Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: It’s awesome to hear our children and our youth. Just watch the little innocent faces as they open up and their hearts just fill with the love of God. That's just the way it's supposed to be. That's why Jesus said, "Suffer, permit the children to come to Me, for of such belongs the kingdom of God." So I want you to pray with me now as we ready our hearts for the morning message.

Father, we thank You for blessing us with another week's journey. We thank You for watching over us last night as we slumbered and slept, waking us early this morning, giving us a heart to want to be in the house of prayer. We thank You that since we've been here, we've been blessed to experience Your presence with our brothers and sisters in Christ, to enjoy the worship experience through song, through scripture, through prayer. Now Lord, we need a word to help us to live. I pray that You will lift again Your human out of self, fill us with the Holy Spirit, speak to us and through us in this moment, and bless now the words in our mouth and the meditations on our heart that they may be acceptable in Your sight. Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. We ask it now in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to direct your attention this morning to the New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter one. Acts chapter one. I'm going to read words that are familiar to you in verses six through eight of chapter one. I think it speaks to our moment and speaks to our circumstance again. The word of God reads, "When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him saying, Lord, will Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"

And He said unto them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." This is the word of God for the people of God. I want to again bring to you this subject: Too Much In Love With Yesterday.

Too much in love with yesterday. I think that can be a problem with us individually. It certainly can be a problem with us as a church. And it's definitely a problem for us as a nation. The story of the nation of Israel is a story of suppression. With one noted exception in their history, Israel has always languished beneath the tyrannical yoke of nations more powerful than they. Abuse is the use of power to afflict and inflict pain and attempt to dominate people.

When Israel's history opens in the book of Genesis as a nation, they are already a subject people, as we find them as slaves in Egypt under the yoke of the Pharaoh and the power of the Egyptians. With the mighty hand of God, who broke the bonds of their Egyptian captivity and set them free, they began to march on a liberating journey that carried them 40 years around the wilderness. Not that it would take 40 years to take them from Egypt to the promised land, but because of disbelief and because of them challenging God, God punished them and allowed them to wander around in the wilderness for those 40 years until everyone in that first generation 20 years and older had perished.

But once Israel was in the promised land, they still were a subject people to the oppression of other nations. It wasn't long before entering into the promised land that they had to fight against seven nations: the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Girgashites, and all of those other "ites" that came against God's people. Eventually they would be subject to the Babylonians or the Assyrians who carried the northern kingdom captive. 135 years later, the southern kingdom would be carried captive into Babylon.

Even after they returned to their own land, then the Romans came against them. For the entirety of the New Testament, the Romans were in charge, and the children of Israel were still a subject people. In the ebb and flow of time, including this modern generation, the Germans came against the Jewish people, and therefore history now records the Holocaust. As we look around today, we still see the people of Israel inflicted with constant wars in the Gaza Strip by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others that will, whoever will, attack God's people.

It's amazing that the disciples of Jesus who lived through much of that history and saw the power of God that was demonstrated through the mighty ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ are at this juncture asking Jesus the "MAGA" question. The question is, "Will Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Why did I say the MAGA question? Because that is what MAGA stands for: Make America Great Again.

What I'm telling you is they, like these disciples, were too much in love with yesterday. That's always a dangerous posture for anyone, whether they be a nation, whether it be a few disciples, whether it be a church, whether it be a generation. Whenever we think that God is limited to operate in only one period of his human history, it helps us to understand that we misunderstand God's power and God's intent. God is never limited. He can do what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, like He wants to do it, through whomever He wants to do it through.

We have to understand that, and this is what Jesus' response is to these disciples. So what was it about Israel's past that had these disciples so hung up with yesterday that they wanted Jesus to restore yesterday to now? I submit unto you there were three dreams that were couched in between Israel's history that caused these disciples to be so in love with yesterday. The first dream took them all the way back to the patriarch Abraham. Israel never forgot Abraham. Why? Because Abraham is the one who gave them their ethnic identity.

They became the Jewish people through Abraham. They were the seeds, the descendants of Abraham. It was Abraham that God spoke to and said, "Get up from your kindred and acquaintance, and go to a land that I'll show you. And I will make a great nation out of you. I'll bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And in you, Abraham, will all of the nations of the earth be blessed." From that moment on, He gave them the right of circumcision, which meant that when a Jewish boy was born on the eighth day, he had to be circumcised in order to be in line to receive the promise of Abraham.

Even when Jesus came along and He fed the masses, and He's telling them, "I am the bread of life," they say, "How you think you're the bread of life? We know your momma and them." They went on to throw Abraham up and said, "We are Abraham's seed. Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness." Jesus said, "Yeah, but they're dead too." He said, "I am that bread, that true bread that came down from heaven." You see, they couldn't turn loose the dream of Abraham and their ethnic identity.

Don't misunderstand because Black people are not any different than the people of Israel. We have issues with our ethnic identity as well. I remember I was a product of the 60s. Stokely Carmichael and others led the nation in championing, "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud." That was a good thing for us, but it tricked people. It tricked Black people into thinking that just because you were Black, you were better. God never intended for any nation to be better. Out of one blood, God made all mankind.

So it's not our ethnicity that make us better. It's our relationship with God. We got hung up here. We got lost for a period of time in thinking that Black athletes were superior. They came out with that movie, "White Men Can't Jump." They made a fool out of them because he could jump and he could shoot. So many times we think that just because we're Black we're better, and other folk think that just because you're Black you don't measure up. Both positions are wrong. You be who God made you be. But that came out of the dream of yesterday.

There was a second dream that Israel was in love with. Not only the dream of Abraham who gave them their ethnic identity, but Israel was also in love with the dream of Moses. Moses was the great leader of Israel, and Israel never forgot the liberating leadership of Moses. Moses was the one who went down in the face of the most powerful monarch on the face of the earth and said, "God said let My people go." Pharaoh said, "I don't know this God, and I'm not going to let these people go."

Moses said, "Well, if you don't let them go, God said I'm going to turn the water into blood." And what happened? The water turned into blood. He goes back in to see him another day. Moses said, "Pharaoh, God said let My people go. If you don't turn them loose, frogs going to show up everywhere." When frogs start jumping out of people's coffee cups and out of people's toilets and everything, Moses said, "God, You're bad." Ten times he went back and he said, "God said let My people go."

Every time Pharaoh refused, God demonstrated His power. The last plague was Moses said, "God said if you don't let My people go, then the firstborn of your household is going to die." When the death angel came and every household that was not protected under the blood had a firstborn to die, the people of Israel came out free. When they got out in the wilderness, they complained over and over again, "Moses, what are we going to do?" Moses would go to God, "God, what are we going to do?"

God would give His word and come up with the solution. Then God called Moses up on the mount, "Come on Moses up here, let Me talk to you." Moses goes up, "What You say God?" and God gives him the word, and he comes back and he said, "Thus saith the Lord." The people never forgot the liberating setting them free and the leadership of Moses. May I help you understand that there's a lot of love in this nation and it's aimed at the love for Martin Luther King Jr., especially among Black people.

I remember after King died in '68, all of the Black pastors wanted to be King's replacement. They were on the front line championing civil rights and that was a good thing. But when they preached, they all wanted to sound like him. "I've been to the mountaintop, and I've seen the promised land." They all wanted to have this Southern drawl in their voice. So when a man comes and he speaks with plain English, then we think that he can't preach because he doesn't have that drawl.

It's all because we're too much in love with yesterday. What you got to understand about yesterday is you better be careful who you listen to because there are two sets of yesterdays. Yesterday for me was when I was footloose and fancy-free as a child walking through the streets of Titusville drinking water out of hose pipes, shooting marbles, walking barefooted, not worried about any infection, not worrying about toxic poisons in my body, swimming in ditches and whatever.

It was all part of yesterday because the public pools in the city of Birmingham were closed. That was for me yesterday, but there are some other folk who got another yesterday. When they talk about making America great again, they're not talking about the yesterday that I'm talking about. They're talking about days when your forefathers were lynched, when they worked you 40 and 50 hours and paid you little or nothing, when you could not say nothing back to someone else. They're trying to limit your speech even today, trying to take away your First Amendment rights and all of this thing because they are too much in love with yesterday.

I want you to understand that not only was Israel in love with the ethnic identity that came from Abraham, and not only were they in love with the liberating leadership that came from Moses, but Israel never forgot thirdly the Davidic reign of King David. When David was king, Israel was the most feared nation on the face of the earth. You do know David? He was Jesse's son, but he was that shepherd boy that went down in the valley of Elah with a slingshot and five smooth stones and took out the Philistine giant Goliath.

Goliath came out there, "What am I, a dog that you come out here to me with a stick?" But he didn't see what David really had. He thought he had a stick, but David wound up that slingshot and he let those rocks go, and one of them hit him right in the forehead and knocked him down. When Goliath fell, David ran up on him and took his own sword out and cut off his neck. The women went crazy. They went in the streets saying, "Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands."

David was elevated into a position of prominence and eventually David became Israel's king. When David became king of Israel, he did what no king before or after him did. He solidified Israel's northern and southern borders. David was feared. Other nations did not attack Israel when David was king because David was known to kick all right. They were in love with David. He was the sweet singer in Israel, but he was the bad boy who walked the plains of Palestine.

David and the children of Israel never forgot the Davidic reign of King David, and they wanted to know, "Are you at this time—" They come to Jesus. Look at these disciples. They've seen all of this power, they've seen all of these miracles, they've seen all that God has done through the Lord Jesus Christ, and they come up to Him and they say, "Are You at this time going to take us back to yesterday?" What an insult to think that God is limited to only operate in one period of history when the truth of God is that He goes marching on.

God has not had to repeat Himself. He opened the Red Sea one time. The next time He opened a body of water, it was the Jordan River. He didn't have to open the Red Sea again because He doesn't have to go back to yesterday to do whatever it is He needs to do. So Jesus says to these disciples, "Boys, you don't have to go back to yesterday." He said, "I'm getting ready to make you a promise," and I know one of them probably said, "Well Lord, we're about ready to receive any promise that You want to make because we have come to know that Your word is always good."

You told us that when we were hungry, You'd feed us, and we know You have. We've been waiters when You opened the bakery and the fish market on the side of the mount. You told us that when we were thirsty, You'd give us water to drink, and we were at the wedding in Cana where You took the water and You turned it into wine, so we know You can do it. You told us that when we were tired, You'd give us rest if we came to You. Some of us have left all and we've come to You and You've blessed us in every situation.

So we're about ready to take on any promise You want to make. Jesus says to these disciples, "Okay then, go back down to Jerusalem. Listen to me carefully, Church, and set apart any of those things that divide you and get on one accord because I'm getting ready to make you a promise. And what is that promise? I'm getting ready to make you witnesses. And what I want you to do is go to Jerusalem, get in that upper room, and wait till the promise of My Father come to you, be endued with power from on high."

And when you become endued, that is, when you become filled with the Holy Ghost and not filled with hell, then I'll make you My witnesses, and you'll be able then to go into Jerusalem and into Judea and into Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth as witnesses unto Me. God is getting ready to bless this nation, but He's going to have to move this guy out the way because he's divisive. He's too much in love with yesterday. He's trying to take away all of it. He's trying to turn back the hands of time.

What's so sad about it is that people see it, but nobody want to say it. Supreme Court see it, they won't say it. Governors see it, they won't say it. Congress sees it but won't say it. One positive comment that I heard the other day that I think is the truth for the nation: we need to go back and teach civics again in school. Young people need to understand how the government is supposed to work, that there are three branches of government and they are supposed to be balanced—checks and balances in those three branches.

Until and unless we go back to that form of yesterday and learn again the history of the nation, then God cannot bless. But if we do, God is getting poised to bless the nation. God is poised to bless the church, but I want you to understand you don't have to go back to yesterday in order for God to bless the church. You don't have to go back to the identity of when we were on the South Side. That's fine, that's great, that's part of our history. You don't have to go back to 18th Place. That was wonderful, that was part of our history. You don't have to go back to the early days of being in here. That was a part of our history.

But the truth of God goes marching on. Look behind me. God is not limited to one period where He does whatever it is that He can do. So I want you to know and I want you to understand that, yes, leadership may have been good. Abraham may have been the one who gave us our ethnic identity, and Moses may have been the liberating leader, and David may have been the great warrior, but Jesus is the latest and the greatest and the last revelation from Almighty God.

Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Son of God, and as Son, there's healing in His wing. There's power in His name. There's truth in His promise. There's understanding in what He can do, and He is talking about not the past; He's talking about the present and He's talking about the future. Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the hearts of man the things that be of God. What we've got to understand, I'm so glad that I don't have to go back for God to bless me.

I'm not waiting on yesterday's blessing. I'm waiting on what God got for me tomorrow. I'm waiting on what God anticipates for me on the next day. When I wake up in the morning, I wake up looking for what's going to happen today and the next day. When I make my plan for my calendar, I don't plan for yesterday. I plan for tomorrow. I plan for the next month. I plan for the next day, the next year, what's in front of me.

That's what I want you to hear this morning, that God is not limited. His truth marches on, and in every generation, God makes a promise that He is ready and able and capable to fulfill if we would only just hold on to His hand. I don't know how you feel, but that's why I can trust God. I trust God. Do anybody trust God? Anybody trust God for your future? Yeah, you can look at your past and see that He took care of you yesterday, and the God of yesterday is the God of today, and the God of today will be the God of tomorrow.

So you can trust Him. You can trust Him with your future. You can trust Him with your life. You can trust Him with your children. You can trust the church with God and the future, and I can trust Him with my life and I can trust Him with my future. So I just want to tell you today, you don't have to be so much in love with yesterday that you miss the promise that God is making to you right now. Get ready, get ready, get ready.

I remember one morning God woke me up, and when He woke me up that morning, that's what He said: "Get ready, get ready, get ready." I looked around, I said, "Get ready for what?" "Get ready for your future." Get ready. Get ready, get ready, get ready, Church. Get ready. I trust God. Anybody trust Him today? Doors open. Trust God today. Trust God today. He'll do it. He won't ever fail. He won't ever fail, He can't fail. He knows too much, He understands all situations. Doors open. Anytime during the song, give God your heart.

Hey friends, this is your friend and brother Dr. Michael Wesley, and I came today to tell you about an exciting opportunity to continue to watch us on the local channels that you're watching us on, but also to announce the Shiloh Network TV. This will give an opportunity for our church to continue to fulfill the Great Commission and the mission of our church by reaching the world for Christ. We would also like to invite other church ministers and musicians or music teams to join us in publishing your broadcast perhaps with us. Please contact us at the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church. Follow the prompts on the screen for additional information. God bless and we'll see you soon.