Monday reflections of my Sunday at Grace Bible Church of Tampa



The church pictured above is where Stephanie and I have attended for two of our Sundays here before heading north to Machias, Maine.  I came across the church with the help of the internet while I was still in Illinois.  "Where will I go to church when I am in Florida?" was the question and so I looked for churches that were pastored by an alum of Master's Seminary of California and the nearest was this one 25 minutes from us.  Pastor Mike Sprott has been in pastoral ministry for 20 years and graduated from Master's Seminary in 2005 with a MDiv and then completed in 2017 his DMin.  I typically don't get these opportunities so I can report about my attending a church rather than leading it.

 Our Sunday School class was lead by a young man who worked us through the hermeneutic way of addressing a passage of Scripture.  Start by asking those observation questions of, "Who? What? Why? When? How? and Where?"  We practiced with the book of Jonah with each group working through one of the four chapters.  I do this when I study a passage but I think it gave me inspiration to use this practice in my next sermon with its actual delivery. 

 The morning worship service is unique in many ways.  The first observed is that I get to listen to someone who preaches like I do with the study of a book from beginning to end, chapter by chapter and verse by verse.  Pastor Mike is preaching through the book of Matthew and the text for the morning was Matthew chapter 12 and verses 38 through 45.

 It is also unique that the congregation is made up not only of all ages but many of different ethnic backgrounds; there is a deaf church that has their worship service prior to the hearing service; and all the children (in which there are many) stay in for the whole service which goes from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

 Now onto what I was scribbling on the provided "Sermon Notes" sheet in the bulletin.  (I felt like Jim Roy of Oglesby, Illinois who would be writing the whole time I was preaching and I was thankful the half sheet had both sides available.)  The title of the sermon was "Characteristics Of An Evil Generation."  The four overarching points were:
1.  The evil generation seeks a sign.  v.38-40
2.  The evil generation fails to repent.  v.41
3.  The evil generation fails to seek wisdom.  v.42
4.  The evil generation fails to genuinely change.  v.43-45

Here are my highlighted scribbles grouped under each point.

"The greatest Sign was standing right in front of them."
"The problem was not a more revelation problem but a heart problem."

"The difference between this generation and the generation of Nineveh was that the generation of Nineveh repented."
"The difference between Jonah and Jesus and one of the reasons Jesus is greater than Jonah is because it seems that Jonah never really loved the Ninevites but we know that God sent Jesus out of His love for us."

"The seeking of the wisdom of God takes sacrifice."
"This is like going to church to worship God with other believers in Christ even when you don't feel like it or better yet, when you could be arrested or killed for it."

And the last point which he didn't get to but I just had to write some things to fill out my outline, pastoral occupational hazard.

"We are very good at doing some temporary changes under our own power and will."
"Lasting godly change requires us to insert God in the place where we have repented."

One last thought from Pastor Mike was, "We are the evil generation and we will remain the evil generation unless we are re-generated by God."  We believe and trust in Jesus because He has made us born again, born anew, to not seek another sign but lock eyes on the Savior; to be a person of repentance; to be a person who continually seeks God's wisdom; and to be one living a godly, holy life because we are filled with His Spirit.

So it was a great Sunday and I hope I can encourage you to take seriously the opportunities you have to sit under good preaching of God's word.  Be active in your listening and note taking.  A good preacher will spur you on to write down some things he didn't even say.  I thank the Lord for these few weeks to be another faithful one in the pew.

Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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