On Sunday, newly elected Senator Raphael Warnock, the pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, preached his first sermon after winning a contentious Georgia runoff election against Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler.
In a recording of the sermon posted on the church’s website, Warnock explained to his congregation what the win meant to him, The Christian Post reports.
“Whoever would have thought that in the state of Georgia we would see the people of Georgia rise up and send an African American man who grew up in public housing, the pastor of this Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King preached and a Jewish young man, the son of an immigrant to the United States Senate,” he asked rhetorically.
“Doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. If you look at that, it doesn’t matter about your politics and your ideology. If you look with an honest eye at the history of this country and see this moment, you must know that this is a glimpse of God’s vision of a more inclusive humanity that embraces all of God’s children," he asserted.
Warnock went on to express his gratitude for the new opportunity, noting that he hopes to “be a prism of God’s glory.”
“I’m just grateful to be a part of this, I’m just grateful because I just want to serve. I just want to be a vessel. I just want to be a prism of God’s glory so that God’s glory might shine through me and that’s what you should want for your own life — that God’s glory might shine through your gifts, through your opportunities to share and to serve,” he asserted.
In a statement published by the church, congregants extended their congratulations to their pastor. “As a congregation, we pray that God will continue to guide and protect our pastor as he embarks on this historic journey,” the churchgoers wrote.
Warnock will be Georgia’s first Black Senator and the 11th African American senator in U.S. history.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Megan Varner/Stringer
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
