“He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives... Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.”
A Reunion Sunday sermon that remembers the congregation's youth mentors and calls worshipers to live with urgency and purpose: recognize life's limits, resist guilty regret, and commit to being about the Father’s business through listening, prayer, service, justice, and faithful stewardship.
“Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives (Gethsemane) to pray, withdraws to pray, and finds the disciples sleeping.”
Bishop Smith preached on the importance of the soul, calling believers to a serious, intentional faith rooted in prayer, obedience, and stewardship. Using Jesus' confrontation with Peter and His agony in Gethsemane as the centerpiece, he warned about Satan's deception and spiritual forces, urged consistent giving and service, invited participation in church events and leadership, and closed with an urgent call to salvation and a personal Gethsemane experience of prayer and surrender.
“When Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him... he said to them, 'Pray that you will not fall into temptation.'”
A Sunday service focused on prayer as the believer's solution. The preacher outlines five conditions for answered prayer—being saved, exercising faith, obedience, a forgiving spirit, and asking according to God’s will—then leads the congregation through Scripture-based prayer points for deliverance from temptation, spiritual awakening, strength by the Holy Spirit, humility and casting anxieties on God, and corporate enablement for the church.
“Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and said, 'Pray that you will not fall into temptation,' and prayed, 'Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.'”
A packed Inland Empire Sunday service featuring worship, communion reflections on Job, teaching from Matthew and Genesis, baptisms/testimonies, mission and leadership announcements, and a central sermon on 'wrestling with God' (Genesis 32) calling believers to honest, transformative prayer and wholehearted discipleship.