Today was another awesome Sunday! We started the service with three baptisms and ended the service with a young man accepting Christ as his Savior! The music was GREAT, which led my father-in-law to say that we shouldn't hire a Worship Pastor, because they would only mess things up. I hope he's not prophetic, but I'm not sure no one could do any better than our volunteers have been doing. At the close of the service, Joe sang his first solo at Emmanuel and knocked it out of the park!
In the morning, I continued the sermon series in James 5:1-6 offering James' "Advice to the Affluent." I emphasized that money is not evil, but the love is money is. James warned against hoarding money, being selfish, becoming rich at other's expense, mistreating people for money, and misusing wealth. God will often "give through us, but not give to us." Our folks were challenged to give to those in need, invest in eternity, and refuse to make money their god. I closed by reminding them that each of us can be rich in Christ as seen in Eph. 1:7, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace."
On Sunday night, I continued the sermon series based on Francis Chan's book, "Crazy Love." If you haven't read it, I HIGHLY recommend it. The book is an easy read, but carries you deep in thought and introspection. The primary focus tonight was to lead people to realize that Christ CAN return any time, so we should live as though we expect Him. What would you do if you knew Jesus would return tomorrow? Francis Chan said in a spiritual sense what Tim McGraw said in the physical sense -- "Live like you were dying." Live ready for Christ's return.
No comments:
Post a Comment