Right now I am sitting in my office at home…and I am blown away! God is an amazing and generous God—and I am realizing that Ephesians 3:20 is more true than ever!
Long story short—we saw over 150 people give their lives to Jesus at NewSpring today. And here is what is amazing…
It wasn’t a “salvation” message…today we closed the “America’s Idol” series with a message on vision! I prayed, the band played “Where the Streets Have No Name” with a video that our media team prepared…and when I walked back out to close the service God spoke to my heart and clearly said, “Invite people to come to Christ.”
I have got to admit I thought that was a little weird at first; after all, this wasn’t one of those messages that we thought tons of people would receive Christ in…BUT…that is why we are not God!!! I am learning more and more than when you simply teach Scripture and talk about Jesus—God moves.
I invited people to stand if they wanted Christ…and people in all four services stood! Pastors—God can use ANY message to bring people to Him! We saw that today…our job when we present His message is obedience…nothing more, nothing less.
For those who were not at the service today…I wept like a baby in the invitation. I literally could not control myself. I actually kept saying in my mind, “Hey P, get it together man!” But I was so overwhelmed with the people that were receiving Christ and the people that I believe are going to receive Christ that I just lost it!!!
I cannot apologize for my passion—I am radically in love with Jesus Christ, radically in love with people meeting Him…and radically in love with His church!!!!
I want more than anything to see more and more people come to Christ. I want to see Acts 2:41 happen all over again. I want to see the entire state of South Carolina reached for Christ…and it is going to happen!!!
Let me say two more things before I close…
#1 - I know some of you may wonder, “What do you do with those people when they receive Christ.” My answer may bother you…but we don’t “do” anything with them.
One of the passages of Scripture that has always haunted and challenged me is Matthew 23:15! I never want my Lord to accuse me of this. I find it ironic that some Christians say that no one can come to Christ unless they are drawn by the Holy Spirit (which I agree with); however, one someone comes to Christ, for some reason those same people feel the need to take control because, for some reason they no longer trust God’s Holy Spirit.
Does a church have a responsibility to assist these people in taking their next steps towards a growing relationship with Christ? Absolutely…but we are to assist them as the Holy Spirit draws them. It is not our job to teach them what to think…it’s our job to teach them to pursue Jesus. That means…
- Reading the Bible
- Prayer
- Home groups
- Serving
- Bible Studies
- Attending church
(I will comment more on these in a post later on this week!)
#2 - For those at NewSpring…wow…what an incredible day! I say it all the time…but please let me say it again. God is doing something amazing among us…do you realize that we’ve seen close to 500 people receive Christ this year? READ THAT AGAIN!
Let me ask you a personal question—who is it that YOU personally are wanting to see come to Christ? Have you written anyone’s name on the wall? Who is it that you think would never come to church, but you KNOW they need Jesus? Let’s do something crazy—let’s pray right now for them and just believe God for their salvation!!!!
If you are SERIOUS about this person then I need you to do two things:
- Shoot me an e-mail with the person’s name you want to see come to Christ. Seriously!!
- GET that person to NewSpring on May 20th!!! I am telling you right now that the message that day is going to be all about Jesus and why He is necessary for salvation!!!
I believe God is stirring us up. Our church is NOT NORMAL…and I praise God for that every day! Pray for our church…pray that God will continue to draw people to Him…and BE HERE next Sunday for Mother’s Day…I promise you…God is going to rock our worlds!!!