“I’m free. Yes! I am free.” (R.I.P. Pastor McNeil)

Yesterday I woke up around 7:40AM.  I thought about getting up to get a jumpstart on my day, but instead I snoozed until 9:00AM.  I made a bowl of cereal and sat in silence on the couch thinking of reasons why I shouldn’t go to church. 

I managed to motivate myself into getting off the couch thinking of the word that God was going to send via my pastor.  It seems like whenever I’m going through something the message for the day is always right on time.  God didn’t let me down on yesterday.

Pastor McNeil’s message was from 1 Samuel 30.  In this chapter, David found himself in a bit of a bind. The Amalekites had destroyed his land and captured the women and the children. 

1 Samuel 30:8-15 reads:

Then David asked the LORD, “Should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them?” And the LORD told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!”  So David and his 600 men set out, and they came to the brook Besor.  But 200 of the men were too exhausted to cross the brook, so David continued the pursuit with 400 men.  Along the way they found an Egyptian man in a field and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and water to drink. They also gave him part of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins, for he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for three days and nights. Before long his strength returned.  “To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?” David asked him.  “I am an Egyptian – the slave of an Amalekite,” he replied.  “My master abandoned me three days ago because I was sick.  We were on our way back from raiding the Kerethites in the Negev, the territory of Judah, and the land of Caleb, and we had just burned Ziklag.”  “Will you lead me to this band of raiders?” David asked.  The young man replied, “If you take an oath in God’s name that you will not kill me or give me back to my master, then I will guide you to them.”

Pastor stopped us right there in the text.  He broke down the verse helping us to understand David’s predicament. David had issues of his own.  He had lost everything and I would imagine not in the best spirits, but he stopped to help a slave “A black slave in the African desert” as pastor further interpreted.   A slave who had just assisted his master in destroying David’s home.  The slave had been left for dead because he was sick and weaker than the other slaves.  The master had no intentions of coming back for him, but yet when David ask the slave who he was and where he came from he still felt as if he belong to the Amalekite.  Pastor McNeil shared examples that we face today that may reflect the attitude of the slave.  Some of us introduce ourselves as ex-cons or ex-drug users. We hold on to abusive relationships, jobs where we may have been laid off or other situations that God has delivered us from.  Like the slave we allow these things from our past; these situations or circumstances to have power over our lives.  God removed those people, those addictions, and those jobs for a reason.  If we continue to acknowledge these things, they will continue to have power over our lives.  We must surrender to God.  HE will release us from the bondage of our past lives, so that we can look the enemy in the eye and say, “I’m better than I use to be.” 

While listening to the message I was truly motivated to surrender everything to God and once in for all get in alignment with HIS way.  During prayer time that morning I asked God to give me a push to get out of the rut that I was in.  Thanks to the word the God sent through Pastor McNeil I got the push that I needed. 

Before he completed his sermon, Pastor McNeil said to us, “Don’t apologize for transformation.  Just say: ‘I ain’t what I use to be. I’m better than I use to be.” Then he asked us to take out our cell phones and text this message to ourselves, “I’m free. Yes! I am free.”

Shortly after his sermon Pastor McNeil collapsed and was taken to the local hospital where he was later pronounced dead. 

Whenever we are faced with losing a loved one suddenly we go through a series of emotions.  We cry. We pray. We get angry. We ask why. We come up with scenarios that would or could have saved our loved ones life.  We place blame. We get angry. We pray. We cry.  And then we give it to God. God makes no mistakes. Everything that HE does is strategically planned out for HIS glory.

During yesterday’s service, I glanced down and read the cover of a bible of one of the church goers seated in front of me.  It read, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.”   

The serenity prayer goes on to say:

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

We are sad, heartbroken, angry, and confused.  This is our time to stand together and encourage each other. We have to lift each other up. That’s what Pastor McNeil would say to us. 

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.  Proverbs 3, 5-6

Rest in Peace Dr. Jerome E. McNeil, Jr.  You will be truly missed.