October 4, 2020. "WE'VE WON; YOU JUST DON'T KNOW IT YET". BAILEY TABERNACLE CME CHURCH WORSHIP video

 

October 4, 2020.  The Bailey Tabernacle CME Church worship experience.  Rev. Anderson T. Graves II, pastor. As we approach the 10^th plague we come to Exodus chapter 11.  The message is titled: “WE’VE WON; YOU JUST DON’T KNOW IT YET.” 

 

Again, THANK YOU to all of you who continue to be faithful in supporting the ongoing ministry of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church.

Visit us at baileytabernaclecme.org  . You may use any the following options for tithes, offerings, and donations:

1)  From your computer or phone use the Givelify app or website for  BAILEY TABERNACLE CME    Click on or copy this link and paste it into your browser for Givelify:  https://giv.li/7xp90t

2)  From your computer or phone use Paypal.   PayPal.Me/BaileyTabernacleCME 

Click on or copy this link and paste it into your browser for Paypal  paypal.com/paypalme2/BaileyTabernacleCME

Or 3)  Mail your check or money order to:

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

P.O. Box 3145

Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

-  Anderson T. Graves II, is a writer, community organizer, consultant and the pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church 

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

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 #Awordtothewise #btcme #baileytabernaclecme #preachingexodus

SHOULDA BEEN DONE DID (audio)

From the opening verses of John 12, and for the first Sunday that our sanctuary was closed because of the Coronavirus, the message is titled: SHOULDA BEEN DONE DID.

Listen well.From the opening verses of John 12, and for the first Sunday that our sanctuary was closed because of the Coronavirus, the message is titled: SHOULDA BEEN DONE DID.

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/   

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer, and consultant  

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this blog with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Support Bailey Tabernacle CME Church with a donation through Givelify

Or visit baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

P.O. Box 3145

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35403

ONLINE WORSHIP SERVICE 3/22/2020. Sermon: SHOULDA BEEN DONE DID (video)

Online worship service for Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscalosa, Alabama. Rev. Anderson T. Graves II, pastor. Support BAILEY TABERNACLE CME with a financial donation through Givelify . Just go to https://giv.li/7xp90t

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

P.O. Box 3145

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35403

WHEN MOSES' WIFE PULLED A KNIFE AND CUSSED HIM OUT

Blogging Exodus 4:18-26

¹⁸ So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.”

And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

¹⁹ Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.”

²⁰ Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

. . . ²⁴ And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. ²⁵ Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” ²⁶ So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.

On the way from Midian to Egypt, Moses' wife performed an emergency circumcision of their son. 

Son.  Singular.  

Moses and Zipporah had two sons and both of them were with them on the road to Egypt, which means that one of the boys was circumcised and one wasn’t.  And that may explain why God was so upset with Moses that   it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him (Exodus 4:24). 

Circumcising one child showed that Moses knew the Abrahamic rule of circumcision, knew that God wanted the men committed to faith in Him to bear that physical symbol, knew and applied that knowledge.

But only halfway. 

Moses compromised with the anti-circumcising culture of greater Midian.  He acquiesced to the oldest of heresies: “It doesn’t take all that.” 

God thought otherwise. 

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth (Revelations 3: 15-16).

  The Lord had tapped Moses to confront 4 centuries of tradition, social norms, and economic policy, and break them.  Moses was assigned a task that required total  commitment and the idea of Moses negotiating some kid of half-way freedom from Pharaoh was so sickening to God that it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.

Fortunately for Moses, he'd married a strong and spiritually discerning woman.  

Zipporah saw Moses sick without cause, or facing a vision of a vengeful angel, or whatever form the Divine threat to his life manifested, and she intuited both the cause and solution for her husband’s terminal condition.  Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and her husband recovered.

Unfortunately for Moses, he had married a strong and spiritually discerning woman. 

Here was her baby (no matter his age) on the side of the road, wounded, in the kind of pain no male ever wants to be in, by her own necessary hand, and it WAS ALL MOSES' FAULT!  Likely still holding the bloody blade, Zipporah  angrily presented the priest of her household with the proof of circumcision.  She cast it at Moses’ feet, and said,“Surely you are a husband of blood to me!”  In British slang, she said, “Bloody husband!”  In Mississippi Black slang, she cussed him out.

 And after the Lord released Moses from the attentions of the death angel, she cussed him out again.

So He [the Lord] let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.

MOSES had been trained by her father the priest of Midian. MOSES had been educated in the best schools of Egypt.  MOSES had seen the burning bush and heard the voice of God. MOSES was the spiritual one.  But SHE had to recognize the move of God AND do the thing with the razor sharp knife on her baby’s wee-wee. 

So yeah.  Zipporah was cussin’ mad.

To be clear, Christians SHOULD NOT CUSS. 

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth (Colossians 3:8).

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4:29).

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:4).

But, Exodus 4 reminds us that you can be saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, and on a mission for God; but every now and then somebody still makes you (want to) cuss.

So, the morals of the story are:

1.  You must be FULLY committed to your God-given purpose because God is deathly serious about your calling.

And 2. Do what you’re supposed to do cause if somebody else has to do your job, you might get cussed out.

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

IF WE BUILD IT, WILL HE COME?

The final chapter of the book of Exodus tells the story of a New Year’s Day celebration, a building dedication, a clergy consecration, and a Holy Ghost manifestation.  This glorious conclusion to the book of Exodus presents a set of principles by which we can build something glorious in our churches, our communities and our lives.

The title of the message is: IF WE BUILD IT, WILL HE COME?

Listen well and leave a comment.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, AL 35064

WISE MEN GO ANOTHER WAY

What should a church or a Christian do when their best, most logical, and wisest choice turns out to be wrong?  How does a believer choose among all the options and advice that seem good and godly and wise --- at the time? The answers can be found a Christmas story about wise men trying to find their way.  Originally delivered at Evergreen Baptist Church in Birmingham, the title of this message is  WISE MEN GO ANOTHER WAY.

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves  #Awordtothewise 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

#Awordtothewise, Jesus, magi, wise men, Joseph, Herod, Mary, star, Jerusalem, king, Jews, another way, direction, goal, destination, purpose, anointing, decision, choice, Bethlehem, Egypt, gold, frankincense, myrrh

ALL the World's a Stage?

Tony Ares, in his very positive review of the new James Brown biopic, added this spiritual observation: It never ceases to amaze me how church folk confuse great vocal chords with solid character. This flick paints a picture of how some of these folks singing the gospel are as separated from Christ as Judas himself. (http://afreshword.org/post/93735808778/movie-review-get-on-up)

I don' disagree with Tony at all, but I would add at least two more classes of church folks to his observation:  Preachers and Financial-givers

We all know that preaching (combining prophesy, teaching, ministering, and exhorting) is a spiritual gifts. Just read Romans 12: 6-8.

But if you read the same passage a little more slowly, you’ll see that giving is also a spiritual gift.  The church has some anointed givers--- people like Lydia (Acts 16) whose widest impact on the gospel will be underwriting missionaries and evangelists. 

It’s too, too easy for Preachers and Givers to become performers.

So remember:

The sanctuary is not a stage. 

The offering is not the weekend’s take.

Worship is not a Gig.

The prophetic voice doesn’t turn on and off based on a payment schedule.  Just ask Balaam (Numbers 22-24).

The content, quality--- or length  of our preaching should not be determined by audience size, preferences, income, or enthusiasm. 

We answer to God for how we use our gifts, not to a local manager or a group of church groupies; and the integrity and holiness of our personal lives is very much part of how God evaluates how we have used, or misused the anointing.

And though we often recount that church is not a social club, we need to also remember that church is not a publicly traded company in which your influence is proportionate to your financial investment. 

The biggest tithe doesn’t buy you a controlling vote.  Just ask Simon (Acts 8).

Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” (Acts 8: 20-23)

You answer to God for how you use your gift of giving and for how you live your life---- regardless of how impressive your gift was.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.   

Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’  “ (Matthew 7: 21-23)

You don’t want to finish a “career” as a popular preacher or a revered patron only to stand before the Lord and discover that He’s the one person who doesn’t recognize you.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to  

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

WHO, MAY I ASK, IS CALLING?

My cell phone died (again) a few days ago, so I had to find an old phone and transfer my sim card.  However, my contacts didn't transfer from phone to phone.

Now, people who talk to you somewhat frequently don't give their names when they call or text  (because they assume that you have their names show up as one of your contacts). 

Soooo, I have a lot of missed calls, voice mails,  and text messages from disembodied numbers. 

The texts include:
WELL WHAT DID U DECIDE
DID U GET IT?
WILL THAT DATE WORK FOR U
PICK ME UP ON UR WAY IN
LOL
IKR
Y HAVNT U CALLED ME BACK

Detached from a specific name, these messages make no sense to me.  I don't know who said it, so I've no idea how to respond.

In the immediate sense, this means that when you send me a voice or text message, you should include your name so I can save your number in my contacts.

In a larger sense, there is a spiritual lesson here:    YOUR CALLING ONLY MAKES SENSE IF YOU UNDERSTAND WHO'S CALLING.

If your pastor, deacon, elder, or bishop asks you to do something it may seem pointless, like just another frivolous religious thing.  When you learn of a tragedy or social need in your community, your engagement can seem irrelevant, a wasted drop in the bucket of activism. 

But maybe, maybe the reason you don't feel compelled to do more is that you don't understand Who is actually calling. 

 

 

Jesus preached social activism (Matthew 25). 

The apostles asked members of the early church to step up to greater leadership (Acts 1; Acts 6).
The anointing of God is often revealed through the intercession of human beings.  Think of Samuel calling for David to be brought in out of the pastures (1 Samuel 16).

Before you respond to the offer or ambition of a new task or responsibility, pray and watch.  Discern if and how this opportunity fits with what you're supposed to be accomplishing.  Point blank ask God to show you whether this chance is part of or outside of His will.

Maybe the calling is actually from the Lord.  And, maybe not.

 

Remember that even genuinely anointed men/ women of God can make the human error of calling on you to do the opposite of what God wants simply because they think it's a good idea (1 Kings 13: 11-32).

You gotta know who's calling.

As for me and my phone situation, when I get a call or voicemail now, I listen very carefully to discern the voice and identity of the speaker.  If I can't figure it out, I confess my ignorance and ask point blank, "Who's this?"  When I get a text now from an unknown number, I send back the message: LOST MY CONTACTS. WHO IS THIS?

I do feel a little embarrassed, but I understand that unless I know WHOM THE CALL(ING) COMES FROM, I WON'T UNDERSTAND HOW I'M SUPPOSED TO RESPOND.

I  hope that you learn this lesson, too (preferably without your phone dying).

PURPOSE, FOCUS, LIONS, & PROPHETS

God gives purpose, but focus has to come from you.

1 Kings chapter 13 records the story of an unnamed man of God from Judah.  This man of God had a mission.  He had a message from God to deliver to the king who was defiling the altar in Bethel.   The man of God delivered that message with courage and integrity.  The man of God spoke truth to power and God confirmed His word with signs that stayed the king’s order to arrest the man of God.  The man of God fulfilled his Divinely appointed purpose in the face of corruption and personal attacks.

But then things got easy.

The king invited the man of God to rest, refresh himself, and enjoy a reward from the royal treasury.   The man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place.   For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” 

So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel (1 Kings 13:8-11).

Having kept to his purpose, the man of God was on his way home, but he stopped to rest near where all this had happened.  While he was resting, doing nothing, just chillin’, an old prophet from Bethel caught up to him.  The old prophet invited the man of God to come back to his house in Bethel to rest and have a meal.    

The man of God replied, I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. For I have been told by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ” (1 Kings 13:16-17).

But the old prophet said, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (1 Kings 13:18).

Well, the man of God was tired, and hungry, and thirsty after his long journey, and he still had a long journey ahead of him.  It was a sweet offer, and it came from an old saint, a prophet.  No, it wasn't the what God had said before, but it would be so nice to  take the old prophet at his word and enjoy a home-cooked meal.

The man of God lost his focus.  He went home with the old prophet.  They ate.  They drank.   They talked. They chilled. 

Problem is that the end of verse 18 says that the old prophet was lying to him.

He wasn’t lying about being a prophet; he was lying about having a new message from God.

(Now why would a genuine prophet lie, especially to another man of God?   Perhaps the od prophet just really, really wanted to talk to the man who’d stood up to the king.  He didn’t mean any harm to the man of God.  The prophet probably figured that a little lie was O.K. as long as he said “I decree and I declare” before he told the lie.)

Funny thing is that when you lose focus, it’s often the people who distracted you who are the first to call you out for getting off track.

^Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; ^ and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, ^ but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ “ (1 Kings 13: 20-22)

Of course at this point the man of God hops on his own donkey and hits the road, but a lion snatches him off and kills him. 

Only, the lion doesn’t harm the donkey, and the donkey doesn’t try to run away, and the lion doesn’t eat the man he killed.  The lion and the donkey just stand there over the body on the side of the road so everybody passing by can see that “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him….” (1 Kings 13:26).

The man of God had a purpose; he had an anointing; and he had the power of the Holy Ghost.  But he lost focus.

In a moment of rest and reverie, he let somebody convince him to do what God had told him not to do.

God gives each of us a purpose but when we’re tired, when we’re just chillin’, or  when we feel all good about a particular success we tend to lose focus.  We tend to drop our guard and get a little slack.  We become susceptible to the temptation to compromise on the fine points of God’s directions.  We get enticed by the offer of a slight and understandable deviation from the Lord’s commands. 

It’s not like we denounce our calling.  It’s not like we’re following the idolatrous king into sin.  We’re just taking a little break with some good people and hanging out when we should be humping it down the road in the direction God already told us to go.

We have to stay focused.

We have to keep on the grind.

We have to keep going and going until we get to the point where God says we can rest and be refreshed.

You should hear the counsel of godly men and women, but the weight of the decision is yours alone to bear.

In the end, no body----- and I mean NO body------ should convince you to deviate from the purpose and plan God has given you.

Remember that the lion didn’t kill the lying old prophet. 

The lion killed the man of God who lost his focus and deviated from God’s plan.

God will give you purpose, but you have to provide the focus.

 

That said, though I stayed up late last night, but you'll have to excuse me while I go exercise for 30 minutes and knock some things off my to-do list.

I’ll chill when I’m done.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Call me at 334-288-0577
Email me at atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.