Corporate Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough (Acts 4:23-31)

  I publicly pray before I start my sermons. I also privately pray as I preach. Can you preach and pray at the same time? You better! Multiple things go through the preacher’s mind as he preaches. I’m not sure the preacher thinks about multiple things at the same time. Rather, the mind quickly and constantly shifts from one thing to another – consisting of good and bad thoughts, true and false, wise and foolish. This is why I pray as I preach. There are three fundamental things I need God to do for as I preach. I Need God...

Happy Mother's Day!   A special happy Mother's Day to my wife, "Baby Momma," and best friend, Crystal! I love you!!! Happy Mother's Day to my mommy, Ellen Charles! Next week, the 2015 National Conference on Preaching will meet at the Shiloh Church in Jacksonville (May 12-14). It should be a great week of preaching, training, and fellowship. I hope you can join us! This week, the Shiloh Church affirmed elder-leadership. I wrote a this week about "Our Journey to Biblical Eldership." Check it out! Click here to hear my sermon "Calling Faithful Elders" (1 Peter 5:1-4) on the Shiloh...

When You Pray (Matthew 6: 5-8) 

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. – Acts 20:28 I sat in the back seat. Two church leaders sat up front. They thought they were talking to me. They were actually talking to one another. At some point, they asked my philosophy of church leadership. I answered: “Jesus Christ is the head of the church. And he exercises his authority through a plurality of godly men.” Those two sentences express my convictions about...

Worship Through Giving (Malachi 3: 8-12)

Calling Faithful Elders (1 Peter 5: 1-4)

Good News For The Guilty (Psalms 32)

“I Was Blind, But Now I See!” John 9:1 says Jesus was passing by and saw a man blind from birth. Jesus is still passing by. And he still sees those who cannot see him! We have been blinded by sin. We have been blind since birth (Psalm 51:5). But Jesus is able to open the eyes of the blind! The miraculous healing of this blind man in John 9 teaches us that those who do not believe in Jesus are the ones who are truly blind (vv. 18-42)! John 9:1-17 records the good news that Jesus is able to...

The Life God Blesses (1 Chronicles 4: 9-10)

I first saw the expression while riding down Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles. The “Godfather of Soul” had been arrested after leading police on a high-speed chase through several states. As “the hardest working man in show business” sat in prison, some enterprising brother found a way to profit from his troubles. He stood on Crenshaw, selling t-shirts that read, “Free James Brown!” Over the years, that expression has been adapted to call for the release – sincerely or sarcastically – of various persons in different forms of bondage. Consider this my appeal to #FreeGospelMusic. I love Gospel Music. I...

A Spiritual House Cleaning It was the time of the Passover. Jerusalem was filled with throngs of pilgrims who had come to remember and celebrate how the Lord delivered the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. Jesus and his disciples were also in town. And when Jesus saw what was taking place in the temple, he cleaned house. Whenever religious machinery gets in the way of spiritual purpose, it’s time for a spiritual house cleaning. This record of Jesus cleansing the temple was a sign to believers and a sign to unbelievers. I.  A sign to believers (John 2:13-17)...