Sunday Thoughts - 6/14/09

Sunday was a real good day of worship and I’m not just saying that to make things look good for the sake of impressing those who read this blog. The presence of the Lord was in the house.

I preached “Trusting God Who Can Heal You” from Exodus 15:22-27.

While this sermon is part of a series of sermons: “The God of Our Trust”, I believe the message on healing was for our church. I will post full manuscript as a part of my online blog book “Understanding Healing”, hopefully today, after I tighten up some things.

I didn’t know what impact this message would have in the life of our church until the invitation. As a normal practice, I make three (3) appeals during the invitation:

Appeal 1: To the Un-saved – This is an appeal for those in our audience who does not have a personal relationship with God.

Appeal 2: To the Un-Committed – This is an appeal for those in our audience who is not committed to a local fellowship of believers for whatever reason.

Appeal 3: To Believers – This is an appeal to believers to respond to the Word of God as to how the Holy Spirit revealed the Word and application to their personal walk with God.

The response was tremendous!

I closed with a personal testimony has to my anger with God, blaming Him for taking my son, Ryan Maurice Smith. I explained that for years I suppressed my anger with God and yet, I was still preaching, teaching, singing, and ministering all in the name of the Lord. It wasn’t until my encounter with God a few months ago that I released that anger with God and I’ve been able to preach/teach with much more power than ever as of late.

My appeal to the church was that true healing can’t take place until we face our anger, disappointments, and realities with God for things that happened in our lives that we can’t explain as well as don’t understand.

Let me ask, are you angry with God for some unpleasant event in your life that you don’t understand? Are you harboring un-forgiveness in your heart that needs to be rectified? If so, you will not be able to live or minister for God until you face your realities and allow the Great Physician to heal you. Let it go and start living in fullness for Christ. Victory is our name as Christians! Don’t live defeated any longer!

Praise God for His Word!