Here are the selected quotes from the sermon transcript:

1. "And there's so many things that we should be and can be thankful for. I mean, it doesn't take much thought just to even look over this past week and consider what the Lord has done for us. Amen. So let's just take a couple of more seconds just right where you are and just close your eyes before the Lord. And from your mouth to His ears, just tell Him what you're thankful for. Just for a moment. Just tell Him what you're thankful for." [00:26:20] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "And on this Father's Day, Him being your Father, as He looks and gazes upon you, He knows your life intimately. He knows all the nuances of your life. He knows the hidden things of our hearts. He knows the hidden things of our hearts. Those are. He knows when we've had enough. He knows when we're not sure what to do next. He knows when we're at our wit's end. He knows. And He's there. And sometimes He's just waiting for us to turn toward Him. And rather than ask for something, just tell Him, thank you." [00:29:02] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Relationships work when there's trust. Trust, and in our journey, when difficult times happen, trust is one of the first things that comes under attack. In fact, I'll end this series answering the question, can I trust again? And so we'll really, really get into that. But relationships work when we can trust one another. I would also say relationships work when we can have fun together. I think it's important to have fun together. It's important to laugh. It's important to do things that bring joy to the relationship. And I'm not just talking about spousal relationships. I'm talking about all of our relationships. When we can really take time to have fun together." [01:00:08] (66 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "Okay, so it says always start with the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's not what you think. That's a good one. That can stand by itself. What does that mean? That just means that innocent until proven guilty. You know, in our relationships, friendships, we will have challenges for sure. But our mind doesn't have to run to that place, you know, of, man, they must have said this. They must have did this. They probably were thinking that. I feel like in our relationships, the benefit of the doubt has to be our default. Because for me, the benefit of the doubt represents grace. It's a better starting place." [01:06:10] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "It's like your best friend, your best friend is the secret place. It's the secret place. I'm not talking about just a quick in and out. Yeah. I mean, like Jesus set it up for us perfectly because remember the secret place represents. Uh, in, uh, in the old, uh, Testament, the tabernacle, the Holy of Holies. And remember when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that the veil in the temple was torn, which symbolized access now. No longer just accessible to the high priest, accessible to all those who say yes to Jesus." [01:14:59] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




6. "Create intentional time to spend together in all your relationships. Now, this is a good one, and in particular, it wasn't long ago that my wife said to me, and I'm hoping this is okay to share. Okay, thumbs up. She named a couple of things, because we play a card game pretty much every night. Monopoly Deal. We've been playing it since the pandemic. It started in the pandemic, and we play it. We play it almost every night. We play two out of three to see who's going to be the daily champion, and you can probably guess who that is. Yes, it's her." [01:28:51] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




7. "It's the only way relationships are really developed, just as we have to make intentional time with the Lord, because relationships don't grow just by being in the same space. I mean, try that as a husband and wife. Just hang out in the same space, and don't create that intentional time where you're talking and sharing. See how that relationship develops. It won't. Same thing is true about the Lord. You know, just being a Christian doesn't allow or foster intimacy and growth in our relationships, and so we have to create that intentional time with Jesus and with one another." [01:29:56] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Well, happy Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to my father, who's sitting right over here. Happy Father's Day, Dad. How many fathers do we have in the house?

Yeah, just turn to somebody close to you and wish them a happy Father's Day. Also, happy Juneteenth. Amen. There's been a lot of celebrations in the city. There was a parade, I think, yesterday down MLK. And the day before that, myself and a bunch of others were out in Hillsboro for their first annual Juneteenth celebration. So, praise God. Praise the Lord for the freedom that He's provided us. But most importantly, we praise Him for the freedom found in Him. Amen. Whom the Son has set free, He is free indeed.

So, welcome to Mount Olivet. Welcome to the Mount. We're excited that you're here with us today. We will be continuing in our Relationship That Works series. But today, we're going to have a little bit of fun. Are you okay with having fun? Can we have fun in church? Oh, that was a little weak. Can we have fun in church? Amen. Of all places, this should be the place that we have fun. So, we're going to have a great time today. It's going to be a little different. But I believe in the midst of our fun, we're going to learn a whole lot in Jesus' name.

So, let's pray as we begin. Let's begin to worship our Father and welcome the sweet Holy Spirit into our space.

Father, we worship You. We thank You, for You are a good God. And on this Father's Day, we thank You that You are our Father. We might not have had an earthly father that we know of. We might not have had the best. We might have had the best. Whatever our circumstance is, in this life, we know that You are a good Father. And You love Your children. And so, for that, we bless You. We honor You. And this morning, You are our central focus. And we worship You with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul. Come, Holy Spirit. You are welcome in. In this place, in the name of Jesus Christ, we say, thank God, amen, amen. Would you stand to your feet?

Let's worship the King. You all ready? Amen. Yeah, just kind of right where you are. Just close your eyes. And there's so many things that we should be and can be thankful for. I mean, it doesn't take much thought just to even look over this past week and consider what the Lord has done for us. Amen.

So let's just take a couple of more seconds just right where you are and just close your eyes before the Lord. And from your mouth to His ears, just tell Him what you're thankful for. Just for a moment. Just tell Him what you're thankful for.

Yeah, just from your mouth, open your mouth. And I know you can think it in your head, but I'm just saying, I'm asking that you open your mouth. Don't have to yell, but just put on your lips before the Lord what you're thankful for. Because He's been so good. And sometimes we bypass the little things, but He's been so good.

Somebody was in the hospital and is not there anymore. Somebody needed provision and God came through. Somebody's had a prayer in their heart for a season. And you heard from Him this week. Somebody has been lonely and somehow God came to you and filled that empty space.

I guess what I'm saying is there's so much that we can be thankful for. And often it's not enough just to feel that sense of gratitude. But sometimes it's good to put it on our lips and tell the Lord. Just tell Him, wow, God, I'm so thankful.

Somebody went through a real hard week and it didn't bring you down. And maybe you're not even all the way on the other side, but it didn't bring you down because He is with you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

And on this Father's Day, Him being your Father, as He looks and gazes upon you, He knows your life intimately. He knows all the nuances of your life. He knows the hidden things of our hearts. He knows the hidden things of our hearts. Those are. He knows when we've had enough. He knows when we're not sure what to do next. He knows when we're at our wit's end. He knows. And He's there.

And sometimes He's just waiting for us to turn toward Him. And rather than ask for something, just tell Him, thank you. Just tell Him, thank you. Just tell Him, thank you.

You know, some of us are in a season of life where we don't know what tomorrow will bring. Like Paul said, absent from the body is to be present from the Lord. We don't know when that day will come. Thank you, Lord, that this morning, there was breath in my lungs. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Father, we just, we worship you. We thank you this morning. Because you're so, so good. Like your goodness, God, overshadows our adversities. Your goodness. Your goodness overshadows our difficulties. Your goodness overshadows the things that burden us. Your goodness overshadows our own sins. It's your goodness. It's your kindness, God, that leads us to repentance. To turn from something to you. That's good. You're good.

And we thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are the facilitator of all these things. You move on our hearts. You call us to the Father. You do it. You make passageway. That we can hear the words of the Lord. And we thank you.

Now, continue to move on our hearts as we continue this conversation about relationships that work. In Jesus' name. Amen. Give Jesus a big round of applause, would you? Amen. Amen.

Well, we're going to continue in the series that I started some weeks ago called Relationships That Work, Father's Day Edition. Amen. And as you can see, we've got a little bit of a different setup here. And I'm going to, in just a couple of minutes, invite just some really good friends to come and join me today.

Okay. As we share with you tips on how relationships can work better. Now, this week, myself and a number of us pastors, we were at a meeting at a church in the community in northeast Portland. And, you know, I always make it my habit to be on time. And so, in our custom and our style, we loaded up in our car, we headed to this church, and we were probably some of the first folks there.

And we walked in, and the pastor that was hosting the environment saw us all come in. We came in in numbers, M-O-B-C. And his face lit up. He had a big smile. And he said these words. Uh, Mount Olivet starting lineup is here. Now, that gave me just great joy.

And as I bring to the stage our starting lineup. Hello, somebody. Starting. I'm not sure how tall. But he's strong. Come on, starting. I'm not sure how tall, but he's strong. One of my lead, probably point guards, forward shooting guards. Dr. J has nothing on this brother. This is Dr. E.D. Williams. Give it up for Dr. E.D. Williams. Come on. Yes. Yes. Yes.

It doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop there. Next. Shooting guard. A ball of fire. One man. Give it up for the wife, man. Here he comes. Come on. Give it up. The wife, man, is in the house.

Oh, but it doesn't stop there. You don't want to get in this brother's way as he plays under the boards. He'll box you out. He'll elbow you. Well, I don't know about that. He will. They call him the big O. Pastor O'Farrill.

All right. And it wouldn't be complete without the final player today. He's a big man. I said a big man. It could be football. But we're talking basketball. Give it up for none other than. And I don't want him to run because I don't want him to fall. Come on. Get on your feet for this brother. Get on your feet. Get on your feet for the dance man. The dance man. The hands together for the amazing, the best pastors. This side of the Mississippi. M-O-B-C in the house. Yes.

All right. Y'all may be seated. How'd you like that? Good job. I mean, we're just trying to have a little fun here. All right. So, I kid you not, though, in my opinion, these men of God and there are other pastors on our staff, but these are the ones that are here today are some of the most amazing brothers. And I really believe the Lord is going to bless us.

Now, we're going to do something that's going to be a little different. And to their credit, they have no clue what's about to go down. And, you know, with pastors, if you give them too much in advance, then you know what they're going to do. They're going to start studying and rehearsing and, you know, trying to get it all together as to what I'm going to say so I can be the most articulate and have the best words. Well, I took all that away. Today is the day. It's pure Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen.

And I have created a whole bunch of tips that, praise God, make relationships work. We might not get to them all because that's not the point. The point is that the Lord would cause us to draw the ones that are helpful in this space and for those online. And so, I'll have them one by one. Just draw one. And we'll all make comments about them. We might tell stories. Some of them we might shrug our shoulders because we are clueless. Amen? Amen.

So, I'm going to just lay them out on the table in some quasi-orderly fashion. And we'll just put them all here. And then one at a time, we'll just have them grab some. But let me read a scripture. Before we get started. Because at Mount Olivet Baptist Church, if you ain't reading a scripture, you're not preaching.

So, just so that I can be legal here. Amen, somebody. Amen, somebody. So, I can be legal here. Let me just share a couple of verses from Hebrews. Because we're still talking about relationships. And relationships with our pastoral team, myself as a senior pastor, is very important.

And the author of Hebrews, the unknown author of Hebrews, highlights something that I want you to see. And I'm going to read from the message translation today. In Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17, the author says this. He says, Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel. They are alert to the condition of your lives. And work under strict supervision of God.

Did you hear that? Now listen to this part. This is for all of us. Contribute to the joy of their leadership. Amen, somebody. Let me just say that again. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, not its drudgery. Why would you want to make things hard for them? Why would you want to make it hard? That's what the author says.

Because it's the pastoral leadership that spends day and night thinking about you, day and night praying over you, whether it's personally or just in the spirit in their secret place, spends day and night preparing for your well-being. Amen? Amen? Amen?

Verse 18 says, Pray for us. We have no doubts about what we're doing or why, but it's hard and we need your prayers. Amen? You don't even know what it takes to get to this point on stage, what we got to fight through the week just to get here. It is crazy. And I would have never known until I stepped into this role.

And so with no shame, I'm saying we need your prayers, please. Because as you spread freezes to hear more clearly from the Lord so we can continue to love you the way God is showing us to do that. Amen? Pray for us. We have no doubts about what we're doing or why, but it's hard going and we need your prayers. All we care about is living well before God. Amen? Amen. Give God a round of applause.

Okay, so with no further ado, who do you want to go first? Who? Omari? Okay, Pastor Omari, go ahead and grab your card. You pray over it. Make sure you grab the right one. Make sure his mic is on here, guys.

Okay, so Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Listen, and if you're married, prayer in your marriage is very helpful. As Pastor Omari said, you know, prayer is intimate. And so when you sit down with your spouse and you prepare to pray, you can't be mad at each other and pray. How many know that?

And so if we up our game and say, let's pray every day, whether it's in the morning or in the evening, let's pray every day. That means that you're constantly trying to keep things well with your beloved because you know prayer is coming. I'm a little mad at her or she's a little mad at me, we got to get things right because prayer is coming, and we don't want to be ugly before God. Amen? Amen.

All right, who's going to go next? Pastor Tim, thank you for volunteering. He's probably like, don't call on me, don't call on me, don't call on me. All right, here we go. Okay, mic up for us, Pastor.

Amen, amen. And any of you all feel free to chime in on any of these, as God might give you some special revelation or insight? I Amen. That's a good one. Amen. All right. All right. All right. Next up, let's see, uh, the wise man. Choose carefully.

And not amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. It's not easy, but if we make it a lifestyle, you know, we can get through. All right, Dr. Ed Williams. All right, here we go. Which one's going to be yours? I'll take this one.

Give it up for that one. That's awesome. How many know we do have an enemy? We do have an enemy, and his name is Satan, and he's an opportunist. And so he looks to exploit difficult situations. And if we were able to pull back the veil of heaven and see behind this conference we're having, we'll see a whole lot of spiritual activity of him, you know, trying to prod us to come against one another. But we praise the Lord for Jesus Christ. Amen?

Yeah. All right, let me get in on this action. Oh, I'm a little nervous. I'm off to move them around a little bit. All right, here we go. Oh man, all right, here we go. This one says finish the statement that could be making anything up, right? You wouldn't even know, but I'm not.

Finish the statement, relationships work when? Okay, so for me, I want to say two things. Relationships work when there's trust. Trust, and in our journey, when difficult times happen, trust is one of the first things that comes under attack.

In fact, I'll end this series answering the question, can I trust again? And so we'll really, really get into that. But relationships work when we can trust one another. I would also say relationships work when we can have fun together. I think it's important to have fun together. It's important to laugh. It's important to do things that bring joy to the relationship.

And I'm not just talking about spousal relationships. I'm talking about all of our relationships. When we can really take time to have fun together. Relationships work when, how would you guys finish that up? In any order.

All right, Tim, he's laughing. You know, there's this, have you ever been in a classroom setting, and you're the teacher, and you got students, and you ask a question? Which student do you usually call on? The one that puts his head down. The one that's looking the other way, please don't call on me, please don't call on me. Sometimes that's me. That's Pastor Tim, so I'm calling on him.

How many have discovered? Discovered Christian relationships in the workplace. Let me just see your hands. Yeah, that's really powerful. And I would recommend in your workplace, ask God to show you the Jesus followers and then begin to unite and link up. Amen.

Anybody else before we draw another one? All anybody in here ever had communication challenges? Oh, everybody's laughing. You know, when you say something and then they just come at you and you're like, that's not even what I said. It's almost like we're speaking completely different languages.

Yeah, communication is an issue. Okay, let's see who's going to draw next. Who do you want to draw next? Say it again. You. I just drew. Who was that, Calvin? Messing with me. Hold on. All right, here we go. Come on, Lord. Give me a good one.

Okay, this is a good one. Okay, so it says always start with the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's not what you think. That's a good one. That can stand by itself. What does that mean? That just means that innocent until proven guilty.

You know, in our relationships, friendships, we will have challenges for sure. But our mind doesn't have to run to that place, you know, of, man, they must have said this. They must have did this. They probably were thinking that.

I feel like in our relationships, the benefit of the doubt has to be our default. Because for me, the benefit of the doubt represents grace. It's a better starting place. If we are hopeful that this relationship can actually work. If we're really hopeful and we want it to work, that has to be our default.

We can't let our mind run to the negative place. And our mind will run to the negative place. Why does that happen? Because of sin nature within us. But with the mind of Christ, as a Jesus follower, we have to let the benefit of the doubt be our default. Because it may not be what you think.

Going back to, I think, what Pastor Ken says. You know, we have to let the benefit of the doubt be our default. We've got to communicate and talk about it. And in the absence of communication, we start filling in that space with all kinds of things. If there's empty space, we fill it in with something. And that something, typically, is wrong. Right?

And communication closes that empty space. It closes that gap. And so, yeah. Let's take a break. Let's make that our default. Any thoughts? That's a Yeah. That's good. That's good.

You know, in fact, it wasn't long ago that my wife and I got a call from a fellow member who was approached by another member saying some particular things that weren't favorable about us. And the beautiful thing is this sister fell back on her default of the benefit of the doubt as she was approached with these things that didn't cast us in a good light.

And her default was, man, you know, I know them, that can't be true. And the beautiful thing is she called us, and as we talked, obviously it was not true. But I'm grateful that she wasn't sucked into that vacuum of negativity, and she used the default in her heart, the place that Jesus wanted her to start from, to say, yeah, I don't think that's true.

So this is really powerful, really powerful. All right, let's see, Dr. Ed, what do we got there? Okay, see what I can pull out this time.

Yeah. Yeah. Wave to the audience, wave to the audience. All right. Amen. It's like your best friend, your best friend is the secret place. It's the secret place. I'm not talking about just a quick in and out.

Yeah. I mean, like Jesus set it up for us perfectly because remember the secret place represents. In the Old Testament, the tabernacle, the Holy of Holies. And remember when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that the veil in the temple was torn, which symbolized access now. No longer just accessible to the high priest, accessible to all those who say yes to Jesus.

And no longer do we have to go into a tabernacle, into the most holy of places to meet God. He has established a secret place in our heart, and then he calls us to find a secret place where we can get alone with him, shut the door. And so the secret place has to be your best friend. If you are not acquainted with the secret place, you're doing yourself and others a disservice as a Jesus follower.

And so there is no limit. In fact, if you're retired, you've got a whole lot more time to spend in the secret place, and you'll find an acceleration in your relationship and acceleration in your life of the things that God wants to do. Amen.

All right. Let's see. Drum roll, please. Pastor Omari. Oh, the far one, huh? All right. Okay. You Amen. Any other thoughts? I'm sure there's lots.

That question. I mean, I just think in terms of, especially whether it's a spousal relationship or a BFF or coworker, you know, we feel like our way is always the right way. Our way is always the best way. Of course. Is there any other way? And then our goal becomes to get that other person to conform, you know, to who we are, and then we can get along.

And Jesus suggests something different, to your point, you know. Any other thoughts? Amen? Amen. All right. Who's next, guys? Who's next? Me. Me? I'm going to, can I defer to Pastor Ken Wise, please? Amen.

Let's give that one a round of applause. That's a good one. I think it was. And you have to find the address for me. But in Proverbs, it says there's safety in a multitude of counsel. You know, a good circle of heterogeneous counsel is like a safety net.

And I like what you said, you know, men with men, women with women, really important, not that we don't have friends across gender, but, you know, it's a slippery slope, you got to be real careful when it's a man with a woman, because there's entanglements there that can happen on the emotional level first, that are very, very subtle and very dangerous, so iron sharpens iron when it is light, so, amen?

All right, how much time, oh my goodness, can we get one more in? We can get one more in? That's good. That one deserves a round of applause. Yes. All right, one more.

We're just, huh, it's all me? Do we have a drum roll? Oh, no, there's nobody back there. Do we have a keyboardist? I think we do. You can come on up.

All right, guys, we didn't get through even a quarter of these. Oh, yeah, this is a great one to end on. All right, so this one says, create intentional time to spend together in all your relationships.

Now, this is a good one, and in particular, it wasn't long ago that my wife said to me, and I'm hoping this is okay to share. Okay, thumbs up. She named a couple of things, because we play a card game pretty much every night. Monopoly Deal. We've been playing it since the pandemic. It started in the pandemic, and we play it. We play it almost every night. We play two out of three to see who's going to be the daily champion, and you can probably guess who that is. Yes, it's her.

You probably thought it was me, but it's actually her. And then we'll go to the mall together, and one day she said to me, I just want you to know that when we play cards together or when we go to the mall, that's not intentional time. Man, my heart sunk.

I mean, I'm thinking I'm making headway. I'm trying to convert the card game into a date or going to the mall like a date, and she's like, no, no. So this is good. So it's got to be thoughtful, whether it's a husband and wife relationship or friendship. You know, our time should be intentional.

We have to make intentional time for one another. It's the only way relationships are really developed, just as we have to make intentional time with the Lord, because relationships don't grow just by being in the same space. I mean, try that as a husband and wife. Just hang out in the same space, and don't create that intentional time where you're talking and sharing. See how that relationship develops. It won't.

Same thing is true about the Lord. You know, just being a Christian doesn't allow or foster intimacy and growth in our relationships, and so we have to create that intentional time with Jesus and with one another. Amen?

Any other thoughts before we go? We kind of close it out. Amen. And on that note, Pastor Amari, would you just make a call to salvation and then I'll close us out at the end?

I just want to give you some good grace in God's name. Let me just add one last thing. He will approve. He will God. We certainly appreciate each and every one of you. We thank God for just your life, for you being here, for you identifying yourself as part of the Mount, the Mount Olivet Baptist Church family.

And we can't say enough how much we appreciate your generosity. We know that we're still in difficult economic times. But many of you, by faith, continue to give unto the Lord. And we really appreciate that. And if you want to continue to do that even today, you can do it through a number of channels. You can do it through our PayPal app online. You can do it by mailing it in. You can do it by putting it in our mailbox just outside of our North Campus or our West Campus.

And if you have something today while you're in the house, we have churches, little church steeples in both lobbies. You can walk out there and put it in there. But we appreciate your obedience. We really do.

Next week, we will conclude this series, part eight, answering the question, can I trust again? And then I'm really excited for a new series that we're going to launch in July on the book of Haggai.

Now, brace yourselves, because it's going to be deeply challenging. While at the same time, it's going to be deeply encouraging. But I think what I'm most excited about is it's going to be a series, all of the month of July, four parts, preached by our very own Dr. Ed Williams. Amen. Amen. Amen.

And it's going to be awesome. Can we get a tidbit? You got a little bit? No. Save it. Be there in July. I'll still be here. But I'm excited to sit under the things that the Lord has for us through our preacher.

And so if all hearts and minds are clear, let's close. Jesus, we thank you. This has been a wonderful, very different Sunday. I'm thankful, God, that we have the freedom to mix it up here. That there is just a grace to follow your lead and do things the way you show us how to do it.

Thank you for the awesome pastors that are behind me today. Thank you that we do have a beautiful starting lineup. Some of the best pastors this side of the Mississippi. I'm grateful, Father. Thank you for the wisdom that you shared with us today on how to make relationships work.

I pray that the things that were shared were designed by you. There were many cards, but only few were chosen. And you chose the ones for those who are in the sound of our voice right now. Let them be a blessing. Let it bear good fruit and fruit that remains.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we all say thank God. Amen. Give somebody. Give somebody some love. See you next week.

Hey, thanks for hanging out with us today. I pray that your worship experience was powerful and the Word of God impacted you deeply. And if so, please join us every Sunday, 9 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Either in person or online.

And let's not forget about Midweek, where you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for additional content. And let me just say thank you. Thank you for your love, support, and radical generosity. It means everything to us. If you want to partner with us financially, you can do so either online, by mail, or in person.

Now, hang out with us just for a little longer to see what's happening this week at the Mount. God bless. God bless. God bless. God bless.