We had a great weekend at the Shiloh Church as we celebrated our 138th church anniversary! Praise God for his faithfulness in sustaining the witness and ministry of this great congregation in Jacksonville for more than a century! And our dreams are even greater than our memories! Special thanks to our church staff for organizing the events of the weekend. I am glad to have you on our team and appreciate all you do! Likewise, thanks to all of our volunteers for serving so diligently this weekend. You make it happen! Saturday, we had a church picnic on the grounds....

Happy Mother's Day! A Special Happy Mother's Day to my wife, Crystal, and to my mother, Ellen. We had a great day of worship at the Shiloh Church today. Grateful for all of our guests today. I even got to meet BrothaRollins' parents. Way cool. Praise God for the five persons who were baptized today. Our Genesis Choir (children) sang today. I preached "God's Graffiti" from Daniel 5, continuing my series through Daniel. I outlined the chapter in four movements:  The Foolish Celebration (Belshazzar) The Party Crasher (God) The Uninvited Guests (Daniel) The Tragic Conclusion (Dairus) I stole this sermon...

It was a long, good weekend at the Shiloh Church. Our Saturday morning men’s Bible study was great. Kingdom Man is challenging us. Our Kingdom-Focused Prayer Meeting was very moving. Saturday afternoon, we a mass wedding for 14 live-in couples that made the step of faith to get married. Our church adopted them. We counseled them for more than six weeks. And we donated everything for the couples. It was a great experience. Please continue to pray for these couples. Shiloh, thanks for your prayers, generosity, and service. You make it happen! Sunday morning, we celebrated the Lord’s Table in both...

It has been a great weekend of fellowship, service, and worship. Saturday was our Make A Difference Day at Shiloh. On MADD we blitz our community with works of service to show the love of Christ. Our Clothes Closet gave away clothes. We fed the homeless. Our Men did yard work for seniors. Our Car Care Ministry did free repairs. Our youth washed more than a hundred cars for free. Our Soul Winning Action Team (SWAT) shared the gospel. And that's was just on our campus! It doesn't include the over works our members did across our city. God be...

We had a good day of worship at the Shiloh Church today. In my Bible Study Fellowship group, I taught from 1 Timothy 5:1-16. After general instructions on how to treat everyone (vv. 1-2), Paul focuses on the care of widows. I did not finish the lesson. Praise God for the seven persons who were baptized today. Our children’s choir sung today. Grateful for all the guests we had in worship today. The Bethune Cookman University Concert Chorale was our special guest today. I preached Daniel 2: “How God Views the World” Sermon Point: World history will inevitably end with...

I love first Sunday’s at the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church! In my Bible Study Fellowship class, I taught from 1 Timothy 4:6-16: “A Good Servant of Jesus Christ.” I really enjoy this class. We had a good number of guests in worship. It is way cool that our members are inviting guests to Shiloh. There was music. We celebrated the Lord’s Supper in both of our worship services. Praise God for the new members we welcomed into our church family. I began a series through the book of Daniel. I plan to work through the book chapter-by-chapter. It will not...

I had a good Sunday. But I missed worshiping with and preaching to the Shiloh Church. Thanks to Pastors West Wilson and Donald Lewis for ministering the word to the congregation at Shiloh. It was my privilege to speak during the celebration of the 50 years Dr. John A. Reed Jr. has served as Pastor of the Fairview Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Pastor Reed was one of my father's closest friends. He was "Uncle John" to me, when I was a boy. The morning my father died, I was flying home to Los Angeles. Dr. Reed was flying home...

It is a very cold day here in Jacksonville. The only good reason to be outside was to go to church! We celebrated the Lord’s Supper today in both of our morning worship services. I was glad to have all of our guests in worship today, especially the interns from the local 2nd Mile Ministries of Jacksonville. The music was good today. I resumed our Family Matters series with a message, entitled, “Live-In Love: What the Bible Says about Cohabitation” (Hebrews 13:4). I gave three reasons why it is wrong for Christians couples to live together without being married. The...

Today was Ministry Emphasis Day at the Shiloh Church. There was a ministry fair after both services today. Ministry leaders answered questions. Members signed-up to serve. Way cool. I am grateful to God for all the volunteers of our congregation. You make it happen! We did not have Bible Study Fellowship groups today, to give members the opportunity to browse ministry displays today. As always, I was glad to have our guests in worship today, including the New Stanton High School class of 1977. Praise God for the two who were baptized today. I preached on “The Good Samaritan” from...

Happy President’s Day! It was a long but good day of worship and ministry at Shiloh yesterday. In my Bible Study Fellowship class, I continued my study of 1 Timothy with a lesson on the ministry of deacons (3:8-13). Didn’t finish. Praise God for those who were baptized yesterday. I continued our Family Matters series with a message from Matthew 19:3-10: “Jesus’ Answer to the Question of Divorce” In Matthew 19, Jesus affirms the sanctity of marriage (vv. 3-6) and explains the grounds for divorce (3:7-10). Matthew 19:9 is the crux of the text and is the subject of much...

Happy birthday to my mother, Ellen Charles! If the Lord let’s me see tomorrow, I will 40-years-old. Yikes! My children keep assuring me that they still love me even though I am now an old man. My wife made sure I had a great birthday weekend. She's the best. And thanks to my three partners in crime for hanging out with the old man. Last Sunday, I publicly predicted the 49ers would win the Super Bowl. I tried to ignore last weekend even happened. But the saints wouldn’t let me forget it today. A member who is out of town...

There are three basic elements to a sermon: explanation, application, and illustration. At any given point of the sermon, you are doing one of these three things. Explanation is the foundation of a biblical message. The goal is to explain what the text means by what it says. However, interpretation without application is abortion. You must explain the text and exhort the congregation to do what it says (James 1:22). But your work is not done there. The effective preacher must also work to clarify meaning, make ideas stick, and call the listener to action. To this end, Illustrations are...