RE-INTRODUCTION (audio of sermon)

This message was inspired by God, Scripture, my life, and a powerful spoken word performanceby Jackie Hill Perry.

The title of the sermon is RE-INTRODUCTION .

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/

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

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

The poem is at  "Allow Me to Reintroduce the Christ"

PETER'S SWORD --- AND YOURS

When they came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.  (John 18: 10, 11)

Jesus healed the wounded servant, and prohibited the disciples from using violence in His defense.

Without His sword, Peter sat silent outside the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin.  Peter didn’t offer himself as a witness.  He didn’t throw himself before the judges and say, “If you kill Jesus, then you have to kill me, too.”

No.  Peter acted like he didn’t even know no Jesus. 

Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.  (Matthew 26: 69-72)

In our country today, some Christians go on and on about the shift in the culture, about the rising antagonism toward Biblical Christianity, about the seeds of persecution----- and they’re right.

Many of those same brothers and sisters are stockpiling guns and ammo, preparing to fight in the name of Jesus.

Is that ALL you’re prepared to do?

Are you also prepared NOT to fight?

Are you prepared to listen to what Jesus wants you to do?

And if He wants you to put away your sword, are you prepared to do that?

Are you brave enough to stand up for Jesus ---- unarmed?

Are you brave enough to witness for him in the midst of servants to the culture and power structure----- if you have to do so unarmed?

Or, are you such a butt-hole without your guns that your words and actions effectively deny the very Jesus you’re so anxious to “defend” with violence?

Jesus said you can own your weapons. 

So the disciples said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” And Jesus said to them, “It is enough.”  (Luke 22:38)

But as a Christian, the weapons aren’t  supposed to dictate your response; Jesus is supposed to dictate your response.

And Jesus has been known to command His disciples NOT to fight with physical arms.  Jesus has been known to tell His soldiers to wage witness and not to wage war.

But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  (Matthew 26: 52)

Are you brave enough to do that?

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,  and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Corinthians 10: 4-6)

---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 listen to sermons and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can help support this ministry by clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

IT AIN’T JUST YOU

Family and Friends Day at Hall Memorial CME Church was more than an event.  It was a powerful experience of the Holy Spirit.  Listen to the afternoon message.

The sermon is called: IT AIN’T JUST YOU.

Listen well.

---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 and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

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

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

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. 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

CAN HE STILL GET A WITNESS?

Some things are too important to just take one person’s word for it.  Those most important situations have to be verified, preferably by the testimony of multiple witnesses.

Jesus claimed that He was the actual Son of God.  In fact Jesus claimed to be God Himself.  That idea, the doctrine of Christ’s divinity,  is the basis of our faith and the primary theme of the Biblical story of the Nativity.  The birth of Jesus as God with us is so important that God arranged for multiple witnesses to verify the facts.

This final message before Christmas walks through the testimony of those witnesses and poses a crucial question for believers in this Advent season:

The sermon is titled:  CAN GOD STILL GET A WITNESS?

Listen well.

---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 and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

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

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

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. 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: 24 "Community Guilt"

Proverbs 29: 24     Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life.  He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.

Proverbs 29: 24.  If you keep quiet about the crime in your community, then you are part of the problem.  Or, to put it in Biblical terms, you are “a partner” with the problem.  This thing we have in some of our communities, where we protect the people we need to be protected from------ that’s stupid, ; it’s sinful; and it’s self-destructive.   

Destructive social mechanism come into play in a neighborhood that enables criminals to operate with impunity.  But, do you understand how the culture of silence activates destructive spiritual mechanisms?

Sin, particularly the collective and unrepentant sin of a people whom God has delivered out of great trouble and into great promises, cries out for judgment.  If basically everybody in a community collectively does the same wrong then, it sets off a spiritual chain reaction that explodes in Divine wrath----- in this world, in our physical, financial, biological, academic lives. 

Deuteronomy 8: 19     Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

But, of course you might respond that “Everybody in the neighborhood isn’t a criminal.  Most folks aren’t partners and accomplices with the criminals.”

Well, let me ask: Is the lookout for a group of murderers considered an accomplice to the murder?

Yes. 

And what does a lookout do? 

He/she watches, sees, does nothing to stop the crime, but uses his/her voice to protect those who commit it.

When the culture of a community becomes so twisted that people see crime every day and do nothing; that they  watch and know the evil being done, but they say nothing, and when they have the chance to speak out, they speak only of what others owe the neighborhood and how the criminals (closest to them) should not be held to account------ that’s not the behavior of a neighbor.  That’s the work of a lookout.

Through the whole “No Snitching” culture, we make ourselves accomplices, partners, and co-conspirators with the people who are destroying us.

Ironically, in these same communities, we talk about and tell everything else.

We share everybody’s sins, but report nobody’s crimes.  In other words, we gossip; but we won’t testify.

Everybody knows who slept with whom behind closed doors last night, but nobody knows who shot that kid out in the middle of the street in broad daylight?......?

You can pick up an lookout, but as long as he refuses to be a witness, he remains an accomplice.  Even under oath, and accomplice swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.

In the eyes of God, an accomplice, whether an individual or neighborhood, is inviting wrath upon himself/ themselves.   The silent and unrepentant accomplice is self-destructive.  Despite loud protest to the contrary, his/their action say  that they want their community to keep getting worse.   The partner with a thief hates his own life.

What am I implying?  

I’m not implying.  I’m reading.

I’m reading the Bible, and the Bible says that God wants you/us to STOP GOSSIPPING, and START SNITCHING.

---Anderson T. Graves II

 

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.

Call  334-288-0577
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@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road

Proverbs 29: 24 "Community Guilt"

Proverbs 29: 24     Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life.  He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.

Proverbs 29: 24.  If you keep quiet about the crime in your community, then you are part of the problem.  Or, to put it in Biblical terms, you are “a partner” with the problem.  This thing we have in some of our communities, where we protect the people we need to be protected from------ that’s stupid, ; it’s sinful; and it’s self-destructive.   

Destructive social mechanism come into play in a neighborhood that enables criminals to operate with impunity.  But, do you understand how the culture of silence activates destructive spiritual mechanisms?

Sin, particularly the collective and unrepentant sin of a people whom God has delivered out of great trouble and into great promises, cries out for judgment.  If basically everybody in a community collectively does the same wrong then, it sets off a spiritual chain reaction that explodes in Divine wrath----- in this world, in our physical, financial, biological, academic lives. 

Deuteronomy 8: 19     Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

But, of course you might respond that “Everybody in the neighborhood isn’t a criminal.  Most folks aren’t partners and accomplices with the criminals.”

Well, let me ask: Is the lookout for a group of murderers considered an accomplice to the murder?

Yes. 

And what does a lookout do? 

He/she watches, sees, does nothing to stop the crime, but uses his/her voice to protect those who commit it.

When the culture of a community becomes so twisted that people see crime every day and do nothing; that they  watch and know the evil being done, but they say nothing, and when they have the chance to speak out, they speak only of what others owe the neighborhood and how the criminals (closest to them) should not be held to account------ that’s not the behavior of a neighbor.  That’s the work of a lookout.

Through the whole “No Snitching” culture, we make ourselves accomplices, partners, and co-conspirators with the people who are destroying us.

Ironically, in these same communities, we talk about and tell everything else.

We share everybody’s sins, but report nobody’s crimes.  In other words, we gossip; but we won’t testify.

Everybody knows who slept with whom behind closed doors last night, but nobody knows who shot that kid out in the middle of the street in broad daylight?......?

You can pick up an lookout, but as long as he refuses to be a witness, he remains an accomplice.  Even under oath, and accomplice swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.

In the eyes of God, an accomplice, whether an individual or neighborhood, is inviting wrath upon himself/ themselves.   The silent and unrepentant accomplice is self-destructive.  Despite loud protest to the contrary, his/their action say  that they want their community to keep getting worse.   The partner with a thief hates his own life.

What am I implying?  

I’m not implying.  I’m reading.

I’m reading the Bible, and the Bible says that God wants you/us to STOP GOSSIPPING, and START SNITCHING.

---Anderson T. Graves II

 

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.

Call  334-288-0577
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@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road