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.: Father, we thank you for blessing us with this week. Thank you for the journey: the highs, the lows, the ups, and the downs. We thank you for every good gift that you've blessed us with. Thank you for your love and mercy. Thank you for allowing us to lie down last night and rest and to rise early this morning with our hearts and minds wanting to be here in the house of prayer.

And we thank you that since we've been here, we've had the privilege of singing Zion's songs, had the blessing of worshipping together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And now, Lord, we thank you for the privilege to come and break now the bread of life. Lift again your human out of self, fill us with the Holy Spirit. Speak to us and through us in this moment. Bless the words in our mouth, the meditations on our hearts, that it may be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. We ask it all now in the name of your son Jesus. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Listen, let me say to all of you, thank you so much. It was a great installation program last week. You look like a church. You felt like a church. And I'm extremely proud that we have reached this point. We know who our pastor is, and we believe God is going to bless him. We're going to yield this hour. We're going to give it back to him and we're going to give it to the work of the Lord as God does.

We'll be in and out periodically doing whatever needs to be done. But if we're going to retire, we're going to retire. And so we're going to have to just all make adjustments, and we'll do the best we can. So let me encourage your heart this morning. Turn with me to the New Testament book, 1 Thessalonians, chapter two. There are 15 verses there in your hearing that I think I'd like to take a look at.

For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness: Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.

For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men.

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be unto God. I want to preach this morning from the subject, Strengthening Your Grip on Priorities. Strengthening your grip on your priorities. We have made a change. I have retired, and I'm grateful for the years the Lord gave and for the future opportunities that may yet come.

But it's time as we move into this transition to get a grip and to strengthen our grip on our priorities. And what needs to be the number one priority that we need to strengthen our grip on is supporting our pastor. I mean, that has got to be number one in what we understand. Nothing dynamic, nothing good, nothing powerful is going to happen if there is not that right understanding of relationship with pastor and people.

I mean, I know it wells up tears in my eyes to think about it. It's hard to watch. It's hard to do. It's hard to step away. But inasmuch as God has led me to do it, then I must do it. And what you must do is to embrace this young man and move forward with him, working with him and undergirding him with prayer. Now, why are you saying that, Pastor? How does that have anything to do with the text?

That has everything to do with the text. That's what the text is. That's what the scripture is saying very clearly. I've attended a lot of leadership conferences over the course of my lifetime. And I remember being in one leadership conference where the presenter was talking. And he said that there are two things that are difficult for people in organizations.

One is to think the right kinds of things. And secondly, to do the right things in the right order that they ought to be in. And I agree with him because what he is talking about is priorities. You can do a lot of good things, but if they are not arranged in the right order, you can mess yourself up. You can spend the rest of your life spinning your wheels and won't get nothing done because you are going about it in the wrong order.

God is a God of order. He didn't, when he created the world, he didn't make the man first and then say, "Figure out where you're going to live." No, he put the earth in place, built the home for the human, and then he put him in place. And God has continued to be a God of order. And when he was talking about the human family, he set the order.

His priority was to put the male in place first, and then he brought the female, and he created the family. But he always had in mind a priority of leadership. Leadership from the word go to the end of the book is always God's top priority. And in order for the body of Christ, the family of God, to be what it needs to be and to do what it needs to do, then we have to understand the priority of leadership.

Now, let me take this thing a step further. Where we have missed the mark and what I've tried to do was to understand in my own heart the value of developing next-level leaders. Because I knew the day would come when I'm no longer here. And every one of us need to understand next-level leadership. We are the people who won't do that among all of the people of the nations.

Everybody else knows how to prioritize, know how to develop next-level leaders, but when it comes to us, we get lost with that concept. I've repeated it many times about one of the books that was so impactful in my life. It's a book called Good to Great. And in that book, Jim Collins writes about the difference between good organizations and great organizations.

He says good organizations are good because they have good top-level leadership. But when that top-level leadership is no longer in place, the organization falls apart. But he says the great organizations are great because they have good top-level leaders and they develop next-level leaders. So when that top tier is no longer in place, the organization continues because the next-level leaders step forward and move right on.

Now, you might not know much about football. You might not care nothing about the University of Alabama, but Alabama has been a consistent top-rated football program in the nation of America for years. And it's because they practice this concept of developing next-level leaders. All you have to do is look at one position: the running back position.

And I'll just illustrate it briefly and move forward. A few years ago, there was a young fellow that played football at Alabama. His name was Mark Ingram. Mark Ingram won the Heisman Trophy and got drafted as a junior. Alabama didn't care. The next fellow up was a big guy named Eddie Lacy. And he stepped right up, right into the running back position, and he got drafted as a junior.

He left. They didn't worry. Next guy up was T.J. Yeldon, and he stepped right in and went on. They didn't worry. He left, went to the NFL, and a big boy named Derrick Henry stepped up. And Derrick won the Heisman Trophy, and then he went on, and the next man stepped up, and the next man, and the team continued to do what it needed to do.

We can see these examples everywhere. But when it comes to church, then all of a sudden, it's messed up. It's not messed up. It is the intentional plan of God. And what we've got to understand is our priority has got to be straight. Why are priorities so important? I'll tell you why they are important. Because priorities are guidelines that are decided beforehand that help the enterprise to stay focused.

If we don't know who's supposed to be leading, then everybody thinks they can lead. And everybody got a different idea about where they ought to go. So we got to make sure we understand the leadership priority. We got to understand the position of pastor and this opportunity that God gives. God does his redemptive work through this particular office.

The pulpit is more than just beautiful glass and wood. This is the place where direction and life change and information and godly understanding and truth that is eternal come from. And so this man had better understand that priority too, as well as all of us, because this is where God is going to hold us accountable for.

The church at Thessalonica was a young church. The Apostle Paul came to Thessalonica after he came into Macedonia. He and Silas had taken up a new partnership and they had gone on a preaching mission to go to the churches that had been established and to give them the good news concerning the Jerusalem Council, that Gentiles would not be made to become Jews in order to be a part of church.

All they needed to do was to restrain themselves from things offered to idol gods and to keep themselves sexually pure. That's what the Jerusalem Council basically said. And Paul and Barnabas had been buddies, but they broke up. And Barnabas took up with John Mark, and Paul takes on Silas. And they began to go back to the churches and they began to preach the good news.

And they got as far as Bithynia, and the Holy Spirit forbade them not to preach anymore. So can you imagine unemployed preachers with nowhere to preach? But then God showed Paul a vision in the night of a man over in Macedonia saying, "Come over here and help us." And so Paul and Silas go into Macedonia. And when they go into Macedonia, they go into Philippi.

And when they got into Philippi, there was a slave girl there who was being mishandled by her masters. And Paul called the devil out of that girl. The whole town should have been rejoicing at the miracle of salvation. But when people don't know God, they can't recognize the work of God. And instead of rejoicing that this girl's life was free, they got mad.

And they drug Paul and Silas into the town square. They beat them shamefully and they cast them in prison and put them in stocks and in flocks and all kinds of things. But at midnight, God rocked the jailhouse. They sang and they prayed. They ran a revival and the jail doors opened. And the jailer was about to commit suicide. But Paul said, "Do yourself no harm. We all here."

And the man realized that it was a salvation moment. And he came in and he said, "Sir, what must I do to be saved?" And Paul explained the gospel. And that man and his family were baptized. And the little church at Philippi sprang up. But when they got through in Philippi, they left Philippi and they went down to Thessalonica.

Thessalonica was a modern city. It was a large city. It did not have a church, just a few Jewish converts. But Paul preached the gospel, and the church sprang up. But the church, before it could really get established, there were troublemakers who came in from outside and stirred up the people against Paul. They were saying Paul wasn't a real Christian.

They were saying that Paul was a pretender. They were saying that Paul was a perverter, that he wanted their money and he wanted their honey. And Paul was run out of town. And he went down a little further to Berea. And he left Berea and he went on down into Athens. We followed that trail, and some of us who are here this morning have been on that trail. So you know I'm telling the truth.

Well, when Paul gets in Athens, he's worried because he only preached there for four weeks. And he wondered, did the gospel that he had preached, was it enough to hold those people's faith intact? So he sends Timothy back to Thessalonica. And Timothy comes back with a report: "Paul, man, the people here love you. They appreciate what you did. But..."

There's some folk who don't understand who you are. They don't understand your role. They don't understand what importance the preaching that you have done and the pulpit and the leadership that you provided was necessary. And so Paul writes this letter to the converts at Thessalonica to give them some priorities on what they needed to understand.

And the first thing he wanted them to understand is that you gotta make sure that you gotta spiritual leader. You're going to always have wolves. And wolves love to come among sheep. And some of the sheep got cousins who are wolves. And the dangerous thing about a wolf is a wolf can look like a sheep when he want to.

Paul told the elders at Ephesus in Acts, chapter 20. He said, "Listen, I'm leaving. But when I leave, grievous wolves are going to come among you and going to divide the flock." Now, some of y'all been waiting on me to leave. You've been waiting on this moment because you want to take over and you think the Lord's going to bless that. That's not going to happen.

This is God's house. You can look holy, fired, indignant and all of those kinds of things like that, but God knows your heart. And so what you gotta understand is there need to be some priorities in place. First things first, second things second, third things third, and fourth things fourth. When that stuff is not understood and not put in the right order, chaos will develop.

And so we don't want chaos to develop. God has given us 40 years of peacefulness. He has given us financial prosperity. He has blessed us with spiritual fruit, not only in this place but around the world. And so we need to understand that it's important that we pay attention. Look at what's happening to our nation because of one wolf. One lone wolf who wants to control everybody else.

Now, you can't run America, but you've taken over Venezuela, trying to start a fight in Mexico, then started a war in Iran and trying to tear up the nation by dividing people against one another. Tell me what a wolf can't do. And I'm just trying to help you understand. Don't misunderstand: Satan is real. And he shows up at church every Sunday. Yes, he does. Don't look around. I don't want you to judge.

What I do want to give you, though, and in the time remaining, are some priorities that are based on this scripture passage. And the first of these priorities is in the first four verses here that Paul speaks in 1 Thessalonians, chapter two. "You yourselves, brothers," he says, "know that when I came to you, it was not in vain."

In other words, I came with a spiritual agenda. So the number one priority, or the second priority behind the spiritual leadership, is that the ministry of the church has to be biblical. Don't misunderstand that. I know I've talked about President Trump and I've talked about other kinds of things. Why? To make it relevant to you and to the nation.

If the church doesn't have a biblical agenda and point out things, then people in the pews will think that it's all right. And I don't want you to think that what you are seeing in this nation is right. It is not biblical. And that's why we have to speak against it because God's word has made it clear how God wants people to be treated.

God says, "I want you to love the Lord your God with some of your heart, a part of your heart, with all of your heart and your neighbor as yourself." If we learn how to love people like we love ourselves, what a world this would be. Now, you can't tell me we don't love us. You love you some you. You get sick and you go knock the doctor's door down. "I don't know what's going on, but I'm feeling funny. You better check me out."

How would we feel if we blessed other people the same way? If I'm hungry, I'm going to feed me. I mean, I'm just sorry. I am. Whether I have to go to McDonald's or Krystal or wherever, I'm going to put something in. What would happen if we fed people? If we were as concerned about other folk as we are about ourselves?

The ministry has to be a biblical ministry. That is foundational to any great thing that God's going to build. Our deacon candidates and all are learning that's one of the first concepts that they learn: that a deacon ministry that's effective is a deacon ministry that's biblically based. But it's not just the deacon ministry that's biblically based. It's all of the ministries that are biblically based.

Where else you going to get a ministry from if it's not based on the word of God? It means you're making it up. And who are you? And what you know? You ain't got no heaven to put nobody in. So don't be trying to create no ministry. Second thing that you need to understand in the priority of ministry is that the ministry has to be authentic.

That's how we make the ministry applicable because it is real. It comes from the heart. I watched a special on TV yesterday. It was the Mahalia Jackson story. And man, it was something about Mahalia Jackson. When she sang, I mean, she caused trembling. When she appeared on TV on the Ed Sullivan show, I mean, she rocked America. Black people, white people, everybody resonated with her.

She only sang gospel, and she sang it from her heart. And because it came from her heart, it resonated with people. You know what people can spot a mile away? Phoniness. People can spot fake smiles, half-baked handshakes, inauthentic relationships, pretense in loving when you're really hating and dogging people out. No, let's be authentic. Let's be the real deal. Let's be true.

Paul tells these Thessalonians, "You yourselves know that when I came to you, I came to you authentically. I didn't come with flattering words. I did not come with words that were from other men, but I came with the word of God." And the word of God is what attracted. And I can tell you this, that over the past years as I have been here, I've tried to be an authentic preacher.

Whatever you see is what it is. Now, you might not have agreed with everything, and I didn't agree with everything, but I was who I was. My first sermon, the very first sermon that I preached was, By the Grace of God I Am What I Am. And you are what you are. That's authenticity. And that's what we must continue to be. We must be a real church.

You must warm the doors up. When you warm the doors up with love, you're going to have to lock the doors to keep people out of here. If the ministry is on fire, if the music is real, if the love is genuine, if the ministry is from God, then you won't have to worry about growth. And it won't be just up to the pastor to cause the church to grow.

Because the truth is, sheep beget sheep. It's going to become a problem if shepherds beget sheep. Sheep are going to have to go get other sheep and say, "Come over here, we can get some good grass over here. We're eating over here. We're feeding." And when sheep tell other sheep, other sheep going to come. Because they know.

Come on, ladies, you know it's the truth. You go to the mall, you see a sale, you get on that phone. "Girl, I was at the mall and I saw some shoes look just like you. And they were cheap too, girl. Real girl, what store?" And before you know it, girlfriend gone. The third thing that has to be in our line of priorities if we're going to strengthen our grip is graciousness.

We have to be grateful people. The people of God are always grateful people. Do you want to know one of the worst kind of Christian is? An ungrateful person. When the Lord wake you up every morning, start you on your way, brush you off, dust you off, clean you up, give you chance after chance, and you can't never say thank you? You can't never praise the Lord?

It only depends on certain people to turn you on? What about God? That's who turned me on. Do you understand? If nobody praise him... they sang up here. If the rocks don't cry out... if I don't praise him, the rocks will cry out. We gotta be authentic. You gotta have a grateful attitude. Your mind has got to be centered.

When you come in here on Sunday morning, what are you coming for? You're not coming to the local fashion show. You're not coming to the comedy club. You're coming to the house of God to give him glory, honor, and praise for what he has done. He's the one that kept that truck from running over you. He's the one that stopped you from running across that train track.

He's the one who kept that thief from knocking your door down. He's the one who let you sleep and wake you up early in the morning. He's the one who put food on your table. He's the one who gives you another chance. And when you come here, you ought to be willing to say, "Thank you, sir." You ought not wait to the choir sing your song. You ought to be singing your own song.

You ought not to wait to the count of three before you get your rock on. You ought to be getting your rock on because God has already rocked you. Talking about priorities. When our priorities are straight, we'll understand who we are. We'll understand what we are doing. We'll understand why we are doing, and we won't be at the mercy of somebody else.

Man, when I used to go to the party, huh? Come on, somebody. Man, we come in the door: the house! The house! Hey, man, let me go back. Let me just get two people who not ashamed to say. We would say, "The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire! The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!" And it didn't matter if nobody else said it or not. I came in like that.

What if you came in the doors with your heart on fire? You wouldn't have to wait to the deacon say, "He touched me!" See, when your attitude is right, when your heart is right, to serve this present age, my calling to fulfill... see, I'm already there. Already there. And that's what you got to be, man, when that mind is there.

When I was a kid, man, we'd get near the church and we'd hear that organ playing. And we'd run because we didn't want to miss the choir coming in. You know, when they were singing 'We're Marching to Zion', we wanted to be in place. Wanted to be in the church. Wanted to be in the service. The mind was already there. We come in here, we want to be cold and then we think somebody else supposed to set you on fire.

Gotta have a grateful mind. And that ought to be a priority. And then, if the ministry is going to be in stable order, as they would say, there has to be a relevancy in the ministry. The ministry has to relate to the people in this era. That's why some things have to change because it has to be relevant to the generation that you're serving.

Mama and them, bless their heart in glory today, they wouldn't know the church today. They would find some things offensive. They would find ladies offensive who came to church without hose. They wouldn't be able to handle people who wore pants. That was a different generation. When I was a kid, you went to hell for everything.

You're listening to the radio, "Oh, you're going to hell. You're listening to the devil music." You played cards, man. You know, you... man, I'm telling you the truth. Listen, when I first came to the church, you know, we had about four different choirs. We had the number one choir, you know, it was the senior choir. And we had a different musician.

And they would sing songs like, "Nearer, my God, to thee." And they were all nearer God to thee. And they'd be looking like, man... and then I said, "Hey, y'all, we need some consistency. Let's get a minister of music, somebody who can play every Sunday." And then, you know, I had been to school, I had read Psalm 150. Everything that hath breath.

So I said, "Can we get a little drum? Get a little beat?" "Oh Jesus, we're going to hell. The boy want to bring a drum in here." Then I said, "Look here, I'm going to add some bottom. Want to get a bass guitar." Oh, Lord! You want to bring a guitar in here? But generational relevancy. You can't get mad with today's youth because they dress like they dress.

Bring them in! Train them! Build them up! Send them out! They'll be ready. Don't dog them because they already got tattoos or because they bus a sag. Teach them that Jesus love them, and they'll pull them up. Because if you don't teach them, there's a homie crowd that's out there that will show them how to go even lower.

So we got to be relevant. We can't sing all old songs. We got to put some Kirk Franklin in here. But we also need some hymns too. Be relevant for the older generation. It's not just to be young people. It's to be everybody. You need people in here who have walked with God long enough to know how to get a prayer through.

You gotta have people in the church who have had miracles in their life. And you gotta have people in the church who also need miracles in their life. You gotta have people in here who can testify that God will open a door, even if it's a prison door. God will make a way, even when there is no way. You gotta be relevant to the men. You gotta talk men talk. You gotta talk women talk. You gotta talk youth talk. You gotta have a ministry that reaches everybody.

So I know I need to stop. I ain't through, but I do want to challenge you that you gotta take personal inventory. This would be a good time to take personal inventory. Is it important to you to be in a biblical based church? Is it important to you to know that you are authentic? Is it important to you to be a grateful, gracious person?

Is it important to you to have ministry relevance and relevant conversations even in your Sunday school class, in your small group, in your Bible group? Whatever group you're in. You gotta... just can't talk about the by and by and here and yonder. You gotta talk about here and now. And you gotta apply the word to now. I know I need to stop, but I got one more thing. Is it all right?

Communion coming. But I want us to know that we gotta make disciples. See, Paul came to Thessalonica with the intent of creating converts. And even though he wasn't able to be there, he dropped enough nuggets that disciples were being made. And their testimony about their relationship with Jesus was going all over Achaia and Macedonia.

So my question is, when people look at Greater Shiloh, not now but in the future, will they see disciples? Man, we got opportunity here. Let me just... I'm going to divert just one second. I got a call this week from a guy in California. And he said, "Pastor," he said, "I'm a property manager and owner, and I got properties all over the United States."

And he said, "And we got one property in Birmingham that we don't know what to do with." He said, "What could you do? Could you partner with us to help us repopulate that apartment complex?" I said, "What's the name of it and where is it?" And when he told me, it was what I used to call the Penthouse Apartments up near UAB. And I said, "Ooh!"

I said, "That'd be a great place to launch our college ministry." So this week, I'm going to call him back. I'm going to say, "If you would give us 15 or 20 apartments with a discounted rent and give us one free, we'll start a cell group in the apartment complex." Oh, y'all don't hear me. We'll teach evangelism. We'll teach discipleship.

We'll teach ministry. We'll teach fellowship. We'll teach worship. And then we'll launch a group to host Bible studies in an apartment complex and to be a witness, to be a light. A little light in darkness shines brightly. Are you hearing me? Y'all, we need to find folk. We need to bring them in. We need to love on them. We need to tell them about Jesus.

We need to show them the way. We need to help them to understand that there is no greater love than the love that God has. Shook off his robe in glory, walked through 42 generations, came down into Bethlehem, grew up like a natural man, walked the dusty plains of Palestine. Went one Friday to a hill called Calvary, dropped his head in the locks of his shoulders, and he died.

But he didn't stay dead. Early the third day morning, he got up with all power in heaven and earth in his hand. Tell somebody that Jesus love them. Touch your neighbor right now. Tell your neighbor Jesus love you. Tell them, "This I know, for the Bible tells me so." Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong.

Y'all, what are your priorities? What are your priorities? Strengthening your grip on your priorities. Let's make sure we do that as a church. Strengthen your grip around your young pastor. Hold on for him. Help him grow. Pray with him. Pray for him. Watch God grow him. He's not me today, but who knows where he'll be in a few years, in a few days, in a few months.

He's already a bright young man. Be a man. Be courageous. What Moses said to Joshua, what God said to Joshua is, "Be strong and of good courage. Take this book of the law and turn not to the left hand or to the right hand, but follow the word of God. Teach the word of God. Preach the word of God. And let the church say amen. Amen. Amen. Amen." Doors of the church open.

Doors open. Somebody might want to place a priority in your salvation. You're looking to be saved. Today can be the day of salvation. Today can be that day for you. This can be your moment. This can be your day. Open your heart to God. Pray right where you sit. Ask God to come into your heart, forgive you your sin, help you to become the man, woman, boy, girl he wants you to be. And then walk this way. Give one of these your hand. Give God your heart.