When God Is Silent | Hebrews 1:1-4 | Pastor Walter Bowers Jr.

I feel like I heard the Lord say that some people in the room need some help understanding, understanding that his name works.

So I believe I receive instructions from the Lord to start with the children.

If there's a child that you brought with you or that is near to your heart that's in the room young child, teenage child, whatever and that child is dealing with something, keep playing musicians, but just bring it down just a little bit so I don't have to yell on top of you.

Thank you, keep playing that.

I love that.

I love what.

Y'all let keep right there.

Keep right there.

If there's a child that's in this room that is dear to you or you brought with you online and they're dealing with the issue, I want you to talk to him right now about the issue and then teach that child right here, in the next 15 seconds, to how to call on the name of Jesus, for example.

I start with my own family, one of my sons, jacob.

He sometimes has trouble sleeping at night, so he's sitting over there by his mom, so I want mom to tell Jacob to just start calling on the name of Jesus so he don't have any more bad dreams.

You see, if Jacob learns how to call on the name of Jesus when it's something like a bad dream.

When he's a grown man and he has his own family, he'll be used to calling on his name.

So Tiffany is going to tell Jacob just to call on the name of Jesus.

Now, maybe you got a daughter or a son or a nephew or aunt that's right there on your roll, or maybe it's a child that you don't know.

If there's a parent that says can I just encourage that baby, can I encourage that teen?

I want all of my children See, on first Sunday we all are in here and they're not in youth church on purpose so we can worship together.

Are y'all ashamed to teach the children how to call on the name of Jesus?

I need all of my teenagers in the room, all of my elementary school kids in the room.

If you got something that you're worried about, I don't want you to talk about the problem.

I just want you to call on his name.

So all of the students in the house, young, old, start saying Jesus.

Start saying Jesus, jesus, teacher, teach them.

One day they're going to be in a situation and you won't be there to protect them.

This is your chance to tell them to call on that name.

Are y'all teaching our children to call on it?

They don't have to know what to say.

Just say Jesus Now for all my children in the room.

If you're unashamed, I want you to lift your hands, like this young man is doing.

I want my boys to lift your hands like this young man is doing.

I want my boys to lift your hands and close your eyes, because we're teaching them family.

We're teaching our children how to call on his name.

Y'all teaching them Now, sometimes to teach.

You got to model.

So can I move up the ladder to all of the young adults in the room, young professionals in the room, young leaders in the room.

You're going through a lot already.

Already, right where you are being in your 20s, doing your thing, you got to know how to call them.

So do y'all mind teaching the kids how to call them.

Could y'all join the kids, all my young adults in the room.

Just lift your hands right where y'all are, start calling.

Just say Jesus.

Just start calling them Jesus.

Y'all keep calling him Jesus Now.

We should have our children and our young adults calling on his name Now because we learn from the older generation.

I need everybody in that middle age stage of life, like where I am, and you've been through your 20s you done been through your 30s and you in the middle right about now, you in the middle, you feel like you just stuck in the middle.

It now you in the middle, you feel like you're just stuck in the middle.

It's just crazy right now.

Don't worry about what's crazy.

You got children and maybe you got grandchildren, but I bet you won't call on his name when everybody at right now we should have everybody middle-aged 40-something, 50 years old, I bet you won't call him.

Say Jesus, jesus, we got our children calling we, jesus, jesus, we got our children calling.

We got our young adults calling.

We got our middle-aged folks calling, now seniors y'all got to help us out.

God has blessed your life and rescued your life.

You've been where we're trying to go.

You know that what had not been for the Lord on your side.

So I need all the seniors in the room.

That's unashamed.

Can y'all show the rest of us how to call on his name with power?

Can you show us how you called on him when you didn't have money?

Can you show?

Us how you called on him in difficult times Call on his name Now, everybody in the room.

everybody in the room call on his name Every voice Jesus, jesus, every voice Jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, Jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus Jesus.

Jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus, Jesus, jesus.

The Lord has heard your family's cry.

The Lord has heard your family's cry.

Now, he just wants your praise.

He's heard your cry.

He said I just want your praise.

Give him glory.

He said stop worrying, Give him glory.

Stop worrying, Give him glory yeah stop worrying, give him glory.

Are y'all going gonna help the woman of God?

It's not just for her.

Stop worrying about it, give us glory.

Some of y'all came here.

We're worried.

The Lord says stop worrying.

Give me glory.

Spirit of the living God, have your way in this place.

Oh Lord, thank you for your touch that has already occurred.

Thank you for the touch that's on the way.

Thank you for how you've moved us far in the service.

Now I ask God that you take us a little bit higher and when you do, god, we'll be careful to give your name all the glory, honor and praise, for it's in the powerful and undisputed name of Jesus we pray.

Let the people of God say amen, amen, amen To God, be the glory To God.

Be the glory To God, be the glory Family.

As we stand to our feet, there's a word from the Lord this morning, found in Hebrews, the first chapter, verse one through four, part of our Jingle Jams sermon series inspired by some of the songs of this season, but not necessarily about the song itself, but not necessarily about the song itself.

As is our custom here, we enjoy to read the word of the Lord aloud because it helps us to remember what God is saying to us throughout the week.

So at this time, let's read the word of God together, ready, set, read.

Long ago, god spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets, and now, in these final days, he has spoken to us through his son.

God promised everything to the son as an inheritance and through the son he created the universe.

The son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.

When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in a place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

This shows that the son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.

And I would just like to use as a sermon subject today, as the Holy Spirit would allow, when God is silent.

When God is silent, you may be seated in the presence of our Lord, our Lord.

In a relationship, family, there is arguably nothing worse that you could ever do to somebody than to give your partner the silent treatment.

Uh, there's a medical term for the silent treatment is called stonewalling.

It's where you intentionally refuse to communicate with someone that loves you, probably because they got on your last reserve nerve.

However, there's a problem when we stonewall, when we give someone the silent treatment, because it impacts all relationships, it impacts intimate partnerships, it impacts professional settings, it impacts the parent-child dynamic.

It can inflict significant emotional harm.

In my study of this, I ran across a book by psychiatrist, dr Kipling Williams, who identifies the silent treatment as a prevalent form of social ostracism.

In a nutshell, when you give me the silent treatment, you put me on an island all by myself and refuse to give me water.

In intimate relationships, stonewalling serves as a passive-aggressive tactic.

In a nutshell, you've decided that you ain't going to be grown enough to deal with it.

You're just going to be nice-nasty.

That's the language that we use where I come from, and it's a deliberate withdrawal that disrupts communication and it has physical as well as emotional impact.

It can cause one's blood pressure to rise, it could cause stress and it can cause anxiety.

In a nutshell, regardless of the type of relationship that you have, the worst thing that you can do is to give someone the silent treatment.

The worst thing that you can do is to stonewall somebody, because when you stonewall me, I start to try to lean to my own understanding.

Do I have anybody that's been in a relationship, or you won't talk to me, so what you must be doing is such and such and so, and so I thought I'd get a witness in the room.

Anybody else have been stonewalled before you conclude?

If you can't talk to me about the situation, then you must be talking to somebody else.

The worst thing that you can do is stonewall, because it forces us and puts us in a spot where we lean to our own understanding and family.

It's bad if you have an employer that stonewalls you because you don't feel any safety at that place of employment.

It's bad if you're in a marriage and your spouse stonewalls you because you question whether or not they actually love you.

And it's even worse if a parent stonewalls a child as a form of punishment and the parent decides that I'm just not going to talk to my child.

Uh, right now, I get it, I get it.

Sometimes you don't say what you want to say.

You said I'll, I'll if I can't say nothing.

Nice, I'm not going to say anything at all.

I get it, but but you can't go like that for days.

You can't go like that for weeks.

The worst thing that we can do is stonewall someone when they need to hear from us the most.

And while all of those relationships are bad, I've discovered on my journey that there is absolutely nothing worse than when God gives us the silent treatment.

Can I pull the room to see if I'm in the right spot?

Is there anybody in here that's just willing to be honest and say I know what it feels like for God to give me the silent treatment?

Now, if you are the person in the room that does not know what it feels like for God to give you the silent treatment, I need you to pray for this week's lottery numbers, because God answers all your prayers.

He talks to you all the time.

You can share them with us and you know we can work this thing out.

I think every last person in here can testify that you have some prayers that are still sitting in the waiting room.

You got some prayers that remain unanswered.

The reality of it is, as much as we love God and as much as we try on a daily basis to understand him, it is really difficult to understand why such a good God sometimes goes silent.

And the truth of the matter is, if we're going to be honest, because we're in an honest place and the Holy Spirit is with us.

He knows what we're thinking.

Anyway, the truth of the matter is what I want to say to God.

Is God, the same thing that happens if I was to give my beautiful wife the silent treatment happens when you give me this, the silent treatment, my?

All of a sudden, my anxiety goes up about the situation because I ain't heard from you.

All of a sudden, I may feel depressed because I hadn't heard from you.

All of a sudden, I start to lean to my own understanding because I have not heard from you.

All of a sudden, I start to lean to my own understanding because I have not heard from you.

God, the worst thing that you can do to us as your people is to give us the silent treatment.

There's somebody been praying about your career and God hadn't answered you.

You've been praying about adult child and you still wait.

You've been praying about your next move and God hadn't showed you.

You heard the beginning of 2024, that this was going to be your year, and we round down about about 30 days left and it ain't happened yet.

I want to talk to some real people today, now, because if we're going to help one another, we got to deal with the fact that we serve a God who we love, else we wouldn't be here.

But sometimes our God is silent as it relates to our circumstances and situations.

Sometimes God is silent when you find yourself in a courtroom, and sometimes God is silent when you find yourself in a hospital, and sometimes God is silent when you're waiting on him to move in a financial matter.

Where art thou, o Lord, in the midst of my pain, in the midst of my tears, in the midst of my uncertainty, in the midst of the unknown?

Where are you, god?

Did you forget about me?

Are you still up there?

Do you have other oppression issues?

Where are you, god?

Have you passed me not, o gentle Savior, hear my humble cry Then.

Why on others thou art calling?

Do not pass me by is the hymn of a person who understands the silence of God.

The reality of it is is that God says that there is a reason that you experience the silence of God in your life.

We journey through the book of Hebrews, just the very beginning of the first chapter.

The writer is unknown and the the recipients are believed to be Jewish Christians, but it's not necessarily clear, but out of the gate the writer starts to deal with how God talks to his people, because sometimes we have to have a glimpse of the past to know where we are going.

The writer in Hebrews, the first chapter, said in times past, god spoke through his prophets.

The Bible tells us there are 12 minor prophets and there are five major prophets.

All that means is that some of the books are larger than the other, because there is Holy Ghost power in every book of the Bible.

But he used to speak through the prophets in the book, and some whose name is not listed in the 66 books that make up our canon, they were still prophetic.

For example, he spoke through Abraham when he got ready to birth many nations.

He spoke to Moses when that same nation found itself in bondage.

He said I'm.

I'm raising up a deliverer and you will go down and deliver my people.

For those that think he doesn't use women, he spoke through a prophet by the name of Deborah.

When the nation was under attack, he spoke through Deborah and Barak said I ain't going into battle, deborah, unless you go with me.

He spoke through Gideon and said Gideon, there's a fight that you have to take on, and Gideon raised thousands of men and God said Gideon, you got too many.

God cut the number in half again and God God said, gideon, you got too many.

God cut the number in half again and God Gideon said.

God said to Gideon, you got too many, uh, ultimately he got Gideon down to 300 men to go on and take on thousands, because God spoke through Gideon.

The same thing he's speaking to you today is that sometimes it's not the the uh quantity of the people that are with you.

It's all about the quality of the people that's on the team, and I want to tell you that sometimes you got too many of the wrong folk and too much of the wrong stuff, and that's why it's not working out.

He spoke through Isaiah about doing a new thing.

He spoke through Jeremiah when he wanted the people to know that he had a plan for them, a plan to prosper them, a plan for a future and a plan for a bright hope, but family.

In my study this week, I got most excited about how he spoke through a prophet by the name of Malachi.

Now Malachi gets a bad rap, because the only time we hear about Malachi is when we don't give our tithes and our offerings.

That's why you don't hear us preaching about Malachi too much.

But sometimes we miss what God is trying to say when we don't put the word of God in context.

And I want you all to put this in context today.

You got to be able to see it like I saw it in my study.

For you to have that aha moment.

I'm going to stay in the pocket today.

That means that I'm not going to try to run around and go all crazy.

I do that on Monday and Tuesday by myself.

Anyway.

Today I want you to think.

I want you to think.

I want you to think like this If you believe in God and you believe in the Bible and you believe that everything that the Bible declares and you believe that the Bible teaches that Malachi was the last prophet in the Old Testament that God spoke through, as a parent, think about this what if you had an opportunity to have a last speech, a last conversation with your child, before you would ever see them again or for an extended period of time?

It makes you look at Malachi a whole lot different because, like a good parent, if I'm gonna have this is my last conversation, I'm gonna tell you that's gonna rescue your whole life.

I'm gonna be short and direct and straight to the point.

And it actually makes sense because when he spoke through Isaiah, he gave us well over 60 something books of the Bible.

When he spoke through the Psalms, well over a hundred books, and he said I didn't gave y'all all of that and you didn't listen.

So now I'm down to my last four and here we have the prophet Malachi.

Malachi, god speaks through Malachi and, I believe, gives us some answers that y'all may not feel comfortable with, but we, a church that like to learn, we like to shout, but we like to learn.

There's some things that I'm just going straight through the Bible, because I'm a Bible preacher.

I didn't add to it, didn't take away from it that God said help the people of Chosen City to understand why I go silent sometimes.

He said you got to help them to see it so that they because going into 2025, they're going to need to hear me like they have never heard me before For what's on the horizon for their life.

They can't just hear when Pastor Walt stands up.

They can't just hear when Reverend Shank delivers a word.

They got to be able to hear in the highways and byways and on the block and at the game, and wherever they are at the job, wherever they're doing what they do.

They got to be able to heal for themselves.

So he said help the people to understand, through the last prophet that I spoke through In the Old Testament, why I go silent sometimes.

There were six quick ones.

Well, the first one is God goes silent when the people dispute God's love, malachi, the first chapter.

This is with the Lord said I have always loved you, says the Lord, but you retort really, how have you loved us?

And the Lord replies this is how I showed my love for you.

I love your ancestor, jacob, but I rejected his brother, esau, and devastated his hill country.

I turned Esau's inheritance into a desert for jackals.

The problem here is not that the people of God are asking questions because God is big enough to handle our questions.

That's not the problem.

The problem here is that they have come to the conclusion that, based on how God is handling their situation, that God does not love them.

Oh, can I talk to some people in the room and say that the reason you kind of stopped worshiping and kind of stopped going to church is because you came to the conclusion that either God is not real or God doesn't love you and I need to bring you back.

Somebody said come back, come back, come back.

I need to bring you back and say that it's true that we don't understand why God allows certain things to happen.

It's true that we're getting mad at the way God operates the universe, but the thing that'll make God go solid in your life is that when you get to the point in your mind that you say, god, I don't believe that you love me, and he tried to show to me.

He said you should know that I love you because I chose you, I elected you.

You are the, you are the descendants of Jacob, and can I talk to everybody in the room?

I got, I got news for you.

You know that he loves you because he, he chose you.

Every last one of us in this room got a testimony about something that we lived through and somebody else didn't make it.

Everybody in this room got a testimony about something that God brought you out of and the other person didn't.

Quite God elected you and God said since I elected you, what you can't do is dispute the fact that I love you, but if you come to the conclusion in your own mind that I don't love you and you refuse to change your mind on that.

Suddenly God stops talking.

Second one is God goes silent when our worship is no longer valuable.

Malachi 1, verse 6 the Lord of heaven army says to the priest a son honors his father and a servant respects his master.

Malachi 1:6

If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve?

You have shown contempt for my name, but you ask, how have we ever shown contempt for your name?

You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar.

What was going on, fam?

Sacrifices on my altar.

What was going on, fam?

The Bible is clear, if you read Malachi, that the people, when God initiated worship through sacrifice, it was done because when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, the first thing that he did was to cover their sins, because they were walking around naked and didn't even know it.

Well, that's a good walk.

You just walk around and you're just free.

Ain't nobody looking at you?

You're just free Until they sin.

And then they discover their nakedness, because our sin will expose us.

Every time they sin and they discover their nakedness.

And now that they're naked, god decides to cover them.

To cover them with what we would call fur or clothing.

He had to sacrifice and kill an animal.

So he said because it was a sacrifice that covered your sin.

Going forward, when you're going to worship me, it's going to require sacrifice, y'all walking with me.

So he said now, when you worship me, don't just bring any type of lamb.

He said, bring a unblemished lamb, bring the best of the best, bring the lamb with the good heart.

Bring the lamb that, not the one that you didn't want to put in the turkey fry for Thanksgiving.

Bring the best of the best unto the Lord.

The Bible says that over time it got to the place where the people stopped bringing their best to God.

They started watering down their worship.

It didn't happen all at once, it's just over time.

Where you stop coming to worship, like you used to, it didn't happen all at once, but over time.

Where you start praying, like you used to, it didn't happen all at once, but over time.

Where you start reading, like you used to, it didn't happen all at once, but over time.

Where you start reading like you're supposed to, it didn't happen all at once, but over time.

You start fasting, like you're used to.

It didn't happen all at once, but you start praying in the spirit, like you're used to.

It didn't happen all at once, but over time, as a watering down of the worshiping.

God says to the people y'all watered it down so much.

You bring me a defiled worship and your worship shows me what you think of me and if I'm not worthy of worship every now and then, despite how I have kept you, I really don't have a whole lot to say.

When our worship gets watered down and becomes valueless, god stops talking.

God goes silent.

When those with spiritual authority stop speaking and living truth to power, malachi goes on.

He speaks through Malachi and now he deals with the priests and the Levites.

He said the problem of the priests and the Levites is that the word of God had been placed on their lips to give to the people of God for instruction.

But instead of the priests and the Levites giving instruction and speaking truth to power, they started to shift a little bit.

They started to say what would make people comfortable.

They started to say what would serve their own interest.

They started to, instead of being the people that would lead other people to the light, they started to lie.

They started to cheat.

Can I talk to all of the people in the room that are on assignment from God and let you know that sometimes the reason people come to church and can't hear the voice of God is because our posture ain't right how we want all of them to hear and y'all can't talk to one another.

Our posture ain't right how we want all of them to hear and y'all can't talk to one another.

Our posture ain't right how you want them to have a breakthrough and y'all don't speak to each other until you see each other on Sunday morning.

Our posture ain't right.

They can't hear from God.

And if they can't hear from God, one day every last one of us is going to have to give an account.

But it doesn't just start with the deacons and the clergy, for the media team director, and for the hospitality team and for the custodial staff.

If God has you on assignment in the temple and you're not being what he's called you to be and you start to impact what God is trying to say through your hands, god goes silent.

God goes silent.

God goes silent Not only here, this family, when we dispute his love, not only when our worship becomes valueless, not only when the spiritual authority has become weakened.

God goes silent when we elect.

Somebody say elect, elect to connect to the wrong people.

If somebody says a choice Matthew, the second chapter he says are we not children of the same father?

Are we not all created by the same God?

Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors?

The covenant was part for them to be connected to people that shared in the same identity, in the same faith.

Judah has been unfaithful and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and Jerusalem.

Watch this family.

The men of Judah have defiled the Lord's beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols.

May the Lord cut off from the nation of Israel every last man who has done this and yet brings an offering to the Lord of heaven's armies.

What was going on, fam?

Well, it was not that the Bible was speaking against interracial marriage.

What he was speaking against is connecting with people that are not like us.

That's the word I didn't want to use it, rem Shank, because you know, I didn't know how churchy we was, but that's the biblical word that we can't be unequally yoked.

There are some times in your life it is when you elect to connect to something that God hadn't told you to connect to and you got the nerves to ask God why he ain't talking to you.

Can I break it real plain?

I want to talk to some of you, some of you, some of you players in the room you remember when you saw him or you saw her and you said I'm going to be the one that's going to turn their life around.

You know, the media team been warning me about some of my hip hop references, but there was one called Project Pat.

Project Pat said don't save them.

They don't want to be saved.

But now y'all, y'all do what you want to do.

What does that look like?

That means that I see somebody and you decide that I'm going to connect with this person and I'm going to pull them up out of the mud and I'm going to get them to where they need to be.

Here is the problem.

When you connect to somebody that God has not told you to connect with, when you connect with a business that God has told you not to connect with, when you connect with a church that God has told you not to connect with, when you connect with anything that God has told you not to connect with, there's always going to be a shift.

But nine times out of ten, what you thought was going to pull you up ended up being the very thing that pulls you down.

And God said I told you, said, I told you, I told you, but you didn't want to listen.

God goes silent when we also fail to take care of our families.

Malachi 2, verse 13.

Malachi 2:13

Here's another thing.

He says you cover the Lord's altar with tears, so people are crying out to God because they're not hearing from God.

He says you're crying and you're weeping and you're even bringing an offering, he said.

But none of this pleases God.

Why?

He said because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young.

But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage.

Vows, ah, this is tight y'all.

That's why we don't deal with Malachi.

Didn't the Lord make you one with your wife In body and spirit?

You are his.

And what does he want?

Godly children from your union.

So, god, your heart, remain loyal to the wife of your youth.

For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty, says the Lord of heaven's armies.

So guard your heart and do not be unfaithful to your wife.

Every time I have an opportunity to minister not every time, but when the Holy Spirit allows me to and I say especially at the 8 o'clock service or something and I'll talk to maybe one of the elders or whoever I'm passing by and I'll say, hey, specifically, what was your thoughts about this?

And they said, man, that teaching on the divorce is hard.

How are you going to unpack that?

Because there are so many people in the room that have dealt with that.

Even my family my dad's a pastor and my mom and dad went through divorce and so, and so how do you deal with, wrestle with the fact that God hates divorce and God's come down so hardcore on people who deal with divorce?

It's like I say well, it's not that God is coming down hard on people that have gone through divorce, because his grace is sufficient.

There is nothing that you can and can, can, cannot, go through that his grace is not good enough to bring you out of.

But what Malachi is unafraid to do is to tell you the impact of the family breaking up.

He says I need you to take careful consideration on who you hook up with, because if you connect with this person and then you end it for ungodly reasons.

You're liable to mess up that life for a mighty long time.

He says things happen in all of our life.

Again, grace is sufficient, but you need to know that when there are certain things that we do, and God is saying that I was so concerned about the family unit and part of the last things that I was going to give y'all, I was going to remind you of the importance of family.

I was going to remind you of the importance of the husband and wife.

I was going to remind you of the importance of being productive and producing in the name of our Lord and Savior.

And all Malachi is trying to teach us is don't take that lightly, don't feel bad.

If you, like me and your family, went through it, you ain't got nothing to feel bad about, because there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

But the next time somebody said, the next time, the next time I'm going to count up the cost, the next time I'm going to go to premarital, the next time I have a mental health evaluation, the next time I might check a credit report I don't know, but next time I'm going to make sure that I do it the right way Because of all the things that God could have talked to us about.

He talked to us about the importance of our family.

Then he says he goes solid when we fail to give unto him a portion of what he has blessed us with.

He says I am the Lord and I do not change.

That is why you, descendants of Jacob, are not already destroyed, god, he's saying, because I elected you.

That's why you survived what you survived to be where you are, he says.

But ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them.

He says now you got a chance.

Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of heaven's armies.

Then they say he says but you ask how can we return when we have never gone away?

Should people cheat God?

Yet you have cheated me.

That's old, you know.

You're from the old church.

That's what the pastor used to say.

Will a man rob God?

And he said but you ask what do you mean?

When did we ever cheat you?

He says you have cheated me of the tithes and the offerings due to me.

He says you are under a curse, for a whole nation has been cheating me.

It's an interesting dynamic that perhaps we'll unpack in Bible study, because y'all know that one of the things that I just really, you know, don't do is beat up anyone about stewardship and giving.

But the Lord told me that you got to do a better job of teaching, not so much for your sake or Chosen City's sake, but for their own sake, he said.

Because if they're not obedient to my will as it relates to stewardship, then that's an area of my life where they may be in their life, where they may be experiencing silence.

There are some people that experience the silence of God because you're not being a good steward over what God has given you, you're not being a good steward over your time, you're not being a good steward over your talent, you're not being a good steward over your treasures.

God says I just want a little bit of your time.

You do know you can tithe your time, don't you?

You can give God 10% of that talent.

Somebody say amen.

You do know that you can tithe your talent, meaning that you can show up and use the gifts.

And we have grown in the universe as a church who understands that giftedness is not all necessarily about what you do in the wall.

Some of you will use your gifts to usher, to preach, to teach, to sing, but some of you all will use your gifts in the community.

You will use your gifts to start businesses.

You will use your gifts to employ people, but you're going to do it to give God some glory Because, real talk, we don't need everybody to be in the usher.

I need somebody that's the lender down at the bank.

I need somebody that's the mortgage officer, I need somebody that can help me.

I need a doctor in the house, I need a lawyer in the house.

So God is saying that you're going to use what I've given you, but give him the glory for it.

And then, certainly without the issue with the temple at the time, was the actual tithe.

What happened was, as they watered down their worship, they watered down their giving and the temple suffered.

The physical temple where they worship was in decay because they didn't take care of what God gave them.

So God says this to them.

He doesn't beat them up.

He says here's what I'm going to do.

You can return to me, because giving is a heart issue.

So that means when we stop giving, something is going on within our heart.

He says here's what you could do.

I will open up the windows of heaven for you.

I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in.

He says try it, put me to the test.

What will happen?

He says your crops will be abundant for our God them from insect and disease.

What your crops will be abundant for, I will guard them from insect and disease.

What's the application for us?

The application for us is the thing that you're trying to produce in this season.

I see some producers here today.

I see some people that have put some seed in the ground.

The Lord is saying as you are faithful in your stewardship, you are going to be able to produce it.

That ought to give somebody some excitement right there.

I thought I had like at least seven farmers in the room.

Do I got any producers in the room?

That's trying to put something out here that's trying to produce.

God is saying that.

He said try me, test me.

He says I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have room enough to receive it.

Your crops will be abundant and I will regard it from the insect and disease.

That means that God is going to protect you from whatever the enemy is trying to destroy, your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe.

That means that whatever it is that you're trying to produce, god is going to let it come to fruition.

I'm so glad that God just spoke to Walter Lee Bowers Jr and said that the grapes that I'm trying to produce are not going to fall from the vine, no matter the frost, no matter the atmosphere, no matter the conditions, no matter who's in the White House, no matter who's in your house.

The Lord, god Almighty, said if I triumph at his word, I'm going to produce and it shall come to pass.

I need some witnesses for all the people in the room.

Do I have anybody ever tried God at his word as it relates to stewardship?

You look around, you're surrounded by some witnesses.

God is saying try him.

And after that, family silence.

Thank you.

Now that was 40 seconds.

Imagine God being silent for 400 years.

Y'all see how we felt in that 40 seconds.

Imagine God being silent for 400 years.

Y'all see how we felt in that 40 seconds of silence.

Y'all try to figure out.

What is he having?

Is he all right?

Didn't know what to do, because silence make us uncomfortable.

And the Bible says after Malachi, there was 400 years of silence where he didn't speak through the prophets like he used to.

And I want to talk to somebody because maybe it hadn't been 400 years, but maybe it's been four months, maybe it's been four years that you've been trying to hear the voice of God on a particular issue the best way you know how, but yet you're still wrestling with the silence.

I got to acknowledge that if you're in that spot, you're in a dangerous spot, because in the midst of silence there are always other voices that try to rise up.

The history tells us that during the silent years, this intertestamental period, it is when Alexander the Great came into power.

He literally had such world influence.

This is why the bible is written in Hebrew and Greek, because Alexander the Great forced everybody to take on Greek ways, greek language, greek culture.

That's why we still got Greeks in our own colleges, because Alexander the Great was so.

And, by the way, I ain't coming against the Greeks or nothing like that.

If that's your bag, that's no power to.

I'm Greek, I'm not coming against it, I'm just telling you how we got here.

That's all Blue fire to the day I die.

Anyway, point point is this stuff.

It rolls up.

It rolls up at a time where there was silence and they couldn't hear from God.

Now here's the challenge that you have right now.

I see this in the spirit that, because some of you have not heard from God as it relates to the next move you need to make, you're running the risk of getting ahead of God because of some of you have not heard from God as it relates to the next move you need to make.

You're running the risk of getting ahead of God Because, if some of you have not heard from God as it relates to what you need to do and how you need to do it, you're running the risk of doing it your way when God is silent in your life and you can't hear his voice.

You got to be careful because it's a time where false prophets tend to rise up.

False prophets are everywhere these days.

They got Instagram accounts, facebook, twitter, youtube pages, churches, you name it.

They're everywhere.

That's why I try to teach y'all to know the word of God for yourself.

Hey, you can fact check me, because everything that I say comes from the word of God.

I want you to be able to do that for yourself, so you're not hoodwinked and bamboozled and run amok.

Right, because we live in a time that when you can't hear God's voice, you'll start listening to strange stuff.

Let your marriage start going crazy and you just want some help.

You just want a good night's sleep.

You'll start listening to all kinds of stuff on YouTube.

Let your children start going wild and you try not to lose your mind up in here.

Up in here, if you ain't careful, you'll start listening to whoever you can to get the instruction that you need.

That's why it's dangerous that when you can't hear from God in the silent times of your life that we got to do some things, we got two things that we need to do and we're done for today family.

The Lord is saying this.

Whenever there's silence in your life and you can't hear God's instruction, you don't have a strategy.

You can't hear what's next.

It's not clear to you.

Can I just be honest?

I know for a fact, y'all, that God has called us to ultimately plant churches in a variety of different places.

It's because of the totality of what we have been called to bring.

We bring dynamic worship, we bring entrepreneurship, we bring education, and that's something that is needed everywhere.

The challenge that I have is.

I know God gave that to me and I know when he gave it to me, but now I'm in this silent spot where I don't know when we're going to do it.

I don't know where we're going to do it.

I don't know who's going to write the check to do it.

But that's the reality of the situation.

Can I talk to the mother folk in the room?

Do I got any other visionaries in the room that say God told me that I'm supposed to do X, but he told me X, but he didn't show me A through Y.

And I'm trying to figure out A through Y.

I'm trying to pull the room.

We almost done.

Do we got some people in the room that know you heard from God about something, but it seems like the whole plan has yet to be revealed.

Yeah well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We on the right street then.

Well, god says this when God is silent.

This is what you got to do when God is silent.

Stop, look and listen.

Hebrews 1, verse 1 and 2,.

Hebrews 1:1

Long ago, god spoke many times, in many ways, through our ancestors and through the prophets, and now, in these final days, he has spoken to us through his son.

God promised everything to the son as an inheritance and through the son he created the universe.

So, as I look at Hebrews, verse 1 as I'm going to be silent, what does that mean?

That?

That means that when, uh, when, god is silent, it's time for you to stop and not make a move.

In this particular passage, these new believers, these Jewish Jews, these, uh, messianic Jews uh, who were believers of the way, they were dealing with a lot of oppression, they were dealing with stuff and they needed answers, and they needed them now, and so what the writer did was take them back in order so that they could understand how to go forward.

He takes them back to say stop what you're doing, stop doing crazy stuff.

Listen, long ago this is how God spoke to us, but now God is speaking to and he spoke to us through the prophets but he says in these final days somebody said the final days, the final days are what we call the days since Jesus' resurrection.

Now you will hear people say we're living in the last and evil days.

These are the days post-resurrection, where we're waiting on Jesus to return.

He's speaking to us differently and the reason that you got to stop, look and listen is that you to make sure that you don't miss what God is trying to say.

I'm going to say it again the reason that you got to stop, look and listen is so that you don't miss what God is trying to say.

I would suggest that sometimes God is not necessarily silent.

Sometimes you just missed it In the text.

The reason that the writer had to write this way is because in times past, jewish individuals understood God to work in primarily one way and one way alone.

Whenever they got in trouble, he would send a king to bring warfare.

When they were under the rule of the Philistines, he raised up a king by the name of David who was able to slay a giant by the name of Goliath.

When they were dealing with warfare from the Assyrians, he raised a king by the name of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was able to raise an army and they were able to be victorious, and the list goes on and on and on.

And what happened to them is what happens to us is that we get used to God working in a certain way and we expect God to do it now, just like he did it then.

But how many of you know that?

Some of you need to open your spiritual eyes and spiritual ears to see that God is about to do it, but it won't look like he did it before.

Can I talk to some people in the room and say that's why we miss God?

Because I heard it said, and I agree with it the most dangerous place for a man or a woman of God to be is where God was and not where he is.

And I want to talk to some people and say listen, the way God fixed your last relationship may not be the way he fixed this one.

The way God fixed your health the last time may not be the way he does it this time.

The way that he opened the door this time is going to look different than how he did it the last time, and your objective objective, your mandate, is not to miss it just because it looks different.

They were looking for a conquering king.

They said God, you sent us a David, you sent us a Hezekiah, you spoke through the prophets, but he didn't do it that way.

He, he sent, sent his son, born in a ghetto called Nazareth, to a unwed teenage mother who came into a city on the back of a donkey and went in looking too kingly about riding on the back of a donkey.

You know how some stuff change in culture and some stuff don't.

Unfortunately, the donkey has never really had a time in life where he was considered to be popular.

He never really was a popular animal and even then it's a down the fact that their king would come in on the back of a donkey.

It troubled them.

Can I talk to you in the room and say I wonder what you're troubled by that God is doing, that you ain't humble enough to be able to accept when God says that I need you to understand that I'm going to do it, but it's going to look different.

It means that you have to stop, look and listen.

When I was growing up on NBC I used to watch cartoons and Saturday morning shows and there was a show that came they used to give us little warnings about.

You know, it's cool, be cool, stay at school and all that kind of stuff.

But the one that I remember the most.

I remember it was about bullying and it said stop, look and listen, think about what's going on, count to ten, walk away, release the peace and be strong.

I never forget it, so I'm y'all might remember it.

I remember it.

Come on NBC.

It's Saturday morning and I want to tell somebody today stop, look and listen, think about what's going on, count to 10, walk away, release the peace and be strong.

What do you mean, pastor Walt?

I mean that in this silent moment of your life, the worst thing that you can do is get ahead of God, when the worst thing let me say it right now the worst thing that you can do, man of God, woman of God, chosen City Church, is to get ahead of God.

When my brother, my middle brother, marcus, was coming home from school in middle school, he came home excited and I don't know if he was scared or like awesome, excited, but he was excited.

He was, you know, ramped up, he had some coffee or something.

What's going on?

He said, man, you won't believe it.

He said we was on the bus and the bus was at a railroad crossing it was taking a long time time and there was a man behind us in a Toyota truck and the man was kind of in a hurry to get to wherever he was trying to go, but the man couldn't see what the bus driver could see, and so the man behind the bus, in his impatience, goes around my brother's school bus on the left side goes around the guard rail, smack the engine block on this side of the street and the cab on the other side.

I'm like, oh my God, did he die?

My brother said, nah, he crawled out.

He was bloody but he made it.

And I started to think about that thing in preparation for some of you all that's you.

The Lord is the bus driver.

He's ahead of you, he see what you don't see.

He tried to get you to wait, but now you decide to go on around the bus driver, you try to go around the arm of safety and you got smacked.

Can we be honest with you?

Can I talk to the people?

Why don't we talk to the people in church who got smacked?

Why don't we always talk to the ones that are blessed in the city and blessed in the field?

I want to talk to the ones that got smacked.

That's honest to say.

I got smacked, I went around and I got smacked.

But you know, your testimony is not the fact that you got smacked, your testimony is you're like the man in that Toyota auto truck.

you was able to climb out and you're still here.

I need some people in the room that was able to climb out and God said I rescued you because I got something greater for your life.

Which brings me to the last thing family.

When God is silent, we have to stop, look and listen, meaning that this is the season of your life where it calls for intense prayer and fasting.

Somehow this year it won't be anything fancy, but we'll have some type of prayer again, so that makes sure that you hear the voice of the Lord before going into 2025.

We hear from the preacher, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord.

We hear by individual study.

We hear when we pray.

We hear when we worship.

I don't know.

I see you all hearing God when you worship.

Did you know that you could hear God when you worship, when you connect with God with real, authentic worship?

All of a sudden, you start to hear that it's going to work out.

You start to hear that it's going to work out.

You start to hear that it's going to be better.

You start to hear that it's going to turn, and my plea to you is, as you're waiting on God in the silence, don't get ahead of Him and family.

The last thing that I'll tell you is that when God is silent, we have to stop, look and listen.

But I got some good news that when God is silent, we have to stop, look and listen.

But I got some good news that when God is silent, he is about to do something greater.

I got some great news for you that in the midst of the silence, god is about to do something greater.

The writer in Hebrews expresses it like this the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God.

That means that once upon a time, you had prophets that had problems.

You had a prophet like Abraham, who got so afraid of the Pharaoh that he almost gave his own wife over to her.

You had prophets like Noah, who drank a little bit too much at night.

You had prophets like Moses that sometimes got so mad at the people that he was leading that it caused him to miss out on the promised land.

You had prophets like David, who was a man after all God's heart, but he spent too much time looking at a wife that wasn't his.

And so God said this time I'm about to do something greater.

I'm going to send my own son who has my character.

That means that he is without fault.

He has my character.

That means he's not going to judge you.

I want to talk to somebody that lets you know that, in the midst of your silence, god is sending his son into your situation.

Not to judge you, because there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, but there is a whole lot of correction to put you on the right path.

He has God's character.

That means that he's all-knowing that now, instead of prophets who had partial revelation of who God was and who God is, he says I'm sending one that knows the end from the beginning.

Somebody ought to get excited, because the more that you get connected to, the greater.

Because the more that you get connected to the greater, the more that you will start to understand the beginning from the ending.

From the beginning.

He says I'm going to send one that has not some power, but all power in his hands.

He says I'm going to send one that is going to cleanse you from your sins.

That means it doesn't matter what I did in the silence, because, if we're going to be real about it, pastor Chris, some of us made some bad choices in the silence.

Some of us went real low in the silence.

Some of us just hope that they ever find out what I did in the silence.

But I thank God that I don't have to be ashamed of my silence season, because there's one that can rescue me from the decisions that I made when I wasn't hearing God's voice.

There are about 25 of y'all in the room that made some decisions simply because you couldn't hear his voice and God says I understand that.

So I'm going to send one with my character, and his name is greater than every other name.

That's why all other names have to fade away.

His name is the Alpha and the Omega.

He's the beginning and the end.

He's a lily in the valley.

He's a bright and morning star.

He's a way maker, family.

He's a miracle worker.

He's a promise keeper.

He's a married baby boy.

I wish I had some people that know him.

It'd be better if you ever tried them.

That's why I tried to get the youth y'all when we started our worship to call on the name of Jesus, and there were about 17 of y'all who hadn't called on him yet.

But the Lord has said I know why you didn't call on him because you came in with a heavy heart.

I know why you didn't call on him Because you came in with a heavy heart.

I know why you didn't call on me Because there was a lot going on.

But you got another chance to call on the one that is greater.

Do I have some people in the room on our way out the door that don't mind calling on that great name?

You see, there's something about the name of Jesus.

There is something about the name of Jesus.

There is something about the name of Jesus.

It is sweet, I know, oh, how I love to call him.

Do I have any worshipers in the room that don't mind calling on Jesus?

I call on Jesus every day for this community.

I call on Jesus every day for this community.

I call on Jesus every day for this church.

I call on Jesus for people like me and you who might let go in this season.

I call on Jesus.

Joe, I don't mind saying this.

I love you, man of God, but the moment that I heard about your father, me and Dr Lynch got together yesterday.

I couldn't get to you in the physical, but you better believe that we called on Jesus.

I need some people in the room to know that Dr Deacon King, he got a bad report about his brother.

Couldn't get there in the natural, but you better believe we called on Jesus.

I need some people in the room now who got some real stuff going on, that knows that there is something about the name.

I ain't came to be cute now.

This got to shift the day.

I need thee, oh, I need thee.

Why don't y'all try him?

Try him for yourself.

He said test me at my word and call on his name, Call on Jesus, Call on Jesus Family, I'm here to tell you as God speaks to you, as God breaks the silence he's going to reveal to you that what was whispered in your ear today is a prophetic decoration that has to come to pass.

You see, we celebrate Advent because it was the end of silence, but there had to be confirmation that what they were hearing was the word of the Lord.

So when Mary got a whisper in her ear that she would be impregnated by the Holy Ghost, it didn't make much sense.

Can I talk to somebody in the room and tell you to get ready for an instruction, get ready for a move of God.

That's not going to make any sense.

Mary could have been like some of y'all.

She could have avoided the assignment simply because it didn't make sense.

But I'm glad to have the faith of a teenage girl who said it don't make sense.

But I'm going to trust my God when I can't trace my God?

Do I got any other witnesses?

in the room, god is telling you some stuff.

It don't make good sense, but you're going to trust your God when you can't trace your God, but don't worry now.

Our God will always confirm what he has whispered in your ear, and so he whispers in Mary's ear.

And the people around.

Mary they don't quite understand it.

But God will never leave you in a moment where you feel alone.

God will never leave you when it feels like silence, because I want you to know that in the middle of your silence, god is manifesting your miracle In the middle of silence.

your God is up to something.

And so, mary, in the middle of a solid night, she goes by her cousin's house hey cuz how you doing.

Her cousin's name was Elizabeth.

Mary and Elizabeth got together.

Ironically, y'all Elizabeth was pregnant at the same time.

I need to talk to some people in the room.

You need to surround yourself with some other people that are pregnant with possibility.

I don't need to be around folks that ain't trying to birth nothing, because you don't understand my pain, you don't understand my sleepless nights.

I don't need to be around some people that ain't trying to push nothing out, because you don't understand what I push nothing out because you don't understand what I'm going through.

You don't understand why I put so much in it.

But god is saying i'ma surround you with some people that understand you.

And so now she's with her cousin.

Hey cuz how you doing.

But before mary and elizabeth can start to talk, something's starting to happen in Elizabeth's room.

Something's starting to happen in Elizabeth's room.

Something starts to happen in Elizabeth's womb.

I wish I could get some help in here.

I believe there are some people men and women, boys and girls that something is starting to happen in your spiritual womb.

You've been waiting all year now for God to get you to this point.

You've been in the struggle now for far too long, but something's about to happen right where you are, right in your spiritual womb.

I wish I had 15 people that said, pastor, what I feel, that something's about to happen in my spiritual room.

I've been where I was long enough.

God is about to do something, and don't y'all know.

In elizabeth she was carrying a baby.

The baby's name was John.

John would be the forerunner of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ.

But before John could be born, the Bible declares when his mama's belly got close enough to Mary's belly that John started to leap in the womb.

John started to get excited Because John recognized what Mary was carrying.

Ooh wee.

What would happen in church if I started to get excited, not about what's inside of me, but I started to leap Because when I got close enough to the Holy Ghost that's in you, I could see that God was about to burn something.

I could see that God was about to do something.

I could see that God was about to move.

You ought to surround yourself with some people that will leap for you.

You ought to look to your neighbor and say God is about to bless me.

Will you mind leaping for me?

God is about to heal me.

Do you mind leaping for me?

God is about to heal me.

Would you mind leaping for me?

God is about to speak to me.

Would you mind leaping for me?

If you ain't sitting by somebody, they won't leap for you.

It's all right if you go to the other side, because there's a poor frog that won't praise their own God.

And I want to talk to some people.

And if you know that God is about to do a new thing, if you know that God is about to break the silence, why don't you give God some worship?

Because if you want to break the silence of God, I bet you won't give God some worship.

Because God inhabits the praises of his people and if you want God to speak, give God some praise so he can show up there.

If you want God to move, give God some praise so he can meet you right where you are.

My God is inhabiting the praises of all of his people and if we give him 30 seconds of a Christmas time praise, he's going to speak to you before you get back here next Sunday.

Did y'all hear what I said?

I decree and declare if you give him some banana praise over the next few seconds, he's going to speak to you About the situation.

You're going to come back next week and God has given you a strategy.

You're going to come back next week and God has already worked it out.

But you got to be crazy enough To walk by faith and not by sight.

For all of my faith walkers right here in the room, why don't you take 30 seconds and give God a praise that he can inhabit.

Give God a praise that he can dwell in.

Give God a praise that he can rejoice in.

Give God a praise that he can show up on your behalf in.

Give him a praise that'll shift the atmosphere.

Give him a praise that'll fix whatever was broken at Thanksgiving.

Give him a praise for whatever's had your bound Lord in heaven.

To praise it Of your people In heaven.

To praise it Of your people.

We thank God in 2025 and I'll be able to hear your voice.

So, god, we lifted up a sound I lifted up a sound for a mother that needs to hear.

I lifted up a sound for a father that needs to hear.

I lifted up a sound for a mother that needs to hear.

I lift up a sound for a father that needs to hear.

I lift up a sound for a child that needs to hear.

We lift up a sound.

We need to hear you now.

We need a strategy, God.

We need to hear you now.

We need our next move, God.

We lift up a sound.

We're coming out physically, God.

We agree to be what you called us to be.

We agree to be what you called us to be.

Glory to God.

Glory to God.

Glory to God.

¶¶.

I see my brother, bernard, and his beautiful wife.

Listen, I want to say they won't mind, because they know why I'm mentioning this.

They lost their beautiful 22-year-old nephew to violence in the streets and we had to celebrate this homegrown ceremony.

The truth of the matter is I said to them, as I said to everybody, and I said I wrestle with celebrating that this is how God, it's all God had for this young man.

But I said because if I accept that that's all God had for this young man at 22, then I have to accept that that's all God has for us.

And I just said I refuse to believe that's what he got for our young men.

I refuse.

And when I was saying that, the Holy Spirit said that's true, because I'm not done with his life yet.

And so at that homecoming celebration we were able to extend Christ and several young men and women gave their life to the Lord.

I say it because if you think about that type of loss, that's a silent time in your life.

Unless you lost somebody that was 20 something years, you don't know that pain, unless you've been there.

And if you have been there, can you just show your hand as a sign of love.

Look how many hands, so you know what they're going through.

That's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about the silence of God in our life.

But even in the silence of God and them not understanding why God allowed it to happen that way, god used they call him Peanut God used Peanut's life to rescue the other life of so many.

And I say, lord, if you allow it, now get here.

On Sunday I'm going to raise his name again because I'm going to say somebody is in a silent time in their life and I'm so glad to hear the report that Peanut gave his life to Jesus.

And even at Peanut's home going celebration, somebody was able to say I'm in a silent time, but I need God.

So I want to extend that same invitation to somebody here today.

I know it's been dark, I know it's been hard, but you need the Lord.

I know it's been dark, I know it's been hard, but you need the Lord.

I want to meet you right here in this aisle.

I'm going to meet you right here.

Our clergy is coming, because you need God, you need God.

Life is hard, life is tough.

You need the Lord, you need God.

Matter of fact, they're clapping in expectation because they already know you're coming.

You need God, you need God.

We operate with expectation.

There's somebody here today.

You need God.

You operate with expectation.

There's somebody here today.

You need God.

You need a church home.

You need God.

Tomorrow's not promised, but God is saying I want to make sure that you're connected so that you don't leave here like you came.

I want to make sure that you're connected so that you become who God has called you to be.

Somebody today needs the Lord.

Listen, what happens is that the first one of you all that are obedient to the Spirit, you encourage other people to be obedient to the Spirit.

We just need that one person to be obedient and say God is with you, in the middle of the silence.

He's working on something.

He's about to work it out for your good, but you just got to give him a yes today.

Hallelujah, hey, church family, y'all help me out.

Turn to the person that's sitting next to you and say hey, do you have a relationship with Christ and have you been baptized?

Celebrate God, god.

Somebody's moving and being obedient to the Spirit.

Thank you Lord, thank, obedient to the spirit.

Thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord.

Thank you, lord.

God bless you, man of God.

God bless you, man of God.