What A Week!!

Well, as I'm sure all of you know, my wife is now 39 weeks along. Basically that means that she could go at any time. However, I have already told her that if she can wait until next week (I know it's not up to her) that would be great! This is just one of those weeks where it seems like I have so much to do. It started today with a funeral being held at our church. The family received friends at 10 am at the building, and then the funeral was at 11 am. Thankfully, I only played a small part in it, since the lady was older. Our associate minister (who is also one of our elders) has been there for many years and knew the lady much better than I did, so he did it. After the burial and feeding the family my day was just about over.

Tomorrow I will be at the hospital all day. One of our members is having neck surgery, so I will be there with the family. On Wednesday, our associate minister teaches the Ladies Bible Class at 10 am. However, he is going out of town tomorrow, so I will teach that class for him, along with my normal class on Wednesday night. Throw in Sunday morning Bible class and 2 sermons, and I am not sure I'm going to make it to Sunday. If Kenzie decides she wants to come this week, I may be preaching someone else's sermon on Sunday (which I don't like doing). I'd rather them be my own, although I do like to get ideas and snippets from other sermons.

Of course, the way things are going, I'm not going to be surprised if Tammy is late and we end up inducing next week sometime. I can handle that. I'm the kind of guy that would rather be in control and schedule this thing so I can have everything in order.

Also, I thought I might start posting a summary of my lessons each Monday after I've preached them on Sunday. I'd rather do this after the fact than before, so my members won't know my sermon before I preach it. I read many blogs of fellow preachers and it seems like most of them only post about religious things. I certainly don't mind doing that, although I like posting things about my family and life in general. The only downside is that those preachers open themselves up to the negative comments of people constantly looking to find fault in others. I get very annoyed with the whole bickering thing, although I will never fail to stand for the truth.

Anyways, to quickly sum up my 2 sermons, my A.M. sermon was on our theme for this year, A.W.A.R.E. (Always Watching for Anyone who Requires Edification) In other words, being aware of the needs of others. I preached on the aspect of being aware of the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Although we should love everyone (Matt. 22:39), the Bible does place emphasis on how we treat the brethren (Gal. 6:10). There are times when our brothers and sisters need our help, they need encouragement, a kind word, a willing listener. My text came from I John 3:16-18 and my points from the 3 verses in succession were:

1. Willingness - We must be willing to help others, otherwise we will never see their needs. Verse 16 speaks of sacrifice. Are we willing to sacrifice for our brothers and sisters? The first century church was (Acts 2:44-45; Acts 4:32-37).

2. Awareness - We need to train our senses (Heb. 5:14) to be aware of the needs of others. Verse 17 speaks of seeing (being aware) a brother in need.

3. Business - This is the action part. Verse 18 says that we shouldn't love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth. Anyone can say "I Love You", but not everyone backs it up with action. Jesus talked about fulfilling the needs of others in Matt. 25 and said that even when we do it to the very least, we do it to Him.

Sunday night I preached on sin making us lose our senses. In the story of the Prodigal Son, we see that in Luke 15:17 the Bible says that he came to his senses. In other words, sin had desensitized him. He was able to get his senses back when he ran out of money and couldn't support his sin anymore. He found himself separated from that sin and then he came to himself. Also, David became desensitized in II Sam. 11 & 12 in his sin with Bathsheba. He knew it was wrong, but lost his senses. He had Nathan who basically called him out and made him come back to his senses and realize that he was in sin. II Tim. 2:25-26 also speaks of coming to our senses. It's downright scary when we see what Satan can do to even the most godly men through sin.