Thursday, June 27, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 8 "JUDGE & ADVOCATE"

Proverbs 31: 8     Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die.
9     Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

Proverbs 31: 8, 9.  A king had the authority to order an execution.  He was also the last hope of appeal from a death sentence issued by a lower authority in the kingdom.   It was the king’s right and responsibility to HEAR appeals from those who’d been appointed to die, but read carefully the message to/from King Lemuel.  

The king’s job wasn’t just to hear appeals from the ultimate condemnation.  The king’s job was also to MAKE THE APPEAL, to open his own mouth on behalf of those who did not have the resources, power, or eloquence to plead for their own lives.

Basically, whenever the condemned person had no one else to plead his/her case, a righteous king was supposed to try to talk himself out of ordering the execution.

Now, to be clear---- justice demands the ultimate penalty in certain cases (Romans 13: 3, 4).  A ruler who just lets everybody go is just as unjust as one who arbitrarily punishes everybody.

Justice is not automatically served by severity or by leniency.  Justice, godly justice, demands that somebody speaks for the prosecution and somebody speaks for the defense.  A leader, a godly judge, seeks justice so when no one speaks for the defense, the judge himself must be both judge and advocate. 

That wouldn’t work in America’s court system; but it works just fine for God.

Jesus is the Supreme judge, the last seat of appeal for the sentence of eternal condemnation.
John 5:22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son

When we stand before Him, the indisputable evidence of our sins condemns us all. 
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death

When we stand before God in judgment we stand already condemned, and we stand alone----- without defense and without an alibi.
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse

But God is absolutely just.  So Jesus -----if we have received Him by placing our faith in Him----- acts as our defense attorney in judgment.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 

That’s why the Holy Spirit showed a courtroom scene to the Old Testament prophet Zechariah’s.

Zechariah 3:1     Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.
2     And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
3     Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
4     Then He[the Lord acting as advocate] answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
5     And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.”
So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.

Notice in Zechariah 3:2, that the Lord is talking about the Lord.  Jesus, who is God, King, & Judge, is talking Himself out of condemning His condemned servant.

What is the greatest punishment within your power to assign?  Firing? Cussing out?  Assault? Destruction of a reputation?  Divorce?  Death?

Sometimes, the ultimate judgment is fitting (Matthew 25: 46).

But you must never issue that ultimate judgment lightly?  Even when the accused seems obviously deserving, especially when the accused has no power to stop you or to protect themselves----- you must pause in judgment and try to talk yourself out of issuing your ultimate sentence?

And if you can’t, if justice demands the highest condemnation, then execute the judgment soberly, with a heavy heart.  Since holy, sinless, perfect God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33: 11);  then neither should we.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).


You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com or   .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Sunday, June 23, 2013

HOW TO FIND "THE ONE"

Audio of a morning Bible lesson on relationships.  From the story of Jacob and Rachel, we learn HOW TO FIND THE ONE.

Listen well.

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---Anderson T. Graves II   is a  writer, community organizer, and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Saturday, June 22, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 4-7

Proverbs 31: 4     It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink;
5     Lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted.
6     Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart.
7     Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Proverbs 31: 4-7.  Talk about an endorsement!  With Lemuel and his mother speaking in this passage, we have a king, a former prince, a queen, and a woman who fought for her place as 1st lady of the nation all  endorsing the message: Getting drunk is not a good look for a success.   Getting high is not what you do if you want to stay on top.

God blesses people to attain success and power so that they can use their success and power to help others.  The chemicals make you forget that.  The chemicals make you selfish, immoral, and unjust.  The buzz and the high draw you off the path of God’s favor and place you on track for destruction.   Outside of God’s favor there is personal and spiritual poverty.  Outside of God favor there is misery.  Outside of God’s favor there is death in spirit and in truth.

The sad irony is that the closer you get to bottom (to the point of perishing) the more miserable you become and the more you need the buzz to forget how poor and miserable you’re becoming.  And yes, while the chemicals are active in your system, you do forget; but you don’t change.  You’re still impoverished.  You’re still pitiful.  You’re still dying.

And the kings and queens of the culture look down on you and say, “He’s got nothing else.  Let him have another drink.  She’s not doing anything with her life anyway.  Pass her another blunt.  But oh, no.  Nothing for me.  I have a meeting in the morning.”

It doesn’t matter how you categorize your drug of choice. It doesn’t matter if it’s liquid or leafy, synthetic or “social,” packaged or prescribed.  If it’s intoxicating then it’s not helping you succeed.  It’s holding you back.

Since you’ve been intoxicating yourself, you’ve not gotten better have you?  Your relationships aren’t more stable are they?  For all the stuff you’ve dreamed you haven’t actually achieved anything more, have you?

And when you look closely at the bottle-popping, drug-passing imagery you notice that the ones who are fully intoxicated are in the background, servants to the one pouring into their glasses or sitting sober and clear-headed while everybody else gets drunk and high, trying to forget how successful they are not.

Yeah, I know what the songs say.  But  pay more attention to what God says.

Pay more attention.

If you want to be a king, if you want to be a queen -------- you’ve gotta get sober.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116



 

Friday, June 21, 2013

TAKE A KNEE and become A FEARLESS CHURCH

The problem is not nearly as dangerous as our fear of the problem.  That’s true for individuals, and it’s true for the church.

Fear is the greatest obstacle to revival in the church.   but there is a remedy.  Pastor Anderson Graves II explains that remedy in a timely message originally delivered for revival at 1st Congregational Church.

Discover why and how to TAKE A KNEE and become A FEARLESS CHURCH.

Listen well.


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---Anderson T. Graves II   is a  writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church and the executive director of SAYNO (Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization) in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Monday, June 17, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 31: 1. "Mama Said."

Proverbs 31: 1     The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him:
2     What, my son? And what, son of my womb? And what, son of my vows?
3     Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.

Proverbs 31: 1-3.  The last chapter of Proverbs recounts the words of a king named Lemuel and the words of Lemuel’s mother.  It’s unclear though who Lemeul and his mom were.

The name Lemuel means “for God” or “belonging to God.”  That might have been one of Solomon’s nicknames, which would make Bathsheba the mother King Lemuel quotes in this passage.    Or, perhaps Lemuel was another name for Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and successor. King Rehoboam’s mother was an Ammonite named Naamah.

Though their advice makes it into the annals of Biblcal wisdom, neither of these ladies was the stereotypically perfect mother.

Mother Bathsheba had gotten her 1st husband killed because she was messing around with  David, the rich guy in the big house across the street, while her husband was deployed to a combat zone (2 Samuel 11). 

Mama Naamah was one of a thousand women Solomon had had (literally 1,000, 1 Kings 11: 3).  Somehow she’d worked her way into the number 1 spot and corrupted her “good man” with her pagan ways.

For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.   For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. (1 Kings 11: 4, 5)

Whether Bathsheba or Namaah, the mother of Proverbs 31 has a pretty scandalous backstory.   So, the advice in Proverbs 31, especially the opening warning is more than a little ironic.

Mama said, “Don’t waste your energy chasing women.  Women will mess up a successful man.”

Sisters, as a man and a son let me explain something to you.  When you tell your baby boy, “You can’t trust no woman,”  the first woman that your son looks at suspiciously-------- is you.

You can’t tell a male human being that it’s O.K. for him to live with you forever and never fully commit to another woman AND simultaneously complain about his daddy being immature and not fulfilling responsibilities to you.   The two can’t both be correct.  It makes YOU sound suspect.

Despite her past, Lemuel’s mother understood this.  So though Proverbs 31 begins with a warning about women, the rest of the chapter elaborates on that advice and makes it clear that not all women are bad.  It’s just bad women who are bad.

Mama not only teaches her little prince to be careful about women, she also teaches him how to recognize a good woman.  This means that even though she was not herself a perfect woman, even though she knew that at any point she might be  the baddest of 1,000 bad girls, though she and her husband had done major wrong in the course of their relationship----- King Lemuel’s mother still taught her son that, “Yes, baby, there are good women out there.”

Any mother who teaches her little prince about the bad of other women without also teaching him the good has herself become one of those women who helps destroy a potential king.

A son is supposed to leave his mother one day.  A son is SUPPOSED TO find a woman, a good woman, whose love becomes MORE important than his mother’s.  

Therefore a man SHALL leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2: 24)

SHALL LEAVE.  “Should leave.”   IS SUPPOSED TO GROW THE CRAP UP AND LEAVE!

He can either be God’s man or mama’s little boy.  He cannot be both.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Sunday, June 16, 2013

WAIT. WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Saturday evening I put the finishing touches on the Father’s Day sermon.  Before I went to bed, I asked the Lord to settle my mind, order my thoughts, and show me clearly how He wanted His message to be delivered. 

I awoke Sunday morning in mid-conversation with God.  He was telling me to preach something different.  That wasn’t the mind-settling, thought-ordering response I’d expected.

And on top of all that, my Father’s Day gift was a sword-handled umbrella.

The title of the message is WAIT. WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Listen well.

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---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .
If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

Sunday, June 9, 2013

CONFUSION or REVIVAL?

The problem is, there’s just so much CONFUSION!

If you want to know the solution, and the process that makes the solution work, then listen to a message delivered as the prelude to a different kind of Revival at Hall Memorial CME Church.

Be warned, this Word was not sent to make you feel comfortable.

CONFUSION OR REVIVAL?

Listen well.

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---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116
 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

DON'T STOP AT GOOD

How is it that so many "good" people feel so broken and inadequate?  How can churches be made up of so many "good" people and yet be places lacking in spiritual power?
Is it possible that "good" isn't good enough?

Pastor Anderson Graves explores those questions in a message originally delivered for Stewardess Day at Hall Memorial CME Church.

Learn how to get beyond the spiritual level that seems to have you stuck.  Follow the path of scripture and see what God really has in mind for all of His "good" church members.
Listen well.

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---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email
atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at
www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116