FREE AT LAST

Posted on July 7, 2023 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 7.2.23

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

Galatians 5:1 NKJV 
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

  1. INTRODUCTION 
  2. One of the most important things to a Believer’s life is to live free. Many of us go through life not living free, because we are prisoners of our past. We really don’t know what liberty is.
  3. The Enemy doesn’t mind you saying you are free as long as you are still chained to your past. Many of us walk in doubt and uncertainty because we really don’t know what liberty looks like. This separates us from God.
  4. God not only want us to be free, he wants us also, to live free. For example, when God delivered the Children of Israel out of Egypt, the issue was not just getting the Children of Israel out of Egypt, it was more importantly about getting Egypt out of them! You can be out of something physically and still be mentally wrapped up in it, but you ought to be glad to know who the Son sets free, is free indeed. God wants us to be free of all Guilt and Shame!
  5. We are not just bragging about going to heaven. We want to live free, and everything connected to us will be free. We will no longer live in the bondage of the past.
  6. What’s interesting about Galatians is we run into people called Judaizers. These were people who said that they were Christian’s, but they held on to legalism or the Law. They would deputize themselves to enforce the Religious Laws. The problem is, they didn’t allow any space for grace.
    1. Paul tells them that we have been saved, and grace was what has done it. Paul preached that Jew and Gentile alike were justified by their faith in Jesus Christ without keeping the law. When you experience the Grace of God, you choose voluntarily not to be entangled in the hype of bondage.
  7. You have to get to a place where you want to be free of your bondage, instead of simply being afraid to be in it. There comes a moment you decide to be free of , bondage because you love God. This is truly living free.
  1. RESILIENTLY COMMIT TO THE FAITH 
  2. Paul shares that we have to live in this reality. Our belief is tied up in our relationship with Jesus. Our relationship cannot be separated from his Word because He is his Word. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  3. When I stand in liberty, I stand on my convictions, which is rooted in the Word of God. The Word then becomes the foundation of my faith. That means you are standing in the root of the Word.
  1. We Must Be Unwavering in His Word 
  1. The Bible speaks of the things that are happening in the world today. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables – We see evidence in today’s times, where people are caught up into whatever sounds good.
  • The world has shifted to a place where they only accept God’s Word if it:
  • Assimilates To Culture – If we can’t make it look like the world, they don’t want to accept it.
  • Accommodates Their Carnality – People won’t accept the Word if it calls out issues concerning their flesh.
  • Abolishes Consequences – People only want to accept the Word if there are no consequences for what they do. They want to be able to do what they want and still follow God.
  • We have to have an unwavering faith when it comes to God’s word.
  • We have to learn how to live by that Word. Other things will pass away and wither and die, but only God’s Word will last.
  • I’m Invested in My Relationship with Christ 
  1. I have to be consistent in my relationship. We don’t need to get saved and just sit in the pew. We need to stir up the gift that God gave us!
  2. Relationship is something that you have to work at. Relationships die when you are no longer willing to work at that relationship.
  3. You’ve been saved from things, but you have to put the work in to remain free. You fall because you don’t want to do the necessary work needed to stand.
  4. What’s necessary to work on your relationship with God?
  5. Priorities In Perspective – God has to be my chief priority. God wants to know if he blesses you, would the blessing get more important than Him?
  6. Positive People – You have to change your crowd. The people you surround yourself with are important. Often we adapt our crowd to accommodate our relationship.
  7. Pursue His Presence – We have to get to a point in our lives, where we want to pursue God’s presence, no matter what. When you have a relationship with God, you realize that you have to be in His presence. In him we, live, move, and have our being.
  8. Personal Prayer-Life – This simply means that we talk to God. When you’re in relationship with someone, you will talk to them on the phone until you fall asleep. When you are away from them, you just can’t wait to be with them again. In like manner, you have to spend time talking to God.
    1. You don’t have to paint your prayers with a lot of doctrinal King James verbiage, when you pray. When you have a relationship with God, it’s not the length of your prayers, it’s the strength of your prayers that matters.
    1. Even when we don’t know what we should pray for, the Holy Spirit helps us out. Romans 8:26 says “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans”  
  9. Passionate And Persistent – We’ve got to get to a point that our love is so powerful, that you wake up in the morning on fire for God. This is what makes you want to serve. Stand in the liberty whereby Christ has made you free!
  1. REAL COST OF YOUR FREEDOM 
  2. Have you ever thought about the real cost of your freedom? Freedom is never free!
  3. We celebrate the 4th of July because we celebrate the sacrifice people made for our freedom. In like manner, God paid a price for us! He did so, that we could live!!
  1. He Died So I Could Live 
  1. In order to be reconciled to God, there had to be a sacrifice. In the Bible days, people used to bring animals to be sacrificed for their sins. Jesus Christ became the ultimate sacrifice for us, so that animals didn’t have to be sacrificed anymore and so we wouldn’t have to go to a High Priest. Jesus became the Lamb of God.
  2. God loved us why we were yet, still sinners. He died for us!
  3. You ought to thank God that he paid a price for you!
  • He Left Me the Power to Fulfill My Purpose 
  • God didn’t just save me and give me a ticket to heaven. The moment happens where we get saved and we think that’s all we have to do, but no! It takes power and work to stay free.
  • When God died, it wasn’t the end of the story. He got up with all power and He gave that power to us.
  • God sent us a helper and a comforter. The helper in you gave you the ability to serve your purpose. God saved you to serve a purpose.
  • The Helper, the Holy Spirit gives us:
  • Ability – The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to overcome and fulfill our purpose. The bible says, “And now unto him who is able to keep me from falling…” It’s his ability and not our own.
  • Access – The Holy Spirit also gives us access. Access means I have access to heavenly places and heavenly resources. Ex – You get a key to your hotel room. There are lots of people in the hotel lobby, but you have to be given access to go up on the floors of the hotel. Your key gives you access to the amenities on the upper floors. Without it, you can only access the lobby. In a similar manner, we have access to stuff in our lives, but some of us are comfortable just staying in the lobby.
  • Authority – We think we need to have people pray over us when things go wrong. God gave us the authority to pray and speak healing over ourselves. Somebody ought to declare they have authority! You have to walk in it!
  • REFUSE TO BE CAUGHT UP IN FOOLISHNESS 
  • We are not supposed to allow ourselves to be entangled again. This causes us to be under the yoke of bondage. You must declare you are going forward because you know what freedom feels like.
  1. You Must Be Disciplined in Your Decisions 
  2. People may offer you one bite, but when you do, it opens your spirit up. If you are trying to get rid of something, you have to have some level of discipline, because you know yourself and you know your struggles.
  • When You Grow Up, There Are Things You Outgrow – When you grow up there are some things that you outgrow. When they pull the strings of the yoke on an ox, they turn, because the yoke is heavy. Getting entangled again, with the very thing that God delivered you from, means that it has become a yoke that now controls you.
  1. You are growing so fast, some people haven’t got the memo that you have outgrown some things. Some people are still trying to invite you to places that you have outgrown.
  2. You have to forget those things that are behind you and reach towards the thing that are ahead of you.
  • REJOICE THAT THE ENEMY DIDN’T ROB YOU OF YOUR FUTURE 
  • The enemy did not rob you of where God was taking you. Having said that, don’t allow the enemy to pull you back into that which God has delivered you from.
  1. Every Plot of The Enemy Was Blocked by The Blood 
  1. God blocked every plan of the enemy by the blood. There were some things that could have taken you out, but the Blood blocked it!
  2. The blood provided protection! The blood guaranteed healing! The blood yielded you sanctification! The blood promised redemption!
  3. Story – A woman was headed for an interview for CEO of a corporation. She has on a white pressed suit. She looks down at her lapel and sees blood. Her nose had started to bleed, and she didn’t know it. She asks herself, “How this could be? Not now!”

She asked the driver to take her back to change. While in the closet, picking out something to wear, she sees the 911 tragedy on the TV. Had she not gotten the blood on her clothes, and returned home to change, she would have been in that building when the planes hit the towers. If it wasn’t for the blood!!

  • What’s Ahead Is Better Than What’s Been 
  • Living in freedom, sets you up for the best that God has for your life.
  • Today we declare that we are walking and living in freedom! Now you are free to dance, shout, and worship! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!
  • Where there is liberation, there must be celebration!
  • David says, God brought him out of the pit of miry clay and set his feet upon a rock.
  • Give God glory for living and standing in the freedom of liberty! You are not going back. The chain has finally been broken!
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PART IV: IT COULD HAVE GONE ANOTHER WAY

Posted on July 2, 2023 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 6/24/23

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Psalm 107:1-2 NKJV 
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! 
For His mercy endures forever. 
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, 
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,

  1. INTRODUCTION 
  1. God has been keeping attacks from us, so the attempt of the enemy would not come to fruition and so we would could see the Grace of God. It could have gone another way!
  2. Today we will find ways to give God the Glory, despite our circumstance. We realize God’s redemption is at work. We see that we have gotten out of stuff that we couldn’t have gotten out of on our own.
  3. God continues to flip things in our favor. His mercy took a break-down and turned it into break-through! God turned a rough climb, into a set of stairs! God took a broke situation, and made it become profitable!
  4. You need to realize that you’ve been redeemed. If God wasn’t on your side, you wouldn’t be here!
  5. We have many things to thank God for. It could have gone another way!
  6. You must share what God has done for you so that others can learn more about God. The most powerful way to come to God, is your own personal way. There are some that will look at you and realize if God done it for you, he can do it for them!
  1. WE RECOGNIZE THE EXTENT OF HIS GOODNESS 
  2. The goodness of God can’t be disassociated from God himself. It comes down to perspective.
  3. Some of us don’t realize that God is good until later on in our journeys. We must understand that:
  1. God Determines the Good 
  1. We don’t get to choose what is good. If we could, we would tell God to take all the bad things out of our lives. We would never grow or learn.
  2. God determines what’s good and he therefore decides what things are good for us and what things are bad for us. We don’t realize some situations are good until we are in the midst of them. We don’t see it as good when we first go into it.
  • It All Worked Together for My Good 
  1. God has a way of taking all that we have gone through and using it for our good. This is why the Psalmist says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, because He is good”.
  2. Setbacks give you comebacks. You know that all things work together for the good of them who love the Lord.
  1. WE’VE BEEN THE RECIPIENTS OF HIS ETERNAL GRACE 
  2. The things that really make grace is found in this text.
  3. Generally, are vindictive. By this we mean, if someone does something to us, we want to get back at them or we ask God to do it for us. This is why God doesn’t trust us with grace.
  4. Grace says we are forgiven regardless to the sin we have committed. Grace goes past the walls and cleans up our sins. 1 John 1:9 NKJV says 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
    1. God doesn’t make you beg. If you confess it, He will forgive it. We can’t forgive your sins because we don’t really understand grace.
  5. Mercy- Grace and mercy work together. Mercy is holding back the consequences and Grace is not giving us what we deserve.
  1. What He Gives Me, I Don’t Deserve 
  2. God has given us many things that we do not deserve.  Without understanding our human condition, you can’t really appreciate fully that God has given you what you don’t deserve. Understanding this helps you to avoid the condition of entitlement.
  1. What causes us not to deserve what God gives us?
    1. Iniquity 
    1. Inadequacies  
    1. Inconsistencies 
  2. He Never Runs Out of Mercy 
  3. We should give God glory for his mercy. God’s mercy is connected to God’s love. His mercy endures forever.
  4. God’s Mercy is inexhaustible, or incapable of being used up.
  5. In relationship, we feel like a person will eventually get tired of us and limit our resources. They will then create distance and the lack of resources from them, begin to show up. This is when we truly begin to feel the distance.
    1. How many times have we created this distance from others? God says he will never step back from us. God doesn’t move from us, we move away from him.
  • God’s mercy can’t be used up.
  • When you pray, Hebrews 4:16 says Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.-
  • Psalm 23:6 NKJV says 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will [a]dwell in the house of the Lord [b]Forever.
  • Lamentations 3:21–23 NKJV says 21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
  1. THE REDEEMED EXPRESS THEIR GRATITUDE 
  2. You can’t know the goodness of God and sit there like a stone with no life.
  3. Being thankful is more than just saying “thank you”. It is an attitude. It is a learned behavior. Without the attitude, it is much like your child who receives things and don’t understand the sacrifice that happens to provide them with what they want.
  4. You have to train your children to pause and say, “thank you”. When you told them to say, “thank you”, you have trained them to appreciate the sacrifice it took to get them what they just received.
    1. When the maturity come in, they learn to associate the blessing with thankfulness for the intangible things. God doesn’t want you to associate your blessings with stuff all the time. When you mature, you associate blessings with love, joy, and peace, things money can’t buy. Give God the glory for the thing’s money can’t buy!
  5. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
  1. You Can’t Know It and Not Show It 
  2. When you get asked to do things outside your job, you realize for the greater good, you must help the company! Likewise, when God’s been good to you, you just can’t hide it. You have to show it for the greater good of the Company.
  3. In Acts 3, a lame man was dropped at the gate called Beautiful. After finally being healed, he walked, leaped, and praised God!
  • Your Witness Is Beyond the Walls 
  • When God’s been good to you, your praise is not restricted to the walls of the sanctuary.
  • Your Song – Songs were important to Israel. The songs help you to tell your story.
  • Your Story – If you don’t have a Song, you got a Story. In your Story, there is some glory!
  • Your Shout – Everybody ought to have a shout! This can be a bit controversial for some of us that grew up in a quiet church. Psalms 100:1-2 NKJV says Make a joyful shout to the Lord, [a]all you lands! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. – Noise is a nuisance for some people, but necessary for others. It allows us to express what we can’t articulate. It doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes sense to God.
  • Story: While walking to his room, which was near the Casino, Bishop noticed that ever time somebody hit, they hollered! As many times as God has done something for why don’t we respond in the same manner.
  • HE RESCUED ME FROM THE ENEMY’S GRIP 
  • He redeemed me from the hand of the enemy. The enemy wanted to control my life. To be in the hand of something, hand is the root word. If I’m in the enemy’s hand, it means I depend on being controlled by the hand enemy.
  1. The Devil Had an Agenda 
  2. Whoever hand I’m in, shows who is controlling me.
    1. Some of us are still feeling the result of being handled by the wrong hand. The enemy has been after your life from the begin John 10:10 NKJV says “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”, I Peter 5:8 NKJV “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”- God redeemed you from being handled the wrong way.
  • The Enemy Was Reminded That I’m Anointed 
  • Some of you can testify that no weapon formed against you was able to prosper!
  1. Psalm 20:6 NKJV says Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. – God’s hand is greater than the enemy’s hand and the hand of whatever has been a handling us.
  2. To be anointed suggests that God has his Hand of Covering over you. When you’re anointed, you have divine confirmation, so you don’t seek affirmation elsewhere.
  3. It is a point of identification in the spirit realm. Anointed deals with a Greek word soteriology which is the study of salvation. If the Lord saves his anointed, something must be in a place that can’t be put there by ourselves, that causes us to be saved.
  4. In the Bible you see God save his anointed. In all cases, these people have been handled the wrong way.
  5. For example:
  6. Pharaoh wants to hold on to children of Israel (handled the wrong way). God says let them go!
  7. The 3 Hebrew boys is another example. The enemies convinced the king that they were beside themselves and therefore would not bow down when they wanted them to. As a result, they were put into the fiery furnace, but king sees the son of God in the fire. This means God was in there to bring them out.
  8. In Acts 12, Peter is in Prison, Herod has already killed James, and going to kill peter after Easter. The church is praying for Peter and God brings Peter out with the use of an Angel.

At some point, you were mishandled, and someone was praying for you. Brittany, the basketball player, was held captive in Russia. America knew Russia wasn’t going to kill her, because they who she belonged. Likewise, You haven’t been killed, because the enemy knows who belong to. God protects his anointed!!

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HE SAW SOMETHING IN ME, I DIDN’T SEE IN MYSELF

Posted on June 20, 2023 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 6/11/23

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Jeremiah 18:1-6 NKJV 
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. 
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!

  1. INTRODUCTION 
  2. How we view ourselves has a lot to do with the people we’re around during the informative years of our lives.  We are a result of what we were exposed to and the relationships we have had both horizontally and vertically.
  3. Relationships play a significant role in our lives. Some relationships we’ve been part of, we had no control over being in them. You just happen to find yourself in them. Who we are friends with, who we marry, or who we hang out with, matters.
  4. When you have a relationship with God, it transcends human relationships. God made us in His image. When you mature you not only realize who God is, you realize who you are.

Story:

There is a story about an Eagle that grew up in a Chicken Coop, with other Chickens. He walked like a chicken and acted like a Chicken, but finally a day came where he realized he wasn’t a chicken.

All this time, the Eagle tries to be a chicken; because this was all he had known. He thought the Chicken Coop was all there was in life for him.  Eventually he realized that the Chicken Coop was too small for him. Even the chickens realized that the Eagle was different.  The Eagle realized that he was made to fly!

People look at you in this manner, because you no longer fit. You try to be hip, you try to be gangster, you try to be street, but everyone knows that you don’t fit. They know who and what you really are, even if you don’t know it yet.

  • God will do whatever he has to do, to mold you.
  • Todays scripture comes to us from Jeremiah. Here is some context:
    • Jeremiah was born North of Jerusalem. While he is growing up, the Syrian empire was in control.
    • During the time of this story, Nineveh (the place Jonah didn’t want to preach) had begun to fall, because of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is in charge at this point in time.
    • God tells Jeremiah to prophesy to these folk. Jeremiah wants to do things right. He takes his call seriously, but the people on the other hand, are not taking Jeremiah seriously.  As a result, Jeremiah begins to complain to God about it

In the text, we see Jeremiah wrestling with God over his task. In the midst of his frustration, he receives a revelation for his human situation. Jeremiah begins to see God as a Potter.

  1. THERE IS POTENTIAL IN THE CLAY 
  2. Jeremiah sees a revelation of how God deals with his people. God is the Potter, and we are the clay.
  3. Know that the clay will become whatever is in the mind of the Potter.
  1. Remember You Are Dust 
  2. Clay is nothing more than an accumulation of dust. No matter what we accomplish or who we become, we’re nothing more than dressed up dust.
    1. Gen 3:19 says “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.””- We are dust, and we never need to lose sight of our dust-ness.
  3. When God molds us, he starts with the very essence of who we are, flaws and all.
  • There Is Destiny on You 
  • In the text, the Potter took the clay and worked with it, even though it was marred. He kept working on it because he saw something in it!
  • While we are struggling to remember how good God has been to us, we have to remember the scripture that says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
  • The reason you endured what you did before coming to the Potter, was because of your destiny.
  1. THE PROCESS OF BEING CRAFTED 

  2. We are a work in process. We have not arrived.
  3. The Stages of the Potter is interesting. Here are some of them:
  1. God Begins with The End in Mind 
  2. You have to look at the end sometimes, to learn what it takes to accomplish the goal. Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV  says ““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”” – Everything God allows, you have to accept. It is part of your becoming.
  3. The Potter never puts a lump of clay on the wheel without having something in mind for it. While God is working on you, he already has something in mind for you.
  4. God’s hands might be painful, but what he has in mind is worth it. God always has you on his mind. Our live isppam in his hands.
  • God Is at Work in All of It 
  • As you were maturing during the process, the Potter was working at the wheel. He never takes his hand off the wheel.
  • There were some tough seasons, but God was still at work. The more God is at work, the more spinning on the wheel you will experience.
  • Before you came to God, you were just a lump of clay. He put you on the wheel and started spinning you. This is why it seems like it’s been one thing after another, happening in your life.
  • Praise God you stayed on the wheel. Your life is not out of control, it is spinning in control on the wheel.
    • Everyone who came in and out of your life, was in control. They might not be under your control, but they were under the control of the Potter. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”Romans 8:28 NKJV
  • YOU CAN BE IN HIS PRESENCE AND STILL BE CRACKED 
  • This reveals a lesson. None of us have arrived, but we are becoming.
  • Under His covering, the clay was still marred, but the Potter didn’t just throw the clay away. He just remade it, new again, a new vessel.
  1. He Knows What Clay Is Capable of 
  2. God, the Potter, knows how fragile you are. He knows your issues and He knows what he has to deal with concerning you. The clay has flaws, but the Potter believes in it’s (our) potential.
  3. Your Imperfections Will Never Cause Him to Let You Go 
  4. God never took his hands off of you. His grace and mercy says, he won’t let us go.
  5. I WILL PRAISE HIM THAT MY CRACKS WERE CORRECTED 
  1. He Believed Beyond my Blemish
  2. He made what was pleasing in his eyes.
  3. God kept working with us and while working with us:

1. He sheltered us – He could have thrown us away, but he was committed to correcting our cracks.

2. He Salvaged us – God looked beyond our faults. This is why you can’t judge people. We are here because God salvaged us.

  • He Restored Me as If It Never Happened
  • Restored Vision – He restored us to a point where it looks like it never happened.
  • Restored My Value – He comes in, never takes his hand off you, and when He’s done, it’s like it never happened. Now the same clay that was with flaw, is now a beautiful vessel. The Potter didn’t allow my flaw to hurt my value.
  • Restored me to a place of victory. – What do you do when what you see in your hands is not what you have seen in your head? What do you do when that job is not what you’ve seen in your head? What do you do when that kid doesn’t look like what you’ve seen in your head? What do you do when that relationship doesn’t look like what you’ve seen in your head?
    • God made it(us) into another. Can you imagine what the angels said while watching God’s actions concerning Mankind? God didn’t throw mankind away. He just made it again, another vessel!
  • We throw away flawed things, but God remakes it again.  Jer 18:4 says – 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. – What do you do with used clay. It seems like it would be better to throw it away and start again. Only a Master can take marred clay and make it another.
  • The same vessel that didn’t look like what the Potter had in mind was made again, another Vessel!
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REDEEMED

Posted on June 9, 2023 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 6/4/23

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Isaiah 44:21-23 NKJV 
“Remember these, O Jacob, 
And Israel, for you are My servant; 
I have formed you, you are My servant; 
O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me! 
22 I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, 
And like a cloud, your sins. 
Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” 
23 Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! 
Shout, you lower parts of the earth; 
Break forth into singing, you mountains, 
O forest, and every tree in it! 
For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, 
And glorified Himself in Israel.

I. INTRODUCTION 

  1. Take a moment and think about the word reflection. It is a deliberate act of looking back on your life and asking where you were and what you were doing in the past. You also ask, “What was happening around you.”
  2. Reflection causes us to pause and to look back over our lives. We have to reflect to understand that God has always been active in our lives. The fact that you are alive and well is a testimony that God’s hands have been on you. God has been molding you and maneuvering things in your life all the while.
  3. Remembrance is important to God. We have developed amnesia when it comes to remembering how much God has done for us. We have no response to God for what he has done for us.
  4. We don’t forget the blessing, but we often forget the Bless-or. We’ve gotten the money we asked for, but we haven’t given a dime back to the Lord. How can God do so much for us and we do so little for him?
  5. Israel is an example of the importance of remembrance. It is God that redeems us from our sins and delivers us from our situations.
  6. Jesus even told the disciples at the Last Supper, “…do this in remembrance of me…” It is important to future generations, for us to share our remembrances, so that they know how we arrived where we are. It allows others to understand the journey. We’ve had failures shortcomings, and trials, and etc. The generation behind you needs to understand that you came up by the stairs, not the elevator! You learned peace in the process, and you also have learned how to fight!
  7. There comes a moment after remembrance, where you mature in God. There is a sense of gratitude for things that people take for granted.  You start to thank God for the little stuff. We used to think it was all about the big stuff, but now you are grateful just for being in your right mind, for not waking up and wanting to brush your hair with your toothbrush.
  8. The book of Isiah is a good book. The book of Isaiah is made up of the following parts:
  9. Judgement – Israel had to face the sin of their idolatry.
  10. Attack upon them that failed because God blocked it.
  11. The prediction of Israel’s rescue from Babylon and the coming of the Messiah.
  12. In this book, you will see how God would eventually flip the script for his people. God’s people would have to be made whole, before they were ready to receive the blessing.
  13. God wanted his people to have a Golden age, similar to the golden hour. A Golden Hour is that period of the day just before the sun sets or after it rises. It is when the light is redder and softer than usual, so that photographs taken in it have a pleasing quality. This is when Photographers often do their best work.  God was interested in giving His people a Golden Movement, not just a Golden Hour a movement, not just an hour. It was going to be a Golden Age of peace and prosperity.

II. HAVE A CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD 

  • This seems like a small thing, but you will be surprised at the people that don’t have God consciousness. This is essential to walking out your salvation.
  • There use to be a time where even the wino would cross the street when he passed the church. We just don’t have the same God consciousness we used to have.
  • When I have this consciousness, I have:
  • God’s Presence – I know that I am alive. I know that God is real.
  • God’s Providence – He’s always moving in my life.
  • God’s Power – I’ve been around long enough to know that nothing is more powerful than God.
  • Don’t let culture Rob you of your spiritual foundation. 
  • Culture is fickle, but God is consistent. There is nothing new under the sun. Things we see in one generation, have happened in another. Some things that we think are new ideas, were actually thought of before.
    • Walk towards the door and it opens. We thought this was cool, when it first come out. We thought it was amazing, but if you think about it, they used to show the same thing on the cartoon, “The Jetsons”. What about machines making drinks, instead of humans? This was also on the same cartoon.
  • Culture changes. Things we fussed about in in one season, we laugh at in another season.  Remember the generation that wore baggy clothes? We thought that was so cool, now no one wants their clothes baggy.
    • What about Pee Wee Herman’s suit? How many of you laughed about that, but now these types of suits are worn to the Prom. Culture comes and goes. This is why we hold to God’s Unchanging Hand.
  • Some people don’t come to church, because they say that they can get sermons online or they can study on their own. The truth of the matter is, you can run after the world as much as you want, but somebody can testify that prayer still works. You can’t replace God. You look for peace in all the wrong places not realizing that you have all you need in God.
  • We serve God, He doesn’t serve us 
  • In order to serve God, we must:
  • Acknowledge His word – We have to allow the Word of God to govern our lives. If you think about it, some of the things you were upset about in the past, you are thankful for now.
  • Accept His word – We must do what His Word tells us to do.
  • Be Aware of our witness – We have an obligation to tell the world how good the Lord has been to us.

III. YOU WERE CREATED WITH A GOAL 

  • God allowed you to be born and aimed you towards a purpose.
  • You were created with a purpose. 
  • We have to remember that purpose is in the mind of the Creator. The Creator knows what he created you to do.
  • What did God do when he created us?
  • He put greatness on you. 
  • He put glory in you – The reason you didn’t go under when you should have, is because of God’s glory.
  • He put grace around you – God put enough angels around, to save you.
  • You will never make it without your Maker 
  • Goals are only reached when you are aligned with God. Even when you are not faithful, God doesn’t forget you.
    • It’s similar to this: Sometimes, you need a break from your children. Even though it is bad say, it is true. Our kids do stuff that we just don’t understand, but we still love them despite what they have done. God does the same for us. He never disowns us, despite what we have done.
  • With our Maker we have:
  • Divine Alignment –Alignment never begins with the external. It’s always Internal.
  • Divine Ability – I know I am not accomplishing it. It is the God in me.
  • Divine Acknowledgment – Don’t be confused about who is going to get the credit. This is why we don’t say we are lucky. We always acknowledge that it is because of God, that we do what we do and have what we have.

IV. YOU ARE COVERED BY HIS GRACE 

  • The Bible says, God blotted out our sins with a thick cloud. It took a thick cloud to cover our sins. God knew our sin nature and blotted it out with a thick cloud.
  • He hid the worst of me so He could use the best of me 
  • God knew when he created you, that others would be looking to see what is wrong with you. Some people are watching to discredit you. They want to prove that God shouldn’t be using you. The good thing is, Grace covers stuff.
  • I’m flawed but He was faithful 
  • God uses us through our flaws. We don’t walk entitled, because we know God used us in spite of us.
  • The church is a hospital. We are all here with various forms of sickness. The church is a place where you go, trying to well. It’s not a place where you go to check in and just hang out.
  • If you go to the Hospital and leave early, you can’t blame the Hospital if you leave with the same issue. Just like the Hospital, you can’t blame the church if you leave with your same issue, after you checked out early.

V. YOU SHOULD CELEBRATE HIS GOODNESS 

  • Because God has redeemed us, we are instructed to sing to the Lord for what he has done. We should audibly show our thankfulness to God, for all He has done.
  • If you reflect you have to rejoice 
  • Pall and Silas sang praises to God while locked up in jail. These Songs of Praise triggered a response. Everything around you sing praises to God (the trees, the birds, and etc..). Even the lower parts of the Earth praise God. Praise makes equals of us all.
  • There is no certain way, we praise God. Often, we put on our doctrinal hats when we express our praise. We must know that God does not have a denominational deliverance. He has one deliverance and one redemption.
  • When you go to a game in Denver, there are Warnings posted about your lungs. The air is thin there. When you overexert yourself with screaming, it can cause harm to you. During the playoffs, everyone there forgot about the warning and cheered like crazy. The reason they disregarded the Warning is because they think that what they are praising is greater than the problem. We have to praise God, no matter what is going on, because we know that what we are praising is greater than our problem.
  • God gets the glory in all my story. In my story, there is:
  • Personal transformation. 
  • Power of our testimony. 
  • Praise that transcends. 
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