Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: A New Year’s warning: be careful. Be careful. Second warning: live right. Third warning: plan ahead. That is the message. Be careful. Live right. Plan ahead. Lately, social media has been flooded with a number of Reels on TikTok, Facebook, and other forms. The Reels seem to be sharing a common theme. It shows the inappropriate and disrespectful treatment of certain people. Usually, one of the Reels that I recently saw was of a Black man who was a farmer.

He wanted to buy a tractor, a new tractor. He came into the dealership to buy the new tractors, and the people looked at him and laughed. They said, "Get out of here. We don’t service your kind." They talked down to him and he said, "I just wanted to get the price of all of the new tractors in here." They laughed and told him he was crazy, that he didn’t have that kind of money to buy all of those tractors. They cost 13 million something. They just didn't know who he was. The long story short, the man went away, but he went back and got his money and he brought the money back and he bought all the tractors. The folks were just shocked.

There is another Reel that I saw just the other day of another Black man who walked into a police precinct. He came through the side door wearing jeans and a regular shirt. One of the white officers confronted him and said, "Get out of here. What are you doing in here? You have no business being in here." The man got so close that he spat in the man's face. The man just stood there and listened, and then he eventually moved out of the way. An announcement came out: "We want to introduce you all to our new police chief." When the new police chief was introduced, it was this Black man. You should have seen the face of the guy who had done him wrong.

These themes are similar to what was aired in a popular television series a couple of years back called *Undercover Boss*, where the franchise owner would sometimes change his disguise and go underground to visit the stores within his franchise to see how people were handling his business. Often, he would find that there would be employees who would be stealing, or who would be taking, or who would be undermining the business or talking negatively down about things. Then there would always be a few who they would find who went above and beyond. When the day of revelation came, they thought that they were coming to meet whoever they thought they were going to meet, and they found out that they met the owner. Those who were negative were terminated or punished in some way, and those who had been faithful were rewarded, sometimes with unusual blessings.

That is my word for you today. You have to be careful because this text says, and it is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, He was in the world and the world knew Him not. He came as the undercover boss. John opens this word up. He said, "In the beginning was the Word." Whenever the beginning was, some people are always trying to argue about when was the beginning and how the world was. Whenever it was, before time began, God existed. Time is a creation of God Himself. Jesus existed along and independent from the Father when time began. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was with God in the beginning. He has always been here. He is the divine Word.

What is so interesting about this narrative is John the writer, John the apostle. He finds a unique way to bridge the Roman and Greek cultures along with the Jewish culture. The Roman-Greek world knew nothing about a Messiah. That was foreign to them. They did not have an Old Testament with prophets who promised that a coming Deliverer would come. John uniquely finds a way to bring those two communities together by using a term that both could understand: "In the beginning was the Word." The logos, the mind of God, had always existed, and he presents that mind of God as being none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.

He has always been here. He calls Him the divine Word. Then he uses another term for Him: He calls Him the light. In Him was the light of men, and that light shineth in the darkness and the darkness could not frustrate it, could not overcome Him, could not stop Him, could not put out His light. He was in the world. The world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. That is something. I came this morning to tell you that you have to be careful. You don’t know who you are talking to. You don’t know who you are dealing with.

The Old Testament scriptures make it clear that some have entertained angels unaware. There was the time when the Lord sent two angels down to Sodom and Gomorrah. The men were so hung up in their own lust for one another that they wanted the angels. They didn't even know they were angels. God's presence was sent there to warn the people of the destruction that was about to come, and they were still trying to play with these guys. God struck those men with blindness. Blind as they were, they were still trying to find the men. People are so hung up on their own stuff, on what they want to do, that they don't even pay any attention to what is going on.

I submit to us today that maybe we need to be careful. John the writer here makes a comparison. First, he is talking about Jesus as the divine Word, then he says that He was the divine light. That is the uncreated order. Then he compares it to a created order. There was a man. When he is talking about God and Jesus, he is talking about that which wasn't created. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. That had always existed. Then he said there was a man whose name was John.

John is not talking about himself here because in the Gospel of John, John never uses his name. John always calls himself in the Gospel "that disciple whom Jesus loved." When he refers to John, there are only two Johns that he could refer to. He is speaking of John the Baptist or John the father of Peter. We don’t read about that John until later near the end of the book, but here in this first portion of the monologue, he is talking about John the Baptist. He said there was a man sent from God. John was unique, and here is the sum total of all of our ministry and all of the work that all of us have been called to do: he was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light.

If you are a child of God in '26, you have been brought into the year to be a witness, to bear witness of that light. You have to understand that you are not the light. Your light doesn't count and your light can be snuffed out. Your light will go out. Sometimes you put your own light out. John was sent from God. How was he sent? He was uniquely sent. Let me talk about it just a moment. John was uniquely sent by God. First, he came from aged parents. His mother Elizabeth and his father Zachariah were already past 80 years old, and they had been barren with no opportunity to have a child. God blessed Elizabeth to have a child in her womb past 80.

I would love to see some of you come running in here. You talk about making me laugh, and you are not going to be able to tell me it was an immaculate conception either. He was uniquely sent. That was a supernatural occurrence from God. Angels announced his birth when Zachariah was in the temple ministering. God showed up at that altar and told him his wife Elizabeth was going to have a child. John was so outdone he couldn't even speak. God said, "Since you don't believe it, I'm not going to let you speak until the child is born." Then you will call his name John and not Little Zach.

He was uniquely sent. My mama had eight children but none of them came like that. There wasn't an angel around anywhere announcing the birth of none of us, and I don't know any of you whose angel came and announced your birth. He was uniquely sent by God. More importantly, he was uniquely sent because of the ministry that he would have. What was that ministry? It was to be the introducer of the Savior of the world. John fulfilled that. One day he was preaching and Jesus showed up and he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

He had a unique ministry, that was to be a witness, to bear witness of the light. The light is Christ, and in Him, all of the world has life. He not only is life, light, but He is also life. He is the life giver. This is what makes this text so sad because now it comes to the fact that He is the undercover boss. He was in the world and the world didn't even know Him. Why? Because He was unrecognized. He didn't walk around with a halo over His head. He didn't walk around like when Mayor Kincaid used to be the mayor. He used to wear a cap that said "Mayor" just in case you didn't know who he was. His cap told you. Jesus didn't walk around with something on His body saying, "I am the Christ." That is what made Him so unrecognized.

That is why you have to be careful. You don’t know who you are dealing with. You have to be careful how you treat people. I saw another Reel on the social media that talked about a woman who was a nurse. She had just finished a shift and she said, "This was a tough shift." She said, "All I want to do is get some coffee. Lord, thank You for blessing me to get through this shift. Would You like to have some coffee with me?" As the lady was walking toward the coffee shop, she saw another old lady, dirty, sitting on the ground. As she was going to the coffee shop, she heard the lady say, "Hey. Hey." She looked down. She said, "Yes?" She said, "Can I have some coffee?" She said, "Sure. Would you like to have some bread or a cinnamon roll?" She said, "No, the coffee would be fine."

She went into the coffee shop and she ordered the coffee and she ordered some bread. When she came back out, the woman was gone. She looked around and she asked the people, "Where was this dirty lady that was sitting on the ground here?" No one had seen her. She saw a little piece of paper on the ground where the woman had been sitting. She picked it up and when she picked it up and read it, she said, "Thank you for the coffee. You have a great heart. Enjoy your day. God." You don’t know who. Better be careful. He was in the world. Just because He is unrecognized, just because He doesn't come like you think.

I'm not making this up. Come over here to Matthew 25. Jesus said, "I was hungry and you gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was sick and you visited me. Naked and you clothed me. In prison and you came to me." The righteous wanted to know, "Lord, when did we see You like that?" His answer was, "Whenever you did it unto one of the least of these my brothers, you've done it also unto me." Just because you don’t recognize the form that God may appear in, be careful. Stop talking down to people. Stop looking out the side of your neck as if you have the seat in the Trinity.

This is a New Year. Let’s change some things. Change the understanding of you may not recognize God when He appears. Just because you don’t recognize Him doesn't mean He is not available. What does the text say? The text says to them that believed on His name, those that even may not have recognized Him but they heard the testimony of who Jesus is. Those that believe that testimony, to them God gave the power to become sons of God. That is a perspective for the New Year. Regardless of what you have been, regardless of how you have lived, you now have the power to become what you've never been yet. That is what the New Year does. It opens up the curtain of possibility and opportunity to become who I have not been and to do what I have not done and to get right what I have not gotten right.

You can become the sons of God. Let’s talk about that because that term "sons of God" is a unique term. First and foremost, it referred to the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel was considered God's son. God chose Israel. He made them as the prophet Isaiah said as a vineyard. He built a hedge around them and He dug around them and He planted them as a vineyard. The problem was they disappointed Him. When He came looking for fruit, He found only wild grapes. Don’t be a wild grape anymore. Be a fruitful, productive son of God.

Jesus was uniquely called the Son of God. Not only was the nation of Israel called a son of God, but Jesus was the Son of God. He was from a biological standpoint. There was no sexual activity in His conception. He was God's Son. The Holy Spirit was the cause of Mary being pregnant. It wasn't because there was an internal male-female relationship, but because God does what He wants to do like He wants to do because He is God. That child that showed up in Bethlehem was 100% human because He came through the natural realm of the birth canal. He was also 100% God because of the origin of where He came from.

Literally, He was the Son of God. That is why when the wise men came, God told Joseph, "Take your Mary and the child to Egypt," because the Old Testament scripture had promised "out of Egypt have I called my son." You see that Israel as a nation was called God's son and called out of Egypt. You see Jesus as the Lord Christ, God's Son, was called out of Egypt. You and I have been called out of Egypt, out of darkness, out of the place of bondage and slavery into the marvelous light. You and I have a chance, but we've got to be willing to be representatives. We can't continue to go down this trail the way we have gone. You don't want to misrepresent the Master in '26.

It is time now to be a son. When I was born, the eighth child of Henry and Katie Wesley, I became a son of the Wesley family. When I was 18 years old and crossed the burning sands, I became a son of blood and thunder. Today, I'm a son of God. My old pastor used to say, "I'm a child of the King." I'm a child of the King with Jesus my Savior. I'm a child of the King. What have you got to do in the New Year? I want to give it to you practically. I want to warn you that you've got to be careful because you don't know who you're dealing with. I want to warn you that you ought to live right because you now bear the title if you believe as son or child of God.

If you are a child of God, then you ought to let your light so shine so that men may see the good that's in you. It will bring glory to your Father which is in heaven. Your Father always wants you to glorify Him. What have you got to do? You've got to plan ahead. Here is the practical for the New Year. What do you do when you are planning? Maybe many of you have had plans before and those plans failed, but you've got to plan now to be successful. Plan to be successful. Don’t plan to fail. It starts with understanding your motive. Don’t miss your motive. You've got to understand your "why."

If you don’t know your "why," you will not do whatever you plan to do to succeed. If you said that you're going to lose weight but you don't know your "why," you're not going to lose any weight. If you say you're going to start your own business, you're going to write your own book, you're going to do whatever it is, you better know your "why." What motivates you to do what you're doing? If that's not clear, you won't do it. You won't stay with it. If I said I'm going to lose weight and they tell me that I've got to run on this treadmill for 20 hours every day, I'm not going to lose any weight because I'm not going to do it. It's not in my "why." If they tell me that if you don't run on this treadmill then all your family is going to perish, then that changes my "why."

Your "why" becomes your motivation. As you go into the year, as you lay down your plans, understand your motive, your own motive, not somebody else's. Your own "why." What motivates you to keep going and to do to accomplish what it is that you have declared and decreed? Secondly, if you're going to make the plan, and how many know that planning is of God? This is strategic. God made the world. Jesus was in the beginning and He laid out the world in six days because He was planning for the world. He planned to come. He came unrecognizably. That was part of the plan.

Secondly, you've got to understand the right mindset. Your "why," your motive, what motivates you is first. You've got to have the right mindset. The mind is a field and it can be a mine field, just like it can be anything else. What you plant in the field is what is going to come up. What you've got to understand is you've got to avoid negative thinking. You can't let other people plant negative thoughts in your mind if you're going to succeed. Don't tell me what I can't do. That's what you can't do. That ain't what I can't do.

I talk about these people, certain groups of people sometimes, and the kind of people I'm talking about now are "ain't it awful" people. You ever met any of them? Everything: "Ain't it awful?" Before you know it, they will kill your dream. "Ain't it awful?" have you thinking... God has blessed you. This is day three, four of the New Year. You've got 361 more days beyond today, and you have all of these opportunities to be the son of God. As the son of God, you've got all of the resources of heaven. Don't tell me you can't be successful. You've got to know your motivation, you've got to have the right mindset, and then thirdly, in this planning process, you've got to write it down.

"I don't need to write it down." You need to write it down. Did you hear what God said to the prophet Habakkuk? He said, "Write the vision down and make it plain." Why? So that they who read it can run with it. Sometimes when you write it down, you may have to come back to it. When you see what you have written down, you will find yourself recharged to go on a little further. I dare you to keep journals and write stuff down. It will surprise you. That's why the old song used to say, "Count your many blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

You ever go back through a plan and you said, "Lord, wow, got that check. Got that check. Scratch that off, check. Scratch that off, check." People who write things down, they have sharper minds. You retain more. Your memory expands and you get done more things than people who don't. I know some guys in here that play chess. A person who has a plan will beat a person who has no plan every time. A person who just sits down at the chess board, "I'm just going to play, I'm just going to move things around," you're going to get whopped. You're in a spiritual war, but God has declared that you are a son of God. He has given you the wherewithal to be who you need to be, but you at least ought to take the human faculties that He's given you and make a plan.

I've got one plan and here are the elements of that plan. I'm going to give it to you and I'm out the way for the morning because I want you all to have it. I want you to be successful. You've got one goal, but it works out in four dimensions. The first of these is your spiritual emotional life. Over the next 90 days, what are you going to do spiritually? I'm not talking about... Don't go all through the year. Don't go all the way to next December. You can't think that far, you can't see that far. You can put something in place of where you'd like to be in the next 30, 60, 90 days. Where would you like to be spiritually?

You're going to need to be the son of God. You're going to need spiritual enablement. That's why we're offering 21 days of prayer. You're going to need some time to be spent in the presence of God. How are you going to be a son of God and you ain't going to spend no time in the presence of God? Jesus said to those that believe gave He power. John said that to become... So you can become in the New Year. Your spiritual, your emotional development can take place over the next 60, 90 days.

The second part of that plan, the element of your plan for the New Year, needs to include relationships. Look at the relationships that are in your life. I've got to be honest with you: some of them might be toxic. It might be time for some folk to go. You don't have to be ugly to nobody. I'm not just saying you've got to be ugly to nobody. You don't have to give nobody no pink slip and say, "Okay, you're out." Within your own self, if you're giving this relationship too much time and it is toxic, it's time for you to do something different. How many know that you can have toxic relationships? Some of those "ain't it awful" folk people might be included in that. You just don't have the time over these next little while. Maybe I pick you up on the second half of the year, but these first 90 days I need to be a little bit more concentrated in my own thought process and in my own relationship. I want to surround myself with positive people.

I love football. You all know that we like football. Some of these teams can't win championships because their locker room is toxic. When you've got negative players in the locker room downing the coach and dogging out one another, how in the world are you going to line up on the field and be effective? Do you understand? "Oh man, they won't throw me the ball. They won't give me the ball. They won't let me sing. They won't let me preach. They won't let me, they won't let me, they won't let me." Look, if they won't let you preach in here, put a box top outside, stand on the step, and preach anyway.

Not only your spiritual, emotional, your relationships, then thirdly in that plan, you need to think about your physical self. If you're going to be a son or daughter of God, you've got to be in shape to stay in the game. You can't play if you're on the sideline. Man, I might not go to the gym, but I keep that little old phone in my pocket and I count the number of steps that I take. I want to make sure that I'm moving because a body in motion stays in motion and a body that's at rest does what? It stays at rest. If you're ready to be at rest, then sit down. Don't do nothing for yourself. Don't eat right. Eat all of the pigtails and pig feet and drink all of the gravy you can. Put every unhealthy substance you can put in your body. Don't worry about it.

If you are a child of God and you want to represent Him, and you want to be fit for the Master's use and you want to be included in carrying out the things that He has blessed you with for this year, then you have to look out for yourself physically. Physical health also leads to mental health. Good mental health. I love sometimes quiet walks. Just a walk. I don't have to walk as fast as everybody else, not keeping up with other people. I'm not keeping up with the Joneses. I'm walking at my own pace. Sometimes it's a little slower, but it's my walk. I know when I walk I'm not walking by myself because He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me that I am His own. And the joy that we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.

I'm talking about a New Year's warning. Undercover boss, you've got to be careful. You've got to live right. You've got to be careful. You've got to live right. You've got to plan ahead. Not only must you plan for your physical self, but you also lastly must plan for your financial well-being. All Black people hear me: financial wealth and health is important. The world's economy is changing. Don't you get left behind because you don't want to be savvy enough to understand the tools that you're going to need to be effective in today's market.

I'm just telling you: you're going to need to sit back and you're going to need to diversify. You're going to need to put some cash somewhere. You don't have to spend every quarter on a hamburger. Cook some at home. I remember when I went on a date one time, I took that girl on a date. We went to Krystal, and we had a date at Krystal because I could buy four of them burgers for a dollar baby, an apple pie, and a drink. You can't do that now. You can't do it now. These girls, "You want me to have a Krystal? I want a Big Mac. I want a Big Mac."

You've got to put some cash aside. If the economy crashes, you've got to have something for a rainy day. You've got to understand the stock markets. I'm talking practical. I'm winding up but I'm talking to you because this is what planning is. Some money might can be under the mattress or somewhere in that house, but you've got to put some out here that can work for you and do some other things. Even though you might have it stacked under the mattress, it ain't going to grow no interest over here. You've got to put it somewhere where it can do some work on your behalf.

Those of you who are young in here, there is no reason why you should not be putting something aside for yourself. You don't have to wear Three-Peice every day. You don't have to wear Armani shoes. You don't have to wear custom shirts from the custom shop. Go to the Salvation Army, go to the thrift store. No, I'm not telling you to do that. I'm not telling you to do that, but I'm telling you: don't be fools. This American economy thrives on you. They depend on you. They know that if they put a name on it, that you're going to buy it even though you can't afford it.

I'm just saying plan ahead. Just take the next 90 days. I'm done. Take the next 90 days and tell yourself that I am a child of God, I am a son of God. If I am a son of God, God has given me the power. I talked last week about settling season is over. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life and might have it more abundantly." It's time now for you to move into this abundant season. This is a New Year. Don't be in the same position three months from now that you're in today. Have $10 more, have a peace of mind, have an honesty about yourself, a relationship that's budding and bubbling. Somebody feels good about being around you. You can't be the kind of person that you can't stand to be around yourself. If you can't stand to be around you, then you can be sure can't nobody else stand to be around you.

Look within and learn to trust God. That's how it all starts. That's how you become a son of God. You trust the Word. The Word says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Verse 14 says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father." Those men were eyewitnesses that this Jesus came. You and I may not have seen Him in the flesh, but we believe the testimony. Because we believe the testimony, we have been given the power, the faith, the understanding, the truth to become sons and daughters of the most high God. It's not that you've got to flip this way or flip that way or hold your mouth this way or do some stupid. Just believe. Is there anybody here who believes? I believe. Belief is called trust. I trust in God, my Savior. He's the one. He is the one. Is there anybody else who can save your soul? Is there anybody else who can empower you? Is there anybody else who can protect you? Is there anyone else who can guide you? A New Year has done, and I want to warn you: be careful. Be careful how you treat people because you just may be dealing with the undercover boss. Doors of the church open. Doors open. Doors open. During the song, might be somebody here. Somebody might want to give their heart to God. They want to start this off right. This is your moment.