Sunday Morning's Message

A word of explanation..

Normally I blog Sunday morning's message on... well, Sunday morning. This past weekend, late Saturday afternoon I had already finished Sunday night's message but had yet to finish Sunday morning's. This is not a position we preachers like to find ourselves in (even Spurgeon had this problem occasionally according to a recent biography I read). After midnight I finished! Then I had a strong indication that I should not preach the message I had just labored over for many hours, at least, I should not preach it, later that morning.

So there I sat- tired, frustrated, confused. I asked the Lord to guide me. I pulled out notebooks of older sermons I had preached. Someone once said, "If a sermon is not worth preaching twice it wasn't worth preaching once." Nevertheless, I try to not repeat sermons very often, and if I do, I try to make sure they are over 10 years old and then I generally revamp them. Hopefully I have grown in the past 10 years and have a little more insight.

I found two messages, revamped one and laid the other aside "just in case". Sunday morning came and I had no idea which way I was going. The adult Sunday School teacher and I shared with each other that we both had problems with our morning messages. It seemed the ol' devil was working overtime. I told him "I have 3 messages ready and I don't have a clue which one I'm going to preach." He said, "Preacher, I'll pray for you." I needed that and still do.If you don't know what to pray for sometimes, pray for Brother Rick, he is always in need of prayer.

After Sunday School and deep into the morning service I still had no clue as to which of the 3 messages I was supposed to preach (if any of those) and I finally decided to preach what I thought would be a message of encouragement to all of us. It was the unrevamped message pulled after midnight. I preached it from an outline first preached at this same church on April 14, 1999. The only other time I had preached this particular message was at Camp Blanding to a group of Officer's Candidates (those guys needed encouraging) on June 2, 2002. The outline of the message I preached, with no editing, in its simplicity, in its innocency, is as follows:

DON'T

There are often times we feel like quitting. What's the use? Godliness is laughed at and the ungodly prosper (or stay in office). But let me say, "Don't!" Don't give up the ship! Don't throw in the towel.

I KINGS 19:1-4

It is true that there is...

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I. MUCH WRONG [v. 14] Elijah noted...

1. Forsaking God's Word

2. Fearing God's Worship (why is Bible Christianity not welcome?!?)

3. Fighting God's Workers

Regardless of much wrong (or maybe even because of it) there is...

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II. MUCH TO DO [v. 15-17] Opportunities, there is...

1. God's Will to Perform [v.15a]

2. God's Word to Proclaim [v. 15b-16]

3. God's Work to Participate in [v. 17]

And then of course, though we many not always see it, there is...

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III. MUCH RIGHT [18:39-41, and beyond Calvary, the Church Age...]

Fruit Bearing Still Produces:

1) Converts [Pr. 11:30]

2. Character [Gal. 5:22ff]

Christians getting right and yielding to God

3. Conduct [Rm. 6:22, Heb. 12:11, Mt. 5:13-16]

Christians doing right and influencing others to do so also

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Give up the ship? John Paul Jones said, "I have not yet begun to fight."