Sunday in Retrospect

On this Lord's Day, God smiled upon us at the Mt. Salem Church. Today I continued on in our study of The Beatitudes of our Lord. We've made it to the fourth beatitude, Matthew 5:6, which speaks of '...hungering and thirsting after righteousness...'. I titled the message today, The Blessing of Holy Hunger. The central idea of the sermon was to address our need of developing an appetite toward righteousness, recognizing the problem nd contrast of the world's pursuit of superficial desires, how this hunger and thirst is both cultivated and rewarded to those who inherit the kingdom, in lieu of the previous statements of our Lord in the beatitudes. 


Here's my outline:


I. The position of the Hungry Heart


A. Perverted Desire


B. Proper Desire


1. Watch what you eat


2. Weigh what you eat


3. Want what you eat


II. The Production of the Hungry Heart


1. From Worship
2. By the Word
3. In our Work
4. Through our Witness


III. The Promise of the Hungry Heart






Our study has been quite rewarding. I've also chosen to develop a Bible Study curriculum to follow each beatitude, that I teach on Wednesday nights at our church. My hope is to put the study of the beatitudes in written form, followed in each chapter with the Bible Study curriculum for each beatitude, for publication. As one can imagine, this study has not only been rewarding, but also challenging. I also thank God for those who made decisions on today, as well. Next Sunday we will baptize two candidates for baptism. To God be the glory! 


This afternoon we journeyed to Minnihula Baptist Church of Goliad, Texas for the Pastoral Anniversary of Dr. Ira Antoine. Dr. Antoine has grown to be a dear friend in the faith and also a gifted preacher and lecturer. He is a church strategist for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and is well on his way to being a leading authority in church growth and leadership development. It was an honor to even be asked to share on his day. I shared from passages in Exodus 14, Joshua 1 and Isaiah 52:7, titling the sermon 'Following Favored Feet.'. God really smiled upon the message, amid my nervousness. God is good! My parents met us in Goliad to pick up our two oldest, Kai and Kaden, for a few weeks with 'Nana' and 'Bebop'. I miss them already; BUT I thank God for the mini-vacation. Dwight Howard still hasn't been traded; and it is becoming somewhat of a headache. I am egonning to think the Lakers need to simply keep Andrew Bynum, and call it a day. But...we shall see!