When Uncertainty Destroys Purpose

oh god you are my god earnestly i seek you my soul thirst for you my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water i have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory because your love is better than life my lips will glorify you i will praise you as long as i live and in your name i will lift up my hands my soul will be satisfied as with the riches of foods on singing lips my mouth to appraise you we want to welcome you to the worship assembly at south central church of christ yet again and it's my hope and pray that prayer that that you have like the psalms recognize the joy and the privilege and the deliverance that comes from singing and praising and worshiping we don't want david to understand that and not the rest of us it was recorded amen so that you and i can come together and and when you're in the presence of god and in the presence of the saints the holy spirit empowers you to worship and something about worship and he says i've seen you in the sanctuary and then we have your power and your glory the power and glory is what he's doing with the members of the body amen and it's very powerful so it's not just singing a song it's not reading a scripture but it is about the worship and one must be in the sanctuary to get the fullness of worship because the body worships as one body all the other things will get you through the moment but they are not the fruits of worship so this morning we want to welcome those who are here presently but we also want to welcome those who are wherever you are good shout out to kyle key in atlanta uh my brother we text this love you and i miss you i still see your face in the place for all of those that i have never met and there are different people at different places definitely a shout out to you on this day when communion is taken it's very difficult to do it by yourself do not find yourself not taking communion take that which is available to you so on this morning we thank god that heaven and earth will worship he who was who is and is yet coming amen good morning good morning 39 in your white books in 39 let us come into this house and concentrate on him again worship him let us come into his house and concentrate again and worship him worship him let's come into oh my jesus christ and just forget about yourself and concentrate on him again [Applause] oh worship jesus christ come into this house and concentrate against him let us come into this house him worship him let us come into this house and concentrate on him worship jesus christ amen good morning good morning this is our responsive reading it's come from my first john chapter 4 verse 7 and 8. repeat after me dear friends let us love one another one another the love comes from god because god god oh come let us adore him oh come let us fly oh oh come on oh foreign [Music] is is oh oh [Music] boys good morning it's now time for our communion and it's as always it's imperative at this time that we just reflect on this wonderful avenue that the lord provides for us at this time it's an opportunity of renewal it's at this time that the lord allows us to just reflect on all he's done for us in his life his death and his resurrection and it gives us an opportunity to commit and recommit to the premise of living better lives more christ-centered lives in luke it reads and he took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me let's pray for bread dear lord may the blessing of this table strengthen our faith increase our generosity and unify our hearts for we pray in the name of jesus amen in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you let us break the cup dear father we pray and earnest for this cup as it represents the blood of christ that was shed that we might have a right to the tree of life it's in your precious name that we pray amen lilly in the valley let us all stand there [Music] is [Music] somebody found them [Applause] [Music] is amen hallelujah somebody found joy [Applause] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] don't you know that there is as bright as the morning stars [Applause] amen if you're all so glad that jesus is in the valley can we celebrate god i absolutely love that song love that song a lot so good to be with you all this morning and we want to uh once again uh welcome you to the south central church of christ here in raleigh north carolina and we are thankful to have you in our presence whether in person or virtually uh we we we're glad you're here with us you all look good this morning uh so good to see you all and uh we are going to move into it so i was tasked brother dublin asked me to put together a presentation uh you all some of you are getting to know me um but i feel some people might not know my wife or my son as much and so we're a package deal a when man when you decide that you're bringing in a new associate you also have their family and so uh it would be responsible for you all to get to know my family as well and so uh i thought it would also would be a good idea just to share a few things uh about my family that you all may not know uh that you'll get to know uh one above all you know we we love people uh we we are truly a family that truly loves to fellowship we love people and we love people with the love of god we just we've been blessed in so many ways and so you know one of the things that we will always have you'll always have our love and i can guarantee that because you all are loving people and we we appreciate that so we are going to show that same love back so you all know me i share different things as i preach along the way i think y'all found out i have an old soul i shared some of my music taste with you all a while back and so um good music good music and so we'll talk a little bit about that but uh really i want to i really want to fast forward to my family so just a little bit about me um a lot of you know i'm from tampa born and raised tampa florida youngest of three boys i'm a two-time rattler i can't help it if y'all you know y'all listen we all have choices in life some people go to the greatest institution in all of the world the highest of seventh hills florida and university uh others i understand maybe the gpa requirement was a little much but nonetheless uh two-time rattler uh so yeah i got my my bachelor's in political science there as well as my law degree uh from famu and i'm currently working on now i'm currently an eagle i'm a member of the eagle family any other eagles in here y'all ain't got to hate yeah we'll talk about the bears at some other point we'll get to the bears and and we'll talk about singing we'll show that love but but we're going to talk about the eagles i currently work as the director of admissions there at the school of law and and again back to just my my love of music i have a wide range of just music takes everything from r b to pop classical jazz i'm a fan of it all my dad he grew up he had me uh listening to vinyl growing up and i still think the most pure music comes off of wax those those big old record players and a lot of people don't see you see those big round discs now ask a five-year-old they have no idea what those are um but but but music sounds so pure coming off of there marvin gaye is one of my favorite artists um hey man love marvin gaye but i also whitney houston in my opinion is the greatest greatest female vocalist uh in secular music if you would you know we got to put stuff in categories you know i don't want to offend anybody you know but uh she's my she's my goat as it relates to uh you know just just her sound uh but you know even i i'm a fan of classical mozart sebastian bob beethoven i i like listening to those things while i'm working uh so yeah cameo the gap band uh listen i love cameo not for that reason um but yeah i love the gap man i love uh that their song outstanding one of my favorite songs but we'll get to the beautiful lady yeah my baby don't you look good so my wife she also goes by mac uh you know and and that's a personal choice you know she those are her initials now now that she's married now so she goes by mac uh so you can call her miranda or mac whichever you prefer she goes by matt grew up in jacksonville but she was born in germany she's a military brat uh so her dad you know they traveled different places growing up she lived in kansas california a lot of other places spent most of the time in jacksonville but she was born in germany she is the youngest of four sisters and so i love all of them i love all of them they're great women she's the baby just like i'm the baby in my family and boys so both of us are the babies she's got a bachelor's in psychology as well as an mba with a concentration in hr management so she is an hr professional at nc state uh so so she she she does it all resume review consulting she can do it all she's dynamic in that way so this is my baby boy this is the man that runs the house this is my man born august third smart energetic joyful and he loves all fruit uh he literally will eat any kind of fruit you put in front of them papaya and kiwi you know not just the basics apples and grapes he loves it all he used to love all vegetables we working on that i don't know what happened he loved all of them but now his his palace is starting to change a little bit so some vegetables he gives back to us but we're working on that uh one of his middle names christopher is in honor of my best friend and i lost in 2013 to a car accident and so his other middle name is reed so that's dallas k.r cole christopher rico and in addition to playing the dancing he actually loves to help you around the house so when you come in from a long day's work he actually wants to help you with your bag to put your stuff down he's super helpful uh and he loves to vacuum loves to i said that's gonna change when he actually has to start doing it as a responsibility but he loves loves to vacuum uh we've got videos i would show you but most of them he's in his diaper doing it so he knows i have to show you all some other times but he loves to vacuum so uh super helpful but he is just the joy of our lives uh he is just he's the best blessing that i could ever ask for so that's my family in a nutshell you all will get to know more of us in the future i know we're supposed to be breaking bread with a lot of you soon so i will we'll try to let you guys just know a little bit more about us as time goes uh but i did just want to share just a little bit about family and so with that we are going to segue i want to i don't want to be long so i want to be able to cut across the field and i want us to get into the word today man amen i think there's a word uh this morning from the book of judges judges chapter 6 and we'll start reading at verse 12 and we'll conclude in 16. you know i know i like to stick to 30 35 minutes so now we're at about 28. y'all check my math just to make sure that we uh we stay on track amen that's the book of judges chapter six we'll commence that verse 12. conclude at 16 i'll be reading from the new american standard this morning but the translation should be similar and verse 12 reads like this and the angel of the lord appeared to him and said to him the lord is with you valiant warrior then gideon said to him o my lord if the lord is with us why then has all this happened to us and where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about saying did the lord not bring us up from egypt but now the lord has abandoned us and handed us over to midian and the lord looked at him and said go in this strength of yours and save israel from the hand of midian have i not sent you but he said to him o lord how am i to save israel behold my family is the least in manasseh and i am the youngest in my father's house verse 16. yet the lord said to him i will certainly be with you and you will defeat midian as one man a word from god for the people of god this morning i want to just deal with the simple topic when uncertainty destroys purpose when uncertainty destroys purpose brother sisters friends alike uh in the midst of the calamity catastrophe and chaos due to covert 19 i need not remind you just how much we've how much we've been through in the last 18 months 2020 and 2021 have been years that will go down in the record books as tough and challenging years for us all the unemployment rate peaked at an unprecedented level uh data not seen since collection started in 1948. in fact in april of 2020 14.8 percent uh was the was the unemployment rate declining to a steel level elevated in december from 6.7 at its peak 22 of u.s small and medium businesses were closed in february 2021 up from 14 in october of 2020. in other words the pandemic resulted in the permanent closure of roughly 200 000 u.s businesses during the first year of the viral outbreak roughly 130 000 of those being small businesses early mental health reports indicate that due to rapid and massive loss of life liberty and livelihood it may take well over 10 years to fully understand and grasp the concept of what covet 19 truly will have a permanent impact on his ads and perhaps a quarter century just to recover um in the midst of the devastation we've seen not only has 2020 been a year lost but if some are like me maybe 2020 also was a reminder for many of us maybe it was a wake-up call and a commission for some of us maybe god shared some things with some of you that just has challenged us to go a little bit further than where we were before and maybe uncertainty has crept into many of our lives and we're trying to scramble to figure out which way is up but god has given us a vision of where he wants us to go but we find ourselves uncertain of just the x's and o's of how to get there uh maybe i'm not talking to you because maybe you've had it all together maybe your business flourished during 2020 and if so that's a great thing and i'm and i'm happy for you but for many of us if we're honest 2020 gave us a lot of uncertainty whether it was related to jobs or family some of us have had to take in family members that are now living with us uh 2020 has now shown us that 2021 and beyond are is going to look much different than we initially anticipated uh and and i believe that uh god wanted us to show wanted us to see something very powerful during 2020 uh that is going to change us hopefully for the remainder of our lives uh specifically as it relates to the church i think god really wanted us to see that uh it was possible for us to go beyond the four walls of sanctuaries god wanted us to know that worship is not confined to where we sit on sundays together and that ultimately where he wants us to go is beyond this building beyond these grounds to be able to impact people in the communities we were confined to our living rooms but god was trying to tell us that it had no it did not matter where we were physically on sundays because anywhere we are god is with us and what he wanted us to know that his word is still powerful no matter where it's preached no matter no matter who gets the message it's still powerful and it still can go far beyond our buildings and so many of them were closed for periods but as we start to come back in uh there's a level of uncertainty that we must face the elephant in the room as a church many many of us are getting back comfortable to being in the building but i want us to be careful not to get comfortable in staying in the building because i think ultimately what god was trying to show us is that our work and where he wants us to go is a little bit further that if we stay inside of these four walls if we stay trying to only take care of us that we're really truly gonna be missing the mark on what he has for us not only is there more people that we can impact beyond these four walls but there are blessings for us when we leave these four walls see oftentimes we look at it as a burden by leaving our present place and going further but oftentimes the blessing is us getting out because when we're able to get out there are some things we can bring back in but unless you get out you can't bring those things back in uh and so i think what god wanted us to see is that there's gonna be blessings and benefits of us going a little bit further and as we continue in this theme of going north what does that mean as it relates to our uncertainty uh we would not be truthful if we did not face the reality that we all have uncertainty at times we all deal with uncertainty and if we're going to be honest about it we can still be confident and know what we're supposed to do but there's a level of uncertainty we have to address and so what we find here in the book of judges chapter 6 is we find a man named gideon gideon has been commissioned by god to lead the israelites to a victory over the midianites now what's strange about the text every time i read this text is that the audacity sometimes people have has the audacity that when he's talking to god he uses conditional statements that reflect that obviously there's something that god is not doing he says if god is truly with us then why is this happening to us what what about those promises that were made to our forefathers did we not get brought up out of egypt but yet you're you have us under the hands of the midianites and what's interesting about the audacity of people is that we always remember our version and our viewpoint we don't like to always think about what we do to contribute to where we are and if we're honest with the text and if gideon was honest he would know when he would remember and realize that it was the israelites themselves that got them into this predicament uh because it was not just one time or two times or three times not even four times that they did contrary to what god wanted them to do they acted in ways that were not in which what god would have them to do god he commanded them to worship him but yet they found themselves worshipping other gods this didn't just happen once this wasn't something that they did by mistake in fact time and time again god had to get them out of these situations and every time he sent another leader to get them out only to find themselves right back in the same predicament and so now gideon is questioning god because they find themselves under bondage and under the control and captivity of the midianites and he's saying to god how is it that you can say that we're your chosen people and that we've been brought out and yet here we have a problem that we can't get out of with the midianites and what he's not considering is the fact that what they did is the reason that god has them here but just to show the grace of god gideon still doesn't realize that god has already commissioned him that you're the one that are going to bring them out of the hands of the midianites see oftentimes what we do gets us into trouble but the grace of god still always provides a way so that we can get from out of what we got ourselves into uh and so if gideon was wise enough at the time of receiving this commission he would have realized that although god had nothing to do with why they got in this situation god had already provided them a way out and so what he's saying to gideon is i know you're the least in your family i know that you're the youngest i know that your family is the least of manasseh but i'm i'm calling you uh and so there are a few things that i want us to look at in the text here uh and then the rest of the afternoon will be yours the first thing i want to talk about is the affirmation next i want to say something about the assignment and then i want to talk about the history of gideon first i want to deal with the affirmation of gideon then we'll talk about the assignment of gideon where we'll spend much time and then the history of gideon now before we go further we we need to place into context the fact that the first six chapters of judges go through this sequence of disobedience to god and now this disobedience is through uh the the god of fertility ball this god of fertility is who the israelites have decided that they are going to worship and so they find themselves in this bad place where god has now said i i'm sick of seeing how things are going the anger of god is what led to them being in captivity to these uh to these countries because if you read the first chapters the first the judges actually opens up in chapter one uh with god showing the conquest of the israelites in fact they could not be beaten uh if you read the earlier parts of judges they conquered territory after territory after territory but it was because they were all still in the will of god but see when they started to smell themselves and when they started to do what they wanted to do and they started to rely too much on themselves that's when they started to run into problems and it was the anger of god that said that because you're doing contrary to what we've at what i've asked you to do now i'm going to show you what happens when you do that see all of our actions have consequences and so you can either choose to do the things that will continue to give you prosperity and grace or i can show you what happens when you walk contrary to what i've called you to do and so uh the middle parts of those chapters start to deal with what happens when they start to disobey god and when they walk contrary to the will of god they find themselves uh at the hands and at the mercy of places that otherwise they would have they would not have had problems with some of these these nations were smaller than them but because of the will and the anger of god they could not beat them and so god had them god had was teaching them painful lessons through this and and sometimes they were they were in trouble for 12 years sometimes eight years sometimes 40 years uh but every single time god sent them a man god sent them a leader that would lead them to victory and get them out of the situation only for them to find themselves back and so uh gideon is now next in line he is the next one called and he says that i'm going to i'm going to have you be the ones that are going to deliver your people from the hands of the midianites and so in looking at the affirmation of gideon we've got to be careful and realize that at times uncertainty can destroy affirmations that are made uh gideon is referred to in verse 12 of the text as a valiant warrior now i don't know about you and if you read the same text that i read but gideon was everything but valiant in that text in fact if we look at the definition of valiant it actually translates to a brave soldier and i don't know about you but gideon didn't sound too brave in the text and so uh there's something that doesn't agree here god refers to him as a valiant warrior yet what gideon gives is everything but strength everything but bravery uh describing gideon as a brave soldier was not a matter of fact this was not something that we saw this was more of a prophetic affirmation from god of what he would become i just said something yeah god was able to see where gideon was and what gideon was saying what his mouth said and what his mouth said was contrary to what god knew he would become and so god is placed in him and he said i see what you will become although right now you you seem uncertain you seem fearful you seem angry you seem upset but in the nick of time i'm gonna make sure that you're gonna be everything that i've called you to be and so i'm gonna already start placing inside of you this affirmation of you being brave of you being fail yet because i see beyond where you are to where you're gonna go and so i don't know who needs to hear this but just like gideon from the messenger god is giving you a prophetic affirmation not of where you are but where you will become and sometimes if we're not careful we talk ourselves out of the affirmation of what god gave us that's why that's why we can't get that business started that's why we're still working on that book that's been in progress for the last 10 years because what gideon realizes getting gideon realizes that this is going to be a tough task gideon says well i see i see that you know moses is the one that took us out of the uh out of egypt the first time we went into the promised land somewhere along the line we got here [Music] so now you're saying that i'm going to be the person that's going to get us back there i'm going to get us on track to where we're going and so gideon has a problem he he he can't really see where god is trying to take him because he's stuck in his own way gideon is stuck looking at what he's going to what he's doing and so he's relying too much on him and so uh sometimes our own insecurities and our own inabilities are what get in the way of what god is trying to call us to be and so gideon needs to realize and and he eventually gets it that he's got to get out of his own way that that what i'm placing inside of you gotta say what i'm placing inside of you is bigger than where you are it's bigger than the mistakes and the failures that you've made because this is another way that i'm letting you know that my grace is sufficient because although justice says that what you've done should keep you in the situation my grace is sufficient enough to where i'm going to use you a flawed individual a flawed man and i'm gonna bring you out of this situation to a land of purpose in the land of promise and so uh we've got to be careful that we don't speak negative affirmations that are that counteract the positive ones god is already placed inside of us if god is giving you the vision to do what it is that you want to do the thing that you should not meet that with is well i'm looking at what they're doing over here and i can't do that my book won't look like their book you're right your book won't look like they're books but guess what their book won't look like yours because see god has given you something to play something inside of you that nobody else can duplicate when he made you he made you a one-on-one and when you became a one-of-one anybody that tries to duplicate you they can try to imitate it but never duplicate it and so and so he god is god is letting gideon know that when the time is right i'm gonna make you exactly what you need to be you're going to have enough strength that's why he says later on in the text go in the strength of yours see gideon didn't realize where his strength was rooted because he was looking at himself he was looking inward and so he didn't realize that that god is saying go in the strength of yours this was the affirmation he's saying what you will become you will have the strength when the time comes but right now what i need you to do is get out of your own way so that i can get you to where you need to be not not only do we find something interesting with the affirmation of gideon but this is my favorite part i i want to look at the assignment of gideon so the assignment of gideon this this is this is interesting because gideon's assignment is not unique because it's happened with leaders just like just like him prior gideon is not the first that will have to deliver the israelites and get them beyond this victory so his assignment is not unique but his usa his assignment is different from the others because in order for him to add there's some subtraction that has to take place and and this lets me know that god god never asked somewhere before there's some subtraction that needs to be made if there's a situation where god needs to remove some things first god is not going to add before he removes and so and so if if we were looking at this from a school standpoint so the order of operations if you remember when you were younger it said that you had to add before you subtracted well god said sometimes i like to do things the other way around i i've got to get some things out of here first before i ask because if i add to what's already bad then they might just start to corrupt the what's good that i just put in here so sometimes i've got to subtract and i've got to move some things away sometimes i've got to be able to get us to break camp and i've got to get us to move beyond what we were doing because things that are here are counterproductive to where we are going and so god god is trying to get gideon to see that although his assignment is not unique it's different his assignment looks different because there's there are three profound things that we look at and that we notice about his assignment and this is what makes it different the god that they're worshiping in in this land the israelites are worshipping ball and before this assignment uh ball must must go and midian ball must go before midian could be defeated so uh before midian could go ball had to go this means that before god got them to where they needed to be there had to be some subtraction first this is because before gideon could be the deliverer of israel he had to be the destroyer of the false god god wanted to make sure that before he built he had to destroy what was bad and what had no business being there uh and this is the same for us before we can have victory in our lives over sins or problems that are defeating us uh christ must be the unquestioned lord of our lives uh and and this isn't part of my lesson but if god just gave me this the reason why sometimes we struggle with our assignment and struggle to be obedient to our assignment is because we're being held captive to one of our own balls some of us have goals in our lives to where you know we we have these things that that are taking the place of god these things that are placeholders of god and the reason we can't go further what will require more of us is because we're a slave to something else uh and and before god can become first in your life you've got to remove what's in competition with god because if you don't remove what's in competition with them it's going to be competing forces the entire time so what god wants you to do is to be able to remove what's bad so that way you can fully trust and you can fully depend and rely on him uh so so before gideon could be the delivery he had to tear down this false god he had to get this out of there first and this is different because some of the other men they were they were getting them just to the promised land prior but gideon gideon has this responsibility that he has to destroy before he can add so now he's got to convince these people that what you're doing is contrary to where god wants us to go and i need you to abandon this before we go further the next thing that's interesting about it is that god's altar cannot be built until after balls is destroyed so this still reinforces this idea that god is letting us know he let him know then and it's now that now is the same that we can't serve two masters you will either be a slave to one and loyal to the other or you'll be loyal to one and a slave to the other and so what god is letting them know that hey there is no place to where you can truly embrace thankfulness towards me while you still have this false god because if we still have this image of this false god then you may be conflicted on who really gave you what i gave you that's right you may be conflicted on who really delivered you so i need you to move this out of the way first and then the other thing that we see is that the place we must start is in our own backyard before gideon could lead his whole nation in the faith of god he had to deal with with the ball and his family gideon his family is here in this land so sometimes before you can go out in others and tell others what they need to do you got to sweep in front of your own door sometimes so gideon had to realize that there are some things with me and my family that i've got to handle first and before i could be in any position to preach to others and tell them what it is where we're going i need to handle this mess in front of mine and so gideon has to clean shop in his own house first he's got to get things right there because then once once his house is in order then he can focus on everybody else and so this assignment becomes very important because gideon's assignment is not unique but it's different he's got to do a lot of destroying before he can build and so gideon finds himself destroying and breaking down these barriers and and what's interesting and what we've got to remember is that when we take our eyes off of our assignment uh when we take our eyes off of our assignment you begin to rely on your own ability too much and see when that's dangerous because when we rely on our own ability we think that it was us that got us to where we were supposed to be and and then what ends up happening is when things go great we want to give our credit to the hard work we put in but then when things go bad and they go contrary well god if you really had my back and we were really your chosen folks why is it that we're dealing with what we're dealing with y'all see how our logic is flawed we look at what it is that we're doing when things are great but when things are negative we're looking out and we're point fingers and we want to look around at who else is responsible and so gideon took his eyes off his assignment and started to rely too heavily on his ability that's why he said how is it that you want me to do this my family is the lisa manasseh there are two there are too many in number how can we defeat them he's relying too much on what he has and what his family brings and then lastly what i want us to look at is the history of gideon this text this text and it's right here in the text gideon he references he references moses but in referencing moses he doesn't realize how similar to moses that he really is gideon into texas saying lord did the lord not bring us up from egypt so he's referencing what was done while moses was the leader and yet he meets that further the next verse with his own insecurity does anybody remember exodus 3 he doesn't realize how similar he is to moses because moses had the same insecurity when god called moses and god said to moses uh i want you to be the ones to lead your people out of egypt i've seen uh the things that have been going on and they've held you guys enslaved for too many years i want you to be the one to leave what was moses response who am i and he says who am i that i would be the one to lead us out of egypt and when he didn't realize then moses didn't realize moses is relying on his own strength i've got a speech impediment these people have taken me in and they've raised me in royalty and you want me to go to pharaoh now and tell them to let my people go [Music] and moses moses struggled with that because he felt loyal to them for what they had done for him but then at the same time he realized that he had a very uh he had a physical flaw that he thought would hold him up as well he says well i have a speech impediment and so what i love about god is that god uses what are our flaws what are the things that we don't do well and he'll even use the very thing that we think are weaknesses and he'll use them for his benefit and for his glory and what god said to moses is i see that you have a speech impediment but i'm going to make this a strength of yours because see people who don't have speech impediments they say too much and what i want you to do is i don't want you to say too much at all in fact i'm gonna make the message so simple for you that you can't mess this up even with your speech impediment so your message is gonna be so simple let my people go let my people go let my people go that even even when you even if you mess that up it's so few in words that there's no way you can mess up this assignment and so what god does is he always uses things that we think are weaknesses and he uses them for his glory and he does that because he wants us to know that when we're out of that situation that it was not you in the first place that got you out of it it had nothing to do with you but you were the vessel that was chosen to get you to where you were supposed to be and so gideon is finding himself in the same situation to where he doesn't realize just how similar he is to moses he has these same questions and is relying on this he didn't realize just how similar so so gideon was told to lead his people to victory over the many nights but he thought that he was too few in number they weren't well equipped to be able to handle this uh and so gideon was questioning whether or not he could do it and what god was saying to him is i just want to know how good is your history see you're worried about how good your men are i want to know how good is your history and in looking at how good your history is what god is saying to him god was saying stop worrying about how i'm going to do it i just want you to know that i'm gonna do it and that i just want you to test and see how good your history is and that same message that god was giving to gideon is what he's saying to us i know you don't understand what 2021 fully meant i know you don't understand exactly where you're going and what going north fully means i know that you don't fully grasp where we're going as a church fully but all i want you to know and i'm asking you is do you know your history and what god is saying to us is do we know our history because we we we've been here before this pandemic is not the first time that we've been here before we've been through hard times before god wants to know do we know our history he says if you knew your history you would know that a financial panic in 1907 led to a national recession that didn't need until 1910 uh but during that same period of time in 1908 charles stewart mott founded general motors and this company is worth 38 billion dollars today god wants to know how good is your history if you knew your history we would know that microsoft was founded during the oil embargo recession in 73 uh and during this time now microsoft is valued over 1.3 trillion dollars uh but this happened during the recession god wants to know do we know our history in 1997 the output of real economy declined uh and and things like freddie mac and all of these other places uh that had these housing crisis uh this meltdown led to problems and and and and during that time period even even during the ride sharing company uber was founded uh during this recession uh and now uber has given over 10 billion trips worldwide in 1997 uh this same problem happened prior but the but this is when the streaming company netflix got started hello blockbuster they're not around anymore during that same recession in 07 the popular vacation rental company marketplace airbnb was established in 2019 they were worth 31 billion dollars so again i say god is saying do you know your history we've been here before we've dealt with hard times before we've come out of recessions great businesses and companies have been started during these times churches have thrived during recessions and they bounced back and rebounded after recessions god wants to know how good is your history i know you don't know exactly where we're going but do you trust me that i'm going to lead us to where we're supposed to be do you trust that i'm going to place the right people in place and i'm going to equip us with everything that we need that when the time is right we're going to be able to go north and god is going to get the glory for it he wants to know do we know our history if we knew our history we'll know that we've been here before so so gideon is struggling because he's having a hard time with his history god is saying do you know your history that that prior to you there was joshua prior to joshua there was moses don't you know that i've done this before and that it had nothing to do with the vessel that i used everything was because of his power and so that if you trust me right now i'm going to give you everything you need and you can go in this strength that has nothing to do with you this strength is rooted in god and so he's trying to tell him that i'm going to give you everything that you need and so this morning i say to you this is our challenge this is our command going forward do you know your history god is god has taken us somewhere god has placed something within us and and i don't know about you i don't know what god has shown you this year in 2020 but can i share with you what god showed me god showed me that if we are going to reach people and do things that we've never done before we've got to go where we've never been before yes amen and so and so i don't know about you but i'm committed to go outward i'm committed to go outward and and we've got a nice we've got a nice sanctuary but i'm committed to go outward and so god has shown me that the blessings and the best of what's ahead of us we've got to go outward we've got to go further than we've ever gone before we're not going to reach people the way that we used to anymore i some people are still a fan of it but but but listen knocking on doors isn't that doesn't do what it used to do and if you want to reach more people i got news for you i can reach more people on social media in 20 minutes than you can reach in two hours and so and so what he's telling us what god is telling us is that if you want to reach and do what you've never done you've got to go where you've never been before and so and so south central i challenge us this morning i challenge us moving forward i admonish us let's look to go forward further let's look to do what we've never done before there are there there's a great history and a legacy and a foundation that's said but god is telling us and what god was showing us in 2020 and 2021 maybe we got a little comfortable and it's time to go further amen so this morning that's my plea that's my that's my challenge to you uh if you're committed like i am to go forward uh let's do this and let's do it for god's glory god has already placed everything inside of us of what we need he's already placed that affirmation inside of us we have our assignment we've got our marching orders we've got our plan of what it is god wants us to do he just wants to know do we know our history and if we knew our history we'll know that the very task that's in front of us we've been here before and god's gonna make us successful amen and so this morning this morning if you'd like to uh if you're watching virtually or if you're here with us and you're not a member of the lord's church i want to invite you to christ this morning we're going north and if that's the direction you want to go then you can join us uh but but but but i have to i'm inviting you to christ because because once christ enters your life you'll never be the same amen you'll never be the same and this journey of yours will never be the same because you'll never be alone in this journey uh god god has a plan a special plan for each and every one of us something that he's put in us an innate desire and an innate gift and ability for each of us and and and what he has for you is for you and nobody else as i mentioned to you earlier you are a one-of-one god has a special task for you that nobody can do but you nobody can do it as good as you if they try and so i i invite you to christ this morning if you're not a member of the lord's church you can you can you can become a member of his church uh and and then you can you can also be going north if you just if you decide that you want to shut this so into this ministry that we have here you see that we're going north and and we've got some exciting things on the horizon and you want to be a part of it uh you can do so uh we utilize various methods for uh for for sowing seeds and gifts you can use push paint uh the information is behind me or uh you can give via breeze the new church management software that we're using so uh you you can give by the way you can also give in person but whatever it is do not let the day go by and do not have a right relationship with christ uh whatever that whatever that need is so if you'd like to join this ministry you'd like to sow into it we never require or beg or ask for any gifts but if you would like to be a part of that we would love to be able to use you and partner with you moving forward amen and so this morning that is my plea that is my supplication to you uh and and i admonish you this morning that uh whatever your situation you can come now as we stand and as we say [Applause] by the service [Applause] [Applause] oh is we want to once again thank uh brother devin for that powerful very moving presentation we're also thankful he will be preaching every fourth sunday uh and beginning mid next year i will reverse that soon as i prepare to leave he will be the person that preaches more and more and my voice will go silent by the month so that it'll be an easier transition and and uh so but he i mean he's got a a lot he's got to deal with it and my goal i'm not trying to teach him how to preach that will come because he already has part of that but it's how to deal with pastoral that's two different things the power of what you've seen this morning has one place is what you have to deal with when you're not standing here is where you're made or broken and so we want to encourage you and i i promised him yesterday that i'm going to be working with him and miranda to make sure that neither one of them lose their marriage by inadvertently being married to the church amen because that can happen and the church is not going to necessarily be a faithful variety so we need to know that she's difficult she'll love you one day just like she did jesus but on friday just to be crucified until you make sure you understand who you married to and this is so critical same thing i was sharing with michael when we we talked yesterday make sure you're doing the things you're doing you got to find family and you give because you got to make sure that you understand what that actually means and what that means to all of the young people and i'm beginning to mentor them some other young men stay focused expand and learn but don't mess around and flip this thing that there's somebody more important to your family because you can lose your family emotionally and never get them back you still be a family but you'll be robbed and then you'll be out in the desert with nothing so we want to encourage him how to become pastoral that means i'm about to punch him in future no i'm telling you something don't you go down there bro make sure you understand this and i want to say that not just from my own personal experience and my own pastoral experience but from learning over the years i read and study all the time so the preparation that you talked about in your message and some of the errors and thinking that i've gone through i heard everything you were saying but i was going through a life i was back at your age when you start preaching and walking it through and so it's a powerful opportunity and responsibility but it is also a painful one and i want to encourage you that you i'm not going to leave you blind so my initial thing was to to to uh to retire december 31st and go to seattle on january the first never to be seen again but i promise i won't abandon them like that but that's my heart desire so anyway the whatever happens beloved you have a powerful church that loves and knows how to love and will continue to be a strong foundation yesterday we had a very very very powerful vbs and uh and i want to applaud everybody participating no matter whether you wrote something or you were here please [Applause] it would just not do so i'm so thankful though that you will in fact continue to glorify and honor god i can honestly say the south central church of christ as the people who've learned first john 4 7 through eight but you must continue to build on that and i think you did a powerful powerful job today and i'm excited about you sharing the message and i listened to what you say and it's been very very powerful to me so for the rest of us uh on this coming wednesday night i want to invite you back to the wednesday night bible class where we're going to be doing the parables of jesus so the wednesday night is breathing jesus now i also heard you say based on this past wednesday night that you really want in the phone to go back and let's dig out the power and privilege of repentance that was an overwhelming response to wednesday night's presentation which really came out of the sermon the week before so this fall starting in september i will be leading you probably in the last series i leave by myself through repentance and the power of it and the privilege of it so we're excited about that it's loaded now but it will transform your life you know it's hard to to repent isn't it because it's real real hard to be godly sorrow about anything and and but but that's where life is and for a church that's gonna go north it has to come to repentance collectively and individually but it is the the power that god gives so that that will happen so we're excited about that we have so many things that we have done and will continue to do that is very very powerful now i ask you to help us get rid of these temporary lights and this camera because they're an impediment now rather than an asset that was put in temporarily so we asked you then to help us raise the fourteen thousand dollars and immediately be at five thousand 500. then it just stopped but we don't have that money but we have to have these lights replaced and we want to have a camera that's back on the wall instead of here so that we will have to the world in which we are presenting ourselves they can see quality top-notch and they'll be able to see devin and myself and whoever else comes of it even better so we encourage and we're strengthened and we're on the move and we're going to continue to be on the move we've got a lot of things that has to be put into place because it's like a puzzle you can have that puzzle together call it scout of it now we've got to put it back together and there's some pieces missing but they have been put into place all the time so cece and i had a bible study with a young couple uh just thursday night there's a couple that's moving in that uh they're coming from kansas and they're they've already coming directly to us god is doing what we need right now we're not talking about breaking down next year liberating now and so i just want to know that you know that that we're in this together so let's let's keep your vision about what you want to do and the changes we want to make that and when i listen to the lesson we started out this is a joy to be able to talk about hbcus because we got so many people that god has allowed to go to school it's okay for us to talk that job and i love it i just love it and and i and when i grew up playing in the band i always wanted to go to famu i always wanted to go to family but i grew up in winter show and i realized that i was in the right place at the right time so that i was at school i was supposed to i was going to go to shop so those are the things that we have these rivals about but those are the things that we need to start having a rock revival i mean uh uh a contest which hbc you can baptize the most folks let's see what you got let's see what you got and which hbcu and which one of them can get people onto a campus where they can get their education which one of us can put some pots or money together to help them and to utilize those and those are the things we've got to get excited about and those are the things that will keep us driving and thriving so i'm excited about all of those things this is my final thing we were talking about yesterday we need to go into the barber shop which means that the issues we were talking about as young men we need to talk about male sexuality we need to talk about what does it really mean to be a man in every aspect that means we got to go into the barber shops but we also have to create barbershops here where the training and the teaching and the dialogue with the music we do it right here we set up the downstairs as a barber shop and we'll have these kind of things and then we'll go and we're going to meet the barbers in the community that's how we have to go we are not sitting around trying to all have it and singing this song and all the men do this all the women don't do that and all that that's done if you want some of that you got to go someplace else because we have broken camp this is this is we're not okay so that's just not how it's going to be we are a thriving congregation of the church of christ and we got much work to do and we're excited about doing it glad to see you wesley i saw wesley the other day i was going down the street and he was getting ready to turn left i blew i said i wonder if he know who i am but he showed up today so i know you know he was that's when i see my kinfolk and i know they're in the house god bless each one of you we're excited about it so we see you on soon on wednesday night but before you leave today make sure you give somebody a handshake a hug if you got to keep your mask or whatever you do always be okay but give them if you can't touch them do something and so that you can stay connected god bless you and we look forward to being the church and continuing to go north again my brother thank you for putting together a powerful presentation and thank each one of you for being who you are god bless you thank you michael and thank you for the praise team and thank everybody for being who you are god bless you uh let us stand at this particular moment

Channel: South Central Church of Christ, Raleigh NC

Views: 54

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: DBVFBUM4C9k

Length: 74min 59sec (4499 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021