Pastor Lance A. Mann's Blog

Sunday Stuff-July 4, 2010

2010-07-05T07:39:00.000-07:00

To quote LL Cool J, "DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK"!!!

With all of the first semester of seminary out of the way, I can finally get back to writing more consistently as a means of simply putting on paper (computer screen) my thoughts and visions about ministry and my life. This blog has always been a source of therapy for me and I need to get back to it.

Well we are thisclose to beginning the heavy lifting on the renovations for our new location, with an anticipated move in date for the first Sunday in September. GOD BE PRAISED!!!!

Our contractor has begun some preliminary removal of things on the inside of the building, but it appears that this week construction will begin full speed ahead, and I for one cannot wait.

Our church has been in this transitional stage for at least 2 years and we need to get this building up and running so that we can begin to make a greater impact on the kingdom in Newark, NJ.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of preaching for my good friend and adopted Godfather Pastor Aaron N. Gibson and the Second Baptist Church, Long Branch, NJ for their 7:30 service and the Lord really blessed the worship.

Please keep Pastor Gibson in your prayers for God to heal his health issues.

I made it back, albeit a little late, for our 10 AM worship at First Mount Zion and I had no idea what to expect from the attendance. While the attendance was wayyyyy down, those who showed up exhibited a great participation in worshipping the Lord.

Jamaal Goodley blessed us in praise & worship, and our Minister of Music, Kadeem Turner, was in tuned to what the Spirit was doing in worship, which was exemplified in his selection of songs throughout the service, in spite of the logistical issues with the people we share our building with and their equipment. God be praised for commitment to excellence no matter the difficulties.

I began a new summer series entitled the Parables of Jesus, in which we began with the parable in Matthew 20:1-16 on the laborers in the vineyard. I labeled the message "Is God Unfair?" I plan on posting the outline in tomorrow's post.

A Powerful Week

2010-04-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog Family!

It has indeed been a real long time since we have shared with you. My first semester at Drew Theological Seminary has been a real big adjustment with regards to the workload and time constraints, so I have not been able to adequately put the proper time to my blog. I pray that you all would understand.

This past week was one of the most powerful and refreshing weeks I have spent away from home in a very long time.

I began the week traveling to Corpus Christi, Texas to preach once again for my brother and fellow blogger Kevin Pullam at the Friendship Baptist Church, for their April Word Experience Revival held every Tuesday thru the month of April. Kevin was once again a great host and brother.

The Lord really blessed the service! Got a chance to hang out with our blog Momma and Pops Pullam, who have been a real blessing to me both in person and with their prayers, and I am extremely grateful for being accepted in the Pullam Family.

Pastor Arthur Lane of the St. Matthew's Baptist Church who has continued to be a brother beloved and I appreciate his friendship for hosting when Pastor Pullam was unavailable. Pastor Eric Tarver also extended a friendship to me and I anticipate that growing.

I left Corpus on Wednesday, spent a few hours with Penny, and then Thursday afternoon, I boarded another plane headed to Los Angeles to preach for my brother and fellow blogger, Pastor Barry Severe at the Cathedral of Praise Community Church, for their first Anniversary Revival.

Barry Severe started this work 1 year ago Easter Sunday morning and I am proud of the hard work he is putting in to reach his community for Jesus and attempting to make a difference. Pastor Charles Harris of the Village Baptist Church was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and take me directly to church, to hear Pastors Elton Johnson and Xavier Thompson, because I wanted to be a part of the entire revival and not just on the day I preached.

My good friend Pastor George Hurtt, who succeeded Pastor HB Charles Jr. as Pastor of Mt. Sinai gave the lecture before I preached on Friday and he was not kind at all to his friend (LOL). He gave a powerful lecture on The Parable of Jesus on the Rich Fool found in Luke 12:13-21. George Hurtt is a BEAST in the pulpit.

Saturday Barry took me over to my brother Pastor Clinton Smith's house to have a cook-in with his family (my family too) Tracey, Kari, Aysia and Jimmy. (Miles would rather spend his time at the skating rink chasing girls than hang out with his uncle Lance LOL). I had a great time helping my niece Aysia fix her phone because her daddy don't know how.

Sunday morning the Lord really blessed us at Cathedral of Praise, which was amazing to me since Barry took me church hopping to hear George Hurtt @ 8 and Pastor Reginald Payne @ 9:30 and they both really blessed me with their expositions. God be praised for brothers who are committed to exposition.

Clinton Smith preached his face off @ 3:30 for Barry Severe! and he sang Oh How I Love Jesus and killed that too!

We topped off the night with a trip to my favorite LA eating spot....Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles!!!! Barry and his wife Myssee; Clint, Tracey, Aysia & Miles (he finally decided to show up); me and Rev. Anthony Thompson (another brother beloved). Thank God for chicken, waffles, eggs and potatoes smothered in gravy (Shondo!!!!!!!)

The best news of the entire trip was that while I was flying to LA on Thursday, our church's Trustee Chairman was signing the closing documents on our new building in the city of Newark, NJ.

This has been a long and tedious journey but God is faithful to those who trust in Him! We still have to renovate the building, but it belongs to the First Mount Zion Baptist Church! Hey Glory!!!!!!

Please keep us in your prayers as we attempt to build God a Kingdom in the South Ward!!!!!

I am happy to be back home to Penny after a long week. God be Praised!!!

Sunday Stuff

2010-01-11T10:04:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all of you my "blogging family," God has certainly been real good to each of us over the last 12 months. The reality is that we may not be where we want to be, may not have the type of church or ministry that we want to have, may not affect the lives that we desire to, but the truth is that God has kept us through this past year and we all ought to be grateful for the keeping power of the Almighty.

There have been a lot of things going on in my life since the last time we shared together in November, too numerous to mention today, but I will refer to a couple of them in this post. Our church is finally standing on the precipice of realizing our dream of securing a new location for us to worship in. This has been a two-year journey, filled with ups and downs, peaks and valleys, promises made to us, only to discover they were lies all the time. I wanted to give up, but the Lord led me to guide his people to this point, so I couldn't let it go. We stand today, approximately one month away from owning the building and roughly two months away from moving in and having our first worship service. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!!

I have been inundated with schoolwork as I am two weeks away from completing my credits to receive my Bachelor's of Arts degree in Humanities from Thomas Edison State College, Trenton, NJ. Taking online courses have been a humbling and great experience, but I have decided to never, ever take classes online again, it is too much work!

The best part of that story is this; I have also been accepted into the Masters of Arts in Biblical Studies program at Drew University Theological School that begins on January 25th. This is a 44 credit program that will take about two years and allow me to apply for the PhD program in Philosophy by 2011. Please pray for me as I attempt to keep pressing with my education. I will be attending class so now I have to get used to fixing my schedule accordingly.

Yesterday we had a great time in worship at the First Mount Zion Church. The music ministry was off the chain, Jamaal really led us in praise and worship yesterday. Kadeem and Dayshawn were on their games as well.

This year as our church prepares to relocate, our focus has to be on the growth of our ministry. So our thematic emphasis for this year is "Just Jesus." Jesus provides us with the key to growing the church when he stated, "and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." If we do our part and lift up Jesus, he will do his part to draw people to himself and to the church.

So on yesterday, we began a new series entitled "The Supremacy of Jesus," which is a study through the book of Colossians. This book focuses on the central theme that Jesus is sufficient and superior to any other being ever created. The Lord allowed us to preach Col. 1:3-8 which I labeled "An Appreciation For the Gospel", in which Paul is celebrating and thanking God that this church remained faithful to Jesus because of what they heard and believed through the preaching of the Gospel. There were false teachers in that church who were preaching a message of gnosticism, which was a combination of Eastern philosophy and Jewish legalism. Paul says that I am thanking God through my celebration for your continued commitment to Jesus based totally on your faithful to the Gospel.

Please keep our church, their Pastor and the new series in your prayers. I will be posting the outline from yesterday's exposition tomorrow.

Speaking @ First Goodwill BC, Los Angeles, CA

2009-11-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog Family! I know it has been a long time since my last post, but a lot has been going on, both good and bad, but the good will always outweigh the bad. Since my last post, I have registered for school to complete my Bachelor's Degree at Thomas Edison State College of New Jersey. I am taking a full course load of 15 credits, as that's all I need to complete my degree. I need to let you all in on a little secret: this is very hard (LOL). My time has been off and I am struggling with sticking to a strict schedule. Please pray for me!!!!

This weekend, I had the privilege of preaching for our blog brother, Pastor Clinton Smith, to help him celebrate his 7th Pastoral Anniversary, and it was an amazing experience. Pastor Smith, has proven to be a brother beloved from a 3000 mile distance, and he solidified that characteristic, in the excellent manner he hosted me this weekend. His wife Tracey, children Cari, Aysia and Miles, and his grandson Jay, endeared themselves to me like they knew me for years. I am deeply overwhelmed by their graciousness and love.

I attended an anniversary concert on Friday, that was explosive in worship. The groups that participated all sang original material and they really blessed my socks off. There was one group in particular, One Voice, sent us on a journey of worship that was incredible. For the entire concert, I sat next to the mother of Pastor H.B. Charles, Mrs. Ellen Charles, who is also Pastor Smith's Mother in law, and let me tell you, she is an absolute joy to be around. I was extremely blessed to have this experience.

On Saturday morning, Pastor Smith gathered a vast collection of local pastors to come for a breakfast/meet and greet with me and these brothers were extremely hospitable and warm. Many of them are our blog brothers such as Pastor Ronald Saunders, Pastor Barry Severe, Pastor F. Demond Harris and Pastor Reginald Payne & others. What started out as simply a breakfast that should have lasted a couple of hours, turned into a powerful session of sharing, encouragement and prayer for the brethren that lasted well over 8 hours. God be praised for the fellowship of like-minded brothers.

Later that night, I ran into another blog brother who was on vacation with his wife Latonya, my friend and brother from Corpus Christi, TX, Pastor Kevin Pullam. It really made my heart feel good to see them. They were spending money all over the place, in a 5-star hotel and eating caviar (LOL). Seriously, they are extremely loving people and I am blessed to call them family.

Sunday morning we shared with Pastor Smith and the First Goodwill church, a message of encouragement from Prov. 3:5-6 entitled When Life Makes No Sense. In the afternoon service, many churches and pastors came to help celebrate and the Word was preached by Bishop Richard Sanders, who preached a powerful message from Phil. 4:19 labeled How To Get Your Needs Met. He preached his face off. Pastor Payne's Praise and Worship Team were powerful. All told, this was just a great weekend. Please pray for the continued growth and development of Pastor Clinton Smith and the First Goodwill Church Family.

I had a great time, but now I am glad to be home as I have schoolwork and a church to grow.

Frustrated With America

2009-09-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

My fellow bloggers, I have agonized over and over again for the last few weeks about providing my thoughts and convictions about what is going on with our country since August. The main reason why I have been so hesitant to write this post was how much politics polarized this blog family during last year's election, but I believe that we are all mature enough and we should be Christian enough to talk about what goes on in the secular world because it has effects on our spiritual world.

As a black Christian man in America, I am thoroughly appalled by the venom that has and still is being spewed by Republicans, especially those who saw they are Christians. To hear a Steven Anderson, Pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church of Phoenix, AZ, stand up in his pulpit and declare that God has told him that since God hates President Obama, then he wants everyone of his members to hate President Obama.

He further stated that he prays every day and every night that President Obama would attract cancer and die! What kind of pastor would say something so openly racist and ungodly to impressionable members, many of new are probably new converts to Christ, and still call himself an ambassador of Jesus Christ? The problem that I have is with pastors who know how sinful this kind of vitriol is, sit silent and refuse to rebuke this type of sinful talk.

His argument and others like his, is the President's views on abortion, and for the record, I am against abortion, however I do believe that this is the choice of a woman's to make and not the government. She will have to answer to the Lord for her decisions just like any other sin she may commit. If their objection to his view on abortion is that scripture tells us that God considers killing to be a sin, then isn't it killing and a sin when racist Christians kill innocent Christian black men/women/children? And isn't it the job of pastors to call sin out wherever sin is present?

Where in scripture does it say that it is okay for one group of people to discriminate against another group of people because of their ethnicity or their race? CALL ALL SIN WHAT IT IS, SIN!

One of the conflicts I am faced with is that many of these pastors who are talking about abortion are people who's thoughts on scripture have helped to shape my personal preaching, yet while they are not openly doing what Steve Anderson is doing, they surely are not talking against what he is doing on their broadcasts.

Please remember, President Obama is not a muslim, nor is he anti-Christian, but he took the same walk down an aisle that we all did, and he is a child of the same God that we serve!

Sunday Stuff

2009-09-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

This past Lord's Day was another example of the grace of God in our lives. For some reason I had apprehension about the impending worship on Saturday evening and I couldn't understand it for the life of me.

Maybe it was because I was not totally comfortable with my work on the message, as I felt that I was leaving something out or putting too much stuff in. So I attempted to pare it down and spruce it up, but no matter which way I leaned, I still did not feel comfortable with my attempts to write a solid message. So I went to bed praying that wherever I fell short, that the Lord would give the increase.

I will say that my shortcomings were eradicated by the Lord really showing up and being a great blessing to our congregation. My voice was not at it's best, so I made no attempt to close the message in my normal fashion, and I found out that if we as Pastors/preachers do our part and leave the rest up to Jesus, the people will be blessed by His Word.

The music ministry was excellent as usual, and I led the congregations in singing one of my favorite hymns, Pass Me Not, and let me tell you, songs like that can really be a blessing to the hearts of God's people, especially when you consider the words of the song. While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. That phrase shouted me, because when I think about all of the people that God has to look after and answer prayers, he still has enough love for me to come by and see about me. What a God!

Lately I have been thinking seriously about going back to school to finish my undergrad work and immediately go on to begin Masters degree work. So I along with my good friend Eddie Spencer, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Nutley, NJ, traveled to Philadelphia to take a tour of Palmer Theological Seminary.

I chose Palmer because the east coast is full of Seminaries, but they are mostly ultra-liberal in their theology, and I wanted to go to a conservative school that puts its mission and teaching on a strict adherence to the Word of God, and Palmer is that place. I am going to complete my undergrad work by January (only need 13 credits) and prayerfully begin the Masters of Theological Studies program at Palmer. Please keep me in your prayers.

One last thing, my family needs your prayers, one of my older cousins, Samuel Mann Jr, passed away yesterday morning and his funeral services are this Saturday. Please keep his wife and children in your prayers.

A Song of Assurance

2009-09-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

Text: Psalm 121:1-9

Thesis: God is our universal and essential source that will provide all of the help we need in our times of trouble

I. Assured of God's Supportive Assistance

-verses 3-4...he will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber...behold he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep

-when we stand up for righteousness, God will never let our feet slip so that we will fall into the clutches of our enemies

a. support is vigilant - verse 3...he who keep you will not slumber...we can not stand one moment if the Lord ever falls asleep at the wheel in our lives...God will always be awake and alert as long as danger is around us

b. support is vicarious - verse 4...behold he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep...this suggests that God will not sleep on us because he is concerned about the welfare of his children

II. Assured of God's Sustaining Assistance

-verse 5-6...the Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand...the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night

-these verses suggest that God will maintain his people when trouble arises in our lives

-this verse is impressive when you consider who's name is stamped on it...the previous verses imply who he is, these verses state that Jehovah is the author of our assistance

a. Bears Our Burdens - verse 5...the Lord is your shade on your right hand...during ancient battles, warriors carried a shield in their left hands and they fought with their right hands...God will bear the heat of battle so that we will be able to fight the devil with all that we have

b. Shelters Our Spirits - verse 6...the sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night...all day and night, we are under constant spiritual attack from Satan...and since Satan will not let up on the attacks, God will never let up on his protection

c. Preserve Our Psyche - verse 7...the Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life...God will preserve our souls which are the essence of our minds because if he can keep our souls, he can keep our entire lives...our souls are to be kept from evil, perversion and destruction and kept for the endless love of God

III. Assured of God's Stretching Assistance

-verse 8...the Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore

-this verse describes the scope of God's help...God doesn't put any limits on how far, how hard, or how much He is willing to provide all of the help that his children need

-God will meet us at our lowest point, at our worst times, when others walk out...God will be our great provider

Sunday Stuff

2009-09-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

Great day this past Lord's Day in worship. After spending the week at the National Baptist Convention, I could not wait to get back to the pulpit to preach.

I heard some real good preaching on last week, but two stand out in particular. Dr. John Adolph, Antioch BC. Beaumont, TX and Pastor George Hurtt, Mt. Sinai BC, Los Angeles, CA, both preached us crazy. I was ever the more proud of George because he is a good friend and whenever any friend receives that kind of opportunity to stand on that stage, I feel just as happy as if I were the one preaching.

I continued our series on the Songs of Ascents found in Psalm 120-134, with an exposition of Ps. 121 which I labeled A Song of Assurance.

This Psalm is the answer to the psalter's problems that he faced in Ps. 120. In 120, he lamented the fact that he had to dwell in the midst of two groups of people who specialized in creating chaos and despised peace.

He finds the answer to that problem in Ps. 121, which begins with verse 1, which is one of the most misinterpreted verses in the entire bible. Many preachers/teachers down through the years have mistakenly stated that the Psalter was saying that he will place his sight upon the hill to receive the help he needed. But the psalter was not making a statement in verse 1, but rather he was asking a powerful interrogative. He is really saying, shall I look to the hills from whence cometh my help.

While he asks the question in verse 1, he doesn't make us wait too long for the answer. In verse 2 he makes it clear where his help is coming from, he says no my help comes from the Lord. He finds assurance in the fact that when trouble comes, God is the ultimate and essential resourse for all help for His people (I almost shouted again while I was typing that last sentence).

I have been bothered by a lot of things going on in this country and I have been planning to write a post about it, but have been a little hesitant because I want to make sure that my words and my tone will be received and not dismissed. But I will write this post before the end of the week, so please pray that I am led to say the right things in a manner which will be most effective.

A Song For Peace

2009-09-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

Text: Psalm 120:1-7

Thesis: in our times of great distress, we must completely depend on God to provide peace for our journey

I. Depend on the Protection of God

-verses 1-2

-the enemy of the psalter uses words of slander against him

-this suggests to power of pain that words have over our lives

-when we are spoken against falsely, our initial reaction is to defend our honor, our reputations

-but this psalter shows us that the best way to deal with the lies of men is to let God be our defender

II. Depend on the Punishment of God

-verses 3-4

-when people set out to slander the name of the people of God, instead of taking their punishment into our own hands, we must allow God to punish our enemies

a. Powerful Punishment- verse 4 talks of sharp arrows from the bow of a mighty warrior

-if people are going to use the sharpness of their lying tongue to inflict pain on us, he will use sharp arrows that are swift and powerful to inflict greater pain on them

b. Persistent Punishment - verse 4 talks of glowing coals of the broom tree

-this broom tree is known for its intense and long lasting burning fire

-so if their lies will figuratively cause a burning pain, God will punish them with an eternal, burning pain in hell

III. Depend on the Providence of God

-verses 5-6

-psalter is showing his discomfort with his dwelling in between neighbors who lie and promote chaos

-but the good news is that if we have to dwell among people such as this, the Providence of God will make our dwelling only temporary

Sunday Stuff

2009-09-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

As I have expressed in an earlier post, holidays are the toughest times to preach in the Christian Church. People start preparing on Sunday for their cookouts on Monday, and as you can expect, on the East Coast, we feel the "numbers" crunch.

But regardless of that, we still had a wonderful worship experience on yesterday. I mean the Lord showed up and the people were ready to bless His name.

Jamal Goodley was at it again, leading the church in worship. We are fortunate to be witnesses to his growth and development into a mighty man of God. Kadeem Turner and our music ministry were on point as usual. I cannot express the importance of a solid and committed music staff. I know of some Pastors who have a revolving door set in their music ministry, but I have been blessed to have the same staff for the last 2 years. To God Be the Glory!!!! And I am not letting them out of my sight!

We began a new sermon series, dealing with 15 wonderful Psalms, 120-134, which is known as the Songs of Ascents, and I have called the series, Marching Up to Zion. These pilgrim songs, were sung by the Children of Israel as they left their homes, left the valleys, headed towards Mount Zion to worship the Lord.

These songs were sung as preparation for their worship period before the Lord and brought about a new attitude towards the things of God.

The aim that the Lord is leading me towards for our church is that as we are getting closer to reaching our own Mt. Zion, there are some things that we must do while we are making this journey towards our new place of worship.

Psalm 120 describes the psalter's feeling of discomfort having to live surrounded by two groups of people, those from Meshech and those from Kedar. They both were powerful people who specialized in flaunting their military strength and economic might, and they were a people of great conflict and chaos who despised peace.

So the psalter writes this song to the Lord seeking his peace while having to dwell among people who hate peace. I labeled this message A Song For Peace. I will post the outline tomorrow.

I am headed for Memphis, TN in the morning to attend the Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention. This is an important year due to the fact that we will elect a new President this week.

The top candidates are Dr. Julius Scruggs of Alabama and the former president, Dr. Henry Lyons of Florida. I have mixed emotions about this as I like the platform of both men, but I think Lyons would be the better president. But there are apprehensions about that fact as well, because right now our convention is INSIGNIFICANT on a national level, and I fear that if Lyons wins we will then become INFAMOUS. The media horde that will befall Memphis will be crazy. Please pray for our convention that God's will be done!

Sunday Stuff

2009-08-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a wonderful day to be alive and in worship. I was very excited about getting to the pulpit to offer to God my attempt at worship through the preaching of the Gospel.

Jamal led us through worship in song with that wonderful song of the church, I Just Can't Give Up Now and he really ushered in the presence of the Lord.

Last week I was fortunate to preach for my good friend Rev. Frantz Whitfield, pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Waterloo, IA for their Family & Friends Day. Pastor Whitfield and the Mount Carmel Church were both gracious and kind to this Pastor and I am forever grateful for another opportunity to share my convictions about Jesus Christ. Please pray for both Pastor and people as they attempt to win Waterloo for Jesus.

I am presently in between preaching series as I will begin a new series on this coming Lord's Day if God says so, and I wrestled with a couple of different texts until the Lord allowed me to land on a wonderful passage that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Ephesus chapter 5:18-21 which I labeled the message A Fresh Anointing.

Paul attempts to admonish this church to live and walk in unity and provides for them another way to accomplish this by not relying on the things of this world and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

This word filled in the Greek means to be controlled by something. Paul makes a contrast of people who are drunk with people who are filled with the Spirit. Alcohol is a substance that depresses while the Spirit is something that lifts. God commands us to allow ourselves to be controlled by the Spirit and not by the world.

Sunday Stuff

2009-08-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

Today was a weird day in worship. Things just didn't seem to click all morning long, from the time I woke up late this morning, to the fact that although I was on time to church, the church just sauntered in little by little today and I really have been having a real tough time getting a grasp on it.

Jamal really did another wonderful job leading the church during our worship in song period. He led us in a powerful song entitled, I Don't Mind Waiting on the Lord and he nailed it!

We had a couple of visitors today that was refreshing to see and they appeared to have a wonderful time in worship and fellowship.

I concluded our series on Commitment with an exposition on I Kings 18:17-21 which I labeled When Standing Up Means Standing Alone. Here Elijah is told by the Lord to tell Ahab that the famine and drought was now over and Ahab calls Elijah a troublemaker. Elijah engages Ahab in a powerful debate as to who's God is more powerful, Jehovah or Baal, and he tells Ahab to gather the children of Israel, 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah and meet him on Mount Carmel.

Elijah says to them in verse 21, how long must you linger between two different opinions? If the Lord is God follow him, but if Baal then follow him, and the people did not answer him a word. God wants to know if we are willing to stand for him even if we have to stand alone. It is easy to stand when your friends are standing, but God is looking for soldiers who are willing to stand even if they must stand all by themselves.

Sunday Stuff

2009-08-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

We had another outstanding time in worship this past Lord's Day. I am always amazed whenever the Lord shows up in any place that his people are gathered.

Jamaal really blessed us again in our Praise & Worship period. Kadeem and Dashawn were on point as usual on the keys and drums, and the congregation brought a high spirit of praise with them. To God be the glory!!!

I had to preach at the 8:30 AM worship for the Abundant Joy Community Church of Jersey City, NJ, where Dr. Williard Ashley serves as Pastor. I received this invite from my long time friend and brother, Trayce Evans who is the Minister of Music at the church and the worship was high from start to finish. Please pray for the Abundant Joy Church, as they attempt to win Jersey City Heights for Jesus Christ.

We continued our series on commitment with the conclusion of I Kings 17 with an exposition of verses 17-24 which I entitled The Purpose of Our Service. Elijah is faced with a precarious predicament. He has just witnessed the Lord ensure that this widow would never run out of flour or oil and now he witnesses the death of her only son. He could have walked away but instead he chose to minister to the needs of this woman. God has called each of us not to serve ourselves, but rather we are to minister to the needs of those who are in need of being ministered to.

Happy Birthday Penny S. Mann

2009-08-08T10:19:00.001-07:00

Today we celebrate the birth of my wonderful and beautiful wife and partner in ministry, Penny! I am forever grateful to the Lord for him sending me a praying woman of God who knows how to get the attention of God on behalf of her family and her church.

She is growing by leaps and bounds into a modern-day first lady that is not limited by the tradition of previous first ladies, but one who is shaping her own legacy as a help-meet to her Pastor-husband.

Keep on worshipping, serving and loving the Lord, Baby! Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered the heart of men and women, what you shall be.

Sunday Stuff

2009-08-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

The weather yesterday on the East Coast bordered on torrential! It rained cats and small dogs out here which as you can expect, severely affected attendance at the First Mt Zion Church. I was not at all upset because we have a lot of older saints who would have a lot of trouble driving in those conditions, so it was better for them to stay at home.

Once again, Jamaal led us in praise and worship, and totally allowed the Lord to use him in a mighty way. His ability to effectively minister through songs of Zion and lift up the name of Christ through exhortation, is refreshing for a young man all of 19 years old. I am grateful to God for sending one with those gifts to our church.

We also had a guest psalmist, Tasha Booker from Brooklyn, NY, who used to sing for us a couple of years ago with her singing family, The Bookers, and she flat out killed Blessed Assurance yesterday with a real heavy heart. I have come to be amazed at the power of the anointing when it really shows up in worship. God bless you Tasha!!!

I continued our series on commitment entitled Commitment is Not An Option, with the second message out of I Kings 17, verses 8-16 which I labeled Serving God in Uncertain Times. This is the continuation of the initial service duty of Elijah, as he sojourns from a dry brook named Cherith to a depleted barrel that belongs to a widowed woman in Zarephath.

Elijah asks this woman for a drink of water and a morsel of bread. She replies to him that all she has is enough flour and oil to make a cake for herself and her son so that they could eat and die. Yet she acquiesces to the Prophets request even though she has no idea how the story is going to end up, and Elijah tells her that if she is obedient to the Lord, he will make sure that she would never lack for anything. The Lord is trying to teach us that he wants us to obey him in the empty moments of life so that he could bless us with an abundant existence.

Today is my son Marquis' 16th birthday! Wow has time flew! I am certain that God has a plan for his life. Please pray for all 4 of my sons!

Where Do You Stand

2009-07-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

This is the message I preached on July 12th from our series on Commitment:

Text: Exodus 32:24-28

Thesis: God blesses those who will stand for him not in moments of calm but rather in times of chaos

Transition: How do we know we are standing on the side of the Lord

I. Public Allegiance To God

-Moses comes off the mountain and sees the people worshipping this golden calf...he gets angry, stands at the gate and asks in verse 26...who's on the Lord's side, come to me

-and all the sons of Levi gathered around him

-in moments of chaos and confusion, God is looking for somebody who will publically acknowledge who He is

How do we acknowledge the Lord

1. Through Our Witness

2. Through Our Ways

3. Through Our Works

II. How We Behave in Strange Circumstances

-the people were frustrated because Moses had spent too much time on the mountain for their taste

-they didn't know what had become of Moses, so in their frustration, they ordered Aaron to make them a god out of gold

-and when Moses came off the mountain looking for a faithful people, only the sons of Levi stood in strange circumstances

III. Who Are You Connected To

-Moses shows up and asks who is on the Lord's side...verse 26 says that only the Levites turned towards Moses

-this is impressive when you consider that all the Levites were doing was living up to their names

-in Genesis 29, Leah wanted to gain the love and affection of her husband Jacob, so in her desire to connect to her husband, she conceived a son and named him Levi, which means to be attached

-God is looking for somebody who is willing to attach themselves to Him

Sunday Stuff

2009-07-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted and I really felt like I have missed something. I love to write, and the fact that I didn't for a few week save for my sermons, has really enticed me to get back on the horse and ride again.

We had a long day and night yesterday in worship, but it was an equally outstanding day as well. I was somewhat concerned about the attendance on my way to worship because summer months in the Northeastern United States are tough as most of our members are heading south for the summer.

While our attendance was off, our worship was not! Our Musical Director, Kadeem Turner's grandfather passed this week so he was in Richmond, VA, please keep his family in your prayers, his fill in did a stand up job as his replacement and the worship was really good.

We continued our series on commitment entitled Commitment is Not An Option, with the first of three messages from I Kings 17 which I am labeling the Serving God Chapter, with an exposition on verses 1-7 entitled Serving God in A Dry Season. The Lord really blessed my attempt at biblical exposition, and I pray that the congregation was encouraged and inspired to serve God even when the place you have been sent to serve has dried up. God be praised for the Word!

I will post the outlines from the last three weeks messages in the subsequent days.

A Choice To Serve

2009-07-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

Text: Joshua 24:14-15

Thesis: once we come to a clear understanding of who God is to us, we must respond with a desire to faithfully serve the Lord will all that we have

I. Renewal of the Servant

-verse 14...now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness

-in order to truly serve the Lord there must be a renewal or a change in our hearts

1. possess a respectful heart...therefore fear the Lord...fear means to reverence the Lord

-we have no problem being respectful to the world, but fail to be respectful to the Lord

2. possess a resilient heart...and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness...sincerity means uninhibited and without limitations

-must not let anyone or anything keep us from being faithful servants to the Master

II. Requirement of the Servant

-verse 14...put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord

-obedience is essential in being a faithful and committed servant of the Lord

1. obedient in spite of our past...put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River

-faithful service is not bound by actions of yesterday but rather look towards the joys of the future

2. obedient in spite of our pressures...verse 15...and if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord

-people will try to make us believe that we are wrong to be committed in our service to the Lord

-Joshua said that no matter the pressures, we must choose this day whom we will serve

III. Resolution of the Servant

-verse 15...choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord

-Joshua said he is resolved that no matter what god you serve, both he and his entire family are committed to serving the Lord

Sunday Stuff

2009-07-06T17:22:00.000-07:00

It always feel good to be back home from preaching on the road to being back in the pulpit that you have been handed to be a good steward over it and the people of God. I am happy to be back at the First Mount Zion Church!

All week long, I had been real excited about returning back to First Mount Zion, because I was starting a new series on commitment and I was really chomping at the bit to begin.

Due to the 4th of July holiday, our crowd was off, but there was a real good spirit of worship in the house. Penny did her usual outstanding job of leading our Sunday School, and Jamal really blessed the house during the music ministry portion as he led us in singing that great hymn standard of the church, Holy, Holy, Holy.

We began this new series on commitment, with an exposition out of Joshua 24:14-15, which I labeled A Choice To Serve. This man Joshua, appointed by God to complete the assignment of his father in the ministry Moses had not yet done, lead the children of Israel into the promised land, at the end of his long journey, was distressed because the people began to possess a spirit of indifference and indecision towards the things of God.

For there were some of the people who were faithful to the Lord and did whatever they could to advance his Kingdom. There were others who were among the people but not of the same ideals or love for the Lord , in fact they did everything they could to convince others to turn away from the Lord God. But there was another group, who refused to stand on either side of the equation. Those very people are who Joshua turned his attention to when he starts to give them a history lesson in verse 3 that it was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that had always been there for them. He says that since the Lord has always been good to them, they had to make a choice as to whether they serve man or they will serve the Lord. He tells them, they can serve the gods that their fathers served on the other side of the River, or they can even serve the gods of the Amorites in whose land they dwell, but as for him and his family, they will serve the Lord. God is asking that same question to the church today, will we serve the world or will we serve the Lord. Just like the songwriter said, I've decided to make Jesus my choice!

Starting A New Series

2009-07-04T12:40:00.001-07:00

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted a blog entry. On last Sunday, I was blessed to be the guest preacher for the 44th Church Anniversary of the Messiah Temple Baptist Church, Chicago, IL where my good friend Dr. Keith B. McGee serves as the Pastor.

My assignment was to preach the 8 AM worship service, where the Lord led me to preach an exposition that I did at the First Mount Zion Church during our series on the book of Ezra, A Prayer For Revival, found in chapter 9 and verse 9. The Lord really blessed my feeble attempt at biblical exposition and I am so glad that he showed up.

The 11 AM worship preacher was another good friend, Pastor Romell Williams of the Lilydale Progressive Baptist Church of Chicago, in which he preached a great exposition out of Acts 5:17-42, which he labeled the message, The Confirmation of Opposition. He presented an outstanding look at Gamaliel, whom we have always given a good review, but Pastor Williams said that his wisdom was really foolish. Great look by a great preacher!

I am beginning a new series this week on our commitment as children of God, in which I have called the series, Commitment Is Not An Option. I do believe that the one of the key issues that have plagued the Christian Church is our inability to be totally committed to the Lord Jesus. We go to church when we feel like it, we tithe when we feel like it, we serve whenever we feel like it. All the while, we ask the Lord to keep us safe, to wake us up every morning, to give us gainful employment, to pay our bills, yet we won't give him what we owe him. I would suggest that God is tired of our non-commitment, but is challenging us in this day and time, to sell out for the Master. Bishop Hezekiah Walker sings a song that says, I am souled out...my heart is fixed and my minds made up, no room, no vacancies, I'm all filled up...the Spirit lives in me and that's the reason I'm souled out!

Please pray for our church's time together in our worship of the Word. Have a safe Independence Day!

When Life Doesn't Make Sense

2009-06-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

Text: Proverbs 3:5-6

Thesis: when life brings us to a point of confusion, our total trust in our heavenly Father will make the difference between failure and fruitfulness

I. Measure of Our Trust

-verse 5...trust in the Lord with all your heart

-Solomon describes for us how much we are to trust in the Lord

-we are not to trust God haphazardly, not lazily nor as if it is inconsequential...but in our moments of confusion we are to trust the Lord with all of our heart

II. Motivation of Our Trust

-verse 5...trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding

-two verbs provide the proper picture of our motivation...lean and understanding

-lean means to depend on...understanding means intellect or logic

-Solomon says that we are to never depend on our own logic but rather on the logic of the Lord

III. Mark of Our Trust

-verse 6...in all your ways acknowledge him

-we are to express a high regard for the presence of the Lord in our lives

-need to acknowledge that God is the giver of everything in our lives...and if he brought us out of that before, surely he can bring us out again

IV. Management of Our Trust

-verse 6...in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths

-God manages the trust we place in him by giving us a reward for our trust

-that when we trust God, depend on his understanding, acknowledge his control over our situation, God will provide a way of escape

Sunday Stuff

2009-06-22T17:36:00.001-07:00

Let me make a confession that I believe I have shared in a previous post, special days in church are not my favorite days to worship and preach in. I am turned off by the lack of attention that's paid to the importance of the preaching moment during worship, so much so, that I am often distracted for a momentarily by the actions and antics of those who come to be seen and not to worship. I may be a little harsh but please understand my convictions about this: the most important moment in any worship experience, I believe, is the moment of preaching and the subsequent decision that an unsaved sinner must make during the call to discipleship, and it bothers me to no end, when people take that moment for granted or don't have a high regard for it.

Having said all of that, worship yesterday at the First Mount Zion Church was off the hook! It began from sunday school, all the way to the invitation to discipleship. Penny was great with her class as usual, Jamal sang his face off during the worship in song period, I mean he really blessed the people, and the Lord showed up in a major way during the moment of preaching. It made me really forget my inhibitions with preaching during special days and I am grateful for the time we all shared with the Lord in worship.

I continued our small sermon series on encouragement with a message that has been a burden on my heart to preach for some time, out of a familiar passage housed in Proverbs 3:5-6 which I labeled "When Life Does Not Make Sense". This message dealt with our trouble in dealing when life gets confusing to a child of God. Solomon writes this great book so that the reader is shown how to live a wise life and is instructed on how to be successful in life through an intense fear of the Lord. Chapter 3 is a picture of a father who motivates his inexperienced child on how to trust God completely when life makes no sense. In those moments of confusion, God doesn't desire us to fall to pieces to give up and throw in the towel, but to trust God in moments of misery and confusion.

After church, Penny took me to one of my favorite local Italian restaurants for dinner and we came home and just relaxed and enjoyed our day. I thank God for great days!!!!!

God Will Help You

2009-06-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

Text: Psalm 46:1-3

Thesis: our ability to rise above our bad situations rest totally in our complete confidence in a God who can

I. God is Our Personal Rescue

-verse 1...God is our refuge and strength

-this verse suggests that when we are in trouble, God is willing to come to our rescue

1. We Find Safety in God - verse 1...God is our refuge - this means that God is our shelter from our troubles

2. We Find Security in God - verse 1...and strength - this means that when we get in a tight situation we need somebody stronger than we are to handle the tough times of life

II. God is Our Powerful Resource

-verse 1...God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble

-this suggest that not only will God protect us from trouble but he will provide for us in trouble

-present has two distinct meanings in the Hebrew:

1. God is our Sufficient Resource - it means to be enough...when we get in trouble, God is all that we need

2. God is our Immediate Resource - it also means right now...for there are times when we cannot wait God will show up right now

III. God is Our Permanent Resistance

-verses 2-3...therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea...though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling Selah

-resistance is a synonym for preservation which means that God will preserve us from the troubles in our lives

1. preserves us even though our fears stricken us (v. 2)

2. preserves us even though our foundations shake us (v. 2-3)

Sunday Stuff

2009-06-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

My wife and I went away on vacation last week so I did not attend worship of any kind for the first time in a long time, and it was really worth it and much needed. We have been on the grind at the First Mount Zion Church for the entire 3 years that we have been there and even more so since we began our relocation project 2 years ago this month. We both were completely fried mentally and physically and I am grateful to the Master for allowing us to be able to go an refresh and recharge our batteries to come back ready to work.

I came back this week ready to get back at relocating and rebuilding our church. I continued our "mini-series" on encouragement with an exposition on one of my favorite passages in scripture housed in Psalm 46:1-3 which I labeled the message God Will Help You. This Psalm written by an unknown psalter, is an companion text to 2 Kings 19, which is a Psalm that was written as a celebration because God had assisted the children of God survive and attack and prevail in a battle with the Assyrians under the rule of Sennacherib. This song was sung as they went into the Temple in celebration for God helping them defeat their enemies.

We may not have an enemy named Sennacherib, but our enemy is more powerful and more wicked by the name of Satan, and in our attacks from our enemy, we are unable to defeat them under our own strength or devices because our physical strength is powerless against a spiritual foe. But we have a God that will provide all of the help we need in our battles against Satan.

Strength For The Struggle

2009-06-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

I am currently in a serious predicament with regards to my preaching schedule and it has me in a real quandary. As many of you know, I am consistently in a series either on a book of the bible, a chapter of the bible or a biblical principle. I truly believe that preaching in a series keeps the focus of our congregation on a specific thought for an entire period that develops their understanding of scripture and their familiarity of the direction that God is leading our church. But I am now in a real quandary. I have just completed our series on the Beatitudes entitled Developing Christian Character, and due to various things going on during the month of June, it would not be prudent for me to start a new series and have it broken up a couple of weeks in the month, hence the problem.

So during my personal prayer time, I sought direction from the Lord and he led me to preach a few messages on encouragement in the meantime. In this present day and age, with our economy dealing a mighty blow to our finances, with enemies of our country still plotting to do us much harm, the people of God need to be encouraged to stand tall in the midst of pain, doom and gloom.

The Lord led me to preach an exposition out of 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 which I have tagged Strength For the Struggle. The Apostle Paul writes this 4th chapter as a continuation to what he wrote in chapter 3. In chapter 3 he tells the church there that there were a group of zealots called Judaizers who preached a mixed gospel to the Galatians that threatened to destroy the ministry.

Their major emphasis was that salvation by faith in Christ was not enough, that they had to mix faith in Christ with an obedience to the law. This gospel of legalism became very popular with the people and it undermined the correct teachings of Paul that our salvation is solely tied to our belief in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul rejected their methods of teaching as those who were false teachers leading the people of God away from the Word of God. How did Paul refute these false prophets, by showing the people the wonderful glory of the ministry of the Gospel by reminding them that this ministry was given to them by the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the sermon outline:

Text: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6

Thesis: our realization of what we have in Jesus Christ, provides for us all the strength we need to handle any conflict that comes our way

I. Refuse to Discontinue the Ministry

-verse 1...therefore having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart

-he had already confessed that the trials he faced in Asia almost brought him to despair in 2 Cor. 1:8

-because of all of the struggles...all of the heartaches...all of the pain...all of the discouragement that comes along with the ministry...no matter how difficult the struggle, he will never give up on the ministry

-Jesus said in Luke 9 while talking to his disciples about the cost of ministry, tells one who wanted to say farewell to his family before he follows Jesus...he that put his hands to the Gospel plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven

II. Refuse to Deceive the Ministry

-verse 2...but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways

-Paul acknowledges that this ministry came from the Lord...and since it came from the Lord, we must conduct ourselves as good ambassadors of Jesus Christ...we cannot conduct ourselves in a deceitful manner

1. refuse to deface the Gospel of God...verse 2...we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word

-Paul refuses to handle the Word of God deceitfully

2. refuse to disavow the goodness of God...verse 3...and even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing

-the Judaizers were guilty of hiding the truths of the Gospel to keep the people fooled into believing that their teaching was the truth

-Paul says that he has nothing to hide in his personal life nor in his preaching and he will always allow the people to see the goodness of the Lord through his Word

3. refuse to deny the glory of God...verse 4...in their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ

-Paul says that he will never deny the people from experiencing the glory of God through his faithfulness in preaching the truths of the Gospel

-the lost sinner is blinded by Satan but when sinners are given the Gospel the light of the Gospel will shine on their lives

III. Refuse to Dominate the Ministry

-verse 5...for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake

-the awesome fact that Jesus gave them the ministry kept Paul from allowing the ministry to be all about him

-but the ministry is always about Jesus Christ

1. preached genuine humility...verse 5

2. God pours His glory into humanity...verse 6

The Paradox of Persecution

2009-05-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

Text: Matthew 5:10-12

Thesis: those who's life is an example of Christian character will receive true happiness despite having to deal with satanic suffering

I. The Reason For Persecution

-verse 10...blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

-this verse clearly states that not everybody who is persecuted can be considered blessed...only those who are persecuted for righteousness sake will be blessed

-this verse suggests that we will be persecuted for being just like Jesus

1. persecuted for being united with Christ - suggests the closer we get to Jesus, the more we will be persecuted

2. persecuted because the Holy Spirit is at work in us - ever since we got saved, the Holy Spirit has been working in us to transform us into looking less like the world and more like Jesus

II. The Requirements For Persecution

-verse 11...blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account

-we are persecuted not only because of righteousness but also because of Jesus himself

-not only because of our desire to be like him, but also our desire to submit to him

how do we know we are being persecuted for our faithfulness to Jesus

1. mocked because of Christ...says blessed are you when others revile you

-this word revile means to throw something in one's face...they mocked and ridiculed Jesus and if we are faithful to Him they will mock and ridicule us

2. marked because of Christ...when others revile you and persecute you

-this assures us that we will be persecuted...they will come after us for being faithful...because we follow Jesus we will have a bulls eye on our backs

3. maligned because of Christ...when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account

-because we are faithful to Jesus, there will be people who will flat out lie on us...and just make up all types of stuff against us

-but there is a blessing for those who can endure the lies of this world

III. The Reward For Persecution

-verse 12...rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you

-the good news about persecution of the saints is that all of this struggle is not for nothing...there will be a reward for those who suffer for Christ

-how we respond to our persecution will determine if we receive this reward

1. cheerful attitude...rejoice...word means to express joy as a direct result of the grace of God

-in other words, when we think about the fact that we are going through this period of persecution only because of the grace of God it should give us joy

2. celebratory approach...rejoice and be glad...means to show joy by leaping and skipping or to have ecstatic joy

-making through our suffering should do more than cause us to smile but it should make us want to jump for joy

Peace in the Midst of Conflict

2009-05-26T18:39:00.001-07:00

I failed to post my outline from two weeks ago, so I am posting it now!

Text: Matthew 5:9

Thesis: God blesses those who expresses a desire to calm the troubled waters with a lofted position in the His family of the faithful

I. Peacemakers Embrace the Cross

-peacemakers are those who have accepted the absolute necessity of the cross into their lives

-peacemakers know in their hearts that Jesus' cross was really their cross...and because of their sins against God, it should have been them hanging between two thieves and not Jesus

-this mindset enables children of God to live a life that will not look to retaliate when attacked

II. Peacemakers Encourage Communication

-peacemakers are willing to build bridges and break down barriers when burned by conflict

-peacemakers are never passive about reaching out to those they are in conflict with seeking a resolution to every problem

-peacemakers take the initiative to restore broken relationships

III. Peacemakers Extend the Hand of Cooperation

-peacemakers are willing to promote unity and talk not in divisive terms of US and THEM, but rather of WE

-peacemakers look past silly differences to make us all united in Jesus Christ

Sunday Stuff

2009-05-24T20:03:00.001-07:00

These Sundays right before holidays are always tough here in Jersey. I have been blessed to be able to preach in many cities around this country, and one thing I have noticed is that people tend to go to church more consistently in other parts of the country than they do in the northeast.

Our here it seems that God has a whole lot of competition to deal with on Sunday mornings. There is NY Giants football in the winter, pop warner football in the fall, and don't even mention the Jersey Shore in the summer. When it comes to holidays like Memorial Day, you can be assured that people in the northeast have to begin preparing on Sunday for their cookouts on Monday, so they stay home from church.

I try not to let that bother me, but I know that God is everything to me, and I can give Him a couple of hours on Sunday to worship His name, and then go and do the other things that I want to do to get ready for Monday. So as you can expect, I was not pleased when our attendance was way down today, but I told the members who were there that the Lord was pleased with their faithfulness in their worship. I told them that God never lets our faithfulness go unrewarded.

Jamal really ministered to us today during our worship period by bringing back an old hymn of the church, One More Time, One More Time, I'm glad to be in the service, One More Time. It got so good that I had to get a little piece of it myself. I am extremely happy with my music ministry, they are outstanding young men who really love Jesus and love what they do for Him. God Be Praised!

I concluded our series on the Beatitudes entitled Developing Christian Character, with an exposition on Matthew 5:10-12, which I labeled The Paradox of Persecution. Jesus closes out this section of his great Sermon on the Mount, with a warning to the church that there will be a wave of persecution on the horizon for those who consider themselves to be children of the King. He tells us that if we follow the first 7 principles of the Beatitudes, we can be assured that persecution will come to us. If we are not feeling the pressures of persecution, then it is a clear sign that we are not following at least one of the first 7 principles. But the paradox of our persecution is that God blesses those who are willing to endure suffering as a child of God. I am thankful that God will bless us for patiently enduring the persecution of this world.

A Clean Heart

2009-05-12T17:37:00.000-07:00

Text: Matthew 5:8

Thesis: Jesus pronounces his blessedness only to those who's purity is not relegated to the surface, but seek to reside at the center of our hearts

I. The Perception of Purity

-Jesus did not say blessed are the pure...it would have validated the belief system of the Pharisees who specialized in showing holiness on the outside but had dirty hearts on inside

-for purity is not found in outward expression but rather an inward commitment

a. free from corruption - pure in heart means to be without blemish which occurs at the moment of salvation and causes us to acknowledge our affliction to sin and receive the forgiveness of the Lord

b. fixed on Christ - pure in heart also means to have unmixed motives...suggests that our motives must be centered on pleasing Jesus and not ourselves

II. The Process of Purity

-being able to possess a pure heart is not easy...but it is possessed through a process that we all must go through

a. spiritual process - one of the greatest untruths is that in order for a person to change they must change their environment.

-while that is an important part of change, that alone will not suffice...for man's problems originates not from our environment, but rather from their heart

-man needs a changed heart to be truly pure

b. practical process - we need our heart cleansed daily through a closer relationship with the Lord

-James 4:7-8...submit therefore to God; resist the devil and he will flee...draw near to God and he will draw near to you; cleanse your hands you sinners; purify your hearts you double-minded

III. The Promise of Purity

-verse 8...blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God

-this verse has the same promise that each of the beatitudes possess...present and future fulfillment

a. present fulfillment - those that are pure in heart will see a vision of God physically in this world

1. see God through creation

2. see God through circumstances

3. see God through his care

b. future fulfillment - there will come a time when seeing God on earth will not be enough, but we will see God in eternity, face to face

Sunday Stuff

2009-05-11T19:12:00.001-07:00

I have been experiencing some severe writer's block for the last few weeks and that has caused me to become a little lax with my blogging. I really don't know why, other than the fact that I am so consumed with our project that I just haven't been able to shake this block. But the good news is that today, I began to feel the itch to write again, so here I am back again.

Mother's Day is a very difficult day for me as many of you know, since my Momma went home to be with the Lord in 2006, and yesterday was no different. I found myself just thinking about all of the things that she did for me. How she went without so that I could have, it made me not be tearful, but more appreciative for all that my Momma did for me. I love her and miss her greatly!

My big brother Pastor Michael Jordan (yes that's his name) and his wife continued our pre-Mother's Day tradition of going out the day before and we had an outstanding time at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. M.J. lost his mother in 2007 so it was an emotional time of sharing, but we made it through together.

Yesterday was a pretty good day in worship at First Mount Zion, but the truth is that special days are not really my favorite days to preach in because there are people who come to church just because their mother or grandmother made them come, and they do not come to worship God. That makes it a little tough to have worship like we should, but the Lord brought us through.

I continued our series on the Beatitudes entitled Developing Christian Character, with an exposition on Matthew 5:8 which says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, which I labeled simply A Clean Heart. Jesus writes this 6th principle for living like a Christian in response to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who focused on an outward expression of obedience to the rules of religion and not an inward desire to have a closer connection with the Lord. So he writes this principle to charge the people of God to place their entire focus not on externalities but rather on an internal desire to have a heart that is pure and connected to Jesus Christ.

For too many of us have become satisfied with a head religion, which means that as long as we can remember our favorite scriptures and a few hymns, then everything is alright. Or we have become satisfied with a hand religion, which suggests that we have become more concerned with being dutiful instead of being faithful. Jesus says he desires not that we have a head religion, nor a hand religion, but he wants us to possess and exhibit a heart religion. I will post the outline tomorrow.

I want to say a word of gratitude to our blogging mother, Momma V, who has stepped into a mother-like figure for me and I want her to know that on this day, I am grateful that both you and Pops have become fixtures not just in my life, but in the lives of all of your biological and blogging sons. Thanks and we love you guys greatly.

Sunday Stuff

2009-04-27T16:19:00.001-07:00

I was not in the pulpit at the First Mount Zion Church last Sunday, as I had the expressed pleasure of preaching for Bishop John Vaughan and the Calvary Christian Fellowship Ministries, in Ewing, NJ, so I was extremely excited to preach to the wonderful people that the Lord has given me stewardship over.

Our early morning prayer was really great because we are really expecting something great from the Lord in the next few weeks regarding our new location. I could feel the prayers of the people going out and we are anticipating the Lord answering every one of our prayers.

Penny did another powerful job in teaching our Sunday School class, as she is leading them back to the basics which I desire to be taught to our congregation as we prepare for the next phase of ministry. She concluded her teaching series on how to study the Word of God, with a lesson on identifying the context of a specific passage of scripture. The congregation were active participants once again as they have become excited about the lessons week by week.

Our worship leader Jamal led the congregation in a great mixture of hymns and quartet songs (which is starting to grow on me a little) and they were completely into the worship in songs. I then led them in singing one of the favorite hymns from my childhood, "This May Be My Last Time" which we transitioned into "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Since I Laid My Burdens Down". I had a ball with the Music Ministry.

We continued our preaching series on the Beatitudes which is entitled Developing Christian Character, with an exposition on Matthew 5:6, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied, which I labeled Satisfaction Guaranteed. The first three principles found in the Beatitudes lists what man needs to walk as a Christian, but the fourth principle gives man a solution to that which has inhibited them from walking as a Christian ought. For in order to walk as a Christian ought, man must come to the understanding that we have an obligation to live our lives inside of the Will of God.

After worship, the weather in New Jersey was outstanding, so Penny and I came home, changed clothes, and went to dinner to enjoy the rest of the day. God Be Praised!!!!

Resurrection Weekend Stuff

2009-04-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

Resurrection Weekend, to this Pastor, is the greatest moment in the history of the church and in the life of every child of God. For this is the day where we all gather to celebrate the very reason why we are able to be alive and in church in the first place. On Friday He died, but early Sunday Morning He got up (I am shouting all over again as I am typing this). Thank God for a dying and a resurrecting Savior.

This weekend was an especially draining yet extremely enriching one for me. I returned on Thursday from an awesome time in Corpus Christi, TX, and had to preach the last word from Jesus on the Cross at a Good Friday service given by the Minister's Clergy Council of Englewood, Teaneck & Vicinity in Northern New Jersey under the leadership of my friend and brother, Dr. William Marcus Small, Pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Englewood. Let me tell you, that was one of the best Good Friday services that I have ever been apart of. There was not one iota of a spirit of competition and every preacher stuck to their assignments and really did a great job.

On yesterday, I had the pleasure of preaching for my sister in the ministry Pastor Tracey Brown who pastors the Ruth Fellowship Ministries in Plainfield, NJ for their Sunrise service. I am still struggling with my allergies and it became apparent early Sunday morning, that I really had to focus more intently than I normally do on making sure that I am not distracted by my own coughing. Needless to say, the Lord showed up and blessed the presentation of His Word. I preached a passage out of Mark 16:1-8 in which I labeled the message simply An Empty Tomb. I argued that we can receive the newness of life only through our ability to embrace the truth of an empty tomb.

1. Access to the Tomb

2. Assurance in the Tomb

3. Account of the Tomb

I continued our series at the First Mount Zion Church on the Beatitudes with an exposition on Matthew 5:5 entitled There's Power in A Surrendered Will. Jesus teaches that if we are going to stand tall in this world, we must all possess a spirit of meekness. The world views meekness to mean weakness, timidity, or lack of self-assurance. But meekness does not mean weakness, but rather it means power under control, and we only are able to gain this type of control when we are able to look at ourselves with a spirit of poverty that says we are not who we think we are, and a mournful heart that cries tears of sorrow over the sinful actions that we have committed in our lives. And this will cause us to surrender our will to the will of God to be the servant that he desires from us.

Preaching @ Friendship Baptist Church, Corpus Christi, TX

2009-04-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

On yesterday, I had the express pleasure of preaching at the Friendship Baptist Church, Corpus Christi, TX where my blogging and adopted brother Kevin Pullam serves as the Pastor for their AWE 2009 Revival. All I can say is that the entire Pullam family know how to host a preacher. They made me feel like a son/brother from the moment I stepped off of the airplane on Tuesday.

Momma V was so happy and proud to have her new son in town that I don't know who was more happy to be there me or her. She introduced me to everybody that she saw, and made them call me her son. It was good to see her happy. Pops Pullam is a Pastor's Pastor. His presence and wisdom is something that I will cherish, as he was a blessing to me in both advice and presence.

Kevin was an outstanding host, who made certain that I didn't want for anything while I was there. His vision for this revival was evident in the excellent manner that the revival was promoted and the Friendship Church opened their arms to me to make me feel extremely welcomed. What I didn't know was that Kevin Pullam is a Pastor with many gifts. He sang I Won't Complain during the invitation and he flat out killed everything in the house. And to top it off, he got on the keyboard and played during the benediction. Wow what a gifted man of God. His wife Latonya and their children were very hospitible as well.

Kraig Pullam made the 3 1/2 hour trip from Houston down to Corpus Christi to come and fellowship with me, he too is a gifted preacher who is doing a great job at the Cornerstone Church there in Houston, please keep them in your prayers as they are headed towards a great new move in their ministry.

I also had the pleasure of meeting a great preacher and Pastor, Arthur Lane, of the St. Matthew Baptist Church and he has a powerful ministry and historic congregation there in Corpus Christi. I am greatly looking forward to this developing friendship and fellowship between Lane and myself.

The Lord really blessed the exposition of the Word, as I dealt with a message from my series on the book of Ezra, chapter 9 entitled A Prayer For Revival. Please keep the rest of the revival in your prayers, as they have Dr. Ralph West coming next week, and Pastor Kraig Pullam the week after.

Sunday Stuff

2009-04-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

As we enter this what I consider to be the greatest season in the life of any Child of God, the week from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Morning, I am consistently awed by the grace and mercy of the Master, who looked at bad, evil and wicked people and decided to do something for us that we are unable to do for ourselves, it renews my love and appreciation for everything that the Lord has done in my life.

I do not take his love for granted, because he could have let me die in my mess, this has caused me to feel like the prophet Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:22-23...it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not; they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. Thank God for his faithfulness to his children, even though there are times when we are not faithful to him.

We had such an awesome time in worship yesterday. I am beginning to really become encouraged by the momentum that our church seems to be gaining each and every week from the congregation's excitement for Sunday School, to their participation in worship, to even their commitment to Thursday night Bible Class. While it is clear that we have a long way to go until we reach the level of ministry that God desires for His church to be, I have learned to celebrate God over small steps of progress, for if enough small steps occur, they will eventually become greater steps for the Lord.

I continued our series on the Beatitudes, with an exposition on Matthew 5:4...blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted, which I labeled the message, Comfort For A Christian. This word mourn can mean a few things. Jesus could have been referring to a period of sorrow over the loss of a loved one or some other sort of personal disappointment. And it is easier to get over those types of circumstances when you are able to mourn over them and get over it. Jesus could have been talking about having sorrow for the evil that this world perpetuates against one another, or to possess a social conscience. For a big part of being a Christian is our ability to care about the condition of somebody else, and Jesus told us in Matthew 5:44, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. But in this text, Jesus was talking about a sorrow for the sins that each individual commits against a Holy God. And Jesus is saying to them and to us, that he will provide heavenly comfort only for those who exhibit a Godly sorrow for their transgressions against the Lord. Wow what a Savior!

I will be traveling on tomorrow to the great city of Corpus Christi, TX to preach at the Friendship Baptist Church where our brother and blogging friend Pastor Kevin Pullam is the Pastor, for their AWE 2009 Revival. I am both excited and honored to have been asked to share my convictions about Jesus Christ to this congregation. I am also looking forward to spending time with Pop and Momma Pullam, Kevin and Kraig while I am there. Pop, Momma, Kevin and his wife Latonya came to New Jersey during the Inauguration Celebration in February and they spent the day with me, and they were a great blessing to me, so I can't wait to get down there and experience their church and city and family. Please pray for my travels, and pray for the revival that God will get every drop of the glory.

A Humble Spirit

2009-04-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

Text: Matthew 5:3

Thesis: a true humble spirit occurs when a child of God sees themselves for who they really are

I. Express A Need For Help

-this suggests that we must recognize that this key principle of Jesus Christ cannot fulfilled through our own strength, but we are totally at the whim of a power greater than we are
-because of the sinfulness of our flesh we are unable to keep the laws and principles of God, so in order to make this transformation, we need the Lord to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves

II. Empty Yourself of Yourself

-before we can exhibit greatness in God through an abiding of his principles, we must empty out those things that hinder us and allow god to pour humility in us
-in other words, there must be an emptying before there can be a deposit
-if we pour out the old things of our sinfulness and disobedience, God will pour in something greater than what we poured out

III. Enables You to Receive Your Inheritance

-verse 3 says...blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
-those who allow the Lord to pour into them a spirit of humility, will receive a great inheritance
-every child of God will enjoy resting in eternity, when they possess a humble spirit

Sunday Stuff

2009-03-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

Great day this past Lord's day at FMZBC! I am amazed at how the Lord will answer prayers when the people get together to ask Him for a change. God is totally giving our church a brand new atmosphere that is conducive for worship and provides and inviting place for new converts to come and be apart.

I truly believe that God will not send people to your church if the atmosphere is not set right. I am not complaining nor talking down my church, I am just stating the obvious...that God is going to honor our requests when we begin to possess His Spirit within the fabric of our church.

I had a heavy spirit on me all day Saturday and I couldn't understand why. It wasn't until my older brother walked into the sanctuary that god revealed it to me. My brother Leonard is dealing with some real personal issues that have brought about a real sense of depression in his life, and when he walked in, I realized that he was in a bad place mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The Lord led me to lead the congregation in that great Dwayne Woods song, Let Go, Let God Have His Way. I literally saw the load lift off of my brother so that he would be free to give all of his issues to the Lord and leave them there. Please pray for my Momma's oldest son, he really needs it.

I continued our series on the Beatitudes entitled Developing Christian Character with the first principle that Jesus gives to us on how to walk and act with the character of a follower of Jesus Christ, with an exposition on Matthew 5:3...blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, which I labeled A Humble Spirit.

Being poor in spirit does not mean to be poor spirited, it does not mean to have no backbone, it does not even mean as Catholic priests profess, that God wants his servants to take on a vow of poverty. This verse literally means to possess a spirit of humility. God does not want his people to exhibit arrogance, but instead in order to be great in God, we must all possess a spirit of humility, which suggests that we must be willing to look at ourselves and see that we fall terribly short of the personage of God. That will cause us to have a humble spirit.

The Pursuit of Happiness

2009-03-24T17:23:00.001-07:00

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

Thesis: true happiness is achieved by our willingness to turn away from temporal things and head directly towards the spiritual

I. True Happiness is a Free Gift For Saints

-we must recognize that we shall never get anywhere in our search for happiness until we give up trying to find in on our own efforts and receive it for what it is
-a free, unwarrented, undeserved gift from the Lord

II. True Happiness is Found in the Forgiveness of Our Sins

-we must realize that the blessing from the Lord that is most central in the life of every individual is that we need God to forgive us from our sins
-we pray for many things that we don't need but we want, but the thing we need to pray the most for is that God will offer us forgiveness

III. True Happiness Focuses on Our Savior

-we must put our focus on the actions of the savior to be blessed by what he did to provide the happiness we need
-we need to put our entire focus on the cross of Calvary

Sunday Stuff

2009-03-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty interesting day at FMZBC. First of all I have been sick for the last four days, so much so that I could not get any sleep Saturday night, my nose was completely stopped up, my ears were popping, and I had a cough that I thought was going end up with one of my lungs in my lap. Needless to say I was very concerned about my energy level during our worship service, and to top it off, I had to preach at an afternoon service, I had no idea how the day would turn out.

I want to report that the Lord showed up yesterday during worship, and he made an exchange, he took my physical weakness and gave me his strength, and I was able to make it through the day. God Be Praised!!!

The Lord led us to begin a new preaching series on yesterday on the Beatitudes housed in Matthew 5:1-12, which I have tagged the series, Developing Christian Character. This was Jesus' famous message known as the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus sets out to provide keys on how to live as a believer ought to live. And as our church is inching closer and closer to our new location, this series is designed to show us that a new building does not a new church make. We cannot expect to do the same things, be the same way, and get different results. I am so excited about this series. Please pray for the series.

Yesterday, I introduced the series with a topical message (something I rarely do) on the word that opens each lesson in the Beatitudes, the word blessed, in which I labeled the message, The Pursuit of Happiness. This word blessed has multiple meanings in the original language. Firstly, it means to bless, or to consecrate and set aside for the service of the Lord. It is where we get our custom of blessing our food before we eat it, to ask the Lord to consecrate both us and our food to be used for his service. Secondly, it is defined as words that we get our English derivatives benediction and eulogy, which means to speak well of. Later on in this sermon, Jesus says bless them that curse you, which suggests that when people put their mouth on you, don't fire back, speak well of them and watch the Lord take care of them. Thirdly, it means to be spiritually happy, which suggests to us that while we as humans seek happiness in many places, the only way to experience true happiness is to find it in Jesus.

I had the pleasure of preaching for the 55th Pastoral Anniversary of Bishop B.F. Jackson, pastor of the St. John's Methodist Episcopal Reformed Church of Elizabeth, NJ in the afternoon, and it was a joy and and honor to stand and deliver my convictions about Jesus Christ during this grand celebration. The St. John's Church did a marvelous job in the celebration, and I ask that you would keep them in your prayers as a transition is soon to take place there.

Prayer Changes Things

2009-03-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

Text: Ezra 10:1-5

Thesis: for the intercession of God's anointed can make the difference in what God will do to and through his people

I. Prayer Produces a Proper Assembly

-verse 1...while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly
-prayer will cause God's people to gather around the altar for prayer

a. Unified Society...a very great assembly of men, women and children gathered together
b. Uncovered Sins...wept bitterly...they wept with the reality that they were sinning against God

II. Prayer Produces a Proper Answer

-verse 2...and Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam addressed Ezra: we have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this
-this prayer caused Shecaniah to confess the obvious sin of the people of God...they married pagan women
-God's law did not permit this type of marriage because they were from different nationalities...but because they professed a different faith
-Ezra's answer was not to hide their sins...but to confess that they have broken faith with God

III. Prayer Produces a Proper Agreement

-verse 3...therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my Lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law
-Shecaniah makes this agreement to free God's people from their sinfulness so that they could truly worship the Lord
-it was intersting that Shecaniah was the spokesman with this agreement...since his father married a pagan woman which would suggest that his mother was that woman...and if this agreement was met, then both his mother and he would have to leave
-sometimes the hard decisions are the ones that will free the people from the bondage of sin

IV. Prayer Produces a Proper Attitude

-verses 4& 5...suggest that Ezra displays the right attitude by not blasting the people for their sins...he instead prays for them
-when he looks up to heaven, they look up to heaven...his attitude was to pray...their attitude was to follow spiritual leadership
-prayer will cause sinners to follow leadership back to the feet of the Master

Sunday Stuff

2009-03-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

The Lord really showed up this past Sunday at the First Mount Zion Church. I know that has been my testimony for the last few weeks, but it is the "Gospel truth", the Spirit of the Lord has really been moving within the walls of the church and in the hearts of the people of God. I wish I could take credit for it through my preaching, or my worship, or my personality, but that would make me out to be both a liar and a glory hound.

The reason why the Spirit of the Lord has shown himself in our church for the last few weeks, greater than ever before, is totally because our God is a prayer answering God. I have really discovered that when God's people pray, God's power will appear! The congregation has become more engaged in study, in worship and in their expectation that God is getting ready to bless us tremendously.

Worship was outstanding once again as Jamal got the congregation ready for our worship in the Word of God.

We concluded our series on the book of Ezra which I tagged the series, Restoration and Rededication, with our closing message found in Ezra 10:1-5, which I labeled, Prayer Changes Things. Chapter 10 is a continuation of chapter 9, in that Ezra discovers that the people of God had begun the practice of engaging in marriage with pagan women. This act greatly disturbed Ezra, and he took his issue with the people's disobedience to the law of God to the Lord in prayer. Chapter 10 chronicles for us the results of God's anointed going to God on behalf of the people of God.

The reality is that when we pray for the Lord to fix that which is wrong with us, we will discover that prayer will indeed turn things around on our behalf. Fred Hammond sang a song, late in the midnight hour, God's gonna turn it around, it's gonna work in your favor. I do believe that as our church engages in prayer for the deliverance of our congregation, that prayer will turn things around for us.

This past weekend, I received the terrible and heart wrenching news that Dr. Cedric Britt of Fort Worth, TX went home to be with the Lord. Cedric Britt was one of the last of the nice guys in ministry. He was a great personality and a great preacher. The church community has been better because we have had Cedric Britt to dwell among us for a little while. Please keep his family and his church in your prayers.

Please keep me in your prayers this week, Saturday is 3 year anniversary that my Momma went to rest with Jesus.

A Prayer For Revival

2009-03-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

Text: Ezra 9:1-9

Thesis: whenever the people of God offer a sincere prayer for deliverance to God, God will always provide a powerful response to bring the dead back to life

I. God Will Never Desert Us

-verse 9...for we are slaves , yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery
-Ezra here celebrated the fact that God had delivered them from bondage to the Babylonians
-but he was distressed with the fact that although they were no longer slaves to Babylon, but now they were slaves to their sinfulness
-but in spite of their sins, God will never walk away from us

II. God Will Never Detest Us

-verse 9...but has extended to us his steadfast love before the Kings of Persia
-God did not show hatred towards Israel for their disobedience to them, but instead he gave them something they needed more...His love
-he did this before the Kings of Persia to tell them that although they allowed the children of Israel to return to Jerusalem, they were still under the control of the Lord

III. God Will Never Discard Us

-verse 9...to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins
-no matter how messed up we are, God will preserve us
-he preserves us so that we can do the Lord's work

a. Repair the House of God
b. Rebuild the Ruins

IV. God Will Never Endanger Us

-verse 9...and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem
-while the church is working to rebuild and repair the House of God, there will be no need to worry because the Lord will be our protector
-God will build a hedge of protection all around us

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVANTE JAMES

2009-03-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

Today is my youngest son's 14th birthday. I am so proud of "my baby". Please keep all of our sons in your prayers.

Sunday Stuff

2009-03-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

Who told the United States Congress to change the date for turning your clocks forward without telling me? For not only did it affect MY ability to get some much needed rest (LOL), but it affected our congregation from making it to church on time.

Penny and I got to church on time (thank God ) and we spent time together on our knees at the altar. Having time in communion and fellowship with the Master before worship is something that we both take very seriously to be the very mechanism that God will use to not only change the atmosphere at our church, but to also send the unchurched to the House of the Lord. It is starting to really catch on with the congregation, and my continued prayer to the Lord is that every member will deem it essential for them to get to the altar before worship themselves.

Penny began a new teaching series during Sunday School, as the Lord has led her to take our church back to the basics entitled How to Study God's Word. As she is centered on that, the Lord has led me to lead our church on Thursday Evening during Bible Study, to a new teaching series on the book of Revelation entitled Victory in Jesus. Both classes were well attended and the participation was great and encouraging that we are headed in the right direction. Please keep us in our prayers.

Again Jamal took us into the presence of the Lord during our Praise & Worship period. God is using this young man in a mighty way through his gift of singing. God has put an organ with a leslie speaker inside his throat and he is using it to the glory of God. Our music ministry was in rare form yesterday, as they accompanied me on a great old song of the church entitled Jesus Be a Fence All Around Me. I love those young men! They are not going anywhere!

We preached the next to last sermon of our series on the book of Ezra with an exposition on chapter 9:1-9 which I labeled A Prayer For Revival. The great scribe Ezra, after leading the people of God back into Jerusalem, noticed that the people were participating in intermarriages with the natives of the land, who were not devoted to the Lord. They were taking their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons. This practice troubled and grieved Ezra greatly, so much so that the bible says he tore his hair and his garments. So he goes into the temple during the evening sacrifice, and he begins to pray to the Lord to revive this dead people and lead them back to the Lord.

I dare say that many of our churches have allowed themselves to mixed the ways of the Lord with the ways of this world, and that has caused them to dilute their worship and be contrary to the will of God. We all need to pray that God can and will bring us all back into right relationship, fellowship and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How To Handle A Problematic Predicament

2009-03-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

Text: Ezra 8:15-20

Thesis: when faced with problems beyond our capabilities, God's anointing on our lives will lead us to victory

I. Recognize The Problem

-verse 15...I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped three days...as I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there non of the sons of Levi
-people deal with problems two ways...ignore the problem or attack the symptoms instead of the problem

a. not enough workers...Levites were called by God to assist the priests with the temple work and if there are no Levites, the priests would have to carry more of the load and take them away from primary responsibility

b. everyone was not on board...people were there to worship; priest were there to minister; but the Levites were not there to work

II. Respond With the Prescription

-verses 16-17 suggests that when faced with problems, there is a need to come up with right solutions
-solutions to problems are easy to come by, but the right solutions are difficult
-right solution was to send out for Levites

a. How he sent them...Ezra could have gone himself, but his responsibility was to seek, perform and teach God's will, by going out himself he would have taught them that he had to do everything for them to succeed

b. Who did he send...verse 16 says that 11 men were sent out...9 were called leading me or the most influential in the community...2 were called men of insight or intelligent men...God will use many different people to get his work done

c. They were sent with a plan...verse 17 says Ezra gave them very clear instructions...where to go, who to see and even what to say

III. Realize The Possibilities

-verses 18-20 suggests that we are to deal with problems by correctly identifying our successes
-he sends the 11 men to Casiphia, the place where the Levites lived, only 38 levites answered the call
-Ezra could have gotten angry but instead he thanked the Lord for putting his good hand on them
-and if the Lord only sent 38, then that was all that they needed

Sunday Stuff

2009-03-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful day in worship we had at the First Mount Zion Church on yesterday. There was a great feeling of anticipation from the moment I woke up in the morning. When we walked into the sanctuary, I couldn't wait to get to the altar for our early morning prayer. Again, I truly believe that during that set time of communion with the Lord at the altar is going to pay off real dividends for our church.

Penny again led a very spirited Sunday School class. The congregation is starting to become more interactive and participatory with her during class. Yesterday there were people engaged who never have said anything in a corporate setting since I have been here, yet they were completely into the subject matter. That class has spurred some in the congregation to ask for me classes on various topics, which is what I was hoping for. Thank God for progress!

Our praise and worship leader Jamal, returned to the church after having to be away for a little while to handle some personal issues that needed his immediate attention, and boy did I really miss him. He stepped right back into place and he flat out "killed" praise and worship. It was a much needed reprieve for me, as I have been leading the congregation with praise and worship, but that was really taking a great toll on my voice and energy level as a whole. I am so grateful that Jamal is back and I am going to turn him loose for real!

We continued our series on the book of Ezra, with an exposition of chapter 8:15-20, which I labeled the message, How to Handle a Problematic Predicament. For the great scribe and Hebrew scholar Ezra, had just been commissioned by King Artaxerxes, to lead God's people out of Babylon and return to worship the Lord in the newly rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. So as Ezra was leading 5000 Jews back to Jerusalem, he gets to the river called Ahava and stops in their tracks. For he does a quick inventory of the people in the camp, he notices that there were the people there, the priests were there, but there were no Levites in the camp.

This was a problem for them, because everyone had a role in the temple and without the Levites, a role was not going to be fulfilled. So Ezra sets out to show us how do we deal with our predicaments are problematic in verse 17 when he acknowledges that the good hand of the Lord was on them, and it is the anointing of God that gives us the ability to to deal with whatever problems that arise and occur. To often we attempt to handle issues with our own strength, but we must realize that our strength will not be able to withstand a spiritual situation. For Paul picked that up when he said that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12 ESV).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!

2009-02-26T11:51:00.000-08:00

Today would have been the 76th birthday of my momma, Hattie Louise Mann, but instead of celebrating with us down here, she is celebrating in perpetuity with Jesus Christ. Wow, what an exchange!

This day has been an extremely difficult one for me. The people who really know me, know that my momma was my heart. But I will say that the years have begun to soften the sting of her not being here so I am not a mess like I used to be and I owe it all to the goodness of the Lord.

An Anointed Worshipper

2009-02-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Text: Ezra 7:1-10

Thesis: an anointed worshipper places complete focus on God's will and our own will

Key Verse: v.10 - For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel

I. A Desire To Know God's Will

-For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord

a. his motivation in seeking the will and direction that God had for him was a matter of his heart
b. God communicates his will for his people through our hearts

II. A Determination To Do God's Will

-For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it

a. he determined to not only seek God's will but to practice and habitually exercise that which was revealed
b. commitment to the will of God is the foundation of a successful Christian lifestyle

III. A Demonstration of God's Will

-For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel

a. Ezra determined to teach others how to operate in the will of God through instructions and examples
b. Ezra determined to provoke the children of God into obeying the will of God

Sunday Stuff

2009-02-23T18:52:00.000-08:00

On yesterday, the Lord really showed up and showed out at the First Mount Zion Church. That was even more amazing to me, because Saturday night, I had the most uneasy feeling that I had not experienced in a real long time. It was not born out of some event, it was not really born out of a negative occurance that was monopolizing my thoughts. But this was such a mysterious feeling that I just could not figure out. I told Penny before falling asleep, that this feeling was not recognizable.

But early Sunday morning, I got to the church and made a beeline to the altar for our early morning prayer, and the Lord revealed to me exactly what that uneasy feeling was. All throughout this relocation project, I have allowed my concern for both the project and the church, to consume me to the point that I am constantly worried about each and every aspect of the project and our church. And that uneasy feeling was my ingrained concern for everything, and it was God's way of telling me to focus on ministry, and let the Lord do the rest. When I told the church about my revelation, our Minister of Music, Kadeem Turner, began playing Let Go by Dwayne Woods, and these words really stayed in my spirit: as soon as I stopped worrying, worrying how the story ends, I let go and I let God, let God have his way.

I want to be clear that my exposing this experience to you is only because I want to be as transparent as I can. For too many of our co-laborers in this Gospel ministry, put up fronts like they have it all together and that everything is going well with them, when the truth of the matter is they are catching hell just like anyone else, they are under attack from the enemy, and their situations are not as great as they make it sound like. I want to help somebody deal with the same stuff that I am going through, so that they can know that God is still working it out for his servants. GOD BE PRAISED!!!

We continued our series on the book of Ezra, with an exposition on chapter 7:1-10, but keying in on verse 10, which I tagged the sermon An Anointed Worshipper. It was 60 years since the temple was completed in chapter 6 and Ezra showing up on the scene in chapter 7. This man Ezra the scribe, was commissioned by Artaxerxes King of Persia, to lead 5000 Jews who were in exile in Babylonia, back to Jerusalem. Ezra realized that just walking back into the temple was not enough and they needed to rededicate their lives to the worship of the most high God. Verse 9 tells us that God gave Ezra all of the qualifications that he needed to lead the people back to worship, the good hand of the Lord was on him. God anointed Ezra to be a worshipper and to lead others into a lifestyle of worship. It is the job of the church to understand that God's hands are on us, and we have been anointed to worship God and lead others to the same worship. I will post the outline tomorrow.

They Finished The Temple

2009-02-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

Text: Ezra 6:1-22

Thesis: we rejoice knowing that it is God's awesome power that has brought us to the point of finishing what we have started

Phil. 1:6...he that has begun a good work shall carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ

I. God Will Provide For His Work

a. God provided substantiation for the project (v. 1-3)
b. God provided support for the project (v. 4-5, 8)

II. God Will Progress His Work

-God's work will always get done no matter the opposition

a. God will fix our minds (v. 14)
b. God will further our mission (v. 14)

III. God Will Throw A Party to Celebrate His Work

a. Celebrate with a great praise (v. 16)
b. Celebrate with a great presentation (v. 17)
c. Celebrate with a great participation (v. 17) all 12 tribes made this sacrifice

Sunday Stuff

2009-02-16T14:40:00.000-08:00

As I entered the sanctuary on yesterday to prepare for Sunday School and worship, I had a great sense of appreciation that the Lord chose me to be the Pastor of His people at this branch of Zion. Not because we have a great and large membership, because we do not. Not because we have a plethora of ministries that has our church overflowing with things going on every day of the week, because we do not. But I had this sense of appreciation because God chose me to lead His people, when he could have chosen anyone other than me, because the truth is that I do not deserve to receive any kind of blessings that the Lord provides for me.

I realize that many of us complain about our situations, Lord knows I am guilty of that, but when you really consider all of the evidence, we have no other recourse but to lift up hands of gratitude to a merciful and wonderful Master, who chose us to lead His people in spite of us.

Penny again, did an outstanding job in Sunday School, and what I am loving about it most of all, is the participation that the congregation puts into the class when she is teaching. That tells me that they are engaged and want to grow into great disciples of the Lord. God be praised!!!

We had some special visitors yesterday. One of my armor bearers, Karriem Ali, some years ago, was diagnosed with Leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. He received this transplant from a Christian man who lives in Hartford, CT. As a result of this procedure, the two of them and their families have maintained a wonderful relationship, which culminated in the man coming down from Hartford to worship with Karriem on yesterday. It moved me greatly as we in the church have no problem promoting church fights, pastor troubles and things of the such, but when a person who loves the Lord, gives of himself to save the life of another, and still maintains a relationship with each other, God truly deserves to be praised.

We continued our series on the book of Ezra, with an exposition on the 6th chapter, which I tagged, They Finished the Temple. Here the Jews had just survived an attack by Tattenai, with his letter to King Darius telling him to stop them from rebuilding the temple of God. The Jews did not stop but they finished what they started and rejoiced because they realized that it was the Lord who brought them through this opposition to complete the work that the Lord called them to do. We must realize that whatever we complete as a ministry and as a child of God, we only make it because the Lord will bring us over and bring us through. I can't wait until we can celebrate when we finish our temple that will be built for the Master.

Determination of a Devoted Church

2009-02-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

Text: Ezra 5:1-17

Thesis: God's people must commit themselves to the completion of the work of God despite the challenges produced by their enemies

I. A Devoted Church Works Together

- if any church is going to successfully complete the work of the Lord it must be done by people who are willing to work together

a. Priests must be willing to work (v. 1) - Haggai and Zechariah prophesied to the Jews

b. People must be willing to work (v. 2) - Zerubbabel and Jeshua began to work on the building

II. A Devoted Church Withstands Turbulence

-after 15 years of inactivity between chapters 4 & 5, the Jews began working on the temple once again
-while they were inactive there was no opposition, but as soon as the work began again, opposition arose

-verses 3-4 Tattenai asks them who gave them permission to work on the temple and what are the names of them that are working

a. church that keeps working will endure trouble from their enemies
b. church with confidence in the watchful eye of the Lord will endure trouble

III. A Devoted Church Wants to Triumph

-verses 6-10 Tattenai writes a letter of rebuke to King Darius complaining about the work
-the Jews responded in verses 11-15 to their letter with their own letter with explaining that they are under orders by God through King Cyrus
-verse 16 they realize that they cannot celebrate until they complete the temple

Sunday Stuff

2009-02-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a day in worship at the First Mount Zion Church had this past Sunday. God is truly faithful for the atmospheric change in houses that are determined to worship and work for Him. Our early morning prayer was great, our Sunday School class was outstanding, which sparked a new emphasis for our bible class. For in days such as these, when the ills of society have begun to make people think more and more about their own mortality, there is a great need to study intently in a classroom setting, the great book of Revelation. So beginning in March, we will do an exhaustive and extensive study as a congregation on Revelation. Please pray for our church and this effort to grow stronger in the knowledge of the Lord.

We continued our exposition on the book of Ezra entitled Restoration and Rededication, with our study of Ezra chapter 5:1-17 which I tagged the Determination of a Devoted Church. Here in chapter 5, the children of Israel had just experienced severe opposition to their work on the temple in chapter 4, and 15 years of inactivity had just passed, where the Jews focused on making their own houses look nice at the expense of the House of God. It was then after 15 years, they decided to get back to work on rebuilding the temple for the Lord. they became determined to never let their opposition keep them from doing the Lord's work. God is looking for a people that is willing to stand firm against their enemies and complete the Lord's work no matter the cost. I will post the outline on tomorrow.

Our church has also taken a hit this week with extended members of our church family going home to be with the Lord. One was a senior who lived a long and fulfilling life, and the other was the tragic death of a 24 year old woman at her office. We have two homegoing services back to back this week, our church and myself really needs your prayers to assist us in making it through this tough time.

I have not opined about sports lately in my posts, but after an extremely difficult 6 game road trip out east, which began with the horrific injury to my New Jersey brother, Andrew Bynum, and finishing the trip with games against the Celtics and the Cavaliers, mixed with a 61 point game in Madison Square Garden by Kobe Bryant, the Lakers have made the statement that even withouth Bynum, they are the BEST TEAM in the NBA bar none! This is the most exciting year in basketball since the glory days of Jordan, Pippen and the Bulls. And with Alex Rodriguez' admission of steroids and the end of football season, we all had better begin appreciating the greatness of this NBA season. Can't wait!

Dealing With Distractions

2009-02-03T08:21:00.000-08:00

This past Lord's Day, was really a good day at the First Mount Zion Church. I have noticed the mood and atmosphere of the church change for the better, ever since I began our time in early morning prayer. It makes a statement to our church, when they walk into church before Sunday School, the first thing they saw was my wife Penny and I on our knees at the altar. I believe with everything in my heart, this is going to be the very thing that will jump-start our ministry as we head towards our new location.

Penny did her usually outstanding job teaching our Sunday School class on evangelism. I am amazed at her ability to take the scholarly aspects of the Word and make it palatable to people who have never been students of the scriptures. I am grateful to have such a partner in ministry like her. The truth is that she really wants to only be the First Lady, but because of need, she has to wear other hats. What I am truly thankful for is her spirit of cooperation to get our church moving in the right direction.

We continued our series on the book of Ezra, entitled Restoration and Rededication, with an exposition on chapter 4:1-5, which I tagged the message, Dealing With Distractions. The children of Israel came back into Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God in his name, and they were faced with opposition from the inhabitants of the city in an attempt to distract them from the work.

Every church that belongs to Jesus Christ will face an attempt to distract them from doing the Lord's work by our common enemy, Satan. The church succeeds in doing the Lord's work is dependent upon standing up to the devil and finishing what we have started. Here is the sermon outline:

Text: Ezra 4:1-5

Thesis: we handle satanic distractions by our willingness to stand tall in the face of our enemy and finish what we started

I. Recognize Your Enemy's Description

-verse 1...now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin
-no way to effectively do the Lord's work until we recognize who our enemies are

II. Recognize Your Enemy's Deception

-verse 2...they approached Zerubbabel and the head of fathers' houses and said to them; let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do
-their offer of help was kind, but their motive was demonic
-must recognize that Satan is cunning in his attempts to gain our confidence only to hinder our ability to do God's work

III. Respond to Your Enemy With Strong Denial

-verse 3...but Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the heads of the fathers' houses said to them, you have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God
-when the enemy tries to deceive you, you must come back at him with a powerful rebuke
-God is looking for his people to fight off the advances of the devil with the power provided by the Holy Spirit

III. Recognize Your Enemy's Determination

-verses 4-5 says that even though the enemy was rebuked, they kept coming back to hinder the work
-we must realize that our enemies will not limit their attempts to just one...but they will keep trying to stop the agents of the Lord
-but the more determination they have, the more determined we must be because we have something they don't have...Jesus Christ...as long as we have Jesus he's more than enough

Doing A Good Work

2009-01-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

Text: Ezra 3:8-13

Thesis: Whenever the people of God places their total focus on the fulfillment of the divine plan of God they we realize they are doing a good work

I. Wisdom of the Work
-verse 8...now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, they began to supervise the work of the house of the Lord
-the wisdom of the work is that as soon as the season permitted, they began the work on the foundation of the temple
-it is wise to begin God's work when the season permits because seasons can and will change

II. Weight of the Work

-verse 9...and Jeshua with is sons and his brothers and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers
-acknowledging the necessity is not enough, somebody needs to carry the weight of the workload

a. those who initiated the work...Jeshua, Kadmiel and the sons of Judah were supervisors...there must be leaders in every work project for the Lord

b. those who implemented the work...sons of Henadad and the Levites...there must be workers who follow the supervision of the leaders

III. Worship in the Work

-verse 10...and when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Asaph with cymbals to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David King of Israel
-verses 1-7 tell us that worship must come before work...verses 8-13 tell us that we must worship while we are working
-jsut because the work begins doesn't mean everything will run smoothly...we need to worship while we work to keep our focus on the Lord

Why did they worship?
a. God is good...verse 11 they are repeating the refrain from Ps. 136...God is good for his steadfast love endures forever
-psalter writes this to encourage Israel to praise God for the wonderous works that nobody but God could have done

b. foundation is finished...verse 11...and all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord becasue the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid
-when the work is complete, praise God that he allowed you to finish what you have started

IV. Wonder of the Work

-verses 12-13...when the priests, Levites and the old men who had seen the first house, saw the foundation of the new house, they shouted with joy...so greatly that no one could differentiate the weeping from the shouting
-when we walk into our new house built for the Lord...the older saints who remember the first house, will weep and rejoice because they will be amazed at the things that God has done for us

Sunday Stuff

2009-01-26T09:31:00.000-08:00

Worship yesterday at the First Mount Zion Church was one of the best times in praise to the Lord in a very long time. I do not attribute it to anything that I have done save our time in prayer before worship begins. A few weeks ago, I began something that I should have done a long time ago, I walk into the sanctuary before our Sunday School begins and I am at the altar in prayer, so that when the congregation walks in, the first thing that they see is their Pastor on his knees talking to the Lord. What I have discovered is that since I made this move, the spiritual atmosphere of our church has gone up tremendously.

We worshipped yesterday in a way that made the moment of preaching easier than it had been in a long time. Praise & Worship was off the chain! The moment of collective prayer was stirring and spirit-filled! God Be Praised!!!

Something outstanding happened before I preached, the Chairman of Trustee Ministry, John Rich, made an announcement that one of our members, Kareem Ali and his wife Josephine, prepared a dinner for our church in appreciation for the Pastor and First Lady for all of the hard work that we have done with the relocation project. I must admit, that I went in! Sometimes we as Pastors, who don't have a large congregation, feel somewhat unappreciated for work that you put in. I want to state up front, that nothing I do as a Pastor, is done for the approval of man, but rather for the glorification of God. But the human side of all of us would love for people to recognize our efforts to make things better for the church. And to receive an act of love from members really make me feel like things are starting to turn around for the better. I truly have only the Lord to thank for that.

We continued our series on the book of Ezra, with an exposition on chapter 3:8-13, which I labeled Doing A Good Work. For here are the returnees to Jerusalem, as they get back to the exact place where the first temple stood, and they built an altar so that they could worship God before the work began. They began the work on laying the foundation for the temple and in the process, they realized that what they were doing, was a good work for the Master. As our church prepares to relocate and restore a temple for the Lord, it is important for us to understand that whatever we are doing for the Master, it is a good work. I will post the outline tomorrow.

It Begins At The Altar

2009-01-21T12:11:00.000-08:00

Text: Ezra 3:1-7

Thesis: our sincere and dedicated worship to God must always precede out intended work for God

I. Worship in the Face of Fear

-verse 3...they set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening

-fear of man should never restrict us from worshipping the Lord

a. contentious worship - verse 3...the fact that they decided to worship before they went to work angered the inhabitants of the land

b. continuous worship - verse 3...burnt offerings morning and evening

II. Worship That is Synchronized with Scritpture

-verse 4...and they kept the Feast of the Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule as each day required

-every aspect of our worship must walk in line with the Word of God

a. Instinctive Worship - verse 4...and they kept the Feast of the Booths as it is written
-they kept the feasts that had been passed down from generation to generation...there are some aspects of our worship that we perform by instinct

b. Intended Worship - verse 5...and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offerings to the Lord
-instinctive worship is not enough...we must be willing to go the extra mile and give more in our worship

III. Worship That Makes Preparation for Production

-verses 6 & 7...states that work did not begin until the worship ended

Sunday/Monday Stuff

2009-01-19T16:15:00.000-08:00

I would like to explain the infrequency of my posts lately. Our church's relocation project has ventured towards what I feel to be the home stretch, and the need for my complete participation on every aspect, has taken the majority of my time, along with my sermon preparation for our series on the book of Ezra.

Speaking of the new series, the book of Ezra is shaping up to be the most challenging series of my pastoral ministry. Not just because of the difficulty in the exposition of the text, but also because our church is dealing with the same issues that the children of Israel faced during this time in history.

Yesterday, the Lord allowed us to deal with Ezra 3:1-7 in which I labeled the message, It Begins At The Altar. Over 42, 000 remnants of the 12 tribes, returns to Jerusalem under the orders of Cyrus, king of Persia, who received a charge from the Lord to build God a house. But when they got to the site where the Temple was and will be, they built an altar and worshipped. The point is that before any work could be done on the temple, they realized that worship to the Lord must come first. In other words, work cannot begin until the worship ends. This message is designed to encourage our church to rededicate our selves to a life that is filled with worship to a Holy God.

Today is a day that each and every one of us should focus on what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life has meant to us. What I have noticed about mainstream America and the media is that they have attempted to limit him to one speech that he gave in 1963 in Washington D.C. which many have called the I Have A Dream speech. The reality of that speech is the part about the dream was not in his prepared text. His speech was about economic equality for our people, that was clearly stated in his initial remark that the black man in America has received a check from America that has been stamped insufficient funds. It was not until Mahalia Jackson leaned over and told Dr. King to tell the people about the dream, did that speech soar into the lofty skies of historical wonder.

Dr. King was more than just a speechwriter or speech-giver, but firstly, he was a preacher. There have not been anyone in the history of this country, black or white, who could put together a better message on the Holy Writ. He was not just a dreamer, but he was a servant who went to work to make a change for black and poor whites in this country. I thank God for sending us Martin King.

Building God A Kingdom

2009-01-13T07:48:00.000-08:00

Text: Ezra 2:1-70

Thesis: God will use people will many differences who express a willingness to work for Him to build Him a kingdom

I. Leaders Came To Work

-verse 2

II. Laymen Came To Work

-verses 3-35

III. Lord's Ministers Came To Work

-verses 36-58

a. Called Because of Lineage - verses 36-40...priests and Levites were born into position

b. Called Because of Labor - verses 41-42...singers, praisers and ushers were called to position because of their gifts

c. Called Because of Love - verses 43-58...Nethinims (dedicated temple servants) and children of Solomon servants were called because of grace

IV. Leftovers Came To Work

-verses 59-70...collection of characters who couldn't prove their lineage, but had a desire to work for the Master

On yesterday I was filling extremely stressed and a little down about this project and other ministry issues. Just when I was at a real low point, I was driving to our Baptist Ministers Conference and stopped at a red light behind a white delivery truck, that had printed on the back door words that lifted me up from what I was dealing with. On the door of this truck was written John 3:16, and as Pastor H.B. Charles said in a sermon on John 3:16, it has enough Gospel in their to save the whole world, and to lift up a bowed down head.

So to any of you in the world of blog have been feeling down and depressed about ministry and the church, just take one moment and remember that God loves you! Hey!!!! Just writing that is making me shout!!! God loves you!!!! He loves you enough that he gave you the very best that he had!!! Thank God for Jesus Christ!!!

The Road to Restoration

2009-01-05T12:21:00.000-08:00

Text: Ezra 1:1-11

Thesis: our road to restoration is directly and intrinsically connected to the sovereign will of God to always keep his promises

I. Purpose of the Promise

-verses 2-4...God expresses the promise that he made to Jeremiah is filled with the purpose that he has for the children of Israel
-their purpose was to build God a house in Jerusalem

1. God presents his purpose to anybody - he charges Cyrus to build a house
2. God reveals his purpose to everybody - verse 3 he appeals to everyone

II. Performance of the Promise

-verses 5-6...suggests that we must be willing to walk in our purpose to allow the promise to be fulfilled

1. learn to work with limited resources - verse 5...he made the call to all 12 tribes but only Judah, Benjamin and the Levites answered the call
2. learn to give God all that you have - verse 6

III. Prize in the Promise

-verses 7-11 suggests that when you walk in the purpose that God has for you in order to fulfill his promises, you shall receive a reward

1. unorthodox origin - verses 7-8...God uses Cyrus to be a blessing to the returning Jews
2. substantial sufficiency - verses 9-11...God gives them everything that they need to be stable financially

A New Series

2009-01-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

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.

End of Year Message

2008-12-27T21:32:00.000-08:00

We have finally made it to the last Lord's Day of 2008, and I can honestly say that this has been one of the most interesting years that I have ever experienced as a Pastor. I will reserve an assessment of 2008 post hopefully for New Year's Eve. As our church heads towards our new destination, I asked the Lord to lead me fully in what to say to the church regarding the future of our ministry.

God led me to prepare a message housed in Genesis 12, which I will label the message "Courage For the Call". My aim for this message is to express to the church how God is expecting us to respond to his directive of leaving our familiar territory and move towards a place that will be both foreign and difficult, but God is the great equalizer in any and every situation that possess tough and difficult terrain. As a matter of fact, I subscribe to that great songwriter who said, have you any river that seems uncrossable, and have you any mountain that you cannot tunnel through...God specializes in things that appear impossible...and HE WILL DO, what no other power can do.

Please keep the exposition of the Word, the reception of church and the fullness of the worship at the First Mount Zion Church this morning. I am praying that God will allow us to send off 2008 with a bang and begin the process of welcoming in 2009 with great anticipation that God is ready, willing and able to bring a wonderful new start to the rich legacy of our church. God Be Praised!!!

Closing Out Acts 2

2008-12-17T10:06:00.000-08:00

This past Lord's Day, we closed out our series on the model church, housed in Acts 2, which I called the series Created For A Community. The overall purpose of preaching this series is to show our church the how and why God created his church in the first place. And the Lord led me, as we prepare to begin a new and exciting phase of our ministry, to re-establish to the church, that God created His church to become a community for Him.

It was after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, that 120 of his chosen believers, on the Day of Pentecost, they were in one place and on one accord, when the Holy Ghost showed up and fell on them. This caused them to be able to speak in the languages of those who were present from other lands, the wonderful works of God. This Spirit-led occurrence caused unbelievers to make the claim that the disciples were drunk with new wine. Peter spoke with power that they were not drunk as they supposed, but they were recipients of a great outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Peter preached the first evangelical sermon of the church and the Lord added 3000 souls that day to the church.

Now at the end of the chapter in verses 42-47, Peter tells the people that after salvation and baptism comes the fellowship of the believers. And God is looking for a people that will look past their differences and silly hangups and decade long feuds, to work to build God a kingdom through the fellowship of his people. Here is the sermon outline:

Title: Oh What A Fellowship
Text: Acts 2:42-47

Thesis: a determined church in fellowship is a destined church to accomplish great things

I. Fellowship in the Word

-verse 42...and they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers
-this word devoted means to be addicted...they were addicted to the doctrines of the apostles which is the Word of God

a. Communion with each other...to the breaking of bread
b. Communication with God...and the prayers

II. Fellowship in their Worship

-verses 43-44...and awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles...and all who believed were together and had all things in common
-every child of God needs to spend time in worship for the many things that God has done in our lives

a. Our admiration for God...and awe...means to acknowledge the greatness of the presence of God...Ps. 145:3...great is the Lord and greatly to be praised

b. Our Attention to God...and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles...the Spirit fell on the apostles and they were able to perform miracles...which are not used to bring attention to men, but rather attention to the Master

c. Our Actions For God...verse 45...and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need...the church is required to meet the needs of God's people

III. Fellowship in their Witness

-verse 46...and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with gland and generous hearts
-when they received the power of the Holy Ghost, they didn't sit on their blessed assurances, but rather they went from house to house spreading the good news of Jesus Christ
-verse 47 says that if we do these things in fellowship, God will increase the numbers of the church day by day those who were being saved...GOD BE PRAISED!!!

Responding to the Gospel

2008-12-09T18:30:00.000-08:00

Text: Acts 2:37-41

Thesis: the people of God must guide new believers of the word of God towards the ways of God so that the will of God can be a blessing to the people of God

I. Gospel Brings A Point of Change

-verse 38...and Peter said to them, Repent
-true repentance is turning away from sin and towards Jesus Christ
-true repentance involves more than fear of of the penalty of sin, it also includes hatred for the nature of sin

II. Gospel Brings a Public Conversion

-verse 38...repent and be baptized
-in ancient days, baptism was a public event
-Peter wanted a public conversion to distinguish real conversion of Jews from fake conversions

a. Forgiveness granted - for the forgiveness of sins
b. Free gift - and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit

III. Gospel Brings A Purposed Call

-verses 39-40...it is the job of every believer to lead others away from the ways of the world towards the ways of Christ
-one of the main problems in the church is seeing ones friends heading toward destruction and watching them fail
-the danger of allowing someone to go towards destruction, their blood will be on our hands

IV. Gospel Produces A Great Congregation

-verse 41...so those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3000 souls
-this is a word to dispel the notion that our preaching acumen...eloquent speech...letters before and after our names...beautiful buildings...music ministries are responsible for souls being added to the church
-only because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that causes men and women to leave the forces of Satan and cling to the blessings of God

Sunday Stuff - 12/7/08

2008-12-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a day in worship with the people of God basking in the presence of God. We had an amazing day in worship at the First Mt. Zion Church. The Lord was in the place all morning long and the congregation was blessed immensely because of it. Every once in a while, each of us will experience a day that causes us to be mindful why we answered the call from the Lord. It all began for me on Saturday. I was in my family room testing out my new surround sound system (Spoon, you are not the only "techie" in the group) and decided to put in a DVD of one of my favorite preachers in this country, Dr. Maurice Watson, from the 2005 Hampton's Ministers Conference, and he blessed me tremendously when he told them that many Pastors spend too much time comparing our ministries to that of other Pastors. He said that God will not bless your ministry to be great until you begin to appreciate for where God has placed you at this present time. At that moment, the Lord spoke to me about the future of our church and I was convicted to stop looking at where I was not and begin thanking God for where I am because the truth is that I do not deserve anything that I have, but for the grace of God. Thank you much Maurice Watson!

It continued during our Sunday School period, as my wife Penny, led the congregation in our season of Evangelism, and let me tell you, she flat out killed everything in the room. I am grateful to have a prayerful and intense student of the scriptures by my side in ministry. She has served as the Director of Christian Education both at her home church and at my first assignment and she has shown a wonderful gift at explaining the scriptures in ways that are easy for the people to understand. The mood in class was spiritual and it re-energized the congregation to help reach out to unbelievers and bring them to Jesus. God Be Praised!!

This spiritual mood poured over into our worship as the music was inspirational and the Lord allowed us to have some power to preach an exposition out of Acts 2:37-41 which I labeled, Responding to the Gospel. For Peter preached the first evangelical sermon to the people who would make up the first church. After they heard the gospel they responded in a way that each one of us should respond when we hear the truth of the Gospel...verse 37 says that the Jews asked Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? The proper response to hearing the Gospel preached is, what shall we do now that we have heard what God wants from us. One of the problems with the church is that when unbelievers are stimulated to accept Christ after hearing the Gospel, the church just lets them exist to figure the rest out for themselves. But this text shows us that it is the responsibility of the people of God to lead new believers towards the ways of God, so that the will of God will be a blessing to the people of God. God blessed them in verse 41, so those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3000 souls. In other words, if the church does its part and guide new believers to the way, God will do his part and grow his church. Wow what an awesome concept! I will post the outline tomorrow if God says so.

An Uncompromising Church

2008-12-03T17:36:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day is without question my favorite holiday, and not because of what many might think (smile), but because I grew up in a relatively close and large family, and we all got together every turkey day. But as we grew older, we all got our own families and other friends, so we kind of grew apart, so this is the reason why Penny and I make Thanksgiving real special in our house. But while personally it is a great time for me, as a Pastor, holidays are kind of tough, for it is difficult for many of us to leave those great and famous leftovers to come to worship on Sunday.

But despite of those concerns about the attendence, I was excited and ready to preach and continue our series on Acts 2, which has been tagged, Created For A Community, with our study of verses 22-36, adnd I labeled the message An Uncompromising Church. It is my contention that the church of Jesus Christ as a whole is guilty of allowing the message of the Church to become compromised by the ways of the world. As a matter of fact, if someone were to put the church on the witness stand to give testimony of our ability to remain faithful to the message of the church, the overwhelming evidence would cause every jury in the world would have no choice but to find us guilty as charged.

Evidence such as allowing the world to dictate who and what we are instead of the church transforming the world. Evidence such as when many of us preach to our members that our relationship with the Master is expressed through the condition of their finances, and if they are not wealthy and prosperous according to the standards of the world, then something is inheritantly wrong with their relationship with Christ.

But God, in his divine wisdom, has provided for us what our message should be and how we can continue to be an uncompromising church. Acts 2, tells the story of 120 of God's chosen people, are in one place and on one accord, and the Holy Ghost showed up and allowed them to speak the wonderul works of God in their own native language. The people said that they were drunk with new wine, and Peter with that infamous boldness, says that despite their mocking of us, we will not cease from giving them the true message of the church. He says that our job is to tell this world about a man named Jesus. That's the message that each church must not compromise with...we must preach Jesus. Here is the sermon outline:

Thesis: A Church that refuses to compromise its message to the world is a church that will always be effective in the world

I. Persona of Christ

-verse 22...Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works, and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourself know

a. existence of Christ - Jesus of Nazareth
b. extinction of Christ - verse 23...this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men
c. exchange of Christ - verse 24...God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it

II. Purpose of Christ

-verses 25-32...Peter moves to the reason why Jesus came to earth in the first place...to be the Messiah the world was waiting for
-Peter uses the words of David out of Ps. 16:8-11 to prophetically tell how Jesus stayed with his purpose even in the face of suffering

a. security of God - verse 25...I say the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand...for the right hand means God is our protector
b. support of God - verses 27-30...means that his confidence is not in David but his confidence is in the Lord

III. Praise of Christ

-verse 33...being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing
-the Father praised the Son and lifted him to a high place in the Kingdom
-if we lift Jesus, he will draw men

Friday Focus - 11/28/08

2008-11-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

Hello blog family! Please forgive me for my absence, this past week has really been a busy one for me since the last time I made a post to my blog. Before I get to my week, let me express my sincere appreciation for all of the positive, spiritual comments that many of you left on my last comment. I want to express my appreciation to a couple real good friends, H.B. Charles for his godly advice about the tenor and tone of my friday focuses, and Keith Witherspoon for reminding me that I am able to be transparent without being angry. Thank you both for being true friends.

I was blessed to be in attendance for the homegoing celebration for a wonderful woman, Wynona Pearl Hutchinson, who is the mother of my Pastor, Joe A. Carter, held at the Fairview Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, OK, where Dr. John A. Reed Jr. is the Pastor. My travel was adventerous to say the least. Flying on United Airlines to Chicago O'Hare Airport is not something that I would recommend to anyone with any thoughts of being happy. My flight from Newark was 22 minutes late which caused me to miss my connecting flight, which is really fortunate because even if I would have made that flight my luggage did not make the plane, which means that I would have made it to OKC but my luggage would have stayed in Chicago...NOT COOL! The airlines wanted to redirect me to Denver and then to OKC, but that is entirely too much flying. So they got me on an American Airlines flight direct into OKC with my luggage in tow.

The funeral services was outstanding, with a lot of Pastors showed up from all around the country to support Pastor Carter. Wynona's Pastor, Claude White, Greater Faith Church, Waukegan, IL preached an outstanding message out of Psalms 92 which he tagged the Nature of Righteousness. This was a very difficult time to preach for him, but the Lord showed up and brought him through. My flight back home was without incident and I made it home with my luggage safe and sound.

This past Lord's Day, I continued our series on Acts 2 which I call Created For A Community, with an exposition on verses 12:21 which I tagged How to Handle An Attack On God's Church. For the disciples were present on the Day of Pentecost, in one place and on one accord, allowing themselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that they can preach to those who were present the wonderful works of God in their native languages, fulfilling their purpose for existing. It is at this point that the enemy sends an attack on the people of God, when they are accused to being drunk with new wine. Peter responds to this attack in the same way that we should respond when our churches are attacked, Peter responded with boldness. God is not looking for scary Christians or punk Christians, but he is looking instead for bold Christians. Here is the sermon outline:

Thesis: whenever God's Church is under attack, the people of God must respond with boldness

I. Expelled Their Report of the Spirit

-verse 14...men of Judea adn all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words
-verse 15...these men are not drunk as you supposed

II. Explained the Remarkablility of Spirit

-verse 16...but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel
-verse 17...and in the last days it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams
-verse 18...even on my male servants and female servants
-when the Spirit shows up it is remarkable in that the world will not understand what it is when it comes

a. Purpose of the Spirit - uttered through the prophet Joel...the purpose of the Spirit is to be the fulfillment of prophesy

b. Promise of the Spirit - verse 17...the spirit will not discriminate on who it will fall upon

1. Gender - sons and daughters shall prophesy
2. Age - young men shall see visions; old men shall dream dreams
3. Status - male servants and female servants

c. Power of the Spirit - verses 19-20...Peter tells of all of the things that the Spirit will be able to do for us

III. Exposed the Reality of the Spirit

-verse 21...and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
-Peter exposes the truth of the Gospel story...whoever calls on the name of the Lord, no matter your past, shall receive the gift of salvation

Friday Focus - 11/21/08

2008-11-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of weeks, I have endeavored on these Fridays, to write posts that have an emphasis on many of the issues that we as Pastors face in our day to day walk in ministry. I previously dealt with the issue of charging other churches a set fee in order for us to preach there. And I also dealt with the issue of how handle problems with deacons, trustees and other lay leaders in our churches who attempt lead us instead of being led by us. I will say that both issues have garnered some good responses from my fellow bloggers.

However, I received a phone call this past week from a person who's opinion I value tremendously, who had read both of those Friday posts and they gave me some sound, Godly advice that I want to share with all of you.

I wrote those posts with the thought that they were for fellow Pastors and Preachers as we face the various difficulties in ministry. But what my friend explained to me was that not only do Pastors and Preachers read our blogs, but we all have members who read our blogs, and subsequently they read our friend's blogs as well. And when we use our blogs as a vehicle to vent about the problems we may be having in our churches, it may cause our members to think that all we do is complain about them.

I want to share with each of you, that it is a privilege and not a right that God has chosen us to lead his people, and the reality is that we lead the people by permission. They really don't have to listen to the voice of God and follow what we say God is telling us to tell them, and I don't want anybody's members or my own to think that all of them are grouped in with the distinct few that decide to be contrary to our leadership.

I believe that this blog can and will be a blessing to both the body of Christ and the ambassadors of Christ both at the same time. So I have decided to use these Friday Focuses to be an encouragement to my brothers and sisters in the faith and not as a tool to get even with people who have failed to heed the voice of God. My complete goal with these posts was to share some of my pitfalls in ministry and be as transparent as possible so that we all can learn from each other on how to make it in times such as these.

So I ask for both your forgiveness and your patience as I attempt to be faithful to my assignment in being a blessing to you and not blowing off steam. I love each and every one of you and I pray that we will allow even the mistakes that we commit to help us become better Pastors, Preachers, leaders and most of all Christians in these last and evil days.

Until we meet again, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may he make his face to shine upon you, may he lift his countenance upon you, may he be gracious to you, which is to give you his divine favor, may he grant you his peace and may this peace be with you until we all meet again.

GOD BE PRAISED!!!

Speaking @ Mount Calvary BC, Jersey City, NJ

2008-11-19T08:37:00.000-08:00

Last night I had the expressed privilege of preaching for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Preaching for one of my good friends in the ministry, Pastor Barron O. Wilson, who leads the Mount Calvary Church where his father Pastored for many years before him. Pastor Wilson is somebody's preacher! He has a heart for people that allows him to reach into the very consciousness of people, to help them see where they truly belong in the Kingdom of God.

There have been many times when I have gone to him for counsel and he has never failed to provide for me the right information and methods that I needed at that time. It was during my first year of preaching and the invitations were few and far between, when Pastor Wilson invited me to stand in his pulpit and present to the people God put him over, my convictions about Jesus Christ. And ever since that day, he has been a big part of my life and my ministry.

I wanted to deal with something that was not a common text for a Pastor's Anniversary. I lifted a great text from Exodus 3:13-14, which I tagged the Remedy For Our Inadequacies. The reality is that no matter who you are, all of us have experienced a real sense of being inadequate on this journey. It matters not if you have been in ministry for 50 years or 5 minutes, there comes a time in our lives where we feel like we just don't measure up to this awesome task that God has presented for us. Moses, that great emancipator, felt the same way while on the backside of a Midianite desert, he hears a voice crying out from a burning bush, telling him to go into Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let God's people go. Moses replied who is he to go and tell this deified being anything, God replied to him, five of the greatest words ever recorded in verse 14, I AM WHO I AM (ESV). Here is the sermon skeleton:

Thesis: our sucess as servants of God rest totally in our complete trust that during moments of inadequacies God will make up the difference

I. Trust in the Evidence of His Existence

-I AM...this phrase literally is defined to mean God is self-existent
-Pharaoh considered himself to be the direct descendent of the Egyptian sun god Rah...in which he feels that he exists because the sun god exists
-God tells Moses to tell Pharaoh that while he needs the sun to exists, the sun needs God to exist
-how do we know God exists:

a. scripture states it
b. scenery suggests it
c. spirit senses it

II. Trust in the Presence of His Personality

-I AM WHO
-God's personality is expressed to many different people in different ways

III. Trust in the Awesomeness of his Authority

-I AM WHO I AM
-God's has the power to accomplish any and everything

Please pray for the family of my Pastor, Joe A. Carter, who are dealing with the loss of their beloved mother Wynona Hutchinson, who went home to be with Jesus on last night. She was an extraordiarily strong woman who survived plenty of heartache in her life, to exemplify what it means to be a wife, mother and a woman of God.

Fulfilling Our Purpose

2008-11-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

Text: Acts 2:5-11

Thesis: The role of God's Church is to provide for this world a glimpse of the greatness of God through the spreading of the Gospel

I. The Gospel Will Attract the World

-verse 6...and when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because they heard them speak in their own language
-the Gospel will draw this world to a closer look at the awesomeness of Jesus Christ

II. The Gospel Will Amaze the World

-verse 7...and they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, are not these which speak Galileans

III. The Gospel Will Arrest the World

-verses 9-11, list all of the different people who were represented
-this lets us know that the Gospel can and will reach anybody no matter how far away from God they are

Sunday Stuff

2008-11-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

This week has been a trying week for me personally, as I have allowed the pressure of this building project to stress me out to where my blood pressure is the highest it has been in a long time. Not only has the building project caused me stress, but also the overall condition of our church has been the cause of stress for me. I have learned in my years of full-time ministry, not to compare the condition of my church with the condition of other churches, but in my strong desire to have a successful ministry for God, I began to really question where I fit in the grand scheme of the Kingdom of God.

But I had a heart to heart conversation last evening with my best friend, Pastor Keith Witherspoon, and he helped me see that what I already knew, my faithfulness with produce great rewards from the Lord. So I got up this morning and with a strong desire to get to the house of the Lord to worship his name with other believers who have the same desire to worship. I went to the 8 AM service at the Mount Olive Baptist Church, East Orange, NJ where my good friend Pastor Michael Jordan serves as Pastor. The worship at Mount Olive was off the hook, and Pastor Jordan really did a great job with his message on Phil. 2:5 which he tagged Having the Mind of Christ.

I got to First Mount Zion with an urgent feeling of getting worship started and the Lord did not disappoint me. He met us in the sanctuary from Praise & Worship until the preaching of the Word. I led in the music ministry and there was an awesome presence of the Holy Spirit when we met together at the altar to pray. God be praised!!!

We continued our series on the model church in Acts 2 entitled Created for a Community, with our look at verses 5-11 which I labeled the message, Fulfilling Our Purpose. As a lifelong Christian who has been a member of the church of Jesus Christ for my entire life, I have discovered that many churches have failed to fulfill the purpose that God designed for his church. It doesn't matter how many members you have, how popular your Pastor is, how big your budget is, if you are not doing what the Lord has designed for the church to do, you are not fulfilling the purpose that God has for his church.

This purpose is found at the end of verse 11, for they heard them speak in their own language the mighty works of God. Scholars debate as to what exactly this phrase meant, many say that the 120 were praising God for his good works, but I would contend that if you are speaking about the good works of God, then you are speaking about the Gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ. So the purpose of God's church is to provide for the world a glimpse of God's goodness through the spreading of the Gospel. I will post the outline tomorrow.

Please keep our church and me in your prayers as we attempt to build God a Kingdom here on earth.

Friday Focus - 11/14/08

2008-11-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

As I stated on last week that with all of this election stuff being over and our country being ready to move on towards hopefully better days, I want to deal with on Fridays, with some of the issues that deal directly to the heart and minds of Pastors/preachers as we attempt to advance the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Today I want to deal with an issue that many if not all of us can relate to; how do we handle when Deacons, Trustees and other church leaders refuse to follow Pastoral Leadership and attempt to lead Pastors? Why have many of them made it up in their minds that the church needs them more than they need Pastors? Why are many of them so hung up on keeping Pastors in our places?

Well, I can only offer my own personal experiences with this issue as an open window into what I am referring to. My preaching ministry and Pastoral training ground was formulated at The New Hope Baptist Church under the direction of the late Dr. C.E. Thomas and Rev. Joe A. Carter. If there was one thing I knew about the ministry of the New Hope Church was that the servant leadership of the church FOLLOWED the vision and direction of the Pastors without any glimpse of disunity and disruption, and any leader that showed any of those traits were reprimanded not by the Pastors, but by the other servant leaders. They understood what it means to follow Pastoral Leadership. So you can imagine my surprise when I began my first pastorate at the Friendship Baptist Church, Asbury Park, NJ and found out that every church is not the same.

My time at Friendship was filled with argument after argument with my leaders. As a matter of fact, I never had one leadership or church meeting for that fact, that ended any other way but with an argument. The chairman of trustees said to my face during one Mother's Day with guests at our church that the trustees don't follow the Pastor at that church, the chairman of the deacon's board was their pastor. It went so far as they refused to pay my salary for 8 consecutive weeks because I discovered that they were misappropriating church funds and exposed them to the congregation who subsequently did nothing about it. As you can expect, I got my wife and family out of that place quick, fast and in a hurry.

When I got to my present assignment at First Mount Zion, I thought they would be different being as though my immediate predecessor had an earned doctorate degree and was a past moderator, but to my surprise, he allowed the chairman of the deacon's board to run roughshod over his entire tenure there. This same deacon thought that he could do the same to me, and he even had the audacity to tell me that the Lord told him that God sent me to the church so that he could teach me how to be a Pastor. He fought me tooth and nail on every spiritual decision even the vision that God gave me to give to the church. What he didn't realize was that I am as bullheaded as they come, and he left long before I. This entire situation has caused some difficult moments at our church with those who were ready for him to leave against those who were loyal to him because he kept them in power. But I will say this, the Lord has removed virtually every opposition to his vision for this church.

So again, blogging family, let me pose this interrogative, why does this occur and how do we handle this when we are faced with this great dilemma.

It Began At Pentecost

2008-11-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

What a day we had in worship at First Mount Zion, the Lord showed up in the house. I came to church with absolutely no expectations on what will happen, but I had a real heaviness on my heart. I naturally thought that I was worried about something, but I just could not put my finger on it. So I went to the pulpit to lead the church in worship, and something just clicked. I led the church in a medley of worship songs such as: Welcome Into This Place, Lord, I'm Available to You and I Love You Lord, and let me tell you, we had a worship experience in that place. God be praised!

We continued our series on the Model Church entitled Created For A Community, which is our study through Acts chapter 2, by lifting up verses 1-4, which I tagged It Began At Pentecost. I would suggest that the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ is one of the most important events ever recorded in human history. 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus during the feast of Pentecost, 120 believers were in the upper room, in one place and on one accord. Not special people, but ordinary people who happened to believe that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, gathering together in a spirit of unity to do the will of God. The reason why churches have ceased to be effective in ministry, is because they are not committed to a unified effort to perpetuate the cause of Christ. In days such as these, when people are going to hell in a hand basket, where sin is tolerated more and more in the church, God is looking for his church to get on one accord, so that the Holy Spirit can show up in our lives. Here is the sermon outline:

Text: Acts 2:1-4

Thesis: the unity of the people of God releases the power of God so that the people of God can perform the will of God

I. Audible Mark

-verse 2...and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting
-when the people got together in unity, the God sent an audible sign

a. surprising sign - and suddenly
b. spiritual sign - there came from heaven a sound
c. strong sign - like a mighty rushing wind
d. shocking sign - and it filled the house where they were sitting

II. Awesome Manifestation

-verse 3...and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them
-when the people became unified God sent a visible appearance

a. explanation of the manifestation - divided tongues of fire...this word is pictured as a single body that was divided so that it would fall on each of them simultaneously to give them the knowledge of the grace of God to share with the world
b. existence of the manifestation - and rested on each one of them

III. Accomplished Mission

-verse 4...and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance
-the Spirit came to complete that which was originated in Genesis, advanced to Calvary and exposed on Pentecost

a. filling of the Holy Spirit - and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
b. focus of the Holy Spirit - and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterence

Friday Focus

2008-11-07T13:18:00.000-08:00

I have decided to use Fridays to write a thought provoking blog post on issues that we all face as Pastors that are entrenched in ministry. We spend a lot of time putting our sermon outlines and our political ideologies and vacations on our blog, but I really felt the heavy burden of dealing with things that will affect us as Pastor/Preachers in this present age.

Today, I would like to broach the topic of preachers who put a price tag on the Gospel. We live in a day and age where it has become common practice for preachers, when they receive invitations to stand in another Pastor's pulpit, to place a dollar figure on his time of preaching. Many of them will send correspondence through their respective secretaries that inform the inviting church of the "needs" that the Pastor must have met before he will come to minister at the church. Some of them even go as far to confront the Pastor and officers of the church if they come short of what they think they should receive.

Now I need to state up front that I truly believe in the Word of God which says that a laborer is worthy of its hire, and he who preaches the Gospel shall live off the Gospel, and those who laborer over the word is worth double honor. Churches ought to take care of the preacher/pastor without reservation. But what I am talking about is this incessant need to put a price tag on something that God has given us freely. I am referring to a preacher requesting an enormous amount of money and that Pastor emptying out his church's treasury to pay this enormous amount to the Pastor.

Some years ago, while I served at the New Hope Baptist Church, Newark, NJ, a well-known female preacher was called by our Women's Day committee to preach the service for that year. Her staff informed us that she needed a few days to pray over the invitation. But when she returned the call, she stated that she took those few days to perform some research on our church in which she discovered that our church was one of the affluent churches in this area. So she stated to us that her fee to come and preach our Women's Day service was 250,000. My pastor was appalled and he told her thanks but no thanks.

My opinion is that we as preachers are really missing a golden opportunity to change the culture of our profession. Forever, preachers have been labeled as pimps, thieves and other hideous names, and when we come to pillage a church for their money, we are helping to perpetuate this negative connotation of what and who a preacher really is. God said that our gifts will make room for us and as long as we take care of his business, he will take good care of our business. The gift of any preacher is not for sale. We need to learn that what the Lord has given us to share with this world so that sinners will find rest in the arms of Jesus Christ, not to make ourselves feel like we are God's gift to the world and like He needs us. Let me suggest to you that God doesn't need us for anything. Gos does not have to allow us to use our gifts, but we are privileged to be allowed to stand as imperfect people before other imperfect people to deliver the perfect Word of God. And when you recognize this, how can we have the audacity to put price tags on the Gospel.

Now I totally understand why many of our brethren and sisters of the faith have undertaken this objective, far too long, we have labored over the Word all week long in order to have our lessons correct. When we mount the pulpit on Sunday, we put our all into the act of delivering the message to a lost world, and we don't receive enough money to put gas in the car or get our clothes clean. I get that! But what I have discovered is that we serve a great God who is able to supply each and every need that we have as a reward for our faithfulness to him with our service.

There have been times in my ministry where I have traveled 860 miles to preach and received nothing from the church I preached at and they have thousands of dollars in the bank, and while on that same trip, preached for another church and received the whole sum of $91 from a good church. Never did I want to result to requesting an amount before or after those incidents, because I do believe in the rewarding plan of God. My question to you all is, when Pastors make demands on the people for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, has that helped or hindered the perception of us in the eyes of the people of God.

A Church That Survives

2008-11-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

On yesterday, we began our new series on how and why God created his church, which is a series on Acts 2 that I have tagged the series, Created For A Community. Before I delved deep into Acts 2, I wanted to, by way of introduction, to deal with the first instance where Jesus mentioned the church found in Matthew 16:13-20. This design of this message for the FMZ church was to explore through scripture why the church was created for if we can get a clear grasp of why the church was formed, then it will help us to realize that if we focus on the why, we can make it through the rough times of life in our church.

For the law of first reference tells us that it is imperative for us to really take a good look at this word church. It is defined in the Greek as the ecclesia, which means the called out, set apart people of God to be used for his service. I am so glad that God has looked at us in our sinfulness, our weaknesses and our proclivities, our hang ups, for which, he knew this about us before we ever got here, and he still chose to set us aside so that we can be used to turn this world upside down. God Be Praised!!!

Jesus leads the disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi, a region that was known for its pagan worship, and it is with this paganistic ideals situated in the background, Jesus asks his disciples, who do the people say that the Son of Man is? The people confused with the question responds with John the Baptist. For Herod and many of the people felt that Jesus was John raised from the dead. Others said he was Elijah, for Malachi (4:5) prophesied that he would come again. While yet others said Jesus was Jeremiah, because the same attribute of a broken heart for the condition of the people was found in Jesus as well as the weeping prophet. But Peter gives the best response when he said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. That's how a church survives in a world that is going to hell in a handbasket...confess that Jesus is the great head of the church. We make it, all of us because we recognize that Jesus is at the helm of the called out people of God. Here is the sermon outline:

Thesis: churches survive in a hostile culture with their clear confession that Jesus Christ is the great head of the church

I. Foundation of God's Church

-verse 18...thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church

a. character of the foundation - Jesus and not Peter is the rock the church is built on
b. cause of the foundation - I will build my church

II. Future of God's Church

-verse 18...and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it

a. challenge to God's church - and the gates of hell
b. conquest of God's church - shall not prevail against it

III. Function of God's Church

-verse 19...and I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever is loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven

a. potential of God's church - I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven
b. power of God's church - and whatever is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever is loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven

New Sermon Series

2008-11-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

As we have moved off of our month of unity in October, the Lord has led me to begin a new series on the next Lord's Day that deals with how and why the church was created, which is a series born out of the place in scripture where the church was formulated and put into motion, Acts 2, which I have entitled the entire series Created For A Community. The purpose of this series is that as we are getting ourselves ready to make our transition from Newark to Montclair, there are some things that we as a ministry need to absorb to cultivate a proper atmosphere of worship and service to the Lord Jesus Christ. Too often we as preachers take for granted that when we are called to a church that our predecessor had already laid a good foundation that we can just build on. And until we spend some time with the church, we will never know what they have been taught and what they need to be taught.

Now please understand that I am not hating or being overly critical of my predecessor, I don't know him at all, but what I do know is that I need to reinforce the basic principle of how and why the church was created in the first place. I actually preached this series during my first assignment at Friendship Baptist Church, Asbury Park, NJ about 5 years ago and I am really interested how I have grown as a preacher in the last 5 years as I will need to change a whole lot of the sermon content and maybe even structure of those messages. Please keep our church, this series and me in your prayers during this time of our development.

Before I close this post, please let me explain my feelings about preaching sermon series in the first place. Here in Jersey, not many of us will put forth the time and effort to preach expositional sermons in a series form. What I have discovered is that many of my peers will start a series, but give up after 2-3 sermons with the excuse of becoming bored or their congregation was no longer interested. And I will be the first to admit that preaching in series form takes a whole lot of work and focus, and sometimes it tends to get a little tedious. But the reality is that, I truly believe that preaching in a series will do a couple of things: first of all it will keep the congregation focused on a particular theme, or particular book, or particular chapter all at the same time. It will give the congregation one set diet of spiritual food to make it through the tough times of life. Secondly, it will make the preacher more focused on the task at hand of teaching and encouraging the people that we are placed in charge of. I think the worst thing for a preacher is to have to hunt for something to preach on Friday or Saturday night, only to get to the pulpit on Sunday depending on our GIFTS to get us through, yet the people have not been helped at all. I have to be in a series all the time, because I am a procrastinator who will wait until the last minute to do everything, so if I am in a series, it forces me to get to work on Sunday evening on the message for next week. Just a little glimpse into my thoughts about preaching in a series instead of jumping around the bible.

Word of Encouragment

2008-10-31T06:10:00.000-07:00

There has been a great burden on my heart for the last couple of weeks, that really had me concerned during that time. I thought that it was all of the pressure and weight that has been on my shoulders regarding this relocation project for our church. But early this morning the Lord dealt with me concerning this matter. The Lord revealed to me that this heavy burden is not just because of my project, but he brought back to my remembrance all of the other posts by my blogging friends recently that dealt with the problems and stresses that they are dealing with presently as well. And the Apostle Paul says in Romans 12:15 that we all ought to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Since every single word in scripture is accurate in its origin and in is application, this burden on my heart has been to pray for each and every one of us who have been struggling with something in our respective ministries.

So I got up and began to praise God, at first I didn't know why, but as I keep on rejoicing in the presence of God, it became crystal clear, that each of us that are dealing with issues in our ministries, whether it be members who are refusing to follow leadership, members not tithing, buildings that either needs repairs or renovated or relocation projects that you seem to be the only one who is excited or willing to put in the time and effort to make sure that it gets done, or maybe it is deacons or trustees who feel that we should be following them instead of them following the set leader of the house. Whatever it may be, I would that you allow me to give you the words to a song that lifted my spirits early this morning in my time with the Lord. It is the awesome song written and recorded by Donald Lawrence:

some times you have to encourage yourself
some times you have to speak victory during the test
but no matter how you feel
speak the word and you will be healed
speak over yourself, encourage yourself in the Lord

some times you have to speak a word over yourself
depression is all around
but God is a present help
the enemy created walls
but remember giants they do fall
speak over yourself, encourage yourself in the Lord

as I minister to you, I minister to myself
life can hurt you so
til you feel there's nothing left
but no matter how you feel
speak a word and you will be healed
speak over yourself, encourage yourself in the Lord

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may he make his face to shine upon you, may he lift his countenance upon you, may he be gracious to you, that is to give you his divine favor, may he give you his peace, and may this peace be with you until we meet again. Stay encourage people of God, better things are on the way.

Harmony In Church

2008-10-27T18:25:00.001-07:00

Text: I Peter 3:8-12

Thesis: harmony in God's church is attained through a purposed expression of love one to another

I. Express Love For Your Companions

-verse 8...finally all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind

a. evidence of love is unity of mind
b. evidence of love is compassion for one another
c. evidence of love is pity for one another

II. Express Love For Your Challengers

-verse 9...do not repay evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing
-Peter said that if you are going to have harmony in the church, we all must learn how to love our enemies
-opposition to the believer is like a head wind is to an airplane...it will allow the believer to fly higher than ever before

III. Express Love For Your Core

-verses 10-12 Peter explains that a harmonious church is a church that loves life itself
-impending persecution should never cause a child of God to give up on life

a. calculated act...verse 10 - whoever desires to love life and see good days
b. controlled act...verse 10 - let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit
c. capable act...verse 11 - let him turn away from evil and do good
d. calm act...verse 11 - let him seek peace and pursue it

-verse 12 tells us that there is a reward for loving your brothers and sisters, your enemies and life itself...the eyes of the Lord is on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers
-pitfalls for failing to express love is...the face of the Lord is against those who do evil

Sunday Stuff

2008-10-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

I was back in the pulpit of the First Mount Zion Church today, and it was real good to be back home. I was really looking forward to being in worship at FMZBC today, and I was equally excited about preaching today. We are winding up our Unity Month and the Lord has begun to show some signs that His Word is beginning to penetrate the hearts of the people of God.

I am not a preacher who engages in false ideas of what kind of church that I have. I am not one of those Pastors who stand around in the Exhibit Hall of the Convention, with a suit on at 11 AM, walking around telling lies about what kind of church I Pastor, because somebody will eventually come to your church and they will see the real church. Having said that, when I followed the leading of the Lord to engage our congregation in a unity month, I was concerned whether or not the people would really listen to what God told me to do and follow. But today one of my senior members came up to me before worship and told me that I had a misprint on the list of scriptures that I gave them to read every day on unity. She not only told me of a misprint, but she also had the correct scripture that she was certain I meant to put in there. That really made my day and showed me that if I am faithful to the Lord, he will keep giving signs that shows that I am doing the right things.

I concluded our series on unity entitled An Open Door Towards A Brighter Tomorrow, with an exposition on I Peter 3:8-12 which I tagged Harmony in Church. Peter writes this letter to Jewish Christians as a word of encouragement for the suffering that they received simply because they were follows of Jesus Christ. He gives suffering saints assurance that because they are joint heirs with Jesus in suffering, their suffering will be transformed to glory. Chapter 2 tells us that slaves can be witnesses of Christ in a hostile world. The first 7 verses of Chapter 3 tells us that spouses can be witnesses of Christ in a hostile world. Verses 8-12 tells us that the saints can be witnesses of Christ in a hostile world. He opens verse 8 by saying finally all of you live in harmony. This word harmony in the Greek means to be in total agreement. If God's church is going to be effective in ministry, the church must walk in total agreement one with another. The only way that can be accomplished is for each member to fill the church with an expression of love one to another. Love will cover a multitude of faults.

Worship was outstanding. I will post the outline for the message tomorrow.

A Single Minded Church

2008-10-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

Text: Philippians 3:13-14

Thesis: if we have a single minded attitude in this life, there will be something greater awaiting for us in the next life

I. Forget the Past

-verse 13...brethren I count not myself to be apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind me
-forget in the Greek means to completely forget...in the imperative which means it is a command which suggests that if we don't forget the past it is a sin against God

a. conclusion of past - brethren I count...count means careful consideration of past thoughts about oneself, will bring you to a conclusion that you have not arrived

b. completion of the process - brethren I count not myself to be apprehended...apprehended means a past completed process that still holds true in the present...Paul held on to Jesus so that he would not turn back to sin

c. conduct of our purpose - forgetting those things which are behind...Paul uses Olympic imagery...carries the idea of a runner winning a race by not looking behind at his opponents which will slow him down

II. Fight in the Present

-verse 13...reaching towards those things which are before me
-people will put obstacles in your way that will attempt to stifle your progress in the race
-must be willing to fight in order to reach your destination

a. fighting takes strength - by reading the bible, praying and Christian fellowship

b. fighting takes stamina - God does not need runners who will give up at mid-race, but he's looking for those that will endure until the end

c. fighting takes simplicity - remember who's team you are running for

III. Finish With the Prize

-verse 14...I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
-this high calling is not a call to this life...but it is a call to the next life
-in Olympics, when you win a race, you are given a crown, but in the next race, somebody can come and take your crown
-but when you run for the Master, that crown will never be taken away.

The Protection of God

2008-10-21T18:50:00.001-07:00

Text: Romans 8:31

Thesis: No matter the situations that we may face, every child of God will find security in God because of the protection of God

I. Author of the Protection

-if GOD

II. Action of the Protector

-if God IS FOR US

III. Assurance of the Protected

-if God is for us, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US

Sunday Stuff

2008-10-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

On yesterday, I had the expressed privilege of being the guest preacher at the Lilydale Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago, IL, where my good friend and brother, Romell Williams serves as the Pastor, for their 95th Church Anniversary Celebration. Let me say right off the bat that I was so impressed with the ministry and administrative acumen of Romell Williams. He recently led his congregation into a great renovation project for their building and while they are not totally complete with the project, the work that has been done thus far is outstanding. Not only is he a great administrator, where his staff is attentive and operate his vision and direction with a spirit of excellence, but his church loves him. His ministerial staff loves him. His deacons love him. His musicians love him. Often times when our peers see others doing well with their ministries, the green-eye of jealousy will rear its ugly head to the point that people start looking for things to complain about. But I left that church on yesterday armed with a greater sense of commitment and urgency to grow my ministry at FMZBC to become a machine such is there at Lilydale Progressive. God Be Praised for what he is doing and will do for Romell and Lilydale.

The worship was outstanding all day long. Lately, I have been having some problems with my voice, which for those of us who utilize our voices to the max, can be a distraction in worship. So because this was prevalent on my mind, it caused me to rush through my message on Romans 8:31 at 8 AM, which I tagged The Protection of God. I do not feel that I did my best, but his members came up after service to tell me how blessed they were by the Word of God, and one came to unite with Lilydale, which means that the Lord showed up and blessed. I relaxed more at 11 AM because I made a point to myself, that if my voice is not going to hold up like I want it, I will put all of my focus on my assignment. I preached a message from Philippians 3:13-14 which I tagged A Single Minded Church, and I didn't rush or focus on my voice, I just gave God everything that I had, and he honored that by sending 2 more to come to unite with the church including one for baptism. This let me know that all we as Preachers need to focus on is our faithfulness to our assignment and let God sort out the rest. The Anniversary Celebration concluded at 3:30 PM with Pator Herring from the Calvary Baptist Church who preached from Joshua 3 which he tagged Getting to the Next Level. It was a pleasure to both meet and hear Pastor Herring on yesterday and I look forward to fellowshipping with him again.

Last night we finished our day in worship, by attending the Dedication Celebration for the newly erected building of the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church, where Dr. Stephen J. Thurston serves as Senior Pastor. The builidng is phenominal and the worship was outstanding, as Pastor Davis from Mississippi brought the message out of Psalms 91. We are praying that God will grant them favor to meet every financial need that has arisen with an undertaking such as this.

I will post the outlines for both messages from yesterday on tomorrow.

A Divided House Will Not Stand

2008-10-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

Text: I Corinthians 1:10

Thesis: A church expresses true unity when they make an intended effort to make the main thing the main thing

I. Express Parallel Articulation

-verse 10...I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you
-a unified house is united in speech

II. Express Parallel Attention

-verse 10...but that you be united in the same mind
-a unified house is united in thought

III. Express Parallel Aim

-verse 10...and the same judgment
-a unified house is united in focus

Sunday Stuff

2008-10-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

-Wow what a day! I am physically spent after an equally long and exciting day in worship with God's people. We started out at 8 AM at the First Hopewell Baptist Church in Newark for their Men's Day Celebration. First Hopewell just installed their new pastor, Rev. Antonio Porter, and to my delight, they are excited and very happy that God has sent them a new shepherd. I had the pleasure of hearing Pastor Porter give the closing message on last Friday at the end of the 104th Annual Session of the General State Baptist Convention of New Jersey, and let me tell you, he delivered an outstanding message that really seemed to connect with the conventioneers. In our state, it is really difficult for younger Pastors to receive warm receptions from the attendees of our convention who are mostly older, but Pastor Porter really did a good job.

-As for the worship at First Hopewell, it was outstanding! The members of that church really know how to respond to biblical exposition. Worship was high energy from the time we entered into the sanctuary, until I gave the benediction. Please keep this growing congregation in your prayers as they latch on to the vision of their new Pastor.

-At 10 AM, we continued our focus at FMZBC on our Month of Unity called Unity: An Open Door Towards A Brighter Tomorrow, with our attempt at exposition on I Corinthians 1:10, which I labeled A Divided House Will Not Stand. Paul writes this letter to the Corinthian Church because they were in serious trouble. They had become a defiled church, in that their members engaged in sexual immoralities, drunkeness and they took the grace of God for granted to excuse their sinful ways. They were also a divided church, as there were four different groups that were competing for leadership at the church. Because they were a defiled church and a divided church they became a disgraced church. Paul tells them in verse 10 that there be no divisions among them. This word division in the Greek means to rip or tear apart, and they were letting these factions that competed for leadership, rip and tear this church apart. Paul says that the only way to fight off this division in the church, they must not look towards their own selfishness, but they must look towards Jesus Christ.

The Blessedness of Christian Unity

2008-10-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

We began our series during our Month of Unity, which I tagged the entires series, Unity: An Open Door Towards A Brighter Tomorrow, with our look at one of the most famous verses in scripture on unity housed in the great book of Psalms, 133:1-3. I found this song interesting in that David was able to talk about brothers expressing unity one with another, when David's family had a history of not being united. But David understood that unity among God's people was essential for service. It is a blessing when God's people stick together. Here is the sermon outline:

Text: Psalms 133:1-3

Thesis: our willingness as children of God to walk together in unity, pleases God and activates the rich blessings of God on our lives

I. Sanctification of Christian Unity

-verse 2...it is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes
-unity of the people of God is like precious oil that was used to consecrate the high priest to set aside for service

II. Strengthening of Christian Unity

-verse 3...it is like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion
-God uses unity to refresh his people and keep them from withering away

III. Subsidy of Christian Unity

-verse 3...for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore
-subsidy means reward
-whenever God's people stick together they are rewarded with life forevermore

Vision of First Mount Zion Baptist Church

2008-10-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

The Next Step: First Mount Zion Baptist Church's Plan for a Church of Excellence

I Corinthians 12:28:31

Vision Statement: Proclaiming The Word for His glory, Protecting the Weak from His judgment, and Preparing the World for His return

Mission Statement: Cultivate a Christian Community Committed to the Cause of Christ in an effort to Change a Culture

A. Proclaiming the Word For His Glory

1. Preaching
2. Praise & Worship

B. Protecting The Weak From His Judgment

1. Evangelism

a. Each member must be responsible for bringing 2 people per month to church
b. Each member must be responsible for witnessing in our new community

C. Preparing the World For His Return

1. Mission: Developing our spiritual gifts through discipleship
2. Method: Effectively train through biblical teaching and training
3. Goal: Every member must participate in a ministry

Unity Month

2008-10-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Today our church is beginning an effort designed to bring about a more unified congregation in order for us to fulfill the vision that God has provided for us. This focus of this month is Unity: An Open Door Towards A Brighter Tomorrow, with our key scripture is Ephesians 4:1-4. We are fasting together every Wednesday from 6 to 6, and I am really excited about what I believe to be the genesis of our church becoming a great people.

I truly get excited when God blesses my friends to have great ministries. I was overjoyed when HB Charles Jr. became the new pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Church in Jacksonville, FL, like it was me getting blessed. I felt the same way when I found out that the congregation that HB moved from in Los Angeles, Mt. Sinai Church, has quickly selected a new leader in George Hurtt, who will do an outstanding job at that branch of Zion. When I look at all of my blogging friends and how awesome their churches and ministries have been blessed by God, I really get excited. I quote HB by saying I am praying that God will bless my friends big and bless them quick, so that when they get blessed they will get out of the line, and that only makes me closer to get what God has for me.

This month of prayer and focusing on the Word for unity, I believe, will catapult our congregation to heights never seen before. I solicit your prayers for us as we venture into unchartered territory towards a brighter tomorrow. Please pray for my strength to stand boldly and be the leader of men that God has called me to be.

You Reap What You Sow

2008-09-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

Title: You Reap What You Sow
Text: 2 Corinthians 9:6-10

Thesis: God blesses those who's acts of worship through giving is presented with a cheerful heart

I. God Blesses Us Sufficiently

-verse 8...and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work

-when we give cheerfully, God provides for us sufficient resources that will supply the entire need of the believer

II. God Blesses Us Supremely

-verse 9...as it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever

-when we give cheerfully to the Lord, we are blessed with a supreme blessing that will never dry up

a. Liberal Blessing - distribute freely
b. Lifting Blessing - given to the poor...phrase means to provide for someone who is in great pain, the resources needed to alleviate that pain
c. Lasting Blessing - his righteousness endures forever

III. God Blesses Us Successfully

-verse 10...he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness

-when we give cheerfully to the Lord, he will provide for the believer the miracle to multiplication to ensure that because we give, we will always have blessings that will sustain

Sunday Stuff

2008-09-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

Today was an interesting day at FMZBC. We concluded our series on Developing A Giving Church, with our look at 2 Corinthians 9:6-10, which I will post the outline on Monday, I labeled the message "You Reap What You Sow". The Apostle Paul writes this portion of the letter to the Corinthian Church to encourage them to give as an act of worship to the Lord for all of the things that he had done for them. The Corinthians were not accustomed to giving, even though God had taken good care of them, so Paul needed to motivate them to participate in the worship of God with an expression of their gifts. In verses 6-10, Paul lets them and us know that the measure of what we reap is directly tied into the amount that we sow. I pray that we see the results of this series manifest itself in the life of our congregation that we will see the effects of which through our faithfulness in our stewardship.

We also had a church meeting after worship where I gave the new vision to the church as well as an update on our relocation project. Let me state out front, I detest church meetings. The majority of my experiences is that even when you tell the congreagation that this is a meeting to give the vision, there are still those who come with a spirit of disruption and being argumentative. I saw people today who have not been to church in months, but they wanted to show up for the meeting. There was questions that was discussed last year when we met to decide to relocate, yet they wanted to come and bring up those same questions today. I am grateful though, there were members who saw this happening and they stood up to tell them that this type of action was not appreciated. God Be Praised! I am encouraged by the outspoken actions of a few of our members who are willing to stand up for what's right.

After I presented the vision (I will post that this week as well), I gave each member a letter of commitment to sign, so that not only can I know, but also the other members would know, who is supportive of this new vision and to make them accountable to God and one another for their role in the growth and development of our church. I can honestly say, that I personally saw 98% of those in attendance sign that letter. I'm encouraged by this.

The month of October our church will be in what I call the Month of Unity, where we will read two scriptures per day on unity as well as praying each day that our church will re-discover our unity as believers of Christ. Every Wednesday, we will fast from 6 AM - 6 PM while reading those scriptures for that day. Whatever text falls on Sunday that I gave them, I will be attempting an exposition on that text. Our motto for this month is...Unity: An Open Door Towards a Brighter Tomorrow--Ephesians 4:1-4. Please pray for our church that these attempts to make us a people of excellence in everything we do for the Lord will be pleasing to him.

Peril of A Prideful Steward

2008-09-22T19:27:00.001-07:00

Worship was really good on yesterday. The Lord showed up in our church as we had a real good praise and worship period. I had no expectation of a good day in worship because we didn't get into the church until about 10:30. We share the building that we sold with the buyers and they are supposed to open the church at 9:00 am every Sunday. I am really trying not to allow our attorney to put some heavy pressure on them, however this is the third time that this has happened and if it continues to occur, something must be done. In spite of this the Lord really blessed the worship and he blessed my feeble attempt at biblical exposition.

We continued our series on tithing and stewardship entitled Developing a Giving Church, with our look at a parable of Jesus Christ found in Luke's account, 18:9-14. Here Jesus gives this parable to those who trusted themselves to make them righteous and treated others with contempt. He compares the offering of a Pharisee and a tax collector, who both enters into the temple to pray, the Pharisee brings his offering with pride but the tax collector brings his with reverence to the Lord. This Pharisee attempts to extol his virtues by shining a light of condemnation on the sins of this tax collector and others. Jesus says that God is looking for those who recognize that they owe God a worship offering because of what God has done for them and not those who try to bring attention to themselves. Here is the sermon outline:

Title: Peril of a Prideful Steward
Text: Luke 18:9-14

Thesis: God blesses our gifts when they are given out of devotion and not out of display

I. Devoted Givers Are Respectful

-verse 13...but the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven
-this tax collector expressed his repentance and respect to the Lord by the manner in which he comes into the presence of God
-the Pharisee comes with high-mindedness...the tax collector stands far off

a. manner of his respect...standing far off...he kept his distance under a sense of great unworthiness due to his life of sin

b. meditations in his respect...would not even lift up his eyes to heaven...this sinful tax collector thought about his life of sin and didn't even want the Lord to see his face

II. Devoted Givers Are Reticent

-verse 13...but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner
-this prayer was short in presentation yet succinct in its purpose
-the tax collector comes humbly to the Lord and asks not for material things...he only asks the Lord, have mercy on me for I am a sinner

III. Devoted Givers Attain Recognition

-verse 14...for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted

Mid-Week Notes - 9/17/08

2008-09-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

-This week has been a tough week for me. I have been inundated with this relocation project with every aspect of the project from soup to nuts and I never would have imagined that this would so time consuming and stressful. But that is the price that one has to pay in order to do things different for God than what has ever been done before. I have been on conference calls with the architect 3 different times today, just to schedule a date for next week to finalize all of the plans for how the new facility is going to look. I must admit though, I am very excited about this project and the fact that we will be able to shape this new building to look exactly like we want it to look, God be praised!

-I have also been drafted to serve as the Chief of Staff for a former Newark Councilman's campaign to retake the seat which has been vacated by a New Jersey District Court Judge, due to a legal matter regarding the person who took his seat during the last election. I need to be honest, I am just learning the ins and outs of an electoral campaign, so this is taking a little bit of an adjustment for me. I will say that this Presidential Campaign has made me more interested infinitely in the election process, not so that I could possibly run for election (I don't believe Pastors should be elected officials), but so that I can have influence and access when it comes to politicians and their role in our city and for my church. Our city is at a critical state as is other cities. Our new Mayor, has failed to exhibit any intent to make this city better for the residents who are presently here, but rather there are outside forces that desire to have control over the vast resources that the City of Newark possesses. Please keep our city in your prayers.

-Please pray for one of my sisters, Laure Brock, she was diagnosed with Leukemia a couple years ago, which is now in remission, but her doctors recently discovered that she has an aggressive form of breast cancer. The doctors have scheduled surgery for Friday, but they said the cancer has still spread. Our family again is in need of your prayers. These are trying times for the faithful believers of Jesus Christ, please pray our strength in the rich blessings of the Lord.

-Pastor Joe A. Carter of The New Hope Baptist Church, Newark, NJ, lost his older brother Henry yesterday. He still is feeling the lost of his other brother Pastor Ron C. Carter a few years back, and now this happens. Please call his family's name out in prayer as they must have a home going service for Henry on Monday.

-I have to preach at the Metropolitan Baptist Church, Scotch Plains, NJ tonight for their Fall Revival. I have been doing this revival for the last 5 years, and I always look forward to this time of year where I can share with Pastor Clement Griffin and the sweet people of the Metropolitan Church. I am only doing tonight's service, but please pray for the revival as a whole.

Sunday Stuff - 9/14/08

2008-09-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had an anxious day in worship. I was ready to preach, but I did not go to bed until 4 am Sunday Morning, which had me wondering if I would have enough energy to preach like I normally would. In our church, I lead the worship every Sunday as well as I lead the music. My voice felt a little raw during worship, but I thank God for his awesome power and the blessing of a real good sound system. By the way, what I have discovered is that many of our members really don't see the true importance of having a good sound system. They mostly feel that any system will do, but to a person who uses their voice as much as Pastors do, my system MUST be good or my voice will suffer tremendously. God be praised for a good system.

We continued our series of sermons on tithing which I entitled the series, Developing A Giving Church, with our look at what is probably the most famous passage on tithing, Malachi 3:6-12, which I tagged the sermon The Blessing of Financial Obedience. The Prophet Malachi addressed this discourse to second generation Children of Israel who's forefathers some 90 years earlier had experienced the great revival for the Jews with Ezra rebuilding the temple and Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. But the prophet noticed that some 90 years later, the people had gone away from the things of God and they needed to return to the basics. In verses 6-7 God contrasts his character from their character by telling them that the reason why they had gotten away from the things of God was not because God had changed but because they had changed. God also noted for them, what their main problem was in verse 8, when he tells Malachi to say to them, will a man rob God, which caused them to respond with this question, where have we robbed him, in tithes and contributions (ESV). This problem has far-reaching ramifications, for when we fail to tithe, we curse our own blessings, and we also contribute in the cursing of others as well. How do we fix this problem: verse 10 says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Here is the sermon outline:

Title: The Blessing of Financial Obedience

Thesis: fallen children are rewarded with a promised act of reconciliation back to God through a purposed desire to trust God with our resources

I. Promise of Sufficient Abundance

-verse 10...bring the full tithe into the storehouse...if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need
-when we fail to tithe, we rob God of the ability to bless his people...both you and somebody else
-windows of heaven is the bible's words to describe the source from where the blessings of God come from

II. Promise of Success Over Our Adversary

-verse 11...I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts
-this verse is evidence of the fact that how we deal with money is a spiritual issue that touches every aspect of our life
-when we obey God in the material realm, it impacts us in the spiritual realm
-God did not promise that tithing would make us immune from trials, but he does promise that when we tithe, he will make sure that our trials does not eat us up

III. Promise of Spiritual Admiration

-verse 12...then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts
-God promises to bless those who tithe with agricultural prosperity and undamaged vines in verse 11
-which suggests to us that when others see a tithing people they can't help but to call us blessed

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

2008-09-10T10:18:00.001-07:00

Wow, 36 years ago today, in Newark, NJ, a Pastor and an usher, gave birth to a 2 month premature baby boy that they named Lance Antione Mann, at 5lbs 8 oz. That boy was born with a bad case of asthma that resulted in being admitted into the hospital every two weeks for the first two years of his life. The doctors said that his lungs would never become fully developed and that he would probably need oxygen for the better part of his life. But what the doctors failed to take into consideration was that his parents were praying people, who knew that if they called on the Lord, he would answer their prayers.

That sickly child with the bad lungs, has been blessed by the Lord Jesus to become a singer on national stages, as well as a preacher/pastor. It amazes me how the Lord has brought me from where I was, to where I am now, and where I will be in God. I am grateful for these 36 years and I am eagerly awaiting the next level that God has in store for me. God be praised!!!

Giving God Your Best

2008-09-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

Because of the stressful week that I endured last week regarding the health of my son, I really couldn't wait to get to worship. I had a great desire to give God thanks for bringing my son home, but I was also excited about continuing our series on tithing entitled Developing a Giving Church.

The worship was outstanding from the devotion through the Lord's Supper until the benediction. The altar call was powerful, as we experienced a mighty praise in the prayer period, which lifted the spirits of the congregation. God be praised for worship even during altar call.

We looked at the first instance in scripture where the people of God gave and offering to God as an act of sacrifice. Genesis 4 records the story of the sons of Adam and Eve named Cain and Abel who after a little while each gave an offering to the Lord. Cain, being a keeper of the ground, offered up to the Lord the fruit of the ground, and Abel, being a keeper of the sheep, offered up the firstborn of his flock. God accepted the offering of Abel, yet rejected the offering of Cain's. Why? First of all because of the nature of the gift; Cain's offering was not a blood offering. Secondly, because of the Quality of the gift; Abel's gift was the firstborn of his flock, and Cain's gift came from a cursed ground. Genesis 3:17 God told Adam that because he listened to his wife and disobeyed the commands of God, the ground would be cursed and he will have to eat of the fruit from that ground. Thirdly, because of the character of the giver; Genesis 4:4-5 God had regard for Abel and no regard for Cain, which tells us that the person who is bringing the gift means more to the Lord than the gift itself. All of this means that God cares about the condition of the heart of the giver, he wants us to give him the best that we have. Here is the outline:

Thesis: giving God your best is only accomplished through a heart of true worship and not a focus on external actions

I. Focus on a Relationship With God

-verse 4
-Abel recognized the existence of God into his life and his graciousness of Him being the ruler of the universe
-made a decision to give God his very best because of who God is in his life

II. Focus on Faith in God

-verse 4
-Hebrews 11:4 exemplifies Abel's focus on his faith in God to give God his very best
-faith empowers our ability to give gifts to the Lord

a. God Centered - Abel had enough faith to give God his best due to his obedience to the directives of God
b. God Consented - God looked at the faithfulness of Abel and the callousness of Cain; held them up against one another and made a decision that Abel's gift was worth an accommodation

III. Focus on Our Provisions From God

-verse 4
-Abel was willing to give God his best because he recognized that the bountiful flock did not belong to him, but it all belonged to the Lord
-Cain was proud of the crops he raised and had a difficult time letting them go; so he gave God just enough to acknowledge that God played a small role in his success
-Abel realized that everything he has came from God...which made it easier for him to give God the best gift that he had

Praise Report!!!!

2008-09-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to express my heart-felt gratitude for all of my blogging buddies who called Devante's name out to the Lord with believing prayers on last night. Words cannot express how much my heart was overjoyed with the responses of my last post, calling on the people of God to pray for my son. I do believe that the effectual and fervent prayers of righteous people indeed avail much, and that's why I immediately knew to make this request and you all answered tremendously, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Well, my son made it through his procedure and they found out that he has lesions on his esophagus which is treatable with medication and that they detected an early formation of ulcers in his stomach, which because it was detected early, is treatable with medication as well. I spoke to him a little bit ago after he came out of recovery and he sounded better and he said that he felt better, but he was very hungry and he didn't know when they would let him eat. I am awaiting on the doctor to decide if he's going home today or in the morning, but either way it happens, I will be happy when he gets home.

I am grateful to the Lord for answering prayers and bringing my son through this okay. Please keep all of my children in your prayers and I will continue doing the same for you. God be praised!

Please Pray for my Son!

2008-09-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

I just got a call from Orlando, FL, our 13 year-old son Devante, got admitted to the hospital for observations due to him being unable to swallow for the last couple of weeks. They initially thought that he just had a case of tonsillitis, they then felt that it may be an infection of his sinuses. But after a couple of tests, the doctors felt the need to keep him overnight so that they will be able to run a tube down his throat to take pictures of his cavities to see if he may have a scratch or some sort of other infection.

I have a hopeless feeling because our sons live a thousand miles away and in instances like this, it is hard for me to focus much. Please pray for my son, I need the Lord to move in a mighty way so that my boy will be alright. Please blog friends, ask the Lord to calm my nerves and please keep my boy safe. Tonight when you talk to the Master, please call my boys name in prayer. I am anticipating a great praise report on tomorrow.

Proper Attitude of A Good Steward

2008-09-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

Preaching on holiday weekends are probably the hardest times to preach for me, and I feel this way for a couple of reasons. First of all, many members decide that since they are off from work on Monday, they can be off from church as well. Secondly, the ones that showed up at church, are too busy looking at their watches, with those looks on their faces like they want me to hurry up so that they could get to their BBQs. It is because of these reasons that I was really apprehensive about starting a new series on the Sunday before Labor Day. While our crowd was off some with people staying away, I was ready to preach and those that were there seemed to be very receptive to the exposition of the Word.

This is the first time in my Pastoral Ministry that I have begun a series on giving and stewardship. I have taught stewardship during our bible study, but I have never initiated an entire series dedicated to stewardship and tithing, so as you can expect, I was extremely nervous about the preachment hour. But as always, God showed up and got me through the exposition.

This parable of Jesus Christ to his disciples,housed in Matthew 20:1-16, is normally looked at from the point of view of the service of the laborers, but I thank God for showing me the point of view that it is not only about our service or our actions, but Jesus wanted us to see that in order to be good stewards over what the Lord has placed in our care, we must have the right attitude towards stewardship. And I believe that in the life of our church, where we are embarking on an aggressive relocation project, we would be better stewards of our time, talents and treasures if we changed our attitudes towards it. Here is the sermon outline, it's a little lengthy, but I needed to incorporate the entire parable to give the text its proper justice:

Thesis: a healthy mind-set towards our roles as stewards will produce a healthy and productive church

I. God Owns Everything

-verse 1...for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard

a. He created everything
b. He coordinated everything

II. God Controls Everything

-verses 1-7 shows us that since God owns everything, he is in total control of the fruit, field and the harvest
-he has the right to make all of the decisions because the field belongs to him and he makes agreements with his laborers

a. Who Hires Laborers - master of the house
b. Where are they Hired From - marketplace
c. What are their Wages - denarius (Roman Penny) and whatever is right
d. How Long are they Hired For - One day's work

III. God Judges Everyone

-verses 8-15 shows us that God judges the laborers not by their fruit, but by their faithfulness
-Owner judges the account of the laborers

a. Account Taken - evening time was reckoning time
-this was the time when the owner tallied up the record in order to pay the laborers their days wage
-there will come a time when our Father in Heaven will tally up our account in the record book in glory to judge our faithfulness to the work we have been called to

b. Action of the Laborers

1. offense taken - verses 11-12...they complained that everybody was paid the same wage but they did not all work the same amount
2. offense removed - verses 13-14
a. no one distressed them - friend, I have done you no wrong
b. no one deceived them - did you not agree with me for a denarius
c. no one denied them - take what belongs to you and go

IV. God Gives Greatly to Everyone

-verse 15...am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me or do you begrudge my generosity
-God has a plan to reward those who have been faithful to him with his great generosity

A New Series

2008-08-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

I have a big problem with my preaching. Whenever I am not in a series, I sometimes feel like I playing a game of darts in the dark, aiming at whatever I see and hoping I hit something that will give me a good score. When it comes to preaching, and I am not in a series, I feel handicapped and inadequate to be a blessing to the people that God places me in charge of. So what I usually do is when I get about 1/2 way through a series, I pray and ask God for guidance and leadership towards the next series of sermons that will help our congregation become the church that God is looking for in these evil days.

So as I began consulting the Lord on the next series, the Lord led me to see that we are now in a relocation project that is totally and completely a faith walk by the Pastor, leadership and members of the First Mount Zion Church Family, and in order to relocate in a manner such as the one we are embarking upon, the finances of our church needs to become a whole lot stronger than it is. While it is true that we sold our building for a real good sum of money, it would make no sense to use all of our resources on the move and have nothing left to build on. We need to increase our giving and fast!

So the Lord led me to begin a series on tithing and stewardship, and in doing so, he led me to an awesome book by the man who wrote the 5-Star Church, Stan Toler and Elmer Townes, which I am using as the title of our series, Developing A Giving Church. This book entails certain principles and practices that will encourage your church to become a church that gives.

Tomorrow we will be dealing with the parable of Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 20:1-16 as we deal with the matter of our actions and attitudes towards our lives as stewards. Please pray for the series, our church and me as I seek the guidance of the Lord to be a rich blessing to our congregation.

History Is Made!!!!

2008-08-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

On tonight, at roughly about 6:47 PM, history was made in Denver, CO during the Democratic National Convention. For the very first time in the vast 232 year history of these United States of America, a major political party has elected an African-American as its representative during the general election for the office of President as its nominee. This great event sparked cheers, excitement and an arena full of tears. This monumental occurrence touched the lives of nearly every delegate, members of the media, and most of all, millions of people who watched with baited breath and great anticipation on television.

I immediately began to think about people like Fannie Lou Hamer, the leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, who went to the Democratic Convention in 1964, in Atlantic City, NJ, to protest the fact that there were no black delegates from Mississippi being allowed be seated at the convention. This resulted in the Democratic Party's declaration in 1968 that all states must treat their representation equally.

I began to think about people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was drafted into the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery, AL by the Montgomery Improvement Association to come to the aid of Rosa Parks, who was arrested for failing to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. From there he championed the cause for all black people to have equality which included the ability to cast their vote in any election. This stand for our people by Dr. King, led to the famous signing of the Voters Rights Act in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

I began to think about people like my own mother, a woman born in the heart of Jim Crow Americus, GA in 1933, to a sickly mother and sharecropper father, who worked on a peanut farm owned by the parents of President Jimmy Carter. She had to endure the witnessing of the murder of both of her parents at the age of 10 by intruders. Leaves Georgia in 1950 at the age of 17 to travel to Newark, NJ to make a better life for an infant daughter, but what she encountered was more inequality and hard times even in the "promised land" of the North. She raised 5 children to believe in the power of God to change things and to change people as well. But in 2006, Hattie Louise Mann, made her transition from earth to glory without ever seeing true equality in America.

I wish Fannie Lou, Dr. King and my Momma, were able to sit down with me at the television to witness the things they had lived for, fought for and died without seeing all of their dreams come true: a black man IS THE NOMINEE for the Democratic Party. I wish that young people in our communities would take the time to see the magnitude of the history of this event. But instead of appreciating history, they are engulfed in the trappings of this world and the evil one named Satan. I challenge each and every one of us to stand up and let the coming generations know that we owe it to our fore-fathers to take advantage of doors that have been opened in our lives and to reach levels never seen before.

Winning The Battle With Sin

2008-08-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the Lord allowed us to conclude our series on the exposition of the model prayer in Matthew 6, with the closing phrase of Jesus teaching us the road map to having a life filled with prayer, with the petition found in verse 13, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Many may be asking the same question that our congregation asked, what happened to the phrase, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever amen. That phrase is not in the original translation of the scrolls, but was added to other versions later.

This phrase, begins with the conjunction and, which is a connector of this verse with the previous verse in the entire prayer. Verse 12 tells us that we should pray forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and then Jesus tells us to pray and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. The point is that after we have received forgiveness and restoration, we need the Lord to help keep us on the right path and away from a lifestyle of defeat at the hands of sin. The only way to win this battle with sin is to pray to the Lord, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Here is the sermon outline:

Thesis: true believers of Jesus Christ weigh their past life of sin against a future life of grace and make the decide never to return again.

I. Our Disposition in This Battle

-we must come to the reality that no matter who or what we think we are, all of us are susceptible to a lifestyle of sin

II. Our Deficiency in This Battle

-this prayer acknowledges that we are unable to handle the trappings of sin in our lives and the strength of our enemy, and we set out to call on the Lord for his assistance

III. Our Discharge From This Battle

-we are discharged when we remove ourselves from this fight and totally give it to the Lord to handle all that we deal with

The Lord blessed the exposition of His Word as well as our entire worship service on yesterday. I led the singing in worship like I do every week, but the Lord really showed out this Sunday. For after the altar prayer, I led the congregation in singing the vamp of that great hymn that is normally sang during Communion Service, The Blood. The words are:

It reaches to the highest mountains; it flows to the lowest valley
the blood that gives me strength, from day to day
it will never lose its power

Get It Together!

2008-08-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Over the past week to 10 days, our community has lost many famous and important people to death. From Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, to Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones from Oh and most recently Gene Upshaw, president of the NFL Players Union. All of these tragedies have caused me to stop and think about the state of the church of Jesus Christ in its present condition, and declare that it is time for every church that claims to belong to Christ, to get our business straight and be the beacon of light that the church was intended to be, when it was established in Acts 2.

Here we are, living in a world that is going to hell in a hand basket, as my mother would say, with a pair of gasoline drawers on, and yet the church has become more irrelevant each passing day. With more people dying without ever experiencing the joy that the free gift of salvation brings to those who believe, the church sits by impotent due to it's apathetic attitude towards anybody and anything other than themselves. It is sickening!!!

Instead of attempting to make a real difference in their homes or in their communities or on their jobs or in their schools or with their friends, the church is more concerned with who's in charge, who's in control of the money, who makes the decisions, who is sitting where, who is wearing what, who is on this board and who is on that ministry. Why did the Pastor choose them and not me, and why are they in front and I am not. We spend all of our time and energy worrying about this kind of garbage, yet people who are hurting and hungry for something different in their lives are leaving our churches worse than when they came, neglected for their needs and leaving with a newly minted distaste for the church and more importantly, for the people who are members there.

We wonder why it is commonplace for people like Michael Baidsen, comedians and even politicians, to look at the church with disdain, to center their comedic routines around church mess, and to totally ignore the impact that we should have on this society. It is because we spend too much time majoring in minor things instead of putting our focus on what is really important. This makes it hard to evangelize, because the unsaved sees and hears all of these things from the world and decides that they can do better without the church. SHAME ON US!

I did not adhere to the call of Jesus Christ to the ministry to be playing church, and fighting with folk over nonsensical things, and battling with boards about control. We need to take back the church and remember what Jesus told Peter in the account of Matthew 16, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Which tells us a couple of things:

I. This ain't our church, but it's God's Church - and since it's God's church, we need to do what God says do with his church

II. God's Church cannot have Satan in charge - that's because God's church will not have Satan prevail in it anywhere

Let us all make a commitment to retake the church back for it's designed purpose, to win the world for Jesus Christ. God Be Praised!!