What a day! Pastor Matthew Barnett from the Dream Center in LA spoke at all four services and brought the house down!
(He spoke @ the 11:15 in Greenville…we had a minor technical issue at the 9:15 that turned into a major problem; however, we think we’ve just about got this thing figured out! THANK YOU JESUS!)
Here are some of my thoughts from today…
- God STRETCHED me today…seriously, I have no idea if the message GOT to anyone else…but the Lord used it to make me SERIOUSLY uncomfortable.
- Lots of buzz in our church right now about the new series we begin next week, “Beautiful, a series for women and the men who pursue them.”
- NewSpringers…this is THE SERIES that you should go all out to get your friends here for! Seriously!
- By the way…I know I say that every series…I make NO APOLOGIES that I am freakin’ excited about all that I am anticipating the Lord doing in our church and community!
- AND…I feel sorry for the pastor that feels like he needs to run around and apologize for his passion!
- NewSpringers…I am asking you to take five minutes every day this week and ask God to…#1 - Do something awesome among us during this next six weeks. #2 - Ask God to make you aware of who you need to invite.
- I can’t believe I will be in Australia in a few weeks speaking at this conference at Hillsongs...and then speaking at their church. I would REALLY appreciate the prayers!
- Yes, our youth group WILL be doing a mission trip to the Dream Center next summer for juniors and seniors!
- It was a BAD football weekend for me…the Easley Greenwave, the Tigers and the Cowboys all lost. Booooooo!
- The only GOOD thing about college football this weekend was Notre Dame lost! :-)
Now…specifically what the Lord ROCKED me with today…
- When you dedicated your life to rebuilding something not everyone likes it.
- God can trust you with blessings and properity when He knows you will use it for the welfare of others.
- Matthew said, “When I preach I don’t see the crowd…I see ‘the one.” And then went on to describe the individual lives that had been transformed by Jesus through the Dream Center.
- “The world KNOWS what the church is against…it needs to know what the church is FOR!”
- “It’s a revival when the non-Christian world looks at the church and says that something is going on—NOT when the church says its a revival!”
A few final thoughts…
- Like I said @ the beginning…God used Matthew to stretch the heck out of me!
- We’ve seen Jesus do so much here at NewSpring Church over the past eight and a half years…but there is SO MUCH MORE to be done!
- I am CONVINCED that there are thousands of people in our church (and reading this blog) that KNOWS God has called them to attempt great things for Him…but fear is holding you back!
- I don’t know about you…but I don’t want to blow through my 30’s, 40’s and 50’s and then spend my 60’s saying, “I wish I would have…”
- Life IS short—we’ve got ONE SHOT…we might as well go all out & be who Jesus asks us to be!
- NewSpring…hold onto your fork…our best days are yet to come!!!