Our Choices Have Consequences | Dr. Cedric Oliver

Blessings to Israel presents Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Once again, and this week we are going to continue with a sermon that we began listening to last week. It was preached in April of 2022 by Dr. Cedric Oliver, former pastor of Embassies of Christ in Gary, Indiana. And Pastor Oliver went home to be with the Lord just eight months after delivering this sermon in January of 2023 was when he passed. But even though the sermon was given two years ago, I found it very relevant and very timely in light of the impending 2024 election.

So we will pick up where we left off last week. But before we get to that, I want to remind you, as we always do, that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. If you have never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I encourage you to do so today.

Otherwise, if you leave this side of life without having received him, you will spend eternity in the lake of fire separated from God. So will you please give your heart to Jesus Christ on today? All right, folks. So again, we began listening last week to a sermon titled Don't Conform to the World by Dr. Cedric Oliver, Embassies of Christ. So we're going to pick up this week where we left off on again, this very relevant and timely sermon in light of the 2024 election.

So I wanted to I'm just pulling out some things that happened over the last several weeks to show you where the nation has gone. Two weeks ago, the governor of Florida signed a bill that was passed by his Senate and his House of Representatives. And the purpose of the essence of the bill is this. It prohibits teachers from providing any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from grades kindergarten through third grade.

That was what the bill was about. You cannot from kindergarten to third grade. You can't talk about sexual orientation or gender identity. You can't talk about maybe you a boy or maybe you feel like a boy, but you feel like you can't talk about that kind of stuff. You can't talk about being gay. You can't talk about you can't talk about any of that stuff to children from kindergarten to third grade. Now, y'all clapping and that's good. Don't stop clapping. That's a good thing.

How many think that's a good thing? I mean, a five year old doesn't need. And so I saw a kindergarten teacher, a man who's married to a man. And he says this this bill is unfair because he's a kindergarten teacher. He says, I should be able to go in my classroom on Monday and talk to my students about what me and my husband did. Oh, yeah.

I should be able to share my experience in life with my class. Are you hearing me? Guess who came out against that bill? Your president and his administration disagreed with that bill. Disagree with the bill that says don't teach kids five to eight years old about sexual orientation. They need to be learning about reading, math, how to write. They don't need to be learning about this stuff.

They don't even know who they are yet. But your president thinks that bill is wrong. I'm a mess with you.

Look at your neighbor and say, our choices have consequences. This is where we are today. Are y'all hearing me?

We are there. They are trying to promote an agenda that directly opposes God's word. And they want to teach it to your kids. That's what this administration supports.

Teaching that kind of garbage to your kids. Y'all hear me? Now, how many of you didn't hear about that bill? Let me see your hand.

You never heard about it. Don't be ashamed. Hold up your hand. I want to see your hands. Be honest.

All over the room. People ain't heard about that. See, that's a problem. That's a big problem that you don't know that that type of thing is going on. All you know is vote Democrat. Call them Republican just for the business people and they don't care about you.

Vote Democrat. Yeah, but there are consequences to this type of stuff. If I had a child that was in kindergarten and I found out his homosexual teacher is telling him, my kid about his husband. I got a problem with that.

Because you don't know what they're talking about in the classroom to your kids. And it's being embraced in our nation. It's being embraced. Guess who else came out supporting opposing that law? Disney. Disney.

Y'all hear me? They are opposed. In fact, the president of Disney said that they are going to release an initiative for that law to be repealed, which means that they're going to go and try to get the law changed so that you can talk about that stuff to five to eight years old. Disney. Disney. I have a quote. The corporate president of Disney is a lady named Carrie Burke.

Here's what she said. We target millennials and Generation Z. That's the younger generation with LGBTIA.

I don't even know where all this stuff is. Plus they said Disney. This is the president that didn't say we target Generation Z and millennials with LGBT content.

What does that mean? Their programming is developed to target gay, lesbian, transsexual information in their programming, in their cartoons. This lady went on to say that her goal is to make sure that everything they put out on television, that at least 50 percent of it includes gay, lesbian, transgender and minorities. Your kids are looking at Disney, at the Disney channel. Do you know what they're looking at? They had another lady on there saying, she said, I've been creating programs for years with gay characters.

She said, I've been doing it for years and Disney lets me do it and doesn't oppose me. Your kids are looking at what? You think they're looking at Mickey Mouse. No, they ain't just looking at Mickey Mouse no more.

Got it? Look at the name and say, this is church. This is real church. This is real church. Now, I know you may not see me this way or Dr. David's way, but we are prophets. I don't need a title. I don't need a title, but a prophetic voice is a voice that can speak to a nation or concerning a nation.

Principles of the Kingdom of God that go against what the nation is trending towards. That's more of a prophet than, yea, I say, your wealthy place is here. That's what y'all want.

But this is what you need. My only purpose in spending time here today, what are we reading in 12 and two, Roman 12 and two? Be not. I ain't just up here talking. I'm taking you into the word first and telling you what the Bible is telling us. Don't be conformed. This is where the world is headed and it's moving rapidly.

Are y'all hearing me? It's moving rapidly. And so if the devil is in another gear, the church got to get in another gear.

Has to. Amen. So, yeah, so they passed that bill in Florida. I thought it was fantastic. I just thought it was a great bill.

You know, to me, it didn't go far enough. Because if it left up to me, you don't get to talk about this in no grave. That's why kids flunk and test. Because they're taking valuable classroom time up, teaching this other stuff. Yeah, I'm preaching.

I'm going to give you another example. Alabama, I think within the past week, passed the bill prohibiting gender transition procedures on children. So essentially what the bill is saying is that it is now against the law in Alabama for a doctor to use a procedure to change a child's features or to prescribe medication to block puberty and other things.

Said, you can't do it. They said it's against the law in Alabama to do that now. I think that's great. Because I mean, even if kids transition into being gay or whatever, I mean, we shouldn't be doing anything encouraging a child and influencing a child.

Because how long, I mean, what did you know when you were six? It just ain't right. It's not right. And so, you know, I thought that was a good bill. Y'all think that's a good bill?

And they made it, now it's law, so if a physician either performs a procedure or prescribes a drug, they go to jail for kids. Y'all grown folks, y'all do whatever the heck y'all want to do. Y'all do whatever you want to do, but leave the children alone. Leave them alone. Amen. I'm going on record. I love everybody.

Y'all hear me? I have people who are gay in my family. Now, don't be thinking about my immediate brothers, I ain't talking about my brothers, because y'all say, dang, dang.

I wonder which one of them are you talking about? I ain't seen them in church in a while, I don't know. I ain't talking about my immediate family.

But I have people that live that lifestyle in my family. I love them. I don't avoid them. When they're in town, I want to be with them. You hear me? I love them.

Amen. I said this before, sometimes some of those folks practicing their lifestyle is nicer than Christians. So I'm not up here saying I hate them.

I don't, I love them. I've been around transgender people before. I mean, we had a transgender person come to our church over on Ridge Road. That was the most beautiful he-she.

I mean, he-she was fine. So they wanted to meet with me and Dr. J because they're like, you know, I know this ain't what the church believes in, but I just need to let y'all know where I'm coming from. And I'll never forget, it was around conference time. And one of our conference speakers got up and spoke. And then after he got done speaking and we were just talking, he said, who was that woman over there?

She sure looked pretty. I said, I sure hope you was anointed while you were preaching. I hope you didn't lose your focus, brother. I said, I have news for you. He said, no, I said, yeah, put your mind on Jesus, man. I love people, I do.

And I don't hate them, I don't. They just need the Holy Ghost. They need to just submit to the Holy Ghost.

If they really love God and submit to the Holy Ghost, they'll hear. And they don't need to be beat over the head, they don't need that. So anyway, I read you that bill that passed in Alabama, right? So doctors can't perform those procedures or prescribe medication.

But children can't do it. That's a good law. Guess who opposes that law? Guess who opposes that law? Guess who's against that law? Your president and his administration.

They were getting, don't get quiet on me, Negroes. I got to go there. Don't get quiet on me. The truth will set you free. But he's so nice. No, he ain't. He mean. Ask that reporter, he called the SOB. I asked him a question about inflation. You are a stupid SOB.

That's nice Uncle Joe. They are opposed to that law in Alabama. They're opposed to the law in Florida. They are opposed to that law in Alabama. They're opposed to it. They're saying, that's not right. That's what this administration is saying. Those laws are wrong. That's what this administration is saying, these laws are wrong. You ever bought a car and wish you hadn't bought it after it broke down on you the third time in three days?

They call it buyers. This is what you signed up for. Now get this, here's the thing. To his credit, he didn't hide what he believed while he was campaigning. He let everybody know what he believed while he was campaigning. They had a town hall on CNN during the primaries.

And this lady came up and they gave a mic to the audience, asked questions. And she said, I have a 10-year-old son who wants to be identified as a woman and wants to be a woman. Joe Biden said, he should be. Here's what his response was. That 10-year-old should have the right at the age of 10 to choose to be a girl. That's a quote.

You can go look it up. When he said that, I looked at him like, what did he just say? Many Christians are talking about voting for him because he ain't Trump. Do they know what they're buying? Be not conformed.

Just because CNN and MSNBC for four years told you how horrible the previous president was and y'all looked at it and believed everything they said was true. Quiet. Sunday, I ain't going to preach this on Easter Sunday, it'll be safe to bring your folks. It'll be safe.

Bring them. I ain't going to preach on this next week. You ain't got to raise your hand, but I just want you to ask yourself, am I glad he's teaching me this today? I ain't even looking for a reaction from you.

I'm not. I just want you to answer it for yourself. Am I glad that somebody, Ms. Tina, I have a whole host of other areas I could talk about, but I'm just, the Holy Spirit just says, just deal with this today.

Let them know. This is who you told God you wanted. You said you wanted it. He said, you want it, give the people what they want. So they abide and oppose the bill there. Did you know that they have a day in the United States declared as transgender day of visibility now?

Transgender day of visibility, it was last week, I believe it was last week. And so your president had some comments to make. This is a quote from President Biden. Here's what he said, speaking to the transgenders. He says, he sees transgenders for who you are, made in the image of God. That's a quote. That's a quote. But my Bible says in Genesis 127, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him male and female, he created them. But your president's telling transgenders, quote, I see you as who you are, you are made in the image of God. Can you handle some more? Quote, we're committed to advancing, this is Joe Biden, we're committed to advancing transgender equality in the classroom.

Did y'all hear that? Who said this? You can say Joe Biden, because I didn't make this up, you can go look at it. This is a quote. This is not my opinion or my interpretation of what he said.

This is a quote. He said, we're committed to advancing transgender equality in the classroom. That's your schools. That's your schools. But he didn't stop there. In the classroom, on the playing field, what is he advancing for the playing field? Transgenders.

Thank y'all. Transgenders. Transgenders. At work, in our military, in our housing and healthcare system, everywhere, simply everywhere.

Intervisibility Day, President of the United States quotes, I know why it's quiet in here. Because a bunch of y'all said, I'd rather have him than that other, any day. I sat at a table before the election and somebody thought the day was just going to shock me and they say, ain't no way in hell I'll vote for Donald Trump. And they thought it would shock me. They said that to the wrong person because you know what my response was? Ain't no way in hell. Quote Pastor C, Dr. C said, ain't no way in hell I'll vote for Joe Biden.

No way in hell. I did say it, shocked them. What I said was true because I ain't going to hell, ain't no way in hell. Well, if you joined us late, we are listening to a sermon from Dr. Cedric Oliver is titled Don't Conform to the World, preached in April of 2022. And we're listening to this entire sermon.

We began last week with the first segment. If you missed that, you can visit our YouTube channel, Discerning the Times, or visit our website BlessingsToIsrael.com and look for the title, Who You Vote for Matters. And folks, that is the truth because our choices do have consequences.

There are consequences for our choice when it comes to voting. And Pastor Cedric Oliver, he, he's laid down the gauntlet, you know, so today is the choice. Are you going to serve the Lord or are you going to go the way of the world?

Are you going to conform to the world? And it brings to mind the text in Joshua chapter 24 verse 15. When Joshua told the Israelites, he said, and if it seems evil to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And that is my message to everyone out there. Choose this day to serve the Lord.

Vote in the way in which God would be approving of. So that's going to do it for this week. We'll be back next week with part three in the conclusion of this sermon, Don't Conform to the World by Pastor Cedric Oliver, pastor of embassies of Christ. I want to thank you for tuning in. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to discern the times by viewing life through the lens of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. Thank you for tuning into deserting the times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God. Conforming the times is presented by blessings to Israel.