good morning roads, the church. Would you stand with us today? We have the road’s kids joining us on stage today. Can we give them a hand? They’re going to lead us in worship and the Bible says that we should come to him, come to Jesus, like a child. So we’re looking at the children today and they’re leading us into worship. So kids are you ready? We’re going to sing. God is on the move together and they’re going to lead us. Here we go Mt Carmel Church.
Anytime. A hard turns from dark to guy. Anytime temptation comes in, someone stands to buy every time somebody lives to serve. I know, I know. I know. I know in the weakness. So to speak the truth that said spit free. Anytime the choices made a standard word the gospel stirs a searching. So if someone says, send me here, Rocco. I know, I know. I know many kids, guys. You all are awesome. Well, pastor Chad started his series living in Liberty. And when I heard that he was doing that, I immediately thought of this song that we sing. It says where the spirit of the Lord is. There is Liberty. And today church, we are free because who the son free is free. Indeed. Amen. God has set us free from sin. He set us free from everything that had us bound. And today we’re going to worship with all we are. So lift your hands. Shout for joy. Sing with us today. And let’s worship with all we are. Come on. where the spirit of the Lord there is.
Every chain is broke through where the spirit there is. And man, can we give God praise for that this morning? Thank you, Jesus. For your freedom. God, today we sing with all we are and we lift your name. Jesus. We’re going to raise a hallelujah today. Now put your hands together. Church. The Bible says that the redeemed of the Lord say so, and I don’t know about you, but God’s done something great for me. He’s done something awesome for me. He’s saved me from all of my sins and he made me do. He made me hope and that’s enough to give God praise today. That’s enough to lift the name of Jesus’ heart. So how could I ever be silent? How could I ever be crazy? It’s the craziest how crude I am. We’re crazy stuff. Now we’re going to sing in the middle of the store with our Mt Carmel Church. Thank you. That your presence it’s like being right in the eye. We don’t have to be in the midst of the tornado. That’s spinning around and all these things are happening around us. Scott. We’re right here with you in the eye and it’s calm and there’s nothing that’s spinning around us has to affect us because we’re focused on you just received that this morning. He wants you to know you can have perfect peace with him in your life and his presence, you can be filled with joy, and with the hope, you don’t have to give in to them. The chaos that surrounds us. So God, we just receive your word and your truth. And we’re just going to declare this blessing.
It’s in your words, thank you father, for touching these hearts in this room and watching that you’re touching, right? You’re stirring up. I hope you’re stirring up fake and key. Make its space. Hey, face and key making space. A B gracious and if you agree, we’re just going to sing on it. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, and she, right? Yeah. I see your family and your children and their children. Come on, lift your hands, and receive. This is for you, your children, their children, their children. come on, God wants to drop something on you today. He wants to bless you. He wants to favor of God to be on your life. He wants to place his hand on your life, but the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and God’s putting things before us. And he’s saying, you just have to reach out and grab it. You just have to receive it by faith. So would you stretch out your hands this morning? God wants to drop something on you. He wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit. He wants to provide for your every need financially, spiritually, emotionally, God wants to heal relationships in your life. He wants to bless your children. You want your children to return to him. He wants to draw them closer. And he’s saying, I have that for you today. I want to bestow that blessing on you and you just to receive it by faith to hold out your hands and safe.
Now pray for healing to drop in this fruit right now. man, for peace to come with the joy of the Lord is about to come to your house today. God’s strength is about to drop in your life. The wisdom of God is going to be a part of you today. Come on, just reach out and receive it by faith and the spirit. I know that today that all of us are going through battles in our life, but I just heard the Lord say that during battles, he’s dropping blessing, bombs all over each family, all over each home. And so I just receive that by faith. As Jared said, we receive it by faith today. We don’t have to know what it looks like. We don’t have to know what it feels like. All we have to do is receive by faith. We receive the blessing of God with the save the blessing of the Lord right now for our country of our state Mt Carmel Church, over the chaos of the crisis over all the things that are happening around us. God, we’re not shaken by what has happened around this because we are steadfast in the thing that is inside of us. So we thank you. Holy spirit. Thank you. God, we thank you. It’s in your name today. Pray for man. Amen. So we’re going to continue to worship, just stay standing in the presence of God, but we’re going to continue to worship and take communion together. We have elements prepared for you, your seat in front of you, or riding your seat if you’re in the front row there’s.
So we’re going to do that. And Jesus talked about communion in the Bible. It’s a very principle, a very first principle. It’s a communion it’s it’s we share in the Lord’s death and his, his suffering that he did on the cross. So go ahead and get that ready. We’re going to pray. We have the elements, which is the bread, which represents the body of Jesus. And we have the blood today that represents the Jews to represent his blood. So God, we just thank you for this morning. We thank you for the power of communion and we never take it lightly. God, we never take it lightly that Jesus, you came in the form of a man. You came to this earth and you walk the earth. You are sinless Lord. You became sin who knew no sin so that Chris Pollard could become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So I thank you for your body. Thank you for the stripes and thank you for the sacrifice in Jesus’ name. So come on, let’s just eat today. The presence of Godfather, we thank you for your blood. We thank you, Jesus, for giving us your blood poured out your blood and God just as you poured it out, you made us wider than snow. Even whenever we read a Scarlet, even when we’re in the midst of all of our dysfunction behavior, God, whatever it is, that’s going on with our life. God, we thank you for wiping out. Santa made us pure made us Holy. So we thank you right now. We thank you for lauding out our sins by your blood, by giving your blood in Jesus’ name. We think come on, let’s just drink in the presence of Jesus.
solid body. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jesus. Thank you. Holy spirit. Hey, we just want to take a moment and welcome all of you. You may be seated in the presence of God. Just look at somebody sitting next to you and just tell them say, Hey, I’m glad to see you today. Glad to see you today. You look good. All of you watching online, we are so thankful that you have chosen to join us here on this worship experience. So we thank you. We pray that you’ve been impacted already and we know that you’re going to be impacted more here at Mt Carmel Church. So Hey, can we just do something right now? Rose Church, family, and all of our E Rose family. Can we just make some noise for all of our first-time guests to come on? All of our first-time guests. I believe there are people here in this first-timers watching for the first time we’re reaching people all over the world.
So we just thank you. And if this is your first time, we want to connect with you, our heart, and our desires to connect you to the heart of Jesus. And we’re going to make some way, make it easy for you to do that. So just go ahead and take out your phone right now and text the word roads to the number (618) 243-0900. Go and text that word roads to (618) 243-0900. You watching online as well this year. The first time we want to connect with you and we want you to just take that out to the tables out in the, uh, when you walk out of here today, you’re going to see a couple of tables. And when you came in this morning, all right, you should have got a worst of guidance inside. The worst guy was a connect card.
And on that connect card, if you’re a person that just likes to write it down, you don’t like to put it on your phone. If you want to write it down, just check that top portion where it talks about your first time. Alright, we want to connect with you. Maybe you’re not a first time. Maybe you’re because, Hey, we’re back to church. We’re building a kingdom. We’re building God’s kingdom and God needs what’s inside of you to be able to help connect people and build his kingdom. So maybe you’re here. You’re looking for your next step. We’re all on a journey. I’m looking for my next step. I’m waiting for that next step. Maybe you need to go track. Maybe you need to get water baptized. Maybe you need to get in a Roach group or freedom ministry, men, all these things are available.
We’re making a video for you and you’re going to walk out these doors. You’re going to stumble right on your next step. Cause we made it available to the tables out there. So take this connect card out there in the, in the four-year area here. And you’ll see some ways. You’ll see some people out there to connect with you. Also when the bottom portion of your connect card, there’s a prayer request section and we pray for prayer requests. Every single week, our staff and teens, we just pray for you. We love to build partnering that was happening in your life. So go ahead and write down your prayer. And here in a moment, I’m gonna give you some instructions. We’re going to go ahead and receive our ties and our offerings right now. So go ahead and get those out. And while you’re getting those out on break, some highlight to a couple of things.
There are three ways to give. You’ll see those on your screen. If you’re watching or maybe you’ll see it behind me, you’ll see those three ways. But while you’re doing that, I just want to tell you about June the 10th, which is, which is this Wednesday night are you, is coming back. The move is coming back. We’re going to be right here on Wednesday night, bring your kids sixth grade through 12th grade. It’s a new season. God’s going to do amazing things. And we’re so thankful for all of our kids, uh, roads kids, man, God has taken him on a journey and impacted them as well. So just don’t forget about those two elements. And then right now we’re going to receive our ties and offerings, but let’s just pray, father. We just thank you for the power of the time. We thank you, Jesus, that you, you, um, expand your kingdom by using the resources and the generosity of people.
God, we come and we honor you with our tie with our first, with our giving God, that’s why we tie because we give out a place of the monitor to who it is to that is to you. Bless the hands of the sower and the seed is going forward. We pray for all the people that are impacted all around this world that you’re using the power of the tide right here at North city and knock on wood to touch people and impact lives. So we thank you. It’s in your name. We pray. Amen. Amen. So here in a moment or here in a little bit after service with your ties and offerings, when you leave, the ushers are going to be back there by the door, just they’ll have some buckets, just put your ties and offerings in that, in the bucket there. If you didn’t do that online within the bucket and also your prayer requests. But right now we’re going to check out the news of the road and we’re going to see a powerful testimony about freedom ministry. And then pastor, Chad’s going to be out. We’re living in Liberty with a good Mt Carmel Church program.
Good morning, Rhodes church. I’m Renee Hardy. We want to welcome everyone. Joining us at our North city campus, our Mount Carmel campus and all of our erodes family. Joining us online. We’re excited to be living in Liberty this morning. As we worship in unity and give God all the glory, something we all discovered over the past three months, God created us to be connected. It’s why on the roads, our vision statement is connecting people with Jesus from all roads in life. And it’s why one of our core values is we do life together because relationships make us stronger today. We want to do both. We want to connect you with Jesus and help you discover your next step, connecting with people. So here are a few ways that help us help you get connected. If you’re joining us at one of our campuses this morning, we would love for you to visit our new next step table.
On your way out today, our hosts are ready to help you. Whether you’re ready to get bad ties, get more information on the growth track, serve on a road crew, or learn about freedom ministry. We believe everyone has the next step in their journey and the roads church wants to make every opportunity available for you to discover yours. If you’re joining us online today, we’d love to hear from you. If this is your first time joining the road’s church, please text the word roads to (600) 824-3090 zero. If you need prayer today, text the word prayer to the same number. If you use our text options, you’ll receive a reply that includes a link. Use the link to fill out your information or prayer requests. Our staff and pear crew are praying daily for the requests that are coming in through our texts, our emails, and our social media platforms for the best Mt Carmel Church.
We believe prayer is powerful and we are honored to partner in prayer for our family, our community, our nation, and the world. Lots are going on. As we get into the new group, we have great tools for you to stay up to date on everything. You need to know. Take a minute to check out our worship guide. If you’re at one of our campuses today, grab the paper version. If you’re joining us online, our worship guide is now on our website, along with the digital connect card. As we get ready for the message this morning, you can find pastor Chad sermon notes on the YouVersion version, Bible app, or tucked inside your worship guide. That’s all for the news on the road. We love you. Road’s family. Welcome home for the best Mt Carmel Church.
My name is Ozzie and this is my story. I remember talking to pastor Kevin and he said, I would advise anyone to go through freedom ministry. I said, what, what is it? Because I really can’t get past. I can’t get past it. I got to know what it is. And he shit, he just said, and he said, I don’t want to share too much with you because that could take something away with it. He said, he said, I just remember thinking, ah, I don’t need that. I’m okay. And then he someone talked him into it and he did it and he realized that he was not okay. That it is a very good experience to go through it. It kind of felt like Humpty Dumpty. Uh, I’m sitting on this wall and a fall off. These guys are putting me back together again. And it is so it’s not that it’s difficult services that we have at Mt Carmel Church.
It’s kind of hard to go through, but, but, but I want to go through it so bad because I just, I don’t, I don’t even like me anymore. I remember the first time Lisa said, okay, I want you to bow your head and we’re going to ask God, where are you? And I cried like a baby. The things that I would see when I would ask God, where are you? I guess I would, I would call them visions. I’m still kind of new to this. But the things that I was seeing in my mind was just unbelievable how he was talking to me, Mark chapter one, verse 36 and Simon, and those who were with him searched for him. I’m searching for him. I just feel like he kept on saying, just follow me, just follow me, just follow me. And freedom ministry was, was a part of me following God.
Some things took place over 20 years ago, I had asked for forgiveness for them. I had forgiven those people that had done those things to me, but when it came right down to it, I think the forgiveness part was taken care of, but all the guilt and the shame and not being able to forgive myself. And even though I think I had forgiven other people, I don’t think I had forgiven them to, to the full extent that it should have been given to them. I w I was bringing my box, a box of Kleenexes because I knew, I knew that I wouldn’t make it, uh, would make out, make it through a session without, without bottom eyes out. And yet I felt so good. Felt so relieved at dry lift. And yet I couldn’t wait to get back to the next one.
And so I just encouraged really. There’s not a person in the body of Christ that should not go through freedom ministry. I don’t care how free you think you are. I will guarantee you, there is something that you are not free from, and for the body of Christ to be the army of the Lord for that bride to be without spot and wrinkle, it needs to be free. We’ll never, we’ll never be the body, the family, the army that we’re supposed to be. If we’re not free, we’re still what I would like to say. We’re still sick. We’re still wounded. And we can’t do the damage to the enemy that we’re supposed to we’re to destroy the worst, the devil. And we can’t do that. If we do not come to somebody, what’s up everybody. How are you, man? Great to see you. Welcome to all of our erodes family. Glad to have people in the room against week two of human beings around here. That’s awesome. Great to have you guys, all of our you Rhodes family, we consider you part of our roads, church, family. Great to have you. What’s up the roads, Mount Carmel. Glad to have you guys with us this morning. What’s up man, week two of having services there at Mount Carmel. So proud of you when it comes to the best Mt Carmel Church. We love our Mount Carmel family. I look forward to seeing you again. Soon we will do. I was just talking about this yesterday. We want to be able to go back and forth, you know, like build a zoom back and forth somehow be in both services, but we know that’s not possible, but Hey, we’re just so glad to get into the message that we’ve been on a series called living in Liberty. And as we last week, we talked about the location of Liberty. Today. I’m going to talk about the inclusion of Liberty, the inclusion of Liberty. So if you’ve got your Bibles, get those out here at the road’s church, we believe that every time we open the Bible, that God wants to speak to us because it is his word is not just a book. It’s something he wants to talk to us about.
So that’s why we get excited. Whenever we open the Bible, because we’re not just opening up some silly book, we’re opening up a word from God. So we get a little hyped about that. So if you got your Bibles this morning, let’s get them out. Let’s open them to Galatians chapter three. Woo. Come on. Mount Carmel. Yes. Great to hear all of you shouting out a little bit of different layout for me today. I asked him to set this table up for me and a chair. Cause I’m going to attempt to sit down. I noticed I said the word attempt because that is not easy for me at all. So a pray for me that this church, this, uh, the chair will hold me down. Galatians chapter three. How do I need to get there? Galatians chapter three, Genesis this, there we go. Step three. I’m gonna start reading verse 26. Is everybody ready here at Mt Carmel Church? Sermon notes are available in the YouVersion Bible app only this week. So if you’d like to check those out, you can go to the events section of the YouVersion Bible app and have some sermon notes available for you there. Galatians three verse 26, let’s go for it says for you are all everybody says, Oh, all sons of God through faith in Christ. Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ, has put on Christ. There’s neither Jew nor Greek. There’s neither slave nor free. There’s neither male nor female for you are all one. Everybody say one, one in Christ, Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs. According to the promise, let’s pray.
Jesus says, thank you for your word. Holy spirit. I ask you to come. I pray that you fill every room. Mount Carmel, North city, every living room, every home, every car, wherever people are. God, I pray that your presence will be with us. I pray that they will hear your voice and not mine. I pray that you anoint the words out of my mouth, that clarity of hearing, clarity of communication, Lord, that we will know what heaven is saying to us today. I bind the lies of the enemy. I bind every strategy of the enemy and I just lose the plan of heaven. The agenda of heaven to take place today for the glory of Jesus. It’s in your name. We pray. Somebody say, amen, amen. Now here, we’re talking about again, the inclusion of Liberty and a look here in Galatians, chapter three and verse 26 says for you are all sons of God.
So when it says, when we talk about the inclusion of Liberty, when it says all who does that include in all that includes everybody. Everybody, if everybody’s included, that means nobody’s excluded right? Swing, put that together. So you’re all sons of God. How are we all sons of God, if everybody’s included and everybody can be sons of God, then how are we all sons of God, through what? Through faith in Christ. Jesus. In other words through is just a Greek word, DIA, which means the channel of an act or how something comes about. It’s another way of defining it. It says the tool or instrument by which a process is affected when it comes to the top Mt Carmel Church. So it’s how we become sons of daughters. How do we become sons or daughters? We don’t become sons or daughters. We don’t get saved. We don’t become Christians become by becoming better people.
We don’t become sons or daughters by stopping, doing bad things, and start doing good things. We only become sons or daughters of God through faith in Christ. Jesus. Why? Because it’s not about us. Salvation is not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about what Jesus did. None of us could go to heaven based on our goodness. It’s because Jesus was perfect and he did not sin. And he paid the price for you and me. So that’s why we have to stay connected to Jesus. So we’re all saved through faith. John chapter one says it this way, but as many as received him, not as many as started going to church, although it’s great to go to church as many as started doing good things. And it’s not, it’s not just that it’s both. And it’s both. And as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, not believe that he exists, but believes in his name who were born, not of blood nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man when it comes to our Mt Carmel Church options.
I don’t have time to teach the scripture. Sometimes when I read scriptures, I hear things and I’m like, move on the Holy Spirit. I don’t need to teach that. But it’s telling us that there are layers to salvation and we gotta realize it’s being born of God. That’s the ultimate. We have to be born again in our hearts, but we’ll move on. So now let’s look at verse 27. So now it says for as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Now that word put on is two words is one Greek word. It means to be clothed with something like when you got dressed this morning, you put on clothes, thank you, three. We put on something. So it’s something that you didn’t have, but you can put it on you. So Christ, whenever we get born again, we put Christ on.
So that tells me that it’s an option that I have to do something. It’s an act of faith. It’s something I have to put Christ on. If I have to put Christ on, that means I can also put him off. I’m not talking about salvation with that. I’m talking about more in the moment of how I’m going to act and respond. Anyway, again, I’m getting into stuff I don’t want to get into. So you put on, what do we put on? We put on Christ. We don’t put on a denomination, right? We don’t put on a political party, making sure you’re with me. So we put on everybody says, Christ Christ. So now go to verse 28. So here we understand that all are included. So if all are included, what is removed, when all are included in the perfect in Christ, all things are included.
What is removed? Look at this. What it says in 28, there is neither. So it’s telling us what’s not there in Christ in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There’s neither slave nor free. There’s neither male nor female for you’re all one in Christ. Look at three things. Number one, there’s neither Jew nor Greek. The word Greek is just used for Gentiles or non-Jews. So number one, what? There is not in Christ. There is no race. When it says there’s neither Jew nor Greek. He said in Christ, there is no race. There’s no Jew. There’s no non-Jewish, there’s no black. There’s no white. There’s no Hispanic NOLA Tino. No, no Asian. It doesn’t matter. We’re all one, all one in Christ. So the first thing he’s getting out of the gate is saying, listen, in Christ. I want to tell you something. There is no race, no matter where you’re born. No matter your nationality, no matter your color, your complexion, we’re all on the same playing field in Christ with the same privileges as a smart Mt Carmel Church service. Number two, neither slave nor free slave nor free. Number one deals with race. Number two deals with status slave nor free deals with your socioeconomic status in Christ. There is no difference between rich or poor. Doesn’t matter what your position is, what your occupation is. We’re all on the same level.
Number three, male nor female deals with gender, gender. So in Christ, there is no distinction in gender, there’s no distinction. There’s no hierarchy of gender in Christ. It’s not God male, female. Come on now. We know what I’m talking about today. I’m not talking about things I’m talking about to make friends, because some things you’re going to say, Oh, Hey man, that’s awesome. Somethings, you’re going to say, so just be ready. I came to speak the truth as God put it on my heart. I’ve been in, been a tough week. Been praying a lot about what God wanted me to say and how I want to say it. And even last night, as I’m doing the bed, I’m just crying and saying, Jesus, I need you. I can dog re silver, put her hands on my back, starts praying the peace of God on me. Cause I knew that God wanted me to share something, but I didn’t want to talk about it. But I knew it needed to be talked about because our country’s in a situation where we need to hear the truth of the word of God’s.
Cause we can come in and we can preach and talk about getting saved and going to heaven and forget about the world that we live in. And then when we do that, the war, the church becomes irrelevant and people stop looking to the church for answers. When the church needs to be speaking up, not just about buying by when I fly away about what’s happening right now in the streets of our country, we’ve got to talk about it. So now all three of these stay focused yet all three of these categories, race, status, and gender, all three of them in some form or fashion, either presently or in the past or combination thereof experience oppression, race, different races. I’ve seen it all around the world, not just black or white, all different races, experience oppression. Yes.
It happens everywhere. Socioeconomic status oppression happens. I’ve been to India many times. I see all kinds of oppression based on the people of wealth. It’s a caste system. If you’re wealthy, you get to experience this kind of life. If you’re poor, you have to experience this, this kind of life there’s oppression because of how much money you have. Yeah. Status. It separates people in privilege because of the amount of money that you have. It’s true. Whether you like it or not, whether you’re experienced or not, it’s still true. The third one, male or female, females, the females have dealt with oppression on different levels throughout all of history. Not being able to vote, not considered a true citizen. All that’s happened. Now, whether you were one of those who caused any of that oppression, it does not matter. What we’re trying to do is bring awareness to the fact that it exists. You may say, well, I don’t have any of that. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you have any of that. It happens in our world. Okay? And I think if we’re if we’re honest and we ask God to search our heart, we may have a little bit more than we think we have with the best here at Mt Carmel Church.
Maybe not because of our intention, but maybe because of just the culture, the upbringing that we’ve been exposed to. So now let me give you Galatians chapter three, let me say this first race status and, and, and gender, gender, sorry, race, status, and gender. All three of these in Christ are on an equal playing field. They’re equal in opportunity and they’re equal in need. We all need a savior. No matter your race, you need Jesus. Okay? What color you are, where you come from, you need Jesus as his savior wall on the same level playing field. I don’t care what your social economic status is. You need Jesus. This is why Jesus said it’s going to be very difficult for rich people to enter the kingdom of heaven because we all know the more we have and the fewer needs we have, the easier, easier it is for us to become self-efficient things that used to stress you out.
When you were broken, you believe God for once you have money, you don’t think about it at all. You never pray about that. I used to have to pray about the opportunities. I would have to be able to fill up with guests. I couldn’t fill up today. Lord, I’m praying. I’m thanking you. That I can put 10 in 10 used to get you a lot farther than a good, but anyway, stay focused. So none, all three of those, none in Christ, none, her to be hindered limited, and none are to have special privileges in Christ. No matter your race, you’re not hindered nor do you have special privileges in Christ, your socioeconomic status. You don’t have any. You’re not hindered in any way. Rich. We’re not preaching against the rich. We’re not pushing the rich out nor do we give the rich special privileges. We’re all on the same playing field. Gender males. Don’t get preferential treatment, females, less treatment, not in Christ. It happens in the world. I’ll take you to some countries, women, you sit over here, men, you sit over here, know we get caught on that. Okay? So now let me give you verse 28 and the passion translation says we are. No, we okay. Let me try it again. Slow down. How are you doing good to see you?
Sometimes I get so many things. I want to say that I get in a rush. You’re down Jang and we no longer see each other in our former state Jew or nuns rich or poor. This is our former state male or female because we’re all one through our union with Jesus Christ, with no distinction between us. Notice what it says. We’re all one through what? Through our union with Jesus Christ. This is important. The only way we become one is through our union with Jesus Christ. So where we’re not in union with Jesus Christ, we will not become one. Break that down a little further areas of your life, areas of my life, where I’m not in union with Jesus Christ on that issue, we will not become one on that issue. Our oneness is not attached to us all becoming one political party. Our oneness comes when we come in union with Jesus Christ. Oh, thank you, Jesus. So now that becoming one means one single unit. Let me, let me go ahead and sit down. Let me, let me try and sit down. Maybe there’ll be better. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Hold your plus. Declaration of independence. You guys heard of that. Our declaration of independence says this. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men ever say, all men, all men are created equal, created equal, created equal, created, equal, created equal, but this at the siding of this, at this document, they were not all treated equal, but they were created equal. Yes.
And they are all that. They, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Great statement. Because the truth of that statement is wisdom. That statement is not the application of that statement in the day. The wisdom of that statement is the one who spoke. It inspired by God to say that on God’s in, I created everybody equally and we’ve all got an inalienable right. That’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, no matter where you come from, even though the application of that truth was not being done correctly. This is why a person can be a part of this nation and have a problem with the application of the said truths of this nation because the application did not go beyond every demographic. This is why you can set from your perspective, from your lens, and say, that’s right. That’s our nation. That’s our great document. That’s the birth of our nation? Our forefather Mt Carmel Churchs. Yes, but some of our forefathers had issues with being in union with Christ in every area. I’ll sit back down, it’s a great truth that they wrote. But how many he knows that some of us have known truths that we didn’t always apply.
Yeah. All right. Just to let it marinate for a moment, there’ll be more, it’s going to get tougher. So now the reason I sit down is that I asked him, I said, I want, I want to have a sit-down discussion with my family. I want to sit down and just have a discussion. A lot of times we don’t want to have discussions anymore. Yeah. We don’t want to have conversations. We want to convert. Yeah. I’ll talk to you. As long as you’ll think like me. Yep. We don’t want unity. We want uniformity. We want conformity. So we in our society what’s happened is we’ve, we’ve lost the ability to have a discussion and disagree and still love one another because we think love equals agreement and hate equals disagreement. We’ve even come up with these phrases. We call people haters. What we’re saying is people that don’t like, you don’t agree with. You don’t support you. You call them a hater. Well, maybe they’ve got a perspective that you don’t have and they don’t agree with your viewpoint. That doesn’t mean they’re a hater just means they don’t agree with you. Get over ourselves. God bless you. Chat governance, you chat. So I want us to have an uncomfortable conversation today. And here’s what I know, growth and comfort do not coincide. If you’re going to grow in an area, you got to be willing to be uncomfortable in that area. And we’re going to talk about some things that make some people uncomfortable. When the Lord was putting this on my heart to speak about a solution. Um, I don’t know. I want to talk about, cause I’m talking to community communities and the rest vest area. They’re like 97% white.
He’s like exactly who needs to hear it the most. So I’m not saying to make anyone feel uncomfortable in a way that’s going to make you feel bad, but maybe to help you grow. Okay. So the first term I’m going to throw out to you. Let’s get right out of the gate. Racism, race. What is racism? Racism by definition is the feeling of superiority and partiality of one race over another. Again, this is not just black versus white. This is any scenario around the globe. It happens. But in the context of what we’re talking about, our society today at the forefront is African American versus Caucasian or black versus white. That’s just whether you want to use formal language or informal language, that’s all the differences. So the feeling of superiority or partiality, I’m better than you. You’re less than me. Injustice is a different word. Injustice means this.
When people act on feelings of superiority and partiality and treat someone differently. So they take the feeling of racism and act on it and treat someone differently. That is injustice. How a person feels about another person does not affect them until they act on it. So racism is going to happen around us. Justice is what we’re trying to stop. Racism at. The root is a heart issue. We cannot legislate racism. Racism is a matter of the human heart. Only God can touch a human heart injustice is laws. We need the connection. It’s like, someone can say, well, we don’t need laws. We just need more of Jesus. It’s not either. Or we need both. And we need Jesus touching people’s hearts. And we need the laws to prevent people from acting on their feelings that are not godly until they get there.
The laws prevent people from acting out on their behaviors because here’s what’s happening. And I, as I was listening to what was happening, my heart, uh, was as a dad, uh, I was just thinking about much my kids and I was thinking about what they were listening to, what they were thinking and that, uh, we, as a church, we’ve got to speak to this truth. Cause I want my kids. So if nobody else gets this message, I want this to be something that my kids can go back and watch. Cause I want them to understand the Val, the validity of the kingdom of God in this. Cause some people were saying things like this with our Mt Carmel Church service, well, we just need to get rid of laws. We need to get rid of the police department. Well, if we get rid of the police department, what are going to be the ramifications of getting rid of the police department?
Because of the error in that thinking again, I’m not putting anybody down for thinking of that. I’m just saying the error of that thinking is the person believing that people are inherently good and people are inherently evil without Jesus. So people are inherently evil without Jesus. Then we need laws to prevent inherent evil from coming to pass until people come to know Jesus, and then they don’t need the laws anymore because the law is written on their heart. See the difference. If the law is not written on my heart, then I need something written to tell me that’s wrong.
Martin Luther King jr said this. It may be true that the law can not make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching. Me. And I think that’s pretty important for Martin Luther King jr said, he said, listen, the law’s not going to make a man. Love me, but it’ll keep him from killing me. That’s the goal behind it. So this is why we need the relationship between the law and Jesus working together. Laws won’t make people not be prejudice, but they intend to curb or prevent people from acting on those prejudices. That’s the goal laws are not going to get rid of prejudice in the world, but hopefully, the goal is to keep people from acting on that prejudice. So now the pledge of allegiance, maybe you’ve heard of it. It says I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
So the question is, do we have Liberty and justice for all it’s available? But isn’t it applied? The answer is no, it’s not. Now maybe in your mind, maybe you don’t experience that may be in your mind. You’re well, I, I don’t, I don’t do any of that. It doesn’t matter whether you do it or not. The deal is to be aware that it happens because of the purpose behind this today is to be aware of things that we’re not aware of. Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. I mean, another phrase that you need to talk about white privilege, white privilege. As soon as you say white privilege, some people bristle, they get upset because some people, when they hear white privilege, they believe it’s an insult that you’re saying that I haven’t had a rough life because I’m white and everything’s been handed to me on a silver platter.
That’s not what white privilege is. White privilege is not insulting. You thinking you’ve had a silver spoon in your mouth. White privilege is this, let me illustrate in away. It’s not a perfect analogy, but it’s something we can do about all, everybody in the room. All left-handers raise your hand for me. Will you please? I’ll left-handers look at you, look at you. That’s awesome. Only a couple of left-handers raised their right hand, but that’s all right. There’s trying to, they’re still trying to embrace their identity, but see, so now left-handers, you know this right? You live in a right-handed world when it comes to our Mt Carmel Church.
You live in a right-handed world. I mean, where you went to school, which side were the desks always on right-handed kids now right-hand and people you didn’t ask for that privilege. You didn’t riot for that privilege. You didn’t campaign for that. It’s because you are the majority little over 10% of the population is lefthanded. So they’re going to make a mouse. You try to get a mouse for a left-handed person that could do that. How about writing with the, on a binder? You got those big clips right there, right? Handed people, get those binders out, and ride on and think of there’s no problem with these binders. Yeah, because you don’t understand my pain, right? Riding on that metal spiral all the time or writing in ink across. And so you smudge with ink with your hand, as you write across all left-handed people. Amen. Amen. Preach it.
That’s right. The handed privilege that you just don’t, it doesn’t, it’s not on your grid. Not because you’re a bad person. Not because you asked for it. It’s just because certain things are easier for the majority than they are for the minority. Try and go out, finding a left-handed catcher’s Mitt, go into a golf store, and say, Hey, give me some left-handed clubs. But look at you. Like you’re a leper. We’ve got, Oh, lefthanded. I think we got one in the back for you over there. Now you’re starting to understand the difference in white privilege versus black privilege. There are certain things. I’m not saying everything, but certain things have catered to the white community because we’re 70, some percent of the population that you don’t have to deal with. It doesn’t make you evil. It just means you need to be aware that some people are having trouble finding a left-handed catcher’s mitt.
When you go in to get your right hand and catcher’s Mitt, you don’t have to feel bad. You just need to be aware that it’s not as easy for some people. When you go in to find your pair of nine shoes and you can pick from every kind over there. Well, they’ve you don’t ever think about walking into a store and going, I wonder if they have my size welcome to my world. Now, I’m not making light or direct comparison to race versus those things. I’m trying to connect with people that are white on what it’s about. That there’s a difference in the world that you’re like what? I have never once thought about my children going out for a jog in the community and wondering if they were going to come home because of the color of their skin. Never once thought about that. Never once when my kids go into a store, so I wonder if someone’s looking at them wondering if they’re going to steal something?
That’s the reality. I spent some time. See, we’ve got to get some culture in our life. And let me tell you quickly about a couple of stories for me on how I got some culture. If you would bring up the pictures here, we need to have some uncomfortable conversations. Look at this great shot there. This is the fall. This is the fall of the 1990 Eastern Illinois University basketball team when it offers the best here with us as the top Mt Carmel Church solution. I’m the one on the right. My friend, my friend Darius, both of us were walk-ons. We both made the team and we lived close to each other. And so after when we start, we started walking to practice together. And both of us were low men on the totem pole because we were walk-ons. And when I first met Darius and came, when I came to Eastern Illinois University, I grew up, I did not know one black person.
I didn’t know one. So when Derrius found out and I told him that, I didn’t know any, I didn’t know, black friends, I had no relationships. I had nothing. He said, where are you from? This was from Chicago. And I said yet, there’s no, there were no black people where I’m from. It’s like what? He said you’re in America. I’m like, yes, barely. But yes, joking. But here’s what I want to say. Darius in our walks and our conversations throughout that year, there’s Darius. Um, Eric B. Love West. We call him Steve Rowe, Barry Johnson, Gerald Jones, uh, uh, several players on our team that just helped me. I asked a bunch of questions. I said, Darius. So after we built a few relationships, there’s how come when you say this, it’s not wrong, but when I say it, it’s wrong. How come when, when you guys get together and you talk this way. And then I come in, I can’t talk that way. Derrius was so patient with me for a young white kid that had no culture in him to answer my questions patiently and give me an education on what it means to be a black man in America. I had no grid, no idea. All I had heard were racial slurs and separation all growing up. I had grouped them all in an, in a category, but dairy has helped me understand the individual of dairy.
Yes.
He said, don’t look at me like I’m a black guy. Look at me like I’m Darius. So then, uh, I graduated from Eastern and I moved to Peoria and Peoria. I met a guy of the name of big poppy, big puppy, also known as Michael cage. I was playing basketball pickup games there and at school. And, uh, I was working for the university then at Bradley, but I was playing games at night. And, uh, and so I met big poppy and got to meet him, got to play in and you know, was, was competing and doing pretty good or whatever. And so big poppy took a liking to me and brought me in. They called me a big country and uh, come here, a big country. And I’ve, I’ve taught. I picked out a big country. You’re on my team today. And so at some point, our relationship, big poppy, we started calling.
We started talking and uh, he said, Hey, today, big country. You’re going with me. I said, where are we going? Big puppy. He said, I’m going to, I’m going to take you to play some basketball in a different place. Like where was that? We’re going to go. You just, you get in the car. Big poppy took me to the Southside of Peoria, went to the Southside of Peoria, where there were, I didn’t see anywhere within a few blocks. I did see no white people anywhere. Get out on the basketball court. Before we got out of the car, big poppy says, listen, listen, respect yourself, respect others back down. Don’t back down and be yourself. So I get out, start playing. He said they’re going to try you. They’re gonna try you be yourself. I know who you are by yourself. So anyway, I get out there with our Mt Carmel Church.
Soon as I get down, I start playing people, driving by, and saying derogatory terms. I understood for the first time, what it’s like to be a minority, to be afraid, to be scared, to wonder how my environment was going to receive me. I’m getting out of the car, going to the court going, Oh, big puppy. Why? Because I didn’t know if they were like big poppy, come on, let me help you. Right now. I had a relationship with him. I had a relationship with Derrius. You can take that picture down. It’s bothering me, but your husband, nobody wants to see that I had a relationship with them individually, but I didn’t know if the other people that look like him were like him.
This one we’re talking about. Sometimes we have a bad run-in with an individual of another race and we’ve lost the power of individualism, but we’ve, we put people in groups and categories and we paint broad brush strokes. Whenever, whenever you looked at George foyer being murdered on the streets, and you saw that image of the police officer with his knee on, on his neck, there are all kinds of layers to what you saw. Let me give you some of them. Some people saw our man kneeling on another man’s neck until the Suffolk case. Some people saw a white man kneeling on the neck of a black man until he suffocates. Some people saw a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man in handcuffs, until he suffocated all of those layers, different layers with different intensity culminate into different responses.
Because of some people, when we, what happens, we have these layers of what’s happening in our, in our peaceful protests and riots and all this stuff. And there are so many layers to it that we get confused because we start handpicking the parts that we want to focus on. So if you want to focus on the riot and the looting, you focus on that and you forget the social injustice that also needs to be addressed because we put people in responses in groups, and we say, all blacks, all whites, all cops don’t do. That was the problem in that picture. Was it a white man? Was it a cop? Was it that guy or further drill down? Was it his behavior at that moment? Is he a bad person or was that a bad act? Do you see where I’m going with this? We pay broad brush strokes.
I don’t know how many of you would like to admit that you’ve had bad moments in your life. And what happens is we have a bad belief system about something, creates a bad behavior, that bad behavior begins to identify who we are and who we are beginning to put us in groups. So when we see that situation, we see the tragedy of George Floyd’s death. We gotta be careful that we don’t start putting into groups for your Mt Carmel Church. And now we start labeling all blacks, all whites, all police officers. That’s not the way we look at it. We look at that one, man, producing a bad act at that moment. And we say that man needs Jesus. We feel sorry for that man for George Floyd, we’ve we feel for him, for his family, for that individual. And we stay away from broad brushstrokes and broad reactions that lump everybody together and create all kinds of different responses.
Now, why maybe you asked this because I talked to Eric, one of my teammates on the basketball team, I called him and I said, Eric talked to me. I don’t want to say anything. I don’t want to. I just want you to tell me, what are you seeing? What are you feeling? What are you hearing? What do you think right now? What do you think about the president? What do you think about what’s going on? Just tell me why, because I want to perspective. I want to perspective from a, from a friend of mine that grew up in st. Louis and did not have a life like me didn’t look like me. So he told me, and I’m going to have time to tell you what all we talked about, but it was wonderful to get perspective. Sometimes we will never get perspective unless we have a conversation.
And if you will not sit down and talk with someone that does not look like you will, you will never see the world through a different set of lenses. You’ll always see it through your set of lenses. And this is what I’m concerned about is what happenings. There are so many layers to what’s happening. That people are responding. And maybe you say, well, I don’t think they should respond that way. Okay we have the best here with our Mt Carmel Church services. Let me ask you this. Let me make an analogy. Maybe connect for you. How many of you have married? Cause you maybe say, well, it’s just one habit. Now I’ll take all this to do should be about one guy. I talked to another friend of mine, of color for almost two hours on the phone. And he said, Chad, listen, it’s not just about George Floyd.
It’s about a compounding issue. You can relate to this. If you think about it, how many of you have ever had something in a relationship with a spouse or a friend that they did? Something said something that you didn’t like, and you pushed it down. So that’s all right. And then they do something else that you don’t like. That’s all right. You know, the bad day that day goes, it does something else to pretty soon. One day they do something and it just explodes, bro. Was it the significance of that one thing they did? Or was it a culmination of everything that you pushed down and didn’t deal with for some people, the response that’s happening is because George Ford is just one example of a lot of things that have been suppressed. And you can say, well, that’s not my fault. It may not be your fault.
But to say there is no fault is just as naive to save it. There’s no-fault. There’s no, cause there’s no reason for someone to say, Hey, this is in just, this is wrong. Now here’s the deal to me. People, white society, we get defensive because, well, I’m not racist. That’s fine to say you’re not racist, but you’ve got to realize that racism still exists. It’s still going on in the world around us. But the problem is all the layers. As I was talking to my kids with a good and great Mt Carmel Church services, I talked to my kids about this and I said, listen, you gotta be careful because the answer to the world, okay, this is where it gets sticky. For some of you, the answer to the world for the United States of America is not more Republicans.
The answer for Christianity is not more Republicans. The answer for, for the society for culture, is not more Democrats. I can use either one. I’m just saying sometimes in conservative Christianity, they believe the answer is more Republicans. The answer is more Jesus. And I don’t say that to be a generic statement. I’m telling you, we need more of Jesus. I don’t care what letter you have after your name. My values are not attached to a party. If a party doesn’t want to line up with my values, then I’m not attached to them. I will not let a party tell me what to do.
My allegiance is tied to Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That’s it. So now if a party wants to come alongside and do things that align with that value system, that’s wonderful. If they choose not to, then that’s on them. But we as a church got to make sure we, and I say church, I’m talking about the big seat, not just our local church. We got to make sure there are layers of agendas with what’s going on. Fox News is not your Bible. CNN is not your Bible truths because of what’s happening in the layers of things. Social injustice is happening. That’s real that we need to deal with. But now another layer comes in. Some people that have another agenda want to take advantage of this issue to push their agenda. So you’ve gotta be careful who you get your truths from. This is why when I was talking to my kids, uh, specifically my older daughter is talking to one on the phone, and uh, cause what happens?
Your kids move, move away from here. And they realize there’s a whole nother world. Yes. And if we don’t tell them about it correctly, when they move away, they’ll start getting truths from the wrong sources because there are people that are trying to push their agenda and call it the new way to think this Bible was written thousands of years ago. It’s still the right way to think. But here’s what I told my daughter. So we build our values based on the truth and the life and the teachings of Jesus Christ. That’s it? The life and the teachings of Jesus Christ. That’s it. That’s where your values are based on with what we have to offer at Mt Carmel Churchs. So that’s where you build your basis on how you’re going to believe. But here’s what happens. So social injustice taking place, someone comes in, takes advantage of that. Now they start to push their agenda. Here’s where politics gets involved because I’ll see a post about social injustice, how we need to do more, to help the inequality for a race. We’re like, yes, yes. Next post attached to it. Trump must resign. I’m like, well, back up your agenda just slipped in there.
Agenda got slipped in there. I’m all for social injustice and dealing with that. But let’s, don’t attach it to a certain person or as the problem is the problem. We need a new president. Well, it depends. We’ve got George Florida, a Marbury. We’ve got Brianna Taylor, huge tragedies right here. I can’t imagine my child going for a jog in the neighborhood and someone somehow feeling it was their duty to take my son and shoot him in the street. I can’t imagine. So is it the president’s problem? Well, let’s, let’s talk about what Eric Garner choked to death by a New York police department officer in July 2014, Michael Brown, remember Ferguson riots. That was August of 2014, Tamir rice, November of 2014, a Freddie gray. All of these happened while we had an African American president. Who’d been in office for six years? That’s not to blame it on President Obama.
You cannot put blame on the presidency in either category. The issue is people and their hearts. It’s not. If I get a new political leader that this person’s going to do it, it’s when we begin to change the hearts of mankind, the hearts of people. And we put in office those with a changed heart that now put in laws and policies. That’s going to ensure that people who don’t have those beliefs are not able to act out on their racist feelings or prejudices and protect the people in the media, Tom, this is what God’s wanting to do this when it comes to the best here at Mt Carmel Church.
Well, we’ve got to watch out because if it happens, the layers and things, let’s go throw another one out. Black lives matter. As soon as you say black lives matter. Some people bristle because when they hear black lives matter, they hear you’re saying that white lives don’t matter. They’re saying that blue lives don’t matter. And so we have black lives versus blue lives. God says in Christ, there’s neither. All our one black lives matter was not built on the precipice of creating a political agenda. It was built on the precipice of creating awareness, but now sometimes black lives matter streams over with other people who take that good initiative and turn it into a political agenda. And now it becomes an us versus them. And I’m telling you, we got to tear down the walls because police live matter. White lives matter. All lives matter.
Black lives matter for us as whites or Caucasians. Those of you’re watching it is to bring awareness that some people are not treated the way they need to be treated. That’s the truth. That’s what he’s trying to tell us. We’ve lost this individual process and this is what God wants us to get back. So now, instead of treating everybody in them and groups, I want us to think about individuals. Big poppy was very essential in my life. Darius Williams was very essential in my life. I’ve had others. I could name several other people that have been huge influences in my life to give me culture, racism, and injustice is true. It’s real. It’s alive in our world. And if we’re not careful, we’ll get caught up in the fodder of the political John the that’s or jargon that’s being thrown out. And we will lose sight of the real issue that I believe Jesus wants us to address.
It doesn’t mean you don’t vote. It doesn’t mean you don’t have your preference for candidates. That is fine. That’s between you and God. I’m going to hold to my values because some of my values are going to make some people on this side of the aisle, cringe some of my values, going to take people on this side of the aisle crunch, but I’m going to hold to my values, the teachings and the life of Jesus Christ. And it pleases the RS. Great. If it pleases the DS great, but I’m not going to be moved by them. I’m going to hold to mine with the best Mt Carmel Church.
We’ll be ready. Be ready. Not everybody’s going to clap because we’re all trying to have the perfect post. The temptation for the society for our young people is to create a thought process that makes everybody happy. Okay? I need to come to a place of my belief system that I’m right about everything that no one will be mad at me. There’s this place. There’s this mysterious place out there somewhere where I can hold a set of values and beliefs that everybody’s going to think I’m cool. It does not exist. It doesn’t exist. So stop people pull
you back and forth about posting. It will. If you post this, then you’re bad. If you don’t post this you’re bad. If you don’t post this, you’re complicit. Well, if you post that, that’s too much. It doesn’t matter. I was so nervous about talking about it because I knew no matter what I said, some people would say that’s too much. And some people say that’s not enough. Or you went too far. You got into politics. Well, the problem is, and I’ll talk about this more next week, hopefully, that we’ve lost the connection of Christianity and politics and we’ve pulled out and we’ve let our society determine politics. And we stay in our little room, have our church services, and see some sweet day I’ll fly away. And our kids are not growing up. Knowing what the difference of race is the difference in the socioeconomic status. The difference between males and females, because of all we’re just exposed to. I knew what I knew because what I was exposed to when I met Derrius, my hope the world turned upside down. When I met big poppy, it turned upside again. I realized that the world is about individuals in a group instead of groups. So here’s my prayer is we will invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts to heal our land. And it starts with me. It starts with you right in your heart to recognize there’s racism. Well, I’m not racist. That’s wonderful, but I will submit this to you with our Mt Carmel Church options.
There’s more racism in our hearts than we think there are more prejudged dishes feeling than we think. Maybe it’s not your fault. It’s not your intent, but to pretend it’s not, there is ignorance. And all I’m asking God to do is highlight areas of my life, where I’m not aware of another person’s life. Someone said this said a few. If you vote for, if you support Trump, stop following me. Don’t talk to me. I don’t want to talk to you or this. If you vote, provide that, I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want so we don’t want to have conversations. We just want to have compliance. So don’t hate this about my beliefs, but I can hate this about your beliefs in Christ. You cannot love God and hate the LGBT community. Can’t do it. You can’t love God and hate people of another race. You can’t say. I walk in love and no hate and hate Christians. Hate president Trump hates president Obama. You can’t do it. You can’t do it. So what are we trying to do? We’re trying to tell people, follow Jesus, pray, and let’s slip one another. Let’s pray, father. I thank you for the opportunity right now in Jesus’ name for the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts, God, we want to be more like you would when it comes to the best Mt Carmel Church solutions. I open my hearts and I say, search me. Oh God. And see if there be any wicked way. can we pray for our nation? We pray for our nation. We pray that you will heal our land. We pray against broken systems that create opportunities for racism to flourish. can we recognize that? Not every one of any race is any certain way. We’re not grouping everybody low, but we’ve asked that you help us to look at individuals different for blacks to look at whites, for Republicans, to look at Democrats differently, to say, God, show us where Christ is in the midst of this. We pray for an awakening in the United States, a spiritual awakening authored by the Holy Spirit, functioned by the Holy Spirit. Hey, look at me for just a moment. God just reminded me of this. I’ve taken a class and we’re in the second service sweetheart, press this time for Mr. Smith. I’m taking a class for my theology working towards my masters and we’re doing world revivals. And this last semester we were talking about world revivals of 1,930, 2000. And I chose to write my research paper on the Azusa street revival.
I don’t know if you know much about the Azusa street revival, Google it and read about it. I started in a house on Bonnie Brae Street. African-American people by a man by the name of William Seymour. So my paper was about William Seymour and Charles Parham. Charles Parham was the first one to pray for someone to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues in Topeka, Kansas, Charles Parham, connected with William Seymour in Texas and Charles Parham came down and allowed William Seymour, William C more wanted more of God. And he, he sought after more of God, but Charles Parham said, well, you can come to my classes for the best Mt Carmel Church options, but you got to sit in the hallway. The white students got to sit in the classroom. William Seymour was so hungry that he sat out in the hallway with the door cracks so he could hear learning about the Holy spirit learning about the move of God. God was moving, moving, and using Charles Park amid the Jim Crow laws. A person that was in union with Christ in part of his life was not in full union with Christ. In another area of his life, God was still using him.
William Seymour goes leaps. Texas goes to Azusa in Los Angeles. Revival breaks out now, whites and blacks altogether, Asians, Hispanics, all coming to Azusa street. The power of God brushed all across the nation through Sousa street in the early 19 hundreds, race was not as an issue. And that mission at Azusa street, Charles Parham was called com William called him, said, come back. I want you to come and speak at our mission. He shows up and he sees that the altar is filled with blacks and whites. And he has a problem with it. I say, no, listen. Blacks were supposed to be back in that corner. Whites at the alter William Seymour locked him out of the mission, his mentor, William, there was a point where William said, I respect you as mentoring you in my life, but there’s an area of my life that I’ve come into union with Christ, that there is no difference in the race. And until you come into that union, I’m separating from you.
I’m telling you, you’re not going to be able to stay in union with everybody because they may not be ready to go where you’re ready to go. It doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. Just mean there’s an area of their life. They may not be ready for some people to listen to this, watching. This is not ready yet. They can’t wait to get out if they haven’t already turned it off and moved on because listen, I don’t want to hear about that race. I’m tired of hearing about it, but I’m telling you, but we’ve got to change our hearts. We’ve got to go, William, see the more powerful man of God used by God. So God used white and black together to all three in the biggest rush of the move of the Holy Spirit in the 20th century. And I’m praying that God will do it again when it comes to the best Mt Carmel Church.
Do it again right amid Jim Crow, law, racial diversity, racial division, rioting going on, God used white and black and said, here’s the Holy shit spirit. Now let’s see what he does. I believe the Holy Spirit’s coming to do a work in our hearts, right in the midst of what the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy to cause division in our nation. I’m telling you to look out, it’s not going to be the Republicans, Republicans going to save this country or the Democrats. Cause it’s going to be the Holy Spirit’s going to change our nation. Would you stand to your feet with me, please? Thank you, Lord. I want us to pray. I want you to invite the Holy Spirit to come into your heart ministry team. If you go out and make your way to the front, I want to allow prayer.
Will you pray this honest prayer with me say, Holy Spirit, search my heart and see if there be anything in my life that I didn’t know was there. But I have a bias. I have a prejudice. I have a racist viewpoint that I didn’t know or I didn’t know. And I just didn’t want to deal with it. But right now the Holy Spirit’s asking you to deal with it. It’s not us versus them anymore. We are all one in Christ. So you’d be honest with yourself. Maybe it’s just a cultural thing. Maybe you’ve just never been exposed to people of another race. And so you don’t know here’s the big test with our Mt Carmel Church services.
If 50 families of color would move into this church, how would that affect you? It’s been Dawn and I’s dream. One of the reasons why we didn’t want to pass this church. I’m honest as the day is long. And we talked about it is because I wanted diversity in my church and I thought, God, I can’t pastor here. I’m never going to be able to experience diversity, but I’m believing God for an opportunity to experience diversity for the kingdom’s sake, not talking about token relationships or token presence for a more solid Mt Carmel Church option. I’m talking about a real relationship with real friends, real people, no matter your race, no matter your color. I love for you for who you are not because you’re my black friend. You’re just my friend. You’re just my friend. You’re not my white friend. You’re my friend. I don’t care what you look like, where you come from.
This is my prayer for the United States. So pray with me. God will do a work in our huts. Maybe you’re watching right now, or maybe you’re here in the room and you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as your savior. And right now at this moment, you realize that I need to get my life right with God, Holy spirits tugging on your heart. It’s the love of God wanting to move in your home. If you want to do that, if you want to accept Jesus as the best Mt Carmel Church, how to pray with you, just pray this to God with all of your heart, realizing that Jesus did it all for you. All you have to do is receive him through faith by his grace. You pray this to him. Say, dear Jesus, I believe that you died for me on the cross, in my place where I deserve to die. I believe you rose from the dead to give me a new life. So today I repent, forgive me, come into mine.