Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sunday Summary

Greetings All,

I know I haven't been a good steward lately to the blogging bunch, so please accept my apologies and keep my in your prayers.

We had a wonderful day of worship this past Lord's Day! Our prayer service was very inspiring, as the topic of prayer was self examination. The heart felt cries of God's people went out as we petitioned God to allow us to give us the mind to honestly look at ourselves and make the needed changes to live a more productive life for Christ. It amazes me how the Lord just lines things up for our benefit.

After the prayer service, the Sunday School lesson was from Isaiah 6:1-8 entitled, "A commitment to change". This was a powerful lesson and since i didn't go over it on Wednesday in a post, here's what I taught the teachers. If you will have a commitment to change you must:

1. Change your view of the Savior
2. Change your view of your Self
3. Change your view of Service

This was a powerful and practical lesson for all to embrace!

One of the things that I have noticed about most Christians is that they like predictability in worship. Even if it's "off the chain church" they want to know that in advance. I generally preach in robes at home. When I come to the pulpit in a suit, it means that someone else is going to preach. This is such a pattern that when my preachers did not see me change, they began to wonder who was going to preach. I have taught them to be ready at all times. They began to casually scroll through their bibles just in case the were the one.

When I went to the pulpit, I could see the looks of wonder on the faces of the congregation wondering who was going to preach. My choir director asked me if I was going to sing my song today because she thought that I was not preaching. Worship was fantastic! The choir was a real blessing to all as they sang Zion songs. I was anxious about the preaching moment because from Early Morning Prayer Service until the moment I mounted the pulpit the flow had been the same, and wouldn't you know, the message that the Lord gave me fell right in line! I preached a message from Luke 15;11-24. We know this as the parable of the prodigal son. I entitled the message, "There's no place like home!" Here's the basic outline:

At home you will find:

1. A Forgiving Father

2. A Feast of Food

3. Future Fellowship

God really blessed the exposition of this text even though I felt this was not one of my better presentations, and the Lord demonstrated His approval by sending a candidate for baptism! God be praised! The older I get, the more I discover the truth of the scripture that says, " His strength is made perfect in my weakness."

Sunday was our Mass Choir Anniversary! Our choir works so very hard, and they play an integral part of our corporate worship! This was their day to celebrate and thank God for another year of service. Our special guest were the Community Baptist Church of Elkhart, Indiana, and their pastor, Rev. Lefate Owens. This has been a fellowship in our church for several years. Pastor Owens is a well seasoned and very energetic preacher, who really gave us something to think about. I wont post his outline, but we all left there in amazement! All in all, I believe that God was pleased with our offering of public worship!

Pray for us as we have already began preparation for our new preaching series that will begin on this coming Lord's Day entitled, "No More Drama". This is a series on spiritual maturity in the church and in our lives.

I am excited as the DVD ministry is really beginning to take form and our website is under construction! I praise God for these new avenues of ministry!

Well, I must get on my way as I have a meeting today about the Gun Buy Back! Pray for us that it will be a success as we try and do our part to "Serve this present age". God Bless!!!

4 comments:

Pastor Rev. Ray E. Owens said...

Boy, my 11:00 watchcare pastor sure can preach. Thank you for letting me be a member of your church and I have been waiting with great anticipation for the series NO MORE DRAMA!!!!!! Preach revun

Run you DVD's my way,

Owens

Clinton Smith said...

Predictable Worship, Hmmmm! Something to think about. Thank you!

Ronald said...

Pastor Witherspoon you are a great preaching and a great pastor. Your pastor's heart bleeds through your writing. I pray that your love for God and his people continues to grow and that God will give you more and greater opportunities to share the Gospel with the world.

Just a fan,
Ron

Pastor Lance A. Mann said...

Outstanding outlines for your teaching series and your preaching moment on Sunday. I just need to tell Pastor Owens that he has to wait in line for those DVD's. Because the first batch belongs to me.

Lance