On last Lord's day, I continued my series on "Total-Life Stewardship." The message was on the stewardship of the body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I sought to make two major points in that message: (1) We should strive to be healthy, and more importantly, (2) we should strive to be holy.God willing, this sunday I will preach on the stewardship of our speech or our words. The Bible is clear that words matter to God. And our words matter to God. There are many reasons why what we say matters. But maybe the most important reason why we should be on...

At the end of Rediscovering Expository Preaching, John MacArthur answers the question: What is the ultimate key to effective preaching? His answer is: “Very simply, stay in your study until you know that the Lord will gladly accept what you have prepared to preach because it rightly represents his word” (p. 348). MacArthur then follows this advice with a plan for making a preacher out of your pastor, written by an unknown parishioner (pp. 348-49): Fling him into his office. Tear the “Office” sign from the door and nail on the sign, “Study.” Take him off the mailing list. Lock...

There were some problems with the sermons on our website this weekend. But it has been corrected and you should be able to find many messages from the pulpit of Mt Sinai on our website. Again, hats off to Pastor G. Hurtt for addressing this problem.

Today is my 35th birthday. It is a quiet day for me. No special plans. But it is nonetheless a special day. God has been good to me in my life. He has saved me. He has called me to preach his word and the testimony of Jesus Christ. He has blessed me with a wonderful family - my wife, Crystal, and our children, H.B., Natalie, and the one "in the oven." And the Lord has given me a great job - to lead, teach, and minister to the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church of Los Angeles. These blessings are...

"Happy Birthday! We love you." - H.B., Crystal, H.B. (III), Natalie, and your granddaughter "in the oven."

The Mt. Sinai Church website has been updated. Browse around it and learn more about our church when you get the opportunity. The most important feature I want you to know about it is the audio messages that you can listen to for free. Actually, this is one of the primary reasons why we updated the site – so that we will be able to put more material on the website more easily... for free. Approximately two years of teaching and preaching is in the "sermons" section. And you should be able to subscribe to our messages as podcasts, as...

I have just finished one of the most helpful and challenging little books on pastoral ministry that I have ever read (For the record, it always seems that whatever I just finished reading is the most important book I've ever read.): The Pastor’s Public Ministry by Terry L. Johnson (published by Reformed Academic Press). Terry Johnson pastors the Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Georgia. I first heard of Johnson when I was given a free book he had written at a conference I attended several years ago (Footnote: For a bibliophile like me, there are few things in the world...

Last night, our congregation met at our new location for the first time. Three congregations are going through a transition at the same time in this process – Mt. Sinai, the congregation purchasing our facility, and the congregation whose facilities we are purchasing. And to do our part to accommodate everyone, we have switched our midweek service from Tuesdays to Wednesdays. And we have begun meeting at our new location on Wednesdays. We hope to be fully moved into our new location over the next several months. For most of the members who attended last night’s service, it was their...

I usually give a “State of the Church Address” each year at Mt. Sinai, during the first midweek service resumes. We call it our “Vision Night” service. But I chose to delay that message this year, not really knowing if I would ever actually get to it. Our congregation is in the midst of a relocation process. The Lord has been answering our prayers and doing great things on our behalf. But these first weeks of the new year have also been rather challenging. We delayed our final planning that would have been completed in October or November, trusting that...

Last October, I had the privilege of ministering several days at the Antioch Baptist Church in Omaha, where Dr. Reginald Terry is the pastor. During my stay, Pastor Terry told me about and let me read an article on preaching that he had recently written. As he discussed the options he had considered for publishing his article, I noticed that there was an option he had not considered or mentioned – starting his own weblog. So I recommended that he start a blog in which he could begin writing and publishing his work for a larger audience. Pastor Terry responded...

The African American Pulpit is one of (if not the) leading magazines or journals that spotlights African American pulpit work. Published quarterly, it includes edited sermon manuscripts, essays, interviews, sermon helps, and other articles that provide both a platform and resource for African American preachers. The Winter 2007-08 edition has just been released, featuring preachers who are considered “New Revivalists.” In the past, TAAP has spotlighted prominent “revival preachers” from across the country. And, apparently, this edition seeks to note some of the up and coming voices from around the country. The editors graciously invited me contribute a sermon for...

This coming Sunday I will begin a new sermon series that I am calling "Total-Life Stewardship: Being Faithful with a Borrowed Life." The bottom-line of Christian stewardship is simply that God owns everything. We are just stewards (or managers) of the things we possess. And this stewardship involves more than just our time, talents, and treasures - even though it definitely includes these fundamental things. Christian stewardship involves every area of our lives. It is required of stewards that one be found faithful. And one day we will have to answer to the Lord for how we have lived our...