Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

--[Voice 1]

You are now listening to an inspirational message from Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where Dr. Michael W. Wesley Senior is the pastor. Please join the service in progress.

--[Congregation]

Yes.

--[Voice 2]

Oh Lord. Through storms, through rain. Jesus. Lord, you've been so good to us. You brought us from a mighty long way. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord. Anytime you ever want to just say thank you, Lord. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. You've been good Lord. You've sure enough been good to me.

--[Congregation]

Oh.

--[Voice 2]

Oh Lord. You've been good. Oh Lord. You've been so good. So good. So good to me. Since you woke me up this morning. I was feeling fine. Lord, you healed my body and you clothed me in my right mind. Oh, Lord, you've been a shelter in the time of my storm. Lord, I've known when I'm here by you everything will be all right. Oh, Lord. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Oh, Lord. You've been good. You've been so good. Every time I look around me and I see that you've been good. Oh, Lord. You've been so good. Yes, you have. So good to me. Listen here. He's been my shelter. In the time of storms. Listen here. Have you ever been cold and you know the Lord will wrap his arms around you and he will keep you keep you warm. You love you love, you love is so true. Lord, you made a way. I don't know what I do. But you've been a You've been everything to me. You've been good to me. Everybody said. Come on, somebody in here can say. Think about it, think about it. You've been so good to me. Yeah. Oh, Lord. You've been, you've been. When I think about you, when I was sick and I couldn't get a will you've been. And you turn around. You healed my body and now I can tell you've been. You've been my water, when I'm thirsty. My food, when I'm hungry. My way out my way in. My dearest, my dearest friend. You've been everything. Everything to me. You've been my joy. You've been my hope. You've been my friend. You've been my mother. You've been my father. Oh my sister and my brother. Oh, you've been so good. Oh, you've been so good. I want to thank you Lord, I want to thank you. Yeah, yeah. I went in for a arterial gram. The doctor said I had blockage in my artery. Well, it was going to take an hour and 15 minutes. Well, as soon as they went through my wrist, the doctor immediately aborted the surgery because he saw that God had already done what the doctor was supposed to do. Well, he said I don't see no blockage. You just got to take your time and get back in order. I want to thank God. I want to thank God. He's a healer. Anybody knew him as a healer. Anybody knew him as a healer. He's been so good. Better to me than I can be to myself. Oh, he brought me over. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been so good. You've been so good. So good to me. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Somebody know. Somebody in this house know how good he is. You've been so good. You've been, you've been, you've been so good. Yeah. Me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

--[Congregation]

Yeah.

--[Voice 2]

Hallelujah.

--[Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.]

I think all of us can truly say that God has been so good. It may not be something recent, it may not be something dramatic, but God is still good. Every day we wake up, we can find a reason to tell him thank you. Amen. I'm thankful and grateful for the awesome privilege to come again to this moment. Whenever we come to this moment, it is a paramount moment that we hear from God. It's not for me to preach but it's for us to hear what the Lord says. God has a word for us on this morning. So I want us to pray and then we'll look at what the scriptures provide for our understanding. Father, thank you for bringing us through another week. The low valleys that we went through, the high mountains we crossed over. The personal challenges, all of the things that we experienced during the week. The good times, the weak moments. Thank you for forgiving us. Thank you for being merciful to us. Thank you for being kind. Thank you for giving us rest last night and waking us this morning and giving us a desire to be in the house of prayer. Thank you for the songs that we have heard and scriptures that we have read and prayers that have been offered to cover us. And now, Lord, as we come to your word, we need to hear you. So I pray that you would move me out of the way and you stand up in this place and speak to me and speak through us. Bless now the words that are in our mouth and the meditation on our heart that it may be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. With you, there is a word. Without you, there is no word. Speak, Lord. Your servants are listening. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

--[Congregation]

Amen.

--[Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.]

I want to look at a familiar, somewhat familiar verse, passage of scripture, and I want to look at it with a little different emphasis than we may have looked at it before. Luke's Gospel, chapter 13. Luke's Gospel, chapter 13. And the account, the incident, is in verses 10 through 17. But I want to flesh that out a little bit this morning. And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said unto her, "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity." And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day. And said unto people, "There are six days in which men ought to work." In them therefore come and be healed and not on the Sabbath. The Lord then answered him and said, "Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering?" And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo these 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed. And all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. This is the word of God for the people of God.

--[Congregation]

Thanks be to God.

--[Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.]

I'm going to use the familiar subject, and the familiar subject for this text is bent but not broken. Bent but not broken. But the, the thesis and and the real thrust of the message is that Jesus creates conflict in the synagogue. And and and and that's what I wanted, I wanted to know, I wanted to know the first that all of us in a real sense are bent but not broken. The whole nation is bent. The whole nation is bound in levels of conflict. Conflict is the theme it seems of our lifetime at this point. There are wars and rumors of wars. Nations are in conflict. And and and it's amazing that our national leader is every day with every twist and turn he can, trying to put the country in conflict. As if he's sicking the United States Armed Forces on the American people. City after city, state after state, courts are in conflict. Communities are in conflict. Families are in conflict. Churches are in conflict. Inside of every one of us there are personal wars that are going on. So in a real sense, all of us are bent but thank God we're not yet broken.

--[Congregation]

Yeah.

--[Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.]

And I came today to help you. I want us to look at this that this was just one day, yes, just one day. It was one Sabbath, one Sabbath. It was one synagogue. It was one town, not even described. But Jesus shows up. And whenever the Lord shows up, there's going to be conflict. Now, it's a paradox because the angel said that he is going to be the prince of peace. And he is the prince of peace. But whenever he shows up instead of there being peace, there's always some conflict. There was conflict when he was born. And and because he was born, it resulted in the massacre of a lot of little boys. Because Satan, Herod got mad and decided to slaughter all of the little boys when the wise men didn't come back. That was conflict in the lives of the disciples who dropped their fishing nets and forsook all to follow him. Many of them never returned back to normal life again. They ended up being persecuted and prosecuted and some even martyred because of the testimony they had for Jesus Christ. Christians all over the world down through the centuries have gone through conflict because they chose to stand up for Jesus. Families have been divided. We can't get along at the meal table because of conversations about who believes what Jesus said and who don't want to do what Jesus said. So instead of him being the Prince of Peace that brings peace, he is the Prince of Peace who brings conflict. And sometimes that conflict comes up at church. Why? Because Jesus shows up there. And when he shows up there, there's going to be conflict. Why? There are three levels. First, there are errors that show up at church. There are errors in the church. There's Satan who shows up at church. And he doesn't show up just in a red suit with horns and a tail. He shows up in preachers. He shows up in people. He shows up in everybody. And then there are hypocrites who show up at church. Pretenders, phony folk, actors. Pretend like they're holy, pretend like they got it together. All of that come to church. And when all of that come to church, you see the whole church bent. But thank God we're not broken. And I want to help you to see that Jesus here and this is a text here. And we know that it is, it is near the end of his earthly ministry because this is his last recorded appearance in a synagogue. Now, now, now, you, you, you need to know a little bit about a synagogue first. A a synagogue was not the temple. The temple was established in Jerusalem, and it was the central place of worship. In Jerusalem, the Jewish people had to appear at least three times a year. For the great feast. And in the temple in Jerusalem, there were the great altars where sacrifices for sin could be made and had to be made. But the synagogue. The synagogue was simply a gathering place. And it came out of the Babylonian captivity. When the children of Israel were taken out of the land of Israel and could not worship in the temple any longer, they gathered around to hear Ezekiel speak to the captives. And after Ezekiel spoke to the captives, then the synagogue began to develop. Wherever there were eight Jewish families, a synagogue or teaching place could be established so that the Jewish people could be reminded of the truths of the Old Testament scriptures. So there were many synagogues. And even when Jesus and the disciples lived on the earth, there were many synagogues. In Galilee, the northern part, there were 240 different synagogues. In Jerusalem, there were more than 500 different synagogues. Synagogues were a weekly place where the Jews gathered to receive instruction in the Word of God. And what a place for a conflict because while people came to the synagogue to receive instruction, they often came filled with error, misunderstanding of the truth of the Word of God. And I'm submitted unto you today that people fill churches every week, but not everybody who come to