Crowds? David Platt

Platt: "Success is determined not by how many people are coming into our building, but how many people are leaving our buildings to take on the world with the gospel. What defines success is certainly not just the crowd. Jesus himself in many ways spurned the crowd. You can get crowds to do anything and crowds are not a measure of success as much as Jesus shows us men and women are multiplying the gospel with their lives and risking their lives to taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is the success of the church.

We have tried in the context of the faith family at Brook Hills to say, “Ok, how can we live and do church not just to draw as many people as we can to an event. But how can we do church in a way that we can mobilize, encourage one another to go out in this city and to all nations leading people to Christ and multiplying the gospel and spending our lives for his sake.” That is what we want success to be defined by."

My thoughts on crowds: Pastor, you got a crowd. Big Deal. So does Apple, the average High School football game, any night club in any major city, most bars and PTA meetings. What are you doing with your crowd? 

Preach Jesus. Preach Jesus again. Then Preach Jesus again. If the crowd leaves, let them. They left Jesus when he preached to them, John 6:66. If they stay, Preach Jesus and mobilize them to impact your community and world for the Glory of God.

Cornhole!

This kid plays like me!!

Where do you put your hope- Chandler

Rejected by Francis Chan

In Luke 6:26 Jesus says, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets." The false prophets were loved by everyone, and everyone speaks well of them. In verses 22-23Jesus says when they reject you, your reward is great, for that's what they did to the real prophets. So he's saying that the way people respond to us today should be similar to the way they responded to the prophets of old. There's going to be rejection. In many ways it's great if you get the same response, because it helps you understand that you're in a good lineage. Jesus showed that things haven't changed that much. We serve the same God and give the same message of good news and hope, but many people will take it as bad news and reject it.

Dear Pastor

Dear Pastor,
If you don't preach the Bible, resign!
God Bless,
Jamie Steele

Boogity Boogity Boogity Amen!

Fedor loves Jesus :)

MMA fighter Fedor Emelianenko loves Jesus. At one time he was considered one of the greatest fighters in the history of MMA. He has lost his last two fights, which is really bad in this sport. After his loss to Werdum he said,
 "The one who doesn't fall never stands up. It happened that people made me an idol. But everybody loses. I'm just a human being. And if it's God's will next fight, I'll win."


Here is his quote about his upcoming fight with Dan Henderson. The Question: What if you lose 3 straight?
That's God's will. Right now I'm not worried about whether I win or lose and I'm not thinking about any future opponents. Right now I'm just thinking about this fight. After this fight, we'll sit down and figure out what the next move is. One thing I've learned is that I know I can thank God for all of my successes and all of my failures, all of my good times and all of my bad times. Like an Orthodox Christian fighter, that's how I'd like to be remembered.

Evangelism?

Worship

"Human beings by their very nature are worshipers. Worship is not something we do; it defines who we are. You cannot divide human beings into those who worship and those who don’t. Everybody worships; it’s just a matter of what, or whom, we serve." 
— Paul David Tripp 

Platt

"The modern-day gospel says, 'God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved.' Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, 'You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, & in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life. Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do." 
— David Platt 

Religious People

"Religious people...they're like referees. They don't score any points, they don't sweat, they don't play, they know nothing of the highs and lows of the game. They just run around blowing their whistle, and when they retire no one cares."
Matt Chandler

True

In the third world, Christians are thriving under persecution and martyrdom. In the first world, Christians are too busy getting their feelings hurt.
Jared Wilson

USA!! GOALLLLLL!

Jeter 3,000!

Go Yankees

NC ProAm Highlights

Heels vs Dookies. Heels win.

Faithful

If we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself. - 2 Timothy 2:13 

We love to make everything about us. The promises in the Bible that offer us love and grace and forgiveness are our favorites. Recently, just for fun, I went through Psalm 18 and circled every occurrence of I, me, my and mine.  24 in the first six verses alone!.  My God, my rock, my salvation…They make us feel special. Graciously, God rocks our “me-centric” worlds with a bigger perspective.

It is one thing to say and believe that God is faithful to us – He most certainly is.  It is a grander, more glorious reality to say that God is faithful to Himself…and thus, to us. 

Our Faithfulness Is Fickle

I have just endured a dry season in my walk where intimate time with God was negligible. Being a feelings-oriented woman, I spent some time questioning Christ’s closeness. I knew He was near but I felt distance. When my focus is on my faithfulness (or lack thereof), I begin to believe that God must be far off – that I somehow shook him off in my wanderings.

“

He is faithful to the promise he made to us when he sent Jesus to the cross…I will never leave you or forsake you.

”

Embracing God’s faithfulness to himself frees us from the devastating effects of thinking we have anything to do with the way he sees us.  God sees his children through the atoning blood of his Son, covering us for every act of treason and rebellion we have committed. He isn’t faithful to us because of anything we have done well or poorly. He wouldn’t be faithful to us if he was looking for us to uphold our end of the bargain.

Self-fulfilling Faithfulness

He is faithful to the promise he made to us when he sent Jesus to the cross…I will never leave you or forsake you. He says to each of His children, “You are in me because of my Son’s sacrifice, sealed by my Spirit. I cannot deny myself and I will not determine my faithfulness on any merit of yours. You cannot make yourself worthy of my faithfulness to you. I choose to give it freely.”

Humbling words.

We are not as big or powerful as we might choose to believe. God is faithful to himself because he took up residence in us when he rescued us.  In keeping with his character as the covenant-keeping God, he does not deny us even when we deny him. 

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We are relieved of the burden of grading ourselves on our performance.

”

But, we are also being redeemed – transformed from the heart out, to be men and women of God.  We may be thoroughly unfaithful but God in us is faithful to himself. We are drawn to increasing faithfulness because we are banking on his faithfulness. He will work out his promises in and through us, despite our best efforts and in spite of our worst.

What joyous, glorious freedom and peace come from this truth: God is faithful to himself. We are relieved of the burden of grading ourselves on our performance. We are compelled to enjoy the grace and power that comes as a result.

(Resurgence)

Chan

“I confess to the church, I know I have backed away from certain things because of my arrogance I thought I could attract more people to Jesus by hiding certain things about him.”

—Francis Chan