[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Sunday, March 24, 2013

[Paul]

Well, time to put a wrap on Palm Sunday for now, at least for us in the Americas.  You in other parts of the world are already in your Monday.  I hope and pray that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that your Sunday went well or that your Monday is going well.

This will be an unusual good night message as there will be no article for today, because I want to summarize my pastor's sermon for you and give you a small flavor about his delivery.  Some of you have already read this, but the majority of you have not, so here goes.

Before I start in the summary per se, my pastor is Harry Cook and he leads the flock assigned to him by the Lord of Rosemont Community Church here in Baltimore.

His text was Matthew 21:1-9, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  Pastor Cook's emphasis was on the word "hosanna," found in, I think, verse 9.  He took that word and made an acronym from it as follows:

H is for heart, and that we should worship our Lord from the heart, not necessarily from the head.

O is for offering.  Pastor Cook reminded us that offering is much more about money, but we are to offer to God our own selves.  He particularly zeroed on the concept of offering to God our bodies "as living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1).

S is for singing, and Pastor Cook said that we are to sing at any time and anywhere of what the Lord has done for us.  He referenced the place in Psalm 98 where it says to "Sing a new song."

A is for appreciation.  Too many times we take for granted what the Lord has done and is doing in our lives, and so a bit of heartfelt appreciation to Him would be in order.

The first n is for now.  Don't wait to praise or thank the Lord later for His blessings and grace bestowed upon you, but tell Him now about it before your mind forgets.

The second n is for the word "new." Pastor Cook fittingly quoted the words of that well-beloved hymn/Gospel song "Great Is Thy Faithfullness," in which the writer wrote:  "Morning by morning new mercies I see."

And the last letter A was for "adoration."  By that Pastor Cook meant a deeper love for our Lord rather than a superficial Daddy kind of love, and to just enjoy being in His presence.

So, as you can see, his sermon made a deep impression on the undersigned, and I hope and pray that you caught even a wee glimpse of what he had to say today in our worship service.  I hope and pray that you enjoyed these musings as the Holy Spirit not only led me to do this, but to calling to mind accurately what he had to say.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul