Who Does Your Hair? (Imelda Hatchett-Mitchell, 06/02/2023)

Today, I'd like for you to bow briefly with me as we consider the subject,

Who Does Your Hair?

Who does your hair?

Let us pray.

Nothing in my hands I bring, only to the cross of Christ I cling.

As we wait on you, Lord, we pray that you would come, come near.

And as someone has already asked, Lord, we don't want just a visit.

We want you to come and be inside of us through the presence and the power of the Holy Ghost.

We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Who does your hair? What a strange question to ask.

I'd like to read our text of scripture one more time before I get started.

First Corinthians chapter two, verses one through five.

And I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.

And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

So he said, I didn't come to you. My message was not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration.

Several years ago, when we were living, I believe, oh, I'm not sure where we were living.

We lived a few places, but I went to the grocery store and when I came out, I saw a young lady whose hair was so perfect.

It was so beautiful. And with my background, I am a licensed cosmetologist since 1992.

And whenever I see someone's hair, that's extraordinary, I just notice it.

And I guess I notice it when it's not extraordinary as well, you know, being a hairstylist, you know.

And so I scurried over to her. She had made her way almost to her car.

And at first I wasn't going to say anything to her, but I said, you know, I want to know who does her hair.

And so I found my way over to where she was and I said, excuse me.

And she turned around with a strange look on her face.

I said, excuse me, I'm sorry, you know, to just walk upon you like this, but who does your hair?

And she smiled and she said to me, who does your hair?

And I said, excuse me? She said, that's the name of the salon.

Who does your hair?

That hairstylist was so confident in her work that she named the salon, who does your hair?

Because she knew that when people would see her work, that they would want to know who does your hair.

And so this morning, I'd like to ask you, when people look at you, do they want what you have?

Are you demonstrating the power of God in such a way that people want what you have?

Ever since the beginning of time, God has been trying to reveal himself to his people.

In Genesis chapter four and verse 26, it says, when Seth grew up, he had a son and he named him Enosh.

At that time, people first began to worship the Lord by name.

You would think that so soon after mankind started its journey on this earth, that people would begin, would not forget God so soon.

They would not forget his name so soon.

They would not forget why they were here so soon.

But the Bible says that Cain slew Abel, right?

We're talking about the first family.

The very first family.

When you think about that, that's pretty sobering.

Many times we think that, you know, sin evolves.

My husband, he does devotionals.

He writes devotionals and sends them to close friends and family daily.

And one of them, he mentioned the fact that sin does not, sin possesses you.

It actually possesses you.

You don't have to, when you're born, the Bible says we're born in sin.

You don't have to choose it.

And there is, in the book Desire of Ages on page 324, she talks about you don't have to choose the kingdom of darkness in order to come under its dominion.

Sin is powerful and it will possess you unless you choose the kingdom of light.

You have to choose who's going to do your hair, right?

You have to choose who's going to be your Lord.

Who is going to, because, you know, Lord, when we say Lord, that means I'm going to do what you say.

That's what that means.

And if that is not our intention, perhaps we should not be quick to call him Lord.

It didn't take long for the generations to forget who God was.

Isaiah chapter 65 verses 1 through 3.

Isaiah 65:1–3

The Lord says, I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.

I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.

I said, here I am, here I am, to a nation that did not call on my name.

He said, all day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people, but they followed their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes.

All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens.

Listen to that.

Worshiping idols in their sacred gardens.

Sometimes that which we hold as sacred is merely a way for us to do whatever it is that we want.

Sometimes we think that the church that we attend or have fellowship in is ours.

And hence, sometimes board meeting is a mess.

Have you ever been in a situation at a board meeting when the people were doing nothing but being territorial and fussing and fighting about their church?

This is not your church.

This is not my church.

This is the church of the living God.

And incidentally, I'm so thankful for the wisdom of my husband when he was pastoring.

He said to me, I want you to be able to love the people, to be impartial towards the people, and so I don't want you to hold any office that would require you to be on the board.

And throughout our ministry, that was the case.

And so I didn't know if they beat up on him, except one time somebody called me on my job and said to me, did you hear what happened in board meeting last night?

I said, now you know I did not hear because my husband does not discuss those things with me.

But he came home that night.

I can remember he was a little quiet.

Someone got out of line, and how he would handle people who got out of line in most cases, he would stop and say, let's pray.

How many times do we do that?

Do we argue when the opportunity and that's it's really not, you know, I guess you could call it an opportunity, presents itself.

The enemy presents that opportunity to us.

What do we do?

How do we handle that?

Who is in charge of us?

He said, even when people didn't want me, I was still trying to reveal myself.

What a God.

He said, I permitted myself to be found by those who did not seek me.

And he said, here I am to a people who didn't call upon my name.

He showed up on Mount Sinai to give his law to Moses, and they ended up having a party.

He showed up at the burning bush.

He showed up in Jehoshaphat's battle.

He showed up at the battle of Jericho, and he showed them that he fights our battles for us.

We don't have to all we need to do is to give ourselves over to him, to ask him for his spirit, and he will show up and he will do whatever we need to be done.

He showed up with Daniel and the lions in, and he showed up with the three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace to the point that even those other men said, there's somebody else in there with them.

Do people see that when they see you?

That there's somebody walking alongside you?

All of history shows God's desire to reveal himself to us, but it has always been intercepted.

I grew up in the inner city of Chicago, incidentally, a large church of 2,000 members, and I was telling Sarah today how much I love small churches.

They're so personable, and you know, when someone is missing, you know that they're missing.

But I grew up in the inner city of Chicago, and I went to a church school, a Seventh-day Adventist school, from 1965 when I started kindergarten,

until 1975 after my freshman year I left and went to a boarding academy.

But even though it was an Adventist school, it was in the inner city, and these kids grew up in the inner city, and they commingled with the kids who grew up in the inner city.

And there were some tough times at that school.

But I had a father who taught me how to build a prayer altar when I was five years old.

He said, find a place in our humble dwelling, and I want you to overlay it with a clean cloth, and I want you to designate it as a place of prayer.

And don't just go there when you want something from God.

Go and tell him your joys.

Tell him when you're happy.

Tell him when you're excited that you got a Barbie doll at Christmas time, which I got every year from my grandfather, whom we called Big Daddy.

Every year.

And so I learned to take those points of joy and happiness to God, not just when I wanted something from him.

And so I grew up, I'm here at this church school in the inner city, and I found myself a little bit alone.

And people sometimes would tease me and call me a holy roller.

And you know, sometimes when you have situations like that, it can tempt kids to want to fit in.

And I said, I wanted to fit in. Who wants to be teased and talked about?

And so sometimes I would go into the locker room and, you know, to get my books, and there would be a group of girls standing off to the side.

And when I would approach the locker room, they would get quiet.

And then I heard somebody say, here she comes. There goes Imelda. She's got her Bible under her arm.

And, you know, and I felt bad.

It made me feel a little bit ashamed. But then I started thinking, wait a minute.

I have every reason to be proud to stand up for my Lord.

And I got to thinking, you know, from now on, I'm going to walk through this locker room with pride, with a smile on my face.

You see, because if we allow the enemy to put a damper on who we know we're called to be, then he's got us.

He distracts us. And so I started rising to the occasion.

And after a while, I would approach those girls and say, good morning.

How are you all doing today? And those very girls became my friends.

And when I went away to college, one of them was my roommate, and she invited me to be her roommate.

LaVon, Bobby, I've never told you this story. She still was struggling, you know, sneaking out the window and going to parties.

But what happened was there was a young man by the name of Bobby, same name as my sweetie here, by the name of Bobby.

And he would come to me and he said, he said, can you ask her if she'll go to a prayer meeting with me?

Now, he was a ministerial student like my sweetie Bobby.

And he said, will you ask her if she would go to a prayer meeting with me?

And I'm like, oh, my goodness, he knows she's sneaking out the window going to parties. He knew.

But he said that God told me that's going to be my wife.

Now, there were a lot of guys on the campus because a few of them said that to me, too.

And I said, well, when he tells me, then maybe we can talk. But until then, you need to keep it moving.

But this Bobby, he kept asking me, you know, and so I was kind of embarrassed because I mean, you know, this girl's a partyer.

He's a ministerial student. He said, that's my wife.

And so he began to invite her to a prayer meeting. I would come to her and she would say no.

But after a while, I kept asking her because he kept asking me to ask her.

And so one day she said, let me just go to a prayer meeting with this boy.

And so he'll leave me alone. Well, she went to a prayer meeting.

And then the next week he asked her again and she went again.

And I'm telling you, when you find yourself in the presence of God, hallelujah, something happens.

Something is supposed to happen every time we are in God's presence.

They dated and they got married two weeks after we did the first week in November, 40 years ago.

And the rest is history. They had three beautiful children, a set of twins and an older son.

God, when you choose him, he's look, he's already chosen us from the foundation of the world.

We are born forgiven. My husband entitled a servant one time.

I'll never forget powerful, born forgiven.

And all we have to do is accept what God has offered us.

God told me 40 years ago, that's your husband.

Even though he is a divorcee and is raising six children alone, that's your husband.

Now, suppose I had listened to all the naysayers who called me a fool and who told me I was making a huge mistake.

They told me, don't do it, girl. Please don't do it.

And I have to admit they had very legitimate concerns.

He's older than I am by 14 and a half years. I know he doesn't look it.

He's a young 77. Hallelujah. He's healthy, more so even than I am.

Look at God. He's been an amazing companion to me.

But it was my prayer altar and the habit I had of going to God that led me to this man.

And God planted me in that home. Those children needed someone.

They had been abandoned by their mother.

Who didn't keep in touch with them or anything like that. And I don't mean to say anything negative about her

because there's a story about her that's beautiful. And maybe I'll have a chance to tell it to you at a different time.

But when you connect yourself with God and you make him Lord truly,

when he is your you know how they say only your hairdresser knows he knows all about it.

He knows everything about he knows our hearts.

And sometimes we we fall, don't we?

And we feel badly about it. The enemy comes to us that you messed up.

It's OK. That's why Jesus came. I'm covered in his blood because I've asked his forgiveness.

Blessed is the man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness.

That's what I see in Sarah in the workplace. I do.

You know, she's always you know, we have a women's Bible group, you know, and her thing is she wants to know, you know, Lord,

I just I just want to know. I just want to be close to you. I feel that from you, Sarah.

She is I call Sarah a quiet storm because, you know, she's quiet, but she's full of the Holy Ghost, full of the spirit.

Matthew seven seven. Ask and it shall be given.

See and you shall find not in the door shall be opened.

When I was younger, I thought that that was talking about material things,

not that there's anything wrong with asking for material blessings.

We need them, don't we? We need a place to live.

We need a place to just to stay. We need cars to drive. We need finances.

We need that. But that's not what that's talking about, even though it says when you go down,

I don't have it in my notes, so I'm not quoting it verbatim.

But it says, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to them that ask?

Right. But in Luke's version of that very same passage in Luke chapter 11, it starts off the same.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

Ask and it shall be given. See, can you show fine?

But when he gets down to that verse, he says, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?

So he makes it clear that in that particular passage, he's not talking about anything temporal.

He's talking about the spirit of God, because the Bible says that the Holy Ghost is the guarantee of our salvation.

We can't get out of here without him. We need him. I love that him. I need the oh, I need the every hour.

I need the oh, bless me now, my savior. I come to thee.

We can't do anything without him. What does the world see when they see you?

We have the privilege and the honor to not only experience the spirit, we have the privilege to have him live in us.

When I heard that sister say that, I did my heart just leaked. Yes, because that's what it's all about.

You know, when God told Moses in Exodus, let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

Right. He said that. Because at that time, he had not come and he had not released the full power of the Holy Ghost until after he died.

He said, let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

And so when he when he died in that temple in that curtain was rent and and he ascended and he left the Holy Ghost.

Now we have the privilege of having him to live in us. I am no longer satisfied with him just coming to visit me.

I want him to consume me. And when the spirit of God lives in us, we can't just do whatever we want to do.

Or watch whatever we want to watch or listen to whatever we want to listen to.

So whatever things are pure and lovely and and and honest and have a good report, he says, think on these things.

We cannot allow the enemy to just just walk up in our homes on the television screen.

You know what's on the television. There's not a whole lot that's worth watching, but we watch it many times.

I used to like to watch Texas Walker Ranger.

You know, and even though he was the good guy, he was kicking and knocking people out and doing all these kinds of things.

I mean, when you think about it, those things can't be edifying to our spirits,

let alone all of the sex and and profanity and all of that that comes through what my father used to call the ignorant box.

And my parents, when we were growing up, they would they only allowed us to watch one hour of television a week.

And that included the summer. And my mother would make us read, you know, sit at the table for two hours.

And sometimes, you know, we're kids, you know, and I would say, I'm done.

Well, get the Bible, get something, get the steps, the Christ gets a read something.

But you're not leaving the table until you're here for two hours.

Do you know how grateful and thankful I am today for my mother, who was 86 and who is at home right now?

She's in a wheelchair, but she's, you know, rather independent, a delightful woman who pushed family alter sometimes twice a day.

It's crucial that when prayer is want to be made, that we seek it out.

When I was a student at Oakwood, I was there struggling somewhat, you know, my academics.

But we had what you call power hour at noon every day. And you better believe I was there calling on the name of the Lord.

I knew that I need help. And once a quarter, we would have all night prayer meeting as students at Oakwood.

And I was there because I knew how much I needed him as I have grown older.

I have to admit that I don't see him as much as I should.

Life happens. We get busy. We raise children. We have jobs. We have church and people.

Let me tell you, we cannot allow our busyness to take the place of our time and our prayer and our private meditation with God.

Lord, help us. Help me, Lord, every day. Sarah, I'm like you. I'm like, Lord, I need your help.

I need you to draw just to draw near to me. When I was sick with lupus, diagnosed with lupus back in 2003.

And during that time was a time God had slowed me down. I was working for United Way of the Bay Area.

We were raising 50, $57 million between November and January. It was high stress.

And I got laid off from my job in April, the end of April. By May 16, I was flat on my back with lupus.

God had slowed me down because he loved me. And he said, you're too busy. You're too busy for your own good.

And I was right at the time when my husband had been asked to come to the Pacific Union to serve as the regional director at that time.

And we were moving from Northern California to Southern California. And we were to buy our first home after so many years.

We raised a lot of children. We weren't able to do a lot of things.

And so I told the Lord, I said, Lord, if you bless us with this house, I want to have a prayer room, a room dedicated to prayer.

We only had one child at home out of the eight at the time.

And so we called a friend of ours who was a seamstress and she made some draperies and we had these prayer benches and we had a rug.

And it was our prayer room. And it was during that time when I was convalescing and I was healing from my sickness.

And when I did not have to hurry to work, that I would go sometimes and spend two hours in there with the hymn book sometimes going through the consecration section.

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole. I want the forever to live in my soul.

Break down every idol, cast down every foe. Lord, wash me and make me whiter than snow.

Whiter than snow, Lord, whiter than snow. And I would go from him to him and spend that unhurried time.

And I said, Lord, had I not been struck with this illness, I would never have taken the time to do this.

So never discount your trials. There's always something in it for your good.

God is always drawing us. He's always molding us and shaping us and filling us when we want him to do that.

So that when everybody we come in contact with, they'll say, who does your hair? Who's your Lord?

Who is this God that you talk about? And it has to go beyond Sabbath. It has to go beyond the 2300 days.

That's all good. I'm thankful for Sabbath. In fact, when I was sick, one day I was in that prayer room and God showed me something just kind of refreshing.

He gave me a refresher on the Sabbath. And he showed me, he said, you know, in Exodus 20, when you're reading through that law,

I am the Lord, that God who brought you out. And we talked about it a little bit in Sabbath school, too, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

out of the house of bondage, worship no one but me. Right?

But when you get down to the Sabbath commandment and he says, remember, it's not just don't forget the Sabbath.

It's remember, I'm the one who brought you out. I'm the one who delivered you. I'm the one who who healed you from your sickness.

I'm the one who paid that bill when you couldn't see make ends meet. I'm the one.

Remember, when you're tempted to work on Sabbath, remember, I'm the one that provides for you.

It's not just remember the day. It's remember the God, remember the creator and remember the Redemptor.

He gave me that refresher while I was on my back while I was sick in that prayer room.

If you don't have a spot where you pray, develop one. And as I speak, I'm also listening.

I need to refresh my prayer spot to God. What does the world see when they look at you?

Four years ago, I went to New York City. We were celebrating my sister's 60th wedding. I'm sorry, birthday.

My sister's 60th birthday. She just turned 64 on the 28th of May.

So it's just four years ago, went to New York with a group of ladies. My husband said, you all go and, you know, enjoy your time.

I don't spend a lot of time away from my husband, though, so don't get it twisted.

But we went to New York. And so we had beautiful times of worship. We stayed at an Airbnb and we worshiped together.

There were about seven or eight of us. And we, you know, just had a good time fellowshipping together.

And then when Sabbath morning came, we got up and we found an Adventist church and went to that church.

And when we walked in the door, we looked around. We saw a few people. No one said anything to us.

And we kind of stood there for a while. The service had not begun yet. And then we went inside and we found a seat.

No one said anything to us. And then we went through the service and the service was over.

And we got up and prepared to leave and no one said anything to us. And we discovered that there was a potluck.

And so we followed the crowd down to the potluck and we ate and we introduced ourselves to a few people.

But it was a bit disappointing because the Church of the Living God, which is a house of prayer for all people, should be welcoming. Amen.

It was a little disappointing. Well, something I've always wanted to do was to go and visit the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

Does anybody know, familiar with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church? OK, this gentleman. They have a powerful ministry.

They started with about 10 people in the in the hood of New York City, Brooklyn, homeless people. They started off as their church members.

Now they have several thousand. They have someone in their church who is praying 24-7, 365. Always they take shifts in the church praying.

And I've always they have a music ministry. The pastor's wife leads a 300 voice choir to audition to get into the choir.

You are asked these questions. Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior? Have you given your life to him?

Not are you perfect, but do you profess him? Because that is a criterion for singing in this choir. Praise the Lord.

It's not all about the talent. There are a few people who generally lead the songs.

If you've heard their music, you know that there are a few and some of those people maybe can't carry a tune in a bucket, but they know the Lord.

And if they know the Lord, they want to sing in the choir. They can sing in that choir.

I walked in that church and when I entered the doors, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit so thick I just begin to weep.

Nothing had happened. I hadn't even sat down yet. And I just begin to cry, Lord, I feel your presence.

Set down. The choir began to sing praise and worship. They begin to praise the Lord and lift holy hands to him as the Bible speaks of.

The pastor got up and he spoke for about 10 minutes. And when he was done, they hit the streets and went to feed the homeless.

They were to have a second service, but that's what they did every Sunday. And that's what they do every Sunday.

Those of us who we do have something very precious, do we not? We do.

And I want us, I want to challenge you today to pray for an anointing, a holy boldness anointing so that this church is lit up like the day of Pentecost.

Acts chapter two says that that they heard like the sound of a mighty rushing wind. The spirit of God was so heavy that the people outside of the upper room could hear it.

Aren't we living in a time when there should be an urgency, when people should be running through parking lots saying, who does your hair?

Who is that God that you know?

Some years ago in closing, the story is told of a professor by the name of Professor Orr.

And whoever plays the piano, you can play something a little softly if you'd like, a hymn or something as we close.

Professor Orr in the 1940s, he was a teacher at a theology school.

And he decided that he would have a field trip one day and he would take the students to the home of John Wesley.

You've heard of John Wesley, reformer, a man of prayer, known to spend hours in prayer, praying, not just praying for anything.

He was praying for revival, not just in the UK, but in the United States and the world, praying that the spirit of God will fall on his people.

And so they had this rectory, sort of like a museum of his house where he lived.

And Professor Orr decided that he would do a field trip and take the ministerial students to the home of John Wesley.

So they file off the bus and they get to the house and they go in the house and they see the living area where he would relax.

They saw the kitchen where he would eat his meals and they went into his study and they saw the books, his library, and they touched the spines and they could see some of his notes.

And then they came out and they went upstairs to the most intimate part of John Wesley's experience.

It was his bedroom and they filed in, they filed around the bed and the students noticed that on the far side of his bed, on the carpet there were two well-worn patches

where his knees would fit for hours each day as he talked to God and as he begged him for revival.

It was impressive, it was poignant.

And well, when it was time to go, they filed back out down the stairs, they got back on the bus and Professor Orr did a head count and he said, someone is missing.

So he got back off the bus and he went and looked in the living room and looked in the kitchen, didn't see anything, looked in the study.

And so he said, well, let me go up the stairs to the bedroom and he began to go up to the bedroom and before he could get to the bedroom, he could hear the voice of a student saying, do it again, Lord, do it again.

And he walked up, walked up to the student,

put his hands on his shoulder and he said, it's time to go, we're on the bus waiting for you.

And rising from his knees, Billy Graham got up and joined the rest of the students on the bus that day.

And God did it again.

He did it, there have been periods even before and since that time where the Spirit of God was so heavy and people came even in the Bible days, those 3000 that were converted in a day.

Do you want to say, Lord, do it again.

And that student, Billy Graham said, do it again, Lord, and let it begin with me.

Is that your prayer today.

If that's your prayer.

I want you to stand.

As we ask God to consecrate us in these last days.

A new thing.

As we prepare to go on Father.

Thank you.

Thank you for the privilege we have just to live in this in time and have the privilege to share with men, women, boys and girls, the love and the power of Jesus Christ.

Would you fill us with your spirit.

Would you revive us revive our prayer time, revive our prayer closet Lord.

Help us to choose you every day, and to choose you first before we choose anybody else before we speak to anybody else.

Help us to talk to you.

We want to recommit ourselves to you today.

Have your way, do whatever you want to do with us, so that your kingdom will be ushered in with power and great glory.

We know you're coming.

And we know it won't be long.

Make the wrangled SDA church a beacon light in this community, so that men, women, boys and girls will come running, saying what must I do to be saved.

We claim it.

And we ask it.

In the sweet name of Jesus Christ.

We pray.

Amen.

Amen.