A Solemn Assembly

Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy.

Welcome once again to Man Talk Radio. I'm Will Hardy, the black guy. And I'm Roy Jones, the white guy. And you know Roy, on last show we were talking about, you know, we're, this is like the fourth show now that we're done in race and racial reconciliation and discrimination and things like that.

And you know, we were talking how we got a pretty good response from it. And so now we want to, we want to take this last show and we want to say, what as, what can we do? And we're talking to born-again believers out there. If you're not born again, you can be born again.

And we'll tell you, Roy will tell you how to do that at the end of the show. But we're talking to born-again believers and we're saying, okay, as a congregation and you're in X city or Y city, whatever that city is, what can we do as a congregation? And so when we go back and we look at scripture in the Old Testament, God called the Israelites to what's known as a solemn assembly. And we were talking earlier and the solemn assembly for the Israelites, it happened around the feast, the Feast of the Tabernacles, Feast of Booths. So one of the feasts that God had set us apart for the children of Israel, this is something that he had asked them to do, to hold a solemn assembly. And depending on where it's found in scripture that the solemn assembly could mean different things.

And what we're going to be talking about as far as in the Word of God, what that solemn assembly mean is the word Shabbat in Hebrew. And it involves the making of a solemn oath or a vow to God. So as a congregant, if things are not happening in your church with respect to how to deal with racial issues, and you never talked about it, which most congregations probably have not, and if so they've done it superficially, then we have to ask the question, how do we go about doing this? You know, how do we go about holding a solemn assembly?

So you go, congregant, you go to your pastor, you go to the leadership and say, hey, let's hold a solemn assembly. Let's come together to where we fast, we pray, and we make a oath or a vow to God to say that we're going to be actively involved in our community to deal with racism. Right.

So you're saying the oath would be that if I've not been active, I'm going to be active in trying to help deal with racism. So that would be the Shabbat. Yes. Right. Yes.

Okay. So in the solemn assembly, we also understand correctly, and folks, we're just talking through this. So it's been an education for all of us. So if, if I recognize a problem and, or we recognize a problem, there's things going on for sake of this conversation, the continuation of our racism conversation is that we see injustices with people of color or white people from people of color, vice versa, just injustices in general. And we address those. We say, okay, there's three or four things that we've noticed that are problematic in our society, at least in our immediate community, we'll call it because that's where you can affect in the moment, your community. So we decide, okay, we should come together in this solemn assembly to first identify the problem either by the pastors leading or an organizational discussion, I guess would be the best way to put it. Or they can put together a committee, a committee to bring it forth. And then once we've identified, identified these problems, then the Shabbat is how we move into an oath to serve against each one of those or serve for each correction of each one of those issues.

That's correct. Because see, the issue of, of has to be identified first, right? So once we do that, then you come up with workable solutions that if you encounter a certain injustice that you may have seen, you may have heard on radio, TV, media, or you just seen it live, and you say, hey, here's an example of something that I encountered. So then you put that on the table and you say, okay, now as a group, a small group or medium sized group, however many people you want to have together, how can we, as a body, put down some things that we can say, or do to address the issue?

And these things would be specific to whatever issue you're trying to address. Right. Okay, good. So then what is the follow up mechanism? So we've had the discussion, we made the oath and as a pastor, what, how would you, if you were managing this journey, what would be the follow up process? And as far as the, the, um, the solemn assembly, pulling that assembly back together to talk. Okay. So now what we, what we do is at the committee level, when we've identified all of the issues, and then we've came up with workable solutions on how to address them, if we encounter them, now you bring that forth to the larger congregation to say, okay, this committee or this small group have talked about issues that we've had in our community or that we see within the state or the country in general, and it's running rapid, you know, and if we encounter something like this, this is how we should approach it. And of course, we've already had some of our solutions, you know, listed with the various problems that we're presented with.

Now, let's, let's make sure the listening audience understand that these things that you list are not concrete, or it's just something to get you started into the discussion. Right. Right.

So what you want to do is you want to start with this and then build on it with a biblical foundation, go to the Word of God. And then we talk about things that we talked about in the first, well, the third show, in reference to an angry man and how if you around this anger, you don't want to become like this individual because it's danger and it'll damage your soul. Right, right. And then that goes, that person influence on you could be from this racism thought process, not just the anger, but you could translate anger into racism, into bias, into bigotry, all those other things, right, that you really could just fill in the blank. Yeah, because that's, that's where it starts.

It starts with community. Yeah, it starts with that person who is not thinking rationally. Right. You know, and when you don't think rationally, then some of the results that fall out of that irrational thinking is the hate, is the anger, you know, and then the outward flow of all the racism and biases that individuals hold within.

Right, right. And we know the source of that. Of course, you know, if the source we know is the enemy, right, because we are, we are dealing with the spiritual realm. See, we look at people, but behind those people is the spiritual realm in the spiritual world, which influences our thought processes.

So, you know, we just don't think, you know, of, of going out and doing some harm. That thought has to come to us from the spiritual realm. We take that thought as our own, and then we go out and do it. So we're influenced by God, or we're influenced by Satan. So we have to choose, and this is where the choice comes in when, you know, every day you're choosing, right, you're choosing to follow God, or you're choosing not to follow God.

Right. So, if you're listening to us, and you're thinking about these things, and you say, well, have I really made a difference in my church, or am I involved in my church, or am I bringing these topics up, or I've seen injustices, and I've just kind of stood on the sideline. Now's the time to take them forward. Now's the time to talk to your pastor, or your elders, or to your LBA, or whomever it may be, deacons, and say, look, you know, we really need to start adjusting these things. The whole issue of slow faith, because the more we let it go, the further it slips.

Right. And it's funny, and funny in a sad kind of way, that here we are some 50 years later, I guess, from when Martin Luther King was, give or take a few years, when he was walking and sharing, and one of the comments in the article was that Sunday's the most segregated day of the week. And I would challenge, it's gotten some better, obviously, because there's multicultural churches out there, a lot of churches are really doing well at breaking down the walls of race. And then those churches that it's still the same way it's always been. It's either all black, or predominantly black, predominantly white, or it's predominantly Asian or Korean, whatever it happens to be. Now, obviously, there's a language thing on top of an ethical, ethnic change there, or variance, but it's still segregated. And the reason why that is, is because we always want to go to local assemblies of people who look like us.

They do not want to get out of a comfort zone. That's exactly right. But you know, this solemn assembly, what we were talking about, when Israel was entering, about to enter into the promised land, and to God was renewing his covenant with them. And this is out of Deuteronomy chapter 29. But it says, and I can just imagine, as I was reading this early, I could just imagine Moses, the great orator, giving this to the children of Israel, as they were about to go into the promised land.

And I know we're coming up on a break right now. So I'm not going to get into the actual reading of the verses because it's a long passage of Scripture. But as I begin to read this, audience, listen to what God spoke through Moses to the children of Israel. And just put yourself as one of the individuals in one of those tribes, and now you're about to go over into the promised land. And the words that Moses is speaking, they are about to bring you to the land that God promised all the way to glory.

And so I was just totally inspired by it. And I know you will too. And I know we're coming up on the break right now. So stay with us as we conclude the solemn assembly on MANTalk radio. TAWCMM would love to have you join their community of men for breakfast every first and third Friday of every month. They have Bible discussions and fellowship after the best breakfast in town. The meeting location is at their gracious Host Church, First Christian Church in Kernersville, 1130 North Main Street in Kernersville.

They have a hard start at seven o'clock and a hard stop at eight o'clock. First time visitors eat for free. Join your hosts Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Affordable Chiropractic in High Point, as you might tell from their name, affordable chiropractic, even for the cash patient. Dr. Jeff Rickey has been caring for patients in High Point for 34 years. Physical therapy such as ultrasound and spinal decompression for disc conditions such as herniation, comprehensive care for auto accident injury patients with no out of pocket expense. Remember, affordable chiropractic on West Lexington Avenue in High Point.

Call 336-885-1987. Okay, welcome back to MANTalk radio. And you know, Roy, we're talking about this, the solemn assembly, which local churches need to have. And you know, we're about to read a passage of scripture from Deuteronomy 29, when the children of Israel are about to go into the Promised Land. He says, I'm reading in the modern version, you stand assembled today, all of you before the Lord, your God, the leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood, and those who draw your water to enter into the covenant of the Lord, your God, sworn by an oath, there it is, solemn assembly, which the Lord, your God is making with you today, in order that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, I am making this covenant, again, sworn by an oath, not only with you, who stand here with us today, before the Lord our God. And this is the this is the part I like, but also with those who are not here with us today. I don't know about you, Roy, but that just moved me. I mean, it really moved me because this is something that the Israelites, they just couldn't see.

And when you're in slavery, as they were in the land of Egypt, this is something that they couldn't see, because it was like, how are we going to get out of this? Who is going to free us from all this oppression? Well, that's when God does his best work, right? Because we were at a point in our mind that it's impossible, it's never going to get any better. And it's never going to change. And that's when right where he wants us to be so that when he comes, he comes in such a mighty way that the miracle of what he's just done is never questioned.

Wow. That's deep. You must be a preacher or something over there. But you're absolutely right. And when there's no question that it's the Lord involved, that's the way God want us to see him as the God of not a second or third chance, but the God as your only chance, because to the born again believer, and I like using the term born again believer rather than Christian, because Christian has been overworked. And devalued because of the complacency, and I'll even go one step further, just by the people that have had knowledge of our Savior, but not heart knowledge. Exactly. I agree with you. And that's why you and I often talk about being the Christ follower.

I like that term born again, because I think it sets us apart from an individual who may say, well, we're all children of God. Well, we are, right. But in what sense?

In what sense? Exactly. We're not all spiritually born again. That's right. We are all made in his image. But you have to be in the body of Christ in order to be born again.

And you can only do that through receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Right. But see this solemn assembly, though, getting back to this, this is what we need to have in the modern church when in today's time, get together and start off with your congregants. Understand, as we read to you today and on the third show, when we talked about what a solemn assembly is, OK, and then we said, list some things that you want the solemn assembly to address and then have workable solutions to that, which would be a starting point for you. These are not cut and dry things that you just give quick answers to. But again, you build off of these solutions because no one solution is sort of like a cookie cutter solution. Right.

And sometimes I think, yes, I think sometimes that's what we try to we try to find out. None of these things are going to happen if you're standing on the sidelines. That's right. None of this. God's going to have to use somebody else. We can tell you about it, but you've got to go out and do it.

Yeah. And you and I have talked about this before, too. I'll just share this again with folks is that, you know, nothing I personally think, and of course, God kind of showed this to me sometime back. I think sometimes he's up there looking down at us, shaking his head when we sit there and pray over things and we pray over things, pray over things, not that he's shaking his head, but I was praying over things. But when we continue to pray over things and ask him to intervene or come in and fix it, when he's got us, there's the foot soldier, the foot soldiers. We are his soldiers and we're sitting there and say like for you, for instance, well, if I'm sitting there beside you and I know that you're struggling financially. And I say, Father, please help Will financially, help him with the job, help him, bring money to him, Father, right?

Because you're trying, you're not looking for a job, but you still haven't found what you're in need of money. In this particular example, God has blessed me with the means and the resources or allowed me to be steward over them. And I'm sitting there praying for you and I'm putting it in the bank and you're sitting there in great need. So folks, you're the foot soldier.

So let's be practical in this process. If you know there's a need in front of you, pray for it, certainly pray over it, pray for wisdom how to deal with it. But don't wait on God to come fix it for you if it's something that he's given you the means to be a part of the solution. Be people of action, be doers of the word, not just hearers or readers of the word. That's right, because you can read the word and if you don't have the Holy Spirit to help you interpret what the word is because you're not born again, then it's just words on a page.

You know, it has no meaning. When in the New Testament, of course, we're talking about the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, when Jesus says, verily, verily, I say unto you or truly, truly, I say unto you, there's the translation that goes back into the Greek. It says, amen, amen. And so amen, amen is it's like a solemn truth. So even though a solemn assembly is not in the New Testament scriptures where two or three are gathered together in his name, there he will be in the midst. So you have a solemn assembly if you're praying for a specific thing within your marriage, within your finance, you know, within job search. Right.

You know, any of those things. So a solemn assembly can be a small group, but we in Man Talk Radio here, we want to go big. So we want you to be the catalyst, as Roy talked about, be the foot soldier and take it to your leaders. Do it.

Do it, people. And then and then come back and just tell us what a blessing it was for you to hear that we never knew what a solemn assembly was. And now you guys have came together and gave us some insight on what it is because we got all these issues around.

See, we want to hear the success stories behind this, because if we're here telling you guys about things that you should be doing in order for racism and reconciliation to be made over all of the years and people who have died and given their lives for the cause, we want to be the hands and feet that take this forward. Hands and feet of Jesus. Amen. Amen. So what what what other thing, Roy, that you might want to add to the solemn assembly and that people should know about? Well, I think we'll discuss back to the power of prayer as well. Right. That we really have got to submit all of this each day in prayer to Father so that he can show us what we should be doing. But also we need to start being people of action like we were talking about as well. And we just need to be willing to step step forward and let him take care of the rest in the supernatural.

Wow. You know, and I love this and I always quote this verse, but I got it here before me. Proverbs 16 and verse seven. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Did you hear that? Even his enemies. If you're in a racial dispute with someone, again, don't take it up to their level. Don't argue.

Don't point your finger at them. Just let God bless you to keep that meek and mild spirit and convey the words that Jesus put on your heart. Yes, it's tough. Life is tough for us living in today's time. But we have the Holy Spirit. We have we are more than conquerors. We are overcomers. We don't have to sin, but we choose to sin.

If you're born again, you are not under the power of sin anymore. And so when you allow yourselves to come down to that level of the individual who is lashing out with all these racial overtones or undertones. Ben, you're playing against his ball field. Oh, so much so. And we don't want to do that.

No, no. Because we're greater than that. Right. But in the moment people think, well, I feel so much better because I was given peace of my mind or I said what was on my heart or on my mind. And that's that ends up being it can be a very, very bad situation. It's a catalyst. It's what it does. It's like throwing gasoline to try and put a fire. Yeah.

You know, you just you just heating it up. It's not going to change it for the right. And and this this other passage from, again, the same chapter of Proverbs, everyone. And this is verse five, Proverbs 16. Everyone proud in heart is an abomination unto the Lord through, though they join forces, none will go unpunished. So, see, if you try to get a whole lot of people to come on your side and and lash out with all these other racial overtones or undertones. And it's like, OK, the more people I get, the more people are hearing and going after my cause. But see, that's not the way to de-escalate the situation at all. It has to take the spirit of God.

It does. But back to where his foot soldiers. The spirit of God's got to be in the middle. But to your comment earlier, if we're born again, we've got the Holy Spirit residing in us. And we squelch the Holy Spirit such that these actions that he cannot move properly within our lives, that we've gotten so distracted that he's not allowed to move in our lives. So we don't recognize when we've when we're falling short or we don't recognize the enemy's distraction. So I think that goes back to renewing of the mind, which we talked about in Romans.

You've got to be renewing your mind every day. You've got to be in prayer. You've got to be in solitude to just have holy time with the Father. If you're not getting the holy time and you're just depending on your own vices and the day to day activities, it's not going to work.

That's right. So if you're listening right now and you're not born again, what do they have to do, Roy? Well, just firstly, acknowledge being a sinner. Know that Jesus Christ died. His blood covered your sins. He rose again on the third day. And if you'll accept him and believe in that, then you'll be with your Heavenly Father in eternity.

And that's that is how you become born again. So we thank you for listening to another episode of Band Talk Radio and we hope that you join us again. And a special shout out to our producer, Phil, who's behind the glass, who will get to look at his sound.

Hey, Phil. All right. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, is building a community of men that are Christ followers with a desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk.