I am in Greensboro, North Carolina, preaching for my friend Keelan Atkinson. A little less than a year ago, Keelan organized the Word Fellowship Reformed Baptist Church. And I have the honor of preaching their first revival. This is my third time coming to Greensboro to preach for Keelan. So there is a level of familiarity with Keelan's ministry, which makes it a pretty relaxing atmosphere to preach in. The Word Fellowship congregation loves the word. And I have really enjoyed preaching to them these past two nights.The place where the meeting was to take place was unavailable Wednesday night....

I am teaching a new series on Tuesday nights. (Have I mentioned yet that our midweek service moved to Tuesday nights?) I am calling it, "Saved for Sure." And it is based on 2 Peter 1:5-7. In 2 Peter 1:3-11, Peter exhorts his readers to make their call and election sure. And in verses 5-7, Peter gives seven spiritual qualities that you should add to or supplement your faith with for assurance, growth, stability, and fruitfulness in your Christian experience. After several weeks of introduction, I have plunged into the seven qualities. We studied "virtue" last week. And last night...

Her children rise up and call blessed; her husband also, and he praises her; "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all." Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. - Proverbs 31:28-30 (ESV)

This evening, I will preach my final of three messages at the Morning Star Baptist Church in Grand Prarie (TX), where Christopher Taylor is the pastor. I have preached this meeting for Pastor Taylor a four or five times over the years. And all I can say is that Morning Star is a great place to preach. Last night, I preached a message that I really didn't intend to preach outside of my own pulpit. But I felt such freedom in preaching at Morning Star, that I took a shot at it. And I believe it was received well.There have...

This past Thursday, we observed the National Day of Prayer at MSMBC with a special prayer meeting. This is the third or fourth year we have had this service. We worship together. And we spend time in prayer specifically for the government, media, education, church, and family. Then I bring a message. I almost didn't preach this year, though. I was debating whether or not we should just keep on praying. We don't have too many meetings like this where we just pray. So I thought that maybe I should just save my sermon for another time. But I finally...

This past Friday, I spoke at Peace Chapel Baptist Church here in Los Angeles. Their pastor, DeAntwan Fitts, has only served the congregation since October of last year. But the Lord is already at work in this congregation in obvious ways. The meeting was the opening night of their youth revival, which will take place each Friday night in May. I was honored to be invited by this new pastor. And I was encouraged to fellowship with this young brother who is determined to lead his congregation with sound doctrine. And I was glad to be invited to preach a...

My son, H.B., and I were among the throngs who went to see Spider-Man 3 this weekend. And we officially give it two thumbs up. Go spidey!

Today was a rare (translated "weird") day of preaching for me. I worked all week on a message on Genesis 25:29-34. But when I went to bed last night, I was not comfortable with it. I felt (and still feel) it needed more work before I preached it. So I went to bed with plans to preach a message from Philippians 1:19-21. It was a older message from the exposition of Philippians that I did some years ago. I had been thinking about this text this week, as well - especially as we prepared for the National Day of Prayer....

Our Book of the Month for May is Confessions of a Pastor, by Greg Groeschel. Groeschel pastors the Life Church, a multi-campus congregation in Oklahoma. I really didn't know much about Groeschel when I purchased the book. I had seen an advertisement for Confessions in a Christian magazine. And it piqued my interest. While in a bookstore in Chicago last year, I saw it and bought it. The chapter titles were quite provocative, such as "I Can't Stand a Lot of Christians," "I Have to Work Hard to Stay Sexually Pure," and "I Hate Prayer Meetings," etc. I was really...

My message yesterday addressed the subject of "disappointment with God." I first began to think about this subject years ago when I read Phil Yancey's excellent book by the same name. This is also what I called the message I preached yesterday on Matthew 11:2-6, where an imprisoned John the Baptist asks the Lord Jesus if he is really the one who is to come. This passage was heavy on my heart to preach all last week. And I couldn't wait to get to the pulpit to preach it. I just knew that the Lord would have people here who...

Here is the sermon skeleton for yesterday's message:Title: "The Life of the Party"Text: John 2:1-11Theme: The transforming power of Jesus ChristPoint: Jesus is God who has come to transform your disappointments into joy.Outline:I. The Gracious Presence of Jesus (2:1-2) A. Jesus was invited to the wedding feast. B. Jesus accepted the invitation to the wedding feast.II. The Sovereign Authority of Jesus (2:3-5) A. The authority of Christ is seen in Mary's report to Jesus (v. 3) B. The authority of Christ is seen in Jesus' response to Mary (v. 4) C. The authority of Christ is seen in Mary's command...

Last night, I preached for my friend, Prentiss Lewis, who pastors the Greater Starlight Baptist Church here in Los Angeles. They are having a three night meeting, which began Tuesday and ends tonight. And Pastor Lewis graciously invited me to preach the middle night of this meeting. I have been preaching different occasions for Pastor Lewis and Greater Starlight for some time now. And it is always a sweet time of fellowship and worship with them. Last night was no different.