I am amazed! Blown away! God rocked my world today…all day long I saw Him do great and awesome things!!! Today was one of THE most AWESOME days I have EVER been a part of in my 17 years as a Christian…and it was ALSO one of the MOST INCREDIBLE DAYS in the history of NewSpring Church!!!
Let me sum this up quickly…then I will explain. Today marked one year since we moved into our new facility—and WHAT AN ANNIVERSARY...we saw 250 people publicly give their lives to Christ & had a record attendance of 9,260 people!!! (Yes, that is more than we have EVER had in a worship service, even more than our Christmas services in 2006!) WOW!
I want to back up for a minute and explain a thing or two. This past week was THE MOST STRESSFUL week I have EVER had in ministry—EVER! I had thoughts of, “have I reached my limits” and “is there someone out there who can do this better than me?” The enemy was playing games with my mind & had me doubting nearly everything and everyone. (Hey pastor, ever been there?)
BUT…as the week went on and more people began to pray I began to come out of my funk. THEN I began not being able to sleep…and when I did sleep I was having nightmares! I knew what was happening…it felt like heaven and hell were colliding all around me!
You see, we have been planning for today for over a month now…so many things had to happen. Seriously, I could do a series of posts on what went on behind the scenes to pull off today. I promise it wasn’t me…a LOT of effort by a lot of people took place.
AND…I STRESSED over this sermon more than ANY SERMON I HAVE EVER GIVEN IN MY LIFE! EVER! I cannot describe to you the amount of anxiety that took place in my life. I worked and worked and prayed and prayed…and was still nervous…UNTIL…
YESTERDAY morning I read this in Scripture, “And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord…” (Exodus 16:7) I cannot tell you the peace that literally came all over me…it was like God was saying to me, “Hey Perry…you think YOU are going to speak tomorrow…dude, SHUT UP and let me be God…speaking is as easy as saying what I tell you to say…and that is all you need to do, I will handle the rest…I am God—you are not!!!”
I needed that…and wow…He was right! God moved in an incredible way today and did things only HE can get credit for!!!
If you are a part of NewSpring I want you to understand something…what you are a part of will one day be in the history books…I am CONVINCED. What we are seeing in our church is NOT NORMAL! It is NOT NORMAL for 250 people to receive Christ in one day…it is NOT NORMAL for over 9,000 people to come to a church that didn’t even exist eight years ago. It is NOT NORMAL to see what we are seeing…
AND THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!! We saw hundreds come to Christ, but there are THOUSANDS that still need Him…their names are still written on our walls…and so don’t give up—keep on inviting them to church…and pray that God will rock their world!!! I am still praying for what happened in Acts 2:41 to happen in our church—3,000 in one day! He’s the same God…if He did it then He can do it again!!! Let’s all commit to praying for this & just see what happens!!!
(By the way…next Sunday is going to be INCREDIBLE…probably one of THE MOST MOVING services we have ever had at our church, don’t miss it!!!)
A few thoughts in closing…
#1 - Stop what you are doing right now and thank God for what He did in our church today!!! Seriously, let’s all show Him appreciation. STOP READING THIS and just offer up a “thank you!”
#2 - Keep on inviting people to church…you NEVER know when that person who you care about is ONE invitation away from coming! If you wrote their name on the wall & they didn’t come or didn’t receive Christ…HANG IN THERE!!!
#3 - To our volunteers…THANK YOU! YOU are SO INCREDIBLE…and NewSpring COULD NOT take place every week without you! Thank you for the way you love, serve and pray for all that takes place in YOUR church. Keep up the incredible work!
#4 - To our staff—you are THE BEST in the world…I love serving with you guys!!!
WOW…I love what I do…I love serving this church…I love the fact that on this Sunday two years ago we had 3,702 people…and today we had 9,260. WOW…what an amazing God…only HE could get the credit for something like this!!!
Yeah God!!!