The Threshing Floor*

Call to Worship

Grace and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I bring you greetings today on behalf of Threshing Floor Ministries. Amen. This is a new venture that my wife and I are trying to spread the Word of God and to expand our ministry beyond the four walls of the Church.

Now, I want to be clear that beyond the four walls of the Church goes beyond just preaching the Gospel but indeed extends into the overall community that both of us have a desire to reach. And not only do we want your help in getting there but we need your help. That said, we will be having our Live Sunday Night Live Services each Sunday night at 6PM unless otherwise noted.

That said, for our opening night, God has given me a Word for each one of you and I pray you get something out of it. So lets get into the Word of God.

Read Scripture: 1 Chronicles 21:28-22:5

1 Chronicles 21:28–22:5 KJV 1900

28 At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 29 For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord. 1 Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel. 2 And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. 3 And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight; 4 Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David. 5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

Prayer

Give Subject: The Threshing Floor

Introduction

In 1996, a young black man ran for public office to serve as a Senator in his state legislature. The district was majority black So the real challenge was about securing a primary victory at which point he was all but guaranteed to win the senate seat in a lopsided election. He would go on to win that election and served that term, going on to win another term in a virtually unopposed election that was a foregone conclusion before the first vote had been cast.

He went on to challenge an incumbent for his seat in the US House of Representatives and ran to be the Congressman representing the Illinois 1st Congressional District. He ran the best race he could, but was ultimately handed a swift and resounding defeat that conclusively shut him out of the national political scene. He would go on to be reelected to his State Senate seat, but was hounded in the media for being too ambitious. His name was funny and his ears were really big. People were unsure if they could trust him because he was so young, wet behind the ears, and had a limited public record. So they pushed him to the back of the pack. The power players in his state overlooked him and he spent 3 years in relative obscurity as people looked at him to simply be the newest member of an expanding demographic of educated black people.

But, four years later, he forsook his seat in the Illinois legislature to run for an open Senate seat in the US Senate. He ran in the primary and secured a victory in a seat held by the opposite party in a year when a historically unpopular President retained his seat in the White House. Put simply, he beat all the odds and shut the mouths of all the haters. And 4 years after that, he would be elected as the first black man to serve as President of the United States of America. And you can say what you want about his policy, argue about his politics, or talk about his stances. But ultimately, you can look at the life of Barack Obama as a testament that every open door is not made to be walked through. Everything that looks good to you is not good for you.

I keep hearing in my spirit, it was good for me that I was afflicted.

See many of us look at the painful situations of our lives and we wonder to ourselves why we must face those types of problems.

We ask God why is it we have to go through the painful things of our lives?

We ask God why we have to face the music of hardship in our lives?

And sometimes, I know it can look like God has a personal vendetta against you as you try to simply live your life.

Sometimes it seems as though every effort in your life is afflicted by hardship and suffering.

Work you do for God gets sabotaged.

Work you do for your family blows up in your face.

Work for your friends nevertakes off and happens.

And anything you try to do for yourself goes wrong before you get started.

The place of public embarrassment.

The place of public failure.

The place of great fault.

Will become your place of great success and providence.

This takes me to my text...

1 Chronicles 21:28-30

1 Chronicles 22:1-5

Conclusion

The same man who beat him in his election for Congress

The same people who said he was wet behind the ears.

Had to stand and watch as he was sworn in to be the 44th President of the United States.

They had to stand when he entered the room.

And they will forever refer to him as President Obama, by virtue of the office he won.

Now make no mistake, many of these people meant tno harm but the place of his greatest failure had to become the stage of his greatest reward.

Offering Appeal