LET THEM HAVE THIS MOMENT

 Genesis 21:1-7

And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. ² For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. ³ And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac.  ⁴ Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

⁵ Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.”

⁷ She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”

We’re going to let Sarah have this moment. 

Paul counseled early Roman Christians, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). But some of us have a terrible habit of contaminating moments of legitimate rejoicing with our pessimism.

“Brother, the Lord blessed me with that promotion I’ve been praying for.”

“Praise the Lord, man.  But you know that the enemy’s gonna try to set you up, now.”

“Hey, girl.  I just got engaged!”

“Ooh, I’m so happy for you.  Make sure ya’ll get counseling because more Christians get divorced that atheists.”

The responses above are wise and correct, solidly grounded in Biblical principles and academic research.  But the responders miss what the Scripture has preached since ancient Rome.  Don’t poop on good parties.  Don’t rain on righteous parades.  Don’t weep with people who were rejoicing before you got there.   

So, as we visualize Sarah in Genesis 21:1-7, we are going to let her have this moment.

Cause she’s 90, dude.  For 25 years she’d listened to a promise that was impossible when God first spoke it(Genesis 12:5), and she’d given up on her miracle.  But here it was.    Post-menopausal conception.  Pregnancy carried to term.  Natural child birth.  No epidural.  A baby.  Her healthy baby boy. 

Some moments are so infused with ridiculous levels of pure joy that your body doesn’t know what to do so it just defaults to it nervous response to awkwardness: laughter.

Genesis 21:1 - 7 was that kind of moment.

And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.” (Genesis 21:6)

Let her have that.

I know you’ve read ahead.  You know the drama and pettiness coming next.  We’ll get there.  But right now Sarah is rejoicing.  Rejoice with her. 

Practice with Sarah what you’ll do next time a friend shares their testimony of a blessing.  Rehearse not pointing out how the whole thing could go sideways.  With Sarah as your case study, model rejoicing with those who rejoice.

Don’t endorse foolishness.  Don’t be silent to so-called blessings that are actually opportunities to sin dressed up in church jargon.  But when the blessing is a blessing, hold on before you share your gift of prophetic pessimism.   

Let them have that moment.  Rejoice with them.

---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

PUSH

Imagine you know you have less than 24 hours to live.  You gather your best friends around you and tell them, but they don’t believe you. They say you’re too calm, too peaceful, to healthy to die. How can you explain? How can you make them understand and at the same time, give them the words to guide them through grief and loss and into peace and strength?

In the text for Sunday’s sermon, Jesus was in exactly that situation. The Lord answered His friends with a metaphor about . . . childbirth.  Yes, childbirth.

Turn to the closing half of John 16.  The title of sermon is PUSH.

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

mourning, joy, peace

A REASON FOR SHEEP TO SHOUT

We are the sheep of God’s flock, but being a sheep is not a very glamorous position.  In part 2 of the message about a Church that Makes Jesus Shout, we learn: A REASON FOR SHEEP TO SHOUT.

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

BECOMING A CHURCH THAT MAKES JESUS SHOUT!

Let me tell you about the time Jesus started shoutin’.  Not raising His voice in anger, though that happened several times, but the time that Jesus was with the church rejoicing and and praising God because of what He saw.

With the ongoing controversies and challenges in the church, here is a Word of reminder of who we the church are, an invitation to what we can become.  Learn how we can once more be A CHURCH THAT MAKES JESUS SHOUT!

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

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 25. "The Warrior Wife"

Proverbs 31: 25     Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31: 25.  I feel really bad for a man who, day after day, has to wake up to weak coffee and/or a weak woman.  Neither one is going to help the brother get through the day.

And, sisters, I know that there are a historical and cultural forces that encourage you to dull your intellect, atrophy your strength, and let your boobs speak for you.  Fight against those forces.

It may be easier to project a perpetually wretched attitude.  It may be easier to pretend to be stupid until it’s no longer pretending.  It may be easier to let men pass you around like an unmarked cup at a frat party.  But in the end you will have only misery.

It’s more difficult for a woman to walk in her strengths, to lead with her brains and not her body, to be honorable in relationships rather than being gossipy, messy, and cliquish.  Yeah, that is much harder. But God promises and experience proves that you will be happier in the end.

God made you to be both strong and honorable. 

Not miserable and wretched.  Not weak and silent.   Not dumb and promiscuous.  Strong and honorable.

Strength refers to the ability to perform her tasks.  Honor refers to trustworthiness and loyalty.

Strength and honor sounds like a warrior traits, don’t they? 

Of course they do.

After all , a man needs a wife who will watch his back, much like a king needs bodyguards to watch his.

A king doesn’t ask the cook to watch his back if the cook is just a cook.  A king doesn’t leave guard duty to the butler if the butler is just the butler.  A king doesn’t dispatch the janitor to cover the flank while he charges toward the enemy, not if the janitor is just a janitor. No.   Unless------ the cook, the butler, and the janitor are really warriors undercover.   

Under the cover of marital submission, a man’s wife is really his most trusted and loyal warrior.

Now, I don’t need my wife’s physical protection.  Physical protection is my job. (Yes.  It is.) 

But I do need somebody to spot (and sometimes quietly eliminate) the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual threats that I miss.   That’s the job of my warrior-queen.

When I look at the woman God gave me to watch my back I know that she will and I know that she can.   I hear it in her conversation.  I see it in the clothes she chooses (and chooses not) to wear.  I feel it in the way her body tenses and her eyes narrow when untrustworthy people step into my personal space.   It’s all over her.

She wears strength and honor like clothing.

And that looks good on a woman.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, 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

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

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Proverbs 31: 25. "The Warrior Wife"

Proverbs 31: 25     Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31: 25.  I feel really bad for a man who, day after day, has to wake up to weak coffee and/or a weak woman.  Neither one is going to help the brother get through the day.

And, sisters, I know that there are a historical and cultural forces that encourage you to dull your intellect, atrophy your strength, and let your boobs speak for you.  Fight against those forces.

It may be easier to project a perpetually wretched attitude.  It may be easier to pretend to be stupid until it’s no longer pretending.  It may be easier to let men pass you around like an unmarked cup at a frat party.  But in the end you will have only misery.

It’s more difficult for a woman to walk in her strengths, to lead with her brains and not her body, to be honorable in relationships rather than being gossipy, messy, and cliquish.  Yeah, that is much harder. But God promises and experience proves that you will be happier in the end.

God made you to be both strong and honorable. 

Not miserable and wretched.  Not weak and silent.   Not dumb and promiscuous.  Strong and honorable.

Strength refers to the ability to perform her tasks.  Honor refers to trustworthiness and loyalty.

Strength and honor sounds like a warrior traits, don’t they? 

Of course they do.

After all , a man needs a wife who will watch his back, much like a king needs bodyguards to watch his.

A king doesn’t ask the cook to watch his back if the cook is just a cook.  A king doesn’t leave guard duty to the butler if the butler is just the butler.  A king doesn’t dispatch the janitor to cover the flank while he charges toward the enemy, not if the janitor is just a janitor. No.   Unless------ the cook, the butler, and the janitor are really warriors undercover.   

Under the cover of marital submission, a man’s wife is really his most trusted and loyal warrior.

Now, I don’t need my wife’s physical protection.  Physical protection is my job. (Yes.  It is.) 

But I do need somebody to spot (and sometimes quietly eliminate) the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual threats that I miss.   That’s the job of my warrior-queen.

When I look at the woman God gave me to watch my back I know that she will and I know that she can.   I hear it in her conversation.  I see it in the clothes she chooses (and chooses not) to wear.  I feel it in the way her body tenses and her eyes narrow when untrustworthy people step into my personal space.   It’s all over her.

She wears strength and honor like clothing.

And that looks good on a woman.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, 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

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

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 29: 10

Proverbs 29: 10     The bloodthirsty hate the blameless,but the upright seek his well-being.

Why did Cain get mad at Abel (Genesis 4) ?  Because Abel pleased God.

Why did King Saul hate David so much that he murdered a city full of priests (1 Samuel 22)?  Because David had pleased God.

Why did King Ahab call the prophet Elijah his enemy (1 Kings 21)?  Because Elijah spoke the truth of God.

Why did the false prophet Zedekiah slap the true prophet Micaiah (2 Chronicles 18)?

Why did the rulers of Jerusalem call Jesus a devil worshipper (Matthew 12: 22-30; Mark 7: 37)?  Because He was righteous, and He did all things well.

Now stop right there.  Before you insert your name in place of Jesus, Micaiah, Elijah, and the other righteous men who were persecuted by haters;  take a deeeeep breath----- and get over yourself.

Who are you mad at because their work was praised while yours was ignored?

Did you talk bad about ole boy’s/ ole girl’s friends, children, spouse, mama, or dog----- because you can’t stand ole boy/ ole girl so you don’t like whomever’s with them either?

Are you still mad at that old lady from 2 months who pointed out that your underwear was showing from over your pants (or from under your skirt) when in fact, your underwear was showing?  (How else did she know what brand you were wearing?)

Whom did you accuse of cheating, or sleeping with the boss, or getting somebody else to do their work, because “there’s no way that anybody is really that good at their job”?

Remember when you were so hurt that people can’t stop judging you for old stuff and recognize that you’re not that person anymore.  Well, why do you keep looking sideways at so-and-so and telling everybody about what he/she did back in 1998?

Instead of asking why other people can’t just be happy for you when good happens; ask yourself why you aren’t happy when there’s so much good happening to others around you.

You can’t fix them, but if you fix that about you---- you’ll feel much, much better.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.(Romans 12:15).

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116