Sunday Thoughts - 12/21-08

Yesterday was a good day of worship. But the weekend itself was extremely busy and frustrating. Let's start with Saturday, I came into work since this is my last week before our two-week shut-down. This is an aerospace industry standard shutdown that doesn't affect our vacation time. Thank you, Lord.

I went to the church to start studying but forgot my flash drive at work. So, I went back to work got my flash drive and when I returned to the church musicians and singers starting showing up for rehearsal/sound check for benefit concert. It lasted all day! We arranged the stage to accomodate musicians, singers, and dancers. When sound check started for the singers they kept complaining that they could not hear through the monitors. I adjusted volume and everything I could think of. But, by this time it was getting late, I needed to study for Sunday, I was hungry, tired, and irritable. So, I shut down on everybody. We ended sound check and cleared the church and I went home. Needing to study and concerned about the monitors.

When I got home Tracy was watching Miracle on 34th Street. I don't like that movie so I made a smoked turkey sandwich and watched the Clippers game. They got spanked by like 30 something points. I don't remember because I fell asleep. The alarm went off at 4 am, I got up to go to the church for a smash study course. But when I got to the church everything was out of place from the rehearsal so I had to put it all back for our morning worship. Still no study time.

I had been meditating on Galatians 6:9 all week for Sunday. I'm trying to be very strategic during the preaching event. I don't want our church to think that we've made it and now it's relaxation time. No, it's time to get to work!

Here's the outline that the Lord gave me, honestly:

Topic: Payday Someday (This is not original, I stole it from Robert G Lee)

Text: Galatians 6:9

Thesis: Serving the Lord will payoff, Someday! But until then don't stop working for the Lord

1. The Worth of our Work - "Let us not become weary while doing good..."

Point: Working for the Lord is a privilege for us to enjoy!

- It's never-ending work - For every task completed, there's always another to follow

- It's hard work - Serving God is not always going to easy

- It's good work - Serving God is something you can be proud of

- It's lasting work - What we do today for the Lord will last a life-time

2. The Wealth from our Work - "for in due season we shall reap..."

Point: It's our responsibility to do the work and it's God's responsibility to supply the wealth.

- There's Temporal Wealth: God will bless us right here on earth

- There's Permanent Wealth: Ultimately, God will bless us when we get to heaven with "Well-Done"

(I had to argue the season of blessings in that we don't know the exact time of blessings, we just know that there on the way.)

3. The Wish for Our Work - "if we faint not"

Point: You can't give up now!

I don't want to sound like I'm Jesus Jr but the my Father in heaven gave me this message for yesterday. He's to be glorified.

My goal for the New Year is to do more delegating at the church and at work so I can devote more time to the study. I have a sermon preparation worsheet that use and over the next few weeks while off I'm going to prepare all my study material (commentaries, word studies, etc) so I can get a head start on next year's preaching schedule. Plus, I'll be getting some rest to refresh my mind to think clearly. Pray my strength in the Lord.

The afternoon service was outstanding except for a few technical difficulties with our sound system. There's a few adjustments that need to be made but for the most part, all is well! We have a few problems in our bathrooms with a small leak in the men's bathroom as well as a toilet in the women's bathroom that overflowed. But it's good, in a sense, because it can get corrected while contractor completes all other work. The rain is delaying work completion. Stupid rain.

All ministries that performed were excellent! Jesse Campbell can sing. This dude sung "Amazing Grace" with no music and killed it! I've never heard anyone sing that hymn song like that before in my life. The band was killing but too loud. The only instruments mic'd was key boards. People kept coming to the media room asking me to turn them down only to find out no one was going through the house. I let them control their own volume eventhough I did place a microphone in front of the amp as a decoy. I'm a musician and a singer and I know we like to hear ourselves and forget about everybody else.

After the service a few local pastors stood around waiting to talk to me about the church. A few guys prayed with me before the project as I was explaining to them what we wanted to do. So for them it was answered prayer. Another pastor Theo Wilkins as a group and he came this year for a project fund-raiser (I think in July) and was amazed that it came to pass so quickly and it's appearance. He knows what it looked before the renovation so he's really surprised.

Many of them had the same comment of being encouraged that small churches can dream big and get it accomplished. Praise God for that but we still have live to change for Christ. So our work is not complete.

The service went well and I'm glad it's over.

Count down: 2 days of work and I'm off for 2 weeks.

Be blessed, man down!