Late Sunday Morning Rewind 11/04/12

We were blessed by an abundance of God's grace and favor this weekend as He showed His gifts on us lavishly this Saturday and Sunday. We kicked off our 87th Church Anniversary Celebration with our Annual Musical on Saturday. Our Macedonia Gospel Choir was the featured choir and we celebrated with many other vocalists throughout the State of Indiana.

We are blessed with an exceptional Minister of Music, Brother Javon Lewis is an anointed musician who works with the Pastor to set an atmosphere that would be pleasing to God and conducive to worship. Thank you to all of the musicians, vocalists, sound technicians and MC's that helped usher in the Power of God. Special Thanks to the best members anywhere and that would be the members of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church Choir.

Side Note: I am still working on my song, maybe next musical.

Sunday morning, I was eager to preach still fresh from the spiritual high of Saturday night. We continued our look into I Kings 17 concentrating on vs 7. 1 Kings 17:7 (ESV) ⁷  And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. We talked about "The Blessing found in a Dried Up Brook".

Admittedly at first, I had a hostile crowd by facial expressions because no one wanted to hear how God can bless you in a dried up situation. I had to be honest in preaching that I was going against the current of most popular thinking on TV, Radio, or the Best seller Christian Inspiration Book market. These avenues seem to suggest that if you are in the will of God, walking in the way of God, you will have nothing but Sunny days and Clear skies.

I contend that if we keep living, everyone will have an "AND IT CAME TO PASS DAY (KJV) or an AND AFTER A WHILE (ESV) MOMENT. Live long enough and what you have became used to will begin to fade away. Job, Income, Health, Marriage, Support, Strength, it all can dry up.

Dried Brooks are not Accidental Assignments but rather they are Arranged Appointments!

In this text, Elijah's dried brook is not a sign of God's displeasure or disapproval over choices he has made but rather it was appointed by God.
1 Kings 17:2-5 (ESV) ²  And the word of the Lord came to him:
³  “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
⁴  You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
⁵  So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan.
Elijah was in the ordered, orchestrated and ordained place that God had for Elijah. It was God's will for Elijah to pass through this Dry Brook to teach him the Blessing Found in a Dried up Brook.

It would be a good place for me to say that we all must go this way. God has place that each of His children must pass through. He has a university, a training experience, for each of those He intends to use. What I am trying to communicate is the truth that before God can use His servants, He must train them. Before He can use us greatly before men, He must first break us before Himself.

I hear A.W. Tozer through Charles Swindoll through A. Glenn Woodberry say "Before God can use a man greatly he must first hurt him deeply. Dried Brooks hurt. When that person that you though you could count on dries up on you, it hurts; when that job that seems so promising fades away and dries up, it hurts, when the strength of your youth is diminished by the age of time, it hurts but there is still a blessing in a dried up brook.

Dried up Brooks teach us to Trust the SOURCE and not our SUPPLY!

The better way of saying what I just said is we need to learn how to trust the GIVER and not the GIFTS. Many of us are consumed by the supply. We watch the supply, we monitor the supply, we brag about our supply. We pray for God to increase our supply. Heaven forbid, the supply runs low and we start panicking but sometimes God has to teach us How to look at the Source.

Supply is finance but the Source owns the cattle on a thousand hills
Supply is health but the Source is a healer that can heal all your diseases
Supply is friends but the Source is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother

Whatever I need, God is, because He is the Source. It doesn't matter what the SUPPLY looks like, as long as I am looking at the SOURCE
The Songwriter helps me here: God is the joy and the strength of my life, He moves all pain, misery, and strife. He promised to keep me, never to leave me. He's never ever come short of His word. I've got to fast and pray, stay in His narrow way, I've got to keep my life clean everyday; I want to go with Him when He comes back, I've come to far and I'll never turn back, GOD IS, GOD IS MY ALL AND ALL

Let me also say Thank you to a wonderful church as we collected an offering on behalf of the victims affected by Hurricane Sandy. We partnered with our National Baptist Convention, USA Inc, Disaster Management office, and the Director Randy G. Vaughn.

As I reminded our church Sunday, in the Bible the people of Macedonia weren't the biggest or had the most money to give but when it came time to help the home church, they begged to participate in the offering. We try and teach that at out church through our motto: WE ARE MACEDONIA AND WE ARE CALLED TO HELP SOMEBODY.

For a spur of the moment, no advance notice offering, I am proud we raised over 1,000 with money still coming in. I am even more proud to say the people didn't rob their tithes to pay in this offering. God be praised.

Owens