2019 Maryland Men of Faith: Not Bought or Sold

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Maryland Men of Faith

Carl Rodriguez

Young People Love God

This media has been presented to you by the Maryland Men of Faith, where men are challenged and encouraged to form the character of Christ.

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Alright, so we started with a prayer over there and I'm 1 of those, now forgive me, for those that might not know, I actually grew up in the Catholic tradition.

I saw something happen there that traumatized my life and I became an atheist for a long time.

And then I walked, it was through science that I found God.

That's why I love analytics, I love science, I love data, and it was through science that I found that God exists.

Now most people think that most scientists are atheists, well the answer is that's not really true, because most science is inferred science.

But yet, when God speaks to you, and I believe he does this to everyone, if you're willing to open your mind, you'll see all the data points.

And so what happened is in my faith I wanted it to be real.

I didn't want it to be just a story or something that people just do once a week.

I want it to be every single day of my life.

I breathe it, I eat it, because as a Christian that's who I am.

And so today part of that is how can we make people desire loving God and it was through my pastor and other mentors that I came about.

So they took this street thug, okay, atheist and they helped me learn that I could love God not just on the high parts of retreats But throughout my life and that's what we're going to be talking about today Okay, and so this pastor's name is Pedro Campos show a little Mexican guy He opened my eyes about how to love God.

Before I begin, I want to share this, but he also taught me this.

That when people pray, take it seriously.

So in other words, If someone prays for the food, for everyone, then why am I praying again?

Do I not trust that their prayer was good enough?

He says if you accept their prayer 100%, then that became your prayer as well.

And so when people pray up front and you see me go to E, I don't pray again.

Because I say, Lord, he prayed and I accepted that prayer as my prayer.

That you accept other people's prayers, their words, their actions as also part of your actions, part of your faith.

Okay, so he made me really think about everything.

When we pray for the Holy Spirit coming into the church, well the Bible says, where 2 or 3 gather, isn't he there?

So am I praying for the Holy Spirit or am I acknowledging that he's there?

Okay, So He helped me to look at a lot of traditions that we do in the church and look at it from the scriptural side of it and say, Look, your faith needs to be real.

You have an angel behind you, the Holy Spirit is in you, God has promised to walk with you.

And you have to act and walk like people of faith.

Because, to be quite honest, that's how I am today.

Sometimes I may think that way, you know what I'm saying, when I see bad things happen, but it doesn't mean that's the reality of it.

So today we're gonna look at 4 different things, and then we're also gonna do little breakout groups.

Okay, but before we begin, I want to start with this Bible verse.

I grew up in the South Bronx of New York City.

And for those that may not know, in a Spanish Black community where the church was at, I grew up in an Irish, Italian, German, Jewish community, but I attended a church in a predominantly Spanish and African-American community, okay?

And so 1 of the things that I had to learn the pastor helped me to learn is this principle But he put it into our personal principle Who can read this please?

Jeremiah 29 verse 7 Also sing the peace and prosperity of the sea to which I have carried you into exile Ok so I want to stop over here.

So Jeremiah, you know that he was not killed in the invasion?

The Babylonians respected him so much that they let him go free.

You know that he could roam anywhere in Jerusalem, anywhere in Judea that he wanted.

Before the Babylonians came and destroyed Jerusalem, Jeremiah pleaded, if you would just give up, the city will be spared.

But they refused to give up and the city was destroyed.

He was in prison and then when the Bible learning is finally take over he was freed and guess what it gives us the speech to all the exiles so yes also seek peace and prosperity of the city which I've carried you into exile now who was reading if you could continue finishing it off.

Praise the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

So the city prospers, but if you are part of making it prosper, then you're bringing peace and prosperity to the city.

Now the same principle also applies to you and I, to our homes.

If I help you to have peace and prosperity and I pray for you then have a instead of the city prospering is your family going to prosper so now let's bring this closer to home you see what I'm saying so in other words 1 of the things that I believe is this as men God has called us to guess what?

To bring peace and prosperity and to pray for each other.

We become so individualistic and I get it because I used to be that way, that we forget as a church we need each other.

And as a church we should pray for each other's peace prosperity and what else?

It says if your family or friends are connected to God, do you prosper?

So, what I want you to do is answer these 3 questions.

So if you guys could do me a favor, you could break out into any small groups.

I want you to answer these questions and then I want you to bring it to the group, okay, before we start digging into the other tools, okay?

Okay, now we're talking about bringing it to your individual homes, okay?

And we're gonna Break this out even further into the young people that God has called you to.

Okay, are we going to leave the questions there?

Okay, so in about 30 seconds transition to the second question.

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