Message from the new President of the Southern Baptist Convention

The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention is Bryant Wright, Pastor, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta, GA. He is intending to give video updates regularly through this web site at http://pray4sbc.com. You may go there now to see his first video and to join a prayer team emphasis. You may read his daily devotions here.

Prayer Revival

There is a prayer revival happening!

You know that God has been moving our church for over two years in the direction of prayer. God is raising up intercessors to take "the kingdom with violence." Every Wednesday we have persons praying from 10:00 a.m. til 5:00 and then our entire church family joins at 6:30.

You have heard me mention "The Prayer Revival" that is happening in Sevierville at The Gathering. I have a classmate from Boaz who lives in that area and attends that church who has written me about what is happening on Wednesday nights.

Last night on TBN, Evangelist Tim Lee was interviewed about that revival. If you missed the "Praise the Lord" program, you may watch it today at 4:00, or record it at 4:00 or go to tbn.org and watch it here when it becomes available.

I expressed previously that I want to go one Wednesday night to Sevierville. If you would like to go, let me know. With the upcoming Ukraine trip, it may not be possible in July but I believe it is always helpful "to get under the spout where the glory is coming out."

Also, I found that Dr. Charles Stanley is calling for 140 days of prayer for our nation. You may watch his message here and downoad the prayer guide here.

If you have not read my sermon from July 4 or was present to hear it, we made a Biblical plea to pray for our leaders and government. Dr. Tim Lee said last night on TBN that prayer was what was going to change our nation, not Republicans or Democrats. Oh, how we need it.

Sermon Notes from Sunday, July 4, 2010

Here are the sermon notes from Sunday, July 4 "Christian's Response to the Government" from Romans 13:1-7 and I Timothy 2:1-4. click here

The greatest moment at the Southern Baptist Convention

Those in my church heard me share about this moment when the Watoto Children's Choir sang in the Monday afternoon session of the Pastor's Conference following a great presentation on adoption. I believe this was the greatest moment of the convention. Click here and then go to the 29:50 mark to hear this song and let it play to the end of the video. If the link does not work perfectly, then find Video #15 on Monday afternoon and that is the one.

At this web site you can hear all the messages and music from this year's conference.

Kay Arthur on going through the toughest time of life

Kay Arthur, Founder and Teacher of Precept Ministries, was featured on Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Founder and Teacher of Revive our Hearts, last week and the following is an excerpt from the Friday, July 2 program. You can read the entire manuscript from Friday here.

Kay: I have written at the top of Hebrews 11, “Faith is not faith until it’s tested.” It’s in the trial that I see:

• Do I really believe God?
• Do I really believe He’s sovereign?
• Do I really believe that He’s omniscient?
• Do I really believe that all things work together for good?
• Do I really believe I’m accounted as a sheep for the slaughter?
• Do I really believe that I am to be put to death all day long?
• Do I really believe that neither nakedness, peril, or sword can separate me from the love of God?” (See Romans 8:28-37).
• Do I really believe all that?
• Do I really believe my sins are forgiven?
• Do I really believe I can’t change the past, so therefore I’m going to move to the future and allow God to take the past and mold me and make me into what I’m supposed to be?

Nancy: You’ve shared that in this season of your life now, in your 70s . . .

Kay: Yes, 73.

Nancy: You’re going through some of the deepest trials . . .

Kay: Yes, the very deepest.

Nancy: . . . of your life.

Kay: Yes, the very deepest of our lives.

Nancy: How do you keep your bearings?

Kay: You know what I do? With every trial, I say, “God, I know who You are, and I am going to live accordingly.”

• That means I am going to give thanks.
• It means I’m going to count it all joy.
• It means I am going to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ.
• It means I am going to be steadfast and immovable.
• It means I’m not going to be immobilized by it; I am going to always be abounding in the work of the Lord.
• It means I am on display. He’s put me in the trial, for He says in Romans 8, “We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (verse 36, NKJV). We are put to death all day long. We are put in an arena, and I’m in the arena (see 1 Corinthians 4:9, NIV).

Nancy: We’re a spectacle.

Kay: We’re a spectacle, and people are watching.

Nancy: Heaven is watching.

Kay: That’s right. Heaven is watching, and people are watching. I’m accounted as a sheep to be slaughtered. I’ve been put in the arena, and they’re watching.

Gaining Respect to Share the Gospel

John Maxwell is one of the leading leadership experts in the world. I have followed his teachings for at least 15 years dating back to when he was senior pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego. He has returned to the local church as a teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Preaching magazine did an interview with Maxwell in their July/August 2010 edition related to his newest book Everyone Communicates, Few Connect. During his period between churches in San Diego and Palm Beach, he had a leadership training ministry that bridged the gap between the church and corporate world.

He was asked by Preaching editor Michael Duduit about the difference between the two and he said, "In the corporate community, the key word ....is respect. When you get respect, it opens the door."

As you seek to witness to fellow workers, do you have their respect? This is what Maxwell further said, "Go to your work place, do your job with excellence, and gain respect. If you gain respect, you're going to be salt and light, and you're going to be an amazing influence. You're going to be able to break people into the Kingdom, but don't share Christ with them until you've got their respect, because it's a message that will land absolutely nowhere."

Our Democracy Will Not Stand in the Face of Immorality

Here are some quotes that I used this morning in the sermon plus some quotes added that I did not use due to the sake of time:

Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence, insisted: “Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments”

In an 1829 letter to James Madison, Noah Webster declared: “[T]he Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government....and I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence”.

The first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay, maintained; “Only one adequate plan has ever appeared in the world, and that is the Christian dispensation”.

George Washington proclaimed to the entire nation in his farewell address that religion and morality are the indispensable supports of political prosperity, the great pillars of human happiness, and a necessary spring of popular government (1796).

James Madison declared at the end of their work with the Constitution in 1787: "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of the government but upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

President John Quincy Adams: "Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."

The full text of the sermon will be added in early week.