September 22, 2024 • 54 mins
In this message, Pastor Elect Aaron Arrowood, makes a strong case for a biblical view of how the church should be seen. Not from eyes of segregation or social standing, but from the truth that we are all one in Christ!
Wednesday Midweek 1/24/24
Wednesday Midweek 1/24/24
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, I am very excited about our upcoming weekend. I'm
very excited about our Haitian worship service at three o'clock
on Sunday. I think that's going to be a marvelous time.
(00:25):
And we do want to mention that we're still having
all the regular classes on Sunday, so you know, if
you should choose to be in the service in here
at three, I think that's probably okay. You might want
(00:45):
to just talk to your Sunday school teacher, but the
idea is not to just disrupt the whole program, but
rather just trying to minister in particular to our Haitian
Creole speaking people. And I think it's going to be
(01:06):
a wonderful time. We're expecting God to move mightily, and
we would appreciate very much your prayers that you would
just ask God to UH speak wisdom, uh and and direction,
and also that His spirit would just fall in this
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place on Sunday. And then after that we will be
having classes. Dad is going to be the teacher and
and a class that is going to be one hundred
percent translated into Haitian Creole, and I think that will
be a tremendous blessing too. But I want I want
(01:51):
to tell you what I'm going to tell them on Sunday,
and that is we are not trying to start a
hate church. We are not trying to have another church.
We're not trying to divide the church up. And if
you speak this language, or you're this color, or you're
(02:14):
from this country, then you go here or you go there.
But rather just trying to meet a need of the body.
So everybody that's a part of this congregation is a
part of the Body of Christ, and so we want
to meet those needs. But it is not a desire
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or an attempt to segregate into any kind of different groups.
In fact, I think that would be the opposite of
what we're trying to do. We're trying to build unity
within the body so that the body is healthy and strong.
(02:59):
But we live in a world that is divided. You know,
if you're from country A, you're supposed to hate everybody
from country B. If you're this color, you're supposed to
hate people that are that color. If you are fans
(03:20):
of this soccer team, you're supposed to hate everybody that
are fans of this other soccer team. So I recently
had a child asked me to buy them a DNA
test for Christmas, and I accommodated them. I thought it
(03:45):
might be very interesting to find out what their roots were.
And I was out of town when the results came in. Now,
I'm not going to tell you who it was, and
I'm going to try real hard not to mention any
of the countries in particular that are involved. But this
particular child was very passionate that they not have any
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roots in one particular country. They didn't want to be
from there at all. And uh so, uh. We were
in Tennessee and I called this family and I said, hey,
your test results are in, and they're like, oh, yay,
And I said, I can tell you some of it. Uh,
(04:34):
you are primarily from Spain. Oh that's cool. Blah blah
blah blah blah from Spain and you know, huh interesting interesting.
And I said are you ready for this? And she said,
don't say it, Eric, don't say it. I said, nah,
do you want to know or not? I will kill you.
I will kill you. Don't say it. I said, well,
(04:57):
I hate to tell you this, but you're not from
where you're from the nation you were born in. That's
not where your blood coming from it's the cunt you remember,
you know that country you hate. That's you. You bet them.
(05:18):
So I let them get on my computer and go
through their own results. And they said, you should never
have let me get on here. You should never. My
mother isn't even from this particular. I need to talk
to my mother. She's not from there at all. So anyway,
this happened, and I thought this was a good learning opportunity.
(05:41):
So a couple of weeks ago, I had a car
load of kids from various countries, and I thought, you
know what, this is a good opportunity to teach them something.
And so I told them the story that I just
told you, and a fight broke out in my car.
(06:02):
Hondurans against Mexicans, all at war, and I didn't even
try to get them to stop, and I just let
them do their thing for a minute. And I was like, Okay,
that was not what was supposed to happen. Right there.
I was trying to say, it doesn't matter where you're from.
We're all God's children and we love each other. No,
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it was about a soccer match. It is natural. It
is natural to prefer the country of your birth, but
it is not spiritual. I want to say that again,
it's natural, but it is not spiritual. Let's look at
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first Corinthians chapter three, starting with verse one one Corinthians
three and one brothers and sisters, I could not address
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you as people who live by the spirit, but as
people who are still worldly, mere infants in Christ. If
you skip down to verse three, you are still worldly.
For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are
you not worldly? Are you not acting like humans? You're
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just acting like the carnal beasts, unrefined, untouched by the spirit.
And then if we let's go to Galatians chapter five
and thirteen. Galatians five thirteen, so Paul scolds the Corinthians
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for acting according to their nature. And then in Galatians
five thirteen, you, my brothers and sisters, were called to
be free, but not but do not use your freedom
to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love,
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for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command.
Love your neighbor as yourself verse fifteen. If you bite
and devour each other, watch out, or you will be
destroyed by each other. And then verse sixteen, so I say,
walk by the spirit, walk in the spirit. Now, he
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goes on to explain what some of the carnal tendencies
are sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery. We're in verse nineteen, verse twenty,
so let's just keep score here for a minute. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft.
(09:28):
He's listed five things, and the next thing he mentions
is hatred. But I want you to take note of
this next segment of the list. Hatred, then, what which
is a whole lot like hatred? Like picking the people
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you like and the people that you don't like and
being against certain people, which then turns into discord because
these groups over here come together, These groups over here
come together, and then these groups are against these groups,
and one group is jealous of the other group, and
then they go into fits of rage because they are selfish.
(10:15):
And then there are dissensions, which sounds a whole lot
like discord. And then there are factions, which sounds like dissensions.
And this is the list of people. Now, let me
verse twenty one. Those who live like this will not
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inherit the Kingdom of God. Okay, so let's just be
clear about how serious. This is. These people don't inherit
God's kingdom. They don't get to be a part of
what God is doing. They're going to miss out on
God's glorious plan. Right. So now go back to that
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verse for just a second and verse what was it
twenty Hate, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish, ambition, dissensions, and factions.
And there are so many things that could have been
on this list, but these are the things that God
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chose to put on the list, and I think it's
important for us to take special note of it. But
then in contrast to those things in verse twenty two,
we see what happens. What is the fruit of walking
in the spirit. So if you are walking with Jesus,
if you are in lockstep with Jesus, your life will
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bear fruit. That fruit will look like love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.
Verse twenty three gentleness and self control. The opposite of
factions and divisions and separations and hatred and jealousy and fighting,
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but rather harmony and unity and cooperation. I tell you what.
We had a meeting here last night and there was
a group of people sitting around the table, people that
were involved with various different ministries of the church, and
what was being proposed was nothing short of a nuclear
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bomb that is going to go off in departments that
are represented, and it's like bringing somebody in they have
no idea. You get out a baseball bat and just like, okay,
are you ready for this idea? Wow? And the reception
was Wow, that's amazing. We will need to figure out
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how to make this work to accommodate so amazing, the love,
the unity there was there that group. It was it
was like nothing matters other than how do we help
facilitate the Kingdom of God? What God is trying to accomplish.
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It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. It's I tell you, this
is this church. Now. I haven't really been a part
of any other church, and I'm so glad that I
didn't get tainted, you know, by some lesser group. Not
I have to tell you, I'm so thrilled to get
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to work with the various departments, department heads, leaders, volunteers
in this church. I've never seen anything like it. I
tell you, there's nothing like it in government, probably nothing
like it in business and a lot of other other places.
(14:07):
All right, let me continue. So divisions though among humans
are deeply ingrained, so we might need to just kind
of make a note of that. Just be aware, this
is something humans do by nature. This is what we do.
This is what people do. And so to kind of
illustrate that, I want to take you to Luke chapter two,
(14:30):
and I'm going to start with verse thirty one. Luke
two and thirty one, And what is happening here. Mary
and Joseph have brought Jesus to the to be dedicated
because he's the first born, and Simeon is an amazing
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man of God, and he basically Simeon says he had
this promise that he would see the Messiah with his
own eyes, and when he sees Jesus, he lays eyes
on Jesus and he says, now I can die. This
is all I was living for. And I tell you
that's the spirit. If I could just see the Kingdom
(15:16):
of God come, if I could just see God work,
that's all that I want in life. But verse thirty
one says, well, for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations.
Verse thirty two a light for revelation to the What now,
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Luke Chapter two is fairly early in the story of
the Church, like thirty three years early. Okay, So thirty
three years before the birth of the Church. Semian prophasize
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that Jesus will be a light to the loop and
the glory of your people Israel. The Gentiles are going
to receive light. Okay. But thirty three years later in Acts,
chapter ten, verse thirty four, now Peter is not disconnected.
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He is pretty pretty much in the inner circle. Okay.
But at least thirty three years after Simeon's prophecy, Peter
began to speak. I now realize how true it is
that God does not show favoritism. Now he realizes this
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because God gives him a vision. And then God pours
out the Holy Ghost or is going to or has
he already here? I can't remember he already had, right, Yeah,
the Gentiles get the Holy Ghost and he goes Now
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I see it, and I don't know. I guess I'm thinking, now, Peter,
you have been around Jesus an awful lot. How are
you just now figuring this out? But it is the
reality that division is deeply ingrained. And then in verse
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forty five, the circumcised believers who had come with Peter.
Were astonished. They were astonished. Everybody's astonished that God is
willing to not just save a tiny, little handful of
people on the planet, but that God's plan is gigantic
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and it's not separated on socioeconomic lines, or racial lines
or color lines, but that he is trying to save
the world. They did not they didn't have a clue
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how big what God was trying to do was. They
had tunnel vision. They were concerned with their own little
thing and and limited by quite frankly, probably racism. They
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were so limited in what they believed God was doing.
And so God and God is stuck with them, and
God loved him and he's working with them. By the
eleventh chapter, so acts chapter eleven, now Peter is having
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to explain himself to the now now, wait just a minute,
can we really be letting other people get saved? Do
we really want others of God's creation? And Peter's having
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to explain himself and prove to them that yes, God
really is trying to save the world. Galatians three twenty six.
Back to the apostle Paul in what he has to
say to this conversation. So in Christ Jesus, you are
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all children of God through faith. For all of you
were baptized into Christ. Who were baptized into Christ, have
clothed them, sell yourselves with Christ. There is neither nor gentile,
neither slave nor free. There is neither male and female,
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for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Paul sums
up the whole matter. We are all part of the
family of God. And when you have experienced the Gospel
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and been baptized in the name of Jesus, you are
a part of the Church, and we are one body.
So may say amen. Romans sixteen seventeen. Paul again, now
talking to the Romans, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
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to watch out for those who cause watch out for
people that are always trying to say me, mine ours,
and separate and divide, and take these people and put
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them over here, and put these people in this group
over here. God says, watch out for those people, and
he finishes the verse by saying, keep away from him.
You don't want to have anything to do with people
that are trying to create division. Division is not the
will of God. Inclusion, unity, the unity of a spirit,
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that is the will of God. And so we only
want one church. We don't want a white child church,
or a black church, or a Hispanic church, or an
American church, or a Haitian church, or a mature church
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or a new church, a young church, a rich church,
or a poor church. We just want one church. And
the strength of the church is in its unity. Amen,
I think that's worth a handclap. Let's continue reading in
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Romans Romans chapter twelve, verse four. For just as each
of us has one body with many members, and those
members do not all have the same function, So in
Christ we though many form how many bodies each member
(23:00):
belongs to all the others. Here are the last few
hours we had a miracle take place. Sister Morgan Waits.
Many of you know Morgan used to be Morgan Bowen
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has many family members here in the church. Her sister
in law. If I'm helped me out, If I'm wrong,
correct me. Her sister in law, thirty years old, had
has three children or four three children, and she was
dying with a kidney disease, desperately in need of a kidney,
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and just in the last few hours they were able
to have a kidney. They were able to rush her.
It's a long story, and it's an amazing story. If
you want to find a Bowman or a Johnson and
ask them about it, they can they can share the
full story with you. But she was able to get
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a kidney. The doctor feels very very good about it.
But there is something very interesting about transplants that when
a part is put into or on the body, the
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body tries to kill the new part. The immune system
kicks into hyperdrive and does everything in its power to
kill that body part. But I want you to think
about if if that body succeeds in killing the kidney,
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the body is killing what. It's killing itself says, ah, Wait,
this is a foreign object and I'm going to do
everything to get rid of it. But if it succeeds
in that endeavor, the body will die. It is vitally
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important that we embrace each member of the body, whether
it's been here for seventy one years, seventy one days,
seventy one hours, seventy one minutes, seventy one seconds. We
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have to embrace the members of our body. Now it
does occur to me as we are providing a service
at three o'clock and we're asking the praise team to
kick it into fifth gear. We're at three and who
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knows how all that's gonna work. We don't know how
it's gonna work out. It may be a disaster. Who knows.
The praisingers might be passing out at four point fifteen.
We don't know. But a lot of extra effort Pastor
has taken a lot of time. We've had to translate
Bible study material. And maybe somebody would pose the question,
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maybe we're spending a little too much time with one
particular group or another. But let's go back to the
kidney transplant for a minute, and maybe we could say, now,
hold on just a minute. We are spending all this
time and all this money on a kidney, and nobody
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has even bothered with with their fingernails. And are we
gonna do her hair? What's the deal? Are we just
gonna ignore everything and us focus on kidneys? Well, you better,
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you better, because because that's the crisis right now, that's
the circumstance right now. The hair can wait. The hair's
going to be all right. Fring your nails can wait.
Those hands that are vitally important. Don't want to live
the life without your hands, or your feet or your legs.
But today, legs don't matter too much. We're not thinking
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about legs today. We're thinking about kidneys today because we've
got a kidney crisis. Stop everything in rally to this situation.
So let me tell you a story that I heard
for the first time today at nine o'clock this morning
as I met with a family who call themselves members
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of our church. A few years ago, a young man
fled from the nation of Haiti and he made his trek.
Eventually he would end up in Florida, but in Florida
without his family, without his wife or his children. He
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was working as hard as he could work, but not
able to make ends meet in Florida. And so somebody
told him that if he could get to Seymour, that
there were jobs, that there was economic opportunity in Seymour.
And so this man got in his car and drove
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from Florida to Seymour by himself. He had no friends,
no family, no one here to greet him to meet him,
and his wife and family are thousands of miles away.
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They are separated, but beyond that, at one point his
entire family was nearly kidnapped at gunpoint, and they escaped
narrowly murders were going on around them, and this young
man worked as many as three jobs at a time.
He would go to work, he would work an entire shift,
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he would get off work and go to the next job,
and he would work an entire shift. And he did
that week after week, month after month, trying to scrape
together enough money to support himself and his family in Haiti.
They were finally able to get his wife and children
to the Dominican Republic, which is a long difficult story there.
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But now he's trying to put them in a place
where they won't be hated by everyone there. So he's
having to support them there and himself here all at
the same time, and with the ever present fear that
his family could be kidnapped or killed at any time,
and he is alone. Yes, all right, Yes, we're gonna
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take a minute and spend a little extra special time
with this man. And so is it fair? Probably, if
you're you know, you could say no, it's not really fair.
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It's not fair, but it's necessary the situation. And I apologize,
and I hope this does not feel disrespectful to our
Haitian saints. But the situation in Haiti right now is
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known to be the most difficult humanitarian crisis in the world,
including the Ukraine and other terrible situations that are going on.
And so I think about anybody remember the name Irena
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Sendler or or the name Schindler, Because when there was
a humanitarian crisis in Poland and Germany and other places
in Europe, there were people who said, you know what,
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I think, my family, it's just going to have to
go through a trial here with me because there are
people who are dying and we have to stop and
do something about it. And the Jews call those people
righteous among the nations, and their names will never be
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forgotten as long as there are human beings on this planet,
they will be revered as heroes. Well, we are in
our own crisis now, and how will history look at
us and our response? How will history look at America?
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How will history look at Indiana? Seymour? How will history
view the Tabernacle? And I would just like to think
that there would be people in this church now. Maybe
your name will never be on a plaque wall in
a museum somewhere, but maybe your name will be written
down in glory, and maybe your name will be heralded
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by angels and maybe God will carry your name on
his lips because when there was a crisis in your
day and in your world, you stepped up and you
did everything that could be done. And I want to
be numbered with those a man. We must act on
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behalf of people who are in crisis, and if there
is a part of our body that is suffering. And
every week we are worshiping with people that haven't seen
their mother in over a decade, or haven't seen their
wife in years, or or haven't been able to hug
their children for years. Every week we are worshiping with
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people that every single day they lay be for God
and soaked the floor with their tears, begging God to
put their family back together again. And we must respond,
and we must be the body of Christ. I will
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tell you, I think our church got one of the
best compliments I've ever heard in my life, because at
the end of this man's harrowing tale, he said, the
tabernacle is a place that loves people. The tabernacle is
a place that cares and embraces people. And so this
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man he was here for a while without his wife,
and he was attending a church. But when his wife
came Claudette invited his wife to our church, and she
came and she walked in that night she sat down
with her husband and said, I love your church, and
I'm so sorry, but the Tabernacle is my church because
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that is a place that loves people. And I am
so grateful for the many things that this church has
done and that you have done. You have showed love
and affection, you have made sacrifices, and I guess I
would have to say I am I am proud to
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buttons popping off at the response of this congregation. I've
never seen anything like it in my life. I don't
think there's anything like it going on in this city
or this county, maybe not in the state of Indiana.
And I'm just proud to call you my brothers and
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sisters in Christ. And so I want to conclude almost done.
Look at that, I have fourteen minutes. That's the fastest
Wednesday night Bible study I've ever done in my life.
Brother Andrew, if you could just start throwing pictures up
there for me now, I want to apologize right here
at the beginning. These are my pictures. So there are
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some of you that should be in these pictures, and
you're not, and I apologize. I just didn't happen to
have a picture of you or I skipped over. And
I not trying to include anybody in particular or not
include anybody in particular, but I just think it will
be fun. All Nations Day, Oh my goodness, everybody that's
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involved with All Nations Day you deserve a great, big,
giant pat on the back. Brother Steven, you're probably the
key guy. What an amazing event that And I think
it's so wonderful because our All Nations Days, we're not
pretending to be international. We're not just a bunch of
people dressed in costumes, but we It is a church
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that looks like Heaven's going to look every tribe and
tongue represented. It's it's absolutely beautiful. You can just keep
going there, beautiful relationships and friendships. Letty here on the
second row. That that's her brand new apartment, her and
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a niece's apartment to go to that next one. Okay,
this just happened this weekend and Sister Bowling and family
took other families from the church. People that have been
in church for eighty years maybe something like that, and
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people that have been in church for a year and
a half going to an event together. This was the
arc encounter and I think everybody involved. Emma, were you there, Yeah,
she's right there. All right. Go to the next one,
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and that uh, Joey getting baptized, and just such a
mixture of people that have been around a long time,
people that have been not been around as long. Amen.
See Joey there, Joey and Joey, Joey, Joey in this picture.
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Go to the next picture. All right. So these girls,
if you see them around, they are triplets and those
are their names. If you can see them, Yasafen, Yaselyn,
and yakuelin good luck. Just try just pick one and
just when you see him on Sunday, just take a
shot at it. Amen, Brother Jaredith has been bringing. He
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had nineteen people here on Sunday. He was making he
had to make two trips in a bus. Go to
that next one, hey man, two young people fellowshiping together.
One that's been in the body a little bit longer.
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But yet that's what the church looks like. That's what
God's church looks like. Right there. Go to that next one.
I just think this is a beautiful picture of people
that have. You know, brother Bill who has been here
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three three years, three four years, brothers school craft, people
that have been here a long long time, people that
have been here not as long, together studying the Word
of God. Go to that next slide, Beautiful relationships, friendships
that are forming that that these are real relationships and
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friendships and it's these kinds of relationships that are that
are going to span the giant gap. And you know,
it's a big gap for a little girl. I don't know,
am I I mean, this little girl. I can't. I
probably shouldn't even go into telling you the absolute you
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talk about crisis. Everything in her life has been blown
to smotherings. She is the last thing standing in her world.
But yet here she is standing shoulder to shoulder with
the church. And if she'll just stick around, she'll make it.
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And some days she'll walk on streets of gold and
this is what the church does. Go to that next one,
and I don't know if that video will play. If
you hit the space bar, maybe it'll play. A Bill,
a little girl getting the Holy Ghost. They can't and
you can't see it, but she's surrounded by the church.
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She's surrounded by this church praying for her to receive
the gift to the Holy ghost. Hey man, go to
that next one. Just precious. So this little girl between
Zuri and I, the two out of the last three Wednesdays,
she has rounded up an entire group. I am back. See,
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I had kind of gotten out of the transportation business
for a couple of months, and now somehow have gotten
elected again. Didn't ask for it, haven't tried to get
them to do it, but I am now getting calls
from that little girl saying, can you come and pick
up me and all my friends? Seven people in the
guard tonight? That's the church. Go to that next one.
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I just had to throw that in there. I thought
that was extra cute. Do we have any family? Yes,
we do. I thought that was a great picture. Go
that next one. I just can't say enough about Kyle
and Miriam who've opened up their hearts and their lives
in a lot of ways, facilitating just all kinds of things,
from ministry to parties. Is this the fair? This is
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the fair? Go to that next one. And this is
a party at their house. I think a Fourth of
July party maybe where it's just inviting, not just inviting
the people that you've known the longest, not just picking
you know, I've known you for twenty five years. I'll
have you come to my party and we'll have a
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good time. But it's but you you know what it's
actually Sister Tammy was at our house until three point
thirty am on New Year's Eve. We partied like there
was no tomorrow, literally, like there was no tomorrow. And
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it was a mixture of brand new people and people
that have been in the church. And I thought we
had as much fun as I've had at any party.
We had a wonderful time. Go to that next slide. Now,
I don't know where LaTrece is tonight. Somebody needs to
give her a call. Okay, she had to be somewhere,
(43:24):
that's all right. We set our clocks by Latrese now
because she is very, very faithful. We love her and
her family. Go to that next one, all right. So
this is I think this is back at your property.
Go to that next one, all right. So this is
a group of boys that had volunteered to uh well,
(43:46):
the one in red that's not a boy, that's a girl.
It's her house. And these boys and some other people
like David McDowell and brother Ichred ben Ichred volunteered and
went to this house and did a tremendous amount of
physical labor to just give this family a better situation.
(44:10):
It's a beautiful thing. Go to that next slide, the
community garden. I can't wait. It's gonna be great. I've
never seen anything more like the church than that. I mean,
there were so many you could just preach a thousand
sermons from it. Do you want me to do it?
I've got five minutes, Come on, I could get started.
(44:31):
Here we go. I loved sister gardener, the gardener working
with sister Letty and I don't know what. This wasn't
your first garden, was it? It was her first garden
and they were working together. So beautiful. Go to that
next one. This is Bracy. Most of you know Bracy.
(44:53):
This is her dad and brother that we have not
been able to completely yet. But man, we're working on it,
aren't we. Brother jaredith out there with them. That was great.
Go to that next one so that this night, this
(45:14):
group of people played a game called two Truths and
a Lie. It's a fun little game. It was in
three languages. It was French, Spanish, and English, and it
was so so much fun, and I just thought, it's
amazing how much fun you can have with people you
don't know and can't even speak their language. It's amazing.
(45:34):
What can happen? Go to that next one. Oh, and
none of these people are here. This is if this
was happening actually Sunday night after church too. This is
brother Icard getting getting destroyed in chess. That's what's happening.
I'll just be honest with you. Brother Andy is a
(45:55):
very good chess player. Go to that next one of
this picture. Go to that next one. And this is
just one of hundreds and hundreds of pictures that I
could have thrown on the screen of VBS. And you've
never seen a more international group. You haven't seen more
international group at an airport in Chicago than we have
(46:19):
at VBS. Hundreds of kids old and young. It is
the most one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see.
All right, go ahead, go forward. I love that picture
and that picture. Uh yeah, you can just go forward.
We'll skip forward a little bit. Keep going, keep going,
(46:43):
keep going, keep going. Ah, Bible study at the Alis residence.
What an amazing thing doing. And this is Merland's family
and they're doing a by study and having dinner together. Wonderful,
(47:04):
wonderful example of the church. Go to this next slide. Ah,
look at that, a young Bible teacher up there, just
like IBC never stopped with his young students. Brother Croucher,
thank you, it's so awesome to see you doing that.
(47:27):
Go to the next one. All right, So a couple
of pictures ago, you saw these two girls standing there
making weird faces. That we had a little pony ride
on Father's Day or something, wasn't it, And these girls
were like part of that, but they didn't get to
ride the ponies, so then they wanted to do their
own pony ride. So that's what that is. Keep going. Ah,
(47:51):
this crew working on the fence over here on the playground,
and again, you know, in some ways you look at
it and you just go, this is just so unlikely
because because gee, at that time, he didn't speak any
English at all, and Brother Mullin's creole wasn't that great yet,
(48:13):
so they were mostly just pointing and grunting, and but
the work got done. And it's the church. Keep going,
all right, keep going a birthday party. Go to the
next one. Another Bible study. Love that this Bible study
is going on. And go to that next one. These
(48:36):
two young girls giving a Bible study to their friend.
Go to that next one. Renee doing another Bible study.
This next slide is brother David McDowell and sister Shamali
who's sitting right back here in the black hat, and
they are preparing for a Haitian prayer service and getting
(48:57):
their music together. Go to this next one. I love
this picture and I should have I should have had
the follow up picture. The next picture Mark. This is Mark,
and Mark is just a precious young man. And I
think I think the girls were there because their baby,
(49:19):
his little baby brother, Javon, had just been born, and
so they got this little group picture. And the very
next picture, Mark melted all the way to the floor.
He just literally just sunk all the way to the floor.
And I have I have a picture. I should have
put it up there. Go to that next one. This
was was this All Nations Day? I think it was
(49:41):
maybe kind of it. And so Sunday at three where
we will have a the mixed praise team again with
an all in creole. Go to that next one. Uh,
can you move forward? Oh, I'm gonna have to go quicker.
Oh this little girl you've never met Kaylee. Probably she
(50:06):
only comes on Thursday nights. But what a precious little child.
Go ahead, here's little trees photo bombing. Stephen Ferris got
thousands of dollars of work done for this family for
their vehicle. And of course he would be mortified if
he knew his picture was up there. But that's what
(50:28):
the church looks like. It's just people helping each other.
Go to that next one. This was after after the
Christmas program. And these these kids that did the Christmas program, man,
they were they were putting on a show at Ell
No Paul. They it was an absolute In fact, they
(50:49):
got paid, if my memory serves me right, they got
paid that night at Elle No Paul for the show
that they put on. Go to that next one. Beautiful
love this picture, and the next one, and the next one,
and the next one and the next one. This was
(51:10):
part of our three point thirty am New Year's party.
And the next one and the next one. Praying through
another girl to the Holy Ghost. Keep going forward again.
This next picture right here is such a beautiful picture.
It is so connected in so many ways. And I
(51:34):
don't have time I'm already two minutes over. Keep going
another Bible study. This is you've conventioned HYC. And this
is the last one. And we'll just leave that one
up there, if you don't mind. But another wonderful family
in the church, and church families that were ministering to
(51:55):
a whole bunch of other families in the church, and
that are connected with the different ministries. But this is
what the Body of Christ looks like. This is what
you're doing. And if we'll keep this up, by the
time we get that building over there built, we will
be trying to figure out what in the world to
(52:17):
do to accommodate the revival. Let me just finish on
this note. Those Jews just couldn't grasp even though God
told them it's gonna be a light to the gentiles.
But they couldn't grasp it. They couldn't see how big
what God was doing was. Let's let's learn from their mistakes.
(52:43):
Let's don't make this take us thirty three years before
I buy in. I want I want to be in
on the on the ground floor. I want to be
in now. I want to be a part. Why Because
I want to be a part of the kingdom of God.
I want to be a part of what he is
doing in these last days. Let's stand together and let's
(53:06):
just say a prayer and dismissal God. I pray that
you would help us. I plead your blood Lord, that
you would give us wisdom, that you would allow your
love to shine through us, that your vision would be
our vision, that we wouldn't be carnal, but that we
would be spiritual, and that we could grasp the kingdom
(53:29):
and all that you are trying to do. I want
to be a part of it. We want to be
a part of it. I pray that you'd bless this
church and every man, woman, boy and girl that loves
your kingdom and is looking for your kingdom to come.
Bless them, Lord and keep them and protect them tonight
on their way home in this crazy fog. In Jesus' name, Amen,
(53:52):
God bless you. You're dismissed.
Well, I am very excited about our upcoming weekend. I'm
very excited about our Haitian worship service at three o'clock
on Sunday. I think that's going to be a marvelous time.
(00:25):
And we do want to mention that we're still having
all the regular classes on Sunday, so you know, if
you should choose to be in the service in here
at three, I think that's probably okay. You might want
(00:45):
to just talk to your Sunday school teacher, but the
idea is not to just disrupt the whole program, but
rather just trying to minister in particular to our Haitian
Creole speaking people. And I think it's going to be
(01:06):
a wonderful time. We're expecting God to move mightily, and
we would appreciate very much your prayers that you would
just ask God to UH speak wisdom, uh and and direction,
and also that His spirit would just fall in this
(01:26):
place on Sunday. And then after that we will be
having classes. Dad is going to be the teacher and
and a class that is going to be one hundred
percent translated into Haitian Creole, and I think that will
be a tremendous blessing too. But I want I want
(01:51):
to tell you what I'm going to tell them on Sunday,
and that is we are not trying to start a
hate church. We are not trying to have another church.
We're not trying to divide the church up. And if
you speak this language, or you're this color, or you're
(02:14):
from this country, then you go here or you go there.
But rather just trying to meet a need of the body.
So everybody that's a part of this congregation is a
part of the Body of Christ, and so we want
to meet those needs. But it is not a desire
(02:36):
or an attempt to segregate into any kind of different groups.
In fact, I think that would be the opposite of
what we're trying to do. We're trying to build unity
within the body so that the body is healthy and strong.
(02:59):
But we live in a world that is divided. You know,
if you're from country A, you're supposed to hate everybody
from country B. If you're this color, you're supposed to
hate people that are that color. If you are fans
(03:20):
of this soccer team, you're supposed to hate everybody that
are fans of this other soccer team. So I recently
had a child asked me to buy them a DNA
test for Christmas, and I accommodated them. I thought it
(03:45):
might be very interesting to find out what their roots were.
And I was out of town when the results came in. Now,
I'm not going to tell you who it was, and
I'm going to try real hard not to mention any
of the countries in particular that are involved. But this
particular child was very passionate that they not have any
(04:11):
roots in one particular country. They didn't want to be
from there at all. And uh so, uh. We were
in Tennessee and I called this family and I said, hey,
your test results are in, and they're like, oh, yay,
And I said, I can tell you some of it. Uh,
(04:34):
you are primarily from Spain. Oh that's cool. Blah blah
blah blah blah from Spain and you know, huh interesting interesting.
And I said are you ready for this? And she said,
don't say it, Eric, don't say it. I said, nah,
do you want to know or not? I will kill you.
I will kill you. Don't say it. I said, well,
(04:57):
I hate to tell you this, but you're not from
where you're from the nation you were born in. That's
not where your blood coming from it's the cunt you remember,
you know that country you hate. That's you. You bet them.
(05:18):
So I let them get on my computer and go
through their own results. And they said, you should never
have let me get on here. You should never. My
mother isn't even from this particular. I need to talk
to my mother. She's not from there at all. So anyway,
this happened, and I thought this was a good learning opportunity.
(05:41):
So a couple of weeks ago, I had a car
load of kids from various countries, and I thought, you
know what, this is a good opportunity to teach them something.
And so I told them the story that I just
told you, and a fight broke out in my car.
(06:02):
Hondurans against Mexicans, all at war, and I didn't even
try to get them to stop, and I just let
them do their thing for a minute. And I was like, Okay,
that was not what was supposed to happen. Right there.
I was trying to say, it doesn't matter where you're from.
We're all God's children and we love each other. No,
(06:25):
it was about a soccer match. It is natural. It
is natural to prefer the country of your birth, but
it is not spiritual. I want to say that again,
it's natural, but it is not spiritual. Let's look at
(06:52):
first Corinthians chapter three, starting with verse one one Corinthians
three and one brothers and sisters, I could not address
(07:19):
you as people who live by the spirit, but as
people who are still worldly, mere infants in Christ. If
you skip down to verse three, you are still worldly.
For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are
you not worldly? Are you not acting like humans? You're
(07:43):
just acting like the carnal beasts, unrefined, untouched by the spirit.
And then if we let's go to Galatians chapter five
and thirteen. Galatians five thirteen, so Paul scolds the Corinthians
(08:13):
for acting according to their nature. And then in Galatians
five thirteen, you, my brothers and sisters, were called to
be free, but not but do not use your freedom
to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love,
(08:35):
for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command.
Love your neighbor as yourself verse fifteen. If you bite
and devour each other, watch out, or you will be
destroyed by each other. And then verse sixteen, so I say,
walk by the spirit, walk in the spirit. Now, he
(09:02):
goes on to explain what some of the carnal tendencies
are sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery. We're in verse nineteen, verse twenty,
so let's just keep score here for a minute. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft.
(09:28):
He's listed five things, and the next thing he mentions
is hatred. But I want you to take note of
this next segment of the list. Hatred, then, what which
is a whole lot like hatred? Like picking the people
(09:49):
you like and the people that you don't like and
being against certain people, which then turns into discord because
these groups over here come together, These groups over here
come together, and then these groups are against these groups,
and one group is jealous of the other group, and
then they go into fits of rage because they are selfish.
(10:15):
And then there are dissensions, which sounds a whole lot
like discord. And then there are factions, which sounds like dissensions.
And this is the list of people. Now, let me
verse twenty one. Those who live like this will not
(10:37):
inherit the Kingdom of God. Okay, so let's just be
clear about how serious. This is. These people don't inherit
God's kingdom. They don't get to be a part of
what God is doing. They're going to miss out on
God's glorious plan. Right. So now go back to that
(11:00):
verse for just a second and verse what was it
twenty Hate, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish, ambition, dissensions, and factions.
And there are so many things that could have been
on this list, but these are the things that God
(11:23):
chose to put on the list, and I think it's
important for us to take special note of it. But
then in contrast to those things in verse twenty two,
we see what happens. What is the fruit of walking
in the spirit. So if you are walking with Jesus,
if you are in lockstep with Jesus, your life will
(11:46):
bear fruit. That fruit will look like love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.
Verse twenty three gentleness and self control. The opposite of
factions and divisions and separations and hatred and jealousy and fighting,
(12:12):
but rather harmony and unity and cooperation. I tell you what.
We had a meeting here last night and there was
a group of people sitting around the table, people that
were involved with various different ministries of the church, and
what was being proposed was nothing short of a nuclear
(12:33):
bomb that is going to go off in departments that
are represented, and it's like bringing somebody in they have
no idea. You get out a baseball bat and just like, okay,
are you ready for this idea? Wow? And the reception
was Wow, that's amazing. We will need to figure out
(13:00):
how to make this work to accommodate so amazing, the love,
the unity there was there that group. It was it
was like nothing matters other than how do we help
facilitate the Kingdom of God? What God is trying to accomplish.
(13:22):
It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. It's I tell you, this
is this church. Now. I haven't really been a part
of any other church, and I'm so glad that I
didn't get tainted, you know, by some lesser group. Not
I have to tell you, I'm so thrilled to get
(13:46):
to work with the various departments, department heads, leaders, volunteers
in this church. I've never seen anything like it. I
tell you, there's nothing like it in government, probably nothing
like it in business and a lot of other other places.
(14:07):
All right, let me continue. So divisions though among humans
are deeply ingrained, so we might need to just kind
of make a note of that. Just be aware, this
is something humans do by nature. This is what we do.
This is what people do. And so to kind of
illustrate that, I want to take you to Luke chapter two,
(14:30):
and I'm going to start with verse thirty one. Luke
two and thirty one, And what is happening here. Mary
and Joseph have brought Jesus to the to be dedicated
because he's the first born, and Simeon is an amazing
(14:55):
man of God, and he basically Simeon says he had
this promise that he would see the Messiah with his
own eyes, and when he sees Jesus, he lays eyes
on Jesus and he says, now I can die. This
is all I was living for. And I tell you
that's the spirit. If I could just see the Kingdom
(15:16):
of God come, if I could just see God work,
that's all that I want in life. But verse thirty
one says, well, for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations.
Verse thirty two a light for revelation to the What now,
(15:40):
Luke Chapter two is fairly early in the story of
the Church, like thirty three years early. Okay, So thirty
three years before the birth of the Church. Semian prophasize
(16:01):
that Jesus will be a light to the loop and
the glory of your people Israel. The Gentiles are going
to receive light. Okay. But thirty three years later in Acts,
chapter ten, verse thirty four, now Peter is not disconnected.
(16:28):
He is pretty pretty much in the inner circle. Okay.
But at least thirty three years after Simeon's prophecy, Peter
began to speak. I now realize how true it is
that God does not show favoritism. Now he realizes this
(16:49):
because God gives him a vision. And then God pours
out the Holy Ghost or is going to or has
he already here? I can't remember he already had, right, Yeah,
the Gentiles get the Holy Ghost and he goes Now
(17:12):
I see it, and I don't know. I guess I'm thinking, now, Peter,
you have been around Jesus an awful lot. How are
you just now figuring this out? But it is the
reality that division is deeply ingrained. And then in verse
(17:36):
forty five, the circumcised believers who had come with Peter.
Were astonished. They were astonished. Everybody's astonished that God is
willing to not just save a tiny, little handful of
people on the planet, but that God's plan is gigantic
(17:57):
and it's not separated on socioeconomic lines, or racial lines
or color lines, but that he is trying to save
the world. They did not they didn't have a clue
(18:20):
how big what God was trying to do was. They
had tunnel vision. They were concerned with their own little
thing and and limited by quite frankly, probably racism. They
(18:41):
were so limited in what they believed God was doing.
And so God and God is stuck with them, and
God loved him and he's working with them. By the
eleventh chapter, so acts chapter eleven, now Peter is having
(19:04):
to explain himself to the now now, wait just a minute,
can we really be letting other people get saved? Do
we really want others of God's creation? And Peter's having
(19:25):
to explain himself and prove to them that yes, God
really is trying to save the world. Galatians three twenty six.
Back to the apostle Paul in what he has to
say to this conversation. So in Christ Jesus, you are
(19:52):
all children of God through faith. For all of you
were baptized into Christ. Who were baptized into Christ, have
clothed them, sell yourselves with Christ. There is neither nor gentile,
neither slave nor free. There is neither male and female,
(20:18):
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Paul sums
up the whole matter. We are all part of the
family of God. And when you have experienced the Gospel
(20:38):
and been baptized in the name of Jesus, you are
a part of the Church, and we are one body.
So may say amen. Romans sixteen seventeen. Paul again, now
talking to the Romans, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
(21:01):
to watch out for those who cause watch out for
people that are always trying to say me, mine ours,
and separate and divide, and take these people and put
(21:21):
them over here, and put these people in this group
over here. God says, watch out for those people, and
he finishes the verse by saying, keep away from him.
You don't want to have anything to do with people
that are trying to create division. Division is not the
will of God. Inclusion, unity, the unity of a spirit,
(21:49):
that is the will of God. And so we only
want one church. We don't want a white child church,
or a black church, or a Hispanic church, or an
American church, or a Haitian church, or a mature church
(22:12):
or a new church, a young church, a rich church,
or a poor church. We just want one church. And
the strength of the church is in its unity. Amen,
I think that's worth a handclap. Let's continue reading in
(22:37):
Romans Romans chapter twelve, verse four. For just as each
of us has one body with many members, and those
members do not all have the same function, So in
Christ we though many form how many bodies each member
(23:00):
belongs to all the others. Here are the last few
hours we had a miracle take place. Sister Morgan Waits.
Many of you know Morgan used to be Morgan Bowen
(23:21):
has many family members here in the church. Her sister
in law. If I'm helped me out, If I'm wrong,
correct me. Her sister in law, thirty years old, had
has three children or four three children, and she was
dying with a kidney disease, desperately in need of a kidney,
(23:47):
and just in the last few hours they were able
to have a kidney. They were able to rush her.
It's a long story, and it's an amazing story. If
you want to find a Bowman or a Johnson and
ask them about it, they can they can share the
full story with you. But she was able to get
(24:10):
a kidney. The doctor feels very very good about it.
But there is something very interesting about transplants that when
a part is put into or on the body, the
(24:30):
body tries to kill the new part. The immune system
kicks into hyperdrive and does everything in its power to
kill that body part. But I want you to think
about if if that body succeeds in killing the kidney,
(24:55):
the body is killing what. It's killing itself says, ah, Wait,
this is a foreign object and I'm going to do
everything to get rid of it. But if it succeeds
in that endeavor, the body will die. It is vitally
(25:18):
important that we embrace each member of the body, whether
it's been here for seventy one years, seventy one days,
seventy one hours, seventy one minutes, seventy one seconds. We
(25:39):
have to embrace the members of our body. Now it
does occur to me as we are providing a service
at three o'clock and we're asking the praise team to
kick it into fifth gear. We're at three and who
(26:02):
knows how all that's gonna work. We don't know how
it's gonna work out. It may be a disaster. Who knows.
The praisingers might be passing out at four point fifteen.
We don't know. But a lot of extra effort Pastor
has taken a lot of time. We've had to translate
Bible study material. And maybe somebody would pose the question,
(26:26):
maybe we're spending a little too much time with one
particular group or another. But let's go back to the
kidney transplant for a minute, and maybe we could say, now,
hold on just a minute. We are spending all this
time and all this money on a kidney, and nobody
(26:48):
has even bothered with with their fingernails. And are we
gonna do her hair? What's the deal? Are we just
gonna ignore everything and us focus on kidneys? Well, you better,
(27:08):
you better, because because that's the crisis right now, that's
the circumstance right now. The hair can wait. The hair's
going to be all right. Fring your nails can wait.
Those hands that are vitally important. Don't want to live
the life without your hands, or your feet or your legs.
But today, legs don't matter too much. We're not thinking
(27:31):
about legs today. We're thinking about kidneys today because we've
got a kidney crisis. Stop everything in rally to this situation.
So let me tell you a story that I heard
for the first time today at nine o'clock this morning
as I met with a family who call themselves members
(27:55):
of our church. A few years ago, a young man
fled from the nation of Haiti and he made his trek.
Eventually he would end up in Florida, but in Florida
without his family, without his wife or his children. He
(28:18):
was working as hard as he could work, but not
able to make ends meet in Florida. And so somebody
told him that if he could get to Seymour, that
there were jobs, that there was economic opportunity in Seymour.
And so this man got in his car and drove
(28:38):
from Florida to Seymour by himself. He had no friends,
no family, no one here to greet him to meet him,
and his wife and family are thousands of miles away.
(28:59):
They are separated, but beyond that, at one point his
entire family was nearly kidnapped at gunpoint, and they escaped
narrowly murders were going on around them, and this young
man worked as many as three jobs at a time.
He would go to work, he would work an entire shift,
(29:21):
he would get off work and go to the next job,
and he would work an entire shift. And he did
that week after week, month after month, trying to scrape
together enough money to support himself and his family in Haiti.
They were finally able to get his wife and children
to the Dominican Republic, which is a long difficult story there.
(29:47):
But now he's trying to put them in a place
where they won't be hated by everyone there. So he's
having to support them there and himself here all at
the same time, and with the ever present fear that
his family could be kidnapped or killed at any time,
and he is alone. Yes, all right, Yes, we're gonna
(30:24):
take a minute and spend a little extra special time
with this man. And so is it fair? Probably, if
you're you know, you could say no, it's not really fair.
(30:44):
It's not fair, but it's necessary the situation. And I apologize,
and I hope this does not feel disrespectful to our
Haitian saints. But the situation in Haiti right now is
(31:10):
known to be the most difficult humanitarian crisis in the world,
including the Ukraine and other terrible situations that are going on.
And so I think about anybody remember the name Irena
(31:34):
Sendler or or the name Schindler, Because when there was
a humanitarian crisis in Poland and Germany and other places
in Europe, there were people who said, you know what,
(31:58):
I think, my family, it's just going to have to
go through a trial here with me because there are
people who are dying and we have to stop and
do something about it. And the Jews call those people
righteous among the nations, and their names will never be
(32:22):
forgotten as long as there are human beings on this planet,
they will be revered as heroes. Well, we are in
our own crisis now, and how will history look at
us and our response? How will history look at America?
(32:46):
How will history look at Indiana? Seymour? How will history
view the Tabernacle? And I would just like to think
that there would be people in this church now. Maybe
your name will never be on a plaque wall in
a museum somewhere, but maybe your name will be written
down in glory, and maybe your name will be heralded
(33:07):
by angels and maybe God will carry your name on
his lips because when there was a crisis in your
day and in your world, you stepped up and you
did everything that could be done. And I want to
be numbered with those a man. We must act on
(33:33):
behalf of people who are in crisis, and if there
is a part of our body that is suffering. And
every week we are worshiping with people that haven't seen
their mother in over a decade, or haven't seen their
wife in years, or or haven't been able to hug
their children for years. Every week we are worshiping with
(33:57):
people that every single day they lay be for God
and soaked the floor with their tears, begging God to
put their family back together again. And we must respond,
and we must be the body of Christ. I will
(34:18):
tell you, I think our church got one of the
best compliments I've ever heard in my life, because at
the end of this man's harrowing tale, he said, the
tabernacle is a place that loves people. The tabernacle is
a place that cares and embraces people. And so this
(34:46):
man he was here for a while without his wife,
and he was attending a church. But when his wife
came Claudette invited his wife to our church, and she
came and she walked in that night she sat down
with her husband and said, I love your church, and
I'm so sorry, but the Tabernacle is my church because
(35:07):
that is a place that loves people. And I am
so grateful for the many things that this church has
done and that you have done. You have showed love
and affection, you have made sacrifices, and I guess I
would have to say I am I am proud to
(35:33):
buttons popping off at the response of this congregation. I've
never seen anything like it in my life. I don't
think there's anything like it going on in this city
or this county, maybe not in the state of Indiana.
And I'm just proud to call you my brothers and
(35:56):
sisters in Christ. And so I want to conclude almost done.
Look at that, I have fourteen minutes. That's the fastest
Wednesday night Bible study I've ever done in my life.
Brother Andrew, if you could just start throwing pictures up
there for me now, I want to apologize right here
at the beginning. These are my pictures. So there are
(36:19):
some of you that should be in these pictures, and
you're not, and I apologize. I just didn't happen to
have a picture of you or I skipped over. And
I not trying to include anybody in particular or not
include anybody in particular, but I just think it will
be fun. All Nations Day, Oh my goodness, everybody that's
(36:40):
involved with All Nations Day you deserve a great, big,
giant pat on the back. Brother Steven, you're probably the
key guy. What an amazing event that And I think
it's so wonderful because our All Nations Days, we're not
pretending to be international. We're not just a bunch of
people dressed in costumes, but we It is a church
(37:03):
that looks like Heaven's going to look every tribe and
tongue represented. It's it's absolutely beautiful. You can just keep
going there, beautiful relationships and friendships. Letty here on the
second row. That that's her brand new apartment, her and
(37:23):
a niece's apartment to go to that next one. Okay,
this just happened this weekend and Sister Bowling and family
took other families from the church. People that have been
in church for eighty years maybe something like that, and
(37:48):
people that have been in church for a year and
a half going to an event together. This was the
arc encounter and I think everybody involved. Emma, were you there, Yeah,
she's right there. All right. Go to the next one,
(38:09):
and that uh, Joey getting baptized, and just such a
mixture of people that have been around a long time,
people that have been not been around as long. Amen.
See Joey there, Joey and Joey, Joey, Joey in this picture.
(38:32):
Go to the next picture. All right. So these girls,
if you see them around, they are triplets and those
are their names. If you can see them, Yasafen, Yaselyn,
and yakuelin good luck. Just try just pick one and
just when you see him on Sunday, just take a
shot at it. Amen, Brother Jaredith has been bringing. He
(38:58):
had nineteen people here on Sunday. He was making he
had to make two trips in a bus. Go to
that next one, hey man, two young people fellowshiping together.
One that's been in the body a little bit longer.
(39:18):
But yet that's what the church looks like. That's what
God's church looks like. Right there. Go to that next one.
I just think this is a beautiful picture of people
that have. You know, brother Bill who has been here
(39:40):
three three years, three four years, brothers school craft, people
that have been here a long long time, people that
have been here not as long, together studying the Word
of God. Go to that next slide, Beautiful relationships, friendships
that are forming that that these are real relationships and
(40:03):
friendships and it's these kinds of relationships that are that
are going to span the giant gap. And you know,
it's a big gap for a little girl. I don't know,
am I I mean, this little girl. I can't. I
probably shouldn't even go into telling you the absolute you
(40:27):
talk about crisis. Everything in her life has been blown
to smotherings. She is the last thing standing in her world.
But yet here she is standing shoulder to shoulder with
the church. And if she'll just stick around, she'll make it.
(40:50):
And some days she'll walk on streets of gold and
this is what the church does. Go to that next one,
and I don't know if that video will play. If
you hit the space bar, maybe it'll play. A Bill,
a little girl getting the Holy Ghost. They can't and
you can't see it, but she's surrounded by the church.
(41:10):
She's surrounded by this church praying for her to receive
the gift to the Holy ghost. Hey man, go to
that next one. Just precious. So this little girl between
Zuri and I, the two out of the last three Wednesdays,
she has rounded up an entire group. I am back. See,
(41:32):
I had kind of gotten out of the transportation business
for a couple of months, and now somehow have gotten
elected again. Didn't ask for it, haven't tried to get
them to do it, but I am now getting calls
from that little girl saying, can you come and pick
up me and all my friends? Seven people in the
guard tonight? That's the church. Go to that next one.
(41:54):
I just had to throw that in there. I thought
that was extra cute. Do we have any family? Yes,
we do. I thought that was a great picture. Go
that next one. I just can't say enough about Kyle
and Miriam who've opened up their hearts and their lives
in a lot of ways, facilitating just all kinds of things,
from ministry to parties. Is this the fair? This is
(42:20):
the fair? Go to that next one. And this is
a party at their house. I think a Fourth of
July party maybe where it's just inviting, not just inviting
the people that you've known the longest, not just picking
you know, I've known you for twenty five years. I'll
have you come to my party and we'll have a
(42:41):
good time. But it's but you you know what it's
actually Sister Tammy was at our house until three point
thirty am on New Year's Eve. We partied like there
was no tomorrow, literally, like there was no tomorrow. And
(43:02):
it was a mixture of brand new people and people
that have been in the church. And I thought we
had as much fun as I've had at any party.
We had a wonderful time. Go to that next slide. Now,
I don't know where LaTrece is tonight. Somebody needs to
give her a call. Okay, she had to be somewhere,
(43:24):
that's all right. We set our clocks by Latrese now
because she is very, very faithful. We love her and
her family. Go to that next one, all right. So
this is I think this is back at your property.
Go to that next one, all right. So this is
a group of boys that had volunteered to uh well,
(43:46):
the one in red that's not a boy, that's a girl.
It's her house. And these boys and some other people
like David McDowell and brother Ichred ben Ichred volunteered and
went to this house and did a tremendous amount of
physical labor to just give this family a better situation.
(44:10):
It's a beautiful thing. Go to that next slide, the
community garden. I can't wait. It's gonna be great. I've
never seen anything more like the church than that. I mean,
there were so many you could just preach a thousand
sermons from it. Do you want me to do it?
I've got five minutes, Come on, I could get started.
(44:31):
Here we go. I loved sister gardener, the gardener working
with sister Letty and I don't know what. This wasn't
your first garden, was it? It was her first garden
and they were working together. So beautiful. Go to that
next one. This is Bracy. Most of you know Bracy.
(44:53):
This is her dad and brother that we have not
been able to completely yet. But man, we're working on it,
aren't we. Brother jaredith out there with them. That was great.
Go to that next one so that this night, this
(45:14):
group of people played a game called two Truths and
a Lie. It's a fun little game. It was in
three languages. It was French, Spanish, and English, and it
was so so much fun, and I just thought, it's
amazing how much fun you can have with people you
don't know and can't even speak their language. It's amazing.
(45:34):
What can happen? Go to that next one. Oh, and
none of these people are here. This is if this
was happening actually Sunday night after church too. This is
brother Icard getting getting destroyed in chess. That's what's happening.
I'll just be honest with you. Brother Andy is a
(45:55):
very good chess player. Go to that next one of
this picture. Go to that next one. And this is
just one of hundreds and hundreds of pictures that I
could have thrown on the screen of VBS. And you've
never seen a more international group. You haven't seen more
international group at an airport in Chicago than we have
(46:19):
at VBS. Hundreds of kids old and young. It is
the most one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see.
All right, go ahead, go forward. I love that picture
and that picture. Uh yeah, you can just go forward.
We'll skip forward a little bit. Keep going, keep going,
(46:43):
keep going, keep going. Ah, Bible study at the Alis residence.
What an amazing thing doing. And this is Merland's family
and they're doing a by study and having dinner together. Wonderful,
(47:04):
wonderful example of the church. Go to this next slide. Ah,
look at that, a young Bible teacher up there, just
like IBC never stopped with his young students. Brother Croucher,
thank you, it's so awesome to see you doing that.
(47:27):
Go to the next one. All right, So a couple
of pictures ago, you saw these two girls standing there
making weird faces. That we had a little pony ride
on Father's Day or something, wasn't it, And these girls
were like part of that, but they didn't get to
ride the ponies, so then they wanted to do their
own pony ride. So that's what that is. Keep going. Ah,
(47:51):
this crew working on the fence over here on the playground,
and again, you know, in some ways you look at
it and you just go, this is just so unlikely
because because gee, at that time, he didn't speak any
English at all, and Brother Mullin's creole wasn't that great yet,
(48:13):
so they were mostly just pointing and grunting, and but
the work got done. And it's the church. Keep going,
all right, keep going a birthday party. Go to the
next one. Another Bible study. Love that this Bible study
is going on. And go to that next one. These
(48:36):
two young girls giving a Bible study to their friend.
Go to that next one. Renee doing another Bible study.
This next slide is brother David McDowell and sister Shamali
who's sitting right back here in the black hat, and
they are preparing for a Haitian prayer service and getting
(48:57):
their music together. Go to this next one. I love
this picture and I should have I should have had
the follow up picture. The next picture Mark. This is Mark,
and Mark is just a precious young man. And I
think I think the girls were there because their baby,
(49:19):
his little baby brother, Javon, had just been born, and
so they got this little group picture. And the very
next picture, Mark melted all the way to the floor.
He just literally just sunk all the way to the floor.
And I have I have a picture. I should have
put it up there. Go to that next one. This
was was this All Nations Day? I think it was
(49:41):
maybe kind of it. And so Sunday at three where
we will have a the mixed praise team again with
an all in creole. Go to that next one. Uh,
can you move forward? Oh, I'm gonna have to go quicker.
Oh this little girl you've never met Kaylee. Probably she
(50:06):
only comes on Thursday nights. But what a precious little child.
Go ahead, here's little trees photo bombing. Stephen Ferris got
thousands of dollars of work done for this family for
their vehicle. And of course he would be mortified if
he knew his picture was up there. But that's what
(50:28):
the church looks like. It's just people helping each other.
Go to that next one. This was after after the
Christmas program. And these these kids that did the Christmas program, man,
they were they were putting on a show at Ell
No Paul. They it was an absolute In fact, they
(50:49):
got paid, if my memory serves me right, they got
paid that night at Elle No Paul for the show
that they put on. Go to that next one. Beautiful
love this picture, and the next one, and the next one,
and the next one and the next one. This was
(51:10):
part of our three point thirty am New Year's party.
And the next one and the next one. Praying through
another girl to the Holy Ghost. Keep going forward again.
This next picture right here is such a beautiful picture.
It is so connected in so many ways. And I
(51:34):
don't have time I'm already two minutes over. Keep going
another Bible study. This is you've conventioned HYC. And this
is the last one. And we'll just leave that one
up there, if you don't mind. But another wonderful family
in the church, and church families that were ministering to
(51:55):
a whole bunch of other families in the church, and
that are connected with the different ministries. But this is
what the Body of Christ looks like. This is what
you're doing. And if we'll keep this up, by the
time we get that building over there built, we will
be trying to figure out what in the world to
(52:17):
do to accommodate the revival. Let me just finish on
this note. Those Jews just couldn't grasp even though God
told them it's gonna be a light to the gentiles.
But they couldn't grasp it. They couldn't see how big
what God was doing was. Let's let's learn from their mistakes.
(52:43):
Let's don't make this take us thirty three years before
I buy in. I want I want to be in
on the on the ground floor. I want to be
in now. I want to be a part. Why Because
I want to be a part of the kingdom of God.
I want to be a part of what he is
doing in these last days. Let's stand together and let's
(53:06):
just say a prayer and dismissal God. I pray that
you would help us. I plead your blood Lord, that
you would give us wisdom, that you would allow your
love to shine through us, that your vision would be
our vision, that we wouldn't be carnal, but that we
would be spiritual, and that we could grasp the kingdom
(53:29):
and all that you are trying to do. I want
to be a part of it. We want to be
a part of it. I pray that you'd bless this
church and every man, woman, boy and girl that loves
your kingdom and is looking for your kingdom to come.
Bless them, Lord and keep them and protect them tonight
on their way home in this crazy fog. In Jesus' name, Amen,
(53:52):
God bless you. You're dismissed.
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