Get Right Church: Preparing to Go Home

By Earl Sorrell

As Christians, we need to be aware that we are in spiritual warfare every day. This is what Get Right Church is about. The book is written with hopes that the reader can see the many missed opportunities that God places before us daily to be blessing to others and opportunities to witness and attest to His greatness. It also allows the reader to see through the experiences of others what should be our reasonable service. It is our duty to be strong for the weak and share the gospel of Christ correctly. Too often, we as Christians negate the need for true spiritual and religious revivals in our personal lives. Many times the purpose of a revival is not clearly understood by Christians. Revivals are spiritual feastings on God's word. The duty of a Christian is to lead others to Christ through witnessing, not in words only, but through lifestyle. Get Right Church shares the trials, tribulations, and victories of believers as they continue to grow in the true knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of God. This growth is not just for their lives but to share freely while leading others to Christ as ambassadors. Get Right Church is about a lifestyle. Second Timothy 2:15""16 and 3:16""17 gives directions to study and control our speech with confirmation of the author of the Holy Bible and the reason to study. Romans 12:1""2 gives us directions how to live in this world and honor God, which is our reasonable service. These experiences are shared to help others see that we can live a victorious lifestyle in Christ while giving glory and honor to God through our daily lives. Start your personal revival with Christ, and allow others to see him in you, which is your reasonable service to God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781641144049

Book preview

cover.jpg

Get Right Church

Preparing to Go Home

Earl J. Sorrell, Jr.

Copyright © 2018 by Earl J. Sorrell, Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Reasonable Service

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

You Call Yourself a Christian

God Stands Alone

Reflections of the Enemy

He Who Chooses

Unequally Yoked: Confused? Payback? Un-holy Matrimony?

When Laws Make Good Bad

Unequally Yoked

Dedicated in loving memory of

Peter Sorrell (paternal grandfather), Josephine Sally Robertson (maternal grandmother),

Earl J. Sorrell Sr. and Lura R. Sorrell (parents),

Rogers Sorrell Sr., Margaret S. Murry, Lucille King Jacobs, Vivian Adams, James King Jr., Lynn Sorrell Brown, Eugene King, Carrie Moore, Charlie and Lucy Yarber,

Edgar and Victoria Robertson, Charles Earl and Sarah Beverly, Louis and Ida Clark,

Roy Patterson, Flora Mae Ireland, Miss Geraldine Jones, Charles Morris Sr.,

Brother Freddie Fields, Rev. Fred Muse, Reverend Westbrook, Pastor Don Sheley

Foreword

James Bailey

I met Brother Sorrell during a men’s Bible study several years back. I was experiencing a long-overdue personal desire to expand and strengthen my social relationships with men of faith.

At the urging of my wife, who was prolific in developing her social relationship with women of faith, I began attending a new men’s evening Bible study class at my church. The format of the class study encouraged men to talk about what was on their minds. I felt this format was very helpful in encouraging men (especially myself) to discuss subjects that many, I feel, would not be comfortable talking about with one another, let alone in a group setting.

As I listened to my fellow participants’ responses to weekly class study themes, I saw that many of us were seeking answers that would provide a better understanding and pragmatic application of the Gospel during our life journey. From time to time, everyone at some point offered individual perspectives or testimony based on their experiences, biblical reference, or opinion.

It was clearly apparent to me that Brother Sorrell, consistently at every weekly class, was prepared to passionately dispense a rich supply of his life perspectives that were deeply rooted in his many experiences that were complemented with biblical references!

After several seasons of class study, and discussions with Brother Sorrell during and immediately after classes and other social gatherings that we both attended, he shared he was working on a book and would appreciate my review and perspective. It was an extremely busy time in my life at work and home with a senior graduation to prepare for, an ill father living several states away, and projects at work. Normally, I would have offered my apologies for not being in a position to accept one’s request in an effort to manage my work and life load.

Yet I found myself curiously drawn to make the time to oblige his request. Brother Sorrell and I had developed mutual respect for each other based on active listening and engagement in class and our many conversations outside of class. Plus, I was naturally curious and desired to understand what he was bringing to print from his life journaling!

I found that reading his book was very consistent with what I heard and experienced in class with Brother Sorrell, only more revealing as to the source and inspiration of the fervor and passion I saw and heard.

You see, Brother Sorrell is a very good storyteller, and reading Get Right Church brought to mind several things for me: (1) reflections and flashbacks of my own challenging personal journey before and after becoming a Christ follower and (2) two Gospel passages: (1) John 14:12, when Jesus spoke to his disciples prior to his crucifixion in which he told them that whoever believes in him will do the works I have been doing and they will do even greater things than these, and (2) John 14:25, that his God will send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to teach the disciples all things and remind them of everything he said to them (i.e., God’s Word).

In essence, Jesus promised believers they will go on to do greater works than he did during his time on earth and that they will have the Holy Spirit with them always to teach and remind them of the Word.

Before a plane takes flight, each passenger is instructed to place their oxygen masks on first before they can assist others. I think Get Right Church provides you with your very own Christian mentor in Brother Sorrell, who had to learn through his own personal revival (metaphor for donning our spiritual oxygen mask) will be necessary before we effectively assist others.

I believe Get Right Church can empower and assist Christian readers in understanding how a fellow Christian, through his years of journaling, is able to courageously reveal pragmatic examples of his own imperfect life experiences and earnest efforts to get rightly fit to be used by God for his purposes by seeking understanding, becoming obedient (the process of getting right through personal revival) in the application of the wisdom of the Gospel; in other words, to become a more effective ambassador for Christ.

I am glad to know that as a Christian I have the benefit of having an advocate in the Holy Spirit. I believe I would have also benefited from a Christian mentor especially during the adult phase of my life. As an engineer and manager, I appreciate and have benefited from the application of my education, experience, and mentorship from many for my professional development and application to generate results. I know what to reference or who to call upon when needed to reaffirm my strategies or to discuss new ways of applying what I know for various situations.

In both my professional and personal life, I too have benefited from the application of my Christian education (church sermons, Bible study, workshops), experience, prayer, and mentorship. I believe this has made me more effective than if I just relied on my memory from class or a workshop.

I’ve had many opportunities to do so for interpersonal and group dynamics in which I may have directly been affected or I need to help others. It is beneficial to have a frame of reference to talk with, reaffirm and /or refresh myself on principles and concepts I can use to help me manage those situations.

To remain in Christ and abide in him, we must continue to understand what Christ commands us to do: to continue to believe and obey his commands. We can do this by continually refreshing ourselves on the Gospel and through prayer. We do have an advocate to help us, the Holy Spirit. We now have another reference to add to our arsenal with Get Right Church.

I appreciate Brother Sorrell’s efforts to provide this mentorship to all of us who read Get Right Church. He understands this need for advocacy and need to continually develop and strengthen ourselves for our life journeys.

Get Right Church is about application for those life situations in which our access to the Bible is not readily available. If we study and apply what we read daily, our recall will be much better. I believe Get Right Church can help each Christian become much more resilient and therefore a more consistent blessing to others throughout our life journey.

After you read Get Right Church, my prayer is that you will be enlightened and empowered to do God’s purpose. Remember, all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

I believe you will find Get Right Church to be a useful reference to supplement the Gospel for addressing the many multifaceted challenges we will face (including ourselves) during our individual Christian journeys.

—James Bailey (Brother in Christ)

Global Management, Fortune 500

Mason, Ohio

Preface

Being a Christian is a full-time job, or should I say a lifestyle. As I began to understand, accept, and enjoyed the walk, talk, and lifestyle that God desired for me to have, I also realized that Satan and his friends were not that far behind. It seems there is always a challenge placed before me to see if I will become tired and revert to my old lifestyle. I was able to see that many things that I use to do, I no longer desired to do. Many of the people I called friends are not a part of my life anymore. That is when it hit me. The more I pulled away from my worldly lifestyle, the more the enemy attacked. I realized in the beginning the enemy continued his assault in hopes of me becoming tired. But I noticed as I began to enjoy my reasonable service to God, the enemy backed off a little. He has never stopped his attacks; he just decided to use a better style of camouflage and was picking his areas of assaults more carefully and patiently.

There is a worldwide consensus that we need change. Every religion, religious, and nonreligious individuals are calling for harmony and peace that will calm the chaos in modern day society. It is evident that this world is in turmoil. Christians and Christian leaders are calling for a revival. We hear preaching each and every Sunday, where some ministers or individuals are calling for the communities to come together and pray. Prayer is good. But prayer without faith and works can yield no change. Within our neighborhoods and individual homes is where revivals are needed to take place. But it must first start with the individual. This is what Get Right Church is all about. Each individual Christian must be willing to start a revival in their personal lives. This is what the author is sharing in each of the stories based on personal experiences, observations and experiences of others. I had to start my own (personal) revival with the Lord. As I became more willing to yield to the word of God, the more God was able to share and teach me. As God began to work in my life through the sharing of his wisdom, knowledge and understanding of what he knew was best for me, he also cleansed from my life the bad (negative) so that I could be used for His purpose. This is how God works in all of the saints. No one is more precious than the other.

The negative energies and entities of prosperity will keep us in turmoil if we continue to allow them to exist and operate in our personal lives and environment. The things we know that need to be repaired, replaced, or destroyed within our lives, neighborhoods, communities, on our jobs, within our families, friends, and most of all in our churches should have our immediate attention when we truly desire to live a righteous and godly life. If we allow ourselves to start a revival within our individual person, God will surely help us to allow others to see that we are truly the lights of the world and ambassadors for Christ.

Over the years, I began to realize and understand the true nature of the people written about in the Bible. It became clear to me that the majority of the people reacted when they were able to see actions behind the words of those God used to deliver his message. As Emmanuel (God with us) walked the earth, you see people were more inclined to hear the message after they were able to see Jesus put into action that which he preached. This is the same for each of us who profess to be Christians. We must put into action that which we claim we have faith in; God’s word.

Each Saturday or Sunday, whichever is your day of worship, the minister gives us words to live by. Many of us hear these words but have no practical way of how to apply them on a daily bases. How many of our Bible studies and Sunday school classes engage in role-playing exercises that teaches us how to witness at work and in our social setting. How many of our instructors allow us to interrupt their teaching or instructing with daily challenges in our social and workplace environment? What would happen if Jesus told each individual to make an appointment when they were asking question as he was teaching and preaching? How many of those questions Jesus answered help others to understand? Could you imagine what would have happened if Jesus would not have shared visual examples of how faith and works go hand in hand? Do you think the seventy that he sent out unto the world to be a witness of the coming of the kingdom of God would have come back with great reports of their accomplishment? This is the same for Christians today. We must be a living example if we expect others to follow.

We do not observe our church leaders daily in our workplaces and social environment. Many of us do not have visual access as how we may go about being doers of the word of God. We hear the phrase blessed are the readers, hearers, and doers of God’s word. Many of us are readers and hearers, but the doer (action Christian) part of our lives is dormant. I share Get Right Church in hopes it will give the correct examples to allow the reader to visualize what can be done through visual observation of the stories shared based on actual experiences. Becoming a doer of God’s word is somewhat intimidating until you really step out in faith with the understanding that God is with us always. But before we can be effective, we must study, be properly trained, and make sure that our religious traditions are not contrary to the word of God.

In my short life, I have met individuals that I tried to witness to in my youthful exuberance to share the gospel of Christ and the word of God. As I tried to share the word, I also shared some of the traditions of my religious denomination. Little did I know at the time that the people I saw as less fortunate based on their appearance were more in tune and sound in their understanding of the doctrine of Christ than me. As I tried to point out the flaws in their living conditions and their commitment to trusting in God, they took the same Bible and showed me my shortcomings of understanding God’s word based on truth and not on the visual circumstances of material and financial gain. If we live by the examples of truth, faith, and love written in the Bible, we will never be disarmed and our witness reduced to ineffective rhetoric whereas we become intimidated because we are not suited for battle with the whole armor of God. The spiritual battlefield of life is very active. Many saints are left on the battlefield wounded and, in some cases, never recover and die. This is another reason I share these stores. We as saints should never leave any of our fellow brothers and sisters to die on the battlefield of life because we have become intimidated and now refuse to engage or lend a helping hand.

I want to help others, if possible, to see the missed opportunities God place in the pathway of our everyday lives. I would like to share my experiences through the writing of this book. These stories are examples of finally recognizing how many missed opportunities I had. I can honestly say that God had placed these opportunities before me for decades before I realized they were blessings. As I began to teach Bible study classes, I began sharing my experiences as examples. While using my real-life experiences to help in the teaching of Bible study and Sunday-school classes, it afforded me the opportunity to get feedback from many of the saints in attendance. The members of the classes were able to relate better to the lessons being taught when they were able to examine a tangible experience as well as talk to the person who had the encounter. Many of the students were very active in the class and said it was a great help because they were able to hear in my voice and visualize the struggles and the victory. Many said it help them to see things they were overlooking. They began to share what they were able to see were missed opportunities to witness, help, and lead other to Christ. Sharing many of my experiences and experiences of others helped many students and class members understand the spiritual warfare of Christian living.

The book Get Right Church is about the spiritual warfare, opportunities, missed opportunities, reluctance to engage as a soldier in the army of the Lord, the fear of not being accepted within a religious group if you stand with God and not with the crowd, positive training, development as a youth, studying and applying God’s word daily, standing up for righteousness in the midst of family, friends, coworkers, and church membership. I know that is a mouthful. But this book shares basic and common sense values regarding what Christian values, duties, and reasonable service to God; the body of Christ members and our fellow men and women, known as mankind.

I was encouraged by the positive feedback that I felt it was my duty to share and see if others could benefit. I also had negative feedback from some. They felt that I was trying to place myself above them and suggesting that by sharing my so-called victories, it made me better than everyone else. Those who gave me the negative feedback did not understand that my sharing was not about my victories but about doing my reasonable service to God, our fellow saints and our fellow man. It is about me learning the lessons I missed along the way. They miss the parts of the stories where I was not victorious, but an aid in the downfall of other saints and my selfish attitude when God was giving me guidance. It is at times like those that would normally make me question my motives. But when 90 percent is positive feedback and the results promoted an increase in individuals sharing the gospel correctly with the right attitude, I felt that the positive results out weight the negative comments. I needed to find a title for my book that people would understand or at lease peak their interest. So I decided to title the book Get Right Church because each of us is a temple of God (temple/church).

As I put these stories to paper and hard drive, I asked myself what I wanted to accomplish. When I started to review my old journals and beginning a new journal in 1986 it was based on a management development program requirement to advance to my next promotions on my job. It was easy for me to look back in the years of Bible study lesson notes and examine the many challenges that I had to overcome to become a better Christian. As I looked at the notes, it was clear to me that my challenges were about my day to day life. Too often when we focus on God and the Holy Bible we seem to put the two in a special category, Sundays and the one or two days in the week in which we have Bible study classes. As I reviewed my notes to see my growth, I found that many of my challenges in my Christian development were on my job, weekend activities, night life and being accepted by the crowd (the world).

Get Right Church! What message is the title of this book trying to send? This book is not about a saint who had some miraculous delivery because he had been suffering from a drug addiction, loss of home, family member, which caused him to spiral downward, and/or different other tragedies. This book is about the many opportunities God place before saints as training vehicles of growth and obedience. God place so many opportunities before us (we who call ourselves Christians) to show and train us how to be better ambassadors for Christ. But so many of us do not realize that these opportunities are really blessings that God continues to place before us to see if we recognized them as blessings to help others as well as ourselves.

We normally do things that are perceived by many and suggest that we have become a part of the crowd. As we become a part of the crowd, we are being watched and judged by those at times we have tried to witness too. Why should anyone follow us, who claim to be Christians (Christlike), when we are doing the same things they are doing? Why should anyone follow us when we have shared the gospel of Jesus, which calls for a change in lifestyle yet we are found in active participation of that which we have condemned?

I have discovered that opportunities are challenges God allows to be placed before us and are presented to each saint. God is always blessing us with opportunities to share His goodness, grace, and mercy. When we see someone fall by the wayside, Christians should be there to lift them up. When we see God’s lambs and sheep being led astray, we should share the word of God with them. We should guide them and lead them back to Christ with the word of God and give them that solid foundation and be there for support. When we see God’s lambs and sheep being sent out to witness with limited training and distorting the word of God, we should immediately intervene. When we see and hear our lambs and sheep witnessing and are diluting the gospel to make it acceptable for others so that they may come to Christ, we should immediately intervene. When individuals come to Christ based on diluted gospel, they leave because they feel they were deceived and find that the word they received was a lie.

This book is about going through the spiritual changes of life. This book is about learning and realizing that God is in control of our everyday lives regardless of what we believe or think. This book is about yielding to God’s guidance and leadership. Despite what others may think, this book is about self-checking and judging ourselves. This book is about a choice of lifestyles (Christlike or worldly), self-checking our willingness to carry our cross regardless of who we are around. This book is about protecting God’s children. This book is about our attitudes and how we interact with God’s blessing, his promises, and most of all, with the opportunities that he presents to us so that we may be his blessings to others.

It is not the responsibility of the president of the United States, senators, and representatives in Congress to tell us how we as Christians are supposed to act and or live. If you have experienced and/or currently living any of these experiences that you will read about with unresolved success, then this book is written with hopes of being a helpmate for you. If you know of anyone going through any of these trials and tribulation, it is my desire that this book will be a helpmate for you and give some insight as to what you can do. It you read and see that you have missed a lot of these opportunities to be a blessing to others, then this book has achieved its purpose.

It is the desire of the author to share information that will benefit the members in the body of Christ as well as our fellow man. I share these stories of my experiences to help bring about a positive change. I can promise you this. There is nothing that we can do, good or bad, that God cannot use to bring about a positive change according to his will for mankind. Remember, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28).

Earl J. Sorrell Jr.

Acknowledgments

In honor of

my wife and best friend, Emily A. Sorrell

And a special recognition to these

onward Christian soldiers:

Ruth A. Sorrell, Annie P. King, Richard and Ellen Daleke, Sister Gloria Dawson

Sis. Edna Muse, Doretha Brown, Robert Moore, Bro. C. B. Craft, Sis. Lue Ada Martin,

Pastor Ralph and Mrs. Huddleston, Tom and Angie Rombes, Sue Basich,

Jeff Gordon, Deacon Eldridge and Dr. Wanda Nelson, Ora and Dorothy Nixon, Rev. Joe and Sis. Verlin Sandles.

Through years of observations, I have found the lifestyles of these saints to be a living testimony of their commitment to live a Christ-led life within their families, social circles, community, and churches they attend.

Special thanks to

Brother James Bailey, Deacon Kevin Madise Sr., Brother Stephen Gardner, Minister Daniel Grant and Brother Billy ‘Hollywood’ Groves

for their extra effort and encouragement as I worked through the process of completing this project.

Introduction

When we decide to evaluate our past and present life and lifestyles, we learn that we must look and stare into the mirror of life, our life. Many times we, as Christians, try only to remember and visualize the good that we do, have done and may try to do. Too often this type of evaluation leaves us with a false sense of righteous indignation. We overlook things in which we consider small or minor indiscretions. As I began to take inventory of my life, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I found it was the many things I consider minor or small to be the things in which created a mountain of hurt and pain for others as well as myself.

When we allow ourselves to become insensitive to the pain and suffering of others, we fall short of being great representatives of Christ. We know the truth of right and wrong, yet we allow the wrong to be perceived as right and acceptable for the sake of being accepted by the crowd (those that may be lost). In turn, our witness to others about our faith in Christ is false because we are seen as hypocrites—preaching one thing yet being observed living the lifestyle of that which we preach against.

Get Right Church is a book based on the spiritual development and growth of a brother within the body of Christ. This book shares some of the struggles and challenges of trying to live according to God’s word and by the examples of Jesus. There are many scriptures that will help each and every one on their journey to improve their relationship with God. As I was walking up the rough side of the mountain (life’s journey while building a relationship with God), I found I was