8:00 AM "Chaos, Crashes, Concerns and The Creator" Pastor Reginald W. Sharpe Jr. Sun, Feb 2, 2025

1:06:03 Listen here Come with me to Lamentations 5 Lamentations 5 It's a book in the Bible lamentations just take your time getting there it's somewhere in the old testament in the words of dr marcus cosby if you see red letters go go left it's in there right after jeremiah lamentations five let's stand in honor of god's word today to all of our first time guests and friends god bless you and thank you for coming to the ship you've made our smile and our service even more bigger and more meaningful today because of your presence lamentations five i need to warn you uh this is one of those sundays where me and the lord had to wrestle you know preachers know what i'm talking about i didn't necessarily want to preach this but considering so much going on in the world we need a word we need a word from the lord it's not the season to play church and it's not the season to just get up and say anything but i prayed and asked others to pray with me just to make sure that i was being helpful to the body of Christ today and because of that somehow the Lord led me to Lamentations 5 Lamentations chapter 5 and I want to read a lot of verses until you're hearing verses 10 through 18 more than normal but just listen to the people trying to describe what life felt like after the Babylonian invasion and destruction of Jerusalem the people were living in a crisis a major national crisis. And this is how they caught and captured poetry to describe what they were living

1:08:11 through. Lamentations 5, 10 through 18 reads like this. Our skin is black as an oven from the scorching heat of famine. Women are raped in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah. Princes are hung up by their hands. No respect is shown to the elders. Young men are compelled to grind and boys stagger under loads of wood. The old men have left the city gate, which means the old men usually give wisdom by the city gate, but there are none left. The young men have left their music. The joy of our hearts has ceased. Our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head.

1:09:04 Woe to us, for we have sinned. Because of this, our hearts are sick. Because of these things, our eyes have grown dim. Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, jackals or foxes prowl over it. Thank you. You may be seated. the old men have left the city gate the young men have left their music the joy of our hearts has ceased our dancing has been turned to mourning the crown has fallen from our head woe to us for we have sinned because of this our hearts are sick because of these things our eyes have grown dim because of Mount Zion which lies desolate foxes prowl over it jackals prowl over it i want to talk today from this stuff very simply chaos crashes concerns and the creator chaos crashes concerns and the creator it's good to see deacon dixon back in church after a little stint of illness and hospitalization y'all help me thank god he's He's looking good.

1:10:26 I knew he was here because I heard a deacon over there hollering back at me. I said, yeah, sound like black church. Chaos crashes. Say this with me. Chaos crashes, concerns, and the creator. Yesterday I received a message on Instagram from one of our members, and this is what the message read. how is this the year of joy and so much been going on this past week I'm praying you're preaching tomorrow like I ain't never been this anxious with my family and the world we're living in is the world coming to an end or something what's going on if that message doesn't capture how half of the room feels this morning in so many ways some of us were wondering now come on now this year joy is this year is yearing.

1:11:34 Somebody else was just wondering, are you preaching Sunday? Somebody else is feeling anxious because of so much going on in the world. Every time we've turned on the news in the last two weeks. from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to Michigan Avenue, we have felt a sense of anxiousness, some worry, some discomfort, some dis-ease, if you will. Some of us have wondered, is this a sign that the world is coming to an end? I talked to one of my good friends last night. He said, now you know what's happening, don't you? He said, we're living in the tribulation. I said, you need to go sit down somewhere and he was joking he was joking but but he he said that's what it's beginning to feel like which is this the trip is the world coming to an end what's what's going on everywhere you look chaos chaos chaos capitol hill last week just just just just last week and the week before that just just chaos some of y'all's president i mean our president um was inaugurated a couple days ago and in the inaugural speech he said, I'm here to help Dr. King's dream come alive.

1:12:56 And the same day, roll back policies and initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Pastor Trump, because there's some people who think you their pastor, because you the answer to prayers and all of that. pastor trump president trump listen that's that's that's that's not continuing dr king's dream you you can't roll back what our ancestors died and bled and marched and protest for and then play in our face and claim to be upholding the dream no you are part of the nightmare no no the the dream made sure that we all were created and treated equally. The dream makes sure that boys and girls and blacks and whites and Hispanics and Latinos and Asian Americans and differently abled Americans and veterans and young people and women have an equal playing field. So the real joke is you all thought because you were going to roll back DEI you you're trying to suggest that black folks won't benefit from being allowed in certain rooms and to get certain jobs and to go to certain schools but black folk will last on the list of who was benefiting from diversity equity and inclusion white women were benefiting veterans were benefiting differently and disabled people were benefiting hispanics and asian americans were benefiting and so while you're trying to hurt one group you really heard more than that and then to insult the victims of the plane crash and stand at a press conference and say the reason that the plane went down in the potomac river while they're still pulling bodies out the river you blame dei you you you you use this moment

1:15:02 to politically pander towards your base how disrespectful but i'm not shocked because trump gonna trump and and all of you who were happy that he won i told you i'm a prophet and i said you got what you want but you're gonna get more than what you asked for don't look this way if you didn't vote and if you voted because i didn't feel now no no you we're gonna get exactly what we it's chaos everywhere pain planes falling out the sky dei initiatives roll back federal funding being threatened to be suspended even the threat of it sent multiple organizations in chaos there are people that won't have jobs simply because of the way the government and federal offices are being run y'all we're living in some chaotic times we're living in a in a season where planes come on y'all just falling out the sky it's been over 20 years over two decades since a commercial airline has come out of the sky on american soil crashes and chaos and concerns and in the midst of all of that we still have a creator we still have and and i don't know about y'all if you don't feel nothing it's because you're not watching the news if you don't feel any kind of way congratulations to you i want to drink what you drinking if you don't feel anything and so the tension is that that we got to sit with is god you you told us this is the year of joy you spoke that over our lives i i've been living into that I've been receiving that. I don't know about some of you all, but I've been intentional about joy this year.

1:16:58 This is not just some theme to put on the church. This is not just some graphic to plaster on the floor of the pulpit and put up as a graphic on the screen. We're really trying to embrace joy. But the truth is there are some seasons where it feels like your joy has ceased. and your dancing turns into mourning this week i got a call about krista hamilton one of our faithful members she found her father deceased in his home on monday i was getting up to preach there in maryland i got the text message that she found her father that's the second time this year that a daughter has found a father Thank you. concerns and grief and heaviness and the book of lamentations i'm glad that it's in the bible because it allows us to remember that a part of your spiritual journey with god includes some lament that sometimes you know you're close to god not because you're laughing but I know that you're close to God by what makes you cry sometimes lament is a part of the journey you you may not be very familiar with the book of lamentations honestly I wasn't either but I'm so relieved I'm so grateful that this book was included in the bible because lamentations helps us to understand that what we feel is human what we carry is human I like this book because it pats us on the back it rubs us on the back even and lets us know you're not the first or the last person that's gonna have some difficult days the book of lamentation each chapter is a poem chapter one is a poem that deals with the aftermath of what happens when the babylonians destroyed the first temple in jerusalem jerusalem is the capital of judah and the babylonians invaded and destroyed

1:19:07 Jerusalem and Lamentations 1 is a poem about the aftermath. Lamentations 2 is a poem about the almighty God's anger because they're trying to rationale what how did this happen? Maybe God is mad at us. Lamentations 3 deals with assurance. We all love Lamentations 3 because it does deal with the misery and the weight but somewhere in the middle you get but this I recall to my mind therefore i have hope it is of the lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are new every morning great is thy faithfulness but but that doesn't last too long because you start walking over in the chapter four and you deal with the with the guttural visceral experience of affliction somebody say affliction chapter one deals with the aftermath of the babylonians destroying jerusalem and now the people have to deal with the chaos and the people have to live in the upheaval in the siege and the famine and the rawness of human suffering according to the wisdom commentary on lamentations bitter memories and theological crises and psychological confusion and rock bottom hopelessness saturate these poetic stanzas in the book of lamentations but by the time you get to lamentations five all you get is an appeal somebody say an appeal you get this prayer from verse one through verse 22 the people have dealt with chaos and their towns have dealt with crashes and their concerns and they're trying to make sense where is god in all of this what is god trying to tell us there are people in leadership that don't care about the least the last the lost or the left out they're they're they're wrestling with their humanity they see death and destruction all around them did you see that plane in philadelphia that looked like a scene out of a movie that looked like war the the kind of images

1:21:17 we see in war in another country what do we do how do we maintain joy or resurrect joy or resuscitate joy because for some of us nationally, when you look at the news, joy is on life support. And then some of us personally, you can't look like it because you put on your Sunday's best. I mean, look at you looking like you looking. Isn't it amazing how we come to church and dress up like ain't nothing going on? I mean, we come up in here and sit and smile and wave our hands like we're not wrestling with anything. But if we were to walk home, we would discover that joy for many of you is on life support. And you're holding on by a thread saying, Lord, I'm holding on to the little bit of joy I can. But the truth is, you feel what the poet is describing when it says, my joy has ceased.

1:22:14 My dancing has turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from my head. Woe unto me, for we have sinned. Some of this ain't all on the devil. some of this is because we where my real people that can't admit i'm not just talking about individual sins i'm talking about institutional sins you can't run a nation that thrives off racism and sexism and white supremacy and and religious bigotry and think that god is gonna smile on you when jesus said the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor to set those at liberty who are bound if you don't care about the poor and those who are bound and those who are hurting and those who are sick and those who are on the margins of society you are not a nation representing God and I don't care what kind of white Jesus you worship in my Jesus cares about the least of these Thank you.

1:23:18 god is not pleased with some of our behavior because of this verse 17 our hearts are sick our eyes have grown you can't even see straight have you ever felt that nothing looks normal mount zion is desolate america's desolate and and here's the proof of how desolate it is nothing but jackals and foxes are walking on the ruins what do you do what do you do this is the hardest sermon i probably had to preach in a long time what do you do to resuscitate your joy resurrect your joy hold on to your joy when all you see is chaos and crashes and concerns and you're still wrestling with even where the creator is number one here it is here it is y'all ready keep praying through your hurts keep praying keep praying through your hurts verse 1 blesses me watch it verse 1 of chapter 5 remember oh Lord what has befallen us look and see our disgrace you know sometimes your prayer ain't deep Lord remember us look look and see our disgrace I hope you know that prayer is not something to play with I hope you know that in the middle of all that's going on that you don't lose your ability to still talk to God my cousin reminded me yesterday when my grandma Sharp was getting near the end of her life Michelle was there in the hospital with grandma Sharp and grandma looked up from her hospital bed and said baby keep on praying and michelle thought that that was some small message from grandma just being grandma trying to tell you something no that thing weighs a little bit more now that the years have passed now i hear my grandma saying keep on praying that same grandma used to tell me be careful out there

1:25:28 baby the devil don't never go to bed i said i don't want to hear all that i don't want to talk about no devil i was in seminary and thought i was smart i didn't want to hear about no devil god is with me surely goodness i don't want to hear about no devil she said the devil don't never go to bed and now all these years later i wish i could just wake grandma for one second and say thank you for the advice the devil don't never go to bed keep on praying and listen and you better keep on praying because prayer is not a promise that you always get what you want but prayer prepares you for whatever you get prayer is a remember us oh lord look on us oh lord see us oh lord sometimes you got to pray like nehemiah strengthen my hands oh lord sometimes you got to pray like peter who was going down in the water save us oh lord anybody got a real prayer life well i don't need poetry and long sentences to get god's attention but i know if i can have a talk with Jesus, something can shift.

1:26:32 Oh yeah. You know. The years keep coming. That's why you got to love on people and be gentle with people. Because even though some folks are far away from the chaos and the grief and the pain they've lived, it doesn't mean all of it is out of them. And I remember, I never will forget, First Sunday of February is going to always carry some interesting energy for me because this was the last Sunday I preached before my grandmother passed, Grandma Harper. And that next day, Grandma Harper, we had to make a decision to unplug her. There were four machines keeping her alive. We knew inside she wouldn't want to live like that. We didn't want to live like that. So I asked the prayer team to pray for peace that morning. the next day it was february 6 2023 miss ann harris prayed that morning i was sitting in the parking lot of the hospital at saint joseph's there in atlanta and this is what miss ann harris prayed that morning she said lord it's me and i need you to do me a favor if i've done anything that has displeased you please forgive me for my sins because i need to talk to you and i need you to come see about my pastor and i need you to come see about our church family right now before i knew it tears were streaming down my face you better get a prayer life where you can say lord it's me and if there's anything i've done wrong please forgive me but I need to talk to you. I got family members that are sick. I have a world that's in trouble. We got children that need covering. We have mothers and fathers that need resources to raise their baby.

1:28:22 I need somebody around here that know prayer will fix some stuff. And if prayer won't fix it, prayer will fix you. Remember us, O Lord. Look unto us, O Lord. See us, O Lord. The late Charles spurgeon said prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence that means if i could just do something small it's the nerves that move muscles and if i want god to move something big i gotta touch his nerve and prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of the omnipotence god y'all keep sitting there i'm gonna preach all of this and i have prayed and i have watch God change some stuff on my behalf. I remember last year when some enemies were on my trail. I said, Lord, I don't know why, but I feel led to pray for my enemies. Bless them so they won't feel the need to keep hurting me.

1:29:16 Make them happier so they'll create less hell in other people. You better learn how to have a real prayer life. Pray for your enemies. Pray for your leaders and ask God to intercede because the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. Come on, look down. You're going to say, keep praying through your hurts. But don't just keep praying through your hurts. Keep pouring out your heart. Keep pouring out your heart. Verse 2, our inheritance has been turned over to strangers. Our homes to aliens. Verse 3, we have become orphans, fatherless. Our mothers are like widows. We must pay for the water we drink. The wood we get must be bought with a yoke on our necks. George Floyd wasn't the first one with a yoke on our necks we are heart driven we are weary we are given no rest we have made a pact with Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread our ancestors sin and they are no more and we bear their iniquity slaves rule over us people who have no business in power are ruling over us there is no one to deliver yeah they think they think we were the slaves. Slaves rule over us. Y'all gonna get that later. There is no one to deliver us from their hand. We get our bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword in the, our skin is black as a loving because of the scorching heat of the women are in trouble and being assaulted and misused.

1:30:47 Princes are hung up by their hands. No respect is shown to our seasoned elders. Young men are compelled to grind boys are staggering under lows old men don't even have the power to give wisdom like they used to young men don't even play their mute the joy of our heart has seen no more crowds have fallen we have sinned our hearts are sick because of this our eyes are grown dim the city lays in ruins you keep living one day you'll understand everything i just read one day you'll understand the poet who wrote lamentations but when you don't know what to say don't you stop pouring out your heart when you don't know what to do don't you stop pouring out your heart the reason why some people deal with depression so heavy is because they keep so much stuff in you gotta open up your do y'all hear what i'm telling you keep keep using your voice i don't care who doesn't listen you get to a microphone get to your social media page and show more than your the covertions the curvaceousness of your anatomy and show more than foolishness and fighting people on facebook going back and forth with folks that don't even matter because you gotta learn like john henry clark i i only argue with my equals and all others I teach stop misusing your influence and use your voice even when it doesn't look like they're listening use your voice like Bishop Mary Ann Edgar Buddy who stood in the president's face on the day of the national service and said president I need to make an appeal to you there's some immigrants that need you there's some strangers in this land that need you there's some hurting people that need you and I need you to have mercy on them you got to pour out your heart like Mamie Till Mobley and say open the casket and I don't care what my son looks like I want the world to see what white supremacy has done to my baby and when she opened the casket she

1:32:53 opened our eyes speak up like Fannie Lou Hamer who at the 1964 democratic convention her her story and testimony was so compelling about what they did to her in prison that the president cut her off and made some up just to show from the White House so the world wouldn't hear that black woman talking about racism in Mississippi. Open your mouth like Vernon Johns, the pastor who preceded or who was the predecessor to Martin Luther King Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and because Vernon Johns was speaking the truth from the pulpit, they started the MIA, the Montgomery Improvement Association and because he was speaking the truth from the pulpit in Montgomery they started an association and then they called a 26 year old black boy from Atlanta who had just got a PhD from Boston University named Martin Luther King Jr and because they sent him down there Rosa sat down and because Rosa sat down the whole country stood up you don't know how your heart and how your pouring can shift the whole nation You better open your mouth in this season.

1:34:14 You go to your job with your black self, with your woman self, with your gay self, and you raise your voice until people are forced to respect you. Call it out! Do you hear me? keep pouring out your heart keep expressing how this feels keep articulating the wounds of your soul keep praying through your hurts keep pouring out your heart what else do you do keep placing god at the center of your hope because verse 18 ain't the last verse verse 19 here comes right after verse 18 but you are lord reign forever your throne endures to all generations church don't know when to shout i just read you 18 verses of lament 18 verses of chaos 18 verses of pain but sometime all i need is one verse to shift my perspective off the peril and still place God as the center of are y'all listening to me now whether you like this sermon or not this the sermon you need it if you're gonna make it through the rest of 2025 the way you gonna hold on to your joy is because you gotta say to yourself but you oh lord reign forever and your throne endures from generation to generation y'all not feeling that you oh lord are still in control you oh lord still sit high and look low you oh lord still have your eye on the sparrow and i know you're watching you oh lord are still able to flip things back in what you oh lord are still able to make the darkness light before thee every battle you will fight before thee all the high places can be brought low you oh lord are still able now if you don't feel like praising today and if you have anything to praise the lord for sit right there playing on your phone scratching your head rubbing your feet in that little seat but if you know he still reigns and if you know he's been

1:36:25 god and he is god was a keeper is a keeper was a provider is a provider has made ways will make ways take a few minutes and thank god through it all you're still my god that's why you press yourself to church today dr mona that's why you press yourself to church through all the stuff that happened last week because you know god is the joy and the strength of my life has the power to move all pain misery and strife don't touch nobody Just look at him and say, I know who God is. I've been to too many funerals to not give him glory. I've been to too many hospitals to not give. He raised. Now holler down your rope and say, hold on anyway No, no, no, you ain't gonna live in no fear You gonna get on your next plane And you gonna take your next trip Knowing if God be for me I speak no fear I speak no power I speak no anxiety He reigns And you better live right So if it is your last trip You alright with it You gotta live so well That if it does come to an end One of these all morning I'm going home

1:38:04 y'all sit down y'all sit down on your way to your seat just holler at somebody and say I'm glad I got God but tell him I'm even glad that he got me yeah I got God Presidents come and go Politicians come and go Leaders come and go Pastors come and go Congressmen and women come and go But I know somebody Who was alive before Genesis And he gonna be there after Revelation The world is ever changing but you are still the same if you order my steps i'll keep on praising your name i'm i'm i'm trying to stop here because i got something else to tell you i'm gonna keep placing god at the center of my hope i'm gonna do what those enslaved africans used to sing and say over my head i hear music in the air there must be a god somewhere i like them enslaved Africans they were the real gangsters and before I be a slave I'll be buried in my grave and go home baby I ain't gotta play with y'all forever And you know that your life is built on a foundation of God when death don't even scare you.

1:39:43 I know why y'all can't clap. Some of y'all are sitting there like, oh. No. No. Your life has gone to another level. When you look deaf in the face and say, you can't do nothing to God releases you. You can't even touch me till it's my time. So go fight the good fight. Stir up some good trouble like John Lewis said. get on your plane ride your train get in your car go to school and handle your business because david said the lord is my light i i declare i'm trying to move on whom shall i fear the lord is the strength of my life of whom shall i be afraid and i got one more thing to tell you keep praying through your hurts keep pouring out your heart keep placing god at the center of your hope but there's one more keep pausing to reset your head space keep pausing come on come on tell somebody keep pausing to reset your head space i wish verse 19 was the end but it's not they jump right back in but you are lord reign forever you you're thrown and do as all generations now verse 20 why have you forgotten us completely now it's not that god had but that's how it felt why have you forsaken us these many days restore us to yourself oh lord verse 21 that we may be restored renew our days as of old now here it is unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure i wanted to call this keep pressing keep pushing and the said when you're under pressure you don't need to keep pressing The more pressure you have does not mean you keep pressing.

1:41:45 It means you have to create pauses. you got to stop even if the pause includes questions. Lord, what you doing? Lord, how come? You reign forever. Your throne is still intact. You're still God throughout a generation. But why does it seem like you've forsaken us? Why does it seem you've forgotten us? I know you're able to restore us. You see how this person, this poet is pausing. literally saying now restore us because I wouldn't even ask you a question if I didn't think you were the answer I wouldn't ask you a question if I didn't think that you were the answer not just had answers restore us wait wait wait and then here to go back into the question unless you have utterly rejected us Now Lamentations is the Old Testament.

1:42:54 I'm telling you, they were living in Babylonian trouble and chaos, catastrophe, destruction. And all they knew, lean up, best line of discernment. All they knew is what had happened. But what had happened is not the only thing that was happening. See the reason why the devil plays with our mind is because the devil wants you to think what you've seen that has happened is the only thing that's happening. We know something they don't know.

1:43:41 The Old Testament ain't the last testament. and there's a little boy that's going to be born in Bethlehem and they're going to call him Emmanuel and Emmanuel means God is with us Y'all not feeling me. Because what has happened is not the only thing that's happening. one day that little boy is gonna grow up and the empire is gonna try to hurt him because he's so radical he's pushing against the status quo they're not gonna like him not because he was sweet in a manger sweet little jesus no jesus went flipping over tables jesus started calling pharisees and church folk names and he said i'm tired of all y'all acting like vipers and hypocrites and the empire said no y'all gotta go get him and they're gonna hang him up on a little cross they're gonna put nails in his hands and they're gonna try to kill him because you can't have somebody that radical alive walking the earth because radical people shift nations radical leaders change the status quo so when they can't handle you they hang you Oh, I'm living it. I know about it.

1:45:17 Since you can't hush me, you want to try to hang me. But as long as I'm breathing. he died didn't he die he died and and and and the folk watching thought what had happened was the only thing that was happening he stayed there on Friday stayed dead on Saturday but I need about 50 back this folk to holler but early Sunday morning he got up with all power in his hand And before he left the earth, he said, Lord, I will be with you. preach shop i'm trying y'all ain't feeling me what's happening the only thing that's happening it's not making sense because you weren't with us that day in 2017 when me and my best friend were watching netflix and i found a scary movie and he don't like scary movies he was by the house chilling james dennis was at the house and and every time i wanted to watch a thriller i don't like horror movies necessarily but i like thrillers i don't want to know how it's going to end and he doesn't like it because he said it scares him so he gets up and normally leaves well one day i watched some movie where the girl was deaf and i think the movie was called intruder and there was an intruder coming into the house but she can't hear and i'm really intrigued she can't hear and somehow she got a maneuver somebody trying to get her and she can't hear but james didn't leave, sit right there on the couch.

1:46:49 I said, this got to be God. Because every time I watch something like this, he get up and leave. Well, he sat there the whole movie. I said, man, when that thing went off, I said, that was good, wasn't it? He said, yeah, that was good. I said, I can't believe you stayed here through the whole movie. He said, well, what you didn't know is while you were watching the movie, I went to Google. and I typed in the movie on Wikipedia and I read through the plot so I could sit through all the twists and turns because I knew how it was going in