Missionary

Today I preached about the power of the Holy Spirit. I made kind of a bold statement that I'm not too sure about. I said before Jesus was given the Holy Spirit at His baptism, He really didn't have too much power. I didn't say He wasn't the Messiah before He was given the Holy Spirit or in any way less God or for that matter less man. I just said "he didn't have the power yet." I know enough to know that this is kind of a controversal point in theology, I'm still debating the point in my head right now. I said all of that in my sermon to make the point that we don't have it in us to change or really even help those in bondage around us. We need the power of the Spirit in our lives.

The funniest thing happened after the service. A guy who I've never met before came up and introduced himself to me. I thought he was a college student and I even asked him if he was one (step one open mouth, step two insert foot). Turns out he's not (he's three years older than I am), instead he is a missionary in the Nazarene church. He coordinates work and witness teams in the Caribean (I was sure glad we prayed for Haiti during prayer time with all those hurricanes) and is based out of Miami and was in Mt. Vernon for a meeting at MVNU.

He heard I was going to Argentina on a mission trip and he pulled out his wallet and gave me twenty dollars towards the trip. That was the least of his blessings though. His spirit and encouragement were worth a ton. What a great man of Christ.

After church he went to Wendy's with me and Mandy and three other people (6 of us total). I really only new my wife well and was just getting to know the others in the group, including the missionary. We ended up having a wonderful lunch. During part of it I brought up my sermon and asked if they agreed with me on the subject of Jesus and power. I usually don't give people a chance to critique my sermon on Sunday afternoons, I'm usually a little too vulnerable at that time. Something led me to ask and it turned into a good discussion. Most of the group seemed to disagree with at least part of the way I framed my arguement, but not in a tear apart type of way. It was a lets learn from one another kind of discussion.

It left me wondering why I preach the way I do. Wondering if we should have everyone talk more after the sermon. Wondering what is Christian community and wondering how we experience Christ through it.

I left lunch today knowing Christ a little bit more. It was a good lunch!