connect with God, connect with others

A Great Homecoming Celebration

connectwithgod — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:54:38 +0000

This past Sunday, Cresset Baptist Church celebrated 52 years of ministry during our Homecoming service. Our guest speaker was Dr. Emir Caner, President of Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, GA. Dr. Caner preached a phenomenal message!

Click Here to listen or download his sermon.

Today is a New Day

connectwithgod — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:20:40 +0000

God has ministered to my heart this week from I Samuel 12. I want to share what He has shown me. At this point in the history of Israel they have requested a King. Their rejection of the Lord has led them to this point. For a while, Samuel the Prophet has been their leader. God reminded Samuel that the people have rejected the Lord, not Samuel, as their leader.

In chapter 12, Samuel addresses the people of Israel just when Saul becomes the King. It was a final speech of sorts for Samuel. He told the people they had sinned and continued to sin in asking for a king. Now, they have king, and God judges them by sending rain and thunder on the harvest. They pray and ask Samuel to ask God to forgive them. Samuel’s words are encouraging:

²⁰ Samuel replied, “Don’t be afraid. Even though you have committed all this evil, don’t turn away from following the LORD. Instead, worship the LORD with all your heart. ²¹ Don’t turn away to follow worthless things that can’t profit or deliver you; they are worthless. ²² The LORD will not abandon His people, because of His great name and because He has determined to make you His own people.

Even though they have the King they asked for, God will still forgive their past sins! The consequences of their request are before them, but forgiveness is readily available. They are still able to choose on THIS DAY to serve and honor the Lord. God is willing to forgive their past sins and start anew today. The same is true in our lives. No matter what has happened yesterday, or last week, or last month, God is willing to forgive us when we come to Him in forgiveness and honor Him. Today is a new day! We have the choice, just like the Israelites.

Samuel goes on to say this to the people:

²⁴ Above all, fear the LORD and worship Him faithfully with all your heart, considering the great things He has done for you. ²⁵ However, if you continue to do what is evil, both you and your king will be swept away.

The people are encouraged to serve the Lord because of His love for them. We too should serve the Lord because of His great love for us. He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us, He is patient toward us, He is kind and merciful towards us. Because of His initiating love, we should serve and honor Him! There is a “however” in the statement. Samuel said, if they continue in evil, trouble will continue to come. It will continue for them and for their king. We know the story, they didn’t honor the Lord, their new king, Saul, didn’t honor the Lord, and trouble came. The same is true for us. This is a new day, we have choices to make. Trouble will continue if we continue in evil and do not honor the Lord.

There is such a picture of the Gospel in this passage. Jesus Christ died on the cross to offer forgiveness to all those who will ask Him. Once we come to Him for salvation, we have a new life to live. We make choices everyday to follow Him, or to not follow Him. He honors His children when we obey Him, and trouble comes when we don’t. Today is a new day. Ask for forgiveness for yesterday and honor Him today.

The Purpose of the Church

connectwithgod — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:17:01 +0000

This past Sunday, I preached a sermon entitled, “Where are we going?” The new year is a good time to pause and see where we are and where we are heading. The text I used was Acts 2:41-47. I believe that we as a church must be the 1st century church living in the 21st century. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. We can learn much from the early church. It is our task to live this out in the context f the 21st century in our own community. Much has been written about these verses from Acts 2 concerning the “purposes of the church”. Most of this writing focuses on designing programs that fall into one of these 5 purposes; evangelism, discipleship, worship, fellowship, and ministry. I believe that a more accurate way to understand Acts 2 is to see it as a group of followers who are filled with the Holy Spirit. In the same way a person who is filled with the Spirit will exhibit the fruit mentioned in Galatians 5 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control), a church that is filled with the Holy Spirit and committed to Jesus will exhibit what we see in Acts 2 (evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, worship, and ministry).

You can no more “program” these purposes into the church than you can “program” love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control into your own life. So here’s the key for the church: be filled with the Spirit as individuals and as a church. Let Jesus guide you as individuals and as a church.

Here is the audio of what I shared Sunday: Acts 2:41-47