He who Thirsts let him Come to Me and Drink!

It was purely God's grace that I could preach two full sermons after a hectic weekend of Friday sermon and Saturday's end-time seminar. During the first song of the first service I was ushered into God's presence by His mercy and I had a vision. My inner being was stirred and out of it flowed mighty currents of God's Spirit. I was at the point of giving up and sought the Lord's counsel as to my future. Do you really want me to pastor this church? Do you want me to remain in Ranau? The Lord did not give me answers to my anxiety but He allowed me to see that He was the shepherd of the flock and He was holding my hand as I pastor the church. Lord, if You are the shepherd then all things will be well. I can't afford to allow a couple of individuals to cause trouble and hinder the work of God. Manifestly, it was the Lord's doing that He had added to the numbers of the congregation.
The former pastor offered his view that it was the first week of month and hence there would be normally more people in town and the church is usually fuller at that time. I did not tell him that it has been packed to the full for the past 5 or 6 weeks, not just the first week of the month. The second service is about full, 150 people in all. Anymore will be uncomfortable for many. If I had simply looked at the numbers, I know I can't read too much into it. People could be fickle, they come one week and then disappear the next. But in yesterday's 2nd service I spoke for a full 45 mins on the relevance  of the Feast of Tabernacles. I made 3 points.  Three point sermon plus expository preaching from Deuteronomy 16, Nehemiah 8 and John 7.

At last I challenged the congregation to stand if they wanted to come to the Lord and drink from the water of life.  I spoke about the verse out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters and made the allusion to Ezekiel's temple that in the midst of the temple, a river flows and wherever it flows, whatever it touches comes to life, with tree bearing fruits and many fish swarming the river. I talked about our responsibility to impact others for Christ and it is only those in whose bellies flow rivers of God's Spirit that will become a blessing to others and to the nations. I challenged the church to look outward and go to make disciples of all nations. When I gave the invitation,  three months ago, perhaps 20 would stand up; 6 months ago, I laid my hands on 5 or 6 people but yesterday more than 100 people stood up. I even told them to be serious and do not allow others to influence their decision to respond. Respond they did and I cried out to the Lord and the congregation was mightily blessed.