Making Time for God

Here is the sermon skeleton of my message yesterday on the fourth commandment:

Title: “Making Time for God”

Text: Exodus 20:8-11

Series: The Ten Commandments Today

Theme: Sanctifying time for God

Point: If you are too busy for God, you are too busy!

Outline:

I. The Principle of the Sabbath

A. It is a call to worship.

B. It is a call to labor.

C. It is a call to rest.

1. A personal call to rest

2. A communal call to rest

3. A spiritual call to rest

II. The Prescription of the Sabbath

A. The place of the law

B. The problem of legalism

III. The Practice of the Sabbath

A. Private devotions

B. Corporate worship

The Importance of Biblical Preaching

I heard a Charles Haddon Spurgeon quote this week about the importance of biblical preaching that has been very challenging and convicting: "Life and death and eternity and worlds unknown may hang on the preaching and hearing of one sermon." Amen.

Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow

Yesterday. After having breakfast with Crystal, I pressed on further in my study for Sunday. I actually got done much more than I expected. Praise God! My afternoon was spent in meetings with some of my coworkers here. Last night, we worshiped with the Liberty Baptist Church here in Los Angeles. It is the first pastoral celebration of my friend, Pastor Terry L. Brown. This service was the first time preaching at Liberty Church. And it was the first time our two churches had met together there since I have been the pastor of MSMBC. So it was good to join this historic congregation in worship. I am very proud of Pastor Brown, who is originally from Houston. He is truly a man of God, for whom I have much respect. I pray that that God would richly bless him, his family, and congregation.

Today. This morning, I will meet with our Men's Fellowship at MSMBC. We have a great group of men here. But my prayer is that God would help us to be more strategic in discipling them and connecting them to the body-life of the church. This meeting is one small steps in that direction. I will teach a Bible lesson. And we will pray and fellowship together around the word. Our last meeting was both encouraging and edifying. I pray that today will be no different. After that meeting, I plan to take a very long nap. I have no specific agenda for the evening besides that.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, we will not have Sunday School. Instead, we have planned a church-wide breakfast. I was supposed to do a mass Q&A session this Sunday. But a new member emailed me and expressed her concern about some of the challenges of building relationships in a new church. That email motivated me to use this opportunity to get us together as a church to enjoy one another's company and get to know one another better. I pray that it will be a blessing to our congregation. In our worship meeting, I plan to continue my exposition of the Ten Commandments. I am at the fourth commandment, on the Sabbath. I intend to call the message: "Making Time for God." I am pretty excited about the message. And I pray that it will challenge us to make time for God through regular private devotions and corporate worship.

WHW Board Meeting

This week, the WHW Ministries board meeting is taking place here in Los Angeles. Dr. R.A. Williams and Dr. George Waddles lead this ministry that emphasizes training local pastors in expository preaching and teaching. The morning sessions have consisted of lectures on various matters of pastoral ministry. In the evening, Dr. A. Louis Patterson, Jr. of the Mt. Corinth Baptist Church in Houston and Dr. Frank Ray of the New Salem Baptist Church in Memphis are preaching. All of these meetings are taking place at the McCoy Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. Williams is the pastor. Please pray for this great work that seeks to come alongside of African-American pastors who seek to better understand how to faithfully teach and preach the word of God.

Teach Me!

Here is my sermon skeleton from midweek service on Wednesday, February 22, 2006:

Title: “Teach Me!”

Text: Psalm 119:33-40

Theme: A prayer for greater understanding of and deeper devotion to God’s word

Point: We need God to teach us how to live right.

Outline:

I. A prayer for personal admission into God’s school (119:33-34)

A. You need spiritual instruction (v. 33)

B. You need spiritual insight (v. 34)

II. A prayer for continual progress in God’s school (119:35-37)

A. Your feet (v. 35)

B. Your heart (v. 36)

C. Your eyes (v. 37)

III. A prayer for steadfast perseverance in God’s school (119:38-40)

A. Assurance (v. 38)

B. Vindication (v. 39)

C. Revival (v. 40)

So Much... So Little...

I am in Orange County at the "On-Target Evangelism Conference," sponsored by the California Southern Baptist Convention. Yesterday was very helpful and encouraging. The afternoon sessions were about leadership styles and ministry teams. I needed to hear everything that was said. I still have so much to learn about leadership. And some of the things I had to deal with this past week were discussed in the lecture. The evening session was inspiring. I heard a great message on "How to Make the Good News Good Again" by by John Avant. I'm sure most of us in the conference felt like running out into the hotel to start witnessing right then! The conference ends today. There are four sessions scheduled today. I am looking forward to hearing the lecture by an African-American pastor from Louisville, T. Vaugn Walker, about developing a "Great Commission" church.

At the same time, I have been working on my message for Midweek Service this night. I plan to continue my exposition of Psalm 119. Tentatively, I am calling it, simply, "Teach Me," from verses 33-40.

Likewise, Dr. R.A. Williams and the McCoy Memorial Church are hosting their annual revival this week. Dr. Williams was with us last week, and was truly a blessing to us. I intend to share with them at least one night during their meeting, which goes through Thursday. His guest speakers are Dr. Frank Ray of the New Salem Baptist Church in Memphis and Dr. A. Louis Patterson, Jr., of the Mt. Corinth Baptist Church in Houston. And in the mornings, they will both be lecturing on bibical preaching and pastoral ministry. That should be good. I want to make it to that this week.

On top of that, I have several important meetings this week. I am speaking at Liberty Baptist Church Friday night, for Pastor Terry Brown's pastoral anniversary celebration. And Saturday, I will be teaching at our Men's Fellowship Meeting. And, of course, Sunday's coming!

So much to do, so little time! Pray that God will give me wisdom and strength for a busy week.

A Shout-Out from a Ministry Hero

Sunday night, while waiting in line at a fast food joint, I started checking emails and web surfing on my palm. When I checked out Dr. Ray Pritchard's website, I was suprised to find that he gave given me and Mt. Sinai a shout-out ("Look, ma, I'm hip!") in one of his posts. Dr. Ray Pritchard's sermons and writings have been a great blessing to me over the years. I was introduced to his ministry by his book, In the Shadow of the Cross. I read it and was hooked. Now, I automatically buy a book if it has Ray Pritchard's name on it. Ray Pritchard is one of the first pastors that I knew of to have a weblog. When he served the Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park (Ill), it was posted onto the church's website. And I would check it out several times a week to catch up on him, Calvary, and significant current events in Evangelicalism. I got to the point where I looked forward to hearing his opinion on things. I have been greatly blessed by Dr. Pritchard's ministry. I have never met him, but I feel like I do because of his blog. I think that was the point he was making about me in his post. Here's a portion of what he wrote:

"I'm always happy when I discover a pastor who blogs. H. B. Charles, Jr. is the senior pastor of Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, a dynamic, growing congregation in Los Angeles. While surfing the church website, I discovered that Pastor Charles has his own weblog. As I read his entries, I discovered a lot about him. He shares his sermon outlines, discusses how his physical health impacts his preaching (a topic preachers don't talk about much), and gives updates on church life. But the one thing that shines through mostly clearly is that Pastor Charles loves to preach the Word. Most of his entries revolve around his preparation for his messages. Here is a weblog put to very good use. People who read it get to know the pastor in a personal way, even if he is in Los Angeles and the reader is in northeast Mississippi. It's a long way from Tupelo to Los Angeles, but a weblog flattens the world, and a flat world is why Thomas Friedman wrote his book."

Thanks, Dr. Pritchard, for your kind words. They were very encouraging at a vital time for me.

The closing reference to Thomas Friedman is about Friedman's book, The World is Flat, which Dr. Pritchard mentioned at the beginning of the post. I have read several reviews of the book. And it seems to be quite interesting. I look forward to checking it out.

Be Careful with God's Name

Here is the sermon skeleton from my message this past Sunday.

Title: “Be Careful with God’s Name”

Text: Exodus 20:7

Series: The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17)

Theme: Honoring the name of God

Point: Our lips and lives must reflect the unique honor God’s holy name deserves.

Outline:

I. The prohibition against misusing God’s name

While this commandment does forbid blasphemy, profanity, and perjury; there are other ways we can be guilty of taking God's name in vain:

A. Irreverence

B. False teaching

C. The presumption of direct revelation

D. Promise-breaking (I never got to this point in the actual presentation of the message.)

II. The penalty for misusing God’s name

Here are three ways we can honor the name of God:

A. Honor God’s name by confessing Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of your life.

B. Honor God’s name by living your life in a manner that is consistent with your profession of faith.

C. Honor God’s name by speaking well of it whenever you get a chance.

A God-Centered Perspective on Cancer

John Piper is the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and the featured speaker of Desiring God Ministries. Piper's message can be summarized in one simple but profound statement: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied with him." Recently Piper has proven his personal sincerity about this statement, as he has been recently diagnosed with prostrate cancer. Dr. Piper had a successful surgery this week. To God be the glory! And he was released from the hospital this past Wedneday. Please continue to pray for him. Recently, in one of his regular newletter articles to his congregation, Piper wrote a very God-centered perspective on cancer. He called it, "Don't Waste Your Cancer." Read it and share it with somebody else.

A Love Worth Finding

This week, I finished reading a book entitled, "Love Worthy Finding." It is the story of the personal life and preaching philosophy of Adrian Rogers. It was written by his childhood sweetheart and wife of fifty-four years, Joyce Rogers. Dr. Rogers was the pastor of the historic Bellevule Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee. He served there for thirty-two years, until his retirement in the March, 2005. He was the featured speaker of Love Worth Finding Ministries. And was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention three times during its conservative resurgence in the 1980's and 90's. Dr. Rogers died on November 15, 2005, from pneumonia after suffering with cancer. But before his death, he and his wife outlined the details of his life that would be chronicled in this book. Likewise, several years ago, Dennis Brunet did a dissertation on the Dr. Roger' philosophy of ministry. And the notes from his interviews with Dr. Rogers comprise the second part of this book, in which Dr. Rogers talks about expository preaching, pastoral ministry, church growth, and other topics.

Dr. Adrian Rogers loved Jesus Christ. He loved the word of God. And he loved the church of Jesus Christ. These holy passions created a man who was totally sold-out to God. Over the years, Dr. Rogers' preaching and writing has been a great blessing to my life. And the example of his life and ministry have also been a source of great encouragement to me. Dr. Rogers developed a great church through the faithful preaching of the word of God, something that many people say cannot be done anymore. And his preaching was always clear and compelling. He had a great way of making difficult concepts easy to understand. He was simple, without being simplistic. And his voice, style, and language were all tools in the hands of the Lord to use in effective communication of the Gospel. But Rogers did not rely on preaching alone in his work. He knew that a great church cannot be built without faithful preaching. But it also cannot be built on preaching alone. And God used him to develop a ministry infrastructure at Bellevue Church that facilitated the proclamation of the word. From the development of church facilities, to the organizations of ministry programs, to media outreach through radio, TV, and the internet, to strategic and aggressive world missions support, to the conviction-based denominational work (SBC); Dr. Adrian Rogers was a model of what a man of God ought to be. If you want to read the inspiring story of one of the modern heroes of the faith, pick up "Love Worth Finding." I dare you to read it and not be inspired to embrace and promote the love of God.

It's Revival Time!

We are in the middle of revival services at Mt. Sinai. Our guest speaker is Dr. R.A. Williams, Jr, who is the pastor of the McCoy Memorial M.B.C. here in Los Angeles and president of WHW Ministries. Dr. Williams is one of the men God used to introduce me to expository preaching. And the Lord has used him to encourage and enrich my life and ministry in many ways. This is the third or fourth time Dr. Williams has preached a meeting for us. And I am honored to have him minister the word to our congregation this week. Last night, Dr. Williams did the first part of a message on reconciliation, out of the Epistle of Colossians. It was a great explanation of the message of salvation. And one person responded to the message. Please pray for the remaining two nights of this meeting. Ask God to strengthen and guide our preacher, save the lost, and build up the body of believers at MSMBC. May the Lord send true revival and reformation to and among us!

Feeling Better

I am feeling much better today. I even put on a short sleeved shirt today, in order to enjoy some of the wonderful weather we are having here in Los Angeles this week. Yesterday, I mostly rested. This is usually the most effective remedy when my body gets sick. And it seems to have worked again. And it happened in good timing, I might add. I have quite a busy weekend ahead of me. Today, I have a couple of writing assignments to finish and some pastoral care updates to make. I also have to finish my preparation for my sermon and Sunday School lesson. I also have a leadership meeting Sunday afternoon after church to prepare for. Likewise, I am scheduled to preach this evening at the Redeemer Baptist Church here in LA, for the pastoral anniversary celebration of Pastor Curtis Monroe. I don't know Pastor Monroe too well, but he is family. My nephew Louis and his daughter shereece have been married for several years now. Interestingly, my nephew's last name is also Monroe. Divine providence must have a sense of humor. I am determined to get as much of my work done today as possible, so I won't have much to do tomorrow. Saturday is my birthday. I will be 33 years-old, God willing. Praise the Lord for his steadfast love, his sustaining grace, and his sparing mercy!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today, February 10, is my mother's - Ellen Louise Charles - birthday. My birthday is tomorrow. And as I understand it, I would have shared my mother's birthday if I would have arrived three hours earlier. My mother lives in Oklahoma City, where she is caring for my ailing grandmother. And I love her very much. She has sacrificed much in order to facilitate God's plan for my life. And I appreciate it more than she will ever know. Happy birthday mom!

Up From The Dust

Here is the sermon skeleton from my midweek sermon last night on Psalm 119:

Title: “Up from the Dust”

Text: Psalm 119:25-32

Theme: God’s word encourages the depressed soul

Point: The person who is devoted to the word of God may be down, but their not out.

Outline:

I. The prayer of a soul that is depressed (119:25-28)

A. God’s word revives (v. 25)

B. God’s word enlightens (v. 26-27)

C. God’s word strengthens (v. 28)

II. The prayer of a soul that is determined (119:29-32)

A. The desires of the determined soul (119:29)

B. The decisions of a determined soul (119:30-32)

1. Choose God’s word (v. 30)

2. Cling to God’s word (v. 31)

3. Run after God’s word (v. 32)

Sunday Morning Sickness

I am sick. I didn't have much energy Thursday afternoon. And Friday morning, I was in bad shape by the time I made it to the office; cough, congestion, the works. I rested as much as I could Friday evening. But I had to get up quite early to finish preparations to teach the "How to Study the Bible" seminar we held at MSMBC Saturday. Not feeling well, I taught for four hours on the principles and practice of personal Bible study. Truly, the Lord's strength is made perfect in our weakness. I tried to rest as much as I could Saturday evening. But I wasn't able to rest well. At about 12:30, I just gave up trying to sleep. And I ended up staying up all night with the two messages I had to present Sunday Morning.

In my Sunday School class, I taught on "Overcoming Envy." Even though I have only been back at the class a few weeks, I really does feel like we haven't missed a beat in our studies together. I am enjoying learning together with the small-group that I teach. On first Sundays, we share the Lord's Table at MSMBC. It is always a special time for me. Yesterday was no exception. But I really didn't feel up to preaching. I felt fine during Sunday School. But my class meets down the street from our main facility. And as soon as I got outside, I started feeling pretty bad. I am not sure why I didn't consider sitting the service out, but I didn't. Not once. When that thought came to my mind, I sent for my wife and asked her if it was okay for me to take some medicine before I went into service. I felt better, but any medicine I take makes me drowsy. So when I entered the service, my sinuses were feeling better, but I was getting more tired as the minutes past. It was really hard to concentrate. I began my series on the Ten Commandments with a message entitled, "No Competition," from Exodus 20:1-3. I was not at my best. And there were definitely some parts that I did not communicate as clearly as I would have liked. But overall, I think I was able to make most of the major points of the message.

You can hear the audio of the sermon on the SERMONS section of our church website. Likewise, George has uploaded my first three messages from Psalm 119 onto the site, as well.

Pray that I get some rest this week and feel better soon.

Oh, yeah. You don't have to ask me what I thought of the Superbowl. I didn't get to see any of it. My wife made an appointment for the family that I had agreed to. I thought it was going to be just a few minutes. It ended up taking all afternoon. But that's cool. My wife sacrifices a lot for me. I cannot begin to add it up. So this was a rather small thing to have to give up for her. Me and the kids did something to make her happy. And that made me happy. Just in case it took longer than we thought, my wife TiVo taped the game for me, and told me not to talk to anyone. But after our appointment, as we were sitting a dinner, the couple at the next table asked the score of the game. And the waiter shouted it out loud for everyone to hear! So at least I know what the score was.

How to Study the Bible Seminar

I have just finished teaching our first Christian Life Development Seminars of the year. This is a quarterly series that I will be teaching to explain our doctrinal convictions and philosophy of ministry to our congregation over the three year period. It's our goal to cover the major areas of doctrine and special areas of ministry emphasis for our church members. Because I am most often teaching and preaching a series, there are a lot of important subjects that don't come up for quite some time in our church. Hopefully, this seminar series will be one way for us to supplement that. Today's seminar was on "How to Study the Bible." Personal Bible study is the first thing for the disciple and everything for the minister. So I taught on basic principles of inductive Bible study. I hope that it will lay the groundwork for our future sessions. And I pray that those who attended will find their time in the word to be more fruitful.

Resources on the Ten Commandments

If God allows, I will begin a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17)tomorrow in the corporate worship service at MSMBC. Here are some of the the resources I am using in my studies. Some of these works are newer; others I have had for some time. My reference to these books should not be taken to mean that I agree with every statement in them. But I have found them to be helpful in my studies. Here they are, listed in no particular order:

1. Disciplines of Grace - R. Kent Hughes (Crossway)

2. Pathway to Freedom - Alistair Begg (Moody)

3. The Ten Commandments: A Manual for the Christian Life - J. Douma (P&R Publishers)

4. The Ten Commandmens - Arthur W. Pink (Baker)

5. John Calvin's Sermons on the Ten Commandments - Edited & Translated by Benjamin W. Farley (Baker)

6. The Truth about God - Stanley M. Hauerwas & William H. Willimon (Abingdon)

7. Whatever Happened to the Ten Commandments - Ernest C. Reisinger (Banner of Truth)

8. Exodus: Saved for God's Glory - Philip Graham Ryken (Crossway)

9. Basic Bible Sermons on the Ten Commandments - Jerry Vines (Broadman)

10. The Ten Commandments: Playing by the Rules - Stuart Briscoe (Shaw)

11. Laws of the Heart - Bill Hybles (Victor)

12. Why the Ten Commandments Matter - D. James Kennedy, with David Hazard (Warner Faith)

13. Growing in Christ - J.I. Packer (Crossway)

14. The Ten Commandments - Thomas Watson (Banner of Truth)

15. The Law of Perfect Freedom - Michael S. Horton (Moody)

I have also found the sermons of Ligon Duncan and Ray Pritchard helpful. I found them on their prespective websites.

The Ten Commandments Today

This coming Lord's Day, I plan to begin a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments, recorded in Exodus 20:1-17. I intend to preach the commandments one at a time. I did this in the beginning of 1997, almost ten years ago. In fact, I wasn't even using a computer when I last preached this series. All of my study notes and sermon manuscripts are handwritten. But I took really good study notes the last time. This will be of great help in the upcoming weeks of study. However, I do not intend to merely re-preach the previous messages. In the past years, I have been collecting additional resources on the Ten commandments that should prove quite helpful. And I trust that I have grown in my preaching since I last preached these commandments. So there should be a "newness of life" to these messages. Likewise, a friend of mind whose preaching I greatly admire is also beginning a series on the Ten Commandments this week. So it should be kind of fun to preach them at the same time and exchange notes. This coming Sunday, I plan to begin the series with a message on Exodus 20:1-3, entitled, "No Competition." Pray that God would use this series to win many lost souls and edify the congregation of believers at Mt. Sinai.

Sustaining Grace in God's Word

Here is the sermon skeleton from my sermon last night in Midweek Worship:

Title: "Sustaining Grace in God's Word"

Text: Psalm 119:17-24

Point: There is sustaining grace in the word of God that can hold you up when people are trying to pull you down.


I. God’s word sustains the servant (119:17-18)

A. True servants desire to live the word of God (v. 17)

B. True servants desire to learn the word of God (v. 18)

1. There are wonderful things in the word of God.

2. You cannot see the wonderful things in God’s word without your eyes being opened for you.

3. Pray that God will open your eyes so that you may behold wonderful things from his word.

II. God’s word sustains the sojourners (119:19-20)

A. The sojourner’s pilgrimage (v. 19a)

B. The sojourner’s plea (v. 19b)

C. The sojourner’s passion (v. 20)

III. God’s word sustains the suffering (119:21-22)

A. God punishes rebellious people (v. 21)

B. God protects faithful people (v. 22)

IV. God’s word sustains the seeking (119:23-24)

A. The discipline of those who seek God (v. 23)

B. The delight of those who seek God (v. 24a)

C. The direction of those who seek God (v. 24b)

Writing My Midweek Sermon

I am a manuscript preacher, sort of. Usually manuscript preachers write out the sermons in full and then take them to the pulpit and preach from them, word-for-word. I am a manuscript preacher in that I write out my sermons in full (most of the time). But I rarely take my manuscript to the pulpit. I would quite say that I memorize my sermons anymore, either. I use a word association method to remember the major progression of my argument. Likewise, most of my sermons are verse-by-verse expositions of some passage. So the structure of the message usually revolves around the text itself. And I have a pretty standard structure for my messages. So, even if the order is changed up somewhat, I still pretty much know what I am trying to do in each major point of the message. Plus, the sermon usually goes through several drafts before I actually preach it. I keep editing it, often right up to the time I have to preach it. I like to write. But as I am going over the message, what looks good on paper doesn't always sound good to the hear. Thank God for word processors! All of these factors usually don't free me from having to take my manuscript to the pulpit with me. In fact, sometimes in the message I catch myself making reference to the manuscript. I think it's because I am usually familiar enough with what's on the paper that I know when I am deviating from it.

Anyway, that's what I'm up to today. I am writing out my message for our Midweek Service tonight. I am presently in a series on Psalm 119. And tonight I plan to preach on verses 17-24. Actually, I could go the pulpit and preach the sermon right now, if I had to. But I choose to write it out anyway. I want to present a message that is worthy of what I have learned in the text. And I have come to learn that the congregation won't have to work so hard to listen to the message if I work hard in preparing it. I don't like being in the pulpit having to search for words, references, and illustrations. I prefer to think through those things beforehand. That's not to say that when preach extemporaneously, I not prepared to preach. I don't go to the pulpit unprepared. I have usually spent quite amount of time before the Lord with my text before I preach it. And I usually have enough material to preach a series of sermons on my text. And that's the problem. When I write, it helps me to pick the best cross-reference to quote, rather than standing in the pulpit and having seven of them jump out at me. I don't want to have to pick an illustration while I'm standing there. I want to stand with a fully thought-out message. Then the Lord has the sovereign right to edit in or out of the message what he desires.

There are some preachers you can listen to, some you can't listen to, and some you must listen to. I strive to be a preacher that people must listen to. So I work pretty hard at my craft. And I can testify that most good preaching is 90 percent preparation, and only 10 percent inspiration. As John MacArthur has said, The difference between the average preacher and great preacher is that great preachers stay in the seat until the hard work is done." I don't think I'm trying to be a great preacher anymore. I just want to be clear, faithful, and consistent over the long haul. I'll let time, providence, and the judgment Seat of Christ just the quality of my work. Anyway, that's what I'll be up to today. I'll be in my seat writing my sermon. It usually takes about 8 hours for me to write out my manuscript, sometimes more, but very rarely less. This does not include all the exegetical research I have done on this passage over the past several days. And let me testify: It's all been worth it! I can't wait to get to the pulpit to preach tonight on "Sustaining Grace in God's Word." And I can't wait to start the process all over again. May the Lord bless me to live, keep, and declare his word for many years. And may it bring forth much fruit that lasts to his glory.

MSMBC Online: Under Construction

Please excuse the mess at our church website. We have recently changed companies, for various reasons. So it will take us a minute to clean up the site, add graphics to it, and place all of our resources back on it. When we finish, the site should be quite helpful and enjoyable. For instance, you will be able to download sermon audios. And you will even be able podcast our sermons. Thanks for your patience.