"In The Spirit" Rev. Dr. F. Bruce Williams

0:02 I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make her boast. And the Lord, the humble, shall hear of and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. For the Lord is good. Mercy is everlasting. And His truth endureth to all generations. Good evening, Alfred Street. Happy New Year to you. God has done it again. I say God has done it again. he's brought us to a brand new year there are people who live better lives by accident than we did on purpose and they didn't make it but because of the goodness grace and mercy of God we've got another day's journey and that's worth shouting about in it amen we honor God today do me a favor would you give God praise for your pastor my friend while he's on sabbatical amen amen Amen. Praise God. He's one of the greatest people and preachers and pastors I know anywhere.

1:09 And I really appreciate his ministry and his friendship. Although he kind of did me a little wrong. When he asked me to come, he's in PhD program. As you know, I'm in that PhD program to my, I'm in the second cohort. And when he asked me to come, I see, I got classes Monday and he asked me to come. They sent a whole bunch of work for us to do ahead of time before we even got to class and he asked me to come this weekend right before classes start and he knew when he invited me and so it was kind of petty for him to do that but Don't tell him I said that, but he must have a lot of confidence in me or he don't care nothing about me to put me this close to our time. But there would be nobody else I would do this for but him.

2:07 I appreciate the opportunity to come here at Alford Street and to share a word, especially during this time. Let me commend this church for allowing him the time to get away and to recalibrate and refresh himself and prepare for what God has for you ahead. And everybody loves Alfred Street, who's got any sense. And I'm one of those persons who is a fan of Alfred Street. Do me another favor, though. I know there are a lot of Alphases and people here who are holding up while the pastor's gone. But would you do me a favor and give God praise for my namesake, Dr. Williams here, for all the things that she does as well. Amen. Amen. Amen. Encourage her. A lot is on her shoulders. Amen. The lot is on her shoulders, and you don't know what it's like until you stand in those shoes.

3:04 And so I just wanted her to be encouraged. I know people are praying for her, and I know other people are responsible for carrying out leadership as well. But it's no small thing for her to do what she has to do. Amen. Well, y'all ready for the word tonight? Amen. I'm going to do the best I can to share in the time permitted. Would you join hands with those around you now? as we prepare with prayer for the Word of God. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this precious moment. Yesterday is a canceled check. Tomorrow is not even a promissory note. The only redeemable time we have is now, and for that, God, we give you thanks. And for that, God, we give you praise. Now, God, as we prepare for the preaching moment, we confess today that we can do nothing until you come. bless your people make follow the ground of the souls of your people that the seed of truth might find depth that relationship might be established between some soul and the Savior then Lord help me your preacher breathe on my words and make them thine rescue me from me fill me and empty me at your will love me and do whatever you want with me you can be reckless without my permission hide me behind Calvary's cross make my preaching so thin in human wisdom that only the shadow of the cross can be seen beneath take your glory but master please give us the blessings we pray we ask it all in the name of the pre-existent incarnate crucified resurrected, ascended, and soon coming King's name we pray.

4:56 All the people of God said together Amen. Would you give God praise one more time? I would this evening that you would turn in your Bible or tap in your Bible app to the Revelation of John, the book of Revelation chapter 1. And I'm going to lift up and line up for our consideration verse 9 and a part of verse 10. Revelation chapter 1, verses 9 and verse 10. If it is your custom to stand, you may stand this evening out of reverence for God's word. Revelation chapter 1 verses 9 and 10. If you found it, say amen. I'll be reading from the New International Version of the Greek Masoretic Text. If you turn there, you'll find these words.

5:48 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that is ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's day, I was in the Spirit. Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. With the help of the Holy Spirit in your prayers, I want to talk and teach from this simple theme, in the Spirit. In the Spirit. Help me preach this. Everybody say, in the Spirit. In the Spirit. Amen. That was pretty good for a Saturday night. Say it one more time. In the Spirit. Amen. One more time for the Holy Ghost. In the Spirit. I said, I want to talk about in the Spirit, and I would that you would flank me with your prayers. The words of our text drip from the pen of the famed apostle John. You know, you Bible students know that he was one of the disciples of Jesus Christ.

6:48 Jesus had many disciples. In fact, upon his resurrection and before he returned back to heaven or after he had, in the words of J.C. Perkins, left from the craggy cloud, shrouded cleft of Olivet, caught a cloud and worked his wondrous way back to heaven, he left to 120 people his kingdom business and said, occupy until I return or do business till I come back. John was a part of those 120. In fact, Bible readers know that he was a part of the original 12 disciples who were chosen by Jesus. In fact, not only is he a part of the original 12, but he was a part of that subset of believers or disciples, the inner circle, Peter, James, and John. Bible students know that those three had a kind of special relationship with God.

7:46 There were times when they were with Jesus when the others were not, or included by Jesus when the others were not, or went to prayer with Jesus when others were not, or experienced and saw miracles when others did not. You remember that it was those three, Peter, James, and John, who was on the Mount Hermon when Jesus was praying so hard that the glory on the inside of him shone on the outside, and Elijah and Moses showed up to encourage him about his oncoming crucifixion. It was John who was with Peter and James, the inner circle, when you remember Jairus' daughter was sick and then died. When they got to the house, before Jesus went in the house, though he was surrounded by a crowd, the Bible says everybody didn't go in with him.

8:40 But he turned to the crowd and said, Peter, James, John, y'all come in with me because there was a mean, stubborn problem in the house. And Jesus needed some people with faith because usually people who pray have faith. When Jesus went, you remember, to the Garden of Gethsemane in the shadow of the cross to pray, he took all of his disciples with him. But the book says he went a little further into it with Peter, James, and John and said, stay here and pray with me. And then he went a stone's cast away to pray for himself. They were the ones closest when he was there praying, Peter, James, and John. So John has the distinction of being a part of the inner circle of disciples that Jesus had. Not only was he a part of the inner circle, but John was also the one who had earned the reputation of being a disciple whom Jesus loved.

9:41 Now, Jesus loved all of his disciples, but Jesus did not love all of them equally. He loved all of them adequately. Every parent who has children knows that you don't love your children the same way. Because someone might be confident, not needing much attention, but somebody might be nervous and a little insecure and might need more of your attention. And so you give them more attention, not because you love them more, but because they need you more. John was the one who the Bible says he loved. And it could be because it is popularly believed that he was the youngest of the disciples. Some say he was maybe as young as a teenager. We don't know. And he was the one, remember, when Jesus was at the supper with his disciples that had his head on Jesus' chest. He was the younger one.

10:40 You can see it when they get news that Jesus is up from the grave. And the Bible says Peter takes off running to see if Jesus is up. And John follows him. But when you get to the tomb, John gets there before Peter, even though Peter started before John. Because young legs feel better than old legs.

11:03 He was the younger one who Jesus brought close. in spite of his flaws, faults, or maybe because of his flaws, faults, and failures, Jesus brought him close. He was the one whom Jesus loved. And it seemed to pay off because you remember when they arrested Jesus and he carried the cross up the Via Dolorosa and they hung him high and stressed him wide. John was the only disciple male who was at the foot of the cross. Peter denied him, Judas betrayed him, the rest deserted him but John was there with the women who had the courage to be associated with a man who had been crucified as a criminal while the others were too nervous and insecure to hang around for fear of the fact that what happened to Jesus might happen to them but John was there and watch what happened since John showed up Jesus, who was in the midst of his own suffering, had a mind lifted above himself, looks down and sees his mother grieving.

12:09 And watch what happens. He says, mother, behold your son. Son, behold your mother. It's almost as if Jesus is saying to his mother, I know you're grieving. I know it hurts for you to see your eldest son here. But for the time being, I want to leave you with John. And he says to John in substance, now John, take care of my mama. And you know, you don't leave your mother in the hands of just anybody. So Jesus loved John and must have had confidence in John. He was one of the disciples. He was perhaps the younger. He was the one whom Jesus loved. This is the John from which these words come. Written in the book of Revelation. one of the most powerful, revelatory, apocalyptic words in all of the New Testament record. John writes this to the suffering saints during persecution.

13:11 John, one of the disciples. John is on the Isle of Patmos when he writes it. He's in exile. He's separated from Kith and Kin by sea and circumstance. It appears that he's on the island because he's a threat. He's a problem to the status quo, the powers that be. He's on the island because of who he identifies with and what he preaches and the implications for the times and society in which he lived. John is being punished and separated by others because he's a problem. And the reason why he's a problem is because he serves a king greater than Caesar. And his allegiance is not to the one in office, not his highest allegiance. His highest allegiance is to the one whose blood saved him and set him free.

14:12 And you know, whenever you serve another king and another kingdom in the midst of a society in which you live, When your highest allegiance is to that king and not anyone in power or position here, when society is sprinkled with people like that, then it makes the status quo nervous because whenever you have a people who are more committed to another king, then it's hard to frighten or manipulate people like that. You can't control somebody who's already committed to another king. I wish I had some help in here. It is true that the Lord wants us to follow the laws of the land, but whenever the laws of the land contradict and conflict with the principles of the kingdom, those who are sold out to Jesus always cast their lot with the king, even if there are consequences. And John was the kind of person who was not intimidated by what other people thought or what other people could do.

15:11 And if you really want to be free, I dare you to sell out to Jesus. I need to say that again. If you really want to live and you don't care what people think about you or what folk are saying about you, what people are trying to do to you, I dare you to sell out to Jesus. Because when you care more about what God thinks than what people think, nobody can control you. Nobody can manipulate you. You preach, Holy Ghost.

15:41 John was exiled on the Isle of Patmos because he was troubled. And the reason why they didn't just punish him, but they exiled him is because they were afraid that people would be infected by the same mindset he had. He was the kind of person you couldn't leave people around too long. Because if you left John around people too long, it wouldn't be long before he started talking about his king and his God and his Christ. He's the kind of person that was always trying to tell somebody about Jesus and influence somebody about this new kingdom of mercy, compassion, and justice. And so they had to separate him from people because he had influence on other people. And let me just put a comment here. I ain't going to just stop. I want to pause. I just want to ask you a question. Let me poll the house today. When you get around people, what kind of influence do you have on them? Let me ask you it again.

16:35 When you're around other people, what kind of influence do you have? Because you see, it is inevitable and unavoidable that you would have influence on other people. It's inescapable. You're going to have influence. The question is, what kind of influence are you going to have? Maybe I'm not asking the question right. Maybe I should ask it this way. When you're around people, does your influence pull them up or does it pull them down? Does it bring out the best in people or does it bring out the worst in people? When you're around people, do you inspire them to rise to the heights that God has above them and live up to the best that God has in them? Or do you tempt them to try to submit to their baser instincts? What happens when you're around people? When you're around people, are they worse off because you've been there or better off because you've been there? And when you leave them, do you leave a little heaven behind? I'm just asking the question.

17:28 I ain't trying to start nothing. What is it about your life that makes you dangerous for the kingdom? him. John, John, they said, we can't just put you in jail. We got to, we got to separate you from proximity to other people because you always recruiting. You ain't even got to say nothing. It's just the way you treat people that makes people ask you what church you say you go to. And so they said, we've got to separate him. And so they put him on the island of Patmos, separated him from loved ones and others. He could contaminate and infect with this thing called Christianity. And so there he is on the Isle of Patmos. No friends, no loved ones, no relatives, no other saints.

18:15 And while he's there, he's got to decide how he's going to respond to what's been done to him. He didn't have any control over what was done, but he did have control over how he would respond. so what is he going to do what is he going to do how is he going to respond to what has been done to him now he could respond by putting his thumb in his mouth and having a perpetual personal pity party and just feeling sorry for himself and saying nobody knows the trouble i see he could respond by saying god why'd you let this happen to me why did you let this happen to me? I mean, after all, I go to church, I bring my tithes, I sing in the choir, I'm an usher, I'm faithful in attendance and in giving, try to treat people right. Why did you let this happen to me? Why did you let this disease happen to me? Why did you let me get fired from my job? Why did you let my loved one pass away? Why did you let me go through the bankruptcy? Why did you let me go through the divorce? Why are these negative things happening to me? Why did you let this?

19:28 People are talking about me, Lord, and I'm just trying to do your will. They put me on a cross of criticism, trying to tuck me in a tomb of trouble. Everywhere I turn around, there are people, I got haters everywhere, but Lord, I've been faithful to you. Why would you allow this to happen to me? He could have allowed what happened to make him bitter and mean and cold and cantankerous it could have caused him to question whether god loved him at all that was one alternative he had but the book says that while he is on the aisle of patenips being punished and separated for standing up for jesus the bible says his response is this and i was in the spirit on the lord's day y'all are missing your shout he he says he says they put me out here because they are trying to break me. They think that this is going to discourage me. They think that I'm going to wave the white flag of surrender. They think I'm going to throw in the proverbial towel. They think I'm going to quit because they think that separating me from people is going to cause me to quit. But what they don't understand is that you might put me here and separate me from my people, but you can never put me anywhere that will separate me from my God. Is Is there anybody in here who knows that life and people and powers can never put you where God can't get to you?

20:54 I feel like it. Doesn't matter what your situation is. The one thing that ought to make you shout right where you are is that you can connect with God anywhere because God is everywhere. Watch this now. He's not just every place, but he's in every situation. He may not have said the situation, but he'll step in the situation and work the situation. I thought somebody would shout off of that. He work it to your good. God is everywhere. Look at your neighbor and say, I know that's right. On a Saturday night, God is everywhere. He's not just in the altar. He's in the alley. He's not just in the seats. He's in the streets. He's not just in the pulpit. He's in the pool room. He's not just in his own house.

21:47 He'll be in your house. He'll be in your car while you drive. He'll touch you while you're washing dishes. Has anybody ever had to shout at your cubicle on the job? Anybody ever had to pull over and do a holy dance? Somebody shout everywhere. Paul said, nothing shall separate me from the love of God. Not height, nor depth, nor angels, nor principalities, nor disease, nor pink slips, nor haters. Nothing shall separate me from the love of God. Not trouble, not persecution, not hardship, not heartbreak, not heartache, not sin, sickness, sadness, sorrow, or Satan shall separate me. Is that anybody from the love of God?

22:36 John said he put me out here on the island all by myself. They thought I would cave in. But I decided instead of caving in, I'd have church. I ain't got no hammond organ, but I'm going to have church. I don't have a choir, but I'm going to have church. Ain't no deacons and trustees or associate ministers here, but I'm going to have church. Ain't no congregation here, but I'm going to have church. It may seem like I'm all by myself, but I got the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to have church with. They meant to do me harm, but I decided that I'm going to praise him right where I am. Because just because you're not in the best place don't mean it can't be a blessed place. Because wherever you is, God can show up and kiss it, and when he kisses it, it leaves the quality of eternity.

23:31 You can shout right where you are. You can shout hooked up to IVs in a hospital. you can shout in the courtroom y'all not saying nothing to hear you can praise God at your cubicle and your computer he said I'm going to have church where I am it's a good thing he stayed open to God right there on the Isle of Patmos he said because while I was on this island all by myself he said I opened myself up to God and God showed up. Watch this now. And when God showed up, he wrote revelations. Y'all are missing your shout. It could be that he might never have written the book had he not been on the island.

24:27 Somebody gonna get it in a minute. Where he was was a bad place. but a good thing came out of a bad place. I'm trying to help somebody. Somebody going to shout off of this one. I want you to know that God is so good that God can use the worst that's happening to you to get the best up out of you. Am I right about it? I bet you if I pass the mic around, there's some people in here that would tell you that if there's any good in me, it's because of some of the bad I've been through. anybody in here glad when you look back over your life that you've been through what you've been through because it helped make you what you ought to be preach pastor See, you got to remember what God is up to in your life. It's interesting, when he called his disciples, John included, he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And he didn't just make them fishers of men, but he wanted to make them into people like him.

25:30 Because God's greatest desire and highest aim in your life is not that you be rich. His greatest desire for you is not that you be popular. his greatest desire for you is not even that you find your boo or your bae. And his greatest desire is not even for you to be safe. But his greatest desire is that you grow to the full stature of the man, Christ Jesus. And that's why he can't always keep you from trouble, preach Holy Ghost, because sometimes it's the trouble that helps make you the kind of person that God wants you to be. Come on. Is there anybody in here who knows that God can take trouble and make triumph out of it? He can take vicissitudes and give you victory. while you were going through it you couldn't appreciate it but now when you look back over your life you thank God not only for the mountains hey but you thank God for the valleys you thank God not only for your friends but you thank God for your haters as well your haters became your elevators all because God allowed them to come in your life you never would have ended up where you are the person that you are Have you never gone through what you've been through?

26:47 John said, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And because of what I was going through, God brought something out of me. I didn't even know that was in me. Watch this. And he wrote a letter, an apocalyptic letter. And he wrote a letter. I'm almost finished. She wrote a letter, and he wrote it in cryptic language, which means that he wrote it in coded language. And the reason why he wrote it in coded language, I'm almost finished, y'all. The reason why he wrote it in coded language is because he was a part of the persecuted.

27:25 And he was inspired by God to write a word to other persecuted. but he had to send the message in the presence of the persecutor. And in order to make sure that the persecutor does not steal the message from the persecuted, he writes it in language that the persecutor does not understand but the persecuted do. Oh, y'all don't hear me. And he must have tapped into the spirit of my ancestors. Because the reason why my ancestors were able to make it through the most hellish and horrendous ordeal that's ever been meted out against humanity is one of the reasons they were able to do it is they were able to communicate with each other in cryptic language. oh come on they use code from one persecuted to the other persecuted in the midst of the persecutor y'all don't know your history you when they were singing in the in the field the slave master thought they were singing because they were happy and they were singing swing down chariot let me ride and they thought they were talking about angels coming from heaven but they weren't talking about angels coming from heaven they were talking about others coming through the Underground Railroad. Y'all ain't helping me.

28:49 And when they sing, wait in the water. Wait in the water, children. God's gonna trouble the water. They weren't talking about baptism. What they were saying is when you escape, when they send the hounds after you, go to the river because the hounds can't pick up your sin. I'm almost finished y'all. I got to quit because I'm running out of time. But watch this. He writes it in cryptic language. And people in our own contemporary time read believers, the book of Revelation, and become scared. I'm about to take my seat. But if you read Revelation and it scares you, either you ain't saved or you ain't reading it right. because if you read revelation right it wouldn't scare you it'd make you shout because when john wrote it he said comfort one another with these words in other words he was saying to them i'm writing you a letter that's designed to give you what you need to make it through what you're going through and as long as the book is if i were to take the book down and reduce it down to its irreducible essence what the text is tailored to teach us or at least recorded to remind us is that if you are part of the persecuted, please understand that God gets the last word.

30:10 Y'all don't even know where to shout. You're going through trouble, but trouble, hey, don't last always. Is there anybody who needed to hear today that trouble don't last always? I'm trying to quit, y'all, but my soul is getting happy. What I want you to know is I don't care how bad it is in your life right now. I don't care what Satan or satanic people are doing in your life. I want you to know that whatever it is, don't you dare put a period.

30:39 Look at your neighbor. Tell your neighbor God ain't finished yet. Because whenever you're going through something, no matter how bad it gets, don't you dare put a period, put a hyphen. That means that what came before can stand on its own. But it's so exciting, there's more to come. In other words, sin, sickness, sadness, sorrow, Satan, the devil, and even the grave and death don't have the last word. But we serve a God who always has the last word. Look at your neighbor and tell your neighbor that God is in control. And it ain't over.