A few thoughts…
- Hands down this was one of the most amazing days in the history of NewSpring Church…WOW!
- We saw around 30 people surrender their lives to Christ…THAT never gets old!
- We began a series today entitled, “Practical Atheists,” which is simply someone who says they believe in God but they live their lives as if He doesn’t exist.
- BTW…I gave my GREAT friend and mentor, Craig Groeschel, the credit for that term! (His church did a series on this same subject quite a while back and we liked the concept so much we “borrowed” the title from them. HERE is the link if you are interested in hearing what he taught on during their series…AMAZING messages!!!)
- Another BTW…Craig wrote a book on that same subject entitled “Christian Atheist” that will be out later on in March…here’s the link if you are interested.
- The reason that people can go to church for 10, 20 even 30 years and NEVER change is because they are practical atheists…they say they believe in Jesus but have never allowed Him to impact and change the way they live.
- Today we specifically dealt with the subject of prayer and the fact that MANY Christians are more superstitious than they are believers in the supernatural!
- Our text for the day was Acts 12:1-16…where one Apostle was killed and another one was set free…sometimes God delivers us from our trials…and sometimes He allows us to walk through them…either way He is STILL God.
- We ALL have a problem with God saying “no” to our prayers because, deep down, we either think He owes us (based on some REALLY jacked up legalistic theology) OR because we are smarter than Him.
- As a Father I want GREATER things for my child than she wants for herself…and the reasons I say “no” to her are quite often beyond her comprehension…but my motives for doing so are always out of love. If that is how I act as an imperfect Father…how great does our heavenly Father act? (See Matthew 7:7-12)
- Sometimes God says, “Don’t pray, OBEY!” In other words…there ARE some things in life that we do not have to pray about…where God’s Word speaks CLEARLY there is no need to pray…just a need to obey! (For example…we don’t need to EVER pray about whether or not we need to have sex with someone we are not married to…God’s answer is always “NO!”)
- Christians use prayer as an excuse for inactivity so often!
- I asked a question today that I heard Andy Stanley ask several weeks ago, “Are you trying to pray your way out of something you have behaved your way into?” DANG!
- For example…I told all of the men that there is no way that those who are struggling with a porn problem can pray their way out of it! (Trust me…I tried for YEARS after meeting Christ.) Yes, you SHOULD pray…but you’ve GOT to ask for help!!! (ie…confess your sin - once again see James 5:16)
- I also mentioned that parents cannot just pray their kids into being followers of Jesus…we have to model it for them AND we have to be more passionate about raising disciples of Christ than we are about raising all star athletes!
- Acts 12:5 and then Acts 12:11-16 is proof that people in church can pray for things and still not believe it when God performs a miracle.
- Scripture says we should pray for each other to be healed (James 5:16)—so, today as a body of believers we asked people who needed healing, be it spiritual, physical or emotional to come forward and be prayed for…and EVERY SERVICE was incredible as people came forward to receive prayer!
- NO…it was NOT weird…we didn’t sell anointing oil and I did not offer prayer cloths, we simply did what the Bible says and asked God to heal people!
- Tonight @ the 6:00 service we brought Zac up on stage (we showed his video during the service) and prayed for God to heal him…I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house!
- Seriously, it was one of the MOST AMAZING DAYS in the history of our church…and I REALLY do believe that God used today to heal people…can’t wait to hear about all that happens through what He did today!
- Can’t wait for the rest of this series…going to be doing some things that we’ve never done before…and we are believing that God is JUST GETTING STARTED with all that He wants to do!
- Super excited about Unleash this week…AND the announcement about Thursday, September 16th…trust me, you REALLY need to save this date because the event we are going to “unleash” at Unleash is going to fill up fast!!!
- I’ve got a very busy week this week…could REALLY use your prayers as I prepare!
Good night!