In this video, Fr. Barnabas recounts his inspiring experience with a little girl asking for a favor from God. “God is close to us! God is intimate with us! God loves us! God wants to be with us!”
Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. Follow his homilies on YouTube at Faith Encouraged TV.
This sermon was delivered on March 28th, 2021, the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas. Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77sNgWxg4go
This video has subtitles. Use the button to switch them on or off. Watch this quick-guide on how to turn on captions on your device: https://youtu.be/if7eELuaYtI
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Fr. Barnabas Powell:
A little girl comes up to me after church (this is several years ago) and I’ve got my black robe on after the service, after the liturgy, we’re standing outside…
And all of a sudden, I feel this tug on my robe: “God! God! God! I need to tell you something, God! God, I need to tell you something, God!”
And I watched some of the adults were… and I smiled at the little child and I said: “what is it baby, what do you need to tell me?” And she just poured her little heart out, she thought it was the greatest thing in the world…
And I said: “Now, to all you folks that were a little upset about that, I want you to know it makes me uncomfortable to be called ‘God’ but I’m the one in the fancy dress and what do these kids are supposed to think? Well, I’ll tell you what they’re supposed to think, they’re supposed to think exactly the way this little girl thought: God has come close to her, God is present to her, God is not far away, He’s not some philosophical concept that is meant to not have anything to do with my life, except the way, you know, twice a year I go in and experience a religious service…
No! God is close to us! God is intimate with us! God loves us! God wants to be with us!
And so of course, this little child seeing all of this theology around her assumes that God has come to her, because He has… Not that I’m God, folks, trust me, ask my wife… but that the purpose of the faith, my brothers and sisters, the purpose of the faith is to create the concept and the possibility that you can know God intimately and lovingly and excitedly and dynamically to the point that it changes your life.
Because let’s face it folks, our lives need to be changed, we need to be set free from a mindset that reduces life to only what I can get or gather or possess.
We need to be set free from the attitude of a life that says: me and mine and that’s it.
We need to be set free from a too small life that lets a existence pass from the birth to the tomb in such a small and insignificant way that I never achieve and rise up to the glorious calling of what I was created to be in the first place and that is God’s eternal companion.
Anything less in your life it’s just too small to survive the pressures of everyday existence.
I wish this moment for many 🌹🌿🌸🥀🌼,🙏🕯️☦️
Wonderful
T h a n k y o u .
that was an indisputable teaching speech.
💓💓💓🙏🙏🙏
Thanks a lot for all the useful videos. Please can you correct the subtitles (in the video and in the description) as this particular point conveys the opposite meaning of what was said: please change to “I thought it was the greatest thing in the world” rather than what it says now (“it was not the greatest thing in the world” which is the opposite). Thanks!
What's the point of having God as a mere philosophical construct, if you cannot find and experience God in your daily life? That child, whether she knew it or not, asked and answered that question by pure devotion to God and the Church (hence her looking at the man clothed in robes and recognizing that he had something to do with God). Thanks for sharing!
This is a perfect example to people long in the Orthodox faith and those still on the journey. Oh, how I’ve missed coming to God with child-like Faith.
Beautiful thank you 🙏🏻
Beautiful 🙏🏻☦️🙏🏻
Sometimes it's necessary to give live experiences to the public just like this little girl's story from our daily life in order to awake the audience's consciousness and their faith that bible is a living bread and not just stories we remember that happened in the past.
And didn't correct her yeah she felt what she felt is the wolf in sheep's clothing Jesus says to speak the truth let her know who God is but now she thinks your God never corrected her what do you think God has to say about that you never taught the little girl about Jesus now you have doomed her to gehenna man doses not choose man God chooses man the world is at an end and this man is talking about the little girl calling him God true child of God does the will of the father he looks like he likes being praise…. God ….if she was learning right she would have acknowledge Jesus Christ …not only is she receiving it in the wrong manner but what are her parents teaching her. Prayer for you all to open your eyes to see what the spirit in heaven truly want you to see…. in the name of the holy one
wonderful! this orthodox is quite special. I often come here to hear them! very wise teachings. well meaning people
Da,minunat spus!Morala povestii,e ca Dumnezeu este langa noi,tot timpul ,numai sa vedem si sa credem asta….fetita aceea,asta credea…👍👍👍👍
He must have been a Protestant. Serv….Liturgy. Deep southern accent
Amen 🙏
Da…exact.adevarat.amin.multumim.mantuire.Dumnezeu este cu noi, amin.!
From where is it?
thank-you 🙏💞
Think about how Jesus appear to the world… waiting his turn and going beyond other sinful people, waiting his turn for being baptized by John, he was literally toghter with bitches, terrorists and tax exartors.