Mount Olivet Baptist Church

This morning God gave the opportunity to preach at Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Raleigh this morning. The morning started off rough with Chloe waking up a fever of around 102. With her fever, Caleb recovering from the Croup, and Caitlyn feeling a little horse Jill stayed home with them while I went to preach. It's always a naked feeling without the family, especially Jill, with me. The great part about the morning was that Chloe really wanted to go to church. She was upset that she couldn't go so Jill and I each talked with her and let her know that she needed to stay home so that God could help her feel better. While I did feel bad for her it was amazing to see her fight to go to church and then get genuinely upset about not being able to go - I praise God for that being fostered in her. After our conversation Jill and I were going to pray but before beginning she asked Caitlyn if she would pray for her big sister with us. Caitlyn was so precious in praying for her sister and while we were praying I was holding Chloe's hand and she was squeezing and squeezing it just believing that God would heal her - they taught me a lesson about faith before I got to share mine!

The church was easy enough to find (thanks to Jill's CHRISTmas present - her new GPS). When I arrived I was impressed with their facilities. The physical structure of the church is quite big. In the service itself there were only about 30 people but I must admit I really enjoyed the service. There was a freedom to worship and I sensed that same freedom when preaching. The people where very warm and there where some who responded during the invitation for various needs. I had a great time with them and pray that God will open the door to return.

As for the sermon I preached from Matthew 26:1-16. Finding prep time while watching the kids is not always that easy but God blessed this week with two extended times of study that were quite fruitful. I talked about the cost of sacrifice and betrayal from the following outline:
I. The deception of betrayal. (v.1-5)
II. The nature of sacrifice. (v.6-13)
III. The price of betrayal. (v.14-16)
I enjoyed the prep and pray that God blessed the delivery. I'm really starting to love getting to preach whether to adults or youth. Getting to share is like "a fire in my bones".

In terms of prep there were two tools other than my Bible that were extremely helpful. The first was my Harmony of the Gospels. It was great to see where these verses fit chronologically during the Passion Week. The second was The Gospel According to Matthew from the Pillar New Testament Commentary Series by Leon Morris. I learned of this commentary through the list Danny Akin has on his site (see link on the left) entitled "How to build a Theological Library". These both provided great insight into the text.

I praise Him for this day and opportunity!