Last Day in Town - Grand Prairie

Tonight, I will preach my final message of this meeting at Morning Star Baptist Church in Grand Prairie. Pastor Christopher Taylor has been a very gracious host, as usual. And the Morning Star family has been a warm and encouraging place to preach, as usual. Likewise, there have been quite a few young ministers who have come to support the meeting, most of whom I am meeting for the first time. I really do appreciate these young men attending the services and showing such kindness to me. I feel a little out of my league, being around some of them who are so young, and yet have finished their formal theological training for ministry. But it is very encouraging to see these young men taking their preparation for ministry so seriously. I hope and pray that my personal conduct and ministry work will be an encouragement to these young men, and that the Lord would not allow me to join the number of the many bad examples of ministry that are everywhere around us.

In the morning I am scheduled to fly home. If the Lord blesses my study today, I will be pretty much ready to preach Sunday by the time I get home. That would be really cool. I would get to spend all of my time with my family, when I get home. We are in our Financial Stewardship Emphasis Month at MSMBC. This is the one time a year that the church knows I am going to preach on money matters. This Sunday, I am planning to preach an exposition of Malachi 3:8-12, called "Worship through Giving." It will be th first time I have preached on this tithing passage in a long time. I already have a completed manuscript, which I have preached several times. But I am trying to beef it up, adding additional insights and clearer arguments to my message. Even when I am preaching something old, it's hard for me to keep from messing with the manuscript. I am like David in that I do not want to offer to the Lord that which has costs me nothing (2 Sam. 24:24).

I look forward to getting home and being with my family and congregation this weekend. Sunday, my friend and colleague, George Hurtt, is scheduled to graduate from The Master's Seminary with his M.Div. degree. I am very excited for him. And I look forward to the ceremony this Sunday afternoon. I am planning on continuing my Sunday School series with a lesson on "Submitting to One Another." And I look forward to do something special with and for my wife, who is a loving and diligent mother to or two children. Pray that the Lord will bless my final night here in Grand prairie and get home safely this weekend.