Saved and Still Sitting

Thanksgiving

Giving honor to God!

Invitation: Chairman, Deacon William Nicks

Pulpit & Leaders (Spiritual Mother - Rev. Carmena Pyfrom)

Congregation, Family and Friends

Scripture

Hebrews 13:1–19 ESV

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

The converse of this is true; if we fail to do good and do not share what we have we are neglecting others.  Sharing what you have are the types of personal sacrifices that are pleasing to God.  When the Scriptures talk about pleasing God then we know it must be important.  This was part of the reason that the early church grew so rapidly as we read in “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”  What we have been blessed with by God we should be a blessing to for others. [1]

Looking on the Interests of Others

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

The interests of others ought to be our interests too.  Certainly we look out for ourselves but how can we turn a blind eye when others have needs.  There is a certain genius in generosity because God gives back what we let pass through our hands but if we hold tight with clinched fists what we have, God cannot pour more into hands that are already clinging tightly to what they hold. [1]

Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/09/30/top-7-bible-verses-about-helping-others-in-need/#TW7uVvueruUp3Hkq.99

Citations

[1] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/09/30/top-7-bible-verses-about-helping-others-in-need/#TW7uVvueruUp3Hkq.99

Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/09/30/top-7-bible-verses-about-helping-others-in-need/#TW7uVvueruUp3Hkq.99

But, truth be told we seem to be living a double standard.

We seem to be blind to trouble that surrounds us when its our people, hurting our people

We cant seem to find the voice speak, the feet to march, when we hear shots fired on our block, however, let a black child lose his or her life by someone don’t look like us.

We appear to be following the Word only when it fits our situation.

We celebrate Black History, during the month of Black History, instead of living it daily.

A dualism that is reminding!

A dualism that today is convicting!

A dualism that should be awakening!

In my research for this sermon I stumbled onto a note by authors Timothy R. Phillips, and Dennis L. Okholm regarding this dualism seen in the church. More specifically this dualism seen in the eyes of African Americans. Their research on dualism parallels our theme for today.

My challenge unapologetically is informed by the “African-American grain.” This term has both descriptive and interpretive import. As a descriptive term, it attempts to depict the contours of black life in America. W. E. B. DuBois, one of the greatest American scholars of the twentieth century, more than any other thinker described accurately the identity crisis confronting African-Americans. At the beginning of this century, in his now classic text The Souls of Black Folks, DuBois noted that the black American ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double-self into a better and truer self.

This DuBoisian double consciousness best describes the life-world of African-Americans. To quote from black Christian thinker and social critic Cornel West: “The life worlds of Africans in the United States are conceptually and existentially neither solely African, European or American. But more of the latter than any of the former.”

The term “African-American grain” is also being employed as an interpretive or conceptual framework. African-Americans, like all other social and ethnic groups, have their own way of perceiving, knowing and construing reality. This reality construction represents a kind of world and life view. Ironically, this black perspective is more genuinely American than some forms of Anglo-American thought.

According to philosopher John McDermott, classic American thought has always been more pragmatic than speculative. Indeed, it has traditionally been a mode of thought that sides with experience over reflection as the primary resource in formulating beliefs. One can clearly recognize this tendency in the thought of such diverse thinkers as Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, John Dewey and Reinhold Niebuhr. Theoretical thought in the African-American grain is fundamentally concerned about the social utility of an idea or concept. If theoretical thought does not make a difference within the actual lived experience of African-Americans, then it must be jettisoned.