Pastor Humphreys: “Hang In There!”
The “War Room” at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta, was fully staffed for a third installment. All three primary pastors were present, and the room was filled to capacity with soldiers.
After the introductory music, Lead Pastor Fredrick Russell made some introductory remarks. He had recently visited a fellow pastor’s (a former Navy Chaplain) home, one located on “Calming Water Trail” in Dallas, Georgia. The street is aptly named, as it is nestled between two creeks (Possum, and Little Pumpkinvine). Pastor Russell, upon experiencing the tranquility of a creek-side balcony, said this to his host: “I bet this is where you go to pray!” The host confirmed Pastor Russell’s perception.
Pastor Russell spoke of the “power of having a place to pray in your home.” Inquiring as to how many “prayer warriors” in attendance possessed such a spot, a respectable percentage raised their hands. The pastor noted our reliance upon prayer, and related it to our current location, the “War Room.” “When you walk in this place, you can clear your mind,” he said. “You can swim in the word of God.”
As Pastor Russell prayed, the worshipers repeated a procedure from the week previous. It was a mechanism designed to facilitate “intercessory prayer.” Cards were filled out by everyone, briefly stating urgent needs. The deck was then shuffled and redistributed. The card I received requested me to pray for the health and welfare of the petitioner and his/her family. This is a pretty universal need, so I feel obliged to request this for everyone, everywhere. I am still full of last Sabbath’s sermon on overcoming inertia, so I requested intercessory prayer to get me out of the doldrums.
Pastor Humphreys began his talk by quoting Mark 6:46: “And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.” The “War Room” emphasis on prayer inspired the pastor to introduce his topic with the interlude between Christ’s feeding of the 5,000 and His “walking on the water.” A link was forged between “prayer” and “cheer,” as the pastor followed his initial quote with a part of Mark 6:50: “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.” The pastor said that when Jesus “departed to the mountain” to pray, He was creating His own War Room.
Pastor Humphreys, a great sports fan, made reference to the recent Super Bowl (briefly alluding to the defeat of Pastor Russell’s favored Panthers), and provided the remarkable statistic that 114.8 million people watched the game in its entirety. All were expecting a great game, but were treated, instead, to a mediocre game. This statement had some relationship to the topic of the sermon, as the pastor noted that the misadventure of the disciples, tossed about on the Sea of Galilee in a storm, was probably the last thing that they were expecting. They had just witnessed the triumphant miracle of the feeding of 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fishes. Being caught in a storm, while harrowing, was also anticlimactic (like the Super Bowl).
This sermon shared a concern about “transitions” with last Sabbath’s sermon by Pastor Russell. Both Jesus and his disciples were “in transit.” Jesus’ interlude of prayer represents a productive use of time, communicating with His father, and refreshing Himself for the next step. The “neutral zone,” described in Pastor Russell’s Sabbath sermon on transition, is a non-productive place to be stuck in. To attain a desired end, one must move beyond “the neutral zone.” The brief absence of Jesus from His disciples was described in Pastor Humphrey’s Wednesday sermon as a deliberate test of their faith. Jesus did not intend to leave them in peril for too long.
The disciples were “distressed in rowing,” toiling for their life. The pastor assured us that, even though He was not physically present with the disciples, Jesus was nevertheless aware of the difficulty they were in, and created a “hedge of protection” about them. When Jesus approaches, and then boards the vessel of the disciples, they are no longer alone. All difficulty ceases. The pastor drew a lesson from this narrative. “When you are in a mess, be of good cheer. God is with you.” By the act of “walking” on the water (I could not help but think of the scripturally significant synonym, “treading”), Jesus displayed His mastery of forces that can cause you harm (His “dominance over nature” is how the Wikipedia link on “walking on water”describes this). Chaos has been conquered.
“God the Father is in the balcony,” Pastor Humphreys assured us, “and is controlling the situation. All you have to do is HANG IN THERE!” A prayer ended the sermon, and an evocative statement ended the prayer: “We pray that you will never leave us stranded on the sea.”
CONCLUSION
Pastor Russell finished up the “War Room” session with various appeals for prayer for those who stand desperately in need of it. Berean member Arnett Johnson merited special attention. He recently suffered a major stroke, and is in ICU at Atlanta Medical Center. No one is sure how he got to the hospital. Pastor Russell offered a conjecture. He felt that it just may be the work of angels. He asserted that unseen forces are at work in our lives. Furthermore, these forces operate in a rational manner (I have always had faith that competence must exist in spiritual realms, as it so noticeably absent from the earth). The guardians that shepherded Brother Johnson to the hospital are representatives of an omnipotent power, one for whom nothing is impossible. The pastor’s prayer for Arnett Johnson ended with a statement that featured the inspirational word “all.” He prayed that God would bring him “all the way back, for, with you, all things are possible.”
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