Sunday Preparation

This will be a short one tonight (I hope).

I am preparing to minister tomorrow at our 10:00 am service and I am finishing some late night studying and finalizing my sermon and I must say it has taken a life of its own. I have preached this message before in narrative form at our South Campus but this will be the first time I preach it in expository form and at our North Campus.

Let me give you some information about our church. We are under the leadership of Dr. Maurice Watson (one of the premier preachers on this age). I have been a member of the same church my entire life and I now serve as a full time staff minister. We have two locations one in Macon and the other is in Warner Robins about 20 minutes away. We currently have four services each Sunday 7:30 am; 10:00 am and 11:45 am in Macon and 8:30 am in Warner Robins. Although numbers don't matter our 10:00 am service is by far our largest with at least 1100 people in attendance. I am always nervous and anxious to preach but this time is different. God has been speaking in strange ways and I am not quite sure I am ready to submit to the next phase of God. i know its not an option but I still have reservations.

Well let me get back to the case in point the sermon. I'll be preaching from I Kings 19 about Elijah's encounter on Mt Carmel. I have heard at least 3 sermons from this scripture this week but none really dealt with it the way I intend to do. But God reserves the right to change my plans when He gets ready. I think well I know I am pretty well prepared and I am ready for the preaching moment. At least then I can breath easier and get a sigh of relief.

I guess I may as well give some info on my day today. It started teaching a Children's New Member's Class this morning. I had 11 children under 12 years old and the class went well. I can truly say they are ready to be baptized next Sunday. After the class I went to the live recording of Evangelist Cynthia Givens of Word of Salvation Ministries in Macon, GA. It was a great experience done in a spirit of excellence and the songs were really great. My wife had the pleasure of backing her up on the recording. Afterwards my wife and I went to dinner with a couple friend of ours the Mabry's who are new parents of a beautiful baby girl Hayden-Marie Dorthy Mabry. After a great dinner we went to the hospital to see a friend and co-laborer who is in the hospital. Once we got there I saw a church member and went to pray with her grandmother, Grace McGhee (I solicit your prayers for her). While we prayed her granddaughter who we came to pray with eyes were filled with tears as I prayed. We comforted her and went to see Min Kearse. He was in good spirits and we stayed and fellowshipped for awhile. We left around 9 and I started studying afterwards.

Tomorrow is a long day. Church at least 3 times maybe 4. We then have a dinner to attend of the family of one of the mothers who passed last month and I had the opportunity to preach her eulogy. After which we must go to the nursing home to see my grandmother who is recovering from hip replacement. Tomorrow night at 6:00 pm there will be a concert at our church to benefit the battered women's shelter. The choir of the concert is made up of former community choirs in Macon and Middle Ga it promises to be an exciting concert.