Thursday, August 27, 2009

So what happens when oppourtunities come in spades ?

Right now I have several opportunities to preach in different places. Tonight at the Tenth Avenue North Concert, My friend Andrew told me that my name was getting known. My prayer during a stinking awesome Worship time was, Jesus I want your name to be Known. How refreshing it was to go to a christian concert that worship leader was theologically sound. We truly worshipped in spirit and truth.But all I have dreamt about and prayed about was these events. One is the See At The Pole Rally at Annex , and also during the faith week at Rutherford High school courtyard. Plus to be host and welcome agent for the Associational church's get together in which it should be a call to urgency of the state of the Churches. I would Love to be able pour out passion on these folks that God has burden me about the lack of concern about our spiritual condition.So far Bringing down strong holds,and that Jesus is mighty to Save has been on my mind. I feel like I am standing in front of Dam and feeling the earth shake.Let the dam burst and pour out your Spirit O LORD, Let it Rain .Let the fountains of the deep burst and former and the latter rains come. For I live in a dry and thirsty land, I am so hungry for God to break bread with us!!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

So what goes into a sermon (final stage)

Spent the entry of Saturday night taking the myriads of info and insight then paring that into a half an hour presentation. The Holy Spirit woke me up in the morning with a anointing
then I knew that the Lord was pleased with the preparation and He was going to bless.Went to church early to practice the sermon and pray. The prayer time broke me, and I was ready to preach the wonders of God's Word.The sermon by-product manifested itself in several side stories and the opportunity to be used of the Lord was overwhelming. The pouring one self in preparation , learning , giving, and preaching is totally exhausting but at the same time exhilarating.The foreboding feeling of unfinished business is hard, When you literally feel people resisting the Holy Spirit. Many people told me how good the sermon was, that thrills my heart,but the almost christian haunts me. I can see there face even now almost mad at me for imposing on them.I wish I could rip my heart out and shove into their chest and say here feel that!!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

So what goes into a sermon ?(part 3)

My wife and I are in Fort Myers right now...we were riders in the storm. We decided to take the alternate route along the coast on Sunday, during the Tropical Storm Claudette. It was beautiful but dangerous as we rode through the worst part of the storm--it was pretty hairy. But the minister will always be taught the sermon in his heart first and this was my learning expedition. With strategy and proper planning, I avoided the stress of arriving safely to my destination. Paul had a strategy to be intentional in his testimony sharing and God had a plan to get him to those who needed to hear. In the sermon prep phase, I am in the tearing apart the scripture and getting into the story phase. So this time I started with an outline of the passage.

I. Life Before Christ

A. Tailored to the person
B. Youth
C. Religion
D. Persecutor

II. Conversion

A. Preparation
1. On journey
2. Brought low

B. Call
1. Minister
2. Witness
3. Sent

III. Life After Conversion

A. Not Disobedient
B. Preached Repentance
C. Was Persecuted
D. Preached Christ from the OT
E. OT Case for Resurrection of Christ
F. Felix replies that Paul is mad. Paul reinforces testimony

Friday, August 14, 2009

So what goes into a sermon? (part 2)

During the pouring over process of the text, I had an unlikely visitor in the person of Conrad Meadows. A rare sighting indeed!! We talked shop and about the desperate straights that our churches are in. We had some really good prayer time and pleaded with God to bring revival. Also, we prayed for a lady in our churches who is not feeling well. The prayer was effective in that while on our way to her house, she passed us going to work. God had answered before we even knew it!!

The book of Acts was written by Luke the Physician and is the sequel to the Book of Luke. Many scholars agree with this accept for a few nut jobs. The internal and external early church fathers' evidences are good for pointing to Luke as the author. Luke was a skilled writer and investigator and was familiar with the Old Testament. He was a Greek God-fearer who was attracted to Judaism. The occasion of the book of Acts is of one showing the fulfilment of God's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ and the early Church through the power of the Holy Spirit through reliable eye witnesses testimonies with built in encouragement for ongoing evangelism. No matter how great the opposition, God's word will not fail and their faith can be secure. (I wonder if the Church of today really believed this, how different it would be? )

This is just an overview of all the info I read today and already knew. To get a good idea about Acts 26, one would be wise to read the Book of Acts or at least start at Acts 21 to find out how Paul got in this predicament. This book reads like a who's who. Basically all the trouble started when Paul made a purity vow and was seen in the temple. The people thought he brought in a gentile with him, which brought with it the death penalty. Well, this started an uproar and a mob scene with Paul in the middle feeling like a human wishbone. This incident got the Roman authorities activated with a military intervention. Paul found himself in Roman custody where he would be for two whole years.

The truth was that Paul considered himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I wonder what our first reaction would be if we were thrown in prison for following God? I mean all the guy wanted to do is make peace by making a purity vow. Instead of belly aching, he used this circumstance for an opportunity to witness to everyone he came into contact with; courtesy of the Roman empire. Ya gotta luv it!!

So What goes into a sermon? (part 1)

I have the great opportunity next Sunday to preach the riches of God's Word!! So I thought I would blog my Journey of Sermon prep. Of course all sermons are birthed and bathed in prayer ,one should hope. This sermon started several weeks ago in simple prayer: God show me what you would have me to preach on. last week I had very clear dream about a video called cardboard testimony on Tangle.com. Let me start by saying that dreams to me are last in my book on how God speaks to us and should be met with some scepticism. So I prayed and asked God for some confirmation through his Word and any other means. So God gave me many confirmations through people and circumstances, plus this past Sunday we sort had a spontaneous testimony time. So basically I knew that my sermon was to be about sharing your testimony to people. So immediately I thought of Paul and how he shared his testimony all throughout the book of Acts. I had blood work drawn yesterday and while waiting I was drawn to the Gideons bible on the table. I thumbed through Acts being familiar with the book and wanting Paul's later testimony in the book of Acts, because I felt many were use to his early testimony. Acts 26 was perfect and I knew that this was the text. So now I am at the research stage and getting my self familiar with the text with prayer and mediation. Questions now race through my mind like ,Who was the author and what was the historical/cultural background? How does the book of Acts fit into the New Testament and who are the main characters in the text. So now I will pour over the text. I only wish that people would know about the riches I am about to mine.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Fear to Tell

Tuesday night Cindy and I took a couple out to dinner. Chow time just beckons to the gluttonous appetite. They train you in evangelism to turn the conversation towards spiritual matters. But being Minister I come to realize that people are expecting you to bring God into the conversation. So I like to use unorthodox means. Found out that her Grandma is a Bible thumper and his Granddad is an evangelist. So they were use to the standard Bible drill. So the Lord lead me to go Plato on them. I ask them if you lived in a community underground that was for the most part in complete darkness. Then one day you stumbled on a path that lead you to the surface of a new world. Just coming out of the cave in this new world hurt your eyes because of the brightness of the son light. How would tell the inhabitants of your underworld your family about this new discovery. Would you shake them, plead with them, urge them just to have faith? Would they think your crazy and ignore you or even worse persecute you, put you in prison or even kill you. Would you be to afraid to tell?