Scripture Text for Today’s Sermon (Matthew 21:21).
Matthew 21:21
21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
The Title of Today’s Message is: I Shift Atmospheres
Introduction
What a fellowship! What a joy divine! Leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness! What a peace is mine! Leaning on the everlasting arms. It is the first Sunday of the year, and all over the country, people are making an intentional choice to spend it in the House of God. There is something about the beginning of a year that sparks new motivation and zeal in people to do things a different way. And today I want to push you a little to have you to understand just how much ability you have to command your day, your week, your month, and your year through your posture of praise. We made many declarations for this church going into the new year, but check in on your neighbor for me and say “excuse me neighbor– we are going to be about action, not talk, this year!” And though billows may blow and breakers may dash, I have come to the realization that I have a dependable God and I will not sway because He holds me fast. The reason why I am excited to give Him the praise is because even if the storms don’t cease, and even if the winds keep blowing in my life, my soul has been anchored in the Lord! So the reason why I Towdah with a sacrificial praise is because He keeps on keeping me. The reason why I Yadah and lift up my hands in the sanctuary is because if He never does another thing, He’s still good to me! The reason I Barak Him is because His voice has never failed me! The reason I Halal Him is because He saved my soul. The reason I Zamar Him is because He deserves praise from everything that is able to praise Him. And the reason I Shabach the Lord is because can’t nobody do me like Jesus, and can’t nobody do me like the Lord! I take joy in blessing Him because when I look back over my life and see where He has brought me from, I can truly say that I have been blessed, and I can’t let anyone tell my testimony for me! I don’t know what you would tell your neighbor that He has done for you, but I can declare that He brought me out of darkness, into His marvellous light! He planted my feet in safety, He has even given me the strength to fight. And this morning, on this First Sunday, I can declare that if I had 10,000 tongues it still wouldn’t be enough to give God praise, but with what I have, I will bless the Lord at ALL times and His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together!
Context to the Introduction
And this is the reason faith is so critical to what we do as children of God. Because we begin to understand that our willingness to praise and worship our creator allows us to shift atmospheres.
- Expound upon the scripture.
- I don’t expect any row I am on to be the same when it leaves the way it was when it came in
- Examples from 2024 Letter
In order to reclaim God’s community, we must understand that reclamation first requires us to behave as a community. Our Endtime core values should be our community’s standard practice so that everywhere we go, we are known for what we stand for and believe. Reclaiming requires us to go forth to retrieve and bring back to the kingdom what is valuable to God – His people. This means we must fervently fast and pray against any contrary spirit that would cause us to subscribe to individualism and preference over the agenda of God. To exercise proper spiritual restraint, we must recognize the power of having Godly limits within our freedom such that selfish motivations based solely upon personal wish lists are tempered so that we can build communities that are built on relationship and wholeness and not brokenness.
To that end, the metrics of our success this year are not how much we can do within the four walls of the church, but, rather, how the agenda of Christ can lead us to restoring the faith of our community that we are about a good work within this branch of Zion. Let’s begin to pray together on how we can work together as a community of believers while also opening our arms to those, both near and far, that need to see a more excellent way in action. As you read, I am sure you are thinking of ways that you can make this practical in 2024, but here are just a few questions that can spark excitement in you for the assignment at hand this year–
- Who exactly is a part of the community of God and how do we minister to them about the need to be reclaimed?
- When designing a program for the church, how will you ensure that the message of the program is received by those that are not in physical attendance?
- What metrics could our church use to determine our ability to reclaim God’s community?
- What practices need to improve for us to have an impact on our internal and external communities?
- How do we work with other believers to increase our influence on the community?
With our focus being on community, we must accept and embrace that we are a valuable part of the community of God. Our actions, not our words or even our intentions, are what is most important to God right now. Communities are built from people who live in the same place, have particular characteristics in common, and have a feeling of fellowship as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Strong communities build even stronger ecosystems or complex networks that are interconnected and focused on shifting the environments around them. As you can see, strong communities change environments. This year is all about the change we can make to a world that is in desperate need of God’s transformative power.
- Ecosystem, Community, Population, Individual analogy
- I shift atmospheres.