July 16, 2006

The very first EM Sunday Worship Service was attended by four people, including me.

It began small but was filled with hope and a great sense of anticipation and longing.

I would not have believed, much less imagined, the long road God would lead me and this EM if someone had told me three years ago...

The 2PM Sunday Worship Service Message was entitled "Longing Fulfilled: A Sudden Good Break" taken from Proverbs 13:12:

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

MSG: "Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around."

I found it interesting that my very first sermon 3 years ago and my "last" sermon closing the three full years (Sunday, July 12, 2009) both dealt with hope:

Isaiah 40:27-31 Why do you say, O Jacob,and complain, O Israel,"My way is hidden from the LORD;my cause is disregarded by my God"? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

I. Those without hope (v.27)

A. Lose Sight of God
B. Has Distorted View of God

II. Those With Hope (v.31)

A. Will Renew their Strength
B. Will Soar on Wings like Eagles
C. Will Run and Not Grow Weary
D. Will Walk and Not be Faint

1 John 3:3 "And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

My handwritten first EM sermon ends with hastily written (which usually means the thoughts came quickly and urgently) "Hope purifies our motives, intentions, burns away our own agendas... purifies our thoughts, desires, needs, words and action."

This ministry began with a simple but powerful promise of God: "If they come, I will bless them."

And God has done just that in more ways than I had dreamed of or imagined...

His yoke has been easy, His burden light.