Carrying Heavy Burdens

This coming Sunday I will be preaching from Matthew 11.16-19 & 25-30. Hear these words that Jesus says: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." So many of us carry around burdens ----- I know that I do ----- it is wrapped up in a book bag that is extremely heavy at times. What kind of burdens do you carry?
As I study for this sermon I am going to go on location and study. What I mean is that I am going to go to a place where people carry heavy burdens. I plan on going to the emergency room at Person Memorial and read this where it seems so many people carry heavy burdens. If you have never gone and sat at the emergency waiting room, then you are in for quite an experience. This is the place where hurting people go ---- and we are to weep with those who weep (Romans 12.15). Jesus wants to say to us today who are weary and carrying heavy burdens that we are to take his yoke and learn from him and in this we will find rest for our souls.

That Whole Love Thy Neighbor Thing.....

I have truly been struggling this week with this passage from Matthew. I have noticed the news media spending a great deal of their time talking over and over again about this election. I want to ask the question if it is possible to love our neighbor through the elections? I hope so. As Christians we can't just turn our Christianity off, once we walk out the doors ---- for if we do we have ceased being Christians. So if we go into the voting booths ---- as Christians ---- then what does that look like? Loving our neighbor can be a very hard thing, especially when Jesus adds a whole lot of people to that neighbor thing when he talks about the good samaritan. We have a ton of neighbors. Elections and neighbors ----- what do you all think?

Love God and Love Neighbor

I am planning on preaching from Matthew 23.34-46 this coming Sunday. This passage is when Jesus lays out the two greatest commandments ---- that we are to love God and love our neighbors. I thought the picture above is like the epitome of what it means not to love our neighbor. But, loving our neighbor is a tough thing to nail down at times. In light of our upcoming elections ---- how do you think we can love our neighbors through the elections?

Thirsty Deer

Now that is a thirsty deer. That might be a better image of what we are talking about in Psalm 42.1. This deer is thirsty ----- it is in the city and is looking for something to drink. The key to this understanding is that the thirst is wrapped up in oppression. See this writer is struggling under the oppression of his enemies. And so the Psalm points us back to the source. God is our source so we cling to God in all that we say and do. Just like Psalm 42.11 says: "Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God."

Psalm 42

This coming Sunday I will be preaching from Psalm 42. Now I know that I have a cute picture of a deer loving on her youngin', but I think that by the end of this study on Psalm 42 that is all going to be dashed. I have always thought of this Psalm as being a very contemplative prayer that rehearses a soul's longing desire to know God more. But, I think all of these preconceived notions are going to be dashed. Look at Psalm 42.3: "My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, 'Where is your God?'" Now this doesn't seem like a utopian time of contemplation. Tell me what you think. Read through it and you can respond by clicking the comment section below. This particular sermon will be submitted to my preaching class so I can use any help you can give me.

Wednesday, October 8th

We had our fourth night of our Heritage Revival services and the preacher was Rev. Dr. Bill Ritter, he is a retired Methodist minister from the Michigan Conference (Pictured Above). Dr. Ritter is also a Duke Divinity School professor of Preaching and Church Ministry. Rev. Ritter preached from Matthew 25.14-30. He preached a dynamic sermon --- taking us all on a wild ride of highs and lows --- and he did all of that after telling us that is what Matthew does to us in the book of Matthew. In the book of Matthew you oftentimes will find the writer ending a parable on a down note and that is why Rev. Ritter says it is his least favorite Gospel. In this passage that he read we are talking about the parable of the talents and it ends on a low note as well. It says in Matthew 25.30: "As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Rev. Ritter said that we are tricked into thinking that this parable is a success story. Instead it is revealing that this servant was focusing on his fear ---- rather than on the master. He was letting fear govern his life. We need to be reminded that the book of Matthew is written for the Church and we should not let our fear govern the decisions we make. We should put our trust in the master and not be content with where we are. He then said that some revivals are in the church and some revivals are of the Church. He asked for us as a church to be revived --- to commit ourselves to not be governed by fear. Instead to not be content with where we are, but to grow in faith and in our faithfulness to reaching out and making disciples.

I wanted to say thank you to Rev. Dr. Bill Ritter and the choir from Warren's Grove for coming and sharing the gifts that the great giver of all gifts has trusted them with. I am thoroughly impressed with what God did during this revival. May we as a Church continue to grow deeper in our commitment to God as we seek to live into the calling God has for our lives.

Tuesday, October 7th

We had our third night of our Heritage Revival services and the preacher was Rev. Dr. DuPre Sanders from Roxboro Baptist Church (pictured above). Rev. Sanders preached from 1 Peter 1.3-9. He started out by saying that we are to see ourselves as aliens in this world ---- as resident aliens. As Christians we are to know joy and happiness, but not happiness that is wrapped up in this world, instead a happiness that is otherworldly, that is heavenly. We find this through the new birth and this new birth is all through God's mercy. We have been caught in sin and so we must be born anew through the spirit. Now, this new life that is found in Jesus Christ places our hope in him. So much of our life we have a misplaced hope, now we can place our hope in Christ. In this world we will have trouble as Christians. But we are to rejoice in this uncertain future ---- because our future is found in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

I wanted to say thank you to Rev. Dr. DuPre Sanders, Rev. Mike Moose and the choir from Roxboro Baptist Church for coming and sharing the gifts that the great giver of all gifts has trusted them with. Below you will see a list of ways you can pray during the rest of the revival and I would encourage you to pray these daily.

Prayers for Revival

1)Pray for the Holy Spirit to come and renew your heart to seek after God in all that you say and all that you do.
2)Pray to God that during this time you will grow deeper in your commitment to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
3)Pray for your neighbors. Pray that they will come to the saving knowledge that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.
4)Pray for the ministers that are coming to preach. Pray that God will put a word in their mouth that will help us grow in our faith.
5)Pray for unity at Warren's Grove as we strive to live into the vision that God has for us. Also, pray for God to open doors for us to build the building that God has called us to build, as we expand our ministries so we can share the good news of Jesus Christ with all people.

Monday, October 6th

We had the second night of our Heritage Revival services and the preacher was Don Johnson, Elder (pictured above). He is the Pastor at Prospect Hill Primitive Baptist Church and Philadelphia Primitive Baptist Church. He started out by preaching from Matthew 1.1 and talked about Jesus being the son of David and the son of Abraham. Referencing Genesis he then made the case that God had chosen Abraham to be a blessing. This is one main reason that Matthew says that Jesus is a son of Abraham ---- for he blesses. He blesses with salvation. Now this salvation is little by little (Deuteronomy 7.22) and it is a long and arduous process ---- just like the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. The way to eternal life is through battles and the greatest battle is against yourself ---- against your sin. Don Johnson said many times: "The low ground of sin and sorrow." This is where we battle. But our hope is found in Jesus being at the right hand of the Father in intercession for us. The comforter, the Holy Spirit, comes and leads us through condemnation to forgiveness that is found in the shed blood of Christ. We are to be covered by the blood ---- but all of this doesn't happen in one day. It is little by little. By taking a long time we have to continue to look to God as our hope --- to grow in grace.

I wanted to say thank you to Don Johnson, Elder and the people from Prospect Hill Primitive Baptist Church for coming and sharing the gifts that the great giver of all gifts has trusted them with. Below you will see a list of ways you can pray during the rest of the revival and I would encourage you to pray these daily.

Prayers for Revival

1)Pray for the Holy Spirit to come and renew your heart to seek after God in all that you say and all that you do.
2)Pray to God that during this time you will grow deeper in your commitment to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
3)Pray for your neighbors. Pray that they will come to the saving knowledge that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.
4)Pray for the ministers that are coming to preach. Pray that God will put a word in their mouth that will help us grow in our faith.
5)Pray for unity at Warren's Grove as we strive to live into the vision that God has for us. Also, pray for God to open doors for us to build the building that God has called us to build, as we expand our ministries so we can share the good news of Jesus Christ with all people.

Sunday, October 5th

We started out our Heritage Revival last night and Rev. Dr. Ed Donnell (pictured above) from Roxboro Presbyterian Church preached the opening sermon. He preached from Deuteronomy 26.1-11. In this sermon he made the case that we must know who we are ---- and who we are is wrapped up in who God is. Many of us come to God with "baggage" and he urged us to leave that sin filled baggage and live into the call God has for us. A call that involves being a child of God. It was a wonderful time of revival and I felt a burden lifted off of me as I went to the altar and left my baggage. I wanted to say thank you to Rev. Donnell and the Roxboro Presbyterian choir for coming and sharing the gifts that the great giver of all gifts has trusted them with. Below you will see a list of ways you can pray during the rest of the revival and I would encourage you to pray these daily.

Prayers for Revival

1)Pray for the Holy Spirit to come and renew your heart to seek after God in all that you say and all that you do.
2)Pray to God that during this time you will grow deeper in your commitment to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
3)Pray for your neighbors. Pray that they will come to the saving knowledge that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.
4)Pray for the ministers that are coming to preach. Pray that God will put a word in their mouth that will help us grow in our faith.
5)Pray for unity at Warren's Grove as we strive to live into the vision that God has for us. Also, pray for God to open doors for us to build the building that God has called us to build, as we expand our ministries so we can share the good news of Jesus Christ with all people.

Philippians 3.4-14

Philippians 3.4-14 says: If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

The thing that sticks out to me in these verses is who is writing this. Saul, who is also called Paul ---- was a persecuter of the Church and he was really good at it. Now think about that for a day and let's see what God reveals to us about this passage.