I want to talk to us today from this subject, the church doing its job.
The church doing its job.
It becomes me this morning to give a reading of the vital signs of Lily Grove Missionary
Baptist Church.
As we seek to mailed the preaching of a liberating hermeneutic born of our history as a race
in this land, we must in light of that remain consistent with biblical orthopraxia.
I invoke and invite you to look with me a moment at the condition of our society.
From the violent carnage of the inner cities and suburbs of Houston to the empty consumerism
of our shopping malls, from our toxic wastes to our wasted time, from our religion of entertainment
to our entertainment of religion, from the substances that we abuse to the economic
and political institutions that abuse us, it is glaringly apparent that pragmatism has
married evangelism and has given birth to the demon seed of theological illiberalism.
Democrats are unable to articulate or to demonstrate the kind of moral values that must undergird
in a serious movement of social transformation.
Republicans still deny the reality of systemic injustice and social oppression.
Their call for individual self-improvement and a return to family values while ignoring
the pernicious effects of poverty, racism, and sexism is to continue blaming the victim.
A scholar and social scientist, Dr. Cornel West, points out who has no business running
for president.
The liberal structuralists and the conservative behaviorists are both right and both wrong.
To speak of moral behavior apart from oppressive social realities just blames the victim.
And to speak only about social conditions apart from moral choices is to keep treating
people like victims.
We must not imitate nor escalate what we repudiate.
Distinguished professor of African American studies at Princeton University, Dr. Eddie
Glour Jr. said you cannot be both arsonist and firefighter.
You can't set it afire and then put it out.
When the children of our cities are planning their funerals rather than their futures, it
is a sure sign that we have lost our way if not lost our minds.
Several decades ago, Mohandas K. Gandhi warned against what he called the seven social sins.
K. Gandhi, the seven social sins are politics without principle, wealth without work, commerce
without morality, pleasure without conscience, education without character, science without
humanity and worship without sacrifice.
There is a neo-pentecostalism.
This neo-pentecostalism gaining ground in our churches that combine worship with a secular
swag.
A preaching that focuses more on practical living than on theological doctrine.
All of these are an apt description of the clear warning in Proverbs 29, 18, where there
is no vision, the people perish.
There is no vision, the people cast off restraint.
The church is not a nightclub.
Do not come to church with an entertainment philosophy nor a nightclub mentality.
There is no step show at the church.
Come on talk back to me if you can.
You cannot turn a church into someplace where people feel comfortable enough to be secular
and think that we are in some bar room somewhere.
This is the living, breathing, active, dynamic, alive body of Christ, and there's got to be
something different about how we act.
Come out from among them.
I wish I had a Bible reader and be separated.
We are in the world, but we are not of the world.
In the Gospel of Matthew chapters five through seven, Jesus is the authoritative Messiah
in Word.
His Word in the sermon on the Mount.
But in chapters eight and nine, he is the Messiah at work.
Humanity is dying without Christ.
And we are the ones who must go next door and around the world carrying his healing touch
because they will either be gathered in the harvest of grace or they will be gathered
in the judgment.
And if we do not sound the alarm, the blood of the lost will be required at our hands.
It is a weighty and marvelous charge that Jesus gives to the disciples of all ages.
Listen to this little story.
A man fell into a pit and could not get himself out.
A Christian scientist came along and said, you only think you're in a pit.
A Pharisee came along and told him only bad people fall in a pit.
A fundamentalist came along and said, you deserve to be in this pit.
A charismatic came along and said, you're in a pit, but don't claim it.
An optimist came along and said, things could be worse.
A pessimist came along and said, oh yeah, things are going to get worse.
A Methodist came by and said, we brought you some food and clothing while you're in the
pit.
A black Baptist came by and said, I've got a feeling everything going to be all right.
Look at that, some of y'all have started saying that already.
The man said, I almost said the bad word.
Forget all of that.
Go get some rope.
I'm in a pit.
I don't need prayer.
I need rope.
I'm in a pit.
I don't need doctrine.
I need a rope.
Lily Grove, men and women are on their way to hell.
They don't need a Bible verse.
They need you to roll up your sleeves.
Somebody ought to help me preach it.
Get out of your position as chairman of this and secretary of that and soloist of this
and leader of that.
Because God does not care how many people you lead on Sunday.
How many people do you lead on Monday?
Walk with me around the table.
If the church is going to do its job, the first thing we have to do is visualize.
You've got to visualize.
You've got to see people like Jesus sees them.
Jesus does not see an alcoholic.
Jesus does not see a drug addict.
Jesus does not see a hormonger.
Jesus does not see a homosexual.
Jesus does not see anybody hooked on prescription drugs.
Jesus does not see a homeless person.
Jesus does not see a prostitute.
Jesus does not see anybody destitute.
Jesus sees a soul in need of salvation.
And if we would see people like Jesus sees people, we would have pity on them because
pity on them will make us move to action.
You will never help somebody that you don't see.
And everybody in this church this morning, everybody listening to me online, your greatest
need is to be seen.
See me in my struggle.
See me in my heartbreak.
See me in my loneliness.
See me in my distressing circumstance.
See me in trying to raise these children by myself.
See me in my sickness.
See me in my hardship.
See me sitting right next to you.
You don't care nothing about nobody you can't see.
You see them.
You just not looking at them.
Because when you get to the traffic light and they are standing there begging, you put
your shades on or you act like you're fooling with your radio or like you dropped something
on the floor or you just look straight ahead because you said, boy, if you get next to
this car, no.
Jesus sees people in their emptiness because they are sheep having no shepherd.
You actually think people who are strung out on drugs want to be out there?
You actually think people whose lives are messed up want to live a messed up life?
They don't know any better because if they knew better, they would come to Jesus.
But since they don't know any better, those of us who've already found Christ, talk back
to me if you can.
We are not here because we are better and they are not there because they are worse.
We are here because we found Jesus before they did.
Because if it were not for the grace of God, I wish I had a witness.
You would be on the street right now.
If it were not for the grace of God, you'd be homeless right now.
God's been good to you and you ought to spread that goodness to somebody else.
There was a woman called in the very act of adultery and they didn't just bring up a dread
her and threw her in front of Jesus.
Last time I heard, you can't commit adultery by yourself.
But that's a sermon for another Sunday.
They threw that woman in front of Jesus and said, Moses said she ought to be stoned.
Jesus didn't pick up his head.
He just started writing on the ground.
And I don't know, I wasn't there, but perhaps he was writing down their sin where they were
like before last.
But they were doing two months ago that they had no business doing.
And the Bible says they started dropping their stones from the oldest to the youngest.
And Jesus said to that woman, where are your accusers?
She said, there's nobody, Lord.
She said, he said, I don't accuse you either.
Go and sin no more.
He that is without sin cast the first stone.
Stop looking down your sanctimonious nose at people who are less fortunate than you
are.
Stop looking down your Baptist nose at people who don't have what you have.
You are here not because you've been so holy, not because you've kept the Lord's commandments,
not because you have a large print Bible.
It is of the Lord's mercy that you are not consumed.
And those mercies are new every morning.
Great is the Lord's faithfulness.
You have to see people because if you don't see her, you'll never do the next thing that
Jesus did in this text.
He saw them.
He saw them and to see them, you have to see them not for where they are or for who they
are, but for what they can become.
Do not judge me by the heights that I've attained.
Look at the depths from whence I've come.
You don't know how long it took me to get to where I am right now.
You don't know how many doors God had to open for me.
How many prayers God had to answer for me.
How many tears God had to dry for me.
You know my glory, but you need to know my story.
You folk alone when they're shouting and giving God glory, they got a reason and a right.
They have a reason and a right and a responsibility because anybody kept me like God kept me.
Anybody delivered like God delivered?
Anybody raised up a sick baby like God raised him up?
Anybody that comforted me and my long list like God did?
I got a reason and a right and a responsibility.
He saw them.
Jesus saw them.
You got to visualize.
Then secondly, if the church is going to do its job, you have to agonize.
Agonize.
He had compassion on them because it's not enough to see them.
You have to be moved with compassion.
That word moved in the Greek means that Jesus was moved on the inside.
He was moved in his bowels.
That was that word literally means he was moved in his heart.
His emotions were stirred because you can see a person and be unemotional about what
you saw.
But if you truly see them, it ought to move you to be compassionate towards them.
Brothers and sisters, compassion is more than sympathy because you can feel sorry for somebody
and go home and eat a sandwich.
You can feel sorry for somebody and say, poor thing, I sure hope things get better and go
home and watch American Idol.
But when you're moved, you can't rest until you do something about that situation.
I wish I had a witness here.
Today we will install officers here at Lily Grove Church and I will call them up to the
front.
But before I do that, I want each and every one of them to know that it is not your responsibility
to count money.
That's not the church doing this job.
We can get a machine to do that.
You're not impressing nobody being over the scholarship committee because somebody was
over it before you.
And somebody's going to be over it after you.
I wish I had somebody to help me.
You are not impressing anybody with these uniforms on or with these cry robes on or
sitting in this pulpit.
What God is calling us to do is to win the loss.
And if you are the president of this and the chairman of that and nobody has come to Christ
because of you, you are sounding brass and a tankling simple.
Hopefully this will sober us.
When they were carrying the Ark of the Covenant after David found it in the home of Obed Edom,
they were bringing it back to his rightful place in Jerusalem.
And they put it on an ox cart when God had instructed them to carry it on poles, to put
it on their shoulders and carry it on poles.
But in disobedience to the word of God, they put it on an ox cart and they were traveling
with it and the oxen stumbled.
And the cart almost fell to the ground and Arthur put his hand on it to keep it from falling
and God killed him on the spot.
The lesson for you, leader, if you're not going to put your heart in it, don't put your
hand on it.
Because if your heart is not in what you do, let me know after church and I'll put somebody
else in your place.
You know a pretty good sign that you ought not be in leadership is that when you're no
longer in leadership, you don't support it.
As long as you over it is all of that and a bag of turnip greens.
Then somebody else get over it.
I ain't fooling with that no more.
They make me, they get on my nerves.
They trying to run everything.
Well, you tried to run it when you was over it.
You holding it to yourself and holding it and don't want anybody else to have any ideas
and making the suggestions.
You got all the sense when you over it.
See how quiet you got right there.
A pretty good sign that you should not be in leadership is that you can't follow leadership.
Because if you cannot follow, you're not fit to leave.
Because leadership is not about power.
It's about sacrifice.
President Joe Biden says we don't need by the example of power, but by the power of
example.
And when you, when you've been given assignment and you are no longer over that assignment
and you no longer support the group that supported you, that's a good sign you shouldn't have
been in it in the first place.
If somebody else got your solo, get in the choir and support them.
I mean, you know, you got a good voice and Ernest don't ever use me.
You got to use who show up.
You want to be used?
Sure.
Diva.
Take up all your bangles and sparkles and get in the choir.
And if you got it, somebody gonna hear it.
Because God gave you the gift.
And if you don't use it to his glory, God will strip you of your power and take somebody
whose voice sounds like gravel on the road.
And use them for his glory and for his honor.
When was the last time you wept for somebody who was on their way to hell?
When did you last weep for these young people who not being raised right?
Whose parents are in the streets?
And these children are trying to go to school.
They're trying to learn.
They're trying to do the right thing.
But their daddy is in prison.
Their mama still in the club.
I weep for these young people.
I weep for that man who's in his 50s and 60s and still on drugs.
Has no hope in Christ.
No direction.
Don't know where his life is going to end up.
I weep for them.
Because somebody wept for me.
Somebody prayed for me.
I wish I had some help right here.
Somebody asked God to keep me till I could learn some sense.
And you are in this church this morning because some mama, some daddy, some Sunday school
teacher, some old person in your life helped you to get to where you are.
And since they helped you, you ought to help somebody in.
You're not in jail.
Not because you didn't do enough to go.
But God had mercy on them.
And salvation is not just what you've been delivered from.
It's what God kept you from.
Somebody ought to help me talk it.
God kept some of us from being everything we wanted to be and doing everything we wanted
to do.
We did some of it.
God just restrained us and brought us back to our senses before we went all the way to
being a fool.
I wish I had a crook in here this morning.
It was on your mind.
God just didn't let you do it.
You had a desire for it, but God kept you from it.
And then there are some of us in here, the devil, that just about used you up.
God got what's left, but let him use that.
You gonna help me preach this, won't you?
Not only must you visualize, not only must you agonize, but then finally you have to
evangelize.
It's not enough to see you.
It's not enough to agonize over their condition.
You have to go get them.
Each one of us has to reach somebody.
There's somebody you have influence over.
I'm not talking about your immediate family now because you're really in trouble if you
can't influence your immediate family.
Pastor and I were talking about it the other day and he was talking about his child goes
to, he passes a church and his child goes to somebody else's church.
And he was distraught about that and he said, Reverend, I don't know if you're going through
that.
I said, no.
I said, well, let me put it this way.
My child could go to somebody else's church, but they have to wheel her in a wheelchair.
She welcomed to join any church she wanted to join, but she had to eat her food with
a straw.
Because these people are making it possible, have made it possible for you to be where
you are.
And the height of ingratitude is to take what I give you and act like I didn't give it
to you.
And so I'm not talking about your immediate family because if you can't, if you don't
have any control over your own place where you live, then that's God bless you.
But I'm talking about folk that you come in contact with in your concentric circle of
concern.
They ought to look at you and know that you've been the church.
Your conversation, your conduct, the way you live on your street, the way you act at the
supermarket, the way you act in the department store, ought to let people know that you've
been with Jesus.
If you've got ugly ways and a nasty disposition and you say that you are the president of
this or the chairman of that or you're giving leadership to this, people will look at you
like you're crazy.
How you leading somebody and can't speak to people?
How can you lead where you won't go?
How can you teach what you don't know?
Jesus went and got them.
That was a man, I'm true, in the tombs, cutting himself with stones.
They couldn't even tame him.
They time up, he threw the threads off, run back in town screaming like a maniac.
And Jesus came that way.
Jesus said, what is your name?
He said, my name is Legion.
For there are many demons.
And Jesus healed him of that demonic spirit.
And people were more afraid of him after Jesus got through with him than they were when he
was in his demonic state.
Because people like to see you in the situation you're in because that makes them above you.
Somebody ought to help me talk here.
But when Jesus got through with him, the Bible says he put on some clothes and he was in
his right mind.
And brothers and sisters, when Jesus gets through with you, doesn't matter who likes
you, who does not like you, does not matter who's on your side, who's not on your side.
When Jesus gets through with you, it does not matter if they let you lead something or
if they don't even give you a part in the play, it does not matter if they don't ever
let you sit in the front, it does not matter if you weigh in the back of the choir, it
does not matter if you never get to lead the ushers, it does not matter if your name is
never on the program.
It does not matter if you never get an opportunity to speak at the mic.
If when you give.
The best of your service.
Telling the world that the Savior has come.
Be not dismayed if men don't believe you.
He'll understand and say well done.
Misunderstood is the Savior of sinners.
He was hung on the cross, he was God's only son.
Oh hear him calling his father in heaven, not my will.
But time be done.
Oh when I come to the end of my journey, weary of life and the battle is won.
Bring the staff and the cross of redemption, he'll understand and say well done.
When it's over, he doesn't have to call me bishop.
He don't have to call me doctor.
He doesn't have to call me Reverend.
He doesn't have to call me pastor.
Serve it.
Well done.
You've been faithful over a few things.
I'll make you ruler over many things.
Until now, until your master's joy.