Howdy NewSpring Church, FIVE things I want to share with you on Turkey Day week…
#1 - We saw over 60 people come to Christ on Sunday, it is absolutely blowing my mind what Jesus is doing in and through our church in this Job series. Honestly, we had no idea what to expect when preparing for this series…it didn’t have a “fancy title,” it didn’t have any “snap, crackle and pop” (and I’m NOT against any of that)...it was just the thing that I really felt the Lord pressing into me after reading the book of Job in my personal time with God. So…we did it, knowing that it is our responsibility to do what God says and that if we do He will handle the details. And, like I said…it’s amazing what HE is doing here at NewSpring Church…we’ve seen hundreds of salvations, people beginning to read their Bible’s, people starting to put God first in their finances and so much more. AND…we’ve got two more weeks to go. AND…BIG SURPRISE…they’re my two favorite weeks in the series!!!
#2 - The points we covered Sunday (in a nutshell) are:
- God loves us based on our POSITION as His children, not on our PERFORMANCE! (I wrote an article about this here if you want to read more about how much God loves us!)
- You have never disappointed God…it’s amazing, He knew every stupid, foolish, sinful and self centered decision you were ever going to make when He saved you…and He saved you anyway! (We often forget that God not only paid for our past sins…but our future sins as well!)
- There are rule followers who aren’t necessarily Christ followers. His promise is that if we will follow Him (one step at a time) that we will become more like Him because HE will make us into who we need to be. (See Matthew 4:18-20) It’s not about what we’re doing but rather about who we’re becoming!
- Just because we are not aware of His presence does not mean that He is not with us, even in our hardest times He says He is there (see Isaiah 43:1-3).
- Legalism and religion says, “God loves you if…”, Christianity says, “God loves you - PERIOD!”
#3 - This coming Sunday we are going to be looking at the ONE BIG IDEA that can absolutely set a person up for a life of freedom that will absolutely blow their minds…and it happens to be one of the most counter-cultural things we’ve ever seen!
#4 - Confession…as far as Christmas music, nothing touches the Mariah Carey Christmas album!!! DON’T JUDGE ME! :-)
#5 - This coming Sunday is going to be the beginning of the distribution for our FREE tickets for our Christmas services. Dates and times will be announced and we’re asking everyone to pray BIG prayers for God to do something amazing at our services…and make BIG invites to people who the Lord specifically puts on your heart to invite to these services. Folks, I’m telling you that this years Christmas services are going to be unlike anything we’ve ever attempted at NewSpring Church. And for those who read something like this and tend to get discouraged because you’ve invited “that person” so many times…don’t give up, God didn’t give up on you!!! Remember, God is patient with us (II Peter 3:9) so go ahead and beg Jesus to begin to open doors so that you can bring them to church!