Yesterday, was a long but good day. I continued our exposition of Ephesians with a message on verses 5-6, entitled "Spiritual Adoption through Christ." In Sunday School, I began a four-part series I'm calling, "A Biblical Understanding of Charismatic Experiences." Yesterday's lesson was called, "Should Christians Pray in Tongues?" I actually lost my voice during the first service yesterday. And by the time Sunday School began, I had a sour throat. But by the time I got to the second message, I was feeling a lot better. God is good. I don't usually preach my way out of hoarseness. I...

This weekend is our Youth Explosion weekend at MSMBC. Last night, we had a banquet for our youth, led by Pastor John Scroggins. It was a wonderful evening of fellowship. Our guest speaker was Pastor Reginald Payne, who serves the Full Gospel Baptist Church here in Los Angeles (by the way, the name of the congregation does not reflect its theology). Reginald and I grew up together here at Mt. Sinai. He is a few years older than I am. His mother was one of the key lay leaders here in the churc during my father's pastorate. And Aunt Pat,...

I recently read Shayne Lee's book, America's New Preacher: T.D. Jakes (NYU Press). I cannot begin to tell you how fascinating this book is. I almost couldn't put it down. First of all, Lee is a talented writer. A professor of sociology, currently teaching at the University of Houston, Lee analyzes both the good and bad implications of Jake's phenomenal success. And he carefully connects Jakes' rise to prominence to the larger religious scene in America today. This is one of the first major biographies of the life and work of T.D. Jakes to be written. Yet later writings on...

There is no Midweek Service at MSMBC tonight. We have the night off. But I am scheduled to speak at the First Goodwill Baptist Church here in Los Angeles. By brother-in-law, Clinton Smith, is the pastor. He is also a son of MSMBC, who served here with me for about 10 years before he began his pastorate. I believe he is in his third year of service there, if I remember correctly. The congregation had been throughout a lot before Clinton arrived. And and Lord has and is using Clinton to stabilize the congregation to continue its great legacy of...

Yesterday, I continued our exposition of the book of Ephesians in our Sunday morning worship services. I am still in the "Hymn of Grace" (1:3-14). And yesterday's message was on verse 4: "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (ESV). Basically, it was a sermon on the doctrine of election. The 8 AM message was a disaster. I am still adjusting to the time frame of this new 90 minute service. And it was close to 9 AM when I got up to preach. So...

Be safe. Have fun. And God bless.

Tonight, I am scheduled to preach at the Calvary Baptist Church here in Los Angeles. The Rev. Virgil Hill is the pastor. Calvary is the congregation that was pastored by the late, Dr. Manual Scott Sr. Later, Pastor Jarvis Collier, who now serves in Kansas City, was the pastor. Hill has been at Calvary for a few years now as it doing a great work. Not only is he actively working to develop his congregation, he is also passionate around reaching young people. He leads a college preparatory ministry that is helped many young people in the Southern California area....

Tonight, Mt. Sinai will meet together for a one-night revival that we call our Midyear Tune-Up. At this midpoint of the year, we stop to offer the Lord our grateful praise for all that he has already done for us so far this year. Likewise, we spend time in believing This young man prayer together, asking God's blessings to be upon our life and work for the remainder of the year. It is usually a special time in the life of our congregation. And I expect that tonight will be no different. Our guest speaker will be Pastor Terry Brooks...

The Lord richly blessed our Midyear Tune-Up last night. The worship was warm and the testimonies were encouraging. And the Lord used Pastor Terry Brooks to bless us in a special way. The pastor of New Horizon Baptist Church in San Diego, Brooks preached a message entitled, "The Who of Your How," from Lamentations 3:21-24. He reminded us that God is calling the shots and that God can be counted on in every situation. The bottom-line is that you don't have to know how you are going to make it, as long as you know the One who has everything...

So I came home this morning to pick something up. I wasn't in the house for five minutes. But when I got back into the car, it wouldn't start. I went back inside and waited a few minutes (as if that would do anything). But it still didn't start. So I called AAA (#1) to come out. The AAA guy came a gave me a jump. I let the car run for 20 or so minutes. And then I headed for the office again. I decided to go to a local bookstore to pick up a book that I wanted....

Yesterday, I continued my exposition of Ephesians with a message on 1:3, entitled, "Count Your Blessings." I didn't sleep Saturday night. I was restless because I was very nervous about preaching Sunday morning. I'm not sure why, though. I was very excited about the message. And I was eager to be in worship. But I was very uptight about my message. I had worked hard on it. I even had an extra week to work on it. But I still struggled in preparing it. In fact, about 5:00 AM Sunday morning, it went from a four-point outline to a three-point...

Last night, I preached the eleventh stanza of Psalm 119. I am now halfway up this Mt. Everest of the Psalms. I have been richly blessed by my personal study of this passage over the past several months. And even though it has been difficult preparing some of the messages, I have really enjoyed the sermon preparation process, as well. It has kept me on my toes to wrestle through the theme of each of these eight verse sections, while maintain the main thrust of the psalm. And I have enjoyed preaching these messages to Mt. Sinai on Wednesday nights....