I Go To Jesus' Church: Justice, Healing, Restoration

I go to Jesus' church. Do you realize that where you go determines what you expect? If you go to the grocery store, you expect to get groceries. If you go to the courtroom, you often expect to get justice. If you go to the hospital, you expect to be treated. And if you go to the bank, you expect to transact business. You go to school, you expect to get some form of instruction and if you go to a counselor, you expect to get some kind of guidance and if you go to the battlefield, you expect a conflict or a fight. If you go to a funeral, you expect mourning but when you walk into the house of god, you ought to expect transformation, deliverance, healing, restoration, salvation because when you enter the house of god then you expect his presence to be there and nobody that enters the house of the lord ought to leave the same. [00:39:41] (63 seconds)  #ExpectTransformation

So, my Bible, the way I read it, said that when Jesus showed up, he began to flip the table because when you go to Jesus church, when Jesus steps in, things have to change. He he he didn't come to church to tell you that he came, he came to church because Jesus realized that some stuff needed to be built within the church and he realized if he didn't do it, nobody would. Because that was his job. [00:42:57] (32 seconds)  #JesusCameToChange

But if you watch Jesus, you watch him very carefully. So, he came to create a space for folks but he had to do some house cleaning. He came to fix some stuff, but he had to do some housecleaning. He came so that you have a different identity, but he had to do some housecleaning. He claimed to restore your purpose, but he had to do some housecleaning, and that brings me to my second point. At Jesus' church, identities get restored. [00:53:18] (28 seconds)  #HousecleaningForIdentity

He sets you up because god is not just trying to restore your identity. He is now changing your destiny because you are headed to hell. I'm speaking for myself now. Going down to hell. It's just like the game shoots and ladders. You keep hitting the wrong button and going down or or just like monopoly. You keep having to go back to jail but when god changes your identity, he changes your destiny and your destiny changes your what? Your direction. Amen. [00:59:41] (25 seconds)  #IdentityChangesDestiny

Jesus heals the physical infirmities. The emotional wounds, the mental struggles, the the spiritual bondage, the community fractures, the family dysfunction. Jesus healed it all with one word when he asked them to come in. And Jesus lets us know today that everybody that is here today has an opportunity to do better, to be greater, to come where god is calling from, but we have to start claiming the church that we go to. [01:03:25] (31 seconds)  #JesusHealsCompletely

The black church has never just been a building. We've always been a place, a place where you go expecting something. The black church has been the headquarters for survival. The black church has been the classroom for liberation. The black church has been a hospital for those who are in need, and the black church has also been dignity that you couldn't find in the courtroom. Reverend doctor Lewis Gates reminds us that the black church became the central place where African Americans could preserve their identities, nurture hope, and organize resistance. [00:40:43] (40 seconds)  #BlackChurchHeadquarters

You see, you see, you see, slaves when they went to church, they didn't have a building like we have. They didn't have these fancy screens and microphones. Often times, they had to pray in the bushes or they had to worship in little shanty shacks. They had to hide under the oak trees in the midst of the night just to simply call on the name of the lord because when they started to understand who god was, it carried a different connotation from them that they understood that when they went to church, went to Jesus' church, there was something going to happen. [00:41:32] (32 seconds)  #HiddenFaithStrength

Jesus was on his way to the Passover, one of the holiest days for the Jewish holidays, worship scheme, and the temple should have represented god's presence, god's mercies, god's access, and a covenant relationship but but but something about the sacred place had been messed up, had been marred because when Jesus walked in, he does not find reverence. He finds corruption. He does not find prayer. He finds people profiting. He does not find mercy. He finds manipulation and everything that Jesus did when he walked in the church because Jesus realized that folks had got comfortable being what god had not called them to be. [00:42:14] (43 seconds)  #SanctuaryMustBeSacred