Sunday, January 4, 2009

A New Series

First of all, let me express to this great blogging community my prayer to the Lord that each and every one of you as well as your ministries and the churches that you Pastor, have a prosperous New Year. You all have been rich blessings to my life during this past year as we have become just like a family that helps each other through our rough periods and celebrate through our times of joy. What's really so amazing about the closeness of our family is the fact that we have become close despite never having actually met in person. I consider it an honor and a privilege to have you all call me brother (and son Momma V), you all have been a blessing to me and I pray that we will continue this fellowship, and hopefully one day real soon, have a down home family reunion.

As our church begins our transition of parting ways with Newark, our home for the entire 130 year history of our church, and head towards our new location in Montclair, I sought the face and voice of the Lord in prayer, asking him to direct me as to what to say to the congregation during this period of transition. The Lord led me to put an emphasis on the first half of 2009 on two words: Evangelism and Worship. And God led us to teach on evangelism and to preach on worship, in which the Lord directed me to begin a new series on the Old Testament book of Ezra, which I labeled the series: Restoration and Rededication.

This book is a wonderful narrative that chronicles the journey of the children of Israel from exile back into the holy city of Jerusalem, to restore the temple of God. The first 6 chapters tells of the call from God to the Persian King Cyrus to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem and build God a house. Chapters 7-10 begins after a period of 50 years between chapters 6-7, when Ezra shows up to lead the Jews in rededicating their lives back to the worship of Yahweh.

I began this series today in our worship with an exposition on Ezra chapter 1 which I labeled The Road to Restoration. The bible declares that King Cyrus was stirred in his spirit by the Lord using him to fulfill the prophecy once given to Jeremiah. This is the same Cyrus, that was prophesied about in Isaiah as the one that the Lord would use to deliver the Jews from exile. Here God is using a pagan King to fulfill prophecy that Jeremiah spoke of in Jer. 29:10 which says that, thus saith the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. God is faithful to his word and to his covenant, and since he is faithful, then it is our job to have enough faith to trust that God is still leading his people back down the road to restoration. I will post the sermon outline tomorrow.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a mighty...mighty good Man....
Phenomenal timely series of messages you have been lead to share with your people. May the Lord grant you spiritual success in faithfully executing your weekly assignments.
We continue to pray for your work there so be encouraged "brother".

Keep Looking Ahead.

Tony R.

Reginald C. Payne said...

Same to Lance, may the Lord bless you in this Old Testament series and may the church be enriched by it keep up the work, Ezra now thats a assignment :)

Ronald said...

Ditto Pastor, God has and is using this family of bloggers to be a source of encouragement and genuine brotherhood for me. My prayer is that God continues to bless your holy desires as you lead His people to the place God wants them to be.

NLT Ecclesiastes 9:11 I have observed something else in this world of ours. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. The wise are often poor, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don't always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being at the right place at the right time.

Sola Scriptura
Ron

Clinton Smith said...

Great series and I look forward to seeing the outcome. Happy New Year!

Pastor A. A. McGhee said...

God bless you as you embark upon this rich territory of scripture. May the people of FMZBC be encouraged during this time of transition. Stay the course.

Pastor Kraig L. Pullam said...

Lance, what a great expositor you are!!! I am praying for you, your family, your congregation and the entire year that is filled with great promise and purpose!!! I echo the sentiments of others on the comment page. Keep up the good work my friend!!!