Howdy NewSpring Church, SEVEN things I would LOVE to share with you today…
#1 - I’m still CELEBRATING the fact that the Lord allowed our church (every location) to see 149 people baptized this past Sunday! Seeing people confess Jesus Christ as Lord out loud and then get dunked NEVER GETS OLD!
#2 - A huge “thank you” to everyone who has gone out of their way to bring someone to church in our “Overwhelmed” series. We have seen someone give their life to Christ EACH Sunday in this series…and this past Sunday we had over 17,200 people attend a live NewSpring service in either Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg, Columbia, Florence or Charleston! (AND…I’m STILL blown away that Spartanburg had over 1,000 people show up for their 2nd week of preview services…and baptized 17!!!)
#3 - In case you missed it yesterday…I wrote about this coming Sunday right here...if you (or someone you know) doubts God’s love or have EVER felt forgotten, abandoned or alone…then this is YOUR SUNDAY!
#4 - TIME CHANGE THIS SUNDAY!!! Spring Forward…which means we LOSE an hour of sleep!
#5 - I’m SO excited about what Jesus is doing in our church right now. So many people are taking their steps to freedom in regards to walking out of depression, worry, fear, stress and/or anxiety. Some of the things we covered this past Sunday were…
- Stress and anxiety comes about as a result of what is unplanned or unprepared for in our lives…which means we will ALWAYS have to deal with it. So when it comes we should…
- Understand that God is Holy & Good - (Matthew 7:9-11) - Our circumstances do not alter His character, and if we doubt His goodness based on the fact that He did not do what we asked Him to do then that makes us the object of our worship and not Him!
- Believe His Promise - (See Isaiah 41:10) - HE IS WITH US!!!! He will never leave us or forsake us…and HIS PRESENCE is greater than our problem!
- Stop Fighting For Control - Control is the greatest illusion in the universe (wrote about that here) and when we realize how little we have it should DRIVE us to our knees worship! The enemy seeks to control you by getting you to focus on your circumstances…which is why we so desperately need to constantly dive into God’s Word, as I’ve heard it said before—who or what you listen to will ultimately determine what you do! Listening to the enemy = fear, anxiety and worry. Listening to the Lord = freedom!
- Open Your Eyes - When we are in the fire we should stop praying “get me out of here” and start praying, “Jesus, let me see you!” Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego didn’t see Jesus until they were IN the fire!
- Embrace Freedom - The ONLY thing that was burned off of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego in the fire was what the enemy put on them!!! They went into the fire bound…they came out of the fire free! God wasn’t trying to punish them…He was promoting them, but sometimes promotion comes through the fire!
- One more thing…three men went into the fire, four men were there, three came out…Jesus is still in the fire & so if you are there you are not alone (Isaiah 43:1-3!)
#6 - Once again, parents…you REALLY need to check out THIS PAGE in regards to Gauntlet, our summer youth camp at Daytona Beach, and get your teen signed up ASAP! It’s $275 for the rest of this month…and on April 1st the price increases to $325!!! IT’S GOING TO BE AWESOME!
#7 - Please pray for us this Thursday as our church hosts our annual “Unleash” conference for church leaders all over the world. It’s one of my favorite things that we get to do…and there are over 600 amazing volunteers from every campus that are going to be here that day serving and impacting “The Big-C Church!” I can’t wait!
That’s it for this week…see you Sunday…I LOVE MY CHURCH!