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Last year, leading up to Resurrection Sunday, we sought to leave no one uninvited.  We acknowledged that everyone deserves to be invited to celebrate the resurrection of the King of kings and Lord of lords.  My prayer is that we will continue in such – that we will be intentionally active in gathering as the church and in inviting others into those celebrations!

Will you be one who invites others?

You see, the Lord has invited you into a relationship with Himself – reconciling you to the Father & indwelling you by the Spirit – and this invitation is the greatest blessing.  It is a blessing of His grace and mercy, secured through His sovereign plan:  Jesus’ life, death, burial, & resurrection!

And the Lord invites us to so much more:  to peace, to a confidence in Him, to a hope & a future, to be used in His hand for His glory.

Everything to which the Lord invites us involves a life filled with proclamation!  First Peter 2:9 tells us (those who are in Christ), “...you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

The life of a Christ-follower is a life of proclamation!

When the Holy Spirit convicts man of sin – convicts him that he is hopelessly lost because he is a sinner.  And he learns that Christ died in his place to redeem him from his sin.  And when he repents of his sin, confesses Jesus as Lord, and believes in his heart God raised Jesus from the dead – when he becomes a new creation in Christ...his first act of obedience is to undergo water baptism:  publicly professing his faith in Christ through this symbolic burying with Christ & being raised to walk in the newness of life.  The first act of obedience for a new believer is one of proclamation!

And proclamation doesn’t end for the Christ-follower!

  • Through observing the Lord’s Supper we proclaim Jesus’ death until He returns (1 Cor. 11:26).
  • We are commissioned to make disciples – proclaiming the Gospel & teaching all Jesus commanded (Mt. 28:18-20).
  • God’s Word tells us faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the proclaiming of the word of Christ (Rm. 10:17).
  • Like Peter & John, we can’t help but to speak (proclaim) of what we have seen and heard (Ac. 4:20).
  • Even the heavens declare – proclaim – the glory of the Lord (Ps. 19:1)!

We proclaim His excellencies.  We proclaim our faith in Him.  We proclaim His goodness.  We proclaim our devotion to Him.  We proclaim his grace & mercy.  We proclaim, and proclaim, and proclaim!

While proclamation is to be a constant part of our lives, I want to invite you to a special time of proclamation.  Sunday, April 20th (Easter Sunday), we are designating, “Proclamation Sunday!”

  • Have you been led by the Lord to proclaim your faith in Christ publicly?
  • Have you been led to proclaim the Lord leading you to commit to membership at Foxworth First?
  • Is the Lord leading you to surrender to vocational ministry?
  • Is the Spirit stirring you to bear testimony of His goodness in some way?

Respond during the invitation – and be a proclaimer of our King!

We certainly do not have to wait until Resurrection Sunday, but I pray the Lord stirs your heart to be a faithful proclaimer of His excellencies!

 

Be friendly to those around you (be reminded of what friendship really means).  Be faithful to the LORD and His ways (and faithful to His Bride:  the Church).  Be focused on your mission and the day that will come when this will be no more and we will be like Him!

Pastor loves you, church!