Selah, Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley

0:00 Well, this first Sunday of Advent, as we prepare for what I believe are some great things God has called us to and to become, I pray that the Lord allow me to speak in a way that calms heart and mind today. I want you to hear the reading of the Word of God from Psalm 46.

0:25 If you have your Bible or your device with a Bible on it, would you share with me as we hear the reading of Psalm 46? And this morning I want to read for a very specific reason out of the New King James Version of the Bible. Psalm 46. We ask those who are physically able to stand with us that together we might reverence the reading of the Word of God from the 46th Psalm.

0:52 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her just at the break of dawn. The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

1:49 Come before the works of the Lord who has made desolations in the earth. He makes war cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. You may be seated. In case you're a little slow in having caught on, the subject of today's sermon is Selah. The word Selah shows up in scripture some 74 times.

2:48 Three times in the book of Habakkuk. And 71 times in the book of Psalms. And scholars who understand Hebrew like Dr. Judy will tell you that there is no real definitive translation for the word Selah. There's no fixed and final way to translate this word. but a key to understanding what it may mean comes when you remember that the psalms are actually songs that Israel would sing. That all 150 psalms are literally the hymn book of Israel, and they would open it up and they would sing these hymns the same way we would sing Amazing Grace or How Great Thou Art. and remembering that the Psalms are songs,

3:40 scholars of the Old Testament would suggest to you that the word Selah is some kind of musical connotation. The 31 of the 71 references of Selah in the Old Testament are in Psalms, songs that are directed to the musicians who would play them. it's almost as if when our musicians play I would give them some cues that they would understand but you wouldn't because you don't play the music so if T is directing and playing and I think the choir is too loud I could stand up and say decrescendo and he would understand that that means take it down a notch if if royal priesthood is getting in the spirit and Marcus is on that organ and he starts doing what he does. I might holler at him, fortissimo, Marcus, and he knows that means play it as loud as you can. Melvin might be directing the choir one day and I would look at him and say, Melvin, pianissimo, adagio. He would know that that means play it smooth and easy. If Sister Garrett were on the pipe organ, I could look at her and say, in altissimo, and she knows I'm meaning taking it from G6 to F7.

4:59 She understands what I'm talking about. Selah is the musical writer giving an indication to the choir director how the music ought to be played. And what most scholars agree is that Selah literally means pause and ponder what was just said. Selah means don't run through this too quickly, but reflect on what you just heard and let it resonate in your spirit before you resume. Selah is an indicator to the one who's singing the psalm. Pause and take a breath.

5:45 Let those lyrics float over you. If you run through this too fast, if you don't pause, if you don't stop, you'll miss the beauty of what the Lord just said. So every now and then, Selah. Pause and breathe. Selah is a call to rest, to reflect, to let it resonate.

6:13 Selah means don't keep running, but stop for a moment. And it ought not surprise you to see Selah show up in Scripture because the one thing you ought to notice about God is that God is always calling God's people to rest.

6:34 God shouts at us, Selah. God models it, go back to creation and see this omnipotent God who has shaped the heavens and the earth come to the end of that creation and intentionally take some rest. Not because he's weary, not because he's tired, not because he's stressed out, not because his hands are no longer omnipotent, but God was trying to model something to us that every now and then you've got to rest. when God calls Israel out of slavery in the book of Exodus and gets them in the wilderness to give them the commandments to shape them as a people, one of the commandments he gives them is, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. And in case you don't know, to be holy means to be like God. And when God tells Israel, keep the Sabbath day, he's not telling them to worship.

7:32 He's not telling them to shout. Sabbath is not about worship. Beloved, we argue in the body of Christ today whether we should worship on this day or that day. That ain't got nothing to do with Sabbath. Sabbath, literally translated, does not mean worship. When you translate Sabbath, it doesn't mean shout. It doesn't mean come to church. It doesn't mean join the choir. Sabbath literally means stop.

7:59 Cease. and God calls these children of Israel out of slavery and tells them the first thing you've got to learn to do is stop and God tells them that because they have been slaves and the one thing slaves do not get to do is rest and the Lord says listen whatever you are trying to be like me you've got to learn how to rest because what you can't rest from you are a slave too.

8:32 Catch that. If you can't rest from it you are ultimately a slave to it. We see rest in the life of Jesus. He's hanging out at the home of Mary and Martha and Mary is sitting listening to Jesus while Martha is busy doing everything and Jesus looks at Martha and says Martha, sit down. You're doing too much. Jesus models rest for us. Read in your Gospels and see how many times Jesus was in a multitude of people who needed a million things from him, and without notification, he just up and walked away. The line was still out the door. Folk were disappointed. They were waiting to get their healing, waiting to get a word, and Jesus decided, I'm done, I'm through, and went away. Didn't even tell his disciples where he was going because he knew he needed to rest. And Selah is God saying rest.

9:46 now what's interesting is that the new international version of the bible has removed the word selah that's why i had to read the new king james because the new international which is the scholarly version which is the academic one has taken away selah as if to suggest that the more academic we become the more enlightened we become the more modern we become, the more professional we become, there's a temptation to remove Selah from our lives. Hear me, beloved, that if God's commandment to be holy means to be like him, I would suggest to you that holiness is not proven by tongue talking. Holiness is not proven by scripture quoting. Holiness is not proven by hymn singing. Holiness is proven by resting. And therefore, the enemy, in an attempt to block your holiness wants to remove rest from your life and push you back into slavery.

10:48 And here is the greatest deception of the devil to convince you that the busier you are, the more important you are. That the more you got to do, the more high up on the food chain you are. That if you're working yourself to the bone, somehow you're glorifying God. And God says you are not being holy if you don't know how to rest.

11:11 Selah. And the word to somebody today is that if you really want to be holy, you've got to learn how to rest. I don't know who I'm preaching to right here, but don't you leave vacation days on the table. Don't you leave PTO in somebody's hand. You take every mental health day they gave you. It is ungodly not to use up all your vacation. You know if somebody say he preaching to me, now he preaching to me. Girl, call out tomorrow. That's God's will for your life. I fell prey to the satanic trick that busyness honors God. When I first started pastoring, I was working every day, seven days a week.

12:15 And Mark, an elderly member of my church, Sister Narcissus Garrett, who now rests with the Lord, came to me one day and she said, Pastor, why do you work every day of the week? and I got sanctified on her because the devil never takes a day off we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers I got Holy Ghost filled on her the devil never takes a day off and that old lady looked back at me and said why is the devil your role model God rested. And I want to stand before you today, and as clearly as I've ever heard the Lord before, I hear the Lord calling me and us to say love. It's been busy around here.

13:14 We showed you last week everything we're doing. Selah. Pause and breathe. Selah takes on many forms. One form is the word sabbatical. Sabbath. Sabbatical, as you listen to it, is connected to the word Sabbath. And it's very common in the academy for tenured professors to be granted a time of rest from classroom duties so they can work on publications and works and research. But sabbaticals are less common in church. I want to read to you the definition of a church sabbatical from Robert Saylor. I want you to hear this definition.

14:05 A pastoral sabbatical is an extended period in which the pastor steps away from day-to-day practices of ministry in order to focus on their spiritual development with an eye toward returning to the congregation with renewed energy for ministry. Let me read it again. An extended period in which the pastor steps away from day-to-day practices of ministry in order to focus on their spiritual development with an eye toward returning to the congregation with renewed energy for ministry. pastoral sabbaticals are becoming more and more common in our Euro-Caucasian brothers and sisters but you very rarely have seen sabbatical in a black church as a matter of fact when I shared what God was calling me to with say lie and sabbatical with some other of my colleagues they all asked me are you crazy Okay.

15:12 You're going to walk away from your church? And Lloyd, I had to wonder, why is it that black churches are adverse to obeying God? Why are we hesitant to model what Jesus modeled for us?

15:36 Why are we resistant to obeying the commandment to say law, to rest? Why don't you see black pastors going on sabbatical? Well, I believe that within particularly the black church, the answer is fear. there's a fear within the people and there's a fear within the pastor. Can I teach for a moment? The fear within the people, it came up the minute I began to say, say la and speak sabbatical into the leadership of our church. The question that rises up then that probably is rising up now. Can the church survive without its pastor? what's going to happen if Pastor Wesley isn't in the pulpit? Because you already have anticipated what the attendance will look like.

16:35 You won't have trouble getting in the sanctuary. Might not be any overflow because we've seen what happens when people know the pastor isn't in the pulpit. Can I push it? And if the attendance goes down, what goes down right with it? Money. And there's a fear what will happen to the budget if the pastor isn't in the pulpit. What happens if my mama dies and he's away?

17:12 And there's some that are worried if the pastor goes away for an extended time, is the pastor really preparing to leave? Are we going to lose our pastor? There's a fear in the people. But then on the flip side, Elijah, there's a fear in the pastor that holds the pastor back from sabbatical. What if I go on sabbatical and they're fine without me? what happens if members join and I'm not responsible for it what happens if a rebellious group of leaders rise up and move and make motions that I wouldn't stand for and if I was at the table what happens if they vote me out while I'm gone there's a fear that the church's relationship with the pastor will be destroyed by a sabbatical.

18:09 And when I heard God say, say la to me and say sabbatical, Howard, that you need to rest, the very first thing I said back to God, I can't leave my church. And God's answer to me, but you can leave mine, that this ain't your church. and if we've distorted our relationship to the point where the church can't survive without its pastor we are guilty of the highest level of blasphemy and sin and that we've removed the church from the hands of God and put it in the hand of a human being This is not Howard John Wesley's church. It's God's church.

19:07 And therefore, I have to obey what I know God has spoken to me. Say love. So stand before you to announce what some of you already know. I'm going on sabbatical. From... From January 1st to April 12th, I am walking away from every responsibility I have as pastor.

19:48 New Year's Eve will be my last sermon up until Easter. I'll see y'all on Resurrection Sunday And I'm happy to have the support, prayerfully, of the entire church council, of the diaconate, which is why our leaders are wearing these shirts today, to let you know that we are in support of Selah. And today I'm asking for your support to allow your pastor to take some Selah. Now someone asked why pastor why why why now? The answer is really simple. You can't pour out of an empty cup. And It is very dangerous for your pastor to be on empty.

20:51 You've heard it before in illustration where you get on a plane and they tell you in case of emergency, put your mask on, but put yours on first. Because you're no good to anyone else if you're not being taken care of. I need to take care of me. I want to share two things with you in transparency that are a little sensitive for me. Number one, Alpha Street, I need you to know something. I'm tired. And I'm tired. I'm tired in a way that one night of sleep ain't gonna fix.

21:40 I'm tired in my soul. You may not know this, but I may be the only one that can testify about this in this place today. Pastoring? This is hard. This is a hard job. Just like your job. Your job is hard. And you know what it's like to be tired. Half of y'all in here got a nap on your agenda today. 9.30 service, brunch, mimosa, nap. Amen. but pastoring is tiring in a different way there's a weight of pastor bears in their soul and their emotions that is inescapable there's not been a day in these past 11 years that I have not woken up and knew that there's something I had to do for the church that I have to be available for call, that I journey with people through the highs and the lows of life, through the great moments of celebration and in the valley of death.

22:57 To have to bear the weight of eulogizing members who I love. of wrestling every week to make certain that I hear from God and bring a word to you. I don't stand here and just preach for you what I preached last year.

23:18 I wrestle with God and it leaves me tired. I'm on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. CJ, this weekend, I celebrate my 30th anniversary of preaching. The Lord called me and I preached my first sermon, November 29th, 1989. I've been preaching 30 years. And I did the math. I have preached conservatively 5,150 times. My mentor, Dr. Frank Thomas, asked a question of us, and I want to ask you. He used a basketball analogy. He said, how many dunks does LeBron James have in his legs?

24:01 Because at a certain point, even the greatest is going to wear out. How many sermons do I have? How many Sundays of four worship services do I have? It leaves me tired. And a nap ain't gonna fix it. Now, I want you to hear me clearly. I'm not exhausted. I'm tired. There's a difference. Exhausted is right before burnout, and burnout is when you don't want to do what you got to do anymore. Hear me. I am not burned out. I'm still excited about this job. I love this calling. Other than being a father, nothing brings me more joy than being the pastor of Alpha Street Baptist Church. I love wrestling with God and standing before you to share with you what thus says the Lord. I enjoy going to council meetings.

24:56 I love sitting with my deacons and praying about what God has called us to do. I get excited about staff meetings on Thursday. I love going to ministry meetings. I love pastoring this church, and I am excited about these next years, about what God has called us to do and to build. But in order to lead it, I need to be refilled. I'm not leaving you this ain't nothing but intermission baby I'm tired.

25:29 And I need you to know, secondly, I feel very distant from God. One of the greatest mistakes of pastoring is to think that because you work for God, you're close to God. that you allow your work to be mixed with your worship. And I feel so distant from God. I feel like Jacob, when God wrestled with him, I'm struggling with God with some issues right now. And God gets Jacob because God wants to change Jacob's nature. But he's got to get Jacob in a struggle by himself so Jacob will surrender and then the Lord can break him and his walk will be changed.

26:32 That sometimes God engages you in a struggle so that God can remove you from people. To teach you to surrender. So God can break some stuff and make you walk differently. The Lord is pulling me away because I'm in this struggle and I'm not surrendered.

26:53 And the Lord's trying to change me. Y'all, 50 is coming. And I got to leave some stuff in 40 that I ain't carrying in the 50. I just have to walk differently. And in order to do it, I've got to step away. I hear the Lord saying, be still. so I'm going on sabbatical, and everyone I've shared with wants to know, Pastor, what are you going to do?

27:30 Well, some goals I have are personal, and I'm not going to share them, not because I have anything to hide, but I believe in boundaries, and some of my personal life is none of your business. Amen. But I have goals for myself. I have some spiritual goals.

27:56 I want to draw back closer to the Lord. I want to know what it's like to get back to the place where I spend the first hour of my day on my knees. When you really love the Lord, there's something about being convicted of a deficiency in your prayer life that you can't escape.

28:19 Sunday worship does not make up for deficiency in prayer. Serving in ministry doesn't make up for deficiency in prayer. I want to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation without trying to write a sermon. I want to travel and go sit in the back of somebody's church and hear the word of God and not be worried about what time we got to get out for the next crowd.

28:49 I want to go to church and only go to one service. And after church, I want to experience this miraculous phenomenon y'all talk about called brunch. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to find out. I want to know what a mimosa tastes like on Sunday. Amen. I have some spiritual goals. I also have some physical goals. Y'all, did you realize this is the only body we get?

29:32 This ain't a test run. You wear this one out, that's it. I want to bring my best self to God. you'd be surprised that the majority of black preachers are in horrible physical condition.

29:52 Their A1C is high. Their blood pressure is skyrocketing. Their cholesterol is bad. They're on more medications than they should be. And this really got me, Judy, when I had my annual fiscal this year, and my doctor told me, your numbers are pointing in the wrong direction. And this is what she said to me, you can fix them or I can. stress.

30:24 And you know the only medicine for stress is rest, diet, and exercise. Hear me, y'all. Unless the Lord said differently, I ain't going to die in this pulpit. I leave a lot of myself in this pulpit every Sunday. Y'all not going to roll me out of here in a wheelchair.

30:49 I'm walking out on my own two feet and I'm not gonna die the minute I stop pastoring. I got life to live. I got golf courses to play. So I've got some physical goals. I want to rest. I want to go to sleep for eight hours a night. I want to wake up in the middle of the night and wonder, do I remember the conclusion of the sermon? I want to get back to exercising. I want to run my marathon this year. I want to change my diet. I'm trying to change from meat-based to plant-based. And the discipline takes time. I want to detox my body of things and people. Don't look at nobody. Don't look at nobody.

31:43 I've got some physical goals, some spiritual goals, some emotional goals. I was shocked like many of you when I heard that Jared Wilson, a pastor of a prominent church, took his life during Suicide Prevention Month. Listen, this cloth, this robe, this collar doesn't grant you immunity from depression and anxiety and mental disease. I want to do the things that bring my life joy so that fight off the depression. You may not know this. I am naturally introverted. I don't like crowds outside of Alfred Street.

32:21 The honest with you, I don't like people. I love you in Jesus' name, but if we ain't in church, leave me alone. Any introverts in the house, amen. So I've got some goals. I want to go see some of my friends I haven't seen in years. I want to sit down with my mentors and share with them where I am and have them pray over me. I want to take some cooking classes. I love to cook. It brings joy to my soul. I want to add some things to my repertoire. I want to rent a cabin in the woods with no Wi-Fi, no TV, no impeachment, nothing. Thank you.

33:12 I just want to get up in the morning and walk and thank God. You know what I want to do? I want to eat dinner with my sons at the dinner table and not have to get up and rush to a 6 o'clock meeting at church. I want to do the things that bring me joy. I've got some spiritual goals, some physical, some emotional, and some academics. I want to prepare for my conference of exams that I'm taking in the fall, which will make me ABD, all but dissertation. I'm almost at that finish line for PhD and I want to finish strong. I've got some goals. So back to the question that concludes the sermon. Can the church survive without its pastor for three months?

34:05 Absolutely. With your help. Over these 11 years, you all have given me some great gifts. I thank God for every trip the deacons have given and shared with me. I thank God for every gift card from Nordstrom you all given me. That's God's will for my life. I thank you. I've never had to ask for anything. But I am going to ask for something from you today.

34:34 Matter of fact, I'm going to be greedy. I'm going to ask for five things. Number one, I'm going to ask you to be courageous. I'm going to ask you to be courageous enough to go on this journey of sabbatical with me, trusting God to do what we've never done before and believing that God will sustain us. I want you to be courageous.

34:55 Number two, I want you to trust the leadership of this church. I want you to trust those God has placed in positions to help guide us. I want you to trust church council. I want you to trust the deacons. I want you to trust the staff. I want you to trust Deacon Charles Montario Jr. as he steps up to be chairman of the board of directors for this church. I want you to trust Lolita Eumanns as she now runs the day-to-day operations as our church business administrator. I want you to trust Reverend Dr. Judy Finchers-Williams as she steps in to fill all the pastoral responsibilities of this church. I want you to trust our leadership. Trust that they will guard us and guide us. There'll be no mess while pastor's gone. There's going to be no rebellion.

35:47 There's going to be no movement. When I change the bylaws in my absence, I'm not going to get voted out. Trust the leadership. I want you to be courageous. I want you to trust the leadership. And I want you to be persistent in your presence. I am the only one going on sabbatical. Touch somebody, tell them this ain't your sabbatical. This ain't.

36:22 You can leave after Easter. But I want you to be present. I want you to be present. Why? Because I want you to prove that your worship is not connected to your pastor. I want to know that you don't come to church to see your pastor, that you're not here to hear me preach. You're here because you serve a God who is worthy to be praised, who has done amazing things in your life, who's been too good to you for you not to come to church because some Negro ain't in the pulpit. Is there anybody here who knows that my worship is not about him? My worship is about my God who wakes me up in the morning, who makes waves in my life, and I come to say thank you to the God who's been good to me. I don't come to church for the pastor.

37:17 Now the good news is we've got it lined up for you to have some phenomenal preaching. and this week that list will go public. I want you to see transparency is such a core value that part of the thought was, well, don't tell the members. Let them just come and find out.

37:37 But I know what that will happen. Some of you, I don't know. I'm not going for whosoever will. I may get there and have to turn around. You may not want to come. So Judy and I have worked on putting together a phenomenal list of preachers, and it's going public on Tuesday. It will be online. You can look and see at every Sunday, every Saturday service, who's going to be preaching while pastors are away so you know to come to church.

38:01 It's a balance of our good and great internal preachers. But we've also decided to invite some guests who love Alfred Street, who you love to hear, and who want to support this sabbatical. F. Bruce Williams from Louisville is coming. Cynthia Hale from Atlanta is coming. Frank Thomas from Indianapolis is coming. Ebony Marshall Thurman from Yale is coming. And we found this brother that didn't have nothing to do from Beaumont, Texas, John Adolph, who's coming to preach over the weekend. Because they love Alfred Street. And they want to support us during sabbatical. So I'm asking you to be courageous. I'm asking you to trust leadership. I'm asking you to be persistent in your presence. And number four, I'm asking you to be faithful in your generosity.

38:49 Everything we talked about last week that you were excited about is not stopping because I'll be gone. The hungry still have to be fed. Mission in Kenya still has to be supported. The bills of the church still have to be paid. I'm asking you to be faithful in your generosity because you know this isn't my church.

39:11 And finally, I'm asking you to be prayerful. I'm asking you to pray that God will not only sustain our church, but do some amazing things in pastor's absence. New leaders will step up. Folk will get into roles that they've never gotten in before. as much as I sometimes don't like to think about it, my greatest responsibility as a parent is to make certain that Cooper and Deuce can thrive in my absence.

39:43 I have failed as a father if they can't care for themselves in my absence. One of my greatest responsibilities as a pastor is to make certain that this church can grow and go in my absence. and that takes prayer, a praying congregation.

40:06 Selah. As a matter of fact, that's the way I want you to greet one another during sabbatical. That's internal Alfred Street talk. When you say Selah and people ask, it ain't none of your business. Selah, it's our covenant term, that we are a family, that we are connected, that we are courageous, that we are trusting, that we are persistent, that we are faithful, and we are prayerful. Selah.

40:36 Selah. Lord, I hear you calling. And as hard as it may be, say a lot. And Lord, I know that you're going to do some amazing things in this period.

41:02 I pray, Lord, that you move upon every heart that is worried and concerned. and remind them that if we're courageous, if we trust, if we're persistent, if we're faithful, if we're prayerful, some amazing things will happen. God, I give back to you what has always been yours, this church family. And I ask you, God, to keep us while we say la.