From the first sermon to the last, the North Carolina Baptist Pastor’s Conference held true to its purpose of focusing on God’s Word. The conference featured some of the best Bible expositors in North Carolina and across the United States, and each helped expound on the theme: “Sustained by His Powerful Word: Hear it. Live it. Proclaim it,” based on Hebrews 1:3a.
Logan Carson, Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology (Ret.), The College at Southeastern, brought the conference’s first sermon. He spoke on Isaiah 61:1 and how pastors are anointed to preach, thus preaching is a “commission from the Lord Jesus Christ and should not be entered into lightly.” Preachers, according to Carson, are divinely called, qualified, and sent by God to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
Using the word “preach” as an acrostic, Carson told pastors that God’s marching orders for preachers are to “proclaim” the liberating message of the gospel of Jesus Christ; to “reach” the masses with the gospel; to “evangelize” the world through the power of the Holy Spirit; to “announce” that Jesus saves to those who are perishing without Him; to “comfort” all who mourn; and to “heal” in the name of Jesus those who are brokenhearted.
Carson told pastors that if they are anointed to preach they will be compelled with a sense of urgency to declare the gospel. “A minister who is anointed feels that a necessity and a compulsion has been laid upon him to preach the gospel,” he said. “Like the apostle Paul, the servant of God cries ‘woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.’”
Greg Mathis, senior pastor of Mud Creek Baptist Church in Hendersonville, also preached Sunday night. His message titled “The Mind of Christ” came from Philippians 2:5-11. Mathis said when believers put on the mind of Christ they are to have the humility of Christ, who gave the perfect example of humility to emulate. “There is no better example of humility than the Lord Jesus Christ,” Mathis said.
According to Mathis, humility was the number one trait of Jesus Christ and if believers are to have the mind of Christ they must make humility a priority in their own lives. “Let the number one trait of the Lord Jesus Christ be the number one trait of us,” he said. Mathis went on to say that in order for believers to make humility a priority in their lives they must first have an understanding of the humility of Jesus Christ.
From there, Mathis showed the perfect humility of Christ as revealed in Philippians 2. He said that Jesus, “though he was infinitely rich and God in every way,” became poor for the sake of humanity and gave up His divine privileges and then humbled Himself when He took up the cross. “In His humility the Lord Jesus Christ came down out of heaven and in His humility he went to the cross,” Mathis said.
Mathis closed by saying that Christ’s humility should spur believers to take up their own cross, and that by doing so the gospel of Jesus Christ will move forward unhindered. In order to accomplish that, Christians must be willing to lay down their own pride and “get out of the way.”
View the Pastor’s Conference photo gallery here.