Do Your Best

Our loan documents are in review with our lawyer and our plans are to sign next week.

The church met last night after bible study to discuss church clean-up and service location plans during construction. The members are becoming more and more excited about the project as each day approaches which is a good thing. It's a lot of work for us but the final outcome will be worth it all.

It was unanimous to change our service time to 8:30 am during construction in our small building which is occupied by an Hispanic church. I wanted us to venture out and experience other worship styles for networking purposes. While some were for it others objected to the idea. I think, it did go over well only because I didn't have a good plan in place to communicate to the church. But it's good to see the church getting excited and motivated about our project. Now, I pray their excitement moves from just lip service to improved financial support.

While the weather is good, in the month of September we're going to have service on our parking lot on the following days: 9/7/08, 9/14/08, 9/21/08, and 9/28/08 which we're calling "Praising in the Sun". These services will be strategic for evangelism. So, we're going to pass out invitational fliers in the community this weekend. My prayer is God, please bless our evangelistic efforts. I purchased some 10' x 20' tents at the beginning of the year in anticipation for this very day.

Last night I taught a lesson entitled, "Do Your Best". The point of the lesson is if it bears God's name it deserves our best. It is a lesson to encourage our church to strive for excellence in everything that we do for God.

I remember years ago serving under Pastor Charles at the Mt. Sinai Church a conversation he and I had after a sermon I preached one Sunday morning. He did a lot of traveling that year and it was only the two of us at the time sharing the preaching ministry of the church. God was blessing each sermon I preached at Mt Sinai. The people were shouting, joining church, and coming up for prayer after each sermon. One Sunday, Pastor Charles came home early and I was preaching, in my mind the message was a homerun based on the reaction of the people. When service was over, we went into his office, he shut the door and said; "Have a seat." I sat down and he began to critique my sermon presentation. Naturally, I was upset so I started defending me and my sermon. I ran the list of past Sundays of all that God did over the weeks he was gone and how God moved mighty in every service. But he said something to me that has stuck with until this very day and probable will stay with me forever. He said, "You're only as good as the last sermon preached." he explained that although he was not present, he had every sermon mailed to him while he was gone of which he said; "Great job! But this one was not your best".

One of my biggest competitors is ME. During that time each week I tried to out do me every week. And while I'm thinking I'm a huge success, in reality I was a miserable failure.

Here's what I want to leave you with in this blog, God never asks you to be the best just do our best. God be praised and you be blessed.