The OU Block | March 4, 2022

[Music] [Music] greetings i'm leslie pollard president of oakwood university and this is windows on the word here in the peters media center we are coming to you from the beautiful campus of oakwood university where for 125 years we've been celebrating god's greatness and his goodness in the lives of students and what we've got for you today is a wonderful program we are talking to two of our students we're talking to two theology majors one is a junior the other is a senior one is key lon crum and he is from birmingham birmingham and then of course we've got chris dorsey and chris where are you from los angeles l.a l.a l.a los angeles california and we are excited i i am so excited on this broadcast because it really gives us a window into the minds of how young adults think about all of these important topics that we discuss so regularly so i want to just plunge right into it i want to welcome them and we welcome you and thank you for taking time and for listening because you really don't have to you're giving us of your time and we pray that it'll be a blessing to you now we are pivoting off of uh the sabbath school lesson in which for those of you who may be new to this the sabbath school lesson is the guide that the world church of seventh-day adventists use to kind of structure our study so that systematically and collectively we can all at least be exploring the same topic however as you move from community to community you will find that that sabbath school lesson gets heard and read very differently depending upon what part of the world you are in and what conditions you are facing and so when we come to you from oakwood university we bring the perspectives that shape and guide our lives on a daily basis so we're grateful thank you and i hope you enjoyed this study because these two young theologians are going to do a tremendous job welcome gentlemen welcome welcome welcome okay sabbath school lesson this week it's about the new covenant now when we talk about that that seems like those big theological terms but when you hear that in the bible and in the book of hebrews what does that mean to you what does that say to you as a young adult that christ is the mediator of a new covenant what does that mean well i think growing up growing up in the church you know a lot of times like you said dr paul you hear the term new covenant you think about all of these huge big words but then now that you're you're thinking about it it makes more sense because christ is the mediator meaning he's the head of this new covenant and i think anything that christ is the head of it it makes life all the more easy yeah yes it's good for us yes sir if christ is the head that's right then that's that's probably something pretty good for you yes sir right okay chris what you think yeah most definitely i always say christ being the mediator uh it makes life a lot easier you know it makes things a lot simple for us um i just feel like we have to just lean on him a little bit more and uh and trust and trust in him amen amen amen well that's true and we're going to kind of plunge in here and see what we can mine out that might be useful and practical especially for young adults today okay so that that's what we want to do so one of the key texts is from hebrews 8 verse 6 and this is what it says but as it is and this is the apostle paul talking as it is christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent see that's a big idea right in hebrews much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises so we should say for our listeners today that when we talk about the book of hebrews that's the key theme christ is greater christ is greater he's greater than the angels he's greater than moses he's greater than melchizedek christ is greater boy what a message today right you think about the challenges that we face what would we say if i were talking to young adults what is christ greater than he's greater than he's greater than other church folks he's greater than the church say that again he's greater than church people oh he's greater than church i think a lot of times you know young adults you know sometimes we are we're cast away you know and we don't we don't feel the presence of god from everyone yes and so to think that god is bigger than that yeah yeah it is there's always something that's spectacular right that's greater than the church people chris what do you think yeah i would say the church people the the clergy the clergy christ was greater than the clergy bigger than gc you know he's bigger than the ggc exactly yeah he's greater than the gc thank god man thank god right thank god yeah i was talking to some of my friends the other day i said man you know the lord has been good for a little boy from louisiana that's where i'm from uh i have i have experienced the church at every level at every single level and i'm glad too that christ is greater i was telling jessica we were laughing as a matter of fact we were all in oakland together yesterday we were just laughing say man remember when we were like theo young theologians like you guys are and we would say oh my goodness the world oh oh my goodness the gc is coming to oakwood and we would just be starstruck and then we got close to it and then we realized it's just good people trying to do their best work that's right and all having feet of clay right no having feet of clay i never trash our gc leaders and others because that's good people trying to do the best they can my job is to do what i believe god has called me right and they do what they believe god has called them to do and we work it out okay so christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent as it is founded upon better promises wow what does that mean to you as a young adult christ's work is founded on better promises i thought all the promises of god were good yeah what would you say when you say their better promises well to me you know i think about all the promises that god has given us you know something that stands out you know we read in the book of in the new testament books he says i never leave you nor forsake you and then we see other times uh he gave his servant john the description of what heaven would be like yes yes and and john lets us know in the book of revelation uh he says and streets are paved with gold and he says not only that he said there'd be no more weeping and no more crying and to me that's a promise and he says not only that he says even in the new land he says uh you will have mentions and he says where i go yeah you will go and and i think that's one of the greatest promises we can all have that even while we're walking this earth that there's a better land that we're all trying to make it to one day amen revelation boy you talk about that book i love that yes sir amen amen chris what do you think i always say uh when it comes to promises i always think uh a story that will relate to us about abraham yeah i would say uh yes i would say when it comes to that we have to be patient um and allow things to work out and just and just trust god through that entire time because he told abraham you're gonna have your family's gonna be as much as the stars you know if you just just been patient i mean the plan worked but he had a couple of bumps here and there but overall like we just if god says something just know he's gonna he's gonna do he's gonna do it so my job if god says something chris is to stay in the you process to trust him you got to trust him yeah put your faith in him man you know we can't see it we can't see the picture the whole picture all the time but we just have to know that god sees everything so we should just follow him and just whenever it happens it happens he sees the end from the beginning absolutely and i'm going to tie together what you both said about revelation again it shows us what the end will look like right in the end this is what it would look like and then i want to talk about social justice as a part of that process yes now i want to say dr paulo you know many times we try our best to rely on our own strengths yes and we don't rely enough on god and what he can do you know we realize that he's he's too wise to do wrong and he's he's too just to make any mistake anything that he do is all for a good reason it's always for a good reason okay so in a world today we deal with a lot of suffering absolutely we see it all around us i mean you can walk off of our campus you see it on our campus you see it we always are dealing with suffering we're always trying to process it we're trying to figure out god what are you doing in the lives of young people you know you you stop to think sometimes that you didn't have to be here right at oakwood university you could have been somewhere else right you could be a number you could be a statistic you could be somewhere else in your life how has god guided you how has he protected you from many of the people that you've grown up with so let me give you an example where i grew up i go back black men one two or three things one dead in jail or on drugs the majority the guys i all grew up with playing basketball doing all that kind of stuff in in new orleans louisiana okay every now and then there's one who made it out and who's doing really really well but the vast percentages are not and we look at black men today and we say boy we've got a work to do what what what do you say as a young black man you are two young wonderful young black men chris thank you for the basketball career you've had dear man you've done a beautiful job keylon thank you for your ministry your leadership in uh in in usm and on campus your spiritual leadership thank you okay what do you say to young black men who said well i'm looking for the better and i haven't seen it well you know i think personally with me uh i grew up all my life in birmingham alabama in a single-parent household and one of the things that i applaud my mom for doing for me personally is that i've always been in christian education amen and she's been a proud supporter of christian education and i look at people who don't necessarily look like me and in my ministry and my day-to-day walk of life i've always wondered how is it that i can help them amen and i'm reminded when paul said i'm all things to all people yes and not necessarily you know we were reading the uh social justice sabbath school lesson and one of the questions that acts that said could anything good ever come out of a ghetto and i personally believe that yes things good can come out of a ghetto we look at our former president barack obama that's right who grew up in the heart of chicago illinois he became a senator then he became president and then we even look at jesus christ himself who was born in bethlehem grew up in the city of nazareth and here it is not only did he grow up during those hard times but here he is he's the savior of the whole world wow wow and so i personally believe to that young black male that young black girl who may feel as though they've been cast aside that there's hope amen there's there's definitely hope to pick up where you left off amen amen chris i would say uh there is hope i grew up um in southern california and uh most of my years i've been in thousand oaks california now if you don't know thousand oaks probably 90 of it is is caucasian yeah and you know it it was fun but you do wish that you did you have people that look like you around and it was an adjustment especially when i went to uh public school i became the vice president of the black student union on campus congratulations and um we did everything we could to you know outreach and show people you know we're not just basketball players we're not just dancers uh you know we we can do more than that you know and that's standing the halftime show at the super bowl exactly yeah yeah yeah right right right right exactly and you know the the stereotypical people that you see on television i mean i'm not i'm not hating on them i'm glad they're doing what they love but at the same time though we can show them that you know we are doctors we are lawyers you know we're right there we just have to i would say we have to push more of that in the uh the public's eye so that's amen amen amen but we are going to continue in just a few minutes but uh please enjoy this next segment because oakwood university has so much to offer these two wonderful young men keilan and chris are sharing from their heart and from their experience we pray that you will be blessed as you listen to them and we'll be right back right after this segment [Music] why i'm here i'm here because god has called and asked me to be here and it's a privilege to serve oakwood university it's not only a place where loveliness abounds but it's a place where excellence abounds on a daily basis why am i here because it's a privilege because god has asked and i'm thankful for this opportunity to serve in this capacity [Music] i had the privilege to be working at this great institution okay university serving the diverse population in other words i am serving and what i do i do it with joy i do it with passion because i see many students that come from different parts of the world they enter to learn and they depart to serve [Music] well we welcome you back to windows on the word we're having a delightful time here in the peters media center and i am with two wonderful young men now we use the sabbath school lesson as a basis for our discussion but we don't limit ourselves to the sabbath school lesson we talk about life in general and i'm enjoying listening to and and celebrating the lives of two wonderful young black men who have done exceptionally well here at oakwood university mr keilan crum who is our religious vice president for the united student movement mr chris dorsey who is also a star basketball player and a graduating senior and both of them represents unique perspectives one from the south birmingham alabama that's key lawn and then of course chris from los angeles california and we're just talking about how we get this message of hope that's in the book of hebrews how do we get this into our community especially among young black men how do we do that gentlemen how do we how do we begin that process well you know it it's not an easy process you know um poverty dr pollard and chris in the black community it's on a surge and you know i think about a lot of times how we elect people and sometimes it's all based off of broken promises wow wow and what has happened is it's not that black people don't want to help themselves it's a matter of who do we go to for help how can we get crime down how can we get drug addiction down who do we turn to and i think that's one of the things that we're struggling with as it relates to where do we go from now because there are a lot of people who want to get rid of a habit and who want to do better for themselves but because of what they're surrounded with is hard to leave it can be you're absolutely right now chris you grew up in thousand oaks right yes sir so uh having lived in southern california for 25 years i know that area pretty well that's mostly a caucasian area absolutely a thousand oaks right mostly caucasian how did you how did you keep yourself focused right how do you know when you're tall you're probably what about six six eight seven that's it well back then i was i was six four six five six four six five so obviously i wanted to be a basketball exactly right right so you must be a basketball player yeah i played for the school out there and it it's an adjustment i'm not i'm not going to hold you i think you can't lose yourself um there was times i had to have talks on my grandfather and be like you know you're you're you and you're not them elder lawrence dorsey friend of mine classmate i love you thank you grandpa yes sir and he had to basically let me know like you know if something was ha to happen if you get pulled over you know the most likely the police officer's gonna be looking at you before he looks at your friends and you can be the one in the back and i had to realize especially with um when trayvon martin case came out i didn't understand the magnitude it had at the time until my mom sat me down it was like this is why you know you can't leave the house at a certain time this is why you can't wear certain things because no matter what you do you're a threat and it was just like i had to adjust that sense of being profile yes yeah and it has happened yeah it's happened when it's been with my grandma when we go to costco it could be little stores and just you know people are so fearful but not you're fearful but you don't know me you know i'm that's right i'm a nice person you know what i mean so it's it's unfortunate that we live in a world like that but we just have to you know keep uh that christ-like character amen and just let's take it day by day amen amen and and i think this this lesson kind of reminds us that christ has built something for us that's founded on better promises yes right and all of us have experienced it you know sometimes when we look at certain people and we look at them in certain ways and we see them we say oh no well they never experienced that i remember two young ministers uh who had well one of them had purchased a brand new car was a volvo this would have been back in the 80s and he and his friend were driving through a certain city i won't say which city and the police pulled him over and the police said uh give me your license and both of them had on suits they were young ministers right ministers and both of them had on suits and the police said okay what's your names names and uh they gave the names and then then the police say okay i'm gonna give you this back he said because either say what do you all do we we're ministers and uh he said okay so i'll give this back to you sir because either you all are really ministers or you're the smoothest drug dealers i've ever met wow that was dr ron smith who is now the president of southern union and les pollard who's the president of oakwood university i can still hear it either you all are ministers or you're the smoothest drug dealers i've ever met now you probably can't get away with saying that today because we got body cams and all those kind of things but for the audience anyone ever having how jarring that is yeah you know you say wait a minute what you know my mother didn't raise a drug deal exactly right how do we offer promises of hope right when there's so many stereotypes around young black men today and yet in this sabbath school lesson this lesson says that christ has built a covenant that's founded on better promises how do we bring that better into the lives of of young black people today i i have a burden for all people i love everybody i try to save anybody i can i especially have a burden for young black people today to be all that god has to receive all that god has in store for them i would say we just have to make ourselves available amen i think that is the main thing um being a role model especially to younger black kids and seeing them that you know you don't have to you know get into the drug industry you know you don't have to uh play sports or something like do what you feel is passionate and and and do well if you're in your craft you know what i mean like you have to just take pride in that and just ask for help we never asked for help we never asked i don't know i i don't understand it like you see the the jews ask for help they stick together and the hispanics if if we were able to stay together and have each other's together and we would we would be prosperous like nobody could stop us that's right that's right so that's what i just i just feel passionately about about that so yeah key law well you know i was sitting i was sitting here thinking uh during my time going to a catholic high school that was predominantly white there were seems to have been a lot of segregation uh kind of is what chris said you will see you know a certain group of people together and then you see the other group that are sit together and then you have the ones who are in between who's just like where do i go and it's even even with sports you know i think a lot of people at the time went to the school it's because you know they said oh you're big and you're black yeah you should be playing football and you can play football but it's just like you know we've all experienced yes you know it's like what about the baseball team you know and i think sometimes we are all oh what about being a physician right do science how about that you know and so it's a lot and i think what chris said is is something very important that we as african-american community need to stick together now we may not agree on everything we we will not agree on you know that's right but we definitely need to stick together amen amen i want to read you a text and i'd like you to respond to it it's in the sabbath school lesson says but this is the covenant that i will make with the house of israel after those days says the lord jeremiah 31 33 i will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and i will be their god and they shall be my people i will write my law in their minds but what does that mean when you hear that when god has written his law in your mind what is that well that to me that just is pregnant with with so much guidance and so much wisdom and learning how to navigate in environments that may not be conducive to my best good even but how to navigate like a daniel or a joseph or an esther mm-hmm i would i would say uh it would make you conscious make you conscious of his law and yeah when you're able to have all the commandments in you yeah it makes life easier you're able to you're built for every situation amen that the devil will throw at you yeah and i feel as though once we're on a connection with god when we're when we're spiritually on point right right i feel like whatever the devil throws at us we'll be able to handle it and we'll be able to keep our composure so many times we get hit yeah with things and everybody wants to see our reaction especially when we say we're a christian right right when once you say you're a christian the the scope is on you everybody wants to see how you are and i feel like when we handle ourselves in a christ-like manner it reflects that it reflects that wow wow wow wow one of my takeaways from what you said because it's written on the inside and then i know how to conduct myself when i'm hit i heard one person say you know something i carry my weather with me so i'm fine i'm fine whether i'm up or down i carry my weather with me and therefore i can be content yes okay kilo well i think about better living ah you know we'll read the word of god there there are several laws and there's several things that he give us that we should abide by yes but this particular uh scripture passage that you've given us he's saying i'm going to write on your heart and to me the heart is a place of love yes and the heart is a place where it's most time the the most emotional yeah some would say and i think about that and this and it just really points out to me is that when god writes something on your heart he's trusting you on how you should live how you should abide with his word and how you should treat other people as well amen amen so god is trusting us and he is telling us how we should live with other people he's committing to us something very special as we close today i want you to remember these promises of the new covenant are founded upon the greatness of jesus christ we believe that here at oakwood university we take that seriously we know that christ is greater he's greater than moses he's greater than the angels he's greater than melchizedek but we also know he's greater than our problems he's greater than police brutality he's greater than racial profiling he's greater than all of those things that we feel can beset our lives and compromise them and therefore we have no fear because of that and the promises of god are sure as we move towards the end of the book of hebrews you will see very clearly it is the faith of god in the heart and in the life that will catapult god's people from one victory to the next may god bless you and thank you for tuning in to windows on the word [Music] [Music] i came to oakwood university following the call of god and my passion is to help people connect with god i just want to be here for those moments available for god a tool for him for such a time as this so that's why i'm here at oakwood university [Music] [Music] hi and welcome back to another episode of verified i'm your host chaplain palegi and i'm joined by my team my crew the panel is back and they've been we've been having a good time together haven't we yes yes yes yeah so we've been looking at um social justice in the word of god and this is the final week and i gotta say it's been a pretty good lesson it's it's provided some thought-provoking questions and it's given us plenty to talk about i hope it's done the same for you we're gonna dive into this very last lesson and have some good discussion cool cool all right so this lesson talked about ellen white and some of the pioneers and their responses to racism and then you know life post-racism and ella white has some pretty strong language she called it america's original sin and she called it out i mean and they went so far as to say that if you they condemned this law where they they basically told the people that if you catch a runaway slave return them to the masters they were just like no do not do that because that's in direct violation of the law of god i mean that was some really strong language and to call it out as a corporate sin of america i mean she didn't hold any words back now how do you guys feel like we should address issues that we see nowadays when we think about the strong language that they employed and and the fact that they were willing to stand up and basically tell the church to break the law i mean how do you feel we're doing in terms of addressing ills that we see in our society do you think we need to do more do you think that you know we're doing nothing when we think about what they did what do you guys think i think we tend to speak out more on matters that are purely biblical and seemingly don't have much as much of a tangible influence on social injustice for example um i'm sure you all remember where or it still is a controversial topic um [Music] but homosexuality in the church and whether or not someone can be you know an active member of a congregation um and be baptized or just different ways that they they could be involved in the church um and so you had you know t wilson who made the state man it was official nad um thing or was it gc i don't remember but um he he basically said that homosexuality is a sin and essentially that people you know you can't you can't do both he was saying that you couldn't be baptized and both be that and and be like a current practicing homosexual so um man how was that tying that in how's that kind of thing we're talking about oh yeah what the church um speaks on it's like we we come out and it's it's it's i don't know if that was what social justice would look like basically yeah that's the way we i don't know what you're saying i think i get what you're saying you know there's certain issues where i think the bible is pretty clear right it's a moral issue yeah so when it comes to stuff that we feel is blatantly immoral then we'll come out and make a statement but it sounds like i hear you saying we almost kind of pick and choose what we want to address yeah and natalie said a few episodes back that you know we pick and choose the sins we talk about you know because all of them are equal as she said before and the one that don said you know it's been in the church for years you know and i think however it's inappropriate to call someone out about their sexuality because that's discrimination when you're not calling out the person who wear who wears silk and cotton together [Laughter] we must acknowledge you know what what we want to we have to really think about how we're going to fight our battles now um from professor my theology professor just you just mentioned about two different fabrics all right so since you like to use theological terms i'm gonna use one too that was serious isages right there all right for my viewing audience that's basically when you read something into the bible or you misinterpret it for your own sake all right that's the old testament principle yes this had its value but um we're probably all wearing a couple of different fabrics up here all right no but but i think it's a solid point that you brought out it's true we we no no i mean and i in the terms of we we pick and choose you know what i mean why do you think we do that why is it that we're not more vocal when it comes to issues of social injustice that are still happening i mean clearly these things are still happening in the church right because i remember the ex what you shared last week i mean and when you were sharing what you did for for those of you didn't tune in last week kilan was talking about you know the experience that we have with certain forms of racism even in the church i can hear that that was coming from an experience like it's it's something you had to live through it's something you experienced as a young black man growing up in adventism you saw it for yourself so it was coming from a place as anyone else want to chime in like why do you think we're silent when it comes to this even though we see stuff happening why don't we stand out and why don't we stand up and condemn or use our voices to speak up let's say when oh i don't want to get in trouble for this but let's say when cause i mean let's be real we're we're in the midst of black history month right mm-hmm yeah on this campus we celebrate it it's all good in different places it gets celebrated and certain times at certain instances in our history folk felt uncomfortable with black history month on campuses and had something to say you know what i'm saying and this kind of stuff happens in different places so why don't we call that stuff out what do you think like why are we so quick to call out sexual immorality but not racism or prejudice immediate response to this and it's only because i thought about it um something we talked about the last episode when jill was talking about the importance of standing up and being different um and how the you know the three hebrew boys they didn't bow down to the false god and what got going in my mind is yes that that should be the goal that we strive for but i think we should also be realistic about the consequences that you may face when you do stand up so it's like being honest with yourself and knowing what could happen to you and i think that's that's your question that's why you know people may be hesitant because i mean you had with the dark ages and many other periods in world history where you had christians being murdered for their faith and that's an extreme um example but i mean if you read end time prophecy um some a little bit more of that is yeah coming down the pipe so it's like i think when people think about standing up for things that they know aren't popular backlash is of course in my mind something that keeps them from speaking out sometimes yeah and that ties in with like persecution even because just like everybody that's following jesus must suffer persecution but it's something that's so scary for us that's just like yo we're going to have to run to the hills in the mountains one of these days this is what we're going to have to eat that's what we're going to have to live by so it's just like now in today's time um that may be a certain person's persecution if that makes sense so it's just like instead of us standing up for that person as donovan was saying we're afraid and for me my thing is how is it that we're christians we're you know followers of jesus christ but we're afraid we're afraid of what the consequence is do you not think that god will help you do you not think that this is right to begin with so it's just like for me like even in persecution times satellites all those things because i've been through a whole bunch of bible studies where people are just like you know what if the satellites see us or pick us up and you know try to shoot us and things of that sort but it's just like do you not think god is greater than those satellites who y'all think made those satellites who do you think made the earth to begin with so it's just like for me that's that's just where my mind goes when i think about you know social justice injustice social justice as well um persecution all of that comes together in my mind yeah you know yeah go ahead joe i love that you said that because um i'm a social work major halle and um can you translate it you know just like period but um jesus was the master social worker that's something that you know shout out to dr ashley he's been teaching me since um freshman year and jesus had no problem sticking up for what's right and he had no problem doing what he wanted to do and he had no problem going against the tides um and just to connect with you that's because jesus knew his god jesus knew his bible jesus knew his word and whenever somebody questioned him and they did he knew what he would say he never cowered and i think nowadays um people know scripture but they don't know scripture they don't know the text they can repeat something but they don't know the context and i think they say things to say things and even in the adventist community it's like in order to maybe have someone come in or have no but we know you know your bible we know you know it front and back back in front but um i think people like um you made me lose my thoughts but basically they they they pick and choose what scriptures they want to push forward what they have but i don't think they look i mean we got a whole book here y'all choosing one text genesis and that's all you guys know you know what i mean like they just push that forward and i think just in the scope of social justice and christianity and combining our human life and our christian life i think we have to be rooted in what we believe in and if you're really rooted in that you won't be scared of the backlash even what i was saying last episode i think people are fearful they're afraid to even touch the fire but do y'all not know that that man will bring you out like so it's little things like that and i think i don't know i was just thinking that when you said that i think we have to be more more christian like the real definition of christian not 2022 not 2021 not any of these times you know what i mean i think we need to continue to form that relationship with god um you know what's that hymn we have an anchor uh yes yes yes and i don't think we do i really don't so i don't know no that's good that's good stuff i mean there's a couple of thoughts that came to my head as you guys were saying that um i guess i'll just sum it up with one sentence if we're not going to stand up now how are we going to stand up later that is my thing and if we if we're not connected and rooted and grounded in our relationship with god then we're not going to have the power to stand exactly but i mean i think there's opportunities for us to stand up right now when we see these things happening around us in our society i mean jesus told us remember verified right we go back to the word you know jesus told his disciples if they hated me they're going to hate you too yeah right but check it they hated the disciples and and the believers but the believers loved each other true see the difference yes that's part of the reason why the world couldn't really get with them you know they they they loved each other they became one and that became a testimony and a witness to the world you know what i mean so what are some of the ways that we can get to a place where we understand each other better do you think it's possible because one of the things they they pointed out is i mean look how passionate and involved ellen g white was in in in in working for um and working for the cause you know she she was instrumental behind oakwood university and so many other things right um that affected african americans in this country in a positive way now there's some debate over whether or not she was black i don't know if y'all heard it yeah yeah you heard it right you know without getting into all that we can say for sure that regardless she was passionate yeah about identifying and and and lifting up a group of people that needed help based on the evils that were perpetrated against them so do you think it's possible for us to to for people to have this empathy for another group of people even though they don't walk in their shoes yes absolutely why i feel i feel that way mainly because like for me it's all about relationship it's all about community it's all about unity for me so it's just like if i don't understand because i'm not a man so i don't understand what donovan goes through i'm not a man i don't understand what you go through chap i don't understand what keelan goes through and the same vice versa they don't understand what we go through so it's just like for me i'm still gonna be in community i'm still gonna be have unity with them be unified with them mainly because i'm i'm in a relationship with them i have a friendship with them so on and so forth so the things that they speak to me about i'm gonna take the time to listen i'm gonna take to take the time to listen to what their problems are what are they going through how is it affecting them so on and so forth and you know i'ma create that safe space so that they're able to even come to begin with yeah so it's just like for me it's all about relationship it's all about you know knowing who that other person is because how are you going to beat or try to beat in that person's shoes or see what that person is going through if you're not taking the time to hear them out if you're not taking the time to listen to what they have to say that's key let me tell you that's key listening is key i don't think we do that right as much anymore like we start to listen we start to listen but then the moment we start to feel uncomfortable you stop listening okay that's enough all right we going down this road again you know what i'm saying you heard you've experienced that before you heard that before when we have these conversations there's certain conversations we don't want to have yeah hard conversations i think that goes back needed um to the remnant church and what we need to have to be a part of it and i think even when you had asked a question just two seconds ago um it's spreading love you know and even in one of the other lessons we discussed i want to say two episodes back was empathy and like natalie said even um if you if i don't know what you're going through right but i can bring myself to your level because i care you know it doesn't take anything out of me the errors already work you know so just put something into it basically um and and i just i think as a whole we need to spread love and i think that's why people believe because jesus took the time to go to your house and touch your daughter you know he took time to to sit on on a rock and chat you know he got somebody up out of a whole tree like it it happens and i think um and i don't know it happens and i think that just taking the time out and showing someone you care and getting back once again to the definition the definition of true christianity and real christianity and you don't get that just by reading and you don't get it just by ministering to people you get it by truly changing and transforming your heart and i think we focus so much on literally just everybody else and every other thing that we forget that you know we have our hearts too and our hearts you know have to be transformed as well and god is not looking for perfect he's not looking you know for you to come in long dresses right right and and ears not pierced he's not looking for that he's looking for a genuity and i think in order just answering your question and what we've discussed in other episodes and lessons is um authenticity and love and being yourself and i think we i don't know i think we neglect that which is maybe sometimes why we don't want to listen and why we don't want to do this and why we don't want to do that um and i think we have to just get back to the core jill took most of my preaching time so i have to be very quick with this um the lesson to get to get to natalie's point the lesson asks the question it says can we really be separated and it says and the sons of daughters of god page 13 it says god will not cover evil with the robe of his righteousness and he will honor only faithful service and he will abundantly bless those who reveal to their fellow men and justice mercy and love and that's something that we need to think about you know as jill just said you know god is not looking you know to see how well you dress you know when you go to church which is which is nice i thank god but uh you know he's looking for us to show his mercy and his and his justin only his love and yeah and you brought up a key point both of you did you know and i just want to piggyback off that for a second because like you said jill there's a necessity for transformation you know the more i'm being transformed the more these things are falling away because god is not god is not going to cover something that i'm holding on to like we're not going to make it into the kingdom right if we're holding on to sin any sin and that's serious you know what i mean because folk can get uh folk can be kept out of the kingdom for holding on to racial or prejudice you know racial uh ideas or holding on to prejudice people can be kept out for that and if we're not being transformed by god then those things will remain and they should not they cannot they cannot because he's trying to transform us into beings of love right yes so um wow we got a lot of work to do well we got to allow him exactly to do a lot of work in us because now that we've had some time to go through these lessons what would you say where do we stand when it comes to loving when it comes to standing up and giving a voice to those who don't have a voice are we succeeding as a church is there more that we need to be doing right now and that's another aspect that came out you know there's there's we can't just think oh okay jesus is coming he's going to end all this what do we need to be doing right now well for a personal view on that i personally know i'm not doing my part um when it comes to certain things as it relates to almost like the politics of the church and who we have of and who we don't have up you know and so that's one of the characteristics that i can work on more as to being with people who don't necessarily look like me and even giving everybody a chance because someone gave me a chance and i think a lot of times in the church that's not something that we see enough and i believe that we should strive to give people uh the chances that they deserve okay okay anything else we need to be doing more i have i have the same response as my last response relationship um because every literally everything is about relationship everything is about relationship in this world that's that's that's literally all i can say i mean you're not wrong you're not wrong i mean didn't jesus pray for us in john 17 that we may be one uh believers as he and the father now you know that prayer was answered right yes you knew that right it was at pentecost it was answered acts chapter 2 acts chapter 4. the bible says they were in such a cord that they came together and they shared all their possessions with one another so that no one would be in need so it was answered one time and that was done through the holy spirit only the holy spirit can do that right he wants to do the same thing again exactly we had pentecost that was the first outpouring of the holy spirit but there's a latter reign that's coming and you better believe that those who receive that outpouring of the holy spirit are going to be as we would say creatures of love in this world so we might as well start that work now allow the holy spirit to do that work in our hearts now yes listen to each other be in relationship with another one another reject this idea of putting up a facade and just be in that communion with god and i think that the world will see it and we'll know that he's doing that work when we start to have better relationships with one another man i want to thank you all so much you guys have been great this has been great discussion you brought out such good points um and we had some fun yeah we had some fun yeah so we thank you all for tuning in this has been our last uh episode focusing on social justice in the word of god but we'll be back to tackle some more uh topics from oakwood university so thank you for joining us and we'll see you on next week god bless you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yo what's up it's your boy e.t and you're watching oh you being a song that always got me through something was moving forward because in my in my mind that's that's all i could do if i stayed in the past i i wouldn't be able to what's up my name is alex and this is my opal story so um in 2014 my life was honestly changed forever my senior year of high school that spring semester in february i lost my parents to a car crash [Music] i really came here and tried to suppress losing my parents i didn't want it to come off as a crutch you know i believed at the time that [Music] no matter what i should be able to do what i have to do [Music] i got an outpouring of love from people i had never met that i some people i would actually meet who went to oakwood and um that kind of cemented for me that this was the place for me to be i made it a goal to be social i didn't want to hinder my experience or what i thought would be entering my experience by sulking i kept it to myself with the exception of a few close people but i quickly i quickly made a lot of friends one of the first things i did was join the choir once you join the choir you have a family there were a lot of low times where i didn't think i'd be here i didn't think i'd make it to walk across the stage this is along with getting married literally the biggest moment of my life [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] but happy sabbath church you so much thank you not yet again i'm so glad to be in the house of the lord one more time y'all don't sound too excited you sound cold i know there's snow on the ground but i'm happy to be in the house of our lord god has blessed me with enough time and energy to wake up this morning and to walk around the campus and encircle it with prayer god has allowed me the energy and the opportunity to show up to class and i learned something that's really intriguing to me y'all ask me what it is y'all nosy we'll see in class right we have this class called the pentateuch and writings and because they teach us some hebrew they actually want us to use it and so when we we go to genesis and we know that god tells moses his name but god says what do you remember what god says his name is god says he says i am he says i am that i am that's what we see in the english but my professor says oh no child oh no that's not it my professor also told me that in the hebrew come on somebody say in the hebrew he says i yeah i shared a yeah it went over your head that's because y'all don't know hebrew he says hey yeah i shared a yeah that's imperfect what i'm trying to say here is god doesn't just say i am that i am because of the way the hebrew language works he's saying i will be what i will be and not only that he's saying i may be what i may be it almost seems as if god is hiding his true name from moses but we know that's not what he's doing he's not limiting himself to a name just like the egyptians have done what he's saying to moses is i'm the same god that will wake you up now the same god that has woken you up yesterday the same god that will wake you up tomorrow the thing about my god is he's never missed today like i've missed classes and i mistest he's never missed a day at all so i ask that we bow our heads as we welcome in the sabbath dear lord we thank you so much for being the god that never misses his mark who is continually seeing us through our ups and our downs i want to thank you god for being a god that i can call on even when i know i'm wrong and even seeing me in my mess you don't think that i need to work and build and and grow into salvation you offer me rest because you built it into the plan and so as we open up this sabbath day god i'm asking that you take your time [Music] settle yourself with your people god allow your presence to be known here in christ then we pray amen [Music] happy sabbath everybody happy sabbath or should i say merry christmas the way it's looking outside happy sabbath happy baby ryan gave us it's always a pleasure to be in the house of the lord i was glad when they said let us go into the house of the lord um y'all know i love to sing i love music and for aeolians we have this song called i have a song i got a song right usually when you sing a lot a lot of songs are easy to like you kind of just be singing it to sing it you don't think about what it's saying but the lyrics go i have a song that angels can't sing because i've been watched but in revelation 14 i believe am i right daniel in revelation 14 it actually tells the story of when when we all get to preach jesus wins he wins this whole battle there's going to be a group of redeemed people why because they actually know what it's like to be saved they actually don't just like to make it out with something yeah the angels have been around god their entire lives they they worship but only [Music] [Applause] [Music] think about your child think about the god who's already promised [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] everybody [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] reasons [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] everybody [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] go through your trials [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] undefeated [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't you give up on my god cause he won't give up on you yeah don't you give up on my god cause he won't give up on you i'm a witness that if you don't give up on god he'll never walk out on youtube he'll never walk out no matter how far you go no matter how many mistakes you make he's holding you he's guiding you he's with you he's protecting you remind yourself in this place today oh don't give up on god cause he won't give up on me [Music] only belief that all things are possible for them that all only believe oh only [Music] [Applause] only believe [Music] that all things are possible for you because you only believe [Music] it's so sweet to trust in my jesus just to take him at his word and just to rest upon his promise and just to know the says the lord jesus [Music] [Music] oh jesus [Music] jesus jesus oh true grace [Music] oh if it wasn't for your [Music] to grace [Music] him cause he's able to [Music] you know dan sometimes i wish i could sing like that [Music] i should try i can not this week though um so happy sabbath once again church happy sabbath once again church just want to take the time to remind everyone although we are back in the house of the lord i want to remind you to keep your masks on and above your nose please on and above your nose please come on somebody no time for sickness i would also like to publicly thank our production management team for offering their services weekend and week out making sure that the word of god is broadcast to all those who will to hear it i would also like to thank the lord for safe travel and mercies for pastor martin give it up for pastor richard martin it's come all this way to remind us that we are not defined by what we do i can't wait to hear what he has to share with us [Music] good evening oakwood family it is good to be here with you tonight actually i was supposed to be somewhere else tonight but god sent the weather last minute because he wanted me here and i'm guessing that he also wants you here tonight because there is a message to be shared uh in fact i'm loving the weather you know it reminds me of home it's kind of toasty outside in fact it's beautiful it's beautiful but i'm here to bring to you a very important announcement in fact an extremely important announcement and it's for all our online viewers you've gone with us through through the first semester you've seen what ay provides to this campus the spiritual fire that is set ablaze here each friday night and not just on fridays but throughout the week and if you love what we are doing i want to encourage you to be a part of it in a very special way a financial way i invite you to go on to oakwood university's website and right there there's a big yellow button that says give i want you to click on that button and there's a bar that says search for a cause i want you to type in just three letters a y m that's good again because when you give to aym that money goes directly to the students we give it to help clear students every year so if you love the ministry and you want to be a part of this campus even from a distance go online and give and i want to encourage every single one of you oakwoodites you have moms and dads you have aunties and uncles i want you to message them to give we are here to share in the glory of god [Music] happy sabbath happy sabbath y'all ready for more worship y'all ready for my worship y'all know this is my favorite part well you know i preach too so i can't i gotta be biased but hey worship is a great time um my friend my friend actually this weekend put something on instagram it said it was a question it said if there was no eternal life if there was no life after death if there was no heaven would you still be a christian and think it's about think about it to yourself would you still want to be a christian if there was no eternal life if there was no heaven if you couldn't go to heaven if you just died and that was it would you still want to be a christian you know and upon some pondering upon some you know thinking you know critical thinking in oakwood we teach it we're good at it um i honestly my answer was yes because i've had more than enough peace now people ask they ask like how can you how can you go through such problems and and have joy one of my friends actually said pace you're all you do everything so fearlessly i'm like if only you knew how i am in my room when i'm thinking about doing stuff someone said pace you're always so happy if only y'all knew what was really happening pace you have no worry if only y'all knew the pressure in the the things i'm dealing with but the the thing that makes it look like i have everything together the thing that makes it look like i have p the thing that that gives me this peace in the midst of the storm it doesn't get rid of my storm it gives me peace in the midst of it is the fact that i know i can run back to my god i can go to my room lay on the floor cry and sing songs to my god he's my firm foundation he's never let me down there's a parable where where god where jesus is telling a story and he says a wise man builds his house on a rock an unmarried man builds his house in the sand storm comes wind waves come all these issues come guess who's going to still be standing the person who built their foundation on the only the only constant variable i'm not a math major but like you divide everything that's the number that's going to stay it's jesus so as we sing the song think about your firm foundation think about the god that you know will never let you down let's worship [Music] wow [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] me down [Music] i've got [Music] [Applause] [Music] my life on jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] he was [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] no matter what your issue is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in jesus [Music] now [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you won't you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] family how many know that jesus is a firm foundation that you're only alive today because he made a way when your back was against the wall christ was the only way out he was the only way that was there when there was darkness in the room he was your like if you need prayer please do not hesitate to come to the front people are dying each and every day christ needs to know that you are with him that your salvation is in him he will you just bow your heads with me go into a postural prayer [Music] lord god is me again not even worthy to be in your presence but as me again because i am wanted and i am loved by you o god lord i'm asking you jesus that you will be with those who lost loved ones this week oh god the ones that who are experiencing depression lord god those that are going through stress those that are worried oh god those who have not made their calling and election sure in your name christ i'm asking that you will just rain down your spirit christ bring down your presence oh god convict our souls lord help us to turn away from our wicked ways lord god those things that are separating us from you jesus i pray that they be moved in the name of jesus lord i'm praying that you would allow somebody to know that by your name chains are broken by your names tears are dry lord god by your name joy comes in the morning christ by your name people are healed people are provided for lord god by your name we are saved in christ i'm just asking that you would just remind somebody that no matter what they've done no matter what they're currently doing that you have not left them you have not forsake them in christ you loved him lord god i'm asking christ that you would help us to trust in you lord god let it not just be an a-y thing let it not just be us coming to friday nights lord god say why try to get filled up on you lord when we've been envied a whole week oh god help us to build a relationship with you lord please send your angels if it's not by your grace christ we will not make it we weren't supposed to be alive today but christ you said we were okay lord god we're not righteous we're far from it but christ we're trusting in you lord god i'm asking that you will provide for that student lord god that you would comfort the broken heart lord and that you will continue to make us whole in your name oh god jesus please forgive us of our sins and my prayer lord god amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] through [Music] [Applause] i'm gonna make it [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i'm gonna make it hey [Applause] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] in jesus [Music] [Applause] now [Music] it's in moments like these where you think about the things he's brought you out of the things he's brought all you can talk about is how good he is all you can talk about is the attributes of what he actually brings to the table no matter what your storm is no matter what your situation is you can take it to the lord in prayer you can find rest in jesus [Music] you are good your mercy is [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] i [Music] [Music] [Music] is deserves the highest praise [Music] we give you jesus [Applause] [Music] we give you all we give you [Applause] [Music] you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Applause] [Music] [Music] we give you [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] we give you [Music] we give you [Music] we worship you jesus [Music] your mercy is forever [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] forever [Music] is [Music] is forever [Music] you are good [Music] are [Music] good forever [Music] is foreign your mercy [Music] your is is forever [Music] hallelujah [Music] all hallelujah means is the highest praise belongs to god that's all it means praise god it's a response it's a command [Music] not hear your parts say lord i love you lord i love you [Music] lord i love you [Music] lord i love you [Music] lord i love you [Music] and in case you need a [Music] god he reminder me god you loves me [Music] he'll still accept [Music] jesus [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] praise the lord [Music] we love god in this moment today don't let us leave this place of worship i'm asking that you allow this to go with us even in creation every day where you make something you say it is finished but for sabbath you just leave it open-ended because we can always enter into your rest so god i'm asking that that now and forevermore that we never deal with the same level of stress the same level of anxiety the same level of depression the same other imposter syndrome the same level of all these crippling factors that hold us back from your purpose god i'm asking that you allow us to enter your rest with boldness just like you said in hebrews i'm asking that we can run into your rest because no day is better than today you jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] let the church say amen again [Music] we thank god for the opportunity we thank god for the opportunity to worship jesus in spirit and in truth i don't know about you but i'm grateful to be alive once again on a sabbath that god has brought us over the mountains and valleys of another school week allowed us to come into his presence to worship him with gladness thank you pace and the praise team for lifting our hearts heavenward and song if you are grateful that jesus loves you just as you are won't you put your hands together in praise for the king of kings and the lord of lords who is worthy to be praised let me shout out my brother ryan thank you so much to you and your team for the kind invitation yeah yeah yeah doing a phenomenal job to all of you my brothers and sisters of oakwood university if no one has told you this today this week this semester this year or maybe throughout your entire collegiate journey from one oakwood alum to future oakwood alums i'm proud of y'all you all are doing it i remember the days where you didn't want to get out of bed i remember the days where you were in class and made your table your bed come on say amen uh but i thank god that god allowed us to get through and i am confident convinced and convicted that step by step you're going to get through too i believe there's a word for us tonight and i just want to acknowledge a very special young lady who's watching through the internet in about 10 days we'll celebrate seven years of marriage [Music] [Applause] so i think i'm looking at this camera right here i just want to say girl i love you and it is it is so much easier to preach about heaven when you're married to an angel [Applause] and so i'm thankful that while on earth i get that taste so i'm eager to fly home on sunday morning but there is an assignment tonight and i want to be faithful to it i thank you ryan for sharing with me the theme i'm coming to learn that there is power in a single verse of scripture your assignment is to read mark chapter 5 verses 1 through 20. but tonight i just want to lift in your hearing verse 15. word of god says in mark chapter 5 verse 15 when they came to jesus they saw the man who had been possessed by a legion of demons sitting there clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid [Music] when they came to jesus they saw the man who had been possessed by a legion of demons he was sitting there he was clothed and he was in his right mind and they were afraid with your prayerful attention and the aid of the holy spirit i want to preach with this thought in mind there's more to your story can you just look to someone near you and say kindly there's more to your story there's more to your story father it's in the name of jesus that we come to this moment expecting a miracle we pray that you would turn the soil of our hearts so that as the seeds of your word are planted they might find good ground and produce a harvest that brings glory to your name remove the distractions tell the annoyances to be still anything that has our mind racing calm us in this moment open up our hearts so that as you speak to us me we might receive from you i need your help tonight lord so my prayer as it's always been is less of i and none of me more of you and all of thee in the name of jesus let them that believe say amen and amen there's more to your story as you trace the footsteps of jesus along the landscape of the gospels recorded in mark matthew luke and john you become keenly aware that jesus conducts his ministry within three lanes jesus was an excellent teacher he was a captivating and dynamic preacher and he was a revolutionary healer i wish that i were in the crowds at least one out of the many days when he taught just to be spellbound with everyone as he communicated celestial themes by referencing common things jesus would use seeds to talk about faith he would point to flowers to tell you why you should not worry he would use bread and water to communicate who he was he did this because he wanted to plant in the minds of hearers who did not have access to cell phones and ipads like you and i do he wanted to paint word pictures in the ears and minds of persons who had to hear him in transit as they walked by on bare feet he wanted to make sure that when they got home they could recall the lessons that he taught and so he communicated with common things so they could remember uncommon things he was an excellent teacher so memorable and powerful and meaningful were his lessons that if there were teacher of the year award jesus would have received it each of the years of his ministry wouldn't you have wanted to hear one of jesus's lessons and if you would have heard him teach then you would have really been amazed if you heard him preach no not because theology majors he had the chance to take preaching the old testament or preaching to millennials or preaching to senior citizens not because he knew all of the biblical languages but i just think that if i were in the audience when jesus preached we might have seen him uh uh implement that old preaching homiletical adage that says when you get up before the congregation you ought to start low then build higher then strike fire then retire i think jesus might have preached like that but the amazing thing summer about the preaching of jesus was not his expensive vocabulary it wasn't that he just knew how to watch people's faces and see whether or not they looked like they were hearing what he had to say the reason why jesus in my estimation is the best preacher to ever walk the earth is because he's the only preacher who's ever perfectly lived everything he's preached oh i've tried your elders try your local church pastors try we get it wrong on some point or another but jesus not only preached love your enemies he died for them jesus not only preached pray for those who persecute you no he gave his life for them his preaching was so compelling because in his very life you could find no discorded note it was congruent from profession to practice he taught he preached but what i love about jesus my friends is jesus was a revolutionary healer can you see the bio majors standing in the crowd trying to get a sense of how he spits in dry dirt makes wet mud put it on blind eyes and the man goes away seeing i mean can you imagine the physicians and the persons who are trying to figure out how just sending his word through open air somehow goes into the body of a crippled man and that person gets up and walks again he was a revolutionary healing who put dexterity back into hands who put agility back into limbs who put clarity on skin i'm talking about the jesus that you and i sing about the jesus that you and i pray to the jesus that you and i think about on a daily basis y'all he knew how to heal the body but what's even greater news than that is this he knew how to heal the soul jesus was not just concerned about the external person jesus was not just concerned about people being able to speak who had loose tongues here who had deaf ears see who had blind eyes jesus's primary concern was about healing the heart and i don't know about you but i'm so glad that jesus not only healed then but he still heals now because if i remember what it was like at oakwood i know what it's like to be in the pews but your mind is somewhere else i know what it's like to be on oakwood's campus but your heart is in another state i know what it's like to wear the clothes on the outside but you really have something going on on the inside and i i want to come to tell you today if you feel like your story has come to an inevitable end if you feel like your story has so much crisis and catastrophe that it cannot be helped i simply want to tell you my friends there is more to your story in fact jesus was always looking for someone who felt like this story was over jesus was always searching for the person who had been told there's no more to your story jesus had a way of going into the hamlets and down the roads and into the caverns and into the alleyways places where there were people that he shouldn't have ordinarily been around because jesus hear me tonight has a burden for people who feel like their stories are over uh maybe you grew up in a home and in an environment and in a family where you weren't even supposed to be at oakwood uh maybe you come from somewhere where you heard people tell you with their own words that you'll never be like anybody else or you'll never amount to anything and jesus says if that is where your story is then you're in good company because we meet a man in mark chapter 5 whose story had come for all intents and purposes to its final note we don't know his name we don't know his family we don't know where he's come from all we know is that he is described by his condition if you've read the story or are familiar with it you know that this man is called a demoniac in other words he is filled with possessed by demons and if you're like me you've asked yourself a time or two how did this brother get like this i mean what happened to him what's the background the backdrop of his story did he have parents who lived in an environment where they worshipped foreign and false gods and when he was a child he was offered up for infilling did he participate in sorcery games of witchcraft and exposed himself to the dangers that are therein was he suffering from heartbreak and opened up his life to try to soothe his sorrows to things that gripped him how did he get like this i've done research i've read commentaries i've asked around but the conclusions are not there we don't know how he got like this and i'm wondering daniel if that's the point is that why we don't have the details because if we had all of the details of what happened when he was younger if we knew the deep and personal and intimate details of his past maybe we would be tempted to stay in his past do you know that there are some people who only want to stay in your past they remember who you used to be what you used to do where you used to go and how long you used to stay there it's a dangerous thing to always be concerned about someone's past i'm kind of glad now that i think about it that we don't know all of the details all we know is that here he is but what he doesn't know is that his life is about to experience a divine intervention and a transformation that he did not have since enough to pray for if you can calibrate your spiritual imagination with me i see it going like this jesus and the disciples weigh anchor on the shores of godara after a long and productive day in ministry with your mind's eye you can see the morning sun glistening off the beads of water that are still in jesus's beard and as they plant their feet into the soil of the shore a shriek pierces the air the disciples see churning dust coming up from the distance and all of a sudden a man who looks more like a beast begins to make a beeline for them all of the disciples get out of dodge and go hide in some bush and when it seems like this man is about to accost and kill jesus jesus raises his hand and commands this man to pause in the previous story in mark chapter 4 you would know that jesus and the disciples had just come through a furious squall it it amazes me that the same voice who told the storm to be still on the outside is now controlling a man who has a storm going on on the inside i'm talking about the kind of savior who is completely composed even in the midst of this man's chaos can i pause and say something to you my sister would you let me say something to you my brother it doesn't matter how chaotic how catastrophic your circumstances are right now you serve a savior who is composed i mean check out the disciples if you can see him in your mind yo their hands are sweating their knees are shaking they are about to cry as the knots form in their throats and they are completely afraid and and if you can see this demon-possessed man see if you can't see yourself in him his hair is irredeemably matted you can see his blackened crusted and curled finger and toenails i mean can you smell that smell coming off of his body that reeks of fresh urine and old stool i mean can you see the open wounds on his arms and on his legs can you hear that cry that is coming from deep within this brother is completely out of control and in the midst of fearful disciples and a completely out of control brother jesus is standing there in control maybe that's what he does for us he steps into the circumstances he he comes into the family dynamics and he says even though all around you was out of control and even though all within you seems out of control jesus says if you can just open the eyes of your faith let me tell you what you'll see you'll see your friend jesus standing there completely composed it tells me that he is not afraid of the things that are threatening you jesus is not intimidated by the people by the problems by the perplexities and let me just see if i can get a little bit closer and sit on your pew do you know what it's like to be at the school of the prophets and yet still have some stuff going on that you can't tell your roommate about i mean do you know what it's like to go into religion classes and exit religion classes and it took everything you could do to keep yourself from bursting into tears because preacher if i could just tell my truth my truth would say there's some stuff going on on the inside oh my parents are elders in the local church but they're demons back home there's something going on on the inside i haven't text talked to face time even snail mailed my siblings we share blood but that's about all we share there's something going on on the inside preacher are you telling me that in the midst of all of the atmospheric problems in my life jesus is in control don't you know that that is why his name is jesus you remember that when joseph and mary received the word and the dream they both were given specific instructions oh yeah it's going to be a boy oh yeah he's going to be great but don't forget name him jesus because he's going to save people from the sin that causes chaos in their lives just imagine what would have happened if jesus never goes across the sea of galilee to this man just imagine the grave consequences what would have come to be of this brother if jesus does not go and the fact that jesus goes the miles across the sea of galilee to see one man is appreciated when you remember what happens on the other side jesus at this moment is at the height of his ministry i mean he's preaching on campuses he's preaching at convocations he's preaching at camp meetings he's on the short list for every devotion and every workers meeting people just want to get a seat wherever jesus is on the one side of the sea of galilee jesus is preaching to crowds so big that he takes a little boy's lunchable and everybody has a fish fry i mean jesus is performing miracles he's healing he's teaching his fame is spreading and if jesus were you or me we would have stayed on the crowd on the side of popularity where there were crowds where my name was on the front pages of magazines but notice now jesus is so mission driven he is so purpose-driven that he leaves the side of obvious success to go to a place where people don't even know him and he leaves the crowd just to go see about one man let me see if i can say it better the reason why that blesses me tonight oakwood the reason why it means so much and the reasons why i want to impress this upon you is because it means to me that when we're talking about jesus the distance is never disqualifying this brother was far away from it all he was far away emotionally he was far away spiritually he was far away a societally he was a pariah of society he was marginalized he was ostracized he was lonely he was isolated and jesus actually makes a trip by boat over water just to see him let me ask a question tonight is there someone under the sound of my voice who in the inner spaces of their hearts right now says pastor martin i need you to stop talking because you've got my name i feel so far i've not prayed and i don't know how long pace and the team were up here singing about how awesome and worthy god is to be praised but i didn't feel anything pastor martin i i feel so far from god if you would have caught me about 10 years ago pastor martin in my local church you would have seen me in pathfinders or adventurers i was in the children's choir people had bright hopes for me but but then some stuff started to happen and and i used to be close but but right now i'm far from god and if that's you the gospels trumpet call to you tonight is your distance doesn't disqualify you jesus says i see you girl i see you boy i'm gonna come find you don't you think it's interesting that on the other side of the sea is a demon-possessed man who has been separated from society maybe that's why a storm shows up on the sea uh maybe there's an enemy who doesn't want jesus to get to this man maybe he sends the waves and maybe he sends the rain and maybe he sends the billows and maybe that's why jesus says hey i got this because the same thing i'm going to do to the storms of elements on the outside is what i'm about to do for this brother to the storms and elements on the inside it's a beautiful mirror jesus gives us a precursor of what he's about to do as easy as i say peace be still i'm about to do it for this brother because the distance is not disqualifying the reason why jesus christ goes the distance the reason why he wants us to know that it's not disqualifying is because jesus recognizes that he is the only one who is completely capable and equipped of dealing with your darkness jesus is the only one who is uniquely and comprehensively equipped to deal with your darkness you read the story in your spare time mark 5 1-20 and and what you'll become quickly aware of is this brother's existence was dark after all the bible says that in mark 5 and the companion record in luke 8 that this this guy was so dark in his soul that he actually lived amongst the tombs and he walked around with no clothes on and he cut himself and he cried day and night i mean this brother aggravated parents and intimidated children he had darkness as his cloak he was so dark that he he actually lived in places where their dead people are you know it's bad when you hang with people who don't give you life his company was the people who reflected the content of his soul it was dark and jesus says yeah that's why i'm the light of the world because the only thing that can deal with darkness is light jesus says i actually came here for people like you the ones who represent how far sin can take you how much it can cost you how hard it can grip you and how it will not let you go unless there is an awesome light that can penetrate this darkness stick with me right here this is what i love notice how jesus begins to shine light into his darkness bible says he comes close to this man that no one had come close to save to put chains on his hands and on his feet jesus comes with no chains in his hands no manacles to place upon him listen to how how sensitive jesus is to his vulnerabilities jesus says this he says he says what's your name now if i'm jesus that's the last thing i want to know it is clear that this brother is obviously darkened and you want to know what his name is i thought that he was just waiting for the man to somehow say my name is richard my my name is samuel my my name is don my name is ron but no no no i think it's deeper than that when you when you pause and think about the meaning of names back in those bible times not too distant from what it means now but names were specifically given they had a lot to do with family of origin when he asked him what's his name i want to suggest that jesus was trying to get a little bit of sense of what's your story what's your name where do you come from what's your name what was the name your parents gave you on the eighth day after you were circumcised like if you were to ask us that what was the name you were given when you escaped your mother's womb and you were presented to your father what was your name because if you can say your name then maybe you remember where you came from but if you can't say your name then i know you are struggling from an intense case of identity crisis oak wood what's your name no no no no no really what what's what's your name do you have a real sense of who you are you must understand that on the day of your birth and on the day of my birth you and i were born into narratives that were already in progress we were born to ongoing stories that were in development as as hard as it is to believe our parents were once babies and and our grandparents actually sat on someone else's lap we came into stuff that was already going on but guess what we didn't know it we didn't ask to be here we didn't ask to come into the circumstances that we came into it wouldn't be years until we found out that those who were responsible for us were actually trying to figure out life themselves so when this guy was asked what's his name jesus was actually broadening the lens he wasn't just asking him for his government name he was saying what is the situation of your story and we get a great sense of how deep this brother had fallen when he can't speak for himself but those demons begin to speak for him my name is legion for we are many legion was a roman metric of unit for roman soldiers some scholars suggest it might have been 600 or more i don't know suffice it to say the brother had a lot going on and so do we don't we sometimes there's a lot going on on the inside there's a lot going on on the outside there's a lot going on and pastor martin if i can tell the truth it's more than i can manage these demons recognize who jesus is so they begin to plead their case please tell us that you've not come to torture us before the appointed time send us into the pigs that we can go over there and it's it seems like a passing note we read it and we know it well but but but the bible says jesus gave them permission in other words these demons recognize that in a contest between them and jesus it really wasn't a contest at all they began to ask for a concession they were making a plea deal they say we know what you're capable of doing to us right now but please don't do it now just send us somewhere else and the same jesus who calmed the storm says get out can i suggest to you tonight that tonight could be a night where that which has tormented you and caused you to think that your story could be ending jesus can say get out leave him alone leave her alone no more and the bible says that as the word about this miraculous healing got out there people had to come and see with their own eyes and here's where we arrive at verse 15 where the bible says when they came to jesus they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there clothed and in his right mind these are the very people who had put a period at the end of his story these are the very people who said there's no more hope left for him there's no more aspirations left for his life he is coming to a end and this is the same one to whom jesus came and said my brother i don't care what they've said about you i don't care what they said to you i don't care what you've done to yourself i don't care what you've said to yourself whenever it comes to you and jesus jesus says there's always more to your story do i have anybody under the side of my voice who's glad tonight that jesus can add on to your story that no matter where you are right now in your life there is yet more living to be done he was sitting there he was clothed and he was in his right mine it tells me that the distance is never disqualifying because jesus knows how to deal with the darkness and the reason jesus knows how to deal with the darkness my friends is because jesus is dedicated to your deliverance he is the one who unlike any other person that you will ever meet have met or will meet in your life is the one who is willing to stick with you until you are delivered i learned that by watching television one day i have two uh of my favorite favorite channels uh one is the entertainment and sports programming network better better known as espn after i watch reruns of top 10 and watch shannon and and skip go back and forth and stephen a yell and play the dallas cowboys i'll turn to my second favorite television network it's actually called hgtv anybody watch hdtv [Music] yeah i love hgtv i like watching house hunters uh house hunters international house hunters where are they anything house hunters that's where i am i love watching ship and joanna gaines as they fix stuff up i like watching property brothers but one of my favorite shows on hgtv is flip or flop i got a witness out here if you listen to the the host begin the show flip or flop and you listen carefully to the opening monologue you'll hear them say that though the worse the condition the better the renovation the more horrible it is the the better the outcome would be in other words we actually want it to be dark we want it to be condemned we want it to be sight unseen because when we get our hands on it and when we invest in it you would marvel at the transformation come here let me talk to you can i tell you that when your life had no curb appeal the great fixer-upper came down and he said the worse the condition the better the renovation the more horrible the story the better the transformation the plot up until this point might have been despondent and depressing but when jesus intervenes and he puts his hands on you and he invests his love in you when people come to you you don't look like what you've been through he was seated he was clothed and in his right mind my friends i came to tell you there's more to your story habits propensities practices that are damaging your mind there's more to your story bad relationship after bad relationship there's more to your story the unexplainable grief from the loss of a loved one during this pandemic season there's more to your story if jesus can heal a man possessed by demons you've got to believe there's more to to your story as the musicians come to play i met a brother not long ago in my wife's home country of bermuda he's become a friend of mine he sat across the room from me on one occasion he said rich if you really know the details of my story you wouldn't even want to sit across the room for me i said brother let me hear some of your story he said i became a functional alcoholic when i was 12 years old i said what do you mean he says yeah my big cousins had access to some alcohol and they gave me a little bit and i liked how it tasted i knew how to go to class with alcohol in bottles that did not betray what it was and and for years i kept it a secret until my parents found out but by that time it was too late alcohol was a gateway into this and that was a gateway into that and my life became very dark i thought that there was no hope of any change he says rich if i told you all the details if i told you all the story if i gave you every aspect you you wouldn't believe it you wouldn't want to be in contact with me i said brother keep going he said when i was coming to my lowest moment and i was prepared to give up when i thought that my story had no more hope god sent somebody my way to just invite me to church i hadn't stepped foot in a church in a long time at that point and i did not feel worthy to go into church but i felt like this might have been a small gleam of light into a large world of darkness he said i came to church on one weekend and i and i stood at the back i came in late and i left early but something told me to come back again the next week and i came back the next week i i got a little close to that next week but not too close i still came late and and left early but something said go back to church another weekend and another week and and another week but pastor let me tell you he told me he said i want to tell you that in between sabbaths i was still struggling i was in worship on on the weekends but but but during the week man those demons would come back and haunt me but but something said keep going to church and i kept coming to church i kept coming to church he said you want to know what happened i said what happened he said years had gone by as a child i used to paint i was a creative and and i always wondered if i would ever have that creative spirit come back again and and i grabbed the canvas and i left it blank for months i couldn't touch it felt unworthy said until one day i was able to get my paintbrush in my palate and to pass their colors and as i mix them together i began to just put one stroke on a piece of canvas and another stroke on the canvas and and then i left it alone again but but then i kept going back to it and i put more colors on there and then i begin then i begin to to make a picture and and someone happened to see the picture and they said hey how much is that picture he said this is not for sale i'm just i'm just doing it to do it he said well listen this is beautiful can you make some more he said i think so pastor i got more blank canvases and i did the same thing with those that i did with the first one i i put them there and i just didn't touch it because i didn't feel like based on how my story had gone that i was worthy to create but i had a guy who said i want to commission more paintings and so he started putting one piece of color and then another color and then another color until finally he was able to bring that canvas to completion and he said between creating canvases and between going to worship i was still struggling but something said keep going and keep going and then he said it dawned on me that maybe jesus can still use me at the same time that he's cleansing me he said maybe i don't have to be perfect in order to be used to produce something in fact maybe it's as he uses me that he perfects me he says so if you want to know my truth i'm still struggling while i'm going to church i'm still struggling while i'm painting my paintings because the message to me is my story isn't over yet he can still use me even as he's changing me and maybe this is why as they begin to sing maybe this is why when the brother in the story comes to jesus after being healed so miraculously he says uh jesus if you did this for me i'll go wherever you're going take me with you but jesus says something that i that i thought was crazy come on jesus you got to take this man he could be like the 13th disciple all you have to do is you say you want to know what i can do look at him yeah thousands of people will come to that appeal but jesus says no go home and tell your family how the lord has had mercy on you well i'm not a preacher i was just filled with demons i don't have a sermon manuscript written i don't know how to get my thoughts together that's okay that's okay just tell them how we had mercy on you i don't know how to put words together i don't know how to organize a body and an introduction and a conclusion that's okay just tell them how he had mercy on you just tell them that when you thought your story was over i came and said there's more to it bible says after that man was invested with that kind of assignment he went throughout the region of the decapolis telling people how much the lord had had mercy on him in other words he went to a series of ten cities knocking on every door stopping anybody who would listen have you heard about jesus no who's that he's a man who can put more life into your story excuse me have you heard about jesus no who's that he's a man who where people put commas he put periods he put dot dot dot the ellipses saying to be continued have you heard about jesus no who's that he's a man who breaks chains on the outside and chains on the inside have you heard about jesus no who's that he's the one who came to me telling me that the distance wasn't disqualifying he's the one who came and dealt with my darkness he's the one who was dedicated to my deliverance i found a new life i found a new life if anyone asked you what happened to you my friend tell him i've been changed tell him i've been sanctified tell him i've been holy ghost filled tell him i've been water baptized jesus is mine i found a new life my friends there's more there's so much more because of jesus there's more to your story [Music] [Applause] [Music] a change [Music] has come [Music] my life [Music] he was [Music] away my sins and he made me [Music] [Music] and he made me [Music] [Music] can you feel it [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he changed [Music] [Music] here we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] everyone is standing right where you are everyone's standing right where you are [Music] tonight the lord has found access to your heart to your life you came in here not knowing that you were going to receive the answer to the prayers that you've been praying you came in here unaware that god was going to say something to you that you didn't even ask him to say god god's word for you tonight was that my son my daughter there's more to your story and tonight if you want to receive the continuing story that god has for you a story of change a story of transformation i just want you to raise your hand you're saying lord intervene in my story and give me what it is that you met me to give me give me whatever it is that you've sent me here to receive i know what it's like to want to give up on myself i know what it's like to have others give up on me but lord the songwriter said don't give up on god because he's not going to give up on you maybe somebody tonight who has their hand already raises saying pastor martin i i actually want to walk in newness of life with christ for someone that looks like baptism for someone that looks like being a part of a small group fellowship i believe we have a team of prayer warriors listen if you want to express in detail tonight what it is that you're desiring of god whether that's baptism preparing preparation for baptism you want to be in a small group of fellowship where you can continue to grow i just want you to slip out of your pew right now just come down i'm going to close in prayer but i want to give that person an opportunity who says i've got new life tonight because my story's not ended yet praise god praise god just move right now praise god praise god pastor martin i thank god for you i thank god for you because god sent his word through you to me tonight i see you praise god praise god praise god god is in the business of giving wonderful changes your life from this day forward in the balcony you can just come right down just come right now i'm going to pray i'm going to pray but i'm talking about new narratives new stories i'm talking about the next time you go home you're a different brother you're a different sister i'm talking about transformation through your life that becomes a catalyst to further transformation in the lives of others father i thank you so much for affirming your word i thank you that as the rain falls and as the snow falls to accomplish its purpose so your word that you have sent will not go back to you boy i pray o god in heaven a prayer of consecration for your sons and for your daughters for every person who has said lord intervene in my life shine your light into the darkness i pray o god in heaven that the rest of our days will be better because of you and i give you all glory honor and praise and as i close this prayer maybe there is someone else because i know what it's like you think that i'm talking about someone else or you feel as though your story is the one that can't go on but i'm telling you right now as i prepare to close i'm talking about your story you need to make a move right now just slip out of your pew come down and join these brothers and sisters on this on this night in january 2022 perhaps there are angels that are standing by to record your name in the book of life saying there's more to your story it doesn't end with this god says it actually ends in eternity just come right now just come right now a wonderful change [Music] we're about to pray [Music] and we affirm you for your incomparable love grace and mercy thank you for what you did for the brother in mark 5. but oh god i'm so thankful for what you're doing right now i pray that for the rest of our days our stories would declare your glory i pray that every moving moment in the future would would show through our lives experience that jesus is still in the business of calming storms and changing lives and we will give you glory honor and friends for the wonderful changes that you make in our lives thank you jesus it's in your name that we pray let everyone shout amen let those who believe say hallelujah if you're thankful for god's chains just put your hands together for his saving power and it's changing grace [Music] may we all continue to stand for the benediction [Music] my god as we prepare to leave this place but never from your presence for the seated door [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus precious life that we do for amenity thank god [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] yep [Music] [Music] good evening good evening good evening and welcome to our prayer meeting here this wednesday night we are coming to you from the campus of oakwood university and the studios of oakwood university broadcasting network we're so happy that you've joined us but we don't want you to keep this good news to yourself we want you to send out a message a tweet a text make a quick phone call let somebody else know that they need to come and get some of these blessings we look forward to a tremendous word from pastor deblie snell and even now we want you to go ahead and begin to put your prayer requests in the chat so that we'll be able to pray for your prayer requests let's bow our heads as we invite god's presence to be with us father we want to thank you again for the opportunity of gathering together on this wednesday evening to be able to hear another word from you we ask that you would bless us accept our worship and speak to us we pray in jesus name amen hallelujah we came to bless the name of the lord this evening cause he's been so good and he brought us through another half of this week come on we're gonna talk about the greatness of the lord this evening as you know i don't know where you're at but i know that we need to remember this come on let's sing it all together [Music] let's say the greatness of the lord the love that he shows the love [Music] [Music] we can say that again the greatness of the lord say the love that you chose [Music] the power of the lord everybody say god god is great we bless his name this evening say and greatly [Music] tonight and greatly to be praised let's take it back to the top one more time the greatness of the lord [Music] [Music] god is great we bless your name and greatly too bless his name in this place [Music] and greatly [Music] [Music] greatly for all the things if he gave you another reason to go god is great god is great if you got some food on your table say god is great [Music] he's giving you another reason to smile say goddess breaks god is great you know that you've got the gift of salvation god is great god is threatened i'm right there everybody and greatly and greatly to be praised hallelujah bless his name we're going to continue on the spirit of worshiping our lord and savior the psalm says i just want to praise you forever forever and ever because we know that as we continue to send the praises up the blessings will come down it's a real simple song just clap with us say just one just wanna praise forever blessings and glory and daughters say thank you jesus say just want to praise him [Music] when i look back at every single thank you jesus for blessing [Music] forever foreign [Music] come on three parts everybody say thank you jesus [Music] you want to praise him how many of you just want to praise him if you just want to praise him just put your hands together right now wherever you are let's thank god for that awesome number by our praise team thank you praise team also if you're in the chat go ahead and put in there just how blessed you were by that song and speaking of the chat i hope you have already put in your prayer requests we see you've put some in already if you want to get some last moment ones in please go ahead and do that right now because the word of god says that we have not why because we ask not and the bible also says that we should carry one another's burdens and so we're going to do that tonight this time we're going to do it in a different way perhaps i'm going to ask you to look in the chat those of you who are online looking at the chat right now i want you to look at the chat and look for the prayer requests and pick out one of those prayer requests and i want you to pray for it in just a moment because you know the prayers of a righteous man righteous woman boy or girl avails much and so we're going to have you pray for one of those prayer requests i'm going to pause for a moment and give you a moment to do that for those of you who are maybe looking at this as a rebroadcast or are not able to get on the chat i want to invite you to think of somebody that god's putting in your heart right now and i want you to pray for them in this moment of excuse me in this moment of silence let's go ahead and do that and then i will close in prayer [Music] hallelujah lord we have lifted up your name on high in praise and now we have lifted up your name on high in prayer somebody put their requests in the chat they had no idea someone across the world is going to pray for that and prayed for that even right now heavenly father we stand in need to carry one another's burdens we've been carrying our own all week long and we're just at the middle of the weekend it feels heavy but lord god we put it in the chat and you put it on someone's heart to pray for us even right now and heavenly father we trust and we know that you hear our prayers even before we call and even while we're speaking you're listening and so heavenly father we ask that you would do something very special for the person who prayed for us because we already know that you're going to do something special for us because they prayed for us and lord we pray that when you do what we have asked for that person that they will rejoice and they will give a praise report and they will give you glory and honor lord even as we talked about it they will say i just have to praise you i just want to praise you lord for what someone prayed for me and how god answered that prayer in the name of jesus [Music] heavenly father there are some who couldn't get on the chat and they couldn't put their requests in or there's some who could but there just wasn't enough time and there wasn't enough space to share all the things that are on their heart please answer that request nonetheless and then for those heavenly father who are on the rebroadcasting and they're saying i prayed for someone but i need someone to pray for me we're praying for them right now lord god in advance of their requests and we know heavenly father that you who hears all and knows all and cares for all we'll answer it in the name of jesus now heavenly father we want to bring before you our senior pastor pastor deblie air snail he's been bringing a mighty and an awesome word father from your throne room and we're so grateful and still father we we've been fed and and we've enjoyed it but father we're we're some of us are on empty right now and we're looking for another word so lord god we pray that you would anoint his lips because you've already prepared his heart and lord as he delivers this word may it come into our ears and into our minds and may it rest in our hearts lord in such a way that we will do something different and if we're doing something already that's good let us continue in it lord let us not grow weary in well-doing but when it's all said and done lord may we be changed may we be different because of this here word and we pray it heavenly father not in our name it just wouldn't be good enough but in the name of jesus christ our lord and savior and we expect and know you will answer it lord god and you will be glorified this is our prayer this is our desire and we pray it all in the matchless name of jesus amen amen hallelujah as we think about the great god that we serve and awesome god that we serve we're just going to take the time to worship and think about his goodness think about all the ways that he's made and all the awesome things that he's done i don't know where you are right now i don't know what you're in need of but i know that the awesome god can provide tonight how many all know that the awesome god can provide hallelujah [Music] i say right there our god is awesome [Music] he can move mountains [Music] [Music] my strength when i am [Music] let's say that one more time say our god is awesome [Music] [Applause] [Music] let's say it one more time our god is [Music] he's awesome he's awesome [Music] is [Music] he can move mountains one more time [Music] he's awesome he's awesome is [Music] is [Music] i know i can follow he's i when there's nothing [Music] [Music] you gave us reasons to be free say lord god [Music] is [Music] hallelujah [Music] if you serve an awesome god put it right there in the chat tonight say my god is awesome our god is an awesome god let's just give a virtual amen to our praise team our media team everybody that allows us to bring the gospel of jesus christ right there to your living room we praise god for you and we thank god for the work that you are doing to make jesus christ known through the preaching of the gospel good evening oakwood and to anybody that's joining us from any part of the united states or any part of the world we're grateful and thankful to have you with us tonight as we continue in our teaching series entitled signs and we've been talking specifically about how to discern god's will for your life so as we begin tonight i want to invite you to turn with me in your bibles to the book of saint john chapter five and we're going to begin at verse number 30. and while you're turning right there in the word if you don't mind be an electronic evangelist and apple apostle if you're under the android anointing you can help us just the same so if you're on facebook just share it as many times as you can and if you're on youtube just copy the link text it to somebody we want somebody else to be able to receive this word tonight saint john chapter 5 and verse 30 and i'm elated i'm turned up i'm excited about the things that we're going to talk about tonight and i want you to know it's not going to always feel good but if you can't say amen say ouch tonight uh god is going to speak to us just the same st john chapter 5 and verse 30. jesus speaking shares with us a very important principle he says i can of myself do nothing as i hear i judge and my judgment is righteous because i do not seek my own will but the will of the father who sent me tonight as we continue our series signs i want to talk to you tonight about learning how to yield and i want to talk specifically about the principles of biblical submission let's pray together tonight father my prayer is that in this little while that you would say much father i'm praying that in the hearing of the word that faith will be multiplied several times over and so lord i pray that you would not just give us ears to hear lord i pray that you would give us a heart to receive and that your spirit would ripen our hearts that we would act on the word that is being spoken so lord i pray that the power that is present here that it would accompany the internet stream and that it will be transformative into every home or into every device into which it is received bless us to this end we pray in the name of jesus let those who believe shalt amen and amen and so tonight i want to begin by defining what it means to yield i want to begin by defining what it means to yield in road transport a yield or give way sign indicates that each driver must prepare to stop if necessary to let another driver on approach proceed a driver who stops or slows down to let another vehicle through has yielded the right of way to that vehicle in other words in traffic they're going to be times where you come to an intersection where what you're going to do is you're going to yield or you're going to give the right-of-way so that somebody else can take the lead you're going to give the right-of-way so that somebody else can go ahead of you in other words you're going to fall back and yield to somebody else and i need you to know that the same way that's going to occur at traffic intersessions sections they're going to be intersections of life where you're going to have to stand down where you're going to have to yield where you're going to have to give the right of way to somebody else and friends of mine i believe that one of the keys to joy and happiness and success in life is not just knowing how to fight i need you to know that your victory is in knowing how to yield let me be clear i'm kind of a confrontational person i like to get right down to it but one of the things i'm learning in life is that sometimes the greatest battle victories are not the battles i fight sometimes the victory is when i just decide to yield sometimes the victory is not when i call it out the victory is when you just learn to let it go in other words they're going to be times where you're certainly going to have to stand up you're going to have to take a stand there's going to be a season where you have to fight a battle but i need you to know tonight friends that sometimes the victory is going to take place when you stand down and you yield and you give the right of way to somebody else so friends of mine i want to say real quickly some big ideas that people who refuse to yield are destined to crash in other words friends that the reason that some of us crash professionally is because we don't know how to yield the reason some of us are crashing academically is because we don't know how to eat yield the reason that some of us are crashing romantically is because we've got to always have the right of way we've got to always get the last word we've got to always come out on top and the reason friendships and relationships always crash is because we don't know how to yield or give the right of way to someone else in fact the word of god says in proverbs 18 and verse 2 the bible says that fools find no pleasure in understanding but they delight in airing their own opinions in fact friends of mine one of the things that social media has done to us it's caused us to put too much value in our own opinions in other words it's okay to have a right to an opinion but just because you have an opinion doesn't mean you need to air it for everybody to see it in fact i need somebody to understand that like one of the reasons we don't have much mind left is we're too busy giving a piece of our mind to everybody that bothers us or offends us and see let me just say this because this principle of yielding is only going to apply to those who are personally secure and what i mean when i say that is when you're personally secure you're okay being right but the insecure have to be proven right in other words yielding only makes sense if i'm okay being right but you ain't got to agree you you don't have to affirm it no one else has to validate it i'm okay functioning in my own skin and abiding in the will of god for my life but those who have no understanding they got to voice the opinion somebody else has got to affirm it somebody else has got to second it they need a group to vote it but how many of us know that when you are walking in the will of god you don't need nobody to say amen you don't need nobody to second the emotion like you're just good functioning in principle as you move in the direction that god has for you next thing i want somebody to understand about yielding is that yielding requires discernment in other words a yield sign is not like a stop sign a stop sign requires you to stop a yield sign is not like a green light it tells you when to go a stop sign is a yield sign is not like a yellow light in other words it doesn't give you a command a yield requires for you to kind of make a judgment call based upon the speed of those who are traveling in other words you got to make a judgment as to whether it's appropriate for me to force my way in the right of way or to stand down and let somebody else have the right of way in fact one of the things you've got to know friends of mine is when to yield in fact the bible says in ecclesiastes that there's a time to tear and there's a time to sow a time to keep silent and a time to speak there's a time to love and a time for hate a time for war and a time for peace i hope we're catching that tonight in other words the word teaches us that there is a season for everything there is a season for me to tear it up and there's a season for me to mend it together there's a season for me to speak and there's a season for me to shut it down there is a season for me to make war and there's a season for me to have peace now the reason some of us don't know how to yield is because we only know one season in other words we only know the season of speaking we only know the season of tearing we only know the season of war but we don't know how to make any discernment between the seasons in other words we don't know that there is an appropriate season even for a courageous person to be silent we don't realize that there's an appropriate season even for the stronger person in battle to choose peace there is an appropriate season as much as you like tearing stuff down there is an appropriate season where we are to mend and be healers and be peacemakers but the problem is some of us only know one speed we only know how to function in one season and we cannot thrive outside of a season of combat but the word is teaching us that not every season is a season of combat there is a season to mend and to be still and to bring peace if that makes sense let me hear you say amen and see this is what i want somebody to get that yielding help me holy spirit is not weakness but yielding is actually the pattern of the godhead so so stay with me on this church because see when we think of the godhead we see in the language of scripture a hierarchy that has the father on top the son in second place and the holy ghost like rounding in third and so what we see because of a mystery of scripture is a hierarchy but how many of us understand that there is no hierarchy in the godhead in fact they are a unity of three co-eternal persons so that when you look at the word what you never see is that the father son and holy spirit they never battled for supremacy in fact what you see in the trinity is them constantly exalting one another so when jesus was here on the earth in john 5 30 he exalts the father he makes it clear that i don't really do anything of my own accord i only do the will of him who sent me and then in john 14 he says it's good for me to go away because if i don't go the holy spirit will not come so guess what jesus exhausts the holy spirit but then in john 15 25 he says the work of the holy spirit is going to be to illuminate knowledge about me the son and even though the son exalts the father the father then turns around and exhausts his son and gives him a name that is above every name so that at the name of jesus every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess so i need you to understand that if hierarchy is not of god then hierarchy must be of the enemy so that if there is no hierarchy in the godhead maybe there shouldn't be a hierarchy in your marriage there shouldn't be a hierarchy in the church there shouldn't be hierarchy in our homes in other words in the godhead you have roles not hierarchy so in your home you ought to have roles not hierarchy in other words hierarchy is a human construct designed to apply value based upon position but our value is inherent or y'all hear me tonight in other words my value is not less because i don't have a title or because i'm not married or because i don't have a certain amount of money i've got value because i've been created in the image of the almighty god and i've been purchased by his blood but what biblical submission teaches us friends of mine is that i'm not a lesser value i just got to know my role in a specific context if that makes sense if you say amen in fact the bible says that we're talking about jesus that that we ought to not look to each of you of his own things but each of you also the things of others have this mind in you which was also in christ jesus who existing in the form of god counted not being on equality with god a thing to be grasped in other words jesus was not trying to prove that he was on the same level with the father he was not trying to demonstrate that he was greater than the holy spirit but he was willing to take on the form of a bond servant in biblical submission to other members of the godhead why to show us how we ought to operate with one another that's why the bible says let us have the mind that jesus had in other words if i want to think like jesus i got to submit in other words no no jesus says i didn't count being equal robbery in other words i'm not lesser because i submitted myself in other words i'm the strong one in other words you know the bible says that in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us in other words what the bible is teaching is that very from the very beginning he was god but guess what he did he divested authority he gave up authority he yielded it for the sake of the mission and what i'm saying is if jesus could yield up some authority maybe there ought to be some husbands that yield up some authority some wives that yield up some authority some children that stop trying to grab authority but we function according to submission as jesus christ did can the church say amen so i want to talk real quick about some roundabouts some areas of life where we're going to consistently have to yield in other words whenever you're in traffic and you see a roundabout there's going to be yield signs where in order to maneuver safely you're going to have to yield up the right of way so what are the areas of life where you're gonna have to yield and if you can't say amen say ouch is you're gonna have to you're gonna have to yield to your spouse all right in fact the bible says in ephesians 25 ephesians chapter 5 verse 21 22 and 25 the bible refers to marriage and in the church he says you ought to submit yourselves to one another in the fear of god did y'all catch that in other words there is not just a one-sided submission but we ought to submit to one another then the bible goes on and says why submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the lord and then it says husbands love your wives even as christ also loved the church and gave himself for it now i hope that we are understanding from the scripture that jesus is not about hierarchy he is about formula in other words the word literally says that you are to submit spouses to one another in the lord but then he goes on and says wise ought to submit themselves to their husbands and husbands love their wives like christ love the church are y'all catching me on this do you realize husbands that christ loved the church so much that he submitted to it in other words he didn't punish it at the cross he he let himself be punished by the church so that he could save the church oh god i wish i had a whole church in here with me tonight in other words we are to function in biblical submission one with another now there's somebody who's still reading in the context of hierarchy but i need you to know god is not trying to create a hierarchy what he's trying to give us is the secret sauce for happiness in marriage in other words he knows that he's asked wives to respect their husbands or submit because he knows that a husband's number one desire is to be respected to be built up by his wife and then he gives the other half of the secret sauce where he says husbands love your wife like christ loved the church in other words he's saying to husbands this is the formula i'm giving you the secret sauce he's saying i'm showing you the combination that unlocks the doors because what every wife needs like the man needs respect she needs to know that she is unconditionally loved by her husband and what god is saying to our saints is that husbands whatever you want out of your wife you've got to love it out of her oh let me say it again in other words the only way to get it out in other words the way to unlock the combination is you've got to love it out of her in other words you can't criticize it out of her you can't intimidate it out of her you can't beat it out of her you can't uh uh uh intimidated out of her you've got to love it out of her and as the wife pours in respect and the husband reciprocates love and they both function like givers and not takers they both live in a marital overflow where there is plenty left over and there is no famine or drought in the land are y'all hearing me tonight in fact you see this whole idea of equality and submission in the way god created adam and eve so that even ellen white talks about how when god put adam to sleep and he took a rib from adam's side that there was a typology there because he did not take a bone from adam's head because eve was not supposed to rule over or dominate him he didn't take a bone from adam's foot because adam was not supposed to trample over eve or walk all over her he took a bone from adam's side because they were supposed to walk side by side in perfect partnership one with another and see there's somebody that's still wrestling and say no but god says that the husband is the head there is hierarchy there's more importance see i need you to understand and maybe look at it this way if the husband is the head of the body guess what the heart is the white the uh the wife is the heart of the body in other words what you see is they are both essential organs not one is more important than the other so guess what if the heart stops beating the brain or the head starts stroking out in other words that there is an interdependence where where the brain or the head does one function but the heart does a function that has equal value and equal significance and makes equal contributions to the body can the church say amen second area where we're gonna have to yield consistently and i hope my young people hear me tonight is you're gonna have to yield to parents and to your elders in fact the bible says in colossians chapter 3 and verse 20. the bible says children obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the lord he goes on to say in first peter chapter 5 in the same way you who are younger uh to submit yourselves to your elders now friends of mine i need you to know that i'm just barely old enough to where i believe that there ought to be a certain deference that is given to the aged amongst us i'm still old-school enough to where i believe in yes sir i believe in yes ma'am i believe that we ought to give preference to those who are a little bit older and see the problem is that there is a lack of respect and and let me pause and say this to my age saints see we start by saying there's no respect amongst the young people and one of the reasons you get caught up is that the only time you want to say something to them is to correct them in other words don't let your first conversation to be to someone you don't know be about what they're wearing about how their skirt is too short or about how they need to pull their pants up in other words your correction of them can never precede your concern for them let me say it again that your correction of them should never precede your concern for them but but i still want to lay the burden on the young amongst us to make sure that there is a deference that is given to the age oh y'all hearing me tonight in fact i mean i'm still in that generation where there are some older people who say pastor call me by my first name my first name is this that or third and i'm i just believe if they're the same age as my parents i just can't call you by your first name there's something in me that just needs to kind of show some difference in fact the bible even says that even when you rebuke an older man you ought to do it carefully so that even when they are out of line you got to be careful even how you rebuke the scripture says an older person and let me just say friends of mine that especially to those of you who are trying to maneuver life uh with parents and older people i need you to be clear that you you need to stop trying to force them to change like the word says you can't put new wine into old wine skins so guess what at the end of the day we're gonna all have to kind of deal with some people in other words some older folk they're gonna tell you the same stories over and over again they're gonna want to make you stay longer than you want to stay guess what they're going to give you some unsolicited advice guess what they're going to send you some home with some food or some stuff you don't necessarily need but guess what i'm saying is treat it like you're at a hometown buffet take what you want leave the stuff that's not helpful but guess what you want to show deference and respect so the blessing of god can remain on your life if that makes sense to me you say amen third thing i want to encourage somebody to do is to make sure that you yield to providence see you're going to come to a roundabout consistently where where where where man god is trying to lead the way and you're trying to have your way and you're going to have to learn how to stand down and give jesus or providence the right of way so the word says in proverbs 16 and verse 9 a man's heart pla a man's heart plans his way but it is the lord that directs his steps have you ever felt a certain tension in your life where you were trying to go this way but something kept pulling you that way where you were trying to get moved over here but something else kept moving you he keeping you there you were trying to make it play out in this fashion but it keeps playing out in another fashion and the reason you find yourself resistant is not because the devil's trying to overcome you but maybe it's because god is trying to preserve you because in your heart you're trying to plan your course but ultimately it is the lord that determines your steps it's just kind of like this you know how it is when you're trying to teach your your little one how to walk and what you do is you hold them by their hands and you kind of let their little feet move about and guess what sometimes they're trying to move toward danger or they're trying to move in the wrong direction and you're holding them by their hand and you're moving them in a direction that's safe or good for them and it's funny because the little kids are they laughing and they're smiling and they think they're in control because their feet are moving but even though their feet are moving it's the parent that's still directing them and how many of us know that sometimes your feet may be moving but it's still your daddy you're still your parent that's guiding your steps and directing your past and leading you ultimately where you need to go and see the thing i need somebody to understand is that god gives you free will but you prosper in his will he gives you the power of choice but you cannot live to to see there is a plateau in your choices but i need you to know that there is no lid there is no limit there there is nothing that contains you when you're in the will of god for your life and so what i'm saying is we got to get to the place where we yield up our will and we say lord have thine own way have that thou art the potter i am the clay make me and mold me after thy will and while you are working help me be still fourth thing that we got to learn how to do is we got to learn how to yield to authority yield to authority bible says in romans 13 1 let everyone be subject to governing authorities for there is no authority except that which god has established the authorities that exist have been established by god now again we tend to be a group that wants to protest everything but god gives authorities to give direction so that there are certain things that we're protesting like right now our culture we want to fight and protest everything so that even things like wearing a mask like we want to take a stand over wearing a mask and we want to become masked or covet martyrs simply because we want to buck against all authority authority is not bad in fact i want to say to to somebody tonight i think everybody even with your grown self everybody ought to be under somebody's authority if jesus was willing to be under authority why can't you be under authority in other words like you literally need to if you don't have somebody that you're under authority you need to find somebody that has wisdom and discernment and sit at their feet and say tell me what to do like like it you you become a danger to yourself and others when you're not under anyone else's authority so we need to yield to authority and let me just say this we need to learn how to yield also to spiritual leadership see one of the things that has happened is we've gotten way too cavalier in the way that we criticize spiritual leadership in the church whether it is your deacons or your your church board leaders or or your pastors come on and say amen like look at what it says here in numbers chapter 12. i didn't make this up this is in the scriptures tonight saints miriam and aaron begin to talk against moses because of the cushite wife for he had married a cushite and then notice what they say has the lord spoken only through moses they asked hasn't he also spoken through us and the lord heard this and notice what he said he said listen to my words when there is a prophet amongst you i the lord reveal myself to them in visions and i speak to them in dreams but this is not true of my servant moses with him i speak face to face and notice what he asked why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant moses the word literally says that the anger of the lord burned against them and he left them and i guess friends of mine we need to kind of bring back that whole idea that says touch not the lord's anointed and do his prophets no harm and see i need you to kind of make sure you don't mishear me because see i'm not saying that you just turn a deaf ear to corrupt leadership but one of the things you got to know is that jesus says upon this rock referring to himself he says i'm going to build my church and guess what he says the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and one of the things that if you have read these scriptures from cover to cover whenever there was a corrupt king whenever there was a corrupt prophet guess what the same way god says i deal with him face to face in the good part he says i deal with corruption and leadership directly in other words the same way with hopkins phineas guess what god dealt with it when it came down to saul god dealt with it when it came how to ahab and jezebel god dealt with it when david got so bold as to snatch uriah's wife guess what could nobody mess with him but god says i'm going to put the sword in your house and the sword will never ever depart from your house but guess what he was not going to bless an insurrection god was not going to anoint a human upheaval he had to allow his judgment to reign upon those that were responsible to him are y'all hearing the word tonight so i want to talk real quick i'm almost done about the four benefits of yielding we're almost done we're crossing the finish line there there's a benefit in yielding there's a benefit in biblical submission number one it keeps you out of unnecessary conflict when you learn how to practice biblical submission jesus said do not cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you into pieces the word says the bible says do not cast your pearls before swine like it's actually a hyperbolic statement that jesus makes he says it's foolish for you to try to take a string of pearls and put it on a filthy nasty pig it's actually a comical thing he's saying and the reason jesus is saying this is that no matter how much you try to dress up a parrot a pig and give it something of value a pig by nature will never recognize the value of a pearl in fact it's going to destroy the pearl and then it's going to ultimately turn against you and what i'm saying is that sometimes when you learn how to stand down when you learn how to give the right away and you ain't gonna have your opinion heard you can avoid unnecessary conflict especially with those that have no value for wisdom they have no value for construct correction they have no value for improvement it is casting pearl before swine second thing it does for you friends of mine is that when you learn how to yield the right-of-way it keeps conflict from escalating the bible says here in proverbs 15 and verse 1 that a soft answer turns away wrath but harsh words stir up anger in other words i want to say to somebody tonight that at some point in a conflict somebody's when it's getting high somebody's got to come low when when words are many somebody's got to say i'm going to make my words feel when somebody's talking out of their feelings somebody else has got to say i gotta talk according to the spirit when somebody's hurling insults somebody's got to say i can't respond in kind when somebody is talking harsh words somebody's got to say i'm going to reply with a kind word because you realize that there are conflict escalators and there are conflict diffusers and what i'm saying is that sometimes when you're personally secure because remember you don't have to be thought right when you know you're right listen i've been happily marrying there are some times where where i'm i'm kind of in my feelings a little bit i'm gonna tell the truth and shame the devil tonight uh uh uh where where where i can tell when my wife just is standing down and she stands down not because she thinks i'm right she's just so secure she's okay letting me think that i'm right and what it does is it helps us come to a place of peace and it keeps the conflict from escalating third thing i need you to know is that yielding to godly counsel keeps us from making big mistakes the word says here that in the multitude of counsel and the multitude of counsel there is safety so what you want to do is you want to be in a place where you're receiving godly counsel you're connected with individuals that are walking with god who can reinforce the things that the spirit of god is saying to you and then the last thing i want to say is that sometimes yielding allows the truth to come out see the true thing will come out in a conflict sometimes the truth comes out when somebody stands down let me show you a powerful example of this first kings all right remember the story of solomon where where one of the things that affirmed his wisdom was when there were two ladies claiming to be the mother of the same child and they came to solomon for him to dispute or judged between the matter and i want you to know that through yielding the truth was revealed so the bible says in first kings chapter 3 and verse 25 then he gave an order this is what solomon said one is saying the child belongs to me the other saying the child belongs to me so he says cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other then the woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king please my lord give her the living baby she yields she says don't kill him but the other said neither i nor you shall have him cut him into then the king gave his ruling give the living baby to the first woman do not kill him she is the mother in other words i need you to get that the truth was revealed the character of the mother was revealed not when she fought for the baby not when she says i'll take half but when she literally yielded up the child that's when the truth was revealed and by giving it away by giving the right away guess what she was exalted she was vindicated she was validated her character was revealed and sometimes we think we can only be vindicated by getting the last word we think we can only be vindicated when somebody says you're right we think we can only be validated when we get the final say but no if you function in biblical integrity and you function in biblical submission i need you to know that in due season if you humble yourself before god he will exalt you in due season he'll make your enemies your footstool he'll cause those that come up against you to stumble and fall a thousand at your side and ten thousand at your right hand and no plague will come nigh your dwelling the weapon may be formed but it will not prosper when you learn how to realize that the battle is not yours but the battle belongs to the lord and so friends of mine as we get ready to close out this evening i want to encourage us to simply say pastor i'm hearing the word of god tonight and see this is what the word is saying to the church word is not saying be a doormat word is not saying be a pushover the word doesn't say just go along to get along but the word is saying that you've got to have a discernment of what season it is to know that sometimes it's time to war but then there's time for peace sometimes there is a season to tear down but then there is a season where it needs to be mended and put back together he's saying there's times when you need to speak up you need to cry aloud your voice needs to be heard and then he's saying sometimes the victory is going to be when you learn how to be still and let god show forth his salvation but this is my more direct appeal tonight it's for somebody to say i need to stop functioning out of ego i gotta stop functioning out of hubris i gotta stop functioning out of the spirit of lucifer that caused him to lose his hold on god and i i want you want to say lord help me to have the mind of the godhead help me to think like jesus thought about things help me not be the one that grasped at authority but helped me to be the one that's willing to give up and yield authority helping it not function in hierarchy but help me to know my role in my home to know my role in my job help you to understand my role or relationship to my parents help me to understand my role if you're a student to the teacher see the problem is the reason you can't submit is you don't understand your role and when you understand your role you realize that trying to be equal trying to be the man trying to be superior is not something to be grasped when you know who you are and you know whose you are you're okay being in a position of submission but i want to say this to somebody tonight more directly one of the things that we talked about this evening is that you gotta yield to divine providence providence is simply a fancy word that means that god is trying to lead your life in a certain direction it is the understanding that your life is not an accident it's not just a result of biological process but that you are god's workmanship that you've been created for him for his purpose and his design and god has been trying to lead you this way but you've been trying to force it that way god has been trying to lead you down this path but you're determined to take that path and you wonder why you're always frustrated and you feel like something is fighting against you you feel like something is pushing against you like there's this invisible wall because in your mind you're trying to plan your course but it is god that's ultimately gonna determine your steps and you just simply got to get to the place where you got to stop stop being like the salmon trying to swim upstream stop going against the current and just flow in the current of providence and let it lead you let it guide you let it direct you to its intended end there's somebody tonight as you're hearing the word for the first time maybe you're hearing the word of god for the first time in a long time i need you to know that biblical submission comes when you do what the apostle james says i'm gonna submit myself therefore unto god i'm gonna resist the devil and he's gonna flee for me i see you're wondering maybe why religion has never really taken root you're wondering why spiritual things don't stick it is because you've never submitted it's because you've never given yourself what you've done is you've experimented with christ but you've never consecrated to christ you've never made a commitment you've never said here i'll all to you i surrender all to you i freely give i said i need you to think when you think about surrender you're thinking about something hostile something you're held up at gunpoint no this is simply saying i realize his plans for me are better than my plans for me i realize that who he is to me is better than who i can even be to myself and so this is not a surrender by force it's a voluntary surrender is when i simply say lord i want you to be savior but i also give you permission to be low i yield and i give my whole self away to you and there's somebody tonight you're listening to the word of god you're sitting behind a computer screen you're watching on a television you're you're watching on a device and god is calling you to a place of surrender if you're here in huntsville or the greater tennessee valley after hearing the word of god tonight you need to say lord i'm submitting lord i'm surrendering and i want to affirm that decision by going all the way with jesus christ through baptism and maybe you want to become one of the newest members of the oakwood university seventh-day adventist church right now coming up on the screen are the ways for you to join us right now in the comment is a link where you can click on it and you can find out the next steps in the process of discipleship for baptism or re-baptism you can go to ways to connect and click on it and make that decision known and say i want to be baptized or maybe you need to get settled in the truth and say i want to begin studying the word of god but this is it friends if you hear his voice don't harden your heart see i need you to know that that when god is saying now and you say later that's rebellion and god is not calling you to rebellion he's saying submission he's saying i need you to yield he said let me take the right away and let me lead you down that straight and narrow path that leadeth unto eternal life so i need you to know somebody tonight you don't need permission from anyone you don't need anybody's consent if you sense the spirit of god moving right there in your heart and in your life just click on it ways to connect and say i want to become a member of the bible believing church i want to become a member of this congregation i want to become a disciple of jesus christ or maybe you're not in the greater huntsville area i'm going to invite you to connect just the same and we'll get you connected with a good bible-based church right there in your region or in your locale but you got to act on the conviction that the spirit is moving upon your heart tonight so right now you're either making a decision to be a disciple but even if you're already a disciple you're already a believer you're simply saying lord help me to stop trying to grasp authority helped me to know the seasons help me to be discerning when to stand up when to stand down when to speak when to be still i want to stop crashing and i'll stop crashing if i learn to stop you start yielding let's pray father in heaven we thank you for your word your word is a lamp unto our feet and it is a light unto our path and lord there is somebody tonight that needs to to just learn and get the wisdom of heaven on how to yield help them lord to recognize the seasons help help them to to know when it's a season of peace a season of silence a season of mending father help us all to have the mind of jesus christ where we don't seek out authority or power or or to be on top of a hierarchy but lord we function in submission to one another but most importantly we function in submission to you and lord i pray for that person tonight that is filling out a baptismal card that is filling out a card for bible studies i pray to god that you would seal their decision in the courts of heaven may their names be written on the lamb's book of life and may they begin a journey of discipleship that culminates on the day that you come to receive us as you as your own so lord would you please bless us would you keep us would you cause your face to shine upon us and give us your peace we pray these things in the blessed name of jesus christ let god's people stay together amen and amen as we get ready to close out the service pastor goodrich is going to give you some information about some things that are coming up this weekend and in the weeks to come so make sure you stay by but i'm gonna encourage you friends of mine that if you were blessed tonight i pray that you would just continue to function as a partner with the breath of life ministry so we've asked you to do a number of different things we ask number one for you to pray for your consent constantly intercede for me intercede for our pastoral staff intercede for our ministry team that god will bless us with health and wisdom and innovation then we ask for you to spread listen just continue to be an electronic evangelist share the message with as many people as you possibly can online it's not intrusive you can't force them to watch it but guess what you can put the truth right there where they can see it then lastly we just pray for your financial partnership i need you to know that the work can only go as far as your gifts taken so if this message added any value to your life tonight if you were blessed you believe in what we're doing and what we're giving we ask that you would give online at breath of life dot tv your gift great or small helps us go forward or you can give by my mail at breath of life at p.o box 5960 huntsville alabama 35814 you can give by phone at 256-929-6460 right now if you're on your device you can cash out busted dollar sign breath of life tv dollar sign breath of life tv your gift small or great no matter what size it is it's going to bless us to be able to spread the gospel to somebody else or you can give via text at give 3 b o l t v or to 1 8 8 3 6 4 dot give god bless you we look forward to seeing you this weekend but make sure you come back on again next week as we continue this series signs have a great night did not our hearts burn when we heard the word and i know even now the spirit of god is speaking to you inviting you to yield your life to him again we want to encourage you if you hear the spirit of god if you feel the spirit of god to just connect with us and just let us know of your decision for baptism for prayer for bible study and we'll be so happy and glad to do that we want to thank you for joining us for prayer meeting this wednesday evening but it doesn't stop here because we have our worship service on sabbath and there's something special coming up in the next couple of weeks that we want to share with you and remind you because we're going to beginning we're going to be beginning on march the 13th our 21 day of prayer and fasting from march the 13th to april the 2nd we're going to be spending time in prayer every morning early in the morning monday through friday at 6 00 am we will be gathering to pray and then sabbath or saturday and sunday morning at 8 00 am we will also be gathering to pray and we will have periods and times of fasting and there'll be a number of things that we'll be fasting from and fasting for and we'll let you know those things as we commence that 21-day prayer and fasting period but the theme for this time the focus of this time is that we want to get unrealistic we want our faith in god to grow as a result of allowing him to do radical things in our lives believing that he will do radical things in our lives so that we can free ourselves from the limitations of reality so we will be making those books the devotional books by pastor snell available to you in the next coming weeks but until then we invite you even now to begin to pray to prepare your hearts for this 21 day of prayer and fasting and watch what god will do in your life again thank you for joining us and we look forward to seeing you and worshiping with you this coming sabbath god bless you and see your sabbath [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Oakwood University

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Length: 230min 9sec (13809 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 04 2022