Evangelist Craig Cobb: "With All Your Heart" - First Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Franklin, Indiana

We just returned home this afternoon from a great trip to Indiana. We were at First Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Franklin (about 20 miles south of Indianapolis). My good friend, Kent Kirchmeyer, is the pastor. I mentioned in the previous blog post that I have known Pastor Kirchmeyer for 30 years. I had the honor and privilege of preaching their annual revival. It was so good to be back with this great church and all the wonderful people there.

I was really praying in the time leading up to the meeting what God might give by way of a theme for the week. As I spent some time praying on the ride out there, I was really puzzled because the Lord didn't give me a clear direction on a theme. Well, I just continued to pray and trusted the Lord that He would let me know in his time. After all, we would be getting into town a few days early and so there was still time.

When we got into town we spent a few minutes in the preacher's office before unloading the van. As Pastor Kirchmeyer and I were talking he mentioned that he was really burdened to preach on the heart on Sunday and that he wanted me to preach whatever the Lord laid on my heart for the meeting, but he had been prayin about an emphasis on the heart. It was immediately clear why God hadn't given me a theme for the meeting - He had given Pastor Kirchmeyer the theme for the week! He preached that Sunday and following Wednesday out of II Chronicles 31 how Hezekiah had done it "with all his heart". We then started praying together along that line.

The Lord really helped me preach during the week. There was good liberty every service and the altars were full nearly every night. A couple of times the Lord changed my direction in what to preach after the service had started. On Friday night the Lord really burdened my heart towards the end of the message to preach to the lost church members which can be found in every church. Nobody came forward but the preacher told me that later that night after the service and well into the next day several people contacted him in regards to the message.

Pastor Kirchmeyer really felt God leading him to close out the meeting on Sunday night, June 10th. We talked in the afternoon and I assured him that all I wanted was whatever God wanted and since he is the pastor if he felt that God was ordering that then I had absolutely no problem with that. He preached a great message on the heart out of Joel 1&2.

I got to preach Wednesday night one final time and we had a good service. I was also able to attend their weekly men's Bible study that takes place on Thursdays. It's a good time of fellowship with the men of the church around God's word.

We enjoyed much fellowship with Pastor Kirchmeyer, his family and several folks in the church. They always take such good care of us in so many ways and it is always a blessing to be with them.

Link to: First Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church

Some pictures from the week... (Don't miss the last one!)