Yom Kippur Early Morning Prayer

unto thee lord do we give thanks in the day there shall be [Music] there shall [Music] [Applause] is there shall be [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh angry with me [Music] [Applause] angry with me [Music] [Applause] angry with me [Music] [Applause] [Music] i am [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] is [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] all hail and shalom and good morning to all i welcome you to our 10th hour early early morning prayer service for this yom kippur occasion i'm thanking the lord for letting us assemble one more time praising his holy and glorious name and asking for his presence and his spirit as we have this early morning prayer service we certainly enjoyed the service on the beginning of yom kippur on last evening and this prayer service is really a continuation of the holy convocation aspect of our yom kippur observance in fact this this entire days is a day of holy convocations to the lord god of our salvation holy convocation is a certainly a familiar term to us in the house of israel because probably miss crowley brought to us a seven day holy convocation and as we know he incorporated a number of the high holy days aspects into that seven day holy convocation elements of rosh hashanah and yom kippur and and can be found in the holy convocation though we we commemorate the fast of the 10th month on that occasion but but central to that holy convocation service that the prophet gave us was the element of prayer is seven days of prayer and we we got up early in the morning for seven days at four am as we have done this morning and one feature of that rising early in the morning was on one of those occasions we got on our faces and lay prostrate before god getting as low as we as we could being as humble as we could in our prayer to him and we're going to and of course we're happy and thankful to rabbi levi solomon plummer for bringing the 10th hour of prayer service into the yom kippur service and so our job this morning is to is to pray is to praise it's to worship it's too fast well i guess we're fasting and to preach we should have all aspects of those items in this in this short service so let us prepare to have our early morning prayer i don't know what your situation is in in your home but the praying position for this occasion is to get down on our faces prone between our hearts and our souls and our spirits to the one who is able to keep us from falling so at this time let us prepare to get into the position into the face down prone position those of you who are able to do it for the disciples prayer so let us let us assume the position [Music] is [Music] let us pray our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our deaths as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen [Music] here [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] lord [Applause] [Music] [Applause] through [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and i will say [Music] [Music] hey [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] hey [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign amen and amen i almost felt like i was i was down there but i'm thanking the lord for this service i'm i'm thankful for your you're letting me come into your into the privacy of your home to join with you in this in this early morning prayer service we're we're fasting and we're praying we're singing we're worshiping and and we're preaching during this early morning service and there's something about there's something about the the stillness the the calmness of an early morning prayer service you don't have the distractions you can devote yourself fully to worshiping and praising and praying with the almighty the air is clear if you don't know cars running up and down the street and you can concentrate our former leader said on the on the center of your own silence where you'll find if you look hard enough you'll find the spirit of the almighty god so on this occasion we are pleased to have participating with us six sermoneers who are going to give us some some sermonettes i've given some scriptures one one other aspect i believe of about worshiping during yom kippur is to is to get into the word of god we fast we pray we sing we preach and we enrap ourselves engulf ourselves in the word of god and to bring the word of god to us on this particular early morning service we have six speakers who are going to come to us come to you in their own way using a scripture that i have assigned so if it goes bad i gave the assignment you can blame me but these speakers are in in this order evangelist michael norris of cleveland ohio sister elder kier marshall of baltimore maryland and after the two of them speak we'll have a song and then we'll hear from evangelist joseph turner of brooklyn new york evangelist joseph weatherford of richmond virginia and then a song and finally we'll hear from sister elder karen ward of philadelphia pennsylvania and finally evangelist at large james parker of alexandria virginia so at this time we will begin our sermonette portion of this early morning prayer we will start with evangelist michael norris of cleveland ohio evangelist let us pray heavenly father we turn to thee first acknowledging your goodness your mercy and your love to the children of men we stand together as a unit this morning indicted prosecuted and convicted for the sins that we have committed against our neighbors against thee and against ourselves we have come this tenth hour prayer throwing ourselves at the feet of your mercy afflicting our souls and confessing that yes we are truly responsible for all that is broken yes we humbly ask of your forgiveness and your mercy upon us amen amen unto the house of israel first giving honor to god and honor to our leader chief rabbi philippe mcneil grandfather abraham rabbinical counsel evangelists at large evangelists elder uh elders of israel sons and daughters of grandfather abraham my scripture this morning is taken from isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18. and my subject is the space between us the space between us prophet muhammed's crowd he knew about what is called liminal spaces that is why we linked up sabbath morning that's why we move up close not leaving any empty seats because that space between us no matter if i'm rich or poor black or white it does not matter we are all the same in god's eyes because we are all standing in need of prayer and if that space between us is not managed properly if proper care is not taken at all times anything and everything can happen you see that space between us is where hearts get broken it's where faith gets shaken and it's where love gets lost in that little space between you and me it's where hope gets destroyed and yes it's where entire congregations get divided you see that space between us is a sacred space it's a powerful threshold and if proper care is taken before entering miracles can happen and relationships can get repaired if proper care is taken foes can be saved congregations can be rebuilt and our faith in god and in each other can be renewed therefore on this day of atonement let each of us enter the space between us with care and with love with optimism and with hope recognizing that we are all very different and then honoring those differences respecting those differences and enjoying those differences so that each one of us can help others feel loved show others how much we really care and lovingly encourage others to share in this great redemptive drama under the care and protection of our god yes we are all different but if we are honest even in our differences we are like the song by frankie beverly and mays that says we are one so starting right now let us go onward and upward striving to reach the mark of perfection supporting each other and truly loving each other in the spirit of prophecy for these are the words that the prophet said and he was going away thanks god has placed the house of israel in a great liminal space this morning so on this day of atonement the day that the lord has gone on high in judgment let us bow with new to approach the space between us with love and purity of heart so that we as a body can participate with god in fixing our lives our church and our world come now and let us reason together though your sins be a scarlet they shall be as white as snow wash you and make you clean put away all evil from before mine eyes what god is saying is i am merciful and that's the only reason ye sons of jacob are not consumed come now and let us reason together let us turn from the wrong and to the right so that the great god of all the earth will heal us forgive us save us and fix everything that we have broken and grant us atonement and i believe that god will keep his word because he is not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent and i believe that he will forgive us he will do that because of his love because of his mercy and for his own name's sake saints god has filled this day with grace beyond measure let us take this divine opportunity and go forward realizing that we are standing at the threshold between what was and the wonderful possibilities that can be come now and let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow pray for me as i continue to pray for you and may we all be inscribed in the book of life amen evangelist um would you do you have your bible there would you would you would you read those scriptures or i'll i'll re i'll read it for you the the scripture was isaiah chapter 1 verses 15 through 18. and when you spread forth your hands i will hide mine eyes from you yay when you make many prayers i will not hear your hands are full of blood wash you as vanilla said wash you and make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil verse 17 learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow come now and let us reason together saith the lord thou your sins be a scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool lord add a blessing to the hearing and reading of his holy and glorious name and now we'll move on to sister elder claire marshall of baltimore maryland sister elder let us pray we first acknowledge your presence at the mercy seat to invoke the all-powerful all-knowing all-seeing god thank you god for blessing us in spite of our undoneness for your grace and mercy is sufficient unto us bring to our consciousness our lifestyle choices and experiences that are unholy and let your power disrupt relationships that have this cont that have disconnected us from you we have been enticed too long with worldly ideas and like a drunkard without boundaries and discipline we have been staggering in our vomit we repent god we repent and are ready to turn back to you god our peace our banner our provider for it is god's will that whosoever shall call on the name of the lord shall be delivered el shaddai we speak deliverance from all unrighteousness jehovah jireh provide unto us the fruits of the spirits peace joy love long suffering gentleness goodness and faith jehovah ropha heal all thoughts that are impure and unclean we are expecting a fresh anointing of your holy spirit invoking the invoking the dominion within to have life and to have it more abundantly and it is so hallelujah praise god and amen amen for the moments remaining dominion is within thanking god for god's presence and our chief rabbi and all who are assembled if we look at this passage of scripture taken from joel chapter 2 verses 12 through 14 we find judah with an opportunity to receive divine forgiveness and future restoration along with the judgment and calamity for his enemies the reader imagines a terrifying plague of locusts and its impact on society and the natural environment locust became a mighty army sent by the lord against judah well how else should god get our attention or test to see what continues to be treasured in our hearts so he gets our attention with pandemics with a president trump with promotions demotions fast money tactics death and love in the form of wolf and sheep's clothing all to expose what is undone within see it's not the locust that we that will harm us but what the locust is capable of that will ultimately destroy us the locust eats the things in our life that brings life substance and growth the locusts will feast on your self-esteem your self-worth and ego which will result in self-sabotaging behaviors if we if what we need to survive is no longer accessible then we ultimately die judah is on the brink of obliteration when the prophet joel's voice called them to return to the lord the voice of god is calling you to come to be free from the raft of self-destruction they were not going to be destroyed by external threats but internal battles that continues to result in their land not flourishing with abundance how do we self-destruct sister i'm glad you asked the scriptures shows us that the offering of libation has ceased from the house of the lord that's worship and offerings no wine dried up and new wine dried up and new wine was failed crops of the field were lost that means the joy dried up in the hearts of men self-destruction is lamenting too long spending too much time having a pity party cutting off food along with the joy and the gladness we seem to think that separating leaving church is the answer but we are cutting off our food source which results in your barnes and ruin fire consumed flame divired devoured the field is laid waste the ground mourns the harvest of the field perish the fig tree and the pomegranate tree and the palm tree and apple tree have withered there is no growth when you cut off your food source no life no growth stagnation paralyzed and mold and movements any and everywhere so your food source comes from a shepherd who is being fed by god to feed you sheep can't feed sheep sheep can't speak into another sheep's life but a shepherd can see further than a sheep spiritually ephesians 4 verses 11 12 states that and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ we need holy men and women of god to feed us and demonstrate for us how to be in this world and not of this world for the day of the lord cometh it is nigh at hand so blow ye the trumpet in zion and the dead of christ shall rise again come out from among them and be ye separated saith the lord and touch not the unclean things and i will receive you joel said it best to the amplified version of chapter 2 verses 12 through 14. therefore also now says the lord turn and keep on coming to me with mourning until every hindrance is removed and broken fellowship is restored rend your hearts bring and reposition your hearts not your garments and return to the lord your god it's a personal relationship for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness and he revokes his sentences his sentence of evil when his conditions are met who knows but what he will turn revoke your sentence of evil and leave a blessing behind him giving you the means with which to serve him we have to be like the three hebrew boys in their presence to in their in their response to king nebuchadnezzar whether god will or won't save and for this case whether god will leave behind a blessing or whether he doesn't i know he can i know he has i know he did and i know he will so the lesson is just return using lamenting fasting and praying your sacrifice is what god wants so because from sacrifice will birth obedience in exchange for sacrifice god releases more power to you in exchange for sacrifice there becomes a fresh anointing upon you where you can ask the enemy or tell the enemy to take their hands off your mind off your life and off your family and off your ministry and off your children and off your job and off your purpose and off the business ideas that's birthing within you the adversary does not have no authority when you are operating and full of obedience it's time for us to kill the flesh and be in alignment with god's will not my will but thy will be done sometimes you have to eliminate to elevate and when we eliminate through our sacrifice and elevate to obedience then god said to joel in 2 chapter 2 verses 25 and 27 and i will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm my great army which i sent among you and ye shall eat and plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the lord your god that have dealt wonderfully with you and my people shall never be ashamed and ye shall know that i am in the midst of israel and that i am the lord your god and none else and my people shall never be ashamed peace be unto me amen who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him [Applause] of blessings [Applause] [Music] everything [Music] me [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] abraham [Music] [Applause] [Music] land [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] to the promised [Music] grandfather abraham [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] amen and amen i know it's early in the morning but it's all right to it's alright to shout and prance if you want to it's all right to scream his his holy and glorious name because he's been good to you it's all right just don't wake up just don't wake up your neighbors let us continue the service we will now hear from evangelist joseph turner of brooklyn new york stannis thank you chief rabbi let us pray saints oh heavenly father we approach thee at this hour as the world sleeps we are here approaching the one who neither slumbers nor sleeps thanking you for the gift of this tenth hour where we can have god all to ourselves so with all humility that we can muster we ask you heavenly father to bow down your ear and hear our prayer first off for the fact that you put enough god in us to get up this morning and to pause from our pleasures to pause for my food pause for my sleep so that we can come to you without distraction and father please bless surround our leader with your love and your protection as a hedge of fire around chief rabbi philip e mcneil grandfather abraham strengthen him on every side these blessings was asked in their name and everybody said amen amen since the scripture assigned to me uh comes from micah chapter 7 verses 18 through 20 reading who is a god like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy he will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou will cast all their sins he said all their sins into the depths of the sea yes that will perform the truth to jacob the mercy to abraham which thou has sworn unto our fathers from the days of old and just focusing on verse 18 uh reading who was a god like unto thee that pardoned at the iniquity and pacify the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not as anger forever because he delighteth in mercy and for a subject the healing power of forgiveness i want to thank chief rabbi for holding the space on youtube and permitting me to speak this morning for the next three minutes i want to share with you on the healing power of forgiveness through the gift of covert 19. that's right i know it's early in the morning i've not had my usually starbucks dark roast grande with two shots of espresso say amen evangelist weatherford but i did yes say the gift of covert 19. and when i say the gift of cover 19 i am in no way diminishing the pain and the loss that we've all felt for this church in general and brooklyn in particular we've surely felt its vicious and insidious sting but in the last six months they have always also been unintended consequences covert 19 has slowed us down and for many of us it has strengthened our relationship with god so as to appreciate what many of us just took for granted and i say gift because when i look at my current relationship with god i now gauge my spiritual growth through the metrics of prayer and humility like the ability not only to listen to that still small voice but to act on it like now i can walk away from a fight that i know i can win yes i put on my mask follow the guidance to go outside but in my prayer and in my meditation i take up those other mass that's silly self-image i i give my representative a rest and i go to god just as i am with all my spots and all my wrinkles and all my sins and i also follow the guidance and i wash my hands but during these days i'm washing out the insincerity from my heart and also in these days i not only social distance but i also gossip distance and the distance foolishness distance why because god called abraham alone and on yom kippur you've got to go to the garden alone and as for that scripture you know it always amazes me that god's prophet will also will always prophesy war and desolation during times of peace yet he will also prophesy peace and restoration during times of war so it was was micah who witnessed judah's desolation under the relentless attacks of the assyrians yet micah in the middle of this carnage stands upon his feet and he gives you and i the recipe for restoration and while the assyrians of micah's day were external threats our present-day enemies are not on horseback they have no swords but they are still intent on destroying us just the same such as resentments fear envy jealousy living your life always from a sense of lack these saints are self-inflicted wounds friendly fire if you must these internal enemies are really my inner me and god calls us not to sharpen our swords and shields but he calls us to sharpen our faith and how does he do it by commanding you to get closer to god but there's some small print in that contract because god says the only way to get closer to him is to first become reconciled with thy brother and then come on up here to me and the path to that reconciliation the path to a closer walk with god is the path of forgiveness that's right i said that forgiveness is the highway to holiness but what is forgiveness i heard someone say that forgiveness is finally coming to the conclusion that you cannot change the past that we must stop thing that we must stop expecting them to pay for what they did to us indeed forgiveness is the keys to being handcuffed to the people that hurt us we're releasing them but more important we are releasing ourselves why because you got to admit it saints nothing that we can do to them will heal us some of us are carrying the weight of the past uh carrying people came families on our back carrying past hurts past resentments going back to rabbi levi's time but resentments hurt you more than the person they are against it's like picking up a red hot coal and throwing it at them it's like setting yourself on fire and hoping the other person dies from the smoke so i'm praying that god gives us a new pair of glasses and i'm not talking about sight i'm talking about vision i'm talking a way we can see the face of god in every saint but also see the face of god in every cinema even those that have hurt us and for those of you all that are looking for a perfect mate a perfect husband a perfect child perfect parents and bitter because you did not have that person that perfect person that did not live up to your expectations maybe you're looking at everybody except yourself you got to realize that people are not perfect and how about you you need to start looking for the god and people rather than the good in people and let me end with this seeing all this talk about forgiving other people for their mistakes before we do that we got to start with that person in the mirror stop beating our own selves up for our past mistakes forgiveness is finally coming to the terms that we gotta stop do you hear me so i have one assignment for you to do on tuesday morning and that is to drag yourself to the bathroom as soon as you wake up wipe the sleep out your eyes look in the mirror and say these four things before you start your day you say i see you i accept you i love you and if things don't get better then i'll get better and even if they don't get better i'll still be better off i ask the house of israel to please pray for me amen and amen let us move on to evangelist joseph weatherford of richmond virginia thank you chief rabbi let us pray heavenly father with humble hearts we turn to thee first to thank you for the opportunity to lay prostrate and ask for forgiveness understanding we're not worthy but if justice was the instrument in your hand this morning our time would be spent in vain rather this morning your instrument of choice is mercy and we thank you for your overwhelming compassion and patience towards us today we accept the fact that our words and promise must be sincere and sound so as you are hopefully in the process of wiping away all our past vials obligations and promises we stand firm on one promise that if given another chance we will work harder this year than ever before to put down the sinful acts and operate our lives within the framework of your covenant lord allow your spirit to flow from conscience to conscience thought to thought and breast to breast and turn every stubborn head to thee make every stiff knee bend to be and cause every defiant tongue to confess of your power and might we ask that you enter into the hearts of the world and community leaders from the president to the congress from the governors to the local council members and guide them to make earnest decisions that positively affect suffering humanity so everyone can have a fair and equal opportunity at life liberty and the pursuit of happiness bring peace to the families that have lost loved ones to this deadly plague and to the brutal and violence that have uh taken seemingly consumed our society affirmed to them that true joy comes in the morning these and all petitions we place at your feet the god of our forefathers abraham isaac and jacob we pray amen i've been assigned by our leader and i thank grandfather abraham for the opportunity to consider the scripture jeremiah 3 verse 12 through 14 and it reads as such go and proclaim these words toward the north and say return thou backsliding israel saith the lord and i will not cause my anger to fall upon you for i am merciful saith the lord and i will not keep anger forever only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou has transgressed against the lord thy god and has scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree and ye have not obeyed my voice saith the lord turn o backsliding children saith the lord for i am married unto you and i will take you one of a city and two of a family and i will bring you to zion for the next few moments if we can use for a thought and a theme return and acknowledge when we look back over the last 12 months and we begin to consider what god has done for us how he has been the one consistent force in our lives he stepped in and rescued us from enemies who sought to destroy us even when those enemies were ourselves words cannot express our gratitude god stepped into our empty situations those i have nothing left this moments in life and he redeemed us and if truth be told at times we allowed ourselves passage onto this carousel of sin spinning around and around each turn pulling us further and further away from god sin is a spiritual slavery and uh the transgression can occur by thought word or deed it's a rejection of the true and living of god's will and plan for our lives but now during this day of atonement god is saying enough is enough and as expressed in jeremiah chapter 3 verse 12 god is calling israel to return unto him for he uh will not let his anger fall upon us yet to say return directly indicates at some point we strayed away from the secret place of the almighty venturing off uh to our own indulgence touching and dabbling in those things that are contrary to the covenant of god god now says return and setting up a familiar biblical imagery of his people are returning from their own vices and devices and returning back to god his law and his faith the only requirement is to acknowledge the iniquity that we have transgressed against god i know we think we were just uh getting even with brother sam and getting over on saint sally but those sins were committed ultimately against god and if we just admit to them as hard as it may be just to acknowledge the wrong we've done god will stay his anger now is the time to go into those deep dark places we hid those unmentionable acts and confess to the lord that we have what we have done so he can forgive us return and acknowledge that we have sinned we serve a compassionate and merciful god who doesn't rejoice in the backsliding of his children he wants to show mercy to israel but israel must first return unto him and acknowledge its sin straying and repentance cannot coexist however returning and acknowledgement came let the wicked forsake his way in the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our god for he will abundantly part now wrapped up in the acts of returning to god and acknowledging our transgressions is our actions towards each other we cannot come out of these high holy days and not have the resolve to treat our brothers and sisters with more love and more patience now i'm not piously saying that this is not being exhibited now but we have to say there's always room for improvement we must love and forgive each other with the same eagerness and hopefulness that we ask god to love and forgive us my father used to play a song by sammy davis jr that applies to this moment and this time perfectly that song in part says what the world needs now is love sweet love it's the only thing that there's just too little of and i believe it's this love and god's forgiving mercy coupled with our earnest and sincere acknowledgement that will allow us to see that glorious church chief joseph wesley crowdy wrote about not the beautiful edifice sitting alongside route 17 or our sacred structures on a dodge street broad street north patrick street or even 31st street just to name a few but rather that church on main street uh that is currently sitting at your dining room table or on your couch in your living room or on the corner of your bed that sacred house not made of brick and mortar but rather made with heart nerve and sunu that church that god breathed the breath of life into that is the glorious church we will see without spot or wrinkle and that shall stand on mount zion with the lamb of god i ask the house of israel to please pray for me amen hear me o jacob [Applause] [Music] is for me [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] lord [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] of the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] faithful [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] of the lord [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good and faithful servants [Music] forever [Applause] [Music] [Applause] because the lord is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] is is [Music] oh [Music] amen let us hear now from sister elder karen ward of philadelphia pennsylvania sister elder would you unmute sister elder can you hear me we hear you go right thank you first and foremost oh god we want to thank you thank you for kissing our lips this morning with consciousness for allowing us to seek your face this morning we thank you dear god for sending us a special gift of prophecy and mr proud and we are forever grateful to you for the omni presence of our current leader chief rabbi phillip e mcneil dear lord it's my humble prayer this morning that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart will always be acceptable to thee this we pray amen unto the house of israel my assignment this morning is to reflect on the verses of the scripture found in the 51st book of psalms verses 15 to 17. and i'd like to focus on the requirements of sacrifice as i contemplated the substance of these verses i concluded that there's nothing ambiguous about what the almighty requires from us during this solemn occasion the god we serve desires that we approach him with a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart so that we can become at one with his presence i considered how we began these ten days of introspection we opened rosh hashanah a service with a beautiful message requesting that we honor and accept god's divine invitation and we were challenged by our leader to strive towards purity and to look inward to purge any rightness which may have seeped into our souls now we're at the end of these ten days it's judgment day and i'm wondering how many rsvps were received and what does the day of atonement really mean to us if we were not willing to fully engage in the process of turning what message are we sending to the god of our salvation if we are not willing to reject those sacrifices which we know he despises this pandemic has forced all of us to pull back the curtain and step away from all of the pageantry to reveal what has been masked for too long today our cathedral is a simple place and even during these challenging times consider what a blessing it is just to be in the land of the living consider just how merciful god has been to us even by giving us this opportunity to participate in this form virtually this is definitely the season of redemption and it's abundantly clear that in 2020 the lord has determined that we need to put in a lot more work before requesting an audience to seek forgiveness god has taken away our familiar playbook so that each of us would have ample time to contemplate a full assessment of just who we are he gave us time to look at that reflection in the mirror and pronounce self-judgment which is to say thou art the man it's human nature to embrace the fact that we are imperfect beings but we never really want to acknowledge the guilt and the pain that resides within us after we have committed a multitude of sin well this scripture highlights that even king david was willing to offer praise he understood the significance of declaring his iniquities he embraced the duty of repentance and he recognized that sinful behavior came with great sacrifice and he was willing to be accountable for his actions during the past year so many of us have been drinking from the same bitter cup of immense suffering and loss and sin but amidst the pain and suffering we must be willing to let go of that sin that sin that's been weighing us down remember what god desires from us it's clear and a contrite heart oh lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise for thou desirous not sacrifice else i would give it thou delight us not and burn offering the sacrifices of god are of a broken spirit a broken heart and a contrite heart oh god will thou not despise amen and amen and now let us hear from evangelist thank you sir let us pray heavenly father we call on your name this morning striving to be at one with you father there is so much uncertainty in the world today there's uncertainty about how long covert 19 will rage and if we can trust a vaccine when it comes out uncertainty about our safety our schools and our economic survival and whether the united states of america will stand up to those who have an i am god complex and yes there is uncertainty if there will ever be justice for the murder of brianna taylor yet with all of this uncertainty we're still certain about you we're certain that thou art god and besides thee there is none other and when you say so all nations will bow down at your feet we're certain that there is no problem you can't fix no wound you can't heal so this morning we humbly ask you uh to speak from your mouth to the ear of our high priest chief rabbi philippe mcneil grandfather abraham give him the direction that will compel us to live accordance with your plan for our lives and for the rest of our days we will praise you for being our shelter in the time of storm our bridge over troubled water our redeemer our savior and our deliverer amen and so now uh let us skip a stone through uh this uh scripture given to us by our leader uh the first four verses of the 103rd psalm uh uh which many uh scholars believe was written by david when he was reflecting in the latter years of his life out of the depths have i cried unto thee o lord lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications if thou lord should us mark iniquities o lord who shall stand but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared today my brothers and sisters we are calling to god out of the depths out of the depths of our sin out of the depths of our pain out of the depths of our sorrow out of the depths where we won't give access to anybody but god this morning when i think of who has sinned the answer is me in matthew 7 5 jesus said thou hypocrite first cast a beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye my brothers and sisters this is bean time when i was a kid in parsonsburg i remember saying counselor parker repeating that old saying that you take six months of the year uh uh to just to mine your own business and then the other six months uh to leave everybody else's alone you know what that means that means this is beam time i'm not focused on what others have said about me or or what they have done to me this is beam time i'm asking god to forgive me for what i have done to others and what i have done to myself this is being time because i'm guilty my prayer out of the depths is have mercy upon me o lord according to my loving kindness this is being time sometimes i have trouble seeing the god in you because this being in my eye is distorting the vision of the god that's in me and that's why i truly need this beam time and so today saints we're seeking god's forgiveness because god's forgiveness is real look people will forgive you today and bring it right back up tomorrow we will sing somebody's praises this week and pull out receipts on them next week but god's forgiveness is real we know it because he is still blessing us in spite of the multitude of our sins if he judged us based on our deeds the psalmist said who shall stand and maybe i'm not the only one who wonders in the midnight hour how can you bless me like this because you bless me lord with so much how can you bless me like this after all that i have done how can you bless me like this after all the sin i've committed how can you bless me like this when you know i was raised better than i've lived how can you bless me like this after my adulterous past how can you bless me like this when you know i've lied i've gone astray and i've led others to strength now listen i'm not afraid to tell on myself because first john 1 9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness saints god's forgiveness is real and that's why i fear him or rather that's why i revere him i feel like the psalmist david who's saying what shall i render unto the lord for all of his benefits towards me because he took my feet out of the mirey clay and he placed them on a rock to stay and he had put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our god he heard my cry out of the depths so when the man of god goes into the sanctum sanctorum to pray for our sins this afternoon when he emerges let us live like we're forgiven let us serve like we're forgiven let us love like we're forgiven let us praise like we're forgiven because i know that god will hear our voices and forgive our sins when we cry unto him out of the depths house of israel please pray for me amen and amen oh what what what a lot what a lineup we have had what what great nourishment for our souls we received and i i pitted those who didn't have the opportunity to worship with us but the prophet said if you don't get up for prayer you know the rest i i want to interject this uh apology uh we had a power outage at the temple uh during um sister elder karen ward's uh sermon and unfortunately we missed the the greater part of sister ward's sermon but we we're working it out so that we're going to post that sermon in its entirety um after the after the service is over i apologize uh sister elder i i heard it and it was beautiful and that's that's all that counts [Laughter] so we're thanking the lord let us have a let us have a closing song praise praise waited for thee [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] thee [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] supplication [Applause] oh [Music] supplications [Music] oh hear my voice now we're bringing this service to a close i'm thanking the lord for lending us a portion of his spirit during this early morning prayer and worship and preaching service we we're getting close to time for for the 12th hour prayer why don't we go ahead and have why don't we go ahead and have 12-hour prayer well while i have you here so let us um prepare for 12-hour prayer with the singing of our anthem [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] um [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] let us pray our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our detours and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen amen and amen thanking the lord again for this very fine very fine service the words of wisdom coming from the mouths of these of these preachers with food to our souls thank you thank the lord for it and i will close our service we will have a we'll have our morning service for yom kippur at ten o'clock this morning and we'll have an afternoon atonement service at 3 pm the lord watch with us and for us when we're absent one from another amen shalom alaikum alaikum shalom peace you

Channel: Church of God and Saints of Christ

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Length: 87min 41sec (5261 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2020