Headed to Greensboro

I am in Cincinnati, awaiting my connecting flight to Greensboro, NC. I am scheduled to preach at the Garden of Prayer Sovereign Grace Baptist Church through Thursday. My friend, Keelan Atkinson is the pastor. Keelan has served there for about a year and a half. Keelan is also a blogger, sort of. He has a blog, I should say. But he hasn't published a post on it in almost a month. Pray that he will "repent" and get back to it. This will be my second time preaching at Garden of Prayer. I did their "Friends and Family Day" last year. I don't think I did a good enough job to have been invited back again. But that's what friends are for. I will probably have to go straight from the airport to the meeting to preach tonight. But that's okay. Im used to doing that. And I think I just want to go preach tonight and then get in the bed. I am still rather tired from a rather long weekend.

Speaking of the weekend...
We have a good day yesterday. In my Sunday School class, I taught a lesson entitled "Edify One Another." I was not able to finish the lesson during our hour together, so I will have to pick up the second part of it on the fourth Sunday, God willing. In our worship service, I preached on "Worship through Giving" from Malachi 3:8-12. I know, I know. It was Mother's Day. But it is also our Financial Stewardship Emphasis Month. And it is the one time a year that I an guaranteed to teach on money matters. So I went for it. I wanted the message to be both challenging and encouraging. And I think I pulled it off, even though I feel that both the message itself and the presentation of it could have been much better. But I pray that the Lord will honor the word and lead us to be more generous in our giving to God.

After worship, we went home and passed out. Then we went to the graduation ceremonies for George Hurtt. George, my friend and colleague at MSMBC, graduated from The Master's Seminary with his M.Div. degree. It was a special occasion. I know that his mother and the rest of his family must have been very proud of him. Dr. John MacArthur, the brought the message. It was a message from on of his books that I have read. But I still found it to be helpful and challenging to hear these principles again. After the ceremonies, we had a late dinner together and then home and kind of passed out again. I woke up this morning grateful to have another opportunity to go preach, but somewhat down about the fact that I have to leave home again. I am tired of being on the road. I have a little longer to go in this extended stretch of meetings, then I will be able to take a break from all of this travel. I really look forward to it. Pray that the Lord will help me to press on through this busy time and that the Lord's sustaining grace would enable me to do his will.