to do all i can do but we're going to take them to jesus because he can do so much more than what we can do because jesus is the answer where's my singers for the world today you started this so i'm gonna sing anyways above him there's no other jesus is the way jesus is the answer for the world today above him there's no other jesus is the way come on singing with us jesus is the answer for the world today above him there's no other jesus is the way jesus is the answer for the world today above him there's no other jesus i like for all of our first responders to come we have a gift for you and if you wouldn't mind i'd like for you just to stretch across this altar area and face me we're not going to ask you to join our church we're not going to do anything weird but we just want to pray for you i'm going to pray and those that are in this audience standing behind you are going to pray over you today thank you for putting others needs above your own needs thank you for doing whatever it takes and thank you for realizing that when you've done all you can do you take people that can do more for them than what they can do for themselves gentlemen if you'll help me i think we're going to pass these out amen all right we're going to pray first we're going to pray for wilson we're going to pray for grace amen grace needs lots of prayer amen she's new on the job anybody ever had her first first day on the job amen she's got her first day on the job today amen so we're going to pray for her amen thank you ladies and gentlemen for being here today you've blessed us thank you for serving our city amen if you bow your heads church would you just reach your hand toward these great people they got a lot of stress they got a lot of concerns they got they got a hard job amen let's pray for them right now lord in jesus name we feel your presence in such a powerful and a real and a special way today and on this 20th anniversary of 9 11 lord as we think back over what's happened lord as we heard in that song earlier you're able to take the bad and turn it into good lord i pray for just a special covering and anointing over all of these men and women their lives their families their minds their hearts their spirits and lord when they're in trouble god i pray that they would learn to just go to you and god that just like these men that took this man to jesus lord that you're the answer you're still the answer for our financial our spiritual our emotional needs our relationship needs whatever it is in our life lord i just pray a peace would come to our city lord i pray that a a revival would come to our city lord i pray that a unity would come to our city god instead of us being against one another let us be together working for one purpose one cause one goal lord to see our families grow and be be nourished and be educated god and to serve you with all of our heart our soul and our minds and our strength in jesus name in jesus name amen let's give these ladies and gentlemen a hand again amen if you want to just grab one of these amen we'll let you grab them amen or you guys want to help serve them out amen whatever you want to do and you can return to your seats amen haven't this been an awesome day today it's been an awesome day today amen amen we're going to encourage you to come and greet our guests i think there's some fire trucks outside that the kids may want to look at if you want to take a picture with one of our memphis finest amen fire police feel free to do that amen we're thankful for those that are in our congregation that serve and protect and we bless you and thank you amen amen i must just say just a special prayer for miss crawford back here this is pete crawford's mother did she slip out or she's still here there she is amen i want to pray for her she lost her husband this last week and tomorrow will be the funeral service for him and she's cared for him he's been ill for some time and i want to say i love you and i'm so glad that you got to be in this service today would you just extend your hand towards her and let's just pray a special blessing over this family amen lord in jesus name i pray for your peace your comfort lord to come in this time of loss lord that you would just be with them lord even pete today lord i pray for him and god i pray that you would just let them feel lord the closest of your presence in your love and the love of each and every one of us today in jesus name amen god bless you you're dismissed today thank you for being at first responder service amen

Channel: GraceLife Pentecostal Church

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Id: dNzuvRMUFco

Length: 75min 50sec (4550 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021