Good morning New Birth. And good morning to all our other guests.
And I would be remiss not to say good morning to the world.
You all may be seated in the presence of the Lord.
I do want to remind folk that we’re here at 8 every Sunday morning. Every Sunday morning.
And I’ll be here next week.
First of all, let me thank you on behalf on my wife, my family, for all of your support, your prayers. We are certainly humbled by such a loving congregation. I realize that many have been waiting on me to say something. I have to do … (long applause)
My first responsibility is to my family. My next responsibility is not to address the world before I address my family, New Birth.
Because I’m pastor, I want to talk to you for a moment, make a statement and we’ll be gone.
This is an extremely difficult time for me, an extremely difficult time for my family. It’s an extremely difficult time for you, because many who’ve called you and ask you questions and all of these kind of things. You ain’t never got this many phone calls in your life. It’s a time when you actually see the veil dropped and who’s with you and who’s not with you.
So, as a pastor, I want to help everybody. The first thing, I just want to talk to you for about 10 or 15 minutes. I want to thank all the pastors who left their churches, all my sons, daughters. It wouldn’t be right without the preachers here. All my sons and daughters, pastors here, Bishop Murphy, Pastor Landers, Pastor William Murphy, I can go on and on and on out here … Pastor Davis and all, but I want to help all of us this morning .. if I can do that to say these things and then we’ll move.
This is difficult, difficult for everybody. This is probably the most difficult time in my entire life. And so I thought the first thing I might just say for everybody, I want to talk about how to handle painful and difficult situations. How to handle painful and difficult situations.
And I start with scripture from Psalms 34:19. Y’all did know I was gon’ use my Bible today. Of all days. I just wanna take just a few moments. And then I’ll say what the rest of you came to hear.
But I gotta talk to my family. Psalms 34:19 says many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of all of them.
Our purpose today is twofold, is to minister to those who are present, and to strengthen the New Birth family.
Above all this church, the church of the living God, and all that is precious and holy in this wonderful moment. And I want you to focus on what the spirit of God has to speak to us, not to focus on Eddie Long. There’s a simple emphasis that I would like to use to minister and was given direction to our church and family in this time of … because you gotta understand the reality of painful situations. You gotta understand the response to painful situations, and then we have to know what the remedy is for painful situations.
The reality of a painful situation, I would refer to Isiah 43:2, just write it down, it says, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. And when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned. Nor shall the flames scorch you. Unfortunately, my brothers and my sisters, life is filled with painful situations that makes the time of joy and happiness not as magnificent as we would like.
As long as man has to deal in life, you will find that life will be unfair, the rain’s on the just and unjust. And we’re all subject to face distasteful and painful situations.
Bishop Long — Eddie Long — and you can put your name in that blank, will have some bad situations. The righteous face painful situations with a determined expectancy. We are not exempt from pain, but He promises to deliver us out of our pain.
Solutions or situations of destruction, pain caused by floods, pain caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, Katrina, those that had to be relocated, lost things in a day, the stress, the challenge of painful situations.
Some in here, situation of disease and sickness, have been to the doctor, got reports that wasn’t favorable, that’s why we do our confessions at the ending of that 21 days to bring you into wholeness. Painful situations. Situations of disappointment, hopelessness, situations of unmet expectations; situations of death, there’s parents in here who’ve lost children and people who were suddenly taken away in car accidents or unexpected things. Situations of deception, when one has been betrayed by those that they love; situations of divorce when love turns into resentment; situations, and the greatest pain in life is to love somebody that doesn’t love you back.
Without a doubt there are painful situations in life that are inescapable. Protections from painful situations are absolutely impossible. Trust me, I tried to find them. Preparation is the most important, but the response to painful situations is, also. Matthew 6:33 says seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things will be added unto you.
We can not always control and avoid painful situations, but we can control our response to them. We must decide in the midst of all that occurs, that we will maintain our righteous focus and spiritual witness. Some possible responses as I close and move.
You can curse it, and allow the situation to make you bitter.
You can nurse it and allow the situation to make you a blamer.
You can rehearse it and allow the situation to be relived and make you a worse person because you continue to go over it and over it and live in that pain.
Or you can reverse it, and allow the situation, response, to cause you to be better.
We will not allow the present pain to cause us to abandon our righteous commitment and stand.
Someway and somehow we will become better and we will walk through this painful situation.
The remedy for a painful situation is described by David in the best way that I know how to make it through rough times. Yea though I walk through the valleys and the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You art with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. David, the writer, gives us an insight of how to make it through a painful time. Because he seems to be focused on something higher than the pain. We can make it through these times if we focus on the spiritual things that has brought us through this far.
So I just took the power and took the first letters of that word and this new birth is our focus.
No. 1 is the P for the power of prayer. Not just for me and not just for my family, but also for everyone concerned in these allegations and all that is going on. We must stay prayerful for the nations and prayerful for our president. We have a wonderful opportunity and it is election time in Georgia and it’s very important. We cannot be distracted and not go to the polls because we’re trying to chase folk down. Early voting is now. You can go and vote. Because Jesus teaches us we have to love our enemies and pray for them, too.
The next letter is O for outreach. We cannot allow these things to distract us from our mission to seek and to save the lost. We are going after the lost. And some of you who think I’m lost … and your need to see God, there’ll be an opportunity to come down to the altar. We must continue to minister to those who are lost.
The W is for worship. We must focus on the power of worship. New Birth, we have some powerful worship here and we ain’t gon’ stop having it. There’s been healing going forth, deliverance going forth. All kind of things that happen in the power of worship. You just need to focus yourself and look back on the wonderful dimension of worship that God is continuing to take us in.
The E is for encouragement. We must be there to encourage one another. The Bible says David had to encourage himself. He had to do that because he was alone. We are not alone. There’s a whole lot of folk up in here, up in here, up in here. And there’s a whole lot of people that we can use to encourage each other.
And finally the R is for resolve. We must not forget that our strength is not in man, but in the Lord. We have come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord. We have a reliance on the holy spirit. And the scripture teaches us that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk….
There have been allegations and attacks made on me. I have never in my life portrayed myself as a perfect man. But I am not the man that’s being portrayed on the television. That’s not me. That is not me.
By the counsel of my lawyers, they have advised me not to try this case in the media. I am not gon’ try this case in the media. It will be tried in the court of justice and dealt with in the court of justice and please understand because that’s the only place I think I’ll get justice, but being in the hands of God.
Please hear this. Please hear this: I’ve been accused. I’m under attack. I want you to know, as I said earlier, I am not a perfect man. But this thing I’m gon’ fight.
And I want you to to know one other thing. I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks and I haven’t thrown one yet.
so he’s the humble shepherd boy david. lovely. wonder who the bishop’s “jonathan” is, then.
Did he once flat out deny he did anything with these boys? or did he just use foggy phrases like “i did nothing wrong” (well of course not, if you don’t think what you did was wrong) or “these accusations are inaccurate” (would it be more accurate to say you had 10 lovers instead of 4?)?
He’s busted and he knows it.
I am sure that he is shitting his pants over this. It’ll get very ugly for him, (as it should).
He’s looking at one thing only. CASH!!! and how much it will cost him.
What a crock. He doesn’t want to “try this case in the media” so he can’t even say, “I’ve never had sexual relations outside my marriage” or even “I’ve never engaged in any type of sexual activity with another man.” What a piece of work. He’s truly an arrogant a-hole. This is going to be fun to watch.
If this is true–he is sooooooo in trouble with God! And the further abuse by making his victims the guilty ones. Bible says you abuse a child, it is better you were NEVER born or should be drowned. Repulsive and probably true.
… and would someone who HATES gays really not give more of a denial that he has sex with men, even against the advice of attorneys. That’s almost impossible for me to believe. We ought to all show up next Sunday and sit in the front row wearing our spandex and muscle shirts!
‘cos Jesus, he knows me, and he knows I’m right, I’ve been talking to Jesus, all my life… well he’s been telling me everything’s gonna be alright…’ this song cannot be played enough…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugZq9hiuCJo
From some reports there’s approximately 30 other men wanting to join in on the suit…looks like he’s gonna need a bigger purse for those rocks.
King David’s history does point to a story of some relevance, but it is not all that true love, and we would hope, teen lust, with that other Jonathan, but rather to the unhappy story of Bathsheba and her unfortunate husband. Besotted with her total hotness and nude rooftop bathing habits, David adds her to his stable of wives by using his authority to arrange for her husband to become somewhat dead in a way that compromises national security. God is reported to be somewhat other than pleased, and not about the part where she is not a nice Jewish girl, or even the silly novels and movies either. It takes David a while to come around to an appropriate understanding of the problem. This is particularly difficult for his former buddy the prophet Nathan.
Hypocrisy, arrogance–pretty typical among evangelical ministers. So many of them come to think they are entitled and above the things they preach. This man has a pretty vile history of anti-gay statements and actions. I’m not surprised he turns out to be a man in deep denial.
He who is without sin… cast the first stone!
We do not have all the facts yet. This man is innocent till proven guilty. We should not find pleasure in the attack by the enemy, (Satan, who is a enemy to all of us), that has been launched against this man. One fact we do know: Through God, Jesus, & the Holy Spirit, Bishop has been a blessing to thousands of Souls regardless of the outcome. Pray for him, his family, all of us, & yours.
He is GUILTY.
As a communications expert, I can tell you that the way the speech was written says that he did it. It was not the speech of an innocent man. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.
Legally, you are correct and he should have his day in court. But common sense tells us that this is a bad man. And a closet case.
Let me rephrase that.
I’m not saying that Eddie Long is guilty….but if I were personally guilty, that is the exact speech I would give.
I do believe the bible has the solution for this one…..
1 Corinthians 5
Expel the Immoral Brother!
1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. 2And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature[a] may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
9I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
what if it is just the embittered gay groups coordinating an attack to get him back for his biblical preaching. it may be. maybe not. sounds like it to me tho’.
Hahahahahahah