Sunday Thoughts - 3/8/09

Let me sum up our 67th Church Anniversary Weekend. Awesome!!

We had a glorious time this weekend starting with our Prayer Breakfast on Saturday. The food was excellent thanks to Good Life Catering Services. Minister John Bernard did an excellent job leading songs of worship which set the tune for the preaching moment. Pastor Ron killed it with Luke 13 The Parable of Barren Fig Tree which he Titled “One More Year”. What a blessing! I got stuck on v. 8 But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.

In short, it’s the fertilizer, Pastor Ron’s translation; “The stinky stuff”, that God uses to bring the best out of us. My prayer; ‘Lord, give me some of that stinky stuff”.

It was a really good time of fellowship with Pastor Ron, the members of Rhema church, Min Bernard and friends, and Pastor Payne. Thank you all for making our prayer breakfast such a huge success. Awesome!

Tracy could not make the prayer breakfast because my daughter Aysia had her first track meet. After the prayer breakfast, Tracy called and alerted me that Aysia hadn’t run yet. Mind that it’s 1 pm and they’ve been at the school since 8 am that morning. So, I helped clean up, changed clothes and headed to the school. Aysia out ran those girls by 2 car lengths in the 4x4 relay and another race (I can’t remember what it was). Good job! We did not get home until 8:30 pm. I tried to read in preparation for Adonai but lost the battle to sleep.

Before falling asleep, I prayed real quick, “Lord, tomorrow is Sunday and I’m having trouble with Adonai. Help me!”

Heading to the church, the Lord placed on my heart to preach Isaiah 40: 28-31.

Title: The Strengthening of the Weary

Thesis: God will give you strength.

1. The Person of our Strengthening – v. 28-29

- God is Sovereign – “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth”
- God never gets tired – “Neither faints nor is weary”
- God is smart – “His understanding is unsearchable”
- God is the source of our strength – “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength”

2. The Principle of our Strengthening – v. 30-31a

- Waiting on God is Difficult – Waiting on God is difficult when you need immediate deliverance and/or assistance.
- Waiting on God is to your best interest – Waiting on God means getting closer to God

3. The Promise in our Strengthening v. 31b

Here’s the promise, God will renew your strength to keep on keeping on.

I never got to the promise because I got caught in the principle and it broke me down. The Hebrew meaning of “wait” is to bind together or in a figurative since “twisting”.

A few weeks ago I went to wash my car after the rain. I have a shammy that I’ve been using for about 3-4 years. As I was drying the car, my shammy became filled with water and the only way to release the excess water was twisting the shammy so it can be used again. Waiting on God means that before He blesses us sometimes we need to be twisted to relieve ourselves of excess baggage, worries, problems, stresses, anxieties, and frustrations.

I lost it right there. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been extremely anxious and worried about the growth of our church. We’re planting and watering but not seeing any increase. That makes for a frustrated preacher/pastor. But I also exhorted the church during this season of ministry together where it seems like no growth is apparent. God is twisting us to release us of some excess to prepare and strengthening us for the journey that lies ahead. KEEP TWISTING US LORD!

After service, we didn’t intend to hang around but we had leftovers from the prayer breakfast so my mother and Sadie went in the kitchen and made us some breakfast. We dined sufficiently with leftovers (that’s another sermon). We watched, as a family, Christian comedian Bishop Billy Bob. He was soooo funny!

Our afternoon service got even better with Pastor Michael Albert of Mt Aaron Church (who’s also a son of First Goodwill) and Pastor Curtis Monroe Jr of Redeemer Church. What a time! As God would have it in His sovereign control, pastor Monroe preached, Psalms 40:1-3 – “To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, [And] established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth-- Praise to our God; Many will see [it] and fear, And will trust in the LORD” of which he titled; “Get Ready to Sing”. WOW!

The word for our church during this celebration is “Wait On God”.

We, as a church and pastor, needed this weekend of preaching. God be praised!