Rising Above: Embracing God's Promises and Blessings

**Greetings!**

Here's what's happening at First.

Join us for Morning Glory Prayer Tuesday Mornings at 6:15 A.M. The prayer of a righteous man or woman is powerful and effective. Join us as we begin our day with prayer. Dial-in information is available on our website or app. Contact the church office if you are willing to serve as a prayer leader.

Join us for TNT with Pastor Derek on Tuesdays at 6 PM. We are back in person for TNT. Join us in person or on our social media platforms. Invite your family and friends to join you.

We are preparing to honor our Scholastic Achievers. This is our High School, Middle School, and Elementary Scholastic Achievers. Register for our Scholastic Achievers Sunday, register online today.

Join us for this year's Vacation Bible School. The theme is Create, Design, and Empower. July 10th through 14th at Meadowbrook High School. VBS is not just for kids; classes for all ages including adults. Volunteers are still needed, register online today to attend and volunteer. For more information, contact Reverend Pat Austin.

Join our Young Adult Ministry as they're prepared to have fun and build foundations. Join the Young Adult Ministry for a pool party Saturday, June 24th. Register online, then join us at VBS for a special time of study especially designed for the young adults July 10th through the 14th. Monthly Bible studies are held each month at Ironbridge. Register online for all events. Visit our website or app for more information on what's happening at First.

Welcome to the First Baptist Church of South Richmond! We are growing in stewardship, reaching souls for Christ, excelling in ministry, authentic in worship, and truly a team experience. We are excited that you are here now.

It's time to worship the Lord together. We have come into His house, gathered in His name to worship Him. Rise to your feet, for this is the day that our Lord has made. Somebody ought to rejoice today! So worthy, so worthy, so worthy to be praised.

Come on, bow with me as we go to the throne of grace.

Oh God, how we honor and praise and lift high Your name this day. And how grateful we offer this time that we have gathered to worship You in spirit and in truth. And God, we pray right now that the power and the presence of Your Holy Spirit would fill our hearts and fill the atmosphere that You would be glorified.

Lord God, that somebody might find the hope of Jesus Christ and somebody might find the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Meet us here, Lord God, that Your name might be high and lifted up. It's in the mighty name of Jesus we do pray and welcome You, Lord, into this place.

Come on, remain standing as we enjoy the presence of the Lord. For when we praise the Lord, say we have come, we have gathered. Take it back, so let's do this and magnify His name.

Join our Young Adult Ministry as they're prepared to have fun and build foundations. Saturday, June 24th, register online, then join us at VBS for a special time of study especially designed for the young adults July 10th through the 14th. Monthly Bible studies are held each month at Ironbridge. Register online for all events, visit our website or app for more information on what's happening. For more information, contact Reverend Pat Austin.

In the presence of the Lord, we are so excited this year to celebrate 50 years of Pastor and people. We have been blessed over our time together to hear testimonies of those who Pastor Jones has mentored. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate and celebrate Pastor Jones. He has been such an incredible influence on my life and my ministry.

I could talk about him as a mentor, as an advisor, but he's been my pastor now for over 30 years. During these 30 years, what I've learned, two words I would sum him up with are gracious and generous. He's part of the reason that I came to Richmond, and he was influential in me getting to pastor the first church. He's just been supportive for me and my family for all of the time that we've known each other, and he's been a blessing.

So I want to say to you, Pastor Jones, congratulations. May God continue to bless you with many more years of success, and may God smile upon you with grace, kindness, and goodness as you have shown and demonstrated to myself and my family over these years.

We want to take this moment to welcome you to our church. What a wonderful day this is to give God praise. This is none other than the house of God, the Gate of Heaven, and we have come to worship the Lord today because the Lord is good. Am I right about it? Come on, let's enjoy God today.

If there are those who are with us for the first time, would you raise your hand? First-time guests, raise your hands. Amen. We're so happy that you're here. We're giving you some information, and after the service, we would like for you to just give us a minute of your time with our First Impressions Ministry to tell you a little bit about our ministry and about our church and to let you know how welcome you are.

We're going to sing our welcome song at this time. We welcome you to First Baptist Church. You may be seated.

In the presence of the Lord, doorkeepers, as you may open the doors and allow those who are outside to come in. We're so glad that you're here on this first Sunday in July, July 4th holiday weekend. I guess some folks are out getting ready for the barbecue. Amen. We're glad you're here.

Let us prepare to honor and celebrate God for His goodness in our lives. We celebrate so many things in our culture and in our lives, and so it's important for us to remember who's first in our life, to remember that God is the creator of all good things, that He has blessed us with health, life, strength, and prosperity.

So we celebrate God through the giving of our tithes and our offerings. We celebrate artists, and we celebrate athletes. Surely we want to celebrate God as we thank Him for His goodness and for all of His provision. Nobody but God has brought us to where we are.

Today we thank God for the opportunity to share not only from the pulpit, but from time to time, particularly on first Sundays, we invite members of our congregation to come forward and just give a snippet of what the Lord has done in their life and is doing in their lives.

We want you to know that all of the wisdom and all the blessings don't come from the pulpit, but they also come from the pew. As I often remind you, there's somebody on your pew who has been blessed in a miraculous way, and you need to hear that God is moving in a marvelous way in this congregation.

So today, we're very happy to have Miss Deborah Austin come to just say a word about what the Lord is doing in her life. Won't you thank God for Deborah? Come on, Deborah!

The Bible says upon the first day of the week, let each of you lay by him in store as God has prospered you. Give as the Lord has prospered you to give, because what the Lord loves is a cheerful giver. If you need an offering envelope, raise your hand and we'll bring you one. If you want to give in person, follow the direction of our doorkeepers as the choir sings. You may also give electronically by going to Givelify, texting to give, or using Cash App with the dollar sign FBC.

Today, we thank God for the abundance that He has allowed us to share. We know that our provision comes from God, and that He is the God who provides. We thank Him for every gift, every day, every talent, and every resource. We give because He has blessed us in such a marvelous way.

Now, God, would You bless that tither and that giver, allowing them neither to need nor want because they have been faithful? We love You, God, and it has been our joy to take part in this offering. We ask it in Your name, and the people say together, Amen.

I began attending First Baptist when they were holding service over at Meadowbrook High School. Pastor Derek had a surprised expression when I walked up to join. Reverend Cheryl blessed me with a ticket to the 'It's a Sister Thing Women's Conference.' I came for four years before I officially joined.

I was on my way to a doctor's appointment when I was involved in a car accident. When I got to the VA, I requested an x-ray on my back. The technician did an x-ray of my chest, and the other tech said I requested the back. They notified me that my back was fine; however, they had located a nodule in my lung. I met with the doctor, and he explained that they would be removing the nodule. I was in ICU for three days and then transferred to a regular room.

That night in ICU, when they did my vitals, the doctor said I was breathing at 99 with a third of my lung removed. This past June, I celebrated six years of being cancer-free in my lungs. Recently, I had a mammogram done, and they told me it was abnormal. When I went to the doctor, they said it was in stage zero, which meant it was contained and hadn't spread to other tissue yet. It looked like someone had inserted coffee stirrers inside of my breast.

When I went for my follow-up after the surgery, they told me they didn't get it all, so I had to prepare to go back through what I thought I was coming out of. I had a couple of months of radiation, and I have some medication that I have to take for the remainder of my life to kill the growth of cancer, but I am ever so grateful.

I want to retract that statement I made about the accident. There was no accident; that was God showing me that it was a disease in my body and it needed to be addressed immediately. My surgeon was 72 years of age, and they told me he was the best and semi-retired. His name was Dr. Saint Peters. I just want to say thank you, God, for navigating me through the storm.

Elijah has just experienced a great victory after defeating the 450 prophets of Baal and embarrassing Jezebel in front of her subjects. However, he is now discovering that oftentimes after your greatest victories, you will have to deal with your greatest testing. He is feeling as if God has abandoned him, even though he has done exactly what God told him to do.

Elijah finds himself in a desperate and discouraging moment and is driven to his knees. He comes to a place called Sinai, the same place where God came to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments and where the children of Israel camped before the Parting of the Red Sea.

The Lord said to Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord. A great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. There was an earthquake after the wind, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and he went out and stood in the mouth of the cave.

This is the word of the Lord. Elijah has come to a place where he understands that when you do what God asks you to do, sometimes you'll be driven to your knees. In those moments, nothing and no one can help you but God.

Every now and then, in order to show you what God is about to do, He'll take you to a place like Mount Sinai. The stanza that I read for you this morning, Elijah was in a cave, and the word of God came to him, and I'm glad, church, that even in low places, the word of God can still show up.

Sometimes I take you to places to remind you of what God has already done. Before he comes to this place called Mount Sinai, it's a place where he is reminding Elijah that he has done this before and can do this again. It's a place where he's reminding Elijah that He does His best work sometimes when you're at your worst place.

Elijah comes to Mount Sinai; it's what I like to call a strengthening place. Sometimes before God takes you to the final place, He'll first take you to a strengthening place. A strengthening place is that place where you're not all the way where you want to be, but it's that place where you can testify.

I thank God that I'm not where I was, and somebody can testify this morning that recently I've been through some stuff that has tried my patience, I've been through some things that have tested my faith and have put my relationship with God on the ropes. But what I want to thank God for this morning is that I might not be in my best place, but I want to thank God that I'm in a better place.

Come on, I just need some folk to talk to me. I know what the lowest of low places look like, but I want to thank God that I'm in a better place. A better place is a place where I'm getting my smile back; a better place is when I'm reclaiming my joy; a better place is when I can see a future where I couldn't see it before.

I may not be in my best place, but if I'm transparent as I sit in church this morning, I want to thank God that He has me in a better place. And as Elijah is at Mount Sinai in this place of strengthening, I just want to show you a couple of things this morning.

The first thing I want to show you is a confirming reality. The Bible says he comes to Mount Sinai and he goes into a cave, and this is what the Bible says: it opens up the stanza that I read for you, and the word of God came to Elijah.

It's absolutely amazing to me that Elijah is in a cave, but the Bible says there the word of God came to Elijah. The cave, topographically speaking, is the most sunken part of the mountain; it's dry in the cave, it's desolate in the cave, it's dark in the cave, and of all places, it was there that the word of God came to Elijah.

I'm glad, church, that even in low places, the word of God can still show up. Some of y'all don't believe me; the text explicitly says not Elijah went and got a word, but the text says that the word of God in the cave of Mount Sinai came to Elijah.

And I believe I'm talking to somebody this morning who can testify that there were moments in my life where I didn't know up from down. But what I want to thank God for is that He had a word, and it was tailor-made just for me.

Come on, can anybody testify? There were some Sundays I didn't want to come to church; there were some Sundays I didn't want to get out of bed, but I made my way to church, and Pastor opened up the Bible, and it felt like he was talking just to me because God had a word that found me where I was.

I believe if the teabag could talk, it would say something like this: "I had to go into the scalding hot water because it was in the scalding hot water that the heat extracted the best from me." Y'all didn't hear me; this is the teabag talking.

I had to go into the water, and the heat pulled out what was deep inside of me, but once I got into the hot water, the same hand that allowed me to go in is the same hand that will pull me up. I wish I had somebody praying on a Fourth of July weekend. Is there anybody glad and can say I know that's right?

Because there were some places I was in my low place, but God pulled me up out of it, and the word of God ministered to me a comforting reality.

But then can I show you a clear request? Elijah, I need you to come out of the cave and stand on the mountain. Why would God make this request of Elijah? Because Elijah's pout has replaced his praise.

We get to places, and it doesn't take long where we forget exactly how good God has been to us. Now I know we just sang, "I never shall forget what He's done for me," but if we're honest, there are moments when not only do we forget, but we have absolutely no recollection of how good God has been to us. I know that's right.

Elijah is in the early part of the chapter under what they call a juniper tree to seek rest and relaxation and renewal from the demands of ministry, and now he finds himself in all places, a cave. Sometimes you got to just get away for your mental well-being, and Elijah's in a place where he's running from Jezebel.

She's put an APB out on him, and the Secret Service of Judah knows to shoot first and ask questions later. He's at the end of his rope, and he doesn't know what he's going to do.

God says, "I need you to come and stand on the mountain." How can I say this better? I need you to get out of bed, open up the blinds, fix your hair, put some makeup on your face, and I know you may not be feeling it, but I need you to let me do the rest.

Look, you just stand on the mountain; I can handle Jezebel. You forget what I did with Pharaoh; you forgot what I did when David went out to fight Goliath. I've handled all of them before; I can handle Jezebel, but I need you to stand on the mountain.

Why? Because if you stay where you are, you will not be able to see what I'm about to do. You're in the lowest point of the mountain, which is the cave, and if you stay in your sunken place, you will not have the vantage point of seeing what I am about to do.

You got to come out of where you are so you can see what I'm about to do. To come up out of some stuff in order to see exactly how I'm about to show off.

Okay, let me see if I can say it like this: It's Fourth of July weekend, and if I was a betting man, and I'm not, somebody has to be glad and can say I know that's right.

You can't stay in the house and expect to see the fireworks. If you want to experience the fireworks, you have to come out of the house and go to where they are. God is going to do some amazing things in front of your face, but if you insist on staying where you are, you will miss out on them.

How much have you let pass by because you wouldn't come out? How many new relationships have you let pass you by because you won't let go of the old ones? How much peace have you let pass you by because you insist on walking in the same drama and chaos that you've always walked in?

God said to come stand on the mountain because His glory was about to pass by. His glory is everything that makes God God - His dominion, majesty, authority, sovereignty, grace, and mercy. All you need God to do this week is just show up in your problems, issues, and wherever you choose to bless you.

The Lord was not in the wind, fire, or earthquake, but in a gentle whisper, His glory passed by. We love the "buts" of God because we've experienced them unparalleled in our lives. When we were at the end of our rope, God pulled us back together. When we were about to give up, God said no, don't do it. Those are the "buts" of God.

I almost didn't graduate, but God fixed it so I came out. Thank you, Lord, that's the "buts" of God. I didn't know what was going to happen, but God made a way. We know something about the "buts" of God, but I'm falling in love with this other conjunction.

The Holy Spirit has expanded my palate to not only appreciate the "buts," but I'm at a place in my life now where I can also appreciate the "ands." He was not in the wind, and he was not in the fire, and he was not in the earthquake, and the Lord passed by.

That says to me that the Lord didn't just do it once, but the Lord kept on doing it over and over and over again. What am I trying to tell somebody? People expect your "buts," but the reason some folk can't stand you is because of the "ands" that God keeps on writing in your life.

Some of y'all don't know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the "ands" that God has put on you. And you graduated, and you got your hair done, and your kids look good, and your marriage is going well, and you got a new job, and God is blessing you, and you're what mercy looks like, and you're what grace looks like, and God has made ways out of no way.

Can anybody in here say, "God, I want to thank You for Your help?"

Dr. Freddie Haynes, our good friend, told the story of during the pandemic. We had them outside services, and we were just glad to be able to see each other. He said during the pandemic, a family drove up, and a little girl jumped out of the car because she hadn't seen him in about a year. She gave Freddie Haynes a big hug and she said this to Pastor Haynes, "I knew today was going to be a good day when I saw that plus sign up there on the church."

Her mother ran out of the car and said, "Pastor, I'm so sorry. She started to take math now, and I'm trying to tell her and convince her that the plus sign in math is not the same thing as the cross on the church."

Dr. Haynes looked at the mama and said, "Mama, I wouldn't be so fast to convince her that that is the truth because when I think about the cross, it's added a whole lot in my life."

And I wonder, can anybody get out of here shouting on how the cross has added some stuff in your life? Come here, somebody, and salvation, and eternal life, and grace, and mercy, and can anybody testify, "I thank God for the cross because it's added in my life?"

Mama used to say it like this: "At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away." And was there nothing in my life adding to your finances, adding to your life, adding to your spiritual gifts, adding to your family?

Everybody up there, good night. At the cross, God has made ways out of no way. Can anybody in here say, "God, I want to thank You for Your help?"

We remember those who have gone on before us, and we thank God for the gift of life and the gift of salvation.

We acknowledge the awesome gift that God has given to each of us by providing for our salvation through the gift of His son, Jesus Christ. This is a sacred moment for us to reflect upon and thank God for our salvation, the promise of eternal life, and Jesus.

We also remember those in our congregation who are sick, those who have lost loved ones, and those who have gone on before us. We thank God for the gift of life and the gift of salvation.

We invite you today, if you're not a member of the fellowship or God's family here where you live, to take this moment to make a conscious decision to get on the Lord's side and unite with the people of God here at First Baptist Church of South Richmond.

We are deputizing you to look to your right and to your left and ask that person if you want to go and walk with them down this aisle. We will wait for you. There are ministers in the aisle who will walk with you. The person next to you will walk with you if you just touch them.

So if you're here today, we want you to come and give the Lord your life at the cross.

We think about the Perry family and the passing of Tracy Perry. We think about our connection and our salvation. Take this moment with your head bowed to commune with God.

Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, our unrighteousness, our lack of commitment, and our lack of faith. Ask God to continue to add to our lives that which allows us to be sons and daughters of God.

You know God, we come into Your presence right now, and we acknowledge this consecrated moment. When we think about Your presence, Your generosity, and Your gift, and we hear Your command to do this in remembrance of me.

So we pray Your blessings upon these gifts of bread and wine that represent Your blood and Your body shed and mangled for our salvation, consecrated to us now by the power of grace divine. We ask it in Your name, and the people of God say together, Amen.

As we remember the sacrifice of our Lord for us, we commune together. We have asked for the forgiveness of our sins, and we receive that now. We have asked for greater strengthened faith to face the tomorrows of our lives, and we feel that now.

We leave this place buoyed by the presence of God in our lives, grateful for Your ultimate sacrifice You did it just for us, and for this we say thank You.

Now God, we go out into a dangerous world to face a week that we don't know anything about, but we know that Your blood will cover us and keep us until we meet again. In the name of Jesus, we ask, and the people say, Amen.

Let us all stand, and we thank God for what a wonderful service this has been. Great singing, great testimonies, great preaching, and wonderful fellowship.

We want to remind you that Vacation Bible School is about to take off here at First Baptist. Let's praise God for what we know is going to be a great Vacation Bible School created, designed, and empowered. Our staff and our teachers are just fired up, and they are preparing themselves so that they can pour into us during this week.

So the 10th through the 14th will be at Meadowbrook High School. We invite you to register for VBS today. You can register either in person or on our platforms. We are aiming for record attendance and already have a couple hundred people registered.

Vacation Bible School is a great opportunity for young adults to have a strong biblical foundation and have fun doing it. We have a special track just for young adults, and we invite you to be a part of it.

We also want to recognize all of the young people who have been awarded scholarships and achievement certificates at school. Parents, please go to the website and register your children. Let us know if they are moving up or from one school to another. We will celebrate them Sunday after next.

First Impressions Ministry, we are so happy that you are here. Let us praise God for our visitors. Give us a few minutes, and we will tell you a little bit about our church. Let us praise God for our visitors once again.

God bless you, and may the peace of God rest, rule, and abide with you until we meet again.