I made a statement in last Sunday's message that I have been thinking about quite a bit. I said, "God doesn't reward us based on results, He rewards us based on our FAITHFULNESS".
You see, the results are God's. In the parable of the three servants in Matthew 25:14-30, one servant is given 5 talents, one is given 2 talents and one is given 1 talent. When the master returned he called them to give an account of how they had used His money. The servant with 5 and the servant with 2 talents had both doubled his money. His response to them was, "well done my good and FAITHFUL servant, You have been FAITHFUL in handling the small amount, so now I will give you more responsibilities.." To the servant that had been given 1 talent who had done nothing with the master's money, he was rebuked because he had been unfaithful with the things entrusted to him.
The results are always God's.
For the parent this means that your responsibility is to faithfully train up your children in the way they should go, but the results are God's
For the person who witnesses to a friend or family member, your job is to faithfully share Christ, the results are God's.
For the Pastor, your job is to faithfully follow the Lord and lead His people, the results are His.
Ultimately the words I would like to hear when I meet Christ face to face are, "well done my good and FAITHFUL servant".
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday review
The weather was dreary, but the mood at Foothills Community Church was high-energy yesterday. I taught on the the family from Colossians 3:18-21. I am pretty certain there were a lot of people that got their toes stepped on, but it's all good! I say this all the time, but I LOVE what God is doing right now at Foothills.
* On Monday mornings our staff gets together and talks about stories of life-change and what we cal, "God sightings", which are things that they see God doing in people's lives. It is always inspiring to hear the stories!
* This thursday at 6:00pm is Project reach Reveal. Here's a short video invitation. YOU NEED TO BE THERE!
* I love the staff I get to work with. They are tireless workers that love Jesus.
* With the weather hopefully warming soon, I plan on doing some fishing this Spring.
* We are getting ready to start advertising on 6 billboards throughout Oconee County. You should see them by early next week.
* I was just looking at some of the pictures from our live CD recording/baptism from March 13th. Awesome!
* We are almost finished with our Colossians series. kind of bittersweet for me.
* Easter is only a few weeks away. We are planning the biggest services that we've ever had. Who will you be inviting?
* Our Toccoa campus will be welcoming their new worship pastor, Kevin Robison this weekend. I am pumped about having him on the team!
* On Monday mornings our staff gets together and talks about stories of life-change and what we cal, "God sightings", which are things that they see God doing in people's lives. It is always inspiring to hear the stories!
* This thursday at 6:00pm is Project reach Reveal. Here's a short video invitation. YOU NEED TO BE THERE!
* I love the staff I get to work with. They are tireless workers that love Jesus.
* With the weather hopefully warming soon, I plan on doing some fishing this Spring.
* We are getting ready to start advertising on 6 billboards throughout Oconee County. You should see them by early next week.
* I was just looking at some of the pictures from our live CD recording/baptism from March 13th. Awesome!
* We are almost finished with our Colossians series. kind of bittersweet for me.
* Easter is only a few weeks away. We are planning the biggest services that we've ever had. Who will you be inviting?
* Our Toccoa campus will be welcoming their new worship pastor, Kevin Robison this weekend. I am pumped about having him on the team!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Sunday review
Getting around late to this past Sunday's review, but you know what they say, 'better late than never".
* I love what God is doing at Foothills. There is an unbelievable amount of energy right now. Lives are changing and people are excited!
* Another stellar day from our worship team. These guys and gals are so inspiring!
* I spoke about new life in Christ, and how that is supposed to play out. Even though we are free in Christ, God has some very high standards for Christ-followers.
* I have had so many people tell me that they are really enjoying the Colossians series. It is such a solid book. We are in the home stretch, and it looks like we will be done before Easter.
* Speaking of Easter, wow, we have an incredible service planned (actually we will be having 3 services at our Seneca campus and one at our Toccoa campus) This is a great opportunity to bring a friend with you. We are printing up some new invite cards that will make it even easier. We will get those to you on April 10th
* We are getting ready to do some heavy advertising for Easter. It looks like we will be renting some billboard space. I'll let you know more soon.
* Don't forget about our Project Reach reveal coming on March 31st. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!
* I love what God is doing at Foothills. There is an unbelievable amount of energy right now. Lives are changing and people are excited!
* Another stellar day from our worship team. These guys and gals are so inspiring!
* I spoke about new life in Christ, and how that is supposed to play out. Even though we are free in Christ, God has some very high standards for Christ-followers.
* I have had so many people tell me that they are really enjoying the Colossians series. It is such a solid book. We are in the home stretch, and it looks like we will be done before Easter.
* Speaking of Easter, wow, we have an incredible service planned (actually we will be having 3 services at our Seneca campus and one at our Toccoa campus) This is a great opportunity to bring a friend with you. We are printing up some new invite cards that will make it even easier. We will get those to you on April 10th
* We are getting ready to do some heavy advertising for Easter. It looks like we will be renting some billboard space. I'll let you know more soon.
* Don't forget about our Project Reach reveal coming on March 31st. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday review
There are really no words to describe yesterday at Foothills Community Church. Everything just clicked. Here are a few highlights:
* Daylight Savings Time definitely got the best of our 9:30am attendance, but the 11:15am service was right on track. Actually our kids numbers were huge yesterday. Apparently it was the adults that slept in (not really sure how the kids got to church?) :-)
* I spoke about how easy it is to move from grace to legalism if we're not careful. In the South there are a lot of very "religious" people that live by a set of rules, rather than in the freedom that the Gospel affords us.
* Legalism says, "God will love me IF I'm good". The Gospel says, "God loves me, therefore I desire to obey" There is a huge difference between these two views.
* I think a lot of people were set free from legalism yesterday.
* Our new T-shirts went on sale in The Stoop. At the end of the 1st service we had already sold out of most of them!
* Last night we had our first ever Live recording at Foothills, and it was AMAZING!
* David Odom and his crew absolutely blew the roof off of the place. I am not kidding, Foothills has the best worship ministry anywhere!
* Our tech crew is unbelievable as well. The sound and lighting and everything that goes into a recording---- wow, these folks burned the midnight oil.
* The place was packed out. It was also cool to have a bunch of people from our Toccoa campus make the journey over to SC.
* People are asking when the CD will be available? the answer is, as soon as possible. Most likely it will take approx. 2 months, but you can Pre-order a copy in the Stoop.
* The highlight of the night for me was the baptisms we did in the middle of the service--- 37 people took the plunge. Yea God!
* What's really amazing was the spectrum of the ages that we baptized.
* We baptized a lot of children and youth. That is incredible. Our kid's ministry (Kidzone) is the best anywhere! I want to brag on my wife, Liz, who is the Director of our children's ministry, and our other staff who serve with our kids. Week after week, they prepare age-appropriate lessons for children and mix it with a lot of fun activities, and as a result, kid's lives are changing!
* This Sunday we will begin Chapter 3 in the book of Colossians
* Daylight Savings Time definitely got the best of our 9:30am attendance, but the 11:15am service was right on track. Actually our kids numbers were huge yesterday. Apparently it was the adults that slept in (not really sure how the kids got to church?) :-)
* I spoke about how easy it is to move from grace to legalism if we're not careful. In the South there are a lot of very "religious" people that live by a set of rules, rather than in the freedom that the Gospel affords us.
* Legalism says, "God will love me IF I'm good". The Gospel says, "God loves me, therefore I desire to obey" There is a huge difference between these two views.
* I think a lot of people were set free from legalism yesterday.
* Our new T-shirts went on sale in The Stoop. At the end of the 1st service we had already sold out of most of them!
* Last night we had our first ever Live recording at Foothills, and it was AMAZING!
* David Odom and his crew absolutely blew the roof off of the place. I am not kidding, Foothills has the best worship ministry anywhere!
* Our tech crew is unbelievable as well. The sound and lighting and everything that goes into a recording---- wow, these folks burned the midnight oil.
* The place was packed out. It was also cool to have a bunch of people from our Toccoa campus make the journey over to SC.
* People are asking when the CD will be available? the answer is, as soon as possible. Most likely it will take approx. 2 months, but you can Pre-order a copy in the Stoop.
* The highlight of the night for me was the baptisms we did in the middle of the service--- 37 people took the plunge. Yea God!
* What's really amazing was the spectrum of the ages that we baptized.
* We baptized a lot of children and youth. That is incredible. Our kid's ministry (Kidzone) is the best anywhere! I want to brag on my wife, Liz, who is the Director of our children's ministry, and our other staff who serve with our kids. Week after week, they prepare age-appropriate lessons for children and mix it with a lot of fun activities, and as a result, kid's lives are changing!
* This Sunday we will begin Chapter 3 in the book of Colossians
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Be A Part Of History
I am constantly blown away by the quality of our worship experiences at Foothills Community Church. God has assembled the finest team of musicians and singers to be found anywhere. We have so many requests to make our music available by CD or online, that we felt now was the time to record our first ever Live recording!
For our first project, David Odom and his team have selected many of the worship songs that are familiar to many people, yet with our own unique Foothills flair.
To add to the excitement of the evening, we will also be doing baptisms. This is a chance for many people to go public with their faith in Christ. This promises to be an historic evening, and we want invite everyone to come and be a part of this live recording!
It's this Sunday (March 13th) at 6:00pm at our Seneca, SC campus. There will be child care for children ages 6 weeks to kindergarten.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Quiet time
As a Pastor, I get a lot of questions. Many of those questions are about the nuts and bolts of growing spiritually. So I wanted to devote a post or two about some common questions I get.
Today i want to talk about having a quiet time.
If ever there was a mysterious phrase in the Christian's vocabulary, it would be the phrase, "quiet time".
Normally you would hear the phrase in a sentence like this: This morning I had a fantastic quiet time with the Lord.
In this blog post I want to de-mystify that phrase.
First let's try to define it. I would say that a quiet time, is a set aside time that a person strategically spends with God. As the name implies, a portion of this time would be in quiet or solitude.
For me, my quiet time would look something like this. Prayer time (a time of speaking and listening to God), and a time of reading and studying my Bible, and some time to meditate on what I have just read.
A question many people have is, how do you pray?
Well for me personally, I generally use the ACTS method of prayer:
A- adoration. A time to praise and adore God for who He is.
C- confession. A time of confessing sins (by name), and acknowledging that I truly desire to live for God.
T- thanksgiving. Taking time to thank God for all of His blessing in my life.
S- supplication. A time of asking God for specific things in my life and the lives of others.
I have found for me personally that having a list with people's names and different things that I need to pray about keeps me focused better. Also, I personally like to have my quiet time in the morning.
As far as how long does a quiet time take? That just depends. Sometimes it's relatively quick, and other times it may be an hour or more.
It's basically the same way you would talk to your best friend on the phone. Sometimes you just need a quick chat, and other times you need a little longer.
Sometimes I get rushed and miss my quiet time, and I can tell you, that I can tell the difference in my life. I'm just a little off center the whole day.
One last thing. Don't be legalistic about it. If you miss a day, it's ok. God still loves you! If you don't have a quiet time, why not start today. You will be surprised how it helps your life.
Today i want to talk about having a quiet time.
If ever there was a mysterious phrase in the Christian's vocabulary, it would be the phrase, "quiet time".
Normally you would hear the phrase in a sentence like this: This morning I had a fantastic quiet time with the Lord.
In this blog post I want to de-mystify that phrase.
First let's try to define it. I would say that a quiet time, is a set aside time that a person strategically spends with God. As the name implies, a portion of this time would be in quiet or solitude.
For me, my quiet time would look something like this. Prayer time (a time of speaking and listening to God), and a time of reading and studying my Bible, and some time to meditate on what I have just read.
A question many people have is, how do you pray?
Well for me personally, I generally use the ACTS method of prayer:
A- adoration. A time to praise and adore God for who He is.
C- confession. A time of confessing sins (by name), and acknowledging that I truly desire to live for God.
T- thanksgiving. Taking time to thank God for all of His blessing in my life.
S- supplication. A time of asking God for specific things in my life and the lives of others.
I have found for me personally that having a list with people's names and different things that I need to pray about keeps me focused better. Also, I personally like to have my quiet time in the morning.
As far as how long does a quiet time take? That just depends. Sometimes it's relatively quick, and other times it may be an hour or more.
It's basically the same way you would talk to your best friend on the phone. Sometimes you just need a quick chat, and other times you need a little longer.
Sometimes I get rushed and miss my quiet time, and I can tell you, that I can tell the difference in my life. I'm just a little off center the whole day.
One last thing. Don't be legalistic about it. If you miss a day, it's ok. God still loves you! If you don't have a quiet time, why not start today. You will be surprised how it helps your life.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Sunday review
Every Sunday at Foothills just seem to get better and better. Many times in rainy, dreary weather, people tend to come to church in a more mellow mood. Not yesterday. From the start to the finish of our services people were fired-up.
** God is up to something crazy at Foothills right now!
** Our Umbrella team is amazing. These volunteers show up early and stay late to make sure people stay dry coming from their cars to the building. Way to lead well, Kelly Ross!
** David Odom is such a phenomenal worship leader. I love his heart for God.
** I loved hearing Pamela read the scripture in the middle of the song, Oh How He loves Us. (Nothing can separate us from the love of God!)
** The band and choir are awesome. They prepare for hours on end to make sure that Sundays are the best hour of the week.
** I'm so proud of Mary Douglas. She not only sings great, but her love for the Lord shines through her.
** This past weekend, our student ministry had it's Ignite weekend. I'm proud of Brian Rhodes and Tim Wadsworth, and for ALL of the people that made this weekend a huge success! You all deserve some extra rest!
** I am also proud of our students. It is wonderful to see God at work in the lives of teenagers. Many gave their lives to Christ and many stepped-up their commitment to Christ! They also had some serious energy on Sunday morning!
** Pastor Brian Marshall told me that the Toccoa campus had an amazing service as well. I can't wait to see what god does there in the next year. I believe it is going to grow like crazy!
** God is up to something crazy at Foothills right now!
** Our Umbrella team is amazing. These volunteers show up early and stay late to make sure people stay dry coming from their cars to the building. Way to lead well, Kelly Ross!
** David Odom is such a phenomenal worship leader. I love his heart for God.
** I loved hearing Pamela read the scripture in the middle of the song, Oh How He loves Us. (Nothing can separate us from the love of God!)
** The band and choir are awesome. They prepare for hours on end to make sure that Sundays are the best hour of the week.
** I'm so proud of Mary Douglas. She not only sings great, but her love for the Lord shines through her.
** This past weekend, our student ministry had it's Ignite weekend. I'm proud of Brian Rhodes and Tim Wadsworth, and for ALL of the people that made this weekend a huge success! You all deserve some extra rest!
** I am also proud of our students. It is wonderful to see God at work in the lives of teenagers. Many gave their lives to Christ and many stepped-up their commitment to Christ! They also had some serious energy on Sunday morning!
** Pastor Brian Marshall told me that the Toccoa campus had an amazing service as well. I can't wait to see what god does there in the next year. I believe it is going to grow like crazy!
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)