 Because it is true It's when the Lord has done something for you in some instances We kind of help the Lord alone. We get to a specific spot sometimes We don't know how we have to say Lord you got to take this one And if you give me the victory, I'll give your name pray asking this last Sunday of the year I'd like to hear two testimonies the testimonies or testimonies of victory Amen. Amen some people don't know how to testify because They began to testify and before you know it. They're talking about what the devil did What all what all people did to me and all that see a testimony It's praise to God For that that he has done And for that that we expect that he is going to do Based on his promise So I'm going to be calling on minister Marilyn Alexander And minister Tanisha Bruce To give us a testimony Of God's victory in their life Praise the Lord Hallelujah, I just just miss you just just just a little bit We cry oh, there's nobody like you Lord. Give me the right key Nobody you don't have to assert yourself Is an orderly And The first person I call was pastor because she had experience in all of that and such a calmness came over Spirit I wasn't concerned and worried about anything about You know, any After I got through talking with pastor body They scheduled a surgery for them to remove it Clear sale carcinoma is what they call it And you can only see it because it's clear sale if you do a contrast And how they found it was absolutely amazing because it had nothing to do with my kidney it had nothing to do with Um, I went to a digestive doctor and they saw it then Had nothing to do with my kidney And so if they had not found it, there's no telling where it would have went from there But it was only in stage two, which was really good They found it way in advance and I just think and just Burned it home I didn't have to have chemo Radiation They found it early enough it was God because I I wasn't even dealing with my kidney or anything my digestive doctor Sent me in to look at my colon And they found it when they were looking At my colon there's nothing wrong with my colon, but there was a spot on my kidney And they just burned it And sent me home No people know nothing and I thank God for his faithfulness I thank him how he preempts things He catches it before You know, it gets to the point where you can't do anything about it. That's that's the heritage of the saints I don't know about nobody else But this is the heritage no weapon Formed against us Shelf yes to his will so I thank God, you know stuff, but God just Praise the Lord saints Praise the Lord saints hallelujah Where do I start? I want to give honor to God Bishop first lady leaders saints Where do I start? God has been so good to me He's been Challenging me and stretching me On levels that I didn't know I can be stretched I didn't think I can handle it The scripture that I've been dealing with Romans 8 38 and 39 it says for I am persuaded That neither death nor life Nor angels nor principalities Nor powers nor things present Nor things to come Nor height nor debt Nor any other creature Shall be able to separate me From the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I've been Transitioning for the last four years I just was diagnosed with vitiligo and each year it progresses And it messes with you emotionally. It's not a physical pain. It messes with you emotionally It messes with your faith When God tells you something Now i'm a pause there some years ago God spoke to me and said the enemy is going to attack your body, but don't worry about Fast forward now we're dealing with this And so each day i'm seeing new things and it's transitioning and there's no cure for it And it's been a challenge for me And the Lord reminded me of what he told me the enemy was going to attack your body, but don't worry about it The enemy has been trying to steal my joy He's been trying to steal my confidence But God is good That's why i dance. That's why i praise because i will not be defeated This scripture For nothing will keep me from praising God And i question god why He hasn't answered me, but he's been showing me in ways that Only he can do and that gives him the glory And i've just been acquiescing since saying okay god It's been a challenge, but i the lord has used me to encourage so many other Women with vitiligo on a greater Capacity once i completely yield i'm yielding But i'm going at the pace that i only can go People have been coming up to me And i've been sharing my faith and where i stand oh you can wear makeup you can do this And i say i'm not going to wear no makeup I'm going to let god do what he do And there was Several women that the lord has used me this year to encourage who's wearing makeup to cover up Who they are and who god has You know What he's doing in their life But even in the midst of it and i began to share my testimony with them and show them pictures of what i look Like before and where i'm at now They were encouraged and they shared with me you gave me hope You helped me i'm not going to wear makeup i don't know if they're still doing it But i'm just sharing what they shared with me and i began to see how god want how he's using this thing that i Don't is uncomfortable But in my darkest moments He sends an angel And he uses me To get out of the rut that i'm in when i began to share With other people and to encourage them I The doctor told me i had hpv and i said well, what is hpv? I said i'm not sexually active and you know even when i was thank you lord for deliverance I had one partner Well the women the men are carriers men be careful because you when you sleep in with other women you bring it back to The these women and so a male carrier gave it to me and so i'm like hpv you know And They've been testing me to check it and so she said it can cause her cervical cancer But i've been being tested and everything is clear. There's no hpv so i thank god for that They told me i had fibroids So y'all wonder why i'm praising them because god has been so good to me The enemy has been trying to steal my my mind and discourage me, but i'm determined I'm determined that nothing will keep me from praising god Nothing will keep me from exalting him nothing will keep me From giving god glory And he's done so many other things, but that's just what was placed on my heart to share which was embarrassing to me But it's god's story And i see how he's using it For me to encourage others And to give them hope Even though it was nothing that i wanted nothing that i did god He's taken me from glory to glory And he's using me and getting me out of my comfort zone To give him the glory and to see What my faith is am i going to still trust him am i going to still worship and praise him Even when he don't answer The way i want him to answer or even when i ask him to do a Thing because i've been asking god to do some things And he uses me to pray for people and i'm seeing their manifestations and i'm like well, what about me? He say just hold on and so that's what i'm doing. I'm standing I'm standing and i'm holding and god is good and he will forever I will forever be grateful and i will always praise and worship So when you see me shouting when you see me praising it's because i'm grateful that i'm standing i'm healthy I make my physical maybe deteriorating, but my spirit is growing strong and god Pray my strength and the lord Freud sorry they did diagnose me with that but when they went back i went back a couple of um Visits after and they told me i didn't have it anymore. So praise god Go ahead and give god praise It is interesting that she should say that this week The lord spoke to my heart and i said look what is the answer To the problems that i can't fix And he said prayer Is always the key He said now when you pray You may not get an answer, but you always get assurance that everything's gonna be all right Praise god Since i know you find this to be a surprise, but i'm not perfect I'm not perfect Slight misunderstanding in the program At this time we're going to receive our offering Amen, we're having communion today and we don't want to have to receive the offering after communion All right, so minister sorting Like the bishop says all for a time Two weeks ago the bishop asked us To make a sacrifice And when he said that that meant step out on faith trust god try god You know and uh, i thought about it and i asked the lord lord What should i give? He gave me a number and i gave but He also just said to me Don't stop there Don't stop there He said continue giving Continue giving So i'm gonna be obedient to the lord and do what he told me to do You know sometimes we'll give an offering you say that's it. That's all i got But that's not all you have We have we have it We we have a bishop he don't always Ask for offering or make a for us to make a sacrifice But this sacrifice is for our benefit We're gonna benefit from this We're gonna benefit from it Because the lord gonna open up a window and pour it out. So blessing that we won't have room to receive He's gonna open doors the doors that we cannot open but he can open Hallelujah doors that have been shut on us God is a faithful god. He's true to his word He said his word will not return him to him boy that it would do what it was set out to do And the lord say he will bless us He was open to when and pour us out a blessing that we won't even have room to receive So i'm myself I'm stepping out on faith in jesus name. Hallelujah. Thank you lord. Hallelujah Change Thank you lord. Hallelujah Thank you father. We praise you I didn't know he's gonna do often this soon Or else i would have been ready Come on. Let's stand and give our offering in jesus name Try god trust god God can't go back on his word. He's a man that cannot lie He cannot lie and he will not lie. Hallelujah. So let's step out on faith say Hallelujah Won't everyone please stand with me in jesus name Father we come this morning lord god in the name of jesus lord god We come to you this morning lord god in the name of jesus being faithful lord god What you have told us lord god lord. We trust you lord god. We believe in your lord god We know you are able lord god to do a seed in the bundling above all that we may ask or think lord god In jesus name lord god. We thank you lord god for those those that had a mind And the desire to give lord god those that have a mind and the desire lord god to step out on faith lord god In the name of jesus lord god. We thank you. We praise you lord god We ask you and it all in jesus name in jesus name. We pray amen and amen. Give me your offer Say this say lord worthy of the things that the lord does for us He does it Because he loves us get us out of the jam or something like that But they have an ulterior motive god's love is perfect that he bestows upon us Is genuine love it wants to meet you in heaven The lord wants to meet you in heaven everybody everybody everybody ought to be saying amen He don't want to see you in hell He wants to see you in heaven after he's provided the way Then he says Come on to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest if you take My yoke upon you and learn of my meek and I'm lowly at heart loves Needs to be Acknowledged and love is not not love unless it's a two-way street Savior loves us Yes And he's expecting love back from us And so I'll say to you The message that the lord has given me for today I didn't I kind of questioned Whether it was the message For the last sunday in the year Many preachers are telling you Things are going to turn around for you Lord's going to shower blessings on you there should be showers of blessing On and on and on That's not the message that the lord gave me and I My wife can attest to it I spent a long time Getting the message for today When I got up this morning to do my recheck I said well, maybe this is not what I should preach But the lord wouldn't let me not preach Well, I'll tell you what I can't promise you for next year If you do what what is preached to you today Next year you're going to be good In the book of first Thessalonians chapter number five reading beginning at the 12th verse What is being addressed in this passage Is that the lord is soon to return and when he returns He wants to carry you back with him when he comes But he has the authority To make the conditions under which you will be able to make the trip Amen So what is What is addressed here today is The behavior in the church The behavior or the duty Of the body of christ What is your responsibility What does god require Of his church You know what he requires A change a change The behavior of man's needs Is to be changed There's one thing that will change it as much as anything else And that's seeing and grasping The concept that the lord is coming back soon If a person really believes that jesus christ is returning To earth It will be It will radically Change his life Now When people say they're a believer I don't know what that means I think everybody's a believer in something But if you believe in jesus christ If you believe in a savior Of souls That's a believer. That's a true believer Now what I'd like to say is today Lord I need a change Repeat that with me lord I Need a change Reading from the word beginning at verse 12 We beseech you brethren To know them which labor among you And are over you Did you say that? And are over you In the lord And admonish you Now I just wanted To give a little definition I was taught Use use bible when you preach He said We beseech you And beseech means to beg. We beg you It's that important to us For your soul's sake And for our for our accountability's sake We beg you To know Them Which labor among you And are over you And I'll I'll address that and are over you elder ross because you Know the late Bishop marzi golder In the late 50s a gentleman came to indianapolis He was a caucasian man Who preached like a black man and all the people got excited Started running over to hear him Bishop golder said don't go over there See back in that day Preaches had authority over people Some some of the people the report that came to me from a person who was there He said we listened to what he said and we just didn't go And that man turned out to be jim jones Know them which labor among you And are over you in the lord Then And admonish you Now admonish means to warn someone Of something next verse said and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake And be at peace Among yourselves This is the behavior Of the church Jesus said Behave yourself So many of us Have a will of our own and The will that I have of my own It probably isn't the lord's will for us I've been acquainted with the song Down through the years That goes like this thy way o lord not mine Thy will be done Not mine Since thou for me did bleed And now do intercede each day I simply plead Thy will Thy will Be done Thy will be done that will be done That will be done Incline my heart each day to say Thy will You can't take can't take a day off To have your own will Every day You need to pray lord incline my heart Yeah Help me my heart I can't even know it the heart is deceitful. Yes, and it's desperately wicked Who can know it? So lord help me to incline help me to lean towards Your will Incline my heart each day to say your will Be done In the next Verse said Now we exhort you brethren Let's see what exhort means Exort means to encourage See we beseeched we begged you And then we warned you Now we encourage you Now we exhort you brethren Warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded Support the weak Be patient toward all men Well, you know, I've known people through the years Down through many years We grew up among While we're in st. Louis and people had A bad attitude and they explained it like this That's just who I am Where's the shouting? You can't be just who you are That's right. That's right. You got to be who Jesus calls you to be. Yeah, he wants to use you and you got to do what he says The next verse See the non-render evil For evil onto any man. Yeah, I am preaching. I'm teaching I'm teaching Take notes Be sure You don't have in your spirit Yes, that's all right. I may not get you Right away, but I'm gonna get you I'm gonna lay low in the weeds He said you make sure That you don't let anything like that come into your mind Rendering evil for evil unto any man no matter what they've done to you But ever follow that which is good Both among yourselves And to all men Everybody This is the behavior Towards the church Now the first two verses I gave you was the behavior towards the church leaders This 14th and 15th verse tells about the behavior supposed to be towards the church The the church has to be worn worn the unruly Comfort the faint Harden Support the weak Be patient towards all See that no one renders evil For evil to any man. That's what the lord requires He's not asking you That's the requirement If you run for president, you got to be 35 years old. That's the requirement Ain't no need to come in and say I'm 32 and a half That doesn't mean it but this is what the lord requires Of the church You got to have love Hope and charity These three But the greatest of these Is charity love love is the greatest Of all faith is good to have faith Hope is wonderful to have faith and hope But better than both of those is charity love Love one for another Genuine genuine love From the heart There's a behavior towards god personal behavior What the lord requires Of each and every one Of us who belong to him He requires you to rejoice all the time All the time Rejoice ever more Ever more Ever They say pray without ceasing Not now lay me down to sleep Praying without ceasing Keep on praying When situations seem to be untoward you pray You keep your joy but you pray Come on somebody Pray at every turn when it's not like you want it to be Then it says in everything Give thanks Well now you can't give thanks Or thanks that you receive That's not visible ain't no thanks You can tell me all night and all day I love you pastor I love you pastor I love you pastor Show me show me In everything give thanks Because god has a will for you So he said rejoice always That's his will Pray always That's in his will Give thanks in all things That's in his will Let me read it in context In everything give thanks For this is the will of god in christ jesus Concerning somebody else Oh yeah that is that's what he said Concerning you He said Another requirement is That you quince not the spirit Do not suppress the spirit of god This is just one of my pet peas I wonder why when we sing we can't clap our hands The spirit of god is anxious To be in this place and move upon us for our behalf Our good And we decide well that song is too slow I won't clap I'm tired of this song We sing it all the time I won't clap Quince in the spirit Then next is Despise not prophecy Don't despise Prophecy when the lord sends us a prophecy Let's receive it And get busy about it Then it says All of this is is requirements Towards god Prove all things Hold fast that which is good He said now everything that comes to you you examine it And make sure it's right And then it says And hold on fast to what's good While you're proving all things Some stuff's gonna have to be thrown away because it's not good It's not profitable But he said whatever you find that is good and proper You hold on to that Then verse 22 said Abstain from all appearance Of evil Anything that might look like It doesn't have to be but if it look like it Abstain Stay away from it Stay from all appearance of evil And then When we embrace All the behavior that the lord requires of us There's a result that comes from it Verse 23 says If you do all of this the very god of peace Has sanctified you holy It will sanctify you holy and I pray God Your whole spirit And soul And body Be preserved Blameless Everything about you Everything Your spirit your soul your body Be preserved blameless Until the coming of our lord Jesus Christ Now I'm gonna stop at verse 24 because we got another place to go Faithful is he That calleth you Who also Will do What is it He's faithful Faithful is he That calleth you Who also will do it You have an assurance When you follow What is required The lord doesn't want any more than is required He don't want any less He doesn't want any more Don't take anything away Don't add nothing to He said just do what I require I have an assurance In other words If you do that you can take it to the bank When we talk about In everything give thanks That's kind of hard Anybody experience Having to take it Anybody experience A situation where you just ought to keep your mouth shut Anybody experience Something that you you battled with over and over again And you can't seem to get a person to see your point of view Come on somebody When you reach that point And you're about to lay hands Give thanks Thanks Yeah Don't cuss Give thanks Thank you lord Give thanks unto God That you're able to control yourself Thankful to God that he even requires this Because it's the only way to have peace It's the only way to have true joy He said joy and then rejoice When it gets to a place like that We can come to a midnight hour The darkest time on the clock And you run into any situation that is untoward Your spirit You need to know that God is able Able You need to know that he said I'm gonna come through I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you I'll be there Thank you Jesus I'm almost through I got two more verses Verse 24 said faithful is he that called you That means that every time you need him he'll show up Come on somebody You know there's some people who can get you out of a jam sometimes but you can't find him He said but faithful is he who has called you He said I'll be there in the time of trouble I'll be there when you need a friend I'll be there when you don't have another He said I will be there I'm faithful An account of such a thing Missionaries They went about preaching salvation message The people around said we ain't having it And they put them in jail Their name was Paul and Silas And the account in Acts chapter 16 verse 25 and 26 said while they were in prison With their hands and their feet in the stock and chained He said one of them decided why don't we have service and they began to pray Well, let me read it to you And at midnight Midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praise under God And the prisoners heard them He said they weren't singing No, they were singing they were shown up singing they were shown up praying they're praying loud out loud Kind of like we did at the Alexander Meeting on yesterday The apostle said everybody pray pray out loud They don't listen to to the one person with the microphone. Everybody pray to pray They weren't afraid that the when they sang Praise unto God The prisoners heard them And suddenly that was a great earthquake So that the foundations of the prison were shaken You know what I've learned When there's a disagreement Guess what? There had to be more than one person That was all right. You got to have more than one person. You can't disagree with yourself Not unless you've got you've got a problem. So now Here's what you can't do You can't do this Guess what when you do this look at look at all these right here. Look at this The law saying church get over yourself. Yeah Yield to my spirit And when you yield to my spirit He said I'll See you through I'll give you victory. I'll give you salvation. See here's what we're talking about we're talking about salvation We're not talking about a college football game or something. That's right You win or lose and and if you lose you say oh, well You know, we'll we'll get them next year the lord said i'm the answer I'm the answer to all of your problems Answer to you all of your problems is When you learn to say Thy will Thy will Thy will be done Incline my heart each day Your will your will be done Say this with me lord Thy will Be done In me we got it We've got it. We've got it. Can can we do that saints? Saints come on musicians. I want to I want to sing a song I hope you all know it yield not to temptation For yielding is sin Each victory will help you some other to win I know but say I want I want I want to read In cadence For emphasis i'm determined i'm gonna sing this song the song says Yield not to temptation For yielding is sin Each victory will help you Some other to win Fight manfully onward dark passions of new Look ever to jesus He will carry you through year to temptation I won't say he's willing to aid you He's shown it that he should care for me Enough to die. Oh, it is wonderful wonderful. I stand at the love jesus offers me Confused at the grace That so fully I tremble to know That for me he was crucified He suffered He believed he should care this cup is a new testament in my blood This do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup Ye do show the Lord's death till he comes amen for the reading of the word edwards isaia 53 isaia 53 versus three through six isaia 53 versus three through six He is despised and rejected of men A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief And we hid as it were our faces from him He was despised and we esteemed him not Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows Yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of god and afflicted But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Elder kevin ross When the six hour was come There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour And at the ninth hour jesus cried out with a loud voice and said Which being interpreted is my god my god Why has our forsaken me? And some of them that stood by when they heard it They said behold he cried for elisha And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar And put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink saying Let alone Let us see whether elis will come and take him down And jesus cried with a loud voice And he gave up the ghost And the veil of the temple was rent entwined from top to bottom And when the centurion which stood over against him saw it He cried out and he gave up the ghost and said Truly This man was the son of god mr. maryland alexander Bring to us move 22 verses 14 through 20 And when the hour was come he sat down and the 12 apostles with him And he said unto them With desire i have desire to eat this Passover with you Before i suffer For i say unto you i will not anymore eat their Until it be fulfilled In the kingdom of god And he took the cup and gave thanks and said Take this And divide it amongst yourself For i say unto you i will not drink of the fruit of the vine Until the kingdom of god shall come And he took bread And gave thanks and break it and gave unto them saying This is my body Which is given for you This Do in remembrance of me Likewise also the cup after supper saying This cup is the new testament in my blood Which is shared for you Now we're gonna have minister terrence alexander All for the prayer for the bread First is jesus we thank you for this bread We thank for the body that was broken for us lord god the blood lord jesus that covers our sins lord god We thank you lord jesus for being willing to die on the cross for us lord god We ask you to bless this bread lord god as we take it and help us to reflect lord god and to continue to live on lord god To to appreciate the blood and the body that was broken for us lord god in the name of jesus amen jenisha bruce will ask you to Ask the prayer for the cup Father god, we thank you for shedding your blood at calvary for the remission of our sins We thank you because your blood Hallelujah is wonderful. It heals us and delivers us and it sets us free It offers an opportunity for us to see you again in heaven Father, we thank you because your precious blood that you shared for us god It allows us to stand tall today Stand glorifying you and magnifying you lord god hallelujah We are overcomers because of your blood. We're overcomers and we're healed because of your blood We're delivered because of your blood god, and we thank you because you sacrificed yourself for us Some unworthy people that we were people that didn't know you and didn't love you But yet you loved us you loved us enough to sacrifice yourself for us lord We thank you for your blood And we thank you that it cleanses us free from sin We love you and we honor you in jesus name amen Let us stand in the same way He took the cup also after supper saying This cup is the new covenant in my blood Do this as often as you drink it In remembrance likewise For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup You proclaim The lord's death Until he come you may partake. Thank you jesus. Thank you lord. Thank you jesus. Thank you jesus Thank you jesus. Thank you jesus Thank you jesus. Thank you jesus Thank you jesus hallelujah hallelujah Hallelujah. Thank you jesus. Thank you jesus. Thank you Thank you jesus. Thank you Thank you jesus. Thank you in my heart Oh, thank you jesus. Thank you Thank you jesus. Thank you Thank you jesus. Thank you in my heart jesus. Thank you scripture said and they sang a hymn jesus came and did it. Just for me. Just for me. The scripture said they sang a song and went out and I'll remind you that we'll not have watch meeting service at our communion today. We're going to be satisfied. Bring a watch meeting. We gave testimony. Normally what we're doing and watch meeting we testify. Preach a message. We pray the New Year in. I'm going to invite you to pray the New Year in wherever you are at midnight. Hello somebody. You're dismissed.