Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

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

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: We're certainly thankful and grateful for the opportunity and privilege that we have to be here today. I want to thank this young, gracious pastor for extending the opportunity for me to stand this morning. I'm going to tell you that my time on this pulpit is coming toward a close. I enjoyed doing it, and I will continue to preach, but as special invitations. I won't be expecting to preach each week. We've got a new pastor. He needs to preach. He needs to know you, you need to know him, and all of those things need to happen.

I said from the beginning in our timeline that I would go through March. March is coming, and it may go since April's the... Easter's the first week in April, we may go past that. But other than that, we're going to be relinquishing. I just want to be fair with you as we have, and fair with him because he needs the opportunity to grow and develop.

We will continue to work through the things that we're working with with our media challenges and opportunities to share the Word of God. It's not going to be like there's going to be a shortage of opportunity. My calendar is already full, so it's not that at all. I love you, you know I do, but I just want to say those things from the beginning.

I want to invite you to join me now as we pray and ready our hearts for the Word for the morning. Father, thank You for loving us and blessing us. Thank You for guiding us through another week. Thank You for bringing us safely across the airways and bringing us back home again. You've allowed us to go and be in Charlotte and be a part of activity there, and You brought us back safely.

We didn't get lost in the crowd. We didn't get lost in the traffic jams that were at the airports. You allowed the plane to fly on time, and for that, we are thankful. We're thankful for this worship opportunity on this glorious Lord's Day. Thank You for our children and our youth. We pray that You would continue to embrace them and help them to grow and learn of You.

Thank You, Lord, for the leadership that You provide through Reverend James, and we pray for him. Pray for the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church. Thank You now for the Word of God for this morning. Lift now Your human out of self. Fill us with the Holy Spirit. Speak to us and through us in this moment of sharing 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 in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to look briefly this morning at two passages of scripture only because they speak to my heart what I believe the Lord has put on me to share with you today. The first passage comes from the book of Philippians chapter 4, and it encompasses all nine of those verses, but I won't read all nine of them. I'll read through verse 7. Philippians chapter 4:1 through 7. Then we'll read a few verses from Matthew's Gospel chapter 6, beginning at verse 5, and just a couple verses there.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech Euodia and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women who labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the Book of Life.

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Then I want to skip over to Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 5. When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogue and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

But when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to the Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. This is the Word of God for the people of God.

I want to talk this morning one more time about strengthening your grip, but I want to talk about strengthening your grip on prayer. We've talked about strengthening your grip on your priorities. These are messages for Greater Shiloh. We've got to make sure that we understand that our priorities are with our leadership. That starts everything.

Nothing redemptively is going to happen, I don't care who the name of the person is or where they come from, if there's no leadership, there won't be any redemptive action. There has to be leadership and followership, so that has to become a priority. Then the ministry has to be biblically based. This is what we talked about a couple weeks ago in terms of priorities.

The ministry not only must be biblically based, but the ministry also must be understood and shared. There has to be a sharing of the work that God has given. This is not a solo performance. No one person can do the work that God intends to be done by the body of Christ, so it takes everybody. We talked more about some other priorities there.

Then we talked about involvement. You've got to make sure that you're involved. You've got to look at what God has given you to do and get at it. Use the gifts, talents, and abilities that God has blessed you with and use those gifts for the body of Christ. God doesn't equip you with spiritual gifts for you to be the lone ranger Christian to run off somewhere else with it.

God puts those gifts in the body, and they're to be used for the local body. Just like you can't take your hand and go do something else with it, it's for this body, and all of these body parts are for the benefit of this one body. And so it is, we are many members, but one body.

So this morning as we come talking about strengthening your grip on prayer, I want to be clear that I'm not here to beat up on nobody about your prayer life. I want to be real clear that no one is going to come to your house peeping over your shoulder to see how long you stay on your knees, and no one is going to check to see do you have any wear and tear on your knees from being a prayer.

That's not the goal. The goal is not to make anybody feel bad or guilty about whatever their prayer life is because the truth is, none of our prayer life is what it ought to be, and all of us can improve in our prayer. What I'm saying to you is, what you think about God determines what you do about God. You've got to understand that prayer is important.

I think about these children, and I think about these youth today, and I'm just hurting because of it. I know with the exception of these that come maybe here and a few that go other places, the vast majority of our young people today don't even know God. He's not taught at home. He's not presented in the schools, and the vast majority don't come to church.

So when and where are they going to learn about God? I look at a world, I look at the situation that we're in, and it's just amazing with all of these smart people, but they ain't so smart because if they were smart, they would figure out some things. We can't all be on this one planet trying to tear each other up.

I just think about that war in Iran. I think about these people talking about the Gulf and we're going to shoot the oil tankers and we're going to sink them. Do they realize that that oil got to go somewhere? If you blow up one of those oil tankers, where is that oil going to go? In that water.

What is that going to do? It's going to poison the whole ecosystem for a long time. That's not just for a day or two. Oil blocks the vision of the bottom of the ocean. It kills fish. It kills all of the marine life. Those little fishermen that they're using their little boats for, they won't have nowhere to fish.

So smart people need to be thinking. They need to be praying. They need to get a grip on prayer. We're talking about outer space, and do you know that there are some rocket scientists and others that are trying to figure out how to take people to Mars? 255 million miles or billion miles away and you're talking about taking people there to live? How you going to take somebody to Mars to live and you can't live on Earth?

And with us as a church, and we're talking about going to heaven, how we going to live in heaven and we can't get along with each other? Earth is a dry run for heaven. God's got a sense of humor. He's going to have you standing next to the person that you couldn't stand, and you're going to have to praise the Lord or listen at them praise the Lord. That is amazing to me.

So this letter Paul writes here to the Philippians. The people at Philippi were people that Paul was dearly, affectionately drawn to. You know how he began, how he came into Macedonia. Having he and his traveling companions had gone as far as Bithynia and they could not preach any further, the Holy Spirit had forbidden them from preaching.

Paul saw a vision of a man in the night saying, "Come over here and help us." He took that as a sign that God wanted him to move over into Macedonia. This was the first bringing of the Gospel onto the continent of Europe. That's why it spread and is even today inundated and we have access to it because of that Macedonian call.

He came over, and as was his custom, he would try to find a Jewish synagogue. But there was no Jewish synagogue in Philippi. He went down by the riverside because that was the alternative place that people of faith would gather. There was a group of women who went down every Sabbath by the river to pray. Paul met with them, and there he met the woman Lydia.

They began a fellowship, and every Sabbath Paul was going down to pray and teach them the Word of God. But there was a girl, a slave girl in that town who was being mishandled by her masters and they were profiting from her. Paul became vexed that she followed them every week and he called the devil out of the girl.

It's just amazing that deliverance was wrought in their eyes. The whole town should have been excited, but instead of them being excited, they drug Paul and Silas into the marketplace and beat them bad and then threw them in the prison, put them in locks. But at midnight, God rocked the jailhouse.

When the jailhouse rocked, the jailer was about to commit suicide. He came crying, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul shared the Gospel, and the Philippian jailer and his house were converted. So a little church sprang up in Philippi. When Paul left Philippi, he goes down in the Thessalonica, and the people at Philippi sent Paul a love gift.

Then Paul went on to Berea, then he went on into Athens, and another time the people at Philippi sent Paul a love gift. Now, here it is ten years later and they find out that Paul is in prison in Rome. He's under house arrest. He's chained 24 hours to a soldier.

He can't even use the natural facilities and relieve himself without having a grown man standing right there with him. I don't know how that makes you feel, but that would be very uncomfortable. This man was at the lowest ebb of his human life, but he remembers these people because they remembered him.

They sent a church member, a man named Epaphroditus, to Paul with love gifts. Probably money, probably food, probably some parchments and other supplies that Paul needs. Paul writes this thank-you letter back to the people to say thank you. He says to them, "Listen, I know you heard about all of the trouble that I've been through."

He said, "But don't let that bother you because God worked it out for my good. Even in Caesar's house, the whole Praetorium Guard is now preaching and being saved. Some people are preaching to try to make me shame, but some people are preaching because they want to tell the truth. But either way it go, God is being glorified, that the Word of God is going forth."

So Paul said, "Don't worry about me." Then he tells them thank you again. He said, "Every time I think about you, I can't help but go down on my knees and tell the Lord thank you." Greater Shiloh, that's how I feel about you. Every time I think about you, I pray for you.

I pray that God will continue to bless and keep this family and use you for the glory that He has in mind for you. You're dear to my heart. Paul had a pastor's heart, and in his pastoral heart he says to the Philippian people, "Listen, what I want you to have is what I know a lot of people don't have, and that's stability."

That's where I want to start this morning. Stability, because he says to them in this first verse here of chapter 4, "Look, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy, my crown, so stand fast in the Lord. Be stable. Be real. Be balanced. Be the kind of people that God can come among."

Now, I got to be honest, the church at Philippi wasn't perfect, and our church is not perfect. There were divisions in that church. There were two ladies there, Euodia and Syntyche. They had already a feud going. Paul is calling on some other good church members.

Get with those ladies, help them solve that problem so it doesn't spread like a wildfire in the church. Can I just pause right here and say, listen, when gossip come up, somebody who's spiritual got to be able to step in and put that fire out. Don't let that kind of stuff fester and grow in your church.

Because when that stuff goes underground and it goes like that, it will tear up the body of Christ. It ain't nothing but the work of the devil. You know that ain't God's will. So he's calling them for them to be stable. We live in an unstable society. Everything is on shaky ground.

Stock market about to crash. War breaking out. I wouldn't want to live in the Middle East today. Every other moment, sirens going off. You don't know where those bombs are going to land. Whether you're going to school as a child or going to church as a person or going on your business, bombs are falling everywhere.

They're busting up the bottom coming from the ground, submarines are being sunk. All kinds of things. That's unstable. God doesn't want us to be unstable. God wants you and I, the body of Christ, to be able to stand firm, to be clear about what our objectives are, what we're trying to accomplish together, what we're trying to do to cause His name to be universally spread.

It'll come through unity. Stability will come through being together. It'll come through demonstrating love. It'll come through ministering to one another. That's what Paul is calling for, and that's what I want to tell us today. There are a whole lot of people who are unstable today, but we don't have to be among them.

You know why? Because we can learn how to pray. That's what I want to say. Paul said, "Listen, you don't have to be anxious about anything." The reason we are anxious, the reason we are nervous, the reason we're pulling the hair out of our head is because of the unstableness of what we're doing.

We're standing on shaky ground. So let's get off the shaky ground and get on the solid ground. On Christ, the solid rock, we need to be standing because all other ground is sinking sand. So if we're going to stand firm, we got to get off the shaky stuff. Therefore, we need to pray.

Children need to pray. Parents need to pray. How you know what to do with these kids? They don't come with instructions. When they showed up, they didn't come from Brookwood either, they came from some of y'all. When they came in the world, they came in with history behind them.

Because they had family dynamics that were already infiltrated in their DNA. So if we don't pray for them, if we don't pray with them, if we don't teach them to pray, how in the world are they going to make it? When we come to church, not just on worship for Sunday, but when you meet, how dare you meet and not pray?

What you meeting about if it don't include God? So it ought to start with God, it ought to be about God, it ought to end with God, and we ought to be able to praise His holy name. Otherwise, we don't even need to meet. Don't meet just to meet because when you meet just to meet, that's when stuff come up and trouble and everybody got an opinion.

So, let's pray. Pray your way through. I say about ministry all the time, it's never a ministry failure. What it really is is a prayer failure. Whenever we're doing something, little prayer, little power. Much prayer, much power. So if you want to experience success in the church, then you need to be praying. Pray about everything.

This past week, I had a tough week. I left Birmingham, I was going to Charlotte. I had to be up there for a few days, and God know just when to send me away. He sent me away by myself so that I could spend time with Him. It was just amazing because I got a chance to unburden my heart to God, to just pour.

I know I'm making myself vulnerable. You don't like to be vulnerable. You want everyone to think you got it together. Nobody in here got it together like that. I don't care who you think you are, you ain't all of that. And if you are not that, then it just says you definitely need to have some time with God.

You need to get on your hands and knees, your face, and you need to tell God about everything. Not that you're informing Him. He already knows, but He wants you to express it. When you express it, you make the door open where He can talk back to you.

Prayer is not monologue. It's not where you get down and do all the talking. It's dialogue where He talks back. Sometimes, He wait till you sleep or 4:00 in the morning. When He got your undivided attention, then He start talking. Anybody ever had God work on you like that? Early in the morning, He start helping you see solutions to stuff you've been wrestling with for a long time.

Then He'll show you. He'll say, "See, look at this." And you go, "Lord, I had not thought about it like that." And He said, "That's why I want you to talk to Me." We sang that song, "Just a Little Talk." Not a whole lot of talk. Sometimes it just take one talk. What make you think you don't need to talk to God?

Jesus talked to God. That's what the disciples recognized about Him. When they saw Jesus, He go up on the mountain and He spend time talking to His Father. Sometimes before some great miracle, He look up to heaven and He talk to His Father and then stuff would happen.

You want to know why things ain't happening in your life? Because ain't no talking going on. I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm just saying. You don't have to be anxious about nothing, but by prayer with supplication. What does that mean?

Prayer is the dialogue with God, but you're not going to butter God up, but you still ought to praise Him. You still ought to tell Him You're wonderful, You're awesome. You ought not just open your prayer up with your request line. You ought to at least thank the Lord for who He is and talk about His attributes.

But it's alright to supplicate. Supplication is actually the process of making requests. Make your request, this is what Paul said, known unto God. And the God of peace does something. He'll keep your heart and mind. It's what I call peace of God.

But in order to have peace of God, you got to have peace with God. When you got peace with God, then you can enjoy the peace of God. You can know that He's going to open the door. You can know that He's going to open the window. You can know that He's going to heal you.

You can know before you go to the doctor, I don't care what he say, it's still going to be alright. You can know when you go to the bank that the finances is going to be in order because the Lord is going to take care of you. How many know we're getting ready for a global reset of the finances, and you better wake up, you better understand.

But you don't have to be lost and you don't have to be worried. What you need to do is talk to God about your situation, and I promise you, He'll show it to you. He'll show it to you. Don't depend on other people. Depend on God. Talk to Him.

The only thing here that Paul says about it is that when you talk to God, then He brings the stability in your mind. There are really about seven, eight different things in this text. I don't have time to lay it all out for you today, but you got to, if you want to be on solid footing, you got to be able to pray.

You got to be able to think the right kinds of things. You got to be able to follow the right examples. You can't just follow everybody anywhere because you got some folk that ain't going to do right and they're not going to lead you right, and they're not going to tell you they're not leading you right.

Before you know it, you're in a mess. Anybody ever got caught up like that where you believe somebody, was trusting somebody halfway, and they ended up putting you in a situation? And you have to pray to get out of the situation. So you need to think the right things.

Things that are lovely, things that are true, things that are honest, things that are virtue, things of good report. Then you got to watch the examples, those examples, things that you've heard from good people. That's what Paul was telling them. You do the things you've seen in me, things you've heard of me, the examples that I have set for you.

Follow those godly kinds of things, and the stability will come. Then when He look over at Jesus' words, Jesus was talking to His disciples about prayer. And He tells them, when you pray, He warns them of three things that you can't do.

He said, "Don't be like the hypocrites." Don't be hypocritical. Don't be full of hypocrisy. That word hypocrite, when I was a little boy my aunt used to use it, great aunt used to use it, "You're a hypocrite." And I said, "What's a hypocrite?" She never could explain, but I know now what a hypocrite is.

It's a person who pretend to be one thing and they're not another. It really is an actor. It's an actor who puts on a dough face or a mask. They pretend to be somebody that they are not. So Jesus is saying, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites.

What did they do? They love to stand on the street corners. They love to look so pious and holy. They fold their hands, the Jewish rabbi, they put on their robes. They had those phylacteries at the bottom, they had little scripture pieces in the bottom of those little boxes that went around the bottom of their robe.

And they looked so pious, and sometimes they put ashes on their face to show people that they were grieving and they were just... you hear them three times a day and they would just be going off. And the people would go, "Wow, that's what I'm supposed to do? I can't do it like that."

And it was killing people's prayer life. So God doesn't want you to be hypocritical. You don't have to pretend. Just talk to your Father like you talk to your father. Jesus just talked to God like that. "Father, I know You hear Me always."

So He just opened up and just started the dialogue. Sometimes that's what you just have to do. Sometimes you just have to say, "Father," or "God," or whatever you want to call Him. "Here is your boy again." God, you don't always have to go so formal, "Oh God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

God be looking at you out the side of His eye like, "Who is that? That's not my boy." Talk to Him real. And not only don't be hypocritical, but don't use vain repetition. There are people who pray and they say the same thing over and over because they think that they're going to be heard for their much speaking.

But that's not what God is interested in. God is not interested in verbal gymnastics. He's not interested in how wide your vocabulary is as you are talking to Him because sometimes your vocabulary will fail you. When your heart is heavy, you can't make that stuff up. Sometimes all you can say is, "Lord, help. Have mercy, Lord."

How many know, "Have mercy" is enough? I told you many times, one night I was coming out of Atlanta. I was driving on I-20 and I was coming down, it was raining. I was in the left lane getting ready to go in the right lane first, and then a truck came and he got over, so I moved over to the left side and I'm getting ready to go past the truck, and he started moving over back in my lane.

So I'm slowing down, I put my foot on the brake to slow my vehicle down, and the wet concrete caused the car to hydroplane. It turned sideways like this, and it went across the median. This was before they put the concrete barriers in the middle. I was headed straight across I-20 into the face of oncoming traffic.

I saw those cars and all I could do is put up my hands and, "Lord, have mercy." Because I know I was in trouble. I'm here to tell you that somebody else took that wheel because it wasn't me. And when that car landed on the other side, nobody hit me.

The car landed, and I was parked parallel on the other side of the interstate. When the state trooper came, he said to me, "Man, somebody was with you." Truck drivers came, they said, "We saw you coming and we knew that if we had kept going at the speed we were going, you wouldn't be here."

Don't tell me what prayer won't do. Have mercy. Have mercy, Jesus. When your children are in trouble, have mercy. I'm talking about when you're on your sickbed. Have mercy. When you don't know what they mean when they're talking about these long words and telling you some medical term, just put it in plain English. And all I can say is have mercy.

I remember the morning I was getting ready to have big five-hour surgery. I got there and my humanity started getting the best of me, my humanness, I started to feel a little nervous. And I turned my face to the wall. I said, "Lord, Your Word said You would keep me in perfect peace if I keep my mind on You because I trust You and You know I trust You."

And I'm here to tell you, God calmed me down. He overshadowed me. And when I knew anything, I was waking up. They said, "Everything's done, sir. You're alright." And then I had to check. I know it was going to be a big, bad surgery. They was supposed to take this and take that. I just wanted to make sure they had not got the wrong piece.

When I realized I was all there, I said, "Okay, let's go." I'm just telling the truth. Have mercy. Anybody ever had to say have mercy? I've been in trouble when I've had to say, "Lord, have mercy." And the Lord made it all go away. I ain't got time to tell you all of my story now. I don't need to tell you all of my story.

Just know you need to put that in your vocabulary. Have mercy. You ain't got to learn how to pray long. You ain't got to learn how to pray theologically, but you need to learn how to say have mercy. Anybody know another short prayer? "Help me, Jesus." Do you know the "Help me, Jesus" will bring the whole force of heaven to your side?

Help me, Jesus. Pick me up, sir. Dry my tears. Bind my heart. God will hear you. All I'm trying to help you understand this morning is if you want to be stable, you got to get a grip on your prayer life. You got to get a grip as a church on your prayer life. We got to pray our way through.

We're facing almost it could easily be the end of the world. It doesn't take but one real fool to turn loose the wrong artillery and a whole lot of people can be messed up. And the whole world could be in it, and we're at that point. Never before in the history of the world have we been in such vulnerable condition.

The unstableness is what I'm talking about. And if we're going to make it through, this is the time where the people of God has got to come together. Can I take you to the Old Testament? I'm almost done. But there's a verse in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 that talks to you this morning.

And that verse say, "If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray." See, there it is. "And turn from their wicked ways." There's got to be some turning though. We just can't just engage in just calling on the name of the Lord because see, that's what the Pharisees did.

They stand on the corner and they would say, "God, Jesus." And they would be just going on in vain repetition. But that's not what gets God's heart. It's the sincerity. It's the people who turn from their wicked ways, who seek His face, who humble themselves are the people who God will listen to.

And God wants to hear you today. God wants to answer your prayer. How many know He will? He will. Let me give you these things what messed the Pharisees up, the reason they couldn't get no prayer through, is because of formalism. They got so formal.

They wanted to stand, they wanted to look so cute, they wanted to look so dignified, they wanted to look so holy-fied. And you got church folk, man, that do that. "What's wrong with you? You don't know who I am? I got a seat up here with God and you peasants." Formalism will rob you of answered prayer.

The second thing that robbed the Pharisees of their prayer life with God was ritualistic. They became so ritual. They didn't miss. They prayed at 9:00, they prayed at noon, they prayed at 6:00, they prayed at 3:00. They didn't miss. Even in the book of Daniel, you remember Daniel prayed at certain times and they knew that Daniel was going to be praying at those certain times, and they set a trap for him.

But the Pharisees in Jesus' day, the difference in Daniel is Daniel was talking to God for real. These people were just going through the motion. They wanted to be seen. Don't do it to be seen. Prayer is to be heard, not to be seen.

The third thing that messed them up is their verbiage. They felt like they had to have the terms, the right words. God of Abraham, they loved to say that. God of Isaac, God of Jacob. See, that tied them to their biblical heritage and they felt that that obligated God. We got it bad too now.

Grandmama's God. Great-grandmama's God. God of Martin Luther King. We think that you can obligate God with verbiage. That's not it. God is not impressed by your words. And then the repetition, just "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." Or some people they pray and every other word is "In the name of Jesus."

And it's alright, it is in Jesus' name, but I want you to understand it's not a formula there. Don't do it that way because you think that that's going to move the heart of God. Lastly, what that does, that issues into pride. Pride is what causes men to fall because you get so lifted up.

"I got this relationship with God and He knows my name." Yeah, He knows all of our names, but when you don't do that or when you get lost in pride, you can mess yourself up and you can block your prayers. How many know God won't answer every prayer? And He won't answer prayers of prideful people.

James, the book of James talks about being stable. Peter talks about being stable. Paul talks about being stable. Jude talks about being stable. Jesus talks about being stable. And so you need to be stable in your prayer life. Get a grip, get a handle, strengthen your grip on your prayer life.

Yes, Jesus loves me. This I know. Why? For the Bible tells me so. Little ones. And that little one is not just young children. People who are little in their own eyes, little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. But how you going to get prayers through from God if you up in God's face like you just as much a god as He is?

You need to understand that's not the way. And so get a grip on that. Strengthen your grip on the right approach, on the right understanding so that you can make it through these unstable times. It's going to get worse before it gets better. It really is. I'm not going to mention our president today. Not today. I'm not going to elaborate on him.

But I'm just saying to us that he's not the only one. There are a whole lot of other folk who are sailing in the wrong direction. And people are looking now to the church, people are going to be looking to the church to provide the leadership, the stability, the answers for all of the difficult solutions that they face.

Do you understand that when people come to church on Sunday, you just don't have no idea? If I took the microphone and went down the line and put it in front of each one of you, each one would have a story about what their journey has been this week and what challenges you have faced. And yet the Lord brought you.

I just need one witness. Is there anybody know that the Lord brought you? I'm not talking about somebody else, but you know the Lord Himself did that. I was talking about one other time, one Sunday morning two, three years ago. I had preached and was riding through the community.

I was riding down here on 4th Jefferson Avenue and stopped at the traffic light and all of a sudden, I heard something go "bit-it-it-it-it" and I felt my car go "boom" in my car. I looked out the side and I didn't know what was going on, and I saw this guy coming down the street with his big old rifle. And then I heard the "bit-it-it-it-it" again and I laid across the seat. I said, "Lord, have mercy."

I didn't know really what was going on. And then a lady pulled around, "Pastor, you alright?" I said, "Yes, ma'am, Jesus got me." And then a few minutes later, the police came. And when the police came, I got out of the car. And when I got out of the car, I walked to the back of the car and I saw that my car had been struck by gunfire.

And a bullet was right through the trunk, headed right for me. But you know what? The Lord caught it. The Lord caught it. And I know the Lord caught it. And I know that I'm here today because nobody did that but Jesus. Do you understand?

That's what I'm telling you. When you look at where I have been and what I have come through, you can't tell me what the Lord won't do. The church ought to be on fire, not because somebody jumping up and down, not because somebody screaming to the top of their voice, but you ought to be on fire because you know yourself that there is no way you could be here and be able to stand if the Lord had not been on your side.

That's why I used to like that song, "If it had not been for the Lord on my side, tell me where would I be?" How many trips have you taken? How many people could have ended up just like the young man? I don't want to say nothing about that boy, but that young boy went across over the way and family was looking for him, they found him in the water.

God has protected you. God has protected your children. God has watched over you. God has made a way. I'm not going to ask Black people, "Has He ever paid a bill for you? Has He ever raised up money when you didn't know where money was going to come from?"

Don't make me talk about how the Lord has opened doors that just I just didn't know that a door that wide could open, but God opened the door. I'm just saying, I know we got to take the service all to a close. "Jesus, I Love You," that's the song.

Jesus, I love You. The doors open, we're going to open the doors of the church. Somebody might be here this morning. Come on, sir. Jesus, I love You. Jesus, I love You. You're welcome in my heart. That's the place. Jesus, I love You. Can you say that? Jesus, I love You. No matter what you've done, no matter how long you've done it, you can still tell Him, "I love You, Jesus."

And You are welcome in my life. You're welcome in this place. My heart says yes. My heart says yes. You tell God, "I'll hear You, I'll give my hand to You tomorrow," but tomorrow's not promised. Today is today. Don't put it off. If you're sitting in here and you wanted to make a decision to ask Jesus to come into your heart, you can do that right here, right now.

All you have to do is just pray. Lord, forgive me of my sin. Help me to be the man, the woman, the boy, girl You want me to be. I do believe that You're the Son of God. I do believe You came to the Earth, died on the cross, was raised the third day, and I want You to live in me. If you pray like that, your life change.

Don't play with this. I'm not here to play, I'm not here to game on you. We're not trying to work on nobody's emotion. We're just telling you the truth. You need Jesus. And you need to be able to pray. You need to get a grip on that. But it starts with your personal relationship with Him.

If you're here today, you still got this moment. You can come. I know we got a minute or two over Sunday school, but we're going to get into it. But I just don't want to miss if somebody's here and you want this opportunity. Get up now and walk this way. Door still open. Come on. Going to the study time in our classes for every age group. Give the Lord a handclap of praise.

Guest (Male): Hope you enjoyed the broadcast. You have been listening to a message from the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where we are reaching the world for Christ. Located at 2135 Jefferson Avenue Southwest, Birmingham, Alabama, 35211.

For a copy of this message, you can reach us at 205-925-9750 or 9751, or visit us on the web at www.greatershiloh.org. For another uplifting message, we invite you to join us for our next broadcast.