Greetings Everyone
No matter where most of us are today in terms of material and physical well-being, it is nearly certain we are better off today than our fore parents were in 1877. That was 12 years after the end of the Civil War and Federal troops were pulled out of the South as the last means of protection between former slaves and those who fought a war to keep them enslaved.
Penniless, homeless, friendless, naked and illiterate, black people who had been forced to labor without pay were left along the road with nothing in the midst of a society that didn’t want to see them prosper. To ensure their demise, laws on both the state and federal level were put in place to stifle and contain their economic progress and where laws failed, terror and intimidation was used to deny black people full citizenship rights.
But despite some of the cruelest and meanest efforts that caused (and in some cases are still causing) countless black people to lose their lives and caused them untold anguish and fear, they have overcome and defeated the efforts and tactics that were designed to destroy them. God had mercy on them and has allowed them to be in the places they are today.
Many battles on the way to full citizenship and equality have been won even to the point of having an African-American family occupy the White House. But most black people are in danger of Winning the Battle, but Losing the War. I invite you to listen to the sermon to get a better understanding of how a people can come so far and overcome severe obstacles and still lose the war. The war that matters in the end isn’t over physical and material things and well-being, though they are important and essential to life.
The real war is over and for our souls. It is our desire and lust for the things of and in this world that can allow us to win the battles of physical and material life and lose the war for our souls. The United States is plagued with senseless gun violence which in driven in large part by division based on differences that in any other context or different world wouldn’t even matter.
The enemy of God and humanity has managed to plant in the minds of some people that they are different and superior to the rest of humanity and are entitled by that difference. All differences between people on this planet are superficial at best and doesn’t change the fact that we all have a common ancestry. We are all the same species and people despite some slight differences in appearance. We communicate and can have relationships (including reproduction ones) with each other that no other species or creature on this planet can have with us.
The person some people are fearing, hating and killing are their own sisters and brothers, their own flesh and blood. If they and the person they fear, hate and kill were the only two humans being left on the earth, to kill the other would leave them alone on this planet with creatures they can’t relate to and can’t relate to them instead of enjoying and sharing this beautiful planet together with one of their own kind. This is an illogical and senseless hate and ideal planted in the heart of humanity by someone or something that wants no good for humanity.
Division is the greatest weapon that can be used against any people. While we have won and are winning many battles against it, our lust is causing us to lose the war. Don’t end up gaining every physical and material well-being thing our lust and money can get us and lose the only thing that last forever, our souls. Well, thanks for listening and remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
