(Originally delivered by Pastor Anderson T. Graves II for the Youth and Young Adult Crusade at New Hopewell CME Church.) Churches try all kinds of methods to bring young people into the church. Often young people attend but never grow into anything like a real, deep relationship with Jesus. How do we overcome this problem? The key is in Jesus' treatment of children. Grab a Bible and listen. See Jesus' "suffer the little children" speech in a new way and learn How to Change a Child into a Child of God.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
What Do I Give God When I Don't Have Anything?
We hear so much in the church about money? Tithes. Offerings. Gifts. "Sowing seeds." There is so such concentration on pleasing God with our finances. But how then do we please God when the finances dry up?
How do we "get our blessing" when the income doesn't equal the out-go?
Can I really do great things for God when I don't have anything to give? YES! YES!
Listen and learn what your "nothing" really is. Listen as Pastor Anderson Graves II opens the Word and teaches what great things the Lord has ordained for those who don't have anything.
(This sermon was originally delivered at our sister church Freeman Chapel CME Church in Lafayette, Alabama.)
How do we "get our blessing" when the income doesn't equal the out-go?
Can I really do great things for God when I don't have anything to give? YES! YES!
Listen and learn what your "nothing" really is. Listen as Pastor Anderson Graves II opens the Word and teaches what great things the Lord has ordained for those who don't have anything.
(This sermon was originally delivered at our sister church Freeman Chapel CME Church in Lafayette, Alabama.)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
WHAT DO WE WANT?! WHEN DO WE WANT IT?!
Sometimes the simplest things teach the deepest lessons. How do we decide on our priorities when so many things compete for our time and attention? How do we find focus in a world of masterfully designed distractions? With all of the things--many of them good--which cry out to be #1 on our calendar, how do we decide what it is we really want? How do we know what God wants for us?
The answer is in the Bible but the search for the answer begins with a simple chant from a Friday night footbal game. Listen as Pastor Anderson T. Graves II leads us through the Scriptures.
The answer is in the Bible but the search for the answer begins with a simple chant from a Friday night footbal game. Listen as Pastor Anderson T. Graves II leads us through the Scriptures.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
THE POWER IN YOUR PAIN
When you hurt the worst part of the pain can be the loneliness you feel. Does anyone really understand? Is there anyone who actually knows what you're going through? Is there relief? Is there comfort? Is there deliverance from the loneliness?
Yes.
Listen to part 1 of "The Power in Your Pain" then download and read the full text
Don't let the loneliness rule you.
Click here for the full text of the sermon (right click to save)
Yes.
Listen to part 1 of "The Power in Your Pain" then download and read the full text
Don't let the loneliness rule you.
Click here for the full text of the sermon (right click to save)
Monday, October 12, 2009
CUTE. BUT WHAT'S HE SAYING?
WATCH. THEN READ.
This video is definitely cute, but it evokes 2 different responses.
First, I think, how wonderful that this little baby wants to imitate a man of God delivering the gospel. I wonder if it's just play or if he really is already acting on a calling. (Jer 1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.)
But, my second thought is: What is he saying? And why is everybody saying,"Amen," when they can't understand what he's saying?
Are they amening the message or the boy?
2 Timothy 4: 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Now, I know neither the child nor the church, so I make no judgment on either. Barring evidence to the contrary they get the benefit of Christian doubt. I assume that the church is genuinely Christian and that the child's words are either innocent gibberish or accurate (though inarticulate) Biblical preaching.
This little video does demonstrate one of the widest and most troubling weaknesses in the church: A huge number of Christians don't know what in the world their preachers are talking about?
Many of us (Yeah, the preacher said "us" to include pews and pulpits.) don't study the Bible on our own with any consistency. So, when preachers start wailing on and on, we follow the rhythm, but we can't discern if the substance is truly Biblical.
We follow men and women because they wear robes and clergical collars, but we haven't checked the map, the Bible, to see whether they are leading up to the mountaintop or off the cliff into the lake of fire.
Because of the same lack of a scripture-life, we oppose leadership not because the leader's vision is unBiblical or wrong; but because we don't like how the leader said it. Or because the leader's too ugly or too cute to be telling us what to do. We say,
"He didn't ask me before he hopped up and started telling his vision for the church. Just because she's the pastor don't mean nothing. I been running this church for 20 years and ain't no 'pastor' gone come up in here and change nothin'!"
Preachers quote a scripture at the beginning of their sermons and then spend 45 minutes gossiping about the congregation without ever explaining the scripture they quoted. And we fall out in the aisles cause, "He sho' did preach!"
We applaud the sermon and thank the teacher for the wonderful Sunday school lesson. Then we proceed to live as though we'd never heard of a church let alone joined one.
Mark 7: 6 ...This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
We are Christians--followers of Christ, pursuers of Chrit-like-ness. Christ is the Word made flesh (John 1). We cannot follow Christ without following the Word. We seek an intimate experience with the Word made flesh, but that can only be fully realized if the experience of Salvation is developed through an intimate day-by-day relationship with the Word revealed in scripture.
When the benediction has been spoken and you're off church property in the "real" world, it is not the preacher you must live by it is the teachings you have received that you must live by. What are you being taught? Are you learning it?
However cute your preacher is or isn't, read your Bible. No why you are (or are not) saying Amen.
This video is definitely cute, but it evokes 2 different responses.
First, I think, how wonderful that this little baby wants to imitate a man of God delivering the gospel. I wonder if it's just play or if he really is already acting on a calling. (Jer 1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.)
But, my second thought is: What is he saying? And why is everybody saying,"Amen," when they can't understand what he's saying?
Are they amening the message or the boy?
2 Timothy 4: 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Now, I know neither the child nor the church, so I make no judgment on either. Barring evidence to the contrary they get the benefit of Christian doubt. I assume that the church is genuinely Christian and that the child's words are either innocent gibberish or accurate (though inarticulate) Biblical preaching.
This little video does demonstrate one of the widest and most troubling weaknesses in the church: A huge number of Christians don't know what in the world their preachers are talking about?
Many of us (Yeah, the preacher said "us" to include pews and pulpits.) don't study the Bible on our own with any consistency. So, when preachers start wailing on and on, we follow the rhythm, but we can't discern if the substance is truly Biblical.
We follow men and women because they wear robes and clergical collars, but we haven't checked the map, the Bible, to see whether they are leading up to the mountaintop or off the cliff into the lake of fire.
Because of the same lack of a scripture-life, we oppose leadership not because the leader's vision is unBiblical or wrong; but because we don't like how the leader said it. Or because the leader's too ugly or too cute to be telling us what to do. We say,
"He didn't ask me before he hopped up and started telling his vision for the church. Just because she's the pastor don't mean nothing. I been running this church for 20 years and ain't no 'pastor' gone come up in here and change nothin'!"
Preachers quote a scripture at the beginning of their sermons and then spend 45 minutes gossiping about the congregation without ever explaining the scripture they quoted. And we fall out in the aisles cause, "He sho' did preach!"
We applaud the sermon and thank the teacher for the wonderful Sunday school lesson. Then we proceed to live as though we'd never heard of a church let alone joined one.
Mark 7: 6 ...This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
We are Christians--followers of Christ, pursuers of Chrit-like-ness. Christ is the Word made flesh (John 1). We cannot follow Christ without following the Word. We seek an intimate experience with the Word made flesh, but that can only be fully realized if the experience of Salvation is developed through an intimate day-by-day relationship with the Word revealed in scripture.
When the benediction has been spoken and you're off church property in the "real" world, it is not the preacher you must live by it is the teachings you have received that you must live by. What are you being taught? Are you learning it?
However cute your preacher is or isn't, read your Bible. No why you are (or are not) saying Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)