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The following sermon was preached on Thursday, February 25th, at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

⁵⁷As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, "I will follow You wherever You go." ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." ⁵⁹And He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." ⁶⁰But He said to him, "Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." ⁶¹Another also said, "I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home." ⁶²But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

This is from an email forward I received. Don't know the original source so if you do please let me know so I can give credit where it is due.

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him.

 It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastors visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited.

 The pastor made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead.

 Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. The pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

 As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said, with a tear running down his cheek, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday."

[F]or every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
- Psalm 50:10

The early 20th century pastor and author Henry Ironside once found himself involved in a prayer meeting at the financially struggling Dallas Theological Seminary. During the course of the meeting Ironside prayed the following prayer: “Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. Please sell some of those cattle to help us meet this need.” (source)  Shortly after that prayer it was announced that a check had been delivered to the school for a rather sizable sum. The one who provided the donation let it be known that the source of the money was the recent sale of cattle. The Lord provided for His work.

As is our custom at Patee Park Baptist we held our annual budget planning meeting in late November. At the beginning of the meeting we took a look back at giving over the past several months and determined what our average monthly giving has been. We then turned our attention to preparing the budget for 2010 with no attention to what the sum total of the budget was going to be. We simply went line by line stopping at each point and considering what was the appropriate amount to be budgeted for that item. It wasn't until we made it all the way through that we added it all up. Remarkably the amount needed on a monthly basis to support our newly planned budget was incredibly close to the giving pattern we observed at the beginning of our meeting. Once again the Lord provided for His work.

And now, just this week, the Lord has done it again. We're coming to the end of a year in which the International Mission Board announced they were in danger of having to scale back their missions efforts due to economic conditions. Many churches around the country took up a special missions offering earlier in the year to help ease the strain felt by our missionaries. Our local Chamber of Commerce sponsors a contest each year during the Christmas shopping season. The winner receives a $10,000 cash prize. This year's winner chose to anonymously donate the entire amount to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering at his church to support the work of the IMB. Yet again the Lord has provided for His work.

My hat goes off to this anonymous giver, what you have done very few would even have thought of. Your selfless act demonstrates a firm commitment to Christ and to His work of seeking and saving the lost. It's also a testimony to the heart and ministry of your pastor. Anyone who knows Pastor Micah knows that he has a heart for missions and leads his church to give sacrificially. Not because God would be unable to do it without our help, but because He offers us the blessing of taking part in His work. As we become the path through which He channels his blessings we receive a blessing of our own.

Now THAT is in keeping with the spirit of Christmas!

Here is the video that was supposed to have been shown yesterday during worship. It reminds us of how good we have it when we can freely worship Jesus through celebrating Christmas. It is also a reminder to be in prayer for those who are risking it all to tell others of that name which is above every name, the name of Jesus.

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Don’t forget we have one more week left in our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering emphasis! Believers in places like India, Iran and Afghanistan risk much to be faithful to the calling of Christ. Will you do YOUR part to help them?

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

These words have been sung since 1847 and I’ve been singing them myself for 32 years (well, a few less than that, anyway). While singing them at the church Christmas party a couple weeks ago one phrase stuck out to me that never had before.

“Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth”

The birth of Jesus sends an undeniable message about the love that God has for us. Knowing that Jesus gave up the comforts and privileges of heaven to come to earth speaks multitudes about our Heavenly Father. It tells the story of worth and value. To Him we mean so much that He gave us everything for us. The story of His coming really does remind us of our worth to HIM! Now that’s worthy of worship!