Notes from Sunday - New Years Day 2012

I am in Los Angeles.

I flew in to attend the annual Prayer Bowl, hosted by Pastor Melvin Wade and the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church of Los Angeles. The Prayer Bowl is a daylong service of preaching – one sermon after another that Mt. Moriah has hosted at the beginning of the year for almost 30 years. I have attended it since I was a boy. And I preached in it every year until I moved to Jacksonville.

I am not here to preach. I just want to attend and be preached to. But Pastor Wade warned me that I need to be prepared to give a word. We’ll see.

So… My flight that was supposed to leave JAX at 3:30 left an hour later. My connection through Miami went from 5:15 to 7:55. And when I arrived, my bag did not. By the time I finally get to the front of the lost bag line, they tell me that my bag would be arriving on the next flight. It finally arrived. And I made it to my room before 2013!

New year. But some things never change. H.B.'s airport adventures continue.

Anyway…

We had a great day of worship at Shiloh Sunday.

We only had one service today – at 9 AM – because it was New Year’s Day. But the saints came out to worship!

 Ray did a great job leading the corporate singing.

Glad to have had all the guests who were in worship with us.

As always, it was a privilege to lead the congregation in the celebration of the Lord’s Table.

Gloria led “He Wants It All” as the song of preparation. Beautiful.

I preached “God Knows What He’s Doing” from the doxology of Paul in Romans 11:33-36.

Sermon Point: God is worthy to be praised because he knows what he is doing, even when we don’t!

How should you respond to the marvelous truth that God knows what he’s doing?

I. Celebrate the wonder of God’s greatness (11:33).
II. Embrace the truth of God’s greatness (11:34-35).
III. Affirm the scope of God’s greatness (11:36).

This text really ministered to me this past week. I struggled with the temptation to worry about something that is beyond my control. And I was frustrated. I really needed to be reminded that, whatever happens, God knows what he’s doing.

Praise God for those who were saved and added to the church in our service today. Wow!

I love my congregation. And I am grateful for the privilege of serving such great people. I did not get to see any football Sunday! Not cool.

The Jags beat the Colts. But the Colts won the Andrew Luck sweepstakes.

The Cowboys… aw, never mind. You know what happened!