You Forgot to Leave a Message, Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley

0:00 This is the day that the Lord has absolutely made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Jackie sang that song last night and we almost fell out. It is something about African culture and jazz and the mix of our people that represents who we are. And it's so fitting for her to destroy us again this morning. I was looking at my husband, looking at my brother, we were like, ooh.

0:42 Jackie! Thank you, Jesus, for those black keys. Amen. Amen. And the honor and his absence to my pastor who is on Selah, continue to Selah, sir, and we love you. to the Reverend Dr. Judy Frentress Williams.

1:02 who has been standing in the gap and has been who she's always been and that is a friend a mentor hardcore mama when you need her to be indeed and so for that we love you to all the clergy my people are here shout out to all the deltas I see you hey y'all wear your red and black I see you you got a aka coming up it's coming it's coming it's coming it's coming it's coming it's coming but it's our day hallelujah right now amen amen you got to get it in gotta get it in while you can anyway you kid it's all in fun we love each other this is exactly what God would call us to do and that is to be happy in church amen my parents are here from New Jersey my mommy and daddy are here I've had an amazing night my brother was here last night so all the grandbabies were here Nicholas is here my brother the Browns are here my dad's high school classmate my girls are here oh my gosh tour here and Lisa I see you I'm granny Eve I see Brock I see all you in the corner I love you Lottie Dottie everybody hey My line sisters were here.

2:18 I see, listen, it's a good day to be alive. And don't take it for granted to have your family with you. So I said it last night and I'm gonna say it again. Let's go to work. God is calling on us in the steam of roots to redirect our energies about who we are and why we are who we are and why we've been where we've been. And so let us pray to allow the Lord to set this place up. So we're back, God.

2:55 It's time for us to hear from you again. Lord, you've shown up this entire weekend, and we don't expect anything different at this hour. You have been such a mighty force in all of our lives, but God, sometimes we've got to say some hard things because we're going through some hard things. And so God exposed us today. expose us in a way that we will have to make an exponential change immediately to do your will better so the messenger is calling on you again be merciful sir father and mother god take control of this space you transcend anything we could ever imagine and for that we say thank you Now speak. Let's go to work.

3:48 In Jesus' name, amen. If you can stand with me and open your Bibles or your tablets to Psalm chapter 78. Psalm chapter 78. And if you ever get a chance, I would beg you to read this entire chapter, but we're going to land in a few verses. We're reading from the New Revised Standard Version.

4:14 If you have it, please say amen. Amen. And it reads this way. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from old, things that we have heard and known that our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their children. we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. He established a decree in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God. and not forget the works of God, but to keep his commandments.

5:11 And that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast and whose spirit was not faithful to God. That's it. Let's take a seat. That's enough. And just for a few moments, I want to preach from the subject. You forgot to leave a message.

5:44 You forgot to leave a message. Now, church, I'm young, but I'm old school, too. I grew up in an era when technological advances were beginning to come to shape. and as a born in the 70s baby, reared in the 80s child, it was during that decade that every five-year-old had an important assignment in their house, and that's to be the television remote for your grandmama.

6:13 Mm-hmm. You know, if you were in the house with your grandmom all summer long like I was when your parents were working, you watched the stories all day long, from the young and the restless all the way to guiding light, And if you had an important job like I did, you had to hold the antenna so that she could watch the entire show. Young people under the age of 30, they think I'm joking, but the TVs back when we were kids had two knobs. A top knob. And you had an old school TV. And the top knob only had three stations. A, B, C, M, B, C, and C. You had an old school TV.

7:01 I'm young, but I got some old school memories. I grew up in a time where the touch-tone phones were not an option. Long lost are the days of the... It's the rotary phone, the rotary phone. You know, the rotary phone when you prayed that nobody had too many zeros in their number. Because it would take you all day to call somebody with too many zeros in the number. Do you remember when call waiting got introduced? Yeah, yeah, that was a real thing because if you're old school, you know when you call somebody and they were already on the phone, all you got was a busy signal. And you would call them every 10 minutes to see if that joker would get off the phone. My mom used to be a switchboard operator and in her job she used to have to connect people to talk.

7:59 And if there was an emergency, an operator would have the power to interrupt the call to get through. What about the answering machine? You remember the answering machine? Yeah, old school, old school. And if you live by how I live, my grandma had a doily under the answering machine. I don't even know why she did that, but she had a doily with the answering machine and a phone right on top of it. I don't know to keep her furniture clean. I couldn't touch the doily. But if you had an answer machine, the device itself, you had to push the buttons to make the message play. And when the message kept going, and if you missed something, it wasn't savvy enough for you to stop it. You had to wait all the way at the end of the messages and then go back to the beginning. And then it happened. The 90s happened, man. And we got real fancy. They got this thing called voicemail. Watch out, man.

8:51 We had voicemail where there was an external system that held all your voice messages. And if you ever wanted to retrieve somebody's message, you didn't have to worry about going all the way home to hear that message. You didn't have to change your location to access the information. Now you have the ability to carry the message with you wherever you went. And it's rare these days to get a voicemail from anybody. because now all we do is we just text and if it's really important it's all caps call me now 9-1-1 and I know what's an important message because if you leave a voicemail and text me to check your messages it's something that's getting ready to go down and so today at 9 30 I am your operator and I'm on assignment to interrupt the narrative because there's a 9-1-1 happening right now in the black church. I'm shouting aloud, check your messages because we are living in a messaging crisis in the black church and in the black community. We are operating at a messaging deficit because of societal and a perceived to be divine radio silence where new generations of saints have been forced to figure out life without context, without support, without sound, because somebody forgot to leave them a message. You still think I'm talking about the voicemail on your phone, but I'm talking about life-saving messages. I'm talking about perspective-changing messages. I'm talking about atmosphere-changing messages, messages that should have been passed down and shared to help somebody know that the circumstance you're in right now, this too shall past because the end is not yet. Messages that should have been passed down and shared to help a brother or a sister out to understand that your personal hell, it's not unique.

10:53 Somebody has already lived the life that you're living right now. There's an open book with a chapter waiting for you to read and messages that should have been passed down and shared to help a Navigate this nightmare we call Trumpism. It's like an old horror film. We know who doesn't make it in the end. And that's what I surmise from the context of the text. You see, in our teaching practice in the church, we tell everybody, you know David wrote all the Psalms, but in the text this morning in Psalm 78, it is designated as one of 13 masculine or songs of wisdom. And this particular psalm was attributed to Asaph, a Levite, a leader of David's choir. Theologians have been arguing.

11:46 They think that this might have been a psalm that he brought forth because he was a composer. He had moral and spiritual insight to deliver for us a roadmap of essential messages. If you can read the entire chapter, it'll give you perspective on how your choices can change your trajectory. either toward the will of God or away from the will of God. I'm going to say that again. Your choices can change your trajectory either toward God's will or away from God's will. 19th century British author, composer, and Baptist preacher, his name is Charles Spurgeon. He said it this way, Psalm 78 is not a mere recapitulation of important events in Israelitish history, But it is intended to be viewed as a parable, setting forth the conduct and experience of believers in all ages. The reader is giving us a full view of divine judgment on the children of Israel, who have begun to manifest the same sinful and rebellious character that they had distinguished in Egypt.

12:48 In other words, the Israelites were cutting up. Israelites were cutting up. They started thinking, who needs this God of ours if we're just going to be in turmoil all the time? They started living how they wanted to, believing in whom and what they wanted to. And in the text, the writer is warning this generation that they were mimicking the very behaviors that got the Israelites jacked up in the past. And the psalmist is pleading with the people, don't forget the ancestors' practices. Don't forget what the ancestors did. Don't get caught up the way they got caught up, learn and live differently. And today I would suggest to you that after you've gotten the diagnosis, after you've gotten the declaration of a divorce, after the failed attempt at starting a business or even making a decision that you know you ought not have made, I'm disappointed to tell you this morning that many of the messages that you need to hear in this season have not been made available to you. They have not been stored in that spiritual iCloud and it's because you find yourself ill-equipped to deal with life's discourse and strife and this is putting the church in imminent danger problems facing us at every turn but we have no context on how to cope with realities because somebody forgot to leave you a message so so the real question for us to consider this morning is how have we failed to prepare future generations to survive familiar present-day problems.

14:23 How have we failed them to survive present-day familiar problems? Well, we failed future generations because we've forgotten to share the impact of our history. Verse chapter three, sorry, verse three and four says, things that we have heard and known that our ancestors have told us, we will not hide them from their children. We will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord. The psalmist here is pushing the narrative of imploring the Israelites to continue conversations about their storied past. Now, by today's standards, many would refute this rhetoric and say that living in the past has harmed a generation, but I think the text is given us another perspective. And that is for us to take a closer look at the impact of what I call a hidden history. A hidden history. You know what a hidden history is when we speak of the past as some distant experience without recognizing that the times that we're living in right now have a lot of remnants of yesteryear. And the scripture's emphatic declaration that he will not hide our ancestors' experience is a confirmation that your history is relevant to your tomorrow, that what you have faced in the past is indicative of how you will fare in the future.

15:50 And I stand here as a black womanist liberation theology-loving Baptist preacher, standing on the very shoulders of those that have gone before me, treading through the path of the blood of the slaughtered. This is why I tell families all the time, never stop sharing the story of your family history. Do what verse chapter 2 says, utter dark sayings from of old. This is why it's essential to fight for black history to be thought as a standard in American history outside of just February in your children's schools. And for the church, if you didn't believe in Sunday school before, you ought to be believing in Sunday school right now. my son who's sitting here with his pop-pop is going to be six years old. I just had that baby yesterday and he's going to be six years old. My son is a Netflix junkie. Don't even ask me. I don't know who his parents are, but he loves Netflix. And he watches movies so much so they begin to start coming on themselves when you turn on the TV. And there was a season that Michael watched a movie that he loved. And it was a movie about Moses and the story of Moses. If you have any understanding about animation, you've heard of the prince of Egypt. Moses found out that he was not an Egyptian prince per se. He was actually an Israelite. And in the movie, slavery was fully on display. Masters were beating the Israelites time in and time out. And I knew that once this boy got a hold of this there was going to be a conversation about it well it came in the car one day and we got on the subject of slavery and he's learning about African Americans being a slave he said wait a minute you mean slaves like on the Prince of Egypt and I said yes son we were slaves like the Prince of Egypt and Micah broke it down for me in a way I had never heard it before he said Hey mom, I'm glad I wasn't born then.

17:51 I'm too tired to be a slave. And in that moment, it hit me. If I hide the history from this boy about who he is and where he comes from, and if I paint this animated bliss about a painful past, I am doing no justice to the plight of my people. You see, church, when we hide our history, we hide our ability to see ourselves for who we really are and why we need to continue to strive. And as we think about future generations and even in our world today, many of us have no concept of how far our people have come. And so the apathy you see and the disconnect from social consciousness, it's not on the babies. It's not on the babies in Sunday school.

18:50 It's on those of us who fought to have a better life. Why? Because we forgot to leave a real message, a message that tells them, yes, you are descendants of slaves who have the wherewithal to fight for freedom. Yes, your forefathers were in the fields, but God was in the fields with them. Yes, there was Jim Crow. There was sharecropping and lynching, but God was moving on our behalf even in the midst of that hell towards freedom. And the power of our history lets us know that we have seen this movie before. And we're not going to tolerate this ever again. So no, there may be no more dogs biting, but there are still some police attacking. There may be no fire hoses, but the streams of justice aren't running down in everybody's community. There may be no more poll taxes, but there's still purging rolls. And if we don't have a handle on our history, we will accept anything in life.

19:49 Being a member of Alpha Street is essential for us to know our history. Setting the stage when a storied slave woman, and I told him yesterday, that gets me excited, a woman was a slave and joined the Alexandria Society of Baptists in 1803. and we can trace our roots back to her baptism in an all-white congregation. I said in 1803. That means we were still enslaved. And we went from a slave woman getting baptized to ultimately renting and owning our own land before the Civil War. That should make you stop for a minute. You stand on hollow ground that was owned before the Civil War even started. Then we became a hospital for the Civil War. and ultimately burned a mortgage, started ordaining women when it wasn't even popular, and now we stand on the promises of God doing our missions, hitting halos, HBCU shoutouts, and giving to the museum because there's only one.

20:52 but not just for the house of Zion this message needs to be permeated in the body of Christ what do you mean preacher well when we hide our history we're hiding our ability and hindering ourselves from our healing and we are guilty in the church of not doing the proper soul training S-O-U-L training because the next generation has not been given the tools to have what it takes to withstand circumstances that come their way. Why? Because the messages have not been available to take on this journey. What do you mean, preacher? I believe the text is telling us. The psalmist calls on the Israelites to tell the next generation and even the generations who are not born. And if I could relate it to the church in 2020, there are just some things we used to do, we don't do anymore.

21:52 And I find myself when I meet people who are going through something, I tend to call on the practices of the old saints. And I encourage them to reignite the fire that was in their belly. Because what they knew that we sometimes don't know was that God's plan would ultimately outweigh their pain. And I believe if we could reignite the faith of the old saints, many of our lives would be very different. Consider the plight of the Israelites. Consider the plight of our ancestors. They had to have something greater than them to hold on to to survive the hell on earth. Yes, times have changed, but the power of God has not. So recall the history. Do you remember when we used to lay hands on the sick? It didn't matter where you were in the service. You could be in the supermarket. If you're not, well, let me lay hands on you, baby.

22:47 Do you remember when we used to call out demons right to their face? Demon, I see you. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. I will do all things through Christ that strengthens me. And we used to require children to go to church. There was never an option because you needed a rest day. You remember the good old days when the preacher couldn't even preach because the spirit was so high that all you could do was lift your hands and worship God and it was just too good. Alpha Street, stop hiding your history. because the saints of tomorrow, they need at least a fraction of the faith of the saints of the old. They can realize that with God, all things are possible. Just look at the history books.

23:41 Not only have we forgotten to share the impact of our history, but we failed future generations to survive present-day problems because, not popular, we've forgotten to share the impact of our rebellion. I knew it'd be quiet, it's okay.

24:01 Verse eight is giving us the answer and that they, meaning the Israelites, should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation whose heart was not steadfast and whose spirit was not faithful to God. In verse 8, the writer reminds us of their stubbornness and rebellion. And in the remaining verses of the chapter, the scripture lays out a number of the shortcomings of the Israelites. And it didn't fail. Every time God brought them out of danger, every time he delivered them from the hands of their enemy or even delivered them from themselves, they still decided to turn their backs on God and what they knew was right and these acts of rebellion specifically the intentional disregard for God's grace and mercy you know honoring other idols doubting the deity's plan charting their own course and disowning the culture and tradition of their people sound familiar this caused God who initially blessed them to turn his back on them for a season. He didn't leave them, but he had to turn his back on them for a season. And when I read the text, I realized that my five-year-old and my college student were Israelites. I knew it.

25:26 If you ever parented anybody, you know you bless these people with life, food, shelter, clothing. It doesn't matter how good you've been to them. Rebellion is inevitable. And when the consequences are put in place for their actions, then you, the provider, become their pariah. But then I couldn't put it all on the children. I was convicted when I read the text because it takes a rebel to know a rebel. There's some... All of us... once or twice have looked at God like he owed us something. Even though you made the bad decisions, even though you knew you were wrong, you were complicit in creating your own chaos, but God still showed himself faithful in the midst of your rebellion.

26:33 And now that you're on the other side of your foolishness, you fail to realize that you've done a disservice to the body of Christ because you didn't share the impact of the rebellion in your life. What I've discovered is church folk are the most hypocritical and unrealistic human beings in the planet. We would have you to believe that there's a sweet, sweet spirit in this place every single day. Now, come on church, it's 9.30. We're not going to tell nobody. It's 9.30. But I wonder if I have a few witnesses that can recall a time when God's will didn't line up with your will. When you wanted something to go your way, God said do it another and you did it your way anyway. When we hooked up with somebody who had their best interest in mind and now you mad because they got you jacked up now. When we decided to take a position that looked good on the outside, had more money, more prestige, but you fell into the trap of sacrificing your mind, your body, and your spirit for a few extra dollars, and now you stressed out by that job God told you not to take. But even in your rebellion, somehow God's grace and somehow God's mercy has allowed you to still be here to tell your story. Is there anybody in the building that can attest that the rebellion is real and life will slap you across the face when you don't do what God told you to do?

28:16 Church, your children need to hear you. Baby, don't take that path. I already did that. Don't hook up with him or her. That joker is dangerous. Listen to your instincts, baby. Somebody needs to see you be accountable. Listen, and hear the story of why you know what to do in a rebellion season. Listen to me. Somebody needs to see you be accountable. But they also need to hear from you when you're in the middle of a rebellion season. And this is what I want to say. And I told them I'm not scared. I'm going to say it. church the world is lost not just because people haven't accepted Jesus as their savior that's only one fraction of the conversation I would suggest to you this morning that the world is lost because the church the saints the people that have come through a season have not been vulnerable enough to bring truth to their tragedy Thank you.

29:25 the truth about imperfections and surviving the consequences of their actions. Here's the problem. Being a Christian doesn't equate to being perfect. Being a Christian doesn't equate to being exempt from trouble. But knowing the Lord your God is knowing that in the middle of my rebellion, there's an advocate on your behalf pleading with the Father. God I know they did it God I know they rebelled but I will die for them I'll shed my blood for them I'll hang on the cross for them no they don't deserve it yes they rebelled but God The text is giving us insight and it pushes us to reflect about rebellion against God. Listen to it this way.

30:24 I find myself seeing the United States and Israel. with some comparisons. Israel got a king. Because they thought they wanted a king. Listen, of their own choosing. And they weren't satisfied with the only king that mattered. And the United States is grappling with an Israelitish complex. America wanted a king. that stood on Christian values, and that the state of our country is backed by and honoring the will of God.

31:23 But then I had to take issue with that and ask this question, do we not read the same Bible? To guide us on our biblical journey, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, love your neighbor as yourself, make sure the poor have what they need. And I wonder what happened to those Christian values when rebellion began to set against the poor and the hungry when you're trying to remove SNAP from everybody. I wonder what happened with the rebellion against religious freedom when you're telling Muslims they cannot be in a country that is religiously free. I wonder what happened to the rebellion when the rights of Africans, who are also immigrants, Let's do this. and Latinos, that they are more important or less important than European immigrants. And I wonder what happened to those Christian values when the occupier of the White House was black for eight years. And I don't know about you, but I know that the God I serve has been faithful to us in the middle of vile values. Our Lord has protected us from the harm that could have come. But church and America beware against rebellion because we've got to learn from the Israelites. History can and will repeat itself if we are not careful about the way we treat others. So tell the church, prepare for future generations. Tell them that rebellion can change the trajectory of an entire people. Because if we're not conscious of our rebellion, there will be a price to pay. I got to close. Not only have we forgotten to share the impact of our history and the impact of our rebellion, but we have failed future generations to survive familiar present-day problems because we've forgotten to share the impact of our testimonies verse 4 says we will not hide them from our children we will tell

33:30 to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders he has done verse 7 says it this way so that they should set I love it their hope in God and not forget the works of God but to keep his commandments in this song of wisdom you will find that the writer is offering a message that implores God's children to spread the truth of the goodness of God to every generation so that their hope is set in a God who has done great works and not in a people who will fail them. And I realized that beyond our history and beyond the rebellion and mistakes we made, God has continued to bless us beyond measure. Psalm 78 journeys us through the ups and downs, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the message was put on record in the text for them to see, so that when a dictator tries to take over, Thank you.

34:35 they know that's not God. When idols begin to show up in their community promising things that only God can do, that's not God. When people begin to dispose of their culture and their tradition, that's not God. Alpha Street, I know that sounds familiar to you in 2020 because we have misunderstood our current state of the union. But there's someone that I know who gives us reason to give glory anyhow. Every person in the pews that I see has a reason to give glory to God this morning. And when you are facing struggles in life, When your heart is filled with pain and you got more mortgage than money, when your children are in rebellion and you don't know what to do, this is the time to interrupt the narrative and to begin to set your hope in God and never to forget his great works.

35:44 Life's burdened experiences can cloud your ability to communicate the essence of God. and it is clear to me that we in the church we've got to start gathering our own arsenal of messages of what God has done for you and what God has done for me so that when you look back at your history when you look at God's grace in the middle of your rebellion you will know that this God that I serve and that my parents serve is the one and true Lord of all and the testimonies of your life ought to be on full display. I don't know who needed to hear this, but I've got a serious question for you this morning. Has God done a great work in your life? I mean, you are in the sanctuary. You are breathing right now. You do have clothes on your back. You had means of transportation to get here. And if he did it before, he will do it again. He's the same God right now and saying God back then and if I want my children to know the goodness of God I gotta leave them a message Alpha Street let's redefine the narrative and change the way we speak to others about who God is and has been in our lives in the body of Christ we've forgotten to tell them about our deliverance we've forgotten to tell them how to lay hands and be healed we forgot to tell that he provides for us when provision seems to be nowhere in sight. And so in the spirit of testimony, before I let you go, I told you I was old school. And in the old school days, you used to have the opportunity to give yourself a testimony in front of everybody. And I remember my grandmama who was an usher, she'd wear her little white little hat and in the middle of testimony service, you couldn't walk in because that was the time that we were about to give praise to God. So it's time to testify this morning. And I'm going to call the roll because I don't want you to question how good God's been to me. You may not know, but I'm going to let you know right now. College tuition paid for without the need for a standardized test. That was Jesus.

37:54 Diagnosed with the disease, told I couldn't have children, but that six-year-old is sitting right there. That was Jesus. Seen my husband through a layoff while we had a three-month-old, but at the same time got a raise and promotion to fill in the gaps for the reason lost a job opportunity got rejected because i preached too much now i own my own business and can preach as much as i want to jesus I saw an election happen in 2016. God used that election to push me to entrepreneurship. And then I had no healthcare. But the same God that provided for us gave my husband a job. Now we all got healthcare.

38:43 Almost lost my marriage, hit hard times. But God is renewing a husband and wife in a way we could have never imagined. They told me I had a growth on my liver and couldn't figure out what was going on. But I stand here cancer-free, liver healthy, and blessing God's name. And speaking of cancer-free, my brother and my daddy were both diagnosed with elevated PSAs. Men, go get your prostate checked. But I stand here looking at my daddy, looking at me cancer-free, preaching this message. Somebody needs to hear me this morning. You can survive when things are going wrong. You can survive when your marriage is up against the ropes. Somebody needs to hear me this morning. You will graduate this year on time. Somebody needs to hear me. High school students, your scholarship is coming.

39:37 Some woman needs to hear me this morning. Your womanhood is not predicated on your husband and your child. Somebody needs to hear me. Your womanhood is not predicated if you had a baby or have a man. But it's predicated on how you nurture what God has granted you dominion over right now. And make your request known. Your honey is coming, baby. Keep praying for him. Some brother, you need to hear me right now. Your manhood is not predicated on how much you make, but how much you make do with what you got and how you treat those that are assigned to you. Somebody needs to hear me. The diagnosis is not a defeat. It's a part of the journey to reach your destiny.

40:31 Somebody needs to hear me this morning. Your layoff is not the end of the road. Your layoff might be the launch of your dream, your desire. Siobhan, why do you act like that? Why you gotta holler everywhere you go? Because when I look back over my life... And I think things over. I can truly say that I've been blessed. I got a testimony.

41:15 Why you shouting all the time? And here's what I learned. When you worship, it's a witness to God's goodness in your life. I didn't say how you worship. I just said so you worship. So when you show up to service, that's worship. When you smile when somebody's down, that's worship. When you apologize when you were wrong, that's worship. When you can't move because the spirit's too high, that's worship. For some of us, I can't help it.

41:52 That's my worship. Why you always hollering, Siobhan? Why you act like that? Well, I'm an exhorter. I was born this way. I was born to get you happy when you're down. Because when I'm down, I got to get myself up. And so I tell you there's some experiences in my life that have pushed me to my passion. When that man got on his knee and proposed, I looked at the ring first.

42:20 And then I shouted and ran around the house. When my baby took his first steps, I shouted and I ran around the house. When the Eagles won the Super Bowl, yes I did. I shouted and I ran around the house. We got a ring, baby. We got a ring. And if I do all that for them, when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all he's done for me. Leave me alone! I'm fitting a run right now! So in the honor of my pastor, goodbye Alpha Street. May the Lord bless you real good. And it's time to decide today that no longer will you fear about what you're facing in your life. No longer will you neglect the need to align with a church home.

43:16 And no longer will you live your life uncovered without a true relationship. Not religionship. a true relationship with God. Today is the day you'll bring your children back to God. There is no option for them. They can't know God unless you know God. Today is the day that you rededicate your life to God, rededicate your dreams to God, rededicate your hopes to God. There's a testimony in this room. don't be selfish in your service. Don't be selfish with your brother. Don't be selfish with your sister. If the hand of God has been over your life, if the hand of God has touched your life, I can truly say that we've been blessed.

44:10 You've got a testimony. I got a testimony. Remember your history. Remember your rebellion. And don't forget to leave a message about your testimony.